Chapter 17 #2
He pulled off the hat. His nose fell off. And he stood in the center of the clearing, and even as dusk fell more fully, the rise of the moon in the heavens cast down a glow upon the earth in the clearing.
And Skye saw exactly why Detective Vince Cason had been among the missing.
Vince was standing there, irate and impatient, holding the hat, the wild mop of orange hair, and the prosthetic nose he’d dislodged when he’d wrenched at the hat.
Vince, not Gavin.
Their instincts had been right, thank God. Because she knew she and Zach wanted to be good at law enforcement, at catching the bad guys; they did not want to be just strangely talented magicians. Their abilities needed to enhance their work, not be the sole basis for it.
She pulled out her phone, hitting Zach’s number on her speed dial.
She had lost service out here, and she swore softly. She smiled to herself as a common sentiment pertinent to the twenty-first century popped into her mind.
Technology! Incredible … when it worked!
She started moving again, thinking she needed to get back closer to the road where their phones had worked just fine earlier.
As she headed out of the deep woods, she suddenly heard a muffled sobbing, then a soft voice, as if one person was trying to reassure another.
She drew her weapon, listening, trying to find her way through the twists and turns in the almost-trails that wound around closer to the road.
She stopped and stared in disbelief and confusion.
Gavin’s cousin, Officer Ben Chambers, was seated on the forest floor, bound to the base of a huge old oak.
He wasn’t alone. Next to him, tightly tied as well, was a boy, a young boy, with tears streaming down his face. And the voice she heard was Ben’s as he tried to tell the little boy that someone would come, and they’d be all right.
“Ben!” Skye slammed her gun into her holster and reached to her ankle for her knife, anxious to release the two.
“See, Jeremy! See! Special Agent McMahon has come to help us. I knew that they would find the truth.”
As she raced to the pair, confusion swept her mind. How had Ben called Zach from a house down the road if he was here, tied to a tree? Had he been here all the while, and …
She paused, ready to pull her weapon again. There was only one answer.
One answer with two twists!
Vince Cason had forced Ben to make a call, threatening to kill the boy if he didn’t do so.
Or worse …
Ben was involved in murder, kidnapping, and perhaps attempted terrorism.
The boy—she was going to untie the boy.
Running to the tree and falling to her knees, she slipped her knife from the little sheath strapped around her ankle and went to work quickly on the heavy ropes that bound him.
Next to Jeremy, Ben seemed to release something like a sob.
“Thank God, thank God, thank God! My cousin told me that you and Zach were amazing, that …”
He broke off, staring past her.
She had managed to slit the last strands of the heavy rope holding Jeremy. She looked at the child, aware that they were in trouble. She didn’t need to turn around to see that Vince Cason had been waiting in the woods, just waiting …
She looked Jeremy in the eyes. The little boy stared back at her. He was just five years old! Would he understand? Could he understand?
“Run! Run and hide! Near the road, a police car will come eventually!” As she whispered, she slipped her knife back into the little sheath. It would have been clearly evident if she’d gone for her gun at the holster around her waist.
She didn’t try to draw her gun; she couldn’t risk the child’s life.
And thankfully, the terrified little boy was a smart one. He seemed to understand the situation and what she wanted him to do.
Either that, or anywhere was better than being where he was.
She used her body to shield the child as he made a swift disappearance into the trees and brush behind them.
Then she turned and faced Cason. And, of course, he was back in costume, a wig with long, yarnlike red hair on his head, along with the pointed hat, skin painted green, prosthetic nose, and encompassing black cape.
“Well, well, the devil really is in the woods,” she said.
“The devil you know!” he told her. “But then you don’t, do you?”
She smiled sweetly. “Oh, please! Seriously? Detective Vince Cason. Of course, I know.” She shrugged. “So does everyone!”
“You’re so wrong! They are scared to death for me!” Cason told her. “And when it’s all over, they’ll find me, injured, desperate, on the side of the road. They’ll never know who is pulling the strings that control just about everything!”
She was still next to Ben. If only she could be sure of the truth about the man!
“Oh, Vince!” she said. “You did tell us to call you by your given name,” she reminded him pleasantly. “It’s just not going to be that easy—”
“It is that easy. All you need to do is steal someone’s eyeball and their finger, but you guys don’t understand tech that far, so—”
“Facial recognition. You need a face for that,” Skye reminded him.
He laughed. “And you think I can’t take a face? Have you forgotten, my lovely Fed, that I’m a master of disguise?”
“And I think you’ve forgotten the power of those who may have needed a little time, but eventually always stop the devil in the woods!” she declared.
The man grimaced at her. “Ah, but you don’t understand!
I have a number of people completely convinced that you and your kind are the devils in the woods.
And I’m great at segueing when necessary.
I didn’t think it a good idea to get the both of you at once, but you’re a nice start.
Of course, Mr. Oh-So-Special-Agent Zach Erickson will come flying to the rescue!
And then, I will have you both!” he announced.
“For now, toss your Glock over here. Right now!”
“Why would I do that?” Skye asked him.
“Because I’ll shoot Ben right in the heart if you don’t.”
She looked at Ben, and she prayed that her instincts were right …
And that her Oh-So-Special-Agent partner would know how to play it when he did rush to the scene.
Zach walked slowly and carefully through the woods.
He’d made some major-league mistakes so far that morning, and he knew he couldn’t afford another one.
Maybe not mistakes that were … that were … Well, his only real mistake was worrying about a child, about believing Ben Chambers when he called so frantically. At the house down the road, there had been no answer.
Protocol or not—he could have always thought of a viable excuse—he had broken down the door.
That had turned out to be a good decision. He found the homeowner bound and gagged in his closet.
Of course, the man had given him a panicked story about a wicked witch who had come at him with a gun and forced him there. And no, it hadn’t been that recently; it had been a few hours before Zach had found him.
It had been a mistake to leave Skye. A mistake to assume that anyone associated with Gavin had to be a good person. It had even been a mistake, perhaps, to completely disavow the possibility that Gavin was involved.
With that thought, Zach had called Jackson with his latest discovery.
He’d quickly explained he thought the best way to move forward was carefully.
He wanted agents from the closest local office to come and see to Mr. Benchley, the homeowner, and he wanted agents out on the road across from the café.
He didn’t want anyone bursting wildly into the forest, or any local involvement; he needed to find the witch in the woods himself.
And it was morning.
This kind of canopy of trees always afforded a certain darkness. Deep in the trees, it was easy to feel as if the world only existed here in a surreal atmosphere of deep green. The smell of the earth was so redolent, the rustle of leaves could whisper of danger at every turn.
Thankfully, he’d always liked the woods.
There was only one thing that he didn’t know now.
But, of course, it was an all-important thing.
Was Ben Chambers in on what was going on?
Or had he been forced to make the call to Zach?
The shrewd witch had known from the beginning that most people would be instantly concerned about the welfare of a child.
That a person, especially one in law enforcement, would respond when the welfare of a child was at stake.
Especially when the child might hold the answers they needed.
Zach stood still for a minute, feeling the air and listening.
He came first to the place where he had left Skye. He knew she wouldn’t be there, and knew there would have been another lure for her.
But which way, and …
He frowned as he stared at the brush. There was something that caught just a bit of a glint of the sun beneath a heavy pile of brush by one of the huge old oaks.
He walked over and picked it up.
Officer Ben Chambers’s phone!
He held it. Closed his eyes.
And he knew.
And he could only pray that Skye’s instincts would kick in and she would know the truth as well.
“Where the hell is the kid?” Vince demanded, frowning as he realized that little Jeremy was gone.
“Well, I guess I got most of the rope sawed through before you stopped me,” Skye said.
She had thrown her Glock to him as he’d ordered.
She could still be wrong, of course, but she had seen the fear in Ben’s eyes when the witch had aimed his weapon at him—automatic fire at that distance and the tree might die as well.
Fear? Or all part of an act?
She needed to see! But under her circumstances …
“All right,” Vince said, holding his AK-47 on them both, “there’s more rope to the right side of the tree there. Tie yourself up—not to the tree. I know your kind! You’d get behind it and try to disappear. I’d just as soon not shoot the two of you—not yet!”
“What do you want me to do?” Skye demanded.
“Tie yourself to Ben. And do it right and do it tightly. I’m watching!”