Somewhere Along the Way (38 page)

Donnie stared down at her. “Look, Lloyd, she can’t even walk and she doesn’t look to be more than a girl. She’s bleeding all over and it looks like you hurt her foot bad. I’ve heard what they do in prison to guys who hurt children.”

“I didn’t hurt her. She slipped on the ice.”

“You busted her lip and I’ll bet there are bruises all over her from rolling around in the back of that junk van.”

Lloyd grabbed her hair and jerked her head up so he could see her face. His wide thumb moved over her chin, then he wiped her blood on his trousers. “I don’t remember doing that, but if I did, she asked for it.”

Donnie swore.

Lloyd shoved his brother so hard the younger Franklin almost tumbled off his feet.

“She don’t look any the worse for her trip,” Lloyd insisted. “And it’s good she’s got the bad leg. She can’t run out on us while we’re trying to talk to her. All we have to do is keep her here for a few hours until she starts thinking about making a deal. She may be all mad right now, but give her a little time and she’ll calm down.”

Reagan stared at Donnie. He had the dull look about him of a person who’d sold his soul to drugs. If they kept her here a hundred years she wouldn’t make a deal with him or Lloyd. From the way he jerked when Lloyd moved suddenly, she guessed Donnie had probably been Lloyd’s first punching bag.

“Tell your brother to let me go,” Reagan tried. “If you don’t, you’ll both go to prison for life.”

Lloyd glared at her. “Don’t listen to her. She could bring us enough money to live in style. When we was talking I was thinking about asking her for a loan, but now I’ve decided maybe we should just get her to give us what we need to live awhile. Way I see it, she owes me for the trouble she’s caused.”

Donnie shook his head. “No. I want no part of this, Lloyd. It’s not right. Get her out of here. I don’t want the police coming here, thinking I had any part of this mess you got yourself into. You’re not thinking right.”

“Me? You’re the one who said she’d be the easiest girl to lean on for a little money.” When Donnie didn’t agree, Lloyd looked like he might hit his brother, but to Reagan’s surprise, he didn’t. “I can’t just take her back.”

“We were drunk when we thought of this plan, Lloyd. She’s not going to cooperate. It don’t work like that.”

Reagan watched Donnie. He was afraid of his brother, but he wasn’t a fool. He saw a glimpse of the trouble they were in. She found it hard to believe, but this brain-fried little brother was the smarter of the two.

“We could give it a try.”

“It won’t work.” Donnie shook his head.

“What am I supposed to do with her? I can’t get her out of town; what roads that are still open will be slick. I barely made it here. Another hour or so, there won’t be anything moving in this town.”

“I don’t care what you do with her. Toss her in the snow. She just needs to be gone.” Donnie paced, trying to think. “We’ve got to get somewhere where people see us so we’ll have an alibi. That’s it. We’ll go over to Buffalo’s and have a beer. He never closes and if he does, we’ll wake him up and demand a drink. Since he sleeps upstairs, he probably won’t mind. Then, when folks realize she’s missing we can act as surprised as everyone. Maybe even help with the search.”

Lloyd slowly nodded, as though what he’d done had finally sunk in. “You’re right. I know a place where I can leave her where nobody will look for her till spring.”

“Don’t kill her,” Donnie said. “Promise me you won’t kill her. I think that could go really bad for you if you do.”

“I won’t.” Frustration boiled in him. “I’ll just leave her tied up. If she freezes, that’s not my problem, right? I’ll go back tomorrow. If she’s still alive, she’ll probably trade keeping quiet for being untied. I might even claim I found her and saved her. That way I could be a hero like that Gabriel guy who found her when she broke her leg. The whole town’s talking about what a great guy he is.”

Donnie frowned at him. “You’ve been fired from every job you ever had, Lloyd, for acting when you should have been thinking, but this is by far the dumbest thing you ever did.”

“Take me back,” Reagan demanded as if she had a right to be part of their conversation. “Drop me off at the hospital entrance. I’ll say I fell. I won’t tell anyone.”

Annoyed as though this were somehow her fault, Lloyd slugged her so hard she tumbled backward and hit the corner of a wooden box. She saw stars, as if someone had fired off fireworks in her head.

“Never trust a woman,” he said as he wound the tape around her mouth and head. “All they ever do is lie.” He bound her good leg to the one in a cast.

When she tried to struggle, he slapped the side of her head once. “Be still, girl. You’ve caused enough trouble tonight.” Just for good measure, he slapped her again, taking all his anger out on her.

Reagan’s head spun and the room went dark. She felt them gripping her, lifting her without care and carrying her back to the van. She didn’t fight, she just let the blackness melt over her.

When she woke, she was alone in the silence of what smelled like a shed. Through dirty windows, she could see the back of a big two-story house. It was only fifty feet away, but it might as well have been a million miles because she was tied against a pole almost as big around as her waist. The wide industrial tape crossed over her chest and around the pole. Her arms were bound to the elbows.

Most of her body was covered with rags and dead leaves in a halfhearted effort to bury her. When she wiggled, the trash tumbled away from her face and shoulders.

She twisted her finger and found the phone still tucked in her sleeve. It wasn’t easy to pull past the elastic of her cuff, but she finally held the phone, Lloyd’s lost phone, in her hand. Guessing at the numbers, she dialed 911 but couldn’t lean forward enough or raise her arms to quite reach her ear.

“County sheriff’s office.”

“Help,” she cried, but the word couldn’t get out past the tape. “Help.”

She heard the click of the call being disconnected.

A light blinked, then went out in one of the windows of the house and she was alone in the darkness.

Totally alone.

LATE FRIDAY NIGHT
FEBRUARY 22, 2008
HARMONY FIRE STATION

ALEX MET WITH THE FEW MEN WHO COULD MAKE IT IN TO the fire station, wishing they were her deputies, but happy that some would come out on a night like this. Three fire volunteers; one retired deputy; her brother, Noah, who was always thinking about volunteering, but never seemed to have the time; and Bob McNabb, a nice man in his sixties who helped out whenever he could. None could handle Lloyd Franklin if they ran into him. Not much of a force, but all she had.

Brandon Biggs, the kid who came to Reagan’s party, rushed in late just as she began to explain what she feared might be happening. Bran didn’t have a four-wheel drive, but he wanted to help. He was rough around the edges and looked like walking trouble, but now and then Alex saw what Reagan must see in him. Potential.

She set the ground rules.
No one drives out without chains on their tires.
That left out Bran, the retired deputy, and one of the firemen.
No one staying out too long.
With a forecast in single digits, the windchill factor would be below zero.
No one carries a gun unless he’s also carrying a badge.
That left Alex and Denver as the only two armed. She didn’t ask if Gabe had his gun with him. She didn’t want to know.

Denver and Gabe took the time to talk to each man, then divided them into three groups. Each team would have cells and radios with them at all times. The plan was simple. Drive every street, every alley they could get down, every parking lot until someone spotted the van. Edith had told Alex that Lloyd didn’t have many friends to go to if he was in trouble, but he might try a few of the houses he mowed lawns for in the summer.

Denver stood before the search party, a map of Harmony in his hand. “So far we’ve found two crime scenes where Reagan has been. First the hospital where she was abducted, then a house on the west side of town where we believe she was taken for a short time. We found crumblings from her cast and drops of blood in both the driveway and the house, but no one was home to question.”

The retired deputy asked how they got in the house without a search warrant.

Denver explained that the door was open when he walked up. “It looked like they left in a hurry and must have forgot to close the door.”

Alex had a feeling no one in the room, except Noah, believed him.

“The weather may be keeping him in town,” Denver explained. “We don’t have much time to find him. If you spot anything, call in. The radios will broadcast to everyone on the team. Punch one and the cell will ring here. Do not go near him. We have reason to believe he’s armed.” Denver looked straight at Noah and Brandon. “Do you two understand?”

“Loud and clear,” Brandon said. “How about we get going? The sooner we get on the road, the sooner we find Reagan.”

For once, Noah agreed. The two boys might not like each other, but right now they had a common enemy.

Denver passed out slices of the map. “One man drive, the other mark off streets. Look for a garage or barn or anything big enough to hide a van. Both watch for tracks. Not much is out there but him and us, so we’ve got a good chance of crossing his path. Fresh tracks could be a lead.”

As the men moved out, Tyler Wright walked in and headed straight to Alex. The little dog he claimed wasn’t his followed right on his heels. “Hank called me, Sheriff. He said you might could use my help. I guess he figured since the funeral home was so close, I was one of the few in town who could get here.”

Alex smiled. Hank was taking care of her the best he could. “Thanks, Mr. Wright,” she said, calling him what everyone in town did even though she considered him a friend. “If you could help Bob McNabb man the phones, that would be great. Our teams will be calling in and you need to keep one line clear for dispatch.”

Bob was lining up cells, radios, and phones with paper in front of each.

Alex pointed. “Log in all calls, which phone, which man. If anyone doesn’t call in or answer when called, it could mean they are in trouble.”

“Got it.” Tyler set his laptop down at the end of the table. “If you give me five minutes, I’ll have a spreadsheet set up that will make keeping up with this easier.”

Alex pulled on her gloves. “You got everything you need?”

Tyler nodded. “I’ve been here enough trying to teach Hank to program that I know where everything is.” A sadness washed over his face. “Except our Reagan,” he said. “I don’t like the idea of her being out in this storm.”

“We’ll find her.” Alex almost ran out the door. She wanted to check with dispatch across the street and then begin her search. She would be going alone. Her section of the map was the two blocks around the downtown square.

While Denver and Gabe had checked out Lloyd’s brother’s house, Alex had talked with Edith, his wife, and found out little. Lloyd wasn’t answering his cell phone, which didn’t surprise her; he could never keep up with the thing.

Edith said she was staying at the diner all night. If Cass closed, she planned to sleep in one of the booths. Cass was in the back if Lloyd came in before they closed. Edith said she’d told Lloyd before she came to work that she was leaving him, but he didn’t believe her. He never did.

Alex checked her watch. Lloyd usually picked up his wife after midnight on Friday. Cass liked to catch the bar crowd as long as he could.

Alex would take an hour to work her piece of the map, circling by the diner now and then to make sure he hadn’t shown up. If she had to, she planned to be waiting for Lloyd at the diner when he came to pick Edith up. If he came.

When she walked into her office, Jess yelled, “That caller’s doing it again. Calling in, not saying anything and then hanging up.”

“I’ll take it this time.” Alex sat down and waited. Ten minutes. Twenty. Time she could spend searching, but something held her in place. No more than a gut feeling that somehow this silent caller was the answer, the clue she’d been waiting for.

Thirty minutes. The storm rattled the windows as if reminding her it was waiting outside. Forty minutes. The teams were reporting in at fifteen-minute intervals and Tyler was calling in dispatch as soon as all had checked in. Fifty minutes.

One hour. She could have walked the entire downtown area by now, but she had to trust her instinct.

Finally, the call came in.

“Hello, 911 emergency,” Alex said.

No answer.

Alex gripped the phone so hard she was surprised it didn’t shatter in her fingers. “Reagan,” she shouted. “If it’s you, make a sound.”

Nothing.

Just as she opened her mouth to yell the demand again, the phone clicked as if someone had punched a number.

“If it’s you, do that again.”

The phone chimed once. Alex couldn’t breathe. Somehow Reagan couldn’t talk, but she was on the other end.

“One for yes. Two for no,” she said. “Are you hurt?”

One chime.

“Do you know where you are?”

One, then another chime. No.