Chapter 21

Jessie stopped to check in with the young officer sitting outside Adriana’s room. “You’re fine.” He motioned her on. She smiled when she saw Adriana sitting up in bed.

“How are you feeling?” Jessie hid the large gift bag she was carrying behind her back.

“I’m much better now that I’ve had a shower and got out of those filthy clothes.” Adriana blushed. “I must have smelled something awful.”

Jessie waved it off. “It couldn’t be helped. Here are a few items for you.” Jessie handed her the bag and sat in a chair by the bed. “We did a little shopping. Knowing that you had to be in those same clothes throughout this whole ordeal, I wanted you to have something new.”

“Thank you. May I open it now?” Adriana smiled as Jessie nodded. She pulled out lacy undergarments, a nightgown, a pair of navy blue pants, and a blue floral twinset. A bottle of her favorite perfume was next, followed by a pair of black ballet flats. “How did you know my size?” She sprayed perfume on the back of her hand. “This perfume is my favorite perfume. Who told you?” She grabbed the shoes and clutched them to her chest. Her eyes sparkled, and her smile showed off the tiny dimple in her chin.

Jessie smiled at her. “Evan helped us. He must have gotten sick of our calls, but I wanted you to have something to wear before he got here with your clothes.” She reached into her purse and handed Adriana a gift-wrapped box. “This is from my friend, Katie.”

Adriana opened it and smiled down at the silver necklace with a small turquoise stone and a matching pair of earrings. “Oh, these are lovely.” She dabbed at the tears filling her eyes. “I can’t tell you what this means to me.”

“We loved shopping for you.” Jessie searched for her phone in her purse. “Do you mind if I take a picture of you, for Katie and my grandmother?”

“It’s all right. You’ve all been so kind to me.” She smiled for the picture.

Jessie snapped a couple of pictures and sat back down. “It must have been scary for you.” She crossed her legs. “I can’t imagine all the emotions you must have experienced during the whole ordeal. Worry about the baby, wondering if you’d ever see Evan again, I don’t think I could have done it.”

“I didn’t have a choice; I just tried to survive.” Adriana pulled the blanket over her legs.

“Did he ever hurt you?” Jessie was afraid to hear her answer.

“A little.” Adriana shrugged.

“The first picture I had of you in my mind was in the trunk of his car. He stood looking you over, but you didn’t seem to be moving. Did you ride in the trunk?”

“The trunk is where he kept me the whole trip, but to his credit he left water in case I woke up. The upper part of the back seat had been removed so the cool air could get to me.” Adriana frowned. “I was aware of what was going on, but I didn’t want him to know it. It was strange. At times, he was so nice, and other times he was frightening. I never knew who would show up. As much as I was afraid of him, someone else scared me more. I thought maybe he had something to do with my abduction, I never saw him, but still I know he was there.”

“Who?” Jessie watched her.

“Just someone from my past.” A strange expression came over Adriana’s face.

“Do you mean the stalker you had in college? Did you know who he was?”

“How did you know about the stalker?” Adriana looked surprised.

“I had interviewed one of the professors when it was going on. Another girl went missing around the same time. I searched the records and saw no one was ever arrested.”

“He never showed himself, but I always knew when he was there.”

“You never saw him?” Jessie saw her shake her head.

“No! Thank God! He’s the scariest person I’ve ever had to deal with in my life. I’ve never seen him, but I know when he’s around.” Adriana pulled her covers up to her neck. “He’s behind this somehow. I know it. I can’t prove it, but all the same, weird things were happening.”

Jessie saw the fear on Adriana’s face. “Is that what you meant when you told Jayla death had found you again.”

“Yes,” her voice grew softer. “He is death in a person.”

“I hope you don’t mind me asking. Can you remember much of what happened to you?” He must be the dark shadow that Jessie kept seeing in her mind, not Mallory.

“The man was always trying to force pills down me.” Adriana’s expression changed. “There was something off about him, too. He talked to himself all the time. Other times he would lash out, hitting anything in sight, including himself.” Adriana shivered. “I pretended to sleep most of the time. I didn’t want him to give me too many drugs. They could hurt my baby.” Adriana’s hands went protectively to her stomach. “All I want to know now is that this ordeal hasn’t hurt our baby. The doctor is supposed to be in later to tell me the results of all the tests.” She folded the new clothes and placed them neatly beside her.

“Do you want me to put those back in the bag for you, and get them out of the way for now?” Jessie picked up the clothes when Adriana nodded and placed them neatly in the bag, setting it on the telephone stand. “If you like, I’ll wait with you until the doctor comes.”

“Thank you. I don’t want to be alone until I know how everything is.” Adriana stared off into the distance.

“I wouldn’t want to be either.” Jessie fluffed her pillow. “I don’t want you to answer anything if it makes you uncomfortable. Tell me to back off if you don’t wish to talk about it.”

Adriana looked thoughtful. “I need to speak about it. I don’t even know how many days he stole from my life. I felt so powerless, and I never want to feel like that again.”

“Believe me I know what it feels like to be powerless,” Jessie told Adriana about her own time in the trunk of the car and the potent drug they had used on her. “You always wonder what you could have done differently. I still second-guess myself. I have a therapist who has helped a lot, and I’ve trained to use a gun. I’ll never go down again without a fight if I can help it.”

“I don’t know what more I could have done to fight against him. He was such a big man and his fists.” She shivered and hugged herself. “I saw the damage they could do when he hit things.”

“If you heard about Maria Gonzales and Rodney Owens, then you know what he’s capable of doing. Not challenging him was the smart thing. You’re alive because of it.”

“Agent Henderson told me about them both earlier. I would like to visit Maria before I leave.” Adriana wiped the tears that were running down her cheeks. “I can’t remember much about the day he took me. My car stalled. I managed to get off the road. A car came up behind me. I saw the man in my mirror, but there is nothing after he opened the car door.”

“Do you know where you were held?” Jessie listened, taking mental notes as she spoke.

“The place was a dump. He tied me to a chair and left me there the entire time. I couldn’t even use the restroom. You can imagine the smell.” She shook her head. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.”

“I’m glad he never hit you.” Jessie touched Adriana’s hand. “After Maria, I have to admit that I was afraid for you. Especially, if he had found you before we did.”

“I feared that more than anything. I believe he would’ve killed me.” Adriana shuddered. “You never know your strength until you face a crisis and have a desire to survive.”

“I’m amazed you’re doing as well as you are.” Jessie patted her hand.

“I’m so relieved that you guys found me. I could still be wandering around out there. How can I ever thank you for everything?” Adriana’s eyes lit up as she sniffed her hand where she had sprayed the perfume. “I smell nice again. Not to have the dignity of using the restroom has to be one of the worst things in the world. I think I’ll be more grateful for the little things from now on.” She tucked the blanket around her legs.

“It was our pleasure to do whatever we could.” Jessie dabbed at a tear running down her cheek. “I sent the story of your abduction to my boss and he was going to run it. I asked him to hold it. I want to add to it the story of your escape and rescue. Would you like to read it, too?”

“I would love to. I hope they catch my stalker this time. Every day I’ll be grateful if they do. Mallory was scary, but the other man is evil.”

“Write your email address on this and I’ll send it to you.” Jessie handed Adriana a piece of paper and a pen.

They spent the next hour talking, and Jessie was pleased to hear the good news when the doctor gave Adriana a clean bill of health for both her and the baby. Jessie stayed long enough to see Adriana in her new outfit. She watched Evan walk into the room and head straight for his wife. He embraced her passionately, kissing her cheeks, her eyes, and lips.

“My love.” He touched her stomach and Adriana beamed. He shuddered and then began kissing her again. Jessie walked out of the room not wanting to disturb the touching scene. She smiled. They were a cute couple.

“Keep an eye on them, you hear.” She smiled at the officer sitting in the chair outside her door.

“You’ve got it.” He smiled back at her.

Jessie got into her car. She locked the doors and let the tears flow. This story could have ended so badly, but it hadn’t, which made her cry all the harder. Her phone rang, and she searched for it in her purse.

“Hey, sweetheart, where are you? Are you okay? What the hell, you sound like you’re crying.”

“I’m just leaving the hospital. My waterworks turned on, but I’m okay.” She looked in the mirror to see how much damage she’d done to her eye makeup.

“Are you alone?”

“Yes, why?”

“You shouldn’t be. No lecture, but you shouldn’t be anywhere by yourself right now. I’m near the hospital, and I’m going to have Jeremy drop me there. I don’t want you alone. Remember the glue, the new twist, and all.”

“I’m sorry I forgot. I wanted to check in on Maria, Adriana, and Rodney.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Jessie quickly ran a brush through her hair and put on some blush. The longer she waited, the more nervous she got, searching out all the places someone could hide. What had seemed like a long time in truth had been only about ten minutes when she looked at her watch again.

Finally, he was there. She watched him get out of the car. Her stomach fluttered. He did look good. The blue shirt set off his killer eyes, and those jeans were a perfect fit. She fanned herself and blushed. He was her eye candy today, and she was happy to have her fill until he opened the car door.

“Jess, I don’t want to have to go over the rules again, but you can’t go anywhere alone with that guy still out there. Before you bite my head off, don’t shake your head. I can see the fire in your eyes. Until we catch this guy, you always travel with someone. Got it?” He pushed his sunglasses firmly onto his nose.

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” She handed him the keys and jumped out of the car. He met her halfway around the car. “I wasn’t leaving.” She looked at him warily. “I was just letting you drive.”

He walked beside her until she got in the car and then closed the door. “I wouldn’t put it past you to take off.” His face showed no emotion, and she couldn’t tell if he was teasing or not.

“Have I ever deliberately…never mind, you don’t need to answer.” She wanted to smack the grin off his face, but she couldn’t keep a straight face long enough.

“Let’s start over. Hi, sweetheart.” He leaned over and gave her kiss. “Did you miss me? Ah, come on honey.” He smiled at her. “You know you did.”

“That’s debatable.” She turned away to hide her smile.

“It’s your lucky night. You and I are going out to dinner. Tomorrow is the street fair. Frank is tired tonight and is going to order room service. Jeremy has taken pity on me, and he’s taking Katie and Sadie out. It’s just you and me, kid. I have to go to the station, but I’ll be around to get you right at five.” He pulled into the parking space in front of their suite. “I’ll give you the info to write a good story and you can just be with me, which is more than enough.” He held up the keys. “Do you mind if I drive it?”

“Go ahead. I’ll be waiting for you.” She was still smiling as she walked in the door. What had him so happy? He wanted a date, and she wanted to give him one to remember. She promised.

****

He missed her the minute he pulled out of the resort. Another three hours and she’d be his for the evening. He needed to be with her, to look at her, and to hear her voice. She was his calm in the storm. His excuse was they needed to talk about this case. Frank seemed to think, given the opportunity, Radar might be able to track which direction Mallory had gone with the stolen car. He didn’t doubt that dog’s ability for a minute. Tomorrow they would try it. He had come up with a great idea to get her away from Palm Springs for a few hours. Balasco and a couple of the officers helped him put it all together. Not even Henderson could dampen his mood.

Matt walked into Balasco’s office grinning. “Hey, Tony, how’s it going?”

“Not bad. I just checked with the hospital, and they upgraded Rodney’s status to stable.” Balasco stood and shook Matt’s hand. “Thanks for the way you handled that with his wife. You did a damn fine job.”

“No problem. I felt sorry for the man. He didn’t deserve what happened to him. Hell, he just stopped to help the guy.” Matt frowned.

“And we wonder why no one wants to help anymore. I think we have our answer.” Tony took a swallow of his coffee. “Now, if I could get Agent Henderson to try a little diplomacy, life around here might be pretty damn good.” He sat down again and motioned Matt to do the same.

“Have you heard about any more sightings of the hit man?” Matt tapped restlessly on the arm of the chair.

Balasco shook his head no. “We know this one calls himself the Hunter. He likes to toy with his victims for a while before he kills them. They become his prey, the hunted. Henderson seems to think he’s observing for now. He’s not your problem, at least not yet. He likes to inform his victims first so he can give them a chance to run. It’s all about the thrill of the hunt for him. Here’s a copy of the file that we have on some of his past victims, and what we’ve learned so far.. You may need it in the future. He’s hard to pin down. We haven’t gotten his real identity yet, but the FBI is working on it.”

“He sounds like a sick bastard.” Matt stretched out his legs. “Thanks, Tony, I’ll read this over.”

Tony nodded. “What did you learn in the interview with Adriana earlier?”

“She couldn’t give us much information about the location although it sounded like it the place was a real dump. She ran for it. She tried to stay clear of the road where he might have spotted her.” Matt pulled out his notepad.

“She was one lucky lady.” Balasco took a sip of his coffee.

“I realized talking to her, just how lucky we were to have found her. The dog made all the difference in the time that it took. “I don’t think we would’ve found her in time without him. This story would have had a different ending.” Matt sat forward in his chair.

“I’m willing to write Frank and his dog a glowing report.” Tony made a note to write one.

“I’m not sure she’s safe yet. That’s why I’m here, the stalker’s obsession with her. She did tell us he came into the bank in Rocky Pointe. She never saw him, but he left her several messages. Notes like the ones someone left Jessie. He holds something over Mallory. I wouldn’t put it past him to use it against Mallory, forcing him to attempt to get her back. What do you think should be our next step to protect her?”

“We have to convince Henderson that we should put Adriana and her husband in a safe house for a few days until we’re through questioning her. Then she can return home until his trial.” Tony glanced out in the hall. “Henderson was pretty pissed off that he wasn’t there when we found her. That would have looked good on his record. He’ll be ready to pounce on you if I don’t miss my guess.”

“Not to worry.” Matt lifted an eyebrow. “I can live with him not liking me. There’s no love loss on my side either.”

“What do you think we should do about Adriana?” Tony picked up his pencil and notepad.

“I agree we should put them somewhere safe. I think we should keep the hospital room as if she’s still there and hope our guy will bite.”

“I don’t know if Henderson will go for it.” Tony tapped his pencil idly on the notepad. “But it doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”

“Maybe Tom Maxwell could help convince him. Look, someone wants Adriana. My gut is telling me that this guy promised Mallory he could have Jessie if he handed Adriana over to him. I think Jessie may be the prize for Mallory, and he needs to have Adriana to claim her. So I’m ruling him out in my mind as trying to harm Jessie, but he still might try to kidnap her.”

“What about all the notes and stuff?”

“Scare tactics. One of our suspects has a connection to voodoo. One of the things we found out during the interview was that Adriana and her roommate had some bizarre experiences in college. It had started happening again at Rocky Pointe a few months ago.”

“Do you think Jessie is in the clear?” Tony frowned.

Matt shook his head. “No, not by any stretch of the imagination. There is someone behind all this who wants both of us gone, and I’m not sure yet who.” Matt pulled out his phone and scrolled through the messages. “I’m waiting for word now. Dylan is working some angles for me back in Blue Cove.”

“Interesting logic. I need to think about this for a while. I’m willing to stick my neck out with Henderson if you can give me something to go on.”

“I should have something for you before I leave here today. The thing is, in the last couple of cases we worked, Jessie’s writing and research is what exposed them. She brought it all out in the open where we could pursue it. Either one of the cases, and both of them were big, could have made us a lot of enemies.” Matt leaned forward in the chair.

“I remember hearing about both of the cases. You’re right about making some enemies. You broke up some big money schemes. People don’t like having the money spigot turned off.” Balasco sipped his coffee again. “Yuck, it’s cold.” He grimaced.

“Adriana said they were going to release her today. Henderson won’t be back until this evening, so you should call him. We need to slip the Fosters into a safe house and convince the hospital to leave the room unoccupied.” Matt’s phone alerted him to an incoming message. He read the text.

“Henderson will do what’s best for her. He wants this case to end well. That’s all the better for him. He’s an all right guy. A little on the controlling side, but he does a hell of a job.”

“I agree with you. That’s why I’ve put up with all his crap. Let me warm up your coffee.” He took Tony’s cup and filled it up with the hot brew. Balasco was talking animatedly to Henderson. As Matt walked back into the office, Tony hung up the phone. He handed the hot coffee to him.

“He okayed it. He hardly put up a fuss about leaving guards on the empty hospital room. Of course, it helped that I made it my suggestion and not yours.” Tony grinned.

“Whatever it takes to get it done. I’ll try to get that information for you before I leave tonight, but you can always reach me by phone. Thanks for your help with my other plan.” Matt smiled thinking about the evening he had planned.

“I enjoyed helping you. It’s all about the romance, the ladies like it.” Tony grinned at him. “Henderson wasn’t happy that you weren’t going to be here tonight.” He chuckled. “I think he’s a little taken with your Jessie.”

“Hell, who isn’t? He gave a lopsided grin.

“Well, it’s hopeless for Henderson. I’ve seen the way she looks at him. Jessie’s not impressed.”

“She has a mind of her own; that’s for sure.”

“I’ve noticed. I’d say she’s a nice problem to have.”

Matt grinned. “Yes, she is.”