False Pretenses - Kathy Herman [97]
“Quick, lock the door!” Vanessa cried. “He’s coming! Shapiro’s coming! He saw me run up here! We only have a minute before he shoots the lock and gets in here! We have to hide! He hanged Remy Jarvis! He tried to hang me!”
Zoe was rendered mute by the dreadful state of her beautiful friend. Vanessa’s long shiny hair was wet and stringy, her face and arms covered with slash marks. Her shirt was blood-soaked, her shoes covered in mud.
“Let’s go!” Vanessa took a step, and Pierce caught her, the bat falling on the floor.
“Whoa. Easy, girl.”
“My legs are tired,” Vanessa said. “I’m not used to running that far.”
“What happened to your shoulder?”
“Shapiro shot me when I escaped and ran into the cane field.”
“His real name is Reagan Cowan,” Pierce said. “The sheriff knows he killed Remy.”
“Help me up the stairs. We can hide in the secret tunnel. Hurry!”
Pierce put his arm around Vanessa’s waist and draped her good arm around his shoulder. “Okay, let’s do this. Zoe, you go ahead of us.”
Zoe hurried through the kitchen and up the back stairs to the second floor. She turned around and waited for what seemed an eternity. She heard Vanessa cry out in pain and Pierce apologize for the agonizing climb. The two of them appeared at the top of the stairs just as three deafening shots rang out.
“He’s in,” Pierce whispered. “Zoe, open the door to the tunnel!”
Zoe ran in the bedroom where sheriff’s deputies had discovered the secret door in the closet. She put her hand on the knob, her heart racing, and pulled open the door. She stepped into the inky blackness and took tiny steps, her arms out in front of her, her hands groping the air. How far was it to the stairs?
Cowen’s voice boomed. “Your little game of cat and mouse is over, Vanessa. You’re going to wish I had strung you up. When I get my hands on you, I’m going to carve you up, piece by piece!”
Zoe stopped about ten feet into the dark void. “I can’t see a thing. I don’t even know where the stairs are.”
Pierce pulled the door closed and helped Vanessa over to where Zoe stood. “Okay, hand me the bat.”
Zoe was trapped in a long pause and finally found her voice. “I-I don’t have the bat.”
“Why not?” His hushed voice sounded angry.
“You just said to go upstairs, and I did. I didn’t think about the bat.”
“All right,” Pierce said, barely above a whisper. “Listen carefully. Our only defense is the dark. Don’t anyone move—or even breathe—when he opens that door.”
CHAPTER 31
Jude looked down the line of officers that stood between two opposing groups of protestors at Roux River Park. Could they prevent anger from exploding into violence?
He took his cell phone off his belt clip and keyed in Stone Castille’s phone number.
“Hello, Sheriff.”
“How soon before you and Mike can get out to Langley Manor?”
“We’re finished briefing the officers that arrived from Franklin and are ready to head out there now.”
“Good. I have a bad feeling that Cowen might go after the Broussards.”
“Before the banks close?”
“Just get out there and call me. Gil’s beeping in. I’ve been waiting for him to call back.” Jude switched over to the other caller. “So were you able to find the location of Vanessa Langley’s cell phone?”
“No. Either the phone’s off or it’s been disabled. But the last-known GPS coordinates came from the Vincent farm—about two hours ago. I don’t like it.”
“Me either. I think we need to go take a look. I’ll meet you at the farmhouse in fifteen minutes.”
“You got it.”
Jude disconnected the call and keyed in Ethan Langley’s cell number.
“Hello.”
“It’s Sheriff Prejean. Have you heard from your wife?”
“No. And I’m really worried. If there was any way for her to get to a phone, she’d call me. Were you able track her cell phone?”
“There’s still no signal. Sorry.” Should he tell Ethan about the GPS coordinates? Why add to his worry until they’d had time to check it out?
Ethan sighed into the receiver. “Something bad’s happened to her.”
“We