Chapter Twelve #2
If only she could believe that, Josie thought as she thanked him and disconnected. The Grass Range turnoff was ahead.
* * *
Esther lived in a senior apartment complex.
The smell of boiled cabbage this early in the morning made Josie wrinkle her nose.
According to the mailboxes and directory by the entrance, Esther’s apartment was on the fourth floor.
Josie only half-heartedly considered the small elevator, before taking the stairs.
She could hear the sounds of radios and televisions turned up too loudly as she made her way down the hallway to the last apartment. She thought she heard voices and what sounded like a woman and a man talking as she knocked on the door. The voices inside the apartment silenced.
When no one answered the door, Josie knocked again. She heard the slow thud of footfalls inside a moment before a harried-looking gray-haired woman opened the door.
Josie couldn’t recall the last time she’d seen Esther.
She remembered her as being a large, stocky woman with a stern, unyielding disposition and a permanent frown.
Esther had aged, gotten a little heavier, and if anything, her frown had gotten deeper.
She’d never looked like a happy woman, but now her expression was as sour as if she’d just bitten into a lemon on her way to the door.
For a moment, Josie thought Esther didn’t recognize her. But then the woman laughed and said, “What are you doing here? I was just talking to a friend about you.”
That didn’t sound good. “I can’t imagine why my name would come up.”
Esther only laughed again as she stepped back to let Josie into the entryway hall.
From what Josie could see of the too-hot cramped apartment, it was cluttered with knickknacks, making Josie feel claustrophobic.
She found herself looking around, expecting to see whomever Esther had been talking to before the woman had opened the door. But the small, cramped place was empty.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a dead plant in a pot on a small table just inside the door. There was a cell phone lying next to it. Esther must have had the phone on speaker, which would explain the male voice she’d heard.
“I was hoping you could help me,” she told the elderly woman, realizing this was as far into the apartment as Esther was going to allow her.
“I recall you had such a good memory when it came to people.” Wanting to make this as quick as possible for so many reasons, she hurried on.
“Esther, you have a keen ability to dig deeper, see more than other people tend to see.”
The older woman seemed touched by what she took as a compliment, as Josie had intended. “I like getting to the root of things,” the woman said primly.
“Yes, you do. That’s why I knew if anyone could help me, it would be you.”
Esther beamed as Josie ran out of flattery. “I bet you know the secret of Max and Cordell Lander.” She saw the change in Esther’s expression at once. Her face closed up, her eyes narrowing. She even took a step back. She almost looked frightened.
“You do know they’re in some kind of trouble, don’t you?” Josie said even as the woman shook her head. “Because of something in their past. Esther—”
“You need to leave.” The words came out on a ragged breath as the senior citizen motioned toward the door.
“What are they running from?” Josie persisted. “You can tell me.”
Esther’s gaze shot to her phone on the table by the dead plant. But as she reached for it, Josie snatched it up. “Hello? Hello?” A deep male chuckle sent fear shuddering through her. The sound manifested into the evil, darkness and horror headed for Dry Gulch. She felt it all in that simple sound.
“Josephine Brand, is it? You sound delightful. Cordell certainly must think so.”
Fingers shaking, Josie took the phone off speaker. She looked at Esther, who avoided her gaze. “I’m sorry, who are you and why are you interested in Max and Cordell?” she asked, surprised her voice didn’t give away the terror making her heart pound.
“Why wouldn’t I be interested in Max and Cordell? That’s why when the cops offered me one call, I told them I wanted my lawyer, Josephine Brand.”
“I didn’t get your call.”
He laughed. “I bet not since I called Esther, who it turns out knew your boyfriend and my stepson Cordell really well.”
“Stepson?” Her voice found only dead space and she knew he’d disconnected. Feeling suddenly dirty, she dropped the phone back on the table and turned to Esther. “What have you been telling him about Cordell and Max?”
“You need to get out of my apartment,” Esther said.
“You sold them out, didn’t you?”
Looking indignant, the woman glared at her. “What do you know about it? Nothing. You have no idea what Max and Cordell are really like, what they did before they came to Dry Gulch. Now get out.”
“Tell me who he is,” Josie said through clenched teeth, even though she knew he was the man in the mug shot Max had sent her.
Esther raised her chin, defiance in her glare. “His name is Roger Grimes. He has every right to see his stepsons, especially after what they did to him. Left him for dead, after they tried to kill him. Iris thought they were such nice boys. I tried to warn her. I never trusted them.”
Josie shook her head, trying to rein in her anger and disgust. “How did you get in contact with this man?”
“I didn’t,” she said smugly. “He contacted me. He’s one of my prison pen pals. Don’t look at me like that. I get lonely. Those poor men get lonely, too.”
She had to bite her tongue at how naive Esther was. “Roger Grimes will soon be going to prison again.”
“Will he?” Esther asked innocently.
Josie saw the answer in the woman’s eyes. “Are you telling me he’s not behind bars?” If Esther had told Roger Grimes all about them, then he also must have told her things about himself. “Esther, if you know something—”
“I’m not telling you anything,” she snapped. “Judgment is coming to those boys. After what they did to that poor man, they are going to pay dearly. Told everyone those boys were no good, but no one would listen. All thought they knew better. Ha!”
“Esther, you have no idea what you’ve done.” Josie started for the door.
“He’s really looking forward to meeting you.” There was a snideness to her tone that made Josie stop at the door and slowly turn to look at Esther.
“You told him all about me…me and Cordell.” The woman smiled. “Why would you do that, Esther?”
“He wanted to know about his stepsons and the women they were involved with.”
Max and Goldie. Josie clenched her hands into fists.
Of course he did. “And you were more than happy to tell him. What is wrong with you, Esther? The man is a dangerous criminal.” Iris had always been so kind and gracious, so caring.
How could two sisters be so different? “You want to get us all killed?”
Looking defensive, Esther said, “Roger isn’t like that.”
“You have no idea what he’s like and now you’ve given him a loaded gun to come after not just Max and Cordell but Goldie and me.”
The woman clamped her lips shut in a thin line before she said, “You are the one who fell in with Cordell Lander, not me. You’re the one who knew nothing about him. You know what they say about sleeping with dogs.”
Josie turned and rushed out the door, unable to stay in Esther’s presence a moment longer for fear of what she might do to the miserable woman.
She had to contact Cordell and Max before it was too late. Something was wrong. It hadn’t sounded as if Grimes was calling from jail.
But first she had to make sure that Goldie was all right. The moment she was out of the apartment complex, she called Goldie’s cell. It rang five times before it was picked up by voicemail.
Telling herself Josie must be too busy to answer, she quickly tried the café’s landline. It began to ring and ring. Even as she tried not to panic, she was.
Disconnecting, she called the sheriff’s office only to find out from the dispatcher that Deputy Rance Fletcher had been called down to the café for some kind of emergency and she hadn’t been able to reach him.
Goldie! She drove even faster, afraid that she would reach Dry Gulch too late to save her friend.
* * *
Goldie woke, head aching. She sat against a metal wall, her wrists zip-tied together and attached to a metal bar along the inside of what she realized was the back of a van. Rock music blared from the car’s speakers, but the van wasn’t moving. The engine, though, was running.
As she tried to sit up, she saw through the driver’s side window the man she now knew was Roger Grimes.
Her capture came back to her along with a growing sense of panic.
The man had lured her into the back of the café, where she’d found Ronnie injured and bleeding.
Grimes had grabbed her and covered her mouth with a rag wet with a substance that knocked her out as he dragged her to the alley behind the café.
Max and Cordell’s stepfather, the man she’d been warned to watch out for, had taken her captive.
Now he stood outside the van talking on a cell phone.
She couldn’t hear what he was saying over the music vibrating the windows in the car.
She tried to free herself from where her wrists were bound to the van wall, but quickly had to give up.
She still felt woozy from whatever he’d knocked her out with.
Just the sight of the man from the café had her pulse in overdrive. Josie had shown her his mug shot and warned her that he might be coming to Dry Gulch, that he was somehow connected to Max and Cordell. Where was he taking her? What was he going to do with her?
As he finished his call, he opened the driver’s side door and peered in at her. “Finally awake, huh?” he said with a deep chuckle as he slid behind the wheel.
“Where are you taking me?” she managed to ask, her throat dry, her tongue feeling too large in her mouth. How long had she been out?
“I thought you’d like to see where Max and Cordell grew up,” he said. “But first we need to pick up your friend Josie and then we’re on our way.”
She felt her pulse jump in alarm. “Josie?”
“Don’t worry. Max and Cordell will also be joining us.”
She was determined not to let him see how terrified she was. She could tell he liked her being frightening. He enjoyed seeing people suffer, that much she’d figured out for herself. Still, when she spoke, her voice was too high. “Why are you doing this?”
He looked surprised by her question. “I thought you knew. I want to see my stepsons. Having their women there will only make it a more special reunion.” His laugh held no humor as he turned up the volume on the radio and began to sing along, horribly off-key.
Goldie closed her eyes, wishing she could send a message to Josie. Her worst nightmare was coming for her. Not far up the highway, he turned off the road, cut the engine and got out without a word.
* * *
Josie feared she was driving the narrow highway too fast. She couldn’t help feeling anxious. The deputy hadn’t called her back. Nor had she been able to reach Goldie or the café. Something had happened. She knew it, the way she knew the man she’d spoken to on the phone was responsible.
Her blood turned to ice as she thought about him having Goldie. She reached for her phone, desperately needing to talk to Cordell as she felt the darkness approaching her so quickly that—
Her hand brushed her phone lying on the passenger seat as her windshield exploded, the sound like a gunshot.
She felt something hitting her face and arms. Instinctively, she hit her brakes as her gaze flew up.
She caught only a blur of whatever had slammed into her windshield as it careened off to the side.
She had inadvertently yanked the wheel in her surprise and now felt the tires on the right side drop over the edge of the narrow pavement. The back of the SUV dug into the soft dirt. She had to fight the wheel to get the SUV back up on the road and to a stop.
Her hands shook as she clung to the wheel, relieved that she wasn’t in the ditch. Even more relieved that she couldn’t see any other vehicles coming from either direction. She tried to get control of herself as she looked out through the webbed windshield and willed her heart rate to slow.
She was all right. All she could figure was that she’d hit a large pheasant.
Her bare skin began to burn where tiny pieces of glass had cut her.
She eased her grip on the wheel, trying to decide if she could see well enough to get the rest of the way to Dry Gulch.
Her worry about Goldie convinced her she had to try.
Something caught her eye in the rearview mirror. She’d been expecting to see a dead pheasant in the road behind her. But what she saw looked like a large rock. How would a rock that size have—
Her side window exploded. Something hit the side of her head.
She smelled strong body odor the moment before the man grabbed her and hauled her out of the car.
She tried to fight him off, but he was too strong.
As he cupped a wet rag over her mouth and nose, all the fight went out of her. Darkness closed in.