Chapter Thirty-One
Friday Night
By the time Avery and Ryan reached Greg Baldwin’s house, they were so exhausted, drenched, and hungry they could barely think straight. Avery was severely chafed from walking in wet jeans for miles, and she didn’t think that Ryan had fared better, though he didn’t complain.
At the beginning of their walk, she’d told Ryan everything that happened; he told her that Bobby had reached out to him because he didn’t want to use the family radio channel in case the people who held the Mendozas captive could hear him.
Avery was so proud of her little brother, and grateful that Ryan had immediately called Jake to tell him where Bobby was hiding.
But after she finished sharing what happened, they walked in silence.
No one passed them on the road, the ditches were filled with water and rising, and by the time they reached Baldwin’s long driveway, it was near dark and they couldn’t see where they were going.
They had no flashlights and no streetlights illuminated the road.
But Avery knew this country as well as anyone, and she recognized the straight row of cedar elms that lined Baldwin’s driveway.
They turned and headed down toward Baldwin’s dark house, careful with each step because of the potholes and deep water. Both of them had sore ankles, and Avery’s head still pounded from where Rena had hit her with the gun.
But she was alive, and Bobby was safe, and she was so, so grateful.
“No one’s here,” she said when they came up to the house. Not even the security lights were on, which told her the power had gone out in the entire area and no one turned on the generator.
“Greg’s still in the hospital,” Ryan said. “I’m sure his daughters went there, not here. And they won’t be able to get through tonight anyway.”
Parts of conversations she’d overheard clicked in her head. “Brock, Rena, Sam—they did it. They shot Greg.”
“Why would they stay around? They should have left after it happened.”
“Because of the storm last night, they couldn’t get out, and…
” Avery thought, trying to pull together all the conversations she’d overheard.
“I don’t know specifics, but they talked about having one more job.
When Brock left the Mendozas, he talked about being back in an hour or two and they’d leave. They promised not to hurt anyone, but…”
Ryan gripped her hand. “But you saw them.”
A chill went down her spine. “Yeah. They aren’t from Texas. Maybe they thought they could leave and hide and no one will know who they are. But they didn’t wear gloves, their prints will be everywhere, and the younger guy, Sam, was injured. His blood is all over the guest room.”
“My dad always said criminals aren’t the sharpest tacks in the box.” Ryan tried the door; it was locked. “You wouldn’t by any chance know if Greg Baldwin leaves a key lying around?”
She shook her head. “Would your dad be very mad if we broke in?”
“He’ll understand. But we’ll walk around first, see if anything is unlocked.”
None of the doors were unlocked, probably because the police had been here earlier this morning. So Ryan broke one of the small window panes in the mudroom, reached in, and unlocked the door.
They walked in dripping water onto the tile floor and Avery breathed a sigh of relief, even though the house was eerily silent. Not even the hum of an appliance. Except one faint tick of a grandfather clock, the pendulum moving back and forth. She shivered.
Ryan flipped a light switch. Nothing. He tried another. Still nothing.
He walked over to the telephone on the wall and picked it up. “Phone’s out, no dial tone.”
“I need to call my mom, let her know that I’m okay.
” Her voice cracked. Avery had been trying not to think about her family as she and Ryan walked here, and fortunately there had been enough to distract her.
But now she was so close to home … yet it was almost impossible to get there.
What if her mom or Jake went out to look for her?
What if one of them got caught up in one of the flooded ditches?
Or stuck in the mud? Or trapped by one of the many fallen trees?
Or what if they knew someone had kidnapped her, because by now they would have gone to the Mendozas, right?
Since Ryan had talked to Jake about Bobby being stuck in the equipment shed.
“My mom’s probably freaking out,” Avery said. “I have to find a way to let her know I’m okay.”
“My dad, too,” Ryan said. “We need to get out of these clothes, then we’ll look for a radio.
Baldwin has to have one someplace.” He took off his boots and left them in the mudroom.
Avery followed suit. She felt weird being here with Ryan.
She of course knew Baldwin’s house well and had been here many times, but never alone.
Even when she and Lyla fed and exercised his horses when he was out of town, they never went inside the house.
“Um, Greg’s bedroom is at the top of the stairs to the right. I’ll go to Monica’s room.” Monica was Greg’s daughter and close to Avery in size and shape. They started up the stairs together. “This feels so weird,” she muttered.
“Yeah,” Ryan concurred. “But what choice do we have? I don’t think Greg would mind.”
“No, he won’t,” Avery said. “I really hope he’s going to be okay.”
They parted ways at the top of the stairs. Avery went to Monica’s bathroom, stripped off her clothes, and hung them over the edge of the tub, though she’d probably throw everything out. Her shirt was stained, her jeans torn, even her underwear had holes in it.
She grabbed a towel and dried off. Her skin was cold and raw from the wind and rain; her hair a frizzy mess, her eyes looked bruised. Ugh. The insides of her thighs were so severely chafed they were blistered and bleeding.
She searched through the medicine cabinet and found petroleum jelly. She lathered it on the chafed skin. Though it still hurt, it felt so much better.
Avery opened the dresser, awkward and embarrassed and vowing to send Monica flowers or something as a thank-you and an apology all at the same time.
Monica was a senior in college, but fortunately visited often enough that she still had some clothes here.
Avery put on underwear, found sweatpants, which felt much better than jeans against her damaged skin, and a long-sleeved T-shirt that was just a little too big.
She brushed her thick, frizzy hair as best she could and then braided it down her back.
She slid on a pair of wool socks and they felt amazing, though her feet were still cold, blistered, and sore.
She stepped out into the hall as Ryan emerged from Greg Baldwin’s room, tugging at a pair of sweatpants that were far too big on him. Avery grinned as he pulled the drawstrings as tight as possible.
“I feel like a kid wearing my dad’s clothes,” he grumbled.
She looped her arm in his. “Let’s find a radio. I’ll look in the kitchen, you look in his office.”
They split at the bottom of the stairs. Five minutes later, Avery found a radio in the pantry, oddly behind baking supplies.
“Ryan! Found it!”
He came into the kitchen looking sullen.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as she turned on the radio. It came to life; the batteries were working.
“There was dried blood on the floor of this office.”
She shivered, then reached out and touched his arm. “I’m sorry.”
“They really are bad guys,” he said. “They shot him and his dog. And they took you.” He held her hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed it. She felt him shaking. “All for nothing.”
“They didn’t take anything?”
He shrugged. “I mean they probably did, I don’t know what it was.
My dad texted me this morning when I was at school, so I don’t have details.
He just said something like they made a mess but didn’t take his guns, which are right out in the open.
But these people had you, Avery. They could have killed you. ”
A chill went down her spine. “They didn’t,” she said and gave him a hug.
“I’m glad you’re okay.”
“I’m glad you found me.”
He held her, and it felt right. She wished that Jake wouldn’t give Ryan the cold shoulder like he’d been doing. They’d been friends, and Jake was treating her boyfriend like a … Well, like a jerk. And Ryan was the best guy she knew. They shared dreams, they wanted to share their future.
Everyone said she was too young to fall in love, but she didn’t believe them. She knew how she felt—and how Ryan felt. They weren’t planning to get married right after high school, but even if they did, so what?
They had a plan: two years at community college—she’d study agricultural business, and Ryan would study agriculture. He grew up in Cooke County but had always lived in town. He didn’t understand farming the way she did, and she wanted to learn how to make the farm profitable.
Then they’d get married. She hoped to work the family farm, maybe even be an accountant—she was good at math, and business was mostly math anyway. She wanted it more than Jake, more than Lyla, who only cared about horses. Bobby was still too young to know what he wanted.
But she knew. She wanted what her parents had: roots. And someone to plant them with.
They sat on the kitchen stools and Ryan turned the dials on the older radio to tune it to the emergency channel. The nice thing about the older units was that they were durable; the bad thing was that they could be sensitive to the slightest nudge.
Then he started talking. “This is Ryan Perez, SOS, over,” he said.
No response. He nudged the dial a hair.
“This is Ryan Perez, SOS, over,” he repeated.
Static. He continued to nudge the dial until the static was sharper, and he repeated his call, adding, “I need to be put through to Sheriff Perez, it’s an emergency, over.”
“Ryan? This is Sally at county dispatch. Hold on, your dad is looking for you. Don’t turn the dial! I’ll patch you through. Over.”
“Thank God,” Ryan muttered. Avery squeezed his shoulder, barely breathing.
A half minute later, Sheriff Perez’s deep voice came through the tinny speaker. “Ryan, is that you?”
Ryan grabbed the transmitter mic and pushed the button. “Dad! It’s me! I’m with Avery. I have so much to tell you, but we’re safe. We’re at Baldwin’s place. The power is out and the phone lines are down.”
There was a crackle, then his father’s voice came in clearer. “Ryan? You’re at Baldwin’s? Are you hurt?”
“No, we’re fine. Just wet and freezing and sore. We couldn’t reach Avery’s mom. Can you get through to Mrs. McKenna and tell her that Avery is okay?”
“Yes, but tell me what happened.”
Avery spoke up. “I was at the Mendozas’ house and three people were holding us hostage.
Then the man named Brock left, and after, a woman named Rena took me, she was with her brother, Sam, who is really hurt, then she steered us into a ditch when she saw Ryan drive by.
She carjacked Ryan, and he saved my life.
” There was so much more she needed to say.
“I can describe all three of them. But someone has to check on the Mendozas! They were tied up in their house.”
Crackle. Then, “Your mom was there, they are okay. No one can get into the north valley. Rock Creek is flooded so we can’t get in through the east, and Mule Run is flooding so I’m stuck on the south side.
But we’ve got roadblocks on every possible road out of the valley, in case the suspects try to flee.
The whole area’s boxed in, they won’t get out. ”
“They’re in my truck, Dad.”
“I’ll change the APB.”
“They’re going to a place on Privett Road,” Avery said. “I don’t know where, but the only places I can think is either the Sudduth ranch or the Coulters.”
Crackle. Silence. Crackle. Avery looked at Ryan. “Did we lose him?”
Ryan pressed the button. “Dad? Are you still there?”
Crackle. “I had a call a couple hours ago from George Coulter. Someone impersonated their youngest daughter—someone who knows a lot about their family. The person pretending to be the daughter said she’d been in an accident and asked them to come down and help with the kids.
They left before Mule Run flooded, called me when they realized it was a hoax. ”
“A hoax? That’s so mean,” Avery said.
“Coulter thinks it was a prank, but now I’m wondering if there’s something else going on. Because we’ve had a rash of robberies in the area, and maybe the Coulters were next. But I haven’t been able to get up there.”
Avery was in a near panic. What about her family? “You have to get someone out to my house. What if they go there?”
“I haven’t been able to reach your mom because of the phone lines, but I’ll keep trying. Not everyone’s lines are down, but I guess your area is completely out. There could be downed lines somewhere that we don’t know about yet.”
Avery looked at Ryan, imploring him. She said, “We have to go.”
Rick said, “Stay put, both of you. It’s safer where you are. Avery, describe the three suspects to me.”
“Brock is tall, like as tall as you are, Mr. Perez. Maybe thirty. Dark hair, beard. Dark eyes. Big. Um, Rena—she, I think, is his wife, something she said when we were in the car. She’s maybe the same age, a little younger.
Long, dark blond hair. A little taller than me.
And Sam is her brother, blond, he’s not much older than Jake, I guess.
Maybe nineteen or twenty? He was shot and is in a lot of pain and I think he’s going to die if he doesn’t get help. ”
Rick said, “I got all that, I’ll add it to the APB, and we should be able to figure out who these people are and where they’re holed up. Stay put, both of you.”
“No!” Avery didn’t mean to shout, but she was so worried about her family she couldn’t think of anything else.
“My mom doesn’t even know I’m okay! What if she goes out looking for me?
Or … What if she thinks the thieves are long gone but they’re not?
What if they go to my house? I have to warn everyone!
” She was about to cry because she felt so helpless.
“Dad,” Ryan said, “we’ll take one of Baldwin’s ATVs over to Avery’s. We have to warn the McKennas.”
“Dammit, son!” Rick exclaimed. Then, when Avery thought they’d lost him, a crackle and beep brought him back.
“Okay, I get it. You listen to me—Whisper Creek flooded Orchard Lane, wiped out the road between the McKennas and the Mendozas. Last report in was that it’s still rising.
That means it’ll flood all the fields in the area.
It’s nearly dark, and you won’t know how deep the water is until you’re in it. ”
“We’ll be careful, Dad,” Ryan said.
“I’m going to find a way in, if I have to take a damn rowboat across Mule Run. If the weather breaks and lightning passes, we’ll send in a chopper. And Deputy Ferris is at the Rock Creek blockade. As soon as he can get through, he’ll be on his way, too.”
“We’ll check in when we reach Avery’s house,” Ryan promised.
“Ten-four. Be safe. Sheriff out.”