Kitabı oku: «Mountain Captive»

ONE

Private Investigator Jude Trainor gripped the steering wheel of his SUV as it hugged the upward side of the narrow mountain road. One small overcorrection and he ran the risk of sailing off the road and down the steep incline. Windshield wipers beat out an intense rhythm, wiping away the increasing snowfall. The radio forecast an unexpected blizzard, the worst Montana had seen in fifty years.

He could just make out the red taillights of the car he’d chased for miles. The car matched the description of the one believed to have been used to kidnap an eight-year-old girl over a week ago from her home in North Dakota. There was no way to match it to the driver because it had been reported as stolen a day before the kidnapping.

Was the girl being held in a remote cabin in these mountains? Jude doubted the suspect would lead him to the girl. What he hoped for was to take the driver into custody and get him to confess. But the driver had not stopped when they were on the highway. Now with only the two of them on this road, he must know he was being tailed. Jude prayed for an opportunity to stop or disable the car.

The car had surfaced around various parts of Montana, but this was the closest Jude had gotten to the suspect.

The road curved and the red taillights disappeared.

Snow cut Jude’s visibility. He let up on the gas until he was moving at a crawl. Wipers cleared his windshield only to have it fill up again with snow. All he saw was white everywhere. The car couldn’t have gotten that far ahead of him. The wind blew with such force, he could barely make out the tracks where the other car had been.

Headlights filled his field of vision. Adrenaline flooded his body. The other car had gotten turned around and was headed straight toward him on the one-lane road. He tensed, ready for a fight for his life.

Jude shifted into Reverse. He drove more by feel and instinct than by what he could see in his mirrors. His car hugged the upward side of the road.

Through the snowfall, all he saw was the glowing orange of the headlights as they loomed ever closer to him. He prayed for some sort of shoulder to pull off on. Bushes scratched the driver’s side window because he was so close to the bank.

Though the other car was moving at a crawl as well, it closed the distance between them.

He checked his mirrors and then craned his neck. The snowfall cleared for a moment, so he had a view of the road. He couldn’t see a safe place to pull over. He pressed the gas even harder, guessing at where the safest route was.

He felt a thud against his front bumper.

He set his jaw and gripped the wheel. No, this could not be happening. He was not going over that incline.

Jude shifted into First. He revved the engine and pushed toward the other car, which was only a few feet away. If this guy wanted to play demolition derby, bring it on.

The other driver backed away a few feet. Jude brushed his hand over the gun in his shoulder holster. For the kidnapped girl, he needed the suspect brought in ready to talk. Even if he injured him to capture him, it meant a delay in finding the child.

An idea struck him. He turned off his headlights and continued to back down the mountain.

The other car backed away, as well. Now he saw the flaw in his plan. The guy would back up until he got to the place where he was able to turn around and then take off. With his lights still off, Jude edged forward. The headlights of the other car faded in and out as an intense wind gusted.

They came to a straight part of the road. The other car barreled toward him at a dangerous speed. He hit Reverse again. His windshield filled with blinding yellow light right before metal crashed against metal. The whole car seemed to be vibrating and creaking. His back end fishtailed. And then he was sliding sideways. His hand gripped the wheel. He pumped the brake. The car slipped off the edge of the road. He felt weightless as the seat belt dug into his chest and the car rolled twice before coming to a stop right side up.

The crash had taken the wind out of him. Still numb, he unclicked his seat belt. His door was too bent to open. Though he was in pain, he didn’t think he’d broken anything.

He pulled his phone out. No signal.

Jude dragged himself toward the passenger side door. He clicked the handle and pushed it open. A gust of snow chilled his face as he crawled out.

He heard the zing of the rifle shot before he heard it hit the metal of his wrecked vehicle. His heart pounded. He could just make out the silhouette of the possible kidnapper standing in the headlights of his car, aiming a rifle down the mountain at him.

Adrenaline surged through Jude’s body as he crawled around to the front of his car for cover. His bright colored ski jacket would be easy to spot even in the storm.

The freezing cold enveloped him. He’d kept his winter coat on, but he had no hat or gloves. He wrestled with the thought that he might die out here. That his life would come to nothing. And that the little girl would not be brought home safe. That bothered him more than the reality of his own death.

Another shot rang through the air. Glass shattered.

The possibility of bringing that little girl home safe to her parents had felt like a shot at redemption to him. He wasn’t a private investigator by choice. At the age of twenty-one, ten years ago, he’d washed up as a rookie officer when a domestic call he’d been sent on had ended in the murder-suicide of husband and wife. Their ten-year-old daughter had witnessed the crime. The last he’d heard she was under a psychiatrist’s care. Her life would never be the same. The guilt weighed on him every day.

If only Jude had said the right words as he’d talked to the husband through the open window. If only he’d chosen a different tactic. If only...

Jude peered around the side of his car. The man with the rifle was nothing more than a dark spot, but he was still there waiting to take another shot at Jude.

The cold seeped into his muscles as he wondered if he had the strength to make a run for it into the unknown down the mountain. The winding road was the one he’d just come up in his pursuit. Maybe there was somebody down there, a hunter perhaps. For the first time in ten years, he said a quick and desperate prayer.

Lord, send help or show me a way out of this.

Wildlife biologist Lacey Conrad put the binoculars up to her eyes and scanned the winter landscape until her view landed on a ridge where she expected to see elk appear within the next hour. She gripped the binoculars a little tighter. She wasn’t going to see anything with the storm moving in. Not a good day for research and observation. She let the binoculars fall around her neck. Even on days like this, she loved her job. She preferred being outside and the research allowed her to move around Montana. Since the death of her parents and little brother in a car crash when she was in college, she had lived like a nomad, never putting down roots anywhere. That was the way she liked it.

The wind died down for a moment and movement much closer to her caught her attention. On the mountain road above her, a car had rolled off the road. She’d heard the muffled sound of a crash only moments before. Now as the wind died down, the noise made sense.

She saw a man crouched in front of the car. Her heart squeezed tight. A man holding a rifle was headed down the steep incline. She’d thought the shots she heard before were from a hunter somewhere on the mountain.

The man by the car bolted to his feet. She could see the bright colors of his ski jacket even when the wind picked up. Panic filled her body. It was the man in the ski jacket who was being hunted. The man must have seen the orange of her hunting vest. He made a beeline toward her.

Another shot was fired. The man in the ski jacket fell in the snow. Her heart lurched. Had he been hit?

She ran toward him. Her boots sank into the snow. She looked up the mountain seeing only white. The neutral colors the man with the rifle wore made it harder to see him.

The man in the ski jacket got to his feet. She ran toward him, nearly crashing into him.

He gripped her arm. The fear she saw in his face turned to relief.

A thousand questions raged through her head. Was this some sort of drug deal or other crime gone bad? Was she helping a criminal? Was the man shooting at a hunter who had lost his marbles?

Another shot rang through the air. She scanned the landscape in the general direction the shot had come from, but she could see nothing through the blowing snowfall.

The man in the ski jacket would have to explain later.

The only thing that was clear to her was that his life was in danger.

She tugged on his sleeve. “This way.” Her truck was parked down the mountain in a grove of trees.

They half ran and half slid down the mountain toward the next section of winding road. She hurried through the evergreens to her truck. She yanked open the driver’s side door. The man in the ski jacket got into the passenger side of the truck.

She glanced over at the stranger sitting across from her. Her heart was still racing from running from the shooter.

He met her gaze. His eyes looked honest, anyway. “Thank you,” he said. “You saved my life.” He was still trying to catch his breath.

She wasn’t sure what to think about this stranger. She pulled through the trees and out onto the road. The heavy snowfall on the unplowed road meant she had to go slow. “I’ll take you as far as Lodgepole where I’m staying. There’s no law enforcement there. Tiny town, only two hundred people.” Her voice dropped half an octave. “Obviously, you have something to report. There’s a sheriff in Garnet about fifty miles from Lodgepole.”

He nodded but offered no further explanation. “Again, thank you.” He let out a breath. “I’m Jude, by the way.” His voice had a soft melodic quality.

“Lacey. I’m a biologist doing research on elk.” She hoped he would return the favor and explain what he was doing up in these mountains.

He nodded but didn’t say anything.

She maneuvered the truck through the heavy snow that had already piled up on the road. An object hit the truck with a violent thud. Her heart pounded as every muscle in her body tensed. The man with the rifle had thrown something at the truck.

“He must be out of bullets,” said Jude. “I think he threw a rock at us.”

Lacey glanced out of the driver’s side window. The man was close enough for her to see his face. He ran toward them, rifle raised to be used as a blunt instrument. She saw him clearly. He was maybe ten feet away, a hulking mass of a man. The white-and-gray hair, the beard, the eyes that were filled with a murderous rage. A face she would not easily forget. The man looked right at her. A chill skittered over her skin.

She pressed the gas even harder, accelerating to a dangerous speed. She swerved.

Another blow struck the back end of the truck. In the rearview mirror, she saw the man raising his rifle to hit the truck again with the rifle stock.

Lacey gripped the steering wheel and chose the path of least resistance where the snow wasn’t as deep. All the same, her truck drifted toward the edge of the road. She straightened her steering wheel, finally gaining control.

“Good job,” said Jude. “That takes some skill.” He still had a white-knuckle grip on the dashboard as he glanced nervously out the back window.

She had no idea what to think about this man sitting in her truck. He had a lot of explaining to do. She had never been a good judge of character. As her grandmother used to say, her people picker was broken. She did better with wilderness and animals.

“You handled the whole thing really well,” said Jude.

“Thanks. So was that guy some sort of crazed landowner or something?” She really wanted to give Jude the benefit of the doubt, but she needed to know whom she had just rescued.

He took a moment to answer. He ran his fingers through his wavy brown hair. “No, it’s a little more complicated than that. I’m a private investigator. That’s all you need to know.” He turned away and stared out the window.

Okay, so he wasn’t going to tell her much. At least he was on the right side of the law.

When she checked the rearview mirror, she could no longer see the man with the rifle. But his face was burned into her memory. Though she could not say why. She had the feeling she had looked into the face of a murderer.

TWO

Lacey could see the tiny cluster of lights that was Lodgepole as she drove toward the base of the mountain. By the time she pulled onto Main Street, the wind and snow had intensified.

“Probably too dangerous to drive into Garnet to report what happened to you. Might have to wait until after the storm.” She searched for a parking space.

“I suppose I can phone it in.” His voice lacked commitment as he stared out the window. He seemed distracted. His mind must be on something else.

“If you can get a signal. Maybe we should do that together. I saw the guy pretty clearly.”

Jude perked up. “Really?”

Downtown Lodgepole was all of five blocks long. Many of the businesses did double duty. She rolled past a post office that was also an information center for tourists. The hardware store advertised that you could get your car fixed there. There was one café next to the hotel where she was staying.

The Davenport Hotel had probably been the talk of the town when it was built at the turn of the century. Meant to be an elegant stopping place for weary railroad travelers, it was now run-down with only a few rooms still being used. Much of the hotel was boarded up and closed off. The railroad didn’t come through Lodgepole anymore. No one came through here except the occasional hunter or hiker. She glanced over at Jude. And the occasional tight-lipped private investigator.

The residents of Lodgepole were not used to strangers and had a suspicion of them.

If she included the people who lived in remote cabins outside of Lodgepole, the population count might tick up by fifty. She’d been here for only a few days.

She pointed at the café. “We can find out about road conditions by going in there. The locals will give a better report than any weather channel or app on your phone. Are you hungry?”

“I really need to track that man down. I’ll need to get another car. And I need you to describe him for me.” A sense of urgency entered his voice. “I can’t wait around here in this town.”

“Sure, I can describe him. But honestly I don’t think anybody is going anywhere.” He seemed almost nervous now. Lunch might give him an opportunity for him to explain himself.

She headed toward the café which was also a sort of community center and place to get gossip and news. In addition to the cars parked on the street, there was probably an equal number of snowmobiles. Because the snow stayed almost year-round at this elevation and roads sometimes didn’t get plowed quickly, snowmobiles were the preferred mode of transportation for most of the residents.

The second they pushed open the door and the tiny bell above it rang, the place fell silent. All eyes were on Jude and her. The chatter resumed almost immediately, but she felt the shift when she stepped into the café.

They weren’t used to outsiders. She was still an outsider, and Jude wasn’t from here either. Her research would keep her here for at least a month. People might warm up to her a little.

She searched the room for an empty table but didn’t see one. All the seats at the counter were taken, as well. As she passed by the table, the talk was about the storm. She heard enough of the conversation to know the roads were already impassable.

She patted Jude’s shoulder. “Looks like you’re stuck here for a while.”

The news didn’t seem to sit well with Jude. His expression hardened.

A table opened up at the back of the café.

The teenage waitress came over and plopped down two menus. “We’re out of the patty melt, but the tomato soup isn’t too bad.” The girl whirled away.

“Boy, she really sells that soup.” Jude seemed to be mildy amused by the waitresses’s casual behavior.

Lacey laughed and leaned forward, glad that he seemed to relax a little. “They probably just open up a can. It’s not like the fresh produce truck makes its way up here.” She liked the warmth she saw in his eyes and appreciated his effort at lightening his mood. “Maybe I could help you if you could tell me why that guy was after you.”

Jude’s forehead creased. He looked slightly off to the left. Then he leaned closer to her and spoke in a low voice. “A girl has been kidnapped. Part of the initial communication from the kidnapper was that the FBI not be contacted. But her father couldn’t do nothing, so he hired me. Her father is a fairly well-known millionaire real estate developer in North Dakota. It’s all got to be under the radar, or something bad might happen to the kid.”

Lacey’s breath caught in her throat as she absorbed the gravity of what he had just told her. Now she understood why he wasn’t crazy about contacting the sheriff or being trapped in Lodgepole.

“It helps my case, but I’m concerned about you being able to identify him.” He twirled the pepper shaker.

She spoke slowly. “You think he might follow us into town and try to hurt me?” Her old truck was distinct enough and Lodgepole was the only town for miles. It wouldn’t be hard to figure out where they’d gone. Her heart squeezed tight.

“I don’t know.” Jude shook his head. “I just wish I wasn’t stuck here. I was so close to catching him.”

Lacey stared at the jelly packets and tried to process what Jude was implying. The man, who was probably a kidnapper, might come after her. “One good thing. If the roads are impassable for us, then he’s stuck too. Either on that mountain or in town. Anyway, there are people around. I’m sure he wouldn’t try anything.” Her voice sounded weak, like she was trying to convince herself that she was safe.

Jude was grateful when the waitress walked back over to them before Lacey could ask him more questions. He’d already told her too much. He would be forever grateful to her for saving his life. She had been an answer to a very frantic prayer.

The waitress twirled a strand of her hair. “So, what will you two have?”

He hadn’t had much time to study the menu. “A burger sounds great.”

“I’ll have the club sandwich.” Lacey closed the menu and handed it over to the waitress.

He noticed the ketchup stain on his menu as he lifted it so the teenager could take it. This place had a certain uniqueness to it.

He turned his attention to Lacey. She kept her auburn hair tied up in a braid. Soft wisps of red hair framed her face. She offered him a brief smile when she caught him staring.

“You’re not from around here?” he asked.

“I move around a lot for my research work.” She rearranged the jam packets that were in the metal container.

“How about you tell me about your research.”

Her eyes lit up and her whole face seemed to brighten. “I’m tracking the migrations and feeding patterns of an elk herd that mostly hang out on Shadow Ridge. I’m looking at how human activity might affect that.” She continued to share details about her job. He liked the way she became so animated when she talked.

They continued to visit until most of the patrons had left the café. A silence fell between them.

Jude cleared his throat. “Are you okay with telling me what the man who shot at me looked like?” Though he didn’t like making her revisit the attack, he needed to know if he was to find him.

Lacey stared at the table. “Yes, I can do that. Broad shoulders, built like a wrestler but older, gray-and-white hair, a beard. The expression on his face was...such rage.” She shuddered.

He leaned toward her and patted her shoulder. “I still can’t thank you enough for getting me out of there.”

She nodded before glancing around the nearly empty café. “Looks like we closed the place down. I suppose we should get going. There is only one hotel in town.”

When they stepped outside, it was pitch-dark. The wind had picked up, creating little tornadoes of snow swirling down the street. Jude buttoned his coat up against the cold. “I really want to have a look around this town. If that guy did follow us down the mountain, he probably hid his car, but I could knock on a few doors with some kind of story. Maybe check some backyards. If there is only one hotel, I doubt he’d stay there.”

“I don’t think you would get very far in the dark and cold.”

A gust of wind hit him. His eyes stung from the intensity of the cold. He could only see a few feet in front of him. His jaw clenched in frustration. “Okay maybe you’re right. So, what is this hotel?”

“It’s called the Davenport Hotel,” she said.

“Guess I should stay there too.” More than anything, he wanted to get back to tracking his suspect. Things were more complicated now that the suspect knew he’d been made and could be identified. He feared for the little girl’s safety. If she was being held in one of the houses on that mountain road, would the man just leave her there to come into town after him and probably Lacey?

Several snowmobiles putted by, their headlights cutting through the blackness. Leaning into the wind, Lacey and Jude crossed the street and entered the hotel.

An old man slept in an overstuffed chair in the lobby. “That’s Ray. He’s the manager. Rather than wake him, I think we can just grab a key and leave him a note that you’ve got a room,” she said. “You can pay him later or just leave the money in an envelope by the note. It’s fifty dollars a night.”

“Okay, if that is how it’s done.” The informality of the place only added to its charm. Jude pulled some money out of his wallet while Lacey found an envelope and paper to write on.

A wide sweeping staircase with an ornately carved bannister filled up most of the lobby. Though everything looked dusty, there was still a yesteryear elegance to the place. A huge mural of forest and wildlife, with a train puffing through it, took up one wall. Faded by time, it was nevertheless impressive. The trim on the ceiling looked like it had been carved by hand. The red carpet and matching velvet curtains indicated this had been quite the classy joint at one time.

Lacey walked behind the counter and grabbed a key. “You can have room ten right next to me. I’m in twelve. Some of the rooms aren’t used anymore, but I know that one is.”

They walked up the stairs together. Though frustration over being stranded made his jaw ache, meeting Lacey had been a nice reprieve. Lacey went back and forth between warmth and seeming guarded. Still, having dinner with her had been fun. Fun was not a word that was in his vocabulary much anymore...not for ten years.