Chapter Twenty-Five

Several more hours had passed, and the relief Joe had felt from the single bottle of water and one grilled cheese sandwich had worn off. He was getting more dehydrated by the hour, and his pain level, which he had thought earlier was unbearable, constantly crept upward. It was especially bad where the bullets had struck him in the back and in one shoulder. He was quite sure that the bullet that had entered his back had not come out and that it was responsible for much of the internal pain he was experiencing. He wondered what kind of damage had been done inside his body, not that it mattered at this point. Without medical attention, he was doomed to die. He accepted that fact, looking forward to it as a relief from his intense suffering.

Joe’s mind remained active despite the pain, and he kept thinking back over what had happened to him since his fishing trip with Bo. Over and over again he blamed himself for all of his troubles, including his impending death. He was sure there was infection in both his back and shoulder, and that would only make things worse. He honestly did not know how he could possibly stand any more pain.

He heard a door open. The killer came in, making no effort to keep his face from Joe’s view when he looked up from the floor. If ever given the chance, Joe could easily describe his abductor, but he didn’t expect that chance.

His abductor came slowly across the floor to where Joe lay helpless and in agony. “Okay, Joe. It’s dark outside and quite late, in fact. It’s time for me to take you for a ride. Get up and let’s go.”

Joe said nothing. He couldn’t have spoken now even if he wanted to, at least not clearly enough to be understood. His throat was so sore that he could barely suck air through it, let alone talk coherently. If his abductor was going to take him someplace else to die, there was really nothing he could do about it, but he wasn’t going to make it easier for the guy if he could help it.

“So you aren’t going to cooperate, Joe?” the wicked man said with a deep chuckle. “Very well then, I guess I’ll have to carry you.”

Rough hands grabbed him beneath his arms, and despite his sore, swollen throat, Joe managed a weak scream. He couldn’t help it. The pain was appalling.

“Shut up!”

He tried, but for a minute or two, he simply could not stop. If he could only die, it would be such a relief.

“I said shut up!” his abductor shouted. “You are only going to make this worse on yourself.”

Joe wasn’t sure how it could be worse, but he really didn’t want to know, so he managed out of sheer desperation to stop the flow of painful screams.

“That’s better. Now we’re going for a ride, Joe. And if you make an attempt to scream once you’re in my car, I will give you more reason to scream. The sheriff knows now that you killed Emil, and charges for murder have been brought against you. So your future is set. If I were to let you go, you would spend the rest of your worthless life in prison,” the killer said with a chuckle.

The guy hoisted Joe onto his shoulders and lugged him toward the door. Joe wished if he couldn’t die right then, that at least he could pass out. But that didn’t happen.

The killer kept talking as they went out the door. “It’s all over the papers, on the radio, and on TV about how you confessed by sending a note to the sheriff. The law is searching for you all over the state and all the neighboring states. A warrant for your arrest has been issued. Trust me, the police and the prosecutors believe what you wrote.” He chuckled again and then said nothing more until he’d packed Joe into a vehicle of some kind. Joe’s eyes were stinging now, and he couldn’t open them, so he couldn’t see what model of car he was being put into. But he was pretty sure it was the back seat of whatever the killer was driving.

His abductor covered him with something, perhaps a blanket or a tarp, and then spoke again. “We have a bit of a drive ahead of us, Joe, so relax. I don’t expect to get stopped by a cop, but just in case, I don’t want anyone to look back there and see you. That’s why I covered you. Now enjoy the ride the best you can, for I have decided that this will be your last one. I am going to deliver you to the fate that awaits you.”

As the killer slammed the door shut, he was laughing. A moment later, Joe felt the vehicle rock slightly as the killer got in the front. Then the engine started, and Joe’s last ride began. He had no idea what the fate that awaited him was. Probably death, although the killer was an arrogant person. Perhaps he would actually deliver Joe to the sheriff in some way, hoping that he would stand trial for Emil’s murder and he could be free and satisfied with his work while the press had a heyday over Joe’s demise.

Joe didn’t think he could hang on much longer, and he was right. As the vehicle jostled on what had to be a rough road, it was more than Joe could take. Blessed darkness finally took over.

He had no idea how much time had passed when he awoke to the pain and the motion of the car. He felt it slow and turn. There was the crunch of gravel beneath the tires. The car stopped, and the killer stepped out. He was gone for what could have been two or three minutes, then he got back in, chuckling. “That was fun,” he said, but he did not say what he’d done. “Now we are going to take you to where I plan to leave you, Joe, if you can hear me. It will be someplace that you may never be found. I hadn’t originally planned to let you die, but since you tried to bash me and hurt both my knees so that I had to shoot you to keep you from getting away, you made me rethink things. One thing is for sure; they know you killed Emil, and so I will never be suspected. Oh, but life can be good.” He laughed again as the car pulled back onto the road. “You should never have tried to get away from me.”

Joe knew his death was close, but he would welcome it. The pain that he’d thought to be unbearable before was worse than ever now. He simply didn’t see how he could take much more. Perhaps, when they got to wherever the guy was going to leave him, he’d shoot Joe and take him out of his misery.

The next time the car stopped, the killer dragged Joe out, and when he hit the ground, he blacked out once again.

Melia tossed and turned that night in her own bed at her grandfather’s house. She had watched the news with Nattie while Deputy Reingold, a really nice lady, kept watch both inside and outside of the house. The lead story was the extensive manhunt that had been launched for the cunning young killer, Joe Whalen. The story hurt even though Bo had assured her that the confession was not believed by him or the sheriff or the prosecutors.

She and Nattie had both been warned not to say anything to anyone that might reveal the deception that was being played in an attempt to lure out the real killer. Apparently, Bo and the others believed that once the killer was satisfied that Joe was the only one being focused on, he would let his guard down.

Bo had even said, “Whoever it is will want to see his handiwork carried out by the large manhunt.”

His partner, Jim Grizzel, had added, “Arsonists start fires but often stick around to see them burn. It’s part of their mental makeup. We believe that the same may be true of this person, whoever he is. He may even want to see Joe captured and put on trial.”

“What if it’s that Bayle guy?” Melia said. “He’s in jail and charged with other murders. If he was the one that kidnapped Joe, then Joe is probably dead and will never be found.”

Both officers had agreed, but she got the feeling that they didn’t think it was Bryan Bayle who had murdered Emil and kidnapped Joe. They didn’t say who else they thought it might be though. As she tossed and turned, she kept praying that Joe would be found alive and that he would be okay. She had come to care for him quite deeply, and she couldn’t imagine going on with the work at the farm without him. She also prayed for her wonderful grandfather’s full recovery. She didn’t want to lose him, but he seemed to be doing okay now. It had been a close call. The doctors had told her that.

Melia wanted to go to sleep, but her active mind wouldn’t allow it. She finally gave up, got out of bed, and wandered downstairs. The deputy currently assigned to keep an eye on the Brady household was standing near the living room window, peering out. She turned as Melia reached the bottom of the stairs. “Can’t you sleep?” Deputy Reingold asked, her voice full of sympathy.

“No, so I thought I’d get a glass of warm milk and see if that would help. That’s what my grandpa does,” Melia said.

“That sounds like a good idea,” the deputy said.

“Is there something outside? Did you hear something?” Melia asked, concerned by the fact that the deputy had been looking through parted drapes.

“It was probably just someone who was lost. A car drove in a while ago, turned around, and then left. That’s all.”

Melia couldn’t have been more wide awake after that bit of news. It alarmed her. “What did the car look like?” she asked as she approached the window and parted the drapes herself.

“It’s gone now,” Deputy Reingold said. “There’s nothing more to see. I did get a good look at it under the yard light. It was sort of a gold color, not too new, but in good shape from what I could see.”

“What make was it?” Melia asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t get that good of a look at it.”

“How long was it out there?” Melia persisted, unable to mask the concern in her voice. The sweet deputy put an arm around Melia’s shoulders. “Did you see it come into the yard?”

“No, I heard it, then it was quiet for a minute or two, and I thought I’d imagined it. But then your dogs started barking, and a moment later, I heard the car again, so I decided I should look out through the window. It was just leaving the yard,” Deputy Reingold said. “I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. As soon as it was gone, the dogs stopped barking.”

“Probably not,” Melia said, but she worried anyway.

“You need to go warm up some milk and go back to bed,” the deputy told her. “I’ll keep watching here at the window.”

“Okay, thanks,” Melia said, but her unrest had only gotten worse. There was no way that she would be able to sleep now, warm milk or not.

A minute later, as the milk warmed in the microwave, Karmen and Nattie both entered the kitchen as well. “I heard you and Deputy Reingold talking. I was wide awake, so I thought I’d come down and see what was going on,” Karmen said.

“I was awake too,” Nattie said. “For some reason, my baby seems restless tonight. It keeps kicking in here.” She patted her large abdomen. “When I heard Karmen’s door open, I decided to join her. Now all of us are down here.”

“I guess we could have a party,” Melia said, trying to lighten her own mood as she pulled her milk from the microwave.

“Or we could watch a movie,” Karmen suggested, “since none of us is in the mood to party.” She smiled at Melia as she spoke.

Melia smiled back. “Actually, that might be a good idea. Maybe if we pick a boring one, it will put us all to sleep.”

“What’s the warm milk for?” Nattie asked.

Melia explained and then added, “But I don’t think it’ll help. I just wish I knew who drove into the yard a little while ago and then left. That’s what Deputy Reingold and I were talking about.”

“Do people often just drive in here and turn around like that?” Karmen asked.

“Not really. I mean, we are close to the road, and it’s clearly not another road coming in here, just a short lane, and you can see that it ends right here easily enough,” Melia answered.

“I think I’ll talk to Deputy Reingold,” Karmen said.

When the three of them went into the living room, the deputy was once again peering through the drapes. “Did it come back?” Melia asked.

“No, but I’ve been thinking. This isn’t a place people would likely drive into and out again as close to the main road as it is,” she said.

“That’s what we were just talking about in the kitchen,” Karmen said. “Maybe we should go out and have a look around.”

“I don’t know if I like that idea very much,” the deputy said.

“I don’t either,” Nattie agreed.

“Well I do,” Melia said. “Maybe you and I could go out while these guys wait in the house.”

“If you guys go, we all go,” Karmen declared. “And we’ll go carrying guns.”

They discussed the idea briefly but finally decided they should do it. “I don’t know what we would be looking for,” Deputy Reingold said.

“I don’t either,” Karmen agreed. “But like Bo tells me, sometimes you don’t know what you’re looking for until you see it.”

So they went out, each with a firearm and a flashlight. Ace ran right to them. Herc, limping badly, followed. “You still hurting?” Melia asked as she patted him fondly on the head.

Herc whined and looked toward the road, then walked a few steps in that direction. “I think he wonders what the car was doing in here just like we were,” Melia suggested.

The four ladies walked over to the barn, looked inside, walked around the corrals and barns, and then returned to the yard. They even looked in the garage. They found nothing, but Herc’s strange behavior worried all of them. “I don’t like the way Herc is acting,” Melia said. “Something about that car bothered him. He keeps walking toward the road.”

“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” Deputy Reingold said. “It may be possible to see fresh tracks in the road past where the gravel ends. If we can see something, I’ll take a picture or two with my phone. We could let Detective Buckley look at them in the morning if we even find something. I’m not sure what good it would do, but it can’t hurt.”

They did find some that were in a spot at the edge of the road where there was still a skiff of snow remaining. The deputy took some pictures, and they looked some more, but there was nothing more that could be identified. “There have been a lot of vehicles in and out of here lately, but maybe whoever made these was drunk and nearly ran off the road,” Deputy Reingold said.

“Maybe,” Karmen agreed. Melia said nothing as a thought she’d had an hour ago while lying in her bed came to her mind. She’d dismissed it then, but now it made her think.

They started walking the hundred yards back to the yard with Ron’s dog, Ace, trotting alongside them. Herc, who had barely made it to where they were, stepped in front of Melia and whined. She reached down and petted him. “You’re hurting pretty badly still, aren’t you, Herc?” she said. She shined her flashlight on him, and he looked up at her, then he turned and faced the road and barked.

“For some reason, he seems upset by that car coming in here,” the deputy said. “That’s the only thing I can think of that’s making him act like this.”

“Maybe it’s just because he remembers a strange car coming to his place and hauling him off and shooting him,” Melia said. “Or maybe he just wants to go home, thinking Joe’s there. I mean, who knows what’s in a dog’s mind.”

They walked the rest of the way back to the yard.

“While we’re out here, I want to get something from my car,” Karmen said. She didn’t say what it was, but the others waited while she walked to where she’d parked beside Ron’s garage, alongside Deputy Reingold’s patrol car. She suddenly screamed, and the deputy led a fast charge toward her.

“What’s wrong?” Deputy Reingold asked.

“My tires. Two of them are flat, and it was done on purpose,” Karmen said in frustration as she shined her light to show the rest of them.

Deputy Reingold looked closer. “Someone put a knife in them,” she said. She then turned her light onto her car and found that it also had two flat tires.

“We’d better look at Grandpa’s truck,” Melia suggested as a shiver of fear shook her.

It was in the garage, but the door had been left open, and two tires had also been flattened on it. “Let’s get back in the house,” the deputy said. “I don’t like the feel of this.”

They hurried back, and the dogs, with Herc limping, followed clear to the door. Back inside, they locked the door again, and out of an abundance of caution, they checked the other doors and windows. The living room window was new, as was the one on the kitchen side of the house that had been shattered when the tear gas had been fired inside to end the standoff with Lucas. They were a newer type of window, but they were locked.

“I think we should call Detective Buckley,” Deputy Reingold said. “He’ll want to come see what’s happened.”