A Kiss in Winter Page 30

  But right now, she had to calm down and focus. She’d received an e-mail setting up a telephone conference with National Geographic for four-thirty this afternoon—ten minutes away.

  She was missing Macie’s volleyball game, but Mick was there. They’d decided that until Kingery was captured, either Mick or Caroline would be with Macie except during class hours.

  When the telephone rang, Caroline held herself back and didn’t snatch it up on the first ring. She forced herself to take a slow, deep breath, then answer the telephone like the professional she was supposed to be.

  “Hello, Caroline, this is Roberta Fessel. I’m glad you were able to arrange your schedule for this call.”

  “Hello, Ms. Fessel, it’s my pleasure.”

  “Over the past few weeks, we’ve been trimming our candidate list. I have to tell you, everyone here is very impressed with the quality of your work.”

  Caroline swallowed the urge to whoop. “Thank you.”

  “We’ve had an unusual situation come up. One of our staffers has had to resign for health reasons. Since we’re actually looking to fill a staff position and not contract work, we’re sending a few of our final candidates out on shoots with a staff photographer. We’d like to send you out with Dallas Dutcher; he’s quite impressed with your work. Are you interested?”

  “Yes, very. When?” Keep it simple, don’t start running your mouth.

  “It’s a South American shoot. We’d like you to go as soon as everything for your passport is processed and you have your medical preparations—we’re looking at mid-January.”

  Shit. “For how long?”

  “We’ve scheduled two weeks. Then we’ll make our decision for the position in mid-February.”

  It was too soon. Caroline should just save them all some time and decline now. Instead, she promised an answer late next week. She wanted to revel in this moment before it vanished forever.

  The second she hung up, she squealed and did a happy dance all around the kitchen. Dallas Dutcher was impressed with her work! That was enough to keep her high for a week.

  She decided to just enjoy the buzz for a while, before she dealt with reality.

  Macie’s game would probably still be going for another forty minutes. She could go and let Mick get back to the farm while there was still some light. The wind was whipping up and was supposed to grow stronger all evening long. If not for her and Macie, he could be done with his outdoor work by now.

  She put on her jacket, picked up her purse, then reset the alarm before she went out the back door. The wind pushed at her back and rattled the bushes against the house. She wished she’d picked up her gloves. But she was running late enough already.

  Just as she stuck her key in the dead bolt to lock it, something slammed against the back of her head. Her forehead knocked against the glass in the door. Her vision grayed, and her knees buckled. As she hit the cold ground, her blurry sight registered a pair of scuffed brown boots just before it faded altogether.

  Chapter 24

  Mick and Caleb waited outside the door of the girls’ locker room.

  “Do we have to stand right here, man? I mean, I sorta feel like a perve this close to the door.” Caleb shifted uncomfortably, looking over his shoulder toward the gym.

  Before Mick could say he didn’t even like having Macie out of sight long enough to go into the locker room and change, she came out.

  She smiled. “You’re really taking this guard dog thing seriously.”

  Mick shrugged. “Great save there at the end.”

  “Thanks.” She looked out into the gym. “Caroline didn’t make it?”

  “Her call must have lasted longer than she expected.” He started walking, anxious to get to Caroline’s house and assure himself that truly was the reason she hadn’t showed.

  Caleb and Macie followed along behind, holding hands.

  After Mick climbed in the truck, he fiddled with the radio while Caleb gave Macie a kiss on the cheek. The wind jerked the door out of her hand when she opened it to get in.

  “Man,” she said. “Sure is windy. Think we’ll get snow?”

  Mick looked at the flag snapping straight out from the pole. “Maybe. Wind from the east usually means bad weather.”

  “Cool.”

  He laughed. Snow for a teenager was fun, sledding, a day out of school. Snow for a cattle farmer was a pain in the ass.

  When they reached the house, Mick got out with Macie. She hurried on up to the front door, the wind tugging her ponytail.

  He was right behind her, hunched into his coat, trying to keep the cold out of his ears. She tried the door, then reached in her bag for a key.

  “Seems like she could have unlocked the door,” Macie complained.

  “No unlocked doors, young lady, remember?” Mick scolded.

  “Yeah, but it’s freezing!”

  Once they were inside, Macie disarmed the alarm and called for Caroline.

  The only noise was the wind buffeting the house.

  Macie started into the kitchen. Mick put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. “Hold on.” He stepped in front of her and said, “Stay right behind me.”

  “The door was locked and the alarm was on. Maybe she went someplace.”

  “Maybe.” They went into the kitchen. Mick looked out the side window; Caroline’s van wasn’t in the driveway. “Why don’t you try her cell.”

  Macie made the call. It rang long enough that the dread in Mick’s gut crept higher.

  He asked, “Where does she keep her purse?”

  Macie disconnected the call and pointed. “Right there on the counter.”

  Maybe he was overreacting. Her purse and car gone. The alarm on. She probably just ran to the store. He moved to check the back door’s dead bolt and noticed a quarter-sized spiderweb crack in the glass. “When did this happen?”

  Macie came closer. “It wasn’t there this morning when Caroline took me to school.”

  After making a fast check of the entire house and finding no Caroline and no trace of trouble, Mick then unlocked the back door and stood on the steps. Nothing else around the door frame appeared to be damaged or tampered with. With his hands on his hips, he scanned for a reason for the cracked glass. With this wind, a falling branch could have done it.

  The big old juniper next to the back steps thumped against the house in a gust of wind, drawing Mick’s attention. There, just under the edge of the evergreen, something small and white caught his eye. Mick went down the steps and picked it up. It was a cigarette butt—a hand-rolled cigarette butt.

  “He rolled his own cigarette.”

  Panic constricted his chest. Adrenaline shot through his body, jerking every muscle tight. Kingery had taken her in her own car.

  He shot back into the house, grabbed Macie by the arm, and dragged her toward the front door.

  “What’s wrong? Where’s Caroline?”

  He moved faster, flinging the front door open.

  “Dr. Larsen, you’re scaring me! Shouldn’t we lock—”

  “Call Caleb and make sure his parents are there,” he said as he opened the passenger door of his truck and thrust her inside.

  “Why—?”

  “Just do it, Macie.”

  By the time he was in the driver’s seat, she was making the call. “Yes,” she said to Mick, “they’re both home.”

  “Tell them you’re coming to stay. Once you’re inside, don’t let them open the door for anybody. I’m calling the police to have them watch the house.”

  “Where’s C-Caroline?” Macie’s voice broke.

  When Mick glanced over, tears were streaming down her cheeks.

  “I don’t know,” he lied. He couldn’t take the chance of anyone else getting there before he did. Kingery had been watching much more closely than they’d counted on.

  Mick left his truck parked out on the main road. Darkness was falling fast, hastened by the thick cloud cover. The wind roared through the treetops. Moving up the lane
, he hugged close to the spruce trees that lined the west side.

  Caroline’s van was parked next to his house.

  They’d been right about one thing; Kingery couldn’t resist the combination of both Caroline and the house vulnerable at the same time. But they’d been so focused on their own plan, on December. Damn it! Damn it! Damn it, to hell!

  He called Detective Odell again. Mick’s first call had only reported that he suspected Caroline was missing and for the police to guard Macie at the Collingsworths. Now he told Odell that Caroline and Kingery were at the farm.

  Odell said, “All right. I’ve got cars rolling. I’ll have the state police send a hostage negotiator and have the tactical team mobilized. I’m on my way. Once he sees he’s surrounded and there’s no way out, he might just surrender.”

  Or he might just kill her and himself, too.

  Hostage negotiator and tactical teams would take time to get here. That gave Mick the leeway he needed.

  Odell said, “Stick tight. We’re on our way.”

  Mick shoved his cell phone back in his pocket. He wanted to assess the risk himself before the cops started playing their games. He also knew if the cops were here first, they wouldn’t have let him within a half mile of the place.

  Glad for the cover of the wind noise, he worked his way up to the house. There were no lights on, but Kingery must have a flashlight or candles because Mick could see a weak glow in the front hall.

  With careful steps, he climbed onto the porch. The rockers moved back and forth with each windy gust. Looking through the sheers on the front door, he could see Caroline lying at the base of the stairs, her arms around the newel post, her hands and feet bound with duct tape. A bloody gash showed on her forehead. She wasn’t moving.

  Craning his neck, Mick tried to see more of the interior. No sign of Kingery.

  Mick tried to ease the front doorknob, but it was locked. Just as he reached in his pocket for his keys, Kingery came into the hall from the kitchen. Mick jerked himself out of view. It was so dark at the far end of the hall, he hadn’t been able to see if Kingery had a weapon.

  Leaving the front porch, Mick stayed low and close to the house as he circled around to the back door. With every step he took, with every beat of his heart, doubt grew. What if he fucked up? He hadn’t done well the last time he’d had the opportunity to stay a murderer’s hand.

  It’s still the best chance, he told himself. He didn’t know how Kingery would react when the long-awaited climax to his plan was threatened. A show of force might act as the spark to ignite all of that rage.

  The back door was locked. Mick used his key and slipped silently inside. He nearly tripped over two five-gallon gas cans sitting in the kitchen. He lifted one; they were still full.

  Standing in his shadowy kitchen, he thought about picking up a knife. But if Kingery saw it, it would compromise Mick’s credibility. He moved toward the faint light of the hall unarmed. He paused in the doorway and listened. Kingery was talking softly.

  “Come on now, sweet Caroline, wake up. You don’t want to miss the party. I’ve already lit the candles.”

  Mick stepped into the hallway. Kingery was kneeling beside Caroline, stroking her cheek with a handgun. He had gathered the few candles Mick had in the house and had set them around the entry hall.

  The man was just as Caroline had described, tall, lanky, and nondescript. He’d shaved the mustache from the reenactment.

  Every fiber in Mick’s being wanted to charge the man and peel his skin off one painful inch at a time. But he knew this was going to be a battle of the minds. To win, he had to look like he had nothing to lose.

  “You’re having a party in my house and I wasn’t invited?” Mick said. He forced himself to move toward Kingery with a nonchalance that was far from what he was feeling.

  Kingery’s head snapped up. His gun pointed at Caroline’s temple. “Stop! I’ll kill her!”

  Mick stopped, leaving his hands in plain sight. “I thought that was the plan anyhow.”

  Confusion and panic showed briefly on Kingery’s face. So—not a cold-blooded killer after all. He could rig explosives to do the dirty work for him, maim people from a clinical distance, but the thought of dispatching someone firsthand gave him pause.

  Mick said, “Listen, the police are on their way. If you leave now, you’ll probably make it out of the lane before they block it off.”

  Kingery’s eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed. “You want me to leave?”

  “Yes. I think that’d be best for all of us.”

  Kingery laughed. “I’ve got the gun and you don’t. And you just gave me double the negotiating power. The police aren’t going to shoot up the place with two hostages in here.”

  Mick took a breath and blew it out slowly, working very hard to keep it steady. “Well, not right away. But once they’re here, you know this can’t end well.”

  “So you’d just let me leave?” Kingery said skeptically.

  Mick nodded. “I would.”

  “Why?”

  With a shrug, Mick said, “Because I know what a shit deal you’ve gotten.”

  “You don’t know anything about me.”

  “Oh, but you’re wrong. I understand you better than anyone ever has. Nobody has ever given you a fair chance. All of your life people have taken from you. I don’t blame you for being pissed off. I’m giving you a chance. Leave here and walk away from this.”

  Kingery looked at Caroline, jabbing the gun harder into her cheek. “She’s the one who ruined everything. This was my family, my house, my life!”

  “Come on, now,” Mick said calmly, subduing his worry over how severely Caroline might be hurt. “She wasn’t the only one. People have been taking from you your entire life. You’ve never gotten what you ought to have. That’s why I think you deserve another chance. But you’d better make your decision fast, because I figure you’ve only got about three minutes before the choice won’t be yours any longer.”

  Mick saw a flicker of indecision in Kingery’s eyes. He pushed a little harder. “Killing her, killing me, burning this house—that’s just going to make you a hunted man. You’ll never have a life. You played a great game, showed everyone you meant business. It’s time to cut your losses. Go now.”

  Mick saw Caroline open one eye and look at him. She was conscious, just not letting Kingery know it. Smart girl.

  “Time’s running out.” Mick wanted to get Kingery away from Caroline in any way he possibly could. The police had to be close enough now that he wouldn’t make it far.

  Kingery swallowed hard but kept the gun pressed into Caroline’s cheek.

  Mick’s cell phone rang. Kingery gasped, his eyes grew wide, and his grip tightened on the gun.

  Slowly Mick raised his hands. The phone continued to ring. “That’ll be the police. Let me answer it and see if I can get you out of here.”

  Just then the flash of revolving lights slashed through the window and across the hallway.

  Kingery started to sweat.

  “Let me answer it,” Mick said.

  Kingery gave a jerky nod.

  “I have to reach in my pocket. If I had a weapon, I’d already have used it.” Mick moved slowly and withdrew his phone.

  As soon as he answered it, Odell said, “Where in the hell are you?”

  “I’m in the house with Caroline and Mr. Kingery,” Mick answered as if they were all sitting around having cocktails. The effort it was taking to keep his voice soft and relaxed was nearly making him break out in a sweat.

  “I told you to stay put!”

  “I came in because I want to help Mr. Kingery. You don’t understand all that he’s been through.”

  “What?”

  “No, I can’t just come out.” Mick ignored Odell’s furious question. He turned slightly away, as if trying to prevent Kingery from hearing. “I’m all he’s got. We need to work out something to help him, not harm him. As a psychiatrist, it’s my sworn duty to protect people wh
o have been mistreated and misused.”

  Odell swore under his breath. “We have people trained to handle situations like this.”

  “I’ll call you back when Mr. Kingery and I have reached a decision.” He disconnected the call and sat down on the floor. Then he waited for Kingery to make the next move.

  His cell phone rang again and he ignored it.

  Forty torturously slow minutes passed. Kingery kept the gun on Caroline and an eye on Mick. Luckily Kingery didn’t question Caroline’s lengthy loss of consciousness. Now that the police were here, they were his primary concern.

  Then the wail of approaching sirens waxed and waned on the wind, growing stronger as they approached.

  Mick watched fear mount in Kingery’s eyes.

  Breaking his forty-minute silence, Mick said quietly, “That would be the big guns. SWAT. State police. I’m sure they’ll secure the entire perimeter of the house. I wish you’d taken my first offer.”

  Kingery didn’t say anything. Sweat now soaked the neckline of his sweatshirt.

  Within twenty minutes, bright lights blasted through all of the downstairs windows. The police turned them all on at the same time, a strong show of force completely surrounding the house. Nice work.

  “Should I call them?” Mick asked. “I know I can get you out of here safely.”

  Hope sparked in Kingery’s eyes. “How?”

  That brief look gave Mick new optimism. Kingery wanted the easy way out. That’s why he’d planned to burn Caroline with the house. That was a hell of a lot less nervy than actually killing her by his own hand while he looked into her eyes. But if forced into a corner, Mick had little doubt Kingery, a person with no hope and no future, would kill both Caroline and himself.

  Mick had to capitalize on that tiny spark of hope. “I’m a doctor, not a policeman. I can explain to the police. We can leave here together. I can keep you safe.”

  At that moment, the police broke out the bullhorn, calling for Kingery to give himself up.

  Kingery’s eyelid started to twitch.

  Mick’s entire body tensed, fearing the twitch might extend to Kingery’s trigger finger. Mick drew a slow breath and said, “You’ve been handed the shitty end of the stick all of your life. Now the choice is yours. You can take the help I’m offering, or everything will end here, now. You’re a smart man; you’ve shown that. I think you’ll make the smart choice.”