Chapter 60

SIXTY

Ronnie drives. She knows a shortcut only using part of Interstate 5 North then backroads. We make it to Cougar Point in twenty minutes instead of thirty-five. If I had driven, we would have made it faster even on the Interstate. When we pull up out front, Rebecca is waiting in the driveway for us. Vinnie stays in the vehicle.

"Oh, Ronnie!" Rebecca cries. "Dad's in the kitchen. Come quick."

Ronnie jumps out and chases after her sister. I get out and look at Vinnie. "You coming in?" I ask.

"I don't want to cause trouble."

"I'll protect you," I say, and pat my gun.

"I'm not afraid of Jack," he says, "I don't want to have to hurt him in front of my nieces. God knows what they've been told about me."

"Suit yourself," I say, and go after Ronnie.

Ronnie and Rebecca are standing around Jack, who is seated at the table. In front of him are Ronnie's laptop and a shoebox with bloodstained sides.

Another gift. The kidnappers are enjoying this. Jack has gotten the money ready but they still push him with brutality. Jack looks like a broken man. Anger is the only thing propping his daughters up. I watch Ronnie's mouth set and see the murderous rage straining to be released.

Ronnie leans over Jack's shoulder and reaches for the box, but Jack's hand stops her.

Rebecca says, "A flash drive was with the box." She opens the laptop and starts a video.

The screen is dark and the sound of screaming blasts from the speaker.

A woman's voice yells, "Hold still, damn it." More screams and a different voice pleads. "Don't do this. He'll pay. He'll get the money." The first voice says, "I'll cut your head off if you don't stop moving." The other voice pleads and the panic in the voice is palpable. "I can get the money. Just let me talk to him. I can take you to the bank. I have the money in the bank."

Another scream and then the picture zooms in on the scene.

A woman wearing a ski mask and camouflage jacket has another woman spreadeagled on the floor while a big man holds the woman down. The man is also wearing a ski mask and camo hunting fatigues. The woman on the floor is naked and filthy.

I want Jack to stop the video so I can see them better but it's impossible to stop looking.

The man kneels in the woman's back with one knee on her neck crushing her face into the floor while the other woman kneels on the naked woman's forearm. She's holding a small hand ax, and I watch in horror as she raises it overhead and brings it down on the other woman's wrist. The screams that follow are animalistic and taper off to a whimper and then are stilled. The naked woman goes limp, and the man says, "You were just supposed to get her fingers, you bitch." The hatchet wielding one says, "Shut up. You don't have the stomach for this. Besides this bitch had it coming. I hope she bleeds to death." The man says, "Give me that." The camera jerks and then crashes to the floor and the screen goes blank.

Ronnie pulls the box over in front of us, and Rebecca says, "I can't. I just can't. I'm sorry."

She leaves the room but Jack just sits, dumbstruck.

Ronnie lifts the top from the box and lets it fall to the table. Her hand goes to her chest and she lets out a wail and starts pacing, alternately clutching her fists and grinding her teeth.

Rebecca comes back and stops Ronnie's pacing and hugs her tightly while Jack sits staring at the box that contains a pale hand with a wedding band still on the ring finger and the small finger is missing. Tears fill my eyes and my heart goes out to this family. If Victoria is still alive, she's being mutilated, slowly, painfully, one piece at a time.

The sisters are a wreck so I ask, "Jack. What happened? I'm sorry to ask but we may not have much time." I cringe at my own insensitivity but it's the truth. The kidnappers might be preparing another gift for Jack as we speak.

He looks at me and sucks in a deep breath and lets it out. "Can't you see what happened? What is wrong with you?"

"I guess I deserve that, Jack. I'm truly sorry." I am. "When you feel like it, please tell me and Ronnie how…" I stop there. I don't know how to ask how he got the hand so I just come out with it. They can hate me but I'm going to find Victoria. "How did the box get delivered? Did you have the cameras recording?" He's struggling to keep it together but the kidnappers are upping the game. That means I have to be insistent. "Talk to me, Jack."

Thankfully, Ronnie and Rebecca come out of it enough to talk.

Rebecca says, "Dad went for a walk in the woods behind the house. There are no cameras back there. He came in with the box and couldn't speak. Who could do such a thing?"

Feral animals can. The human kind. I say, "Where did you find the box, Jack?"

Rebecca says, "He hasn't told me. He said to call you and he hasn't spoken until you got here."

"Okay. We're here, Dad. Tell us," Ronnie says.

He takes Ronnie's hand and I don't think he's going to speak, but he does. "In the woods. A man. The box was on a stump and it struck me as odd that someone had left it there, but then I knew what it was. I didn't see the man until he spoke to me. He said I seemed to be having trouble obeying so he thought he would give me a hand. I suddenly knew what was in the box. I never thought they would do it. I asked him why and he laughed. He asked if I needed more proof of life. I started to go toward him. I wanted to kill him with my bare hands. He told me if I touched him, I'd get the rest of her in pieces. He asked if I had his money. I told him I had it. He said to give it to him and he'd let her go. I told him I wanted to see her. I'd give him the money if he'd take me to her. That was probably stupid, but I thought if I give him the money now, what's to keep him from killing her. I did the wrong thing, didn't I?" He looks like he's coming apart with grief and guilt and hopeless impotence. I've been there.

"You did right, Jack," I say. "Did you get a good look at him?" I ask but I'm hoping he didn't. If he let himself be seen all deals are off.

"It was the man. Not the woman. He was wearing gloves and a ski mask and a camo outfit."

"Could you see his eyes? What color?" I ask.

"What color? Hell. How could I know?"

"Anything distinctive about him?" I ask.

"Yeah. He's cut my wife's hand off and is threatening to kill her. I'd say that's distinctive enough. Wouldn't you?"

"Did you call Lucas?"

He shakes his head, and Rebecca immediately gets on the phone.

"We need him," I say. "Before he gets here can you tell me anything else. Anything at all."

"That"—he points at the flash drive—"was taped to the box."

He has been twisting a small piece of paper in his hands. He smooths it out and lays it on the table for us to read. Typed on it is one word.

TOMORROW

Rebecca finishes her call to Lucas and says, "He'll be here. He said not to touch anything."

Whoops.

A man's voice comes from the kitchen doorway. "Hi, Jack."