CHAPTER 24
Carigan was waiting at the base of the trail, along with a couple of the handlers, ready to take their horses. She walked them to waiting vehicles where she and Jessie were ready to escort them to wherever they were headed next, but not before updating them with news none of them was prepared to hear.
“It’s her truck, Daws; its Rene’s.”
A loud explosion took Granny Lou and Sam to their knees as the doors rattled and windows shook, deepening fears to levels yet to be discovered. Reminding herself that there were police staged outside, and Granny, gun holstered in her jeans, she moved to the window to take in the scene. Shock struck at the large plume of smoke in the distance, but her heart sank when she watched the officers hightail it out of there, likely headed toward that plume of smoke.
This didn’t feel right. Instincts and recent events caused Sam to shudder as she recognized this as round two, or was it three, in this nightmare she was living. Still no Ellie, no Dawson, no police protection, and a random explosion in the distance that she wouldn’t accept as a wild coincidence; no, this was the final act. She felt it to the depths of her soul. It was time to prepare for whatever was coming. Sam was ending this charade, once and for all.
Updates from the explosion gave them little to go on. It was perfectly staged in the middle of old growth forest, flooded with dry sagebrush, the perfect fuel for a staggering forest fire that the long summer’s heat would ensure difficulty combating. Fire fighters hadn’t even made it to the truck. Containment was their first objective, and finding a safe path to the engulfed vehicle wasn’t possible, just yet. This time of year in these conditions, the forest was more combustible than a cigarette in a gas can.
Dawson pondered the dubious circumstances surrounding the unnerving plethora of events, doubting any kind of coincidence or that it was any kind of conclusion. It was just another diversion, a ploy to distract them, leading them down another wrong path, giving Rene’s every move ample head start. She wanted all eyes on her truck, in the middle of an inferno that would be out of reach for hours, so she could do what? What was her next move?
Rene was too calculated, too thorough in her agenda. She knew they would unfold who she was eventually, that they would think she was desperate, depressed, and even suicidal with nothing to live for. That’s why she told Morgan and Everly that eerie story about a mother losing a child, her sadness so convincing. She wanted them to think she was taking her own life and in a last ditch effort to hurt Sam, for reasons unknown, that Ellie was with her. She wasn’t in the truck, nor was Ellie.
“Sam,” he said, not realizing he was sharing his thoughts out loud.
“What? Where?”
“No, head to my place. She isn’t in the truck; it’s another trick. She’s going for Sam!”
Afternoon was quickly turning to dusk. The sky was full of smoke and a glow gently cast by the fire below. Sam could only imagine what was going on in the distance. The police hadn’t returned, and their surroundings were eerily still. But Sam sat quietly, patient, listening to the faintest of sounds, sure that her focus and calm was so certain, she’d hear the wind shift outside. She stood silent, staring out the window when she caught a glimpse of something just behind the tree line that she hadn’t noticed before.
As the sun was setting and moonlight taking its place, a slight glare or reflection sat just off in the distance. Moving closer to the window for a better look, she studied the vision in question, when the wind was knocked from her as her haunted past crept in, and she realized what she was looking at—the dark SUV. She was already here, probably had been, waiting to strike.
She quickly turned to get Granny from the kitchen but found she was too late—Rene stood before her, eyes pitch black, expression blank, focused on Sam.
“Rene…”
“Shut up! Just…shut…up!” Rene shouted, full of rage, her anger so consuming that she didn’t even look like herself.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were with Ellie?” Sam replied, trying to remain calm, recognizing that it was vital she play her cards right if she was going to find her daughter, much less make it out alive. She played the friend card, hoping Rene would buy it and assume Sam was none the wiser to what she had done.
Rene was spent, tired, and with nothing to lose, it was clear why she was there, to finish what she started. Sam needed time, needed a plan, and needed help.
“I said
shut up! Ellie is fine. She’s sleeping
, but that isn’t any of your concern anymore.”
She was trying to conceal her fear, but she understood crazy as well as she spoke dog. Ellie was sleeping; was she legitimately sleeping, or was that a sick metaphor…dear Lord, let Ellie be okay!
“Not my concern? She’s my daughter, Rene. Where is she? Let’s get her. Someone may be trying to hurt her, to hurt me,” Sam said. With no other cards to play, she gambled with naivety, hoping she could stall Rene; anything, at this point, could mean the difference between life and death.
“No, see, that’s where you’re wrong, poor, sweet, naïve Sam.” A condescending tone was Rene’s choice of delivery. She really was full of hate for Sam, and all Sam was doing was making her more upset. “Where are all your little rescuers by the way? Christ, they treat you like the fucking Princess of Wales—nobody breathe…Sam might break!”
She was gone, nothing but an evil soul determined to kill Sam. What other reason would she have to be here behaving this way if it wasn’t to do what she intended to do the night of the accident, and then today by setting her home on fire?
“Rene, come on; let’s talk about this. We’re friends…”
“Stop it! Save your psycho analyzing bullshit. Not another word, or I’ll make sure pretty boy gets to watch how this ends,” Rene spit through gritted teeth. “He’s had to have figured it out by now. What a bunch of idiots! After all these months, do they really think I would just sit around and wait for them to come get me?
“Why…why are you doing this?” Sam’s voice began to shake, her emotions getting the best of her at Rene’s admission. She was behind it, all of it, and she was proud of it.
“Oh come
– on
! You know why! You know what you did! Eye for an eye, Sam! Isn’t that how it goes?” Evil just rolled out of her; a dark soul was all that was left of the woman Sam had coined a friend, just hours before.
“I helped you!” Sam shot back, her own anger harder to conceal. How the hell could Rene blame her for anything other than being her friend? “I stayed with you for hours! I…”
“Congratulations! Want a fucking medal?” Rene said in a high pitched, almost giddy tone, through her fake gleeful smile, before her face-hardened again, and the sarcasm was no longer. “Helped me? Christ, you really are just a stupid bitch, aren’t you?”
Rene moved closer, no longer behind the couch, and the gun in her hand was now visible. That was Dawson’s gun, which meant Granny—she got to Granny. Sam stepped back toward the window with every step Rene took toward her. Sam was becoming desperate, and now not only worried for her own life but for Granny too. She wouldn’t be coming around the corner, armed, like Sam was hoping. Dear God, let her be okay. Sam couldn’t live with the alternative.
“Let me spell it out for you, Sam
! My husband is DEAD
; my baby, my precious girl is DEAD
. I may as well be dead because that’s how I feel—dead inside.”
“Rene, you don’t have to feel that way. We can get you help. You can find love again, have more childr…”
Rene was outraged by Sam’s comments and unleashed her fury; she began screaming at Sam. “Don’t! Don’t you dare say it!”
Panic was all Sam felt. She was reeling, looking for a way to get the situation under control. She needed help, and based on what Rene said, help was quite a distance behind her. No matter what Sam said, it seemed to fuel Rene’s anger. She was out of options and strictly running on prayer.
Rene began to pace the room, eyes never leaving Sam. If looks could kill, Sam would be suffering a slow, painful death. Rene’s face shifted. She didn’t even look like herself; only a sad miserable, desperate monster remained.
“Don’t you dare. You know I can’t have children. I lost that too, that day! I’m not even whole. What kind of man would want woman like me? I’m broken, Sam!”
Sam did not know that losing her ability to have children was the outcome of Rene’s situation. None of them did. As sick as this woman was, Sam hurt for her, now having a full picture of what happened that day. Rene had lost everything and was so desperate from the pain, it drove her stark raving mad. How unimaginable that pain must be!
“Oh Rene, you’re …”
Hands to her head, she grabbed handfuls of her own hair while holding the gun and spitting through gritted teeth. She lunged toward Sam, only an arm’s length, maybe two, away now.
“STOP
! Stop it! What did I tell you? What did I say when we arrived at the hospital? Remember?” She was shouting, so loud, so angrily, she was hard to even understand.
Sam shook her head as tears began to stream down her face while she slowly stepped backward, trying to regain a more comfortable distance between her and the threat standing in front of her. She was desperate, praying for guidance. How could she defuse this woman? How would she get out of here in one piece? How would she find her daughter? She was feeling hopeless and completely helpless. Getting out of this was getting further and further out of reach. Her time was almost up; she could feel it. Dear God, let Ellie be safe.
As if the crazy lifted, a smile crossed Rene’s face, and a strange look of peace seemed to come over her as her body relaxed and her eyes brightened. She looked more herself, which was more frightening than the alternative. The Jekyll and Hyde behavior was overwhelming and terrorizing.
“I said save my baby, Sam…save her.
You didn’t listen. My sweet baby girl is gone because of you
! So now, you get to pay the same price, to know my pain, feel the loss of a child. You know where I’m going with this, don’t you?” Her calm, happy demeanor was peculiar; she was soft spoken, using a friendly tone, a little sarcastic even, as she delivered Sam’s fate, or the fate of her daughter, anyway. It was absolutely eerie.
Threatening Ellie was Sam’s undoing. With little to lose at this point, Rene’s plan for Sam becoming clear, Sam didn’t hold back. She offered Rene a bold stance. “Don’t you dare hurt Ellie. Don’t you harm a single hair on her. Do you
hear me
now? Stay away from her!” Sam, finding courage in her daughter, stepped closer to Rene, challenging her.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Sam, I’m not going to hurt her. She’s a child. Do you really think I’m some kind of monster? Don’t answer that,” Rene replied with an enthused tone. She was getting to Sam and enjoying it. “I’m taking her from you; that’s all. Just – like – you – did – to – me!” She raised the gun she was holding and pointed it right at Sam. She smiled, finally able to put an end to the woman who destroyed her life, when a tiny voice caught her off guard and demanded her attention from behind her.
“Mama?” It was Ellie Lou. “Miss Rene, why are you pointing da gun at my mama. It’s not nice to point guns at people, even just for pretends. Are you pretending to be Searches and Rescues?” She had walked into the room from God knows where, just as her mother was about to die.
Sam’s heart sank at the sound of Ellie’s voice. She was alive and well, and about to witness something no child should ever witness. Just as things didn’t seem as if they could get any worse, they did. Sam spoke to her daughter, very softly, full of calm, trying to protect her from Rene. She would take a bullet to save her daughter but not so Rene could have her, not on her life. “Ellie, go, run baby…I want you to hide! Don’t come out for anyone but Dawson or Aunt Evie, okay?”
Rene’s smile faded, and her eyes filled with emotion. Ellie’s words struck like a knife to the heart. She would never hear those words from Ellie or any child, for that matter, because she would never be anyone’s mama, especially this child. Her plan had failed. It seemed so perfect until now. Defeat emerged, and she was ready to finish this. She looked at Sam, full of scorn and torment, and shifted her aim from Sam to Ellie, tears falling, before saying her final words on the matter. “Or, maybe I am a monster.”
Sam heard herself scream Ellie’s name. There was commotion in the distance, all a blur, before she heard Ellie’s little scream and the sound of gunfire that paralyzed her as she was moving toward Rene. Stunned and confused, she watched the gun fall from Rene’s hand as she fell to the ground, landing at Sam’s feet. Wide eyed, her gaze drifted from Rene’s near lifeless body as she gasped for air, to the doorway across the room, where Blake stood, weapon still aimed at his barely breathing target.
Where Ellie stood, now laid Dawson, shielding Ellie with his badly bloodied body. She rushed to him, yelling his and Ellie’s names, praying both were okay, ignoring the bloody mess that covered them.
Blake approached Rene’s body, weapon still drawn, pointed right at her. He kicked the gun, she had dropped, far from reach, before relaxing his aim. Tears streaking her face, she opened her eyes ever so briefly, giving a vague smile, and spoke before taking her final breath from his fatal shot. “Thank you.” Her words would haunt him as the meaning sunk in. She was finally at peace.