That, at least, wasn’t her problem, she reminded herself as she cranked up the heat in the Jeep. All she had to do was haul him to Helena, let the local boys deal with him and return to Grizzly Falls, if the roads allowed.
She yawned and sipped some hot coffee from her travel mug. She had her own problems with her own kid. Her teenaged daughter was giving her fits, sneaking out, and it was all Trilby could do to keep an eye on her at night while working overtime as a deputy with the sheriff’s department. It was times like these that she hated being a single mother, though the thought of remarriage was enough to make her shudder. Her ex had cured her of ever trusting in the idea of marital bliss, and whenever she thought being alone and raising a kid was tough, she remembered being married and feeling as if she was mother to her husband, too.
No, she’d deal with her kid by herself, and aside from the fact that finances were tight, she could handle it. She knew people who married, divorced, got along and shared parental responsibilities. Her friend Callie’s husband was involved with his kids, even paid more than what the court ordered and his new wife was incredible with Callie’s sons.
Trilby hadn’t gotten so lucky, and on days like this, when she hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before and a damned blizzard was sweeping across the country, she felt stretched to the max.
It was only the thought of overtime that kept her going.
She tur
ned the wipers up a notch, noticed that ice was starting to form on the windshield and that the police band was going nuts with calls about traffic accidents, power outages and a possible drowning in September Creek where someone had fallen through the ice.
“Damn,” she said under her breath and realized it was going to be another long day. She’d get this kid to Helena and...
She saw something in her headlights. Something in the road. “What in God’s name?” A large van had slid halfway into the ditch on the side of the road. Its emergency lights were flashing, the front end still sideways in the road, its engine rumbling as it idled.
“Great.” Slowing, she flipped on her own lights, radioed her position and, when the Jeep came to a stop, climbed out of the car.
“Hey,” she said as she saw a guy in front of the van, caught in the twin beams of his headlights, snow falling all around, collecting on his jacket and cap. He was bending down, on one knee, and there was an animal in front of him, an animal that wasn’t moving. “Sir, is there a problem?”
“It’s the dog. He just came out of nowhere. Shot across the road and ... I hit the brakes, but ...” His voice cracked as he looked over his shoulder at her. “I skidded, but I couldn’t avoid him ... I think it’s still alive. Oh, God.”
“Let’s see,” she said, moving for a better look at the motionless dog. Was it even breathing? And where was the blood? Wait—
She knew her mistake the minute she leaned forward.
He swung around quickly, a stun gun in the hand that had been hidden from her. Damn! Before she could draw her weapon, or fight back, he pressed the electrodes to her neck and squeezed the trigger.
A hundred thousand volts shot through her system.
In a heartbeat, she lost all control and flopped into the snow beside the dog only to watch helplessly as he packed her and the animal into the back of his van. He cuffed her to the sides of his rig and left the dog on the floor, then he took her keys off her ring, her phone from her pocket, her walkie microphone off her uniform and slammed the door shut.
Trilby could do nothing but twitch.
“How about I meet you somewhere for dinner, say in half an hour or so?” O’Keefe suggested from his end of the wireless connection. “I was just at the town house; still no electricity.”
Alvarez glanced at the clock on her computer. It was late, close to seven thirty; she’d been working most of the day. “If we wanted to start a fire,” she said, stretching, “we could start the fire in the fireplace, it’s gas. There must be a way to do it without the electric starter and somehow not cause an explosion.”
“You’d think.”
“And I have candles for light.”
“But no food in the house, last I checked.”
“Good point.”
“After dinner we can decide what we’re going to do. Why don’t we meet at the Grizzly Hotel; they’re open and they’re serving dinner. I know because Dave and Aggie stayed there earlier.”
“They left?” she asked, thinking of Gabe and feeling a stupid new tug on her heart.
“Tried to beat the storm. They want to see their other kids, then meet Gabe when he gets to Helena. According to Aggie, Leo’s been taking care of Josie while they’ve been here and that makes them nervous. He’s eighteen and a good kid, but that can change without supervision. When they call, Josie makes a lot of noise about seeing Gabe. She misses him and wants to see him.”
So do I, Alvarez thought, but didn’t say it. Legally, she wasn’t Gabe’s mother, she had no rights and she understood that she’d given them up long ago, but she couldn’t stop the pain in her heart at the thought of the son she would probably never see again.
A little saddened, she leaned back in her desk chair. It had been a long, frustrating day in so many ways, from the moment she’d heard about Brenda Sutherland to now, even with all the new footage and pictures pointing out the killer, this man she felt like she should be able to ID and couldn’t.
Her muscles ached, she was tired, the kid she’d reconnected with was leaving and the madman intent on terrorizing the area was taunting her, sending her cards, laughing at her, begging her to find him.