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“We should have connected the timeline sooner,” Theo muttered as he guided the Jeep down the offramp behind the police cruiser. As planned, the officer pulled slightly to the right of the stop before turning off his lights and siren. Theo didn’t waste time driving around him, and it wasn’t long before they were headed west on a secondary road. “Risner should have told us that Beau Willow had toured the facility.”
“I don’t think that Risner deliberately kept that information from us. He truly didn’t recall the name. We’re talking more than three years ago, especially if you factor in Beau dating Grace, their wedding, and the months after before he decided to give into the urge to kill her.” Brook unfastened the buttons of her dress coat. She then drew her weapon from her holster to ensure that there was a round in the chamber and the safety was engaged. “It helped that Cody confirmed his mother had chosen a different facility for his grandfather after the Ridgeway incident, as well as recognizing Willow in the photo that we showed him. The latter is the sole reason that Agent Nelson was able to obtain an arrest warrant for Beau Willow, especially given that all the other evidence that we have is circumstantial.”
From the information that Sylvie had been able to obtain from some of the residents, Willow had apparently visited the garden around back during the milder months of the year. So much time had passed since the initial abductions, no one had thought anything of the nice young man who would sit and have cordial conversations with them.
Needless to say, Jim Risner had his work cut out for him in the near future. The facility’s security measures would need to be overhauled, updated, and then implemented in order to keep the residents safe from predators.
“The only problem that we face right now is that Willow is feeling pressured by the attention directed at the nursing home,” Brook said as she holstered her weapon. “He chose Amelia as his next target. While he’ll want to finish what he started, he might just decide to end things here and now. Go dormant for another three years. I’m assuming he believes that he is still free from suspicion. He has no idea that we figured it out, which means that we might still have a chance to reach him before he kills her.”
Theo was driving as fast as he could given the road conditions, but they’d had to slow down considerably once they had reached the turn off. The rough country lane had Brook reaching for the handle above the glove compartment for additional support.
Fortunately, she’d made sure that she had a pair of winter boots in the trunk of her car. She’d changed into them before they’d left the parking lot of the nursing facility, although she wasn’t technically dressed the way she should be considering the bitter cold temperature.
“We should be coming up to the turn off,” Brook said as she narrowed her eyes in an attempt to get a better view of their surroundings. “Bit said that the old cabin was a half mile down a two-track trail onto the property.”
“I don’t get how Willow could have buried Jenny Capshaw’s body this time of year. Unless she’s still alive.”
“Doubtful. Willow wouldn’t have moved on from Capshaw otherwise.” Brook gave it some thought as Theo slowed the Jeep down to practically a crawl. Brook finally pointed toward the entrance of a private drive with two parallel tracks the width of a vehicle’s tires. “Maybe he left Capshaw’s body outside to freeze until the ground softens up in the next couple of months. Or maybe locked in a woodshed. Bit didn’t mention the cabin having an outbuilding, but we’ll need to fan out and close in from every direction.”
Theo pulled the Jeep to a stop, allowing Brook to exit the vehicle. She braced herself before breathing in the frigid air. The cold temps reinforced her belief that Jenny Capshaw hadn’t been buried, which meant that the woman’s body was almost certainly available to retrieve somewhere on this piece of real estate.
Ann had every right to take the lead, but she had graciously allowed Brook to lay out a plan that would hopefully keep Amelia alive while allowing for Willow to be taken into custody. Brook figured it was Ann’s way of getting into her good grace’s regarding Bit, but hell would freeze over before Brook allowed the agent anywhere near him.
Either way, the plan of attack would only unfold if this was the actual location where Willow had brought Amelia. Fresh tracks could be seen on the trail ahead of them, but she didn’t want to assume anything without first setting eyes on Willow.
“The cabin should be a half mile down this path, so we’ll pull up another quarter mile or so. We’ll walk from there, giving the deputy sheriffs time to get into position on the far side. We can’t wait for SWAT. We need to use the tactic of surprise to our advantage.”
Another ten minutes passed by before Theo, Brook, and two other officers fanned out and proceeded to approach the cabin. She breathed a sigh of relief at spotting Kittle’s truck up ahead.
It was quite dark, but the clouds above were thin. Streams of moonlight had filtered through, giving them enough illumination to show the truck parked at an angle. Sylvie had veered to the left of the cabin, whereas Ann had advanced to the right. Two other officers had hopefully been able to swiftly widen their positions so that they could monitor the backside of the cabin’s clearing.
“…wish there was time left for you to convince me otherwise, but we both know that you deserve this. You left him there to rot!”
There were faint whimpers coming from the direction that Ann had taken, and the panicked sounds had to be coming from Amelia Jennings. Relief washed over Brook that they had made it on site in time, but there was still a chance that things could go sideways.
Now that they were aware of Willow’s physical location, Brook and the others were able to quicken their approach. Her cheeks had already gone numb, and her fingers were stiff against the Talon Pro grips on her Sig Sauer P220 Elite. She’d purposefully left her gloves in the Jeep so that she had a better tactile grasp to squeeze off the weapon’s combat quick reset trigger if necessary.
Theo motioned for Brook to go around the right side of the truck. The driver’s side door had been left open, and the headlights had been left on to illuminate a vast area of the clearing ahead. Brook and one of the other officers finally slowed their steps as they inched closer to the front of the truck. Their boots had created a slight crunching sound as they’d advanced forward on the packed snow, and it wouldn’t do to have any indication of their approach heard by Willow. He was still talking to Amelia, which gave them a bit of cover.
Willow was also in the process of dragging Amelia across the frozen ground, but she wasn’t making it easy for him. She’d basically used her body weight to fall to the ground, leaving Willow to bend over her in a threatening manner to move her along.
Theo’s hand gestures indicated that Willow had a knife.
From Brook’s vantage point, she couldn’t get an accurate assessment of the situation, but she trusted Theo’s judgement. She motioned for the officer near her to stop, because there was a chance that Willow would be able to see their shifting shadows on the ground due to them rounding the front edge of the truck silhouetting them in the headlights’ scope.
By this point in time, they were all right on the edge of that costly mistake.
The borders of the bright illumination made it difficult for everyone to see beyond the illuminated area into the shadows, but the others had more than enough time to get into position. Willow had no idea that he was now surrounded by law enforcement officers with drawn weapons.
Brook didn’t hesitate to call out forcefully, trusting that the others would continue to follow her lead. They’d all been taught how to close in on a target, so there would be no one directly in the path of Theo and Brook’s line of fire.
“Willow, drop the knife,” Brook called out loud and clear. She kept her firearm trained on his center mass as he whirled around in surprise. Amelia attempted to scream, but her voice was muffled by whatever had been shoved into her mouth. “We have you surrounded.”
Willow held up his arm in an attempt to shield his eyes from the headlights of the truck. Brook rested her index finger on the trigger, fully prepared to take the shot if he so much as twitched in an effort to bring the knife toward Amelia’s throat.
“She deserves to be with the others,” Willow screamed, his composure finally crumbling into pieces.
At first, Brook thought Willow was just speaking figuratively about death. It didn’t take her long to make the connection, though.
