Page 84 of Justice for Samara

“Yeah. That broadcast I just made? Stadler stole that car. His truck is sitting at the motel.”

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Where’s Futrell?”

“I told her to take the extra cruiser in the parking lot and go to my mother’s.”

“Michael, you shouldn’t have done that. I told her to stay put and I’d send somebody.”

“We don’t have anybody to send!” Michael all but yelled.

“You need to check on her in a little while and make sure she’s okay.” It got quiet for a few seconds before Carter said, “I don’t understand it. How did he find them that fast? Has he been tracking her all this time? He didn’t know those women’s names or where they lived, from what we could tell. It’s like he’s been one step ahead of us all along. I don’t get it.”

That was the moment when it all came crashing down around Michael’s ears. “Oh, fuck.”

“What?”

“I interviewed him in the conference room.” The tires on the SUV squalled as Michael spun it and headed back to the office. “He’s been listening to everything we’ve said.”

“You think he?”

“Oh, I’m almost positive. I’m headed to the office right now to look.”

“Michael, if you’re right?”

“I’m pretty sure she hasn’t left the office yet. I’m headed back that way. I’ll give you a call when I know more.”

“Roger. I’ve about done all I can do here. Keep me updated.”

“Will do.” Michael’s cruiser was screaming down the highway, and he whipped onto the main thoroughfare that ran through town, traveling at about sixty miles an hour, siren blaring and lights flashing. His heart sank when he pulled up to the office.

The extra cruiser was gone.

He was running as fast as he could go when he unlocked the front door and threw it open, then ran straight to the conference room. There was a logical place for it, so he dropped to his hands and knees and looked under the table. He checked every crevice in the underside, but he didn’t find anything. Still on his knees and looking around the room, he remembered which chair Stadler had sat in that day, and he rolled to his back and pulled it to him.

And there, held by a magnet, was a tiny microphone. Michael’s heart dropped into his shoes. She wasn’t safe at his mother’s. He was about to call Marjorie when his phone rang. “Mom, is Samara there?” he asked, not even saying hello.

“That’s what I was calling you about, honey. There’s a cruiser sitting at the end of the driveway. I thought maybe it was you, but nobody came to the house, and I saw a little gold car drive away. I don’t know what…”

Michael didn’t hear anything else she said. He didn’t have to. He knew exactly what had happened to Samara. And he had no idea what to do about it.

CHAPTER 11

That’swhat I get for trying to be helpful, she grumbled in her head. She’d stopped at the end of the driveway to pick up Marjorie’s newspaper, but before she could get back in the car, the prongs of the TASER had hit her right at kidney level and she’d dropped to the ground. She was trying to pull herself together when he zip-tied her hands behind her back, then picked her up and tossed her in the unfamiliar car’s trunk.

Samara pondered the predicament she was in. How had he found her? She had no idea, but she had been certain it was going to happen. Of course, he wasn’t interested in a fair fight. He wanted to ambush the people he hurt and take advantage of them. The original coward. What a tool. But there was no time to waste on hating him. She had to figure out how to get herself out of the trunk and away from that lunatic.

It was impossible to see much, but if she was correct, her back was turned toward the front end of the car. If that car was like every other car she’d ever seen, the back seat would push out into the passenger compartment. She felt around as best she could. There was all kinds of junk in that compartment, and she had to believe she could find something in there that she could use to cut the zip tie and free her hands. One sharp thing. That was all she needed.

And where was he taking her? Somewhere to rape her? Somewhere to kill her? If he wanted to kill her, he could’ve shot her and driven away. He wanted to torture her. That had to be the answer. Or maybe… Maybe he wanted to use her as a way to get away, a hostage he could bargain with, or as a human shield. The possibilities were endless, but that idea made the most sense.

They bumped along, and she wasn’t sure where they were going. When the car stopped, she heard the door open and then close?he was out of the car. Frantic and scrounging in the dark, she rummaged around until she felt something familiar?a hacksaw.Perfect, she told herself as she tried to find a way to brace it against something so she could rake the zip tie along it. Twice she felt it cut her arm, but she couldn’t worry about that. Hacking through that zip tie was all that mattered.

Sure enough, in under a minute, the zip tie fell away, but she grabbed it with her hand. If he opened the trunk, she needed to be able to hold it and keep her hands behind her back so he’d think she was still restrained. With her hands free, she grabbed the duct tape at her ankles and started to unwind it, then ripped it in half and wrapped each piece around one ankle. With a quick glance, it would look like her ankles were still bound, but they were separated, only held together by one flap of tape that would come free in an instant. She was ready to roll over and kick the back seat when she heard it.

A distinctive pop.

Her heart fell. She didn’t know which one, but they were stopped at the home of one of the women she’d reinterviewed. The sound she’d heard was his weapon discharging. Her chest filled with guilt and grief. If she’d left those cases alone and never spoken to those women, they’d still be alive. They were dying, one by one, because she’d tried to get to the bottom of their stories so she could arrest the person responsible and close the cases. Rationally, she knew she could’ve never imagined the hell he’d rain down on each of them, but on the surface, the fear and sadness she felt was overwhelming. They were dead because of her. Carter had said it wasn’t her fault, but it was, and she knew it.

Less than a minute later, the car door opened and slammed shut, and the car started. It backed down, turned, and took off. Were they going to another house to kill another woman? How had he known about all of that? They suspected he’d been following her, but this was too efficient. It would’ve been hard for him to keep up with more than two of her stops, but so far, he’d gone to three of them, and she was betting they were headed for the fourth one.

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