The truck stopped. Michael opened his door and pointed a gun at Hez.
Hez flattened himself into the mud just as Michael fired. The bullet whizzed through the spot where Hez’s head had been a second earlier.
Faint voices shouted from behind Hez. Shots popped like firecrackers.
Michael jumped back into his truck and drove off.
As the sound of the truck’s engine faded, Hez disentangled himself from the bush’s painful clutches. Augusta Richards and a male officer ran toward him along the barely there road Michael had taken.
Hez got to his feet as the police approached. His right shoulder and left knee throbbed and he had dozens of scratches, but he seemed otherwise uninjured. “Thanks,” he said to Augusta and her partner. “I’m pretty sure he planned to kill me and dump me in the swamp like he did Erik. Did someone see him kidnap me?”
Augusta watched the retreating truck for a moment, then sighed and holstered her pistol. “Savannah realized you were missing and called 911, but we were already following him by that point.”
“Why?”
“There’s a warrant for his arrest. It just issued an hour ago.” Augusta turned to her partner. “Update Dispatch and ask for backup.”
Augusta looked grim as they hurried through the swamp. As her partner told the dispatcher what had happened, Augusta pulled out her phone and called Savannah on speaker to let her know Hez was safe. “We’ve got Hez.”
He leaned closer to Augusta’s phone. “Hi, babe, I’m fine.”
“Thank God, thank God.” Her voice hiccupped in a small sob. “I need to see that you’re all in one piece before I believe it.”
“I’ll get there as soon as I can.” Hez’s mind went back to the warrant. “What are the charges against Michael?”
Augusta pressed her lips together in a hard line. “The main one is the murder of Jessica Legare.”
Savannah gasped. “Michael killed his own daughter. He seemed to love her.”
“He planted the bomb.” Augusta frowned at Hez. “He probably meant to kill you.”
Hez absorbed the information in silence, barely hearing the conversation around him. So that was why Michael had been so insistent that Hez was really responsible for Jess’s death. Hez knew all too well how hard it was for a father to bear the thought that he had killed his own daughter. And then he knew what Michael would do next. He turned to Augusta. “He’s going to run, but he’ll go home first. You can catch him there.”
Savannah’s voice was a cry. “Simon!”
Augusta grimaced as they reached her car. She pointed at her mud-caked vehicle, which had sunk up to its wheel wells in the swamp. “That’s the only police car in a ten-mile radius.”
“I’ll get Simon!” Savannah’s voice quivered with determination. “I’m less than two miles from Michael’s house.”
Hez leaned over Augusta’s phone. “Savannah, wait!”
But the line was dead.
Chapter 40
Where had the traffic come from? Savannah passed a slow-driving truck and pulled quickly back into her lane to avoid a head-on with a green sedan coming from the other direction. The oncoming car blared its horn indignantly and she waved apologetically.
Her pulse throbbed in her throat. Michael would know his only weapon now was taking Simon from them, and she couldn’t let that happen. The police car was farther away and would never get there in time.
It was up to her to save her nephew.
Jess.Pain radiated from her chest, and she gripped the steering wheel with tight fingers. She’d lost her sister because of a feud that had gone on way too long. If only Savannah had known of all these undercurrents and deep plots a year ago, even six months ago, Jess might still be with her. Michael had used his daughter as a pawn and never really loved her. At least Jess was spared that knowledge. She’d searched for a father’s love all her life and had found only deceit and a dark desire for revenge.
Savannah accelerated the final mile along the county roadto Michael’s house. The driveway was empty, and no one moved on the porch of the two-story home or in the yard. Maybe she’d made it in time. Michael’s dogs barked and lunged as she approached, but they were chained in the yard. She braked and threw the car into Park, then flung open her door and raced up the steps to the house.
She pressed the doorbell, then pounded on it with her fist. “Simon!” She darted to the window and peered past an opening in the curtains and saw movement. She stepped back to the door and slammed her fist on it again. “Simon!”
The door opened, and Simon’s startled face came into view. “Aunt Savannah, what’s wrong?”
