Sweet Dreams Boxed Set (79 page)

Jill was strapped to the bed, hands handcuffed to the headboard, ankles tied to the foot. She seemed barely conscious, but as Taylor bent over the girl, murmuring soothing nonsensical words, she opened her eyes and looked at Taylor. The tears started down her face.

“Is he gone? Gabriel? Is he gone? Did you kill him?”

“Shhh. We’re going to get you out of here.”

“Are you the police?”

“Yes, honey, we are.” She unlocked the handcuffs and reached down to untie her feet.

Jill cried, “Thank God. Thank God you’re here. He’s going to kill me, he’s insane. Please, get me out of here.”

Fitz moved beside the bed and helped Jill sit up. She was obviously a little woozy, but they needed to get as much information out of her as possible if they were going to find Gabriel.

“Do you know where he is, Jill? Is he in the house?”

“I don’t know. He’s kept me locked in this room the whole time. How long have I been here?”

“We think at least five days, maybe more. But you’re safe now, honey, we’ve got you. Can you stand?” He got her to her feet, eyeing the swelling in her belly. “How far along are you, Jill?” he asked.

“Eight months. Are my parents here? Are they okay? Oh, they must be freaking out.”

Taylor patted her on the shoulder. “They’re here in town, honey. They came as soon as they heard you were missing. They’re gonna be real glad to see you. Can you tell us anymore about Gabriel Lucas?”

Jill lost her balance when she got to her feet and toppled against Taylor.

“Oops, here you go, sit back down.”

Jill plopped back on the bed, gave Taylor an embarrassed smile. “I’m okay, my feet are just asleep. My parents are going to kill me when they see I’m pregnant.”

“Trust me, your parents are going to be thrilled to have you back, you and the baby. Tell me what you can, okay?”

Jill shook her head. “I’m having a hard time remembering a lot. I’ve been trying to think. I know it’s been a while since he was here. I’ve been awake since right before dark. Usually he comes in and gives me a shot of something the minute I wake up and he hears me. He tells me stories while I’m drifting off, nutty stuff I can’t really understand about these women and their ‘representations,’ stuff about the Bible. Whatever is in the shot makes me fall asleep almost immediately, and I kept having all these weird hallucinations. When I was awake he was talking crazy.” She put a hand protectively over her stomach. “He kept telling me I was carrying the Messiah. He’s out of his mind.”

Taylor nodded and looked at Fitz. “The injectable morphine.” She turned back to Jill. “We think he was giving you morphine. Did he tell you he had cancer?”

“What? No.”

“He has brain cancer. We think it’s affected him to the point where he’s not thinking rationally. He’s hurt a lot of people in the past couple of weeks.”

“Brain cancer? Giving me morphine? My God, what was he planning on doing to me?”

Fitz held out a hand. “We think he was planning on keeping you safe. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to you or his baby. Do you think you can stand up now?”

He got her to her feet and they made their way into the great room. Between the room and the kitchen was a small breakfast bar with stools. He got her seated, checked in with the rest of their force.

“You find anything?”

Wills was keeping watch by the front door. “He’s not here, and there’s nothing much to go on. Doesn’t look like he’s living here; it’s just a safe place for him to hold the girl. We’ll keep looking around.”

“Okay. I want you guys to be ready for anything. He’ll come back for her at some point. When he sees we’ve found her, he’s liable to go nuts, and I can’t predict what he’ll do. I want you to be ready.”

They nodded and melted into the background. Fitz watched them for a moment as they set up their defensive positions. Satisfied they wouldn’t be ambushed, he turned his attention back to Taylor and Jill.

Taylor was on the radio. “Fourteen to base. We’ve got the package. She’s a single, repeat, no one else found. Copy?”

“Copy that, fourteen. Eighteen is on the way, ETA five minutes.”

“Copy. Base, we need a bus sent here. No ME. Copy?”

“Copy, fourteen, bus, no ME. Got it. Out.”

Taylor smiled at Fitz. An ambulance was on the way for Jill. Marcus and Baldwin had found enough evidence at the Granny White address to sink Gabriel Lucas. But they couldn’t celebrate yet. They were only halfway there. Now they had to find Lucas.

“It doesn’t look like he’s living here, just has some bare essentials to keep Jill fed. Didn’t find any drugs or syringes either. He must keep them with him,” Taylor said.

Fitz started opening drawers and cabinets in the kitchen. Taylor went to the window. From this angle, she could see a large shed about one hundred feet away from the house, backed up to the woods.

She turned to Fitz, who was ministering to Jill, getting her a glass of water. “Hey, Fitz, there’s a shed out here. I’m going to go check it out.”

“Miller’s out there. Make sure he knows it’s you.”

“Gotcha.” She went out the front door and whistled sharply. Miller stepped out from the side of the house, and she pointed at the shed. He nodded and melted back into the darkness.

She crossed the hundred feet or so to the shed. It was old and rickety, didn’t look like it would stand a good storm. Miller slid around the side of the shed from the back and they took up standard positions on either side of the door.

Taylor nodded at him, then kicked it open.

Seventy-Two

The interior of the shed was about ten feet by six, and smelled musty, like old mulch left to rot through the fall. Taylor flashed her Maglite from corner to corner and saw nothing to excite her. A few rusted garden tools, an old lawnmower, a bag of birdseed ravaged and emptied by scavengers. She shook her head to Miller and closed the door behind her.

“Go on back to the house. I’m right behind you.”

She took advantage of the relative calm to congratulate herself. They had found Jill safely and had identified where Lucas was doing his horrific crimes. Now they just had to find Lucas himself, and they could wrap this up with a neat little bow.

She started back to the house, and a shadow flitted out of the corner of her eye. She felt every nerve ending start to tingle. Her heart thumped hard in her chest.

He was here. She could feel him now. He must have been hiding in the woods behind the shed. She drew her Glock and went into a crouch, trying vainly to see in the darkness. She swung the site of the gun left, then right, started to move forward. She heard a twig snap and spun around, then a loud grunt. It was too dark to see, was that Miller? She was afraid to call out, didn’t want to draw attention to her spot.

She took a cautious step forward, and something shoved her backward. She fell hard on her butt, her gun jolting out of her hand as she tried to catch herself. She caught her breath and scrambled up.
The gun, where is the gun? Where is Miller
?

Gabriel Lucas stepped out of the shadows and stood in front of her, a wicked long chef’s knife held in his right hand.

“Did you hurt her? Did you hurt Jill?”

Breathe, Taylor. Talk him down
.

“No, Professor Lucas, Jill is fine. She’s inside with some of my men. Why don’t you drop that knife and we can go in and talk to her.”

Taylor could see the fright in his eyes. “You said you didn’t hurt her? Is she okay? Jill!” he screamed.

“Lucas, stop right there. Drop the knife. If you don’t drop the knife, you can’t talk to Jill.”

Gabriel’s mood shifted, and he smiled at her. His voice was calm now, gentle. “I am Gabriel. Only Gabriel. I have changed the universe. You can’t hurt me.” He took two steps backward, never taking his eyes off Taylor.

Taylor tried to keep his line of vision to the kitchen blocked. “Gabriel. I told you Jill is fine. Now put your hands on your head, and turn around very slowly.” She stepped back, saw the outline of her Glock four feet away to her right. She’d have to dive for it if she needed to use it. She needed to distract Lucas, get him to put down the knife.

His eyes were roving, searching, looking behind her, almost as if he was trying to get her to turn her head away from him, and then he’d tackle her. She wasn’t falling for it, kept her eyes locked on his.

When he feinted a move toward her, she stepped to the right. One step closer to her Glock.

“Gabriel, it’s all over. We know what you’ve done.”

He started to laugh. “You know what I’ve done? How can you possibly know what I’ve done? I’ve saved you. I’ve saved all of you! I have created the perfect One, He who will reign forever, the spirit of humanity, the one true God. His path has been cleared. His way will be followed. The signs have been fulfilled! ‘
And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
’” He was screaming now, arms thrown to the Heavens, his face a mask of ecstasy.

Taylor was thankful for his episode; surely his screaming would bring some backup.
Keep him distracted, step to your right again. Pick up the damn gun
.

Gabriel continued howling. “‘
And there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither the light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever
’. Don’t you see? Don’t you understand? I have created the light!”

Taylor spoke calmly. “I know what you think you’ve done, Gabriel. I know you think you can create the Messiah through Jill. But you haven’t, you can’t. All you’ve done is get a young girl pregnant and murder five other people. You’re sick, and we want to help you. Now turn around and get on the ground. Get on the ground now. Now!”

Gabriel ignored the command. He was looking over Taylor’s shoulder. She caught it, realizing that Gabriel must have seen Jill somewhere behind her.

The transformation was amazing. He was suddenly calm, the joy on his face shining like a beam of light. Gabriel held out his arms.

“Oh, my love, my sweet. You’re okay now. I won’t let anything happen to you. Come to me, my dove.”

His eyes were glazed, and he had a smile on his face, one so yearning that Taylor almost felt sorry for him for a moment. The man was seriously ill, and his illness had robbed him of his ability to think competently. But they had him now, and he would pay. She’d make sure of it.

She gave a quick look over her shoulder and saw Jill standing with Fitz in the back door of the house. The light radiated behind her, and she shone like an angel.

Taylor turned back to Gabriel. She saw something in his eyes that frightened her. She shouted over her shoulder. “Fitz, get the girl back inside. Now!”

Gabriel face was suffused with love and hatred. Taylor watched him warily as she heard the first of the sirens pulling into the drive. He was going to go after the girl, she was certain of that. She couldn’t let him get past her.

Fitz was yelling now, and Taylor saw Miller out of the corner of her eye, down on the ground. She didn’t know if he was alive or just knocked out. She knew she was in the way, Fitz couldn’t take a shot, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t take the chance that Lucas had a gun and would try and kill everyone to get to Jill.

In that moment, Gabriel launched himself at the house, screaming wildly. Taylor met him with a punch to the chest and he staggered for a moment, not expecting resistance. She launched a kick at his abdomen, connected solidly, heard the breath go out of him in a groan. She stepped in to take him down, but he managed to get his feet under him and plowed into her. He started toward the house again, his arms locked on her shoulders.

She fought him, and they grappled for a moment, until his weight and frenzy started to overpower her. A step closer, another, and the gun was finally within reach. She shoved Gabriel backwards with all her strength and swung her hand down. Caught the grip of the gun on the first try, whipped her arms up. “Stop. Don’t take another step.”

With a roar, Gabriel charged, the knife flashing in the light from the back door. She reacted as quickly as she could, spinning around him, out of reach, the Glock pointed at his chest. He kept coming, the knife high, lunging at her, and she spun away again, pulling the trigger, once, twice, three times. He went down, hard, and suddenly, she couldn’t breathe.

Seventy-Three

Marcus pulled into the drive at speed, and Baldwin caught sight of the fight in the headlights. He saw a flurry of blond hair, the flash of a knife, heard the shots. He jumped out of the car as a wash of red spurt into the air. He froze. Taylor was facing him, standing stock-still and looked confused, as if she couldn’t understand why she’d discharged her weapon. A small smile played on her lips and her hand rose to her throat, then she crumpled to the ground, next to the body of a man.

Baldwin felt like he was watching the scene underwater. Every motion was sluggish, unhurried, casual. He stared for a moment in disbelief, then snapped back to real time. Gabriel had landed neatly at Taylor’s feet, three shots to the chest, his tainted blood mingling with Taylor’s where’s she’d fallen. It was all over in a second, but Baldwin felt a lifetime had passed. He could hear his own screaming, but it was simply a background noise to the commotion that ensued.

“Officer down, officer down, get the EMTs in here now!” Fitz was on the walkie-talkie screaming for help, Marcus was on the radio in the car yelling for assistance. People were rushing around in the background, yet Baldwin couldn’t identify them. More sirens wailed closer and closer, and suddenly the yard was full of people babbling, yelling.

Taylor was down, one booted leg bent, hands to her neck. He dropped by her side. Her eyes were closed, her face pale. Bright red arterial blood spilled recklessly from her neck.

He pressed his hands against the flow, and her eyes opened, briefly, full of pain. “You’re going to be okay, just hang in there. Don’t try to talk.”

The eyes closed again, and Baldwin felt his heart stop. Had he just seen her eyes for the last time?
No, don’t think it, don’t think it, man
.