Worst Laid Plans (A Maddox Storm Mystery Book 1) (24 page)

I smiled through my blurry tears. “Talk to me, please.”

I needed to hear his voice. Well, any voice really, but his was somewhere near the top of my list.

“Okay, well, Jenna wasn’t happy about that text you sent. When she couldn’t get hold of you, she called your husband in New York, and he hadn’t heard from you.” His thumb stroked my wrist mindlessly as he spoke. “We were out at the ranch all day but she told Spinner when he got home. She’d also been to see your parents and George Hollow, but no one knew anything. You’d left most of your stuff behind in your room and, although your suitcase was gone, she insisted you wouldn’t just leave like that, not without seeing her.”

More tears swelled.

I should have known Jenna would see through that message.

“I didn’t hear about any of this until I got in to the station this morning.” Nate gave my hand a squeeze. “I was just putting out an alert and getting more men down from Auburn to begin canvassing the area when the call came in about the New Forest Road flooding. Spinner tipped me off on the history of the Mason Creek rainwater tank. I didn’t think there’d be any connection, but I needed to check it out. I like to be thorough about these things.”

I like to be thorough.

The most beautiful words in the world.

“You scared the hell out of me, Maddox.” He swore beneath his breath, a grimace hardening his jaw as his eyes creased into mine. “When I heard you’d had Adrian Limly staying at Hollow House… After what we found at the ranch, my heart damn near stopped.”

“Mr Biggenhill is dead,” I whispered.

Nate’s jaw worked. “We found his body in a storm tunnel. What was left of it, anyway. His wedding band was still crusted to the bone of his finger and Mrs Biggenhill identified the inscription.”

A scraping noise came from above, near the hatch.

I blew out a ragged breath. “It was Principal Limly.”

“I suspected as much.” He squeezed my hand again. “Don’t think about it now, okay? You can tell us everything after you’ve been checked over. I don’t know what the hell happened to your voice, but it sounds like you could be causing irreversible damage.”

This couldn’t wait.

I was safe, but no one else was.

“He’s a monster,” I croaked. “You have to get to him before—”

“Shhh, we already have him,” Nate said softly. “He was hauled in for questioning this morning.”

“He was?”

Nate gave a grim nod. “We’ve been showing that photograph around to folks who’d been associated with the ranch and we found a couple of good reasons he’d want to make that photograph, and Harold Biggenhill, disappear. We don’t have any hard evidence, but I can hold him for twenty-four hours, longer if I make a few calls. This can wait, trust me. Adrian Limly isn’t going anywhere.”

∞∞∞

Nate drove me to the Skaneateles clinic, our nearest medical unit, while Jack went to tell my parents. This was the kind of news, he informed me, that had to be delivered face-to-face. Personally, I thought a phone call might have worked better, but who I was to interfere with his Academy training?

I’d forgotten about my thirst until we stepped into the reception lounge and my eyes landed on the water cooler. Leaving Nate to deal with the admin clerk at the counter, I gulped down about a gallon of water, one tiny cup at a time.

A mother scooped her toddler up and shifted a couple of seats further from the cooler. I couldn’t really blame her. I was barefoot, in pajamas, and my hair was probably not fit for public.

Nate returned with a stack of admissions forms. He noticed the mother shooting baleful glances my way and immediately wrapped a protective arm around my shoulder, leading me to a secluded corner.

“I tried to get you pushed through the system,” he said apologetically. “But the damn world will end apparently if we don’t dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t’.”

I smiled at him and shook my head.
It doesn’t matter. Thank you for trying. Thank you for saving me!
I was so grateful to Nate and Jack, I could barely think of it without feeling more tears come on.

Drinking all that water maybe hadn’t been the best idea. I had to dash to the restroom twice before I’d completed the paperwork. Then I was whisked away from Nate by a stiff-lipped, stiff-backed nurse whose name tag read Jenkins.

They fussed over me for hours. Nurse Jenkins treated my throat. A white-gowned technician fed me into a horrific tunnel chamber for a whole host of scans. A friendly doctor examined the results and then examined me from head to toe.

I let them get on with it and didn’t say a word, until they wanted to stick me in a bed and shove a drip into my arm.

Stark white room? Starched sheets? Scratchy blanket? Hospital gown that left my backside exposed? Not quite what I had in mind for my first post-kidnapping evening.

“Thanks for everything,” I said, my voice still hoarse but it no longer felt like I was roasting every word on its way out. “But I just want to go home.”

“You have a mild concussion,” Nurse Jenkins said firmly. “We’d like to keep you under observation for the night.”

Her stern smile suggested she wasn’t asking for permission.

“I have people.” I waved a hand about randomly. “I’ll make sure they observe.”

“You won’t be able to eat properly with that throat, Ms Storm. It’s important we get nutrients into your body.”

“Isn’t that what smoothies are for?”

She wasn’t happy, but she reluctantly conceded to my wishes after I threatened to escape out the window the second her back was turned. With a curt reminder that I was confined to the room until she’d arranged my discharge, she marched off to see to it.

Or to fetch a doctor to bully me into following orders.

I counted to twenty and then slipped into the corridor to find my way to the reception lounge. Hopefully Nate hadn’t gone far, just in case this deteriorated into another rescue mission.

He hadn’t.

He stood in deep conversation with my parents. As soon as they saw me, Mom and Dad rushed up to engulf me in hugs and exclamations of every emotion under the sun. I couldn’t keep track.

“Jenna was here,” Mom said when we finally pulled apart. “I sent her home and promised to call the moment we were allowed to see you. We weren’t sure how long you’d be and no one could tell us anything, but the detective—” she sent Nate a smile “—has been reassuring us that you would be fine.”

“I’ll call Jenna when I get home,” I told her. “I’m being discharged.”

“Your voice!” Mom’s face turned a deathly white with bright splotches of red. “Did that bastard try to strangle you?”

I almost choked on shock. I’d never heard Mom use a crude word in my entire life.

Dad growled beneath his breath and Nate moved closer, his expression darkening.

“I did this to myself,” I said quickly, grateful she hadn’t heard me earlier when I sounded like an old croak on her last legs. “Screaming for help. He didn’t touch me.”

Mom’s hand flew to her chest. She looked ready to crumple with relief and probably would have if Dad hadn’t tucked her arm into his for support.

I stepped aside and turned to Nate. “What’s happening about Principal Limly? He told me everything, how he’d murdered Mr Biggenhill. Nate, I think he killed Ms Daggon as well.”

“We’ll get a full statement from you, Maddox, but I only need one thing right now.” He rubbed my upper arm, then rested his hand there as he tilted his head to look into my eyes. “An official confirmation that it was Adrian Limly who took you from Hollow House and locked you in that cellar.”

“Yes,” I said. “Yes, it was Adrian Limly. He knocked me over the head with a frying pan and then drugged me with chloroform. He thought I knew too much, which I didn’t really, not until he told me.”

“I can work with that.” His hand fell away from my arm. “I guess I should head back to the station. Will you be okay?”

I nodded. “I might go home with my parents, stay there a couple of days.”

“That sounds good,” he said and turned to go.

“Nate?”

He glanced back.

“Thank you,” I said. “Thanks for coming for me.”

“It’s what I do.” Warmth fed into his gaze as his tipped two fingers to his temple. “Part of the job description.”

I stared after him, long after the revolving doors had swallowed him. I supposed it was, just part of the job description, but that part was also kind of wonderful.

∞∞∞

I was in the bath, bubbles up to my neck, sipping on a delicious homemade strawberry smoothie when Jenna rapped on the door and demanded entry.

“It’s open,” I called out.

“I tried waiting,” she said irritably. “But you’ve been in here for hours.”

I rolled my eyes. “Twenty minutes, max.”

“Well, it felt like hours.” She flipped down the toilet lid and perched there. “Your voice doesn’t sound nearly as bad as your mom made out. I was looking forward to you going all Darth Vadar on me.”

“Then you should have come before she fed me her special brew,” I said, laughing. “I swear it’s equal parts brandy and honey.”

Jenna looked at me, smiling, then her smile went wobbly.

“Hey.” Bubbles and water dripped everywhere as I reached for her hand.

“Sorry.” She wiped beneath her eyes. “I wasn’t going to do this.”

“It was horrible and scary and I know you were worried, but it’s over and I’m fine. You saved me.” I squeezed her hand. “You raised the alert.”

“I almost didn’t.” She gulped. “I mean, you’d just had a visit from Joe and I wasn’t sure how much that had messed with your head. I felt kind of silly, making such a fuss when maybe you really did just want to get away from us all for a while.”

“But you did,” I reassured her. “Which reminds me, do I need to let Joe know that I’ve been found?”

She shook her head. “He doesn’t know you went missing. I called to ask if he’d seen you, but I didn’t make a big deal out of it.”

“One less thing to worry about.” I breathed out long and slow, then pulled a face at Jenna. “Principal Limly, seriously?”

“I know!” She leaned forward, her nose wrinkling. “How creepy is that?”

“He always came across as so nice, so normal.” A shiver shuddered down my spine. “Poor Mrs Limly. Imagine living with a guy all those years, then finding out he’s some sort of psychotic killer.”

She frowned. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“Besides walloping me over the head with a frying pan?” I pulled my hair back to show her the bump at my temple. “Throw me a towel. I’ll tell you everything, but I’m going to need another of Mom’s brews first.”

Jenna stood to fetch a towel from the rack. “Is your throat still sore?”

“No, but Mom doesn’t need to know that.”

∞∞∞

There was a steady flow of visitors throughout the day. Mom vetoed them in the front parlor, sending only a handful through to the back porch where Jenna and I had made ourselves comfortable on the swing chair.

I was stunned, pleasantly so, when Burns and Mr Hollow put in an appearance. I also felt rather sheepish that I hadn’t thought to let them know I was okay. Then again, I still didn’t know the Hollow House number.

“Jack Skinner came around,” Mr Hollow told me. “Told us what was going on, how they’d found you out Mason Creek way.” He stomped his cane and harrumphed. “Told us about Adrian Limly, too, that he’d taken you. The audacity of that man, coming into my home and stealing you away! I hope he hangs.”

“They’d have to bring back the death penalty first,” Burns murmured.

“Maybe the state will make an exception for Principal Limly,” Jenna said hopefully.

It was rather heartening, I had to say, to see Mr Hollow that upset on my behalf. And he didn’t even know about the good stuff yet, the real hanging offense material. I delved right in, looking forward to his reaction.

“He’s a disgrace to this town,” Mr Hollow declared once I’d finished telling the whole sordid tale. “I’ll tell you this, I intend to sue.”

My brows shot up.

Kidnapping gets you hung; double murder gets you sued?

“Whatever for?” I asked.

Mr Hollow’s scowl buried into me. “If you came across him in Ms Daggon’s room, that means he’s the one who broke the police seal and ruined the door. That lock and handle was an antique, dating back to when my great-uncle’s grandfather commissioned Anderson Brown to renovate the interior. I’ll never be able to replace it.”

I cringed with guilt.

“Um, about that…” I started to say, but why was I defending the man?

He’d tried to kill me.

He’d probably left me emotionally scarred for life.

“Never mind.” I flicked a hand in the air and grinned at Mr Hollow. “Sue away.”

My most surprising visitor, however, had to be Mrs Biggenhill.

“I know you’re recovering from your ordeal, so I won’t take up much of your time, but I wanted to thank you.” She took both my hands in hers and smiled sadly. “Detective Bishop said you were the one who brought his attention to the ranch and, bless his soul, the final resting place of my darling Harold.”