The Witching Hours, page 16
“No, no!” the man protested.
“Zach!”
He turned and saw what Skye saw; she was already racing into the forest, running after the guide, who had called himself Nick Sandoval.
And one of the teenage girls, with whom he’d been flirting, It was hard to tell exactly what had happened. Had he grabbed her and dragged her into the darkness of the forest as well?
There was no telling what she might face. Nick Sandoval didn’t seem like much of a danger himself.
But he was just a player in the game—whatever the game might be.
“Get help, keep an eye on him!” Zach shouted, his own phone out.
No service.
Their guide and the driver had known exactly where to stage their little emergency!
It was insane! There’s a whole tour group, at least another fifteen people, available to tell the authorities exactly what had happened. And the driver—
As Zach started his own race into the forest, he saw the man throw off all pretense and fly into the forest himself.
Hell no!
Zach went after him.
And while the older man might have known where he was going … he was older. And he’d never gone through some of the rigors of the academy, and probably didn’t maintain a gym membership.
They ran through the trees.
There was no damned way that Zach was going to lose him.
And he was going to get him down damned quickly. No one should be chasing someone like their guide, with a possible victim, into the stygian darkness of the forest at night.
CHAPTER 11
Skye was fast. There was no way that the rigorous training she’d gone through in life wouldn’t have taught her how to run—and run fast.
There had been a standard joke at the academy when she had been there. One of their fitness instructors had once asked them, “Don’t you all watch crime shows? They run! They always run! Well, when they’re not having a car chase, they run!”
So, while she might not have become any kind of a gymnast, she could run!
But the darkness in the forest …
It had been night, of course. Night in the city, with city lights. Even night on the road, with lights from the trolley.
But here, where the branches obscured whatever light might have come from the sky, it was a darkness like nothing she had ever known before.
Thankfully, she could hear them running ahead of her. Naturally, she wondered where they thought they were going.
She paused for a second, just stopping herself from crashing into the trunk of a giant oak.
Rustling, ahead of her. Rustling, ahead and a little to the west …
She started to move again, quietly, but then she paused again, listening.
“Wait, wait, wait! I can’t … I can’t …”
It was a young female voice speaking. The girl sounded winded and confused.
Drugged.
“No, no, come on, just a little bit farther! And then I’ll have you far and away; we can talk then, and you can rest, and you’ll never need to deal with any problems again. Come on, now. Come on. Just a little bit farther. I was confused like you before, but now I know all about the world. I can bring you to the best people, and we can be together, and it will be wonderful!”
Nick Sandoval was the speaker.
Could he really believe what he’s saying? And how would they go on after that?
The tours would need to be over! A crashed trolley and a disappearing girl and her guide? Who would ever sign on again?
But maybe it doesn’t matter; maybe it just segues into something else. But what about the people who started the tour, who owned the company?
That was something they would have to follow up on later.
Right now …
They had paused, so Skye started to move in the direction of the voices, going as silently as she could, hoping that whatever small sounds her movements created might sound like the natural rustles of a forest.
She was close. There were a possibility: she could just follow them through the forest, as far as they went, and discover just where Nick was taking the girl, where he was going to wind up.
And she didn’t think that she was heard—at least, not as a human being trying to sneak through the forest. Because Nick spoke again, his voice beginning to betray impatience and aggravation.
“Now, come on, now! Just ahead!” he said.
“I can’t! I can’t! I’m dizzy,” the girl moaned.
The girl sounds weak, broken, as if … she’s been given too much of something?
“I’ll carry you!” Nick cried, no longer pretending he was anything other than purely angry.
He’d managed to be quite personable when they’d checked in for the tour; now it was evident that he was capable of being anything but.
The girl was moaning softly, as if she didn’t even have the strength to cry loudly, to protest.
Skye winced inwardly. They might have come so close, but now …
And it was time to stop Nick’s advance into the forest.
She drew her Glock and quickly covered the distance between herself and the two, despite the tangle of trees and brush in the way. As she reached the small clearing, where Nick had just tossed the girl over his shoulder, Skye came to a dead stop, aiming the weapon at him.
“Put her down. Now!” Skye snapped.
He stared back at her and smiled slowly, apparently not about to obey her command.
“Sheila Smith, eh?” he said. “A member of the corrupt few governing the rest of us, ignoring all the true tenets. You’re another devil worshipper! And no, I will not put her down. You shoot me, you shoot her!” he said, laughing as he held the girl closer, making sure that she was covering his chest.
Nick Sandoval was suddenly so startled that the girl slid from his grasp.
Skye was equally surprised herself; Zach was there. He had come up behind Nick and held a gun directly to the boy’s head. “Step back! Let her be!” he commanded.
“Cops!” Nick roared furiously, letting the girl slip the rest of the way to the ground. Crying, terrified, but under the influence of something, she clawed desperately at the earth and tree roots, trying to get away.
“Not cops … Feds,” Zach corrected him.
Skye ran to the girl, hunkering down, lifting her to her knees and saying, “You’re all right. We’ll get you to a hospital and you’ll be safe.”
The girl didn’t answer; she was just crying. But Skye was able to get her to her feet. Glancing at Zach, she saw he had Nick in zip cuffs, and the young man was staring ahead belligerently.
“Where were you taking her?” Zach demanded.
“Into the woods; that’s all. You know, get a little alone time,” Nick said.
“In the middle of a tour? Sure, right,” Zach told him.
Nick just smiled. “Yeah, I needed to get lucky.”
“What did you drug her with?” Skye demanded.
“Me? I didn’t drug her with anything,” he said. “I can’t help what people bring on a tour!”
“You gave her pills. I saw you,” Zach told him.
“Wow! What kind of a Fed are you?” Nick demanded, laughing, even though Zach was pushing him ahead, aiming him back toward the road and the trolley. “You think you saw me giving an awful drug to a girl, and you didn’t stop me?”
“Where were you taking her?” Zach roared again.
“Zach,” Skye said.
He turned back and looked at her. And the girl. Cathy, Skye thought.
She was worried; she did want to take the girl to a hospital.
He nodded, understanding, and pushed Nick forward. Without having to veer through the brush, trying to hear what lay ahead, they quickly made their way back.
Skye saw that Zach had caught the driver. He had left him sitting in the back of the trolley—also restrained with plastic cuffs—under the watchful eye of a man in his late thirties or early forties.
“We got a signal through—asked for police and an ambulance!” he said.
The two other girls who had made up the teen trio saw Cathy coming from the woods, stumbling as she walked, even though Skye was all but carrying her. They ran over to her, anxious, too worried to be afraid. Skye had to put up a hand, warning, “Give her space, please. She needs to breathe! And what the hell drug were you all taking?”
“We weren’t—” one of the girls began.
“Do you want her to live?” Skye demanded.
“It was just supposed to be a little low-dose bath salt,” the girl admitted. “We didn’t take them; Cathy took one. I have them—”
“I need them. Now. Please!”
They heard sirens; police cars rolled up, along with the ambulance. Skye looked at Zach and he nodded again.
He knew that she’d go to the hospital with the girl and that he’d be left with the driver, the tour guide, and an explanation.
But, of course, a young cop started to crawl up into the ambulance as well.
“FBI,” Skye said quickly. “Meet me there!”
The officer nodded. “Meet you there.”
“These are what she took!” Skye said quickly, handing the pills to the EMT. “The girls think that they were low-dose bath salts. What they really are, I don’t know!”
“Gotcha,” the EMT said, calling in the situation as the other EMT worked on the girl.
The night had seemed so still and dark.
Now it was alive with the sound of the ambulance’s siren as they drove; the city lights came into view and then the lights of the hospital.
Of course, when Cathy was rushed into a room with the doctor on duty, Skye had to step back.
The young officer arrived as she nervously prowled the hospital waiting room.
He didn’t arrive alone.
To Skye’s surprise, he had somehow known to contact Gavin.
“What happened, exactly? Seems like heading out on the tour right away was a good decision,” Gavin said. “Oh, by the way, this is Officer Ben Chambers. He happens to be one of my younger cousins.”
“Ah!” Skye said. “Ben, Officer Chambers, nice to meet you.” She looked at Gavin.
“He knows something is going on in Salem,” Gavin explained. “And when his car got the call … he called me. So, what did you get?”
“Hopefully, the chance to keep this young lady alive. Her name is Cathy—”
“The officers on the scene got her name, and her parents have already been notified; they should be here soon. And her friends are being brought to the station. They’re not guilty of anything because Cathy is the one who accepted the pills, sharing them, of course, and I was told—”
“Yes. I got the pills and gave them to the EMT,” Skye assured him. “Zach stayed back with the driver and our guide—a fellow supposedly named Nick Sandoval—”
“That is his name. We’ve already been on that; he’s been brought in on drug charges and attempted kidnapping. The driver is claiming that he was really having a heart attack, or thought that he was having a heart attack. Unless we can prove something, we can only hold him so long. I’m still trying to imagine this scene as it happened,” Gavin said.
“Well, we went on the tour. Our guide was filled with great information. He was articulate and charming. We saw him spending time with the girls, might have even seen him hand the pills over, and then, as you know, the driver suddenly veered off the road and onto the embankment. And once he did that, Zach accosted him. Nick took off, grabbing Cathy, and started running into the woods. Zach caught up with the driver, while I went after Nick and the girl. Found him, and he tried to use her as a shield when I drew my service weapon, but Zach was behind him. Nick let her go, and here we are!”
Gavin started to speak, but Cathy’s parents had arrived. Nat urally, they were extremely upset, desperate to know if their daughter was going to be all right.
“I’ve got it,” Gavin said softly, approaching the couple and leaving Skye with his cousin.
“I thought the right thing was to let my cousin know what was going on,” Ben explained to her.
“Yes, definitely!” Skye said.
“Was Cathy going to wind up missing, too?” he asked. “I mean, it’s getting so strange. Kidnappings and … and a guy running off with a girl from a tour? Not good. I know they’re contacting the owners of the company, but I’m willing to bet, jail time or no, the two of them won’t have jobs anymore. But where did he think that he was taking her?”
“Officer Chambers—”
“Ben, please. Obviously, my cousin thinks the world of you and your partner.”
“Ben,” she said, nodding. “That’s the one thing I truly wish I knew. I even wonder if it was a mistake, stopping him when I did. He might have led us somewhere.”
A doctor appeared; Skye watched with Ben as he spoke to Gavin and Cathy’s parents.
Cathy’s mother collapsed against her father.
For a minute, Skye feared the worst.
But as the husband assured his wife, Gavin excused himself and came over to her and Ben.
“She’s stabilized. Thank God. He said that if she hadn’t received Narcan when she did, she might not have made it. They’re going to need to analyze just what’s in those bath salts—more than the usual. But she has been stabilized; they’re hydrating her … and she’s going to make it; and if he had gotten her wherever he was going, well …”
Gavin’s voice trailed.
Skye nodded, lowering her head.
They had saved the girl.
But what about the others being held?
She didn’t get a chance to worry long; apparently, someone told Cathy’s parents that she had been the one to make sure Cathy was helped immediately. She was drowned in a sea of tears and hugs and words of thanks. Skye accepted them as graciously as she could, assuring the couple that the EMTs, the police, and the doctors deserved the thanks.
Eventually, Gavin and Ben were able to get her away; Cathy’s parents were going to stay with her then.
But before they could leave, Skye pulled back, staring at Gavin.
“We need more than her parents,” she said.
“What?” Gavin asked her.
“Gavin, we caught a minion tonight, just someone following someone else’s orders, bringing her to them to become part of whatever is going on. What if they believe she might know something? Sure, she was just on the tour, but whoever is behind this might believe Nick said something to her and … Gavin, she might not be safe.”
He sighed deeply. “The department is being run ragged and thinned out!” he said.
“Call the state; or I’ll call Jackson—”
“Right now, we need something fast. I’ll—”
“Gavin, I can stay on. Get me spelled sometime by the morning by someone so I can get enough sleep to be cognizant before going back on duty, but I’m up for this. I was on the scene; I came straight here. The parents have seen me—and I’ve seen the staff and know how to check them out,” Ben said.
Gavin smiled and nodded. “Good. Thank you. Skye?”
“Thank you, Ben,” she said. “I could be wrong, but I come from the school of being safe rather than sorry.”
“Of course, agreed,” he said.
Skye looked at Gavin. “We can’t talk to her yet, right?” she asked.
He shook his head. “She’s completely out of it right now, and the doctors want her that way. Maybe her would-be kidnapper thought she’d take just one pill, but she took a few or something. But we can’t talk to her for hours yet, so … come on. You and I are going to get over to the station and see what we can see, what we can discover.”
“Right, time to get to the station and find out if we’ve learned anything from the driver or Nick Sandoval,” Skye said.
When they were out of the hospital and on their way to the station, Skye looked over at Gavin and asked, “Does your cousin have something of your talent?”
“I don’t really know yet. The kid went through the police academy like a true pro. Maybe, and maybe he’s one of those people who just naturally has a sense about other people.”
“He seems great.”
“He is.”
“Okay, so, on to the problem at hand. What about the owners of the tour company?”
“They’ve been summoned to the station,” Gavin assured her. “And from what I understand, they’re horrified. Oh, by the way, whoever the driver is—we’re working on his identity—he wasn’t supposed to be the driver tonight. Ned Bailey of Peabody was supposed to be working the night tour. We haven’t been able to reach him. The man isn’t married, but his live-in girlfriend thought he was at work. She didn’t like his work arrangements, either, and said that he worked with a ‘kook’; and from what’s gone on, I’m going to assume that the ‘kook’ is Nick Sandoval, though that doesn’t explain what happened to Ned.”
“His girlfriend said he left for work as usual?” Skye asked.
“She did.”
“I wonder if Zach has had any luck with anything that he’s discovered,” Skye said. She glanced over at Gavin.
“We’ll know soon enough,” Gavin said, nodding ahead.
They’d reached the station.
When they entered, the officer on desk duty nodded to them and indicated they go on through. Entering the hallway and passing by the offices, they were soon stopped by an officer who said the captain was in the observation room, and Special Agent Zachary Erikson was speaking with Nick Sandoval.
“What about the driver?” Gavin asked.
“Interrogation room 2, cooling his heels, I guess. He’s being left to stew in his own juices for a while, so I’ve been told,” the officer said.
“We’ll see what’s going on,” Gavin said, looking at Skye for agreement.
“We’ll join the captain in the observation room,” she said.
He nodded and the two of them headed in to observe Zach’s interrogation of Nick.
“Special Agent McMahon, pleasure to meet you and grateful for the help we can get!” the captain told her as she and Gavin entered the room. “Captain Claybourne,” he added, offering his hand.
“Thank you, sir!” she said quietly, taking his hand for a solid shake. Claybourne was fifty-one, a serious man with clipped white hair, about six feet tall, with a sturdy frame. He had worked his way up through the ranks Skye knew, because it was her nature, when she could, to research everyone involved in a case or a place.
