Chapter Twenty-Six
Twenty-Six
Mendocino, California
This is nice, Elle thought.
They’d settled in to watch an action movie on the huge TV screen the rental’s owners had hung on the wall. Alexis and Elle sat on the love seat with a sleeping Squiggles, while Ronan and Gary shared the sofa.
It would have been nicer had she been on that sofa with Ronan. Where he’d held her the night before.
Where he’d kissed her.
But Gary seemed determined to help Howard keep them apart lest Ronan harm the case.
Alexis snorted quietly. “I feel like a chaperone for the senior prom.”
Gary laughed. “I know. The longing looks are killing me.”
Elle snatched her gaze away from Ronan with a sigh. “Shut up, Gary.”
Gary laughed harder. Alexis joined him and soon even Elle was laughing. Ronan just shook his head like they were all insane.
It was freeing, laughing like this. She couldn’t remember when she’d felt this good. This…settled.
“Now I need to rewind the movie,” Ronan grumbled. “You made me miss the best part.”
“It’s an explosion,” Alexis said, “just like the last five explosions. Why is this better than the others?”
“Because it’s—” Ronan frowned and pulled the phone from his pocket. Then his face went deathly pale. He stared at his phone and Elle’s stomach plunged.
Gary muted the TV. “What is it?”
“It’s Penny.” Ronan lurched to his feet. “I knew I shouldn’t have let her go.” He ran for the front door where he’d hung his coat.
“Ronan, wait!” Gary grabbed his arm. “What’s happened? What’s wrong with Penny?”
Elle rose slowly, all the good feelings she’d been enjoying abruptly extinguished, dread taking their place. “It’s Ashton, isn’t it?”
Ronan met her gaze, his helpless and terrified. “She went to Ukiah. To a memorial for Kasey Arnold. There were six people in their vehicle. The driver is a cop. I thought she’d be safe.”
Elle held out her hand as she approached him, a surreal calm taking over. She’d feared something like this would happen and now it had.
But not Penny. It was supposed to be me.
“Is it from Penny’s phone, Ronan?” Gary asked.
“No. A number I don’t recognize.”
“Can I see the text, Ronan?” she asked quietly.
He handed her the phone and Elle’s dread was joined by a wave of fury. “ ‘I have your daughter. I’ve killed the others in her car. Bring Giselle Randolph to me where Route 253 meets US 101 or Penny dies, too.’ There’s a photo of an SUV on its side.”
Bile burned Elle’s throat. There had been six people in that SUV. Ashton had just killed five more.
Gary examined the photo. “That’s one of the turnouts on 253. The kids must have been heading back from the memorial service. He likely took Penny into his own vehicle and drove her back toward Ukiah. The 101 will be his best escape route, especially if he’s prepared to change vehicles.”
Ronan was tapping frantically on his phone. “I need to see where her phone is right now.” They stayed silent while he waited for Penny’s phone to be detected by his Find My app. “It’s not showing up. It only says she left Ukiah thirty minutes ago.”
“He must have left her phone at the site of the wreck,” Gary said.
Ronan shoved his phone in his coat pocket. “That’s it. I’m going to find her.”
Elle grabbed her coat. “Ronan, I’m going with you.”
“No!” three voices shouted in unison.
Elle flinched. “Maybe I can talk to him while you arrange a rescue. I can buy you time.”
Ronan took her face in his shaking hands. “You can stay here and stay safe. I’m going after my daughter. I’ll get her back and that bastard will wish he’d never been born.”
She gripped his arms. “Ronan, you can’t go alone.”
“I’ll call for backup.” Ronan kissed her hard and fast, then ran for his garage.
Elle nearly went after him, but Gary pulled her back. “You stay here. I’m calling Howard. He can get a dozen deputies to Dempsey’s meeting point in less than twenty minutes. And maybe he can talk Ronan down. He’s running on panic right now.”
Alexis put her arm around Elle’s shoulders. “Gary’s here to keep you safe. Let him do his job.”
Gary had closed and locked the door and reset the alarm system and was currently on the phone with Howard.
Gary’s face was grim as he retook his seat on the sofa. “Howard’s sending people to try to find Penny. He’s also sending a car to find the SUV.”
Clutching the puppy, Elle began pacing the floor. “This is what Jessica Bowers said would happen. He can’t get me, so he’s starting to target the people around me. I can’t let that happen.”
“What are you thinking about doing?” Alexis asked warily.
“Nothing.” The trouble was she was thinking of too many things. But all of them centered on one theme.
He’ll kill everyone in his path until he gets to me.
“Liar.” Alexis folded her arms over her chest. “Just so you know, I’m not letting you leave this house.”
“Same,” Gary said. “I’ll cuff you if I have to, Elle.”
Elle sucked in a breath, clutching the puppy so hard that he whimpered. She immediately loosened her hold, giving him a quick smooch on his head. “Not that. Please.”
“She got cuffed the night of the accident when her husband died,” Alexis told him. “Don’t cuff her. Major trauma from that.”
“Dammit.” Gary sighed. “Elle, I can’t let you leave.”
Elle wanted to tell him that she’d do what she had to do. That she wasn’t allowing anyone else to die on her account.
She didn’t have time to say that, though, because her phone buzzed with an incoming call from a number she didn’t recognize.
The dread grew thick as she answered, putting it on speaker. “Yes?”
“Hello, Giselle.” The voice was low and rasping. Taunting. In the background the wind roared. “It’s been a while.”
This would be it, then.
“What do you want, Ashton?” she asked coldly.
“You. Come to the place you meet with your detective.”
Stall for time. “Why would I want to do that?”
“Listen and you’ll understand. Tell her.”
“No.” The woman’s voice was strained yet adamant.
“Tell her,” Ashton snarled.
“Don’t you dare come, Elle!”
Elle stiffened. She knew that voice. “Eunice Greene.”
“Yes, indeed,” Ashton said smugly. “She’s here with me, waiting for you.”
“Elle, don’t you—” The rest of Eunice’s cry was muffled, as if he’d shoved a gag in her mouth.
Elle shared a horrified look with Gary and Alexis. This was what she’d feared.
What she’d known was coming.
She just hadn’t expected he’d use Eunice.
The call about Penny had been a ruse, Elle realized. She hoped that Penny was really okay, that Ashton had lied to get Ronan out of the way.
“What do you want, Ashton?” she asked again.
“I already told you. You, on the bluff where you meet your detective. She’ll die if I don’t see you leaving that house in the next sixty seconds. Do you doubt me?”
Eleven people. “No.”
“Good. Come alone. No cops. Tick-tock, Giselle.”
He ended the call and Elle set the puppy aside.
“Gary, call for more backup,” Elle said. She drew her gun from its holster, racked a bullet into the chamber, then reholstered it under her coat. She’d rather have Ashton believe she’d come unarmed. “Let’s go.”
“Where?” Gary demanded.
“To the bluff. He will kill her. Stay out of sight until I need you. Alexis, stay here in case Ronan comes back.”
She wished she’d asked Ronan for a bulletproof vest, but it was too late for that now.
There would not be twelve victims.
This ended tonight.
Mendocino, California
Wednesday, February 4, 9:30 p.m.
Elle saw Ashton standing at the edge of the bluff, illuminated in the light of the full moon as she ran full speed down Ronan’s street.
The fog had cleared and the sky was full of stars.
She could see his face clearly.
He was smiling.
She could also see Eunice, trapped against his front, a human shield. Her hands were cuffed in front of her and moonlight glinted off the gun held to her head.
You sonofabitch. Eunice Greene only tried to help people. She was kind and nice and good.
Eunice would not be number twelve.
Elle had trained for moments like this, and she could hear Sara’s voice in her head, telling her to stay calm. Collected. Careful.
But not too careful.
Cautiously Elle approached Ashton, aware that Gary was somewhere behind her.
She wondered where Ronan was. Hopefully Gary would be able to get in touch with him. Ashton couldn’t be on the road to Ukiah with Penny, because he was here.
Unless he’d killed Penny already.
We should have asked for a live view. He could have taken that photo at any time.
Hell, he could have faked the photo.
But Ronan would have to figure that out on his own. She had to stay focused on the young man standing before her.
Elle stopped about five feet away from Ashton. The wind was fierce, the cold biting. “You snapped your fingers and I ran,” she shouted so she could be heard. “I’m here. Let Eunice go.”
She knew that wasn’t going to happen. There was no way either she or Eunice would be walking away if she didn’t take Ashton down.
He had very little to lose at this point. Scorched earth, Jessica had predicted.
She’d been right.
He was much stronger than when Elle had seen him two years ago. She might have been able to take that Ashton down, but not this one.
This Ashton had murdered Kasey and dragged her a mile from the road to dump her down a well. He was strong and determined.
She’d have to stall him until Gary came up with a plan. Ashton had said nothing, simply watching her with narrowed eyes. “Well?” she prodded. “Let her go, Ashton.”
“That depends on you.”
“What do you want?”
His smile became a snarl. “I wanted you to go to prison.”
“I’m not going to prison for something I didn’t do,” she said, knowing she was treading on thin ice. “Now or three and a half years ago.”
“Don’t lie to me,” he said, his raspy voice lowering to a growl. “You killed my parents. You stole my life. You did it.”
“I didn’t.” She still felt guilt, but it was much smaller than it had been before. “I saved lives that night. If I hadn’t steered my car off the road, I would have hit at least three other vehicles. I’m sorry that your parents died. But I didn’t kill them.”