Kate lay in Elliot’s arms, feeling herself drift off to sleep, finally able to let go of the tension of the past week. Tomorrow all of her children would be home again. No more bounty hunter. No more FBI. Riley was coming home …
The sound of screaming shattered the peaceful night.
Kate sat up in bed, her heart pounding, her thoughts disoriented.
“It’s Abby.” Elliot threw back the covers. “Stay here.”
Kate grabbed his arm. “I’m going with you. I’ll get the pepper spray.”
Elliot took a wooden ball bat from behind the door and slipped into the hallway. Kate grabbed the pepper spray from her top drawer, caught up to him, and clung to the hem of his pajama top.
“Ab-by!” Elliot hollered.
“I’m upstairs. Come quickly!”
“Kate, wait here. Let me make sure it’s safe.” Elliot ran up the stairs. A few seconds later he hollered, “Bring me my hunting knife! It’s in my closet, third or fourth drawer of the dresser.”
Kate ran into the bedroom, found the knife, and hurried up the steps. She breezed through the door and saw Jesse bound and gagged, and Elliot trying to slide the gag off his mouth.
“Jesse’s not hurt,” Elliot said. “Hawk’s gone.”
Kate handed Elliot the knife, then hurried over to the open window and saw a portable fire escape ladder. She looked over at Hawk’s unmade bed and felt as if she might faint.
“Honey, call Virgil,” Elliot said. “See if you can get him here right away. It’s okay, Jesse. I’ll have you free in just a minute.”
Kate keyed in Virgil’s number. He picked it up on the first ring. “Virgil, something’s happened out here. We found Jesse bound and gagged, and Hawk is gone. One of the windows in their room is open, and a portable fire escape ladder is attached. As soon as Elliot gets the gag off Jesse, maybe he can tell us what happened …”
Elliot carefully cut the gag off Jesse’s mouth and began cutting him loose.
“A man was in the room when I came to bed!” Jesse said. “He threatened to kill me if I opened my mouth. He had a gun. He tied me up and put a gag in my mouth and then waited for Hawk. He made Hawk go with him!”
“Did you hear where they were going?” Elliot said.
Jesse shook his head. “They just left.”
“Okay, buddy. You’re free.” Elliot hugged him.
“That’s all we know, Virgil. I’ll leave the door unlocked. Come in when you get here.” Kate disconnected the call and sat on the bed and put her arms around Jesse. “You okay?”
“I’m fine, but we’ve got to find Hawk.”
“We’ll find him.” Abby gently rubbed Jesse’s back. “Sheriff Granger’s on his way.”
“He said not to touch anything,” Kate said. She brushed Abby’s hair out of her face. “Are you okay, honey?”
“I’m all right. Halo came into my room meowing and meowing. She ran out to the steps, and I had a feeling something was wrong. I came upstairs and that’s when I found Jesse.”
“Thank heavens you did,” Kate said.
Jesse reached down and picked up Halo, and put her over his shoulder. “I guess we have a watch cat. Good girl.”
Abby sighed. She got up and stared out the window. “I’ll call Jay and get him back over here. We may need his help.”
Reza had been sitting in the chair for ten or fifteen minutes, staring at his wallet picture of Abrisham. He hadn’t said a word, and Hawk was afraid to start up a conversation again.
Hawk listened to the night sounds. A coyote howling. An owl hooting. Mosquitoes buzzing around his ears. This cabin was no more than ten minutes from Angel View, and yet it might as well be in Australia. No one would ever think to look for him here.
He hurt for Reza. He could relate to the pain Reza had suffered during the five years that followed Abrisham’s disappearance. How utterly exciting it must have been when he got that phone call from her father’s friend, revealing her whereabouts and insisting that she wanted to see him. And then how devastating when she disappeared again without a good-bye, after he discovered that she had loved someone else and shared his bed.
Hawk could hardly believe that he was that someone else. If only he could go back and undo the night he took Kennedy for that first Jeep ride. He knew when he lied to Laura Lynn about his plans that night that he was leaving his options open. He told himself that he was just being nice to a lonely newcomer and making her feel welcome. But that bottle of cologne and navy Ralph Lauren shirt had been in his drawer since his last birthday. He had never worn either until that night.
And looking back, he could see signs that Kennedy was growing increasingly fond of him. He kept an emotional distance because he loved Laura Lynn and never considered his relationship with Kennedy to be more than physical. But after she was taken, it was as if the blinders had been removed. The bond he felt with her was unlike any he had ever experienced. And the grief he was experiencing, knowing he would never see her again, was both intense and confusing.
“Tell me again why you did not marry Abrisham,” Reza said.
“I only knew her for six weeks.”
“And yet you think nothing of sharing her bed?”
“I never said I thought nothing of it,” Hawk said. “Being with her changed me in ways I can’t explain. I miss her. I don’t think I’ll ever meet anyone else like her.”
“Believe me, you won’t.”
Hawk didn’t like the finality in Reza’s tone. “Didn’t you ever date other women?”
“I tried,” Reza said. “But Abrisham was my soul mate. I always knew it. I never enjoyed spending time with other women. At least, not for long.”
“Did you ever go back to her aunt and uncle and try again to find out where she was?”
“Not after they threatened to get a restraining order. It is not popular in America to be from Iran. I do not want trouble.”
“Was Abrisham Muslim?” Hawk said.
“No. Her father was raised Muslim and her mother was raised Christian. Neither was practicing. They wanted her to choose for herself. My family has strong ties to Islam, but not so strict. It is our Persian roots that makes us proud.”
“Tell me about that,” Hawk said. “Obviously it’s very important to you.” Just keep talking.
Reza turned his chair around and straddled it. “To be Persian is to be a descendent of the oldest civilization know to man. In fact, it predates Egypt’s by five hundred years. My ancient culture gave the world poetry and art. Chess, algebra, and trigonometry. We invented money, the guitar, windmills, anesthesia. Even the use of alcohol in medicine.”
“That’s impressive,” Hawk said. “I had no idea. Tell me more.” Talk all you want.
“I think most of all, to be Persian is to be tolerant of diversity and accepting of change. Willing to embrace religious and ethnic differences and accept opposing points of view. Even to allow dissent. It is to carry the legacy of the first declaration of human rights in history, issued nearly three thousand years ago. Of course, many people in the United States think if we came from Iran, we are radicals. But most Persians I know disagree with what the Iranian government does. What can they do? I am glad I live here. But I can also say I am proud to the core of my Persian roots. It is a rich culture.”
There was a long pause. What now? “Thanks for explaining,” Hawk said. “Abrisham never talked about any of this.”
“Because she knew you cannot understand. Abrisham embraced these things as I do. I know she did not leave the first time by choice. But why did she leave me again?” Reza sat and stared at nothing. Finally, he stood and shoved the chair with his foot. “Who is this friend of her father that called and told me I should come? That she wanted to explain? Explain what? That she loves someone else? That she gave him all of herself?” Reza paced, combing his hands through his hair. “It makes me crazy! I came this close to finding out why she left the first time. And now she has disappeared again. It is too much!” Reza picked up the gun. “I don’t want to live without her. I cannot go through this again! The pain is too much!”
Virgil stood in the upstairs bedroom at Kate and Elliot’s and tried to make sense of what had happened.
“Jesse, do you remember what time the man tied you up?”
“I had just come to bed, so it was about eleven thirty.”
Virgil glanced over at Kate. “And Hawk went to bed about one fifteen?”
“Yes,” Kate said. “We all did, except for Abby. She went to bed after Jay left, which was roughly one thirty. She said Halo kept meowing and meowing and went out to the stairs. Abby knew something was wrong, so she went upstairs, and that’s when she found Jesse.”
“Okay, thanks. Jesse, can you describe the man who tied you up and forced Hawk to go with him?”
“The light was on in the bathroom and the door cracked, but the room was dark,” Jesse said. “He was about Hawk’s age, I think. He had short, dark hair. A little bit of a foreign accent. Oh, and he was wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt.”
“Did he have a beard or mustache?”
“No, sir.”
“Glasses?”
Jesse shook his head.
“Anything else that stood out?”
“No, sir.”
“Okay, thanks,” Virgil said. “That should help us. Deputy Hobbs is going to dust for prints and collect fibers or anything that might contain DNA. Why don’t y’all wait downstairs? I’m going to go out back and look around while Deputy Duncan tries to track the GPS signal on Hawk’s iPhone.”
“Do you think this is related to the FBI case?” Elliot said.
“It’s certainly suspicious, but it’s too soon to know.” Virgil put his arm around Kate. “I’ll find him.”
Kate wiped her eyes and nodded. “I know you will.”
Virgil went downstairs and flipped the light switch to the deck, then went out through the sliding glass door. He turned on his flashlight and looked at the back of the house and then walked slowly through the grass to see if he could tell which way they went. The dew was thick and he could see prints leading down to the path the family took when walking over to the lodge.
His cell phone rang. “Yeah, Billy Gene?”
“I’ve got the coordinates, Sheriff. You ready to roll?”
“I’ll meet you out front.”
Virgil went back inside and out to the kitchen where the family was waiting. “We’ve got the coordinates. Billy Gene’s out front, and I’m going to ride with him. I’ll call when we know something. Say a prayer.”
Virgil went outside and slid into Billy Gene’s radio car.
“We caught a break,” Billy Gene said. “Hawk’s GPS signal isn’t far from here.”
“Let’s go get him,” Virgil said.