Page 72 of Refuge for Cherilyn

“Roger that, AgentLivingston. This is Whitley County Sheriff CarlyMcEvers. Be advised, roadblocks are being set up on Ashland Pike at mile marker forty-three at the Laurel/Pulaski county lines. Repeat, roadblocks set up on Ashland Pike at mile marker forty-three at the Laurel/Pulaski county lines. Central dispatch, advise all agencies monitoring fourteen A and seventeen A to move to this channel. Over.”

“Central dispatch. Roger that, SheriffMcEvers.” And the radio fell silent. Then his phone rang again. “Harrison.”

“Shaw, you need to get in the truck and head toward that roadblock. Do it now. Don’t wait. Make sure Cherilyn and the girls are safe first. Take them to your parents’ house. Then head that way. Do you hear me?”

“Dax, what’s happening? Dax? Please?”

“We don’t know, but we’re headed that direction now. There are units from Fayette County converging on that roadblock as we speak. He’s got nowhere to go, Shaw. Every side road is being covered. They’re headed straight for the roadblock, but if Candace doesn’t know how to handle that car, this could get really ugly really fast. Has she driven before?”

“Yes!” Shaw couldn’t believe that he was actually glad his fifteen-year-old daughter had driving experience, but he was. Very. “Yeah, she drove here from Gulf Shores. She can handle a car.”

“Good. Get on the road. Now. See you in a few. And trust the process, Shaw. You know that.”

“Thank you, Dax. Thanks.” He spun to find Cherilyn still standing there. “Grab the girls. You’re going to my mother’s, and then I’ve got to get moving.”

“What’s going on?” she asked as blue and red lights filled the air and a cruiser and ambulance pulled up at the end of the drive.

“You don’t want to know. Get them and let’s go. Now.” He waited, hands shaking, as she hustled the girls up and got them into the truck. It only took an instant to back into the turnaround in the front yard and tear out toward the road. At the end of the drive, he put a window down and saw MarkFindley, another Whitley County deputy, stepping out of his cruiser. “I’m sorry, Mark.”

“I heard the transmissions. Get on the road. We’ve got this.” Mark waved him on, and Shaw turned left out of the drive and stepped down on the gas.

“What was that about?”

As quietly as he could, he whispered to Cherilyn, “He killed the plainclothes officer watching our house.” From the corner of his eye, he watched her hands clasp across her mouth as she stifled a silent scream. Shaw wanted to comfort her. He wanted to tell her everything would be okay. But that might be a lie, and he wouldn’t lie to her.

He slid to a stop in front of his parents’ house and hustled Cherilyn and the girls out of the truck, then took off before they could even get in the house. Out there somewhere on the way to Ashland was his baby girl, and he had to get to her.

There was nothing left to do except to pray he wasn’t too late.

* * *

The two blackcruisers sat at the side of the road, partially obscured by brush, and the drivers waited. “Unit one fourteen, see them?”

“Roger. Coming up fast. Hold. Hold. Hold.” The sound of the car whizzing by rustled the brush, followed by the grinding of the bike’s engine. “Now!”

The two cars tripped their lights and the sky lit up as they pulled out and fell in behind the bike. As the car and bike passed along the highway, cars on either side lit up the night as the two vehicles passed, and each successive pair fell into line behind the ones before. By the time Candace could see the roadblock, there was a line of cruisers traveling behind her and Talbot for as far as she could see, and behind the roadblock was an ocean of flashing lights, what looked like hundreds of them. She didn’t know what to do. They were getting closer to the roadblock, but he was still following her, and she was scared. Slow down and let him catch her? Or hit the police cars? She didn’t want to hit them. They might shoot her, right? But he might shoot her too. One thing was sure. If she did survive an accident, law enforcement would still be there to deal with him, so the choice was pretty clear to her.

She waited until she got to within a few hundred feet of the cruisers blocking the road, then slammed on the brakes and cut the wheel. The little Chevy spun to face the oncoming bike, and before she knew what was happening, it slammed into the Chevy’s grill and launched up the hood. But with the impact, her airbag deployed, and it was lights out.

* * *

There were cruisers everywhere,and he couldn’t get anywhere near the scene, so Shaw rolled the truck off on the shoulder, slammed it into park, and took off running. There were officers every few feet, and a few tried to stop him, but it was no use. He was running, screaming her name, praying to anything and everything that his little girl had survived whatever had happened.

And he ran face first into a wall created by AaronFriedman, DaxChambers, CruzLivingston, and CarlyMcEvers. “Stop, Shaw! Stop!” Aaron yelled, and they all grabbed him at once.

“Let me go! I need to see Candace! I need to know she’s all right!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. “Candace!CANDACE! Oh, my god, I need to see her!”

“The EMTs are working with her right now, Shaw. Calm down. Let them do their job and you can see her, okay?” A pair of hands grabbed his face and he found his friend staring into his eyes. “Listen to me! It’s okay. They’re working with her right now. Let them work and you can see her in a minute.”

“Where is he? WHERE IS HE? I’m gonna kill that son of a bitch! Where’s Talbot?” Shaw bellowed above the din of officers’ voices and radio transmissions. To the side, he saw movement, and got a glimpse of a bloodied Talbot up against a cruiser. “TURN ME LOOSE!I want a shot at that motherfucker!”

“Shaw, calm down. Come here! I want you to sit down and take a deep breath.” CarlyMcEvers took his arm and spun him, then pushed him backward into the front seat of her cruiser, its door open as it sat there on the road. “Listen to me. He’s in custody. He’s not going to hurt anybody else. We’ve got him for at least two murders, for assault on Marlon, and Cruz and Dax are going to make sure he goes away on federal charges. It’s over, Shaw. It’s really over and you can go live your lives now.”

“No. Candace. I?”

A voice called out, “Sheriff!”

Carly spun. “It’s one of the EMTs. That guy right there. Go, Shaw. He wants you to come to the ambulance.”

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