Pursuit (16 page)

The buzz of a helicopter swept over the crowded street. From the porch, Julie watched the couple disappear down Tranquil Pines Way. The hum of activity surrounding the house at the end of the street gave lie to its rustic name.

“I realize I'm probably more a hindrance than help, but I just can't leave.” She tried to show restraint. “She's my baby. I've gotta find her.” She looked around. “Would you allow Devlin and me to take a look in back?”

“What do you mean? The woods? We've got the chopper and the dogs. Come on, Worth, you know better. Go home, wait for my call. That's an order.” Walker held a stern look but then melted. “Damn, what a mess,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulders and walking her off the porch.

“Devlin, take care of your partner. She wants to explore the woods out back. Think it's better to wait til daybreak so we can see, for Christ's sake.”

The hounds from the K-9 unit raised hell in the playground area up the street.

“You have flashlights, Devlin? Radios, first aid?”

“We're prepared.”

“Take care of her.” Walker glanced down the street in the direction of the barking. “Too damn wet for those dogs to pick up a scent. Shit.” He gave a resigned gesture toward the woods. “Officially, you're off this abduction, Sergeant. I don't mean to be a hard-ass but gotta say it. I'll be assisting the locals on this while you—” He hesitated.
“While you make your way home. If Devlin leads you on a detour that has to do with that cold case, then that's on him.” He made his way back toward the house.

“So if I got this right,” Todd said, “we're cleared to look into past transgressions? Let's go, Sarge.”

Julie brushed her elbow against her handgun before walking to the corner of the house.

“I'll get you a coat. I've got an extra one in my car.”

“My daughter was in short sleeves, I'll be fine. And yes, we are cleared.”

Halfway across the wide expanse of tended lawn, from her right, she noticed someone with a flashlight looking at the location where she and Walker had discovered footprints. The beam moved across the lawn and came to rest on her face. Julie shielded her eyes.

“Who is it?” Todd asked.

“I spoke to the lady earlier in the street. I'm part of the home patrol.”

Julie waved her arms. “Get that fucking light out of my eyes.”

“Oh, sorry. I guess with all the excitement, I've lost my manners.”

Todd walked toward the man. “What are you doing out here? Do you realize this is a crime scene? You could be destroying evidence.”

The man pulled himself upright. “I have a right as part of the community to—”

“Get your donkey ass back on the street, or I'll get the locals to lock your inquiring butt in one of the squad cars for as long as we need to, got it?”

“Well . . .” He hesitated, almost stomping his foot, but then headed for the street.

Julie turned north toward the dark silhouette of the
woods. In the beginnings of the tall pines, the slash had been cleared, their flashlight beams bouncing off the vertical tall timber. They trekked in silence, Julie now off to the left of Todd. The undergrowth thickened, slowing their progress. In the distance, the chopper, its light source scanning the lawns behind them close to the house. Moving over the heavy wooded area, the beam swept the forest through the rain and tangled crisscross of shadows.

They hiked on, Julie's light attempting to cover every inch of the location. She searched every ditch and behind each tree, her calls to Cheryl and Billie dampened by the wet forest. Julie heard Todd breaking his way through the undergrowth, coming toward her.

“Sarge, what do you think, should we turn back?”

“I'm going to push on; you do whatever you want.” She panned her flashlight through a 180-degree arc in front of her.

“Sorry, just thought we might be doing something more useful back at the house or headquarters.”

“Yeah, I know. I just have to keep moving; feel like I'm doing something.” She traversed left and right some twenty yards and then maneuvered forward. “Cheryl! Billie!” She knew the chance was slim of them being left in the woods. After ten minutes, they reached a road, with nothing in sight except a dim light a hundred yards to their left.

Julie rubbed her eyes. “Let's walk this way a bit and then turn back; make another sweep.”

“This time let's stay closer. I'm worried about you.” Todd followed her down the country way. He sprayed his light on both sides of the muddy dirt road. After fifty yards, Julie, without a word, dove back into the woodland,
Todd keeping a safe distance to her left side. They hadn't been but a couple minutes when Julie called out.

“Devlin, get on the horn! We need an ambulance!”

Todd radioed for Walker and backup. He moved toward Julie's direction and came upon her crouched over a partially hooded figure on the ground.

“It's Billie!” She tucked her flashlight under her chin and put her hand to her friend's neck. “I can't find a pulse.” She ripped the hood the rest of the way from Billie's head. “She's got something in her mouth.” Julie pried the cloth muffler from between Billie's teeth and then with her fingers cleared her passageway. She turned her friend's body with Todd's help and applied rapid pressure on her chest.

“I think she's gone.” He played his flashlight on the woman's face. “Probably choked on her own vomit.”

Julie continued compression on Billie's chest, screaming at her friend. “Billie, goddamn it, breathe! Breathe!” She applied full weight. “Jesus, kid. Please, take a breath!” She heard Todd say, from somewhere, that the EMTs had arrived.

“Let her go now, Sergeant. Let her go.” He rested his hand on Julie's shoulder.

She crawled away on the soggy earth, her hands and knees buried in the mud.

The traffic lights on the drive home seemed rigged. Double for the time while waiting at red, and half the time for green. Everything a conspiracy. She had nothing to do but worry.

Julie once again went through the multitude of arrested bad boys who had sworn revenge. None seemed capable of anything more complicated than tying his shoes. Orchestrating an abduction of two women in the middle
of a thriving community like Thousand Pines was beyond them.

Walker instructed Todd to follow her home. She saw him in her mirror.

He had been sweet as he led her to her car. “I want you to know that whatever it takes, I'm there for you, understand? We will find Cheryl, I promise you.” He squeezed her arm and then embraced her.

Traffic was thin at this hour. A loud, oversized pickup truck with spinning hubcaps and drunk young men pulled up next to her at a light. A bearded guy with muscular, tattooed arms and wearing a black wifebeater leaned out of his passenger-side window. “Excuse me. I need directions.”

Julie glanced at him.

“Could you tell me the way to get into your pants?”

She raised her window and waited for the annoying rigged light. The wiseass had gotten out of his car and was doing a suggestive dance next to her door, arms gyrating above his head, hips pumping. His buddies were clapping in unison as he rubbed his pelvis against her left side fender. She saw only a blur as Todd, coming from behind her car, drove his shoulder into the guy and took him to the ground. He applied an arm bar and wrenched it up in back of his shoulder blade, all the while shouting, “Stop resisting!” The other badasses, including the driver, piled out of the red truck and surrounded the two men on the pavement.

Julie wondered when this day would end as she put her car in park, pulled out her Sig, and climbed into the street. “Don't anyone move, got it? And I mean anyone! I'm with State Patrol. No smart-ass talk, just shut the fuck up! Todd, you okay?”

Todd came off the ground with the tattooed guy in cuffs. “You're going to jail, fella.”

“What charge, tough guy?”

“Violation of probation!” This shouted phrase came from behind Julie's car.

A uniformed local policeman Julie had seen at the Thousand Pines house hustled up to the fracas. His squad car's blinking lights vibrated the night sky.

“William ‘Junior' Gaddis, all-around disturber of the peace, general nuisance, and recent graduate of our modernized state facility of incarceration. Say good-bye, Junior.”

The officer locked him behind the cage in his patrol car, and then came back to Julie with the cuffs. “I'm aware of what you're going through, Sergeant; sorry about Junior. I'll write it up in a way to keep you out of it. This guy with you?”

“Yeah, he's also a trooper.” Julie handed Todd his cuffs. “Works with me. Just seeing that I get home okay. Thanks, Officer.”

The patrolman raised his fingers to his brow in a polite salute and went back to his car. On the way, he signaled the driver of the muscle truck to take off. The late nighters trundled through the intersection with a couple loud, protesting engine revs and then drove off into the deserted night.

Julie pulled to the side of the road and went back to Todd, who was clipping his cuffs back on his belt. “What you got there, partner, a dinged elbow?”

“No, no. I'm fine.” He shook out his arm. “My pleasure, believe me.”

They contemplated each other.

“Why don't you head on home, Mr. Jiujitsu? I'll be okay.”

“Not a chance in hell. No way, zip, zero, zilch, nada.”

Julie nodded, got back in her car and headed toward the highway. She had never seen Todd in any real takedown
situations. There would be the occasional undisciplined lout at a warrant serving or a citizen who wanted to express his rights in a confrontational manner, but nothing like the beatdown of the dancing Junior Gaddis.

The incident served to distract her for a few minutes, but now she was back to reality. Her daughter was missing, her dear friend dead.

At the house, Todd insisted that he was spending the rest of the night. “In my vehicle, on the porch, up a tree, I'm here, Sarge.” He smiled and bowed politely. “Get used to it.”

“I don't think this prick will contact me tonight. Go on home. I'll be okay.”

Todd folded his arms over his chest.

“Okay,” she sighed. “I've got a couch; you can use the bathroom off the kitchen.”

She pulled a pillow and blanket from the hall closet and placed them on the couch. “Good night and thank you, pard.”

Julie passed by Cheryl's darkened room. She wanted to peek in her room, sleep in her bed, but she only pushed open the door a few inches to let in the hall light.

In her own bedroom, Julie slipped out of her slacks and blouse and put on an old flannel bathrobe. She propped herself up against the filigreed metal headboard, knowing that sleep would be an impossibility. She reviewed the outlandish group of events in the previous weeks. The mall, the truck incident, her hospital stay. Cheryl having to be with her friend Billie, and the guy Phillips—she was sure that wasn't his name. On top of it all, being accosted by the four tough guys at the stoplight.

She allowed herself to think of Todd. It was impressive to watch him in action. She knew that he had been a
Special Forces guy—or maybe it was recon or Navy SEAL. She got them confused. But she was embarrassed to admit that she'd always thought of him as a gentle soul.

The moon was at an angle to the west, veiled by a thin grey cloud. The light dimmed. She fought her heavy eyelids and recalled the delighted squeak of joy from that little girl swinging by her knees in the backyard.