Confer, Lorelei - Deadly Revenge (BookStrand Publishing Romance) (23 page)

“Oh, no, that wasn’t the deal. The deal was I get you a young woman and you pay me for her. I got her for you, now you pay up.”

Two of the men had already gotten into the van and the last man closed the side door, turned around, and round-house righted Paige. She dropped to the floor of the porch, knocked flat on her ass and unconscious. He jumped in the passenger seat of the van and tore off down the road, making a hasty retreat.

* * * *

“Where are you taking me?” Tory asked once the van had left the cabin area. She knew she had to escape. Different plans ran through her head randomly, none coming to fruition. She couldn’t count on anyone but herself from this point forward. She only knew she had to get away.

Chapter 42

Chief Carr and Sam were in the air at first light, and everyone else had already hit the roads in search of the black car with tinted windows. Dave had answered Tory’s phone call and heard most of the beginning conversation. He heard Tory talking to a woman and trying to get the woman to tell her where she was but no such luck. They didn’t have enough time to triangulate the call before his phone went dead.

He worried too much time had gone by. The murderer’s MO was always a quick snatch and kill.

In the copter, they began searching in circles, beginning in the center of town and going farther out each time in hopes the car would be visible and they would find Tory in time. The Chief was in constant contact with the ground patrolmen in cars.

They had been at it the entire day and by mid afternoon there was still no sign of any black car. None that they didn’t investigate and verify anyway.

It was the dark car parked at a small cabin in the distance that caught Sam’s attention in the helicopter.

“Do you know about this cabin, Chief?”

“No, I’ve never been out in this part of the county. It must be a hunting cabin. What do you think the chances are Victoria’s in that cabin?”

“Wait, look. There’s a black van going away from the cabin.”

“Let’s get the coordinates to Dave ASAP, and he can follow the van. He’s had a black van under surveillance for a couple weeks now and maybe this is it,” Sam said. “We’ll get another LEO to get to the cabin ASAP.”

Chapter
43

Officer Pulitz returned to the police station and studied Laura’s diary, making notes and checking them against the murder books of each of the victims. He was extremely surprised at all the details revealed and their accuracy. They needed to find Laura as soon as possible. He immediately called Dave.

* * * *

Brandon, Sue, and Anne continued to pore over the photos that Dave gave to them from Tory’s desk. Sue identified Laura in a number of the photos and then went to the table and studied the outline of the city. She found Laura standing behind a tree, shrub, street light, et cetera, in almost every picture. Not only was Tory being followed by Paige in the big black car, but also for some reason by Laura, the librarian.

Everything was beginning to fall into place.

Chapter 44

Something wasn’t right with this picture. The hair on Tory’s neck bristled as the van bumped along the back roads as if the drivers had been here before and knew the way. They knew exactly where to go—which turns to make.

“Who are you and what do you want with me?” Tory tried to ask through taped and trembling lips.

“Shut up or I’ll do it for you,” the guy sitting beside her said.

She took them seriously. She inched her hands toward the seat belt button, to try to unfasten it and get out the side door of the van, but the guy sitting beside her grabbed her hands.

She had no idea who these people were or what they wanted from her. She knew she needed to get away from them before she got sold into the sex slave market.

* * * *

An hour or so later, the van slowed and finally came to a stop. One of the masked men opened the side door and helped Tory out, only to secure her hands behind her back with masking tape. She was then taken to a wooden building, similar to a barn, with the door open. Tory was pushed inside and lost in the crowd of other people there as well, mostly young women and children. There were about twenty others inside the barn, all with hands secured behind their backs with masking tape. They were sitting, standing, and some even lying on the barn floor.

The inside of the barn was unpainted and had only one other opening in the far back corner which was dark. There was no furniture. Another black van, longer than the one she rode in previously, was parked inside the barn.

Tory was pushed into their midst and was soon lost among them all. No one spoke. No one moved. No one knew they were there.

* * * *

Sam called Dave with the coordinates of the cabin and Chief’s comment about Tory’s chances she might be in the van.

Dave and his LEO for the day sped along the seldom-used road in the direction of the coordinates. Sam radioed Dave to “take care and wait for backup. That’s what we’re here for.”

“I’ll take care all right. Don’t worry about me.”

They soon had the cabin in sight and found Mrs. Paige Wilson unconscious on the front porch of the cabin. Who else had been here?

He’d hollered and searched the cabin for any sign that Tory had been here but found nothing. He looked for a common underground hideout—a trapdoor under a rug, freshly dug dirt of a grave, et cetera. She simply wasn’t there. He searched the grounds but found nothing. Tory was nowhere in sight.

Dave radioed Sam and asked for the coordinates of the black van.

“Dave, the van stopped at a barnlike building which is connected to a larger building, hard to see from the air and even harder to find on the road. It might be the exchange location you’ve been working on. Do you know how to get there from where you are?”

“I think so. I’ve been out this way before. I never noticed the cabin because it sits back off the road quite a ways. I’ll follow the trail of the van while you take the chopper back and get out here for backup.”

“Will do. Over and out.”

* * * *

Dave heard the helicopter turn and head back to the pad. He hoped Sam made good time out to the barn. He would surely appreciate his backup. He still had other LEOs who had been called along with the others, Tim and Ron on the team. So he felt confident as he traveled the road leading to the barn. What could go wrong? He searched his brain for a plan. He needed a definitive plan—a job for each person to get Tory out and any others who may have been stuck in there.

* * * *

The gunmen also heard the helicopter, and one of them fired his rifle into the air and everyone shut up immediately. Tory could hear a pin drop among the sorrowful sobs.

“Let’s start loading. Everyone get in the van. Stand up so there’s enough room for everybody,” he said grumpily as everyone started to move quietly out of the building and into the van. The windowless van was already hot from the afternoon sun beating down on it. Tory could only imagine how hot it would be once they were all crowded inside.

While the gunman was on the other side of the van Tory felt a tug on her right shoulder. What now, she thought. She turned to look and saw Laura the librarian there with a finger held to her mouth to be quiet. Laura quickly led Tory away from the group and into the woods, where they remained perfectly quiet until the van was loaded and had driven off down the road. Even then, they both remained quiet to make sure no one was left behind to guard the building.

“Laura, thank you, but how did you find me?”

“I followed Paige and then followed the van here.”

“Laura, why did you do that? You really are the best of friends.”

“Oh yeah, we’re so close you never call me, you never stop in to see me, you never shared the pictures we took together, nothing. Your Miss Goody Two Shoes attitude is over.”

Laura grabbed Tory by the arm and started dragging her further into the woods.

“Wait, wait, wait! Where are we going? Do you know a shortcut back to the main road?”

Laura laughed, a sick, loud, cackling sound which echoed closely in the dense mountain forest.

“You were the nicest girl to me in high school, but when you went away to college you never kept in touch like you said you would. When you had your engagement party, everyone in town was invited. Except me. How do you think that made me feel? When you had a bridal shower, was I invited? No! When you were going to get married, was I invited? No, again. I was only your friend when you wanted me to be a friend. True friends don’t forget about their friends when they go away to college, now do they? But you did, didn’t you? And now you’re going to pay for it big time. See how you like being left alone with no friends to help you.”

“But Laura, I didn’t have a say in any of those things. My sister did the invitations for my bridal shower, and my mother did the ones for the weddi—”

“And who wrote to me when you were away at college? Did you? Or your sister or mom? No one, that’s who. You are not my friend.”
Slap!
Laura slapped her across the face.

Tory turned on Laura, and—
slap!
—Tory slapped Laura’s face as she wrenched herself clear. She had had enough playing around for the last day or so and wasn’t going to let a meek and mild librarian mess with her anymore.

“Let me go! I’m tired of being messed with. And don’t try anything either. I’m much stronger than I look,” Tory yelled. “I don’t care what you think of friendship, but I’ve had enough of it and you for one day. I’m going back to the cabin and back to town. You can walk along with me or stay here by yourself. I don’t care one way or the other.”

Tory turned around and started back to the barn when she heard a gunshot behind her.

* * * *

Dave had arrived at the barn, and as he had feared everyone was gone. He had had surveillance on this building for two weeks waiting for them to make their move, and then when they did he hadn’t gotten there in time.

Then he heard a gunshot and started running toward the sound in the woods.

He found Tory, crouched down on her knees, leaning over a slim young woman, about Tory’s age, with blood running out of her mouth. A gunshot wound to the abdomen, the gun still in her hand.

“Laura, lay still, concentrate on breathing. Don’t talk now,” Tory said.

“Tory, you don’t understand. I killed them for you. So you and Matt could be together like it was always supposed to be. You were the only friend I ever had, and if you’re not going to be my friend then my life is worthless. I may as well be dead, just read my di–diary. Everything’s in my di–diary,” Laura said in between deep breaths, hesitating between her words, blood now spewing from her mouth.

* * * *

Dave called for an ambulance. By the time he reached Tory, Laura had stopped breathing, and Tory jumped into Dave’s welcoming arms.

“I didn’t think you would find me. I managed to get my phone out of my jacket pocket and I told you I loved you, but I think my phone was dead by then.” Tory managed to say in between sobs, her body trembling with remorse and fear.

“I heard you, sweetheart. Those were the sweetest words to my ears. I will cherish them always.”

Chapter 45

Dave contacted Sam for his ETA, Estimated Time of Arrival, and found out that Sam and the rest of the team had apprehended the vans. They were all headed to jail while the victims, once questioned, were soon picked up at the police station by their loved ones. Matt and Paige Wilson were arrested on trafficking charges.

Sam would meet Dave at the compound as soon as possible.

Tory overheard Dave talking to Sam and wondered what he meant by traffickers. So when he was finished on the phone, she asked him.

“When I first planned on coming to Hickoryville, it was strictly for pleasure. Then we got word that a large trafficker was working the area pretty hard, and Sam called and asked me to do some reconnaissance in the area, so I’ve been doing surveillance on them at night when they move. I just needed the team here to help me capture them.”

“So when were you going to tell me about any of this? If I had known I could have been more careful and maybe never would have been abducted in the beginning. I told you about the feeling I was being followed. Who was doing that?”

“It wouldn’t have mattered if I had told you or not. In fact, it may have been more hazardous to you. Paige had her eye on you from the beginning or even before you hit town. You were the other woman and she didn’t want you here. Laura Peterson had it out for you as well, once you broke your promise to come by the library and share your pictures with her.”