Cold Case Tracker, page 14
“Yeah, Jackson told me that too. But my laptop is useless, so whatever he’s after is gone.”
Amy wondered if Jackson had told Gemma how he’d hidden his identity at first, given Amy his boss’s last name and how she’d caught him. Normally, it was the kind of juicy gossip she’d have been in a hurry to share with her best friend. But somehow, Amy found herself hoping that Jackson hadn’t told Gemma. He’d made a mistake. And despite all the time she and Gemma has spent giggling over his mistakes when they were kids, she really didn’t want to make fun of him now.
I guess I’ve forgiven him, Lord. Help me forgive myself for my own mistakes too.
Gemma leaned back against the headboard, pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them and looked at Amy, just like she had countless times before during sleepovers when they were kids. Amy leaned back against her own headboard, wedged a pillow behind the small of her back and crossed her legs.
“I know you must have a lot of questions,” Gemma began. “There’s so much I need to tell you, and I owe you a pretty big apology too. But I don’t want to get your blood pressure up or cause any problems for you and the baby.” Gemma waved one hand toward her. “Especially after Jackson told me about the medical tests and bed rest.”
“It’s okay,” Amy said. “But when my heart was racing before, it really helped when Jackson just calmly talked to me.”
“My brother talked to you calmly?” Gemma asked, skeptically.
“Yeah.” Amy laughed. “He’s not always loud, like he was when he was a kid. I mean, he shouts really loudly when he needs to. But he’s a really chill and cool person, actually. Did he tell you I went into false labor earlier today?”
“No.” Gemma’s eyes widened. “Are you okay?”
“It was pretty scary,” Amy said. “But he held me and calmed me down, and then he read to me for half an hour. I think as long as our voices are calm and we’re taking things in bite-size chunks, it would be good to hear everything you’ve been going through.”
Gemma shook her head as if she had water in her ears. “Okay... I’ll take your word for it. Just let me know if it gets too much.”
“I will,” Amy said. “Let’s take it nice and slow.”
Amy leaned back and listened as Gemma filled her in on her dreams of becoming a private investigator—how she’d gotten interested in cold cases when her college roommate Louise had disappeared, how that case had made her realize just how many unsolved crimes were at risk of being forgotten, how she’d set up the hidden office and started looking into the Pine Crest murders.
Even though Amy had the impression her friend was still hiding things from her—maybe to help keep her stress level down—there was something comforting about lying there and listening to her friend’s voice rise and fall as if they were telling stories back in the cottage when they’d been kids. Gemma explained that she’d been studying to be a private investigator and setting up her office before she invited Amy to stay. But she didn’t tell her because she hadn’t wanted Amy to think she was being a burden or feel any additional stress or guilt.
“I didn’t want you to think that you were getting in the way of my dreams,” Gemma said. “You were already dealing with so much, you felt like you had nowhere else to go, and I didn’t want to add anything onto your plate.”
She kept talking, skimming over the details of being run off the road by Reese Cyan as lightly as a rock skipping over the surface of the lake.
“When I realized that Reese thought I was dead,” Gemma went on, “I thought it would be much safer for you if I let him believe he’d killed me and then I could try to investigate this on my own.”
“You were wrong,” Amy said.
“Yeah, I see that now.” Gemma sighed. “I honestly thought I was protecting you.”
Amy didn’t know what to say to that. For a long moment, both friends stared forward at the picture of the waterfall in silence. Maybe their friendship was always heading to a point like this. Obviously, Amy hadn’t predicted something this dangerous and dramatic. But maybe this was what happened when everybody was so busy trying to protect each other and avoid conflict, they let things build up for weeks, months or years. Until finally, things blew up, just because they’d been afraid of hurting each other.
“I want you to know that whatever happens next, you and your baby can count on me,” Gemma said. “We’ll make whatever modifications needed so that the cottage is a safe place to rest and recuperate. Or if the doctor thinks the cottage is too far away from the hospital, I’ll close the store and we’ll rent a place together in Huntsville. Whatever it takes, it’s going to be okay. You and me are in this together.”
And where would that leave Jackson? Would he be shut out again, like they’d shut him out when they were younger?
“Thank you,” Amy said. “I love and appreciate you more than I have words to say. But we’re not kids anymore, right? We’re not going to freeze your brother out this time?”
Gemma broke her gaze and didn’t answer.
“Jackson and I figured out that you must’ve intercepted the apology letter he sent me when we were teenagers,” Amy went on. “You scribbled on it that I hated him and never wanted to see him again.”
Now a flush rose to Gemma’s face. “Yeah, I’m sorry.”
“I know you tried really hard in the past to protect me from Jackson,” Amy said. “I know that you pushed him away when we were kids and didn’t let him hang out with us, because he was obnoxious and loud. But your brother has grown into a different man since then. He’s a good guy with a great heart and he means well—”
“I know.” Gemma crossed her legs in front of her and leaned back in a posture mirroring Amy’s. “I love my brother. But the reason I didn’t talk about him when you moved back in with me, and the reason I sent his letter to you back like that, wasn’t because I was trying to protect you from him. It’s because I was trying to protect my brother from you.”
Amy felt her eyes widen. “You were trying to protect your brother from me? Whatever made you think you needed to protect Jackson from me?”
“Because my brother might’ve had some problems as a kid,” Gemma said. “But he also has a really soft heart—the biggest of anyone I know.” She waved her hands in the air as if summoning a chorus of memories. “He cares deeply about people, and he’s always had feelings for you.”
She ran both her hands through her hair.
“And, Amy, you know how much I love you and value you,” Gemma went on. “But you’re spontaneous and a risk-taker. I like that about you. But I’ve always been afraid that my brother would give you his heart and you would trample over it on the way to your next adventure. I saw you kiss him today. I just hope you guys aren’t making a big mistake getting close.”
“You saw that?” Amy asked.
Of course, she should have realized that Gemma had been the one eavesdropping on them from the trees. But she’d been so distracted by having her long-lost friend suddenly turn up, she’d momentarily forgotten. Maybe the kiss had been a mistake and Jackson deserved somebody more steady and less impulsive than she had a history of being.
“Yeah, I was eavesdropping on you,” Gemma said. “I was trying to figure out who all was at the motel with you and when I could risk coming out without being seen. For all I knew, one of the cops you were with was involved in covering something up in the Pine Crest case.” She paused, then said, “Or maybe, if I’m being incredibly honest, maybe that’s how I was rationalizing the fact I was thrown by seeing the tenderness between you two, and I was feeling frozen by indecision.”
Gemma changed the subject and went on to tell Amy about the cottage she’d been staying in for the past few weeks and her failed attempt to figure out who Reese was. She explained that while she had never planned to hide so long, the more the days ticked past, the harder it was for her to figure out what to do.
After a while, Amy felt her eyes begin to close, and she realized she was drifting. Gemma gave her another hug and slipped out, promising she was going to talk to Jackson, but she’d return soon. Gemma locked the door behind her and Amy heard her say hello to Caleb, who she assumed must be standing guard.
Amy didn’t expect to fall asleep, but somehow she felt her eyelids grow heavy. She lay back on the bed against the pillow, wrapped a blanket around her and closed her eyes.
She started to pray, thanking God that Gemma had been found alive and safe, and asking God to keep Skye strong. Then she started to tell God how thankful she was for Jackson. She fell asleep with the memory of his face filling her mind.
She awoke to the sound of a high-pitched beeping. She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, feeling suddenly light-headed. The sun had set outside the window. The motel door clicked and swung open, and Caleb rushed in.
“We’ve got to go!” Caleb said. “Somebody’s set off the fire alarm.”
She gasped. “I don’t smell smoke.”
“It might be an attempt to either lure you out or get to you in the chaos.” He reached his hand toward her. “Come on, any second now and the parking lot is going to be full of people and emergency vehicles.”
She shoved her feet into her shoes and crossed over toward the door.
“Where are Jackson and Gemma?” she asked.
“They’re on their way to Pine Crest with Hudson,” he said, “to show everyone the picture of Reese and see if anyone recognizes or identifies him as Kenny.
“Blake had to go back to Toronto,” he added, “so it’s just me for now.” Caleb held up his phone. “But I’m calling Jackson right now.”
Caleb put the phone on speaker and pressed it into her hands. She stepped outside. The fire alarm seemed even louder out in the parking lot. Motel guests streamed out of their rooms. Sirens wailed in the distance.
“Hey, Caleb,” Jackson’s voice came on the line. “Just on our way to Pine Crest.”
“Jackson,” she said. “It’s me.”
Caleb took her arm gently and steered her through the busy parking lot to the end of the building.
“Amy!” His casual tone shifted to concerned in an instant. “Are you okay? Where’s Caleb?”
“I’m here!” Caleb called. “Someone set off the fire alarm so I’m evacuating Amy to safety.”
“I’m fine,” Amy said. “This place is turning kind of chaotic right now.”
“Gemma and I are on our way,” Jackson said. She could hear the tires screech through the phone. “We’re turning around now and should be there soon. You there, Caleb?”
People kept streaming into the parking lot. Amy handed Caleb the phone. They pushed through the crowd, like fish trying to swim against the current.
“I’m here!” Caleb confirmed.
“Get Amy out of there,” Jackson said. “Put her in your car and drive north. We’ll meet up with you en route and find a quiet place we can touch base away from the chaos. Keep the line open.”
“Will do!” Caleb said. He dropped the phone to his side, but she noticed he didn’t end the call. “My vehicle is parked around the side. I didn’t want the fact an RCMP SUV was parked in front of the motel to alert anyone to your location.”
But maybe someone had found her anyway.
Fire trucks and ambulances began to pull into the front lot. He led her around the side of the building where a lone white police vehicle sat beside a thick wall of trees.
Caleb opened the side door for her.
“Don’t worry.” He smiled. “Everything is going to be okay.”
She heard the sound of the gunshot before she could even determine where it was coming from. Caleb’s face went ashen; he clutched his chest, then crumpled to the ground in front of her. His phone fell. Blood seeped from the wound between his fingers.
Amy screamed.
“Caleb!” Jackson shouted. “Amy!”
Then a masked man stepped out from the trees. He aimed a gun directly between her eyes.
“Don’t move,” Reese said. “Don’t move a muscle! You are going to get in the car and we’re going to take a little ride. Otherwise, I will kill you and your baby.”
TWELVE
“Amy!” Jackson shouted her name into the cell phone that was mounted on his truck’s dashboard. “Caleb! Update!”
But all he could hear was the muffled sound of a man shouting, a door slamming and then an engine revving.
“That sounded like a gunshot,” Gemma said.
He glanced over at his sister, who was sitting in the passenger seat of his truck. All the color had drained from her face.
Then the call went dead. The highway stretched long and endless ahead of them. They were still a good fifteen minutes away from the motel.
Dear Lord, please help me get there in time. Please keep Amy, Caleb and the baby safe!
Hudson whined in the backseat, and Gemma reached back to comfort him.
Jackson dialed 911.
“Emergency services.” The male voice that answered sounded confident.
“This is Sergeant Jackson Locke of the RCMP’s Ontario K-9 Unit. Reporting sound of a gunshot at the South River Motel. Possible officer down, named Constable Caleb Perry. Potential injury or abduction of a pregnant civilian named Amy Scout.”
“Are you on the scene?” the dispatcher asked.
“Negative,” Jackson said. “I’m on the road about fifteen minutes away. I was on the line with Constable Perry when it happened.”
“Are you still?”
“No,” Jackson said. “Call went dead.”
He heard the sound of a keyboard clacking down the line. Gemma sat back in her seat, leaned over and squeezed Jackson’s arm for a long moment.
“The sound of gunfire was called in by several people on the scene,” the dispatcher told him. “Police are converging. Search and rescue helicopters are being deployed. Constable Perry was found alive with a gunshot to the chest and is being tended to. But the civilian, Amy Scout, was not found. It is believed she was abducted by the gunman in the officer’s vehicle. The vehicle was last seen headed west. Officers are mobilizing roadblocks.”
He glanced quickly at Gemma because it sounded like she was struggling to breathe. He knew it was caused by her worry. He knew the feeling. Fear seized Jackson’s heart so tightly his head felt dizzy. But he took a deep breath and prayed.
Lord, help me focus. Amy needs me to think like a cop right now.
Not like a man who could lose a woman and child that his foolish heart longed to hold.
“The suspect may be a man named Reese Cyan,” Jackson said. “RCMP Ontario can provide officers with a picture. He is a suspect in a crime that we’re investigating.”
More keyboard clicks and clacks. Jackson wondered how many people the 911 dispatcher was coordinating with right now.
“The suspect won’t stay in the RCMP vehicle for long,” Jackson said. “He’ll have some alternative getaway car hidden out of sight that he’ll switch the hostage into.”
But he probably hadn’t been expecting to come up against an officer who knew the rural roads of Northern Ontario like the back of his own hand, as Jackson did.
“I’m going to keep the line open and try to cut him off,” he added.
“I can’t advise that,” the dispatcher said.
“I know,” Jackson replied. “Huge thanks to you and everyone else working to get her back safely.”
Then Jackson glanced at Gemma. His sister’s worried eyes met his.
“Hold on tight,” he told her. “I’m going to go off-road, do a bit of fancy driving and see if I can cut Reese off. You might want to grab the phone in case it goes flying.”
Then his eyes cut to the rearview mirror and he glanced at Hudson in the backseat.
“Sorry, buddy,” he said. “I know how much you hate wearing your seatbelt. But if you’ll be patient with Gemma, I’m going to get her to buckle you in.”
Thankfully the dog was still in his K-9 vest and harness. Jackson glanced at his sister.
“On it.” She’d already taken her seatbelt off and was squeezing her torso between the two front seats to reach the dog.
“It’s the long, gray seatbelt to the right,” he said. “Just feed it through the thick loop at the front of his harness, and buckle it in.”
“I got it!” she called. He heard a click. Then Gemma refastened her seatbelt and grabbed his phone off the front console.
“Ready?” he asked.
Gemma took a deep breath. Then she gritted her teeth. “Ready.”
His sister sounded even more determined than he was.
Thank You, God, for Gemma.
A farm loomed ahead. A narrow and unpaved service road lay beyond it. That would do just fine.
“Here we go.”
He gripped the steering wheel tightly and gunned the engine toward the farm. The truck flew across the field, jolting and bumping across the uneven ground so severely the entire vehicle seemed to shake down to its bolts. They hit the drainage ditch, bounced up on the other side and swerved onto the unpaved road. It wasn’t much more than a thin dirt track. The tires spun on the loose soil, threatening to send the truck flying right back off into the ditch again. Then the wheels caught traction. Jackson whispered a prayer of thanksgiving to God and kept driving.
The dirt track gave way to another one, heading southwest. He cut down it, weaving down country roads and any track through the woods he could find. Tree branches scraped against the vehicle. Police chatter filtered through his radio letting him keep track of where Caleb’s stolen SUV had last been spotted.
Reese was like a rat in a maze with a dozen talented cats searching for him at once from multiple different angles. It was only a matter of time before someone caught him, Jackson told himself. He just prayed that both Amy and her unborn child would be alive and safe when that happened.
