Читать книгу Cold Case at Camden Crossing - Rita Herron - Страница 12

Chapter Five

Chaz hesitated before driving away from White Forks, but he couldn’t stay with Tawny-Lynn around the clock.

Could he?

If the threats continued, he’d have to.

He carried the blood samples and prints he’d collected to the sheriff’s office. His deputy was on the phone when he walked in.

Judging from the goofy grin on his face, he was talking to his girlfriend, Sheila.

He looked up at Chaz and dropped his feet from the desk. “Listen, honey, I’ve gotta go. Call you later.”

He hung up, then quirked his brows at Chaz. “I didn’t expect you back tonight.”

“There was some trouble out at White Forks.”

“You mean that place where the Boulder broad lives?”

“She hasn’t lived there in years, but yes, that’s the one. She came back to town to get her old man’s ranch ready to sell.”

“I heard folks around here don’t much like her.”

Chaz scowled at his deputy. “Who’ve you been listening to, Ned?”

“No one in particular. Some old women were gossiping about her in the diner. Said if she’d spoken up about what happened that day, they might have tracked down your sister and Peyton Boulder.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Hell, someone even said that she helped them run off.”

Chaz silently cursed. Ned had come from a neighboring town and had formed his opinions based on rumors. “First of all, I don’t think my sister just ran off. She wouldn’t have done that. Second, Tawny-Lynn almost died in that crash herself. She was unconscious when the paramedics found her, had a broken leg and a concussion.”

Ned made a clicking sound with his teeth. “The concussion caused her amnesia?”

“Yes, according to the doctor,” Chaz said.

“But the accident— Didn’t the sheriff think that was suspicious?”

Chaz nodded. “There were skid marks from another vehicle on the pavement, but it started raining and they couldn’t get a good print.”

“Why would someone run the bus off the road?”

“Good question. The bus was carrying the softball team. Could have been some teen following too close or—”

“Competitors from another team?”

“I don’t think so. The sheriff looked into each of the girl’s lives, but none of them had any serious enemies.”

“So what’s your theory?” Ned asked.

Chaz contemplated the file he had at home. How many times had he studied the damn thing for answers?

“I don’t know. Two girls went missing from Sunset Mesa before the Camden incident and were never found. A lot of people think that a serial kidnapper took them. It’s possible he was stalking one of the girls on the team and caused the accident, then kidnapped Ruth and Peyton.”

“He’d have to be strong to wrestle both girls.”

“Not if he had a gun, or if they were hurt in the crash.”

His deputy studied his fingernails. “Do you have any idea who this guy is?”

Chaz shook his head. “No, and that’s just a theory. No proof.”

“But you all think that Tawny-Lynn Boulder saw this guy that day?”

“Some people think that. Like I said, she was unconscious when the medics arrived. But somehow she got out of the bus before it caught fire. Considering the fact that she had a broken leg and head injury, it’s not likely she walked.”

“Meaning someone dragged her to safety. But if it was the kidnapper, why not take her, too?”

“Maybe he was fixated on Ruth or Peyton. And like I said, Tawny-Lynn had a broken leg.” He gritted his teeth. Depending on what the sick bastard’s plans were, he probably hadn’t wanted her with the injury.

“Anyway,” Chaz continued. “Tonight someone left a bloody threat for Tawny-Lynn at White Forks. I took samples and managed to lift a few prints. Call the courier to pick it up, take it back to the lab and analyze it.”

“Sure.”

Chaz took a form from the desk and filled out the paperwork for chain of custody. “Tell the lab to call me as soon as they get the results.”

The deputy narrowed his eyes as he examined the photograph of the bloody message. “Someone really wants her gone.”

“It looks that way.” Chaz headed back to the door. “But it’s our job to protect her, Deputy. And to find out who made that threat.”

* * *

TAWNY-LYNN GRIPPED the bat with sweaty palms. It was the bottom of the ninth and the Camden Cats were one run behind. The team was depending on her.

The pitcher threw a curve ball that came in low, and she barely managed to check her swing in time before the umpire called ball one.

Two more pitches and she’d tipped the ball twice. Her stomach felt jittery. Her chest hurt. She couldn’t strike out now.

Another ball and it nearly hit her shoulder. She jumped back, the ball whizzing by her head. She stepped aside to steady herself, then ground the bat at the base and raised it, ready.

The pitcher wound up as the crowd and her teammates chanted her name. A second later, she swung at the ball. Metal connected with it, sending the ball flying, and she took off running as the ball soared over the fence. Her teammates screamed in excitement, the crowd roared and Peyton, who was on second base, sailed around the bases. Tawny-Lynn was faster than her sister and nearly caught her as they raced into home plate.

Her homerun sent the team one point ahead.

Roars and cheers from the crowd echoed in her ears as Ruth stepped up to bat. Three straight swings though and she struck out.

Still, the Cats had won. The girls rushed her, clapping and shouting and hugging. The coach pounded her on the back. “You’re our hero today, T!”

She beamed a smile as they grabbed their gym bags and jogged toward the bus. More congratulations and pats as the girls clamored into their seats.

“I have to stop by the bank. Let’s meet up at the pizza parlor to celebrate,” Coach Wake announced. He made his way back to his car while the bus driver fired up the bus.

Tawny-Lynn settled into a seat by herself while Peyton jumped in beside Ruth, and they started whispering and giggling.

Peyton was boy crazy, and Ruth was interested in someone, but they were keeping it a secret, talking in hushed voices. Jealousy sparked her to glare at them, but her sister pulled Ruth closer and tucked their heads together to shut her out.

The bus chugged around a curve, but it was dark on the country road, a storm brewing, thunder rumbling. A car raced up behind the bus and rammed it, and the bus jolted forward. The driver shouted, then tires screeched and the bus swerved toward the embankment. The ridge loomed below, and fear shot through Tawny-Lynn.

She hated heights. Had always been scared on the switchbacks.

The bus jerked again, something scraped the side, then the bus went into a skid. One of the girls screamed, brakes squealed, then the bus flew out of control, slammed into the metal guardrail and careened over the ridge.

Backpacks and gym bags slid onto the floor, and she gripped the seat edge to keep from falling. Bodies fell into the aisle, blood was flying, and she was thrown against the metal seat top as the bus crashed into the ravine.

Sometime later, she roused. It was dark, so dark...pain throbbed through her chest and leg.

She couldn’t move. It was deathly quiet.

Then she felt hands pulling at her, moving her. She tried to open her eyes, but the world was foggy.

Breathing rasped around her. She tried to see who was pulling her from the bus, but it was too dark. Then she heard crying again—another scream. Voices.

Was her sister all right?

She struggled to see, but...there was a man...his face...hidden in shadows. Who was he?

Tawny-Lynn jerked awake, panting for a breath. The dream...had been so real. A memory.

She had heard a voice. Seen a face.

A man’s? A woman’s? Peyton’s maybe?

God help her, who was it?

* * *

CHAZ POPPED OPEN a cold beer when he made it home, his mind obsessing over Tawny-Lynn. Was she sleeping now? Or was she awake, terrified the person who’d left her that bloody message would return and make good on his threat?

Tension knotted his shoulders. He wanted to be back at White Forks watching out for her. Making sure she was safe.

Holding her...

Dammit, no. Tawny-Lynn was the last woman on earth he needed to be attracted to.

Why her?

Why now?

Life would be so much simpler if she cleaned that place up quickly, hung the for-sale sign, left town and never came back.

Then he wouldn’t have to think about her being on that deserted run-down ranch by herself where God knew anyone could sneak up and attack her.

It wasn’t as if she didn’t have enemies. She had too many to count.

The people who’d lost family members in that crash despised her for not being able to give them closure by identifying the person who’d hit the bus and caused the crash.

Their family members, Coach Wake and half the town had also been questioned as suspects and resented it because Tawny-Lynn could have cleared their names.

Coach Wake has literally sobbed at the news of the crash, saying maybe if he’d been with the girls on the bus he could have done something to save them. Instead, he’d driven his own car, taken a side road, then stopped for cash and a surprise cake to take to the celebration dinner.

Tawny-Lynn’s delicate face flashed in Chaz’s head, and he grimaced, sipped his beer and headed to his home office. The cabin was small, but he’d carved a workspace in the second bedroom where he’d hung a gigantic whiteboard and laid out everything he knew about the missing girls from Sunset Mesa and Camden Crossing.

A smaller board held photos of other missing young women from various states for comparison purposes so he could look for connections.

Once again, he studied the pictures former sheriff Harold Simmons had taken of the accident. The bus was a mess, dented and crushed against a boulder in the ravine, flames shooting from all sides.

Keith Plumbing, a local handyman had driven up on the scene and called it in. His statement said he’d first seen smoke, then stopped and realized it was a bus and called 911. He’d run down the embankment to rescue the students trapped inside, but by the time he reached the bus, it burst into flames. He saw Tawny-Lynn lying in the dirt several feet away. But no one else was around.

Due to the fact that Keith called in the accident and had a history of drinking on the job, and he’d worked in Camden Crossing and Sunset Mesa, the sheriff questioned him as a person of interest. Plumbing could have caused the crash, then lied about the timing, dragged Tawny-Lynn out to safety but couldn’t save the others.

Although he’d sworn he hadn’t seen Peyton or Ruth. And if he’d hurt them or kidnapped them, where had he taken them? He hadn’t had enough time between the time of the crash and when he’d called in the accident to dispose of a body.

Another photograph showed Tawny-Lynn unconscious on the stretcher, her leg twisted, blood streaking her face and hands. She looked so pale and fragile that he wondered how she’d survived.

Shaking off emotions he didn’t want to feel for her, he glanced at the list of suspects the sheriff had considered. Plumbing had been one. He’d also questioned Barry Dothan, a young man with a mental disability that affected his learning and behavior.

Dothan liked to watch teenagers and took pictures of them on the track, swim team and softball field. But his mother swore that Barry was harmless, that he would never hurt a soul. The pictures of Ruth and Peyton posted on the corkboard above his bed were the only evidence that incriminated him. Some of the girls at school claimed they felt uncomfortable around him, but none of them had accused him of inappropriate behavior.

Chaz downed the rest of his beer and grabbed another, pacing to calm himself. God, his heart hurt just imagining what might have happened to his sister and Ruth.

He skimmed the former sheriff’s notes. The investigators they’d called in from the county had found remains of three girls and the driver in the ashes left after the bus had exploded.

Ruth and Peyton were not among them.

So what the hell had happened to them?

Could Plumbing have had more time than they’d originally thought, time to kill the girls and dump their bodies somewhere?

They’d searched the man’s truck. No girls, blood or forensics inside.

They’d also combed the area surrounding the crash site for bodies, a dead end as well.

Dothan didn’t seem smart enough to abduct two girls and hide them.

But nobody else was there.

There had to be, though—or else how had Tawny-Lynn escaped the burning bus?

Peyton or Ruth could have dragged her out. But then what?

Frustrated, he slammed his fist on the desk, rattling paper clips and files.

He forced himself to look at the pictures of the two girls who’d gone missing from Sunset Mesa the year before. Almost the same time of year.

Avery Portland and Melanie Hoit. Avery grew up with a single mother, worked at the ice cream shop and was voted most likely to succeed in her class. She was popular, on the dance team at school, and class president.

Melanie was a cheerleader, pretty and aspired to be a model. Some of her classmates described her as the girl everyone wanted to be. A few others commented that she was a snob.

But so far everyone they’d questioned had alibis.

And neither girl had been found. No body. No ransom calls.

Nothing.

The parents wanted closure just as the residents in Camden Crossing did.

He slumped down in the chair and glanced back at the photo of Tawny-Lynn. No wonder his parents and the other family members of the victims had turned on her.

She might be the only lead they had.

He understood people’s anger and frustration.

But why would someone want to hurt her? Then she’d never be able to tell them who else had been there that day.

The answer hit him like a fist in the gut.

Someone didn’t want her to remember because there had been foul play.

And if she could identify the culprit, she could put him or her in jail....

* * *

HE WATCHED THE house where Tawny-Lynn slept.

The images of the girls who’d died tormented him. He hadn’t meant to kill them all. He loved them too much to do them harm.

But things had gotten out of hand. Then everything had gone wrong.

His gut churned with memories of the screams of those girls in the fire. That had been...terrible. He had nightmares to this day. He would never have wanted any of them to suffer like that.

His heart was racing as he remembered the panic that had seized him when the bus had exploded.

Ah, sweet Peyton. So easy to love.

And Ruth... He’d wanted her so badly back then.

Another few months and maybe Tawny-Lynn would have appealed to him, too. She did now.

So sexy and athletic and that soft, blond hair... She’d turned out to be pretty after all.

Too bad she might have to die.