One Book In The Grave

Chapter 24

“This ends right here and now,” Max said, stalking the living room like a caged lion. “I’m not hiding anymore. They’ve managed to find out where we are within days, anyway, so why bother?”

“You’re right,” Derek said, his tone deadly serious. “There’s no use being discreet now that they’ve taken Emily.”

He’d broken world speed records getting back to Dharma by two o’clock and had quickly run back to our room to change from his expensive, navy pin-striped suit into dark jeans, a black T-shirt, and black leather jacket. When he walked back into the living room, I took one look at him and had to remember to breathe. The man looked damn good in black-that’s all I can say.

“I got a glimpse of the car,” Max said, pounding his fist against his palm as he circled the room. “I couldn’t see the exact make or model and it was too muddy to read the license plate, but I could tell it was a dark burgundy van.”

“Late model?”

“No. Sort of boxy, so it’s got to be a few years old. I drew a picture of it and also sketched the tire tracks.” He pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pocket and smoothed it out on the dining table.

“Are you sure these are the tracks of the same van?”

“Hell, yeah. I went running after it when they took off with Emily, so I know which tracks were theirs.”

“Brilliant, Max,” Derek said, patting him on the back. “The police should be able to match this drawing to one of the survivalists’ vehicles. Smart of you to think of it.”

Max shrugged. “I had nothing better to do once you talked me off the ledge.”

Earlier, I could barely get Max to come up from the canyon floor. When he did finally hike back up to the house, he was enraged, out of his mind with fear, and frantic to go after Emily. He was threatening to take out his rifle and shoot someone-and I couldn’t blame him. But I also couldn’t let him go off half crazed, so I got Derek back on the phone and begged him to talk Max down.

Whatever Derek said to him had worked. Max wasn’t exactly calm, but he was willing to wait for Derek and Gabriel to join him in the fight.

Gazing across the room at Derek, who’d been scowling ever since he arrived at the house, I said, “You’d think we all had tracking devices planted on us with the way they find us so fast.”

“It does seem that way, love,” Derek said. “But I’ve checked my car each time. It’s clean.”

It was a very good sign that he called me love, because I knew he had to be furious with me for going into the canyon. But I couldn’t let Max go down there alone. Not that I had been much help to him. My hand still smarted from the stickers I’d collected from that prickly bush. I’d slathered it in antiseptic cream as soon as I got back to the house.

It was also good to know that Derek had actually been checking for tracking devices regularly. I never would have thought of that, but we’d already established beyond a doubt that his mind worked differently from mine.

“Hey, maybe they planted a device in the book,” I said, then shook my head. “No, that’s just stupid.”

Derek raised an eyebrow. “At this point, nothing is out of the question. Bring me the book and I’ll check it.”

I had to bring it to him in pieces. He sat at the dining room table and went through every inch of every page, explaining that there were now tracking devices on the market that were as small and thin as a piece of tape.

“The book is clean,” he said finally.

“So these guys are just good trackers,” I said.

“Seems to be the case,” Derek said, still scowling. It had to be irritating as hell to know he was being bested by a group of local yokels. I was right there with him, and couldn’t wait to nail whoever had been dogging us all over northern California.

I gathered up the pieces of the book and carried them back to the desk in our bedroom. I took a minute to arrange them neatly on the desk, then pulled out my cell phone and took a photograph of the display. Under normal circumstances in my bookbinding studio at home, I would’ve been documenting every step of my work on Beauty, so it was time to play catch-up.

By the time I came back into the living room, Gabriel had arrived. He was dressed from head to toe in black, and I had to say, he looked almost as good as Derek did.

The four of us regrouped around the dining table as we had so many times before, regardless of whose house we were in. This gathering was different, though. Tonight we would finally take action. We made a plan.

The search would center around the Hollow. Gabriel had already copied a Google Earth map showing every home and outbuilding in the area. Then he and Derek divided the map into ten approximately equal-sized sections. Gabriel brought out his notebook computer and coordinated directions into the individual areas.

Derek called my father and put him on speakerphone, then asked him to round up ten or fifteen commune members who were good with guns and tracking. I knew Austin would be the first one on his list.

“I’ll get on the phone and call some others,” Dad said, and I could hear the excitement in his voice. He didn’t talk about it much, but he’d apparently been involved in a few dangerous operations in his past.

“And, Jim,” Derek continued, “can you recommend a discreet meeting place for all of us, around seven o’clock this evening?”

There was a pause; then Dad said, “Savannah’s restaurant has a private dining room. It’s Monday, so the place is closed. There’s a parking lot and entrance in the back. Nobody will be seen from the street.”

“Excellent suggestion,” Derek said, then noticed my eyes widen, and thought fast. “Would you mind approaching Savannah with that request, Jim?”

I grinned. Derek was getting to know my family so well. As bristly as Savannah could get, we both knew she would never say no to our father.

After we hung up from talking to Dad, it was time for me to bring up a thorny subject.

Dharma didn’t have its own police force, but a number of the commune members were proficient at tracking and shooting. Guru Bob handled most smaller skirmishes within the confines of the commune, but if things got out of hand, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department could be called in. We’d rarely had a need to call them in before, but this was a whole different ballgame.

“We should call Jaglom and Lee,” I said, “and probably the Sonoma Sheriff’s Department.”

“No cops,” Max said immediately.

“But we’ll need them to arrest the bad guys when we find Emily.” I touched Max’s shoulder and felt him tense up, but I went ahead and said, “Look, she might need an ambulance, Max. I’m sorry, but we’ll need the authorities on hand at some point.”

“Emily will be fine,” he said through clenched teeth. “Solomon’s just using her to get to me.”

I prayed he was right.

Derek squeezed my hand. “I’m afraid I agree with Max, darling. I’m hesitant to bring in law enforcement too early.”

“Me, too,” Gabriel said. “Sorry, babe, but they could try to pull the plug on the whole operation. Let’s just say my confidence level in them finding Emily is low to zero.”

I understood their feelings. We’d done all the groundwork and knew the players. We’d been the ones keeping Max safe, scoping out the survivalists, running searches on them, tracing recent weapon sales they’d made, along with keeping tabs on Solomon. None of us wanted to be told at the eleventh hour that it was time to step aside and let law enforcement take over. We wanted to be the ones to close the deal on Solomon.

I understood all that. And I felt for Max, too. The police had never helped him before. Why would they start now?

And how strange was it that I, not Derek, was the one who was insisting on a police presence? Times had certainly changed. Or maybe I’d just grown tired of running on pure adrenaline and terror every day. I wanted this nightmare to end. Tonight.

“I can see you’re struggling with this, love, so I propose a compromise. We’ll call the police after we begin the search.”

I thought about it for half a second. “Okay. I’ll make the calls.”

The others agreed. The key would be in the timing of the phone calls. Our San Francisco detectives would need at least an hour to get up here, so I would alert them sooner. The sheriff was close enough to get here quickly, so I would make the call to him later.

With any luck, they would all descend on Dharma at precisely the right time to arrest and drag off to jail the vicious creeps who’d snatched Emily.

“Are you ready?” Derek asked as the sun set over the canyon ridge. He pulled his gun from the holster beneath his arm, slid the magazine back to double-check that it was fully loaded, then slipped the gun back into its holster.

Abject fear began to dance a jig on my nerve endings as I watched him. But I was just going to have to get over that.

“I’m ready,” I said, breathing deeply as I zipped up my Windbreaker.

“Hell, yeah.” Max nodded brusquely and raised his rifle to prove he was all set.

I grabbed a few handfuls of Hershey’s Kisses and shoved them into both of my pockets.

Gabriel grinned. “Ready to roll.”

“Let’s go.”

It was dusk as we drove into the parking lot behind Savannah’s restaurant. The place was closed, but she was in there, as always, working in the kitchen, preparing stocks and sauces for the week.

After a brief but emotional reunion between Max and my brother Austin, who, thank goodness, didn’t slug his old friend in the stomach, we all got down to business. There were twenty of us gathered in Savannah’s private dining room. It was odd to be sitting at this table, discussing what was essentially a covert operation, with my father and brother in the same room. I figured it had to be even stranger for them than it was for me.

This space also served as the wine cellar for the restaurant, so I was pleased to see that we were surrounded by thousands of dollars’ worth of excellent wines. Somehow that comforted me.

As a few of the men talked quietly, Derek pulled me close and said under his breath, “You’ll call Inspector Jaglom once the meeting starts.”

“Yes.”

“And the Sheriff’s Department once we’ve finished.”

“We went over this,” I said gently. “I know what to do.” Funny how he seemed more nervous about my making two measly phone calls than he was about a group of armed men traipsing in the woods, out to trap a killer.

Gabriel passed around the maps he’d copied to each two-person team in the room. Most of the locals knew their way around the Hollow, but it was still good to have Gabriel’s directions so they could all stay out of one another’s way.

Derek took his place at the head of the table and outlined the mission. He emphasized that no weapons were to be fired unless one of the teams found Emily and was met with resistance. The survivalists had trained themselves to attack first and ask questions later. Vigilance was essential.

The most likely place they would find Emily was somewhere near or inside Bennie and Stefan’s dwelling. Derek and Gabriel were the point men there. Max would be with them.

Solomon had disappeared but we knew he was the power behind it all. Wherever he was hiding, we intended to smoke him out.

My heart was pounding like a bass drum on speed. My muscles were stiff from clenching the sides of my chair. I was both scared spitless and so damn energized, I didn’t know whether to crawl in a hole or go bowling. My brain was spinning as I took it all in.

We were going to war.

After listening to Max describe the burgundy van he’d seen in the canyon that morning, Austin shook his head. “Sorry to be the wet blanket, but half the survivalists in the Hollow drive vans like that. Dark paint, nondescript. Some are camper conversions.”

Ray, another commune member, piped up. “That’s been the car of choice for the Ogunites for the past fifteen years or so. Most of them still drive ’em around. They’re used for everything from hauling lumber to clearing trees to taking their kids on vacations.”

“That’s good to know,” Derek said. “Narrows the search down to a few hundred suspects.”

There was general chuckling around the table from everyone but Max, whose patience appeared to be holding by one frayed thread. Derek noticed it, too. So after advising everyone in the room to turn their cell phones on vibrate, he gave me the heads-up to call the sheriff, signaling that the meeting was almost over.

Earlier, I’d called Inspector Lee, who, after grousing at me about staying out of police business, promised to get on the road with Jaglom immediately. I was hoping my call to the Sonoma sheriff would go better.

I got up and left the room, closing the door behind me. I walked down the short, dark hall toward the back of the restaurant to use the bathroom and make the phone call.

It was a warm night so the back door leading to the parking lot was open, but the screen door was locked. I’d checked it myself earlier.

As I neared the bathroom, a woman came up and peeked through the screen door, trying to see inside. She was outlined in silhouette by the light over the parking lot.

“Can I help you?” I said, and yeah, I was a little freaked-out.

She ducked back quickly out of the doorway.

“Hello?” I said, but nobody answered. Well, that was weird. Was she just checking to see if the restaurant was open or did she have something more sinister in mind? Was I being paranoid?

Probably. But I snuck over to the screen door to see if she was still out there.

“Help!” a woman cried, then let out an ear-piercing scream that filled the night air. A high-pitched shrieking sound that could have come from only one person.

“Minka?”

Oh, dear God. How? Why? What was she doing here?

I whipped open the door in time to see someone fifty yards away dragging a squirming, leopard-leggings-clad woman by the neck. That was Minka, all right.

“Hey!” I yelled. “Stop that.” I tore off running down the blacktop, shouting for the guy to stop.

Her hooded assailant continued lugging her toward a waiting car at the far end of the parking lot. Minka was not going quietly. She squirmed and screeched the whole way. But her captor was too big and strong and mean for Minka to fight off.

“Drop her,” I shouted, but I was too far away to do anything except watch as Minka’s attacker physically overpowered her, punching her in the stomach and tossing her into the car trunk.

The thug jumped into the driver’s seat and peeled rubber out of the parking lot.

I dashed back to the restaurant door just as Derek and Gabriel and some of the men came running out.

Derek grabbed me. “Was that you screaming? What happened?”

“He’s taken Minka,” I cried.

“Minka?” Derek looked as stunned as I felt.

“This can’t be a coincidence,” I insisted. “It has to be connected to Emily’s disappearance. That guy was following us and Minka got in the way.”

“But what is Minka doing here?”

I shook my head, still flabbergasted. “I don’t know. She probably thinks I’m up here working on some special bookbinding project that should’ve been hers.”

“What about her assailant?” Gabriel asked. “Was it Solomon?”

“I couldn’t tell. He was tall and wore a ski mask or some kind of hood.”

Gabriel took off sprinting all the way to the far end of the lot, then ran back. “I know where they’re going,” he said, then darted over to his black BMW and started the engine. He backed out of the space and shouted, “Get in.”

I hopped into the passenger’s side. Derek opened the back door but stopped when someone called out his name.

Austin came running over “What’s the story, man?”

“We’re going after this goon,” Derek said, deadly serious as he morphed into full commander mode. “You lead the rest of the men to the Hollow. Follow the original plan, but I want you and your father to go after Bennie and Stefan. Solomon, too, if you can find him. Take Max with you. Be careful.”

Austin took his new role seriously, giving one grim nod. “Got it.”

“My phone’s on,” Derek said. “Keep me posted.”

“Likewise,” Austin said, and ran back to give instructions to the others.

Derek jumped into Gabriel’s car and we went racing after Minka’s kidnapper.