chief did. He barely shut the door before gravel flew up from under the tires and the car lurched forward. Chief flipped on the lights, following the strip of rubber at the end of the lane, and then stepped on the gas.
“Where could they be headed in this direction? There’s only farm land for miles.” Randy strained to see the passengers in passing vehicles.
“Danny can be somewhat anal when it comes to details. Trust me, he knows exactly where he’s going.”
Randy shrugged. “Maybe not. How could he know Jacob would show up? If it wasn’t for Jeffery’s message, we would’ve arrived unexpectedly.” He smacked the dash. “Why did I ask him to call?”
“Give yourself a break, kid. We had no way of knowing he’d take Becca there.”
Randy raked his fingers through his hair. “I don’t think he planned to. He probably got wind of the dogs coming and didn’t know where to go, so he went to the closest place he knew.”
“Look, up ahead.” Chief pointed at fresh skid marks turning into a storage unit facility. There had to be a hundred of them, side by side, row upon row.
Chief pulled in at a portable office. A sign on the door stated: Call for Assistance.
“Get the guy with the keys over here right away,” Randy barked the order at the officers in the back seat. “We’re going to need a few men out here or we’ll be days going through these entire units one at a time.”
Becca couldn’t shake the mounting despair after leaving the storage unit. By now a team of officers were going from one unit to the next in search of her and now Jacob. They’d have no reason to suspect Danny’s clever diversion. He had her driving down a dirt road towards an old farm house with a For Sale sign at the end of the lane.
Jacob now moaned much of the time, undoubtedly in a great deal of pain from his various injuries.
“Pull in around back.” Danny straightened in his seat. The second she put the truck in park, he reached over and took the keys. “Get out and help me carry him inside.”
Physically and emotionally drained, it took everything in her to help carry him to the house. The old wooden door swung open with a kick, and they brought Jacob inside. Sparse furniture littered the main floor they passed through to lay Jacob on an threadbare sofa.
He waved the gun under her nose. “Grab a chair.”
Reluctantly Becca did as asked, knowing full well it was meant for her. Danny held her firmly in place with strength belying his size. This time he wrapped the tape from torso to ankles, leaving her no chance of escaping.
Once he’d finished with her, he pulled another chair to sit between them. He slipped his hand in the side pocket of his khaki’s. Everything seemed to freeze in place once he held the syringe up between them.
“Now, I do believe I’ve bought us a little time to do things properly.”
Jacob looked over at her. “Becca,” he rasped.
“How wonderful of you to come back to us. Your timing couldn’t be more perfect.” Danny flew from his chair and drove the needle into Jacob’s arm, injecting half of the clear liquid.
She screamed into the tape. Jacob’s body bucked once before becoming completely still.
Danny smiled devilishly and turned Jacob’s head to face her. The blocker had done its job. Not enough to kill him, but seemingly the right dosage to render Jacob a virtual prisoner in his own body.
Becca made a futile attempt to get free from her bindings as Danny stood and sashayed across the room, needle in hand. Every expression, every move of her captor resonated shear madness. His laughter chilled her to the core. The Florist smiled and straddled her.
“You look like you have something to say.” With no regard, he ripped the tape from her face, drawing blood.
“Danny, please, you don’t have to do this. Jacob hasn’t done anything wrong.”
He snarled. “Oh no? That prick took the only man I have ever loved from me. He deserves everything I have planned for him, and more.”
“Danny, I’m begging you not to use that on me. I’ll do anything you tell me to do. I can help you get away. I have a little money tucked away. It’s all yours, just please—”
He traced her bleeding lips with his index finger and held up the syringe between them, spurting out a little stream of the drug. “It wouldn’t be fair if Jacob has all the fun, now would it?”
He kept his gaze trained on her while he jabbed the needle in her arm. A scream died in her throat and her muscles relaxed until she couldn’t even part her lips.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“This is ridiculous. We’ve been at this for over an hour and we’re no closer to finding them than we were when we started.” Randy paced back and forth.
Chief’s radio crackled. “Chief, come to unit seven-two-four.”
Randy clutched at his chest as he climbed in the truck with the chief and tore off to find the unit. Several officers huddled in front of open bay doors.
“What do we have here?” Chief asked and stepped.
A tall, plain-clothed detective ushered him forward. “It’s Danny’s truck.”
Randy ran into the unit and looked in the windows. “Empty.” He took a pair of gloves from his vest pocket and put them on before opening the back hatch. Bitter bile rose in his throat as the stench wafted out. Someone’s blood stained a large patch of rug.
His boss put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “I know what you’re thinking. If one of them is dead, don’t you think he would’ve left the body rather than cart it around with him?”
Randy nodded, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Maybe they’re not dead, but one of them is bleeding badly. A person can only lose so much blood and survive.” He walked over to the passenger door and carefully opened it. The driver’s seat was also bloodied. “I wonder if Danny drove or if he forced one of them do it?”
A glint of silver on the driver’s side floor mat caught his attention. Randy rounded the front of the truck and swung the door open.
“It’s a ring—Becca’s pinky ring. She’s letting us know she’s alive.” A rush of adrenaline urged him to look for further evidence. “She had to be the one driving.”
“That means it’s Jacob who’s hurt.” Chief raked his fingers through his hair.
“Does this mean you’re done with me?” The silver-haired caretaker jangled his key ring.
Chief shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”
“I’ll go look up the file on this unit. Back in a flash.”
“Jerry, call in and find out if Danny has any other vehicles registered in his name.”
Jerry jogged over to one of the squad cars.
“Now what? We were probably minutes behind them when we got here. Now they’ve got at least an hour’s lead.” Randy started to pace yet again, frustrated beyond words.
“You’re forgetting Danny’s a cop. He knows to stay out of sight. My guess is that’s he’s not gone far at all.”
With her entire body rendered useless, all she could do was look from side to side with her eyes. Thankfully Danny left them alone in the room. Her sense of time had vanished along with her motor skills. It seemed a lifetime had passed, but it could easily have been a matter of minutes.
Danny had positioned her to face Jacob, who reclined on the sofa still as a corpse. If it wasn’t for the slight rise and fall of his chest Becca would’ve thought him dead. Waiting for Danny to come back was almost as torturous as not being in control of her body.
Like a slideshow, photos of the seven crime scenes played over and over in her mind. Jacob already assumed the position on the sofa. If she had any hope of maintaining even a tendril of sanity, she couldn’t let her mind go there.
