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Noah came downstairs after his shower to find Poppy in front of the fire on the living room couch, with little Savannah in her arms. Poppy was humming softly and rocking the toddler, who was staring up at her with the slow blinks of a child on the verge of losing her battle to stay awake.
He stopped there at the bottom of the stairs and leaned a shoulder against the wall, watching them with a smile. With Molly at work, Poppy had volunteered to take Savannah until Jase got back to town with Ryder. Jase and Molly never had to worry about a babysitter with his wife around.
The scene was pure maternal contentment, and a deep tenderness welled up inside him. Poppy wanted a baby of her own so bad and would be a fantastic mother if and when that happened. They’d been trying for a while now, and she was starting to get disheartened that something was wrong. That it would never happen for them.
Noah tried to reassure her, and the trying part had been a lot of fun so far. But he didn’t like seeing his sunflower so sad. After everything she’d been through, he would give her the fucking moon if she wanted it.
He pushed off the wall and walked over to her, catching her eye partway there, and her gentle smile, the sheen of tears in her eyes made his heart squeeze tight. He sank down beside her on the couch and brushed his thumb across the top of her cheek, skimming away the tears on her lower lashes. Savannah’s eyes were now closed, her lips parted slightly, her little chest moving in a slow, even rhythm.
“You’re a natural,” he whispered. No surprise there.
Poppy sniffed and wiped at her cheeks with her free hand. “She’s so sweet.”
He took her hand and curled his fingers around it, waiting until those big brown eyes met his. “We’ll get our turn one day. You’ll see.”
She put on a smile, but he could still see the sadness lurking in her eyes. “Yes.”
He glanced at Savannah, who was limp in Poppy’s arms. “Want me to carry her up to the guestroom?” They’d set up her playpen in there, and Poppy had already made it into a snug little bed for her with quilts and a pillow.
“Not yet,” she whispered, staring down into Savannah’s face.
Knowing his precious sunflower needed his love and reassurance, Noah stretched an arm around her shoulders and drew her into him, running a hand up and down her back while she laid her head in the hollow of his shoulder. Poppy snuggled into him, and the crackle of the fire were so relaxing, he smothered a yawn. His shift had started at seven this morning, and after a late night last night, his eyes started to droop too.
They flew open a minute later when his cell phone rang in his pocket. Savannah jerked, then went right back to sleep. Wincing at the noise, he pulled away from Poppy, stood, and hurried into the kitchen to answer the call from dispatch. “Sheriff Buchanan.”
“Just got a call from Danae Sutherland. Someone broke into the clinic and held her at gunpoint. She sounds pretty shaken up.”
He started for the door, grabbing his holstered service weapon on the way. “When was this?”
“Maybe fifteen minutes ago. She hid in a closet until they left. She’s still at the clinic.”
“I’ll call her myself. Heading there right now.” Ending the call, he grabbed his sheriff’s jacket from the peg near the door and turned to face Poppy, who was watching him worriedly from the couch. “Someone broke into the vet clinic and held Danae at gunpoint.”
She gasped, gathering Savannah closer. “Be careful.”
He stopped, strode back over to her and kissed her, then ran a finger down her cheek. “I will. Love you.”
He called Danae on the way out to his vehicle, and she answered right away. “Are you safe?” he said immediately.
“Yes. I mean, I think so. He hasn’t come back, but I’m afraid to leave the closet.” She sounded shaky.
“Just stay where you are. I’m on my way to you, should be there in a few minutes.”
“Okay.”
“Why don’t you tell me what happened?” He wanted to keep her on the line with him, just in case, keep her talking and help her feel less alone.
She was clear-headed enough to give him everything and provide clarification when he asked for it. By the time she was done, he was parking around back. The rear clinic door was wide open. “I’m here. You can come out now, but try not to disturb any evidence.”
A patrol car turned into the parking lot a moment later, and a young deputy Noah had recently hired stepped out. Noah gave him a brief rundown of the situation, then took out his flashlight and began surveying the scene.
Through the open doorway he could see Danae standing in the staff room, arms wrapped around her middle. There was blood smeared all over the desk and floor, along with bloody boot prints and what looked like drag marks near the door and continuing outside.
“Call forensics in,” Noah said to his deputy, then stepped inside, careful to avoid the blood. After making certain Danae was unhurt, he checked the rest of the clinic.
Just as she’d said, the damage and crime scene were contained within the staff room and exterior. “What about security footage?” he asked her, scanning the room. A few small boxes were scattered on the floor.
“We don’t have one back here. Just in the reception area, and on the exterior.”
“Can you access them for me? I need to take a look.”
She nodded once, her face pale, and started for the door leading to the main area of the clinic. Noah followed, glancing at his phone when it rang in his hand. Jase. “Hey, I’m in the middle of something. Can I call you back?”
“No, we got a major situation here.”
He stopped at Jase’s grim tone, his muscles tightening. “What’s going on?”
“A woman just stumbled out of the woods onto the road in front of us, torn clothes, covered in blood, hands bound behind her. She’s in shock so we’re not getting a lot out of her yet, but she says there’s been a mass shooting near here, and that all the people she was with are dead.”
What the hell? “Where are you?”
The location Jase gave was right on the southern city limits of Crimson Point. He’d already called for an ambulance. “All right. I’m on my way now.”
He ended the call, took Danae by the shoulder and explained the situation. He didn’t like leaving her, but this new situation took precedence. “My deputy will stay with you and take your statement, and I’ve got more team members on the way. I’ll check in on you when I can.”
“Okay,” she said with a brave nod.
On the drive south he called Poppy to tell her what was happening. “Jase is gonna be a while. Could you bundle Savannah up and go over to Danae’s place? Finn needs to know what happened, and Danae will be home soon. I’d feel better if someone was there with her.”
“Of course, but a mass shooting? Here? God, Noah...”
“I know.” He didn’t like the feel of this at all either. If it was true, it was huge, and his gut said it had to be linked to the recent rise in organized crime in the surrounding region. “Call you later, okay? Love you.”
Flashing red and blue lights reflecting off the damp surface of the asphalt alerted him to the scene ahead, hidden just out of view around a curve in the road. Fog reduced the visibility to ten yards or so. An ambulance and a patrol car had both arrived before him.
He parked on the shoulder next to the guardrail and jogged over to where Jase and Ryder stood talking with the deputy already there. “Where’s the witness?” he asked them, scanning the area.
“Paramedics are looking her over now,” his deputy said.
“Any other reports come in?”
“Just one. From Boyd Masterson.”
Delta vet who lived up the hill a mile or so from here. “What’d he say?”
“Said he heard multiple gunshots from down the ridge earlier, about forty minutes before your friends found the woman on the road. Went down to investigate but didn’t see anything. The timing lines up with what the female witness says.”
“How many victims are we talking about?”
“Not exactly sure yet, but it sounds like around five maybe.”
Damn. “Wait here,” he said to Jase and Ryder. “I’ll be right back.”
He hurried to the ambulance, knocked on a closed back door and waited for the paramedic to move out of the way. The woman on the gurney sat up, wrapping her arms around herself. She looked to be in her thirties, her brown hair cut in a wedge-style, and her golden-brown eyes were dull with shock.
“I’m Sheriff Buchanan,” he told her, keeping his distance so as not to crowd her. “What’s your name?”
Her throat worked as she swallowed. “Ember.”
“Hi, Ember.” He scanned her quickly. There was a lot of blood on her clothing, face and hands, but it might not be hers. “How are you doing? Are you injured?”
“No. Not really.”
“Abrasions, bruises and a small laceration on her wrist,” the paramedic told him, draping a blanket around her shoulders. “Vitals are all good, but her core temp’s down a bit.”
He kept his gaze on Ember. “Mind if I come in?” When she nodded her assent, he climbed up and sat beside the gurney on the padded bench built into the side. “Can you tell me what happened tonight, Ember? Starting with who you were with.”
She drew a deep breath, let it out in a shaky rush and clenched the ends of the blanket in her fists. “I was...hiking with my brother, his wife, and the rest of the group.”
“Who else was in the group?”
“The guide, and two others. We were hiking along a trail through the woods a little while ago, almost back to the van where the guide had left it on an access road earlier. But when we reached the road, we saw men loading unconscious women into moving trucks.”
Noah kept his expression impassive, but he was already piecing the scene together. “And they saw you?”
“Yes.” She swallowed again, lowered her gaze. “We turned around and tried to get away from them, but they chased us down.”
“How many men?”
“Three. Maybe four. No, four. They had guns. They shot at us,” she said with a shudder. “The guide was hit. My brother and I tried to carry him with us. They threatened to kill him if we didn’t stop, so we did. They bound our wrists behind us and marched us all down the hill to where the woods gave way to the beach.” She pressed her lips together, her body rigid.
“And then?” he asked gently.
“Then they lined us up and started shooting,” she choked out, a sob shaking her. “Over and over. Everyone started falling around me. My brother knocked me over when he was hit. He fell on top of me and I...” She covered her face in her hands, her shoulders jerking. It took her a minute to regain her composure enough to finish.
Noah reached out and took hold of her hand. It was ice cold, her fingers trembling.
She sucked in a ragged breath, blinked up at the ceiling. “I was too scared to move. I thought if I didn’t move, they’d think I was dead. I thought the others were doing it too. Then the men started covering us with sand. They were arguing the whole time. I think one of them was wounded.”
And two men had burst in on Danae not long afterward, one of them shot.
“They all took off before they could bury us. And when I finally dared to move, I realized all the others were d-dead. Incl—including my brother,” she finished in an anguished whisper.
Noah squeezed her hand, holding on tight. “I’m so sorry, Ember.”
She made a high-pitch sound and turned toward him, her arms reaching out, and there was no way Noah could pull away. He gathered her to him and held on tight, anger and sadness warring inside him.
He’d seen a lot in his time as a cop, but thankfully had never had to deal with human trafficking or mass murder until now. The mention of her and the others being buried reminded him too much of what had happened to Poppy, but there was something else nagging at him as well.
This past September, he’d been alerted by a concerned citizen about a possible kidnapping/sex-trafficking ring in the area. Noah had met with the man, who had reportedly seen someone loading two young women into the back of a moving truck a few miles east of Crimson Point.
But he and his team hadn’t been able to find any evidence and hadn’t turned up any more leads. He’d passed the intel on to the FBI just in case, hoping it might help in some missing persons cases in the area, but he hadn’t heard anything about it since. After tonight... There was no denying they had a major problem in the area.
It turned his fucking stomach to think of that kind of shit happening anywhere near his town. That previous incident had to be connected to tonight. And with five murders tonight, his department was now in the middle of a major crime investigation.
When Ember quieted and leaned against him with an exhausted sigh, Noah gave her one last squeeze and eased her upright. “Can you give me the names of the people you were with, and a description of the men who attacked you?”
She told him what she could. “I got a picture of one of them on my phone. It’s probably not that good, but I think I at least got the plate number of the moving truck. Your deputy has it. I think the screen’s cracked though.”
“That’s okay.” He tucked the blanket more securely around her. “The paramedics are going to take you to the hospital now, and one of my deputies will meet you there to take your statement. I’ll be by later tonight to see you. In the meantime, I want you to know I’m going to do everything I can to find the men who did this and bring them to justice. You have my word.”
She searched his eyes for a second, then nodded. “Thank you.”
Hopping out of the ambulance, he found Jase and Ryder standing nearby. “She all right?” Ryder asked.
“Not really, no. Her brother and sister-in-law were murdered right in front of her.” He stopped. “It’s gonna be a long night. Tell Poppy I probably won’t be home until late morning when you see her.”
“Sure,” Jase said.
Noah could feel their gazes on him as he walked over to join his deputy, planning out the next steps that needed to be taken. Starting with finding the site of the murders, and the rest of the victims.
