Cold Case Tracker, page 15
They’d been driving southwest for almost twenty minutes when they crested a narrow bridge over a rural highway surrounded by forest.
“There he is!” Gemma shouted and pointed toward Jackson’s window. He glanced to the left just in time to see an RCMP vehicle fly under the bridge and down the highway behind them, with Reese at the wheel and Amy looking petrified but alive in the passenger seat.
“Hold on!” Jackson smashed the brakes and yanked the wheel hard. The truck spun on the narrow bridge. He could hear his sister praying to God that they wouldn’t break through the barrier, fly off the overpass and crash down onto the road below. Trees and sky flew past the window. Then finally, with a jarring crash the front of his truck smacked into the barrier fence. They shuttered to a stop.
He leaped out, pulled his weapon, spun toward the departing vehicle and fired, praying his aim would be steady and sure.
Please, Lord, protect Amy and the baby! His bullet caught the back-right tire. It exploded with a bang. The vehicle swerved into a tree and crashed.
He turned to release Hudson from the backseat, but Gemma was already out of the truck and unbuckling his partner. Hudson bounded onto the road.
“Grab the phone!” he told her. The line with the dispatcher remained open.
“On it!” Gemma shouted.
He signaled Hudson to his side, ran to the end of the bridge, jumped a narrow fence and scrambled down an incline to the steep road below. Ahead of him, he could see Reese dragging Amy out of the car and into the woods.
“Stop! Police!” Jackson shouted.
He raised his gun to fire, but he didn’t take the shot. He didn’t have a clean line of sight and wouldn’t risk hurting Amy and Skye.
“We have eyes on the suspect and hostage!” Gemma hurried after him and ran down the road just a few steps behind, yelling into the phone. “Single vehicle collision. We need paramedics and backup.”
Jackson and Hudson reached Caleb’s smashed-up vehicle. It was empty.
The forest lay dark and quiet ahead of him. He couldn’t even see Amy.
“They’re sending everyone!” Gemma called. “Police, helicopters, you name it. I gave them both our GPS coordinates and our intersection.”
“Well done.”
“Thanks.” She reached his side and bent over, panting. “But apparently, I don’t just need to practice running but also shouting while doing so.”
They turned toward the trees. Silence fell. He couldn’t see or hear them anywhere. Reese had a head start and was an expert at being silent and staying hidden.
“How do we find them?” Gemma whispered.
“We don’t,” Jackson said. “But Hudson will.”
He looked down at his faithful partner. Hudson was standing at attention, ready for orders.
Gemma’s chin rose. “I’m coming with you.”
“I have an obligation to order you to remain on the road and stay with the vehicle,” he said. “But since I know you won’t do that, I’m going to say that however far you think you should hang back, double it. He’s got a gun. I just got you back and I don’t want to lose my big sister.”
His hands clasped hers for a moment. Then he yanked a ski mask from within the vehicle and held it in front of Hudson’s nose. The dog sniffed it, then sniffed the ground. His ears perked.
“Search!” Jackson ordered. “Find him! Take him down!”
The dog barked like a general calling them to battle. Then Hudson took off running through the trees, with Jackson on his tail. Jackson was running blind, unable to either see or hear his target, but he trusted in his partner with every step he took.
Hudson’s tail was straight, his head was high and his nose sniffed the air as he confidently charged through the trees.
Suddenly a gunshot pierced the forest. Jackson signaled Hudson and stopped. His body froze as Hudson ran back to his side. Then he glanced through the trees and saw them.
Amy was crouched at the base of a tree. Reese stood over her, with one hand cruelly holding her by the arm. The other hand aimed a gun at her temple. Amy’s hands rose and tears streaked her cheeks, but as she glanced at Jackson, he could see the depth of faith and strength shining in her eyes.
“Not another step!” Reese shouted. “Or I will kill her!”
* * *
Pain wracked Amy’s body. The contractions had started again, stronger, harder and more relentless than they’d been before. Reese gripped her left arm tightly. His violent threats filled her ears. And yet, as she fixed her eyes on Jackson’s brave form and the loyal K-9 partner standing by his side, she could feel a fresh strength moving through her.
She was going to survive. She would not let herself die here in these woods.
“Drop your weapon!” Jackson shouted. “Get down on the ground now!”
Hudson barked furiously. The dog’s hackles rose.
Reese dug the barrel of the gun painfully into her temple.
“You have no leverage here!” Reese shouted. “Turn around and leave now, or I will shoot her!”
“Take me instead!” Gemma shouted. Suddenly her best friend was running through the trees several feet to the right of Jackson. She stopped, panting, and raised her hands. “I’m the one you want! Not Amy! I’m the one who was looking into the Pine Crest murders. It’s my store and home you broke into. I’ll give you my laptop and all my research. She doesn’t know anything and I’m willing to trade my life for hers!”
Gemma pulled in a deep breath. Then a defiant twinkle shone in her eyes.
“Oh, and surprise, I’m still alive,” Gemma shouted. “You didn’t actually manage to kill me.”
For a moment, Reese didn’t move; instead, he looked from Amy, to Jackson, to Gemma, as if they were three different points of the same triangle.
Then Amy felt the barrel of the weapon move away from her head as he turned toward Gemma and set her friend in his sights. And Amy knew she was no longer in the line of fire. She glanced at Jackson. A warning flashed in his eyes as if he could read her mind. But Amy didn’t hesitate. She’d always been impulsive. She’d never been one to do what was expected.
And now, Amy hoped, that part of who she was would save everyone’s lives.
Her right hand balled into a fist. She spun toward Reese, throwing a punch right into his gut with every ounce of strength she could summon.
He grunted and let go of her arm. She turned to run, only to be sent sprawling forward as Reese grabbed her leg. Amy landed on her hands and knees, then kicked up hard, catching him in the face with a satisfying crack. He dropped his grip again and she scrambled back across the ground, as she heard Jackson shout, “Hudson! Take him down!”
The German shepherd’s majestic black-and-tan form leaped over Amy, caught Reese by the shoulder and brought him to the ground. Jackson ran for Reese and wrestled the gun from his grip. He flipped the criminal over and cuffed his hands behind his back.
“Reese Cyan,” Jackson said, “I am arresting you for the offense of kidnapping and attempted murder. You have the right to retain and instruct counsel without delay.”
Gemma reached Amy’s side as Jackson continued to arrest Reese.
“Please tell me you were bluffing to cause a distraction and not actually offering to let him take you,” Amy said to her best friend through gritted teeth.
“Sure, let’s say that.” Gemma crouched down beside her. “Are you okay?”
Amy tried to nod, only a sudden burst of pain swept over her again. She grabbed her belly as suddenly her eyes met Jackson’s. “I think Skye is coming now!”
For a moment, she thought Jackson was about to leave the prisoner on the ground and rush to her side.
Instead, he turned to Gemma. “Stay with her. Tell dispatch we need an airlift to the nearest hospital.”
Then his green eyes focused on her face again.
“Amy,” he called. “Just keep breathing. It’s going to be okay. I promise.”
Time blurred through waves of pain, as Jackson hurriedly marched Reese back to Caleb’s damaged vehicle, locked him in the back, and then ran back through the woods to join Gemma and Amy. Together, the siblings helped Amy to her feet and slowly walked her through the woods.
Then suddenly she heard the sound of sirens filling the air and the thrum of helicopter rotors overhead.
“Over here!” Jackson shouted. “We need paramedics here now!”
Suddenly law enforcement was rushing through the woods toward them. Paramedics helped Amy onto a stretcher and carried her the rest of the way through the trees, asking her questions about how she was feeling and how far apart her contractions were. Jackson and Gemma flanked her on either side. She looked to her left and saw police taking Reese into custody. Then wind whipped the air around her as a bright orange air ambulance helicopter landed a few yards to their right.
A flight paramedic in a fluorescent yellow jacket ran toward them. He glanced at the siblings. “Which one of you is coming with her?”
Amy glanced at Jackson. His deep and fathomless eyes met hers.
I want it to be you. I don’t know why, but I want you by my side.
But he broke her gaze and looked at his sister.
“You should go with Amy,” he said. “I’ll wrap things up here.”
Amy felt herself whisked onto the helicopter. Paramedics were checking her vitals. An oxygen mask was placed over her face to help slow her breathing.
She looked back to see Jackson and Hudson standing alone on the road.
Then the helicopter door closed, blocking Jackson from her view, and she felt the air ambulance begin to rise.
THIRTEEN
Jackson paced circles around the Huntsville hospital waiting room. It had been over four hours since Amy had been airlifted from the forest just outside South River and two and a half hours since Jackson and Hudson had arrived there in his truck. Thankfully, despite a dented front bumper, it still drove just fine. According to his sister, Amy had been rushed into surgery as soon as she’d arrived. Since then, there had been nothing to do but wait, pace and pray.
Now Gemma sat curled up on a plastic chair furiously typing something into her phone, and Hudson lay spread out under her seat. The German shepherd’s eyes followed Jackson’s path around the room.
Gemma sighed and ran one hand through her hair, so that it stuck up between her fingers.
“What are you doing?” Jackson asked.
“I’m trying to find a missing person’s report that matches our Jane Doe,” Gemma said.
She frowned at the screen.
Jackson sat down beside her. “What Jane Doe?”
Gemma glanced up at him. “You told me that a female body was found washed up downriver from where my car crashed.”
“Yes,” he said. “But the only reason Finnick alerted me to that is because local police thought it was you.”
“I know,” Gemma said. “But just because she wasn’t me, and isn’t related to the Pine Crest case, doesn’t mean she isn’t somebody. She was a person with a life that’s now over. Someone loved her and is wondering where she is.”
She fixed her bright green eyes on her brother’s face.
“Now, we know police think the body was female,” Gemma said. “She was found in the river, she didn’t have any identifying belongings on her and police didn’t ask you to do a visual identification but were relying on DNA. That means that either she was dead so long that she had significantly decomposed, which doesn’t seem probable considering they thought it was me—”
“Or that she was a victim of the kind of severe attack that doesn’t leave belongings and makes the victim hard to identify,” Jackson finished.
“Right,” Gemma said, “so it’s unlikely to be an accidental death. It’s more probable that someone killed her and then tried to destroy the body and any trace of who she was.”
Jackson leaned over and kissed his sister on the top of her head.
“I like who you are and how your mind works,” he said.
She laughed. “So, you’ll help me make sure that she doesn’t become a cold case?”
“Absolutely.”
It definitely beat pacing. Jackson and Gemma sat side by side, typing on their phones and searching various missing person’s reports. Eventually, after about an hour they identified a young woman who had gone missing a few weeks prior. Police had dismissed it as a runaway. Her family had been convinced her ex-boyfriend murdered her.
“I’ll flag this to all the right people,” Jackson said. “Hopefully they have her DNA on file and can check Jane Doe against it. It may not be good news for the family.”
“But it will be closure,” Gemma said.
A tired-looking male nurse with a trim beard and pale blue scrubs appeared in the doorway.
“I’m looking for the friends and family of Amy Scout,” he called.
Jackson leaped to his feet. So did Gemma, and Hudson wriggled out from under the seat to join them.
“That’s us,” Jackson said.
Gemma squeezed her brother’s arm and he patted her hand reassuringly.
“I’m happy to tell you that Skye Elizabeth Scout was born at 2:15 a.m.,” he said. The nurse’s smile was tired but genuine. “She weighed in at five pounds, six ounces. Both mother and baby are doing fine and recovering well.”
“Oh, thank You, God.” Jackson breathed a prayer.
For a moment he felt his knees threaten to buckle out from under him. But then his sister grabbed him and hugged him tightly.
“They’re okay,” Gemma said, tears choking her voice. “Amy and the baby are okay.”
Relief and joy cascaded through Jackson’s heart like thunderous waves.
“They’re being moved into a recovery room now,” the nurse went on. “They will be free to see visitors soon.”
Gemma and Jackson released each other and turned back toward the nurse.
“Thank you,” Jackson said.
“I take it you’re the father?” the nurse asked Jackson. “You’re welcome to come see her and meet your baby now.”
Jackson felt his mouth go dry.
“No,” he said. “Thank you, but I’m not the father. I’m... I’m her best friend’s brother.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” the nurse said. He blinked. “I thought Mrs. Scout’s husband was here to see the baby.”
The nurse nodded and disappeared back down the hallway.
“I seriously doubt Paul has somehow rushed to small-town Canada to check in on Amy,” Gemma said, dryly. “I can assume Amy told you what a nasty piece of work he is?”
“Yeah,” Jackson said. He dropped back into his chair, suddenly feeling deflated. Hudson lay down on his feet. Something about the nurse’s well-meaning and maybe predictable misunderstanding had left him spent.
Who was Jackson to Amy? What was Amy to him?
Were they even friends? Or just acquaintances?
He wasn’t her boyfriend, her husband or the father of her child. Not someone who had stepped up and promised to be there for her and have a role in her future.
Despite the fact he wanted to be everything to her, he was nothing to her at all.
“What would you say to popping outside and getting some fresh air?” his sister said, cutting through his thoughts.
“Yeah,” he answered and stood up again. That wasn’t a bad idea and maybe it would help him clear his mind. “I’m sure Hudson would really appreciate getting a walk.”
The dog’s tail thumped in agreement. He clipped Hudson’s leash onto his harness and the three of them headed out of the maternity ward, down the hall and into the main lobby. Suddenly, Hudson woofed happily and his tail started wagging. A moment later Jackson saw why. A tall man with silver-gray hair, wearing blue jeans and a blazer, was standing by the front desk, with a black Labrador retriever sitting at his feet. Jackson blinked.
“Inspector Finnick!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
Jackson rushed over to his boss as Finnick turned, stepped away from the desk and smiled. Hudson and the black Lab wagged their tails and nuzzled each other in greeting.
“Gemma,” Jackson said. “I’d like to introduce you to my boss, Inspector Ethan Finnick, head of the RCMP’s Ontario K-9 Unit and his K-9 partner, Nippy.”
“Short for Nipissing,” Finnick said, with a smile. “All of the dogs in our unit are named after major Ontario lakes and rivers.”
“This is my sister,” Jackson added. “Gemma Locke.”
“It’s very nice to meet you,” Finnick said, smiling at Gemma. “I’m glad to see you’re alive and well.”
“Nice to meet you too,” Gemma said. She shook his hand. “Thank you for giving my brother time to come up here and look for me.”
“What are you doing here?” Jackson asked.
“I’d driven up to the area to check in on Caleb,” Finnick said. “He’s doing great, by the way. He’s got a few stitches and an impressive-looking scar, but nothing serious to worry about. He’ll be released tomorrow. Since I was driving all the way up to South River, I figured I’d also swing by here on the way back for an update.”
“Did you hear Amy had the baby?” Jackson asked. “Five pounds something. Baby and mother are both doing well.”
Finnick’s smile widened. “That’s really awesome to hear.”
“We were just about to go for a walk,” Jackson said. “Do you want to join us?”
“Absolutely,” Finnick said.
The five of them stepped through the automatic doors and out into the parking lot. The sky was inky black and dotted with hundreds more stars than Jackson would ever see back in the city. He stepped back and turned to his sister.
“Gemma’s been busy trying to identify the Jane Doe that was mistaken for her and thinks it could be a young missing woman who was identified as a runaway,” Jackson told Finnick, as they made their way through the parking lot. “Those seniors at Pine Crest really opened my eyes to how frustrating it is when cops don’t solve a case and get justice for your loved ones.”
