Danger on the Mountain (17 page)

EIGHTEEN

M
aggie pulled into her driveway and shut off the car, wishing she had a switch for the terror racing through her.

Shannon nudged her with the gun. “Now get out. And remember, I’ve got Belle.”

“I don’t need a reminder.” Maggie released the radio in her left hand and opened the car door. Her mind spun as she tried to figure out what she was going to do. How she was going to get away and alert Reese. She prayed he was listening in and was on his way to her house, but she couldn’t count on that.

What was she going to do? What about the will? A cold shudder ripped through her. She’d never mailed the envelope. The envelope containing the new will. If Maggie died now and Shannon got away with it, she would get custody of Belle.

“Inside.” Shannon gave her a shove toward the door. Maggie walked, but her mind spun.

“This was all supposed to be taken care of before now,” Shannon said. “I wasn’t even supposed to be here. You were never supposed to see me.” The pout in her voice scared Maggie. The woman sounded put out that she was being so inconvenienced. Maggie opened the door and stepped inside. She disabled the alarm and sent prayers heavenward. Shannon still muttered, waving the gun. Maggie slipped her hand in her pocket and pressed the button while Shannon continued her rant. “Those idiots I hired couldn’t even follow a simple plan. Rob the bank, grab you and Belle and get out.”

“And then what, Shannon? Kill me?”

“Yes. Exactly.”

The flat statement in the annoyed tone made Maggie gulp. How could the woman talk about killing her as though she were just squashing a bug in her house?

Fear made her nauseous.

She had to hold it together. Think. Think. Where could Belle be? The only thing that kept Maggie from screaming the house down was the fact that she felt certain Shannon wouldn’t hurt Belle.

“Where is it?”

The barrel of the gun kissed her lower back.

Her knees threatened to buckle.

She locked them and forced herself to walk toward her office.

* * *

Reese got on the radio to Eli. “Don’t pull in the driveway. Stop before you get to her house. I want to case the place and see if I can possibly go in unarmed, pretend like I don’t know anything is wrong.”

The radio crackled then Eli asked, “You think that’s a good idea? From what you’ve said, that woman is unstable.”

“Right now, it’s the best thing to do.”

He rolled his car to a stop where the gravel began its crawl to Maggie’s house. Eli pulled up behind him. He looked at Eli. “Keep your radio on.”

“I’m right behind you.”

Reese took off his heavy coat, but left his gloves on for now. He needed to be able to move easily, unencumbered by the heavy material of the Sherpa coat. But he needed his hand warm in case he had to use his weapon. Cold fingers were slow fingers. Once he got a look at the house, he’d decide whether or not to pull his glove off his right hand.

The gravel crunched under his feet. His eyes scanned the driveway, the house, the woods beyond. He could hear the water lapping against the dock in a silent soothing rhythm.

Jason’s cruiser sat in the driveway. They were here. His heart thumped in a mix of anticipation of getting Maggie away from the woman and terror that he wouldn’t be able to do so.

Eli’s footfalls echoed behind him. Reese called Maggie’s cell phone once again. And again, it went to voice mail.

He looked at Eli. “What’s Shannon’s number?”

Eli shook his head. “I have no idea, I’ll get Alice to get it ASAP.” He pressed the earpiece further into his ear and Reese knew he was listening to the sounds coming from Jason’s radio. “Sounds like they’re at the back of the house. Maybe in her office?”

Reese crept to the front of the house, then rounded the corner to the office window. She had the curtains pulled but if he peered in at the corner... There.

He had a perfect glimpse of the gun in Shannon’s left hand.

* * *

Maggie’s hands shook as she pretended to go through the files. “I had it in here.”

“Why did you change it?”

Maggie paused and looked up, past the barrel of the gun into Shannon’s mad, snapping eyes. “Because I just wasn’t sure about you. And then you were here, living in my house, taking care of Belle and I thought...”

“What?” The gun lowered a fraction.

“I thought that you really loved Belle. That maybe I was wrong to change the will.”

Confusion flickered through the madness. “Of course I love Belle. She’s my only chance... Mom said that...”

“Your chance at what, Shannon?”

“Motherhood.” Her jaw tightened and the confusion fled. So did the madness. Sanity now stared at Maggie as Shannon went on. “I had an abortion when I was twenty-four. A back-alley type thing that led to a hysterectomy when I didn’t stop bleeding. I’ve been diagnosed with a mental illness, too, so adoption is out of the question.” She snorted. “It’s so unfair. As long as I take my medication, I’m fine.”

Medication. The strange pills in the aspirin bottle that Reese had almost taken?

“So you decided to make Belle yours.”

“From the minute I found out you were pregnant.” She waved the gun. “Now get the paper.”

But Maggie didn’t move. “That’s why you were so nice to me,” she whispered. “You wanted my trust. You wanted me to think you were on my side and that you would help me...”

“And it was working just fine until Kent showed up and scared you off.”

“I thought he would hurt you if I stayed.” She remembered how Shannon had begged her not to leave, said she wasn’t scared of Kent and didn’t care what he thought about Maggie staying there. But Maggie had cared. Maggie had wanted to protect the woman from the violence that followed Kent wherever he went. Especially if he was displeased with someone. And he’d been very displeased with Maggie.

Shannon’s grip tightened on the weapon. “I know. I was furious with him. All he had to do was stay away and...” She broke off and screamed, “Now get the paper! I don’t have time for this. They’re probably looking for you right now.”

Maggie could only pray that was so. She’d had to release the radio button to search the file box. It would have been too obvious if she’d left her hand in her pocket. However, she managed to snag the envelope addressed to the lawyer with the new will in it. With subtle ease, she maneuvered it into her pocket with the radio. “Tell me where Belle is, Shannon. I need to know where my baby is.”

“She’s safe. And she’ll be with us. That’s all you need to know.”

“Us?” Before Shannon could answer, Maggie bent back over the file drawer and in one smooth move, snagged the horse-head paperweight in her right hand and brought it around to catch Shannon in left shoulder.

The woman screamed and dropped the gun. Maggie kicked it under the bed and bolted for the door.

* * *

Reese watched Shannon fall back against the wall as he threw himself through the window. Glass shattered around him, his back stung and his neck felt like someone had drawn a razor blade across it, but none of that mattered as Shannon’s back disappeared through the doorway. “Now!” he yelled into the microphone.

The crash of the front door greeted his order.

“Shannon! It’s the police! Drop your weapon!” He hollered the words, but didn’t hold out hope they’d have any effect on the woman.

Scrambling to his feet, he bolted from the room.

He raced into the den and came up short. Shannon had managed to snag Maggie’s blond ponytail and now had her at gunpoint in front of the fireplace.

Eli and Cal stood, weapons drawn.

A standoff.

Heart in his throat, Reese watched Shannon’s eyes, looking for sanity. His stomach dropped as he saw the trapped look of a wild animal. A desperation that made her incredibly dangerous.

“Let Maggie go, Shannon.”

Her eyes cut from the officers in the doorway to Reese. She drew herself up and yanked on Maggie’s hair. Maggie winced and met his gaze. Terror mingled with fury.

“Tell them to get out!” Shannon screeched at him. “Out! Out! Or you’ll never find Belle!”

Reese jerked his chin at Eli. The man shook his head. “Go,” Reese said. “Shannon doesn’t want to hurt anyone, do you? She just wants to be with Belle.”

Shannon drew in a deep breath and some of the wildness left her eyes. “That’s right. My Belle. Mine.”

“Kent was going to take her away from you, wasn’t he?”

Her lips tightened and she jerked a quick nod. Sorrow replaced the madness in her eyes. “He said I could have her. Then he said I couldn’t.” Confusion, then anger flashed. “But I got her anyway.”

“You planned to kill him, didn’t you? The night you hit him with the rental?”

“No.” Shannon shook her head, the frown deepening the lines in her forehead. “No, I didn’t plan it. It just...happened.”

“Tell me how it happened,” Reese coaxed, drawing on his negotiation skills. Skills he hadn’t had to use in a long time.
Please, God, give me the words.
“Tell me.”

She nodded to Eli and Cal who’d backed up, but hadn’t left or lowered their weapons. “Tell them to leave.”

Reese shot a glance at Eli then the window behind Shannon. Maggie’s dark eyes stayed on him and he tried to convey his determination to make sure she got out of this alive.

Because Shannon had killed once. He had no doubts she would kill again.

NINETEEN

M
aggie did her best not to struggle. Staying still was almost impossible with her head cocked at such a strange angle and her neck muscles protesting. But Shannon was talking to Reese. She was listening. And Maggie thought Shannon had lowered the gun a fraction. Shannon’s grip on her hair wasn’t quite so tight.

Eli and the others backed up. Eli met Reese’s eyes briefly for a moment of silent communication that Maggie wished she understood. Then they were gone, leaving her alone with Reese and Shannon.

Shannon relaxed a bit, enabling Maggie to move her head slightly and ease her screaming neck muscles. Then Reese coaxed, “Tell me how it happened.”

“My car was in the shop. I...I got a rental car that day and was going to a party that night.” As she talked, she tensed again and Maggie winced as pain shot through her skull. Reese’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t take them from Shannon.

“A party? Right, I saw that in the police report. You had an alibi for that night. They questioned you and the people at the party. You left the same time everyone else did.”

From the corner of her eye, Maggie could see a sly grin cross the woman’s lips. “I didn’t plan it that way, it just...” Shannon shrugged. “It just worked out perfectly. Like God was telling me I was right and everything was going to be all right.”

God?
Maggie wanted to scream at the woman.
God doesn’t condone murder.
She bit her lip and swallowed the words. So far Shannon hadn’t killed her and Maggie didn’t want to do anything to provoke her.

Reese said, “The police questioned you. Everyone said you were at the party all night and that you left when everyone else did.”

“Of course. I felt ill and went to lie down. The hostess escorted me to a room on the second floor and told me to take as much time as I needed.” Tension shook her. “The longer I lay there, the madder I got. I couldn’t stand it. I called Kent and told him to meet me.” Her words took on a singsong tone as she said, “He said he couldn’t, he was busy. I knew what he was doing. He was gambling. Gambling away more money.” A tremor shuddered through her. “He’d called earlier that day and told me I couldn’t have the baby. I was shocked. I didn’t understand. But I’m not stupid. I’m not stupid!”

“No one thinks you’re stupid, Shannon.” Reese’s voice soothed, his body language conveyed confidence and an easygoing manner. But Maggie could see the coiled tension just below the surface. She didn’t think Shannon would notice.

“Better not think I’m stupid. I’m not.”

“You slipped out of the house, took the car and met him. And no one saw you leave?”

“No, apparently not. I didn’t sneak out, but I didn’t tell anyone I was leaving either. No one saw me slip out the back door, I guess.”

“Or sneak back in,” Reese said softly. “What happened? You met Kent...”

“And he told me that I couldn’t have the baby. Just...flat out said I couldn’t have her. He’d decided to keep her.”

“Because of the money.”

A growl erupted from Shannon’s throat. “Yes, he’d found the envelope from Maggie’s grandfather. And he said he had to keep Belle and kill Maggie and all his problems would be taken care of.”

Maggie wanted to vomit. That someone could think so little of her life. Someone who’d professed to love her at one point. A wave of dizziness swept over her, and her neck cramped. And yet Shannon seemed to have forgotten about her. The woman was lost in her story, her memories, her hurt.

Maggie brought her hands to her chest and clasped them as though to pray. Reese’s gaze flicked to her, then back to Shannon.

Shannon shifted, growing agitated. “But what about me? What about the fact that he’d promised me Belle? What about me! He didn’t care about me! He laughed at me.” Her voice dropped, chilling, the fury radiating as she remembered. “He laughed. Said I wasn’t fit to be a mother anyway. And I just...lost it. I got in my car and while he was standing in the road laughing, I ran over him.” She gave an eerie chuckle. “He stopped laughing.”

The gun dipped and Maggie acted. She slammed her elbow back into Shannon’s midsection.

Air whooshed from her lungs. The gun dropped to the floor and Maggie was finally free from the iron grip on her hair. She sank to the floor next to the gun and grabbed for it.

“No!” Shannon’s screech cut off as Reese tackled her. Shannon’s foot caught Maggie’s hand and the gun skittered away from her.

Right next to Shannon’s hand.

Shannon snagged it.

Reese’s hand clamped down on her wrist, but still Shannon wasn’t ready to give up. “Let me go! You can’t do this to me! She’s mine!”

Maggie’s fist shot out, and she clipped the woman on the chin, stunning her. Shannon’s eyes shot wide, and she went still as Reese stared at Maggie in shock—and pride.

Knuckles throbbing, Maggie silently thanked her police officer friend from church for her lessons in self-defense as she stared down at the woman who had caused her so much grief. “Belle and I were supposed to be kidnapped that day at the bank,” she said, her voice low, terror for her own safety fading. “And then they were supposed to kill me, right?”

Shannon nodded, her eyes narrowing. “And then Belle would be found by the police and she would be given to me.”

“Because my will stated that you would get Belle and the money that came with her. When that failed, you simply wanted that man, Douglas Patterson, to kill me. He shot at my house, Shannon. He could have killed all of us, including Belle!”

Shannon snorted. “That never should have happened. He was incompetent and stupid.” Her eyes changed, glazed over as she said, “But it doesn’t matter now. I have Belle. I’ll always have Belle. She’s mine.” Then Shannon laughed. And laughed.

Maggie wanted to slug her again. “Where’s my baby!”

But Shannon was beyond talking as Reese called for Eli to come in and take her away. The words
Psych ward
reached her ears as a violent tremor shuddered through her. Where was Belle?

* * *

Maggie felt as if she was going to fall apart. Reese rushed to her and wrapped his arms around her. “We’re going to find her.”

“She’s okay. She’s not hurt. Shannon may be mentally ill, but she wouldn’t hurt Belle.”

Eli stepped back inside. “Cal’s here. He got Jason to the hospital and he’s in surgery. Looks like he’s going to make it. He’s going with Shannon to the hospital to see if he can get any more information about Belle from her.” He looked at Maggie. “We’ll find her.”

“Please,” she whispered. The thought of never seeing her child again was more than she could bear. Tears flowed down her cheeks, and she allowed herself to lean against Reese, allowed him to comfort her for a brief moment.

Then she sniffed, stiffened and pulled away from him. “What can I do?”

“What?”

“I need to be doing something to find her. What can I do?”

He stared down at her and for a moment she thought he would tell her to let them handle it. But she couldn’t. She needed to do something.

Eli said, “You can think. Think back on every conversation you had with Shannon. Did she ever tell you anything, say anything that would indicate that she was planning something? Where she could leave Belle while she dealt with you?”

Eli’s phone rang and he answered it while Maggie forced her brain to cooperate. “I don’t...” She shook her head. “I don’t know. She talked a lot about missing Belle. She quit her job...”

“She was fired. We already looked into that.”

“Oh.”

Eli looked up from his phone. “And she bought four one-way tickets to Paris.”

Maggie flinched. “Four?”

Simultaneously, Maggie and Reese said, “Her parents.”

Eli hung up, dialed and barked orders. He looked at Maggie and Reese. “Let’s head for the airport. Their flight leaves in forty-five minutes. Shannon may have told them to go on if she didn’t make it.”

“It’s at least and hour and fifteen minutes to the airport. Can you stop the plane?” Maggie asked as she rushed out the door toward the police car.

“I’m working on it,” Eli grunted as he slipped into the backseat. “Drive, Reese, while I try to stop that plane and give descriptions to security.”

Reese drove. Maggie prayed and Eli consulted with airport security. She watched the clock. For the next forty-five minutes, she prayed and listened.

Eli finally said, “They’re holding the plane.”

“Have they found Belle?”

“Asheville P.D. is there looking for her. I had them pull up driver’s license photos so they know what the Bennetts look like.”

“It’s not a very big airport. Why haven’t they found them yet?” She bit her lip and closed her eyes on the panic threatening to swamp her.

“They could be in disguise.”

“No, no, no. Please, God,” she whispered. Reese reached over and grasped her hand with his. She drew comfort from his warmth, but felt his tension. She shuddered. “What if they see people looking for them? What if they get suspicious? What if—”

His hand tightened. “No what-if’s. We’re going to get her back.”

Maggie clamped down on the fear and her panicky words. “Right. Of course we are. We have to.”

Within minutes, Reese pulled up to the curb, lights flashing on top of the car. He held up his badge to security and the man waved them on.

Eli was back on the phone. “Where? Got it.” He looked at Maggie and Reese. “This way.”

They hurried through the crowd. Thanksgiving was in two days, she realized. People packed the airport. Rushing to the gate, they were met by TSA security officials who cleared them within minutes then escorted them to the gate. Airport security had been briefed and was anxious to help.

Maggie drew up short.

Sitting twenty yards away were Mr. and Mrs. Bennett. In Mrs. Bennett’s lap was Belle. Security sat on either side of them.

Maggie rushed forward and dropped to her knees in front of her daughter. Belle squealed when she saw her and launched herself at her mother. Maggie caught her and rocked backward landing on her rear end, but holding Belle as close as she could without squeezing too hard. She breathed in her little girl scent, set her on the floor in front of her and ran her hands over every inch of her child.

She looked up at her former in-laws. “Why?”

“We didn’t realize we were kidnapping her,” Mr. Bennett said. “Security found us and told us what was going on. Shannon called and said she might not make the plane and for us to just go ahead and she’d catch up later. She said she had custody, that you signed her over. She showed us the will and spun a story that—” He broke off and a lone tear slid down his cheek. “We’re sorry. I think we knew something was wrong, that there was no way you’d just sign her over, but we hoped...we wanted to believe so much...we’re sorry.”

She could see their grief, their pain. It all looked real, as if they truly had no idea what Shannon was doing. Maggie drew in a deep breath and felt some of her anger and bitterness toward this couple start to fall away. She stood and picked up Belle. To Reese, she said, “Will you check out their story? Make sure it’s true?”

She nodded and looked at the grief-stricken husband and wife. “If what you say proves to be true, then I won’t keep Belle from you. You can see her whenever you want.”

Twin expressions of shock greeted her announcement. Mrs. Bennett blinked. “What?”

“Shannon was a con artist—and mentally ill. I can see how she could play on your grief for Kent and your desire to see Belle. I can’t hold that against you.” She paused and studied them. “If what you say is true.”

“It’s true,” Mr. Bennett whispered. “I promise, it’s true.”

Mrs. Bennett gave a small cry and leaped to her feet. Throwing her arms around Maggie’s neck, she whispered, “Thank you.”

Maggie felt hope sweep through her. And relief. It was over. Her eyes met Reese’s and the tender expression there made her gulp.