Take the Key and Lock Her Up (33 page)

Eyeing Tuck and Drier, still a short distance away, he asked, “What did your boss
and Tuck say when they saw you?”

“Do you want a local for the pain?” the EMT asked.

Devlin nodded. The throbbing in his leg was making it difficult to focus, and he needed
to be on his guard in case Ace was still around. While the EMT retrieved the supplies
he would need, Emily leaned toward him.

“It was a bit awkward,” she said, in a low voice. “Apparently, the night I left my
house, I called human resources to take a leave of absence to care for a sick friend
in Florida. Naturally, my boss was upset I hadn’t spoken to him about it. And he wanted
to know why I’m not in Florida right now. I told him my friend ended up having someone
else help her and I was going to come back to the office in a few days once I’m sure
my friend doesn’t need anything else from me. Not sure he believed me. He wanted to
know why I’m here with you. I told him you’d finally agreed to let me interview you
about the shooting outside the diner. Now
that
he was happy to hear. He’s really ticked that you never went to the police station
to give an official statement. And now, with the fire, he’s having a hard time getting
past your apparent run of bad luck. I can’t blame him for being suspicious. You’d
better be really careful or he’ll figure out an excuse to haul you in for questioning.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

She gave him a sympathetic look.

“What?” he demanded.

“I asked Drier about Nancy, told him I’d heard about a murder over the radio. He said
Nancy flew to Savannah about a week ago but phoned to tell her brother she was visiting
with a girlfriend and wouldn’t see him for another week or so. From her injuries,
it looks like she may have been one of the missing women Hawley mentioned.”

Devlin stiffened. “Then she never went home? Never saw Gage?”

She shook her head and straightened as Drier and Tuck reached the back of the ambulance.

Devlin was still trying to digest the information Emily had given him and what it
might mean, but, unfortunately, he still had to deal with the two cops in front of
him.

“Mr. Buchanan,” Drier said, “bad things seem to happen wherever you go . . . dead
women in basements, shoot-outs in alleys, and now a suspicious fire.”

“Is there a point in there somewhere, Lieutenant?”

“My point is that I’d like you to come downtown to answer some questions.”

Before Devlin could tell him what he thought of that request, the EMT stepped to the
end of the ambulance. “These burns should really be checked out at the hospital, sir.”

Going to the hospital hadn’t been in Devlin’s plans, but if it kept him from being
placed in the back of a patrol car, he’d welcome the chance.

“I’m going with him.” Emily moved to the gurney beside Devlin as if to protect him
somehow.

The EMT looked like he was about to complain, but Devlin gave him his best deadly
stare and the EMT turned away. He pulled one of the doors closed and was reaching
for the other when Drier grabbed it.

“Detective Tucker will go with you,” Drier said.

Tuck gave Devlin a smug look and hopped into the back of the ambulance.

The EMT grumbled under his breath but didn’t argue. He closed the second door and
rapped on the roof. “Let’s go, Rick.”

The ambulance took off and was soon heading down the two-lane rural highway toward
town.

When Tuck tried to question him about the case, Devlin ignored him and stared out
the back window. He’d leave it to Emily to placate her fellow detective. Devlin had
other things to worry about right now.

Like why a car had just pulled out onto the road a hundred yards behind the ambulance,
when the only person who lived on this stretch of highway was Alex.

Chapter Twenty

D
EVLIN KEPT AN
eye on the road behind them, watching for the Ford Mustang he’d seen just minutes
before when they’d gone around one of the many curves. The trees were pressing in
close now, which made it even harder to catch a glimpse of the car he was almost certain
was following them.

Beside him, Emily was fending off Tuck’s questions about where she’d been and why
she hadn’t told him she was taking a leave. Devlin wished he could help her out, but
anything he said would probably make it worse.

“And what happened to your arms?” Tuck demanded. He grabbed her right hand and pulled
her arm out straight. “Looks like a glass window exploded all over you. And before
you lie about that, like everything else, remember you’ll need to come up with a story
to explain what looks like freaking homemade stitches on the top of your head. What’s
going on?”

As soon as Tuck mentioned the stitches, the EMT took charge. He forced Tuck to move
over so he could examine her. Based on Emily’s curses, Devlin imagined she would rather
have put up with Tuck’s questions than the tetanus shot the EMT insisted on giving
her.

The Mustang suddenly came into view again, rounding a curve about fifteen car lengths
back. Too far away for Devlin to see if Ace was driving, or how many were in the car.
He waited until Emily looked his way before flicking his glance toward the road. Her
eyes widened in understanding when she saw the Mustang, but she quickly turned back
to answer another question from Tuck, playing it cool.

“How much longer until we get to the hospital?” Devlin asked the EMT. They were running
without lights or sirens on since no one inside was critical.

“Probably twenty minutes. It’s a pretty long trek to town from out here.”

Twenty minutes.
That was a lifetime in which anything could happen if Ace was in that Mustang.

Emily flashed him a worried look.

Tuck frowned and glanced back and forth between the two of them. “Is something going
on here that I should know about?”

“Of course not,” Emily said. “Tell me about the case. Do you have any suspects yet?
Any idea where the last missing woman is being held?”

He didn’t look convinced by her most recent lie, but he sighed and leaned back against
the ambulance wall, looking as if he’d given up trying to get her to level with him.

“We’ve had some additional developments just this morning. In addition to the vic,
Nancy Thomas, I already told you about, there was an anonymous 911 call reporting
a man had been shot in the woods outside of town. The vic’s name was Brad Robinson,
an ex-con who got out on parole over a year ago. Turns out there were three other
ex-cons found nearby, and they’d all been killed. I spoke to Robinson before he went
into surgery, but he was tight-lipped about the whole thing. Insisted it was an accident,
that some hunter had mistaken him for a deer.” Tuck gave a bitter laugh. “Right. A
hunter shot him in the groin, twice.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why he’s lying.
He won’t even admit he knew the other men were in the woods, even though all four
of them were in the same prison together.”

Devlin focused on the road behind them but filed that information away.

“All four knew one other?” Emily said, obviously trying to encourage Tuck to keep
talking.

“Definitely. They were childhood friends, held up a convenience store together, and
all got sentenced the same and ended up in the same prison, same cell block. Robinson
had additional crimes, including rape, but he made a deal which made him eligible
for early release. Since they were all paroled within a few weeks of each other, it’s
possible they decided to work together on the outside to plan more crimes, probably
to start robbing again. Drier thinks there must have been a fifth man, the one calling
the shots for whatever they had planned. But something went wrong and he turned on
them.”

“I’m not sure what this has to do with the abductions and murders.”

“We identified the man Buchanan killed, Hawley’s abductor, just last night. There
was a mix-up earlier. Someone marked his prints as having been run, but they hadn’t.
Anyway, once we ran them, we found out he was an ex-con. Lo and behold, he was one
of Robinson’s former cell mates, also on parole. Which obviously makes us think Robinson
is crucial to this case. If we can find out who hired him, we’ll find our killer.
We’re close, Emily. Real close.”

“Everybody hold on!” Devlin yelled.

He lunged for Emily just as the ambulance swerved toward the side of the road.

W
HEN THE AMBULANCE
finally shuddered to a halt on the shoulder of the road, Tuck and the EMT were on
the floor. Emily would have fallen too, but Devlin had grabbed her and braced her
against the wall right before the ambulance had stopped.

He threw the doors open, scooped her in his arms, and hopped down to the pavement.

“Hold it.” Tuck drew his gun as he climbed to his feet. “Put her down, Buchanan. I
don’t trust you and I’m not letting you take Detective O’Malley wherever you’re trying
to go. What just happened? And how did you know it was going to happen
before
it did?”

The EMT pounded on the closed, frosted window between the back of the ambulance and
the cab. “Rick, what’s going on? Why did we stop? Did we have a blowout?”

Devlin quickly set Emily on her feet and pushed her away from him. Then, with lightning
speed, he pulled the same trick on Tuck that he’d pulled on Emily in the past. He
knocked his arm up and wrenched the gun away in one smooth movement, leaving Tuck
standing with his arm in the air and a stunned look on his face.

“Get down,” Devlin yelled. “Everyone down.” He pushed Emily beneath the raised rear
bumper of the ambulance and ran around toward the driver’s side of the vehicle, holding
Tuck’s pistol. Seconds later, he ran back and pulled Emily to her feet.

“What are you doing, Buchanan?” Tuck demanded.

Devlin ignored Tuck and addressed the EMT beside him. “The other EMT—”

“Rick.”

“He’s not the one who was driving. The EMT, Rick, is on the passenger floorboard.
Dead. Has been for a while. Whoever was driving must have jumped out as soon as he
stopped the ambulance. The door was standing wide open.”

Tuck swore. The EMT stood frozen in shock.

“Give me my gun, Buchanan. Everyone take cover inside the ambulance while I call this
in.”

Devlin ignored him. “Emily, there was a car—”

“—following us, a black Mustang.”

“It pulled off the highway right before the ambulance stopped,” Devlin said. “I think
it was a signal. That car can’t be more than fifty yards behind us, around the curve.
You’re a sitting duck out here. Get off the road behind some trees and wait there.
I’ll find you.” He motioned to Tuck and the EMT. “All of you get away from the ambulance.
Take cover behind a tree.”

Emily took off running toward the nearest thick oak, twenty feet off the road.

“Emily, wait!” Tuck yelled after her.

She reached the first tree and looked over her shoulder to see Devlin sprinting into
the trees behind her, running back toward the curve where he’d last seen the Mustang.
Tuck and the EMT must have decided Devlin was right because they both took off toward
Emily.

The three of them ran into the woods and ducked down behind a grove of trees.

The EMT’s face was white and he looked like he might pass out any minute.

Tuck glared at Emily. “What are you and Buchanan mixed up in?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He gritted his teeth and grabbed his phone. He called the dispatcher and reported
what had happened, giving the distress signal for “officer needs assistance.”

It would take fifteen minutes, minimum, to get a patrol car out this far. By then,
they could all be dead. Emily’s nails tightened around the bark of the tree. What
was happening? Things were way too quiet.

Bam, bam . . . bam, bam, bam
! Gunshots rang out from somewhere in the woods.

Emily threw herself on the EMT and shoved him to the ground, covering him with her
body.

Tuck dove down beside her, glaring at her as if she were the one who was firing.

Another round of shots rang out, then nothing.

Seconds felt like minutes. How long had it been since the last shot? Where was Devlin?
Emily counted to thirty before rolling off the EMT and jumping to her feet.

“What are you doing?” Tuck grabbed her leg. “Stay here. Wait for backup.”

She shook his hand off her. “Yeah, I’m not real good about waiting for backup.” She
took off running toward the road, realizing this was probably another one of those
bad choices she tended to make under pressure. But she also knew that she wouldn’t
be able to live with herself if she hid like a coward and did nothing when Devlin
might be hurt or trapped and needed help.

When she reached the edge of the trees, she crouched down and cautiously looked out.
The ambulance sat on the side of the road with the engine still running. Everything
else was eerily silent, deserted.

The sound of an engine revving up had her looking down the road. The car that had
been following them earlier, the black Mustang, raced up the road and pulled to a
sliding stop behind the ambulance. The driver’s door popped open and Devlin hopped
out.

Emily didn’t hesitate. She ran from the cover of trees toward the car.

Devlin ducked back inside and threw the passenger door open for her. She jumped in
and closed the door just as Tuck reached the same tree where she’d been standing moments
ago. He stood with his hands on his hips as Devlin pulled out onto the road and floored
the accelerator.

“I think you might have ruined your chances at getting your old job back,” Devlin
said.

“Yeah, well, I think I’m probably not cut out for this police stuff anyway. Mom was
right all along. I should go back to school and become a doctor.”

“Your mom was right all along?”

“My entire family is in the medical field except for me . . . well, and one of my
sisters, but she volunteers everywhere, so I count her too. My dad is a doctor. Mom’s
a nurse. The rest are an EMT, another doctor, and a physical therapist. I am the biggest
disappointment in my mother’s life, the bane of her existence. Somehow, even though
I’m a cop, I’m the black sheep of the family.”