“Now what?” Liz asked.
“I never should have listened to Fischer,” Sawyer muttered.
“What?”
“Never mind. Just be quiet. I need to think.”
Liz wasn’t even offended. The man had more on his mind than being polite to her.
“Now we go take a look,” he said, starting the car. He threw it into Drive and slowly eased out of his parking spot.
“Shouldn’t we wait for backup?”
“We are. We’re going to keep a nice safe distance away.”
Sawyer drove down the narrow blacktop road, keeping his speed around twenty. They saw the first cabin and then ten or twelve more look-alikes. Sawyer continued past cabin seven, all the way until a stand of evergreens took over where the road stopped. He turned his car around, angling it so that he could get a view of the shorefront that ran behind the cabins.
“I don’t believe this.” Sawyer reached between the seats and pulled out his gun.
“What?” Liz craned her neck to see.
“Look between those two cabins, about a hundred yards out. That’s Mirandez.”
A short, thin man, wearing a baggy white T-shirt and blue jean shorts that fell below his knees, paced up and down the dock. He had a beer in one hand and a phone in the other.
“Keep talking,” Sawyer muttered. “Keep talking, you bastard.”
But almost as if that had been the kiss of death, Mirandez lowered his arm, snapped the cell phone closed, walked over to the lawn chair at the edge of the water, held out his hand and helped Mary pull herself out of the chair.
“Mary,” Liz murmured, more scared now than ever that she’d actually seen Mary. “You’ve got to make sure she doesn’t get hurt,” Liz said. “Promise me.”
“Damn,” Sawyer said, totally focused on Mirandez. “They’re leaving.”
Liz stared at the young couple. Sure enough, Mary and Mirandez were walking toward the black SUV that was parked almost on the sand. Mirandez evidently hadn’t wanted his vehicle far from him.
Before she could even think about what to do, Sawyer threw the Toyota into Drive and pulled up to the end of the driveway. “Get out now. My side.”
He opened the door, stepped out, grabbed her arm and literally pulled her from the car. He gave her a quick, hard kiss. “Run like hell for the trees.”
“What are you doing?”
“What I ain’t gonna do is let the bastard get away. He can’t get around me. He’s going to have to go through me. Now get the hell out of here.”
* * *
L
IZ
HEARD
M
IRANDEZ
’
S
SUV
engine kick to life, and she knew she had mere seconds. “Mary,” she managed to choke out.
Sawyer spared her a quick glance. “I’ll do the best I can.”
She ran for all she was worth, reaching the trees just when she heard the horn. Mirandez leaned on it, obviously irritated that someone had the audacity to block his way. Liz could see him looking around, and she prayed that he wouldn’t see either her in the trees or Sawyer, who had somehow managed to get behind a big oak tree about twenty yards to the left of the car.
When she heard the scrunch of car on car, she knew that Mirandez had gotten tired of waiting. With the bumper of his SUV, he pushed the rear of her car aside. In another fifteen seconds, he’d have enough space to squeeze out.
And almost as if in slow motion, Sawyer stepped out from the tree, fired twice, hitting the front wheel of the SUV. Mirandez reached his arm out of the open window, a deadly-looking gun extended from his hand, and fired at Sawyer, who had slipped once again behind the tree.
Liz wanted to scream but knew she couldn’t distract Sawyer. The bullets bounced off the tree, the only protection Sawyer had against the horrible gun. Liz, almost without thought or intent, grabbed some rocks from the ground, and with all her strength, she flung them across the road, straight toward the cabin. One hit the door, another the roof and the rest scattered across the ground.
It was enough to momentarily distract Mirandez, and Sawyer didn’t miss his opportunity. With Mirandez’s attention on the cabin, Sawyer swung his big frame out from behind the tree.
The bullet caught Mirandez’s forearm, and his gun fell to the ground.
Sawyer ran to the SUV, kicked the gun a hundred feet, all the while keeping his own gun leveled at Mirandez’s head. “Police,” Sawyer announced. “Turn off the engine.”
Mirandez looked up, maybe to judge his chances, and Liz held her breath. Then, with a slight shake of his head, as if he couldn’t believe what was happening, he turned off his vehicle.
“Mary, get out of the car,” Sawyer instructed, his voice steady.
For just the briefest of seconds, Mary didn’t move. Then she almost tumbled out in her haste.
Liz met her halfway. She reached for her and held her as close as the pregnancy allowed. She thanked God. They’d found her in time. This time she hadn’t been too late.
Mirandez screamed and yelled obscenities at Sawyer. But when Sawyer took a step toward Mary, Mirandez changed tunes.
“Get the hell away from my baby,” the drug dealer yelled. “You don’t have any right. I’ll kill you. I swear to the Holy Mother that you’re a dead man.”
His baby.
Liz pulled away from Mary, wiping a gentle hand across the girl’s teary face. What the heck was going on?
“Oh, Liz,” Mary cried, “I was so scared. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. I—”
Just then, four squad cars rounded the corner. Six officers piled out, guns drawn.
“I’m a police officer,” Sawyer called out. “The man in the SUV is Dantel Mirandez. He’s wanted on suspicion of murder.”
The tall one in the front of the pack held his hand up in the air, motioning those behind him to stop. “Detective, your voice sounds about right. But given that I’ve only talked to you on the phone, put your gun down now and show us some ID.”
Sawyer nodded. “That’s fine. Come a little bit closer. If he moves, shoot him. He dropped his gun. It’s to my right, twenty-five feet out.”
Sawyer laid his own gun on the ground and watched while the officers secured Mirandez’s gun. He unclipped the badge on his shirt pocket that he’d hastily attached right before he’d pushed Liz from the car and run for cover himself. He tossed it at the man who’d spoken.
The man glanced at it for a moment, and then a big grin spread across his face. “Welcome to Wisconsin, Detective Montgomery. Looks like you’ve had quite a day.”
Sawyer thought he might have the same silly-ass grin on his own face. “Watch him,” he warned again before he picked up his gun and put it back in the car. Then he strode over to Liz and Mary.
“You both all right?” he asked.
“We’re fine,” Liz answered.
Sawyer took a long look at Mary. She looked tired and pale, and she was holding on to Liz so tightly that he was surprised Liz could still breathe. “What’s the story here, Mary?”
“He’s a monster,” Mary answered, her voice brimming with tears.
“Did he hurt you?” Sawyer asked. “The baby?” Suddenly he knew killing Mirandez wouldn’t be enough. He’d have to torture him first.
Mary shook her head and took a couple of loud sniffs. “Dantel has a sister who lives around here. She’s a nurse. They were going to cut me up. And then take my baby.”
“What?” Liz asked.
“But they had to wait. His sister said I had to be at least thirty-six weeks so that the baby would be big enough.”
“But aren’t you almost thirty-eight weeks, honey?” Liz brushed her hand gently over Mary’s hair.
“Yeah. But he didn’t know that. He was gonna keep me up here until his sister thought I was ready.”
“It’s not his baby, is it?” Sawyer asked. Liz had been right. Suddenly it was all starting to make some sense. “But he thought it was.”
“Dantel treated me like a queen, bought me anything I wanted, took me anywhere I wanted to go. I couldn’t tell him I was already six weeks pregnant before we ever slept together.”
More lies. When would the damn lies stop? Sawyer pushed the disgust back. “He wants the baby?”
“His mother is dying. She wants a grandchild before she dies. His sister can’t have any kids.”
Sawyer wanted to make some sick joke about Mirandez being a mama’s boy. But he couldn’t. Dying mothers weren’t funny. “How’d you find out what he had planned?”
“I didn’t know at first. When we left Chicago, he said that he just wanted to get away and relax for a few days. I didn’t want to go but you...you can’t turn Dantel down. He doesn’t like it.”
Sawyer bet not. “Then what?”
“I thought we were going fishing. But he didn’t have a clue what he was doing. I started getting scared. There isn’t even a phone in the room.”
“What happened?”
“We went to his sister’s house. At first she was really nice, talking to me about the baby and everything. But then I had to pee so I went upstairs to the bathroom. When I came down, I heard her telling Dantel that it would be a couple weeks before she could take the baby. That she didn’t want to take a chance on the lungs.”
The devil seed had taken root and sprouted in the Mirandez family. “Then what?” Sawyer asked.
“I pretended that I didn’t hear them. I ate dinner with that horrible woman and pretended that nothing was wrong. I thought I might have a chance to get away. Dantel had been on the phone all the time. Another gang issued a challenge. There’s going to be a big fight soon.”
“Where?” Sawyer asked. “Did you hear him say where and when?”
“Yes. Maplewood Park. On Sunday night.”
“Good girl,” Sawyer said. “That information is going to be very helpful.”
“Dantel hated that he wasn’t in Chicago to control things. He went crazy on the phone one night, talking to somebody. I thought it might be my chance. But he saw me. I told him I stepped outside for some air, but I knew he didn’t believe me. Since then, he’s been watching me like a hawk.” Her lower lip trembled, and a fresh set of tears slid down her face.
The girl had a lot of guts. “You did good,” Sawyer told her. “You saved yourself and your baby. You should be proud.”
When Liz threw him a grateful glance, Sawyer felt his heart, his stone-cold heart, heat up just a bit.
He was about to do something stupid like thank her when Sheriff Foltran interrupted him. “We’ve read him his rights, Detective. He needs medical attention. We’ll see that he gets that at the local emergency room, and then we’ll get him booked. My friend Bob owns this place, and I don’t think he’ll appreciate us hanging around until all his other guests show up.”
Sawyer nodded at the man. “Right. Put him in one of your cars. I’ll ride with you.” He turned back to Liz and Mary. “I’m going to have to deal with this. He crossed state lines, so it’s a bit more complicated to get him back into our jurisdiction. And then I need to arrange secure transport back to Chicago.”
“How long will that take?” Liz asked.
“Probably a day or so. You two can go back now. Take the car. I think it will still run.”
“It’s over?” Mary asked.
“This part is over. I still need your testimony.”
Mary nodded. “I want the bastard to pay. He was going to let that woman cut my baby out.”
“You’ll testify about the murder you saw?”
Mary didn’t say anything for a full minute. She just stared at the ground. Then she looked at Liz. “Dantel said he’d kill me,” she said, her voice very soft. “He said he’d kill you, too. He sent you that letter just to scare you. And he shot up your office just so we’d both know he was serious and that he could get to us anytime he wanted. He had the bomb put there, too. I don’t know how but he did it. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Liz assured her. “He’ll be in jail.”
God willing, Sawyer thought. God and a smart jury. His gang would still be on the prowl. Sawyer wondered if Liz had any idea the risk Mary was taking. He should tell her.
“He beat that man and killed him,” Mary said. “He was laughing while he did it. The guy was screaming and crying, and there was blood everywhere.”
Hell, maybe he ought to do everybody a favor and manage to drop Mirandez in the Wisconsin River. With a fifty-pound sack of cement around his neck.
But he wouldn’t. Even given the number of times he’d seen the system fail the community it served, Sawyer still believed in it. Believed that if he did his job right, the next guy would do the same, and so on. It was what separated them from the animals, both the four-legged and the two-legged like Mirandez.
Right now what he wanted most in the world was to take Liz into his arms. But he knew that couldn’t happen. Even with Mirandez in custody, it wouldn’t be fair to Liz to pursue a relationship. He didn’t intend to offer marriage. He couldn’t offer children. He needed to make a clean break of it now.
“I’m going to be pretty busy for a few days. He’ll need to be processed.”
Liz nodded.
“I need your written statement,” Sawyer said to Mary.
“Now?”
“That would be best.” He pulled the ever-present notebook out of his shirt pocket.
“Don’t I have to sign a form or something?”
“You write it, date it and sign it. I’ve accepted statements written on crumpled-up paper towels. It doesn’t matter what it looks like. What matters is what it says.”
Mary assessed him for a long moment. “You know, you’re not so bad for a cop.”
Didn’t rank up there with Liz looking at him as if he walked on water but it still made him feel real fine. “You’re not so bad yourself. What are you two going to do when you get back to town?”
Mary was back to her shrugging.
Liz saw it, too. “Mary, I want you to stay with me. For at least a couple of days.”
He didn’t miss the pure relief that crossed Mary’s face. It reminded him of how much of a kid she really was. That didn’t stop him from wishing that Liz hadn’t made the offer. Mary attracted trouble. He didn’t want Liz getting caught in the cross fire. He wouldn’t be there to protect her.
“Your car should drive fine even though Mirandez did dent it up a little. I’m going to call Robert and ask him to meet you at your apartment. Just to make sure it’s still secure.”
“What?” Liz looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.