Smolder (19 page)

Chapter Eighteen

I turned down my street and cop cars sat in my way. “Please don’t let it be my place.”

I wove around two cars. There was a huge police SUV with ‘K-9 unit’ on the side in my driveway. I gripped the steering wheel as I parked in the street. I didn’t want to get out of the car. If I stayed in it, they couldn’t tell me something happened to my brother. I managed to text Dmitri, asked him to come over. I informed him cop cars filled the streets, and I didn’t know why. He said he’d be there in a minute.

An officer I didn’t recognize walked up to my car and opened the door. “Dr. Quinn.”

“If you are going to tell me something happened to my brother, just shoot me,” I said.

He backed up a step.

“It’s okay. My boyfriend is a surgeon and should be here in time enough to sew up the holes.” I think I was delirious.

“Your brother is fine, Doctor.”

“Thank God,” I said. Tears flowed from my eyes. I lowered my head to the steering wheel.

“His girlfriend is missing,” he said.

“Missing?” I left my head on the steering wheel.

“Someone came by and kidnapped her.”

I went cold.

“The nephew?” I asked.

“We think so. His name is Vince, and the ransom note looks like the same writing we found on your wall the last time I was here.”

He helped me from the car. I wiped my face with a tissue. I had boxes of them everywhere. Josh was on the porch when I turned to go inside. I ran to him, and he caught me in a bear hug.

“I thought you were…” I couldn’t finish the thought or sentence.

“I’m fine. Nancy is missing, and the idiot thinks he has you.”

He didn’t sound as upset as I was.

“You almost sound okay with this.” I was shocked.

“We talked about my moving with you to Dmitri’s for a while. It’s not my style to walk away from a fight. For her, I would do it. She’s different from any woman I’ve dated, El. When I talk about things I know, she doesn’t look surprised that I can put a full thought together.” He sighed. “So when you stayed with Dmitri last night, and we heard Vince was missing, Nancy moved to your bed in case he came after you.”

“If she had stayed with you, he would’ve left without anyone,” I said. “This is crazy. She is with a copycat. They aren’t as skilled as the original. While Travis might be able to keep her alive long enough for us to find her, this kid could have already killed her by accident.”

The color on my brother’s face paled, and his expression soured. “I think she knew.”

“What?”

“She cried when she left the room last night. When I went to comfort her, she pushed me away and said she knew the risks when she took the job. You know, the same thing we all say when we do something really stupid for work.”

“Or love.” I held him tighter.

Arm in arm, we walked to the kitchen. My bedroom had yellow police tape over the door, and it was a mess. The bed sheets and covers were on the floor, and my dresser was empty with the clothes on the bare mattress.

“Good thing I came by to pack,” I said.

“I’m coming with you,” he said.

“You certainly are,” Dmitri said.

He pulled me out of the chair and wrapped me in his arms. “As soon as the police say we can leave, both of you need to pack everything you can get your hands on and put it in the truck.”

A man who knew how to take charge in the middle of chaos was just what I needed.

“He took Nancy,” Josh said. “He wanted Ellie.”

“She’s perfectly capable of beating his ass,” Dmitri said. “Isn’t she?”

“I don’t know why she didn’t do it before he got her out of here.”

“Then we trust she knew what she was doing, and her colleagues here to get her back alive. In the meantime, you two are living with me. I took tomorrow off work and got someone to cover my schedule. Honey, you may want to clear your schedule for Monday and Tuesday just in case, and call Lee and let her know she gets a long weekend.” He excused himself and went to my room to talk to the police.

“He knows how to take charge, and you didn’t tell him to stop it. Not once.” Josh was surprised.

“I didn’t hear anything to argue with,” I said.

“No need to get defensive. I’m with him as well. My room wasn’t torn apart so I’ll go pack a week or two worth of things into my car.” He smiled as the older policeman and Dmitri returned. “I’ll be outside when you are ready to go.”

Dmitri sat next to me holding my hand tight under the table. The officer looked exhausted. His eyes were red and swollen.

“Are you okay, sir?” I asked.

“She’s a dear friend and a great cop,” he offered. “Now, I suggest you get out of here as soon as we are done and go with Dmitri here. He has given us all of his contact information and the address for his house. We’re pretty sure Vince will hold Nancy for up to two days before he does any fatal damage.”

My stomach turned as I thought of the wounds on the inmate The Carver tortured. The things that she might have suffered last night flashed through my overactive imagination, and I gasped.

“She’s very strong and was prepared,” he explained. “We knew he would eventually try to kidnap you. Her presence here was partly for the company of your brother. The other part was to protect you when he did come.”

Guilt rose inside of me. My stomach started to ache, and I gripped Dmitri’s hand even harder.

“Did Josh know?” I asked.

“I think so. She knew if he took her, she might not come back alive. We’ve finished our investigation here and will lock the house up behind you. You should know he rerouted the security system to another address. He watched you every day. We’re looking for that location, and when we find it, we have him.”

Now, I wanted out of the house as fast as possible. Dmitri found a suitcase in my closet and held it open while I filled it. We filled up four boxes from my bedroom and bathroom. Next, we filled up three more with personal effects from the kitchen and den. I didn’t know when I would be back. After knowing he’d watched us, I wasn’t sure I wanted to return.

The boxes fit in the back of the truck. I put my suitcase in my car. Dmitri led us to his house and had alerted their security to expect us. In the driveway, I felt I could breathe. He parked his truck near the garage with us next to him.

Josh got out walking over to Dmitri. “If you need me to do anything for you like repairs, cooking, cleaning, anything. You let me know, and I’ll do it.” He looked around. “We owe you.”

Dmitri opened my door helping me out. I popped the trunk and grabbed my suitcase.

“Welcome to your new home, stay as long as you like.” He kissed me, and we went indoors.

Josh walked through the sunroom and den like a little girl in a fairy castle. He caught a glimpse of the kitchen, and he gaped. For a moment, he forgot about Nancy.

“Your sister mentioned you like to cook,” Dmitri said. He looked proud. “The fridge and walk-in cupboard are full. Help yourself.”

Josh’s expression changed. “I cooked for Nancy last night. I had thought about signing up for the police academy and asked her about it. She said one of us should be in a safe position and suggested I go to culinary school instead of the police academy.”

“And?” I didn’t want him to be a cop. The risks were too high.

“I agreed. She made me write it down to make it official.” He showed me the paper. Tears ran down his cheeks, and his hands shook as he held it. This was important to him. “I keep my word. Even if that bastard…”

Dmitri took my suitcase and left us. We walked to the sunroom and sat down. Josh cried as I held him. There were no words of comfort that I could come up with. No training modules have a section for a serial killer takes your brother’s girlfriend.

“Josh, I don’t know what to say.”

“Taking your place was her decision,” he said.

He wiped his face and straightened up. I knew he was vulnerable and caring, but he didn’t like anyone else to see that side of him.

Dmitri walked past us as he unloaded the boxes from the truck. “Ellie, you’re with me. Josh, you’re across the hall. Top of the stairs, first door on the right.”

“Thank you again, Dmitri.” Josh got up and helped with the last box.

“Holy mother of….” His voice trailed off as he went upstairs. “This place is huge.”

I laughed.

Dmitri sat down next to me and pulled me back against him. “Will he be okay?”

“I think so. He usually recovers from relationships fast, but this situation is so extraordinary.” I closed my eyes and lay with him as the day ebbed. “I’m so tired. My emotions are raw, and I can’t even try to comprehend what Nancy is going through.”

Just then, I remembered Dmitri was the one who sewed up the inmate.

“You know what he will do to her.” It came out harsher than I intended.

“The images of Travis's cell mate ran through my mind as soon as you told me to come over," he explained. “I have an idea, but this isn't Travis. The pattern will be different.”

I turned to look at him. “The what?”

“His style will be different. Each person has their own way of doing things. Even with surgeons. Our approach to a patient, the way we manage the operating room, the tools we prefer, the way we make our incisions. It’s very precise and exact.”

“This is a conversation I never thought I would have curled up with my boyfriend at his house.”

“I’m your boyfriend?” He laughed and kissed my head. “I like the sound of that.”

We heard Josh in the kitchen. He always cooked when something bothered him. Mom said she knew when Josh didn’t study well enough for a test because he cooked a larger dinner the night after he took it.

The smells that came from the kitchen were ones I recognized from the night my brother told my parents he wanted to be a professional wrestler. Mom said with the amount of food he cooked, she was sure he’d gotten a girl pregnant.

Josh called us when the food was ready, and we sat down at the large table. He made three seafood dishes: shrimp scampi, baked salmon, and stir-fried scallops. Bowls of steamed and lightly seasoned vegetables covered the table as we each filled a plate.

“Nancy has a point, Josh. You’re a superb cook,” Dmitri said.

The sadness that had my brother’s head down and his eyes averted lifted while he explained his whole process. The two of them talked recipes and spices the entire meal. By the time he pulled fresh banana bread out of the oven for dessert, I was so full I hurt.

“There’s no more room in here, Josh. I’ll save mine for breakfast.”

“We need to work off this food.” Dmitri and I eyed the pool for an hour before we changed to get in.

My one-piece suit was bright red and made for swimming laps, not impressing boys. I stopped counting after fifty. Moving through the water, I let my mind wander hoping the puzzle would be completed by the time I finished. It wasn’t until the last lap that the final pieces clicked into place. I had to check with the police to make sure I was right.

Wrapped in a towel, I walked to the gazebo and sat with Josh.

“She’s alive,” he said. “I have to be right about this.”

“You fall hard,” I said.

“Not like this. When I fall for women, it’s because they’re pretty, and I like playing with them,” he said.

That was honest.

He continued. “My last girlfriend showed me I could find an intelligent woman to play with. Nancy is different. Tougher than I am most of the time, she has vulnerable points, and I want to get to know her better.”

I looked at him. “That
is
new.”

He sighed. “Tell me about it. I asked her about her family and what she likes to do before I told her about all my wonderful attributes. That’s backwards for me.”

I smiled. “It’s a nice change.”

“So is your new man. A take-charge guy who doesn’t freak out when things get weird, and with you they do a lot. He’s stable, loves his kids, loves to cook, and is falling for you so fast I think it scares him.”

“We are falling together,” I said.

“Good. I’m going to go upstairs and unpack. I’ll call Dad and get him up to date before I crash. Did you know I can float in my bathtub? Me?”

“I love you, Josh.”

We went inside.

Chapter Nineteen

Upstairs, Dmitri stood next to his bed with my suitcase opened. He held a thong I got from a friend as a joke. It still had the tag on it.

“Can I help you?”

“How can women wear this?” he asked.

I smiled. “I don’t know; that is why the tag is still on it. I have a friend who swears by them. I told her it was ass-floss.”

We unpacked my boxes, and I put a picture of my family on the other bedside table. It was the last picture we took before Mom passed away.

“You don’t mention your mother,” he said.

“Lung cancer took her away. I still miss her trying to keep Josh, Dad, and I in line. An impossible task.”

“Your dad okay?” Dmitri asked.

“There’s a part of him missing now. She was the love of his life, and he’ll have moments, and occasionally, days that he still mourns her.” I smiled. “She was so naïve she didn’t know she was naïve.”

“You look like her because Josh is huge,” he said.

“I look like both my parents, and my brother is the image of my grandfather when he was young, only larger.”

We crawled under the covers and held each other close. Exhaustion helped me fall asleep so fast I woke up the same position. Dmitri was in the bathroom. I got up to see about Josh.

He was on the phone, with the door closed. I couldn’t understand what he was saying. Smelling fresh, Dmitri joined me as we stood on the landing and waited.

The door flew open, and Josh ran past us. “They found her tied to a raft in the marsh outside your house, Ellie. I’m headed to the hospital.”

“He doesn’t know the way,” I said and ran to the room for clothes.

“I’ll catch him. You get dressed and meet us at the truck.”

We all fit in the front seat of the truck with me sandwiched in the middle. I didn’t need to find a seat belt. I was wedged in there tight.

Josh was on the phone with the cop from yesterday as we drove. “They said she was dehydrated and lost a lot of blood,” he related to us. “She was unconscious, and they couldn’t get her to wake up.”

I grabbed his other hand and held on. “She’s alive. You were right.”

He smiled at me. “I like being right.” He hung up. “They found the place he had rigged to watch the house. He outfitted a small fishing hut the size of a tent with electronics and connected it to the security feed. Everything was still there, and it looks like he didn’t erase any of the data.”

“That place wouldn’t be large enough to hold your lady,” Dmitri said.

“It wasn’t. They didn’t see any sign that he brought her there, but they need her to survive so they can find him. And El, they took all of the equipment out, tore apart the cabin, and will delete all of the data they don’t need.”

We got to the hospital and walked in the back way. Today, we used the advantages of our badges to get close to the operating rooms. Josh and I stopped in the hallway while Dmitri scrubbed up and stepped inside.

Two of the surgery residents came outside and ran down the hall. We could hear them throwing up. Twenty minutes felt like hours as we paced back and forth. When the doors opened, it was Dmitri and another of the surgeons. They escorted us to a private room down the hall.

“You will want to sit down, sir,” the other surgeon said to Josh, who was jittery at that point.

He sat down, and I joined him. Dmitri stood behind the other surgeon and shook his head when I looked at him. This was not good. My stomach turned. When an experienced surgeon tells you it’s bad, it’s awful.

“I’m Dr. Evans, Dr. K’s partner. I want you to know we’re doing everything we can to save her. He removed her skin from both thighs and her back. She lost a lot of blood and will require repeated surgeries to repair the damage. That’s down the line. For now, we have to get her stable. Her body suffered severe trauma. Without her skin, her organs baked in the sun when she was out there, for what the police say may have been hours.”

I held my hand up for him to stop. If he had kept going, I was going to throw up, and I didn’t want to leave.

“Please let me breathe for a moment.” I stood up and stumbled to Dmitri. He held me tight while I tried to fight the nausea.

Dr. Evans pulled smelling salts from his pocket and handed them to me. It helped a little bit.

Josh was paler than I’d ever seen him. “Please continue.”

Tears streaked his face, his jaw clenched.

“That was about it. We’ll finish covering her wounds. We won’t know the extent of the sun damage until some of the swelling goes down. The next two days will give us better answers, and we can do this again on Monday when I’ll have more solid information. We’ll keep her unconscious for a while. She doesn’t need to remember this pain.” He stood up and left.

My knees gave out. I felt Dmitri’s arms close around me. I had pushed aside the fear so well, but it hit me all at once.

“That’s supposed to be me.” I collapsed into sobs.

The pain kept coming in wave after wave. Weeks of pushing the threats and fear aside, pretending everything was normal crashed down on me. Barely aware I was being held, my body started to shake. I felt so cold. My teeth chattered. I could hear Dmitri trying to talk to me but the words were muffled.

I woke up in his office, on his couch with him by my side. “What happened?”

“You went into shock,” he said.

“I was terrified. I still am, a lot.”

“Josh explained that you put your pain and fear away and try to deal with a little at a time so you can continue functioning.”

“This is the first time that’s failed,” I said.

“The situation did call for it. I would have crumbled a week ago.”

I sat up and held on to him for support. I still felt woozy. “I could feel it building up, but I’ve never had this happen before. Mom said I was the strong one. Over and over and over when I was a kid so I took anything that bothered me and pushed it aside until it either went away or I had time to deal with it.”

“You are the strongest woman I’ve ever met. And I’m Russian.” He was serious.

“Where’s Josh?” I asked. Accepting compliments made me uncomfortable.

“With Nancy, in intensive care. Ellie, I don’t think she is going to make it. As strong as she was physically, the damage was too intense. If they found her thirty minutes later, she’d be dead,” he said.

“Are you going to revive her before she dies?” I asked. “Give her time to say goodbye, or would that speed up the process too much?”

“I’ll talk to Dr. Evans. Let’s give her until Monday to fight this and see her progress then.” He was so gentle.

I nodded holding tight. With the world around me more dangerous than any other time I could remember, I felt safer wrapped in his arms. His ability to remain calm gave me strength. I called Dad and filled him in. He offered to come down. I told him with the guy on the loose; I’d feel better if he stayed in Atlanta. He agreed as long as we called when it was safe.

Josh sat at her bedside with her hand in his. The last time I’d seen him this way was when Mom died.

“Josh.”

“I know, Ellie. She’s barely here, and the damage is too severe,” he said. Then he got up and walked over to me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it was a small breakdown.” I tried to play it off.

“That wasn’t small,” he said, and kissed my head.

“How are you holding up?” I asked.

“Better than I look. She prepared me for this possibility. That part of her job meant there was always a day when she might not come back. Her whole dating philosophy matched what mine used to be. Fall hard and fast and then walk away clean.” He looked back her. “Her captain came by a few minutes ago with a letter she wrote last week. She said goodbye just in case she didn’t get to say it in person.” He rushed through the words trying to beat the pain overflowing his heart.

“Closure is a good thing.” If this happened two years later, he’d be a puddle on the floor. A new relationship takes time to wind its way around your heart. Josh fell for her, but not so far that her possible death would rip him apart. There was a place in the back of my mind where I was furious I had to have that thought.

“Yes, Doctor. It is.”

We stepped outside of the room.

Josh said the same thing Dmitri did about her staying out until Monday. He then suggested we get back to the house and stay safe ourselves, since this guy was still out there.

“I agree with you,” I said. “Now, where did that idea really come from?”

“The captain. He said as long as this guy was free, you weren’t safe and by extension, neither of us,” he gestured to Dmitri, “is either. They found a note from Vince in her clothes, written on a restaurant napkin. It said to tell you he’s going to keep killing until his uncle is freed from jail.”

“Knowing that will never happen,” I said.

As we walked back to the truck Josh asked, “Does psychopathic, psychosis, whatever…does crazy run in families?”

“Mental health disorders do run in families,” I said. Which always made my job harder, parents felt immensely guilty when diseases they fought to overcome took a hold of their children.

We were back in my mental safe space. Analytical and objective thinking allowed me to push the emotional overload into the now empty trunk, metaphorically. Josh was quiet on the ride. This hit him hard, and the casual attempt at dismissal earlier was more for my sake than the truth. My ability to compartmentalize my feelings and handle them as I had time was not a skill my brother inherited.

Even Dmitri didn’t smile on the way. The images he saw in that operating theatre could not have been easy to witness. I know this kid was a poor substitute for his uncle. It didn’t mean that he wasn’t a brutal killer who tortured a healthy, strong, policewoman to the brink of death.