Blind Alley

leg was bleeding in several places.

Trevor muttered a curse. Christ, he hated those bastards who preyed on the helpless. Children and animals should be exempt from the cruelty of the world.

Yeah, sure. No one was allowed a free pass. He should know that by now. Close out the anger. Where was Aldo?

He had to be somewhere close to Toby to make the poor animal howl.

Trevor adjusted his infrared glasses and then studied the nearby trees.

Nothing.

His gaze shifted to the left.

Noth—

Maybe.

Yes!

A blurred shadow but definitely a human shape.

Aldo.

He moved silently forward through the underbrush.

The cold wind struck Jane's soaked clothes and sent a shudder through her body. She scarcely noticed as she crept through the sparse trees toward the glade. Be careful. The full moon that enabled her to see would also allow her to be seen. So far her memory had served her well. The glade should be right ahead. . . .

And then she saw him.

Toby!

Tears ran down Jane's cheeks as she caught sight of Toby's bleeding leg.

Hurt. That son of a bitch had hurt him.

And was going to hurt him again.

Someone was coming across the glade. It was too dark to distinguish anything about his appearance except that he had a large, powerful body, medium height and shoulder-length hair that could be sandy.

But there was nothing blurred about the glitter of the knife in his hand.

He dropped to his knees beside Toby.

“No!”

She didn't even realize she was running toward him until she'd almost reached him.

“Don't you touch him!”

He swiveled on his knees. “You're here.” His voice was exultant. “I knew you'd—” He screamed as the knife in her hand entered his shoulder. “Bitch!”

His own knife lunged upward.

A hand closed on her shoulder from behind, spinning her away from that deadly knife. “For God's sake, get out of here. Now!”

Trevor?

A crashing in the underbrush. Voices. A dozen flashlight beams pierced the darkness of the trees surrounding the glade.

Aldo cursed and leaped to his feet. “Whore. I told you not to bring anyone. Did you think I wouldn't kill him?” His knife plunged down toward Toby.

“No!” She leaped forward but Trevor was already there, knocking Aldo to the ground and then rolling sideways to protect Toby.

“Stop! Lay down your weapons.” Joe's voice. Joe running out of the forest toward them.

Aldo was cursing as he struggled out from under Trevor. The next moment he was on his feet and running toward the cover of the trees.

“Okay, Jane?” Joe asked, and when she nodded, “Eve and Gunther will be here in a minute. You stay where you are, Trevor.” He took off after Aldo with the four policemen on his heels, guns drawn.

Jane fell to her knees, her anxious gaze on Toby. Aldo's knife thrust had not gone home, she realized with relief. “It's okay, boy. Everything's going to be fine.” She crawled the few steps toward him and started sawing through the ropes binding him. “No one's going to hurt you again.”

“You shouldn't have run at Aldo,” Trevor said in frustration as he got to his feet. “Why the hell didn't you give me a few minutes more? I'd have had him.”

“He was going to hurt Toby.” She didn't look at him. “No one hurts my dog.” But someone had hurt him, she thought in agony as she looked at the wounds on his leg. They appeared shallow but one was still bleeding. “Give me something to wrap around his leg. Everything I have on is soaking wet.”

“I don't have time for canine first aid. I have to get out of here before Quinn gets back. I've no desire to end up in jail while Aldo is running free.”

“After you give me something to wrap around Toby's leg.” She glared up at him. “Take off your sweater.”

He gazed at her in disbelief and then started to laugh. “You look like you're freezing. You need it more than he does.” He pulled his sweater over his head and tossed it to her. “Anything else?”

“No.” She turned back to Toby. “If you go south over the hill, you'll find a drainage pipe that will take you to the highway. I'll tell them you went north. It may buy you enough time to get away.” She wrapped the arm of the sweater tightly around the dog's leg. “Go.”

“I'm going.” He stopped as he turned to leave. “May I ask why you're helping me?”

“I don't want you in jail either.” She stroked Toby's head. “I can't be sure Joe will catch Aldo. No one else has been able to do it all these years. If Aldo gets away, I want everyone in the world to be on the search. You may be everything Eve suspects you of being, but you want to catch him. I saw that tonight and you know things. . . .”

Toby turned his head and licked her hand and it nearly broke her heart. “Poor boy . . .”

She glanced up at Trevor and added fiercely, “I'm going to catch him, Trevor. He's not going to hurt any animal or woman again. Now get out of here so that you can help me do it.”

He smiled and slowly nodded. “By all means.” He ran south through the trees.

She could still hear Joe and the policemen crashing through the forest as she held the compress over Toby's wound. They might catch him. Lord, she hoped they did. Anyone who would torture a helpless animal was a total monster. On one level of her mind she had understood how evil Aldo must be but it had taken this cruelty to make it sink home.

“Let me look at it.”

She turned her head to see Eve standing a few feet away. “The bastard didn't sever any arteries. I think he's going to be okay.”

“I wasn't sure you were going to be okay.” Eve turned to Gunther hurrying behind her. “It's okay, Mac. Go on after Joe and the others.”

He nodded and took off at a run.

Eve dropped to her knees beside Jane and looked down at Toby's leg. “When I saw him lift that knife, I nearly had a heart attack. And then when he didn't kill you, I wanted to murder you myself.” Her hands were shaking as she tightened the compress. “Why didn't you tell us, dammit? Don't you ever close us out like that again.”

“He said he'd kill Toby. He's my dog. I was stupid. I should have kept him inside. It never occurred to me that he'd go after Toby. My fault. He's my responsibility.”

“And you're our responsibility. How do you think we'd have felt if he'd killed you?”

“Terrible.” She met Eve's gaze. “But you'd have done the same thing.”

Eve's glance fell away first. “Maybe. It was Trevor who tackled Aldo? It was pretty dark, but I thought I recognized him.”

She stiffened. “Did Joe?”

“Probably. And he must have realized he was helping you.”

“He saved Toby.”

“But then he ran away.”

“He knew Joe would still have arrested him.”