Chapter 19

19

Kinsley forgot all about the puzzle she was doing with Jada and Colin and stared open-mouthed at Russ. As matter-of-factly as reporting tomorrow's weather, he'd stepped into the dining room and announced that he knew their suspect's name.

He stopped at the table and rested his hands on his hips. "Sierra said video from the drone returned a facial recognition match."

Kinsley lurched to her feet and planted her hands on the table. "You have a name? Really? The name of the person who's been stalking and trying to kill me?"

"I do." His eyes narrowed. "Guy's name is Harry Yapp."

Colin scratched his beard. "Not one of our suspects, then."

"No." Russ studied Kinsley. "Does that name mean anything to you?"

Did it? She searched her memory. "No. Not off the top of my head anyway. It sounds familiar and is pretty distinctive. I should remember if I've crossed paths with him, but I don't think I ever did an investigation that included a guy with that name."

Russ grabbed his phone from a holder on his belt next to his sidearm. "Let me show you his mugshot. Maybe that'll ring some bells."

He swiped down the screen and held it out.

Kinsley took one look at the guy with a gleaming bald head and dark eyes and spun to Jada. "Look at this."

Jada jerked back. "You know him?"

Kinsley shrugged. "Maybe, and I think you might too."

"Me?" Eyes wide, Jada got up from the end of the table and joined Kinsley.

Jada stared at the picture, and her body stiffened. "Oh no. He's the guy who stayed at the Bluebird, and we played pranks on him when we were kids, right?"

"Yeah, it's him," Kinsley said. "And now that I think about it, I remember joking about his last name and wanting to tell him to shut his big Yapp when he insisted on having the Bluebird Cabin, and we had to hold our sleepover next door instead."

"Mind clarifying for me?" Colin asked.

"Jada and I were scheduled to have a weekend in the Bluebird Cabin," Kinsley said.

"I remember," Colin said. "It was your favorite place to stay, but it wasn't any different than the other cabins, so I don't know why."

"It was the most secluded place on the property and gave us more privacy," Jada said.

Kinsley clasped her hands together. "But then this guy shows up at the last minute, takes a drive around the campground, and then insists on having the Bluebird Cabin or he was leaving. Sandy agreed because the cabin wasn't rented for the weekend, and she needed the income. So she moved us next door instead."

"And you played pranks on him?" Colin asked.

Jada nodded. "We did a few things before Mom found out and made us stay at the house instead of the cabin next door."

"But these were just childhood pranks," Kinsley said, thankful Sandy had gone to bed and wasn't in the room to hear this. "Certainly nothing worth shooting at us for. Especially after all these years. I mean if he wanted to get back at us, why wait so long?"

"When did he stay at your campground?"

Jada looked at Kinsley. "It was August, that much I remember because school was about to start. You were going to be a freshman that year, and I was starting seventh grade."

"So, let's see." She tapped her chin and then gave Russ a year.

Russ swiped the screen on his phone. "That makes sense then. He was arrested for burglary in September of the same year and has been in prison ever since. He was only released two weeks ago."

Colin shook his head. "Still, seems pretty farfetched that any person would wait more than ten years to get revenge for a few silly little pranks."

"Think about it, though," Jada said. "We've been considering the shooter is only after Kinsley, but maybe the shooting on Main Street wasn't a warning to Kinsley but was directed at both of us because he was out to get me, too. That would fit, right?"

"It could," Colin said. "But he might only be the drone operator and not the shooter."

"You mean we could be looking for two suspects." Kinsley didn't want to think this was actually true, but it wasn't the first time they considered this possibility.

"Either way, I'm going to head back to the office and do some research on him," Russ said. "Colin, you work your magic on the keyboard and see what you can learn, too." Russ shoved his phone into the belt holder and gave them a long look. "Hopefully I can get someone at the prison where he was incarcerated on the phone at this time of night to give me the address he provided at discharge. If so, I can pick him up for questioning."

"You'll want to run that past Dev before you do." Colin set his jaw and held Russ's gaze.

"I can do that." Russ's amiable attitude was out of character but appreciated.

"I thought Dev would've come back with you," Colin said.

"He was making phone calls to our guys in Portland before he came back. You fill him in on this, and he'll tell you all about that when he gets back."

"Text the photo to me," Colin said.

"Will do, but I need to go. Don't let your guard down and keep your eyes open. We don't know anything about the kind of threat Yapp could pose." He looked each person in the eye, then marched out the door.

Colin turned to Kinsley. "Is there anything you remember about this guy other than he got the Bluebird Cabin?"

"He stayed for two days, and he didn't do much while he was there." She thought back to those days. "The only thing I remember him doing was scuba diving in the lake."

"He could still be a diver," Colin said. "So when Dev gets back, we should plan an additional defense against access from the lake."

Kinsley nodded and tried to come up with any other information she could share that might be helpful in finding this man. But honestly, she couldn't even wrap her head around the fact that this could be the guy who was shooting at her. A pail of water above his door and a Vaseline-greased toilet seat certainly weren't anything worth killing over. Were they?

The blackness receded, and Dev opened his eyes to look around. He was sitting up, leaning against a tree. Not bleeding out, thank God. The diver in the water was nowhere in sight, but his slick wetsuit and fins lay on the shore. The spear had been pulled from Dev's hip and lay nearby. The pain was more of a throbbing ache now than a sharp stabbing.

He started to get up. Pain razored into his body, but he ignored it to push with his feet. He couldn't move. His body was bound to the tree, and his wrists were tied behind him. The speargun line again. Of course his assailant would have the heaviest line used for large catches. Dev was experienced with spearguns, and this abrasion-resistant polyblend over braided line, was used for large, heavy-duty catches.

He was stuck.

Kinsley! She needed him. Needed his protection.

How long had he been unconscious? Her assailant had probably reached the cabin by now or was close to it.

No! Dev jerked hard on the line. The cord didn't give but cut into his chest, and his hip pain sent stars dancing before his eyes. He had to find a way to free himself. Or get to his phone, if it even worked after he submerged it in water.

He glanced around for anything that could help him. The spear that had pierced his hip lay discarded five feet away. He could use the sharp tip to cut through the cord at his wrists, but he had no hope of reaching it without releasing the cord around his body.

He looked up. The tree narrowed. If he was able to shimmy up, the cords could potentially loosen, and he could duck under them.

He drew up his legs and planted his feet on the pine needles littering the ground. The pain in his hip ripped into him and those stars floated again. He thought of Kinsley and took a deep breath to ward off the pain. Then another. And another.

You can do it. Kinsley's counting on you.

He rose up. Gave a mighty shove. Ignored the increased pain. Budged the rope a fraction of an inch.

Yes! You're doing it.

Hope sprung up in his heart. He gave it another try. And then one more until he was nearly standing, and the rope had loosened. He maneuvered his shoulders around until one was free, then the other, the rope lying around his neck and dangling over his chest. He dropped down and freed his head.

He plunged to the ground, the agony nearly taking him out. But he rolled instead of letting the stabbing torture get to him until he had the sharp spear in his hands. He fumbled a few times until he finally got the spear in a position to saw at the rope.

Progress was slow. It was going to take time. Time Kinsley didn't have.

Please don't let this take too long and that the assailant hasn't managed to overpower Colin and Hayden to kill Kinsley.