Chickasaw County Captive

Chapter Seventeen

Kristen pounded Sam’s front door, sick with regret and fear. “Let me in, Sam!”

She could feel him on the other side of the door, his anger and his despair, and the knowledge that she was the one who’d done this to him was almost more than she could bear. She’d felt so hopeful just a little while ago, knowing that her fate was in her own hands. But now, every doubt she’d had about taking this case crashed down around her, mingling with her own terror about what might be happening to Maddy right now.

Blood everywhere. Four little bodies, strewn about the house, lying where Mama had left them…

She choked back a sob and slid to the porch, what little energy she had left draining from her in a flood of despair.

She’d done this. Whatever happened to Maddy now, she owned it. She didn’t know how she could live with this one. The pain in her chest felt as if her heart were being shredded apart, strip by strip. She could never piece it back together again.

Behind her, the door opened. The wooden porch floor creaked as Sam walked onto the porch and stood beside her.

She couldn’t look up at him. She should never have come here in the first place. Apologies were pointless. What she’d done tonight could never be forgiven.

Sam crouched down beside her. “You shouldn’t have gone behind my back. I knew what I was doing. If you figured out I was keeping something from you, you should have trusted that I had a good reason.”

She forced the words from her aching throat. “I didn’t want you to walk into a trap alone.”

“I know you were trying to protect me.” She felt his hand on her head, his fingers tangling lightly in her hair. “But she’s my daughter. I had the right to take that risk for her.”

She looked up at him, her heart full of feeling she couldn’t contain. “I love Maddy, too, Sam.”

A bubble of joy, out of place in the middle of so much fear and dread, caught her by surprise. A watery laugh erupted from her throat as the full weight of emotion crashed over her.

Sam’s gaze locked with hers, and she saw that he understood her jumble of emotions, maybe more than she understood them herself. He caught her hands in his. Rising, he pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, leading her into the house and over to the sofa. He made her sit, pulling a crocheted throw from the back of the sofa and wrapping it around her. Only then did she realize she was shivering.

“I’m angry with you,” Sam told her, his expression tight.

“You should be.” Her teeth were chattering a little.

“You’re not supposed to agree. You’re supposed to argue back.” Sam raked his hand through his hair, his movement rapid and agitated. His voice rose. “You’re supposed to tell me I was a stupid fool to go out there by myself and you’re the cop and you know better. And then I’m supposed to yell at you that you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She stood up on wobbly knees to face him, understanding. He needed to feel something besides bone-freezing terror. It was the least she could do for him. “He could have been waiting to kill you the minute you walked in that mill, Sam.”

“With me dead, he’d have no reason to keep holding Maddy.” Sam’s gaze lowered, his voice dropping to a hush, as if confessing something he hadn’t even admitted to himself before now. “Burkett would have no reason to hurt her, because doing so would no longer hurt me.”

“If he’d killed you, I’d have hunted him down for the rest of my life,” she answered in a tone just as hushed. “I wouldn’t rest until I found him.”

Sam’s eyes lifted to meet hers. She could see that he understood what she was really admitting. His throat bobbed and he took a hesitant step toward her, his hand outstretched.

But he stopped, an odd look coming over his face. He reached into his pocket, his face a chaos of emotions, and pulled out his cell phone. Kristen could hear the faint buzz of the vibrating phone now, and her heart froze in place.

Sam’s shaking fingers punched a couple of buttons. Kristen watched his face grow slack for a second. Then his gaze flew up to meet hers, and she saw the light of hope blazing from his dark blue eyes.

“He wants to meet again.”

Kristen didn’t ask where or when. She wasn’t going to ruin things for Sam a second time. “I should leave, then.”

She started toward the door, but he caught her hand, tugging her back around to face him.

“No,” he said firmly. “I’m not playing his game his way this time.”

She frowned, not understanding. “What do you mean?”

He touched her face with the lightest brush of his fingertips. “This time, Detective, you’re gonna have my back.”

“I’M NOT SURE HOW HE’S finding all the abandoned buildings in Chickasaw County,” Sam said later as he and Kristen went over the plans. It was almost ten o’clock, a half hour before the next rendezvous with Burkett. Old Saddlecreek Church hadn’t seen a congregation through its doors for six or seven years, according to Kristen, who knew more about the town’s recent history than he did. The congregation had merged with another church closer to town, and attempts to sell the building hadn’t met with much success.

Kristen had called the pastor of the new church and gotten the phone number of the former pastor at Saddlecreek, figuring that if anyone knew the layout of the building, he’d be the one. She’d gleaned enough information that they now had a rough but workable floor plan for the main sanctuary, where Burkett’s message had directed Sam to come.

“I’ll have the text message set up to send,” Sam said, programming the message into the phone so that all he’d have to do was punch one button and the message would go to Kristen’s phone. “When you get the message, it will mean I have a visual on Burkett and can distract him while you head into the sanctuary through the back.”

“I’m going to make my approach on the organ side,” Kristen said, pointing to the organ pit on the right side of the floor plan sketch. “Brother Handley said they were able to sell the piano, but the organ was in such disrepair they haven’t been able to unload it. It’ll give me some cover. Just make sure he’s facing the front of the church.”

Sam nodded as he put the cell phone back into his pocket. “Ready to go?”

She looked terrified, but also determined, and if Sam had had any doubts about including her in this plan, that one look would have driven them away. Whatever happened, he knew he’d made the right choice in trusting Kristen.

With his daughter and with his own life.

When this was all over, and Maddy was back with them, safe and sound, his next big project was going to be convincing Kristen they could trust each other with their hearts, as well. And not just for Maddy’s sake.

He couldn’t bear the thought of telling Kristen Tandy goodbye.

She was silent on the drive through town, her profile like cool white marble tinged with blue from the dashboard lights. He felt her nervous tension all the way across the cab of the Jeep, but he didn’t know how to ease her fears when he was a bundle of nerves himself.

Just do your part, Cooper. You know Kristen will move heaven and earth to do hers.

He reached across and touched her hand where it lay on the seat beside her. She gave a little jerk, then relaxed, turning her hand over to twine with his.

“I don’t know whether to hope he has Maddy with him or not,” she admitted.

He gave her hand a squeeze. “I know. I’ve decided it’ll be easier if she’s not there. Then he can’t use her as a pawn.”

“But what if he won’t tell us where she is?”

He released her hand, needing both hands to steer into a sharp curve. “We’ll get it out of him.”

The approach to Saddlecreek Church was a narrow, winding blacktop road. Sam supposed Burkett had chosen the meeting place for just such a reason-easy to see cars-and people-approaching. As he made the turn onto the access road, Kristen unbelted herself and slid down in the floorboard of the Jeep, out of sight. She would stay there until she received the text message signal.

Sam parked about fifty yards from the front of the church and cut the engine. “Showtime.”

“Be careful.”

Sam patted his ankle holster. “I will.”

He leaned over the seat toward her, until his face was inches from hers. “Be careful, too.” He kissed her cold lips, felt them tremble beneath his. Backing away, he met her anxious gaze. “See you soon.”

He exited the Jeep and walked the track to the front of the church. A large chain dangled, snapped in two, from the doors of the church. Under closer examination, the cut in the chains looked fresh. And what he’d thought was the reflection of faint moonlight on the dusty blue stained glass windows was actually a light flickering within the building.

Was Burkett inside already?

Sam pulled the door open. It gave a loud creak and a rattle of the chains, so stealth was out of the question. Not that it mattered. Burkett wouldn’t have chosen the old church if he’d thought there was a chance Sam could sneak up on him.

The interior of the old sanctuary was dusty and smelled of rotting wood and fabric. A mouse scuttled across Sam’s path, giving him a start, but he kept his cool, scanning the open room to get a quick lay of the land.

Rows of pews lined the sanctuary, a few missing here and there, either scavenged by thieves or sold by the church. The hymnal racks were empty, and on some of the remaining pews, mice, rats or other vermin, including perhaps the human variety, had torn some of the blue velvet seat pads to shreds.

At the front of the sanctuary, the altar table remained, covered by a tattered purple altar cloth with a gold cross stitched in the middle. Atop the altar cloth sat a hurricane lamp with a flickering flame that filled the room with pale gold light and a dozen writhing shadows.

Sam took in all of this in the matter of a couple of seconds, which was all the time he needed to realize a man was sitting on the front pew, just a few feet from the altar.

His heartbeat skyrocketed.

Slowly, the man in the front pew rose. He took his time as he turned around to face Sam.

It was Burkett. And he was holding Maddy tightly in his arms, a knife blade pressed against her throat.

“Daddy?” Maddy croaked. The man squeezed her to him more tightly, and her cry cut off.

“Son of a bitch!” Sam yelled, forgetting about anything but the sight of his daughter in a madman’s arms.

“Not one step farther.” Burkett’s firm voice carried across the distance between them.

Sam froze, his eyes never leaving his daughter’s terrified face. “I’m stopped.”

“Take your hand out of your pocket.”

Sam realized he still had his finger on the cell phone button. And Burkett had his back to the organ pit.

With the slightest flick of his finger, he pushed the message button. Then he slowly drew his hand from his pocket and lifted it into the air, along with his other one.

And prayed Kristen got the message.

CROUCHED IN THE FLOORBOARD of Sam’s Jeep, Kristen felt one leg starting to go to sleep, a cool tingle setting in. She shifted her position to return some circulation to the limb, but almost immediately she felt her other leg start to tingle.

How long had Sam been gone? It felt like an hour, though she knew it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes.

She lifted her cell phone, checking the time on the display. Only ten-thirty-five. He’d been gone less than ten minutes. But if Stan Burkett was punctual, they might be standing face-to-face this very moment.

“Text me, Sam,” she muttered at the stubbornly silent phone. As if in direct response, her cell phone began vibrating, startling her so much that she dropped it between her folded legs and had to contort her body to pick it up again.

She read the message. It was one word.

Go.

Heart pounding, she opened the car door from her crouched position and slipped outside into the cool night air. She allowed herself a stretch, keeping alert for any sign that Burkett might have an accomplice watching from the woods. They’d considered that possibility, and while they’d both agreed he was almost certainly acting alone, she’d had enough training to take care as she circled through the woods to the back of the church building.

There was a small education annex behind the main church building. It was connected to the sanctuary, probably so that churchgoers wouldn’t have to cross from their Sunday school classes to the worship service in the cold or the rain. She checked the clip of her Ruger, then made her way into the education annex through a broken window and flicked on the small flashlight she’d stuck in the pocket of her jeans.

The flashlight beam revealed a long, grimy passageway, filled with litter, a few old beer bottles and soft drink cans. Kids today, she thought grimly, making her way as silently as she could through the obstacle course of detritus.

She heard the faint sound of voices somewhere ahead. She followed the sound around a corner and found herself in front of a doorless archway. From inside, a faint glow was visible.

Kristen turned off the flashlight. It took a few seconds for her eyes to acclimate to the darkness, but when her vision settled, she entered the archway and found herself in a small anteroom. Across from her stood a set of heavy wooden doors.

The organ-side entranceway to the sanctuary.

To the right of the double doors, another door stood open. It was from this open door that the faint, flickering light came, casting dancing shadows across the anteroom.

Choir loft, she thought. She’d been in the church choir as a kid, an enthusiastic if not particularly talented alto.

She crossed to the open door and looked inside. A set of five carpeted steps led up to an empty choir loft. Standing in this doorway, she more clearly heard the voices coming from the sanctuary.

“You had to know it would end this way sooner or later.” That must be Burkett’s voice, a low growl full of barely tempered pain. Kristen would have preferred a more dispassionate voice, she realized. The man’s old and nurtured anguish made him deadly.

She padded silently up the carpeted steps to the choir loft and paused at the edge of the panel wall that had once hidden the choir from the view of the congregation as they filed into the loft. She dared a quick peek around the edge.

She saw Sam immediately, standing with his hands slightly raised. If he spotted her, he gave no indication. His attention was focused on the front of the altar area, where another man stood with his back to the choir loft.

“I didn’t want to kill your son, Mr. Burkett. I did all I could to talk him down. But he was going to pull that trigger.”

“Lies!” Burkett’s cry was that of an animal in pain. “You hated him for not being a good little soldier and killing on your orders. You slaughtered him for his conscience!”

Just over the top of the man’s shoulder, Kristen spotted a head full of dark curls.

Maddy.

She ducked back out of view, leaning against the panel wall. She closed her eyes and breathed silently but deeply.

Now or never, Tandy.

First, a quick change of plans. Going through the double doors and using the organ would ultimately gain her no advantage. Even if the doors didn’t creak when she opened them, Burkett would spot her through his peripheral vision before she got anywhere near him. If she wanted to stay behind him until the last minute, she’d have to go through the choir loft.

“I don’t care what you do to me, Burkett. If you think I’m guilty, I’ll take your punishment. But Maddy didn’t do anything to you or your son. Let her go. Let her go right now and I’ll do whatever you want.”

The desperation in Sam’s voice broke Kristen’s heart. She knew he’d say the same thing-and mean it-even if he didn’t know she was waiting to make her move.

Daring another quick glance around the edge of the wall, she spotted the small door set into the wooden rail separating the choir loft from the raised preaching dais. It was half-open already, she saw with a quick spurt of excitement. That would make slipping through it soundlessly that much easier.

“She’s the only thing you care about, isn’t she?” Burkett said just as Kristen made her swift, silent move out from the shelter of the wall panel and onto the main floor of the choir loft. She lifted the Ruger at the ready, treading lightly as the carpeting ended at the edge of the choir loft. She would have to cross a short span of worn vinyl tiles to get to the low door from the loft to the carpeted dais.

“I’ll confess what I did,” Sam said quickly, his voice rising. He took a couple of steps toward Burkett, giving Kristen her opportunity to make it through the door and onto the dais without Burkett noticing.

Sam didn’t even lift his gaze to look at her, his attention laser-focused on Burkett and his small hostage. “I’ll tell the truth about what I did. About what we all did. Just let my daughter go. No more innocents need to die.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt the girl, you know.” Burkett took a step toward Sam.

Kristen froze, holding her breath.

“I just wanted to tie her up so that she wouldn’t stop me from taking your daughter.”

“She’s going to be okay. She can tell the authorities that you didn’t mean to hurt her.”

Kristen eased to the edge of the dais, by the pulpit. In front of the altar table, with its purple velvet cloth and the flickering hurricane lamp was where she wanted to be. It would put her in the perfect position to jump Burkett at the first chance.

“I want my Daddy!” It was the first time Maddy had spoken since Kristen arrived. She sounded hoarse, as if she’d been crying a lot. Kristen felt a surge of pure rage at Burkett for putting Maddy through this nightmare, and she barely restrained the urge to launch herself at Burkett this very second.

“I’m right here, baby,” Sam answered his daughter, taking a couple of steps toward her.

“Stop, Cooper.”

“You stop, Burkett. Stop tormenting my child.”

“Now you know how it feels.”

Maddy started wriggling in Burkett’s arms, forcing him to tighten his grasp on her. Maddy cried out in pain.

That was it for Kristen. For Sam, as well, for just as she leaped from the dais, she saw Sam flying up the aisle toward Burkett at a dead run.

Kristen’s leg hit the hurricane lamp as she jumped, knocking it onto its side. The flame guttered out, plunging the sanctuary into utter blackness just as Kristen landed on her feet only inches behind Burkett.

She heard Maddy screaming, the sound of grunts and blows landed. She groped in the dark until she felt her fingers tangle in short, coarse hair. Burkett’s hair, not Sam’s. Sam’s hair was softer and a little longer.

Grabbing a handful of hair in her fist, she pressed the butt of the Ruger against the back of his head.

“Give Sam his daughter,” she said in a low, deadly tone.

She felt movement, and Sam called out, “I’ve got her.”

Kristen let go of Burkett’s hair long enough to reach in her pocket for the penlight. But the second Burkett felt her hand move, he whirled around, catching her off guard. He slammed her into the altar with a bone-jarring thud. One of his hands circled her wrist, forcing her gun hand back against the wooden table with a sharp crack.

She tried to keep her grip on the Ruger but her fingers went briefly numb, and the weapon slid from her grasp. She heard it bounce across the altar table and hit the carpeted floor with a muted thud.

“Kristen!” Sam called out.

“Get Maddy out of here!”

She felt a sudden, sharp pain in her side and realized Burkett still had the knife. As he hauled back for another stab, she shifted right and brought her knee up into his groin.

Burkett reeled away, and she scrambled away from his grasp, her side burning as if it was on fire. Her foot connected with something on the floor. The Ruger. She dropped to her knees and found the pistol. Rising quickly, she pulled the penlight from her pocket and switched it on, illuminating the front of the sanctuary.

Burkett staggered toward her, knife in hand. Sam was right behind him, ready to pounce.

“Gun beats knife,” Kristen barked, raising the Ruger steadily in front of her, though it took every ounce of waning strength she had. She felt blood spilling from the wound in her side, a hot, wet stream moving over her hip and down her leg.

Sam grabbed the knife from Burkett and threw it into the pews. “Stay back there, Maddy!” he called over his shoulder as he subdued Burkett with the set of plastic flex cuffs Kristen had given him before they left the house.

“You’re hurt,” he said to Kristen, his eyes wide with fear as he took in the blood pouring from her side.

“I’m okay,” she said, but her voice barely registered. Her knees gave out, and she sank to the floor.

The penlight must have broken, she thought as the world went dark again. She thought she heard Sam’s voice again, but it was faint and faraway.

Had he left her? Had he taken Maddy and gone far, far away? She struggled to sit up, to find her feet again. She had to go after then. She couldn’t let them leave her. She needed them both so much.

Then even sound abandoned her, and she sank into a deep, silent darkness.

WHEN SOUND AND SIGHT RETURNED, they arrived in a cacophony of raised voices and frantic motion. It took Kristen a second to realize she was in a hospital emergency room bay, surrounded by green-clad doctors, nurses and technicians poking, prodding and dragging her out of the peaceful darkness.

“There she is,” one of the doctors said, smiling at her. “BP’s coming back. She’s stabilizing nicely.” He bent closer to her. “You’re in the Chickasaw County Medical Center, Detective Tandy. Can you talk?”

Kristen’s voice came out in a croak. “Where’s Sam?”

“Mr. Cooper’s just outside. Let us get you all hooked up and settled down here and we’ll bring him right in.”

Looking down, she saw that she was naked, her clothes lying in strips on a nearby equipment table. Her left side was a screaming ball of agony, but the doctor assured her they had stopped the bleeding and once the blood transfusion was finished, she’d be feeling better in no time.

They covered her with a sheet, finally, and brought Sam into the emergency bay. He was bone-white and looked as though he’d just walked through the pit of hell, but when he locked gazes with her, his face spread into a smile as bright as a clear June morning. He caught her hand in his, lifting her knuckles to his lips for a quick kiss. “You sure know how to make an impression on a guy, Tandy.”

“Where’s Maddy?” she asked. “Is she okay?”

“She’s fine. The doctors just finished checking her out and now she’s with my folks in the waiting room. I’ll bring her to see you once you’re in a room.”

“Is someone watching her?” she asked, anxious.

“Riley’s playing bodyguard, but it’s over now. Burkett’s in lockup.” Sam stroked her hair, his smile widening. “Half the Gossamer Ridge police force is guarding him. The other half is out in the waiting room, driving the nurses crazy. You have quite an admiration society going on there.”

She shook her head. “I blew it back there. I heard Maddy cry out and I lost my head.”

“So did I.” He stroked a stray lock of hair away from her damp face. “It’s what parents do.”

Tears pricked her eyes. “I had to protect her, whatever the cost.”

“I know.”

“I would have done that for my brothers and sisters, Sam. If I’d had an idea what my mother was going to do-”

Sam touched her lips with his fingertips. “I know that, too. You were always too hard on yourself about that.”

She pressed her lips to his fingers in a light kiss. “You sound like Carl.”

“Carl’s a smart man,” Sam replied with a smile. “He was smart enough to love you.”

She heard the vow hidden in his words. She saw the emotion shining in his eyes. It was crazy, really, to feel so much after such a short time, but she knew it was true.

She felt it herself.

“When you get out of here, we need to talk,” Sam said.

She managed a weak smile. “If by ‘talk’ you mean you’re going to tell me how things will be between us from now on, I should warn you I already have a few ideas about that.”

He ran his thumb over the curve of her chin. “Really.”

“Yeah. Like daily foot rubs. And who gets to drive.”

“Daily foot rubs, huh? For you or for me?”

“I suppose it could be a mutual thing,” she answered, feeling a little silly being flirtatious while she was lying naked and wounded under a little bitty sheet on a gurney.

“Deal,” he said, bending to give her a passionate kiss that made her woozy head reel until the doctor came into the room to shoo him out.

Kristen watched him leave, her heart so full of joy she could hardly breathe. Maddy was safe. Burkett was in custody. And she was crazy in love with a wonderful man just crazy enough to love her back. Had she actually died back there in the abandoned church and gone straight to heaven?

If so, there was nowhere else she’d rather be.