Midnight Sacrifice (35 page)

His head whipped up. Mandy wouldn’t look at him or Jed. Her jaw jutted forward. Her lack of expression warned him that she’d mentally gone somewhere without emotion. A place where a person functioned on autopilot to get the job done. A place where there was no room for feelings or the reactions they induced. He knew because he’d been there.

And with the evidence that she’d been lying to him right in his face, he was thinking about paying that special place a visit.

Mandy snatched the photos from him, stuffed them back into the envelopes, and stomped back to the kitchen. She tossed them on the map and weighed them down with the camera.

Guess she had no reason to lie anymore. Nathan had taken Bill. She had no one to protect. In fact, she was probably blaming herself right now. Hindsight was a relentless bitch.

Mandy picked up her pack. Rifle in hand, she went out the back door. Jed shook himself like one of his retrievers and started after her. Guess he could fake it as well. The dog trotted after them.

Danny grabbed his pack and joined Mandy and Jed in the truck. He and the dog shared the backseat. How could she have lied to him all this time? Her deception burned through his gut. No woman had ever sparked such a deep response from him. Was she lying about anything else? Had everything between them
been an act? How could he ever trust her again? Danny squeezed his eyes shut and banged a fist on his thigh. Now wasn’t the time. Even though Mandy had betrayed him, people were missing. Poor Bill was out there somewhere, alone and scared. The betrayal that hung between him and Mandy would have to wait. Iraq had taught him to compartmentalize with the best of them.

His phone buzzed.

Conor. “I’m on my way there. What’s going on?”

Danny filled him in. There was no one he’d rather have his back than Conor. “We’re headed to Lake Walker.”

“Don’t waste any time, Danny. Whatever is going down is happening tonight.”

“What did you find out? And say it fast. I only have one bar of cell reception, and we’re headed out of town.”

“Have you ever heard of Beltane?”

The duck boat slid into the glassy water of Lake Walker. Mandy held the bow line as Jed drove the truck and trailer away from the lake and parked. They piled into the bobbing craft. The dog claimed the bow, sticking her nose in the air and sniffing the air. Mandy sat up front with Honey.

“We’ll start where you found the camera.” Jed started the motor and followed the shoreline. “We’re about a half hour from the end of the trail the girls were hiking.”

Mandy hadn’t spoken in the hour since they’d left the inn. Danny and Jed had conferred on the search, but no one had mentioned her big revelation. Waves of anger and hurt wafted from both men, but Mandy shut them down. Every ounce of energy inside her was reserved for keeping her head on straight so she could find her brother.

Keeping panic at bay was her full-time occupation. She had nothing left to give.

She checked her watch. According to Danny’s brother, whatever Nathan was planning would happen tonight.

Bill was afraid of the dark.

It took another thirty precious minutes to motor over to the North River Trail exit. Jed tilted the motor, and they dragged the bow onto the shore and tied it to a tree. Honey leaped out. Whining, she ran up and down the weedy shoreline.

“She smells something she doesn’t like,” Jed said.

The dog darted up the slope toward the trees.

“So do I.” With a worried frown, Danny started after the retriever. Mandy and Jed fanned out twenty yards on each side of him.

Over the organic smells of soil and pine, a cloying scent lingered. Mandy stepped into the forest and walked past the little yellow ribbon that indicated the camera’s original position. The buzz of insects drew her deeper into the woods. Her steps were quiet on the bed of wet pine needles underfoot. Both the smell and the buzzing intensified.

Flies. There were too many flies.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Something scuffled outside the barn. Kevin startled from a doze. The double doors across from his cage slid open. He squinted against the bright light until his eyes adjusted. A dry, clean breeze swept through the barn. Kevin got his first good look outside in days. The barnyard was a large cleared square the size of an infield, made up of mostly dirt and weeds. Beyond it, a meadow rolled out for about a hundred yards before the forest took over.

Kevin focused on the barnyard. A thick pole about six feet high had been erected in the far end of the clearing. Were those ropes encircling it? Goose flesh rippled up Kevin’s arms.

He glanced at Hunter. His son was sitting next to him, cross-legged, watching the blond man with the sunken, glazed-over eyes of a wild animal in a cage. Kevin reached for his son’s shoulders, drawing him closer to lean against Kevin’s chest. He wrapped his arms around him. A shudder passed through Hunter’s frail frame. Malnourished, sedated, overwhelmed by shock and fear, the boy was shutting down.

There wasn’t a damned thing Kevin could do about it. Impotence and rage flooded him, almost but not quite obliterating the terror hammered into his bones. He was also helpless to save his son from whatever their crazed captor was planning.

Fuzziness invaded him again. He closed his eyes. Visions stampeded into his head. No! He wrenched his eyelids up. The nightmares that came during his drugged sleep were of the
Saw
and
Silence of the Lambs
variety.

He reached for the wooden post behind him and fingered the notches he’d gouged in the wood with a fingernail, one for each night he was aware they’d passed in the barn. Four. They’d been imprisoned for at least four days and nights. Movement above him reminded him they were no longer alone. A slim hand reached down through the bars next to his shoulder. Kevin grabbed it and squeezed in silent support.

The blond man walked into the barn. He glanced at Kevin with eyes that were glassy, nearly opaque, blinking away without change in expression, as if he didn’t recognize him as human. Nobody was home. Kevin’s empty stomach heaved. His captor was beyond crazy.

He approached an old black steamer trunk. He lifted the lid and removed a shiny metal object, oval in shape and discolored with age. A shield? What on earth…? Their captor carried it outside, where it gleamed dull bronze. He set it in the center of the barnyard, then returned and repeated the process with several wooden boxes. He opened one. It was full of small pieces of metal, coins perhaps, like a pirate’s treasure chest.

What did he do, rob a museum?

The truth dawned brighter than the sun outside.

My God.
He was building a shrine.

A sliver of bright yellow nestled amid the brown and green weeds a few yards ahead. Mandy turned toward it, but her strides slowed. A hand stuck out from under a pile of leaves and debris.

“Oh, no.” She couldn’t stop her body from moving closer, from squatting down, from lifting the branch and revealing Ashley’s dead face. A fly landed on a milky white eye. Mandy
flew backward, crashing into a tree trunk. Pain shot through her back. Oddly, its sharp bite steadied her.

Danny reached her first. He leaned over the body.

“Any idea how she died?” Jed held the agitated dog at a distance.

“Nothing obvious.” Danny shook his head. “I don’t see any blood or rips in her clothing. Her throat doesn’t look bruised. Could be a wound on her other side, but I’m not touching her.”

Mandy knew evidence, not lack of compassion, prompted Danny’s declaration.

“I’ll radio it in.” Jed reached for the walkie-talkie in his pocket. He didn’t need to say that they’d be moving on. There was nothing they could do for Ashley. “We’ll mark the location.”

Mandy straightened her wobbly knees and pressed on. They combed the surrounding area but found no sign of the other two girls. Every time Ashley’s gray, mottled face popped into Mandy’s head, she superimposed an image of her brother in its place. She’d mourn the poor girl after she found Bill.

Riding on a wave of numbness, Mandy climbed back into the boat. Danny settled in the middle. They didn’t talk or make eye contact. An almost tangible wall of deceit had risen between them. His anger at her couldn’t be greater than her own humiliation. She deserved every ounce of disgust. Being lonely was no excuse for letting Nathan manipulate her.

Jed started the engine. “Should we head north or south?”

Mandy glanced at her watch and scanned the shoreline. Four hours till dark. This decision could mean life or death for Bill and the others. It weighed on her soul like a lead mantle.
Where are you, Bill?

She closed her eyes for a second and sent out a silent prayer that she wasn’t condemning her brother to death. “North. He’ll
want seclusion. There are too many rental cabins at the south end. The northern terrain isn’t as friendly.”

The boat chugged through the smooth water. Mandy scanned the shoreline, looking for disturbances in the marshy reeds and thick green vegetation that edged the lake. Shadows lengthened as the sun moved across the sky.

She spotted an area of crushed reeds. “There.”

Jed nosed the boat closer. “Shallow water. We’ll have to switch to oars.”

The engine cut off. Jed tilted the propeller out of the water. Danny started rowing.

The cloying odor of decomposition hit Mandy’s nose like a blow. “No.” The word slipped out as a whispered plea.

She covered her mouth with a hand. Her eyes watered, and her gaze searched the water for the source with frantic fervor. The boat slid into the reeds. Tall stalks surrounded the boat, the hull cleaving and crushing the plants in its path the way panic trod on Mandy’s heart.

Thud.

The boat struck something.

Mandy froze. Whatever they’d hit was right below her. She leaned forward, her next breath locked deep in her lungs. She forced her eyes down.

The partially rotted carcass of a deer lay in the shallow water. Not Bill. Not another young girl. Just a deer.

Lights speckled her vision. A hand pushed her head between her knees.

“Breathe,” Danny said.

She did. Air flooded her lungs. The rush of blood faded from her ears. She lifted her head.

“Let’s keep going.” Jed nodded toward the oars.

Danny took his seat. His eyes focused on Mandy for a second, then moved away.

She resumed her seat in the bow. Danny rowed them out of the reeds. Jed lowered the motor and started it up. The boat resumed its cruise up the shoreline.

Mandy fixed her attention back on the water’s edge. The sun dropped toward the treetops. She checked her watch. Two hours till twilight.

Honey licked her face, and Mandy wrapped an arm around the dog’s neck.

Find Bill.