Jake (31 page)

He headed toward the ranch house in the distance. He’d watch and wait. And when the time was right, and Stanford’s daughter had worked herself up into a frenzy of worry, he’d strike like a rattler.

“What do you have for me, Raven?” Meg gripped the phone like a lifeline.

“We have a couple of solid leads, Meg.”

“Tell me.”

“It’s too soon. I’d rather wait until I have something concrete. But I can say that you were right about the boy in the photograph. His name is Blain Turner. Twenty-six. He aged out of the Michigan foster-care system at eighteen and took off for parts unknown. Hazel Godfrey was a fifteen-year-old runaway. I don’t know anything more than that yet. But they both spent time in juvie. We’re trying to find out if they were ever there at the same time.”

“Why would he want to lure Cory away?”

“I don’t have that answer yet, Meg. But it’s only a matter of time.”

“Time.” Meg paced to the window of her room at the Conway ranch and stared out at the sun setting behind the peaks of the Tetons in the distance. “With each hour Cory is away, the clock is ticking. He’s only seven, Raven. He could be lying somewhere, bleeding.” Her imagination had been working overtime ever since this morning. “I’ve worked on too many criminal trials to fool myself into believing there aren’t evil people out there, just waiting to prey on helpless little kids.”

“Stop tormenting yourself, Meg. Just hold a good thought, and let us do our jobs. We’ll get this bastard. I promise you.”

“More than that, I want Cory safe. And you can’t promise me that, Raven.”

“No, I can’t. But I give you my word, I’ll do everything in my power to find him, Meg.”

She gave a long, deep sigh. “I know you will, Raven. Has there been any activity at my ranch?”

“Nothing yet. I have a female operative inside, and several more watching from a distance. So far, nobody has come close. But it’s early. I still think whoever lured Cory away will try to make contact.”

When he rang off, Meg stood by the window, her hands folded as if in prayer.
Hang on, Cory,
she thought fervently.
Don’t lose hope.

Now, if only she could take her own advice.

Jake returned from his rounds, tired and sweaty and desperate for a shower and a cold beer. But first he wanted to find Meg and hear firsthand what she’d learned about Cory.

Just as he was stepping down from his truck Everett Fletcher pulled up behind him and climbed out of his police vehicle.

“Got any news, Everett?”

The police chief shook his head. “Some. I wish I had more. Is Meg inside?”

Jake nodded and led the way.

Meg was standing in the kitchen, talking softly with his family, when he and Everett walked in. At the sight of the chief all conversation ceased.

Meg stopped in midsentence to hurry over. “Do you have some news, Chief?”

“We’ve run a trace on your father’s third wife. Judge Bolton said that Porter had asked him to file the necessary papers to legally change her name from Hazel to Arabella. Kirby’s files show that her name had been Hazel Godfrey. She’d presented all the necessary documents before their marriage, but a check on them now shows they were very good fakes. The date of birth had been altered, because she’d been ineligible to be legally married in Wyoming without parental consent. Kirby had no reason to believe they weren’t authentic, and he performed the ceremony in his chambers. The records we’ve uncovered show her to be fifteen at the time of the marriage to your father.”

“Fifteen.” Meg’s breath came out in a long huff of disapproval.

“Kirby thinks that Porter actually believed her when she’d told him she was eighteen. He’d even joked at the time that he couldn’t decide whether to marry her or adopt her. But Kirby said that all joking aside, Porter was obviously in love with the girl. It may have been a May-December affair, but they both seemed happy with the arrangement.”

Meg drew inward, letting all these facts play through her mind. There was so much to take in.

Later, Phoebe announced that dinner was ready and invited the chief to stay and join them, and he accepted.

While the others filled their plates with roast beef, mashed potatoes, and garden vegetables, Meg moved the food around her plate, and sipped great quantities of tea, hoping to soothe her jangled nerves. How could she possibly think about food when Cory was out there somewhere, alone and afraid?

Sensing her nerves, Jake closed a hand over hers and squeezed. She glanced over and caught his gentle smile. Though she tried, she couldn’t return his smile. Her heart was too heavy.

She lowered her head, afraid that at any moment she would break down and embarrass herself by weeping.

Cory wanted to cry. He’d figured that if he just came as he’d been ordered, Blain would take him away, and that would be the end of it. In his heart, the boy had thought it was the right thing to do.

Meg would be safe. That was all he cared about anymore. He was sick of the lies. Sick of the threats. Sick of all the death and pain and misery that seemed to surround him like a dark cloud. He’d thought he could make it all go away.

But Blain had promised, and now he saw that it had been a lie.

It was all just a big mess. And it was his fault. All he’d wanted was to make things better, and all he’d done was make things worse. All of a sudden it didn’t seem to matter that everybody would know the awful truth. Something even worse was going to happen now. Blain was still planning on hurting Meg.

The ropes that were burning into his wrists and ankles, and the fact that poor Shadow was hobbled and miserable, didn’t matter as much as the fact that it had all been for nothing.

He thought about all the things Jake and Big Jim had told him about following his conscience. But they were wrong. Look what had happened. And all because he’d done what he thought was the right thing. But it was all wrong, and it was all his fault.

One big tear slipped from the corner of his eye, and he couldn’t even wipe it away. It rolled down his cheek and dampened the front of his shirt.

He looked at Jake’s hat, lying in the straw beside him.

He wanted Jake right now. He had a sense that if Jake were here, everything would be all right.

He felt a sense of guilt because he wanted Jake even more than he wanted his own dad or mom. But maybe it was only because they were dead and couldn’t help him. Jake was big and strong and alive, and if only he were here…

He sniffled, wishing he could wipe his nose.

Oh, Mom
, he thought.
I’ve let Jake down. Let Meg down. Let Big Jim down. I’ve let you and Dad down.

He felt like the lowest creature in the world, lower than a worm, for all the trouble he’d caused.

And all because he’d wanted to do the right thing.

Chapter Twenty-Six

As he had often in the past, Blain Turner sat in the fork of the tall tree, which afforded him a clear view of the Stanford ranch house. Hidden as it was in the shadows of the forest surrounding it, he was able to see without being seen.

He’d been watching the woman inside now for more than an hour. She was sitting at the table with her back to the window, occasionally lifting a cup to her mouth.

Blain felt a tingle of apprehension. Why was she alone? Especially now that she knew the kid was missing? It didn’t make sense. Where was Jake Conway? Out searching for the kid?

Blain decided to test the waters. He needed to keep her busy at the back door while he slipped around to the front and forced his way inside.

He composed a text.

Go to back door for a note from your brother

When he hit send, he waited to see her reaction.

The woman continued drinking her coffee. As far as he could see, she hadn’t reacted to the delivery of a text to her phone in any way.

Meg was sitting in the great room of the Conway ranch, where the others were doing their best to keep her mind off her troubles. She loved them for it, even though her mind kept wandering to Cory. Where was he? Was he alone? Afraid? Hurt?

Big Jim was relating an amusing incident from his past.

“…driving the herd down from the high country when…”

She heard the ping announcing a text on her phone and snatched it up. When she read the text she let out a gasp.

Big Jim stopped talking. Everyone looked over as she read the message aloud.

“This text says, ‘Go to back door for a note from your brother.’”

“That’s good—,” Cole started to say.

“Oh. No.” Meg covered her mouth with her hand before quickly dialing Raven. As the others gathered around she put the phone on speaker so they could hear.

“Raven, the kidnapper has sent me a text. I’m supposed to go to the back door for a note from Cory. But I’m not there.”

Raven’s tone was firm. “This could be a trick, since none of my operatives reported seeing anyone near your ranch house, Meg. But just in case he’s serious, text him back saying you’ll need a minute to comply. I’ll phone my decoy right now and advise her to go to the back door. If this guy tries to force his way inside, my operatives will be ready for him.”

Meg sucked in a quick breath before texting:

Will do. Give me a minute.

Then she looked around at the others, seeing the concern on all their faces.

She sighed. “Please say a prayer that this is all a trick and they manage to catch him.”

Jake closed a hand over hers and squeezed.

After receiving the text, Blain saw the woman answer her phone and nod her head before setting the phone aside. She sat a few moments before getting up from the table and moving away from the window. Scant seconds later the back door opened and the woman stood framed in the porch light, looking around for the promised note.

Blain tensed. The timing was all wrong. A woman frantic for news of a kidnapped kid didn’t behave like this. She’d have been at the door in the blink of an eye.

He lifted his binoculars and studied the woman’s face. She had red hair and was slim and young. But that was where the similarity ended. This woman, clad in simple denims, wasn’t the pretty woman he’d observed in the past. This one was taller. And definitely not a knockout beauty.

Not Meg Sanford, but someone standing in for her in a sting.

He knew a thing or two about how cops worked.

With the high-powered binoculars he began scanning the area around the ranch until he located a man lying in the grass at the top of a hill overlooking the house. Scanning further he spotted a figure crouched beside the barn. Circling back he spied yet a third man at the base of a tree, nearly lost in the shadows.

Satisfied that he hadn’t been spotted, he slid silently from his hiding place in the tree and slipped away into the surrounding woods.

As he made his getaway he felt the hot bile of fury rising to his throat.

Who did they think they were dealing with? Some half-baked amateur?

He’d show them. All of them. And especially the high-and-mighty Meg Stanford. Hotshot, famous trial lawyer, was she? When he was through with her, she’d be reduced to begging for both the kid’s life and her own miserable life.

“Meg. Raven here.”

Meg and the others had waited for what seemed an eternity for some sort of report. In reality it had only been a half hour or so. But the agony of not knowing had them all pacing.

Now they gathered around her phone to hear what he had to say.

“There was no note outside the door. Not that we expected one. We think he was probably watching the house and wanted to shake things up a bit.”

“He managed to do that, Raven.” Meg’s voice was trembling slightly. “Do you think he noticed that the woman wasn’t me?”

“Hard to say. If he was the cowboy at your father’s funeral, he had a good look at your face.”

“What do we do now?”

“He’s holding the cards. We just wait to see what he does next.”

“You’re sure we’ll hear from him?”

“He has Cory. He wants something in exchange. I have no doubt he’ll contact you. Let me know the minute you hear from him.”

She ended the connection and was just about to set down her phone when she heard the ping of an arriving text.

She stared at the words in horror.

It read:

You think you’re so smart. You’ve just signed the kid’s death warrant.

Meg let out a cry before dialing Raven to read him the text. As she did, the Conway family let out a collective gasp.

Jake closed a hand over her shoulder and felt her tremble.

She drew in a breath before saying, “You realize that the decoy you set up has gone horribly wrong.”

“Now, Meg, don’t panic.”

“Raven, your plan just collapsed. Now tell me what Plan B is.”

He sighed. “I have people searching for the boy.”

“Not good enough, Raven. This text mentions Cory’s death. I don’t believe this guy is just playing us.”

“I don’t think so, either. But you have to be patient, Meg.”

“No.” She bit off the word and took several deep breaths before saying, “You can afford to be patient. You’re the professional. But we’re talking about my little brother, Raven. I want you to step back from this and let me try my way.”

“Tell me what that would be.”

“I’m going to text this person and tell him I’ll do whatever he asks. No more decoys. No tricks.”

Raven’s tone held a note of resignation. “That’s what he expects to hear.”

“Then you agree with me?”

“I’ll agree that you should react the way he expects you to. If you text him saying you’ll do whatever he asks, he’ll demand money, and lots of it. And he’ll demand that you meet him alone, with no police.”

“I’m willing to do that.”

“I’m sure you are. As I said before, for you, this is personal. But you pay me to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. And in this case, you have to listen to me, Meg. You go off thinking you can rush in where angels fear to tread, you could ruin everything. Do you understand?”