Undercover Hunter (24 page)

He nodded. “Okay then. This goes against my grain.”

She gave a mirthless laugh. “Mine, too. Action, that’s me. But our turn comes in the morning.”

“Yeah.” He gave her hand a small squeeze. “Maybe we should stop and take a picture from time to time. I don’t know much about being a travel writer, and the folks around here probably don’t know much, either, but I doubt that we’d just be taking a stroll if we were working.”

“Good idea.” She pulled out her cell and snapped a photo of the shops along the street. “You know, this place has some real charm. Worn-out charm, but real. I hope the improvements the resort plans don’t ruin it.”

Overhead, one of the rescue choppers flew, the
whop-whop
of the blades loud.

“There they go,” Cade remarked.

“I guess Micah’s moving fast.”

“He needs to.”

She took a few more photos, and when they resumed their stroll, he again took her hand. She found his touch comforting, something she desperately needed right now when she felt cut out of the operation, with no input of any kind. She wasn’t used to that.

“It’s killing me that I can’t be in on the planning,” she admitted. “I want to be in the war room.”

“Did you used to be, in the army?”

“Usually. When we were planning a takedown in a big case, yes, I was there. Nothing like this, though.” She sighed. “I get that Micah is the best person to plan this.”

“And we’re just here in a supporting capacity. Profilers, doing our part by getting proactive. Local authority rules.”

“I understand that, too. It’s not what I’m used to, but I’d better get used to it.”

He laughed and squeezed her hand again. “We’ll have our own big cases, trust me. Statewide investigations. You’ll be in the war room again. Just don’t expect it to be frequent.”

“It was never frequent. Yeah, we did some big investigations, but most of them were the types that cops do everywhere. I’m not expecting major ops around every corner.”

“Good, because most of our work is considerably quieter than this. But I have to admit I’m edgy, too. I don’t like relying on anyone blindly.”

“Ha. You sound like me.” She glanced up at him in time to see him smile faintly.

“Okay, so I like to be in charge,” he admitted. “I’m not the only one suffering from that deficiency.”

She couldn’t disagree. “I guess there’s no sense to just walking around town. I’ll take a few more pictures, and since we left those rolls at the sheriff’s office, maybe we should stop and get some more. Friendly gesture, and I want a sandwich. Not a steak sandwich, just a plain old ham sandwich.”

“And then what?” he asked as they turned a corner in the general direction of their house.

“I’m going to chew my nails to a nub until we hear from Micah.”

“Well,” he said, and flashed her a devilish look, “there’s another way we could relax.”

The laugh that escaped her came easily and naturally for the first time that day. “You’re on.”

* * *

By the time the early winter night settled over the world, distraction was a thing of the past. The two of them were pacing the house, waiting for a phone call.

“He hasn’t had enough time to set things up,” DeeJay said yet again.

“Nope,” Cade agreed as he passed her.

Their time in bed earlier had been wonderful but rushed because they’d both been listening with one ear for a phone call. Neither wanted to be at a point where they couldn’t stop when that phone rang.

DeeJay tried to distract herself by remembering that all-too-brief hour, but great as it had been, larger worries wouldn’t leave her alone.

She had pulled out all the papers again, all the files, and had tried to reread them from a different angle, looking for indicators that she’d made a mistake somewhere, but she kept coming back to Calvin Sweet and the way he was so insistent that they come out to his ranch.

If she was wrong, if they were all wrong, absolutely nothing would happen in the morning. Then they’d be hunting again with possibly less to go on and a whole lot less time if that boy didn’t leave in the morning.

It was seven in the evening when the phone finally rang. DeeJay grabbed it and was almost disappointed to hear the familiar voice of Lew Boulard from the FBI.

“Thought I’d check in,” he said. “The cases you had me search for? We sent out an information request to law enforcement for similar cases. I hate to tell you, but he’s killed more than I originally told you. Over the last year, this guy appears to have been striking with increasing frequency, sometimes only a few days apart. I can’t say for sure, because we have missing persons, too. No bodies. But when I sent out a composite of his victim type, the missing-persons cases started rolling in, as well. You don’t have a whole lot of time.”

“We just learned that here.” DeeJay told him about the call to the crisis line. “He may be stalking a kid right now. The sheriff has the mother taking the boy out of town in the morning.”

“Good. And you?”

“I’m going in as bait.”

She listened to silence from Lew. Then, he continued. “DeeJay, be careful. I got tox reports on several of the victims, three boys and one woman. He used a medical paralytic, vecuronium. No side effects, other than paralysis, and it’s long acting. I don’t know how the hell he got it. I do know it has to be mixed and injected, so don’t let him get close.”

“I won’t.”

She barely had time to fill Cade in on what Lew had reported before the phone rang again. This time it was Gage.

“Micah’s about ready to roll. Here’s how it’s going to play out, okay?”

“I’m listening.”

“Calvin gets off duty tonight at ten. I’m going to have someone undercover follow him home to make sure he gets there and doesn’t divert. We’ll call you as soon as he’s heading out of town. Then both of you get over here so we can fill you in.”

“We’ll be there.”

When she hung up and told Cade, she asked a question. “Is there any antidote for that paralytic? Can we get it?”

“I suppose there must be, but I don’t know.” He glanced at his watch. “I’m going to call our forensic pathologist.”

Ten minutes later, he had the answer. “The antidote has to be administered by IV. So let’s keep our distance.”

* * *

Shortly after ten, they got the call and hopped into the car to drive over to the sheriff’s office. From the street, it looked almost deserted. A different dispatcher manned the desk, and only one deputy was visible through the window. A quiet night in Conard County.

In the very back everything changed. A large room had been turned over to a team. Gage was there, as was Micah. Cade and DeeJay were introduced to five other men, but only one name stuck: Seth Hardin, probably because Micah had mentioned him earlier.

All the team members were dressed in black, but winter camouflage was heaped on nearby chairs. Sniper rifles with scopes lined the wall on a rack. Radios had been laid out on a long table to one side, along with various other implements from knives to garrotes. This was a team preparing for anything.

A map lay spread out on the big central table.

“All right,” Micah said. “We’re ready. We’ll be in place by 4:00 a.m. but we’re not going until we’re sure that the subject has turned in for the night. Here’s the deal. I surveyed as much as I could today. You need to try to draw him toward the woods if you can, assuming you find any evidence, because that’s the safest place for us to hide out. But I’m still going to have a couple of guys near the house. There’s a gully that runs along here, and we can use it to approach. Still, the woods aren’t that far from the house, so we won’t be out of reach. Given the lay of the land, though, we’ll be at least ten minutes away. Maybe fifteen depending on the snow depth out there. And we can’t do a damn thing unless something goes down. You know that. So you’ll have to let us know.”

DeeJay nodded, studying the map.

“Unfortunately, we’re going to be blind on the north side of the house and barn, except for what we can see from the woods. Try not to go that way. If you go inside and something happens, we won’t know unless you signal us. Clear?”

DeeJay and Cade both nodded.

Micah went on. “I checked it out and cell phones work out there, which is good because it’d look weird to go out there with satellite phones. Give Seth here your cells. He’ll set them up to call us immediately with a one-number punch. Any number.”

DeeJay felt impressed. “I didn’t know that was possible.”

Seth Hardin, a tall, good-looking man, smiled faintly. “A little modification to the auto dialer. You may need a new phone when I’m done, but regardless, you’ll still receive calls.”

“Go for it,” she said, handing over her phone.

Cade passed his over, as well.

“It all looks simple,” Micah said, “but these operations are usually straightforward once everyone is in place. So that’s what you need to know. If something happens, we’re going to need ten to fifteen minutes.” He paused. “That’s long enough to kill you. Don’t forget that.”

“Here’s something
you
need to know,” Cade said. “We just got another call from the FBI. This guy is using a paralytic on his victims. I checked it out. It works fast and it lasts for up to forty-five minutes. We’re not going to get close to him if we can avoid it, but if we do... Well, if we don’t come out of that house or barn in fifteen minutes, you come in. Because we’re supposed to be there to take pictures and I have no intention of staying inside for very long.”

“I’d prefer not to go inside at all,” DeeJay said. “But if we get the opportunity, I’m not going to turn it down. We might see something.”

Micah and Gage both nodded. They didn’t need to be reminded of the plain view doctrine. Once Cade or DeeJay was invited inside, anything in plain view became evidence.

A radio crackled from the table and Gage picked it up. “Bluebird,” he said.

“Red is in the nest,” came the response.

“Eyes on.”

“Copy.”

“Okay,” said Gage. “He’s home. Now we wait.”

Everyone sat around drinking coffee. Apparently they were all too keyed up to think about sleeping, but conversation was almost nonexistent. The plan was in place, the details hashed out as much as they could be. Everyone just wanted to get going.

Then, at around eleven-thirty, the radio crackled again. “Red left the nest. Going toward town.”

Gage looked at DeeJay and Cade. “You two better get home and make sure your car is in plain sight in case he’s checking you out.”

They took off fast. When they reached the house, they darted inside to sit in the darkness. For all the world a house asleep.

The minutes dragged by on leaden feet.

At three, the phone rang. It was Gage. “Deployment under way. But I gotta warn you, we don’t know where he went after he left last night. The man I had tailing him slid into a ditch and couldn’t get out. All we know for sure is that our guy got back home an hour later. Something’s going down. Nobody takes a midnight drive on these roads for pleasure. Watch yourselves.”

A little while later, Cade reached out across the table in the dark and found DeeJay’s hand. She curled her fingers with his and held on tight.

As her nerves stretched, a kind of clarity came to her. She didn’t want to die today. She wanted the opportunity to get to know Cade better.

All of a sudden, she wanted all the time in the world, just as her timeline was narrowing to a matter of hours.

“We’ll be okay,” he said.

She hoped so. She really hoped so. For the first time in a long time, she wanted a future, one that didn’t depend on her job.

For some reason she remembered the historic words of Sitting Bull, and paraphrased them. “Today is
not
a good day to die.”

Chapter 14

C
ade was driving. DeeJay studied the eastern sky, which showed the first predawn lightening. She figured they were only a mile from the Sweet place. Her stomach, which had been a mess for hours, had settled into a hard, tight knot she was familiar with. It was time to act, and they just had to make sure they did everything right. “Fruit of the poisonous tree,” in legal terminology, could prevent prosecution of Calvin Sweet even if they found bodies on his property. Everything now had to be by the book.

She suspected the only way they were going to get any further was if he attacked one of them. Up under her jacket she had secured a telescoping baton. Both of them wore shoulder holsters under their parkas.

“If he wants me, he has to get rid of you,” she said to Cade.

“I figured that out.”

“Sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry. I’d be lying if I denied I’m tense. I feel like a spring that’s been compressed a little too far.”

“I hear you. Plain view, damn it.”

“Plain view,” he agreed.

Then her phone rang and the nightmare truly began. She listened with growing horror, gave only a brief response and then hung up.

“What?” Cade demanded.

“That boy Andrew? His mother said he went to bed last night but when she got up this morning to take him on his trip, he was gone. He must have let himself out, because the side door was unlocked.”

Cade swore inventively. “Okay,” he said as they neared the entrance to Sweet’s ranch. “Not only eyes on, but ears on, as well.”

Hyperalert, she thought. As if she wouldn’t be anyway. But the knot in her stomach hardened even more. Now they knew where Sweet had gone late last night. Somewhere a boy might be clinging to life. This had shifted from an exercise to get information to one to save a life.

“Let’s get the bastard,” she said as they bumped their way toward Sweet’s house.

* * *

Sweet had evidently heard them coming. He was waiting on his front porch. DeeJay pulled down the zipper on her parka enough to be able to reach her baton or her pistol without revealing either. She saw Cade do the same as soon as he switched off the ignition.

“Ready?” he asked.

“As ever.”

They climbed out. DeeJay plastered a smile on her face. The sky was still lightening but not enough yet to take pictures. Calvin came down from the porch, grinning, and shook their hands.

“Thought you might change your minds,” he said. “Wait here, I’ve got some coffee to take with us.”

So he wasn’t going to invite them inside. DeeJay wondered how they could get around that. But as she looked past the house, she saw the barn and wondered if that wasn’t the place they really needed to get into. And as far as Calvin knew, they were out here alone, miles from anywhere.

He wouldn’t be afraid of them if he had a plan to take them down. He also wouldn’t be expecting them to have backup. She wondered how she could provoke him into doing something stupid.

Glancing at Cade, she suspected his thoughts were following the same path. His face had an almost grim set to it.

Calvin returned, carrying three insulated bottles in his arms. “Help yourselves,” he said.

Letting them choose which bottle they took? That would seem to indicate he wasn’t trying to slip them a Mickey, but she didn’t trust it. He could have put a sedative in all three of them and just wouldn’t drink himself. She thanked him as she took a bottle and looked at Cade. He arched a brow and gave an infinitesimal shake of his head.

So he suspected the same thing.

When Cade had his bottle, Calvin led them away from the house. “The view is best once the barn is out of the way.”

“I like your barn,” DeeJay said. “It has character.”

“It’s old and keeps me busy,” he said. Damn, he sounded so natural. “Drink some coffee. You guys must be having trouble waking at this hour.”

“It
is
early,” DeeJay agreed. “So you have to plow a path to your barn? I thought you said you weren’t working this place.”

“I’m not, but I store a lot of things out there. I never know when I might need something.”

She felt a moment of horror as Cade unscrewed his coffee bottle and poured some into the plastic cup. Had she misread him?

But she noted that he barely lifted the cup to his lips. He wasn’t really drinking, but Calvin mistook it and smiled. “Good coffee, huh?”

“The best,” Cade agreed. “You can make coffee for me anytime.”

“Have some more. You can have mine if you want. I get up early sometimes, and I’m pretty full of caffeine already.”

DeeJay moved around until she was on the far side of Calvin, forcing him to turn away from Cade. Behind Calvin she saw Cade dump the coffee and use his boot to cover the stain with a heap of snow. The crunch of his boot in the heavy snow sounded loud to her ears. She spoke quickly to keep Calvin distracted.

“Calvin,” she said, “let me take pictures of your barn, okay? Really, it’s the kind of charm we need along with the mountains.”

Calvin looked toward the hulking, weathered structure. “I never thought of it that way before. Sure, go ahead.”

So she darted forward and pulled out her phone, taking pictures as she moved around. Calvin watched her, but kept glancing at Cade, who appeared to be on his second cup of coffee.

Then she heard it. A faint cry. The back of her neck prickled with awareness. “What’s that?” she asked.

“Barn owl,” Calvin answered smoothly, but she saw a change in his face. He hadn’t expected this. Something around his eyes tightened.

So the boy might well be in the barn and waking up early.

“A barn owl? Is it in the barn?”

“It flies in and out.”

“Can I see it?”

Calvin froze for an instant. “Maybe in a few minutes. Anyway, when you go in there, it almost always flies out.”

“Why do you let it in?”

“Mice,” he said. Some of his smooth veneer was vanishing, and he kept looking at Cade as if he expected something. Finally, he asked, “You feeling okay, Cade?”

Cade looked fine to DeeJay but then he rocked slightly on his feet. Just a little. “I’m fine,” he answered. “Just tired. I don’t keep rancher’s hours.”

“Well, have some more coffee,” Calvin said.

Pushing it just the way he had pushed them to come out here. DeeJay heard the soft cry from the barn again. Her heart began to race. Impossible to tell if it was human and her mind scurried down legal avenues, wondering if that cry would justify her walking into the barn on the imminent danger doctrine. If an officer suspected someone was in danger, they could break down doors if necessary to get to them. But she had a man standing here telling her it was an owl, and she couldn’t be sure.

“I really want to see that owl,” she said. “Just let me peek.”

Calvin’s expression was no longer pleasant. His face had stiffened, become hard. “It’s just a damn owl,” he said. “I told you, it’ll fly away the minute I open the door.”

She looked at the barn, debating her options, then heard a sound from behind her.

She turned. Cade had dropped his bottle onto the snow.

“God,” he said, “I’m all thumbs today. You’d better take the photos, DeeJay. I’ll lose my damn phone in the snow.”

“I got it,” she said. Calvin seemed fixated on Cade, as if expecting something.

“I’m getting cold,” Cade remarked.

Calvin immediately opened his own bottle and poured more coffee, then passed it to Cade. Cade reached for it, but let it slip through his fingers to the ground.

“Is he sick?” Calvin asked. It sounded like a perfectly reasonable question, but DeeJay didn’t believe it for a minute.

“Why don’t you stay here?” she said to Cade. “Calvin can show me where to take the pictures from, then we’ll get you home.”

She saw something flare in Cade’s eyes. He didn’t want her walking away with Calvin alone. But she needed this guy to do something untoward, and she needed him to do it fast. If that sound from the barn was the missing kid, time might be of the essence.

She left her own coffee bottle on the ground near Cade, believing it might turn out to be evidence. Best to keep it away from Calvin, who might be able to get rid of it if things went awry. Then she touched his arm. “Be right back, honey. Drink some more coffee if you need it.”

Cade simply sat down on the snow, hard, as if his strings had been cut. For the first time she worried that he might have taken a sip of the brew, and there might be enough sedative in just a little amount to seriously affect him.

But she still had no choice. She had to provoke Calvin in some way. He had to do something that would give her an excuse to react. Until she had cause, she couldn’t go in that barn unless he invited her.

Unfortunately, Calvin led her around the north side of the barn, out of sight of the team that lay in wait. The sun rode the horizon now, casting a rosy glow over the mountains just west of the ranch. The trees climbing up the mountains still guarded mysterious shadows, but the light, roseate though it was, held an amazing clarity. Holding her phone up, she took some more photos.

“You were right,” she told Calvin. “This is breathtaking. It’s amazing how fast those mountains just rise up.”

“Well, we’re in what’s essentially a high valley. The foothills are farther east. It’s kind of like Denver, you know?”

She nodded. Then, hearing the faint sound from the barn again, before he could stop her she darted over to a dirty window and peered in, using her hand to cup one side of her face. Little light penetrated the interior.

“Hey,” said Calvin surprisingly mildly. His steps approached, crunching on snow.

She turned quickly, trying to look apologetic, making sure he couldn’t get close without her knowing. “Can’t see a thing. I hoped I might see the owl. Sorry.”

That’s when she noticed he had removed a glove. He was carrying something she couldn’t quite see.

And he kept bearing down on her.

“Calvin? Is something wrong?”

He smiled, looking incredibly angelic except for his eyes. Those dark eyes seemed hard as obsidian.

“Not a thing,” he answered, closing the distance between them.

She shifted, moving to the side, trying not to get backed up against the wall.

“You’re special,” he said.

“Who, me?”

“You look like my mother, you know. I recognized it the first time I saw you.”

Her mouth went dry. Still no cause to summon help. She hoped Cade was on his feet again and just around the corner waiting, but she hadn’t heard any sounds of movement. The damn snow made enough noise that surely she would have heard something.

“Did you hear?” she said, not caring that it was such a non sequitur it might tip him off. She
had
to provoke him. “Another boy went missing.”

He just smiled. “He’s special, too, I guess.”

Still not enough. He was now within arm’s reach. He lifted his ungloved hand and she saw it held a needle.

She hit numeric button on her phone and dropped it, as she sidestepped yet again and slipped her hand inside her jacket to pull out her baton. With one flip she opened it.

He stopped. “What’s that for?”

“A lady never goes anywhere without protection.”

“I’ll protect you,” he said. “Really. I want to.”

“Protect me from what?”

He didn’t answer. She was watching his face, and recognized the moment he had gathered himself enough to spring. The instant he drove that needle toward her neck, she swung the baton and caught him in the upper thigh.

The needle fell from his hand, but he was past feeling the pain. He charged in. When she tried to swing the baton again, he lowered his shoulder and pushed it away before she could gain any momentum.

An instant later, he’d head butted her in the stomach and shoved her to the ground. He fell on top of her, and from the corner of her eye she saw the needle, still glistening on the snow. She had to get it before he did.

Either that or her baton, now lying in the snow on the other side of her. She hadn’t had time to slip the loop over her wrist.

Damn, the snow was a bad surface, too soft. She couldn’t get enough leverage to push him over as he straddled her. As she fought, he wiggled upward, fending off her fists with his forearms until he knelt on both her arms.

Trapped. Completely trapped. And he was reaching for the needle now.

She closed her eyes, summoning reserves of strength she hadn’t needed for a long time. Digging her foot into the snow, she managed to roll. It wasn’t easy but it was enough to put him off balance.

Then a gunshot sounded clear and loud on the morning air.

Cade’s voice followed. “Get off her, Sweet, or you’ll be dead in the next five seconds.”

But something seemed to have blinded him and deadened him. He fought viciously, and DeeJay had to fight back. She knew Cade couldn’t get a clear bead on him while they were this close. The accuracy of a pistol was about six feet anyway.

She kept pushing and rolling, ignoring the way he pummeled at her arms. He was no trained fighter, but she was. She finally got enough leverage to hit him hard in the side of the head.

The blow stunned him. He went limp just long enough to let her scramble to her feet and grab her baton. Cade came running up and stood near him, pistol aimed.

“Backup is on the way,” he said.

“I need to get into that barn,” DeeJay said, struggling to keep her balance in the churned-up snow. “You heard it, too?”

He nodded. “I know what a barn owl sounds like. I heard a human cry of distress.”

The all-important words.

“Don’t let him near that needle.” She pointed. She gave one last look at Calvin, who was glaring furiously at her, then trotted to the nearest barn door.

What she found inside would remain with her forever.

* * *

Andrew had been carted off to the hospital in a helicopter, still alive but suffering from an undetermined drug cocktail. He was just coherent enough to say that Calvin had hurt him.

The entire Sweet ranch had turned into a beehive of activity, with crime-scene techs and more deputies than DeeJay would have believed the county had. The barn, yard and house were roped off to prevent contamination of the scenes.