Angels (A Detective Pierce Novel Book 3)
Author: Kane, Remington
Date: 2016-05-12
Keywords: Suspense; Thrillers; Mystery
Description: From REMINGTON KANE The Author of The TANNER SERIES Angels - A Detective Pierce Novel - Book 3 Ricardo Pierce's two young daughters are kidnapped by a man from his past.
Publisher: Year Zero Publishing

ANGELS

A DETECTIVE PIERCE NOVEL – BOOK 3

By

REMINGTON KANE

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

ANGELS - A DETECTIVE PIERCE NOVEL - BOOK 3

First edition. May 14, 2016.

Copyright © 2016 Remington Kane.

Written by Remington Kane.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Angels - A Detective Pierce Novel - Book 3

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 32

EPILOGUE

A PLEA

ALSO BY REMINGTON KANE

Further Reading: Parker & Knight

About the Author

Join my Mailing List and Learn about New Releases. Also, get access to FREE Books and Short Stories, including The TAKEN! ALPHABET SERIES, QUICK – A TANNER Short Story, and A LITTLE OFF THE TOP – A TANNER Short Story. REMINGTON KANE http://www.remingtonkane.com/contact.html

CHAPTER 1

Pierce was in trouble and he knew it.

He was unarmed, while his two dogged pursuers held weapons, along with a single-minded desire to use them against him.

Pierce was at home on his farm, where he had been preparing his red brick barbeque grill for the first cook-out of spring. The two attackers came without warning and Pierce took cover behind the grill. As the pair closed in, Pierce dashed for the tool shed. The rectangular wooden building offered scant protection, but it was better than staying out in the open.

One of his gun-toting pursuers was shorter than the other one, but seemed more determined. Pierce had already dodged two blasts from the short one’s gun, but feared that it was just a matter of time until his luck ran out.

As he bolted from behind the shed, the taller of the attackers shouted to the shorter one and both of them aimed at their target. Pierce heard the weapons fire, but miraculously, they missed him, and he made it to a corner of the old barn.

The sound of an approaching vehicle lifted Pierce’s spirits. Help had arrived. It was Jimmy Drake in his new truck, and Pierce’s partner, Jake Collins, was sitting in the passenger seat.

Pierce’s pursuers looked at the truck and saw that the odds had shifted in Pierce’s favor. It didn’t intimidate them in the least. The pair ran faster and were already firing their weapons as they rounded the corner of the barn.

Meanwhile, Pierce had circled around the old barn as fast as he could. When he reached the front of the building again, he ran towards his friends while pleading for them to help him.

To his amazement, Jimmy and Jake just laughed at him as they climbed out of the truck. When Jake pointed to Pierce’s left, Pierce knew what it meant. His pursuers were not only back on his trail, but were close, so close.

The two fired their guns again and Pierce was hit multiple times. He whirled around with his hands raised to plead for mercy and took twin blasts to the chest. Then, he fell sideways into the dirt and settled on his back.

The short one walked over and stared down at Pierce with gleeful eyes, before shooting him in the face.

Pierce sputtered, as the blast from the water gun filled his mouth. After sitting up, he reached out with both arms and grabbed his daughters to pull them close and kiss them.

The short one giggled. She was named Rosa and was five-years-old.

“We got you good, Daddy.”

Six-year-old Sophia pointed at her father, while mimicking the deep voice of the villain she had seen in a recent Disney movie. “You can run, but you can’t hide,” and then she also giggled.

The two raven-haired cuties had chased their father down while determined to blast him with their water guns, and Pierce was a soggy mess.

He hugged them tighter, and smiled.

“I love you two so much, do you know that?”

Pierce’s daughters grinned at him, and then they each gave him a smooch on the cheek.

“We love you too, Daddy,” the girls said as one.

They were his angels, and Pierce just knew that life couldn’t get any better.

CHAPTER 2

“A lot of help you two were,” Pierce said.

He was speaking to Jimmy Drake and Jake Collins, who were still smiling at his soaked clothing and wet hair.

“Sophia and Rosa owned your ass, Rick,” Jimmy said.

“Daddy, you said a bad word.”

Pierce looked into the back seat of the truck and saw Jimmy’s five-year-old son sitting in a car seat. Jimmy Drake had married Ginny, the best friend of Pierce’s wife, Val, after Ginny had become pregnant.

“Hey there, Josh,” Pierce said. “I didn’t see you back there, buddy.”

“Hi, Uncle Rick.”

Jimmy freed his son from the car seat. After giving him a kiss on the cheek, he lowered him to the ground and patted him on the butt.

“Go find the girls, and watch out for those water guns.”

As Josh ran off, Pierce removed his wet shirt.

“They won’t spray Josh. The girls only like to shoot me; they think it’s funny.”

“So do I,” Jake said.

“Where are the ladies?” Pierce asked.

“Stacey took my car and went shopping with Val and Ginny. Something about needing shoes for spring.”

“Val went shoe shopping? Oh boy, that means they’ll be gone for a while. In the meantime, why don’t you two fire up the grill while I go inside and change into something dry.”

Jimmy grabbed a package off the floor of the truck’s rear compartment, where Pierce also saw cases of beer.

“I brought steaks, Rick, and Jake here bought the beer. Val said that you would be worried about them running late, but she promised that they wouldn’t shop all day.”

“That’s good, because I’m hungry.”

The kids were by the barn when Pierce walked back towards the house, and he saw that the three of them were playing a game of hide and seek. Sophia had been counting to ten, while Rosa and Josh hid. When she finished her count, she waved to her father as she went off to find the others.

Pierce entered his house through the door in the kitchen and saw that the girls had dumped their water guns in the sink. As he passed through the hallway, he saw more toys scattered about.

The disarray would have bothered Pierce years ago, when he lived in the huge house alone, but now, now the clutter made the house a home.

He was whistling as he headed up the stairs to change into something dry.

***

Val and the other women had good timing. They returned just as the first steaks came off the grill.

Stacey Hightower-Collins, Jake Collins wife, helped Val and Ginny in the kitchen, and the three women had a huge salad made in no time at all.

Stacey and Jake had married a year after Pierce wed Val, and Jake had become a father to Stacey’s daughter, Christine. Christine, who still liked to be called Christy, rarely saw her birth father, and she considered Jake her dad.

As the group sat around the picnic table, Pierce noticed that someone was missing.

“Where’s Christy?”

Jake sighed.

“She’s out on a date, but they may stop by.”

“A date?” Jimmy said. “How old is that kid?”

“She’s fifteen now,” Stacey said. “She’s dating a boy named Matt who is also fifteen.”

Jimmy punched Jake on the shoulder. Jake was only thirty-three, but was a veteran cop with nearly a decade of experience.

“You’re gonna be a granddad soon, junior.”

Stacey glared at Jimmy.

“Don’t even joke about that.”

Pierce shook his head in wonder.

“Dating? It seems like she was just around Sophia’s age. Wait, how are they getting here? The boy shouldn’t be driving if he’s only fifteen?”

“Matt has a restrictive license, but he’s been driving for over a year,” Stacey said. “He and his mother moved here from South Dakota where the driving age is lower.”

“What’s his mom like?” Val asked.

“She’s very nice, and a recent widow. She moved here to New Jersey to stay with a sister, and to find work.”

Jimmy pointed out at the field which was adjacent to Pierce’s property.

“Speaking of work, how soon will it be until they start on the construction over there?”

Both Pierce and Val sighed.

“Any day now,” Pierce said.

***

For years, Pierce had feared that the bucolic land surrounding his own farm would be sold to a developer. He had envisioned a multitude of new condos and shopping centers. Instead, the state was building a prison near his home.

Pierce and Val had joined with their neighbors to block the project. While they were listened to and their concerns were taken into consideration, the project was still approved.

At the hearing, a representative from the state attempted to shame Pierce when she discovered that he was a police officer.

“Detective Pierce, you of all people should know how vital new prison construction is to the state, especially since the closure of Gateway Prison several years ago.”

“Yes, I am aware that there’s a shortage of prison space, but why not build the new prison on the property that was once the old prison?”

The woman, a state senator, had smiled at Pierce as if he were a dunce.

“The state doesn’t have the funds to spend on demolishing and hauling away the buildings that housed Gateway Prison. It’s much more efficient to build on the land that’s adjacent to your own.”

“Fine, save the money by starting fresh, but there’s a lot of vacant land in other places.”

“Not in my back yard, eh, Detective Pierce? Well, this time it will be in your back yard.”

Once it was built, Pierce’s home would be less than half a mile from the prison’s front gate.

The battle had brought Pierce’s home to the attention of others as well.

When a reporter dropped by to interview him and Val about the petition to stop the prison, the woman had fallen in love with the Pierces’ home, which had been in the family for generations. Once she learned how old it was, she arranged for a colleague to do a feature story on it. Pictures of the home appeared in a local magazine that showed a proud Val giving a tour of the house.

There was also a video of its exterior online. Pierce had hated the publicity, but went along with it to please Val. The house was special, and had been kept in immaculate condition.

When a real estate agent stopped by to make an offer on the house and the land, Pierce was stunned by his appraisal of its worth.

“It’s really worth that much?” Val had asked. “Even with the prison being built next door?”

“The prison has increased your land’s worth, Mrs. Pierce. Were you to build homes or condos on your property, the prison employees would move right in, and possibly some of the prisoners’ family members.”

The bottom line was that Pierce and Val were millionaires, or could be, if they sold their land.

***

Jimmy shook his head in disgust.

“It’ll be a shame once that prison is built, but at least it’s being built facing the left side of the home, and not in view of your balcony.”

Pierce nodded in agreement, and then noticed a figure standing out by the fence that bordered the property. Val had taken note as well, and shielded her eyes to see better.

“That’s a woman; I can make out long blond hair and a skirt.”

“Someone you know?” Jake said.

“We’ve been getting strangers stopping by to ogle the house ever since the magazine ran that article on it,” Val said. “And just last week, we had a couple pull up to the front door and demand a tour.”

“What happened?” Jimmy asked.

“I flashed my badge and they decided to leave,” Pierce said.

“Some people are so rude,” Stacey said. “Imagine asking a stranger if you can come inside their house.”

“It’s the main reason we put up the gate,” Val said. “It keeps them from driving in, although anyone could still climb over the fence.”

When Stacey turned to look at the woman by the fence, she smiled. Farther along the road was a red jeep with its top off. She recognized the jeep by the desert decal on the driver’s side door. As the jeep drew closer, Stacey saw her daughter’s long red hair blowing in the breeze.

“There’s Christy and her boyfriend now. It looks like they’re stopping to talk to that woman.”

“Christy knows the code to the new gate, doesn’t she?” Pierce asked.

“Yeah, Val gave it to her at the house earlier.”

“What’s the boyfriend’s name again, Matt?” Jimmy asked.

“Yes, it’s Matt,” Stacey said. “And he’s a really sweet kid.”

***

Out on the road, that “sweet kid” Matt had slowed to get a better look at the woman standing by the fence.

The woman was old enough to be his mother, but she was also shapely, had long blond hair, and was wearing a short skirt.

Inside the jeep, Christy slapped her boyfriend on the arm playfully.

“Keep your eyes on the road and off of that lady.”

“I’m just curious about her, that’s all,” Matt said, and pointed at a car parked on the opposite side of the road. “Maybe she broke down.”

“Maybe, but she probably has a phone,” Christy said.

Matt stopped the jeep when he was aligned with the blonde’s position at the fence.

He smiled at the woman, who was even more beautiful close up.

“Are you broken down, ma’am?”

The woman gestured at the house.

“My car is fine. I was just admiring the old farmhouse. I love old homes.”

“Okay, just checking.”

“That was very nice of you,” the woman said. When she smiled at Matt, the boy felt his pulse quicken.

“Let’s get going, Matt,” Christy said.

Matt waved goodbye to the woman and drove towards Pierce’s gate.

As Stacey had said, Matt had grown up in South Dakota. He was a big kid for fifteen, and had a mop of blond hair and large brown eyes. Those eyes had widened in interest when he first spotted the blonde.

They reached the gate and Christy told Matt the right four numbers to enter, to make the gate swing inward. Matt drove in and parked. Moments later, the young couple joined the gathering at the rear of the home.

Pierce’s daughters ran to Christy and hugged her about the waist. Christy babysat them often and was like a big sister to the girls. Meanwhile, both Pierce and Jimmy were giving Matt measuring looks. Neither man was related to Christy, but they knew her well and thought of her like a daughter.

Matt met their stares with a smile of greeting, and soon there were handshakes exchanged.

***

Back out on the road, the blond woman walked over to her car and climbed in.

She had seen the Pierce home before, many times before, and had been inside it on numerous occasions. Of course, that was all a long time ago, before she had made what she now considered to be the biggest mistake of her life.

Had she not made that error. That million-dollar home and property would have been hers, as well as the man that owned it, Ricardo Pierce.

She had gambled and lost, and now she was twenty years older with nothing to show for it. Meanwhile, Pierce had somehow managed to hold on to a property that she had thought his useless father had gambled away.

Pierce had prospered in her absence, had recovered from her loss, and she, she had wasted years on a man who turned out to be a fraud.

She nodded to herself as she started her engine. She would get wealthy one way or another. Yes, Pierce and her ex-husband weren’t the only men in the world.

Professor Amy Lowe drove away from the Pierce home and went in search of a sugar daddy.

CHAPTER 3

Weeks later, Amy Lowe had come to the conclusion that finding a wealthy husband wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought it would be.

Over forty, she was still youthful looking and beautiful, even gorgeous, but she was no longer 21 and wasn’t getting any younger. Men her age wanted young women, while men older than her also wanted young women.

The fact that she was a college professor meant nothing to some men, while it intimidated others. The young men in her classes ogled her, but they were for the most part penniless, while the young women in her classes only served to remind her of her lost youth.

Had she simply been looking for a man she found compatible, she would have fared well. But no, she wanted a man with money, and the more money the better.

Desperate to improve her circumstances, Amy had joined an online dating site that paired older men with younger women. She submitted a picture that was ten years old while convincing herself that she hadn’t aged a day since it had been taken. Of the six men that responded, only one was under the age of seventy. He was a sixty-four-year-old banker from New York City who was bald and fat.

Since the man was worth several million dollars, Amy could have settled for him. Their first meeting went well and he seemed interested, but she noticed that he spent much of their meal staring at their twenty-something waitress.

The man never called again after they had sex that night. Days later, while out on a theater date with a septuagenarian, Amy saw the banker exit a limo with the waitress on his arm. When she managed to catch the man’s eye, he looked right through her. That was when she knew that she had been just another blonde to warm his bed.

Days of depression followed that event. Since it was early summer, Amy had no classes to teach, and she wallowed in bed while grieving her lost youth. From time to time, she would look at the magazine that had the photo spread of Pierce’s home. There was also a picture of Pierce, and Amy smiled when she thought back to what he was like as a young man.

Pierce had doted on her. He had loved her and would have done anything to please her. She had tossed him aside when she learned that his family’s farm was about to be foreclosed on. Ricardo Pierce was a nice boy and she had loved him, but as her mother had always told her, a girl needed more than love in this world.

That was when Amy realized that her professor had a thing for her, her rich professor, who also had an English pedigree and an estate back in the UK.

But Arthur Lowe was what the Texans call, “All hat, no cattle.” Yes, there was an estate in England, and the damn thing was mortgaged to the hilt, while the land surrounding it had been sold off a piece at a time. In addition to that, Lowe’s father, who Lowe had always claimed was at death’s door, clung to life for more than a decade after their marriage.

After the death of the elder Lowe back in England, Amy traveled there with her husband and learned the truth about Lowe’s inheritance. There was no inheritance, and on top of everything, they had to pay to bury Lowe’s father. She flew back from England alone, and she and Lowe soon divorced. Deep in debt because of her expensive tastes, she filed bankruptcy, lost her home, and was forced to rent a townhouse.

What followed were years of unfulfilling relationships with men who were wealthy, but unwilling to commit to marriage. Meanwhile, Amy turned forty, and suddenly, it was as if there were a sign around her neck telling men that they could do better.

***

As the Fourth of July approached, Amy dragged herself out of bed, showered, and headed on foot to the nearby park.

She felt that if she had any chance of attracting a quality man that she had to stay in shape. Lying in bed for a week had sapped her endurance, and after running only two miles, she stopped at a bench to rest.

Men walked by her, but they were either with someone or too old. In any event, she could tell by their clothes and jewelry that they had no money to speak of.

She was wondering if there were still men out there who would find her irresistible, when a voice came from behind her.

“Hi.”

Amy turned around to find a tall blond boy smiling at her. His face said that he was a boy, but he had the body of a man. He was dressed in running shorts, was shirtless and sweaty, and his muscles rippled with every movement he made.

“You probably don’t remember me, but we ran into each other a few weeks ago,” the boy said.

Amy squinted to get a better look at him, and then wondered if it meant she was at the age where she needed glasses.

“You do look familiar. Where do I know you from?”

“I pulled over and asked you if you had broken down. You were by a wooden fence and looking at the farmhouse that belongs to some friends of mine.”

Amy smiled.

“Right, I remember now, and you were with a cute redheaded girl.”

Matt smiled.

“That’s my girlfriend, Christy.”

Amy let her eyes roam over Matt’s muscular torso.

“Christy is a lucky girl.”

Matt blushed a deep shade of red, and Amy had to stop herself from laughing.

“Um, well, it was nice seeing you again,” Matt said.

“I’m Amy. What is your name?”

“I’m Matt.”

What came out of Amy’s mouth next surprised her.

While she had slept with her younger male students for years, they had all been men, if very young men, and she had never crossed the line into pedophilia. However, the last few weeks had left her feeling vulnerable and less desirable. Matt was a boy and a virgin. Amy knew that much the moment he blushed from her admiring gaze. To be that young again, that innocent, Amy craved it. And if she couldn’t have it herself, she would experience it through the eyes of the boy standing before her.

“Can you give me a ride home, Matt?”

“What?”

“A ride, my townhouse is just a short distance from here. I would walk, but my ankle seems sore.”

Matt swallowed hard and nodded.

“Sure, I can drop you off at home.”

***

Amy seduced Matt that day. Although, seduction was less in play than biology. Matt was a fifteen-year-old virgin and, although much older, Amy Lowe was a beautiful woman.

Once Amy had offered herself to him, Matt falling into her bed was as predictable as rain falling from the sky.

Matt caressed her body with a reverent expression on his face. Amy looked into his eyes and saw something she hadn’t seen since she and a teenaged Ricardo Pierce lost their virginity to each other. She was wanted, truly desired and cherished, and her young lover fulfilled her as much as she pleased him.

CHAPTER 4

On the Monday after The Fourth of July, Pierce stepped around a large tree limb and stared down at the body of Oscar Carlson, which was lying beneath it.

There had been a storm the night before that had brought heavy rain and high winds into the area. It caused a number of tree branches and roof shingles to break loose and go sailing along in the breeze.

Pierce had to drive around three garbage cans that littered the roadway while on his way to the station that morning. The wind had also loosened a rain gutter on his home.

Still, how likely was it that a man would be out in a storm and wind up in the exact right spot for a falling tree limb to kill him?

It happens. Yes, accidents do happen, but so do murders.

Pierce’s partner, Jake Collins, walked over after taking the statement of the woman who had discovered Oscar Carlson’s body.

Carlson had been forty, on the short side, and had a pleasant face. The man was dead, and still Pierce sensed that Carlson had been the friendly sort. He seldom got impressions like that from corpses, but when he did, they had always proven to be correct.

Years ago, while still in uniform, Pierce came across a fatality in a car wreck. One look at the man’s bearded face and Pierce just knew that he wouldn’t have liked the man. He later discovered that the dead man had been a wife beater and a con artist who was wanted in California for bilking the elderly in some sort of insurance scam.

Jake Collins read from his notebook.

“Mrs. Lana King there says that she was in her yard around nine a.m. when her dog came across the DB and started barking.” Collins pointed to his right. “That’s her house over there, while only one other person was at home in the other nearby houses. Mrs. King lives with her husband, Conner King. Her little girl was with her when she discovered the body.”

“Really? Did the kid see anything?”

“Yeah, but she’s only two; she asked her mother why the man was sleeping outside.”

“Did Mrs. King recognize Carlson?”

“Yeah, she said that he lives just on the other side of the woods to the north there, and uses them as a shortcut to get to work in town.”

“What sort of work?”

“Mrs. King didn’t know, but the other neighbor came over to look at the body before we arrived. That neighbor is a nineteen-year-old college kid home for the summer. He told me that Oscar Carlson owned a hobby shop in town.”

“Detectives!”

Both Collins and Pierce craned their necks to look up at the crime scene tech who had called to them. Her name was Angela. She was a young African-American woman filled with energy who had been recently promoted to head the forensic department. Despite her new status, Angela was still a hands-on type. She had donned a safety harness and climbed a ladder to take pictures of the section of the tree where the limb broke free.

“What did you find up there, Angela?” Pierce asked.

“It’s definitely a break and not a cut, but it looks days old to me. I also see marks on lower branches. I think that tree limb broke off during that earlier storm we had last week and was just sitting loose atop some branches.”

Pierce examined the limb again, and yes, the leaves did appear to be a bit wilted. He then remembered the other storm Angela mentioned. That storm hadn’t been nearly as windy as the one that occurred the night before, but it was likely when the branch first broke free.

“Thank you, Angela, and please take lots of pictures at different angles,” Pierce said.

“I’m on it, Rick,” Angela said.

Jake lowered himself beside the body as if he were about to do a push-up. He then studied the wound to Oscar Carlson’s skull with a critical eye.

“It’s a nasty wound, but it looks consistent with the scene to me. I guess we’ll see what the coroner says.”

Pierce looked over at the row of houses that bordered the woods he was in. The homes were all new and part of a development. Other than their color and the fact that some had attached garages, the houses all looked alike but were separated by tall rows of hedges that offered privacy.

It occurred to Pierce that anyone standing at an upper rear window in one of the nearby homes would be able to see the spot where he was standing, although, at night, it would have been shrouded in darkness. Pierce pointed at the ground.

“There is a trail here, so maybe Carlson isn’t the only one who uses it as a shortcut. Let’s go talk to his neighbors when we’re done here.”

***

After the coroner came and went away with the body, Pierce and Jake learned from the officers on the scene that they had gone up and down the entire block and that most of the homes were empty with no cars in the driveways. The only person they’d found at home, other than Mrs. King and the college student Jake had spoken with, was a guy who had been asleep. The man had returned home early that morning after working the night shift. He had seen nothing and his house was on the other side of the street.

With no one else to interview near the scene, Pierce and Jake followed the trail through the woods north until they came to the street where the dead man, Oscar Carlson, had lived. They both stopped walking at the same time as they beheld an odd sight.

The street was a dead end. There were only two homes, and they both sat at the end of the block facing out. Sitting between them was a cinder block wall that was eight feet high.

Pierce and Jake walked over and took a closer look. The wall was painted a stark white on the right side, while the left side was a soothing blue and had a mural of children playing with various toys.

The house on the side of the wall that was painted white appeared older than its neighbor and was a dull gray. There were no flowers in the yard, just a row of overgrown hedges.

The house on the right, Oscar Carlson’s home, was a vibrant green with white trim. A flower garden grew in a circular section on the front lawn, and there were also rose bushes.

The front door opened on the house that had the white side of the wall. When a woman stepped out holding a shotgun, Pierce and Jake drew their weapons.

“Police! Put that weapon down!” Pierce shouted.

The woman sent them an apologetic smile and lowered the shotgun. While bending over at the waist, she set the weapon on the porch.

“Sorry officers. It’s just that I live alone and you can’t be too careful these days.”

Pierce and Jake lowered their weapons and told the woman to walk over to them. She was in her forties with a slim figure and an unpleasant face. She wasn’t bad looking, but had deep scowl lines around her mouth that detracted from her looks. Her sandy-blond hair was cut short and her blue eyes were darting about.

Once she was standing in front of them, both detectives put away their guns.

“I’m Detective Pierce and this is my partner, Detective Collins. What is your name, ma’am?”

“I’m Reba Miller and that’s my house I just came out of. What’s going on?”

“Do you know Oscar Carlson?” Pierce asked.

Reba Miller’s lips curved into a smirk.

“Yeah, he’s my neighbor. What did he do? I hope it was bad enough that he gets life in prison.”

“He actually received death,” Jake said, and then he explained what seemingly had happened to Oscar Carlson in the woods.

Reba Miller looked saddened as she shook her head.

“What? Dead? Oscar can’t be dead.”

“I’m afraid it’s true,” Jake said.

Reba Miller laid a hand on her chest and then looked back at Carlson’s house.

“I can’t believe he’s gone.”

Jake pointed at the wall.

“What’s the story behind that?”

Reba Miller sighed.

“Oscar and I didn’t get along at first. When I bought the land on my side of the wall and built my house, I was the only soul out here. Then, Carlson’s uncle left him the land on the other side of the wall, and he built his damn house right next to mine. He had four acres and he had to crowd me. That’s when I put up the wall.”

“So there was bad blood between the two of you?” Pierce said.

“Yeah, early on, but I never wished him dead.”

***

After checking her gun permit and verifying that she was the homeowner, Pierce left his card with Reba Miller. Then, he and Jake began the trek back through the woods.

“If this is a murder,” Jake said, “that lady there is my prime suspect. I mean, a privacy fence would be one thing, but that was a damn barricade. She must have hated him.”

“I don’t know; I thought she seemed upset to learn that Carlson had died.”

“Maybe, or maybe it was an act.”

They made it back to the scene and Jake headed towards the home of Mrs. King, the woman who had discovered Carlson’s body.

“Where are you going?” Pierce said.

“I want to ask Mrs. King if she knows anything about Reba Miller.”

“Good idea, and I should meet her anyway. If Carlson was murdered, she might be a suspect.”

Jake laughed.

“Mrs. King is no Reba Miller. She’s a young mother with a two-year-old.”

“Never rule anyone out, Jake, not even the child. I may be wrong, but I think the youngest murderer on record was only six.”

“Six?”

“Yeah, and he used a shotgun.”

“Wow, and yeah, you’re right. I’ll keep an open mind, but I still like Miller for it if it turns out to be murder.”

***

Lana King was a pixie of a woman who had an infectious smile.

She greeted them at the door while holding her daughter, who looked like a toddler version of herself.

“Reba Miller? No, the name doesn’t sound familiar. That man who was struck by the tree limb was the only one I’ve ever seen walking out there. That is, if you don’t count the kids.”

“What kids? Teenagers?” Pierce asked.

“No, they’re younger than that, maybe eight or so. They’re mostly boys, but there are some girls too.”

“Did the kids play in the woods?” Pierce said.

Lana King made a face.

“They would use the trail to visit the man who died. It seemed weird to me, a grown man with so many kids around him all the time, but they seemed to like the man.”

“Did you suspect that Carlson was a molester?” Jake asked.

“No... but I did think it odd that he was always around children, and he tried to talk to my daughter once or twice while she played out in the backyard.”

“We’ll look into it to see if he had a record,” Pierce said. “If so, it could be a motive.”

“A motive? For what, I thought it was just a freak accident?”

“It probably is,” Pierce said. “But we have to be thorough.”

“Is there anything else? I have food cooking on the stove.”

“No ma’am, and have a good day.”

Jake handed Lana King his card and he and Pierce walked back to their unmarked car. They had paperwork from a previous case that they had to have done by noon. Unfortunately, they also had to notify Carlson’s next of kin about his death. After they handled those duties, they would check out their latest victim’s home and business.

There was little else to do until the coroner’s report came in. Unless they learned otherwise, Oscar Carlson was simply the victim of an accident.

“What do you think about the kids spending time with Carlson?” Jake said.

“The man owned a hobby shop and he had a playset in his yard. Maybe he just liked kids. Some people love children; it doesn’t mean they’re predators.”

“According to his records, he was never married and had no children.”

Pierce nodded as he drove.

“I see where you’re going. You wonder if Carlson was a child predator and one of the kids’ parents found out something disturbing, right?”

“Exactly, and when we get back, I’m going to ask for a rush job on that autopsy. If the coroner finds anything hinkey, this case could be a doozy.”

“Let’s hope it was just an accident.”

“Yeah, but I got a feeling about this one,” Jake said.

Pierce smiled. He had known Collins since the man was a young rookie, and now he had developed a gut instinct. Jake was already a good detective, but Pierce thought he would only get better. If his instincts were right, and Carlson was murdered, Pierce would make Jake the lead on the case.

It was time to see what Collins could do.

CHAPTER 5

Inside a federal penitentiary in New Hampshire, an old acquaintance and adversary of Pierce’s was receiving bad news.

His name was Dave Owens, and he was one of two men that the media had dubbed, “The Monsters.”

Owens, along with his best friend, Jack Murphy, had abducted, raped, and killed well over a dozen women. Their reign was stopped by Pierce.

Owens had spent the last eight years of his life rotting away in a cell, while Murphy died in a different prison three years earlier. Murphy had been sodomized so severely that he passed away from massive internal bleeding.

Murphy’s fellow convicts had used a length of pipe. Since that incident, Owens had been kept alone in a cell. When his appetite lessened and he began losing weight, he didn’t think much of it. When the weight loss continued and then became noticeable, Owens grew worried.

A few days earlier, the pain started from deep within his guts, and Owens requested to be taken to the prison hospital for a check-up. For a man who’d been locked away in the same cell for years, the trip Owens took to see the doctor on a different level of the prison seemed like a vacation.

But then, he received the news.

“Cancer?” Owens said.

“Pancreatic cancer, and you’ll need treatment to keep it from spreading.”

Owens stared at the doctor, who had wispy gray hair and bloodshot eyes. Owens didn’t look much better than the doctor, despite only being in his forties, his lined face looked old. However, from behind, with his body wasting away from the cancer, he was as thin as a teen boy.

“Am I going to die, Doctor?”

“There’s a chance, yes, but we’ll know more once you’re tested.”

“How soon can you test me?”

“It could be as soon as later today, but first the transfer order has to be approved.”

“Transfer? Transferred to where?”

“To the old county jail. There’s a new hospital across the street from it, and they’ll be giving you an MRI there, along with other tests and procedures. Our MRI machine has been broken for over a year. The assholes in charge can spend the damn money to transfer prisoners, but they can’t find the funds to fix my equipment.”

Dave Owens paid the doctor’s complaints no attention, his thoughts were filled with the possibility of his looming death.

***

Back in New Jersey, Amy Lowe laughed as she saw the odd look on her young lover’s face.

The middle-age professor had not only introduced her teen lover to the pleasures of sex, but was also schooling him in the use of recreational drugs.

Matt was smoking pot, and the fifteen-year-old had a goofy look on his face. The two of them were naked and sitting up in bed after having sex, but Amy had a sheet draped around her.

As far as Matt’s mother knew, he was off somewhere with Christy, while Christy thought that Matt was running errands for his mother.

The boy had fallen in love with Amy, but she told him to keep dating Christy. Matt also had to sneak in and out of Amy Lowe’s rented townhouse by using the rear door. Matt’s visits occurred when Amy knew her neighbors were at work and only after she had left him a text on a cell phone she had bought him. Matt never called Amy and didn’t even know her phone number.

No one knew that he visited Amy and Matt was smart enough not to brag about it. He had only made one friend since moving to the state, and that was a boy he hadn’t seen more than once since school let out for the summer.

Amy knew the relationship was not only stupid, but illegal, given Matt’s age, but she desired Matt, because he made her feel special. He made her feel young again.

Amy watched her teenage lover as he took in a deep drag.

“I see that you like that weed. That’s a little stronger than the pot we had last week.”

“It’s good, really good, and I’m going to be so hungry later.”

“Are you and Christy still going to the movies tonight?”

“Yeah, but I’d rather be here.”

“How far have you gotten with her?”

Matt exhaled and then made a face.

“She’ll only let me kiss her, not that I really care... since you.”

“She’s just a girl, and I was still a virgin at that age too.”

“Who was your first?”

“You know him. It was Rick Pierce.”

Matt nearly dropped the marijuana cigarette he was holding.

“Mr. Pierce? The cop?”

“We were high school sweethearts.”

“Did you love him back then?”

Amy nodded, as she thought about Pierce. Not only had she loved him all those years ago, but she had never loved anyone else.

“Yes, I loved Rick, but I had to let him go.”

“Why?”

“I had to make a choice. Love, or money.”

“And you chose the money? If that’s true, why aren’t you rich?”

“The irony is that I would be if I had stayed with Rick.”

Matt grinned.

“Yeah, that house is sweet, and all that land, plus, Mrs. Pierce is getting a new car.”

“What’s his wife like?”

Matt blushed and Amy noticed.

“Look at your face. You have a thing for her, don’t you?”

“She’s hot. She’s not as... curvy as you are, but yeah, I like Mrs. Pierce.”

“Has she ever looked at you... that way?”

Matt laughed.

“No, but she’s nice to me and they don’t mind if I come over while Christy babysits.”

Amy took a hit off the pot and then handed it back to Matt.

“I want to see the house. Will you sneak me in there?”

“Inside the Pierce house, why?”

“I want to look around. I won’t take anything. When is the next time that Christy will babysit, do you know?”

“Uh, yeah, Wednesday, but she’ll be doing it at her own house. Her parents and the Pierce’s have something to go to in Pennsylvania.”

“Oh, but when will she be babysitting at Rick’s house again?”

“Um, this Thursday night, Mr. and Mrs. Pierce have a date night every other week on Thursdays.”

Amy stuck a finger in her mouth and imitated a gagging sound. It made Matt laugh.

“Sneak me in that night after the kids are asleep, okay?”

“How?”

“Unlock the front door and then keep Christy towards the back of the house, or better yet, keep her outside on the patio. What time do the kids go to bed?”

“They’ll be asleep before nine, but Amy, what if someone catches you?”

“It’ll be all right. I’ll walk in from the road and only stay a few minutes.”

Matt frowned.

“I don’t know; it sounds risky.”

Amy slid down to lay flat as she moved aside the covers.

“Do it for me, please?”

Matt’s breathing increased as he stared at her nakedness.

“I’ll do it.”

“Thank you, lover, and is there anything else you’d like to do?”

Matt tossed the pot into an ashtray on the nightstand and lay beside Amy.

“I love you, Amy.”

“Show me how much you love me,” Amy whispered, then she sighed as Matt’s hands caressed her.

CHAPTER 6

After eating a late lunch, Pierce and Jake decided to check out Oscar Carlson’s home and business while they waited to hear the coroner’s verdict. They had checked into Carlson’s background and found that the man had never been arrested for anything, much less child molestation.

To Pierce, it confirmed his initial impression that Oscar Carlson was a good man.

They went to the hobby shop first. When they arrived, they discovered a group of children sitting out front. The children wore clothes that Pierce would have classified as too threadbare for his own children to wear, but times were tough, and sometimes you had to make do.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” Jake said.

There were four boys and two girls, all around the age of ten. The shortest of the boys, a blond kid with a face full of freckles, spoke up.

“Are you guys cops?”

Jake smiled.

“That’s right.”

“We’re not doing anything bad. We’re just waiting for Oscar to open the store.”

Pierce and Jake gave each other stricken looks. Pierce had already broken the news of Carlson’s death to the man’s sister, Leah. Mrs. Leah Meyers lived in Pennsylvania but was meeting the detectives at her brother’s shop.

Jake walked over to the kids and gave them the sad news, and each of them took it hard, with all of them crying to some extent.

“You guys really liked Mr. Carlson, hmm?” Pierce said.

“He was great,” said the blond boy, whose name was Ronny. “Oscar never got angry or was too busy to talk, and he let us play at his house too.”

“Yeah,” Jake said. “We saw all the playground equipment he kept in his back yard, but did you ever go inside the house?”

Ronny nodded yes while wiping his eyes.

“Oscar keeps a really cool train set in his basement and he’s got video games too.”

Pierce cleared his throat.

“Was it always fun at Oscar’s... or did things get weird sometimes?”

Ronny looked confused by the question, but one of the girls took Pierce’s meaning.

“Oscar wasn’t a creep. I know that was what some people thought, but he was just a really fun guy who liked hanging with kids. He never tried touching us, you know?”

Pierce smiled at the girl. She resembled his daughters but was twice their age.

“That’s good to know, honey, and what’s your name?”

The girl smiled back at him.

“I’m Maggie.”

A car pulled up behind Pierce’s unmarked police car. A chubby woman with dark hair and a cute face stepped out of it. When the kids spotted her, they ran over and the woman hugged them all. She had begun to cry, and Pierce realized that he was looking at Oscar Carlson’s sister.

“You’re Mrs. Meyers?” Pierce asked.

“Yes, and you’re Detective Pierce?”

Pierce introduced himself and Jake. Afterwards, Leah Meyers let everyone into the store. The store was crowded with remote control toys and model train parts, but towards the back was a play area set-up. The kids went back there out of habit, but then just stood around, as if they didn’t know what to do.

Leah Meyers smiled at the children.

“It’s okay to play even though you’re sad about Oscar, but my brother wouldn’t have wanted you to be depressed by his passing.”

The kids smiled, and within minutes, they had a train moving around a track.

Leah grinned at them, even as she wiped away tears.

“My brother loved those children, and he was a big kid himself.”

“We’re sorry for your loss,” Jake said.

“Thank you, but tell me, why did you want to look inside the shop?”

“It’s routine,” Pierce said. “We have to check for signs of a struggle or foul play.”

“Foul play? But you said on the phone that my brother was killed by a falling tree limb.”

“Yes ma’am, and as far as we know, that’s what happened, but as I said, it’s just routine.”

Pierce and Jake asked Leah Meyers a few questions about her brother as the kids played in the back of the room. When it was time to leave, Leah handed each of the children a new handheld game and told them to think of it as a gift from her brother.

“Can we still go to the house and play sometimes?” Ronny asked.

Leah shook her head.

“I’m sorry honey, but no. It wouldn’t be safe with no one around.”

The kids looked sad, but nodded in understanding before walking off towards their homes.

***

Pierce drove to Oscar’s house with Leah following behind. When they pulled up in front of the home, Reba Miller poked her head out of her front door.

She stepped onto her porch when she saw Leah, then shrugged.

“I’m sorry about your brother.”

Leah marched over and stared up at Reba.

“Are you really? Because you gave him nothing but grief when he built the house.”

“I know,” Reba said, as she wiped away tears. “And I’m sorry I was always complaining about the noise the kids made. I actually liked Oscar... I wish I had told him so too.”

Leah’s gaze softened.

“Miss Miller?”

“Yeah?”

“Despite everything, Oscar liked you too, and he knew that you sometimes gave the kids candy.”

Reba frowned.

“Those kids said they wouldn’t tell him.”

Leah gestured at the woods along the street.

“He figured it out. After all, you were his only neighbor.”

Reba smiled, waved, and went back inside her house.

Leah used a spare key to open up the front door of her brother’s home. There were bean bag chairs strewn about the living room and a pile of kids’ movies were stacked near a Blu-ray player.

The house had a lived-in look, but nothing was disturbed or damaged, while the windows and doors were all locked from the inside. When Pierce and Jake followed Leah down into the basement, their mouths dropped open. Nearly the entire basement was taken up by a model train set. It was a genuine work of art that contained a lifelike town in its middle and a mural of mountains on the wall behind it.

Pierce guessed that the track was over sixty feet in circumference and he was dying to see it in action.

When he looked at Leah Meyers, he saw that she was smiling at him.

“You want to see it run, don’t you?”

“Yes!” Jake said.

Leah walked over to a wall and hit a switch, within seconds, the train was moving.

“This is awesome, Mrs. Meyers,” Pierce said. “I wish I’d known your brother.”

“You would have liked him, almost everyone did, and call me Leah, Detective. Like my brother, I don’t like to be formal.”

Signal bells sounded off on the miniature train tracks and smoke puffed up from the train’s engine car. Pierce and Jake both looked like children as they thrilled to the sight.

Pierce’s phone rang and he moved to a corner of the room and answered the call. When he was finished, he walked over and hit the wall switch, to cause the train to shut down.

“Leah, I have disturbing news. The coroner says that your brother was murdered.”

“Oscar was murdered? Are they certain?”

“The coroner determined that the wound on his scalp was actually caused by several hard blows administered to the same area. Do you know anyone who would have wanted your brother dead?”

Leah moved over to a chair and sat.

“I can’t imagine who would want to kill my brother.”

“What about Reba Miller?” Jake said.

“Reba? No, she’s a cranky old maid, but no, she’s not a bad person. There were even times when I thought she might have a crush on my brother.”

Pierce walked over and lowered himself until he was looking Leah in the eye. He had never met Oscar Carlson, but he was angry as hell that someone had murdered such a good and loving man.

“We will find the person who killed your brother.”

Leah looked at Pierce, and then up at Jake. After wiping away tears, she smiled.

“Yes, I believe you will.”

CHAPTER 7

Amy Lowe sighed with contentment. Beside her, her young lover, Matt, hugged her from behind and spooned against her. The teen had spent the day at Amy’s house and they had made love several times.

When Matt left the bed to use the bathroom, Amy turned on the TV. By the time Matt returned, Amy was engrossed in the program she was watching. It was about famous crimes. In particular, it concerned true crime stories where the perpetrators had gotten away scot-free.

Matt climbed back into bed and he too became fascinated. The program went into detail about a million-dollar kidnapping that took place in the early 1970’s. The victim was returned unharmed, the kidnappers were never arrested, and the case remained unsolved.

Amy thought about what a million dollars could have bought back then, and then began thinking of all the things she could do with a million dollars now. With a million dollars, she’d never have to debase herself again in the hopes of marrying into money. She would be rich herself.

When the program ended, Amy talked to Matt about it, and the teen said that he heard that kidnappers never got away anymore.

“Why not?” Amy said. “They hold all the cards. Even if they were captured, it seems to me that they could make a deal for the whereabouts of their victim.”

Matt shrugged.

“I guess, but if you didn’t give up the location, then you’d be facing murder charges too.”

Amy shook her head.

“But no one has to die. You just have to be smart about it... that’s all it would take.”

Matt soon left Amy to head back home in time for dinner. He also had to be gone before Amy’s neighbors began arriving home from work. Amy kissed Matt goodbye at her back door and returned to her bedroom, where she began pacing about.

A kidnapping would be a way to get money fast, but most people with money had elaborate security systems.

The amount of $1,000,000 stayed in her mind and flashed there like a neon light. The tricky part would be collecting the money, she knew that much. However, the longer she thought about it, the more she came to believe that there must be a way around that. At her usual bedtime, she went into the kitchen and began brewing tea. She was too keyed-up to sleep and her mind was racing.

When she began thinking about the people she knew who could come up with a million dollars, her mind stopped on Rick Pierce.

Her old boyfriend owned property that was estimated to be worth more than a million. Any bank would loan him the money in a crisis, and security at the house was no more than a locked door. Also, thanks to Matt, she could get inside whenever she needed to do so.

The more Amy thought about Pierce, the more convinced she became that he was perfect, and what had started as a game of what if, became a question of when and how.

***

After learning that Oscar Carlson had been murdered, Pierce and Jake spent time questioning the people who lived near the scene of the crime. They had little luck, as most of the people were still at work on a Monday afternoon.

They decided to return early the next day rather than try to track down people on the phone. It was always preferable to speak to someone in person when possible. Pierce had told Jake that he would act as lead on the case. Jake smiled at the news and Pierce knew that his partner could handle it.

One of Jake’s first decisions was to speak with Reba Miller again. When Reba learned that Carlson had been murdered, she invited the detectives inside and they talked over coffee.

Pierce and Jake took their coffee black and found it to be exceptional. Reba Miller told them that it damn well should be, since she paid a ridiculous amount of money for the special blend she preferred.

***

“No, I really can’t think of anyone who would have wanted Oscar dead. I disliked him for crowding me with his house, but other than that I liked him. He was good with those kids too.”

Jake leaned forward and stared at Reba Miller.

“Did you kill Carlson?”

“No! Like I said, I hated that he built his house so close, but... I really did like him. It’s why I was always doing something outside when he came home from work. It gave me an excuse to talk to him.”

Jake relaxed and leaned back.

“All right, what about arguments with some of the kids’ parents, did that ever happen?”

“No, those kids are all from homes where their parents aren’t involved. If you’ve seen them, then you’ve seen how they’re dressed. Oscar used to feed them too, I’m sure of it, because he’d always come home from the market with enough food for a family.”

“He was a very good man as far as we can tell. But Miss Miller, are you certain that you’ve never seen anyone angry with him?”

Reba Miller looked off into space for a moment, but then met Jake’s gaze.

“Oscar came home bleeding once, oh, about a month ago. It was just a small cut on his cheek, but I don’t know where he got it. He wouldn’t tell me.”

“Which cheek?” Pierce said. “The left one?”

Reba touched her left cheek and nodded.

“Yeah, the left cheek. Why is that important?”

“He may have been punched,” Jake said, “and most people are right-handed.”

“Now that you mention it, he did have a bruise after he stopped the bleeding, his face was also swollen for a day.”

“When he came home with this cut, was he walking or driving?” Jake asked.

“Oh, walking, Oscar had walked home from his shop, like he usually did.”

Pierce and Jake shared a look, as both of them wondered if Oscar’s attacker could also be his murderer. If so, that person likely lived in the neighborhood where the homes’ rears faced the trail through the forest.

They thanked Reba Miller for her time and for the excellent coffee. They then returned to their car and discussed the case.

“You were right about Miller, Rick. Now that we’ve gotten to know her, I don’t think she killed Carlson.”

“We need to canvas that neighborhood near the trail. Someone back there must know something.”

“I agree; I also want to talk to those kids again. They seemed to know Carlson well and spent a lot of time with him, maybe one of them will know who hit Carlson.”

“Carlson’s sister said that she would be back at the store on Thursday. I’m sure the kids will be there then. Also, Carlson might not have been hit, that cut could have been the result of an accident.”

“Yeah, but it helps us to assume it wasn’t,” Jake said.

Pierce smiled.

“Where to now?”

“Let’s go back to the station. I want to see that coroner’s report before we call it a day.”

“Good, we may learn something that can help us narrow down the list of possible suspects.”

Jake smiled as he started the car.

“I like being in charge of an investigation.”

“Get used to it; you’ve got a lot of years ahead of you.”

“Speaking of that, is it true about the lieutenant?”

“Yup, Coke is retiring.”

“Wow, it’ll be weird not to have him around.”

“While we were at the station, Coke told me that he recommended me to take his place.”

“Seriously? That’s great, although, I’ll miss you as a partner.”

“I said no to the offer. I’m not the type to sit behind a desk.”

“It’s a good bump up in pay though, isn’t it?”

“A huge bump, but money isn’t everything and I know that I’d be miserable if I did paperwork all day.”

“Hmm, so who do you think they’ll pick?”

“I recommended your wife.”

“Stacey? Yeah, she’d be good, and she’d love to get off nights, but then she’d be my boss.”

Pierce chuckled.

“You’re married to her, Jake; she’s already your boss.”

Jake sighed.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, but the department wouldn’t go for that. It’s why we don’t even work the same shift anymore.”

“I’d forgotten about that. But you’re ready to partner up with a rookie and I hear the North Ward needs a homicide detective.”

“The North Ward is actually closer to my house, but wouldn’t they want you instead?”

“I doubt it. You’ve got years ahead of you and if Stacey gets promoted, you’d need to make a change anyway. You’d be a natural choice as their head homicide detective.”

“Wow, this is a lot to think about, but right now, it’s all supposition.”

“Not all of it. Coke is definitely leaving and the North Ward needs an experienced detective.”

“Does Stacey know she’s in the running to make lieutenant?”

“I think Coke will tell her when she goes on shift tonight.”

“That pay bump would be great. Christy will be in college before we know it.”

“Tell me about it. We’re already saving for the girls, but I’m sure the costs will double or triple by the time they’re old enough to go.”

Jake shook his head as if to clear it.

“Enough with the personal stuff; we’ve got a case to solve. I don’t suspect her in the least, but when we get back to the station, I want to look into Leah Meyers, Carlson’s sister.”

“See, this is why you’re ready to run an investigation. You’ll leave no stone unturned.”

“Oh, I’m ready, Rick, and we’re going to catch whoever killed Oscar Carlson. Believe it.”

Pierce smiled.

“I do, partner, I do.”

CHAPTER 8

In New Hampshire, Dave Owens rode along with five other inmates as he was being transferred to the old county jail.

He was inside an armored van and being guarded by a pair of US Marshals who were assigned to the JPATS program. JPATS was an acronym for the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System.

Owens was the only one being dropped at the old jail, which was across the highway from the hospital. The other four prisoners would be ferried a dozen miles farther to the new county jail near the courthouse. Those four men all had pending hearings in court on the following morning.

Owens and the other prisoners were shackled by chains that had been run through bolts in the floor. One of the other men was also wearing a bullet-proof vest, and it made Dave Owens wonder what his crimes were.

Owens, along with Jack Murphy, had slain nearly twenty people, mostly young women, many of whom were teens. During the time when the newspapers were full of lurid stories about them, he and Murphy had been layered in protective gear whenever they were transported.

He smiled ruefully to himself, thinking about how he was yesterday’s news. After eight years in prison, he no longer rated such precautions. But then, most of the people who wished him harm, such as his victims’ families and friends, were hundreds of miles away in New Jersey.

Owens’ family was also back in New Jersey, or so he assumed. The truth was that none of them had ever come to visit him in prison. He had signed a confession and led the police to the bodies of his victims. There was never any doubt that he was guilty.

Owens’ face reddened as he thought back to the day that he had been deceived into confessing by Detective Ricardo Pierce.

Owens hated Pierce with a passion. Pierce had deceived him into believing that there was damning evidence against him, video evidence that showed Owens killing his boss, Karen Dunham.

Such a video had existed, Dave knew it, because he had seen it with his own eyes. What he didn’t know is that every copy had been destroyed.

That was when he made a deal with Ricardo Pierce, and Pierce had lied and broken his word.

Owens squeezed his eyes shut as he recalled the look of betrayal on Jack Murphy’s face. Owens had shoved Murphy under the bus to make a deal with Pierce. Jack Murphy had been his best friend for as long as he could remember, and they had been closer than most brothers were.

Jack had been his best man when he’d married, had celebrated the birth of his children, and seen him through the loss of his mother to Alzheimer’s disease. Jack Murphy was a part of him, and he had betrayed Murphy in an instant on the strength of Pierce’s promise.

Pierce had sworn to Owens that he would be serving his sentence near his family so that he could at least have visits from his girls, his daughters. Dave Owens didn’t give a damn about other young women, but he was a devoted father to his daughters and loved them more than life.

That was why Owens betrayed Jack Murphy, why he sold his friend down the river, simply for the chance to stay in contact with his daughters. They were the two people he loved most in this world, and they became lost to him forever.

Pierce was the person Owens blamed, but his wife also played a part in keeping him from his daughters. His wife, Janet, had visited him in jail only once, and that was when she cursed him for the things he’d done.

She also told him that he had ruined his daughters’ lives and that she was changing their names and moving out of the area.

Owens had to be restrained by the guards upon hearing that news, but he still maintained hope that he could get his wife to allow him to see their children. His daughters, Kathy, who had been 14, and Sammi, 16, had adored their father.

Despite everything they discovered about him, Owens had prayed that he could maintain a relationship with them. That would have given him a reason to live.

Owens hoped that the girls might have come to visit him once they reached adulthood, and still held on to that dream. They had both been of legal age for years and he hadn’t received so much as a phone call.

He wrote letters often, but didn’t know where to send them to. True to her word, his wife had changed her name along with his daughters’ names and now they were off somewhere living new lives.

And yet, Owens still believed that he could have maintained contact if Pierce hadn’t lied and promised that he would be imprisoned near his family.

The truth was that Pierce hadn’t lied, not really. Dave Owens was sent to Gateway Prison and was less than a twenty minute drive from his former home. That lasted only a few weeks, as the prison was soon condemned and deemed structurally unsound. Owens and the other inmates were scattered to different federal facilities and Dave Owens found himself in New Hampshire.

But Pierce had promised him that he would serve his sentence in New Jersey. Ricardo Pierce had tricked him into betraying his best friend and had lied to his face.

If Owens had it within his power to destroy Pierce, he would do so in a heartbeat.

***

Owens first sight of the old jail made him frown.

The building looked ancient. The private roadway leading to it had been full of potholes and the grass around the building appeared to have been neglected for years.

However, several hundred yards away sat a new and gleaming hospital, and Owens knew that he would learn his fate inside that building.

But he was dying, Owens was certain of it. His appetite was nonexistent most days and he had lost over thirty pounds in a matter of weeks. If not for the meds the prison doctor had him on, he knew he would be in great pain.

Owens also had nothing to live for, and maybe a long and painful death was karma for the things he had done. If so, he didn’t care. Hunting the night with Jack Murphy were some of the best times of his life, and if he could, he would do so again.

A guard was herding him towards the double rows of cells inside the jail when Owens grew alarmed. Of the twelve cells, only two were occupied. Both of the men in those cells were mean looking as hell.

Owens grew relieved when he was placed in a cell by himself that was across from the men. Owens soon settled on the bottom of a set of bunk beds. Once the guards had left, the two men continued to stare at him.

“You’re here for the hospital, aren’t you? Yeah, you look like shit,” one of the men said. He was the larger of the two men and his hair was dark.

“What do we do now that we have an audience?” the other man said. His hair was as blond as Owens’ hair used to be, but Owens’ hair had grown darker during the years of his imprisonment and was the dirty blond it usually only turned in winter.

“I don’t care what you guys do,” Owens told them, although he wondered what it was that they didn’t want him to see.

The big man let out a sigh.

“It don’t matter if he’s here or not. We have to keep working.”

The blond man pressed his face against the bars and spoke to Owens.

“Why are you here?”

“I’m sick. They’re taking me over to the hospital tomorrow for tests.”

“You’re from the prison, I can tell that from your clothes, but what are you in for?”

“Murder... I’m in for life.”

“Life? That’s good. It means you’ve got nothing to lose by helping us. Listen to me. You’re going to see something and you damn well better keep your mouth shut.”

Owens nodded at the man.

After staring at him for a little longer, the man climbed up to the top bunk and reached out to grab the light fixture in the ceiling. Like everything else about the jail, the fixture was ancient.

It had twin receptacles for incandescent bulbs and was fastened against the ceiling with a circular metal plate that looked like it was made of nickel. The man reached out and slipped three fingers between the edge of the circular plate and the plaster ceiling.

Owens’ fellow prisoner strained to pull the light fixture free while stretched out at an awkward angle. After he gave a final tug, the fixture popped loose amid a rain of plaster dust and hung from the ceiling by two thick strands of copper wire. The wire was covered with a dull-colored insulated cloth that Owens guessed contained asbestos. If so, what of it? He was hardly worried about lung disease given his current prognosis.

Darkness lay beyond the hole in the ceiling, but even in his cell, Dave Owens could both feel and smell the stale and musty air that was coming from the opening.

Owens looked over at the big man, then gazed up at the man who had pulled the fixture free.

“Where does that lead to?”

The man smiled.

“That’s what I’m about to find out.”

The man leapt from the top bunk and grabbed an edge of the hole. His face contorted in pain when one of the lit bulbs brushed against his ankle, but then, he pulled himself up and into the open space, and was gone.

The other man, the big one, began laughing.

“We’re getting out of here, oh hell yeah we are.”

Owens said nothing, but he was filled with renewed hope. His cell had a ceiling fixture identical to the one the man had torn loose. If he could get free, he could possibly find his daughters and see them both one last time.

Dave Owens smiled, as suddenly, he had something to live for again.

CHAPTER 9

Pierce returned home late in the afternoon and found that Jimmy and Ginny had stopped by. Then, he remembered that they had planned to have dinner together.

He picked up each of his daughters and hugged and kissed them, before setting them down and watching them run off to play with Jimmy’s son, Josh.

After kissing Val hello, he spoke to his guests.

“I’m going to take a quick shower and change my clothes, guys.”

When Val said that dinner wouldn’t be ready for an hour, Jimmy grabbed a beer from the refrigerator and followed Pierce upstairs.

“I’m going to sit on the balcony. Rick, once you’re ready, come join me. There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“Trouble?” Pierce said, as he unfastened his tie.

“No, this is a good thing; at least, I hope you’ll think so.”

Pierce placed the trigger lock on his handgun and put it away and out of reach of his daughters.

“That sounds interesting, but give me twenty minutes. I want to shave too.”

***

By the time Pierce joined Jimmy out on the balcony, he saw that his friend had drained the beer bottle. There were clouds gathering, as another storm approached. They had been getting soaked off and on for weeks, along with much of the northeastern section of the country. However, the southern part of New Jersey had been without significant rain during that same period. There was a threat of fire in some areas because of all the dry weeds and wilting undergrowth.

Jimmy lit up a cigar and asked Pierce a question.

“When will you have your twenty in?”

“Ah, in about two months.”

“Have you thought about getting out now that you’ve earned a full pension?”

Pierce laughed.

“With two kids? No, I still need to work.”

“Of course you do, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay a cop.”

“What’s your point, Jimmy? I know you have one.”

“Come work with me, Rick. I was a cop once, so I can guess how much you’re pulling down. I bet you you’ll make more money as a P.I.”

“Me, a private investigator?”

“Why not? And you know what I do. Ninety percent of the time I investigate insurance scams and work unsolved cases. You won’t be doing any low-end crap like following cheating husbands around.”

Pierce said nothing for a moment, as he mulled the idea over. He then shook his head.

“I’ll have to say no, but I’m honored that you would ask me.”

“What’s your objection?”

“It’s simple. You’re my friend, Jimmy. If I joined your business, I’d be your employee. I don’t want to take the chance of ruining our friendship.”

Jimmy grinned.

“I don’t want to hire you, Rick; hell, I want a partner. I’ve been needing to hire someone for over a year, since I regularly turn down business, but you’re the only one that I would trust to have my back.”

Pierce ran a hand over his face.

“Partners, that’s another thing altogether. Let me talk it over with Val and see how she feels about it.”

“Sure, I figured that, and like you said, you’ve got some time before you hit the twenty-year mark. But think about this, you’ll make more with me, have better hours, and pull down a pension.”

Pierce smiled.

“The increased income would be nice, but, I would love more time with my girls.”

“You’re damn right, and they’ll be grown up before you know it.”

“Wow, Jimmy, you’ve given me a lot to think about, and thanks for the offer.”

“No problem. I meant what I said. I turn away business every month, and who knows, later on, maybe we’ll hire employees and really grow the business into something big.”

Pierce raised up a hand.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. I like the idea of making a change, but I have to see what Val says about it.”

“Ginny is down in the kitchen talking to her about it right now.”

“Yeah, I should have known that, and by the way, I already turned down a promotion. I didn’t want to be stuck behind a desk.”

“I hear you, but as a cop, it’s either that or you keep doing what you’re doing.”

“I like being a homicide detective.”

“I liked it fine when I was one too, and I still solve the occasional murder as a P.I.”

“So, I’d be doing what, working cold cases?”

“Yeah, it’s a growing field. Your cases solved rate is exceptional, but over forty percent of murders go unsolved in this state, while some of the surrounding states are even worse. Some of those victims’ families have money, and they’re willing to pay to get justice.”

“Yeah, but what if we don’t find the killer? They will have wasted a lot of money.”

“I only take expenses up front. If I don’t solve the crime, I don’t get paid.”

“You could spend a lot of time and effort and come up empty.”

“Oh, I have, but I also caught a guy who thought he’d gotten away with killing his wife. That bastard had been running around free for twelve years.”

Pierce nodded as he smiled.

“I remember that. My lieutenant said it was a shame that you ever left the force.”

“It would have been a bigger shame for me had I stayed. That case was cold in New York City. It took a hired P.I. to catch that guy, and I spent months of my life to gather the evidence. How often are you allowed to expend that much time and energy on a single case?”

“It’s rare, and involves working on a task force, and yeah, working on the job is frustrating at times, but I still enjoy being a cop more often than not.”

Jimmy cleared his throat.

“There’s something you need to know before you decide either way.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been in regular contact with Bo Raines since the Bay Street Demons case. I act as sort of a go between for him and his family.”

Pierce smiled.

“I always suspected as much, and yes, you’ve been aiding and abetting a felon, but hell, Jimmy, Bo has entered the realm of myth. Half of law-enforcement thinks he died years ago and that he’s used as a scapegoat for starting gang wars.”

“So, it’s not a deal killer that I help Bo?”

No, not at all, but like I said. I’ll see what Val thinks about your offer.”

“I think you should think about it, but I’ve no objections,” Val said, as she walked onto the balcony.

“I see that Ginny has talked to you,” Pierce said.

“Yes, and I think you might be ready for a change.”

Pierce placed an arm around Val.

“If you don’t object then I’ll consider it. When do you need a decision, Jimmy?”

“There’s no rush, brother. You’ll be welcomed aboard at any time.”

“Thank you for the offer. I’ll give you a decision soon.”

“Good, but now I have a question of my own,” Jimmy said.

“What is it?” Pierce asked.

Jimmy smiled at Val.

“When do we eat? I’m starving.”

CHAPTER 10

Back in New Hampshire, Dave Owens watched as one of his fellow prisoners reappeared from the hole in the ceiling. The man had moved stealthily across the ceiling without making a sound. The blond hair of Owen’s new acquaintance was coated with dust, as were his clothes, but Owens noticed that he wore a smile.

The big man in the other cell asked the blond man where the hole led to, but the blond man said nothing as he worked on putting the loose ceiling fixture back in place. Once he had that done, he leapt down from the top bunk in his cell. He then shared his discovery as he brushed off the dust and dirt.

“You can crawl all the way to the rear of the building from here, and there’s some duct work flush against a vent that leads outside. The problem is, it’s damn small. I don’t think we’d fit through it. I was just barely able to get my head out and look around. There’s nothing back there but weeds and a bunch of trash blown up against the building.”

The big man cursed, but then he noticed that the other man was still smiling.

“What? You did find a way out, didn’t you?”

“Oh yeah, there’s another one of these light fixtures in the ceiling towards the front, the thing is, it’s right over the office.”

“The office? Damn, there’s always somebody in there.”

“Yeah, but if we can give them a reason to leave it vacant, then we’ll be able to escape.”

“What kind of reason?” said the big man.

The blond man shrugged.

“Can you think of anything?”

The big man stood quietly as he racked his brain for a solution. After nearly a minute passed, he let out a sigh of frustration.

“I can’t think of a damn thing.”

“I can,” Owens said.

When the two men looked at him, he smiled.

***

Jimmy and Ginny left the Pierce home with their son, Josh, just a short time after having dinner. Jimmy had to work early, and Pierce assured Jimmy that he would give serious thought to his offer of a partnership.

Once the dishes were done and the girls had gotten ready for bed, Pierce grabbed a book and prepared to enjoy his favorite part of the day.

The book was one that he had read many times before, often by popular demand. It was a children’s book about a missing teacher, and Sophia and Rosa loved it. With six-year-old Sophia on his left knee, and five-year-old Rosa on his right, Pierce began reading.

Val sat across from them on the sofa and knitted. It was a hobby she had recently taken up and was becoming quite skilled at.

Val and Pierce stared at each other and smiled. Saying without words how happy they were. The girls rested their heads on their daddy’s chest when he was halfway through the book. By the time he finished the last page, they were both asleep.

Pierce kissed first Rosa, and then Sophia on the forehead.

“It doesn’t get any better than this,” he told Val.

“Yes, it does,” Val said.

“I can’t imagine how it could.”

Val held up what she had been knitting. It was a pair of blue baby booties.

“I’m only guessing it’s a boy, but I’m definitely pregnant again.”

Pierce’s mouth dropped open in amazement, and Val nodded, that yes, it was true. Pierce laughed, the sound one of pure joy, and then he held his sleeping daughters tighter and kissed them once again.

***

Amy stared at a photo of Valeria Pierce.

It was one of the photographs that appeared in the magazine story about the Pierce home and farm.

In one photo, Rick Pierce was standing with his arm around Val and both were smiling.

Amy knew that if she hadn’t broken up with Pierce that she would be the woman in the photo and that the house and farmland would be hers.

Amy traced a finger over Pierce’s face and whispered his name as a flood of buried memories returned to her. Rick Pierce was the only man she ever truly loved, and for a moment she wondered if he still had feelings for her.

She had been brutal at their breakup. It had been the only way, that was what Amy’s domineering mother had told her. Amy thought back to the day her mother had learned that the Pierce farm was on the verge of being foreclosed. The family had owned that land free and clear for generations, until Rick Pierce’s father decided to treat it like a cash machine to feed a gambling habit.

“Don’t waste your time on that Pierce boy anymore, Amy, that loser of a father of his has lost the damn farm by borrowing too much.”

“But I love, Rick.”

“That’s fine. Love him all you want, but you marry a wealthy man. Hook up with someone like that professor of yours that I met; that man’s eyes were all over you.”

“Professor Lowe? But Mom, he’s a little old for me.”

“He’s a rich Englishman and might even have a title or something. You could do far worse, and believe me, you won’t be young forever.”

Amy had done as her mother said and told Pierce that they were over. The pain and confusion in his eyes had been almost too much to bear, especially when Amy’s own heart was breaking. Still, she stuck to the plan her mother had laid out for her and cut Pierce out of her life.

Professor Arthur Lowe took her mind off her sense of loss by taking her away for a tropical vacation.

His supposed wealth and his English manner were inviting, and Amy realized that she was not a woman who could live on love alone. Love was fine, but to be in love and live in poverty would be intolerable.

Rick Pierce had somehow saved his family home and Amy had considered dumping Lowe to go back to him. However, when Pierce became a cop, a mere public servant, Amy realized that gaining wealth was not high on Ricardo Pierce’s list of priorities.

Arthur Lowe had tricked Amy into believing they’d someday be wealthy and own an estate back in England. All of it was a lie.

Now, Pierce was a man of wealth, while Amy’s ex, Arthur Lowe, lived off a pension and spent too much time in London pubs with old friends.

Amy stared at the photo of Pierce and Val and wondered just how much Pierce loved the woman. Was it enough to part with a million dollars to ensure her safe return?

Amy was planning to find out.

CHAPTER 11

“We start a fire,” Owens said. “We start a fire at the rear of the building and when the guards all head back there to fight the flames, we make our move.”

“Our move?” the blond man said. “I don’t remember inviting you along.”

Owens smiled.

“It’s smarter than leaving me behind. If I’m with you I can’t rat you out.”

The big man, who Owens had learned was named Frank, pointed at Owens. A guard had come back into the cell room right after the blond man had wedged the ceiling fixture back in place. While the guard handed Owens a dose of the medication he’d been prescribed, Owens had listened to his fellow prisoners talk and discovered their names.

“I heard the cops talking when they brought him in here. He’s in for life. I bet he wants to get out of here even more than we do.”

The blond man nodded. His name was Aaron. He and Frank were arrested while attempting to pull off their fifteenth successful robbery. Their specialty had been the takeover robbery of gas station convenience stores. Unfortunately for them, the last store had three plainclothes cops as customers. Realizing they were outgunned, Frank and Aaron had put down their weapons and asked for a lawyer.

Thirteen of their previous robberies had occurred in their home state of Vermont. Since they were wanted for the murder of a convenience store cashier in the city of Burlington, they thought it would be a good idea to not stick around. They realized that it would be only a matter of time before the Vermont police learned of their arrest and came to talk to them. The police artist sketch of them was eerily good, and they feared going away for life.

Aaron pointed to the ceiling.

“It took me nearly a day to get that fixture loose enough to pop it out. But it will be much easier to loosen the others from the ceiling side.”

“What about the one in the guard’s office up front?” Owens asked.

Aaron smiled.

“If we crawl there with the guards gone, we won’t have to worry about making noise. I should be able to knock that fixture out of the way in no time, and then it’s out the front door we go.”

Owens thought about the layout of the old building. Towards the rear where he was, there were the cells. They were separated by a short hallway that had bathrooms running off it, as well as a pair of small offices. The hallway opened up to the big main office. That was where the guards were, and yes, there was a door in front that led to freedom.

Before they could speak again, they heard the sound of the door opening at the other end of the hallway. When a guard appeared with a pair of drunken college kids, Owens’ mood darkened. The youths were a complication that they didn’t need.

After the guard left, Frank leaned his face against the bars and whispered to Owens.

“Don’t worry about those kids. They’ll be bailed out by morning.”

“Great, but when do we make our move?”

“Tomorrow night,” Frank said. “We leave tomorrow after midnight.”

***

Val snuggled herself against her husband and Pierce laid a hand on her stomach.

“Why are you so certain it’s a boy?”

“It’s just a feeling, but I was right about the girls too. This pregnancy just feels different, but I can’t explain it.”

“I love my little angels, but a son would be great. How far along are you?”

“Only about two months.”

Pierce laughed.

“If things keep getting better, I’ll think I’m dreaming.”

Val laughed.

“I feel the same way, and I really hope it is a boy. I would like a son to go along with our girls.”

“Speaking of the girls, they were asking me about getting a dog. What do you think of that?”

“I don’t know, Rick, with the new baby coming along, I think we’ll have our hands full. Also, they’re still a little young to be responsible for the care of an animal.”

“I guess you’re right, but I’ll tell them that they’ll get one someday.”

“Maybe once their brother is able to walk on his own.”

Pierce caressed Val’s cheek.

“Their brother, our son.”

“Yes, our son,” Val said, and the two of them kissed.

***

Outside the house, Amy Lowe was sitting in her parked car and staring at the Pierce home. She had gone for a drive after finding herself restless, and pulled over to the side of the road near Pierce’s house.

The kidnapping idea had become an obsession. Amy had spent most of the evening going over the pros and cons of such an endeavor in her mind, and had come to a conclusion.

The chance of gaining a million dollars was worth the risk of winding up in prison.

After all, wasn’t she in a prison of sorts anyway?

As her mother once remarked, she wasn’t getting any younger, nor was she getting any richer. She would be eligible for a pension someday, one that was generous by most standards, but it would be far less than she wanted.

“Life in prison,” Amy whispered, and just the thought of being locked away in a cage scared her. However, when she imagined being old and average, she felt physically ill.

$1,000,000

That number glowed within Amy Lowe’s mind until it eclipsed all other concerns.

The college professor, who once taught a course on logic, started her engine and headed for home. If she was going to kidnap someone, she needed to do some research and gather facts.

And yet, one fact was clear, she was already committed to executing the crime of kidnapping.

There were a million reasons to do so.

CHAPTER 12

As Frank had assured Dave Owens, the two drunk college kids that shared the cell room with them were bailed out.

Aaron had climbed back up into the crawl space above the ceiling right after the guards gave them breakfast, and worked on loosening the fixtures that were above the cells of Dave Owens and Frank.

At mid-morning, one of the young guards, a man named Ron came to get Owens.

Owens was shackled again and ferried across the road to the hospital by Ron and another guard. After what seemed like a long wait, Owens was given a physical and had blood taken. When they told him that he would have to come back the next day for his MRI, he tried to hide his relief.

Owens had feared that he would be taken back to prison if all his tests were performed in one day. He had learned that the prison transport only stopped at the old jail on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but with his luck, they’d come back early for him.

He was sure his fortune had turned sour again when he returned to the jail to find that they had a new inmate. The man stunk of something and was passed out atop the bottom bunk of the cell next to Owens’ cell.

Owens wondered how the man was still alive, that is, if he’d consumed whatever was causing the astringent odor that was tainting the air. The man appeared to be sleeping off a bout of drunkenness. Owens could smell the booze on the man as soon as the door to the cell room had been opened, but the second odor was dominant.

A closer look revealed that the man’s clothing was stained with something, while the drunk’s hair appeared to be coated in grease of some sort.

The man appeared to be out cold, and so Owens spoke in a normal voice to Frank.

“This guy being here, does that change our plans?”

“No, it looks like he’ll be bailed out too, if what I overheard the guards saying was true. But Owens, Aaron and I got to thinking about that fire you want to set. It might not be easy to do. It rained last night and all we’ll have is a match. If we could just get our hands on some lighter fluid or something, the fire would be a cinch.”

Owens looked around and saw nothing that would help start a fire, and had no idea where they would even get a match to light one. He wrinkled his nose, as the odor coming off the drunk stung his eyes. He was about to move as far away from the man as he could get when an idea occurred to him.  Owens reached through the bars and grabbed the hair of the drunk sleeping in the cell beside him.

Although Owens gripped the man’s hair, he didn’t pull on it, and the drunk kept sleeping. When he withdrew his hand and held it up for the other men to see, his hand was slick and coated with whatever substance the drunk had in his hair.

“I don’t know what this crap is, but it sure smells flammable,” Owens said.

“His clothes still look wet, but he’s been in here for hours. It must be the same crap that’s in his hair,” Aaron said.

“Let’s see what we got here,” Owens said.

He had torn the lining out of the cheap prison jacket he wore, and was using it to wipe the oily goop off his hand. When he was done, he held it up.

“If we set this on fire and toss it into the bushes they may burn, damp or not.”

“It looks too small. The flames may eat through that before the bushes and weeds catch on fire,” Frank said.

Aaron pointed at the drunk.

“Take that jacket off him. I bet he won’t even wake up.”

Owens looked at the drunk and shook his head.

“He’s bound to wake. I’ll have to roll him over.”

“So what?” Frank said. “You’ll still have the jacket.”

“Yeah, but won’t he start hollering his head off once Aaron disappears up into the ceiling again? He’s in here on a simple drunk and disorderly charge. He’d be an idiot to try to escape, while ratting us out might gain him some points.”

“You’re right, Owens,” Aaron said. “But we still need that jacket. If those bushes don’t burn out back, we’ll be stuck here.”

Owens reached into the other cell again and grabbed the collar of the drunk’s jacket. The garment was unzipped, which made it easier, but he still had to get the man’s arms out of the sleeves. He gave the jacket a tug and the man snored louder, while the bottom of the jacket moved up an inch.

Several more tugs elicited groans from the drunk. Owens had two handfuls of the soiled jacket, but the man’s arms were still caught in the sleeves.

Owens grew angry, said, “Fuck it!” and pulled as hard as he could. The drunk’s arms shot up into the air and the jacket came free, causing Owens to fall backwards to the floor. When he looked back at the drunk, he saw that the man had turned onto his side, but hadn’t woken up.

Frank and Aaron were laughing as Owens got up from the floor with the jacket in his right hand.

“I’m glad you enjoyed that,” Owens said. “But we still have a problem.”

“What?” Frank said.

“We need a way to light this jacket on fire.”

“I can take care of that,” Frank said. “I’m scheduled to make a call after dinner and they let me go out for a smoke too. I’ll be all shackled up and shit, but I’ll make sure that I come back with a match.”

Owens nodded, as a smile spread on his face. He might actually get free. It figured it would happen only after he knew he was dying.

“When do we go?” Owens asked.

“Tonight,” Frank said. “After the midnight shift change. There will be less guards here then.”

Owens grinned wide. He was going to see his daughters again, and once he’d done that, he planned to find Ricardo Pierce and kill him.

If everything went right, he’d die a happy man.

CHAPTER 13

Pierce had risen early on Tuesday morning and joined Jake at the station house. After checking the overnight reports and grabbing a quick cup of coffee, they headed out.

Each of them took an end of the street, where the rear of the houses faced the path where Oscar Carlson died.

It was still early, and they caught most people as they headed out to work. Without exception they were willing to talk, even if some were pressed for time. The idea of a murder happening in the woods right behind their homes was upsetting, to say the least.

No one reported seeing or hearing anything out of the ordinary on Sunday night, while most said the violent storm made enough noise to drown out a gunshot.

However, when asked if there was anyone in the neighborhood who they felt was prone to acting violently, both Pierce and Jake were directed to one person. It was the husband of the woman who discovered Carlson’s body, Conner King.

Pierce and Jake went to Lana King’s house again after checking the records and finding that the neighbors had twice reported “disturbances,” coming from the home.

“According to the neighbors I spoke to, loud crashes were heard coming from the house on a regular basis,” Pierce said.

“Yeah,” Jake said. “I got the same story, and Lana King is a small woman. If her husband is tossing her about, she could wind up seriously hurt.”

Mrs. King opened the door with her daughter in her arms. She looked surprised to see them again, but Pierce and Jake didn’t notice. They were too busy eyeing the hulking figure coming up behind Mrs. King. It was her husband.

Conner King was well over six-feet tall and sported the physique of a bodybuilder

As Lana introduced them, Conner King extended his hand as he smiled.

Pierce had expected to feel a bone-crushing grip, but instead, he found Conner King’s handshake to be merely firm. The man’s smile also appeared to be genuine, meanwhile, Lana King seemed nervous and was eyeing her husband carefully.

Jake asked Conner King if he knew Oscar Carlson.

“We’ve spoken a time or two.”

“Were they friendly exchanges?” Jake asked.

King nodded.

“Sure, I just asked him not to come in the yard again or to speak to my daughter,” Conner King used one of his massive hands to brush back his daughter’s hair. “The little one here gets nervous around strangers.”

That simple act of stroking the child’s hair made the muscles in King’s arm bunch up and flex.

“What do you do for a living, Mr. King?” Pierce asked.

“I’m a professional bodybuilder,” King said, and Pierce felt stupid for asking his question.

“Of course you are, and it certainly shows.”

***

Pierce and Jake asked Conner King and his wife a few more questions and then walked back to their car.

When Jake saw a neighbor waving for them to walk over to her home, they changed direction and spoke to the woman.

“You’re Mrs. Caldwell, right?” Pierce asked. “What can we do for you, ma’am?”

Mrs. Caldwell was a trim woman in her twenties with brown hair and gray eyes. She turned around in her doorway and pointed at her staircase. Like Lana King, she held a child in her arms, but hers was a boy no more than a year old.

“My son’s nursery is on the second floor. The window in that room faces the spot where that tree branch fell.”

Jake looked excited.

“Did you see something?”

“No, and as I told your partner here, I wasn’t at home that night. I had gone to visit my sister in the afternoon and returned yesterday.”

Pierce studied the woman’s face.

“You’ve remembered something since we talked?”

Mrs. Caldwell nodded.

“I have a woman watch my son a few evenings a week while I attend night school. This being summer, I haven’t been going.”

“Yes?” Pierce said, while hoping there was a payoff to the conversation.

“The thing is, I have a nanny cam in my son’s nursery. It’s a hidden camera and I forgot to turn it off.”

Jake’s smile returned.

“Please tell me that your camera is aimed at the window?”

“No, it’s aimed at my son’s crib, but the crib is right in front of the window, and the shade was up all weekend.”

“Mrs. Caldwell, it could be very important that we get a look at that film.”

The young mother reached into her pocket and took out a flash drive.

“Everything from the last week is on there, but remember, the power went out that night. I’m not sure how long it filmed.”

Pierce took the flash drive from her hand.

“Did you look at it?”

“No, Detective, and I don’t want to. If that poor man’s murder is on there, I don’t want to see it.”

“I understand, and this could be invaluable towards solving the case, thank you.”

***

On the ride back to the station, Jake used the computer to look into Conner King. The giant man trained for and entered several bodybuilding contests a year, and had done extremely well. By Jake’s rough estimate, Conner King’s income as a bodybuilder was well into the six figure range over the last few years.

“I haven’t heard the term in a while now,” Pierce said. “But could we be looking at a case of ‘roid rage?”

“Steroid abuse? I don’t know. I thought that the bodybuilding events tested for that now. Anyway, I don’t like him for it. Despite his size, I don’t think he did it.”

“That’s funny,” Pierce said. “I got the impression that he was hiding something.”

They waited until they were back at the station before they viewed the video from the flash drive. They wanted to look at it on a large monitor, and also make copies.

Most of the film from the day of the murder was innocuous and consisted of hours of video showing a sleeping toddler or an empty crib. When a tiny raincoat clad figure appeared on the trail at the far right edge of the camera’s range, it appeared to be heading towards Carlson’s shop. Jake froze the film.

“We need to get this blown up to be certain, but that looks like our victim to me.”

Pierce agreed, and the video resumed. Jake decided to fast forward it closer to the assumed time of the murder. Oscar Carlson’s sister, Leah Meyers, said that her brother closed his shop at six on Sundays but usually stayed late to catch up on paperwork and order more inventory.

They began watching the video from the 6:00 p.m. mark and saw that the picture quality changed drastically due to the growing intensity of the wind-driven rain of the storm.

At the 8:42 p.m. mark on the video, Carlson came into view as he headed back towards home with his head down and his hood up to avoid the rain.

“What the hell?” Jake said. “He’s already walked past the spot where the tree limb fell.”

Pierce was puzzling over the scene the video showed as well, but then, Oscar Carlson reentered camera range with an arm raised up and pointing. Carlson moved out of view as he continued to walk back the other way. He then reappeared minutes later at the very edge of the camera’s range, even as the tree limb fell from above and drove him to the ground.

“Did you see that?” Jake said.

“The branch?”

“No, watch it again. Carlson was running when that giant branch struck him. I think someone was chasing him.”

Jake backed up the video and this time Pierce saw it too. Carlson had been running. They let the film continue to play and saw that Carlson wasn’t moving. Although the coroner’s report stated that being struck by the tree limb wasn’t what killed him, it appeared that it had rendered him unconscious.

A figure appeared, a hulking shape that was almost surely Conner King. Carlson’s form had looked tiny because of the distance, but not Conner. He seemed huge, was dressed only in jeans and what looked like a T-shirt, but was only seen from behind.

Pierce and Jake looked at each other, and wondered if they were about to view a murder.

CHAPTER 14

Amy Lowe returned home with a load of packages and collapsed on her sofa in exhaustion.

She had been busy. While Jake and Pierce were working on solving a murder, Amy had been involved in planning a kidnapping.

Her preoccupied mind had barely let her sleep and she had risen before dawn and began writing out lists, plans, and strategies on a notepad.

Hours spent researching on the internet had proven fruitful and she believed that she knew what not to do, as well as what worked.

Simple worked, while complicated plans didn’t, but Amy also realized that she had a liability that could sink her plans like a stone.

It was her young lover, Matt.

Conversely, Matt was also her greatest asset. Matt could grant her access to the Pierce home while also keeping watch.

But, would he do that? Amy didn’t think so, not even for a share of the ransom money. However, the boy was in love with her, and while there were things he wouldn’t do, she believed that he also would do nothing to hurt her.

Amy took her phone out. It was the cheap phone she only used to contact Matt. After several text exchanges, they had made plans to get together the next morning. She would treat the boy like a king and make him fall deeper in love with her.

Matt had to remain silent, as he would surely suspect her once Val Pierce went missing. Amy had questioned Matt about Val’s life and had learned that the woman would be alone at her house on Friday afternoon. Valeria Pierce and her friend Ginny Drake alternated watching each other’s’ children on Fridays so that each of the mothers could have a period of “Me time” each week.

Amy envied Val Pierce. The woman seemed to have it all. She had a husband who loved her, two adorable daughters, that house and land, and even had a great career working for a celebrity, Maria Romo, the former news anchor. Amy’s features darkened. Val Pierce was living the life that Amy felt she should have had.

With a groan, Amy rose from the sofa and began emptying her bags, there was so much yet to do, and it made her sigh to think of all the tasks ahead of her.

Crime, if done right, was hard work.

***

As Pierce and Jake watched a video of the night Oscar Carlson died, they saw Conner King walk over and stared down at Carlson’s helpless form.

Connor King just stood there staring down at the man. Moments later, King dropped to his knees beside Carlson, and that’s when the storm knocked out the power.

“Damn it!” Jake said. “Another few seconds and we might have caught the murder on video.”

“Still, that looks pretty damning for Conner King.”

Jake rubbed the back of his neck.

“The funny thing is... I still don’t think he did it.”

“We know he lied about not seeing Carlson that night, and why was Carlson running away? Had King threatened him and then chased him down?”

“We need to bring him in for questioning,” Jake said.

“Yeah, and I bet you he’ll lawyer up right away.”

***

Pierce would have won the bet had Jake agreed to it.

Not only did Conner King show up with a lawyer, but the lawyer was his brother. Jason King was as tall as his younger brother but carried far less muscle. He was still a powerful looking man and he was insisting that his brother was innocent.

Once they showed the video to Conner King, Pierce saw the man become visibly shaken, but his brother and lawyer stayed adamant about his client’s innocence.

“That just proves that the man was killed by that God-awful branch. It was horrible luck and timing, yes, but it clears my brother.”

Jake shook his head.

“Our expert says that Oscar Carlson was killed by a series of blows to the same area, not one massive impact.”

The lawyer smiled.

“I assure you, Detective, if this legal farce ever reached the trial stage I could find ten experts to refute your expert. My brother has no history of violence and if I were on a jury and saw that video, I would think the massive branch killed the man outright.”

Pierce knew that the lawyer was correct. They could arrest Conner King on what they had, but they really needed more before taking that step. At least, that was Pierce’s opinion, but he reminded himself that Jake was the lead detective on the case, and so it was his decision.

Jake was staring at Conner King, who looked back at him with something that resembled embarrassment.

“Is there anything you’d like to tell us Mr. King?” Jake asked.

Conner King broke eye contact and shook his head. He was following his lawyer’s instructions and staying silent.

“You’re free to go,” Jake said. “But advise us of where you’re going before you take any trips.”

The two King brothers, lawyer and client, stood and left the interrogation room. Jake crossed his arms over his chest and slowly shook his head.

“We’re missing something here, Rick, but I’ll be damned if I know what it is.”

Pierce slapped his partner on the shoulder.

“It’ll work out. We just need to gather more info. What’s our next step?”

Jake checked his watch.

“We both have to give depositions in the Shaw case. After that, I guess we’ll call it a day and tackle this again tomorrow.”

“Not tomorrow, remember? Tomorrow we go to Pennsylvania.”

Jake smiled.

“Right, and I’m looking forward to that. Stacey can’t wait. She hasn’t seen Cynthia in a while, although they talk on the phone often.”

“That girl is becoming a cop because of your wife. She worships Stacey.”

Jake nodded.

“Amazing, isn’t it? Those were such horrible circumstances for Cynthia when Stacey met her, but now she’s a grown woman and about to start a new life.”

They were discussing Dave Owens’ youngest daughter. She had been born Katherine Owens, but had changed her name to Cynthia Gannon shortly after her father’s despicable activities brought disgrace to the family.

Kathy Owens had been only 14 on the day Pierce had arrested her father for murder, but now she was 22, a college graduate, and a new member of a Pennsylvania police force. Pierce and Val, along with Jake and Stacey, would be going to Cynthia’s academy graduation the following day.

Cynthia’s older sister, Sammi, hadn’t fared as well, and had died a meth addict three years earlier, her mother, Janet Owens, was now living under the name of Grace Gannon, and was a successful multi-level-marketer. Grace had never remarried, but she lived with a good man who had two daughters of his own.

Even if his escape from jail was successful, Dave Owens would never see his daughters again. One had died tragically, while the other had risen above the shame he brought to their family. Pierce and his friends had helped the Owens and Murphy families to move on. If Dave Owens knew that Pierce had made it impossible for him to ever see his loved ones again, he would hate the detective even more than he already did.

CHAPTER 15

Hours later, in New Hampshire, it was just after midnight. At the front of the jail housing Dave Owens, a guard arrived for his shift with a middle-aged man and the man’s two sons in tow. The boys were in their late teens.

There were only two other guards on duty, and they both looked up with questions in their eyes.

“What’s going on, Phil?” asked one of the guards. He was an older man in his fifties named Sam, who was just months away from retirement. Sam’s experienced eyes had already roamed over the three civilians and determined that they were unarmed. It had been easy to do, as all three of them were dressed in shorts and T-shirts.

The guard named Phil gestured at the father and sons.

“These guys broke down about a hundred yards south of here on the highway. I told them they could wait with us and keep warm until the tow truck came.”

The older guard smiled.

“Yeah, it was a nice spring day, but it’s getting damn cold out there tonight, especially since it’s early summer.”

The father of the boys pointed to himself.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t wearing shorts.”

The older guard passed around paper cups and poured the men coffee, before refilling his own ceramic mug. The trio thanked him and sat on a bench to wait for the tow truck, they had no idea that they were about to become involved in an infamous jail break.

***

Back in the cell area, Dave Owens watched as Aaron climbed back up into the hole in the ceiling.

The drunk who had been in the cell earlier had been bailed out, minus his jacket, which Owens hoped to light on fire.

While Frank pulled on the light fixture in his cell, Aaron pushed down from the other side. The bunk beds in the cell were bolted into the walls and Frank held on to their frame with one hand while pulling with the other.

Aaron, up in the crawl space, actually had more ambient light than did Frank and Owens. It had been lights out at ten p.m. and the weak illumination drifting in from the hall was their only light.

Frank’s fixture proved to be stubborn. It took nearly five minutes until a gap appeared. After that, the light fixture dangled from the ceiling like the other one, and Frank scurried up into the tight space, to crawl on his belly.

Owens had warned them that he was weakened by his illness, and so they had expected him to be of little help. Fortunately, Owens’ fixture gave Frank and Aaron far less resistance than the others had.

Not being a complete fool, Owens kept possession of the flammable jacket and had it tied around his waist. He had been afraid of passing it to one of the other men, for fear that they would leave him behind.

Frank made a beckoning gesture to Owens.

“Jump off the top bunk and grab onto the edge of the hole. We’ll pull you up.”

Owens swallowed nervously as he looked at the opening in the ceiling. It was only six feet away, but it looked like a mile, and he feared falling to the floor.

“C’mon dude, jump.”

Owens nodded, crouched down on the top bunk, and sprang towards the hole. He surprised himself by making a perfect leap, but soon realized that he lacked the strength to pull himself up into the ceiling. Frank and Aaron were about twenty years younger than he was and hadn’t spent the last eight years rotting in a cell. Add to that the fact that he had cancer, and Owens was rapidly burning through his energy supply.

Frank’s big hands gripped him under the arms. With Aaron’s help, Owens slid up and into the ceiling beside them.

Owens let out a quiet laugh as Frank and Aaron smiled, and then Frank pulled out a pack of matches.

“Let’s go start that fire.”

***

Up front in the jail’s office, the father and the two sons who were waiting for the tow truck to arrive were getting a free show. A pair of cops had just dropped off a robbery suspect. The young man had been caught red-handed coming out the back door of a jewelry store, but told anyone who would listen that he was innocent.

The older guard named Sam questioned the man, who had his long dark hair tied up in a ponytail.

“How could you be innocent when the cops caught you holding a duffle bag full of jewelry?”

The man, who was named Darren, smiled. It was a good smile and Sam imagined that it had won the kid his share of female hearts.

“I’m no thief; I’m a reporter. I write a blog about crime and the security measures that businesses can take to prevent it. I was only in that store for research purposes.”

“Un-huh, and what’s the name of this blog?”

“Oh, I haven’t started it yet. Like I said, this was all research.”

Sam grinned back at the would-be thief.

“We’ll give you material for a second blog post, one about crime and punishment. Phil, please process this ‘journalist’ and then take him back to the cells.”

Darren’s shoulders slumped.

“Aw man, this isn’t right. I’m a member of the fourth estate.”

“You’re more like the fourth stooge,” Sam said, as the guard named Phil walked towards the thief.

***

Dave Owens was out of jail, well, part of him was.

He was dangling from a hole that was in the rear wall of the jail, but his shoulders were too wide to pass through. Aaron had thought the hole too small, but then Owens wanted to try it out. He had doubts that a fire at the rear of the building would draw everyone out of the jail’s front office.

Owens braced his right foot atop a gas meter and used it to steady himself. Without realizing it, he had created a gap between the meter and the connector pipe which fed the gas through it. That gap widened farther when Owens pushed off the pipe to climb back inside.

“You were right, Aaron, but damn it, if it were just a little wider we would all be free already.”

Frank moved towards the hole with the jacket. After dangling it outside by one sleeve, he lit a match.

“Let’s see how good a torch this thing makes.”

Frank lit the match and a brilliant flash illuminated the night.

***

In the front office, the man who had been waiting for the tow truck received a call from the driver. He smiled at his sons.

“The tow truck is here, guys.”

After thanking the guards for their help and hospitality, the father went outside with his sons following behind.

As they were walking out the door, the thief from the jewelry store was having his prints taken.

***

Frank shook his left hand, which had been singed when he set the jacket on fire, and his fingertips were stinging. Down below, the flames from the jacket had failed to set the damp bushes on fire by itself. However, there were scads of debris blown up against the building, such as candy wrappers and old newspapers. They had been set aflame by the jacket and were acting like kindling for the lower section of the bushes, which were beginning to burn.

As Owens and the other men were discussing whether or not the fire would be enough to draw the guards’ interest, they heard the faint cry of “Fire!” come from the front of the building.

***

The jewelry thief, Darren, was looking at his hands with a sour expression.

“Did you have to use ink? Don’t you have one of those digital scanners?”

The young guard named Phil laughed.

“Look around. Does this place look state of the art to you? We’re lucky they give us the ink.”

Phil was about to cuff the man in order to walk him to a cell, when the man he’d helped earlier rushed back inside with his two sons.

“Hey guys! You’ve got a fire going on behind the building.”

Sam told Phil and his other man to grab a fire extinguisher and check it out. He then walked over and took the thief by the arm.

“I’ll lock him up and be right there, and be careful guys.”

As everyone else ran from the building, Sam led the thief through the door that led to the back where the cells were. He ignored the protocol about handcuffing the prisoners. He didn’t want to waste any time.

The first door led to a short hallway, where a steel door opened onto the cell room. There was a pane of wire-reinforced glass in that door, but it was so scratched that you could barely see through it. As Sam turned on the lights inside the cell room, Darren spoke in a worried tone.

“Are you sure it’s safe locking me up back here while a fire is going on?”

“Don’t worry, buddy, if I see any smoke I’ll bring you back up front.”

They entered the cell room and Sam guided Darren to the nearest cell. He was so intent in locking the man up and going out to help with the fire, that it took him a moment to realize that something was very wrong.

“I think you’ve had an escape,” Darren said, as he gazed around at the three hanging fixtures jutting from the holes in the ceiling.

Sam cursed as he took in the scene.

When the sound of Owens, Aaron, and Frank crawling along above the ceiling reached his ears, Sam pulled out a radio to alert the other guards, but the other men were using the same frequency to call for the fire department. Sam took out a set of cuffs and secured Darren’s right wrist to the bar of a cell.

Afterwards, he tried the radio again, even as he opened up Aaron’s cell to get a look at the hole in the ceiling.

When Phil answered the call, Sam informed him about the breakout.

“Gas!” Darren said. “Hey, I smell gas.”

Sam lifted his nose to sniff the air, and that was when a chunk of plaster came loose and struck him on the top of his head. He collapsed to the floor of the cell and let out a moan.

***

Owens dropped from the hole in the ceiling in the office and landed on the booking desk, where he sent Sam’s coffee mug crashing to the floor. Frank and Aaron had already left the crawlspace and were headed out the door.

Owens’ heart was beating faster than it had in years. He thought of Jack Murphy and wished that somehow Jack could be at his side. The two of them free again together would have been heaven. As he opened the front door of the jail and breathed in the cool clean air of freedom, he heard a shouted command come from the rear of the building, along the right side.

“Down on the ground or I will shoot you!”

Owens recognized the voice as coming from the guard named Phil. Aaron and Frank were out in the open. They had been headed for the highway. Owens was still near the front of the building and out of view, but he felt his freedom slipping away.

Aaron and Frank lowered themselves to their knees and placed their hands behind their heads. Seeing this made Owens feel like crying.

CHAPTER 16

When Sam had collapsed to the floor with a head injury, his keys and radio fell from his hand. The thief from the jewelry store, Darren, bent down and grabbed the keys, then freed himself from the handcuffs.

After getting free, Darren rushed over to Sam, who had remained conscious, but looked dazed and in pain. Darren helped Sam to his feet and then supported the older man’s weight.

“We have to get out of here. I’m smelling gas and that guy and his kids said there was a fire out back.”

Sam looked at Darren with eyes full of confusion, but he followed his lead and walked towards the front. Darren guided Sam through the hallway and back through the second door. But before they could make it outside, a massive explosion occurred, and suddenly, they were airborne.

***

Owens was looking for somewhere to hide when the natural gas explosion occurred at the rear of the building. The glass in the front windows blew outward and showered him along with Aaron and Frank.

All three of them received minor cuts, while Frank had a shard of glass sticking out from the rear of his arm. If the embedded sliver of glass hurt, Frank didn’t seem to notice. He, Owens, and Aaron were too fascinated by the falling form of the guard named Phil.

When the blast occurred, Phil had been sent flying through the air. Had he not landed on his head and cracked open his skull, he may have been aware enough to extinguish his pants, which were on fire.

Owens recovered before Aaron and Frank. He rushed past them to pry the gun from Phil’s hand. The guard had clutched it tighter when the explosion went off, and his sudden death from a severe head trauma had locked his fingers on the weapon in a literal death grip.

Owens stepped on Phil’s wrist for leverage, even as flames ate at the flesh of the deceased guard’s legs. It took Owens two attempts, but he freed the gun. With the weapon in his hand, Owens no longer feared that Frank and Aaron would leave him to fend for himself.

When he looked up, he saw that Frank and Aaron were looking back along the road. There was a tow truck coming towards them, and when the man pulled into the parking lot, Owens knew that his luck had finally changed for the better.

***

Inside the office, Darren was beating out the flames on Sam’s back. Sam, who had already been dazed before the blast, simply lay atop the desk regaining his senses, as the man he was about to lock up saved him from burning to death.

Darren dropped the jacket he had been using to beat out the flames and forced Sam to sit up. After reaching down to grab a bottle of water, he opened it and poured it over Sam’s head. That roused the older man and the thief spoke to him.

“I know you’re hurting, but we can’t stay here. The back of the building is on fire and the smoke is getting thicker.”

Sam wiped the water from his face as his eyes seemed to gain focus.

“Let’s go.”

Sam made it to his feet, took a few steps, but then passed out and collapsed before reaching the door. Darren let out a heavy sigh, said, “Oh man,” and grabbed Sam’s wrist, to begin pulling the much larger man to safety. Darren opened the door by pushing it with his butt, and the cool night air felt blissful. That is, until he smelled the scent of burning flesh upon it.

***

Owens forced the tow truck driver into the trunk of the car the man had just hooked up.

It was the vehicle that had belonged to the unfortunate father and the two sons. The man and his boys had followed the guards to the rear of the jail, and now their burnt and battered corpses were scattered among the debris of the demolished jail.

Owens, Aaron, and Frank squeezed into the cab of the tow truck. The vehicle had more gears than any of them had ever seen, but Frank knew how to drive a stick and he soon had the vehicle moving. As they sped down the highway, they let out a cheer, and Owens pounded the dashboard with his left fist.

He might be dying of a terrible disease, but at that moment, he felt like he was in heaven. He was free, free! He would soon see his daughters, and he would get revenge on Ricardo Pierce. Owens gripped the gun in his hand, and it gave him a sense of pure power.

***

The tow truck had been leaving the jail’s driveway when Darren had pulled Sam outside to safety. When he spotted Phil’s burning corpse, and watched flames eat away at the last of the guard’s clothes, he decided to drag Sam a little farther.

Once they were settled near a small tree, Darren collapsed with his back against the tree and with Sam laying on his side. He had positioned Sam that way, so as not to put weight on the slight burns the guard had received on his back.

Sam’s head was resting on Darren’s lap. It looked odd, and Darren thought about moving the man again, but he lacked the energy.

In the moments before they escaped the building, the heat inside had increased dramatically, as had the smoke. He and Sam were both drenched in sweat, as well as blood. The blood flowed from numerous small wounds they had received from flying debris during the blast.

Darren didn’t realize he was crying until he saw Sam brush away a tear that had fallen on his face. The tears had stirred the guard to wakefulness.

Sam looked over at the jail and moaned at the sight of Phil’s body. When he saw no figures moving about, he knew that no one else had survived. The entire rear of the building had collapsed, while the patch of woods behind it was on fire.

“Hey buddy,” Sam said, as he looked up at the thief.

“Yeah?”

“Your name is Darren Andrews, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, Darren Andrews, my name is Sam Briggs, and you just saved my life. Thank you.”

Darren’s brow scrunched up in confusion.

“Dude, I couldn’t just leave you in there. I’m a thief, yeah, but I’m not a dirtbag.”

The sound of a fire engine eclipsed the roar of the nearby blaze, and Dave Owens, a man once known as a monster, stalked the night once more.

CHAPTER 17

“We’re headed the wrong way,” Owens said.

Frank, who was driving, nodded in acknowledgement and then pointed at an opening on the right.

“That will get us off the highway and take us south too. I know these roads, Owens. I used to date a girl who lived in this area when I went to high school.”

“I thought you were from Vermont?”

“I am now, and I was born there too, but we’re headed to New York City. I know another girl there that will help us.”

“As long as we’re headed south. I got family to reconnect with in New Jersey.”

“That’s a bad move,” Aaron said. “The cops will be there waiting for you.”

“I know, but I still have to risk it. I have to see my daughters at least one more time.”

They came to another road that crossed the bumpy gravel road they were driving on. It was pitch black out and the sky had begun spitting rain. Frank stopped the truck and stared over at Owens, then, his eyes went to the gun in Owens’ hand.

“It’s time to take care of that tow truck driver.”

“You want me to kill him?”

Frank smiled.

“No, I have a better idea, but first, I want Aaron to take a look at the car we’re towing. Aaron’s a hell of a mechanic, maybe he can get it running, if so, we’ll split up and make it harder for the cops to nab us.”

***

Aaron used the lights on the rear of the tow truck to look under the hood of the car. When Owens saw that he was grinning, he knew that their streak of good luck was holding.

“It was just a loose cable on the battery. Go start it up, the keys are in it.”

Owens hopped in the car and the engine roared to life as he turned the key. The car also had a gas tank that was nearly full.

After unhooking the car from the tow truck, they made plans. Owens would stay with Frank in the tow truck and head to New York City, while Aaron would travel to Boston. He had a cousin there who he said was, “cool,” and would let him hide out on his boat.

But first, they had to make the tow truck driver think they were all headed to the Canadian border. Frank opened the trunk while Aaron aimed a flashlight at it and Owens pointed the gun.

The tow truck driver looked up at them with a terrified expression, as he shielded his eyes from the flashlight Aaron was beaming on him.

“Please don’t kill me.”

The driver was in his thirties and had curly dark hair and a moustache. His brown eyes looked enormous in the glare of the flashlight, and he was trembling.

Frank let out an exaggerated sigh and began playacting his part.

“I still say we should kill him. What if he tells the cops which direction we went in?”

Aaron wasn’t much of an actor. He shrugged in such an exaggerated manner that his shoulders nearly touched his earlobes.

“So what, they have to know that we are headed for Canada.”

“Maybe, or maybe not,” Owens said, “but we’re wasting time here.” Owens jabbed the gun against the ribs of the tow truck driver. “Get out of the trunk!”

When the man scrambled to his feet, Owens saw that there was a patch on his blue work shirt. The patch had the name, Gary, sewed on it.

Frank grabbed the driver by his collar and gave him a shove. The driver stumbled, but managed to stay on his feet.

Owens pointed the gun at the man and told him to run.

The tow truck driver ran, but clumsily at first, as he was glancing back over his shoulder.

Frank pointed at him.

“I still say we should kill him!”

That got the driver’s feet to moving. He lowered his head and poured on the speed. As the driver moved beyond the range of the flashlight beam, Owens, Frank, and Aaron chuckled.

Aaron and Frank wished each other luck while sharing a handshake and then they were off again. Sometime after reaching I-93, the two vehicles separated and Owens found himself alone with Frank.

After entering New York State, Frank pulled the tow truck into an industrial area and drove to the rear of a building that sold plumbing supplies. After finding an old box truck with a caved-in roof sitting among weeds, Frank went to work removing the wreck’s plates to put them on the tow truck. The New Hampshire plates would be tossed away once they were back on the highway.

As Frank removed the rusty screws that held the license plates, Owens ask him a question.

“This girlfriend of yours, what’s she like?”

“She’s cool. Not only is she a hot little number, but she makes a living by stealing other peoples’ identities, and she’s good at it.”

“Do you think she can track my daughters down?”

“Hell yeah, and she used to do that type of shit for a private investigator, that is, until she wised up and started working for herself. If your daughters are out there, Li Ming will find them.”

“Her name is Li Ming?”

“Yeah, she’s Chinese, you ain’t got a problem with that, do you?”

Owens smiled.

“No, as a matter of fact, I just love Chinese.”

CHAPTER 18

The following morning, Pierce was glued to the TV in the kitchen as he watched the coverage of Owens’ escape.

The older jail guard who survived, Sam, had required surgery. The operation was to prevent swelling on his brain, after the injury he had received from the falling ceiling debris. It was actually a minor surgical procedure, but it kept Sam unconscious and unable to talk. Darren had been shuttled to the hospital as well, but had been locked up in a treatment room.

By the time anyone interviewed Darren and learned about the jail break, Owens had been free for hours. It seemed as if the bodies of the father and his two sons had initially been mistaken for Owens, Frank, and Aaron, by the first investigators on the scene.

With the jail in ruins, the holes in the ceiling went unnoticed, as the entire rear of the building had collapsed.

The body count was right as far as anyone knew, and so no one was looking for them, nor had they connected it with the missing tow truck driver. That driver, Gary, had found it impossible to get anyone on the highway to stop for him, and had to walk over seven miles before gaining access to a phone.

Gary the tow truck driver told the authorities that Owens and the others were headed into Canada. The search was focused in that direction, but Pierce had doubts about Owens fleeing the country. When the news reported that Owens was dying of cancer, Pierce was certain that Owens would try to reach out to his daughters.

It wouldn’t happen; Pierce and others had made certain of that years earlier. There was no way for Owens to discover the whereabouts of his ex-wife and surviving daughter. Not even their other family members knew their location.

When Val came downstairs with the girls and learned of Owens’ escape, she looked saddened.

“Why did this have to happen today, of all days?”

Pierce sighed in agreement.

“It sucks, but she’s strong, and she’ll deal with it, and so will her mother.”

“Are you certain that he can’t find them?”

“Absolutely, I also think he’ll be back in a cell before too long.”

“Still, poor Cynthia,”

Pierce grinned.

“Remember, that’s now Officer Cynthia.”

Pierce sat at the kitchen table and remembered the day he first met Owens’ family. It was also a day he became acquainted with a woman who would become one of his closest friends, Stacey Hightower.

***

EIGHT YEARS EARLIER

––––––––

Pierce, and his partner at the time, Bob Jerold, had driven to Owens’ home to escort Owens’ wife to the station for questioning. Neither man could imagine that Mrs. Owens had been aware of her husband’s depraved acts, and yet, stranger things had happened.

Pierce recognized the cops guarding the front door and was amazed that there were already three news vans on the scene. The two uniformed cops were Tubbs and Collins. Jake Collins had been instrumental in the Murphy and Owens case and Pierce saw that the kid was beaming.

“You got the guys, Detectives, great work,” Collins said.

Pierce reached over and shook Collins’ hand.

“You were a part of it and I’ll make sure that goes into the report. If not for you, we wouldn’t have known what type of van they were driving.”

Tubbs threw an arm around his partner’s shoulders.

“We have a future police commissioner here.”

Jerold pointed at the door.

“We need to speak with Owens’ wife.”

“She’s not here,” Tubbs said. “The first cop on the scene drove away with her and her daughters before the news vans arrived.”

Pierce frowned in response to the news.

“What? Where did the cop take them, to the station?”

Tubbs eyes looked right and Pierce followed his gaze.

“Go down to that corner and take a left. There’s a blue house at the end of the next block, 44 Ryan Street. That’s where the wife’s best friend lives.” Tubbs shook his head. “The woman is devastated and Owens daughters are in even worst shape. Someone at the station must have leaked the story big time, along with the fact that Owens’ confessed.”

Pierce cursed under his breath.

“What’s the name of the cop who’s with Owens’ wife.”

“Stacey Hightower, she’s out of the north ward.”

Collins grinned.

“You can’t miss her, Rick, she’s gorgeous.”

“She’ll also be the only one dressed in a police uniform,” Tubbs said. “So yeah, she’ll be hard to miss. Excuse my partner, gentlemen. I think he’s in love.”

Collins blushed and Pierce and Jerold drove off to find Owens’ wife.

***

Pierce introduced himself to Janet Owens and then he was attacked by Sammi Owens. The sixteen-year-old refused to believe her father was guilty and accused Pierce and Jerold of framing Owens.

The girl had placed a scratch on Pierce’s cheek, but he ignored it. The girl’s eyes told him that she knew her father was guilty, and if it helped her to cope by striking out at him, so be it.

Janet Owens hugged her daughter as she apologized to Pierce. Pierce touched his cheek, realized that the scratch hadn’t drawn blood, and told Mrs. Owens that it was all right.

“We need to talk to you, ma’am. Is there a place where we can do so in private?”

The house was owned by Janet’s best friend, Carol Richards, a recent widow and a woman she had known since childhood. Carol escorted Pierce, Jerold, and Janet Owens into the kitchen and pointed out the fresh pot of coffee.

“Help yourselves to that. Janet knows where to find the cream and sugar,” Carol Richards said, and then she gave Janet Owens’ hand a comforting squeeze before leaving them alone.

The interview was quick and consisted of only a few questions. Pierce was certain that Janet Owens had been clueless about her husband’s dark side. The woman was barely holding it together. Her life and her daughters’ lives had just changed forever and she knew it.

Plans were made for a second interview to take place on the following day, and Pierce and Jerold decided to take their leave.

Before heading back to the station, Pierce spoke to Officer Stacey Hightower. He found her in the back yard talking to Owens’ youngest daughter, Kathy, and saw that she and the girl had bonded.

When Pierce signaled to Hightower that he wanted to speak with her, she left Kathy’s side after the girl gave her a hug.

As Hightower approached him, Pierce saw the worried look in her eyes and the docile body language she displayed. After introducing himself and Jerold, he eased Hightower’s worries with a smile.

“If you were expecting me to chew you out for bringing the family here instead of the station house, you’re wrong. You did a good thing, Officer Hightower. These people don’t need to be in the public eye.”

Hightower lifted her head and smiled back at Pierce. The rookie, Collins, had claimed she was gorgeous, and Pierce had to agree with him.

“Thank you, Detective Pierce, Detective Jerold, I just didn’t want those girls to be put through a media circus.”

Pierce held out his hand.

“Your first name is Stacey?”

Hightower shook his hand.

“Yes, Detective.”

“Call me Rick, and Detective Jerold’s first name is Bob. You did good work here today, Stacey. I’ll make sure that it doesn’t go unnoticed.”

Stacey looked back at Kathy Owens, who was sitting on the porch wiping away tears.

“What’s going to happen to her?”

Pierce sighed.

“She’s got tough times ahead of her, but if she’s strong, she’ll come out whole on the other side.”

Stacey frowned.

“I wish there was something I could do for her.”

Pierce smiled.

“You already have, by bringing her and her family here. We’ll see you around, Stacey, and again, good work.”

***

PRESENT DAY, PENNSYLVANIA

––––––––

Police academy cadet Cynthia Gannon rushed to greet her guests and fell into the open arms of Detective Stacey Hightower-Collins.

Cynthia Gannon, who had begun life as Kathy Owens, hugged her friend and mentor while whispering words of gratitude. Cynthia was about to fulfill her dream of becoming a police officer, and Stacey had always been her role model. Were it not for the greater chance of her being recognized back in her home state, Cynthia would have become a cop in New Jersey.

Pierce and Collins also received hugs along with Val, but then Cynthia returned to Stacey’s side.

“Thank you all for coming today. It means so much to me, and Mom will be happy to see you guys too.”

“It’s our pleasure,” Pierce said. “We’re just saddened that your father had to place his shadow over this day.”

Cynthia nibbled her lower lip.

“I was shocked to hear of his escape, and I’m so afraid that he might hurt someone else.”

“He’ll be captured,” Pierce said. “It’s just a matter of time.”

“Is there any chance that he could track me and Mom down here?”

“There’s zero chance,” Stacey said. “Janet, Sammi, and Kathy Owens all ceased to exist on any database the year your father went to prison. Unless he hires a computer geek with NSA credentials, he’ll never find you.”

Pierce nodded in agreement. He had asked his friends in the FBI, agents Daniel Rogers and Carl Abrams to see if there was anything they could do to help. While there was no reason to place the Owens and Murphy families in Witness Protection, there was a similar federal program. Members of both families received new identities, along with new social security numbers and manufactured personal histories.

Jack Murphy’s children were younger than Owens’ daughters, and the transition had gone more smoothly. Murphy’s twelve-year-old daughter, Jennifer, barely remembered him, and she called her mother’s second husband, Dad.

Cynthia smiled at Pierce and Stacey.

“To hell with my father. This is my graduation day and I’m going to enjoy it.”

Pierce sent her a wink.

“That’s the spirit.”

CHAPTER 19

“What do you mean there’s absolutely no record of my family?” Owens said. “I thought you were supposed to be a genius hacker.”

Owens was talking to Frank’s girlfriend, Li Ming. He and Frank had made it to New York City at dawn and were in Li Ming’s Greenwich Village apartment on Perry Street.

Li Ming stood only five feet tall and was beautiful. She had long raven-dark hair, while her eyes were green, giving her an exotic look. Those eyes were squinted in anger as she spoke to Owens.

“I am a hacker, but I can only do so much. The government must have changed your family members’ identities. Besides, do you really think they want to be around you anymore?”

“She’s got a point, dude,” Frank said.

Frank had known that Owens was a murderer, but he hadn’t known he was a serial killer of young women. However, by the time they reached Li Ming’s apartment, Owens’ face was plastered all over the news. Frank’s picture was also being broadcast, along with Aaron’s photo, but Owens was receiving the bulk of the coverage.

Both he and Frank had changed into new clothes after Li Ming went out and bought them jeans and T-shirts.

“I need to see my daughters,” Owens said. “If I see them... I can explain.”

Li Ming laughed.

“Explain? Like what, you had a good reason for being a serial killer? And about that, why were so many of your victims Asian? That shit is creeping me out.”

Owens stared at Li Ming. She was his type, just the sort of woman he had loved to hunt alongside Jack Murphy. He would have taken her if Frank wasn’t around. Frank had also armed himself, as Li Ming had given Frank her gun.

Owens tried a smile.

“I didn’t mean to get angry, but are you sure you can’t locate my daughters?”

“Yes, I’m sure, and I want you out of here too. Anyway, Frank and I are leaving.”

Frank handed Owens the keys to the stolen tow truck.

“You can have the truck, but be careful, the cops have to be looking for it, new plates or not.”

Owens took the keys, and then gave Li Ming a lingering look. He wanted her, wanted to use her and hurt her until she learned some respect. He stopped his staring and doubled over, as a sharp pain knifed through his middle. It was the cancer. He had skipped a dose of his medication and wouldn’t be getting more anytime soon.

The pain ceased as quickly as it came, and after releasing a gasp, Owens straightened.

Frank gave him an odd look.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have escaped. At least in the can you would have received medical treatment.”

Owens shook his head.

“I don’t need treatment. I need to see my daughters.”

Owens turned and headed for the door, then, he had trouble undoing all the locks. Li Ming assisted him, and soon he was back out on the street.

In his pockets was a gun, along with a twenty dollar bill he had found stuffed down inside one of the tow truck’s cup holders.

He had no clue about where to search for his daughters, but knew of someone who might know. Owens climbed into the tow truck and then let out a loud curse. He hadn’t driven a stick since he was a teenager and the multiple gears of the tow truck looked like something that belonged in a high-tech aircraft.

With much grinding of gears and experimentation with the clutch, Owens finally got the vehicle moving at a slow speed. He headed for the tunnel that would take him to New Jersey, and the home of his wife’s best friend. If anyone knew where to find his daughters, it would be Carol Richards.

Owens moved through the tunnel, while grinding gears and making plans.

***

Amy greeted Matt at her back door of her townhouse while wearing a red negligee.

The boy’s eyes nearly popped out of his head and they were embracing before she even closed the door. As always, Amy’s neighbors weren’t at home, and thanks to a privacy fence, they were out of view of prying eyes.

Their coupling was intense and Amy gave herself to Matt without restriction. When the teen was finally sated, they lay in each other’s arms and traded soft kisses.

“Matt?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you think I’m a good person?”

“What? Yeah, of course you’re a good person.”

“What if I did something bad for a very good reason?”

Matt laughed.

“Like what, steal a loaf of bread when you were starving?”

“No, and I’m serious. Would you protect me if I did something wrong?”

Matt lifted himself up on one elbow and peered down into Amy’s eyes.

“I love you, Amy. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you.”

Amy touched him on the cheek and said the words she had earlier rehearsed.

“I love you too, Matt, and I know that you’ll love and protect me no matter what.”

Amy was once again swallowed up in Matt’s arms.

She smiled.

Her plan would work.

***

Pierce noticed that Stacey was swelling with as much pride as Cynthia’s mother, as Cynthia was sworn in as a law-enforcement officer. Stacey deserved to feel proud of Dave Owens’ daughter, she had nurtured the girl and been a friend to her ever since their first meeting.

Stacey and others had tried to help Sammi Owens, but the elder daughter of Dave Owens was emotionally devastated by the revelation of her father’s crimes. She sought refuge in drugs and promiscuous sex.

The sex often left Sammi feeling empty, while her abuse of drugs caused her death. Janet Owens, now Grace Gannon, insisted that her ex-husband not be informed of his daughter’s demise. No one argued with her, and anyway, as far as the state was concerned, the family had ceased to exist years earlier.

The police academy graduation was a joyous occasion for Pierce. He believed that Cynthia would go on to do far more good than anyone could imagine. Cynthia admitted to Pierce that she was driven to be a cop partly as a way to make up for all the evil her father had perpetrated.

She was drawn towards doing good and helping people, not only because she admired those who did, but because, as she once told Pierce, “It’s like I owe it to the world, Rick. Do you know what I mean? My father scarred the world, and I feel it’s my duty to heal it.”

Pierce did understand, and if families had karma, the Owens family would soon balance the cosmic scales.

The Pierces and the Collins drove home with good memories and light hearts, pleased that at least something beneficial came out of the nightmare killing spree of The Monsters.

CHAPTER 20

Shortly after entering New Jersey, the tow truck Owens was driving began to make ominous sounds. His inept and abusive use of the vehicle’s gears and clutches had taken a toll. When the vehicle refused to go faster than twenty miles an hour, Owens took the first exit he came to and wound up in Jersey City, New Jersey. The city had over a quarter of a million people and he could lose himself among them.

Owens forced the vehicle along, as dark smoke began coming out of the exhaust. Owens drove into the parking lot of a supermarket on JFK Boulevard and parked the truck at the rear of the building to abandon it.

When he noticed the fast food restaurant across the avenue, Owens headed for it. He used what little money was left after paying the toll for the tunnel to get something to eat. It was the first sign of an appetite he’d had in days and was spawned by the aroma of the food. The greasy meal was good, the best he had eaten in years, but it made him drowsy, and he hadn’t slept in over a day.

It took hours of patient watching and waiting, but Owens finally had a new vehicle. An elderly woman loaded up her car with groceries, then thoughtfully pushed her cart several yards away to place in a corral. Once the woman turned from the cart, a look of bewilderment came over her. She had forgotten where her car was just that quick, Owens knew she had. After looking around, the old lady headed off in the wrong direction, leaving her vehicle unattended.

Watching the woman made Owens think of his mother, who had died from Alzheimer’s disease. She had displayed similar acts of forgetfulness at times.

Owens pushed aside his sympathy for the woman and jumped in her car. Not only was the trunk filled with food, but the keys were in the ignition and the old woman’s purse lay on the seat.

Owens drove out of Jersey City and headed towards the street where he once lived with his family.

***

In an area of New Jersey known as The Pine Barrens, Amy Lowe drove along a dirt road that was not much wider than a trail.

The Pine Barrens stretched across the southern end of New Jersey and, despite the state’s dense population, it was still a very rural and undeveloped area. It was also sometimes referred to as the Pinelands and was reportedly the home of The Jersey Devil, a Bigfoot type creature, in that there were numerous tales of sightings, but no one had ever snapped a verifiable photo of the beast or captured it. Sightings of The Jersey Devil go back over two-hundred years.

The area was also home to several ghost towns, due to the fact that many factory and mill communities had sprung up and disappeared over the centuries, leaving behind various traces of their existence.

Amy hadn’t been in the area for years, but was certain that she could find the old cabin that she was looking for. The cabin belonged to the parents of a former student of hers. Amy had been sleeping with the young man, and they had spent a week in the cabin during one summer.

The cabin was in a secluded area and hidden from view by trees and bushes. The dirt road leading to it was sparsely traveled and led to the cabin and another home that was farther north. Amy remembered her lover at the time saying that his parents had only used the cabin once. Her former student had moved to the west coast, and the cabin was likely sitting vacant.

After driving around lost for nearly an hour she finally found the place. Many trees had been damaged by a tropical storm the year before, and it had caused the surrounding area to look different. There were still the jagged trunks of once proud trees jutting up from the ground, they had been snapped in half by high winds.

The turn-off road was as she remembered it, although most of its gravel surface had sunk into the earth. Amy parked in front of the cabin and her hopes sank when she saw it, for it too had suffered damage.

Half of the wide front porch was crushed, like from a fallen tree. That tree also destroyed the power lines, and yet, the cabin otherwise seemed the same.

Amy left her vehicle and looked around. When she noticed the old stone well sitting off in a weedy field, she walked some distance to get to it.

The well pre-dated the current home on the property and had been dug by hand nearly a century earlier. It was wide and had its own tar paper roof, which was battle-scarred by scores of frigid winters and humid summers. The wooden bucket that had once been lowered into it to draw water was long gone, as was the crank that had controlled the rope the bucket was attached to.

Amy had once made a wish at the well, one that hadn’t come true, but she liked the well anyway. It reminded her of one of a similar age and style that sat on the Pierce property. That well had been to her and Rick Pierce what a porch swing was to other lovers.

The two of them had spent many youthful hours by that well, and had even made love beside it one warm summer night.

Amy pulled her mind from the past, but before leaving the well, she took a bright pink ball from her purse and tossed it in the center of the wide hole. The small splashing sound came quickly, as the water table in the Pine Barrens was nearer the surface than in most areas.

Amy searched her memory and took off through the woods, while stepping carefully over the fallen trees and withered downed branches. She came upon the spot she had been looking for sooner than she would have liked, and guessed that it was less than half a mile from the well. Still, it would have to do.

A small pool of water bubbled up from the ground inside a depression in the earth. Floating upon its surface was the bright pink ball that Amy had tossed in the well. Years ago, her lover had used a soccer ball to show her how the well was connected to the spring. She had also marveled at how pure the water tasted.

If the ransom money were dropped inside the well in a watertight container, Amy could safely retrieve it at the spring.

Past the spring was a small hill. Once she was over that hill, a short hike through the trees would place Amy at the rear of an abandoned farm. The farm had ceased operations during the seventies after a grain explosion destroyed a silo and killed the farmer.

After walking to the farm, Amy saw that the ruins were as she remembered them. She also saw that the road leading to the collapsed silo was clear of debris or fallen trees. That road led out to a county road.

Twenty minutes after the money was dropped in the well, Amy could be on a highway and headed out of the area.

She hiked back to the well. This time she tossed in a coin and made a wish.

Amy’s wish was that her plan go off without a hitch, and that by week’s end, she’d be a wealthy woman. Amy turned away from the well and walked back to the cabin. As she climbed up the three wooden steps that led to the porch. She let out a startled cry as a shape emerged from the woods on her right.

She smiled when she saw that it was just a deer, and then she tried the doorknob.

The door was locked. Amy pounded on the weathered wood while asking if there was anyone inside. When she received no response, she returned to her car and grabbed supplies from the trunk. It took her two trips to load the supplies onto the porch, and on the second trip she also carried a crowbar.

It took a great deal of straining, but Amy eventually pried open the door. That was when she saw that the fallen tree had also punched a small hole into the roof, and that leaves were scattered on the floor of the interior. No matter, the place would do for the purpose she had in mind for it.

Amy was planning to kidnap Ricardo Pierce’s wife and hold her hostage in the cabin for a million-dollar ransom. She had spent days obsessing over the million dollars she hoped to gain and had come up with a plan. She was convinced it would work and had committed to carrying it out.

A spiral staircase at the rear led up to the bedroom loft. The bedframe was made of metal and the headboard and footboards had bars. Amy removed the lengths of chain and the padlocks from one of the bags and began running the chain through the bars. Once the chains were attached and the padlocks secured, Val Pierce would be her prisoner.

Amy grimaced at her handiwork, but then, she thought about the ransom money, and about all the many things a million dollars could buy.

Val Pierce would be fine. Amy had no desire to harm her, and anyway, the bitch was with a man who rightfully belonged to her. If she hadn’t foolishly discarded Pierce in college, Amy knew that he would have married her instead.

In a way, the kidnapping would just be setting things right.

Such were the justifications that ran through Amy Lowe’s mind.

***

Owens only made it into the next county before he had to pull over. The pain in his middle had returned, and he found that he needed to use a restroom. He wasn’t sure what was causing the sudden diarrhea. It could be his disease or perhaps it was the fact that he was going cold turkey off the pain meds. Then again, the fast food he’d eaten had been the richest meal he’d had in years.

He pulled into the parking lot of a gas station and ran into the attached convenience store to use the bathroom.

Thanks to the forty-eight dollars he had found in the old lady’s purse, Owens had money again. He bought something to treat the stomach upset and a bottle of medicine for pain. Owens also bought a bottle of sleeping pills. If he were trapped by the cops somewhere, he’d rather kill himself than go back to prison.

Once he was in the car again, he added gas to the tank and got back on the road. After only going two miles, Owens had to use the bathroom again. The stomach remedy hadn’t kicked in yet and Owens pulled the car into the parking lot of a restaurant, then rushed inside to use their men’s room.

Stalking the night to abduct and slaughter women was okay with Owens, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave the restaurant without buying something. After all, he had just used their toilet, the least he could do was buy a cup of coffee to go.

Back in the car once more, Owens sat the untouched coffee in a cup holder and headed towards his destination with the hope of getting answers.

***

A damn parking lot. Owens thought. His property was now a section of a huge parking lot for a shopping center. The collection of big box stores had been built on his block as well as the adjoining streets. Not only was Owens’ home long gone, but so was the house that had belonged to the best friend of Owens’ ex-wife, Carol Richards.

After his arrest and notoriety, Owens’ neighborhood was invaded by the press and later became a sort of tourist attraction for the type of people who feed on news of true crimes.

Owens’ family left the house for good after claiming their belongings, and the residence was invaded by vandals one night. Holes were punched in the walls by a sledgehammer and pipes in the basement were damaged, causing flooding.

Over time, the home’s exterior was used as a canvas for graffiti artists and the values of home prices in the area plummeted. Owens’ neighbors began selling their houses for what they could and fled to other areas. By the time the real estate development company swooped in to buy the few remaining occupied homes, they sold for a fraction of their true value.

Owens drove around the parking lot in a daze while feeling like everything he once knew was gone. He finally parked in a space where he was positive his house had once sat.

The sun was going down, and so were Owens’ eyelids, which were refusing to stay open. Owens laid his head back against the car’s headrest. He was out in seconds.

Oddly enough, he had fallen asleep in the very spot where in years past he often dozed off in his recliner. It was as close to home as he would ever get.

CHAPTER 21

Amy arrived home after dark, but then decided to go elsewhere.

She drove towards the Pierce farm and intended to watch it for a while. She had bought a pair of binoculars earlier as she gathered the supplies she needed, and intended to put them to use.

When she reached the farm, she was driving only a short distance behind Rick Pierce, as he and Val returned home. After returning from Pennsylvania, Pierce and Val had picked up their daughters from Jake and Stacey’s house where Christy was babysitting Sophia and Rosa.

Amy eased her car onto the shoulder of the road where she’d been parked when she first met Matt. When she saw that the vehicle that had been driving in front of her had stopped near Pierce’s gate, she brought the binoculars up and followed the car with her eyes.

Rick Pierce was driving, and he must have activated a remote, because the gates opened on their own and allowed him to drive onto the property.

Amy zoomed in with the binoculars and saw that Pierce had gotten out of the car and was reaching into the back seat.

Pierce straightened again after a few moments and Amy saw a sleeping Sophia was in his left arm. After walking around to the other side of the car, Pierce joined Val, who had already freed the latches on Rosa’s car seat. Pierce picked up his younger daughter, who was asleep, but stirring.

Little Rosa opened her eyes for a moment, smiled, and murmured something before falling back to sleep. Pierce kissed Rosa on the cheek, and then kissed Sophia as well. Val had the front door open by the time Pierce reached it and the family walked into their home.

Amy lowered the binoculars and thought about the scene she had just witnessed in secret.

Unbeknownst to her, she was also being watched by Dave Owens.

***

Owens had gotten Rick Pierce’s address from Li Ming, and she had even shown him the pictures of the home that had been in the magazine.

Owens had recognized Valeria Pierce as the woman who had escaped from Jack Murphy’s van and thought of her as being instrumental in his downfall.

The fact that Val and Pierce appeared to be happily married only made him hate the two of them more. He then realized with disgust that it was due to his actions that the two of them had ever met in the first place.

When Owens woke up from his nap in the parking lot, he had driven to Pierce’s home to spy on the detective. He’d left his stolen car parked near the locked construction fence, and had blanched when he saw the sign on the gate and realized that he was standing on land that belonged to a prison.

He had wisely moved through the sparse woods to reach the house. Although traffic was light in the area, the last thing Owens needed was for Rick Pierce to drive by and recognize him.

He had debated going to Florida where his ex-wife’s brother lived. The man must know what happened to Owens’ daughters, and he would make him talk. However, just thinking about the long trip made Owens weary, and, he was aware that his health was in decline. As much as he wanted to see his daughters, Owens wanted, no, he needed to get revenge on Pierce.

He would do so, and afterwards, he’d flee to Florida and get the information he needed.

The walk to the Pierce home wasn’t a long one, but Owens was weak, and while the diarrhea had abated, the pain in his middle had grown stronger. He’d stopped along the way and had been standing in the woods, while leaning back against a tree, when Pierce drove by out on the road.

Amy’s car came into view seconds later, but then she had parked and cut off her engine.

When Owens saw that she was spying on Rick Pierce, he knew something was up, but couldn’t imagine what it could be. Whatever it was, Owens wanted to know more about it. He rushed back to his vehicle as fast as he could, and had just started the engine when he saw Amy’s headlights turn on in the distance.

Owens followed her back to her townhouse. He waited until she had time to go inside and settle in, and then he crept to the rear of her home and peeped in through a gap in a window blind.

Amy was pacing about her kitchen and looked as if she were debating something with herself. When she spoke, Owens thought she had detected his presence, but no, she was just talking to herself. Whatever her connection was to Ricardo Pierce, it was intense.

When Amy disappeared into another room, Owens walked around to the front and looked at the name on the mailbox, Amy Lowe.

Having gathered a name to go along with the face, Owens returned to his stolen car. He had been planning on spying on Pierce until he saw an opportunity to sneak up on the man and shoot him, but not now.

The woman spying on Pierce, this Amy Lowe, was more interesting. Owens wondered if perhaps she were a spurned lover that Pierce had an affair with. Owens’ stomach sealed his decision to keep an eye on Amy, as the pain in his abdomen increased.

He drove his car off the street and parked in a spot reserved for visitors. After swallowing four more pain pills, Owens slouched down in his seat and tried to sleep. He had a big day planned for tomorrow. He was going to kill a cop.

***

Amy was pacing around her home and talking to herself because she was beginning to have second thoughts about her plan. Valeria Pierce did not appear threatening at a glance, but while researching her intended kidnap victim, Amy had learned an interesting fact.

Valeria Pierce had been a boxer when she was younger. One of the photos in the magazine had shown the home gym in the Pierce’s basement. Amy had assumed that the heavy bag hanging down from a ceiling beam had been something Pierce used. She should have known better. Ricardo Pierce, even when young, detested exercise or sports.

He enjoyed watching sports, but wouldn’t participate in them, and Rick never would have taken up such a grueling activity as boxing.

If Amy slipped up while abducting Val Pierce on Friday, she realized that her victim could easily gain the upper hand on her. She had been planning on using a gun to scare Val into doing as she said, but Amy didn’t know if it would work. She’d also discovered that Valeria Pierce had once escaped from the serial killers Owens and Murphy. Perhaps the woman had no fear of guns, after all, she had married a man who carried one as a matter of course.

Along with the gun, Amy was planning to drug Val into unconsciousness with anesthesia applied to a rag. To do that, she would have to get close, and that’s when Val could hurt her.

She would never use the gun. Amy would actually rather be caught than seriously hurt or God forbid, kill someone. The restraints she placed in the cabin with the chains were fur-lined handcuffs that she had bought at a sex shop for cash while wearing a disguise. She went to the trouble of getting them so that Val’s wrists wouldn’t bleed if she strained against her bonds.

“I’m not a bad person,” Amy said out loud, while talking to herself. She only needed money and the kidnapping seemed the easiest way to get it.

When she thought about what could go wrong it scared her. She had planned everything down to the smallest detail but now doubt about her abilities had crept in.

Matt had told her that Rick and Val Pierce would be out the next night. Matt was going to unlock the door so Amy could get inside and familiarize herself with the home. Although she had been in the house countless times before, that all occurred twenty years earlier.

Amy’s planned abduction of Val on Friday would, by necessity, take place in the daytime. That was also a concern, for although the Pierce property was large and fairly secluded, there could be people moving about on the nearby road.

As zero hour approached, the flaws in the plan seem to multiply, such as the matter of the front gate.

Thanks to Matt, Amy knew the code, but by using it, she would mark the crime as an inside job. Val Pierce might let her in if she came up with a convincing story, but then Amy couldn’t surprise her as she planned to do.

If she entered on her own by using the code, Val might hear her coming anyway, and might even arm herself against the sudden appearance of a stranger.

Amy was wiping away tears as she began to doubt her chances of success, but when the answer to her problems came to her, it both horrified her and buoyed her spirits.

She could take the children instead.

The girls were small enough for her to carry out to the gate, and she had already been planning to climb over the horse fence that surrounded the property on three sides. Pierce’s children would be no physical threat to her, and there would be two frantic parents eager to pay anything to get them back.

Amy laughed.

It could really work.

There were slight changes she’d have to make that would necessitate another trip to the cabin. She would also need to cut the dosage on the anesthesia she was planning to use on Val, but yes, it could work. It could really work.

And while she felt bad about using the children, Amy told herself that the girls would never be at risk. With a little luck, once drugged, they might stay asleep until the ordeal was over.

With her nerves calmed again, thoughts of the money returned. Amy drifted off to sleep, and dreamed of being wealthy.

CHAPTER 22

The next morning, Pierce and Collins traveled to Oscar Carlson’s hobby shop to talk with Carlson’s sister, Leah Meyers.

When they told Leah they had a viable suspect, she looked pleased that they were working swiftly to find her brother’s murderer. She also placed a finger to her lips and pointed over at a corner where a girl sat reading a book.

It was the same girl that had assured them Oscar Carlson wasn’t a molester. Pierce recalled her name and sent her a smile.

“Hi Maggie. How are you, honey?”

“I’m good, but what was that you said? You found out who killed Oscar?”

Pierce nodded.

“We think so.”

Jake decided to ask Maggie a question. Although a child, she seemed to have been one of Oscar Carlson’s friends. She might know something that would help them.

“Maggie, did you ever see Oscar have an argument with anyone?”

The girl giggled.

“He argued with his neighbor Miss Miller all the time, but I think she really liked Oscar and just didn’t want anyone to know.”

“I see you’re a perceptive young lady, but what about anyone else, like a big man, you know, the type of big with lots of muscles?”

Oh, him? No, he and Oscar never had a fight or anything,” Maggie said, but it was what she said next that took the case in a whole new direction.

***

Dave Owens woke before the sun came up because he was in too much pain to keep sleeping peacefully. Not only had the ache grown worse, but he felt lethargic. He took a chance of suspending his watch on Amy’s place and drove out of town. He needed coffee and perhaps some food, and there was less chance of being recognized by an old acquaintance if he drove out of the area.

He returned to Amy’s home and followed her as she left it two hours later. She made a quick stop at a grocery store, then took off again. Owens wondered if Amy were going back to the Pierce farm, but soon realized that she was headed south instead.

The two of them crawled along in the rush hour traffic of a Thursday morning until it thinned out and they exited the Garden State Parkway. Owens had to place more distance between them when Amy headed into the Pine Barrens.

Amy stopped for gas, and when she emerged from the store she was lugging bags of ice. After getting back on the move again, she made the turn onto a narrow road that joined up with a dirt road.

Owens kept going straight instead of following her down the dirt road. The region was as dry as he’d ever seen it and Amy’s car was leaving a dust cloud in its wake. Had Owens followed her, even at a great distance, she would have known that someone was on her tail.

Owens U-turned on the quiet country road and followed Amy’s progress by watching the plume of dirt she left in her wake, he followed her route only after losing sight of her wake, and found that she had traveled onto another dirt road.

The second road was bordered by trees on both sides and it felt to Owens as if he were peering into a green tunnel as he searched for a sign of Amy. He was about to curse in frustration when he emerged from the shade of the overhanging trees and saw no sign of her car, but then, he spotted it.

It was another dirt road, but this one was bordered by weedy fields. Again, he dared not follow her, or the dirt cloud his car would create could alert her. When Owens recalled that he had passed a narrow break in the trees, he placed his car in reverse.

When he found the gap, he drove his car slowly off the road and over parched vegetation. There were overgrown bushes behind the trees, and they would conceal his car well. Owens rolled the car onto a bare patch and parked.

He had bought a cheap pair of binoculars at a convenience store that morning. The plastic thing was more a toy than it was a reliable and accurate optics device, but he held it up to his eyes and was surprised that he could see a fair distance with it.

He spotted the car as it made a turn and then dropped the binoculars as a sharp pain made him wince. The pain was so bad that his eyes watered and he balled his hands into fists.

By the time he recovered, Owens assumed that he had lost Amy’s trail, but to his surprise, a plume of dust was heading towards his location. It was Amy, and she was coming back from wherever she had gone to.

Owens waited until he was certain she was gone and drove to the last change in direction he’d seen her make. It turned out to be an old gravel road that was more dirt than rock. When he came around a curve, he saw the cabin.

He hesitated for a moment, while wondering if anyone was inside the rustic structure. After tooting his horn and waiting for over a minute, Owens shut off his engine and headed for the cabin’s front door.

The door had been forced open by Amy on her first trip to set up the cabin, and so Owens walked in with his gun in his hand. It wasn’t long before he was upstairs and looking at the bed in the loft. The bed with the chains attached to its headboard and footboard. Along with the chains, there were teddy bears. Two pink ones.

The lady was definitely up to something, but Owens was damned if he could figure out what it was. Teddy bears and chains?

There was a white foam cooler beside the bed.

When Owens opened it he saw the small drink boxes and the kid-sized snack packs. It was the type of thing that a mother might pack in her kid’s lunch box.

Owens grinned.

The kids, Pierce’s two girls. The woman was planning on kidnapping them.

The grin was wiped from Owen’s face as another sharp pain cut through him. He sat on the edge of the bed, and then laid back upon it.

The agony passed quickly, only to be replaced by an awful sense of weakness. It was as if someone was draining the vitality right out of him.

Owens fell asleep while holding one of the pink teddy bears.

***

After hearing what the girl, Maggie, had to say, Jake requested a rush job on the analysis of the film from the nanny cam.

He had to get authorization from their lieutenant, Coke Dyer, and Jake was pleasantly surprised to find Stacey speaking with the lieutenant. When Jake saw the smile on his wife’s face, he knew that she had just received good news.

“You’ve been promoted, honey?”

“Not yet, but Coke said that it looks good, thanks to him and Rick.”

Coke waved that off.

“Listen, we both know that Lieutenant Holloway does nothing but sleep in this office all night while Stacey handles his duties. If that bum wasn’t retiring this year, he’d likely be forced out, and anyway, Stacey’s the best choice.”

“Rick would be the best choice,” Stacey said. “But you’ve got other plans, don’t you, Rick?”

Pierce held up his hands.

“I haven’t decided yet, but yeah, there’s a chance I’ll be retiring soon too.”

Coke looked reflective as he spoke.

“It always seems like big changes come in clumps, doesn’t it?”

Pierce nodded in agreement, and after telling Stacey goodbye, Jake asked for the approval on the rush job on the film enhancement. They were still standing before the desk instead of taking seats.

Pierce and Jake had learned on the way into the station that they had to evaluate the scene where a death had occurred. There was no thought of foul play. The deceased was 90 and had lived alone. Still, they had to check it out. The back door of the home had been sitting ajar when the body was discovered in bed. As far as suspicious circumstances went, that was minor, since there were no signs of violence.

Coke winked at Jake.

“The film lab is already on it. This is your first case as lead detective and I want to ease your way, but tell me, what are you hoping to find?”

“We have another suspect,” Jake said, and then he went on to fill Coke in on their theory.

Coke smiled at Jake, and then looked over at Pierce.

“If you do retire, Rick, I know who will fill your shoes.”

CHAPTER 23

The suspicious circumstance of the old man’s back door being left open was explained to Pierce and Jake by several of the elderly gentleman’s neighbors.

Their ninety-year-old friend, a Mr. Elmer Doolittle, had recently gotten into the habit of neglecting to close his doors completely. That had resulted in some interesting situations, such as a raccoon invasion, and the arrival of a pregnant alley cat, who had her kittens in the old man’s closet.

One neighbor, an accountant, who worked from her home, said that the old man had told her that he’d come into his kitchen one morning and found a bear going through the garbage can.

“It wasn’t a bear. It was the Newfoundland dog from down the street, but that is a really big dog. Elmer was so proud when he told me that story. He believed that he had run a bear off with just his cane. I didn’t have the heart to tell him otherwise.” The woman sighed. “I’m really gonna miss that old man.”

***

After leaving that scene, the detectives stopped for a late lunch. The meal was being eaten in the car when Jake received a text from the film lab. They had found something of interest.

By four o’clock, Jake and Pierce were sitting across from Conner King again, while the man’s lawyer and brother, Jason King, sat beside him.

Jake and Pierce had revealed their new evidence to the lawyer along with the story that was relayed to them by Maggie. Conner King’s brother looked shaken and confused, but he told Jake that he would do what he could to help get to the truth.

Pierce sat beside Jake inside an interview room as his partner began Conner King’s second interview.

“You lied to us, Mr. King. You did know Oscar Carlson and you were also there when he died.”

Conner King shifted his gaze away and stared at the table top.

“One of the times you talked to Oscar Carlson, he wasn’t alone. He was with a girl, a child. That girl told us what had transpired that day and also how Oscar tried to help you.”

Conner King clasped his hands together and began wringing them. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, and yet, Pierce could make out the man’s huge muscles writhing beneath the fabric. He marveled at the amount of work and dedication King must have put into his workouts to become so massive.

Jake continued, while removing a set of photos from a brown envelope.

“The video recovered from the nanny cam shows little more than vague shapes in the rain, but the lab technicians worked wonders with it.”

Jake turned one of the photos over and slid it in front of Conner King.

“That still shot from the video was taken right before the tree limb struck Oscar Carlson. As you can see, he was looking back at someone while running. He was fleeing from your yard, Conner.”

Conner’s hands kneaded each other faster as he stared down at the photo, but he remained silent.

Jake reached over and pointed at the picture, and in particular, at Oscar Carlson’s face.

“We believe that the dark streak on the side of Oscar’s face is blood. He had been struck already, and he was running to get away, but then, that damn branch hit him and trapped him. The coroner believes that he was unconscious, and we know he was helpless. You also know he was helpless, because you were there, Conner. You were there.”

A second photo was slid in front of Conner. This one showed him standing over Oscar Carlson’s body.

Upon seeing it, the big man’s hands gripped each other tightly, and although he couldn’t be certain, Pierce thought he heard the man whimper.

A third photo was slid atop the others and was different. It was a photo of Conner King dressed in posing shorts and he was flexing his arms at a bodybuilding competition. Conner was smiling in the photo, but the smile was marred by a puffy lip, while one eye showed discoloration, as if it had been blackened days before.

“We know,” Jake said. “We know who hits you, who abuses you, and we know who murdered Oscar Carlson.”

A fourth and final photo was placed before Conner. It showed him from the back as the other photo had done. He was staring down at Oscar Carlson’s body, and he was not alone. Just feet in front of him was his wife. Video enhancement had revealed what the naked eye couldn’t see and Lana King was revealed in a flash of lightning. She too was staring down at Oscar Carlson, and in her right hand was a thick branch that resembled a club.

Tears began to patter onto the photos as Conner’s huge shoulders shook. A deep sob escaped him, and his brother placed an arm across Conner’s shoulders.

“Talk to them, Conner. You can’t protect Lana and you don’t have to keep taking her abuse. She’s like Mom, isn’t she? Lana is just like Mom.”

Conner nodded, but still said nothing. There was a box of tissues on the table and Jake slid them over to Conner.

“Your wife will be arrested after this interview,” Jake said. “I can’t even begin to imagine how hard this all is for you, but you need to do what’s right for your daughter... and for yourself too, Conner.”

After blowing his nose and wiping away tears, Conner looked up.

“Oscar was such a kind man. He was coming to my aid that night.” Conner pulled the hem of his shirt up and revealed fading bruises on his chest. They were odd bruises, in that, they appeared to be wide and semi-circular.

“Lana was hitting me with a cast iron skillet because I forgot to bring the laundry up from the basement. Oscar had seen her beating me before as he cut through the woods, and one of those times he was with the child you mentioned. The night he was... the night he died, he must have seen what was happening through the glass patio doors. He pounded on them and told Lana to calm down. Lana hates being told to calm down.”

“What happened?” Jake said.

“Lana put the skillet on the stove and slid open the door. When Oscar asked me if I was all right, Lana told Oscar to mind his own business or she would give him what she gave him the last time he interfered.”

“She was referring to an incident that happened about a month ago, wasn’t she?”

Conner nodded.

“Yes, she had slapped Oscar then and cut his cheek with that pearl ring she wears. Oscar wanted to press charges against her, but Lana reminded him that he was trespassing and Oscar backed down.”

“Oscar didn’t back down the night he died, did he?”

“No, and Lana was furious. As she spoke, she was getting in Oscar’s face, and she followed him out into the pouring rain while yelling. Before leaving, Oscar said that he was going to tell the police about Lana, about how she was. That made her turn crimson with rage and she stooped and grabbed a broken tree branch from the ground.”

Conner stopped speaking for a moment as he shook his head sadly.

“Oscar laughed at her. Oh God, that was the exact wrong thing to do. Then, he made it even worse when he dared her to hit him again. He said that if she did, he’d have her arrested this time and to hell with the trespassing charge. Lana didn’t care, his laughter had flipped a switch in her and she was too far gone by then.”

“Too far gone?” Jake said.

“It’s hard to explain, but,” Conner turned to his brother. “Remember how Mom used to get? There were times she didn’t even know we were there anymore. She just needed to vent her anger.”

“I remember,” Jason King said. “And I still have the scars.” Jason reached over and grabbed a tissue, to wipe at his eyes. “Tell them everything, Conner. It’ll come out anyway and they need to understand that you weren’t a part of this.”

Conner sighed.

“Lana struck Oscar with the thick branch she was holding. He looked at her as if she were mad and then she struck him again. I saw his eyes roll up into the back of his head and he fell backwards onto the wet grass. I thought he was unconscious, but Lana said he was faking and raised her arm to hit him again, but then our daughter called to her.”

Jason King hung his head.

“Emily saw her mother hit that man?”

“I don’t think so, but when we went inside to see to Emily, Oscar must have recovered and gotten to his feet. Lana saw him stumbling away and called out to him. Oscar looked back at her with panic in his eyes and began to run.”

“Before I could follow them, I had to secure Emily in her highchair. I heard the sound of the tree limb coming loose. It made a thumping noise when it landed. I left the house and ran over to find Oscar trapped beneath the branch.”

“Was he unconscious?” Jake asked.

Conner nodded.

“He was out cold. I thought about trying to move the tree limb off of him, but I didn’t want to take a chance of dropping it back onto him if the limb proved to be too heavy to move. I turned to run back inside and report the accident, and, and that’s when I heard the first whacking sound.”

“Whacking sound? Your wife hit Oscar again?”

“Yes, three more times. She said that the police—that you would believe the branch killed him. She wasn’t even concerned that she had killed a man. She only cared that no one knew what she was really like.”

“Why didn’t you come forward?” Jake asked.

Conner’s face collapsed and he reached for another tissue.

“I was scared, and... there’s my daughter. She’s still so young, what will happen to Emily if her mother goes away for murder?”

“She’ll grow up in a home without violence,” Jake said, and Conner nodded in understanding before wiping at fresh tears.

CHAPTER 24

After returning from the Pine Barrens, Amy spent the day rearranging the furniture in her apartment. She had also rehung old curtains, changed the décor of her bathroom, and placed a new comforter on her bed.

It was all a part of her plan.

She was certain that Matt loved her enough to protect her no matter how shocked he became over the kidnapping.

He would put it together for sure. For the Pierce children to go missing on the same night that he snuck her into the house would be too huge a coincidence to believe.

However, if Matt betrayed her or simply panicked and confessed his unwitting role in the crime, Amy would be prepared.

She would deny their relationship and tell the authorities that the boy must be mentally disturbed. Matt would then try to prove that she was lying. All he knew about her were things that he could have found out in other ways, but he had spent time in her apartment, and could describe it in detail.

With the furniture moved around and with even the pictures on the walls changed, any description he gave of her home would ring false.

She knew that she would still be a suspect, but no one would ever be able to prove her involvement.

Amy gazed around her rearranged townhouse and smiled.

It was better to be safe than sorry, but Matt would come through for her and stay quiet. After all, he loved her, and he was still too young to realize just how worthless love really was.

Amy took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

It was time to prepare for her visit to Rick Pierce’s home.

Amy thought of the pain and fear Pierce would suffer through when he realized his daughters were missing. She pushed it aside. The pain would be temporary, and in the end, Pierce and his wife would have a greater appreciation for their children.

She smiled.

In a way, she was doing the family a favor.

***

Leah Meyers released Pierce from her embrace and then hugged Jake.

They had visited her brother’s hobby shop and informed her that they had arrested his murderer.

After thanking Jake, Leah wiped tears from her eyes.

“You say that the woman is a young mother? She must have psychiatric problems to have harmed a man as sweet as my brother.”

Jake explained that Lana King was also guilty of spousal abuse and Leah shook her head sadly.

“Poor Oscar.”

Pierce looked around.

“What do you plan to do with the store and the house?”

Leah brightened.

“I’m donating the store and the property it sits on to the town. I happened to overhear a conversation at a restaurant today and learned that the town council is looking for a property to use as an after school youth center. I think Oscar would be happy to know that children like Maggie will still have somewhere to go that’s safe.”

“That sounds great,” Pierce agreed.

“Reba Miller wants to buy Oscar’s home. She has no use for it; she just doesn’t want another neighbor.”

“Are you going to sell it to her?” Pierce asked.

“No, I don’t think I will. I think I’ll find a nice young family to sell it to. Oscar said that Reba had softened up towards him over the years. I wouldn’t want her to turn into a recluse and neither would Oscar. It will do her good to live next to a family.”

The store was closed for business, but there was a knock at the door. It was the group of children that Pierce and Jake had met before, including Maggie. When Jake told Maggie that she had helped to catch Oscar’s killer, she smiled.

“Good, anyone who would hurt Oscar would hurt anybody and should be locked up.”

They left the hobby shop, and as they headed back to the station, Pierce was smiling. It was his and Val’s bi-weekly date night, and he was looking forward to the dinner and movie they had planned.

“Detective Collins.”

Jake turned and looked at Pierce.

“Yes?”

“Damn fine work, Detective, and you’re ready to take the reins.”

“Thanks, but does this mean what I think? Are you becoming a P.I. like Jimmy?”

Pierce smiled.

“It does have its appeal, but no, I haven’t decided yet.”

“Hey, Rick, thanks for letting me prove myself. I owe nearly everything I am as a cop to you and I won’t ever let you down.”

“I know you won’t, and you’re welcome.”

Jake gave his head a little shake.

“I keep thinking about that tree limb and the timing of its fall. If Oscar Carlson had passed beneath it a few seconds sooner, it would have blocked Lana King’s path and saved him, instead, it sealed his fate.”

“True, but he had already passed beneath it safely. He only returned to help Conner King, and by helping Conner King, he also helped King’s daughter. Lana King may have killed that child someday while having one of her fits of rage, now that will never happen. I like to think about that and know that Oscar Carlson didn’t die for nothing; he may have actually saved a life.”

“Isn’t that just putting a positive spin on things?”

Pierce smiled.

“Of course it is, but it makes me feel better.”

***

Inside a secluded cabin in the Pine Barrens, Dave Owens was not feeling better, and in fact, he was feeling worse.

Owens awoke in gloom and realized that he had fallen asleep. He sat up in a rush and the teddy bear he’d been holding fell to the floor. After listening intently for sounds of movement, Owens knew he’d gotten lucky and that Amy hadn’t returned while he was sleeping.

The sleep had done nothing to replenish his strength, and along with his growing lethargy there was also the pain, which had become ever-present. Owens placed a hand over his stomach and winced.

After climbing down from the loft, Owens went out to his car and saw by the clock on the dash that it was early evening. He opened one of the warm bottles of water he had in the car and drank half of it.

The water refreshed him, but he had no appetite. Owens sat in the car and wondered what his next move should be.

He could leave and hope to locate Amy again, but movement meant risking capture. He also had no idea whether or not Amy had a partner, if so, that person could be headed to the cabin to await the arrival of the kidnapped children. If Owens followed Amy back after she grabbed the Pierce children, he might be outnumbered. It was also difficult to approach the cabin while remaining undetected.

Owens decided to stay and conceal himself. Whoever was with the children would relax once they were certain they weren’t followed, and then he could easily take them by surprise. Owens wanted Pierce’s children not for ransom, but for revenge.

Pierce had essentially stolen two daughters away from him and now he would return the favor. Although he had never killed a child, Owens decided to make an exception, or rather two. He would take Pierce’s children away from their kidnapper and then call the detective to taunt him. Pierce would know that his daughters were doomed because he would know that Owens would show them no mercy. Owens only wished that he could see the look on Pierce’s face when he realized who had his daughters.

Owens returned from his daydreaming and sighed, he was wasting time. He was also feeling chilled, although the day was mild. He checked the car for anything useful and found a suit jacket in the trunk. The jacket was like something an old man would have worn. Owens supposed that it belonged to the husband of the elderly woman he’d stolen the car from. If so, the man must be nothing but skin and bones. The jacket was snug on him, and he was being consumed by cancer. Perhaps the damn disease had claimed the old man as well, and that’s why the suit jacket was so small.

Owens started the car and drove it towards the spot where he had concealed it earlier. It was about a mile from the cabin and he dreaded making the walk back, but the vehicle had to be hidden from view.

Owens parked the car where he’d previously placed it while hiding from Amy, however, he moved farther off the road than he had before, and inadvertently parked the vehicle atop a patch of dry weeds.

This would later prove to be a grave mistake. The undercarriage of the vehicle was hot and the tops of the weeds were pressed against it. One weed darkened from the heat, and then another. By nightfall, there would be a smoldering patch beneath the car that would later ignite and fuel a disaster.

CHAPTER 25

Matt arrived at the Pierce home at seven o’clock and wondered if Amy were somewhere nearby watching him.

She had texted him just as he got out of his jeep and reminded him to unlock the front door at nine o’clock. He texted her back, telling her that he would do so, but that he still wished she would change her mind.

Amy had assured him that she would be in and out in fifteen minutes. She then ended the conversation by telling Matt she loved him.

Matt’s girlfriend, Christy, was in the middle of playing a board game with Sophia and Rosa. Matt joined in, but his mind was elsewhere and he kept checking his watch.

“What time are Mr. and Mrs. Pierce coming back?” Matt asked.

“They said around ten, like they usually do, and guess what? Val is pregnant again.”

“Mrs. Pierce is pregnant?”

“Mommy says Sophia and I are gonna have a baby brother,” Rosa said.

Matt smiled back at the little girl.

“That’s awesome, sweetie, and you’ll make a great big sister.”

Rosa looked down at herself.

“I’m not very big.”

The game ended and Christy took the girls upstairs to get ready for bed.

After waving goodnight to them, Matt waited until he was certain that Christy was occupied, and then he undid the locks on the front door.

With that done, Matt sent a text to Amy and let her know that the kids had gone upstairs for the night and that they would soon be asleep.

Amy reminded him once again that he had to get Christy into the back yard and keep her there for a time.

Christy reappeared a little later with a big smile on her face and joined Matt in the living room.

“The girls are really excited about the baby coming. They’ve even picked out a name for him.”

“What do they want to call him?”

“Hopper.”

“Hopper?”

“It’s from a cartoon about a talking frog. They both love it.”

“Hey, why don’t we go outside for a while? It’s a nice night.”

Christy smiled.

“Okay, but I have to straighten up in here and clean up the kitchen.”

“I’ll help you.”

Christy walked over and put her arms around Matt’s neck, and then she kissed him.

“I’m glad you came over. I hardly see you anymore. What are all these errands that your mom has you doing?”

“Oh, it’s just stuff I have to do around the house, like cutting the grass.”

“All right, but I want us to hang out all day together Saturday, okay?”

“Yeah, but why?”

“Because I miss seeing you.”

Christy kissed him again. Matt responded by wrapping his arms around her, and as he did so, he saw that nine o’clock was approaching fast. He ended the kiss and began gathering up toys.

“I’ll clean up in here while you do the dishes and stuff. That way, we’ll get outside quicker.”

Christy looked at him curiously, but then shrugged.

“Okay, and thanks.”

When he finished straightening up the room, Matt went to the front door and looked out the peep hole. He could almost feel Amy’s presence out there, and wondered why she was so insistent on sneaking into the Pierce home.

Matt left the door when he heard the water cut off in the kitchen, and went to join Christy.

He found her smiling devilishly while holding up a bottle of beer.

“Why don’t we share this? Uncle Rick will just think that Uncle Jimmy drank it.”

Matt grinned.

“You’re a bad girl.”

“And you’re a bad boy,” Christy teased.

Matt’s smile faded. If Christy knew how bad he’d been lately, she’d never want to see him again. He knew that being with Amy wasn’t right because of the difference in their ages, but he didn’t care about that. He loved Amy, and Amy loved him too. She had said so.

“Matt?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you still want to go outside?”

Matt looked up at the kitchen clock. It was 9:02.

“Let’s go!”

Christy giggled as Matt rushed her outside, and as they walked out the back door, Amy Lowe was creeping in through the front door.

***

Amy’s hands were gloved, her face concealed, and her intent was to take Rick Pierce’s children. Amy walked up the staircase, entered the children’s bedroom, and stared down at Pierce’s little angels.

Sophia and Rosa both smiled in their sleep as they dreamed, but their waking nightmare was just beginning.

Amy pulled the bottle containing the anesthesia from her pocket and gripped it tight. The substance inside the bottle was an ether-based concoction that she had gotten off the internet. The original mixture had been intended to subdue Val Pierce, but Amy cut the potency in half for the children.

It was supposed to be safe and leave its victim unconscious for many hours. Still, Sophia and Rosa looked tiny beneath their covers and Amy began to fear that the drug might harm them. She crept into the room’s adjoining bathroom and added just a bit of water to the mixture.

Using Pierce’s children was one thing, but if she were to harm the girls, Amy would never forgive herself.

After shaking the bottle to let the water mix well, Amy poured a little onto a rag she’d taken from a pocket.

She hesitated, but then clamped the rag over Sophia’s face. The child awoke wide-eyed and frightened, but her struggle was a brief one before she went limp. In the other bed, little Rosa stirred, but her eyes stayed closed.

Amy checked Sophia and found her pulse strong and her breathing appeared to be normal. She repeated the process with Rosa, who struggled a bit longer, but succumbed to the drug all the same.

Now came the difficult part. Amy was wearing a contraption over her shirt that was made for toting twins around. It was a combination of straps and slings that resembled a topless backpack with leg holes cut in its bottom. One of the slings was in the front, while the other was at the back. Sophia and Rosa were no longer babies, but Amy thought they would fit into it.

Amy gathered up the girls’ white slippers and placed them into the canvas bag that hung from her shoulder. Both Rosa and Sophia were dressed in white nightgowns that reminded Amy of a communion dress. She smiled, she had never wanted children, but the girls looked adorable and she could see a bit of Rick Pierce in their features.

Amy shook herself and got down to business. She cinched the waist belt tighter and then picked up Rosa. The little girl was heavier than Amy thought she’d be, likely because she was limp, but her legs slid into the front sling without a problem.

On the other hand, getting Sophia inside the rear sling proved to be difficult. Aware that she had no time to waste, Amy picked Sophia up and settled her over a shoulder. The girls’ combined weight made her have to strain with each step she took, and she was glad that she was walking down stairs instead of climbing them.

She had to be careful going out the door or she risked striking Sophia’s head against the doorframe. Her car was parked out at the gate with mud obscuring its license plates. Amy had to carry her victims over a hundred yards, and she was breathing hard and sweating by the time she reached the gate.

She relieved herself of Sophia’s burden by laying the child atop the grass. Amy so wanted to lean against the fence and rest, but she dared not waste the time. After easing her way carefully through the slats of the horse fence, she opened her car and placed Rosa amid the cocoon of down comforters she had earlier fashioned in her rear seat. The comforters were covered in sheets of plastic and it would all be discarded later. Amy would also clean the car thoroughly. She was well aware that a single strand of DNA could cost her decades behind bars.

Upon retrieving Sophia, Amy repeated the process. Although they weren’t strapped in, the girls were lying on several layers of down-filled comfort, and more importantly, they were out of view.

Headlights appeared farther down the quiet road, but Amy was already pulling away from the gate. The car turned out to be a pickup truck and the driver paid Amy no attention as he talked into a cell phone.

Amy’s hands stopped trembling by the time she reached the highway. After looking into the rear and seeing her precious cargo, she smiled.

She had done it! She had actually done it and soon she would be a rich woman. Amy drove towards the cabin while thinking of Matt. He was the only weak link in her plan, but she hoped that the love he felt for her would make him strong and keep him silent.

After all, love had to be good for something.

CHAPTER 26

As usual, Matt left the house before Val and Pierce were due home. They told Christy that they didn’t mind her having company over, but she was considerate and tried not to abuse their trust.

Matt had relocked the door earlier without Christy seeing him do it. He assumed that Amy had been and gone, but didn’t dare wander through the home to confirm it. If Amy were still inside the house after he left it, he hoped that she would be able to sneak out without being seen.

After Christy unfastened the locks to let him out, Matt kissed her goodbye, and Christy reminded him to call her when he arrived home safely. Afterwards, Christy walked around the rooms on the ground floor to make sure that all was neat and tidy.

She sat on the sofa and watched a sitcom, then, she wondered why Matt hadn’t called her yet, since he lived only a short distance away. She decided to wait a little longer before she checked to see that he was all right, and a few minutes before ten, she went upstairs to peek in on the children.

For some reason, Christy noticed that Sophia’s slippers were missing from the side of the bed before she realized that the girls were both gone.

She sighed.

They hadn’t played this game in a long time, but she assumed they were awake and hiding somewhere. On rare occasions, the girls would remain wide awake and wander the house while avoiding Christy. It was never hard to find them, you just had to listen and follow the giggling.

Christy had thought the girls had outgrown the game, but she supposed the excitement of learning they’d soon have a baby brother had suppressed their desire for sleep.

Christy called to them in a singsong voice.

“Sophia, Rosa, where are you?”

No answer.

Christy called to the girls while walking the home and began feeling concerned. She had even checked the balcony, the yard, and beneath every bed. She hadn’t seen or heard a sign of them. As she opened the door that led down to the finished basement, Christy knew in her heart that the girls weren’t down there. She checked anyway, and came flying back up the stairs in a panic.

“Sophia! Rosa! Girls this isn’t funny anymore. If you’re here, come to me.”

Nothing, just the sound of the refrigerator motor cycling on.

Christy cried as she took out her phone.

When Jake answered, she almost screamed the news at him.

“Dad, I can’t find the girls anywhere!”

It was then she heard the front door open. Val and Pierce had come home.

***

About the same time that Christy was going into the Pierce basement, Matt was removing an envelope that had been taped to the rear door of Amy’s townhouse.

He had been a block from his house when he received a text from her telling him that she needed to see him right away. When Matt got there, he found the note. The note was typed, and by the lack of light and sound coming from the townhouse, Matt assumed that Amy wasn’t home.

He didn’t open the envelope until he was back in his jeep with the dome light on. When he realized what the note was telling him, he gasped.

––––––––

Matt,

I’ve done that bad thing that you swore you’d be able to forgive me for doing.

When I snuck in the house, I didn’t leave alone. I have the girls and they won’t be harmed.

The police and FBI will question you, but all you have to do is remain silent. I left a letter where someone will find it and this will all be over very soon.

You need to destroy this note and get rid of the phone I gave you. When it’s safe, I’ll contact you, but don’t come back to my home.

Stay strong my love, and stay silent. Once we have the ransom money, we’ll be able to be together.

I love you.

––––––––

Matt read the note three times while his heart beat so loudly that his pulse was pounding in his ears.

When his phone rang, he jumped.

It was a call identified as coming from the Pierce house.

Matt let it ring, started his jeep, but then shut the engine off. He had no idea what to do next, but knew that he couldn’t go home.

***

Thanks to light traffic, Amy arrived at the cabin without being delayed. She had to slow down a bit over the last few miles of the trip because of all the deer roaming about at night, but she arrived without incident.

Sophia and Rosa had murmured in their sleep, but had not awakened. Once she was at the cabin, Amy brought them inside one by one and secured them to the bed. Planning the children’s abduction was one thing, while seeing the tiny figures bound to a bed with chains was another thing altogether.

Amy had a moment where she felt like an absolute monster for doing what she’d done, but it passed when she thought about the ransom money.

She left the girls a few minutes later and prayed that they would sleep through the ordeal. In her ransom note, she had left instructions for the money to be gathered by noon the following day. Thanks to Matt, she knew Christy’s email address, and she would use a cheap laptop to send detailed directions to the old well where she wanted them to drop the money. The instructions would also demand that the money be placed in a certain type of container. If the FBI did as she demanded, once dropped inside the old well, the money would float its way to her.

The timeline would be tight, leaving the police and FBI little time to set a trap. Once she had retrieved the ransom, Amy would leave the area and bury the money in a pre-selected spot near her home, then, she would go about her business.

A moderate search of the region near the well would uncover the girls’ location. However, the old well was far enough from the secluded cabin that even if they woke up, the girls should go undetected. They had never seen her face, and if Matt stayed strong and said nothing, there would be no link to connect Amy with the crime. The perfect crime.

Amy sighed before turning from the girls and walking down the stairs to leave the cabin.

She dreaded the conversation she would need to have with Matt, but the boy would have to learn the facts of life. He’d been used, first, for pleasure, and later, for financial gain. He would be used a third time when Amy gave him some of the ransom money. If it were marked, Matt would be arrested.

Amy knew there was a risk of that, but the money could be spent in time, possibly in another country, but there were ways. If Matt wasn’t arrested, then the money was clean and the boy was an accessory to the crime. Once he was an accomplice, he’d be foolish to ever tell what he knew to anyone.

Amy smiled sadly as she started her car.

She would miss Matt, but she would always have pleasant memories of him.

Amy drove away from the cabin, totally unaware that she had left Sophia and Rosa in the hands of a monster.

***

Dave Owens watched Amy’s car until it disappeared from sight, before going up into the loft to see the daughters of a man he hated.

Although their hair was dark instead of blond, Sophia and Rosa reminded Owens’ of his own daughters at that age, and once again he experienced the emotional torment of having lost his family.

Pierce would know that pain as well, Owens vowed silently, oh yes he would.

Dave Owens stared down at Rick Pierce’s daughters and thought about the best way to kill them.

CHAPTER 27

Pierce held on to Val, as around them, controlled chaos swirled.

The ransom note was found under Sophia’s pillow by Val, and Pierce called his friend, FBI Agent Daniel Rodgers. Rodgers knew exactly who to contact to get the investigation going and he showed up at Pierce’s house twenty minutes after hanging up. Shortly after Rodgers came to the home, Rodger’s partner and fellow agent Carl Abrams arrived.

They were soon joined by a small army of FBI personnel who joined Coke Dyer, Jake Collins and other cops on the scene. The police were politely told to stay out of the way, and although it pained them to do so, they acquiesced and did nothing.

Collins, Coke, and the other officers all knew that the FBI were uniquely trained to handle kidnapping situations. They had an expertise that could make all the difference in getting Sophia and Rosa back unharmed.

Stacey appeared at the house last, because she had to find someone to cover for her on the night shift, but she opened her arms for her daughter and Christy fell into them. The distraught teen kept saying how sorry she was for everything, although she wasn’t at fault.

Neither Pierce nor Val were blaming her in the least.

Her boyfriend, Matt, was another matter altogether.

Matt never went home, wasn’t answering his cell phone, and was proving difficult to locate. Matt had apparently removed the battery from his phone. His mother was sick with worry and insisted that Matt must be as much a victim as Sophia and Rosa were, but the facts didn’t support that.

The FBI had video of Matt taken from a traffic camera. The camera had a clear view of the red jeep with the desert decal on its side, and there was no one else in the vehicle. This gave rise to the theory that Matt had a partner. His friends, acquaintances, and relatives were being contacted to be questioned.

Ginny was at the house to give Val comfort, but Jimmy was on the streets. Jimmy Drake was out hunting for Matt, and answers. He told Pierce that he wouldn’t rest until he found the boy.

Pierce, who was no stranger to tense or dangerous situations, trembled with fear at times for his daughter’s safety. He couldn’t imagine why Matt would be involved in a double kidnapping, but assumed that he must have misjudged the boy’s nature.

After releasing Val so that she could go off into the kitchen with Stacey and Ginny, Pierce walked about his home with his hands balled into fists.

He was so tense and filled with anxiety that he jumped when Jake placed a hand on his shoulder.

“We’ll get them back, Rick. You know as well as I do that most kidnappings fail.”

Pierce turned and looked at his partner with eyes on the verge of tears.

“Where are they, Jake? And what the hell is happening to them? Oh God, I’m so scared for them.”

Jake was looking for words to lend comfort to his friend when they both heard it.

It was silence.

The equipment the FBI brought with them made muted sounds, but the men had all grown quiet. They were also staring in Pierce’s direction.

“You have something?” he asked.

Rogers spoke quietly to the agent-in-charge who nodded and handed him a copy of a photo.

“What the hell is going on, Dan?” Pierce said.

Rogers walked over and spoke in a low tone.

“We’ve pulled the video from every camera within a wide radius of your home and fed it all into the computer’s facial recognition software... it had a hit from Wednesday night.”

Rodgers showed Pierce and Jake the photo. It was black & white and taken from an angle, but it was recognizable. It was a photo of Dave Owens.

“There’s a camera at the gate of that construction site nearby. That was what captured his image.”

Pierce dropped the photo, made a strangled cry, and then his legs gave out and he landed on his knees while toppling over a small table. There had been a vase on the table. It shattered as it struck the hardwood floor.

Val came out of the kitchen with Stacey and Ginny. When she saw her husband, she ran to him, and knelt beside him.

“Rick, oh God, what is it?”

Pierce shook his head.

“It’s fine, the girls are fine, and we still don’t know anything. I just stumbled, that’s all.”

Pierce had dropped the photo of Owens as he fell. Jake picked it up without Val noticing. He wasn’t sure that he agreed with Pierce’s decision not to tell her about Owens, but he understood his reasoning. The girls’ abduction was terrifying enough, but to know that they might be in the hands of a murderer, a serial killer, that would triple Val’s stress. And after all, she was pregnant.

Pierce stood, took Val in his arms, and prayed to God that his daughters were still alive. If they were, he would find them, and then he would kill Dave Owens.

***

Dave Owens did indeed have Pierce’s daughters.

Owens had left the cabin on foot once he was certain that Amy was gone. He was going to retrieve his car and drive it back to the cabin.

The walk took him far longer than it should have, because he felt weaker than he had earlier and the pain in his middle was torturous. Fog had invaded the area as well, and Owens had to find his way along the dirt road while walking in near darkness.

There was a full moon above, but the fog was obscuring it from view. When Owens realized that he wasn’t walking in fog, but rather, smoke, he quickened his pace as much as he was able.

After rounding a curve and seeing a glow ahead, he came upon a sight that chilled him. His car was on fire, and the flames were spreading. He took out his phone to call the fire department and found that he had no signal.

Owens shouted a stream of useless curses towards the night sky before deciding what to do. There was still enough room to walk around the flaming car and the surrounding blaze, although the heat was growing intense and a strong wind was spreading the fire. Owens turned and went back towards the cabin. He reasoned that he could find another path out of the area by walking the other way. Besides, he needed Sophia and Rosa in order to properly torture Pierce.

His walk back to the cabin took even longer than the walk away from it had taken, and Owens had to stop and rest against a tree for a few minutes. The smoke from the fire was doing him no good as well, and he found himself coughing at times.

When Owens finally made it back, he climbed into the loft where Sophia and Rosa were still asleep. He barely looked at them. He was staring out the window.

The fire had grown in magnitude, having been spread by the wind. It was large enough to lend a natural glow to the room that was strong enough to see by. Owens shook his head in wonder, as a trickle of fear touched him.

He then laid a hand on Sophia’s shoulder and gave her a gentle shake.

“Wake up, honey. We need to walk out of here and call your daddy.”

Amy’s fear that the drug she used to knock the children out had caused her to weaken its potency. She had diminished its strength too much, and it only took a little prodding by Owens to stir Sophia.

Sophia opened her eyes and looked around groggily. By the strange and eerie light of the approaching blaze, Sophia saw that her sister was chained to the other end of the bed she lay on. The sound of movement coming from behind made Sophia turn her head around, and she beheld the pale, drawn face of Owens.

When he smiled down at her, Sophia screamed.

CHAPTER 28

Matt was still at Amy’s home. He had left his car in the same visitor’s spot that Dave Owens had used the night before, then, Matt walked around the back to knock loudly on Amy’s door. There had been no answer and no sounds of movement from within. With nowhere else to go to look for her, Matt sat on the ground with his back leaned against Amy’s rear door, and waited.

He had gone to sleep without knowing it, but woke when Jimmy pressed the cool steel of a gun against his head.

“Where are the girls, Matt?”

Matt stared up at Jimmy with huge fear-filled eyes. As those eyes began to cry, Matt spoke.

“I don’t know where she took them. I swear it.”

Jimmy used his other hand to take out his phone and call Jake. He knew that Pierce’s phone would be monitored and likely out of his possession.

Jake answered on the second ring.

“Tell Rick that I found Matt.”

“That’s great news, Jimmy, but it looks like Dave Owens has the girls.”

“Owens? Are you sure?”

“No, but he was near the house recently. What’s Matt’s story, and where are you?”

“That’s something else I want you to tell Rick. I think this thing has another player besides Owens. Her name is Amy Lowe.”

***

After cleaning out her car, Amy had driven back home to see what things looked like. From the rear of a gas station, she could get a look at her home by using the same binoculars she had used to spy on Pierce’s farmhouse.

When she saw no police cars or signs of trouble, she smiled. She assumed it meant that Matt was doing his part and keeping quiet. That was excellent. If the boy played dumb for just a few more hours everything would work out fine.

Amy did see one strange sight. It was an unfamiliar pickup truck parked in the lot. She gave a little shrug. It didn’t mean anything. One of her neighbors had hooked-up with someone in a bar or had a relatives or a friend staying over.

She looked a little longer and then lowered the binoculars and climbed back in her car. Had she been looking from a different angle, she would have spotted Matt’s jeep, which was hidden behind a neighbor’s van. And had Amy gazed through the binoculars for just a few seconds more, she also would have seen Jimmy and Matt walk out from the rear of the building.

But, Amy didn’t look long enough or from enough angles, and so she left thinking that everything was all right.

She got back in her car and headed for the cabin. She assumed that Sophia and Rosa were still asleep, but she wanted to be there when they woke. She had a disguise, a dark wig and glasses. It was a simple disguise, but it should fool a five and six-year-old.

Amy drove towards the cabin, blissfully unaware that she was now on the FBI’s radar.

Matt had babbled enough to Jimmy while sobbing to let the authorities know that Amy had taken the children. The thing was, Amy no longer had them, Dave Owens did.

Owens didn’t want money; his ransom would be paid in vengeance.

***

Dave Owens smiled at Sophia and Rosa in an attempt to calm them. It did little good.

Rosa had been stirred awake by Sophia’s scream and scrambled across the bed to hug her big sister. Sophia clutched Rosa as if she were her mother, but Rosa was the first to calm down and speak to Owens.

“Who are you?”

“You can call me Dave.”

“Dave.”

“Yes?”

“Our daddy will beat you up if you don’t take us home.”

“I have a bigger problem than your father. You can’t see it from where you are, but there’s a fire outside and it’s getting closer.”

Sophia tried to pull a hand free from one of her cuffs and failed.

Owens held up a key. Amy had left it hanging on a hook downstairs.

“I’ll unlock you, but I want you to promise you’ll stay near me. If you run off and get lost you may burn to death.”

Sophia nodded, then pointed at Rosa’s ankles. Amy had cuffed Sophia’s wrists but had shackled Rosa’s ankles so that the child could move nearer to her sister.

Owens smiled at the gesture.

“You want me to free your little sister first?”

“Yes please,” Sophia said.

“Why?”

Sophia gave a little shrug.

“I’m the biggest. Mommy says I have to watch out for her.”

“Your mommy is right,” Owens said. He freed Rosa and then Sophia. The girls insisted that they had to go to the bathroom. Amy had left a toilet training seat near the bed. It was fastened atop a 5-gallon bucket, and the bucket contained cat litter.

The makeshift toilet reminded Owens of something he had once put together for a family camping trip when his girls were very young. Thinking about the good times he and his family had on that vacation made him choke up a bit. When he recovered, he told Sophia and Rosa to use the bathroom that was downstairs.

He had raped and slain teenage girls as young as sixteen, but he wasn’t a child molester. He had no desire to see the children expose themselves as they urinated.

Once on the ground floor, where they could see through the windows, the girls spied the red glow in the near distance and their eyes widened in wonder.

Owens pointed towards the bathroom and told them to hurry and do their business. Sophia and Rosa were in the bathroom for only a minute or so before coming back out and staring up at Owens.

He showed them his gun. If he was expecting it to frightened them, he was disappointed. Pierce hadn’t taught his daughters to shoot at such a young age, but they had seen his service weapon their whole lives and thought of guns as tools.

Although very young, they weren’t foolish. They understood that there was a wide difference between their toy water pistols and the weapon Owens displayed.

Sophia and Rosa clasped hands.

“We’ll be good and walk with you, but you have to take us back to Mommy and Daddy,” Rosa said.

“If I do, will you tell your daddy to beat me up?”

Rosa nodded.

“Mm-hmm, but just a little.”

Owens laughed, then bent over in agony. With her other hand, Sophia reached out and touched his face.

“Dave... are you all right?”

Owens saw the compassion in the child’s eyes and marveled at it. He turned away from Sophia’s caring expression and headed for the door.

“Let’s go, and stay close.”

The smoke outside the cabin was growing and resembled fog even more than it had before. Owens knew that they couldn’t go down the road where his car had been, and so he led the children in the other direction.

Each step was an effort, as he felt horrible and the pain in his abdomen seemed to have spread to his chest. But no, it was just the smoke. He had always been sensitive to wood smoke and it was affecting his breathing. When the weakness he’d been feeling returned, he slowed his pace.

Sophia and Rosa soon passed him, even with their short strides. Owens let them. They appeared to be staying close to him, and where could they run off to anyway?

After rounding a curve on a hillside, Owens felt a moment of panic. There was a red glow ahead, indicating that the fire had jumped and cut off their exit. He told himself that it must be a separate fire and that there was a path around it.

There was no path and never had been, but there was another cabin. The second cabin was older than the other one, appeared deserted, and had been built at the base of a thirty foot rise. Had there been no flames at all, Owens couldn’t have made the climb to safety.

The only way off the road was the way he had driven in, the way that was now blocked by an inferno. In the nearby vegetation, numerous fires were sparking from the scattering of hot ash drifting down. Any attempt to walk across the vast fields bordering the road would be dangerous, as the smoke was thickest there. Owens could easily imagine himself becoming hopelessly lost until overcome by smoke or trapped by flames.

The sound of a plane engine made Owens look up and he saw just a flash of metal in the night sky. Next, there came an odd sound from the area where his car had been parked, as a deluge of water landed on a section of the growing blaze.

Help had arrived.

“Let’s head back, girls. We’ll leave once they put the fire out.”

Sophia and Rosa led the way back, as Owens was having trouble walking at all. He felt exhausted, felt as if he had just run for miles, and when his foot hit a rock that was sticking out of the dirt, he went down on his hands and knees.

The girls stopped. They looked back at Owens, who appeared too weak to stand, and then they gazed at the road ahead of them.

Sophia released her sister’s hand and walked over to check on Owens.

“What’s wrong, Dave?”

“Why didn’t you two just run away and leave me?”

“Daddy says to help people when we can.”

“Your daddy never helped me,” Owens said, and found a tiny finger pointing at him. It was Rosa.

“Don’t say bad things about our daddy!”

Owens looked at Rosa and there was true fury in her young eyes.

He laughed, made it to his feet, and took a faltering step.

“Whatever you say, little lady, but let’s get back to the cabin.”

Owens stumbled along, and as he did so, he became convinced that he wouldn’t die of cancer. Judging by the rising heat and intensifying glow, he and the girls would soon burn to death.

CHAPTER 29

Amy brought her car to a sudden stop as her mind began to reel.

She was nearing the exit that would take her to the cabin when she realized that she was smelling smoke. That was followed by an awareness of the reddish glow off in the distance to her left. Before she could take meaning from it all, the traffic along the Garden State Parkway came to a stop.

A fresh angle revealed to her that the red glow was a fire, while the smoke was coming from the approximate location of the cabin.

The girls! Amy thought. Oh dear God, I have to get over there and save the girls.

It was a fine thought, but the roads were blocked by stalled traffic on her side of the highway, while a state trooper barred entrance to the exit she needed.

Amy sobbed as time passed and the glow through the trees grew brighter, she had no desire to see those girls come to harm, and especially not the torture of a death by fire.

The roadway on the other side of the concrete divider was absent of traffic. The north bound lanes had been diverted as the south bound traffic began to creep forward, Amy assumed that it too was being redirected onto an exit.

She was so sick with worry about the girls that she nearly hit a car that merged into her lane. That vehicle, a black sports car, went slower than the other vehicles, and Amy found herself falling behind the pack.

When the helicopter landed on the other side of the highway, she thought that perhaps it was there to airlift someone to safety.

Then she saw the badges and the guns.

Before Amy knew what was happening, she was lying on the road surface and being handcuffed by the man who had been in the sports car. He had identified himself as an FBI agent.

As they tugged her to her feet and walked her towards an unmarked sedan, Amy overcame her shock. She was about to open her mouth and protest when she stopped herself.

Amy stayed silent and decided to keep her mouth shut no matter what. As horrific as it was, the children dying in a fire was an accident. They might already be dead, and if they were, admitting her guilt and going to prison would help no one.

***

Amy was transferred to a nearby State Police Barracks where she was seated in a room with a wide window that overlooked the highway. There was a coffee maker, a microwave, and several tables with chairs. It was a break room, not an interrogation room, and Amy wondered why that was so.

They had taken her cuffs off as well, but had assured her that she wasn’t free to go. The first agent was a woman who spoke to her in a soft voice and used an understanding tone. Amy ignored her.

Then, there were two burly male FBI agents who barked at her with commanding voices, while listing the charges she faced, along with the penalties that would accompany those crimes.

Their threats were interspersed with Matt’s pleas shown to her via a video call on a laptop. Matt told Amy that she had to help the FBI and tell them where the girls were.

Amy answered it all with silence. If she said nothing to them, they could do nothing to her. All they had was the word of a teenage boy.

An esteemed law professor Amy had met at a party, once told her that most suspects in serious crimes incriminated themselves in some way during the interview process. The man had claimed it was the main reason that the police recorded every word a suspect uttered.

Amy believed that was true. After all, the words, “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law,” were a part of The Miranda Warning. Those words were also followed by two questions, questions which were surely there to entice you to speak.

Tears fell from Amy’s eyes. Tears for Ricardo Pierce’s daughters and tears for herself.

Found guilty of kidnaping or not, Amy knew that she would never be rich. The self-pity was so great at one point, that if she could have, she would have run towards the flames and ended it all.

***

Pierce was still shaking his head in confusion as he sat with Jimmy Drake in the rear of a FBI vehicle. Despite the misgivings of the Agent in charge of the kidnapping investigation, Pierce was going to the State Police barracks to speak with Amy. He promised the FBI that he would remain calm and only plead for his daughters safe return.

Amy Lowe? Why the hell would Amy kidnap my daughters?

Pierce had learned about Amy’s preference for young lovers years earlier when she had hired Jimmy to stop a blackmailer. Still, Matt had just turned sixteen, and gender differences aside, she was still using the boy.

Matt had sworn innocence in the kidnapping, but admitted to letting Amy inside the house.

Pierce didn’t give a damn about the how and why, he just wanted his daughters back. Before leaving, he had sworn to Val that he would bring them home safely, and it was a promise he planned to keep.

An FBI agent named Simmons met Pierce and Jimmy at the front gate of the State Troopers barracks and once again stressed to Pierce how important it was for him not to show anger. He was also told to avoid intimidation and that the main goal was to get Amy to talk.

There were hopes that she would respond to Pierce since they had once been so close.

Simmons stared at Pierce.

“You’ve stated that you’ve had no contact with the woman in nearly two decades, would you like to change that statement?”

“No, Agent Simmons, I would not. It is the truth.”

“Do you have any idea why she would target you?”

“No, as I said, it was she who dumped me all those years ago. If anyone should harbor bad feelings it would be me.”

“But you won’t express those feelings in that room, Detective, understood?”

“Understood, but tell me, do you have any idea where she might have been headed?”

“No, but we will. Apparently, Professor Lowe pays her tolls with cash. That makes her a little more difficult to track, but we’re on it. If I had to guess, she has another partner, possibly the fugitive David Robert Owens.”

Pierce shook his head as a confused look appeared on his face.

“How did Amy become involved with Dave Owens?”

“We don’t know. They may have had a connection before his conviction, and once he escaped, he went to her for help.”

That didn’t sound right to Pierce, but it also didn’t matter, what mattered was here and now. After Jimmy wished him luck, Simmons opened the door and Pierce was in the same room with Amy Lowe for the first time in nearly twenty years.

***

It’s over. Dave Owens thought, as he looked around at the landscape surrounding the cabin.

There were flames in all directions, some at a distance, while in the south, the fire was very close. The temperature had risen dozens of degrees by the time he and the girls had made it back to the cabin, while hot ash ignited small fires all around them.

Owens had seen the plane return several times and dump more water or fire retardant, but it seemed too little too late. Even after a second plane joined the fight, the fire still spread because of the wind.

Something took hold of his right leg, and then his left. It was Sophia and Rosa. In their fright, they clung to him.

“Let’s get into the cabin, girls. The air may be better inside and there’s water as well.”

Owens had put away the gun during the walk back and so the girls each took one of his hands. He was a stranger to them, an odd and frightening one at that, but he was an adult and his size gave them comfort.

Owens collapsed on the sofa after entering and felt his strength diminish even more. He had closed his eyes as a jolt of pain knifed through his middle, and when he opened them, Sophia was standing before him.

The little girl was holding a bottle of water out to him.

“You look sick. Do you have any medicine?”

Owens smiled grimly.

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

He thanked Sophia for the water and she went over to the window where Rosa was looking out at the firefighting planes.

Owens removed the bottle of sleeping pills from his pocket and emptied them into the palm of his hand. It was better to die asleep than to feel it coming. He looked over at the girls and wondered if he should share the pills and spare them.

He decided against it. The smoke would kill them long before the flames ate at their flesh, and anyway, the more pills he took, the faster they would take effect.

At the window, Sophia began to cry, but her sister took her hand.

“Don’t worry, Sophia; Daddy will save us.”

Owens smirked.

Don’t count on it kid.

After several false starts, Owens tossed the pills in his mouth. With help from the bottle of water, he swallowed every one of them. A strange sense of peace came over him then. He would die soon, yes, but he would die a free man and Ricardo Pierce would suffer.

After closing his eyes, Owens imagined the look on Pierce’s face when he discovered that the body found with his daughters’ burnt corpses was that of one Dave Owens.

Owens smiled. Even from the grave revenge would be sweet.

CHAPTER 30

Amy said nothing to Pierce, but tears fell from her eyes at the sight of him.

The skinny boy she had known was gone and a man had taken his place. He was still thin, but not in an unattractive way. Pierce had the look of a runner, although he hated any kind of exercise.

She studied the face she had always found to be handsome and discovered that it was even more so, with the sheen of youth gone. There were laugh lines around Pierce’s eyes that only added to his attractiveness. Her heart beat with fuel other than fear and Amy realized in amazement that she had never stopped loving Rick Pierce, and he was still the only man she’d ever truly loved.

It struck her once more how all the problems she had in life could be traced back to the day she threw Rick Pierce away. Had she simply stayed at his side, everything she’d ever wanted from life would have been hers.

Amy searched his eyes expecting to see hatred or incrimination, but no, there was only worry and fear.

He was terrified over the fate of his missing daughters, and Amy realized that she was the only one on earth who had a hope of saving them.

And yet, to save them was to damn herself.

***

Pierce stared at the woman who he had obsessed over for years and saw the light of recognition ignite in her gaze.

She was beautiful, and looked years younger than she was, but there was an aura of desperation and fear around her.

Pierce didn’t know if he put out the same vibe, but he was definitely feeling the emotions. His daughters were gone to God knew where and possibly in the hands of a serial killer who hated him.

Despite the tender and loving feelings he once had for Amy, all he wanted to do was to grab her and shake her until she talked.

He couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t work, but there had to be words that he could utter that would convince her to cooperate. Pierce’s mind raced over the possibilities. He had used many tactics over the years to get suspects to talk, and one of them might work with Amy.

And if they didn’t work, what then?

Pierce decided to cut to the chase and take the meeting to it’s inevitable conclusion.

He lowered himself to his knees, clasped his hands together, and begged.

***

Amy had startled at Pierce’s first movements, but then realized that he wasn’t lunging at her, but was getting down on his knees.

“Please tell me where Sophia and Rosa are, Amy. I’m begging you.”

Amy said nothing, but her tears increased and rolled down her cheeks in rapid succession.

“I love my daughters, Amy. If I could I would give you anything you ask to get them back. You loved me once; I know you did. Please have mercy on me and tell me where to find Sophia and Rosa.”

Amy released a sob, and when she looked at Pierce, she saw the tears in his eyes. He leaned closer, and when he spoke to her again, it was in a whisper.

“I could not go on in this world without my two little angels. I swear to you that I would not want to keep living. I’m begging you, Amy, honey, please? Please tell me where they are.”

Amy shook her head as love and pity battled self-preservation. In the end, she stayed silent.

Pierce let out a moan, then followed it with a gasp of surprise.

Amy was still silent, but she had raised a finger, and that finger was pointing out the window.

Pierce turned, saw the fire-ravaged terrain off in the distance, and went white with fear.

His girls were in the midst of an inferno.

***

Owens felt the pills taking effect as he could barely keep his eyes open.

Sophia and Rosa were embracing each other at the window as they watched the flames grow closer. It had to be just past dawn, but the sky was black with smoke and ash, some of which drifted in through the hole in the corner of the roof.

“There’s fire everywhere!” Sophia said.

Rosa released her and tilted her head.

“Did you hear that?”

“What?” Sophia said, but even as she spoke, she heard it. Someone was calling their names through a loud-hailer, like the type their daddy once let them play with in a police car.

They both listened, and faintly, over the roar of the surrounding fire, they heard their father’s magnified voice.

“Sophia! Rosa! Babies, do you hear me?”

Rosa screamed with joy and hugged her sister. She then turned to Owens.

“I told you our daddy would save us.”

Her words fell on deaf ears. Owens had fallen into a sleep from which he would never awaken. On his lips was a sneer. The last thing he had heard in this life was Ricardo Pierce’s voice, and Owens would die knowing he had failed.

***

Just west of the cabin, Pierce lowered the loud-hailer he’d been talking into.

“I heard a scream. I think it was Rosa.”

“I heard something too,” Simmons said.

Jimmy was standing beside Pierce. He gestured up at the sky where two planes were making a run to drop more water.

Amy had only pointed, but a trooper who was present knew the area well and had remembered that there were two old cabins in the midst of the fire. The structures had been empty for months after suffering damage from a storm.

They had all rushed to the area with the help of firefighters, and now the planes were concentrating on clearing a path to them.

“Why are the planes so damn small?” Jimmy asked.

“Our DC-10 is inoperative,” one of the firefighters said. “There’s another flying in, but its ETA isn’t for twenty more minutes.”

Two small planes dropped tons of water onto the flames at the rear of the cabin. When the mist and the steam cleared, the top of the cabin came into view for a moment. The roof was still on fire.

A flaming tree fell. It blocked the path that had just been cleared and Simmons, Jimmy, and the firefighters all cursed.

Pierce had stayed silent, but he was moving at a sprint towards the fallen tree.

“Rick!” Jimmy called out. “That tree is too big. You can’t climb over it. Wait for the planes!”

Pierce kept running. As he grew closer, he could hear his daughters screaming for him. The fallen tree had a wide circumference and was nearly five feet high on its side. Pierce angled towards a spot on the flaming trunk that had no branches and prayed that he’d be able to jump over it.

Providence was with him, and he spotted a tree stump nearby. Pierce used the stump as a launch point and hurtled over the blazing tree. The momentary heat was so intense that he felt blisters form on his face, even as his shirt caught fire.

Pierce landed hard on the other side and went into a roll that ended with him hitting a small tree with his left shoulder. The rolling about had extinguished the flames which ate at his shirt. He jumped to his feet and struggled to breathe and see.

Smoke was everywhere, along with growing pockets of fire. Once he was turned in the right direction, he followed the sound of his daughters’ crying to reach the cabin. The front door was ablaze, but he broke in a window on the side.

Dave Owens was lying atop a sofa, and although he was difficult to make out in the swirl of smoke, he appeared to be dead. Pierce called for his daughters and they emerged through a haze of smoke from the other side of the large room.

“Daddy!” they both cried out with tears in their eyes. Pierce was crying too, as he scooped each one of them up in an arm and dragged them through the broken window. The movement gouged deep cuts on his forearms, but Pierce was barely aware of it as he kissed his daughters.

“Hello angels, Daddy has come to take you home to Mommy.”

Rosa and Sophia were so filled with joy and relief, that all they could do was smile.

Pierce knew he couldn’t go back the way he’d come in when he saw that a second tree had fallen near the first.

“Where are those planes,” he muttered, but understood that he dared not wait for rescue. Each instant brought them closer to death, and they began coughing violently from the smoke.

Visibility was vanishing, but as he stumbled around looking for a way out, Pierce saw a squat manmade object just feet in front of him. When he realized what it was, he knew that his daughters had a chance at survival.

Pierce sat the girls down and climbed up onto the lip of the old well. He then reached down and picked up Rosa, and then Sophia. He had no idea how deep the well went, and knew that the drop inside its cobblestone walls could kill them all.

There was no choice. The heat was nearly blistering their skin and the smoke was filling their lungs. Pierce stopped coughing long enough to speak to his daughters.

“Hold on tight, and know that Daddy loves you.”

Pierce leapt backwards into the well as Sophia and Rosa screamed.

CHAPTER 31

Pierce awoke hours later and wondered what was making the hissing sound he was hearing.

It began as simple curiosity and wasn’t worth the trouble of opening his eyes. He was feeling good and thought that he must have been having a great dream before he woke up.

As he tried to recall it, the events of the fire returned to his mind. His eyes snapped open and he attempted to sit up.

Pain in his left leg caused him to cry out and he saw that his left calf was wrapped in a cast.

“Rick! Honey, it’s okay, you’re in the hospital.”

Pierce turned his head and saw Val rising from a chair.

“Where are the girls?” he asked, and there was panic in his voice.

Val kissed him.

“They’re fine, baby. Rick, you saved them.”

“I want to see them.”

“You will, but now lay back. If you haven’t noticed, you have a broken leg. You also took a nasty whack on the back of the head and cut your forearms.”

Pierce reached behind him with a bandaged arm and felt a lump the size of a golf ball on the right side of his head.

“I passed out?”

“After they found you, before that you were in a stupor. They had to pry the girls from your arms.”

“I need to see them; bring them here, please.”

“They’re in the hallway with Jimmy and Ginny. And Rick, just to prepare you, Sophia broke two fingers in the fall and Rosa has a nasty scrape on her forehead, but they’re fine. You’re the one who suffered from the smoke, it’s why they have you on oxygen for tonight.”

Pierce reached up and felt the tubes pushing air into his nostrils. He’d been so concerned about Sophia and Rosa that he’d forgotten all about the hissing sound he’d heard.

Val walked into the hall and returned moments later with Sophia and Rosa, Pierce winced at the splint on Sophia’s hand and sighed at the bandaged scrape on Rosa’s forehead. He then remembered how close a call they all had and knew that they had been extremely lucky to survive.

The girls climbed up beside him on the bed and Pierce embraced them.

“My angels,” he said, and wept tears of joy.

***

Pierce had fallen asleep again, but awoke to find Jimmy and Jake sitting in visitor chairs and watching a ball game on the TV suspended in a corner of the ceiling.

When he grabbed the control and muted the sound, his friends turned their heads and smiled at him.

“You had one close call, brother,” Jimmy said, and Pierce noticed that his left hand was heavily bandaged.

“What happened to you, the fire?”

“I tried to follow you, but I couldn’t get past that fallen tree. I gotta tell you, Rick, I thought you had all died.”

“If not for that well, we would have. How deep was it?”

“About eighteen feet, thank God the water level in the Barrens is easy to reach. Some wells are hundreds of feet deep.”

Jake showed Pierce his phone and he saw that it displayed a mugshot of Amy Lowe.

“Was she arrested for kidnapping?” Pierce asked.

“No, the DA thinks the charge will be tough to prove, so she’s being charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and child molestation.”

“You can’t be serious, Jake. Even if she’s found guilty she won’t get much time for that.”

“Matt is of the age of consent now, but Amy Lowe definitely had sex with Matt when he was still fifteen and underage. That little bastard took pictures of her lying naked in bed when she was asleep. The photos are dated weeks before his sixteenth birthday.”

“Is there any proof that Amy and Owens were partners?”

“Dave Owens is being blamed for the kidnapping. I thought Amy Lowe looked genuinely shocked when told that Dave Owens had the girls. If you ask me, Owens stumbled on the kidnapping plot and made it his own.”

“It could be, but it was Amy who told us where to find them.”

“Actually, she just pointed at the window, didn’t she?” Jimmy asked.

“Yeah, but we all knew what she meant.”

“Think about it, brother,” Jimmy said. “A smart lawyer will have a jury believing she’s innocent.”

“What about her car and her home? She must have left evidence somewhere.”

“The car was spotless and the cabin burned to the ground,” Jake said. “There is a letter that Matt handed over. Amy Lowe’s prints aren’t on it and it didn’t come from her computer.”

Pierce sighed.

“How is Christy doing?”

“She’s shocked by all of this, and she feels terrible too. The girls were taken on her watch.”

“I’ll talk to her when I get out of here. None of this was her fault; Matt used her.”

“I want to strangle that prick,” Jake said through gritted teeth. “Christy isn’t my flesh and blood but that girl is my daughter and he hurt her. He’d better stay clear of me.”

“Of all of us,” Jimmy said. “Rick and I watched that girl grow up too. I had to force myself not to hit him.”

“Jake,” Pierce said. “Has anyone called Cynthia and her mother?”

“Stacey did, and Cynthia told her to tell you how sorry she was for what her father did to your family.”

“It wasn’t her fault, but how is Cynthia taking her father’s death?”

“I think she’s relieved. She told me that his death meant that he could no longer hurt anyone. And oh, Owens jail break buddies were both recaptured. One of them was sold out for a reward by his own cousin. The other one was grabbed along with a girlfriend in the Bahamas. They had phony ID’s and passports, but the guy was recognized by a civilian who contacted the local police.”

Pierce pounded a fist into the mattress.

“I can’t believe that Amy will just walk on this.”

***

Jake received a call and had to investigate a suspicious death. Jimmy stayed with Pierce and kept him company.

“I don’t need an answer right now, but have you given my offer any more thought, Rick?”

“I have, but I have a question, will I really work less hours than I do now?”

“You can. You’ll make more per case and it’s up to you how many hours you’ll put in. There’s paperwork involved just like on the job, but I do mine after my son goes to sleep. That way, I can spend more time with Josh.”

Pierce extended a hand and Jimmy reached over and shook it.

“You have yourself a partner. Anything that gives me more time with my family is a good thing.”

“What are you going to name your son? Jimmy is a good name.”

Pierce laughed.

“Jimmy is a great name and James will be his middle name. We’re thinking of naming him after my grandfather, Benjamin James Pierce.”

Jimmy grinned.

“Benny, or even better, BJ, I like it.”

The smile left Jimmy’s face and he leaned over and patted Pierce’s arm.

“You and the girls had a close one today, thank God you survived.”

“I still can’t get over the fact that Amy Lowe was involved in this. I thought she was firmly in my past.”

“You two have some weird karmic thing going on, but I’d be willing to bet she stays out of your life from now on.”

Jimmy stood.

“Get better, Rick, and Ginny and I will drop by when you get home and settled.”

“You do that, and Jimmy, thanks for everything. If you hadn’t found Matt when you did, today could have ended in tragedy.”

Jimmy was at the door, but he turned and gave Pierce a wink.

“Anytime, partner. Ricardo Pierce P.I., it has a ring to it.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Pierce said.

CHAPTER 32

Coke Dyer had placed Pierce on medical leave and by the time his leg healed Pierce would be eligible to retire.

Pierce didn’t feel he needed the time to recover as much as he wanted to spend every moment with his family. Sophia and Rosa had been through a harrowing ordeal and Pierce and Val wanted to assure them that they were safe.

Other than a few nightmares suffered by Sophia, the girls bounced back within days and were bugging Val about their baby brother’s due date.

Rosa couldn’t understand why babies took so long to develop, but her big sister Sophia assured her that it took a long, long time.

“It takes like eight weeks. Remember when the Brewers’ German shepherd had her puppies?”

Val laughed and explained to her daughters that babies were different from puppies.

***

Once the cast came off his leg, Pierce had spent a few days tagging alongside Jimmy to learn how he worked. To his surprise, Jimmy’s routine mirrored most cops’ average day on a case, only he worked for himself and could dress casually.

When Jimmy mentioned that he had a special errand to run early on an approaching Sunday morning, Pierce asked if he could take care of it instead.

Jimmy stared at him for a long moment before reaching into the center drawer of his desk. When his hand emerged, it was holding a bright blue envelope.

“Let me tell you what this is, and then you let me know if you still want to help.”

Jimmy explained, and on Sunday morning at sunrise, Pierce found himself in a place he never imagined he would be again.

***

Pierce squinted at the kitchen window of the home that had once belonged to Amy Lowe and her ex-husband.

He was sitting in a corner of a supermarket parking lot as he had done countless times before, but for once, it had nothing to do with obsession.

Pierce chuckled to himself.

Actually, that was wrong. He was there because of an obsession, but it wasn’t his obsession.

Pierce’s left arm hung out the window of his car, and in his hand was gripped the bright blue envelope that Jimmy had given him.

The man the envelope was meant for was late, but that was to be expected. Pierce had no doubt that he’d been under surveillance for some time, but he could be patient. He wanted to see the man he came there to meet, and if it took hours he would wait.

Since the last time Pierce had sat where he was, the supermarket had changed names, Amy’s house had changed colors, and Pierce had changed his whole life.

“Long time, no see, Detective Pierce.”

The voice came from the passenger side of the car, where a tall blond man was standing ten feet from the vehicle. His name was Bo Raines.

Pierce studied Raines and saw that the years had left their mark. There was a crooked scar over Bo’s right eye, along with a puckered crater that was caused by a bullet wound. The puckered mark was near Bo’s throat and Pierce guessed that the wound had come close to killing him.

Bo also seemed thinner, and yet, still muscular, while his eyes had the look of a veteran of war.

“Hello Bo, if you’re concerned this is a trap, don’t be. Jimmy and I will be partners when I retire soon, and I thought that we should share everything.”

Bo walked over to the car and leaned his elbows on the windowsill. It would look like a casual gesture to the untrained eye, but Pierce saw that Bo’s weight wasn’t resting on his forearms. The man was ready to move at the first sign of trouble.

Pierce handed Bo the envelope. It contained letters from his father and mother as well as new pictures of his adoptive sister, Kimberly.

“There’s a letter from Jimmy in that envelope too. I think it explains why I’m here instead of him.”

“How are your daughters, Detective? I read about what happened to them.”

“They’re good, Bo, and please, call me Rick.”

Bo smiled, and for a moment, Pierce saw the innocent farm boy he’d once been.

“Jimmy picked this place to meet, didn’t he?” Pierce asked.

“Yeah, he said that it has a proven track record of being used for clandestine operations.”

“How are you, Bo?”

“I’m tired, Rick, but there’s no end to my workload.”

“No one would blame you for retiring; you’ve done far more than most.”

Bo grinned again.

“I met a woman down in Mexico recently. She’s told me the same thing.”

“Are you two serious?”

Bo said nothing for a moment, but then spoke.

“I want a life, but how can I when so many girls still go missing?”

“You’re allowed a life, Bo.”

“The woman in Mexico, she says that too.”

“She’s right.”

Bo reached into a side pocket and took out a phone.

“That’s for Jimmy, for next time.”

“I’ll see that he gets it.”

“Thank you, and take care of your family, Rick. They’re all we have in this life.”

Pierce watched Bo Raines walk away and started his engine. It was good to see the big man again, but being so near to Amy Lowe’s former home was giving him the creeps.

His phone rang. Pierce answered it expecting Val and instead he heard two small voices.

“Where are you, Daddy?” Rosa said.

“I’m on my way home, baby.”

“Hurry up,” Sophia said. “Mommy is making blueberry waffles.”

“I’ll be right there, honey.”

“We love you, Daddy!” came over the phone in stereo, and for a moment, Pierce was so happy that he thought he would burst.

“I love you too, angels. Daddy loves you both so very much.”

Pierce drove away from the site of his former shame and into a present that seemed to only get better with each passing day.

“Go to Mexico, Bo, and be happy,” Pierce whispered, and he prayed that it would come true.

EPILOGUE

ONE YEAR LATER

––––––––

Pierce laughed as he sat at his kitchen table and watched his son, Benjamin, play peek-a-boo with his sisters, Sophia and Rosa. Benjamin James Pierce was only a few months old, but he laughed every time his sisters uncovered their faces and smiled at him.

Pierce had the day off and was taking his family to the zoo. His partnership with Jimmy had gone even better than he had hoped. Between his pension and his new income as a P.I., he was making much more money and the kids’ college funds were coming along nicely. He and Jimmy had so much business that they had hired an assistant to help them.

Jimmy and Pierce still had no formal office, nor did they need one in the internet age. Their assistant also worked from her home. Like Pierce and Jimmy, she was a retired cop.

Val picked up the carafe from the tabletop and spoke to her husband as she refilled her coffee cup.

“Ginny says that Christy has a new boyfriend; we’ll be meeting him this weekend.”

“That’s good, as long as he’s nothing like Matt.”

Matt and his mother had moved back to South Dakota a week after Amy Lowe’s trial ended. Pierce had checked with the county sheriff where Matt lived and learned that the boy was keeping out of trouble.

“It took Christy a long time to trust someone again, so be nice to the boy.”

“What’s his name?”

“Trevor Zane, he lives in Coke’s neighborhood.”

Pierce grinned at Val.

“It’s even better than that, Trevor Zane is Coke’s grandson. He’s a great kid. His mother is Coke’s daughter, Belinda.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, unless there are two Trevor Zane’s in town.”

“It’s a small world,” Val said.

Pierce looked over at his children. The two girls were wearing colorful Mexican Puebla dresses that had become their favorite clothing. The dresses were a gift from a friend of Pierce’s who had recently settled down in Mexico for a well-deserved second chance at life.

“It might be a small world, Val, but I like it fine.”

***

Nearby, Amy Lowe, who was also known as prisoner 349A, handed over the money she had earned while working in the prison bakery.

It was a month’s worth of wages, but she paid it gladly. Her recent experiences and an examination of her life had caused Amy to come to the conclusion that money wasn’t important.

The woman taking Amy’s wages was named Barb Kowalski, and Barb was larger than most men. Kowalski had been convicted of manslaughter. She had strangled her husband to death.

Barb smiled at the commissary chits that Amy had given her.

“You just bought yourself another month of access to our window, Blondie, but if you get caught looking with that thing you’re hiding under your shirt, don’t tell them who sold it to you.”

“I won’t,” Amy said.

Barb called to her cellmate.

“Let’s give the woman her privacy, I’ll buy you some candy while I get my smokes.”

Lana King hopped from the top bunk and joined Barb. Barb was so big that she often reminded Lana of her ex-husband, Conner King.

After the women left their corner cell, Amy climbed onto the top bunk and removed the pair of mini binoculars she had hidden beneath her gray shirt. The bars of the cell were so new that the odor of the black paint covering them still lingered. Amy had to lean against the bars to support her weight and attain the proper angle.

When she got the focus right, she grinned.

She was looking through a kitchen window and spying on Ricardo Pierce as he ate breakfast with his family. Rick Pierce, who was the love of her life. Amy’s new truth was that everything bad in her life had happened because she ended things with Pierce.

She gazed at him.

He’s so handsome.

Amy had a lot of time to think over the last year, and she knew that what she really wanted wasn’t money, or fine things, or prestige. She wanted Rick Pierce back.

Dave Owens had been blamed for the kidnapping of Pierce’s children, because the DA felt he lacked the evidence needed to convict Amy on the abduction of Sophia and Rosa. Despite an exhaustive investigation, no evidence could be found linking Amy Lowe to Dave Owens. Amy could have explained that she never met the man and had no idea why his body was found in the ruins of the cabin, but she had remained silent.

Having only been convicted of statutory rape, Amy was still given the harshest possible sentence. However, she believed she would be paroled while she was still young enough to win Pierce back, and she would do so, she promised herself.

Pierce was only with his wife because he couldn’t have her.

Once free, Amy would make him understand that they belonged together, and had always belonged together.

Through the binoculars, Amy watched Pierce smile at something Val said and pretended that he was smiling at her.

She loved him, had always loved him, and, would always love him. It was her truth, and she knew she couldn’t change it.

“I love you, Rick,” Amy whispered, and in her heart, she truly believed it.

A PLEA

Thank you for spending time with one of my books. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please consider writing a review. Without reviews, an author's books are virtually invisible on the retail sites. Let other readers know what you thought! You can leave a review by visiting the book's page and I will greatly appreciate it.

Thank you!

—Remington Kane

ALSO BY REMINGTON KANE

The TANNER Series in order

- INEVITABLE I - A Tanner Novel - Book 1

- KILL IN PLAIN SIGHT - A Tanner Novel - Book 2

- MAKING A KILLING ON WALL STREET - A Tanner Novel - Book 3

- THE FIRST ONE TO DIE LOSES - A Tanner Novel - Book 4

- THE LIFE & DEATH OF CODY PARKER - A Tanner Novel - Book 5

- WAR - A Tanner Novel - Book 6
- SUICIDE OR DEATH – A Tanner Novel – Book 7
- TWO FOR THE KILL – A Tanner Novel – Book 8
- BALLET OF DEATH – A Tanner Novel – Book 9

- MORE DANGEROUS THAN MAN – A Tanner Novel – Book 10

- TANNER TIMES TWO – A Tanner Novel – Book 11

- OCCUPATION: DEATH – A Tanner Novel – Book 12

- HELL FOR HIRE – A Tanner Novel – Book 13

- A HOME TO DIE FOR - A Tanner Novel – Book 14

- FIRE WITH FIRE – A Tanner Novel – Book 15

The TAKEN! Series in order

- TAKEN! - LOVE CONQUERS ALL
- TAKEN! - SECRETS & LIES
- TAKEN! - STALKER
- TAKEN! - BREAKOUT!
- TAKEN! - THE THIRTY-NINE
- TAKEN! - KIDNAPPING THE DEVIL
- TAKEN! - HIT SQUAD
- TAKEN! - MASQUERADE
- TAKEN! - SERIOUS BUSINESS
- TAKEN! - THE COUPLE THAT SLAYS TOGETHER
- TAKEN! - PUT ASUNDER
- TAKEN! - LIKE BOND, ONLY BETTER
- TAKEN! - MEDIEVAL
- TAKEN! - RISEN!
- TAKEN! - VACATION
- TAKEN! – MICHAEL
- TAKEN! – BEDEVILED

- TAKEN! – INTENTIONAL ACTS OF VIOLENCE (COMING SOON)

Also

- THE CONTRACT: KILL JESSICA WHITE – A TAKEN!/TANNER NOVEL – Book 1

- BOUNTY OF BLOOD – A TAKEN!/TANNER NOVEL – Book 2 (COMING SOON)

- MONSTERS – A Detective Pierce Novel – Book 1

- DEMONS – A Detective Pierce Novel – Book 2

- ANGELS – A Detective Pierce Novel – Book 3

- REDEMPTION... Someone's taken her
- DESOLATION LAKE
- PARKER & KNIGHT
- SLAY BELLS

Join my Mailing List and Learn about New Releases. Also, get access to FREE Books and Short Stories, including The TAKEN! ALPHABET SERIES, QUICK – A TANNER Short Story, and A LITTLE OFF THE TOP – A TANNER Short Story. REMINGTON KANE http://www.remingtonkane.com/contact.html

Did you love Angels - A Detective Pierce Novel - Book 3? Then you should read Parker & Knight by Remington Kane!

From REMINGTON KANE

The author of The Taken! & Tanner Series

PARKER & KNIGHT

When beautiful, nineteen-year-old Tiffany Grace is found murdered inside the house next door, Detectives Rick Parker and Joanna Knight are brought in to investigate.

What they find is a tangled web of love, lies and infidelity between the homeowners, Alex and Mandy Kent, and their young neighbors, murder victim, Tiffany Grace, and her handsome brother, Steve.

As Parker wades through the Kents' marital woes, he also has to deal with his own, as his marriage comes to a close.

Did Alex Kent kill Tiffany, a young woman he lusted for deeply?

Or did Mandy Kent kill her, to keep her from her husband?The truth is even more twisted than Parker and Knight could have imagined.

Read more at Remington Kane’s site.

About the Author

REMINGTON KANE is the author of the wildly popular TANNER SERIES as well as the equally thrilling TAKEN! SERIES.

While The TANNER Series and The TAKEN! Series are similar in that they're both packed with action, the hit man Tanner has a little more grit to him.

Please visit www.remingtonkane.com to learn more.

Read more at Remington Kane’s site.