CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“Sure. Send the city girl out into the frozen woods with a compass to get help. Makes perfect sense to me,” Chole muttered as she stomped through another pile of snow-covered underbrush.
“Uhmf,” she grumbled as her leg sank knee-deep into the cold mass. “I just hope he’s alive when I get back. I’d hate to revive him just to kill him for doing this.”
Grabbing onto the tree trunk beside her, she hauled her leg out of the drift and onto what she hoped was a solid log. A quick glance at her watch told her she’d been out there fifteen minutes. She could run a mile in less than ten minutes on a good day and pave road. How far had she come?
“Would’ve been nice if Wes had told me exactly how far this Harriett’s place was.”
“One thousand three hundred and twenty feet.”
“Ahh!” Chloe jumped and turned to where the slightly husky voice had come.
A short, older woman wearing dark-rimmed glasses, a mouth pressed in firm lines of disapproval and bundled like an Eskimo stood about six feet to her left. She reminded her of the character in one of those NCIS shows, only taller.
“You must be Harriett?” Chole said, catching her breath and willing her heartrate to slow to somewhere near normal.
“You’re Bobby’s sister, Chloe,” the other woman stated.
“Yes, I am.” She wanted to ask how Harriett knew that, but figured it was unimportant at this moment. “Wes sent me to find your cabin and call for help. If you could take me there?”
“Nope,” she said, moving away from the tree and held out a backpack. “Put this on.”
Chloe took the pack and slipped it over her shoulders. “What’s in it?”
“Supplies.”
“But we have to get help for Wes. There’s a crazy woman trying to kill him.”
“Hannah.”
“You know who it is?”
“Kept an eye on her when she hit town.” Harriett started walking in the direction Chloe had just come.
“Wait. You’re heading the wrong way. We have to go to your place and call my brother-in-law. Wes needs help.”
“Already on its way.”
Chloe took long strides to catch up to the other woman. “What do you mean help is on the way? You and me? He needs more help than two women.”
Harriett paused to look over her shoulder with one arched brow.
Chloe suddenly felt like she was back in the seventh grade, standing in front of the principal’s desk after punching Cindy Seacort’s nose for picking on Dylan.
“Never underestimate the strength of two good women,” Harriett said before heading south.
Once again, Chloe found herself having to hurry to catch up. For someone half a foot shorter than her, Harriett moved through the snowy forest as if she were an Olympic speed walker.
“Wes was very specific. He wanted me to call for help. Us showing up there will only distract him. He has a plan.”
“Sacrificial lamb plans always suck.”
Chloe opened her mouth to argue just as gunfire sounded ahead of them.
* * * * *
Gage stood hunkered down behind Wes’s SUV. Someone had shot out the front wheel tire. By the looks of it they’d used a high-power rifle like the one Earl said he’d seen Hannah carrying.
Staying pressed against the side of the vehicle, he studied the cabin in front of him. The front door was ajar and no movement seemed to be coming from inside. The only noise was the low hum of a generator. The front window has been shot out.
Snow crunched behind him.
“Found tracks to the west of here, leading up to the house, boss,” Cleetus said, coming to rest behind him.
“Looks like Hannah made a sniper’s nest about five hundred yards back,” Daniel said, joining them. “Found her white truck off the road in a copse of white oaks and evergreens. Wouldn’t have found it if I hadn’t been looking for it.”
Damn. Earl’s information was true.
“I don’t see anyone moving inside, but we have to check it out. I’ll go up the porch.” Gage pointed left and right. “You two flank me and check to be sure no one’s hurt around the sides of the house. Keep low, she may be hiding somewhere ready to pick us off.”
Praying he didn’t find anyone inside, Gage hurried up the porch steps and stopped just to the side of the front door. With a twist to his side, he took a quick look through the broken picture window of the kitchen area.
No one.
Gun hand ready, he kicked the door further open and moved through the door. Still as a statue he listened. No sounds. No movements.
Slowly he scanned the room. On the couch was a woman’s handbag. Probably Chloe’s. A laptop sat open on the kitchen counter. Near it set two mugs of half-drunk cold coffee. A little stain of brown lay around the base of one of the mugs.
Something had interrupted them.
He studied the floor. No signs of blood or splatter. That was good. At least the first shots hadn’t taken either one of them out.
Still keeping his weapon in front of him, he moved to the bathroom, noting the two toothbrushes. Otherwise, empty. Finally, he went into the only bedroom. The sheets still rumpled from last night. Aggravation settled over him. It didn’t take a forensic team to figure out that two people had spent the night here. Wes and Chloe. His deputy and his sister-in-law. The man was going to have some serious explaining to do.
He took a quick look into the closet, then headed back to the door. Only one way in and out.
Heavy footsteps sounded on the porch.
“Found a trail out back, boss,” Cleetus said. He moved out of the doorway to let Gage pass and followed him down the steps. “Looks like Wes headed into the woods in a north-west direction.
“Towards Harriett’s place.”
“Probably thought they’d be a harder target in the woods,” Daniel said when they came to where he stood. He pointed at his feet. “Two sets of prints went together. A third set came up just slightly to the right. My best guess, that’s Hannah tracking them.”
Gage started to move, but Daniel grabbed his arm, stopping him.
“What?”
“Wes got a dog?” his deputy asked.
“Not that I know of.”
“There’s paw prints leading from the west side of the cabin up this way. By the look of them, it’s either a big dog or possibly a wolf.”
“Wolf? I’ve not heard any report of wolves in this area. Some coyotes, maybe.”
Daniel shrugged. “Don’t know. All I know is that all the tracks are headed that direction,” he pointed west-northwest, “into the woods.”
Great. Not only did they have a crazed woman hunting Wes and Chloe, but maybe a wild animal.
“Keep your eyes open for not only Hannah but a wild animal. Last thing we need is getting bitten by whatever that is.” Taking the lead, he followed the trail towards the woods.
“Is that blood?” Cleetus asked, pointing a few yards ahead of them.
Gage hurried up to the spot. A reddish-brown stain had been stomped down into the snow. Definitely blood. “Shit. We have at least one wounded.”
Suddenly gunfire sounded in the woods ahead of them.