She closed her eyes, stopped pacing, and rocked on her heels. She knew! She knew what had happened. The thought of Jackson touching Lisa, hurting her, all because of what LuAnn had done or hadn’t done. It was numbing, absolutely and totally incapacitating.
“Look, how was I supposed to know you have some kind of psychic connection with this guy?” Riggs replied.
“Not him dammit. Her! My daughter.”
This statement stopped Riggs dead in his tracks. He looked down and then watched her resume her pacing.
“We need some information, Matthew. Right now.”
Riggs agreed, but he didn’t want to go to the police. That would entail wasting a lot of time in explanations and the end result might very well be the local cops taking LuAnn into custody.
Finally, Riggs said, “Come on.”
They went into the motel office and Riggs walked over to a pay phone. Riggs phoned Masters. The FBI still had no leads on Jackson and Roger Crane still had not surfaced, Riggs was told.
Riggs briefly explained the situation at the motel the night before to Masters.
“Hold on,” Masters said.
While Riggs did so he looked over at LuAnn staring at him. She was silently waiting for the worst news she could possibly receive, of that he was certain. He tried to smile reassuringly at her, but then stopped. The last thing he could be right now was reassuring, particularly since he had nothing to base it upon. Why set her up even further for the long fall.
When Masters came back on, his tone was low and nervous. Riggs turned away from LuAnn while he listened.
Masters said, “I just checked with the local police in Danville. Your information is correct, a man was stabbed at that motel on the outskirts of town. The ID found on him gave his name as Robert Charles Thomas.”
Charlie? Riggs licked his lips, gripped the phone. “His ID? He couldn’t tell the police?”
“He was unconscious. Lost a lot of blood. Damn miracle he’s even alive, they tell me. The wound was professionally administered, designed to slow-bleed the person. They found darts from a stun gun in the room. Guess that was how he was incapacitated. As of early this morning, they weren’t sure if he was going to make it.”
“What’s he look like?” Riggs heard some paper rustling over the line. He was almost certain it was Charlie, but he needed to be absolutely sure.
Masters started speaking again. “Over six feet, in his sixties, strongly built, must be strong as an ox to have survived to this point.”
Riggs breathed deeply. No doubt now. It was Charlie. “Where is he now?”
“The medevac took him to the UVA trauma center in Charlottesville.”
Riggs felt the presence next to him. He turned to find LuAnn staring at him; the look in her eyes was scary.
“George, was there any mention of a ten-year-old girl being with him?”
“I asked. The report said that the man came to for a few seconds and started shouting a name.”
“Lisa?”
Riggs heard Masters clear his throat. “Yes.” Riggs remained silent. “It was her daughter, wasn’t it? This guy’s got her, doesn’t he?” Masters asked.
“Looks like it,” Riggs managed to get out.
“Where are you?”
“Look, George, I don’t think I’m ready to give you that information yet.”
Masters started speaking more forcefully. “He’s got the little girl. You two could be next, Matt. Think about it. We can protect you both. You have got to come in.”
“I don’t know.”
“Look, you can go back to her house. I’ve got the entrance under twenty-four-hour guard. If she agrees to go there, I’ll fill the place up with agents.”
“Hold on, George.” Riggs held the phone against his chest and looked at LuAnn. His eyes told her all she needed to know.
“Charlie?”
“Unconscious. They don’t know if he’s going to make it. The good news is that a medevac helicopter flew him to the trauma center at UVA hospital.”
“He’s in Charlottesville?” she asked.
Riggs nodded. “It’s only a short hop from Danville by air, and the trauma unit there is top-notch. He’ll get the best care.”
She continued to stare at him, waiting. And he knew exactly what for.
“Jackson probably has Lisa.” He moved on quickly. “LuAnn, the FBI wants us to come in. So they can protect us. We can go to Wicken’s Hunt if you want. Agents are already guarding the entrance. They think—”
She snatched the phone out of his hand.
She screamed into it. “I don’t want protection. I don’t need your damned protection. He’s got my daughter. And the only thing I’m going to do is find her. I’m going to get her back. You hear me?”
“Ms. Tyler, I’m assuming this is LuAnn Tyler—” Masters started to say.
“You just stay out of the way. He’ll kill her sure as hell if he even thinks you’re around.”
Masters tried to remain calm even as he said the awful words. “Ms. Tyler, you can’t be sure he hasn’t already done something to her.”
Her reply was surprising, both for its content and its intensity. “I know he hasn’t hurt her. Not yet.”
“The man’s a psycho. You can’t be sure—”
“The hell I can’t. I know exactly what he wants. And it’s not Lisa. You just stay out of the way, FBI man. If my daughter dies because you got in the way, there won’t be any place on this earth that I won’t find you.”
Sitting at his desk in the heavily guarded Hoover Building, with twenty-five years of high-level criminal detection work behind him, during which he’d confronted more than his share of evil, now surrounded by a thousand superbly trained, hardened FBI special agents, George Masters actually shivered as he listened to those words.
The next sound he heard was the phone slamming down.
Riggs raced after LuAnn as she stormed to the car.
“LuAnn, will you wait a damned minute?” She whirled around, waiting for him to speak. “Look, what George said makes a lot of sense.”
LuAnn threw up her hands and started to get in the car.
“LuAnn, you go in to the FBI. Let them protect you from this guy. Let me stay on the outside. Let me track him down.”
“Lisa is my daughter. I’m the reason she’s in this danger and I’m the one who’s going to get her out. Just me. Nobody else. Charlie’s almost dead. You were almost killed. Three other people have been slaughtered. I’m not involving anybody else in my screwed up, miserable, sonofabitchin’ excuse for a life.” She screamed the words at him; when she stopped, both their chests were heaving.
“LuAnn, I’m not letting you go after him alone. If you don’t want to go to the FBI, fine. I won’t go either. But you’re not, repeat not, going after him alone. That way you both die.”
“Matthew, did you hear me? Just get out of this. Go to your buddies at the FBI and let them get you a new life somewhere the hell away from all of this. The hell away from me. Do you want to die? Because if you hang around me, you’re going to, sure as I’m looking at you.” The polished facade had fallen away, shed like a snake’s skin in autumn. She was one long, raw muscle standing alone.
“He’ll come after me, regardless, LuAnn,” Riggs said quietly. “He’ll find me and he’ll kill me whether I go to the FBI or not.” She didn’t respond so he continued. “And to tell you the truth, I’m too old, too tired of running and hiding to start it up again. I’d rather go down the cobra’s hole and meet him head-on. I’ll take my chances with you next to me. I’d rather have you than every agent at the Bureau, than every cop in the country. We’re probably only going to have one shot at this, and I’ll take that shot with you.” He paused for a moment as she stared at him, her eyes wild, her long hair billowing in the wind, her strong hands balling up into fists and then uncurling. Then he said, “If you’ll take that shot with me.”