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“You know what I think?”
“Don’t keep me guessing.”
“I think he has been playing this game for a long time. Only three women? I’ll bet there’re more, all over the area. Were they a similar type?”
“Blond, under thirty, shy.”
“Sounds like his ex-wife,” Abigail said.
“Lucy doesn’t fit the profile.”
“But Lucy was trying to send him back to prison.”
Sean landed at Airlie Airport forty-two minutes later, just before noon. The roads going to the airport were worse than he’d anticipated, and every minute of the trip ate at him, another minute that Lucy was in that sadistic S.O.B.’s hands.
“What’s Noah’s ETA?” he asked Hans.
“He’s forty-five minutes out. The tactical squad is on their way. ETA eighteen minutes.”
Dillon asked, “How are we going to drive there? We can’t walk a half mile—”
Sean shook his head. “Trust me.”
He steered the plane around to the hangars. There was no one there, it was a private airport and he’d have to sweet-talk his way out of fines, but he didn’t care. He found what he was looking for.
He picked the lock of an older-model Ford that was parked next to a hangar.
“You’re not—”
“We’re bringing it back,” Sean said. He looked under the steering wheel, pushed in the panel, and pulled out the wiring. In less than a minute he had the truck running. “Let’s go get Lucy.”
FORTY-THREE
Sean, Kate, Dillon, and Hans approached the Harker property from the north, where they were obscured by a large, empty barn. Sean could see the farmhouse fifty yards away. It had once been white, but was now severely weathered. It would have been quaint, with a wraparound porch and a swing next to the front door, if that pig Miller wasn’t holding Lucy captive inside.
At least, they assumed he was inside. A garage on the opposite side of the property could be where Lucy was being held. And they needed to search the barn.
“SWAT is thirteen minutes out,” Kate said. “We have a lifeline helicopter on standby at Airlie, and they can touch down here five minutes after contact. Sean, you and I are going to search the barn. Hans, call the SWAT team leader and give him the layout and our location. Keep the line open.”
She motioned toward Sean. They both had their guns drawn and walked around the perimeter of the barn to the main entrance. The wide door was ajar.
A deep impression in the snow leading from the house to the barn, or vice versa, was fresh. It looked like something heavy had been dragged through the snow—frozen grass was partly revealed in the gulley. Kate got his attention and motioned toward the door, then put three fingers up. He nodded.
One. Two. On three they silently entered the barn simultaneously through the opening; Sean high, Kate low, guns raised and sweeping from side to side as they quickly assessed potential danger.
They didn’t see anyone, nor did they hear anything. But over and above the unpleasant scent of moldy hay and animal, there was another foul smell that was fresher.
They went from stall to stall methodically.
Kate stifled a scream and Sean rushed over. He saw the headless torso on the ground, and a rat scurrying away from the open wound that had been the woman’s head.
For a split second the last week flashed through Sean’s mind, and an overwhelming sense of loss and despair flooded through him.
But it wasn’t Lucy.
“Lucy!” Kate cried. “Oh God—”
“It’s not Lucy,” Sean said.
