Vendetta Page 23

  “If you won’t tell me where she is, then at least tell me if she’s alive.”

  “She’s fine, actually. Like I said, this was about you, not her. Do you know how easy it is to make a sixteen-year-old girl think you’re some tall, dark, and handsome hero? If I had a daughter, I wouldn’t let her near the internet. It’s frightening how easy it was. If they find her soon, she should be okay. For now, though, I’d be far more concerned about yourself.”

  “Here’s something I don’t understand,” Nikki said, ignoring the implications for the moment. “You might not be the Angel Abductor, but you had the photo of my sister. The photo that her abductor left is still in her file. Her abductor must have had a second one. How did you get it?”

  “Bravo.” Cooper slowly clapped his hands. “Well done, Special Agent Boyd.”

  “What do you know about him?”

  “We met a few years ago in prison. Everyone called him the Coyote. Never knew his real name. Never asked.” Cooper rested his forearms against his thighs, still holding the weapon pointed at her, apparently finally ready to talk. “He inspired me. Helped me form my own revenge plot. You’re right. He kept photos of all the girls. When we discovered the connection between him and Sarah and you and me . . . It was what I’d been waiting for.”

  “And my sister?” Nikki’s breath caught. Ten years with no solid leads. Had Randall Cooper become the closest connection she had to her sister’s abductor?

  “Sarah Marie Boyd.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what happened to her, actually. He refused to tell anyone—even me—the details of his crimes.”

  She stood up. Frustration ripped through her. “You’re lying. You have to know something. He gave you her picture.”

  “Yes, but I don’t believe you’re in a position to accuse me of lying.” He held out the gun, then motioned for her to sit back down.

  Nikki hesitated, then obeyed. “You’ll never get away with this.”

  “Why not?” He pointed to the thick brush surrounding them. “Look around you. There’s nothing but miles and miles of wilderness. If I want to disappear, no one will be able to find me. But you know that as well, don’t you?

  “And I know what you’re thinking,” he continued. “That they’ll come and find you. Except that it will be dark soon, and a nighttime rescue is never easy. I’ve seen them work and know how they do it. They call the search and rescue coordinator for the park. Bring in Anderson. Set up a conference call with local law enforcement in order to make a rescue plan. They’ll appoint section chiefs, logistics, and someone to handle the media. It will be an all-out manhunt as they try and find one of their own. The storm will be an inconvenience, but they’re lucky it isn’t snowing. If it was, they’d have to pack zero-degree sleeping bags, long johns, pads, tents, and military meals. But none of that will matter, because I’ll always be one step ahead of them.”

  Nikki refused to let panic set in. She heard a whistle nearby, and she recognized the small songbird her father had dubbed the preacher bird as it sang short-whistled sermons all day long. A coyote howled in the trees, sending eerie chills up her spine.

  “Ironic, isn’t it. But don’t worry,” he said, watching her. “They sound closer than they really are.”

  “Who are you?”

  He stood in front of her and started pacing. “You really don’t remember me, do you?”

  “No.” She searched his features for a glimmer of recognition. The scar across his cheek. Dark eyes. Narrow brow . . . She waited, but there was nothing. He could be anyone. From someone she arrested, to a relative of someone she’d sent to jail. A decade of law enforcement had put her at odds with dozens of people. And all it took was one person with a vendetta . . .

  “It’s been just over eight years since you saw me last. I’ve changed, I suppose. Lost some weight. Took on a few gray hairs. Got this scar on my face from a car accident.”

  “So we’ve met.”

  He had to be someone she put in prison. Someone who believed he was innocent and who blamed her for his incarceration.

  “How about I give you a clue?”

  She was tired of the games, but escape at this point was unlikely. She had no supplies, and besides that, she’d never find her way out of here. Anyone with any sense was hunkered down in a shelter, prepared to ride out the next wave of the storm.

  He squatted down in front of her. “You were a lowly beat cop back then, working with your partner. Miles Fisher.”

  Nikki’s mind churned as she tried to organize the facts he was giving her, but she was still not sure where he was going.

  Miles was her first partner. She had been new on the force. Still focused on finding Sarah, but determined that others wouldn’t go through the horror she and her family were going through. In the meantime, she paid her dues working traffic stops and handing out tickets to offenders.

  “There was a call one afternoon that you and your partner responded to,” he continued. “A robbery in progress. Someone was attempting to hold up the local convenience store. Do you remember yet?”

  Nikki searched her memory. Over the past decade she’d responded to dozens of robberies.

  “This time was different.” Any hint of a smile he’d had earlier had vanished. “This time you killed a man.”

  The accusation felt like a bullet hitting her own chest. She drew in a mouthful of air. That had been the first time she’d ever killed a man. And all these years later it still haunted her.

  He sat back down across from her. “So you do remember, after all. They say when you take a life, especially the first time, it’s imprinted on your mind forever.”

  He was right. It had been raining that day, just like today. And every second of that call had been imprinted on her mind. The layout of the store as they’d walked in. The store owner. And the face of the boy she’d killed as they zipped up the body bag and put him in the back of the coroner’s van. She and her partner had responded to what she’d assumed would be simply another routine call. Instead it had made her question everything she believed in.

  “You knew the man who was killed?” she asked.

  “You say that like you weren’t responsible for his death.”

  “He robbed the store, then pulled out a gun and threatened to kill the store owner. Threatened to kill me and my partner.”

  “So noble. But the truth is that you killed my brother that day. Brian didn’t deserve to die. He wasn’t even supposed to be there. And I . . . I ended up burying him. I think about that afternoon. Every. Single. Day.”

  Her breath caught. It had taken a long time for her to learn that she couldn’t take responsibility for another man’s sins. Though even that hadn’t been enough to stop the nightmares that followed. “Your brother pulled a gun on me.”

  “You didn’t have to shoot him. He was eighteen years old.”

  “Old enough to know there are consequences for threatening to kill a police officer while holding a loaded weapon. Which was exactly what he did.”

  “Do you remember what he stole that day? A pack of cigarettes. He panicked, but it wasn’t worth his life.”

  “I agree it wasn’t worth his life,” she said. “But you can justify the situation all you want, and it won’t change anything. I can’t change what happened that day.”

  Six months of counseling had helped to ease the guilt, but the weight of taking a man’s life had never completely faded.

  Cooper stood up again, his boots crunching on the damp undergrowth while he paced. “Unfortunately, the judge agreed with you. But for me, it’s given me eight long years to plan what I wanted to say to you. Eight long years to finally confront the person who took my brother’s life and ruined my family. My mother was never the same again. She died in a hospital room, still grieving the death of her baby boy.

  “Within six months I’d lost both my mother and my brother, and not too long after that, my boss accused me of fraudulent practices,” he continued. “Do you know how hard it is to
get a job—a decent job—when you have a felony on your record? I always wanted to be a ranger, but with my background they wouldn’t even look at me.”

  “So you found a way to change your identity.”

  He nodded. “It’s amazing the people you meet in prison. I knew I’d never go back to the corporate world. A new identity gave me the freedom I needed to do what I wanted.”

  “You met the Angel Abductor while you were in prison?” she asked.

  “We became friends. Interestingly enough, he wasn’t in for what you might think. With all of his previous crimes, he was caught for fraud, like me. Crazy, isn’t it?”

  Nausea swept through her as he spoke. This was the closest she’d ever been to her sister’s abductor, and yet she still hadn’t found him.

  “He confessed some things to me one day. Told me things he said he’d never told another soul. That’s when I found out his connection to you. Eventually, he helped me plot my revenge.” Cooper rubbed his hands together, as if the cold were beginning to affect him. “I lost track of him eventually. I was transferred to another prison and he . . . I’m honestly not sure what happened to him.”

  He scooped up a fallen branch and tossed it into the trees before turning back to her. “It must be a horrid feeling, not knowing what’s happened to someone you care about. Not knowing if she’s alive or dead. Or what he did to her. I suppose I’m lucky in that way. At least I know what happened to my brother.”

  Nikki pressed her hands against her temples. “Tell me what you want from me.”

  “For now? I want you to understand what I went through all these years. Suffering the way I did. I thought you deserved to remember what it’s like to lose someone. To remember how it felt when you first saw that Polaroid of your sister. It was a nice idea he had, I thought. Leaving a bit of a personal touch behind at every crime scene.”

  “Do you actually think I have to be reminded of how I felt that day? I think of Sarah every single day.”

  “I know.” He pulled a Polaroid camera from his backpack. “I bought this on eBay a few months ago. They don’t make these anymore, you know, but I thought you would appreciate the touch.”

  “You’re planning to take my photo, then kill me. Just like he would have.”

  Cooper aimed the camera at her and pushed the button. The flash went off. A few seconds later, he pulled the photo from the camera and dropped the blackened card into her lap. The image of her face slowly emerged. The determination in her eyes . . . and the fear.

  “That,” he said, dropping the camera back into his backpack, “depends on you.”

  27

  Nikki could see it in his eyes as he grabbed her arm and pulled her up. Pain shot through her shoulder. Only one of them was going to get out of here alive. If she was going to make a move, it would have to be now, before darkness settled over the mountainside.

  “We need to keep moving now that the weather has cleared up a bit,” Cooper said.

  “Where are we going?”

  “You ask too many questions.” He reached for his backpack, still holding his weapon.

  Nikki didn’t stop to consider the risks. While he turned away from her to pick up the backpack, she raised her hands above her head as high as she could, ignoring the searing pain in her shoulder, then slammed her bound hands downward as hard as she could, her elbows on either side of her hips.

  The duct tape snapped in two.

  Before he could react, she reached for his gun. He tried to stop her, but she was quicker this time. She grabbed the barrel of the gun and pushed it toward him, rolling it against his thumb and twisting his wrist. Cooper groaned in pain as she forced him to his knees. The weapon was now facing him. She wrapped her fingers over the bottom of his hand, but he wasn’t done fighting. He jerked her toward the ground in one swift movement. The gun fired. Cooper slumped over onto his side, a frozen look of surprise on his face.

  No . . . no . . . no . . .

  Ears still ringing, she removed the magazine and tossed the gun aside while blood seeped through his clothes. She unzipped his coat and pulled it back from where the bullet had struck. Tears slid down her cheeks. She’d expected him to fight back. Hadn’t she? Knew he believed he had nothing to lose. But it wasn’t supposed to have come to this. Her life over his.

  Just like with his brother.

  A light rain began to fall again as she breathed in the smell of gunpowder. She reached for his backpack, unzipped it. She found a wool blanket in the front, pulled it out, and pressed it against the wound to stop the bleeding.

  “Funny how nothing has changed.” Cooper’s voice broke as he spoke. “Special Agent Boyd, I was wrong. You win. Again.”

  She shook her head. “No one won today. And none of this brings back your brother.”

  He grabbed her hand, his fingers tightening against her wrist. “It was never about that. It was always about revenge. About making things right. But I ended up being the fool, didn’t I?”

  “All I know is that none of this had to happen,” she said.

  He choked, and blood ran down his chin. “Yes, it did.”

  But it didn’t. She hadn’t taken this job to take lives. She wanted to save them.

  “I never meant to kill your brother,” she said, praying for a miracle as she pressed harder against his side, but the blood had already soaked through the blanket and was beginning to pool against the hard earth. His face paled. Breath was rapid and shallow . . . She was losing him.

  I’m so sorry, God . . . so sorry . . .

  “He never would have shot you or your partner.” Cooper coughed. “He just . . . he just made a mistake.”

  A mistake that cost him his life.

  But while Cooper might not make it, there was still a chance for Bridget. If she was still alive, they needed to find her.

  “Cooper . . . Tell me where Bridget is. She doesn’t need to die.”

  His eyes had shut, and he wasn’t responding.

  “Cooper, I need you to listen to me.” She shook him. “Tell me where Bridget is. Please.”

  He groaned, then opened his eyes. “I planned to kill her. To . . . bury her like the Angel Abductor, but I . . .”

  “Tell me . . . please . . . Where is she?”

  He closed his eyes again. “Find her, because my brother . . .”

  She was losing him . . . the only link she had to finding Bridget.

  Nikki sat back on her heels as his head slumped to the side. She checked his pulse. It was too late. He was gone, and the information to save Bridget had gone with him.

  She slumped onto the ground beside him. Revenge had cost him everything . . . including his life. She zipped up his vest, then stopped. The grenade was still inside his backpack. She drew in a quick breath. If someone or something happened to stumble upon it before the authorities came . . .

  Slowly, she reached inside the backpack and pulled it out. The pin still held the safety lock, stopping the trigger lever from opening and detonating the fuse. She set it down carefully beside her, then reached for the duct tape in the side pocket of the backpack where she’d seen him put it. Pulling off a large piece, she wrapped it around the grenade, firmly securing the pin in place.

  Deciding that the safest place to keep the grenade was off the ground, she dug into his pack again until she found a scarf. A minute later, she’d secured the grenade to the branch of a tree, high enough off the ground, she prayed, that no animal or person would find it. Hopefully, she’d be able to lead the rangers back to the site to find Cooper’s body as well, but she couldn’t think about that right now.

  Wind whipped around her, chilling her through her wet clothes. Lightning danced across the darkening sky. Cooper might be dead, but for her, this night was far from over. The storm still hovered above her, but even if the weather let up, finding her way in the dark was going to be impossible. And with the temperatures dropping, she could easily be at risk from hypothermia. It didn’t have to be freezing to suffer from the effects
of exposure, even at fifty degrees Fahrenheit or higher in wet and windy weather. And this time of year, the temps could easily drop below that.

  But most importantly, she needed to find a way to let someone know Bridget was alive.

  She unzipped Cooper’s pack completely and began taking an inventory of its contents, not only for anything that might help her stay warm but also for any more weapons. She laid the items out beside her, searching first of all for a phone, a radio, or anything that could help her contact the authorities.

  He’d implied he planned to disappear. Which meant there was no cell phone to trace. And he knew these mountains, which meant no need of a GPS.

  What do I do, God?

  She kept pulling out items. He’d clearly been prepared to stay in these mountains. A Swiss Army knife and a first aid kit. A flashlight, a slim mummy bag, and a packet of trail food. A raincoat, extra socks, gloves, and a fire starter kit. And her service weapon. She checked to ensure the safety was on, then slid it back into her holster. A minute later, she’d finished repacking the bag. But she had no idea where she was. Or where to go.

  Rain pelted against the side of her face as the wind picked up. The sun slid behind the horizon while the last light of day was swallowed up by the forest surrounding her. Something rustled behind her. Nikki jumped at the sound. It could be anything. Bears, coyotes, wolves . . . She flipped on the flashlight and shone the beam into the darkness. But there was nothing there. Only her nerves playing tricks on her.

  She turned around and took a step away from Cooper’s body. The adrenaline rush of rappelling down the side of the cliff had always exhilarated her, but this—everything that had happened today—had brought with it feelings of pure terror. She shivered, turning around 360 degrees while wondering which direction she should go. Or whether she should simply stay there. The trees would provide shelter. She had the sleeping bag and an extra raincoat. She was so cold . . . and so tired.

  And heading out into these woods only risked getting more lost. Her father used to tell her a clear head will find itself. And that if she ever got lost while they were hiking, she needed to stop, stay calm, and stay put.