Chapter 35 – Bam
Chapter Thirty-Five
BAM
The sun’s dropping down the horizon before I get back to Josie’s place.
Niki and I finished our to-do list, and Niki ran the funds back to Carter while I went home.
Home. It’s really Josie and her dad’s place, but the cozy walls, colorful carpets, and small oak table in the kitchen with the flipped-down leaf that we always keep up now that I’m hanging around is more welcoming than the apartment that Niki and I have shared since we started working for the Riders.
It’s the place I think about at the end of the day.
There’s a magnet drawing me there. Or maybe it’s just Josie. Wherever she is, I want to be.
I put my face up to the video camera in case someone checks it before I knock and then open the door. It’s quiet enough I can hear the ticking of the clock in the kitchen. Everyone must be napping. I toe off my shoes and pad quietly down the hall.
Abe’s door is closed, but Josie’s is wide open, and her room is empty.
I check the bathroom and living room and end up in the kitchen, confused.
Her phone says she’s here. I ping it. The chime comes from the bedroom.
I find it face down next to a bunch of notebooks on her desk. The last text is from me.
Be home soon
She wouldn’t leave the house, or at least not stray very far away, without her phone. I hurry out of her bedroom and run right into her dad.
“Sorry, Abe. You know where Josie is? She left her phone on her desk.”
Abe rubs his eyes. “Can’t be far then.”
“Would she go for a walk without her phone?”
He shakes his head. “Nah, I’ve never seen her more than two feet away from that thing.”
The hair on the back of my neck prickles. “Is the doorbell video saved anywhere?”
Abe catches on to my concern and snaps to attention. “I’ve got an app on my phone.” He retreats inside his bedroom and returns, his fingers fumbling over the screen. I bite the inside of my cheek to keep a curse inside.
The phone rings right as he accesses the video, and as the image of Cole’s father appears on Abe’s phone, I hear the old man’s voice on the other end of mine.
“I’ve got your girl,” he rasps. “Gonna send you a photo. Come to my address or it’ll be the last image you’ll see of her.”
He hangs up before I can respond. The text alert pings immediately.
I grip the metal so tightly I can hear it crack.
Josie sits on a metal folding chair, her legs tied to the base and her hands wrapped behind her back.
There’s a white cloth in her mouth. I close my eyes and beat the rage back.
The floor is dirt, and there’s straw around her feet.
“There’s a couple outbuildings on Cole’s father’s property. He’s probably holding her there.”
“How far away from the main house?” Abe’s on the move. He kneels down next to his bed and pulls a long arm out. “I got a handgun, too. Which one do you want to use?”
“Neither. I’m a fists guy myself.”
Abe gives me a skeptical look.
I shrug. “When you’re carrying a weapon, every criminal act is bumped up to a felony.”
Abe lets out a choked laugh. “Take this then. You point and shoot. Can’t miss with a shotgun. It won’t kill them either if you’re worried about that. Would’ve thought a gang member was handy with a gun.”
“I can hold my own,” I promise, but I take the shotgun and head out the door. Abe is right behind me. He veers over to the cab of his truck and climbs up on the passenger side. A few moments later, he joins me with a Glock tucked into his hand.
I drive, and he holds the shotgun between his legs with the Glock resting on the dashboard.
“I’ll drop you off a little before the drive. You okay to go through the brush?”
He nods grimly. We don’t talk after that. There’s nothing to say. We’re going to save Josie. End of story. After Abe climbs out, I toss the shotgun in the back seat and roll down the window. I am more of a fist guy, but I’ll use whatever tools I have.
I stop the truck right before the porch.
Cole’s dad stands in the middle of it, a shotgun resting in his arms, the index finger of his right hand tucked against the trigger.
Of course he’s armed. It hits me as I approach the stairs that this man probably killed his son.
I don’t know why, but he must have, and that’s why he came for Josie.
I raise my hands up so he can see I don’t have a gun. “I’m here.”
“Walk on that dirt path.” He points the gun’s barrel toward a well-worn trail that circles around the side of the house and toward one of the outbuildings.
“I’m sick as hell to do this to you, but you brought it on yourself.
Don’t try anything funny. I’ve got the whole barn wired.
Your girl and Cole’s friends will be nothing more than cow mulch if you so much as sneeze wrong. ”
Cole’s friends. His dad must be behind the disappearance of the other guys. I start walking. “Why’d you kill him?”
We both know I’m talking about Cole.
“Didn’t mean to. Told him to stop struggling, but he wouldn’t listen. I needed to get the devil out of him.” The man sucks in a shaky breath.
“The gambling devil?” I take a guess.
“That’s right. How’d you know?”
“Rumor was that he was throwing games and taking money for it.”
“The coach figured some stuff out and was going to report Cole to the police. I couldn’t have that, so I pulled the fire alarm and snuck in and stole the report. Blamed it on the other players because they should have stopped him.”
“Why’d you take Cole’s friends?”
“They were all in on the devil’s game. I’m saving them.
Cole’s death served as a blessing. They’re all reading the Bible now.
They’ll soon come to see the light, and then I can let them go, but that little reporter girl was causing problems. The police were out here asking me all kinds of things.
Wanted to search the property. They didn’t find nothing because they don’t know where to look, but I knew they’d be back. ”
“Too many missing people is going to cause more questions, don’t you think?”
“No one cares about you, son. You’ve got no family. No one to miss you. Josie, now, she’s someone people might miss, so I’m glad that her dad’s come. They can repent together.”
His words catch me by surprise, and I stumble. A coarse laugh tumbles from his lips. “Thought I didn’t know? I’ve got cameras too. I needed to wipe that video footage, so I needed to get her dad here. Thanks for helping me out.”
In the distance, I hear a gunshot and then a cry. I halt in my tracks and turn toward the sound. A flock of birds shoots into the sky.
“I’ve got traps all over this land. Don’t worry about the old man, though. He’ll be fine. Once he repents, I’ll let him down.”
I’m going to have to take this man down before we reach the barn.
I can’t see his shadow, which means he’s more than six feet behind me.
If I turn to face him, he could probably shoot me before I was able to reach him.
There’s nothing but flat land between me and the barn, so there’s no cover.
There’s only one option left. I drop flat on my face.
He yells, and the gun comes up, but I’m already on my back, dirt in my hand.
I throw it up in the air and then roll to his right.
Since he’s right-handed, he has a more limited range of motion in that direction.
I guess correctly because the shotgun splatter strikes the dirt next to me, but I escape.
It gives me enough time to rush forward, keeping to his right.
He tries to swing around, but the motion is awkward.
I knock the gun out of his hands and tackle him.
I grind a handful of dirt into his eyes and then strike his head into the ground once and then twice. His body goes lax.
I scramble off of him, grab the gun, and then race toward the barn.