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“Now hold on a second, I was—” Simon began to say.
“Enough,” Nico interrupted. “You can argue about this later. If you’ll follow Mila, she’ll make sure you remain safe, while we go up and rescue the rest of your crew.”
“Yes, you have to help Teresa. That woman with the gun pumped her full of some kind of drug. She was just lying on the rocks when we left,” Lily said.
“Thank you. That’s great information,” Nico replied, but his heart dropped into his stomach. God, he hoped Teresa wasn’t already dead. What sort of cocktail of drugs had been in that syringe? Was she still using her drug of choice, the anesthetic ketamine, to subdue Teresa? An unconscious victim wasn’t good. It’d make it that much harder to find her and then rescue her and get her off the mountain.
Mila calmed the four hikers and then corralled them into a group and began to chivvy them down the track, while Lacey took off her backpack and removed her service weapon from the side compartment, tucking it into the waistband of her shorts. A look passed between them. She was ready for whatever they might find up there.
“Stay well behind us,” Nico said to Griff as they moved forward. The other man had no weapon, and Nico had no way to know the level of his skills. The last thing he needed was another victim on his hands. Then he led the way, going as fast as he dared up the track in the rain that was now coming down in sideways sheets. He had to shield his face with his hand to be able to see properly.
As they approached the bend in the trail, Nico slowed their pace and drew out his weapon. Just before Mila took them away, Simon had told Nico where to find the other two hikers. He said they were on a large flat rock around three hundred feet around the bend. It’d be obvious if they were still there; it was as if the crazy woman had wanted to make it easy for them to be found. Which was interesting, because it meant that Sandra wasn’t a bloodthirsty killer, and she wasn’t too bothered about covering her tracks. Otherwise, she could’ve just killed them all, or hidden them away so it took police hours or days to find them.
Which was both good and bad. Good, because it made Nico’s job easier. Bad because if Sandra wasn’t taking any pains to hide her deeds, then it meant she didn’t care about the consequences of her actions. Which pointed to the fact Sandra was going to kill Teresa on this mountain. And perhaps take her own life as well. The one ace they had up their sleeves was that Sandra didn’t know they were coming. Hopefully, he still had surprise on his side. If she didn’t know she was being followed, she wouldn’t feel under pressure to rush things. Vaguely, he wondered what she had planned for Teresa. The other two girls had been killed in an almost ritualistic way. Sandra had made sure their cause of death was hanging by the neck, using ketamine to make them easy to handle, to mimic her own daughter’s terrible death. But Sandra had the luxury of time and planning to get those murders right. This was rushed because she knew she was running out of time. She’d already drugged Teresa, just as she’d drugged the other two. But Nico didn’t think there were any tall trees on top of Barn Bluff where Sandra could string the girl up. So what sort of improvisation would Sandra come up with? It’d have to be something that appeased her terrible need to make this girl die in the same way her daughter had, so Sandra could finally get her retribution.
Sure enough, as they cautiously rounded the bend Nico caught sight of two figures atop a rocky outcrop around halfway up the track that wound upward from the ravine. Nico glanced behind to see that Lacey also had her gun drawn but pointed to the ground in front of her, walking in a half crouch, ready for anything. Griff was doing a great job of keeping far enough back so Nico didn’t need to worry about his safety if Sandra started firing wildly at them. He was clearly well trained and took orders well.
Sandra and Teresa were nowhere to be seen. But just because they weren’t visible, didn’t mean Sandra wasn’t lying in wait for them, so he proceeded with extreme caution. Stalking slowly up the path, he kept low and his eyes peeled on the surrounding rocky slopes, cautious of an ambush, or a sniper attack. The pelting rain made it hard to see clearly, and it turned the scrub and rocks into blurry outlines, only half visible. It also made the track slippery and treacherous, with small puddles of water already forming in the dips and hollows.
When they were finally close enough to the pair tied up on the rocks, Nico held up his hands. “It’s okay, we’re the police. We’re here to help,” he said in a low tone, almost whispering in case Sandra was still within earshot. A man and a woman sat side by side on a large flat rock, huddled together against the rain and the wind. The man, Shawn, if Simon was to be believed, had caught sight of them at first, and his eyes had gone wide, but that’s when Nico saw both of their mouths had been taped shut. They wouldn’t be able to answer his call, but Nico wanted to reassure them regardless. The man nodded slowly to show he understood, but the woman stared at them as if she could barely comprehend what was happening.
He knew Lacey was keeping a lookout from behind and so he took a few steps closer to the couple. “Do you know if the woman with the gun is still in the area?” Nico asked, enunciating each word carefully. The man shook his head emphatically, then gestured with his chin farther up the track. “She took the guide and kept going up the track?” Nico asked.
This time, both people nodded forcefully. Nico glanced upward. If Sandra was carrying Teresa up this trail, then she was doing a mighty good job, and must be a lot stronger than even he had believed. He was almost in admiration of her strength and determination. But a dose of ketamine could also be reversed at any time. It might leave a victim groggy and awkward but able to move.
Deciding the couple wouldn’t lie to him, he motioned to Lacey to cover him; then he clambered up the rock and removed both of their gags, before untying the man’s hands.
“Thank God you’re here,” Shawn said. “We thought we were goners. We didn’t know what that woman wanted.”
Nico grunted as he untied Shawn’s feet, then went to work on the woman. Griff came silently up behind Nico and helped Shawn to his feet. The guy was a little wobbly, probably from lack of circulation, and Griff took him by the arm to steady him. Both the hikers seemed to be well-dressed for the weather, which was a small blessing, wearing rain jackets and beanies against the cold, driving rain. The freezing air was biting at Nico’s bare arms and he could see Lacey had goose bumps on her skin too. They’d make sure to put on their jackets before proceeding. There was no point if they succumbed to the elements before they even caught up with Sandra.
“Thank you. Oh, thank you,” the woman said, rubbing her wrists after he untied her arms. “Did you find the others? Simon and Jans, and the two girls? Are they okay?”
“Yes, they’re all safe. I’ve got an officer escorting them down to the lake right now,” Nico replied. He was heartened by the woman’s concern. She was more worried about their welfare than it seemed they were about hers. But he had to stop comparing those others to himself.It is normal to want to save yourself, he reminded himself. He and Lacey and the other sworn officers around him were abnormal, prepared to throw themselves into danger to save someone else.
“My name is Griffin Porter, I’ll take you down the hill to meet up with your other companions,” Griff said by way of introduction. Nico shot him a grateful glance as he helped the woman to her feet. “You’re safe now. No need to worry. These two officers will have everything in hand very soon.”
“You have to help Teresa,” Shawn said, his voice taking on a touch of panic. “That woman drugged her with something. And then when the others took off down the hill, she got this really mean look on her face, and for a few seconds, I thought she was going to shoot us because she was so mad. But then she gave Teresa another jab of something. But when she didn’t wake up fast enough, she just picked up Teresa in a fireman’s carry, you know slung her over her shoulder, and kept climbing the track.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” Nico replied. “To help Teresa and make sure you’re safe.”
“What does she want with Teresa? What’s going on?” the girl asked, but Griff was already leading them both away, a hand on each of their elbows. He was a good man. Solid and professional. Nico was suddenly glad of their chance meeting.
“Put your rain jacket on,” he commanded Lacey, while tugging his own out of his backpack. “We need to be on top of our game, and getting cold and wet will only make us sluggish and not thinking properly.” He shrugged into his and found immediate relief from the icy bite of the rain against his skin. Lacey did the same without comment, repositioning her weapon in the back of her shorts, and they both strung their backpacks on their shoulders. He was almost tempted to leave the packs here; the less weight on their shoulders, the quicker they could climb. But they might need the contents of these bags if things went south.
They jogged up the path in silence, concentrating on what was ahead. Nico felt a moment’s respect that Sandra was capable of not only climbing this hill, but doing it while encumbered with the weight of the girl slung over her shoulder. All the photos he’d seen of Teresa showed her as a petite woman of around five feet tall, but still. If Sandra had administered an antidote, she was probably forcing Teresa to walk by now, but the poor woman would be disorientated and slower than normal.
Panting heavily, Nico reached the top of the bluff ten minutes later. It’d been a hard climb, clambering up rocky steps cut into the side of the hill, and even navigating a short ladder to ascend one section. But Lacey was right behind him; he couldn’t fault her physical fitness.
Nico crouched behind a patch of shrubs and surveyed the plateau wreathed in mist spread out before him. It was eerie, with the swirling rain and rising wind that threatened to push him back down the trail. Neither Sandra nor Teresa were anywhere to be seen. It was a large space, with lots of places to hide behind rocky tors and patches of tall grasses, or deep depressions and crevasses scattered throughout the landscape. Over to the left, the land sloped away and Nico couldn’t tell how far it might be to the edge of the plateau. They might have to split up if they were to find the girl and Sandra sooner rather than later. Before Sandra had time to carry out her plan—whatever that might be. There weren’t a lot of places for Sandra to take Teresa, they were surrounded by cliff faces.
It suddenly occurred to him that this setting might be triggering for Lacey. The last time she’d been near a cliff face, she was trapped in a van and sent to her death, plunging over the edge. Throughout the whole intense planning of this mission, he’d never once envisaged this kind of scenario. Which was perhaps naïve of him. But Lacey had also never said a word, even on the steep climb up here, knowing what she’d find at the top.
He looked back to where Lacey was crouched behind him, eyes also scanning the stormy scenery. “Are you going to be okay?”
A sudden illogical fear overcame Nico and he remembered back to the day when Linc had been hurt and Nico had almost driven himself crazy in his rush to get to Lacey to make sureshe was safe. Back then, he knew he needed to get this irrational fear out of his system, because it was making him second-guess himself; somehow, he needed to learn to separate his love life from his professional life. His fear for her now was still strong, his need to protect her at any cost still screaming inside his head. But this situation, where he needed her as much as she needed him if they were to rescue an innocent woman, was showing him that maybe he couldn’t separate love from work. Instead, he needed to find a balance. Lacey could look after herself. Logically he knew that, he just needed to let her get on with the job and trust her to do it.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she replied crisply, keeping her gaze trained on the flat, wet tableland beyond. She wouldn’t look him in the eye.
