“Thank you so much for going to the trouble.”
“It was no trouble at all. Really. I just thank God that poor little girl is all right.” She glanced out the window and frowned. “That poor deputy.”
Olivia followed Ms. Krause’s gaze out the window. She’d met Deputy Will Jeffries last night when he’d arrived to guard the Lodge. Olivia didn’t think Driscoll was stupid enough to show up where there were people, but Quinn and Zack had insisted.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. Jeffries was on the far side of the property, near the barn. He appeared to be just fine and walking the perimeter, as instructed.
“He’s been patrolling the grounds all night. I’ll fix him a thermos of coffee and take it out to him.”
“Um, excuse me, Ms. Krause?”
A tall, elderly man stood a the threshold of the laundry room.
Ms. Krause slapped the side of her head with her hand. “Oh, Mr. Crenshaw, I’m so sorry I forgot you and Mrs. Crenshaw had an early flight. With everything going on…” she waved her hand. “I’ll get your breakfast as soon as I take care of the deputy out there.”
“I’d be happy to take Deputy Jeffries the thermos, Ms. Krause,” Olivia said. “I’ll just get dressed and meet you in the kitchen.”
“You’re a sweetheart, dear. Thank you.”
Ms. Krause ushered her guest down the hall. Olivia used the bathroom to change, then folded the borrowed nightgown and left it on the table in the laundry room. She finger-combed her hair as she walked back to the kitchen.
With a broad smile, Ms. Krause handed her a thermos and said, “I’ll have breakfast for you and your people in just a few minutes, dear.”
“That’s not necessary,” Olivia said, though the smells of sizzling bacon and oranges made her stomach growl. Food had been her lowest priority since she’d arrived in Seattle.
“Nonsense. It’ll be ready. Beth already went upstairs to inform your partner and that nice-looking married couple. Oh, and I saw the deputy go into the barn a minute ago.”
“Thank you, Ms. Krause.” Olivia wasn’t about to argue with food. She needed it. She took the thermos and stepped out onto the porch.
Zack rolled over to pull Olivia to him, but his arm felt only a warm spot on the sheets. He opened his eyes and frowned. “Liv?”
He got up and pulled on his boxers, then his jeans. Olivia wasn’t in the room, but he figured she’d gone down to get her clothes or meet with her friend Miranda.
He heard knocking across the hall. He opened the door and saw Quinn outside his room. Quinn looked at him for a moment, his face unreadable.
“What’s going on?” Zack asked, shutting Olivia’s door behind him and crossing the hall to his room.
Quinn followed him inside. “I just spoke with the sheriff.”
“Is he here?”
“He’s fifteen minutes out. The search team found Driscoll’s trail and they think he’s on his way here.”
“To the lodge?”
“Yes. He alerted his deputies who are outside, and another team is on its way up to secure the house. I wanted to brief you, then head down and talk to the Krauses and guests.”
“Why would he come here?” Zack went into the bathroom, where he’d rinsed out his T-shirt the night before. It hung stiffly over the shower bar, but he pulled it on, rolling his shoulders to stretch it.
“If I were him? To steal a vehicle. He might assume the police will be tracking him, not securing property in the area. This is the closest occupied residence to where he crashed the truck.”
“Which means he’s been here.”
“Reconnaissance,” Quinn said. “He would have surveyed the area before he brought any of the girls up here. My guess? He killed Jennifer and Michelle around here as well. Possibly in the same place he took Nina.”
“I’ll send Doug Cohn and his crew back up there when the lodge is secure. Let’s go.”
“Where’s Olivia?”
“I think she went downstairs.”
“Hmm.”
“You don’t have a problem with me and Liv, do you?”
“No problem.”
Zack couldn’t read the Fed, so he gave up. They went downstairs and walked into the kitchen, joining Miranda and Beth Krause on the way. Doug Cohn, his assistant, and Josh Fields sat around the table. In the adjoining dining room, an elderly couple and a young couple with a child sat at the table.
“Where’s Olivia?” Zack asked.
Kristy Krause smiled brightly as she poured fresh-squeezed orange juice into glasses. “She went to take Deputy Jeffries some coffee.”
Zack tensed. “When? Where?”
“About five minutes ago, in the barn.”
Zack and Quinn glanced at each other. “Doug, Josh, secure the house,” Zack said. “No one leaves until we get back.”
The barn door was ajar. Olivia walked in, the smell of hay and ripe manure predominant. “Deputy Jeffries?” she called. “It’s Olivia St. Martin.” She didn’t want him to think she was an intruder.
Where was he? Had she missed him leaving the barn? Had Ms. Krause been mistaken?
On the far side of the barn was another door, and it was also open. A horse nickered softly to her right. She turned, smiling at the animal, reached out and stroked its nose. “Hey, boy, how are you doing this morning? I wish I had something for you, but I think caffeine is off your diet.”
The horse whinnied in response to her voice. There were six horses in the stalls, all clean and well kept. She definitely wanted to return to the lodge with Zack. She hadn’t been horseback riding in years, but she used to enjoy it.
She hurried through the barn toward the far door, wishing she hadn’t offered to deliver the coffee. It was chilly, and she had no jacket on.
She smelled death before she saw it.
Slowly, she turned. Just inside the door, in a stall, a naked body lay sprawled on the ground. She sucked in her breath, realizing three things at once.
Deputy Jeffries was dead-his head had been crushed with a large, heavy object.
Whoever killed him was wearing his uniform.
The killer was most likely Chris Driscoll.
She had to warn everyone in the house. The Krauses wouldn’t think twice about opening the door to a man in uniform.
She ran two steps out the door when a strong arm grabbed her, pulled her into a solid chest, and held a gun to her head.
“Don’t say a word.”
CHAPTER 29
Zack and Quinn left the house and surveyed the barn from a distance. There appeared to be no activity. Silence.
“Maybe they’re chatting it up,” Quinn offered.
Neither he nor Zack believed it.
“You take the east entrance, I’ll take west,” Zack said, checking the ammunition in his gun, then chambered a round.
They didn’t get more than twenty feet when Zack saw them.
Chris Driscoll had Olivia at gunpoint. He forced her toward the deputy’s car parked in the driveway. Driscoll looked neither scared nor hurried. He walked confidently, Olivia’s struggling form an easy burden.
Driscoll and Olivia spotted Zack at the same time. Olivia’s eyes widened. Driscoll’s expression didn’t change, but he pressed the barrel of the gun firmly to her head and stared dead on at Zack: a warning. He walked around to the passenger’s door and shoved Olivia over to the driver’s seat, then climbed into the passenger’s seat.
Moments later the engine turned and Olivia drove slowly down the drive.
Zack ran toward Quinn’s car. “You’d better have the keys on you,” he called to the Fed. He suppressed his fear for Olivia’s life. If he thought about her as the woman he loved, he wouldn’t be as effective at the job of saving her life.
It was excruciatingly difficult to bury his feelings.
“I’ll drive.” Quinn unlocked the trunk.
“What are you doing?” Zack opened the passenger door. They had no time.