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CHAPTER
70
WHEN THEY HAD ARRIVED, Parks and Michelle spoke with the officer who was heading up the local contingent of police that Parks had summoned. He had called in marshals and other law enforcement from the North Carolina area. “They’ll get there before we do,” Parks had told Michelle on the way down. She had said, “Tell them to form a perimeter around the hotel: They can be right on the tree line and still remain hidden.”
Michelle and Parks knelt along the tree line behind the Fairmount Hotel. A police cruiser was blocking off the road leading to the hotel, but still out of sight of the place. Michelle spotted a sniper up a tree, his rifle with long-range scope aimed at the front door of the hotel.
“You sure you have enough people here?” she asked Parks.
He pointed toward other places in the darkness, indicating where other lawmen were positioned. Michelle couldn’t see them but sensed their comforting presence.
“We have more than enough to do the job,” he said. “The question is, can we find Sean and the others alive?” Parks laid down his shotgun and picked up his walkie-talkie. “Okay, you’ve been in that hotel and know the layout. What’s the best way for us to hit it?”
“The last time we were here, when we nabbed the convicts, Sean and I managed to make a gap in the security fence as we were leaving. It was easier than climbing over. We can go in that way. The front doors are chained shut, but a large window about thirty feet from the front has been busted. We can go in there and be in the lobby within seconds.”
“It’s a big place. Any idea where they might be?”
“I have a guess, but it’s a pretty educated one. The Stonewall Jackson Room. It’s an interior room right off the lobby. There’s one door going in and a set of elevators inside.”
“Why are you so sure they’re in this Stonewall Jackson Room?”
“This is an old hotel, and there are lots of creaks and groans and rats and creepy things. But when I was in that room and the door was closed, I didn’t hear anything. It was quiet, too quiet. But when the door was open, you could hear all the normal sounds.”
“I’m not getting your point.”
“I think the room’s been soundproofed, Jefferson.”
He stared at her. “I’m starting to see where you’re going with this.”
“Are your men in position?” He nodded. Michelle checked her watch. “It’s almost midnight but there’s a full moon. There’s an open stretch of ground we have to cover before we reach the fence. If we can direct the main attack from inside, we might have a better chance of not losing anybody.”
“Sounds like a plan. But you lead the way. I don’t know the lay of this land.” Parks spoke into his walkie-talkie and ordered his men to move their perimeter closer in.
Michelle started to sprint off but he grabbed her arm.
“Michelle, I was a pretty good athlete when I was younger, but I was no Olympian. And now my knees are shot, so could you just slow down enough so I can keep you in sight?”
She smiled. “Not to worry, you’re in good hands.”
They darted through the trees until they came to the open ground they had to cross to get to the fence. They paused there, and Michelle looked at the hard-breathing Parks.
“You ready?” He nodded and gave a thumbs-up.
She jumped out and ran for the fence. Behind her Parks did the same. As she hustled along, Michelle focused at first on what was in front of her. And then her attention moved to what was behind. And what was there was suddenly chilling.
Those weren’t the sounds of normal strides; they were the same disjointed lunges she’d heard outside her bedroom window at the inn—the ones made by the person who’d tried to kill her. She’d been wrong. It wasn’t the painful jogging of a wounded man. It was the arthritic loping of a man with ruined knees. And he was now wheezing too.
She jumped behind a fallen tree a split second after the shotgun was racked, and the blast hit right where she’d been. She rolled, pulled her weapon and fired back, scattering shots in a wide, lethal arc.
Parks cursed at his miss and threw himself down, ba
rely avoiding her fire. He fired again.
“Damn you, girl,” he yelled. “You’re too quick for your own good.”
“You bastard!” Michelle screamed back as she scanned the area both for an exit and any accomplices Parks might have. She aimed two shots at Parks that blew chips off the large rock he was hunched behind.
He returned the favor with two blasts from his shotgun. “Sorry, but I had no choice.”
