Whispers of the Heart (28 page)

“Your point, sir?”

“I’m not sure, but I do want extra men manning this evidence until it’s bagged and tagged. If he’s as crazy as I’m presuming, he may attempt to retrieve it, and one man alone up here may not stand a chance at stopping him. Dispatch five men to this spot – good shots – and tell them they are to remain on high alert. Let’s get back out to the main trail. If he left evidence like this lying about, then he may have been careless enough to leave other evidence.”

The officer quickly radioed in the given orders and then trotted to catch up with Sheriff Masters. “There are a lot of tire tracks out here, any of which could be our
shooter’s – or none at all.”

“Tracks,” the sheriff whispered thoughtfully.

“Yes sir. The ranch hands use these trails to get around the range in the vehicles, when it necessitates.

“Understood, and we may not be able to discern which tracks are our perps – if any at all – but we may be able to deduce direction.”

“Sir?”

“Find me a ranch hand that knows these trails like the back of his hand, and get back on the horn. Tell central I want a helicopter airborne in less than fifteen minutes. If our assailant is still mobile – whether in a car or on foot – and unfamiliar with the range, he may be sticking to the trails.

“If he’s mobile, isn’t there a good chance he’s already hightailed it out of here?”

The sheriff shook his head, “The guard would have informed us had anyone left the ranch, especially anyone attempting to do so right after the shooting. No, I have to believe that this guy is still out here somewhere, and we’re going to find him.

“I just want to change and put on a better pair of shoes before I continue traipsing around in the woods some more,” Chloe was saying to Kenny as she made her way toward the front door of the house.

“I’m not certain you should be traipsing around after anyone, ma’am. I wouldn’t exactly think it safe. What if you are out there and you happen to be the one who comes across him?”

“I’ll charm him into surrendering,” Chloe quipped and then grew serious. “Kat is a good person. She doesn’t deserve what’s happening to her, and if I can help find the man responsible, then I’m damn well gonna try. I certainly am not going to sit back on my fanny and do nothing.

“Well, maybe you can ride along with Miss Kat to the hospital. I’m sure she would like your company and...” Kenny stopped talking as the ambulance drove past, closely followed by Dalian’s Jeep and the deputy’s patrol car.

“Looks like that idea just passed me by,” Chloe said, heading up the front steps. “Perhaps I can join you in the search, Kenny. Unless you think I’d get in your way,” she batted her eyelashes, and Kenny’s heart thumped against his chest. He didn’t know if she’d get in the way or not, but he could think of a dozen cozy little caves he could use to keep her out of harm’s way. He smiled at the thought, and Chloe grinned, “I’ll only be a moment. You wait here for me, okay?”

Kenny nodded and Chloe pulled open the screen door and went inside. The vapid grin she’d been wearing when conversing with Kenny slipped and in its stead, a worried crease formed along her brow, as she headed up the staircase. She didn’t really want to go traipsing along after Kenny, despite her brave words to the contrary, but the thought of hanging about in a nearly empty house with a potential killer at large was far more unsettling.

Unfortunately, her sundress and flip flips had truthfully proven ill suited for traipsing about in the bushes, as she’d quickly discovered when they all heard the gunfire. Without thought, she immediately ran after the hoard of men, and then proceeded to slip and slide her way up the hillside in an attempt at not being left alone.

The same with now. She simply didn’t want to be alone in the yard; although in hindsight she probably could have stayed by Kat’s side – as Kenny suggested – as she did when the barn burned down around the poor woman’s ears; however, in her estimation, to do so would have proved far too dangerous, since someone was firing a gun at Kat. To her self-centered way of thinking, it was safer being in a group of angry men trudging about the brush, than next to the intended target.

Unfortunately, the men began to scatter immediately after reaching the top of the hill, and she was unprepared to dash after them, so she hung nearby the junior state police officer, Mitchell Brown, who seemed content to traipse along the main trail, literally sniffing out clues. She tagged behind him, silent, and unnoticed for the most part, until Mitchell located that single piece of damning evidence. Then he noticed her enough to shout at her to go find the sheriff. She turned quickly without thinking, and ran back in the direction she’d come. She slipped repeatedly on her way down the hill and determined then and there that she wasn’t going to take another step through the brush until she was suitably dressed. Before she could do that, however, she had to find the sheriff, and since she wasn’t going to go gallivanting around the yard, alone, in search of him, she did the next best thing – she started waving her arms and screaming like a banshee.

She felt pleased that she’d been there to greet the converging hoard, but once they heard the news, they started heading up the hill en masse, leaving her to stand there gawking after them. All but Kenny. He seemed to sense her distress and stayed to talk to her, comfort her.

And now, he was going to allow her to tag along with him – all because she’d been too cowardly to stay next to her friend’s side during this crisis. She only hoped that once they got out on the range, Kenny would skillfully keep her out of harm’s way. She sighed and pushed open the door to her bedroom, and immediately pulled her soiled sundress over the top of her head, followed quickly by her torn panties. “Damnable hill. I liked these panties,” she sighed, tossing them toward the wastebasket near the dresser.

As if just realizing that she’d stripped naked with her door still open, she lifted her foot, kicked off her flip-flop, and then kicked the door closed. She was just about to kick off her other flip-flop when the sight of Cal Withers cowering against the wall near the door stopped her in her tracks. She squealed, and would have ran from the room had she been less full of common sense at that moment. Although his intrusion unnerved her, her mind reminded her that she knew him; that he wasn’t a dangerous stranger – and that she was butt naked. Her skin flushed pink and she slowly moved toward the wardrobe.

Cal chose that moment to raise his head from his knees and spear her with a daunting maniacal glower, “How could I have been so stupid? It’s going to make me pay for my mistake now, and I won’t be able to stop it. You know how I know it’s going to make me
pay? Because its voice isn’t shouting at me for making that enormous blunder, that’s how. It’s silent. Oh God, it’s completely silent.”

Chloe’s gaze widened in alarm when Cal clasped the sides of his head and began to
squeeze tight, as if trying to squash the disturbing thoughts from his mind. Then he returned to muttering nonsensically. At least it sounded like nonsense to Chloe, whose greater concern was to get dressed and then go to find help – for her or Cal she had yet to determine.

“I can’t believe I didn’t know.”

“Didn’t know what, Cal?” Chloe asked calmly and quietly, as she reached into the armoire to retrieve another sundress from inside.

He looked at her again, tears glistening in his gaze, but it didn’t appear as if he truly noticed her standing there. “I didn’t know that the gun had fallen from my pocket. Why didn’t
it
know? It supposedly knows everything. Why didn’t it stop me? Whenever I make a mistake, it always stops me. It could have said, ‘hey moron, pick up the gun!’ or anything, but it didn’t. It let me blunder, and now, oh God, it’s going to make me pay.”

“Um, Cal, I’m sure that whatever’s happened, everything will be okay,” Chloe said in an attempt to calm his ever-increasing agitation, but Cal wasn’t listening. He just kept muttering in a self-derisive tone.

“It warned me that I’d been making too many blunders this time around, but I figured it would step up and fix everything. It’s always fixing everything. But now . . . oh God, it’s silent. Usually, when it goes quiet, it’s only for a few minutes, never this long. Never this long! Talk, damn you!” Chloe stopped her movements again, alarm registering on her face, when Cal began slapping at the side of his head. Not the type of slap when an idea forms, but a hard, skull-rattling slap, as if trying to knock the brain out the other side.

Oh my God,
he’s lost it
! She thought, and then another thought registered. He said something about a gun. Her heart started thudding hard inside her chest when she realized she was standing naked in the room with Kat’s assailant; that it had been Cal who dropped the gun that the state patrol officer found on the hill earlier. Tears glistened in her own eyes then, as fear raged and her flight response kicked in. She took a deep calming breath and slowly slipped the sundress over her head. When Cal remained unaware, still slapping at his head, she felt less fearful and more confident that she might be able to escape the confines of this room and go get help – for herself, she now realized.

She sidled along the wall, careful to keep her movements slow and precise, nothing that would draw Cal’s attention back in her direction.
Almost there!
She encouraged herself, when she rounded the corner.

Cal chose that moment to look up. She froze.

Like a scene from a horror movie, Cal’s head turned slowly until he was staring directly at her, only Chloe sensed that Cal was no longer present. The gaze was different now – steady and confident, commanding and cocky. “Going somewhere?” The voice purred, and Chloe felt the hairs on her body stand erect, as if an electric current slid throughout. She shivered, and then made a leap for the doorknob. Cal was far quicker. He stood and blocked the doorway, his gaze boring into her own.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Chloe asked, knowing she sounded like a character from a B-rated movie.

“You’ll do nicely as a replacement for Cal,” the voice continued, but it was Cal’s gaze that moved approvingly over her body. Cal took a step toward her and Chloe took a step back. “We’ll do nicely together. My brain, your body. It’ll be fun.” Cal took another step toward her and Chloe took another backward.

“I like to have fun,” the voice continued speaking, while Cal’s gaze continued raking over her appreciatively. “And as long as we are one, no one will ever stop us having fun. You’ll have whatever man you want and money to burn. All I ask in return is that I call the shots. I tell you who, what, when, where, and how.” Cal grinned, but it wasn’t Cal. Chloe retreated another step.

“No, thank you. I think I’ll pass,” Chloe said softly, and retreated again. She kept telling herself that if she could just make it to the window before he stopped her, she could scream for help.

Cal’s grin widened and he cocked his head, looking at her with intrigue. “Did I say the option was yours?” Cal’s hand lashed out and snagged Chloe’s wrist. Chloe’s breathing intensified, but then suddenly, with little warning, she began to hyperventilate. Cal released his grip, and she fell to her knees, desperately trying to draw a complete breath. She glanced up, gaze widening in distress, but all she saw on Cal’s face was pleasure at seeing her writhe.

“I like to have fun, and you will have fun with me. I say who, what, when, where, and how. Understand?”

Chloe nodded, but
it
still wouldn’t allow her to draw breath. Spots were appearing before her eyes and she felt moments away from passing out – and that’s when Cal’s body began convulsing; bone-jarring spasms that knocked him to the ground. The only part of his body not convulsing was one hand, which reached toward her.

She wanted to move, because she feared what its touch would do to her this time;
especially since she’d begun hyperventilating after its first touch. Unfortunately, she barely had strength remaining to kneel there and pray, much less ward off the approaching hand.

It clasped tightly to her arm, and she felt an electric charge shoot through her body and then settle inside her brain. Her hyperventilation ceased immediately. She blinked rapidly and then scooted back toward the window at the sight of Cal’s twisted body lying just a few feet away. It seemed unfeasible that a body could convulse into such a mangled mess, but that’s exactly what happened. He looked as if he’d just completed a contortionist performance and was unable to resume his normal posture.

He messed up too much.
The voice said – from inside her head. Chloe clamped her hands over her ears, but the voice merely laughed.
It’s you and I now. I can hear your thoughts. I am your dreams. Now do as I say.

Chloe stepped onto the porch, and Kenny immediately sensed something was wrong. He raced up the steps to her side, “What is it, Miss Chloe? What’s happened?”

Tell him about Cal.
The voice commanded.
I’ll let you do the talking, as long as you don’t try to say something I don’t approve of.
A tingle of warning ran along her arms, and Chloe closed her eyes to steady herself. When she opened them again, tears glistened in her gaze.

“Upstairs,” she murmured. “Go get the sheriff. Please hurry.” She sank to the steps and lowered her face into her hands, sobs wracking her body. That was how the sheriff found her fifteen minutes later.