Immortal Revenge (32 page)

“Does Andy know about this?”

“No. I wasn’t going to tell him unless I had to.”

She glanced at Katie and slipped a hint of a smile to her. Involving other people without their knowledge was not a good idea. If the police questioned him, they might suspect holes in Jules’s story. But as Jules had said, she hadn’t told Andy, so there wasn’t any reason for the police to inquire with Andy.

“So these two men left. Do you know when?”

She sniffled again. “No. We were too busy. I didn’t keep track of time.”

Charles shifted his gaze between them, then asked, “Did anything happen the following day?”

“No. Nothing,” Jules answered.

“Did you work?”

“No, I stayed home. For the most part.”

“And yesterday?”

“Joe didn’t come home from work that night.”

“But you spoke to him during the day?”

Jules nodded. “Yes, he came by for lunch.”

“Was that the last time you saw or spoke to him?”

Her lip quivered. “Yes.”

“And everything at home seemed fine?”

“Yes, I didn’t notice any problems until I came home late this afternoon.” She pressed her lips together and blinked. A couple of tears fell from her eyes.

“I was with her.” Katie said. “We had spent a few hours running errands. When we went to her house, the first thing we noticed was her car had flat tires.”

“So, you were together in your car?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you recall the time you returned to Julie’s house?”

Katie shook her head. “No, it was in the afternoon. We weren’t watching the time.”

Charles scribbled on his notepad.

Katie continued. “We walked into the house from the front door and found a large spot of blood on the carpet.”

Charles shot his eyes up to her without moving his head. “And you didn’t stop to call the police?”

“No, we wanted to know if Joe was there. Maybe he hurt himself.” She paused as he continued writing.

“Go on.”

Katie held her hands together in her lap. “We followed the trail of blood to the kitchen. I opened the door and we found a plastic container Jules didn’t recognize being there before. I pried the lid off and–”

Jules sobbed louder, distracting Katie and Charles. In a way, Katie welcomed the diversion. She wanted to avoid questions about the Tupperware container. If she’d mentioned the note with her name and phone taped to it, Charles might suspect someone left the fingers as a message for Katie instead of Jules. At this point in time, she simply needed him to believe her story and send cops to Jules’s house to find the evidence supporting their hostage claim, which would then give them cause to visit the Jennings orchard. They would find the note at the house, but given the evidence, she strongly believed it wouldn’t stop them from heading to the orchard.

“I can still see it in my head.” Jules whimpered.

Charles leaned toward his credenza and snatched another tissue. Katie took it from him and then handed it to Jules.

“What was in the container?” he asked.

“Two fingers.” Katie swallowed.

“Two fingers?”

Katie nodded. “Naturally it surprised us. I think I dropped the container in the sink.”

“Did you notice anything unusual about the…?”

“Not odd, no. I’m not an expert, but they were wide and the nails were very short. If I had to guess, the fingers belonged to a man.”

Charles continued jotting notes on the paper. “What did you do after you dropped the container?”

“Jules and I wondered if Joe was injured in the house somewhere, so we decided to search and started in her room. What we found stunned us. Someone had torn her room up. And in the bathroom, someone gutted a dog and left it hanging from the shower faucet.”

Charles paused writing and lifted his eyes. “Gutted a dog?”

Jules held the tissue to her mouth and tried to curtain her sobbing. “I think it was my neighbor’s dog.”

“We didn’t stay there long after that. I searched the rest of the rooms and found nothing.”

“Why didn’t you call the police at that point?”

“We couldn’t stay in the house,” Katie answered with her shoulders tense and slightly lifted. “It smelled and we didn’t know if someone might come back. So, we left. Jules was extremely upset and needed somewhere to sit and rest privately for a while. I drove to a hotel and checked in under my name. We talked about coming to the police, but Jules thought you wouldn’t do anything since he hadn’t been missing long. But when we got the call–”

Charles lifted his hand. “Hold on.”

Katie took in a deep breath while Jules blew her nose into the tissue. Thus far, Katie sensed her timeline of events flowed smoothly and all the details were in the right place, except for the hotel part, but she could easily resolve that one area. She’d have Riker manipulate his mind if he wanted to confirm she’d checked into the hotel.

After Charles tapped the pad with his pen, he looked up. “You received a call?”

“Yes, I answered it for Jules because she was in the bathroom.”

He looked at Jules. “I was getting sick,” she said.

He veered his gaze to Katie. “Do you recall the number on her phone?”

“I don’t know the number, but it showed Joe’s name. However, the caller was not Joe. The caller said he had him and wanted us to meet him at the Jennings orchard at midnight. If we are late, he’ll cut off more…”

A new wave of grief overcame Jules. She cried again. “He doesn’t deserve to die.”

Katie scooted in her chair, closer to the desk. “You have to do something. Take twenty or thirty men out to the orchard. Maybe they have more than one hostage. What if they have the Jennings’ under their control too?”

“Hold on.” Charles set his pen on the tablet, then leaned back. His chair squeaked. “There is no proof Joe has been kidnapped. This could have been a prank caller.”

Katei stared into his eyes. “I asked to speak to Joe.”

“Did you?”

She swallowed. “Yes, and he didn’t sound well.”

“Are you sure it was him?”

“Yes. He gave me a message for Jules.”

“And what was it?”

Katie hesitated, knowing her statement would cause more pain for Jules. “He said, run Jules. Runaway.”

She turned to her friend and found her leaning forward with her hands over her face. How heartbreaking to know her boyfriend was in torment and he wanted to warn her so she wouldn’t suffer his fate. Katie wondered if she would have the same reaction. If Kyle had told her to run, would she have listened? Unequivocally, no. She would’ve leaped to assist him. But she had more confidence her fighting skills and more weapons to help her. Jules had neither. After Katie claimed her revenge, she’d help Jules work on those areas.

Charles swiveled slightly in his chair to face his credenza. He lifted the receiver of his phone, then pressed three buttons. Following a brief moment of silence, he said, “Juan, could you come to my office please.” He hung up the phone two seconds later.

“This isn’t a hoax, Officer Donahue. If you go to her house, you will see we are not making any of this up. We have no reason to. If Joe or anyone else is being held against their will, someone needs to help them before it’s too late.”

“This is a very serious matter,” Charles said in a calm tone. “We need to be certain of a few things before do anything.”

A light tapping at the door caught Katie’s attention. She twisted to find a tall man with black hair and tanned skin standing in the doorway.

“Did you need something?” he asked.

“Juan, can you find out how many officers are currently on duty tonight. I need to know in the next ten minutes.”

“I’m on it,” the officer said before he disappeared.

Charles lifted the receiver again, then dialed a number. “Denise, can you look up the number for the Jennings orchard, their home number, then call and see if you get an answer?” He paused. “Call me back with your results. Thank you.”

Jules wiped her nose with the balled up tissues. “If he’s there, he’ll need medical attention.”

Charles dialed another number while he held the phone to his ear. “Phil, send the nearest patrol unit to the residence of Julie Mannis.” He paused and faced Jules. “May we have permission to use force to enter your home?”

Jules nodded.

“Tell them to search the house and report the findings to me immediately,” Charles said into the receiver.

Slowly, relief blossomed within Katie. In a matter of minutes, Charles would discover they’d told the truth, well, a version he’d believe in order to send troops to the Jennings orchard.

Charles hung up the phone. “Can I get either of you something to drink while we wait?”

Jules cleared her throat, then sniffled. “I need to use the bathroom.” She rose at the same time as Charles.

He tugged out a drawer from under his desk, then removed a small white badge with the word visitor on it. “Down the hall and turn left. Keep going and you’ll see the restroom on your left.” He handed the badge to her.

Katie scooted back in her chair and relaxed as much as she could with her hands together in her lap. Reporting a hostage situation and waiting for results called for tension, not one to lean back and shoot the breeze. While a touch of anxiety stirred within her, she hid it well, twitching her toes every now and then inside her shoes.

Charles’s gaze stayed on Jules as she left the room, then turned swiftly to Katie. “We have therapists we can recommend if this turns out to be the real deal.”

“It’s been very difficult for her to handle. I’m going to stay with her for a while.”

He rubbed his hands together. “We have had an increase of drug activity lately. The teens are getting it from someone.”

“Will you storm the orchard?”

“If everything checks out as you say, yes.”

She fought the urge to jump up and shout with joy. “What will you do with the kidnappers?”

“We’ll bring them here and hold them in lockup in the basement. I’ll file charges, then take it to the Prosecutor. The feds may want this person or persons too.”

Katie nodded with her lips sealed. She wondered if the vampires would even make it to the station in handcuffs. If they allowed such criminal treatment, the vamps wouldn’t stay long in their cozy cells. Call it a hunch, but Katie bet everything she owned they would take the first opportunity to slip into a mind so they could get out. Vamps plus jail equaled not happening.

“I hope you get whomever is behind this. It’s tearing Jules apart. I hate to see her so upset.”

Charles glanced at his notes on the paper. “What I don’t understand is why someone would feel intimidated by Julie.” He lifted his eyes. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but she’s a harmless woman. Why would they want to hurt her?”

He had good questions to which Katie couldn’t respond logically for him. Men typically weren’t rattled by women, especially vampires.

“I don’t know.” Sometimes the best answers were ones unexplained.

A knock at the door grabbed their attention.

“We have thirty ready and available plus fifteen of us here in the office. I can call another twenty to come in early if we need too,” Juan said, standing by the door.

“I don’t think we need to do that. We have a possible hostage situation, but I think thirty men should be enough to handle it.”

“Excuse me,” Jules said softly as she turned sideways and slipped into the office, careful not to brush against Juan’s large frame. She placed the badge on the desk, then returned to her seat without speaking another word.

Juan backed up to the door and knocked it to the wall. “Do you want me to–”

The phone made a loud beep, cutting off Juan. Charles quickly hit a button. “Go ahead.”

“It’s Denise. I called the number for the orchard and the two numbers we had for the Jennings. Voice mail picked up on all three.”