Thursday 1215 hours
Katie pulled up and parked at the construction site. The area was deserted. The sky darkened as passing clouds peppered the sky.
“You have the replacement cards?” she said.
“Yep,” McGaven said and handed her a small envelope of trail-cam memory cards.
The detectives got out of the car and headed toward the forest area. It was faster to split up so they could leave on time to go to the prison to interview Buck’s brother, David Young.
“See you in ten,” said Katie.
She reached the first camera and easily released it and swapped out the internal cards. As she was placing the camera back where it was originally, she thought she heard something but dismissed it as an animal. She walked toward the east and looked for the next video cam. Her mind went back to the sighting of the man in black and she wondered if he was the person they were looking for. It was not a coincidence that he was looking for more information about the bracelets andmoney clip as well. But why? Was there more significance to them than they had realized?
She heard a whistle in the distance and knew it was McGaven letting her know where he was. She smiled. Her partner was definitely entertaining.
This time, she definitely heard steps approach from behind, but before she could turn completely around she was slammed to the ground on her face. She managed to protect herself with her arms in front of her, but the fall knocked the wind out of her. She concentrated on her breathing and found it difficult to pull her gun as everything dizzied around her.
“Stay away,” said a forced whisper directly into her ear.
She could feel the directed breath against the side of her face. Katie knew it was a man but couldn’t see him.
“I’m going to teach you a lesson to remember.”
Katie felt a cold metal blade against her cheek. Her hazy vision started to come back. She managed to elbow him and he moved back slightly, but it only made him mad. He punched her, Katie having to fight to stay conscious. Her mind whirred like a dying machine as she tried to come up with a plan and also wondered who this person was. She closed her eyes while hearing a heavy sound in the forest, as if someone were near. Her last thought was: Gav…
Within two minutes, she had regained consciousness, though still felt groggy. She sat up with a pounding headache. Looking around, she saw a man lying on his back. The heavy clothing and thick beard… It wasn’t her assailant—it was Buck.
“No!” Katie stood up, regaining her balance, and hurried to his side. Dropping to her knees, she felt for a pulse. “Buck?” she said. She put her hands on his chest and realized his dark heavy overcoat was saturated with blood. She let out a breath.
“Buck. Can you hear me? Open your eyes.” She pulled away his heavy jacket. Through his T-shirt, she saw there weretwo stab wounds oozing blood. Quickly, she retrieved her phone and dialed McGaven.
“Hey,” he answered.
“Just listen. I’m okay. Get an ambulance and EMS here immediately. Buck is down with two stab wounds in the chest. Get police. We need to canvass the area.” Katie dropped her phone and tried to find something to use for compression. Taking off her jacket, she tore it in two pieces. She used them as a type of dressing and pressed hard against the wounds. “Buck, stay with me. C’mon, open your eyes.”
She kept pressure on the wounds and suddenly saw his eyes flutter open. Buck made a barely audible sound.
“It’s okay. Don’t talk. Help is on the way,” said Katie.
He began to shake his head over and over. He raised a scarred hand and grasped her arm.
“Please relax. You’re going to be okay.” Katie wasn’t going to let him die.
Footsteps approached and McGaven came into view.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know exactly. I was attacked and knocked out for a couple of minutes and when I woke I found him like this.”
McGaven stared at the big man. “Buck?” he said.
Katie nodded. “Go meet EMS and have patrol begin searching for the man in black.”
McGaven opened his mouth to say something, but decided not to, and turned to get to the entrance to meet the emergency responders.
Buck began to try to move.
“No, stay still. You’ll be okay.” Katie didn’t know what else to say.
