Stranded

“Sheriff,” she said, coming around the trench, walking to his side to avoid raising her voice. “Does anyone have keys to the house?”

“The property’s executor does. He should be here soon.”

“Can you call him and see how close he is?”

“You mean right now?”

“Yes, now. And we need to move these men back over to the outbuildings. Slowly. Make sure they don’t rush.”

“You mean right now?”

“Yes.”

She left him before he asked more questions. She was pleased that he was already getting the men to move and tapping on his cell phone. She walked over to Tully and waited for him to finish his call.

Then she calmly told him, “Someone’s inside the house.”

CHAPTER 6

“What are you talking about?” Tully asked and he started to turn toward the farmhouse before Maggie grabbed his elbow.

“I saw a curtain move.”

“That could be anything. A breeze, a draft.”

“Something moved in front of the window. Then the curtain fell back into place.”

“We’re both pretty wiped. When was the last time either of us got a full night’s sleep?”

He didn’t believe her. Before she could argue her case, she saw his fingers instinctively move up to his shoulder holster. But he didn’t reach for his weapon. Instead he grabbed his sports jacket from where he had draped it carelessly over a fence post. He pulled it on casually without a hint of tension.

Maybe she was exhausted from too little sleep, but Maggie knew she had seen something or someone in the house. A house that had been vacant for ten years. Tully started walking away. With or without him she’d check it out. Still, she followed him, trying to figure out what would convince him. It was smarter to have backup. They had both been in situations before where a killer had come back to the scene just to watch law enforcement officers discover his victims. They’d also been at crime scenes where the killer had left a trap for the police.

Now it made sense to Maggie. Why had the killer given her a map? Why send them on a scavenger hunt then lead them directly to the gravesite if he didn’t get to enjoy or observe it?

Tully stopped beside the backhoe, and that’s when Maggie realized he had put the heavy equipment between them and the rear of the house. Then he said in a low voice, “Damn it. We should have thought about checking out the house first thing.”

So he did believe her.

“The sheriff said the estate’s executor is on his way here. He has a key.”

“But if the house is rigged …”

So she and Tully were on the same page.

“It’d be doors, not windows.”

“Are you sure he didn’t see you notice him?”

“I’m not sure of anything right this minute,” Maggie admitted.

“He’s watching the excitement back here. He can’t watch all sides of the house at the same time.”

“We split up?”

Tully nodded.

“What do we tell Uniss and his deputies?”

“To stay put.”

“You don’t want them to back us up?”

Tully looked over her head at the men gathered by the barn. She stole a glance over her shoulder. Foreman Buzz had wandered into the woods and was coming back, smoking a cigarette. His crew was talking, pointing or waving at the garbage bag. The sheriff was still on his cell phone. His deputies were on their own, either talking or texting.

“I’d rather we have them stand down until they hear from one of us.”

Maggie remembered the young deputy losing his lunch and she couldn’t help wondering if he’d ever fired his weapon in the field.

“I’ll tell them,” Tully offered. “Why don’t you check out those lilac bushes and take the east side of the house. I’ll go behind the barn and come up on the west side.”

Maggie glanced at the house again. The double-hung windows were set about four feet up off the ground. She remembered seeing a porch at the front of the house and a side door on the west side. She hadn’t seen the east side that was flanked by lilac bushes. If the windows were as high, she’d have to struggle to get up and in without taking too much time and becoming a target.

“What are you thinking?” she finally asked Tully.

He took off his jacket again and draped it over the side rail of the backhoe.

“Break a window. Then take cover and wait. If someone’s inside, he’ll go check it out. It’ll give me enough time to kick in the door on my side. From what I remember, it didn’t look like much of a challenge.”

“I’m not sure I like it. What if he’s sitting in a corner with a semiautomatic, waiting for you? Maybe we should wait for the executor and a key.”

“He could still be sitting in a corner with a semiautomatic waiting for us. Or we could put the key in the lock and the whole place explodes.”

“Were we always this paranoid?”

Tully smiled. “I think you’ve been a bad influence on me.”

Maggie took off her jacket now and draped it over Tully’s.

“Just be careful,” she told him. “Gwen would kill me if something bad happened to you.” Then she started for the lilac bushes hoping they might find a stray cat inside.

CHAPTER 7

MERCY REGIONAL HEALTH CENTER

MANHATTAN, KANSAS

Noah awoke to white walls and machines humming. He startled so violently he ripped a needle from the back of his hand and beeping erupted above his head. He crawled over the bed rail in one easy, frantic move but when his feet touched the floor pain shot through his body. That’s when he noticed swaddled gauze at the ends of his legs. They looked like enormous stumps and for a brief moment he panicked.

Oh my God, did they amputate my feet?

A nurse hurried into the room and her motion made him jump.

Fight or flight.

The instinct still raw inside him.

“Stop. You’ll hurt yourself.”

She was small and quick and amazingly strong as she grabbed him by the shoulders. In seconds he was cradled back down into the pillows. Before he could protest and try again, he felt a wave of nausea.

“I’m go

She didn’t flinch. Instead she helped him sit forward and placed a plastic wash basin on his lap.

There was nothing left in his stomach to vomit. His dry gags scraped his sore throat and his jaw ached. When he was finished, the nurse eased him back down and pulled the covers up over him. The flimsy hospital gown stuck to his sweat-drenched body and he started shivering so badly he was certain he must be having some sort of convulsion.

He felt the prick of a needle before he could fight it. Warm liquid flooded his veins. His body almost immediately began to relax. He melted deeper into the pillows as his head began to swim. His heartbeat quieted but his chest still hurt.

His eyes darted at every sound and every movement in the room. Blurry green and red lights flashed on equipment he didn’t recognize. A face appeared at the door. Another peered down over the bed at him—the nurse. Only now he was seeing three of her.

Eyelids heavy. Don’t close them.

He didn’t want to see Ethan’s face again.

It felt like only minutes later when Noah opened his eyes. This time his mother’s face hovered over the bed and he blinked hard, trying to clear her from his view.

“Oh look, Carl, he’s waking up.”

Noah’s head swiveled to find his father standing by the window. Another man was with him. Noah jerked up, eyes popping wide open before he realized he didn’t recognize the other man.

“I’m sure there’s an explanation for everything,” he heard his father tell the stranger. Neither seemed as pleased or as excited as Noah’s mother was that he was waking up.

“I hope so.”

His father turned to Noah but stayed by the window as the other man came closer. His mother stepped aside and her smile went away, too.