Chapter 30
THIRTY
GABE
Knute lifted a hand and waved to Gabe from the back of the ambulance like an injured player being carted off the football field, his lips moving as the stretcher was settled in. Gabe didn’t catch what he said but figured it was something to do with Elton.
“I’m on it,” Gabe promised.
Fuck, he hoped he was able to follow through. What if Mikal had shot Elton too? Or pushed him down a cliff. There was no lack of them on Heartstone.
An EMT Gabe hadn’t met before stepped around to the back of the ambulance, his hand on the door. “He’s stable,” the guy said. “The bullet went straight through his shoulder, which was why there was so much blood. You did the right thing, good work.”
“Thanks,” Gabe said, shivering. Another puffy cloud paused to block the sun.
Crossing his arms, he remembered he’d used his shirt as an emergency compress. How was Gabe going be able to look Elton in the eye and tell him he’d allowed Knute to run straight for Petyr?
The badge clipped to the EMTs uniform identified him as Noah Jackson. Jackson started to pull the doors shut, his attention drifting over Gabe’s shoulder toward the dock where the sheriff and deputies were still collecting evidence. “Be safe out there.”
Arms still crossed to keep himself warm, Gabe watched the ambulance drive away. Safe rattled around in Gabe’s brain. Elton was somewhere with Mikal Petyr and decidedly not safe.
“Where are you, Elton?”
“We’ll find him.” Agent Weir’s voice drifted toward him from somewhere behind Gabe.
Apparently, all the riffraff were being allowed into the marina.
Gabe turned. “Was that you calling?” He realized the series of calls from Unknown Number that had come through while Petyr had them at gunpoint had likely been from the FBI.
Weir and Richardson had arrived minutes after the ambulance, followed by Sheriff Eagan, Deputy Choi, and one of the deputies he’d seen Monday.
Choi had carried the crime scene briefcase this time.
It was the law enforcement party Gabe never wanted to throw, although he seemed to have it on a semi-regular basis. How did this happen?
I think you know the answer to that question, Chance.
“We’ll find Elton, Gabe. There’s a countywide alert going out,” Eagan interjected before Weir could answer Gabe. “For The Sea Witch and Elton. Everyone’s phones should light up in a minute or two.” Reaching out, she squeezed Gabe’s bicep. “Call if you need anything.”
Then, as if the sheriff had waved a magic wand, everyone’s cell phones began shrieking.
“Yes, I called you several times,” Weir said once the noise died down. “When you didn’t answer, we decided to check on you in person, all things considered. And, as it happened, TC emergency dispatch had just taken a report of a gunshot wound.”
Ah, the feebs had still been at the TCSO headquarters.
“You’ve checked on me, I’m fine, now put our tax dollars to use and find Elton before Petyr does anything to him.”
“We’ll find him.”
Weir’s sense of urgency did not match Gabe’s. “Now.”
Agent Richardson lurked next to Weir, not speaking. Gabe had to appreciate his silence. There was something calming about a person who merely observed, or maybe he was a trainee. Equally likely, his job was to keep Weir from going off book. Again.
“Did Petyr give any hints as to where he might be heading?” Weir asked.
“No.” Gabe squeezed his hands under his armpits.
He was barely holding it together, and the thin blanket the other EMT had tossed over his shoulders was proving inadequate.
“I told you everything that happened. Maybe he said something when he had Elton in the car with him, but obviously, I wasn’t there. ”
Weir nodded, his expression difficult to parse. “Unfortunately, it’s going to be a few hours before we can question Mr. Bakke about the shooting. Agent Hernandez has gone to the hospital and will keep us updated on his condition. It there anything else you can tell us? Anything at all?”
Sucking in a deep breath, Gabe again did not fly off the handle. They were there to help. And the quicker he got this interview over, the quicker he’d be out searching for Elton and laying eyes on Casey. He mentally ran through the interlude at the house.
“I had the oddest feeling that Mikal wanted to meet me. He mentioned my mother more than once. It was fucking creepy, made me want to take another shower.”
“Huh. That is creepy. Any idea how Petyr may have encountered your mother?”
“I can’t say for sure, and I can’t ask her because she passed away last year.
I’m thinking it had to have been when she was a teen in the late seventies.
We never visited the island, I didn’t know Heartstone existed until last fall, but she was from here.
My mother was nothing if not tight-lipped about her childhood,” he told the agent.
“Gabe!” Sheriff Eagan called out his name as she jogged down the pier toward them. Her footfalls thudded against the boards, the sound echoing out over the water.
His heart almost stopped at first but then he saw she was grinning.
Gabe retrieved his stomach from the pit it had tried to dive into.
“Elton is safe,” she said breathlessly. “Petyr made him get out of the car over by Nodule Point. Let’s go.
I have a shirt in the back of the cruiser you can borrow. ”
Not soon enough, Gabe, wearing a borrowed Heartstone Island Fun Run t-shirt and accompanied by Sheriff Eagan and an FBI escort, arrived at Whatever-The-Fuck-Was-Nodule Point.
He eyes teared up at the sight of a slight but uninjured old man waiting by the side of the road alongside someone Gabe didn’t recognize.
“You gave me a fucking scare, old man.” Gabe hugged Elton so tightly that he grunted a complaint, a lot like Keith-the-cat had. “What happened?” he asked, taking a step back. “Do you need to sit down?”
After thanking the caller, Elton allowed them to steer him to the back seat of Weir’s vehicle. The door was left open, so everyone was able to hear his story. Agent Richardson activated a voice recorder, which Gabe thought was smart of him.
Elton began, “After we left Gabe’s, Petyr drove out here and then as far as he could down the boat ramp over there.
Waved that gun of his around, ordered me out of the car, and drove off again.
As you can see for yourselves, Nodule Point is unmarked.
Not many know about it unless they’re into geology. See—”
“Elton,” Gabe growled, sensing he was about to launch into an explanation of the spot’s geology.
“Nothing much else to add. Had to make my way up to the road again, which took me a bit.”
“Petyr didn’t say anything more?” Sheriff Eagan asked him.
Frowning, Elton shook his head. “Nope. It was a damn quiet ride.”
“Petyr drove to Riddle Bay Marina after he stranded you here,” Eagan told Elton. “Gabe and Knute Bakke figured he might head there from something he said.”
The adrenaline rush that had held Gabe together since he’d discovered Mikal Petyr holding Elton and Knute at gunpoint departed his system in a swoosh, leaving him shaky and off-balance. Gabe spotted a boulder a few feet from the cruiser and plopped his ass onto it before he collapsed.
“He’s probably heading north,” Elton said glumly, glaring angrily across the large body of water between the cliffs of Heartstone and the wilds of Canada. “Stole a damn boat and is going to try and vanish.”
“You’re safe, that’s all I care about. And he didn’t steal a boat. He had one at the marina. He must be one of the owners that Casey hasn’t been able to track down.”
“Where’s Knute?” Elton asked quietly, looking directly at Gabe as if he was afraid of the response.
“Shit.” Gabe stood up from the rock to kneel in front of Elton.
“What? Is he dead?” Elton sounded horribly resigned, his expression devastated.
Sheriff Eagan and the agents took a few steps back.
“No! Knute will be okay. Fuck, Elton, I should have told you that first. Knute’s at the hospital—I should have led with that.
Petyr shot him in the shoulder, but the EMT said he thinks he’s going to fully recover.
It went right through.” Gabe glanced over his shoulder and caught Eagan’s eye.
“I bet we could get a ride and see him for ourselves.” Nothing was getting in the way of him visiting Casey at last. No-fucking-thing.
Not one more emergency. Not acting as bait. Nothing.
“Richardson and I will escort you,” Weir said. “We don’t like it when our witnesses go missing.”
Fuck, it was like having a shadow. A double shadow. But if it got them to Twana County Hospital, Gabe wasn’t going to argue. Sheriff Eagan rolled her eyes but didn’t argue.
“You guys aren’t morphing into James Bond mode?” he asked Weir. “No commandeering watercraft and chasing after the villain?
“The Sea Witch won’t get far. Petyr thinks he’s made his getaway, but my estimation is, we’ll have him in custody by dinnertime.” Weir waggled his eyebrows and rubbed his palms together in anticipation. “Friends in higher places.”
From where they were, they could see sailboats, powerboats, several kayaks, and even a ferryboat crowding the strait on this gorgeous afternoon. To Gabe, it seemed simple for Mikal Petyr to lose himself among them. But clearly, the feds knew more than he did. Which he was just fine with.
“I still can’t shake the idea that he was still around after Monday because he wanted to meet me, and that he was protecting Nicole in his own sick way when he killed Roy.”
“I should head back to Riddle Bay,” Eagan said. “I’m also very happy you are okay,” she said to Elton, giving him a tight squeeze.
Elton rolled his eyes. “I was never in serious danger.”
Bree looked at Gabe and snorted. Gabe managed a sort-of smile and turned to gaze out and across the water, an itchy disquiet simmering just underneath his skin. Elton was safe. Knute would be okay. But he was fucking stationary when he needed to be on the way to the hospital.
“Can we get going sometime this century?”