Gem Stone (14 page)

"It's okay." An older woman sat down beside her, her comforting arm across Gem's shoulders. "The police are on their way. You don't have to worry anymore."

"Those men…" Gem closed her eyes. "I don't want them to see me."

"They won't," the woman said firmly. "You're surrounded by people. They won't get you again."

A large man in his sixties squatted down in front of her. She stared at him, mesmerized by the reddish white hair sticking out in all directions. "Can you describe these men?"

"Humpty and Dumpty," she managed to get out through her chattering teeth.
How come she was so cold?

At the man's blank look, Gem closed her eyes and gave the descriptions of her abductors as best she could.

"Oh very good. Do you remember anything about their vehicle?"

Gem's voice hardened. "A burgundy Dodge Caravan. Not the Grande, and only one sliding door, so an older model. No seats in the back and it had smoked windows."

The man's gaze widened. "Lovely. Don't suppose you saw the license plate did you?"

"No, I was tied up inside and never got a look at the front or the back of the vehicle."

When his gaze dropped to her ankles, his face pinched. The old lady behind her patted Gem's back. "That's okay. We'll get them."

"The sheriff knows them already." She hadn't wanted to say that but the words just slipped out. "We told him about them last night after they snatched another girl."

Horrified gasps rose around her.
"What?"

"Hey, I heard about that. That little girl is in hospital right now, isn't she?"

Gem nodded, not knowing who was speaking as there were so many people gathered around.

"Misty. But the police didn't believe us," she said.

Another faceless voice spoke from the crowd, "Well, they will believe you now. We're going to straighten this up right now. Where is our sheriff anyways?"

Gem hid her grin. She wouldn't want to be in the sheriff's shoes when these people got a hold of him.

***

Danny switched places with Ian and drove back to town. He watched as Reid gave the area one final serious going over from the car window. That kid cared. Now, though he was soaking wet, and he dripped all over the seats and floor, he still kept up a stream of questions.

"Reid, like I said, I don't have any idea what happened. We'll all know in a few minutes. Let's just get there and make sure Gem's safe."

What the hell was going on?
The fact that it involved John's kids was something that may have mattered initially, in that he didn't take their story seriously. That was pretty natural, because they were 'troubled' kids who'd been on the wrong side of the law before – and he wasn't proud of that bias. But no longer was he discounting what Reid said. Not after a second youngster had been attacked in Danny's town. And who knew what the story was on Mark.

Then there was Reid. Casting a glance in the rearview mirror, he studied the worried look on the kid's face. They'd have to organize a search party for Mark. The kid was probably hiding from everyone at this point.

And how had Gemma gotten all the way to the other side of town?

He was still a good ten minutes away from his office when his radio went again. "Sheriff Jerome here. What's up?"

The dispatcher said, "The group of citizens guarding Gemma Stone want to know why you haven't picked up the bad guys."

"What?" Danny was outraged. "How could I have? The girl's just been found."

"Apparently, the girl says you already know about these men and that she told you they kidnapped the other girl."

Danny groaned.
Damn it.
He'd grown up in this town. Moved away, then came back to his hometown. It was
his
town. But to the rest of the townsfolk, he was a kid they'd watched grow up. And he'd found it a little hard to gain their respect, even as sheriff. He turned to face Reid in the back seat.

Reid's face split wide. "I told you. Good on Gem. She'll get the townspeople moving on this."

"We don't want to get them moving on anything. Innocent people get hurt that way."

Reid snorted. "Like us, huh?"

Danny sighed when his young deputy, Barry, said, "He does have a point."

"You would see it his way, Barry. You're almost as young as he is." Ian snorted and stared out the passenger window. "You and your new computers, big LCD monitors… And isn't that a new bike you're riding these days? Must be nice to be so flush with your new summer job."

Danny considered Ian's comments. What the hell happened to TV these days? Barry did nothing but play computer games all the time. And now he wondered, how the hell did the kid pay for all that new equipment he'd just bought?

Barry flushed. "It is. But Reid's right. Two kids have been kidnapped. Now we have one missing…and then there's Reid."

"Yeah, then there's me," Reid piped up from the backseat. "Whatever that means."

"It means they haven't directly attacked you."

"They tried. I got away."

Ian glanced at him in the rearview mirror. "I still don't get why they'd try to kidnap you three. What have you done to them?"

Reid stared at him. Red anger washed over his face. "We didn't
do
anything to them. We never even saw them before. Well, at least I never did."

Danny pounced. "Did one of the other kids? You said something about this earlier but never explained."

"You'll have to ask them."

Barry twisted in his seat to stare at Reid. "Look if you know something – and by that I mean
anything
– this is a good time to let us know. We can't help you if we don't know what we're up against."

Reid pursed his lips and his face scrunched up in thought. "It might have something to do with some pictures Gem took the other night. After you guys finished questioning us and let us go home, she checked her laptop but the folder with the pictures had been deleted. Her flash drive was taken too."

"
What?"

Danny barely moderated his tone. He wished he could grab Reid and give him a good shake. "Pictures? Of what?"

"Nothing really. The one guy looks similar to the guy Gem nicknamed Dumpty." Reid shrugged. "The pictures are blurry so we can't really see much. He's got gloves on and is carrying some kind of canister. We don't know any more than that."

At the Danny's disbelieving look he held out his hands. "I don't know anything else. Honest."

"So Mark saw the pictures, too? And Gem and you, and who else?" Danny frowned.

"Misty?" Barry asked, curiosity in his voice.

"No. But Misty went out with Gem later that evening and that's when the men chased the girls back to the home."

Seeing red, Danny tried to keep his temper back. But it was damn hard. "Why are we just hearing about this now?"

"Cause you didn't ask. Besides, you still wouldn't have believed us." Reid's voice, so reasonable and even toned, made Danny mad.

"So you don't offer information, you just answer questions. And too damn bad if we ask the wrong questions."

"Pretty much. Learned those rules at juvie." Reid smiled proudly while all three law enforcement guys stared at each other in disbelief.

"Okay, so from the top… What was the chain of events that led up to today?" Danny asked, turning back to face in the direction they were traveling. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Maybe, if he'd heard this all last night, none of today's problems and crimes would have happened.
And maybe not…

Reid frowned. "Well, as clear as I can remember," he said, then went on to give a detailed account of events.

"So Gem may have seen these men doing something wrong, something she shouldn't have seen? And maybe Gem has photos of them caught in the act?"

"I don't know what they were up to." Reid raised his shoulders before settling back against the seat, looking more relaxed than he had in hours. "But after she took those photos, all hell broke loose."

***

Gemma huddled under what she'd originally thought of as a blanket, but the women had called it an afghan or something. Not that she cared; it was warm. With her eyes closed, she hunkered lower. Someone had put a hot cup of chocolate in her hands a while ago and that had been lovely. Except her stomach still churned with nerves. The first swallow, she'd struggled to get down and the second had met the first trying to slosh its way back up. The third and fourth had followed orders but all of it sat in a pool in the midst of the storm of heaving stomach acid. She didn't know if her system would ever calm down. She couldn't remember ever being that panicked, that close to death or torture or whatever those assholes had planned for her.

She didn't want to know their plans. There was enough fodder from these last few days to keep her nightmares well supplied for years to come.

"There, there. You just rest." One of the older ladies, maybe the one who owned the afghan, patted her back gently. "You've been through a lot, but it's over now."

Gemma didn't know what to say, so said nothing. She didn't live in a fantasyland like normal people. She already knew that bad stuff happened to good people all the time. She just wondered when fate would move on to mess up someone else's life.

The noise grew around her as a vehicle, with a flashing light, screeched to a halt off to one side. The crowd grumbled, and closed in protectively around her.

"'Bout time the sheriff got here. Now, maybe we can get some answers," said the guy who'd been hovering in the background.

"Don't you worry, little girl. We'll make sure there's appropriate action now." One lady patted her shoulder gently.

Gemma huddled lower. She didn't think so. Not that the sheriff was involved with those other dudes, but he wasn't going to listen to her today any more than he'd listened to her yesterday.

"Gem?"

She raised her head, frowning. With everyone standing around her like they were so protective, she couldn't see who'd spoken.

"Gem?"

"Yes." She stood up and recognized her friend. "Reid!"

He reached her side, finally, a big grin splitting his face. In an unusual move he reached out and gave her a quick hug. A damp one.

"Are you okay?" He pulled back and frowned. "You don't look so good."

"I'll be fine." And she would be. She just wasn't quite there yet. And now she was a little wet, thanks to him. Still it was so good to see him safe. Shamefaced, she admitted, "I don't do that whole damsel in distress thing well."

"What happened?" He searched her features, before giving her a quick once over. Not that he could see much. The afghan damn near covered her shoes.

"They caught me as I was traipsing up the creek behind you. Hardly saw them coming. Tied me up and threw me into a maroon van. I persuaded them to let me go to the bathroom here," she nodded toward the gas station. "Then I managed to get out of my ropes and came out screaming for help, running into the middle of the street…" She gestured to the crowd listening avidly. "And
this
is what happened."

"Damn." Reid tugged her back onto the bench and sat down beside her. "I'm so sorry. I tried to get the cops to help, but…"

"Figures." They shared a smile of understanding that effectively excluded the gathered crowd. How could anyone else even begin to understand what they'd been through to this point, and how it colored their perspective on life? And that brought the third member of their group to mind. "Thanks anyway, Reid. What about Mark? Any news?"

"I think he's hiding out. I tracked him to the other side of the creek where he climbed up the bank. Then I lost his tracks. Once we heard about you, we drove straight into town again."

"Those two idiot goons are going to be in even bigger trouble for losing both of us." She shook her head. "They might just shoot us outright the next time they see us."

"Well, you aren't going to get caught again, so that's not an issue," the sheriff added to their not-so-private conversation.

Gemma and Reid looked up at him.

"And you're going to stop them?
Really?"
Gemma asked, widening her gaze and staring openly at him. She really wanted to walk up to him and kick him in the shins. If he'd believed her in the first place, they could have avoided this situation.

"We'll bring them in for questioning." He had his phone out and was dialing someone.

"What's different today, versus yesterday?" Reid challenged, tilting his head sideways to study the sheriff. "We told you about these guys yesterday."

"The girl is right? You
knew
about these men, like she said? Then why haven't these men been picked up, already?" The crowd tightened around them.