Page 25 of Targeted in Silver Creek

“This appears to be when things escalated,” Hanna muttered as she continued to watch.

Yeah, it was, and she was referring to the fact that she’d reached out of her window to punch in the code to open the gate. Arnie had stopped her from doing that by throwing open the passenger’s-side door of her car, and then the man had taken hold of her.

The lab had indeed enhanced these frames. They’d managed to lighten the footage and make it clearer. Too clear. Jesse felt a wave of rage all over again when Arnie freed Hanna of her seat belt and dragged her out from the passenger’s side. He’d had to do that because the metal post with the security pad would have prevented him from getting her out on the driver’s side since she’d parked right next to it so she could reach it.

“We had no luck getting lip readers to interpret what’s being said,” Jesse explained. But Arnie was clearly agitated, and it appeared he was yelling at both Hanna and Bull.

“I’m not going to focus on my own face,” she told him in a ragged whisper. “That probably won’t help.”

Probably not. Though he wasn’t sure it would help for her to look at Arnie’s and Bull’s faces, either, but that’s what she did. She leaned closer to the screen, watching and focusing.

They watched Arnie hook his arm around her throat once he had Hanna out of her car. He still had his truck keys in that same hand, and they dangled from his fingers, hitting against Hanna’s neck. Arnie took a few steps back before he whipped out a gun and started dragging Hanna toward his truck. Bull sure as hell hadn’t tried to stop him. Not physically, anyway, but the men continued to talk.

Maybe even argue.

Jesse saw Arnie drop the truck keys. Hanna had been the reason for that because she’d been struggling to get away from him. Arnie had lost his grip on the keys and they’d fallen into the grass and shrubs lining the road. That obviously hadn’t pleased the man, and his face had tightened with even more rage.

“There were drugs in his system,” Jesse told her even though that was something she had no doubt already heard. Arnie had been stoned on a cocktail of alcohol and cocaine.

She shook her head. “I wish I could remember what he was saying. That’s key. I have to remember.”

Keywas the right word, but it was possible she might never recover those memories. Hell, if seeing this didn’t trigger the recovery, then maybe nothing would. Maybe not even the hypnosis. If that turned out to be the case, then that meant they’d have to pick through Bull’s version of events to figure out what the heck had actually happened.

Jesse braced himself for the final frames, and he watched Arnie’s wild eyes home in on the security camera. The drugs and booze obviously hadn’t affected his aim because he lifted his gun and fired the shot to blast the camera to smithereens.

Hanna released a long breath and sat back in the chair. “I can keep watching it to see if I notice anything that’ll help.”

Jesse was about to nix that, but his phone rang and he saw Noah’s name on the screen. An uneasy feeling slammed through him. Maybe something had gone wrong with the plan to meet Bull.

“What happened?” Jesse immediately asked.

“I’m here with your mother, but another car just pulled up,” Noah explained. “It’s Marlene.”

Of all the things Jesse had expected his cousin to say, that wasn’t one of them. “Marlene,” he repeated. He saw the surprise that was on Hanna’s face as well. “She’s alive then. Is she hurt?”

“She appears to have a head injury, but she won’t let me come near the car. She says she’ll drive off if I get closer. She wants to talk to Hanna.”

Jesse groaned then cursed. “That’s not going to happen. Go ahead and bring my mother inside the house. I’ll call for backup and then try to talk to Marlene myself.”

Hanna quickly shook her head. “You can’t go out there. It could be a trap.”

Possibly, but he was a cop and he had to do his job. Marlene could be either a suspect or a key witness, and he needed to find out which.

Jesse headed to the front door and Hanna was right behind him after she grabbed the baby monitor. He got his mom and Noah inside and then looked out the window. It was Marlene all right. She was behind the wheel of a beat-up white car, and Jesse could see the blood on the side of her head.

“Is Evan okay?” his mom immediately asked.

Hanna nodded. “But he’ll be up from his nap any minute now.”

“I’ll go to the nursery then, so I can be there when he wakes up.” His mom gave both their arms a reassuring pat before she started down the hall.

While Jesse continued to keep his eyes on Marlene, he called for an ambulance. He knew Noah wouldn’t have any trouble being his backup, and with so many of the deputies tied up, Jesse didn’t want to call Grayson for help.

Once he was done with his call, he motioned for Hanna to stay back. When he was certain she was as safe as he could manage, he opened the door a fraction. He also drew his gun, but he kept it down by the side of his leg. Out of sight but ready in case things turned ugly.

“Marlene,” Jesse called out. “How badly are you hurt?”

“I need to talk to Hanna,” the woman answered, obviously dodging his question. She started and ended her response with loud sobs.

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