Burn Out (22 page)

She tried to make small talk. “How
long have you lived around here?”

Paul sat in silence. She sneaked a
peek at him. He was sullen and lost in thought. She tried another
tactic. Maybe he didn’t want to talk about his transgressions. “My
dad used to own hunting land in Alabama. He would shoot anything
that moved. From deer to dove to turkeys.” She came to a fork in
the road. Left would take them to the interstate and towards
Pensacola. If they went right, it would take them back to Santa
Rosa Beach.

“
Take a right.” Ahhh, so we are
heading back to town, Stacy thought. This could be a good sign.
Maybe he would drop her off at the nearest gas station.

In anticipation of getting there
and also worried about her friends, she pushed on the gas pedal and
watched her speed slowly increase.

“
Keep it within the speed limit.”
Paul finally noticed she was going faster.

Stacy eased off the gas pedal. They
were getting closer to the beach. The Clyde B. Wells Bridge, which
crossed over the bay, was looming up ahead. They would be at the
beach in a matter of minutes. She wondered what Paul had in mind
once they got to where they were going.

***

“
Stacy should have been back by
now. She would’ve gotten cell service up by the main road. What
should we do?” Rachel asked Mike.

“
Do you think you will be okay
here? I can start walking that way and call for help as soon as I
get service,” Mike offered.

The sound of a truck coming down
the drive got their attention. It was an old red Chevy. Not Stacy.
It came to a stop and an older man in blue jean overalls got out.
“What the hell happened here? You can see the smoke all the way up
at my farm!”

Mike stepped forward and introduced
himself. “The cabin exploded as soon as we drove up.”

“
Huh. Where’s Paul?” The man looked
suspicious.

“
We have no idea. We saw someone
running off towards the woods right before the explosion. It could
have been him.”

The old man took off his hat and
rubbed his hand through his thick gray hair. “Huh.” He seemed to be
at a loss for words. Welcome to the club, Rachel
thought.

“
Did you happen to call the fire
department?”

“
Yep. But it will take them a while
to get here. Volunteer.” He looked over at Sam. She was still
huddled up in the blanket. “What happened to her?”

“
Long story,” Rachel
said.

“
Did you pass a black Dodge Ram on
the way here by chance?” Mike asked him.

“
Nope. Sure didn’t. I thought…”
Sirens howling in the distance interrupted his thoughts. “Huh. That
was faster than I thought.

They watched as a fire truck and
ambulance pulled up to the cabin. The firefighters immediately
pulled their hoses and started attacking the fire. There wasn’t
much left of the cabin, but they were concerned about the fire
spreading into the surrounding woods.

Rachel directed the paramedics to
Sam and waited while they tended to her.

“
You are going to be okay,” Rachel
said to her. “The police will find Paul.”

“
I hope so. I’m worried about my
kids.”

“
I’ll give your mom a call and let
her know to meet you at the hospital,” Rachel told Sam as the
paramedic loaded her in the ambulance.

Sam grabbed her hand. “Thank you
for everything.”

Rachel smiled. “Take care of
yourself.”

Mike was giving the police officer
the details of what happened at the cabin. The officer put a call
into Chief Gladstone and told them he was on his way
here.

“
We also put an APB out for your
truck as well as for Paul Hart,” the officer added.

“
There is a lot of land to cover
here. Paul may still be hiding out somewhere,” Rachel said. “We
should go back to the hotel and get the team together to look for
him.”

Gripping the steering wheel
hard, Stacy knew she had to come up with a plan. The odds of Paul
just letting her go were slim. He had obviously gone off the deep
end.

“
Where we going?” Stacy
asked again.

Paul let out a sigh. “Don’t you ever
shut up? We are going to get my money and then I am taking
off.”

“
Taking off
where?”

“
That is none of your
business.”

“
Are you planning on
letting me go?”

Paul seemed to think this
over. “As soon as I let you go, you will call the cops. So what do
you think?”

“
I think you’re crazy.
That’s what I think.” Stacy regretted the words as soon as they
came out of her mouth. Paul got red in the face and slammed his
fist in the dashboard.

“
I think you better shut
the fuck up and not say another word or you will be swimming with
the fishes soon.” He hooked his thumb in the direction of the
water.

They were just coming off
the bridge. “Take your next right. We are almost there.”

Stacy knew he lived
somewhere off this road. Rachel had mentioned it when she asked Red
to drive by Paul’s house last night. Maybe she would get lucky and
Red would be staking out the house. Rachel and Mike may have called
the police by now, too. She had been gone for over an
hour.

“
Take a left here. Third
house on the right,” Paul snarled at her.

She drove up the gravel
driveway to a nice brick house. The house was actually in good
shape. No way of knowing a psycho lives here. She put shifted the
gear into to park and waited. “Now what?”

“
Shut off the truck and get
out. Don’t think about running. I will put a bullet in your back.
Don’t tempt me.”

There were plenty of houses
around, although his house was far back from the main street. She
didn’t want to risk it just yet.

She got out of the truck
and walked up to the front door. She would wait until the right
time to make her move.

While the outside of the
house was nice and orderly, the inside was a complete mess. It was
obvious he was remodeling. The flooring was covered in paper and
there were sheets covering all the furniture. It still faintly
smelled of wet paint. Empty beer bottles and pizza boxes littered
the kitchen countertop and the trash can was overflowing. Stale
beer, wet paint, and sweat – the smells made her stomach churn. She
wondered why he would go through all the trouble of fixing up a
house if he was planning on skipping town. Something must have
happened recently to make him go nutso.

“
Nice place. I like the
paint color.” She tried to make nice.

“
Sit down.” Paul uncovered
a wooden dining chair. After she sat down, he picked up a roll of
duct tape off the kitchen bar. “Put your hands behind your back and
sit real still.”

He had to put the gun down
in order to tape her up. It was now or never. She heard him place
the gun on the countertop. As soon as she felt him starting to go
down behind her to bind her hands, she sprang up and knocked over
the chair, causing Paul to fall backward into the
countertop.

“
Fucking bitch!” Paul
slipped on the paper covering while trying to stand back up. Stacy
lunged for the gun on the countertop. Her hand hit the cool metal
of the gun just as Paul put his hands around her waist, trying to
pull her down.

“
Let me go you mother
fucker! I’ll shoot your balls off.” Stacy tried to fight him off.
Paul was still trying to drag her down. She tried to remember the
defense moves her ex-boyfriend taught her. She swung her left elbow
back and connected with Paul’s nose. He still didn’t let go, but
his grip slacked enough for her to turn around.

She pointed the gun at him
and pulled the trigger.

Rachel called Nora to let
her know Sam was being transported to the local hospital. She was
overjoyed Sam was okay. Rachel told her she would stop by the
hospital later to see her.

Chief Gladstone and Jeff
Stanton met them at the cabin. Mike and Rachel explained to them
what happened. Chief Gladstone said they would send someone over to
Paul’s house to check it out. An APB was already out for Mike’s
truck and an arrest warrant for Paul was in the works.

Rachel was becoming worried
something happened to Stacy. She used Jeff’s phone, which was the
only one that had service, to call Stacy’s phone several times, but
it went to voice mail each time. “Something went wrong,” Rachel
said.

“
The police are out looking
for my truck and Stacy. She will turn up,” Mike tried to assure
Rachel.

“
That was Paul who ran. He
set fire to the cabin as a distraction and he ran. Somehow he got a
hold of Stacy when we went looking for Sam. I know it. I can feel
it.”

“
Jeff is going to give us a
ride back to town. We will go back to the hotel and get your truck.
We’ll find her,” Mike said

* * *

Stacy stared at Paul, then
back at the gun.

Paul laughed. “Guess the
joke is on you! The gun wasn’t loaded. Stupid bitch.”

Stacy was so stunned she
didn’t have time to react when Paul swiped the gun from her hand.
He pounded the gun into her temple and she crumpled to the
floor.

“
Time for a little burn
out.”

He had to work quickly. He
knew he didn’t have much time before the cops were crawling all
over the place. Too bad things didn’t work out according to plan.
He really wanted to have a new life with Sam and the
kids.

“
Oh well, Plan B,” he said
out loud to no one in particular.

In the garage, he hauled a
couple cans of gasoline into the house. He started pouring gas
around the furniture, splashing some on all the walls.

“
Such a shame. I had big
plans for this house.” No one would probably find Sam for a long
time –she was hidden away. He hesitated and thought about letting
someone know where she was. But then again, if he couldn’t have
her, no one else should be able to. Mack was taken care of. Ken was
in jail. She would be all alone anyway. What was another murder? He
would be far, far away by the time they discovered both
bodies.

He grabbed his bag – the
one he had packed over a month ago – and his fake passport. He
would go to his hideout until things cooled down. Then he would
make his escape. He was glad he put most of his money into an
offshore account. Harder to trace.

He walked back to the
garage and uncovered his motorcycle. Everyone thought the bike was
being worked on, but Paul finished it months ago. No one would
suspect he got away on his bike. He had been on his way to his
hidden truck when Stacy found him. That part was unplanned, but
proved to be genius.

When he got to the house
and got out his matches, Stacy was still out cold on the floor. He
lit a match and threw it against the wall. The curtains immediately
caught fire. He took one last look around and left. He strapped his
backpack to the bike, got on and took off, never looking
back.

***

Rachel called Red once they
were on the way back to town. “Take Maggie and head back over to
Paul’s house. Chief Gladstone said he was sending a patrol car over
there, but I’d feel better if you went, too. I have a bad
feeling.”

“
Sure thing. I was
beginning to wonder what was going on. I’ll call you when I get
there.” Red hung up.

“
I had just gotten the call
from Jack Speights before I left for the cabin.” Jeff looked over
at Rachel. “Mack’s truck had been messed with. It wasn’t an
accident.”

“
I knew it! Stacy did, too.
What happened?”

“
Simply, his brake lines
were cut. When he tried to slow down at the big curve, his brakes
failed and he ran off the road. When he hit the embankment, his
truck rolled over. Mack wasn’t wearing his seatbelt and he was
thrown from the truck.”

“
Jack tells me Mack was
getting suspicious of Paul. And I think Paul knew it. He must have
followed Mack that night and then took the opportunity to mess with
his brakes.”

“
That fits. Paul used to
work as a mechanic. Tammie told me it’s what he did while in high
school. His dad owned a car repair place in town.”

Rachel’s cell phone rang.
“It’s Red. He must be at Paul’s place.” She took the call.
Immediately Mike knew something was wrong when she said, “See if
you can find Stacy. We will be there as soon as we can.”

“
He just got to Paul’s
house.” Rachel turned around to the backseat and said to Mike,
“Your truck is there and the house is on fire.” She pleaded to
Jeff, “Please hurry!”

Stacy felt the heat
pressing down on her body before she even opened her eyes. “Oh,
shit,” she thought as she struggled to open her eyes. Flames were
dancing all around her. She tried to get up, but she couldn’t
move.
The bastard tied my hands and feet
together with duct tape
. A loud popping
sound diverted her attention from trying to get free of her binds.
The paint cans in the kitchen were exploding. She worked faster,
rubbing wrists together - back and forth. The heat was actually
starting to work in her favor. The glue in the duct tape was
melting and she was able to work free of the tape around her hands.
She was elated when she got her hands free. But the feeling was
short-lived when she realized there was nowhere to go. She was
surrounded by fire.