The Uninvited (7 page)

“Okay I got it written down. You go on home; I'll call the guy that does missing people. He’s working those cases on missing persons that have been in the news lately as well. I hope that she doesn’t need found but he’s going to be pissed if he has to waste an entire day off out looking for a twenty something and her boyfriend.”

“If that is the case I'll buy the kid a top shelf liquor bottle. You can’t pass up an offer like that.”

Lambert said, “You can when the guy doesn’t drink. Why don’t you figure out some other way to bribe an officer of the law later? If I know him he’s still working at home.”

“You'll keep me informed then, right Nick?”

“Yeah, I will keep you up to date.”

“Thanks.”

Chapter 9

Tricia came up giving Nick a hug from behind holding a bottle of wine out in front of him in one hand with a corkscrew in the other hand swinging them teasingly in front of him. She had been married to the chief long enough to know when he was going to have to go to work. She said, “For god sakes Nicky, can’t you ever tell someone no?”

“Honey, it’s Chuck, what do you expect me to say? I owe him a lifetime of favors and besides, if it was Josh or Jake missing wouldn’t you want me to move heaven and earth to find them? I don’t even know if there is an issue but with that fucking crazy man running around I don’t want to take any chances with anyone. Throw in there that it is Traci, someone that we’ve had over here since she was in diapers and I think you can see my point, right?”

Tricia laid her head down on his shoulder, pouting and nodding her head yes. “So do you think that we can drink this later tonight after we’ve found her and had a good laugh at whatever stupid story they have to come up with?”

“You know how Chuck is about his girl. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her. If he could keep her in a bubble, he’d be perfectly content in life. I’m pretty sure that he hates the fact that she is out on her own and on top of all that living with her boyfriend.”

“Not much legally he can do about it at this point is there? You get your cute butt moving and have it back here by supper or this bottle of wine is all mine. I don’t want you to miss this pie either, you know the grandkids will not show mercy when it is time to eat.”

“And Grandma Lambert can’t say no to them and save her loving, hardworking husband a slice?”

“Not when little Lisa shows me those eyes. They are as blue as the sky; I swear she was sent from the heavens just for me.”

“She’s only cute when she leaves my pie alone. Now you save me a piece or I promise you, woman, I’m going to make sure I get nothing but Barefoot all week on the way home to drink. You let me know how that sounds to you?”

“Okay fine, but if she puts out the pouty lip when I tell her there are no seconds I’m throwing you happily under the bus, Mr. Lambert.”

Nick slid on his piece and grabbed his keys to the work car. “Well, for god sakes everyone has limits. If she shows you the pouty lip, you give her the damn pie. You can bake me a fresh one on Monday.”

“That isn’t how it works. Nick. You be careful out there.”

“Honey, you realize that it doesn’t do much good to tell me that, right? I always try to come home to you. Besides, I’ll probably be sitting on my ass in the break room watching the race and waiting to hear back from Detective Hardin with details. The way that man works there is a good chance that he is going to be done before I even make myself comfortable down there.”

“I’m allowed to worry. If I didn’t you better make sure I didn’t up your life insurance to a nice seven figures payout.”

“You know me honey; I’m not worth shit dead.”

“Like I said, I can worry if I want to, even if you aren’t worth anything.” He leaned in gripping her tight and bowing her down giving her a quick wet kiss and brought her back up making sure she was steady before heading out the front door.

She went to the pie cutting out a healthy piece wrapping it and placing it in the microwave far out of the reach of Lisa. Who would need a step stool to get close to reaching it? She shook her head, looking at a picture of Nick and the two grandkids sitting on his lap by their lake house. She said to herself, “You better know how much I love you, you damn fool.”

Chapter 10

Detective Matt Hardin sat at the kitchen table skimming over reports and shaking his head. His wife Jamie came up from behind giving him a hug and kissing him on top of the head. She said, “Honey, you think you might turn it off for a little bit of the day while there is still some daylight left out there?”

“Turn what off Jamie?”

“You know exactly what I mean. You turn off the job, you put your papers in the briefcase, and you put it and all these horrible images away for the day. You know there is more to life than work, right?”

“I know, but-“

“But nothing. It isn’t your fault that so many-“

He slammed his hands on the table making it and everything on it bounce off the floor. “You don’t seem to realize anything, Jamie. It might not be my fault and it might not be solely up to me to find these fuckers, but you forget one thing, once the first dead body shows up and it’s assigned to me I have to look every single parent in the eyes and tell them to their face that their loved ones aren’t coming home. I have to be the bearer of bad news, and you don’t want to see the death in their eyes, the heartbreak that is happening. The longer I take doing what I want on the weekends, the time I waste in the yard, playing with the kids, taking you guys out to dinner, is the same time that piece of devil's spawn has to plan out what he's going to do next. I love you, I love the kids, and you all know that, but this isn’t the kind of job where you can just let shit go. You have got to understand that it’s a ticking time bomb.”

Jamie’s lip quivered a bit. She knew he had a temper but didn’t want to deal with it on a Sunday. “I’m sorry, Matt. I wasn’t trying to upset you. You are right though and it’s selfish of me to ask you to leave it alone when I know how important it is to you.”

Matt lifted her head and said, “Honey, it isn’t important to me. It’s important to the mothers and fathers of the dead. They want to see justice. They want this piece of shit brought down. If it wasn’t something I was so goddamned good at I would quit and find another job. I am just waiting for this one to make that one mistake. That one thing when they make it is what counts and I have to be ready and on top of my game.”

She patted his chest. “Well, then, let us hope that it happens quickly for your sake and ours. I don’t think you can handle too much more of this living. It isn’t easy on any of us. You know I have always been proud of your work, but when the shit starts getting this close to home we need to reconsider where home is.”

“Meaning what?”

“That when you find them, you are going to start looking into other job openings in places where the killers don’t do their work.”

“Don’t go down that road again.”

“I’m down it and I’m looking. There are plenty of security jobs out there that are private and safe that you are going to interview for. I think you would be a natural for any of them. You need to start thinking about your old age. You aren’t going to be able to chase crazies down for your entire life; at some point, you are going to need to slow down. You are almost forty, Matt. I’m just saying start thinking about it before it’s too late.”

Matt stomped to the fridge to grab a cold beer and almost ripped off the top of the bottle as he pulled the cap from it. He drank half of it, trying to catch his train of thoughts before responding to his wife again. “You know what, this is something that we can talk about at a later date and time. I love you, I love the kids, and I’ll try to take a break a little bit later. Maybe we can grill up some burgers if you get the meat laid out?”

The phone began to ring on his belt and he ripped it off, forgetting somehow that it was his work phone and still worked up from the talk with his wife. “Who is it, damn it?”

“Detective Hardin?” Nick asked. “Its Chief Lambert. Is everything alright son?”

“Just fucking peachy. Just don’t tell me that you are calling about another dead body?”

“No, this time I’m calling about a live one.”

“You don’t have someone else that you can give a call to, Chief?”

“Yeah, I have an entire department under me Hardin, but I’m choosing to call you. Were you ever in the service son?”

“I don’t understand how that is relevant.”

“Well, an answer like that screams no to me. The reason it’s relevant, as you put it so eloquently, is the person who we presume to be alive is the daughter of my best friend. The same best friend that enlisted in the marines with me over thirty years ago and pulled my ass through a few miles worth of shit you wouldn’t want to visit in your worse nightmares during Vietnam.”

“Gotcha. It's a debt you owe him, so you want to give him everything you have. What are the details?”

"There are two people actually but he’s pretty sure we’ll find the two of them together. His daughter’s phone isn’t working, he saw a past due notice on the table and all calls go straight to voicemail. The two missing are, the boyfriend, an Isaac Hunter, and Traci Pendergrast, and she’s twenty-seven. Her dad said that they have LoJack on his sport utility. It’s a Kia Sorrento, white, and it could be as simple as that.”

“So I’m trying to find a young couple in love, chief? You realize how awkward that’s going to be if I have to break something up like a romantic getaway, right?”

“Son if I cared, I wouldn’t be asking you to do it. He’s worried, and from time to time, it’s going to be a good thing if you have a few favors that you’ve done for people. He sent me a few recent photos of the two in question that he found on her Facebook page you can use for a reference. I’ll forward them over to you. Echo Foxtrot Golf 562, is the license plate on his SUV. I assume you are going to start there with the LoJack?”

“Yeah, if he has it then that sure as hell would speed up the process. You sit tight, I'll report back when I got something. Is there anything else I need to know, sir?”

“Yeah, there’s one pretty important detail. This man is a brother to me. His daughter is my daughter. I love that kid like she is my own. You get her in and I'll make sure that you have everything you need and then some if there’s something you need for your main working case. I mean I don’t know what else you could use or what you are missing but I’m sure there is always something isn’t there?”

“Yeah, usually. I’ll get on it, Chief. I have kids so I understand the importance fully.”

By the time he was done his wife had already packed his briefcase backup and taken his beer, replacing it with an ice cold Pepsi. Matt said, “I gotta go. I promise I wasn’t expecting this.”

“We never do, Matt. Give what I said some thought, but honey, do one thing for me?”

“What’s that?”

“You go find that man’s daughter.”

Matt pulled her in, giving her a kiss on the forehead, he walked through the house seeing his kids in the living room watching Disney as he left, not a care in the world.

Chapter 11

Three hours later

Matt drove down the highway following the GPS signal in his car. He looked around for the mile marker as he called the chief. “This is Detective Hardin. I am following the coordinates given to me. It shows that there is a state park here and it is closed. I'm going to go in. I can call you back and let you-”

“Detective, I’ve been sitting here for three hours waiting and doing absolutely nothing useful. You set the phone down, you mute it, but you don’t hang up on me. I know how sick my friend is by now. I am going to keep him up to date with news as I get it. Last thing I want is him running off halfcocked looking for her.”

“Agreed, I need to go take off the chain to pull in. I’ll be back with you in a few minutes.”

Matt sat the phone down and opened up the gate but, unlike the group the previous day, did not replace it back where it belonged. He drove slowly and when he pulled up, saw the SUV crashed and on its top and grabbed the phone. “Chief, I found the Sorrento, but I don’t have any good news yet. It is upside down and half in the ditch. I’m going to go check it out now.

Chapter 12

Isaac woke to the sounds of screaming. Not just any screaming, but Traci’s screams. They filled the SUV, bringing him back awake. He lifted his head up, feeling the spins still there, and sat back down. He tried to push up realizing that he still had his seatbelt on and clicked it off. “Traci, baby are you okay?”

He looked at his rearview mirror that was hanging now by only a shard of glass still attached. He saw her pushed up against his side of the truck kicking wildly. His vision was still blurry and when it came into full focus, a fuck me minute hit him like a hammer. Traci screamed at the top of her lungs, “Get this fucker away, god damn it.”

Isaac turned in his seat, seeing what looked like a hook, the type you might pick bales of hay up with. But instead of doing its normal god given job this one was going after his fiancé. He watched as the hook dug down deep into flesh, fresh blood came spurting out and spraying across the man’s arm and covering his hand in new warm blood. Isaac said, “Fuck!”

Traci screamed again. “He’s got Tony. He has Tony!”

The hook started to disappear from view as Tony began to slide out of the truck feet first. He wasn’t able to scream but there were unmistakable tears starting and painting a small path through his dirty and bloody cheeks down the side of his face. Isaac rolled over to the back kicking at the man’s hand. His efforts were to little and to late, all the force he had to hold on to Tony with might as well have been a child doing it because before he knew it Tony was gone. Isaac ducked down and saw the man dragging Tony into the middle of the road. He climbed back into the front seat wanting to know what was wrong with this man. He noticed he hadn’t been daydreaming and his eyes hadn’t been playing tricks on him as well. He said, “Oh my god.”

“What, what is he doing to Tony?”

“You don’t want to look, I promise.”

Traci pushed herself up screaming at the pain erupting in her ankle. “Isaac, I think it’s my ankle. I don’t know for sure but it might be broken or sprained."

"Can you walk on it?”

“I’m in the back of your truck, I have no idea. I guarantee if it means you and me getting away you won’t have to help me.”

Isaac went to say something else when the man brought up a machete and brought it down. He stared watching, everything he had seen in movies was not like real life. He had one hand gripping a handful of Tony’s hair. With the other, he chopped and chopped at his neck, the bone, the fat, the muscle at everything he could until he had gotten his head removed from his body. When he was done, he held up the head for Isaac to see, looking more than a little proud of himself.

Traci, who had been trying to get herself free from the back and over to him to get out of the truck said, “What, what did he do to Tony?”

“A lot. We need to get the fuck out of here. I mean now. If you think you can run, then do it, but if not you say something and I’ll throw your ass over my shoulder and be gone with you. Do you have your phone in your pocket?”

“Yep it’s in there I can feel it.”

“That is good. I want you to call the police. Better yet, call nine one one and let them know there’s a fucking psychopath on the loose and we-"

“Yeah I get it, shut up and get us out of here!”

Isaac looked around in the truck, thinking how everything including hatchets were now sitting at the camp. “There isn’t shit. I don’t have so much as a stick to throw at that guy!”

Traci hit nine one one on the phone and hit send. An automated voice came back and said, “Thank you for trying to make your call. The owner of this phone is behind or decided to no longer use Sunrise Phone Services. If you think you’ve reached this message in-"

“Isaac, when is the last time you paid the cell phone bills?”

“I thought we had it on auto pay?”

“Oh my God, we are going to die because of something this stupid. I cannot believe this, god fucking damn it!”

“No one said anything about dying. We just can’t call for help.”

“In case you didn’t notice, Isaac, that guy just chopped of Tony’s head and he looks like he’s playing with his mouth right now. He has a machete as long as my leg and he seems to know how to use it.”

Isaac did not respond. He knew that they were limited on time and that they needed to get the hell out of there. He tried to open the door as quietly as he could but when Isaac tried to push it open the door stayed shut. He ran his arm around the side of the door, feeling the dents along its side, and knew that it had been jammed shut. He looked into the back of the truck and rolled over the top. He slid out pulling Traci behind him. When she tried to walk on her leg she screamed.

The stranger looked up when he heard her cries, tilting his head to the side. She said, “We have to go. We need to get out of here and back to the others. I don’t know what else to do.”

Isaac thought of where they were and in comparison to the road, and knew that there were little options that they had. They would stand a better chance at getting out of this alive with Jack to help him. The man stood between the two of them and the road back to their campsite. When Traci screamed again he started walking with a purpose towards the two of them with a head dripping head in one hand, and the bloody machete in the other.

Isaac said, “We need to get into the woods. We are going to have to go the long way around, there isn’t any choice about it. We aren’t going to get around him safely, not with you banged up. I still don’t know how I’m doing, but we can worry about that later.”

“What if you pass out? What am I supposed to do then?”

“You hobble like you never have before and make it back to Jack. You tell him to put the machete or the axe that I brought into that guy’s head.”

The two of them made their way down the ditch and back up the other side, heading through a field to try and elude the man following them. He was silent and that made things all the more creepy for them. Isaac held firmly to Traci letting her use him as a crutch. He prayed that they could make it back to Jack before anything else bad would be able to happen today.