around the corner, I held my breath.
“It’s okay, Sunshine. It’s not Tara.”
I burst into tears of relief, burying my face in his coat. Marco held me. “It’s a blond woman. She matches the description Tara’s friends gave.”
“How did she die?”
“It looks like she was run over.”
I shuddered, trying not to picture it, and wiped icy teardrops off my eyelashes. “But why did Eros bark?”
“He found Tara’s black headband in front of the loading dock door. Aaron called for backup so they can search the warehouse.”
“Marco, if Tara comes through this, I won’t get involved in any protests ever again.”
“Can I get that in writing?”
After four squad cars unloaded more cops, Aaron briefed his sergeant, who immediately had all employees vacated from the warehouse. Within ten minutes, grumbling workers shuffled outside to wait while Eros tracked inside off-leash. I huddled against Marco, waiting, worrying, praying, until finally we heard the squawk of the sergeant’s radio as Aaron reported in. The sergeant turned to give his men a thumbs-up. “He found her.”
I stared at Marco in astonishment. “They found Tara! Oh, my God, they found her!”
Marco put his arms around me and nearly lifted me off the ground in an exuberant hug. As we waited near the doorway, I heard the sergeant contact his men at the Expo Center so they could tell Kathy and Jordan the joyous news. The sergeant spotted me standing with Marco and came toward us.
“I thought you were on your way home,” he said to me.
“This seemed more important.”
Officer Aaron appeared at the door and motioned for me to come forward. “Your niece wants to talk to you.”
I stepped inside the big warehouse to find one of the sheriff’s deputies with Tara, whose petite body was enveloped in an oversized black wool coat. Tara held out her arms to me, as she used to when she was little and wanted to be picked up. I ran to her and hugged her against me. “I’m so glad you’re safe. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
Tara’s face was pale but her eyes blazed with anger. “I was Tasered, Aunt Abby! It hurt, and I couldn’t move.”
“I’m so sorry.” I hugged her again. Tara couldn’t begin to understand how sorry I was.
Breathlessly, Tara began to relate her escape. “A creepy woman in a bad blond wig Tasered me in the bathroom, then wrapped this smelly coat around me, dragged me through the lobby and outside where her scuzzball boyfriend was waiting. The Taser had worn off when they shoved me into a junky old van sitting in the parking lot, but I pretended like it hadn’t so she wouldn’t use it on me again. I waited until she was climbing into the passenger seat; then I jumped out and ran to hide among the cars.
“I thought maybe Dad had forgotten to lock his car-he does that a lot-so I ran there, but I couldn’t get in. That’s when I dropped one of my headbands, to let you know I’d gotten away. Did you find my headband trail? Is that how you knew to come here?”
“Yes! The search dog followed your trail straight here. That was fast thinking, Tara.”
“I knew I had to do something. But the creeps caught me again and tied my hands together. Then they put tape over my mouth and drove me over here. They parked the van behind a big semitruck, then started arguing, so I managed to get out again.”
“I can’t believe you got away twice.”
“It wasn’t that hard. They tied my hands in front, so it was easy to get the tape off my mouth. And they forgot to tie my feet. They weren’t very smart, as far as kidnappers go.”
I wanted to laugh, but the seriousness of the situation kept me from it. “Do you know what the kidnappers were arguing about?”
Tara rubbed her eyes. I could tell she was exhausted. “The scuzzball wanted to take me inside the warehouse, but Blondie said that was a stupid idea. She wanted to go where no one would hear them.”
Where no one would hear them? That was ominous enough to make me shudder.
“Do you remember anything else they said, any names they might have mentioned?”
She rubbed her eyes again. “No. They were starting to yell real loud, and the wind was howling all around us, so I pushed down on the door handle with my boot and wiggled out like a worm. Then Blondie came after me again and chased me all over the parking lot, while the dude in the hood drove around in his van, trying to stop me from getting away. I was yelling for help, but no one was there, and the wind was so loud, I don’t know if I would’ve been heard, anyway.
“I finally dove under a truck, but Blondie found me there, too. That’s where I left the second headband. Then I saw one of the garage doors coming down, so I ran for it. I tossed out my last headband just before the door went down, like Indiana Jones did. I guess that’s when the woman gave up, because she didn’t come after me.”
“We need to get you down to the station,” the deputy told Tara. “You can visit more with your aunt afterward.”
“No, wait!” Tara cried, clinging to me. “I didn’t tell you the most important part. Those creeps thought I was
The deputy replied tactfully, “We have one of the kidnappers already, Tara, and we’re tracking down the other one right now, but if your aunt wants to ride with you, that’s fine. We’ll need to talk to her, anyway.”
“Tara’s parents will be here any minute,” I told the deputy. “They’ll want to go with her. Tara, Marco will bring me. We’ll follow you there, okay?”
Tara finally nodded and released her grip on my arm. I walked to the door behind them, watching as Kathy and Jordan jumped out of a squad car and ran to sweep up their daughter in a group hug, making me all teary- eyed again. I whispered a quick prayer of thanks that it had worked out all right, then headed toward Marco.
“Feel better?” he asked, putting his arms around me.
“Relieved that Tara’s okay. Do you want to go with me to the sheriff’s office? They want to see me.”
“Sure. I’ll ask one of the deputies to drop us at the Expo Center so we can get my car. So, tell me what Tara said.”
“We were right, Marco. The kidnappers were after me. The blonde must have seen you and Tara come out of the concert hall and assumed she was me. Tara got away from them before they realized their error, and when they recaptured her, they taped her mouth shut before she could tell them.”
“They captured her twice and she was able to escape both times?”
“Can you believe that? Before she got away the second time, Tara heard them arguing about where to take her. The blonde was angry that the guy had driven them to the warehouse. She thought they should go where they couldn’t be heard. What does that sound like to you?”
“Like they had murder in mind.”
A shiver raced up my spine as Marco echoed my own thoughts. “Someone really has a grudge against me, Marco, and who could that be but Raand?”
We picked up the Prius and drove to the sheriff’s office, where I was interviewed for nearly an hour by two detectives. One of them, Adrian Valderas, was a good-looking Hispanic man a few years older than Marco. The other, T. J. Maroni, was a seasoned officer with big brown eyes, a heavy-duty mustache, and an infectious smile, who seemed far too easygoing to be a homicide investigator.
I told the detectives about the letters I’d received, the burning brick, the trashing of Bloomers, the attempted kidnapping of Nikki and Jillian, and my reasons for suspecting that Nils Raand was connected to those incidents. I directed them to Sergeant Reilly of the New Chapel police for information on the evidence he’d collected on the case.
“Anyone else you can think of who might have reason to want to harm you?” Valderas asked.
“No. It has to be Raand.”
“You’re sure about that?” Maroni asked.
I thought for a moment. “I guess I did help put a few felons behind bars.”
Valderas readied his pen. “How many are we talking about? Two? Three?”
