water, electricity...”
“He’ll kill them before you get that far.” Tank drew in a ragged breath. “It’s me he wants. I’ll trade with them.”
“You will not,” Cody said firmly. “Then we’ll have three victims instead of two.”
While they were talking, Carson was stripping off his jacket. He tossed it into the front seat of the ranch pickup.
“And what would you be doing then?” Cody asked.
“What I’ve made a living at for the past several years,” Carson said. “Who’s got a sniper kit I can borrow?” he asked grimly.
The men stared at him.
He stuck his hands on his hips. “Are we going to stand here and make judgments or let me save the women?” he asked curtly.
“Sorry,” Cody said. “Wasn’t thinking. Frank,” he called to one of his deputies, “break out that new rifle with the scope.”
“New. Damned things never shoot right until they’re used,” Carson muttered.
“It’s what we’ve got,” Cody told him.
“You’ll never get close enough.” Tank tried to reason with him. He was sick with fear. “He’ll see you coming.”
Carson lifted an eyebrow. “Remind me to tell you a story or two when this is all over.” He glanced toward the deputy, who was carrying a heavy metal gun box. He sat it on the lowered tailgate of the ranch pickup and opened it.
“Sweet,” Carson said as he fingered the light wood of the stock.
“Ya, isn’t it?” the deputy asked with a sigh. “I’ve just used it on targets, but it’s accurate to a hair.”
“Shoots true?”
“You bet.”
Carson took it out of the box with a faint reverence and looked down the scope toward the house. “Nice optics,” he said. He concentrated. He could see movement at one of the windows. It fluttered, and a woman’s frightened face looked out. It was Clara. She was talking to someone behind her, scared and crying.
Carson’s jaw set. “He sent Clara to look out the window, to see what’s going on out here.” He took the rifle and slung the strap over his shoulder. “I need a diversion,” he told Cody Banks. “I’m not going to tell you where I’ll be. But when you hear a shot, move in quick.”
“Don’t miss,” Cody said firmly.
“It would be the first time,” Carson replied solemnly. “But I won’t.”
He turned and went off toward the end of the driveway.
“He’s going in the wrong direction,” the deputy muttered.
“Think so?” Tank asked. He knew Carson. He turned back to Cody. “If those utility trucks showed up right now, it would be a great help.”
Cody pressed the mike on his radio. “I’ll see if I can hurry them up. Dispatch,” he began, talking into the unit, “I need an ETA on the power company.”
“This is dispatch, Sheriff. He’s two minutes away.”
“Tell him to turn on his yellow lights and come in fast,” Cody said.
“Sir?”
“Just do it, okay?”
There was a smile in the voice that answered. “Okay.”
Cody turned to his deputy. “There’s a sudden emergency you have to handle. Turn on the lights and sirens full blast and make a big production of turning around in the driveway. Go closer to the house when you do it, but not too close.”
The deputy nodded. “Yes, sir!”
He jumped into his car, turned on the lights and sirens and went careening a little way toward the house before he cut the wheel sharply and tore off down the road.
“There,” Cody said. “Maybe that will give him time to get in place. And here’s another diversion.”
The power truck pulled up next to the squad car. “I had some really strange directions...” the driver began.
“No time to talk, I’m afraid,” the sheriff told him with a weary smile. “We have a hostage situation. We need you to cut power to the cabin, as quickly as you can.”
“I’ll get right on it.” He turned off the engine, got out, pulled on his tool belt and climbed into the cherry picker. He lifted himself up to the connections. A few twists and turns with his tools and the cabin went dark.
“Nice work,” Cody said when he came down again.
“Now what?” the man asked.
“Can you stay with us for a few minutes?”
“Unless we get an urgent call about something,” the lineman agreed.
“Thanks.”
Cody turned to the state trooper. “I’ll try to get him to answer the phone, if it’s still working.” Some phones wouldn’t work without power.
The trooper nodded.
Cody dialed Clara’s number and waited. The phone rang once, twice, three times. It rang again. And again. Just when Cody was about to give up, there was a click.
“Yeah. What do you want?” a man with an Australian accent asked.
“Your hostages,” Cody said.
There was a cold laugh. “No way, mate. Messed up all me plans, they did. Now they have to pay for it.”
Cody handed the phone to the state trooper.
“Can you let me verify that both women are still alive?” the trooper asked in a gentle tone.
“You’ll just have to take my word for it,” the man replied.
“What do you want?”
“For starters, turn the power back on.”
“Can’t do that, I’m afraid. Not yet, anyway. Talk to me. What do you want?”
“You’ll find out, very soon.”
He hung up. The trooper relayed the message.
Tank groaned. He should have married Merissa weeks ago. He should have carted her off to a minister the night they had Chinese food. Why had he hesitated? He knew how he felt. He knew how she felt. Now it might never happen. That murderer in the cabin was going to kill her, kill her mother, and it was all his fault.
A telephone truck came down the road, followed by a county water truck. They pulled into the driveway.
“What do you want us to do?” they asked Cody Banks.
“Wait.” He turned to his deputy, who was just driving up. “Rev that thing up, hit the lights and sirens, hard, and head toward town!”
“Yes, sir!”
The deputy went through the same routine he’d used earlier, and cut out onto the highway. Just as he vanished into the distance, a shot rang out.
HEART IN HIS mouth, hammering, Tank disobeyed a direct order from Cody Banks and ran toward the cabin just as fast as his legs would carry him. Who’d fired the shot? Carson had said to come running if they heard one, but what if it was the man in the cabin firing and they cost the women their lives by running in on him?
He couldn’t stop. He already was imagining seeing Merissa lying dead on the floor, blood in her mouth. He’d never live if she didn’t. He couldn’t go through the process of losing her, not again, not when she’d almost died of poison just days ago.
His chest was bursting as he followed the other men up on the porch. Cody reached for the door handle and there was an explosion.
