Killer Love (44 page)

“There’s something I need to tell you,” he said.

She nodded but when he didn’t speak right away, a flutter of panic went through her heart. “What’s the matter?”

Wil shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at her with a look of ragged agony.

“Wil, what is it? What’s wrong?”

“Lindsey’s missing,” he said, his voice raw with emotion.

“Missing?”

“Someone took her. Late last night—early this morning, actually. Murdered the boy she was with. It almost has to be connected with what happened to you.”

An icy wind chilled her insides. “It
is
connected. This is what he meant.”

Wil’s eyes narrowed and he took her gently by the shoulders, staring down into her face. “What he meant by what?”

“He talked about a backup insurance policy. He must have meant Lindsey.”

“Jesus,” Wil whispered, then released her and shook his head. “What does the bastard want? Why let you go?”

Abby sighed and crossed her arms around her middle. “He has an insurance policy for that, too.”

“What do you mean?”

“He implanted a device. An explosive device. Inside me.”

Wil’s eyes widened and his face tightened with disbelief. “Good God...what...” He shook his head and lifted his hands helplessly. “How...” he broke off and once again shook his head, his hands now hanging limply at his sides, as if all the air had left his body.

“It’s a small explosive. In my abdomen. He has a detonator and if you don’t do what he wants...”

“No. That can’t be.” Wil suddenly seemed infused with energy. “He’s just trying to scare us. We need to take you to the hospital, have you checked out. And if it’s true, we can have it removed. Right?”

She shook her head. “Wrong. He made sure of that. He also had a transmitter placed underneath my skin. It measures body temperature. If I go under anesthesia, he’ll know. He’ll detonate the explosive.”

****

Reeling from what Abby had told him, Wil reached out and gently lifted her shirt just far enough to look at her stomach. His gut clenched when he saw the white gauze against her tan flesh. He ran a trembling finger over the edges, touching the rough bandage, then her soft skin. As if seeing it made it more real, he felt a lump rise in his throat. He blinked rapidly, fighting the tears, and dropped her shirt back in place.

Wil had never felt more helpless in his life. His daughter was missing and Abby had been... God, he couldn’t even get his mind around what the son of a bitch had done to her. And, the most frightening thought of all...the psycho who’d done this horrible thing had his little girl. What might he do to Lindsey?

A tingle started between his shoulder blades and moved up through the back of his neck. His chest constricted and he had to struggle to draw oxygen into his lungs. He was losing it. He didn’t know what to do next, where to turn.

“Wil?” Abby’s concerned voice broke through his thoughts. “Are you okay? You look pale.”

“Yeah.” He clenched his teeth and took a deep breath. “I’m fine. Listen, we need to make sure everything he told you is true. The fewer people who know about this, the better, but we need to take you to the hospital for an x-ray. Maybe if I tell them it’s official police business, they’ll be discreet.”

“I know who can help. My stepfather is a surgeon at St. John’s.”

“Here? Your parents live here? You never told me.”

She shrugged. “I guess it never came up.”

They’d been together for a year. That was the sort of thing that should ‘come up’, but it was just another part of Abby’s life she’d closed off to him.

“We also need to go by the police station. You should give them your statement.”

Her eyes widened and she put a hand to her lips. “I don’t want to...” she shook her head. “It’s so awful, so humiliating.”

“Hey,” Wil reached out and squeezed her hand. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You were a victim. This son of a bitch has got to be stopped. We need to inform the authorities.”

She nodded and Wil slid a hand underneath her hair, cupping the back of her head, then placed a kiss on her forehead.

“Now, let’s go take a look at your insides.”

Chapter Eight

On the drive to the hospital, Wil continually scanned the streets and sidewalks for any sign of Lindsey. Each time he saw a girl his daughter’s age, his heart would speed up. But it wouldn’t be her. It never was.

He and Abby had gone by the sheriff’s department first and Abby had given her statement to Ray, closed up in his office with just the three of them there. The older man had been gentle and understanding with her and Wil was grateful to him for that.

The receptionist at the hospital, a thin woman with large brown eyes and an upper lip badly in need of waxing, looked up when Wil and Abby stopped at her desk.

Abby gave her name and asked for Doctor Novak. The receptionist picked up the phone and made a call, then replaced the receiver and said, “Go to the sixth floor. The doctor will be waiting for you.”

Wil and Abby rode the elevator in silence, Abby with her back to him, staring up as the lighted numbers counted away the floors. No one joined them on the way. St. John’s Hospital wasn’t exactly a bevy of activity.

The elevator doors slid open seconds later and, as promised, Abby’s stepfather was waiting for them when they stepped off. He wasn’t at all what Wil expected. Wil had pictured someone tall, distinguished, someone who looked like a surgeon.

Ross Novak was barely 5’6. Fat bulged from his neck down, as if a giant hand from above had squashed him and everything pushed outward. Wispy brown hair sprouted from his nearly bald head. His homely face lit up when he saw Abby.

“Abby, my dear! How wonderful to see you.” He held out his pudgy arms and Abby hesitated, then stepped forward for a brief hug.

“Ross, this is Wil Garrett,” Abby said. “Wil, my stepfather, Ross Novak.”

Wil grasped the man’s hand in a quick handshake.

“I’m afraid this isn’t a social call,” Abby told him. “I need a favor.”

“Anything, my dear. Anything at all.”

Abby explained everything, including what had happened to Lindsey, and Wil saw the color drain from the man’s face, his jovial expression melting like a sno-cone on a hot griddle.

When Abby finished, Ross wiped tears from his eyes and hugged her again, this time longer, but gentler. “What do you need me to do?” he asked when he released her.

“The first thing we’d like is an x-ray. We want to make sure this creep is telling the truth and not just bluffing.”

Novak nodded. “Come with me.”

He punched the ‘down’ button on the elevator and the three of them stepped in. They rode to the second floor where they followed Novak down a hallway and through double doors that read ‘Laboratory and X-rays’. Novak introduced them to Don, a middle-aged, Native American man in a white lab coat.

Novak explained what they wanted and Don took Abby through a door while Ross and Wil waited in an adjacent room. Neither of the men sat. Wil paced while Novak stood with his hands in the pockets of his lab coat, staring at the floor.

“I’m sorry about your daughter,” Novak said softly.

Wil stopped pacing, a new and sudden pain gripping his chest as the realization washed over him once more. It was strange that sometimes he could almost forget Lindsey was missing. Then, when awareness returned, a bout of guilt and grief ten times stronger than the previous one would suffuse him.

“Thanks,” he managed to say through the tightness in his throat.

Novak raised his head and looked at Wil. “I never had children of my own, although I wanted them. When I married Charlene, Abby’s mother, Abby was eleven. I thought she was the most amazing, most beautiful child on earth and I felt somewhat like a new father must feel when his baby is brought into the world. I couldn’t imagine loving a child of my own any more than I did Abby.” His smile was pensive. “Abby didn’t take to me right away. Still hasn’t, really. But I adored her. I know she resented me because Charlene and I married just a few months after her father died. Can’t blame the kid. I tried to be the best father I could be. We moved here to be close to Abby, just in case she needs us. You know, after what she went through. I don’t see her much. Not nearly often enough. She and her mother go to lunch once a month or so and I see her when she comes to pick Charlene up. On holidays, we sometimes get together. I’d hoped for more, but what can you do? Giving her that boat didn’t even make a difference.”

Wil didn’t know what she’d been through, or what boat Ross referred to—he was pretty certain Abby herself had purchased the Bayliner—and he didn’t ask. Now wasn’t the time to ruminate Abby’s past with her stepfather.

Ross’s gaze moved to the wall that separated them from the room where Abby was being x-rayed. “I can’t imagine what she must have been feeling,” he said quietly. “The terror she experienced. I’d die if anything happened to her.” He looked back at Wil. “You have to help her. Please.”

“I will.”

“You love her?”

Wil hesitated. He’d never actually said the ‘L’ word to Abby. Not really. Six months into their relationship, he’d told her he thought he was falling in love with her and she’d said, ‘Please don’t.’ But he had, he’d just never brought it up again. She couldn’t stop him from admitting it to her stepfather. “Yes. Very much.”

Ross gave a quick, satisfied nod. “You let me know how she does. If she needs anything, call me. She won’t call me, but you will, okay?”

Wil promised that he would. The door opened and Don came in, holding a large manila file, his expression grim.

Wil didn’t have to wait for Ross to look at the films to know what he’d find.

****

Lindsey was in her own bedroom. Well, not the bedroom in Blue Harbor, but the one she’d had when she was younger. The one at her grandpa’s cabin, where her mom had died. It looked different now that it was empty, but she knew it was her bedroom. The pink carpet and lavender walls were the same.

The cot she sat on was the only piece of furniture in the room and she could see the section of carpet she’d burned when she was eight and had lit her trash can on fire by throwing matches she’d just blown out into it. She wasn’t trying to burn anything, she just liked the smell of matches.

Mom had been really pissed, but only for a little while. Lindsey could tell she was mostly scared. They had pushed her dresser over the charred circle and Lindsey had almost forgotten about the incident until she saw the evidence now.

She stood and paced around the room, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. It wasn’t really cold, but she felt cold anyway. What was she doing here? How could this asshole get into her grandpa’s cabin? Dad had sold it after Mom died. Had this freak bought it?

She crossed her arms over her boobs. The shirt was way too low-cut. Her Dad would spaz if he saw her in this. She’d worn it for Birch.

Thinking of him made a pain shoot through her stomach and to her chest.

Oh God, Birch
.

He was dead. The asshole had stabbed him. She began to tremble and went back to the cot, lowering herself on shaky legs. Great sobs tore through her, and she clamped a hand over her mouth, not wanting to bring the man into her room.

She closed her eyes and tried to think of Birch alive, not like she’d seen him last. He’d been lying on the beach. She’d seen the blood just before she passed out.

Opening her eyes again, she pushed the sight from her mind. She wouldn’t dwell on that, she’d think happy thoughts. Thoughts about the first time she’d seen Birch when he’d been hanging out with Alyssa’s older sister, Amber.

Lindsey had immediately developed a big-time thing for Birch, right then, like love at first sight or something. She never thought he’d notice her, a fourteen-year old girl. But he had, and she’d been sooo excited.

Then, he’d wanted her to meet him at the plaza. Every chance they got, which wasn’t often since her Dad kept such close tabs on her, Lindsey and Birch had snuck away to hang out. It was, like, the second time she’d hung out with him that he kissed her. She thought she’d died and gone to heaven. Each time, they’d gone a little further. Far enough, really, to kind of scare her.

She hadn’t liked what he was doing to her last night. That had felt creepy, but at least she had an older, hot guy who wanted to be with her. She figured she’d get used to the other. But now she’d never know, because he was dead.

She closed her eyes and tried to stop crying. She couldn’t think about that now or she’d go nuts. She had to figure a way out of here. She’d already tried the door and it was locked. Her window that had an awesome view of the ocean was boarded up.

She went to the door and tried it again, even though she was sure it was still locked. Her cell phone was gone. He’d probably taken it. She was screwed. Totally screwed. The tears she’d pushed back came now. Like a never-ending fountain, they streamed down her cheeks, spilling onto her neck and chest.

She was so freakin’ scared.

Calm down, Lindsey. Your dad will find you, you know he will.

Yes, she knew he would. But would he find her before she was raped...or killed?

She heard a clicking, jiggling noise, then the door opened and
he
came in. He was tall and goofy looking. The thick glasses made him look like a nerd. She’d find his appearance amusing, if she didn’t know what he was capable of.

She backed away, staring at him until she felt the cot behind her knees. She dropped onto it and once more crossed her arms over her chest. She’d felt kind of sexy dressed this way when she’d been with Birch. Now, she felt like a slut and this asshole seeing her in this shirt gave her the creeps.

He smiled like he knew what she was thinking.

“How you doing, Lindsey?”

He knew her name. That meant he’d kidnapped her on purpose, not just grabbed some random girl. Why?

She didn’t answer him.

“You hungry?”

Again, she stayed silent.

He shrugged. “You don’t have to talk, you don’t have to eat. You just have to stay here and be a good girl so that I don’t have to kill you.”