Fool's Deadly Gold, page 12
And then he died.
A minute later, the crossbow bolt was jerked from his chest and his lifeless body was dragged into the trees.
Chapter Twelve
Dade and Lauralyn were in her Silverado, driving down a backroad not far from Roosevelt, when his cell phone rang. He grabbed it, hoping that maybe, finally, the kidnappers were reaching out to him.
But it was Roger Koltun. “Meet me at the hospital, Dade,” he said. “Someone just brought a teenage girl in that they found way out on a dirt road. She’s unconscious, but it could be Mittie Childress. I’m headed there now.”
Lauralyn quickly turned her pickup around and sped back toward Roosevelt. “If it’s Mittie, then I wonder where Lizzie and Kimber are,” Dade said as his worries grew deeper, relief failing to set in. Yes, he would be grateful if it turned out to be Mittie at the hospital, but that would only deepen his worry over the other two girls. If they weren’t with Mittie, then where were they?
“I hope I don’t get pulled over,” Lauralyn said as she drove at speeds she almost never did.
“You must be a prophetess,” Dade said as a cop pulled behind them and turned on his lights.
Lauralyn groaned as she pulled her car to a stop along the side of the road, then reached for her license.
“Oh no, it’s Jake,” Lauralyn said as the officer climbed out of his county vehicle and strode up to the pickup, his hand on the butt of his service pistol.
“Well, well, who do we have here?” Deputy Holt said with a big grin on his face. “Lauralyn, do you have any idea how fast you were driving just now?”
“I’m sorry, Jake. I admit I was speeding. But we need to get to the hospital,” Lauralyn said as Dade unfastened his seat belt and leaned over.
“We’re in a hurry. Detective Koltun asked us to come as quickly as we could,” Dade said.
“You can meet us there and write me a ticket if you have to,” Lauralyn said. “But we’ve got to hurry.”
“What’s so important at the hospital?” he asked. Then he smirked. “Oh I can see that your passenger is very white, Lauralyn. He does look ill. But he’ll be okay while I write him a citation for not wearing his seatbelt.”
“Hey, what’s the matter with you?” Dade asked angrily. “You saw me unfasten it just now.”
“I did?” Jake said. “No, I don’t think so. Give me your driver’s license, Tansey.”
Dade sighed and reached for his wallet, only to find himself staring down the barrel of the deputy’s pistol. “Slow and easy, Tansey. I don’t want you pulling a gun on me.”
Now Dade was angry. “You told me to get my driver’s license. That’s what I’m doing. It’s in my wallet, which is in my back pocket.”
Jake kept the pistol aimed past Lauralyn at Dade. “An officer can’t be too careful with guys like you,” he said.
Dade bit back a retort and held out his driver’s license a moment later. Jake snatched it from his hand and looked at it, still holding his revolver. Finally, he put the gun back in its holster and said, “I’ll be back in a bit.”
“You can follow us to the hospital,” Dade said.
“What about my license?” Lauralyn asked. “Don’t you want to see it too?”
Jake smiled at her. “Oh don’t you worry none about that, pretty lady. I’m just giving you a verbal warning.”
“Then follow us. We need to get to the hospital right now.”
“No can do. Wait right here, and if you pull away, I’ll arrest you, Dade Tansey, for failing to follow the orders of a police officer. You seem to be pretty good at that. Just like up there in the mountain the day your wife was done in. You wouldn’t listen to a thing I said. So don’t you even think about telling this lady to drive off until I finish this citation.”
With that, Jake sauntered back to his truck. Dade dialed Roger’s number immediately. Roger answered and said, “Are you almost here, Dade? This is definitely the Childress girl. She’s just starting to come around.”
“We’ve been detained,” Dade said, his anger barely in check. “Jake Holt is writing me a ticket for not wearing my seatbelt.”
“That can wait. Tell him I need you here right now,” Roger said. “We have two little girls to find.”
“I already tried that. He threatened to arrest me if I asked Lauralyn to drive off. We’re in her truck.”
“Come anyway, and do it right now!” Roger said. “We’ll deal with that idiot later.”
“You tell Lauralyn,” Dade said.
He put the phone on speaker before Roger relayed his instructions to Lauralyn.
“Okay. If you say so, but Jake is being a real jerk,” Lauralyn responded. “And by the way, he stood right here and watched Dade unfasten his seat belt. Then he pulled a gun on him when he tried to get his wallet out to get his driver’s license.”
“Just drive, Lauralyn,” Roger said loudly. “I’ll deal with Jake later. I’m in the emergency room. Come here, and make it fast.”
“Should I?” Lauralyn asked Dade when Roger hung up.
“Yes. Roger gave his approval, and we have no time to waste.”
She started the truck and pulled away from the curb. Dade looked back in time to see Jake look up, throw something down on the seat, and put his sheriff vehicle in gear. He had the lights and siren going as he rode their tail all the way to the hospital.
Dade and Lauralyn both jumped out as soon as they parked in front of the emergency room entrance, but before they got to the door, Jake tackled Dade from behind and the two of them dropped to the ground. Lauralyn screamed, and Detective Koltun, who was at the door, ran to pull Jake off Dade. “You idiot, Jake. What do you think you’re doing?” he asked as the two of them struggled.
“I’m doing my job. Dade is under arrest for disobeying my order. Get out of my way. I’m taking him to jail,” Jake said.
“You’re doing no such thing. Dade and I have an emergency here.”
“Hey, I’ve got the right to do my job,” Jake shouted.
“Get out of my face, Jake,” Roger said, shoving Jake so hard he stumbled backward. “Let’s get in there, you two.”
Dade followed Roger, but Lauralyn stopped at the door and barred the way as Jake, who was already on his feet, tried to enter. She said, “I’ll be right with you guys. I’ll get your driver’s license from him and bring it in.”
Jake tried to push past Lauralyn, but she resisted. “Jake, I don’t know what you have against Dade, but he hasn’t done anything to you, and you know very well that he undid his seatbelt after you came to my window, and I am prepared to testify to that.”
“Are you blind, Lauralyn? I’m trying to help you. That man killed your sister, and I can prove it,” Jake said fiercely.
That made Lauralyn more angry. She said, “Dade did no such thing. Now please give me his driver’s license so I can go inside with those guys.”
Jake suddenly didn’t look so angry anymore. His face softened, and he said, “I’m sorry, Lauralyn. This isn’t about you. You are innocent in all this. As a personal favor to you, you can take his driver’s license. I’ll catch up to him later. I’m sorry that he’s got you all tangled up in his crimes.”
Jake walked back to his truck, grabbed the license and gave it to Lauralyn. “Remember that I’m only doing this as a favor to you. You’ll thank me for looking out for you someday, my dear.”
***
Mittie Childress had the bed propped up when the two men walked into the emergency room. “You’ve got to find the girls,” she said urgently. “I’ll show you where they are.”
“Are you okay?” Roger asked her.
“I’ll be okay, but Kimber needs to be in the hospital. We’ve got to go right now.”
“So you know where they are?” Dade asked urgently.
“Yes. We need to hurry,” Mittie said, “but I’m not sure how to get to the road where I left them and where I passed out.”
“The people that brought you in told me how to get to that road. I can get us there. All you have to do is show us where you left them. Can you do that?”
“I’m pretty sure I can. I have to,” Mittie said.
“Okay, then we’ll go,” Roger stated emphatically. A nurse tried to stop them, telling them that Mittie’s mother was on her way, but when Roger explained the urgency of the situation, she relented. “I’ll bring her back as soon as we find the little girls. But you need to get that IV out of her right now. You can explain to Mrs. Childress and have her wait here. Send an ambulance to meet us.” Roger handed the nurse a slip of paper. “My cell phone number is on there and so is the address of the intersection to another road we believe the little girls are hidden along. They can call me for directions if they need to, but if they simply follow the road from that intersection, they’ll find us stopped where the girls are hiding.”
In only a couple of minutes, Mittie was walking toward the door to the outside with the support of the fathers of the girls she was so worried about.
Jake was just pulling away when they stepped outside. Lauralyn handed Dade his driver’s license.
“Move your truck,” Roger said. “Then come with us.”
She did as instructed and jumped in the back seat with Mittie. Once they were on the road, Roger’s siren blared and the red and blue lights in his grill flashed. As soon as they were on the main highway, Roger said, “Lauralyn, what did Jake do when we went inside?”
She quickly told them what had happened between her and Jake.
“What’s up with him accusing me?” Dade asked suspiciously.
“He’s an idiot,” Roger said. “Do you want me to speak frankly?”
“Please do,” Dade said.
“This is the road,” Roger said and turned onto a smaller paved road. “It’s three miles from here to the road the girls were walking on.”
“Are you sure?” Dade asked.
“This is what the people who found Mittie told me.”
Once he was headed down the paved county road, he stomped on the gas feed and sped up. There was a moment in which Roger concentrated on his driving, and then he said, “Okay, so I’m speaking frankly. Holt thinks that because you and Lauralyn hugged at the crime scene that you wanted to get rid of Bridgette so you two could be together.”
“What?” Dade practically shouted.
“I’m just telling you what he said. I told him to back off, that it was my case and I’d handle it.”
Lauralyn spoke up. “Dade, didn’t I tell you I thought Jake was thinking that?”
“Yes, you did, but I couldn’t believe it. So am I a suspect, Roger?” Dade asked angrily.
“Of course not,” Roger said. “Forget about it. We have two little girls to find. When they’re okay, I’ll speak with the sheriff about Jake.”
Lauralyn was angry. “He’s been stalking me all morning, Roger. Doesn’t he have work to do?”
“He’s been doing what?” Roger asked.
“You heard me,” she said.
“But he was supposed to be out looking for the girls.”
“Well, he wasn’t, I can tell you that for sure,” Lauralyn said. Then she settled back in her seat and put an arm around Mittie, whose eyes were wide. “I’m sorry you heard all this, Mittie.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I know Dade would never hurt Bridgette. Right now I’m thinking about Lizzie and Kimber. I hope they’re still okay.”
As they turned onto the dirt road the rescuers had told him about, Roger said, “The ambulance crew was instructed to drive to this location, then they’re supposed to drive until they find us stopped and to call me if they need to. So tell us when we need to stop, Mittie.”
“Okay. While you drive, I’ll tell you what happened.” She told them the story about the old, worn house and how they had escaped.
“I’m impressed, Mittie. You did great,” Dade said.
She smiled, and Lauralyn tightened her arm around her shoulders. “I just hope they’re okay. I hated to leave them, but I didn’t know what else to do,” Mittie said with a sob caught in her throat.
“You did the right thing, Mittie,” Roger said. “Not many girls would have the presence of mind to do what you did in such a terrible situation.”
They rode quietly for a few minutes, and then Roger said, “Okay, according to what I was told, this was about where they found you.”
Mittie looked out of the window. “I don’t know. My brain wasn’t working so well before I passed out.”
“We’ll assume this is right. Do you have any idea how long you walked from when you left the girls until you got here?”
“I remember looking at my watch a few times. I know that it was over an hour, but I got so messed up. I’m sorry,” she said. “But I will recognize the place I left them. Oh, I just remembered. I put a rock on the side of the road to help me find the place again.”
“How big of a rock?” Dade asked.
“About this big,” she said, holding her hands in a circle.
“About six or seven inches wide?” he asked.
“Yeah, it was kinda heavy.”
“What color was it?” Roger asked over his shoulder even as he was driving as fast as he dared down the rough road they were on.
Mittie shrugged her shoulders. “Gray maybe. Or brown. I’m not sure.”
“That’s okay. That was great thinking. We’ll see it,” the detective said.
Dade noticed that Roger slowed down after a couple of minutes. “I’ve got to drive slower now,” he said. “As much as I want to get to the girls right now, I can’t afford to be going so fast that we pass right by Mittie’s rock.”
“There it is,” Mittie suddenly cried out. Roger slid the Expedition to a stop, and they all poured out of it. Mittie, energized by having found the rock, shouted, “That way,” and pointed north. “Lizzie, Kimber, it’s me, Mittie. Your dads are with me.”
There was no response. Dade’s stomach twisted terribly. Surely they weren’t too late. But then he heard a weak, “Daddy,” and recognized his little Lizzie’s voice, hoarse and filled with pain.
“They are in that bunch of brush,” Mittie said. Suddenly she stopped short. “I just saw a snake.”
Roger had seen it too, and he had his pistol in his hand. “Are they back in there?” he asked, indicating the direction the snake had taken.
“Y-yes,” Mittie stammered.
“Lizzie,” Dade called out softly, watching the ground as they all stepped around the brush.
For a moment there was no response, then that weak voice said, “There’s a snake, but it’s going away now.”
A moment later, Roger and Dade spotted the girls. Lizzie was sitting with her back against a large sagebrush, Kimber lay with her head on Lizzie’s lap. But as Roger let out a painful moan of anguish, his little girl stirred. In the distance, the sound of a siren filled the air.
Chapter Thirteen
The girls tried really hard to remember any helpful details, but they hadn’t seen the faces of their abductors or even heard their voices, so they couldn’t tell the officers anything about their captors except that they were men. They’d been sitting on a bit of grass alongside the road in front of the Koltun’s house with their heads together, talking and laughing when the two guys threw a blanket over them from behind and shoved them into a vehicle of some kind. The whole kidnapping took only a few seconds.
Then one at a time, they blindfolded the girls and tied their hands together, all done from behind. Once they reached the old house, they were manhandled, slapped some, and forced into a room where they’d been thrown to the floor and left there.
All three little girls were admitted to the hospital for observation. Mittie and Kimber both had mothers sitting at their bedsides. Aunt Lauralyn stayed with Lizzie. Dade traveled with Roger to where they had found the girls and from there located the old house where they’d been held captive.
Several officers assisted at the scene, but they found no fingerprints, tire tracks or footprints except for the girls’. The place had been thoroughly cleaned of any sign that might lead the officers to determine who had taken the girls.
***
The search for Cutler Pike, the school custodian and prospector from Helper, went on all day in the mountains. His old brown Ford pickup was found on a trailhead northeast of Altamont. But there was no sign of the miner.
“We have got to keep looking for Pike,” Detective Koltun told the sheriff early that evening. “The kidnappers were likely trying to throw us off track, but I think it’s important that he be found just in case.”
The sheriff agreed and promised Roger that he’d keep as many people looking for him as he could. With that matter settled, Roger told the sheriff his concerns about the behavior of Deputy Jake Holt. The sheriff promised to bring him in the next morning, at which time he would put him on suspension and have a different detective do a thorough investigation into his actions. But the sheriff also reminded Roger that he couldn’t totally ignore the possibility that Dade might have had a motive, weak though it seemed to both men.
Roger spent an hour at the hospital. He prayed with his wife and daughter, thanking the Lord for Kimber’s safe rescue. He and his wife were both faithful Church members and each had a lot of faith. This experience, however, had tested their faith and had strengthened it in the end.
Kimber was in good spirits despite her ordeal. She had nothing but good things to say about Mittie. “Dad, she worried about me and Lizzie. She did everything she could to make us be brave. I love her.”
“We’re grateful for what she did,” Kimber’s mother said.
“If it hadn’t been for her efforts, it would have taken us a lot longer to find you girls,” Roger said. What he didn’t say was that had Mittie not been so brave and smart, they might never have found them.
