Chapter 47

FORTY-SEVEN

The driver of the pickup swerved onto the highway at high speed, barely missing a school bus. From his erratic driving it was obvious he’d spotted the Beast bearing down on him. To Jenna’s surprise, the silver truck overtook a line of vehicles, accelerated, and then slammed on its brakes and, skidding around, headed in the other direction. Horns sounded and brakes squealed as the oncoming traffic tried to avoid him. “He’s heading back to town.”

“So I see. Did you get a look at him?” Kane slowed the truck. “Hang on.” He pulled on the hand brake and drifted the Beast around to face the other direction.

In a split second they sped off toward town. Jenna swallowed hard. “I didn’t know the Beast could do that.” She hung on as Kane aimed the truck down the steep incline. “I did see the driver but he’s wearing a ski mask. I have no idea who he is.” She glanced at him. “If he gets into town and makes a run for it, we’ll lose him.”

“He won’t get that far.” Kane zipped past vehicles. “Call Rio. He’ll be able to hole up closer to town in case we lose him.”

Jenna made the call. She turned to Kane. “We’ll need to take this guy in alive. There’re too many murders not to get to the bottom of what happened.”

“If he comes at me with an ax, I’m gonna shoot him.” Kane flicked her a glance. “He’s a psychopath who has been denied his kill, so he’ll be out of control. We have no idea what he’ll try to do. It’s kind of obvious that he attacked Norrell to stop her going to the crime scene, so we know there’s a ton of evidence there against him. Right now he’s got nothing to lose. He can’t risk getting caught, so he’ll do everything in his power to take us down. We might know about the ax, but we don’t know if he’s carrying a gun.”

Nodding slowly, Jenna could understand his concerns. “What do you suggest we do? I know you’d prefer to remove this man from existence after what he’s done. The problem is we’re on this side of the law. We need to discover who else is involved. For all we know, this guy might be falling on his sword to save the others.”

“I doubt it.” Kane was closing in on the silver truck. “Psychopaths don’t give a toss about anyone but themselves.” He looked at her and blew out a long sigh. “I hate it when you put yourself in danger. Can you for once let me handle this? I’ll do everything in my power not to kill him.”

Shaking her head, Jenna reached out a hand and squeezed his arm. “No. I’m the sheriff and I will be standing beside you as always. We’ll take him down together, but I’ll let you do the shooting, if necessary. When I shoot, I aim for center mass. No doubt, if I aimed at his leg, he’d end up bleeding to death before we got him back to the office. Before you say anything, I know I’m very accurate at the shooting range, but when it comes to taking a person down and causing the least amount of damage, I figure I’ll leave that up to you.”

“You got it.” Kane smiled at her.

The silver truck was hurtling down the mountainside, taking risks overtaking, and narrowly missing causing a wreck. Jenna took long calming breaths as Kane weaved the Beast through traffic until they came to a long stretch of deserted highway. The Beast’s engine roared as they flew along at high speed, eating up the blacktop. The distance between them closed and the silver truck swerved from side to side. Objects flew from the windows as the driver tried unsuccessfully to slow them down. “Use the PIT maneuver.”

“Okay, hang on.” Kane had used the precision immobilization technique many times. One tap in the right place would send a fleeing vehicle into a spin.

It was a risky move at high speed, but Jenna trusted Kane to complete it without a problem. They roared up beside the vehicle and it swerved erratically. Jenna held her breath and hung on tight as Kane executed the maneuver and the back wheels of the truck lost contact with the blacktop. It spun around, coming to rest with two wheels down the gully. The Beast pulled up behind it and Jenna’s hand went to the door handle, but Kane was out of the Beast and running toward the truck. The driver jumped out swinging an ax and raving incoherently. She pulled her weapon and followed Kane.

“I’ll kill you both.” The driver’s wild eyes stared at them.

As the ax swished back and forth, Jenna kept her distance. Behind her, vehicles had stopped to watch the action. She glanced around to see people holding up phones waiting for her to take action. “Sheriff’s Department. Put down the weapon.”

“Drop the weapon and place your hands on the top of your head.” Kane stepped forward, his M18 pistol aimed at the man’s head. “Do as we say and come quietly. It’s in your best interest to cooperate. No one needs to get hurt today.”

“Do you think I care about getting hurt?” The man swung the ax again. “It’s the pair of you I’ll be chopping into tiny little pieces.” He indicated to the people in the vehicles filming him. “I’m going to be famous. When I kill the pair of you, everyone in those vehicles will cheer.”

Standing her ground, Jenna exchanged a meaningful glance with Kane. “Place the weapon on the ground. Put your hands on your head. Last chance.”

The man raised the ax over his head and ran toward them. A blast of gunfire echoed through the mountains and the man fell, the ax spilling from his hand and spinning across the blacktop. Kane had blasted a hole in his leg just below his knee. Cheers went up from the crowd, but Jenna ignored them. Seeing a man come at her with an ax had shaken her to her core but she’d never let him know it. She held her gun steady as Kane patted him down and cuffed him before retrieving the medical kit from the back of the Beast.

“Lie still and don’t move a muscle.” Kane stood over the driver. He bent and pulled off the balaclava. “Clint Wasser.” He read him his rights and then stood, pulled out the M18 pistol, and glared at him. “I’ll allow the sheriff to treat your injuries, but one move and the next shot will take your head off. Understand?”

“Maybe I’ll aim a kick to her stomach.” Wasser chuckled as if oblivious to the pain in his leg. “I figure I owe you.”

Jenna turned and placed the medical kit into the truck. “Well then, I guess we’ll wait for the paramedics to arrive.” She pulled out her phone. “Rio get the paramedics to the highway. We’ve got the guy. Gunshot wound to the leg. I’ll need one of you to go with him in the ambulance. I’ll need both of you at the hospital. We have enough on him to charge him. I’ll ask the DA to sign an arrest warrant the moment I get back to the office. Once he’s through at the hospital, we’ll have him taken to County. I don’t want to risk leaving him in the cells overnight.”

“Copy that. How bad is the injury?” The roar of Rio’s engine came through the speaker.

Walking away from Kane and Wasser, she dropped her voice so no one could overhear her. “Kane shot him just below the knee, so it isn’t nice. The problem is this man is extremely dangerous. We had our guns drawn and he still tried to attack us with an ax. He will try and escape custody and use everything in his power to get away. You must advise the doctor and nurses it’s imperative that you stay with him every second.”

“Copy that. We’re five minutes away. Rowley is calling the paramedics.”

Jenna nodded. “Okay, I’ll attempt to clear the traffic blocking the highway. It seems they are enjoying the show.” She disconnected and walked over to the line of expectant faces hanging out of windows. She took an examination glove from her pocket and retrieved the ax and turned to face the crowd. “Okay, everyone, move along now. There’s nothing to see here.”

“You’re the best.” A woman leaned out of the window. “Best sheriff ever.”

To her surprise, the line of traffic dispersed in an orderly fashion and she turned back to discover that Kane had used zip ties to restrain Wasser’s legs. He was wearing his stone-faced expression. She knew that expression so well. Kane was mad. “Do you figure that’s necessary?”

“Yeah, when I was giving him duty of care by using a zip tie as a tourniquet, he tried to kick me in the head.” Kane’s expression was granite. “He’s not saying too much now, is he?”

Concerned, Jenna stared at the prisoner. “Has he passed out from lack of blood?”

“Nope.” Kane lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “He banged his head on the blacktop. He’ll be fine.”

Examining Kane’s angry expression, she narrowed her gaze. “Exactly how did that happen?”

“Maybe it’s best you don’t ask.” Kane stared into the distance. “Here comes Rio and Rowley. I do believe I can hear the paramedic sirens as well.” He shot her a glance. “While you’re arranging the arrest warrant, I’ll speak to Sam Cross and see if I can persuade him to allow us to interview the suspect. After he has read the charges against him, he may be willing.”

Swinging the ax between two fingers, Jenna held it up to show him. “Wolfe said he would find DNA evidence on the ax if we could find it, and here it is. This may be the pivotal piece of evidence that we need to arrest Wasser for the murders of Maggie and Lily. I figure once he is charged, we’ll ask the DA to arrange some type of deal with the others over the murders of Cole and Abby. To retain Sam Cross in the first place, they obviously had something to hide, but I don’t believe for a second they were involved in Marissa’s and Lily’s murders.”

“Then I suggest we get the ax to Wolfe without delay. Watch him for a moment.” Kane went to the truck to collect a large evidence bag and held it out for Jenna.

Jenna pulled out her phone. “I’m going to call Emily and find out exactly what happened on the mountain. Wolfe will want to know all the details when we get there.” She made the call.

“We’re okay, thanks to Raven.” Emily sucked in a deep breath. “I haven’t called Dad yet. He’s been so busy and I didn’t want to worry him. Norrell is pretty banged up. She received lacerations from the broken window and has a very badly bruised arm. Raven doesn’t believe it’s broken and I’ve had a look at it too and concur with his assessment.” She paused a beat. “If Dad hadn’t insisted on us wearing the liquid Kevlar vests, we’d be worse.”

Wiping a hand down her face, Jenna could just imagine what Wolfe would say when he found out. “What exactly happened? Tell me from the start. I have the man in custody and the ax. I have only what Raven told us to take to the DA.”

Jenna listened in horror at the story Emily told her. It was as she surmised. Clint Wasser had intended to kill Norrell and Emily, and if Raven hadn’t arrived on time, he would have succeeded. She leaned against the Beast and took a deep breath. For a psychopath, he wasn’t as smart as he’d imagined. He should have known if Norrell had died, they’d just get another anthropologist to dig the site. She shook her head in disbelief. “Okay, I’ll need you both to drop by the office as soon as you can to give us a statement.”

“I have my tablet with me. I’ll write one up for both of us and we’ll digitally sign them. That will be enough to get things rolling and we’ll drop by and sign the hard copies as soon as we leave here. Although, I figure Dad will be X-raying Norrell the moment she walks back into the office.” Emily sighed. “Give me a few minutes’ head start because right now I need to call him to calm the waters before you take him the ax. Don’t worry, I’ll have the statements to you by the time you get back to the office.”

Jenna blew out a long sigh. “Thanks, that would be great. I’ll send them to the DA along with my report and drop by as soon as we have transported the prisoner to the hospital for treatment and then dropped by to see Shane. Talk soon.” She disconnected and looked at Kane. “She sounds fine. I don’t figure the shock of what’s happened has set in yet.”

“She is tough, like you.” Kane shrugged. “She’s made it through many life-threatening situations without PTSD. She’d make a good soldier.”

Shaking her head, Jenna stared at him. “Maybe, but if you value your friendship with Wolfe, please don’t suggest that to her.”

Rio and Rowley arrived, followed by the paramedics, and soon the prisoner was safely on his way to the hospital. As everyone drove away, leaving them standing on the side of the road, Jenna leaned into Kane. “I said we’d catch him, didn’t I?”

“I never had any doubt.” He slid one arm around her and pulled her close.