MARY CLARK: Piece of My Heart

Still, after he retrieved his gun from the duffel bag in the trunk, he made a point to be sure that Danny saw him holding it, just in case. “It’s for my safety while I check out the property,” he added.

He noticed that Danny slumped lower into his seat. He was such a good boy. And Danny had been compliant to a T. He trusted him not to run away while he was gone.

He walked away with a satisfied smile. They’d be off to a fresh start in no time.

Chapter 64

The clerk at the rental car counter at the Salisbury Regional Airport handed Laurie a form in triplicate with a ballpoint pen. “I just need you to cross the t’s and dot the i’s,” she reported cheerfully, as a chime sounded from Laurie’s briefcase.

Next to her, Leo was on his own phone, still trying to navigate the bureaucracy of the FBI.

They had no time to spare. She took the pen from the clerk. The sooner they could hit the road, the better. Her phone stopped ringing.

Chapter 65

Marcy had driven about a quarter of a mile onto the property, searching for any sign of the FBI agents, when the path of flattened grass came to an end. If she drove any farther, she’d have to trample over growth that was nearly four feet high.

She turned off the engine of the minivan, expecting the FBI to suddenly announce its presence. Greeted with silence, she stepped from the minivan and walked toward the one patch of land that had been cleared, presumably for a new house to be built.

Still, no one came.

She had turned back toward her car when a man emerged from the woods behind the clearing.

“Mrs. Buckley?” he called out.

“Oh, hi. I was starting to wonder if I went to the wrong place.”

“Absolutely not. I’m Special Agent Gregory Jenson. The rest of my team is set up about fifty yards into the woods here. We’re being cautious about anyone spotting our activity.” He must have noticed her eyeing his polo shirt and khakis warily. “Sorry, I was off duty when we got the call out. I came straightaway.”

He pulled a wallet from his back pocket and flashed what looked from this distance like a badge. As he replaced his wallet, she noticed the firearm tucked into the side of his waistband.

“Just follow me this way,” he assured her.

Marcy was three steps from entering the woods when a chill ran up her spine. For the second time in a week, she thought about the words of her former acting coach: Pay attention to what you know, because every experience you ever had might be important right now.

First it was Detective Langland asking a colleague that Marcy didn’t know to call her with this address. Until then, Langland had always been the one to contact Marcy and Andrew directly. Now she was greeted by a single FBI agent, rushing her into the woods. Her son had been missing for eight days, and suddenly she was being asked to hurry to his suspected kidnapper’s neighborhood, alone. None of it made sense.

“I’m going to wait in the car until my husband gets here. He’s only two minutes away,” she lied, turning back toward her van.

“This can’t wait, Mrs. Buckley.”

She picked up her pace, knowing that a real FBI agent would not sound so panicked.

She was reaching for the car door when she felt the impact of a pistol whip across the back of her head. She fell to the ground and heard the man’s voice behind her. “Get on your knees. Now.”

As she pushed her palms into the dirt, trying to regain her balance, she tipped her head down and caught a glimpse of the man, raising his pistol. His jaw was set, his mouth pinched. She had no doubt that he was going to execute her.

Instead of raising her body, she dropped immediately to the ground and rolled beneath the minivan. She crawled as fast as she could to the other side and let out a small scream as a crack rang out. The minivan lurched. He had shot out one of the rear tires. Driving out of here was no longer an option.

She clambered to her feet and searched, breathlessly, for an escape route. She ran into the woods just as she heard the gun fire again behind her.

Johnny Buckley was crouched low in the passenger seat of the man’s car, wondering what the man was up to. He had pretended to be excited at the idea of visiting the local beaches, but his real excitement had been about the prospect of leaving the creepy house that had become his prison.

Now that the man had left him on his own, Johnny finally had his opportunity. The car wasn’t locked. He had seen the man walk into the woods. He could finally escape.

What are you waiting for? he asked himself. No one else is going to rescue you. You have to move.

But, instead, Johnny sat absolutely still, ducking his head to make sure no one could possibly see him. The distant sound of waves was the only noise beyond a faint breeze whispering across the treetops.

And then a loud blast pierced the stillness like a cannonball.

And then two other shots rang out. A gun. It had to be the man’s gun.

Johnny unlatched his seatbelt, opened the car door, and ran.

Chapter 66

Aside from her time in nursing school, Gretchen Harper had lived in Lewes, Delaware, all forty-three years of her life, born and raised on this same ten acres of land, only two miles away from Cape Henlopen State Park, where her father had been a beloved park ranger.

Since she had moved back into the family home alone, she had even come to enjoy the property chores that had once fallen to her father. She pulled another zip tie through the chicken wire and snapped it tight around the metal pole she had just replaced. She gave the fencing a good tug and it stayed intact. “That should do the trick, you two.” Her miniature goats, Ernie and Bert, bounced around in the grass together near her feet. They wouldn’t be running out to the road again anytime soon, but she’d add a few more zip ties to be safe.

She was securing her last loop when a green minivan made its way past her house. She threw up a wave to be friendly, but wondered where the car was headed. The only other lot on the street was the Garney property. She wondered if that oddball Daniel Turner was finally going to sell it, which would mean months if not a year of construction on a new house. Even so, the new neighbors would have to be better than those Garney brothers.

She had gathered up her supplies and was tucking them back into place in the barn when she heard the sudden crack of an explosion. She hadn’t heard a sound like that since she’d had to call the sheriff on the Garneys for shooting targets on their land.

She was replaying the sound in her head, wondering if it was a gunshot, when she heard two more blasts. Boom! Boom!

She ducked low, scurried to the house, and grabbed the kitchen phone.

9-1-1.

“This is Gretchen Harper on Bonner Road. I just heard at least three shots fired nearby. Tell Chief Turner that it sounds like they came from his brother’s empty lot!”

Chapter 67

Laurie pressed the rental car key and heard a chirp chirp from the next row of cars in the lot. A small gray SUV waited in the spot they were looking for.

She hesitated a few steps from the car and looked to her father.

“Want me to drive?” Leo asked, a small grin on his face.

She broke into a smile. “Yes, please.”

“I was wondering when you were going to remember that you barely know how.”

Growing up in New York City had many advantages, but comfort behind the wheel was not one of them. “Well, I’m an excellent navigator.” She entered the town of Lewes, Delaware, where Daniel Turner lived, into her phone’s GPS system and then propped the screen on the dash where her father could see it. “Or at least, my phone is.”

They were halfway there when Laurie reached for her phone again. “Marcy was going to find a good spot for us to meet up. Let me get an update.” When she clicked on the telephone icon, she saw she had a new message from Marcy. She hit the speaker button on her phone so Leo could hear.