Ashes, Ashes, They All Fall Dead (34 page)

Christina frowned but scooted out of the booth.

Tessa ran outside and clung to the side of the rental car. Matt was suddenly there, his arms circling around her waist, pulling her back against his chest. Somehow, in spite of the hurts between them, he knew exactly what she needed and offered it freely. And she was too selfish not to take what he offered.

She turned in his arms and clung to him, shutting her eyes, wishing she could shut out the horrors of the past just as easily.

He gently slid his hand up and down her back, giving her the comfort of his touch.

Tessa drew a shaky breath and forced herself to take a step back.

“I remember him now,” she said. “The little boy in my dreams. He wasn’t just some child Hargrove abducted.”

Matt’s eyes filled with sympathy. “Hargrove had another child. You have a brother.”

She nodded miserably. “His name was Owen. How could I have forgotten that? How could I forget my own brother?”

Matt stared at her. “Owen?”

“Yes, why . . . oh my God.”

He rushed back inside the restaurant and Tessa hurried after him.

He stopped at the counter, where Christina was making a fresh pot of coffee.

She looked up in surprise. “Was there something else you needed?”

“The young man eating spaghetti in here the other day. You called him Owen. What’s his full name?”

“Hoffman. Owen Hoffman. He started showing up here about three years ago, off and on. Lives somewhere up in the hills outside of town. Keeps to himself. Can’t say I know much about him, but he seems like a nice guy. Why?”

Tessa dropped down into the nearest booth, stunned.

“You need some water, sweetie?” Christina asked. “You look a bit pale.”

Tessa shook her head.

“Christina,” Matt said. “When’s the last time you saw Owen?”

“Oh, that one’s easy. He was here right before you two drove up outside. Left in an all-fired hurry, said he’d remembered something he had to do.”

Matt grabbed Tessa’s hand and hauled her out of the booth. “Come on. We’re leaving. Now.”

“I’m not arguing with that.” She waved good-bye to a confused-looking Christina and hurried outside with Matt.

Soon they were driving down the little two-lane road that connected Stoneyville to the interstate.

“I’ll call the airport and book the next flight to Savannah,” Tessa said.

“Call Casey first. Tell him about Owen.”

She grabbed her cell phone, but it rang before she could make the call. “It’s Casey.” She answered the phone. “Casey, I was just about to call you. We . . . wait, what?” She clutched the phone tighter as he spoke. “Okay, okay. I understand. I’ll tell Matt. But I need to tell you something too. We believe my father had a son named Owen. He’s been seen here in Stoneyville. What? Yes, we’re back in Stoneyville. We had some more questions. Anyway, we’re leaving now, on our way to the airport. He goes by Owen Hoffman. Yes, I know. Uh-huh. We’ll be careful. Okay, thanks. Don’t worry. We won’t stop for anything.” She put the phone away.

“What’s going on?” Matt demanded. “What did he ask you to tell me?”

“He finally found someone in Alabama who knew Isaac Hoffman, but the man they described was far too young to be Hoffman. They said he was in his mid-twenties.”

“So, what are you thinking? That Owen was living in Alabama? Owen took up the Isaac Hoffman identity?”

“It’s a possibility,” Tessa said. “Maybe once Owen was old enough, and strong enough, Hoffman couldn’t control him anymore. Owen rebelled, moved out. When he tried to get work, he realized he couldn’t without a social security number. He didn’t know how to get a fake one, so he used his father’s number and his name.”

Matt nodded. “We don’t have any proof, but I can picture that happening. Owen and his father must have maintained some kind of relationship, however twisted, if both of them have recently been in this area. I can’t imagine they didn’t know both of them were up here at the same time.”

“I agree. Oh, one more thing. Casey said the neighbor in Alabama described Isaac as a dog lover.”

“Son of a bitch,” Matt swore. “How much you want to bet he’s the one who took Sharon Johnson’s dog before his loving father torched her house? And he probably took Ginger too, while his daddy was off kidnapping Tonya Garrett. They must have gone to Savannah together. The only thing I can figure is Owen must have seen me with you and followed me home, for whatever reason. He probably saw me take Ginger out for her nightly walk and decided to take her.”

“That only makes sense if Owen and his father took separate vehicles to Savannah. Tonya didn’t mention a second abductor. She only identified Hargrove.”

“There are too many questions unanswered. Casey and his task force need to dig a lot more.”

Tessa rubbed her hands up and down her arms. She couldn’t seem to get warm these days, in spite of the summer heat.

“That’s not all, is it?” Matt asked.

She shook her head. “No. It’s not.”

“Tell me.”

She drew a deep breath. “Casey said another letter arrived at the FBI office.”

“What the hell? Whose name was on the letter?”

“Mine.”

Matt cursed and pressed the accelerator farther to the floor, making the car jump forward. They rounded a curve in the road.

“Matt, watch out!”

A black four-wheel-drive pickup was parked across both lanes, completely blocking the roadway.

Matt slammed on the brakes and yanked the wheel. The car skidded off the pavement and flipped upside down in the ditch.

A
S SOON AS
the car stopped moving, Matt braced himself and released his seat belt. He fell back onto the car’s ceiling.

“I’ve got you,” he assured Tessa. He scooted over to her as quickly as he could and held her while he unsnapped her seat belt, freeing her, then gently setting her down. “Are you okay?”

“I think so.”

Matt pulled his gun out of his holster. “Where’s your pistol?”

She felt for her holster, but it was empty. “It must have flown out during the crash.”

“We’ve got to get out of here.” He pulled the driver’s-side door handle and shoved the door open with his feet. “Come on. Follow me.”

He scrambled out of the car and reached back in to help Tessa. As soon as he was sure she could stand on her own, he turned around, and froze.

The business end of a .357 Magnum was pointing at him from ten feet away, held by none other than Owen Hoffman. Behind him, now parked neatly on the other side of the road, was the black pickup that had blocked the highway just moments ago.

“I think we just found your brother,” Matt grumbled.

“I’m so sorry,” Tessa whispered.

“This is not your fault. Focus. We can outsmart this kid.”

“Kid? He’s older than you.”

Matt sighed. “Are we back to the age thing again?”

Tessa let out a bark of laughter, then clapped her hands over her mouth.

Owen stepped closer. “Toss your gun away.”

Matt cursed and pitched the gun. “For once I’d like to just shoot one of these bastards instead of letting them get the drop on me.”

“Ditto,” Tessa said.

“Nice of you to come back into town,” Owen called out. “I thought you’d left with the rest of them FBI guys the other day. Then I saw you drive up to the restaurant. Couldn’t believe my luck. You saved me another trip to Savannah. I would have had to bring you all the way back here so you wouldn’t miss the fun I have planned. Pa wanted to punish you for leaving him. Actually, he wanted revenge against Ma, but she’s already dead, so you were the next best thing.” He laughed. “The old coot never realized I wanted my own revenge. Against him
and
you. Well, now he’s dead. My first kill. But certainly not the last.” He waved his gun at Tessa. “You remember me?”

She shivered at the way he’d callously told her he’d killed his own father, as if he was describing how he’d swatted a fly, then calmly declared he planned to kill again. She swallowed the bile in her throat and drew a deep, bracing breath. “I didn’t remember you. Not for a long time. But I do now, Owen.”

He gave her a curt nod. “You left me. You and that slut mother of ours left me in the precious care of a stinking, pedophiliac, murderous son of a bitch. What kind of a childhood do you think I had? The only thing I can be grateful for is that he didn’t like little boys, not that way, at least. But he made up for it in other ways. My life was a living hell being his slave. You can’t even begin to imagine how bad it was. God forbid anyone ever looked at the man wrong. That’s when the pack of matches came out. Sick bastard.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t remember. I would have come back for you if I’d known.”

He jerked the gun toward a gap in the trees. “Start walking.”

T
HE TREES THINNED
out, revealing a small clearing. And right in the middle was the opening to another mine, or perhaps another opening to the same mine Tessa and Matt had been in when her father had tried to kill them. It was hard to say, since the road they’d been driving on essentially circled the hill where the mine was located.

The thought of going back inside, of running through darkened tunnels again, not knowing if they’d ever get out, had her shaking. She couldn’t do it. Not again.

She turned around, determined to try to reason with her brother. “What do you want from us? I told you I’m sorry. I don’t have many memories from my childhood. I’ve blocked them out, or maybe it was the car accident. I don’t know.”

“Keep moving.”

Matt put his hand on the small of her back. “We’ll be okay. Let’s do what he says.”

“No, I can’t. I can’t go back in another mine. I can’t.”

Owen’s arm moved so fast Tessa barely had time to register that he’d thrown a knife before Matt grunted and fell to the ground beside her.

Tessa screamed when she saw the knife sticking out of his arm.

Matt cursed and glared at Owen. “Why don’t you put that gun down and come over here? I’ll be happy to fight you with just one arm.”

Owen laughed. “I’m not a fool. You’re a big, brawny guy and I have nothing to prove. But now, at least, you know I’m serious. If one of you doesn’t do exactly what I tell you to do, I shoot the other one. Got it?”

“Owen, please,” Tessa begged. “Let us go. We’ve never done anything to you.”

“Pull the knife out and toss it into the bushes. Don’t even think about throwing it at me or he gets a bullet in the brain.”

She bit her bottom lip and knelt on the ground in front of Matt. “I’m so sorry. This is going to hurt.”

He smiled, in spite of how much pain he must be in. “Don’t worry about it.”

She grimaced and braced one hand on his chest. She wrapped her fingers around the hilt of the knife, then pulled it out as straight and quickly as she could.

Matt sucked in a deep breath, his lips going white.

“Toss the knife,” Owen yelled.

She pitched it into the bushes beside the opening to the mine. “I need to bind his wound, unless you want him to bleed to death. I assume you have other plans for us.”

He pursed his lips, considering. “All right. But hurry up.”

She unbuttoned Matt’s shirt and gently pulled it off over his injured arm. “Sorry, sorry,” she whispered, when he winced and sucked in a deep breath. She rolled his shirt, then wrapped it around his biceps.

Tears filled her eyes, but Matt didn’t make a sound in spite of the tightness around his eyes that told her how much pain he was in.

“Quit stalling. Move.”

She helped Matt to his feet. They started walking toward the opening to the mine.

“Stop, not there.” He motioned with the gun toward the trees. “There.”

A narrow path wove in between two large oak trees.

Tessa wanted to shout her relief that they weren’t going into the mine, but she had a sinking feeling that whatever Owen had planned for them would be far, far worse.

Matt took her hand and squeezed it. They walked side by side down the path. Even though Tessa’s phone was in her purse in the car, she believed Matt still had his phone on him. She hoped they’d get a chance to call for help.

The sound of a dog barking echoed through the woods.

Matt grumbled something beneath his breath. A few moments later, they emerged from the shelter of the trees into a large clearing. An old pickup truck was parked next to a small, wooden house. And on the porch, tied to the railing with a length of chain, was Ginger.

Her tail thumped happily against the side of the house and her tongue lolled out between her teeth.

“Turn around,” Owen ordered.

Matt let go of Tessa’s hand and they both turned around at the bottom of the porch steps.

Ginger barked, apparently confused because Matt wasn’t going up to see her.

Owen grinned. “Nice dog, huh?” he taunted Matt.

Matt kept his expression carefully blank.

Owen turned to Tessa. “Dad had me drive in from Alabama to see why you were still in Savannah, why you hadn’t followed his clues and come back here yet. I followed you home from that FBI building one day, easy as pie. Followed you to that mansion the day after that, where they were building some kind of room on back, saw you drooling all over
him
, walking around without a shirt on.” His lip curled in disgust and he waved his hand, indicating Matt.

Tessa drew in a sharp breath. Owen had been at Madison’s house the day Tessa had asked Matt to work on the case with her. And Owen had followed her to her apartment. She started to shake. Matt reached for her hand. She clutched it in hers, drawing on his strength.

“Figured I’d follow him and see if he was your boyfriend or something.” Owen grinned again. “Then I saw that pretty red dog and knew I had to have her. I waited until the night Dad came to Savannah so we could take you back home, sis. Then I took the dog. Dad was so pissed he wouldn’t talk to me. Said he’d grab you all by himself.” He snickered. “Guess that didn’t go as planned. He came back here with that scrawny teenager instead. But, hey, you’re here now, aren’t you? Everything worked out.”

“I don’t understand,” Tessa said. “You said your . . . you said . . . Dad . . . left clues for me so I’d come back here. Was it the ‘Ashes, ashes’ phrase? Was that the clue?”