They’d stopped a few cars back from the town car at multiple sets of traffic lights now.Should Mårten take the chance next time and jump out and confront the men in the car?There had to be more than one, because the guy with the gun had got into the back with Summer when they took off, which meant there was at least also a driver, perhaps even a third person in the vehicle.But if the signals went green before he reached the car, or things didn’t go according to plan and the thug fired his weapon, Summer could be hurt or even killed.
Mårten worried at his lower lip as he discussed options with Jacob, who was still on the line.
“I’ve got a match for the car,” Jacob said, cutting into their tactics discussion, and for a second Mårten held his breath.“But it won’t help right now.It’s registered to a hire company.I’m looking for the rental contract to see if I can get us a name.”
“I think he might be heading to Cougar Mountain Park,” said Rishi, interrupting his conversation with Jacob.
“You think so?”Mårten was quick to jump on the idea.
“I mean, this road could take us anywhere outside Seattle, like Boise or even as far as Spokane, but I know Cougar Mountain is coming up ahead on the right.My friends and I like to walk out here.The forest trails are amazing.”
Rishi could be onto something, and Mårten felt a spike of adrenaline at the mention of the park.If Tyrone were indeed inside the car, then it’d make sense he’d take her somewhere isolated, somewhere that resonated with him, where he might feel at home.Like the closest piece of wilderness to the city.He relayed the information to Jacob, who said he’d send out a couple of units to the area.
“Where could he take her in the middle of the day where no one else will see them?”Mårten pondered to himself.If he were going to kill her, then he needed to have no witnesses to his crime.The location would have to be isolated.
“It’s a big place,” Rishi supplied.“I know of quite a few bodies that’ve been recovered from the park; some had been there for years.Hikers just found the bones.There was even one tourist who was killed by a wild cougar.”Rishi smiled, seeming to get caught up in all the ghoulishness of it all.
“Shit,” Mårten swore, that was the last thing he needed to hear.
“Wait.Drop back a little,” he commanded.The car was turning off onto a minor road, and the forest crowded in on the narrow trail, making it hard to see around the next corner.Mårten was regretting the use of a taxi.In city traffic, the bright yellow car would blend in, but it’d stand out on this road.
“It looks like he might be heading toward a place called the abandoned clay pits,” Rishi said as the road continued its winding course.“Few people go there.It’s not nearly as picturesque as Coal Creek Waterfall or the peak of Cougar Mountain.And even less so now that they’ve closed part of it off.”Rishi made a disgusted face.“The government, in all its wisdom, is going to allow fracking in the park.After so many years of our mayor being dead against it, all it takes is one stupid policy change from the new president and whammo, now the miners are granted free access to the park.Personally, I think it’s disgusting.I would…”
“Wait.”Mårten held up his hand.“Did you say fracking?”
“Yep.”
“That’s it.That’s got to be it.”Mårten felt a familiar tingle, the one he got when he knew he was onto something when he was running a case.Hadn’t Tyrone’s family lost their dairy farm due to some unscrupulous miners setting up fracking wells around their ranch?“Did you catch that, Jacob?”he said into the phone.
“Sure did.I’ll get backup out there as soon as possible.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“TIE HER UP nice and tight, Diego,” Tyrone instructed.The other man pulled even harder on the ropes so that they cut into Summer’s skin on her arms, and she whimpered through the duct tape that was covering her mouth.He’d already hastily tied her ankles together, her long silver dress caught up in the knots at her feet, dragging it down so that the shoestring straps dug painfully into her shoulders.She recognized the guy from his beady eyes and hooked nose.He was the one who’d broken into her apartment and stolen her camera.Who’d accosted her in the stairwell, and scared the shit out of her.
Summer didn’t know where she was, but they couldn’t be too far from the city.By her reckoning, she’d been in the car for less than an hour.After Tyrone had forced her into the back seat at gunpoint, she’d been gagged and blindfolded and left terrified and shaken, curled in the fetal position in the corner against the door.Neither of the men had spoken as Diego had driven them out of the city.She’d known it was Tyrone as soon as the car pulled up in front of her, even though they were both wearing balaclavas; it could be no one else.All of Jacob and Mårten’s warnings had rung through her head like a sledgehammer.They’d been right, and she’d been terribly, terribly wrong.For whatever reason, Tyrone had appeared to exact vengeance on her.
Diego was strapping her to a tall metal contraption that towered tens of meters above their heads.They were on a construction site within a small clearing deep inside a forest somewhere.She could see there’d been recent earthworks, with fresh piles of dirt heaped around them, and a couple of what she assumed were storage sheds set into the encroaching trees on one side of the glade.
Summer stared directly at Diego, pleading with her eyes for him to let her go.But his swarthy face remained impassive.Both men had dispensed with their balaclavas once they arrived in the wilderness, which she knew was a bad sign, because it meant they were confident she would not leave here alive, and therefore couldn’t possibly identify them.
“Those idiots think that one little fence is going to keep people out,” Tyrone scoffed.“Well, it might keep normal, law-abiding people out, but not me.”He flashed his teeth—so white against his Black skin—in a predatory smile and pointed at the chain-link fence through which Diego had cut a hole with wire cutters and then forced her to clamber through the break.Surprisingly, Tyrone was very good-looking.Tall, athletic, with high, strong cheekbones and piercing dark eyes.He was also terribly charismatic, his voice smooth as velvet, and his smile beguiling.She could see why Paige had found him so attractive.And why others might follow his teachings, however psychotic they might be.
Diego finished his task and went to stand next to Tyrone.
“Did you know the Northern Spotted Owl breeds in this forest?It’s highly endangered, too,” Tyrone said casually.
What?Summer was struggling to follow his lightning-fast changes in conversation.
“Yeah.So if they’re allowed to continue building these fracking wells, not only will they destroy all the surrounding creeks and rivers, making them too toxic for anything to survive, but the noise and the pollution will drive away any owls in the area.”Tyrone raised his palms toward the sky.“Where are these poor birds supposed to go?Tell me, because I’d love to know.Paige told me you’re an environmentalist, just like she was.So tell me, how are we going to save the owls if all we ever do is demolish their habitat?”
Summer didn’t have an answer, and she had no idea what he was talking about with his reference to fracking or endangered owls.But casting her gaze around the area, she could see what he meant about habitat.This mine site—if that was indeed what it was—was in the middle of a dense, old-growth forest.And now she remembered something about Northern Spotted Owls; they inhabited wild places surrounding Seattle, such as the Cascade Ranges and Cougar National Park, as well as other mature coniferous forests.But she didn’t have time to figure out if she knew where these woods were, as Tyrone began speaking again.
“You look mighty pretty in that dress; it’s a shame you’re gonna have to die in it.Paige would’ve been mad at me for killing you, especially when you look so beautiful.”Tyrone stared at her impassively, but her head was spinning with yet another topic change.How did anyone keep up with his quicksilver mind?“Ironically, she’s the reason that I have to kill you now.An eye for an eye, and all that sort of thing.If she’d survived, then maybe so would you.Paige looked up to you, idolized you, did you know that?She thought you might even be persuaded to join our cause.But she was clearly wrong on that count.”He made a scoffing sound, and Diego gave him a sympathetic glance.
Summer struggled to get her head around all this new information.Uppermost in her mind was the fact that he meant for her to die here.But why?It wasn’t her fault Paige had ended up dead.It was his right-hand man, Nathan, who’d killed her.This was completely fucked up.It was Tyrone who’d sent Paige and Nathan to Sweden in the first place to kidnap her.Maybe his intention hadn’t been to kill her once they finished with her, as Paige had always declared.But then Nathan had gone on a rampage and lashed out at Paige because she’d questioned his authority.Nathan was the one Tyrone should be taking his rage out on, not her.But Nathan was locked up in a jail in Sweden, and Summer had no way to defend herself, because the duct tape stopped any form of two-way communication.She made desperate grunting noises, hoping perhaps he’d remove the gag and let her speak, let her tell her side of the story, but Tyrone ignored her as he continued to drone on.
“I loved Paige, and she loved me.We were seeing each other in secret for months, did you know?That stupid fiancé of hers didn’t have a clue.He was an ignorant dolt with no backbone or passion.Paige deserved so much more in a man.”
