Page 26 of Two Hearts
A cold steel rod seemed to slip between the discs of Grace’s spine…one of fury, one of rage…it straightened her back and lifted her head.That animal had pulled her injured sister from the car he’d wrecked, and was making her walk, through the rain, in the dark.Her jaw set, her teeth clenched, she turned and stalked away from the ambulance.
CHAPTER 9
Jack had never seen her the way he saw her then.The way her face changed.The look—yeah, that he recognized.He’d seen that look before—outrage, fury, righteous indignation.A man wrongly accused would get that look.A rape victim’s father or husband would get it.But Jack had never in all his years seen that kind of rage cross the face of an angel.
It made him shiver, way down deep inside.
He leaned into the ambulance just long enough to tell Charlie everything was going to be fine, that he would take care of things, and then he went after his wife.
Her walk was even different.Stride, longer.Footfalls, almost stomping.She walked right up to a volunteer fireman and tugged the flashlight from his hand.The man swung his head around, mouth open, took one look at her face and snapped it shut again.
Jack thought that was probably a wise decision on his part.
Grace went to the overturned car, to the muddy roadside around it, and she shone that light on the ground.This way, that way, the light beam moved.But it only illuminated the tracks of a dozen rescue workers.
“Damn!How the hell are we supposed to find which way he took her!”She flung the light to the ground, arms raising outward in frustration.
Jack took her shoulders, held on hard.“Take a breath, Grace.Come on, do it.”
She did, but he could see the tears of frustration and fury standing in her eyes.He bent to pick up the flashlight.“The rescuers were walking all around the car.They had no choice.So was Paulo, when he first got out with Hope.But he would have kept on going.Away from the car.Away from all these other tracks.”
“If he kept to the pavement…”
“He didn’t,” Jack said.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Trust me, hmm?Come on.”Jack took her hand and pulled her along the shoulder of the road, about ten feet from the car.“Now we just make a circle.”He climbed over the guard rail, held out his hand, and helped her over it.Then he aimed the light’s beam at the ground and they walked down the steep, muddy slope, and around the car at a distance of about ten feet, all the way.
Not a footprint in sight.
Jack shook his head.“Damn.He’s smarter than I thought.”
“I told you,” Grace said.“He walked on the road.”
“No.He just crossed it.”Again, they climbed over the guard rail and crossed the street in the pouring rain.Grace looked at Jack with doubt in her eyes, but as soon as they got to the far side of the road and he began shining the light around, he found the tracks.Two sets of them, clear as hell, in the mud.Just until the spot where the grass grew thickly and the ground was harder.
Jack signaled the nearest body—a cop standing on the yellow center line.The trooper came over and Jack pointed in the direction the tracks headed.“What’s that way?”Jack asked him.
He bit his lower lip in thought.“Let’s see…there used to be a trucking company off that way.Out of business now.Yeah, yeah, just beyond that hill there, and then there’s a diner, I think, and maybe the animal shelter just past that.”
Jack ignored him, flipping through the soggy pages of his notepad.“D & D Trucking?”he asked.
“Yeah—yeah, that’s the name.”
Jack nodded, looked at Grace.“Darius’s father owned it.That’s where he’ll be holing up, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find that he has help.”
“He’s gonna need it,” Grace said, that look still in place.
“Grace.”Jack caught her wrist when she would have walked past him into the darkness, across untended lots that ran between side streets and the urban area beyond.“We can get there faster by car.I’ll call for backup and…”
She shook her head rapidly, her gaze flying to Jack’s.Then she glanced at the cop and pulled Jack aside.“We have to slip in there unseen, and quietly.”
“The place could be guarded.”
“Right.And if the cops come charging in, sirens blaring, what’s going to happen?”She shook her head.“She’s hurt, Jack.We don’t know how badly.We don’t have time for a standoff.”
“It won’t turn into that.”
