CHAPTER NINETEEN
“SHH,” JENNA SAID SUDDENLY. “I think I heard him.” She frowned. “But I didn’t hear his van this time.”
Maggie held her breath, listening. Above her, she thought she heard a floorboard groan under the weight of a boot. Before that, Jenna had laid out her plan for their escape.
“Clark might leave the keys to his van in it. Or he might have them on him. You will need those. You’ll have to check his pockets. Once he’s down, no matter what happens, you have to get the keys if they are on him and make a run for it. Do you understand?”
“No, I can’t leave you here with him, especially after you’ve struck him with something. You said yourself that you doubted you can hit him hard enough to knock him out, possibly not even knock him down.”
“But if I distract him and you get the keys and run—”
“Jenna, no. There has to be another way. He’ll...he’ll kill you.”
“I just have to make sure that you’re safe. That’s all I care about, Maggie. Please, in order for this to work, you have to get the keys and get away. I’m not sure how long I can hold him off.”
“Maybe if we wait—”
“We can’t. I know this man. He’s getting tired of this, just like he would have gotten tired of having a wife and child. At some point, he isn’t going to come back. He’s going to leave us here to die. Or maybe worse.”
Now as Maggie held her breath and listened, she picked up the sound of someone walking on the floor above them and knew Jenna was right. For some reason he was sneaking back here. This might be their last chance because next time might be the last time for both of them.
* * *
“EYES PEELED,” MARK said into his radio. “Perp has bag and is on the run.” He quickly texted Hawk, then started his patrol SUV and with lights flashing headed for the park below him.
He found himself hoping like hell that the man was Clark Terwilliger. If it was just some creep after money... He was almost to the park.
“Got him!” came a deputy over his radio. “Perp is down on the south side of the park.”
Racing to that side of the park, he leaped out, seeing that there had been a struggle. One of his deputies was cuffing a man on the ground, but Hawk and Cyrus were both covered with snow and standing over the man. Both were grinning a little too broadly.
“Cowboys,” he said under his breath with a shake of his head as he approached them.
He knew he shouldn’t have been surprised. As he reached them, he said, “Let me guess. You chased him down.”
Hawk laughed. “Surprised me that I can still run like that.”
“But you wouldn’t have been able to hang on to him if I hadn’t helped you,” Cyrus pointed out.
Mark shook his head, unable to not grin. The county needed its force back and soon. With both Flint and Harp now out of commission... “Either of you know where your brother Flint is?” he asked as he picked up the bag the perp had dropped.
Both shook their heads, although he got the feeling that they knew more than they were willing to tell him. Where had Flint gone alone? It worried him. He’d worked with the man for years. He knew how determined he could be. With Maggie being the one missing...
“Come by my office tomorrow and I’ll release your money,” he said to the pair. “And tell Flint to call me when you hear from him.”
As he turned away, the deputy making the bust lifted the alleged kidnapper to his feet and began reading him his rights. Mark got his first look at the man.
* * *
FLINT STOPPED IN front of the door and listened. Still, he couldn’t hear anything over his own pounding heart. The hairs rose on the back of his neck. He turned, half expecting to see Terwilliger sneaking up on him.
But there was nothing in the hallway except for his snowy boot tracks in the dust. He turned the knob, telling himself that time was running out. If Terwilliger was behind the ransom demand, he could have an accomplice picking it up and could return at any moment.
The door swung open with a groan. He shone his flashlight down the steps into the basement, noticing the footprints in the dust. A terrible feeling filled him. What if they weren’t here anymore? What if Terwilliger had moved them? That, he realized, would be better than finding them both down there dead.
He took a step, reminding himself that the man could be expecting him. This could be a trap. The wooden stair groaned under his weight. He took another. He was almost to the bottom before he could see any of the huge basement. He shone his flashlight around what appeared to be a maze of storage crates and boxes, old furniture and garbage bags filled with who knew what. Narrow paths cut through the catacomb.
As the beam of his flashlight shone to the left, he saw that part of the basement had been closed off with walls—and a door. He moved toward it and tried the knob. As the door swung open, he moved to the side and peered into what appeared to be a 1950s kitchen. Past it, he saw a short hallway and two more doors.
At some time, people had lived down here? Were still living here?
Gun drawn, he crossed the kitchen. It smelled of burgers and fries. He was about to try the first door when he heard the sound of a vehicle engine approaching.
* * *
MARK SWORE AS he saw who their kidnapper was. He couldn’t believe he was looking at Johnny Burrows, a former classmate of his. But at the same time he realized he shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d watched Johnny’s life go down the tubes over the past few years. First Johnny’s father had been arrested for embezzlement from the construction company in which he’d been a partner. Of course, his father had dragged Johnny into the mess. And finally Johnny had gotten in trouble for withholding evidence in a murder case.
“I didn’t kidnap anyone,” Burrows said quickly as Mark approached him. “You know me.”
Mark just shook his head.
“It was stupid, okay? But I thought...” He hung his head, looking like a man who had nothing to lose. “I just...I just needed money. I was desperate. I thought—”
“Desperate to get back at the Cahills?” Mark asked. Johnny’s best friend since grade school was Trask Beaumont, who’d just married Lillie Cahill. The two had a falling-out about the time Johnny had been willing to let Trask go to prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
“No, it wasn’t like that,” Johnny said. “It was only about the money. I need the money.” The man broke down.
He realized he hadn’t seen Burrows around for months. He’d just assumed he’d left town. “Load him into your patrol car,” he told his deputy. He looked at Burrows. “We’ll talk at the sheriff’s office.”
As he watched Burrows being taken away, Mark fought a wave of disappointment. He had been hoping that they would catch the person who’d taken Maggie Thompson. He’d wanted the person they caught tonight to be Clark Terwilliger. If it had been him, he would be on his way to a cell right now and maybe willing to make a deal to release Maggie and Jenna.
But in his heart, he had agreed with Flint that the ransom demand was probably some fool hoping to cash in on Maggie’s disappearance. Still, he’d hoped it would help find her and bring her home.
Now that hope was gone. Burrows had just been after the money. While Mark would make sure that was all it had been, he figured Johnny’s story would check out. Burrows didn’t drive a brown van.
In fact, the last he’d heard, Burrows had sold his car, lost his fiancée, been forced to sell his new home for a lawyer for his father and hadn’t had any luck getting a job locally. For years Johnny’s father had pushed his son disgracefully to succeed at any cost—only for the two to go down in flames.
Mark couldn’t help but think how ironic it was that Johnny Burrows, the boy voted most likely to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, would now be joining his father in prison.
* * *
“FLINT?” MAGGIE CRIED. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing in the ambient glow of the flashlight. Flint. He’d found her? She’d thought she would never lay eyes on him again. He’d opened the door and she’d seen his handsome face and thought she must be dreaming.
Then she’d heard Flint call her name as he rushed to her.
She began to cry, but he quickly hushed her. “Who else is down here?”
“Just Jenna. She’s in the next room.”
He nodded. “Tell me how to get you out of there. We have to move fast. I just heard a vehicle.”
She pointed him toward the mechanism out of her reach. He moved to it and sprang the latch, before lowering the gate and helping her out and into his arms. He held her so tightly that she couldn’t breathe for a moment, but she never wanted him to let her go.
“Is Clark acting alone? Is there anyone else?”
She shook her head. “Just...him.”
“We have to get you out of here. Now.” That was when he noticed what she was wearing.
She looked down at the ridiculous dress. “Don’t ask.”
“Where are your clothes?” He shone his light around the room, stopping on the pile of clothing in the corner.
She grabbed them up from where Clark had tossed them and quickly pulled them on. “Don’t wait for me. Get Jenna.”
He had his cell phone out. “I just tried to call for backup.” He swore. “No service down here. There might not be service for miles. Let’s get Jenna and see if there is a way out of here.”
She followed the path of Flint’s flashlight beam as they stepped back into the hallway and to the adjacent room.
As the door opened, Maggie saw that Jenna was locked in a metal cell much like her own. The difference was that her room was bare. One side open to the rest of the basement, which she saw was filled to overflowing with what looked like secondhand furniture as if the place had been a junk shop at one time.
“Sheriff?” Jenna cried as she saw him in the ambient light of the flashlight beam. “You have to hurry. I heard Clark. He’s coming back.”
Maggie listened. She realized she couldn’t hear the sound of the van engine anymore. “I think he’s already here.” Her voice broke. Once the van engine shut off, it was only a matter of minutes before she would hear his heavy step overhead.
She could see that Flint was having more trouble opening this cell than he had hers. Maggie could tell he was hurrying as fast as he could. Finally the latch gave and he helped Jenna out.
“Is there another way out of here besides the stairs?” Flint asked.
Jenna shook her head. “Not that I know of.” She fell silent at the sound of a door opening overhead. “It’s too late. He’s in the building.”