Kill for Me

“Why?”

“Haynes. He likes blondes. I didn’t want to go with him. So I did it.”

Haynes. They had a customer. Customers tended to roll on the distributors, at least in the Internet child porn business. It was how they’d been able to unravel Web sites in the past. Follow the money. It was as old as time.

“So Haynes didn’t want you?”

“Never saw me,” she murmured, so softly he had to bend closer to her lips. “Bobby threw me in the hole. I got out. Chipped the bricks until… I…”

She said no more. Luke looked up at the medic.

“Unconscious. Her body took a real beating in that cold water. If she hadn’t been in such good shape, her heart might have stopped.”

Dutton, Sunday, February 4, 5:20 a.m.

Susa

“They say she’ll be all right,” he said. “I’m going to wait for her father to get here.”

She tugged his arm. “The doctors can talk to him. Come on, let’s go.”

“Where?”

“I found Terri Styveson’s marriage license in the public record. Her maiden name was Petrie. This address is a house that belonged to her mother.”

“Bobby’s grandmother.”

“The court filed an executed will fifteen years ago when the Styvesons were found murdered in their home in Arkansas. The authorities ruled it a robbery gone bad. Barbara Jean’s grandmother was found dead in her sleep a few months later. Barbara Jean inherited the house. It’s an old one, built in 1905. It’s called Ridgefield House.”

He stared at her. “I was only away from you for thirty minutes.”

She smiled, triumph in her eyes. “Chase is sending a team. Corchran’s closest, so he’s probably there already. Well?” she asked. “You waiting for an engraved invitation?”

He put his arm around her shoulders and they ran to his car, his heart pounding like a sledgehammer. “Have I told you that you’re amazing?”

“No. I don’t believe you have.”

He laughed, hopeful for the first time in days. “You’re amazing. Get in.”

She was gri

“Only when you’re not too late,” he said, sobering.

She sobered as well. “Corchran had search parties with dogs searching a mile from where she was pulled from the water, but this house is another mile past that. I don’t know how she managed to get so far downstream.”

“She’s a swimmer,” Luke said. “Her father showed Talia her ribbons.”

“Then she just swam the race of her life,” Susa

“Let’s hope we’re as fast.”

They were ten minutes out when Luke’s cell buzzed. “Papadopoulos.”

“It’s Corchran. They were definitely here, but now they’re gone.”

“Fuck,” Luke snarled. Too late. You were too late. “What do you see?”

“It’s an old house. They set it on fire before they left, but we got here in time to keep it from destroying the whole house. Oh, and there’s a dead guard around the back.”

“Ashley really killed him?” Luke asked, his mind racing. Too late. Too late.

“Not unless she had a rifle. He’s missing a good part of his gut. He has a shallow stab wound in his shoulder and one hell of a goose egg on his head. We found a bloody marble doorknob near his body.”

He thought of Ashley’s small smile. “Ashley must have hit him with it and knocked him out, then Bobby shot him rather than leave him behind alive. She’s nothing if not consistent. Do you see the white pickup and a horse trailer?” He’d called in the BOLO from the back of the ambulance.

“Negative. We found a minivan registered to Garth Davis and a Volvo registered to his sister Kate. And a black LTD.”

“Registered to Darcy Williams,” Luke said, his jaw taut. “DRC119.”

“Yep,” Corchran said. “The plates were under the front seat. But no horse trailer.”

“Let’s get every available unit out searching.”

“We’re already on it.”

Luke snapped his phone shut. “Goddammit. I’m tired of being too damn late.”

Susa

“She had to have put her kids somewhere,” Luke said. “Maybe she went there.”

“Luke,” Susa

She was right. Luke sped up, radioing for any backup units in the area to respond. “They’re speeding up,” he said tensely, driving faster. “Get down.”

Susa

“Not slowing down. Just stay down.”

“I’m not stupid, Luke,” she said, aggrieved.

No, she was amazing. “I know.”

“He’s seen us,” Ta

“Shut up, Ta

“He’s too close. We could never get away now. So shoot him. Now.”

Bobby heard the panic in Ta

“Ta

Ta

“Of course it’ll work. Trust me.”

Susa

“Same thing they were doing the last time you asked,” Luke answered from behind clenched teeth. “Not slowing down.”

Staying down, Susa

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Arming myself. And staying down,” she added before he could say it again.

“What the…?” Luke muttered. “Hold on.” The car careened to the right. “They’re getting off at a rest stop. Whatever happens, you stay down. Promise.”

“I won’t be stupid,” was all she’d say.

He growled a curse, then threw on his brakes. Ahead of them she could hear the squealing of tires as the trailer slid to a stop. He was out of the car before it stopped, shouting, “Police. Everyone down. Everyone down. In the truck, freeze.”

Then a gunshot cracked. Luke. Tightening her grip on his backup revolver, she threw open her door and slid out, using the door as a shield. Luke was nowhere to be seen. She almost ran after him, but stopped at the trailer.

All that mattered was the girls.

Tires squealed somewhere ahead of the trailer and Susa

Susa

Dear God. Ashley had said one girl had been sold to a man named Haynes, so Susa