Catherine Coulter - Blindside

“Well, go on down. We’ll check out those cops, see if they’re dead yet. Then we’ll take their car. I still can’t believe that damned sheriff ruined my van.”

“How did you get back here, Clancy?”

“I already told you, that ain’t none of your business, buddy. Walk down those damned stairs!”

Clancy had to know that he was running out of time. Miles had to see exactly where Sam was before he moved. Clancy and Sam were just in his peripheral vision behind him, just off to the right. Clancy had his arm around Sam’s neck, held him tightly against his side.

On the second step, Miles yelled, “Drop, Sam!”

Sam went limp and dropped to the ground. In the same instant Miles turned and kicked out, his foot crushing Clancy’s injured arm. The gun went flying.

Clancy screamed even as he grabbed Sam by his neck and lifted him off the ground, twisting, holding him away from him. Miles kicked again, this time in the middle of his chest. Clancy dropped Sam and went flying back, grabbing his chest, unable to breathe.

At that moment, Katie came through the open doorway, barefoot, her SIG Sauer in both hands in front of her.

She yelled, as she crouched, “Hold it, Clancy!”

“I’ve got him,” Miles said, and she saw that he was smiling of all things, an awful smile that held raw hate and triumph.

As he moved toward Clancy, he yelled, “Katie, check the deputies. There’s gas in the car, hurry!”

Miles smashed his palm into Clancy’s nose, and brought his knee up hard into his crotch.

Clancy screamed and went down onto his knees, holding himself. Katie literally jumped over Clancy and went flying off the porch, and Miles winced as her bare feet struck stone and gravel, but she didn’t slow. She jerked open the passenger’s side door and pulled the deputy out onto the ground, then ran to the driver’s side, and dragged the other man out as well.

Clancy, still bent over, staggered to his feet, his eyes on Sam, who was on his hands and knees, scooting backward toward the edge of the porch.

“It’s okay, Sam.” Miles jumped toward him and slammed his fist into Clancy’s jaw. He felt the skin on his knuckles split, but it felt good, sending this monster into oblivion with his bare fist. He watched him fall senseless, then turned to see Katie bent over one of the deputies, listening for a breath. Sam was sitting on the edge of the porch, huddled over, not saying a word.

“Mama?”

“It’s okay, Keely,” Miles said. “You stay in the house, okay? Your mom will get you in just a minute. Don’t move, Keely. Katie, do I need to see to the other deputy?”

Before Katie answered, she saw that Clancy was down, not moving, not even moaning and was lying on his side, facing the house. She didn’t have any cuffs and couldn’t leave Cole here, possibly dying. It was okay, Clancy was down and out.

“Miles, you got him good. Hurry!”

Miles kicked Clancy just to make sure he was really unconscious, and pushed his gun in his pants. “Come with me, Sam. We’ve got to help the deputies.”

Katie raised her head a moment to say, “Cole’s not dead! He’s breathing!” before she moved over to the other man. Miles was aware that Keely was standing over her mom, just as Sam was standing next to him. He quickly looked toward the porch. Clancy hadn’t twitched. “Sam, run inside and get my cell phone and bring it to me.”

When Sam handed Miles his cell, he punched 911. A short time later, they heard sirens loud in the still night.

The paramedics immediately covered the deputies’ noses and mouths with oxygen masks. “It looks to me like that was close,” said Mackey. He cocked a brow at Katie. “I’d call this a crime spree, Sheriff. You’re really keeping us busy. You and the kids okay?”

“I think so.” She pointed to Clancy. “For a fat guy, he moves as quietly as a cat burglar. I have no idea what sort of shape he’s in, though. Mr. Kettering didn’t pull any punches. But he’s alive, and that’s the important thing. Now we’ll find out who hired him. We’ll need you all to transport him once we’ve got you a police escort.”

“Nuts,” Mackey said. “The jerk must be just plain nuts.”

Wade showed up not five minutes later, jeans pulled over his pajamas, his shirt hanging open. “Jesus, Katie, you got him! By damn, you got the bastard.”

“Actually, Miles got him. He’s got some good moves. Go cuff him, Wade.”

Miles was elated and exhausted. He walked to the children who were both sitting on the edge of the porch, went down on his haunches and pulled them both against his chest. He kissed Sam, then Keely, again and again. “I’m so proud of you both.”

“I want Mama,” Keely said against Miles’s armpit.

“Let her do her job, then she’ll be over here. You just hold on to me, okay?

“Sam?”

Sam burrowed closer.

“Sam? You all right?”

Sam didn’t say a thing. He didn’t even blink when Clancy staggered to his feet, knocked Wade off the porch, jumped onto the driveway, and disappeared into the darkness.

Katie cursed a blue streak, and ran after him. Miles leaped off the porch after her. Both of them were still barefoot. Miles heard Wade cursing, couldn’t make out his words.

Then dead silence.

He heard a gunshot.

Then more dead silence.

M iles watched Dr. Sheila Raines from across Katie’s living room speaking quietly to Sam. He wasn’t moving, wasn’t meeting her eyes. His small hands were restless, pulling on his jeans, scratching his elbow, punching one of the sofa cushions.

“He’s hardly spoken a single word,” he said to Katie, who was sitting next to him, holding Keely in her arms, the little girl was sprawled out, asleep. Miles barely got the words out. “Too much has happened to him, just too much. And we still have no idea who is after him, and why. And that’s the biggest mystery: why go through all this misery to get ahold of one little boy? Twice now they’ve come after him after he escaped them. Twice! And tonight Clancy came after him all by himself, and he was wounded. It makes no sense at all to me.

“If his kidnapping was for money, then why was there no ransom note? They had almost two days, surely that was enough time to make their demands known to me.” He paused a moment, streaking his fingers through his hair. “I was certain it was a pedophile who’d taken him, but no, that isn’t the case, and I thank God for that. And I’m as certain as I can be that no one, not even the crooks I caught when I was an FBI agent, would want revenge against me this badly. And if someone did, then why not just shoot me? That would be easy enough to do. Why then, for God’s sake?

“Jesus, this whole thing is over the top. And look at Sam, silent, his eyes blank like he’s really not here, like he doesn’t want to be here because it’s too scary, and he has all this terror locked inside him.”

Katie touched his shoulder. “It’s a terrible thing, what he’s been through,” she said. “But you know, Miles, even with the short time I’ve known Sam, I know he’s resilient. He’s a very strong little boy. Be patient. Sheila is very good. Have some faith.

“Now the motive. There is one, you know that, Miles. There always is. It’s just not obvious to us yet, and just maybe we wouldn’t necessarily understand it, but there is a motive, obviously a very strong one to the person or persons who had Sam kidnapped, given all the lengths Clancy and Beau have gone to. We’ll keep digging and we’ll find it, I promise you.”

It was as if he hadn’t heard her. “And it’s not over,” he said, still looking toward his son, “not by a long shot. Clancy is dead, and with him the name of whoever is behind this. But they’re still out there, I know it and you know it, Katie. And they’ll try again, you know that, too. Why stop now?”