The Hunt

CHAPTER 19

Miranda paced the waiting room for two hours before finally sitting in one of the green plastic chairs that lined the wall of the emergency room. She’d learned next to nothing about JoBeth Anderson’s condition. The hospital couldn’t reach her next of kin in Minnesota, so they’d contacted the University. An administrator was tracking down her parents, but because it was life or death, they took JoBeth in for surgery.

When Miranda’s phone rang earlier at two in the morning, she’d been pulled from a nightmare, grateful for the interruption.

It had been Nick. The Butcher had another victim.

At the time, Miranda hadn’t questioned JoBeth being left behind by her attacker. Now, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Why hadn’t she been taken with Ashley?

Why had the Butcher attempted to kill her, leaving her by the side of the road?

And why had he acted so soon on the heels of Rebecca Douglas’s murder? His shortest interim period had been two weeks. Ashley had been abducted after just three days.

She needed to talk to Quinn and figure out what this meant. Were they any closer to catching the Butcher? Had something in this investigation tipped his hand? Or might this be the work of a copycat criminal? But Quinn and Nick weren’t around to answer questions. They were interviewing possible witnesses at the Junction, where JoBeth and Ashley had stopped to eat.

From the floor nurse, Miranda learned that JoBeth had a life-threatening contusion on the back of her head. She had been hit three times with enough force to crack her skull. The doctors were focusing on saving her life, but even then she could have a broken spinal cord. Her injuries were serious; the blows had been meant to kill.

She is a survivor, Miranda thought. Just like me.

JoBeth didn’t deserve this, lying in surgery as the doctors tried to stop her brain from bleeding.

Trapped in her brain could be something to lead them to the killer: maybe she had seen the Butcher, maybe she knew him, something to help! They needed a break. They needed the killer to make a mistake.

Miranda willed JoBeth to survive. To regain consciousness. To say, “Yes, I saw him, he is-”

Please make it, JoBeth.

Miranda sat in a hospital chair. As dawn peeked over the horizon, she closed her eyes. Just to rest for a minute.

JoBeth was still in surgery when Quinn walked in an hour later.

He wasn’t surprised Miranda was in the waiting room outside the surgery wing. But he was taken aback when he saw her lying on a couch, asleep, her backpack a pillow. A wool blanket covered her thin body; her arms were crossed over her chest, holding the blanket close. Like a child. Innocent.

Her pale skin was relaxed in sleep, belying her body’s simmering tension. He quietly approached; the sight tugged at his heart. Beautiful, strong, vibrant. Smart.

Passionate. Intelligent. Such a pain in the ass sometimes, she was so stubborn.

He licked his lips. He’d never be able to eat pecan pie again without picturing Miranda. Tasting her sweet, sugary lips as they melted into his. Feeling her body mold against his, a perfect fit.

He couldn’t resist bending over and tucking a loose curl behind her ear.

Her eyes opened and she sat up abruptly, blanket dropping to the floor, a look of fear crossing her face before she recognized him. He felt bad that he’d startled her. He sat next to her and touched her cheek. Her skin was so soft.

She didn’t pull back, but neither did she lean into his caress. He’d take what little he could get at this point. He certainly didn’t want to jeopardize the tentative progress he’d made in getting her to trust him again.

As if he hadn’t already made a mistake by kissing her. Even though at the time it sure didn’t feel like a mistake.

“I’m sorry, Miranda. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“I felt someone watching me,” she said, her voice hoarse from sleep-or lack of it. She cleared her throat, the fear in her eyes now hidden behind her thick lashes. She took a deep breath and looked up at him. “What happened? JoBeth?” She jumped up and wobbled a bit. He took her elbow to steady her, and she didn’t push his hand away.

Another small step.

“I just got here,” he said.

She glanced toward the nurses’ station. “They promised to wake me if there was a change.” She turned to the lone nurse behind the counter.

“Any word?” she asked. “JoBeth Anderson, she was in-”

The nurse nodded. “I know. She’s out of surgery and was moved to the ICU thirty minutes ago.”

“How is she?”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Moore, I can’t tell you. You’re not her next of kin.”

Miranda tensed next to Quinn and bit her lip. He empathized with her-she was already grieving for Ashley, and worried about JoBeth.

Quinn pulled out his wallet and flashed his badge. “Special Agent Quincy Peterson, Federal Bureau of Investigation. If you would be so kind as to find Ms. Anderson’s doctor, I need to speak with him.”

“Yes, sir.” The nurse picked up the phone and Quinn guided Miranda by the elbow back to the waiting room.

She sighed and put a hand to her head, shielding her bloodshot eyes. “Dammit, Quinn,” she muttered. “Why?”

He didn’t have to ask what she was talking about.

“We’ve taken the car to the Sheriff’s Department and they’re going over it with a fine-toothed comb. Scouring for fingerprints, hair, anything. The crime techs are still at the scene taking a sample of every rock, piece of dirt, and leaf in the immediate area. If there’s trash by the side of the road, it’s being sent immediately to Helena.

“If he made one small mistake, we’ll find him, Miranda.”

He tipped her chin up, forcing her to look at him. His heart twisted seeing the pain in her large blue eyes.

“I promise, I’m not leaving until we get answers.”

She nodded, almost imperceptibly, then sank into a plastic chair and rested her head in her hands. He sat next to her, touched her shoulder. It felt so good to be able to touch Miranda again without her flinching. He rubbed her muscles.

“Do we even have a chance of finding him before Ashley van Auden dies?”

What could he say to that? “There’s always a chance.”

She looked at him, tension radiating from her in unseen waves, the tendons in her neck taut. She must have a splitting headache, and knowing Miranda, she’d just suffer with it. She’d told him once that pain reminded her she was alive. He thought it was more personal punishment stemming from her guilt that she’d survived and Sharon hadn’t.

“I can see her, Quinn,” Miranda whispered, her voice quivering. “Ashley. In the dark. Cold. Naked and scared. Terrified. Worse than I was.”

“Miranda, don’t do this-”

She shook her head, leaned into him as if imploring him to understand. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed.

“No, no,” she said. “I have to focus on her. I have to remember. Don’t you see that it’s worse for her? She knows. She knows he’s the Butcher. Rebecca was killed only days ago; Ashley must be thinking she’s next.” Her voice caught, as if in a sob, but no tears came.

He gently pulled her all the way into his arms and enveloped her. Her body shook as she tried to contain her emotions. That she let him console her was a huge step, one that gave him hope.

And knowing there was hope opened his heart even more.

She took a deep breath and said into his chest, “I called Charlie with my search team,” she continued. “We’re starting out at oh-eight-hundred.”

“You need to sleep,” he murmured, rubbing her back.

She pulled back and shook her head. “I can’t sleep. Not knowing Ashley is out there. But-dammit, I don’t know what to do! We search acres and acres and never find the women alive. But I don’t know what else to do. I can’t do anything.”

Miranda had never been one to sit around and let other people do the job. She jumped in with both feet, from the beginning.

Before he could speak, to try and offer her some inadequate platitude, a tall, skinny doctor with a full head of dark, graying hair approached. “Agent Peterson?” he said, hand extended, dark eyes glancing at Miranda, then back at him. “Doctor Sean O’Neal.”

Quinn shook it. “Thanks for coming out. What’s the status of Ms. Anderson?”

“Is she going to make it?” Miranda asked.

Dr. O’Neal sighed, took off his glasses, and rubbed his eyes. He put his lenses back on and said, “I don’t know. The odds were against her going in, but she held strong. Fifty-fifty, now that she survived the surgery. Sheriff Thomas contacted her parents out of state and I just got off the phone with them. The blows to her head were severe. Fortunately, her spine wasn’t damaged. I feared the nerve had been severed, but it’s good. Unfortunately, even if she wakes up, I have no idea what short- or long-term brain damage there will be.

“In short,” the doctor continued, “she’s in a coma.”

Coma. Their best witness-their only witness-was in a coma. Fate sucked.

Ryan Parker awoke with a start. His heart pounded in the grayness of his room. He felt damp, and for a moment thought he’d wet himself, then realized he’d sweat in his sleep, enough to chill him.

But he was chilled even more from the nightmare.

He glanced at his digital clock: 5:46 A.M.

He swallowed several times and gagged because his mouth was so dry. He’d had nightmares before, but nothing was as real, as scary, as this one. Because this nightmare had happened. That girl really had been killed, and he’d seen her hollow stare in the middle of the woods, accusing him. He’d almost closed her eyes because of that look, but didn’t want to touch the body.

But his nightmare combined reality with fiction. She hadn’t reached out for him in the woods, he told himself over and over again. That was a dream, something his mind made up. It took several minutes for Ryan to separate what he’d really seen last week with what he’d imagined in his dream.

But Rebecca Douglas’s blank eyes haunted him whether he slept or not.

He slid silently out of bed and crossed over to his dresser, carefully sliding open the bottom drawer. Inside were his special things, in one of the few places his mother didn’t search in his room. Cool rocks, a fish fossil he’d found at Yellowstone, a piece of petrified wood, baseball cards, wrappers from Double Bubble gum that had funny cartoons.

And the belt buckle.

He didn’t remember the entire nightmare, but right before he woke himself, he’d pictured the belt buckle, the bird with the glowing green eyes.

He didn’t turn on any lights, but felt around in the far corner of the drawer until his hand touched the cold steel. He froze, sensing something was wrong, but not knowing what.

He should have gone down to that FBI guy and showed it to him. But it was too late now.

It was probably nothing, just some guy pissing in the woods.

No, it wasn’t.

His fingers wrapped around the metal bird almost as if they had a mind of their own. And at that moment, he knew what he had to do, whom he needed to show the buckle to.

His father wasn’t the easiest person to talk to, but he was the smartest person Ryan knew. He was a judge. He’d know exactly what to do with the buckle, who should have it.

He started toward his parents’ bedroom, then smelled coffee downstairs. He detoured into the kitchen, hoping his father was there.

He was. “Hi, Dad.”

“You’re up early.”

He shrugged, fingered the belt buckle. “I was wondering… well, I found something and don’t really know what it is. I thought you might…” That sounded stupid. He knew it was a belt buckle, he just didn’t want to tell his dad where he’d found it.

“Sure, what is it?”

“There you are.”

Ryan jumped. His mother walked in wearing her robe, and frowned.

“Delilah,” his dad said, “I thought you were still sleeping.”

“I woke up and you weren’t there. I went to check on Ryan, and he wasn’t there, either.”

“I went to check on the horses, they seemed kind of spooked, and couldn’t get back to sleep so I made a pot of coffee. Can I get you a cup?”

“I can get it myself,” his mother said.

Ryan didn’t want to talk to his dad with his mother there. He was sure to be punished for going back near where that dead girl was found. His father’s punishments were usually lighter than his mother’s. He’d catch his dad tonight.

“I’m going to get ready for school,” he said.

“Didn’t you want to show me something?” his dad asked.

“It’s not important. I’ll show you tonight.”

“Okay.”

His mother leaned over for a kiss, and he brushed his lips against her cheek, then his father’s, before scrambling up the stairs.

I’ll ask Dad about the buckle tonight.