Page 36 of Kidnapping of a Myth

“I havepeople looking into Dale Croke, and Wendy has given her written consent for us to investigate the company. I doubtwe’ll find anything in the official documentation, but you never know. Someone could’ve gotten careless,” Griffin said as deputies pulled mattresses down the staircases and into the living room. “But discovering if a Darling employee is trying to kill the family doesn’t help us locate John, so where do we look?”

“Have our techs learned anything from the emails?” Gold asked. “Have they been able to trace the signals?”

“Unfortunately, no. Mr. Stone’s acquaintance was skilled beyond compare,” Griffin said. “We logged his anonymous emails into evidence because his work was impeccable, yet not even he found much. The only information that’s remotely useful is the location of the signal that transmitted Michael’s trap. Regardless of his theatrics, whoever Peter Pann is, he’s a professional. He’s someone who’s killed before, and it seems his technological knowledge is extensive. Everything we know, he let us figure out, which makes me nervous about his arrest. A man like him doesn’t get caught without an exit strategy.”

“Everything we know, he let us figure out…” Bel repeated slowly, tasting the words as if their flavor might inspire an idea. “That’s not exactly true. Everything we know, he told us. The riddles, the clues. He’s leading us, and I think he expected the police to arrive at some point. He wants chaos and destruction, and his brand of theatrics can only stay hidden for so long. Even if Wendy never called for help, we would’ve eventually learned of the kidnappings and possible deaths. Pann wants an inflated death toll, but that doesn’t change the fact that everything came directly from his hints. Hints that were supposed to kill Wendy.”

“What are you saying?” Griffin asked. “That we sit tight and wait for another email? Or has he already given us our next lead, but we’re missing it?”

“His clue about the stars led to a trap,” Bel explained. “Eamon and I left that location after triggering the IEDs, assuming they were the sole purpose of the riddle, but it turnedout that Michael was hiding beyond the explosives. People tend to ignore where they’ve already searched. Why look where you’ve already been when there’s an entire estate to investigate?”

“So John is somewhere we’ve searched,” Gold said, catching onto Bel’s train of thought. “What about the car?”

“Maybe,” Bel admitted. “He didn’t lead us to it, though. We located it ourselves, and when I examined its surroundings, I found nothing that led me to believe John was close. No, I think we’re looking for a place Pann already directed us to, and besides the star clue, there’s only one other location we discovered through our contact with The Tinker. The rocks where he was bouncing Michael’s surveillance signal off of.”

“Olivia.”Bel caught her partner’s wrist and pulled her close. Using the estate maps, the sheriff had split the officers into teams and carefully mapped out a plan, his instructions clear and absolute. They were to search the expanse of rocky terrain where Eamon’s contact had traced the signal, but they were not to engage. If a team found something even remotely suspicious, they were to alert Griffin in case a bomb squad was needed, but even with the precautions and the bullet-proof vests, Bel worried they were marching into hell.

“Please be careful,” Bel said, and Olivia cocked her head at her friend’s words, as if she saw past the simple warning and recognized Bel’s underlying concern.

“I will.” Gold captured her partner’s hands and held on tight. “I’ll see you later,” she said, as if speaking the promise out loud forced it to be true.

“See you later,” Bel repeated, adding her own pledge before joining her team. Together, they traveled to their section of thesearch area, the expanse so vast that they lost sight of Griffin’s and Gold’s teams, and then they began. Inch by slow inch, they searched the rocks, moving systematically as they tracked their progress, but by the time the daylight waned, they had nothing to show for their efforts. Bel started to wonder if her theory about searching where they’d already been was incorrect, and as night fell, Griffin radioed for everyone to mark where they left off and return to the house. He didn’t want anyone wandering the grounds in the dark, and while Bel hated the gnawing sense of failure consuming her chest, she also wondered if their retreat was a blessing. No one would notice a bear and a mountain of a man roaming the woods if they were trapped inside the mansion.

“Detective Emerson!” a deputy shouted, the urgency in his tone shattering the silence. “I found something!”

“Don’t touch it!” Bel carefully picked her way over the rocks, concern festering in her brain at the man’s distance from the group. She understood everyone’s frustration with their lack of progress, but his eagerness to help had separated him from the team, thinning the line of defense.

“It might be the transmitter,” he called, “but I don’t see anything else.” The man twisted in the failing light, searching the immediate area as Bel lifted her radio to her mouth.

“Griffin, we may have found some?—”

“Ow!” the deputy’s outburst cut her off, and Bel watched in horror as the earth below his boots shifted. His balance teetered, and as he plummeted, his torso aimed for where the transmitter sat concealed in the stones.

“Get off the rocks!” Bel screamed as the deputy crashed to the ground, but her warning was too late. The instant his spine landed on the transmitter, an explosion ripped through the air. It blew his body to pieces, his limbs scattering with the debris,but before Bel could process the death playing out before her, a chain reaction rippled through the surrounding boulders.

“Go! Go! Go!” she bellowed as she took off running, but violence consumed the night air within seconds. One explosion after the other ripped through the peace, sending rock fragments shooting like bullets. The ground shook, tripping her team as they fled, and a detonation killed a second officer.

Fear clogged Bel’s throat as she raced for the dirt road. The living deputies were closer to safety than she was, and as another blast violated the evening, Bel knew she wouldn’t make it. Unlike the IED pressure plates, these explosions didn’t need to be stepped on. They were tied to the transmitter, the chain reaction destroying their surroundings, and she was too far from the road.

The earth shuddered, and Bel tripped on the shifting rocks, her ankle catching in a crevice. She screamed as the sharp stone bit into her skin, but she ignored the pain, yanking her leg in a desperate attempt to break free, but her foot refused to budge. Agony lit her ankle on fire, and a sob lodged in her throat as she struggled. The bruising reminded her of the bite of Abel’s chain, and panic seized control of her muscles. She needed to calm down, but the constant detonations drowned out all rational thought. She was no longer outside but back in that basement, trapped like helpless prey at the mercy of another madman.

“Help me!” she screamed, knowing no one would rescue her. The explosions were ripping apart the earth, destroying everything in their wake, and they would undoubtedly kill anyone who came to her aid. No one was coming for her, and unlike in Abel’s locked basement, she was powerless to save herself.

Bel contorted her torso in the hopes the new angle would grant her greater leverage and tried again to shove the rocks free of her foot, but the moment she started to make progress,another explosion tore through the earth. As if time had slowed to allow her to witness every excruciating second of her final moments, Bel watched as a boulder cleaved in two and crashed for her skull. At least it would kill her instantly, and she prayed she wouldn’t suffer.

Bel screamed, greeting death with poisonous fear, but just as the sharp stone rushed for her face, a massive hand shot out and caught it.

The hand shovedthe boulder backward, and then a broad shoulder shifted into view, hoisting the massive stone into the air until it crashed to the earth feet away from them.

“Help the others!” Eamon shouted, and Bel watched in disbelief as Ewan Orso raced over the unstable terrain.

“I got you,” Eamon growled, the fear in his tone pricking tears in her eyes as he dove for her ankle. With unnatural strength, he gripped the rocks and crushed them in his fists. The stones crumbled around her foot, and the second she was free, Bel scrambled on her hands and knees toward him.

With a strangled cry, she launched herself into his arms, and he scooped her up, trapping her against his thundering heartbeat as he raced through the darkness. He expertlynavigated the collapsing ground, and Bel clung to his neck, watching Ewan over his shoulder as he extracted officers from the wreckage.

“I got you!” Eamon repeated over and over as he ran as if he didn’t realize he was speaking. He held her so tightly that his hands bruised her flesh, but she held him with the same fierceness. Her fingers dug into his skin, twisted in his hair, pulled at his shirt, and her face buried into his throat as she cried gut-wrenching tears. When she’d stepped on the IED, he’d been there, and while she’d expected to die, his presence had softened the harsh edges of her terror. But this? This all-consuming fear of knowing she would die alone without telling him how she truly felt was unlike any terror she’d experienced. It was an ugly, violent emotion, and it tore through her without mercy.

Eamon’s feet found solid ground, and he collapsed to his knees, curling her against the safety of his chest. “Isobel, are you—” he started, but before he could finish his question, Bel did something she should’ve done the moment he confessed his love. She’d waited too long, let too much time and doubt and resistance cloud her judgment, but no longer. She was done waiting, done fighting. The beast had finally captured beauty.

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