LEAP OF FAITH (24 page)

She nodded thoughtfully and stood up. “Let’s hope he can find those poor women so we can bring Jack home.”

Abby volunteered to sit in the back with Prince and tossed her keys to Gage. She gave him directions to the police station and then spent the time on the way there futilely attempting to calm her nerves. Within minutes of their arrival, they were ushered into the Sheriff’s office.

Sheriff Crane offered Abby a sympathetic smile. “I don’t think Jack had a thing to do with the Sawyer girl’s abduction or any of the other disappearances,” he assured her, “but I have to do my job, and right now it doesn’t look very promising for him.” He nodded to Nick. “Are you his lawyer?” 

Nick introduced himself, nonchalantly passing Gage off as his assistant. “He’ll be taking notes while I converse with Mr. Burton,” Nick explained. The Sheriff nodded but she could tell by his expression that he knew full well Gage wasn’t anyone’s personal assistant. 

“I can let you and your…assistant visit with Jack, but I’m afraid Miss Travis won’t be allowed visitation just yet. I’m sure you’re aware that I’ll be obtaining a warrant to search his cabin so I’ll have to ask that none of you enter it until we’re done. Sorry, Miss Travis,” he apologized, “I know you were hoping to see him today but I’m bound by protocol to limit his visitations to legal counsel for the time being.”

Abby’s spirits plummeted. After extracting a promise from her brothers to assure Jack she wanted to see him but had been barred from doing so, she told them she was going to run down to Lou Lou’s to talk to Sherri. With a few hours to kill, she felt her time was better spent obtaining more information from Sherri than moping around the waiting room at the police station. She was depressed about not being able to see Jack, but knowing her brothers had rallied around her made Abby feel better. It would make Jack feel better too. 

She pulled up in front of Lou Lou’s, taking a few minutes to drum up the courage to go inside. Although she didn’t relish the idea of going in there alone, she really had no choice if she was going to catch Sherri before her shift ended. The day was cool so she didn’t have to worry about leaving Prince in the jeep; even so, she rolled the windows down a few inches on each side.

Abby did her best to ignore the curious stares that greeted her when she walked into the bar. There were more important things to concern herself with; like asking Sherri about the first victim, Marietta Howard. She took a table as far away from the scant patrons as she could and waited for Sherri to come by her table. The waitress, who had been Jack’s champion from the beginning, glared at the other customers as she dropped into a seat at Abby’s table.

“How’s Jack doing?” she asked with genuine concern.

“They won’t let me see him,” Abby replied miserably. “My brothers are there now. Nick is a lawyer and Gage is a cop. Nick’s going to try to arrange for bail on Wednesday.”

“Thank the Lord,” Sherri sighed. “You know, I was a little worried that you would jump ship when they arrested him. I’m damn glad you didn’t, and I’m sure it will do Jack a world of good to know you’re sticking by him.”

Abby glanced around. “Sometimes I think we’re the only ones who believe Jack is innocent.” She looked back at Sherri. “I know why I believe in him, but I have to ask; why do
you
have so much faith in Jack?”

“Because I was with Jack the night Willa disappeared.” Abby must have looked shocked because Sherri patted her hand and rushed on. “Oh, it was nothing like
that
. I’m way too old for the likes of that gorgeous man, although I have to admit I’ve had a daydream or two. There,” Sherri grinned, “I got a smile out of you."

“I can’t begrudge you a few daydreams,” Abby told her. “Just don’t expect me to be quite so understanding if you make a play for my man.”

Sherri’s bawdy laughter provided the two women with a short reprieve from their anxiety. "I think Jack is a lucky man to have found you, Abby Travis.”

“I’m the lucky one,” she replied, her mood sobering. “You were telling me about the night Willa disappeared.”

“Yes, but I should preface it by telling you a few things first. You see, after the third girl disappeared, I admitted to Jack that I was scared to death to leave work at night. That’s all it took as far as he was concerned. For over a year he showed up here about half an hour before closing time and waited around so he could walk me to my car and follow me home. When Willa started working here, I told him he didn’t have to babysit me anymore because we were both here until closing and could walk out together. We only lived a few blocks apart so it wasn’t as scary going home.” 

Sherri paused when a customer held up his check, waving it impatiently. She hollered out for him to leave the money on the bar, blatantly ignoring the man’s grumbling as she continued her story.

“On the night Willa disappeared, I started feeling real sick shortly after my shift began. Jack came in for a late dinner and it was about eight o’clock by the time he finished. He was worried about me because I let it out of the bag that I was feverish and my stomach was hurting something awful. He hollered back to Chet that he was taking me to the urgent care center and that’s just what he did.

"The nearest walk-in clinic is twenty miles away, so it was after ten-thirty by the time he dropped me off here to pick up my car. I guess I was so out of it I didn’t even notice Willa’s car was still parked near the back of the lot. Jack followed me home and then left. That was a Thursday night, so Willa would have left around ten o’clock, a good thirty minutes before we even got back from seeing the doctor.”

“That proves he had nothing to do with Willa’s disappearance, but what makes you so sure he’s innocent of all the other abductions?”

The fierce tone of Sherri’s voice left no doubt as to her staunch loyalty. “Jack Burton is the kindest man I have ever known. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, and anyone that says differently is going to get hit alongside the head by me. He would give you the shirt off his back if you asked him. I don’t need proof that Jack is innocent, I
know
it. I don’t have a clue why that Sawyer girl said his name when she was half out of her mind, but there’s just got to be something we’re all overlooking.”

“I think so, too. And now that my brothers are here, I’m confident we’ll figure it out.”

“You really think your brothers can help him?” 

“Let’s just say I have as much faith in them as you have in Jack.”

Sherri looked hopeful for the first time since Abby’s arrival. “If you need anything, you let me know.”

“Actually, I do have a few questions. You’ve lived here all your life so you probably know most of the women who disappeared on a personal basis. I was going over the newspaper articles about the abductions and was curious about something. All the women who disappeared were rather plain looking except one.”

“Marietta Howard.”

“Why do you think that is?”

Sherri shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you. Marietta was the queen snob of this town. Her dad was the Mayor back then and she thought the whole world revolved around her cute little tush.” Sherri chuckled. “Actually, it sort of did. She had every boy in this town and the next panting over her. Dated most of them, slept with about as many.”

“Was she dating anyone in particular at the time she disappeared?”

“That would be Everett Mizzerach, but he was simply the last contestant in the game Miss Hot Pants was playing. It started about a year and half before…”

Abby grabbed a napkin while Sherri continued to talk and jotted down four names, along with notes about each man as the sordid details unfolded.   

“Well, she’d been hot and heavy with Ronnie Phillips the year before but broke it off and hooked up Jake Grant. Ronnie owned the grocery store and Jake was Walt Grant’s boy. There was a rumor she was also playing Josh Thackery against Walt’s boy just for the fun of it. She enjoyed having men fight over her, always did. Then a month before she went missing, out of the blue there was a big announcement in the paper that she was engaged to marry Everett, of all people. Caused quite a stir, I can tell you."

“Why is that?”

“Oh, Everett had the looks for sure, and he owned the local newspaper so he made a comfortable living, but Miss High and Mighty had always made it clear that she was going to marry someone fabulously rich so it seemed rather odd that she would settle for Everett.”

“Was he ever a suspect? Maybe she broke it off with him too and he killed her in a jealous rage.”

Sherri shook her head. "Like most of the male population here, Everett had hearts in his eyes when it came to Marietta, but I doubt even that woman could provoke him into a rage of any sort. Everett has always been on the reserved side, and as long as I’ve known him, I can’t say as I’ve ever seen him lose his temper. Besides, Everett was devastated when she disappeared.”

“If her reputation was as bad as you say it was, why would anyone assume she had been kidnapped rather than having run off with another man?”

“I’m sure there were plenty of people around here who believed that’s what she had done, but it didn’t take long to figure out foul play was involved because Marietta was such a daddy’s girl. There was no way she would cut ties like that, especially if it meant losing her inheritance. Poor Everett was such a lost soul after that. Don’t know why anyone would mourn a woman who had slept with half the men in town and busted up more than her fair share of marriages. I don’t care how pretty or rich she was. Any one of those so-called plain girls was worth ten of her.”

“What about all the other women? Did they have anything in common that you can think of?”

Sherri mulled it over for a few minutes. “I don’t mean to sound so shallow, but none of them were much to look at, and I guess you could say they were all a bit shy. I don’t recall that any of the women were married when they went missing, although a few had reputations for being on the easy side.” She shook her head sadly. “I can’t see a way out of this for Jack unless the real killer shows up with a written confession in his hand. If that Sawyer girl doesn’t come around soon and clear things up, he could get convicted, and that scares the hell out of me.”

Abby was quiet for a minute, going over what Sherri had said about overlooking something. The novel she was writing involved a serial killer, so when Jack had urged her to research the subject, she had picked up quite a bit of information on behavioral patterns. When the Sawyer girl escaped, the killer would have been enraged; not necessarily because she had gotten away, but because his hunger for murder hadn’t been satisfied. Which meant he could be looking for a new victim soon. Suddenly, Abby knew what she had to do. 

“Listen Sherri, I think I know a way we can help Jack, but I need you to do me a huge favor…”

“You did what?”
 Gage was furious. Nick didn’t look as though he was taking it any better. “Why would you do that?” he shouted. “No, don’t answer that. I know why you did it, but it was damn stupid, Abby.”

“I had to,” she said calmly.

Nick’s voice was low and even; an indication he was just as angry as Gage. “You set yourself up for a killer, Abby. You should have let us handle it.”

“You
will
handle it. You’ll be here to catch him when he shows up.”

Gage threw his hands up and stormed outside to the deck. Nick merely shook his head and started pacing, contemplating what to do next. 

After Abby had explained to Sherri why she thought the killer would strike again, Sherri reluctantly agreed to spread the word that with Jack in jail, Abby would be all alone at the cabin. With the exception of the cadaver dog she had procured. Lou Lou’s was gossip central for the citizens of Parkersville; it wouldn’t take long for the news to get around she was taking Prince into the woods the following day to sniff around for the Mountain Man’s victims. 

Sherri adamantly refused to do it at first, but Abby assured her she would be perfectly safe with Gage and Nick to protect her, not to mention Prince. Shamelessly playing on the woman’s affection for Jack, Abby convinced her there was no other way to prove his innocence and, in the end, Sherri had given in. Satisfied that the groundwork would soon be laid and hopefully set in motion her plan to lure the real killer into a trap, Abby had thanked Sherri profusely and returned to the police station.   

Admittedly, it was reckless to use herself as bait and put her brother’s lives on the line without discussing it with them first, but they would have vetoed it immediately. Oh, they wouldn’t have given a second thought to the danger it would expose them to and probably would have applauded the idea if they could tuck her away somewhere safe until it was over. Frightened as she was by the prospect of the killer stalking her, Abby couldn’t allow them to take any chances that she wasn’t willing to take herself. Which was why she waited until they returned to the cabin to tell her brothers, and now she waited patiently for them to calm down. The damage was done. It was up to them to figure out a way to protect her and catch the killer at the same time. Abby had faith. She had to. 

Absently stroking Prince’s head, she wondered if word of what she had done would find its way to Jack. It wasn’t likely, but it
was
possible, and she could only imagine the fine rage it would put him in. She glanced out the window and smiled at the sight of Gage carrying on an angry conversation with himself, and undoubtedly throwing in a few bad words, if she knew her brother. 

Nick finally stopped pacing. “Gage,” he hollered, “get in here. I think I have a plan.”

***

Jack sat in the same small room they had interrogated him in so many years ago and waited for his visitor. He assumed it was Nick, but no one would tell him anything around here, so it came as quite a surprise to discover they had allowed Sherri to see him when Abby had been prohibited from visiting.

“It’s nice to see a friendly face,” he told her. “How did you convince them to let you visit?”

Sherri took the seat across the table from him, smiling broadly. “Advantages of living in a small town and having Sheriff Crane as a brother-in-law.”

Jack grinned. He knew they were related, of course, but hadn’t thought it would account for much. “What did you do, have your sister threaten to withhold sex for a month if he didn’t let you in to see me?”

“Worse,” Sherri laughed, “she swore off making him dinner for a month
and
told him she would hide the remote control.”

“Ouch,” Jack grimaced.

Sherri leaned forward, her light-hearted mood dissipating in the face of reality. “How are you doing, Jack?”

“I’m holding up. Abby’s brothers were here to see me earlier. They’re doing what they can to get me out.”

“I know, she came by Lou Lou’s and filled me in.”   

His heart ached at the thought of Abby and what this was doing to her. “How is she, Sherri? She’s so fragile, I’m afraid this is going to crush her.”

Sherri snorted. “Fragile, my ass! Apparently, you don’t know your woman as well as you think you do! I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but…”

Jack listened without interruption, carefully maintaining a calm exterior until after she had gone. After hearing what the two women were plotting to do, he was livid with Abby for deliberately placing herself in such a dangerous position. He was shaking by the time they escorted him back to his cell, his mind ravaged with visions of a cold-blooded murderer targeting Abby while he was locked away and utterly powerless to protect her. Fear clawed at his chest, making it difficult to
breath
breathe
. The fact that her love was so strong, her faith in him so unyielding, only made the thought of losing her more unbearable. He paced the small space in his cell, feeling completely helpless and growing more and more desperate with each passing minute. He had to get out of here, had to make sure she was safe. 

It was a nightmare, even worse than the first time because he’d had an iron-clad alibi the day Marietta Howard disappeared. Jack replayed the conversation with Sherri at Lou Lou’s when she’d told them Anya was alive and what the girl had said;
Mister Jack
. Was it possible that Anya Sawyer remembered he was initially suspected of abducting the Howard woman and in her confused state of mind, she called out the name of the only man ever accused of the crime? That had to be it, but there was no way to prove it unless Anya was able to fight her way out of the silent, solitary place she’d retreated to, and there was little hope of that happening any time soon.

He tried to dredge up the names of the previous victims and what they might have had in common, even knowing how hopeless it was to believe he could sift out the name of the killer in the short time he had. If the Sheriff and his deputies had failed after years of examining the evidence and following every possible lead, what chance did he have of piecing the puzzle together? Jack gave himself a mental shake. He would
not
allow himself to be dragged down by despair or wallow in self-pity; he owed that much to his beautiful and courageous Abby.  

“Think,” he muttered under his breath. “You’re a murder mystery writer, for God’s sake.” Surely, all the extensive research he had done for his novels would be of some use to him now.

“Mister Jack,” he said out loud. The Sawyer girl had said
Mister Jack
. Why would she preface his first name with mister? Anya had never called him Jack before. On those rare occasions when she managed to overcome her timid nature and speak to him, she politely referred to him as Mr. Burton. She was a shy, respectful girl, whose bashful smile illuminated an otherwise nondescript face. Jack stopped pacing. 
Nondescript.  Plain.
All of the victims had been rather homely. 
No, not all of them
. The Howard woman had been quite a looker.

Resuming his restless march within the small confines of the cell, he conjured up an image of Marietta as he’d last seen her at the annual town fair. She’d worn a red knit summer top that clung to her breasts and skimmed her tiny waist. The skin-tight top was tucked into a pair of white hip-hugger denim shorts that were cropped so high on her tanned thighs, they covered little more than a bathing suit would have. But then, advertising her assets was something she was well known for, as well as her willingness to let a man sample her wares…for the right price, of course. 

Jack let out a snort of disgust. Marietta had been a vile creature; pitting one lover against another, destroying friendships and marriages and families simply because she could. The old adage that beauty was only skin deep had certainly held true in this case; Marietta was unquestionably the most stunningly gorgeous woman he’d ever met. Such a waste of God’s fine work; beneath the attractive exterior beat a cold, black heart that repulsed him to such an extent he hadn’t bothered to hide it. 

Looking back now, it was easy to see why he had been singled out as a suspect. By openly displaying contempt for the woman, the town’s people must have presumed he’d been jilted by Marietta when, in fact, it had been the other way around. The one and only time she had come on to him, Jack had been so quick to show his disinterest that she made a point of skewering him with venomous glares whenever their paths happened to cross. Which explained why her fiancé, Everett, had used his position as owner of the local newspaper to champion Jack when he’d been arrested ten years ago. Everett must have figured out why Marietta, who was shrewd enough to keep her past and present lovers on a string, publicly scorned Jack; he was the only male she had set her sights on that had turned her down flat.

Jack remembered how the women had treated her that day. They smiled if she chanced to look at them and seemed friendly enough if Marietta stopped to talk, but they hated her with a passion. It was in their eyes the instant her back was turned, that same gut deep revulsion he experienced in her presence. The men, however, had quite a different reaction. Shoulders squared, beer bellies were sucked in, and their smiles were genuine. He didn’t understand it. Promiscuous didn’t even being to describe Marietta Howard, and yet she had men from seventeen to seventy wrapped around her little finger, worshipping the ground she walked on and panting after her like love-sick fools. 

So which one of her besotted lovers finally woke up and saw her for what she was? And why, after ending her life, had he continued to kill, deliberately choosing women who were polar opposites of Marietta? There was little doubt that her licentious lifestyle was a contributing factor in her untimely death; regrettably, the repercussions of Marietta’s sins had a ripple effect that was still tearing lives apart in the small community. Jack was certain the key to unmasking the killer’s identity lay in pinpointing the reason
why
his lust for blood was being unleashed on women who had nothing in common with Marietta Howard.

Jack froze for a moment. Marietta had bowed to no man. She dominated them, built them up just to tear them down, granting brief access to her exquisite body before crushing them with unwarranted rejection. And then she made the fatal mistake of pushing one lover too far and he’d finally snapped, extracting retribution in a murderous rage. Was there remorse when it was over or had he triumphed in robbing her of the control she had over him? He had exalted in it, Jack decided, and once that feeling gradually ebbed away, he was driven to kill again. But the thrill wasn’t in the kill; it was in the
power
.         

Go back to Anya
, he told himself. Quiet, shy, respectful, low self-esteem. 
Vulnerable.
She was, in other words, a prime target for someone who knew just what to say in order to prey on that vulnerability. Working at the post office exposed Anya to more consistent contact with adults than other girls her age. One man in particular had taken notice of her, plying her with kindness and compliments until he was sure he’d gained her trust.
Mister Jack
. It wasn’t
his
name she had been trying to say, it couldn’t have been.  Then whose? 

Jack reached for an elusive memory. Anya, reserved as always, passing his mail to him, a rose tinted blush staining her pale cheeks when someone shuffled up behind him. Her gaze fluttering past Jack for a fraction of a second before she wished him a good day. He’d stepped away from the counter, thumbing through his letters as he headed for the door, too absorbed in his own thoughts to be curious about who was responsible for making her blush. Now, as he stood inside the jailhouse cell, the softly spoken words he heard as he was leaving the post office came back to haunt him. 

“You look exceptionally lovely today, Anya. Is that a new dress?”

Naturally, having presumed it was a young man from her school, he was mildly surprised when he immediately recognized the voice. He’d dismissed the incident from his mind until now because it seemed so inconsequential at the time. But it no longer seemed trivial. In fact, as Jack’s mind pieced it all together, it seemed pretty damn monumental. 

Hurrying to the wall where an antiquated intercom system crackled to life when he depressed the button, Jack barked into the speaker. “I need to speak to Sheriff Crane.”

“Sheriff Crane has gone home for the night,” the lazy voice replied.

“Then call him at home,” Jack growled, “I need to speak to him
NOW
.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Mr. Burton.”

Jack thought for a second. “Then I demand another phone call.”

“I’m not authorized to give out his home number, Mr. Burton.”

“I’m not calling the Sheriff,” he said, a dead calm stealing over him. “Just get me a damn phone.”

“I can only give you five minutes for the call,” the voice informed him.

“That’s all the time I need.”

***

Abby rubbed her damp palms against the denim legs of her jeans. Why did it feel so suffocatingly hot in here? She wished she could open a window, but Gage and Nick had them all locked and secured. Prince had long since gone to lay by the sliding glass windows were it was a cooler, and her brothers had positioned themselves outside so that one was covering the front of the cabin while the other kept a watchful eye on the rear. Gage had brought his own hand gun and they had procured a rifle for Nick from Jack’s cabin. Nick hadn’t been so keen on entering Jack’s place after being told by the Sheriff not to, but Gage had shrugged it off.