Love on the Horizon (A Northern Woods Novel) (16 page)

Chapter
Twenty-five

“I want my mommy,” Nicky cried.

“Shut up! I told you, we’re
playing hide and seek. She looked in the rearview mirror. A police car was
following her with its lights flashing. “Oh shit. Hold on, Ivan. We’re going to
go fast. This will be fun, just like in the movies,” she laughed and hit the
pedal. She took off at a high speed, forgetting about the sharp curves up
ahead.

Nicky held tightly to his armrest
while he tried to look out the window, but it was so dark out there, and
without his car seat, he wasn’t up high enough to see. He was scared. “I want
to go home,” he cried.

After the first curve, she
noticed an abandoned road on the east side of the highway, barely enough room
for an automobile. She turned the steering wheel to the right, and the car
swerved. Nicky’s seatbelt became unlatched, tossing him about. He screamed
while Anya drove recklessly down the dark and bumpy road. Opening all four
windows, she laughed at the large clouds of blowing dust behind them. Between
the murky sky and the dirt in the air, they’ll never find us, she thought, and
again laughed loudly.

She spotted an old building up
ahead. “Now there’s a perfect place to hide. I’ll phone your daddy from there.
He has plenty of loot. Soon as he digs up the ransom money, they’ll be able to
come and find you. I’ll be long gone. One million dollars will return me to my
lover back home and we’ll live happily ever after.” She banged her fist against
the steering wheel and laughed hysterically. “See Ivan? Just like I told you. A
game of hide and seek!”

The car bounced over deep
potholes, and tree branches jabbed into the open windows. Lying down, Nicky
tried desperately to hang on to the edge of the seat.

“Isn’t this a fun game, Ivan?”
She laughed again and pushed harder on the accelerator. She looked at the
speedometer. It now read 95 mph. “At least we lost that stinking cop…”

Suddenly, the tires hit a patch
of sand, and her car spun at a forty-five degree angle. She tried to straighten
it out, but her sweaty hands slid across the steering wheel. With her foot
still pressing hard on the gas pedal, the vehicle flew over five hundred feet
of pasture. Anya laughed, and her eyes glowed with a savage inner fire. Nicky
screamed hysterically.

“Shut up, you little brat!” she
yelled, then abruptly threw her head back and bellowed a guttural cry of terror
as the car soared through the wall of a dilapidated barn, stopping with a
deafening blast against an old Allis-Chambers tractor.

* * *

“I don’t know where the hell she
disappeared to, Hutch,” Officer Lewis said. “I kept my eyes on her tail lights
at all times, but she vanished. It’s pitch black out there.”

Hutchinson shook his head. “She
must have turned off somewhere before we came around one of those curves.” He
slowed down, and made a U-turn. “Watch for any side roads.”

They’d driven about a mile when
Lewis leaned forward and pointed off to the east of the highway. “There – take
a left on that trail; those tracks look like a car may have driven through
recently.”

Moving slowly among the trees and
brush, they shined their spotlight along both sides of the dirt road,
camouflaged by tall grass and weeds.

“Don’t know how she could have
made it down this trail you call a road,” Hutch muttered. “We’ll be lucky if we
make it back out.”

“Over there.” Lewis pointed to a
track of tire marks freshly imprinted across knee-deep dried out hay and
thistle.

Hutch made a sharp turn and
headed toward the area, which clearly showed that a vehicle had been here
recently. The fresh tracks led them to the south side of a decrepit barn. The
wall had caved in, and the damage appeared to be recent; then they saw it. The
trunk of the Lincoln Continental they’d been following. He parked the car. They
climbed out and quickly approached the barn.

When they stepped through the
havoc, they found what they were looking for. Both officers rushed over to the
driver’s side. Hunched forward, the woman’s head pressed against the steering
wheel, facing the open window. Leaning toward her, Hutch peered into her eyes,
examined them closely, and then checked for her pulse. There was none. He
sighed and said, “Call an ambulance, Lewis. Let them know she’s already gone.”

Lewis had been searching for the
child. The rear door on the passenger side was open and hung on its hinges. He
looked into the back seat, but it was empty. “Where the hell did she leave the
boy?”

They slowly moved around the car
and the tractor, into which it had crashed. They searched with their flashlights,
turning in every direction. The barn reeked of wet wood and mold. Lewis
carefully covered the east end while Hutch walked slowly to the west.

After he’d taken a few steps,
Hutch stopped in his tracks. “Listen,” he said quietly, holding his palm in the
air when Lewis turned to face him. They both stood still, and Hutch heard the
noise again. A soft whimper was coming from the haystack several feet away from
them. He walked slowly toward the muffled sound, and there he found the lad. He
was lying in the pile of hay, moaning in his sleep.

“Nicky?” Hutch whispered, so as
not to frighten him. When he knelt down beside him and placed a hand on his
forehead, Nicky opened his eyes. He could see how terrified the poor boy was.
“You’re okay now, Nicky. You’re going home to your mommy and daddy. Everything
will be all right.” He gently ran his hands along Nicky’s legs.

“He must have been thrown from
the car and landed on this stack of hay,” Lewis said quietly.

When Hutch reached over and
carefully felt Nicky’s left arm, the boy let out a blood-curdling scream.

“That’s okay sport. I’m not going
to touch it. The doctor will be here soon. We’ll stay right where we are, and
I’ll sit here with you. How does that sound?”

He nodded his head slightly and
continued crying, tears streaming down his tiny cheeks.

“His arm must be broken badly.
Did you make that call for an ambulance?”

“They won’t be long.”

“Call the Pinewood Hills Police
Department and tell them we have the boy. Let them know he’s hurt, and we’ll
need another ambulance. Also bring a couple of blankets from the trunk.”

Lewis nodded, hurried out to the
police car, and immediately returned with a blanket and a teddy bear for Nicky.
He was grateful that they always kept a stuffed animal in their vehicle for
this type of incident.

“You’ll be home soon, buddy. I
promise,” Hutch said quietly, and blotted Nicky’s tears with the corner of the
blanket. The poor little kid; he’s been through hell and back.

* * *

Nick hung up the phone with a
grin and yelled out, “They found him! Nicky’s safe. They’ll be at Huntington
Hospital within the hour. Mariah, let’s go pick up our son!”

“Let me grab my purse,” she said,
crying as she hurried to the bedroom. This time they were happy tears; she
could hardly wait to see her baby.

“Is he all right, Nick?” Art
asked quietly.

“Don’t know everything yet. All
they told me about was a broken arm,” Nick whispered. They stopped talking when
they heard Mariah returning down the hall. She entered the kitchen, grabbed her
windbreaker, and they hurried out the door.

“I’ll call the men back in.
They’ll be relieved that he’s safe. Don’t worry about the twins. Bess and
Lillie will stay with them. Get on over there to Nicky. We’ll all be here
waitin’ for ya,” Art told them when he followed them out onto the porch. “Drive
careful, Nick.”

* * *

Corey and Kayla stopped and spoke
with Art before heading back to the cabin.

“Hey, Art,” Corey said, and
greeted him with a smile.

“How have you two been? You
haven’t been up here in quite a while.”

Kayla explained that they were
unable to leave their jobs, until now. “Corey and I finally had some time
coming, and we wanted to help with the search. We can’t wait to see the little
guy. We haven’t seen him since he was a baby. We’ll be here for a couple of
weeks, so we’ll have plenty of time to visit. Nick just informed us that Mariah
had twins.

“Yup, cute little rascals too,”
Art said with a grandfatherly grin.

“We’re anxious to meet them. Kyle
and his wife wanted to come, but neither of them was able to leave work.” Kyle
was Kayla’s twin brother.

 “You want to see them now? Bess
is getting them ready for bed, but they’re still awake.”

“Oh, yes!” Kayla exclaimed with
excitement, and they followed Art into the house.

When Bess saw them walk through
the door, a soft smile touched her lips. She was sitting on the sofa, a baby in
each arm.

“Darlin, it’s so good to see you,
and awfully nice of you to come all this way to help.”

“Oh, no problem Bess, it’s the
least we could do,” Corey said, while he watched Kayla pick up one of the
twins.

“We heard they’re identical.
Which cute little sweetheart do I have here?” Kayla asked, smiling down at a
precious angelic face.

Art walked up to her with a grin.
“Just look at their ankles.”

Kayla gently lifted the left leg
of the baby’s pajama, found a nametag around her ankle, and her face spread
into a smile. “So this is Allison,” she said softly. She lightly placed her
finger in Allie’s hand. “My goodness, she has such a tight grip for a tiny
newborn.” She looked up at Art, who’d been admiring them both over her
shoulder.

“Corey, would you like to hold
Angie?” Bess asked.

“I don’t think so.” He shook his
head and slowly backed away.

“Chicken,” Kayla said.

“You’ll need the practice,
Corey,” Art added.

“Oh no, not for a while yet,” he
said, and laughed lightly.

“Well, it’s time for these little
angels to go to bed,” Bess said, and carefully stood.

Kayla followed her into the
bedroom and gently laid Allie into the crib with Angie. She looked up and found
Bess staring at her intently.

“When are you due, Kayla?”

“What makes you think I’m
pregnant?”

“Those rosy cheeks and the look
in your eyes,” she said with a smile. “I can read it all over your face.”

“I don’t know, Bess. I haven’t
even been to the doctor yet. We’ve only been trying for a few months, but I’m
pretty sure I am,” she whispered excitedly.

“Oh sweetheart, that’s
wonderful,” Bess said and gave her a hug. “You let us know the minute you find
out. It’s been so nice to hear from you now and then.”

“I definitely will. However, I
think I’d best tell my husband first,” Kayla whispered with a giggle.

Art stuck his head in the
doorway. “Come on girls, we’re going to start a bonfire. We’ll roast hot dogs
and marshmallows.”

“Let’s go, honey. You’d better
get used to this roasting marshmallow thing. You may have to do this quite
often in the next twenty-some years.” A grin on their faces, they left the bedroom,
with their arms wrapped around each other’s waist.

Chapter
Twenty-six

Officer Hutchinson arrived and
sat down with them in the hospital waiting room. He’d gone over everything that
the police department knew, of the kidnapping and the details of the accident.
They didn’t know why Anya had taken Nicky and probably never would. She died on
impact.

When the doctor entered the room,
he pulled out a chair and turned it to face them, then sat and began to explain
Nicky’s condition. “Thrown from the vehicle had caused a bad break to his left
arm. We needed to take x-rays, run a CT scan and place a cast on his arm for a
multiple fraction from direct trauma. The CT scan was to make sure no other
bones had been broken that might not have shown up on the x-rays. We’d also
like him to stay here overnight, to keep a close watch on him, in case of emotional
shock following this stressful event. We’ll see how he’s doing in the morning.”

One of the nurses led Nick and
Mariah to a private room at the end of the hallway where they would wait for
him. Mariah looked around. It was pleasant, with Walt Disney pictures on the
walls, perfect decoration for the pediatric unit. Nick stood next to her at the
window, and together they enjoyed the view of Huntington Park, with trees,
grass and park benches located in the center and a sidewalk leading to a
playground. Children were riding their bicycles and skateboards on the biking
trail while their parents strolled along behind them.

Mariah turned toward the door
when they heard the soft click-click of a wheelchair. They knew it was Nicky
coming, and they quickly walked over to the doorway and glanced down the hall.
Mariah rushed to meet them, her arms outstretched toward her little boy.

“Hi Mommy,” Nicky said quietly.
He was groggy from the pain medication. Mariah held his head in her hands and
kissed his face.

“I missed you baby.”

“Let’s get him to his bed, Mrs.
Colburn. Then you can spend time with him where he’ll be a bit more
comfortable.”