Cold Case Investigation, page 17
She wanted to swear, or fight, but she forced herself to remain still. To be pushed forward toward the side door. She had to be careful, more careful than she’d ever been. For her family and her baby.
Something thudded to the ground. Both the gunman and Anna looked back. Tripp had collapsed into a heap in the snow.
The man looked down at Tripp with some disgust. Then simply shrugged. “Don’t need him anymore anyway.” With no warning, he reared back and kicked the mudroom door. It splintered, gave, but didn’t fully open. Anna thought about running. He still had the gun pointed at her, but with the second kick, his attention would be focused on the door.
But her family was inside. She might be the target, the one he wanted to kill to hurt them, but he was clearly unhinged enough to kill anyone. And Izzy was in there. What if he decided she was a better target?
Anna’s blood ran cold at the thought, so she stayed put while he finished kicking the door open. He gestured her inside with the gun. “Take me to that fancy room where you lie to people and tell them you’ll find their lost loved ones. Where you take their money and lie and lie and lie.”
Anna sucked in a breath. He wanted her to take him to the living room. Where they tried to make clients feel at home, taken care of. Because they knew the emotional toll of a cold case, of having no answers and still having that sliver of hope that answers might be out there.
He had to be a former client, but why hadn’t his case stuck out to them? He wasn’t Clarence Samuels—the case she’d been away in the rodeo for. He wasn’t the man she’d been following when she’d been attacked.
It had to go back further than that. Not just a case she hadn’t been involved in, a case before she’d been involved. Jack had started HSS when she’d only been fifteen. She hadn’t been allowed to help then.
It had to be a case that far back. She wished she had any way to get that information to Jack. To Hawk. To anyone. But she could only walk this man through her family’s home and pray they figured this out before something went terribly wrong.
She stepped into the living room. Where she’d watched cartoons on Saturday mornings before her parents had disappeared. Where she’d gotten into a rage of a fight with Jack over wanting to go to the rodeo, and Palmer had stepped in and smoothed things over. Where she, Mary and Louisa had giggled over boys and first times. Where she’d cried in relief when Grant had come home from deployment. Where she’d walked baby Izzy in circles while Cash slept on the couch because sometimes only Aunt Anna had the right touch to get her to sleep.
Which made her think of her own baby. She didn’t bring her hands to her stomach, though she wanted to. I will do anything to protect you. It was the only vow she knew how to make.
“No one’s here,” she offered to the gunman.
“You don’t say,” the gunman replied. “Yell for them.”
Anna hesitated, which earned her a painful jab of the gun into her temple again. She winced.
“Jack?” She tried to sound...different as she called for her brother. Anything to give him a hint all was not right. Afraid, but not hurt. Shaky but not so shaky he’d come running without thinking. “Can you come into the living room? Please?” she added, because please wasn’t in her normal arsenal.
Please read into that.
She was relieved when no thunder of footsteps started. Instead, Jack slowly entered the living room from the dining room, gun drawn.
But he stopped on a dime when he caught sight of her with a gun pressed to her head. Cash and Mary had appeared behind him, Cash with a gun of his own, Mary and Izzy holding on to each other.
“Drop the guns,” the gunman ordered
Jack stilled, that cop look immediately taking over his face. Cash shoved Izzy behind Mary and Mary paled even more than she already had. But Palmer didn’t appear. Where was Palmer?
“Now. Or I pull the trigger.”
Jack and Cash carefully crouched, placing their guns on the ground, their gazes never leaving the gun on Anna’s head.
“Kick them over here.”
They did as they were told. So that they stood in a kind of standoff, the family couch between them. No one spoke. They just did what the gunman said, and Anna couldn’t meet their gazes. She might break apart.
She had to find a way to get out of this situation, without dying. Without anyone she loved getting hurt.
“Hello,” the gunman said, suddenly pleasant. “Remember me?”
No one said anything. Anna saw similar looks of confusion on everyone’s face—except Mary.
“You’re Darrin Monroe,” Mary said calmly. She had her hands clasped behind her, on Izzy’s shoulders as if to make sure she was always a shield.
Anna didn’t recognize the name, but she could tell Jack did.
“You were one of our first cases,” Jack said grimly.
“Yes, and you failed me. I want you all here. All of you. For every minute you’re not all here, I’ll make her death that much more gruesome,” he said, shoving the gun hard against Anna’s skull as if to prove the point. “Grant and Palmer are missing. I want them here.”
“Grant is out of town. I can call Palmer, if you’d like,” Mary said calmly, as if she was talking to any client they took on. Offering coffee or a place to stay.
“Yes,” Darrin said. “Get Palmer here. We can do this without the other one. He wasn’t part of it anyway.”
“I thought I was the only one not a part of it?” Anna couldn’t help but say to her captor. “Wait, I get it. You’re afraid the ex-soldier could kick your ass, but the young woman wasn’t a threat to you?”
“That’s right. And I was correct, wasn’t I?”
Well, unfortunately, she didn’t have anything to say to that.
“We didn’t fail you, Mr. Monroe,” Cash said. “We found your son.”
“Dead. You found him dead. And you were meant to find your sister dead, and never know how or why, but she just couldn’t die. So now you’ll watch her die. All of you. I want Palmer here, now.”
* * *
HAWK AND HART followed the trail of blood around to the other side of the house. The man shot had clearly hidden here behind the trees for a while because there was a bigger pile of blood. Hawk peered through the trees.
Then he saw a man’s body crumpled next to a broken-in door. Fear and worry twined inside him, but he pointed at the body without saying anything. Hart nodded and they moved forward as a unit, both with guns drawn. They arrived at the crumpled body and Hart crouched next to it, checking the man’s pulse.
Hart looked up. “Not dead, but nearly.”
“Take him to the ambulance.”
Hart stood, disapproval waving off him. “Something bad is going on, Steele. You shouldn’t go in there alone.”
“I’m not,” he said, gesturing at the broken open door. “Palmer’s right there.” Palmer didn’t look back at them, his attention on whatever was going on inside the house. Hawk could only hope like hell Anna was safe somewhere beyond what he could see.
“I’m not taking him,” Hart muttered. “I’m calling for an EMT. I’ll stay here with the body, but I’m coming in after you once he’s gone.”
Hawk nodded, then stepped inside the mudroom. Palmer spared him only the flicker of a glance and put a finger to his lips in a be quiet gesture. Hawk moved forward silently to where Palmer stood. As far as he could tell, there was nothing to see but the long empty hallway.
Once Hawk was close enough, Palmer spoke in a low whisper. “He’s got Anna.”
Hawk didn’t hear the rest of it at first. His head was a buzzing mass of static and panic. But he didn’t move. He didn’t yell and break things like he immediately wanted to. He breathed and pushed the thought of Anna and their baby as far out of his mind as he could.
“Who has Anna?” Hawk asked, quietly. Calmly. Maybe.
“Some guy. He popped up out of nowhere. I don’t know who the hell he is, but he said he wanted to kill her in front of all the siblings to make us Hudsons pay. I followed at a distance. He doesn’t know I’m here, but there hasn’t been a chance to safely jump in. He’s keeping that gun pointed right at her head.”
Hawk had to work very hard to filter through all that information and not picture Anna with a gun to her head. Not think about the very real possibility Anna would say something rash and smart that would make him laugh like a loon.
And get her killed.
Palmer pulled his phone from his pocket. He showed Hawk the screen. “Mary is calling me.”
“Go outside and take it. Don’t tell her we’re out here. Just get all the information you can from her.”
Palmer nodded and then hurried outside. Hawk stayed where he was and listened to what was going on in the house. He could hear the low murmur of voices far off, but nothing more. He began to creep forward. Down the hall, as quietly as he could. He forced himself to be slow, methodical, even as he was desperate to run in guns blazing.
But that could get everyone killed, and the only thing that mattered was getting Anna out of this alive.
Alive, alive, alive. He repeated it to himself as he moved with slow, methodical purpose. A mantra. Speaking to any spiritual whatever his mother had believed in that would listen.
When Palmer rejoined him, Hawk had only moved maybe a quarter of the way down the hall.
“He’s working alone, as far as anyone can tell,” Palmer whispered. “Biggest hurdle is he hasn’t stopped pointing the gun at Anna’s head the whole time. He wants me to come in there. Once we’re all there, he’s going to kill Anna.”
No. Hawk wasn’t about to let that happen. He needed a plan and quick.
“Go around the house,” he said to Palmer in a low whisper. “Go in from the dining room, but don’t go into the living room. You step in, he could just pull that trigger, so you need to be quiet and stay out of sight. I’m going to make noise here. See if I can draw him out.”
Palmer nodded.
“Shoot him. The minute I get him clear of Anna, you shoot. Even if I’m in the way.”
“Hawk—”
“I mean it. She’s number one. I’m collateral damage.”
“You think she’d see it that way?”
They didn’t have time for this argument, even whispered. “If she’s alive, I don’t give a damn how she sees it. Now go.”
Palmer seemed to consider this and then nodded. “Give me three minutes to get around to that side of the house. Then I’ll be ready for whatever happens.”
It was Hawk’s turn to nod. He watched Palmer go, started the countdown and crept closer to the living room, gun drawn and ready.
He’d save Anna and his baby no matter what it took.
Chapter Twenty-One
Anna was not good at waiting under any circumstances, but the whole gun-to-her-head thing was not making it any easier to keep her mouth shut and just wait.
Jack and Cash seemed like they could wait forever. Stoic walls of disapproval, though Anna knew them well enough to see the fury and worry simmering underneath. Mary had that bland expression on her face, but her eyes gave her away. Worry and terror. And Anna could hear Izzy crying behind Mary, though clearly the girl was trying to hold it together.
Anna’s heart ached. This was too much for all of them, but definitely more than too much for an eleven-year-old.
The man with the gun, Darrin, was silent and patient. Way more patient than Anna. “Are we really just going to stand here all day waiting for my brother to show up?”
“I could knock you out again, and then kill you. Would you prefer that?” Darrin asked mildly.
Anna didn’t bother to respond. She just sighed heavily and shifted on her feet. They were killing her. She was hungry, tired and thirsty. She wanted to cry and she wanted to rage.
She really wanted to punch this Darrin guy right in the face. She considered the angles. If she got an elbow up quickly enough, would it dislodge the gun or at least angle it away from her head?
The problem was, any stray bullet could hit any of the people she loved who were all across from them. Was there a way to angle her elbow backward so the gun went that way?
She considered all this, even though she’d considered it a million times. There had to be a way because she didn’t think Palmer was coming. He was somewhere on the property, and obviously Mary had told the gunman he was coming, but Palmer had to know what had happened. He’d been outside with her. He’d likely followed her.
If he showed up, she’d be dead and they all knew it. So he very much shouldn’t come. Gruesome death or no.
She didn’t allow herself to think about Hawk. Maybe he was out there with Palmer. Maybe he was out at his office in Bent, completely unaware what was happening. It didn’t matter where he was, as long as he was safe.
“This is taking too long,” Darrin said. “I want him here. Now.”
“We haven’t invented teleportation, bud,” Anna muttered.
He yanked her hair so hard she saw stars. Then he kicked out her legs so she fell to her knees. Hard enough she let out a pained hiss, barely managing to suppress a yelp.
“I’ve had enough of you,” he said, shaking the hand that was fisted in her hair as she knelt there trying not to sob in pain.
Jack and Cash had moved forward, but that only prompted Darrin to shove the gun at the back of her head now. “I will shoot you all. I will kill every last one of you. I’d prefer it to end in emotional agony, but if it’s your deaths, it’ll be your deaths. You took my son away from me.”
“Your son ran away from you,” Jack returned. Coldly. “For whatever reasons, we had nothing to do with that or his death. We are sorry for your loss. We know—”
“Shut up!” Darrin screamed.
Anna tried not to wince at all the pain coursing through her. The bite of metal, the burning pain of him yanking her head around by the hair. She just had to breathe and be calm. She just had to survive.
She had to.
There was no way she could get away from Darrin’s grasp right now, but she wasn’t that far away from the guns her brothers had kicked over. She couldn’t reach for one, but if she could get her leg out from under her without Darrin paying her any attention, maybe she could pull one toward her.
She shifted her weight, whimpering in pain. She was in pain, but the whimpering was put on.
“Stop squirming,” Darrin ordered, pulling her hair again.
Her gasp of pain was real this time. “I can’t sit on my knees like this,” Anna said, wriggling even though it hurt like hell. But she managed to get into a seated position, her legs spread out in front of her. Darrin still had a grip on her hair and a gun pointed at her head.
She couldn’t tell where Darrin was looking, but if it was at her siblings, maybe she could move her leg enough to get the gun.
She looked over at Jack and Cash. Their gazes were firmly on Darrin. No doubt watching her would be too hard on them. And they were looking for ways to eliminate the threat.
But Mary was watching her. Anna tried to use her eyes to get a message across. She looked at Mary. Then the gun. Then Darrin. Over and over again.
“Mr. Monroe,” Mary said in that prim hostess voice of hers. Clearly trying to hold Darrin’s attention so Anna could try to reach the gun. “I know you’re upset and rightfully so. You lost a son. You want someone to blame.”
“You are to blame! If you’d found him sooner, he would have been alive.”
Anna wished she knew anything about this case, but when Jack had first started HSS, Anna had been so infuriated he was keeping her out of it that she’d refused to have anything to do with it. Fifteen wasn’t an easy age for anyone, let alone a girl who’d lost both parents and was being raised by her grumpy older brother.
“Your son made his choices, Mr. Monroe. That isn’t on us,” Jack said firmly. Maybe a little coldly. Even though Anna knew Jack took every failure too much to heart.
She inched her foot closer to the gun. Darrin’s grip on her hair kept her from being able to move much farther. She wouldn’t be able to get either gun to herself, but she could kick out. Maybe hit one of them. Maybe send it back toward her brothers.
But she’d have to time it perfectly. Have to somehow get Darrin to stop pointing his gun at her head, even if he still held on to her hair. Would that be enough time?
It would have to be. “You know, I don’t think Palmer’s coming,” Anna announced. Her brothers whipped their gazes to her, as if she was insane. And, well, maybe they weren’t wrong. But she just kept talking.
If there was anything she was good at, it was talking herself into problems her brothers solved. Right? Why not lean into it?
“He shows up, he knows you’ll kill me. So why would he come? You thought that one through, Darrin?”
He jerked her hair again, and she winced at the pain that shot through her body. But she didn’t stop. She couldn’t stop. She needed just a few seconds where that gun wasn’t pointed at her head.
“Honestly, this plan is just ridiculous. You should have kept trying to kill me when I was alone. Needing an audience has just dragged everything out. For every second we stand around here waiting, there’s another cop figuring it out. They could be surrounding the house by now.”
“Jesus, Anna,” Cash muttered.
“I don’t care about cops. I don’t care if they catch me. I care about your suffering.”
“I’m not suffering. I’m just bored,” Anna returned, heaving out a sigh that allowed her to move her foot that much closer to the gun without Darrin looking down. “Aren’t you bored, Darrin? Let’s get this show on the road.”
“Shut up. Just...shut up,” he yelled, shaking her harder and harder until she had to shut up or she’d just scream in pain.
