Andrew Gross: 15 Seconds

She locked on the two cars. Hofer’s, the one she had seen in the two videos. And a gray Buick-the car Henry said he was now driving.

They were both here.

She’d tried his cell a dozen times over the last twenty minutes-and now she felt herself getting scared.

She called Jack and told him her location. He told her not to do anything herself-that he would handle things now and she was not, by any means, to venture in there. But Carrie said sorry, she couldn’t promise him that right now.

She hung up with him begging her: “Carrie! Carrie, listen!”

Then she called 911 and reached the local police. As calmly as she could, she told them where she was and why she was there. The dispatcher on the other end seemed like she’d never handled any emergency of this magnitude before. No way she understood the gravity of what was happening.

Carrie told her, “You send a team out here now!”

Then, checking her gun, she made her way toward the main house. A red, run-down, ranch-style home. She saw the heavy Realtor’s lock on the front door. Didn’t see any sign of activity or lights inside.

She didn’t like what she was feeling.

Cautiously, she inched her way around back, toward the woods. Where Henry said Hofer’s shed would be.

It was dark in there and plenty creepy. Carrie went a step at a time through the dense brush and branches, which she had to clear out of the way. Her pulse pounded like a big bass drum inside her. She had never done anything remotely like this in her life.

She begged her hands to stop trembling.

There it was . Hofer’s shack. A thin glow of light coming from the window. She looked around. Henry, where are you?

“Henry?”

A feeling of dread fell over her as she slowly advanced. The door was ajar. She didn’t hear a sound coming from inside, which made her heart beat only faster. She thought about waiting for backup to arrive, then she thought something terrible might have already happened, and she couldn’t take it any longer.

She was ten feet from the door. Henry, you better not have done anything stupid in there…

My phone vibrated three times and then it stopped. I had no idea if Carrie was nearby or out on the road. Or if she had alerted the police, which now I was praying she had.

I glanced at my watch, thinking that if she was forty minutes behind me, she might already be here.

Which meant she’d seen the cars. And when I didn’t answer the phone, she would put it together.

This might be my way out!

Hofer sat there with the calm, resigned look of a man who had already made his pact with God. No matter whom Carrie had alerted, I glanced at my daughter and knew that this was going to end badly.

“I’m sorry.” I looked at Hofer. “For what I did. To Amanda. I’ll do anything I can to make it up to her. She’ll be out-she’ll have a life at some point. Let Hallie go. I’ll make sure she has whatever she needs…”

“You’re talking money?” Hofer said.

I nodded. “Money. Education. Whatever she needs.”

Hofer scratched at his orange hair, for a moment even seeming to consider it. Then he snickered, kind of fatalistically. “You’re a doctor. You’re smart. I thought you’d see by now…” He looked back, tossing me a wistful smile. “This don’t have nothing to do with my daughter anymore. Or yours . ”

“Then what does it have to do with ? ” I shouted back, looking at my daughter helplessly bound, her body just feet from that blade. “What? What? ”

“You, Doc.” Hofer’s pink face grinned. “It’s about you. Maybe it started like you said… Back at some point, it made sense, how people just dragged my little girl down the wrong road. But then it kind of hit me-in that fancy office of yours that day, where I guess you now know I went to do this then, looking at all those pictures of your beautiful life and all your fancy degrees-how people like you, it all just came so easy, didn’t it? Whereas people like me…” He arched his brow. “Well, let’s just say, things went a different way.

“And then I started to realize there, how every step of the road, every time I thought I might just make it, there was always someone like you blocking the way. Whether on that police disciplinary board that started it all going; or at the mill when they closed it up; or at the bank or the medical insurance company… Someone is always there with a smile and a handshake before they take whatever you have, every last piece of dignity and humanity. See what I mean? And that’s what you are, Doc-someone standing in my way. Yes, my Amanda’s troubles may have led back to you. But I know if it wasn’t you, it would’ve been someone else. But it’s kinda nice, how it all just came together, staring at your little girl here in your office…”

“Let her go, Hofer,” I begged him. “You started all this saying it was about making the right people pay. Well, make me pay. You wanted me. I’m here. Look at her.” Hallie was trembling in his arms. “She’s just a kid. Just starting out. You and me, we’ve seen where life goes. I’m begging you. She didn’t do these things to you. There must be some shred of mercy and feeling left inside. Let her go…”

“You make a good case…” Hofer bunched his lips, as if weighing my plea. “But sorry, ain’t gonna happen, Doc. Ain’t how it’s gonna go.”

That’s when Hallie started to whimper.

I looked at her. “I’m so sorry, baby…” I wanted with everything I had in me to reach out and hold her in my arms. “I’m so sorry I dragged you into this.”

“I’m sorry too, Daddy,” she said back. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. “I knew you would come for me. I never believed for a second you had done those things…”

I smiled. “Of course I would come for you, baby…”

Hofer wrapped his meaty forearm around her shoulder. “Well, nothing left but to get on with the festivities, don’t you agree…?”

He leaned against the pedal and gave the blade a whir.

I couldn’t wait any longer. I couldn’t just sit here and let him do something horrible to my daughter. I jumped up, determined to do anything I could to protect her, and made a lunge for the ax on the wall. As my fingers got within a foot of it, I felt a burning blow rip into my side, throwing me back against the wall and onto the floor, my hand at my side.

Blood all over it.

“Daddy! Daddy!” Hallie screamed hysterically.

“There ain’t no chance,” Hofer said, almost as if he’d been taunting me to go for it. One hand holding Hallie, the other wagging the gun at me. “Only reason you’re still breathing is I want you to see what happens next. Angel …”-he hit the pedal, the blade jumping to life-“say your prayers, if you have any. But it was sure nice watching you ride…”

“No!”

He was about to release her, her arms already jerking forward, when the shed door crashed open.

Carrie stood in the doorway, her arms extended, her gun trained directly at Hofer. At his head, as his body was completely blocked by Hallie.

“Let her go.” Carrie’s gaze was like a wall of stone, reflecting some part of her being I hadn’t seen before. “You let her go now, Hofer, or so help me God, you’ll die here on the spot.”

She glanced my way for only a fraction of a second, her eyes widening at the sight of my hand holding back the blood. Then she shifted back to Hofer.

“ Die here… ? Oh, you’re just a little late to the party, darlin’. We’re all gonna die here! Me. The doc.” He dug the barrel of his gun into Hallie’s skull. “Sorry, you too, angel…” Then he shifted his gaze back to Carrie. “And you! The only real question is how that’s gonna happen, and where…” He stepped on the saw pedal and the jagged blade began to rev and whir like an engine starting up, Hallie lurching forward with a scream. “… That’s where we still have a few things to discuss.”