Hatfield and McCoy (21 page)

And there was Tammy. Yes … she saw Tammy.

The little girl was sitting at the table. Her light hair was drawn back with a blue ribbon. Her blue eyes were focused on a pile of sticks before her. Popsicle sticks. She was busy building something with the pile of sticks and some glue.

A cloud passed overhead. Tammy shivered. She was wearing blue jeans with little bows at the ankles, pink socks, white sneakers, a pink T-shirt and a big crimson pullover sweater. With the cloud passing, the breeze picked up.

Julie could feel it. Feel the breeze. It was cool against her cheeks, but pleasant. It was a soft breeze. A spring breeze.

Taylor came striding out of the woods behind the house. “Could have sworn someone was back there,” he said, shaking his head. “Sure wish we had a dog. I heard something.”

“You heard a skunk. Or a raccoon,” Tammy told her brother. She bit her lower lip, dedicated to the task before her. Taylor snorted and walked toward the house. “Where's Mom?”

“Inside somewhere. Bring me a drink, Taylor, will you?”

“Tammy—”

“Please?”

“Yeah, all right, give me a minute.”

Taylor was gone. The cloud overhead moved on. Tammy glued another piece to her Popsicle house.

Then she felt a queer sensation and turned around. The woods were still quiet. She frowned. She quickly forgot the interruption and turned her attention to her project.

She felt it again. An eerie sensation, shooting up her spine. She heard a rustling. She tried to turn to discover what it was.

Too late. She tried to scream as the sudden darkness descended upon her, but something hard and tight was over her mouth. And something harsh and rough had been thrown over her head, like burlap. There was a smell to it, too.

She didn't see anything or anyone. She felt the material, abrasive against her skin. And all her senses seemed to fade away. There was that awful, sickly scent. And the hand outside the burlap, pressing down against her mouth.

Julie suddenly cried out and leaned over. She could feel Tammy's terror, the very last thoughts traveling through her mind. Taylor. Taylor would come. He was bringing her a drink. Mommy would come, Mommy would see that she was missing.

He was going to hurt her. He was going to try to, he was going to try to …

And then nothing.

“Oh, Lord!” Julie whispered. She sat straight up in her chair on the porch.

Tammy, I can touch you, where are you? she wondered desperately.

No answer. Nothing. Nothing at all to help her.

Dear God, was she dead?

No, no, she would feel it. Julie would feel it.

Wake up, Tammy. Please wake up! She prayed silently.

And that was when Brenda Maitland's BMW pulled into her driveway.

Petty had given McCoy his office the moment McCoy made it back. He had been certain that McCoy needed the time to be alone with his sister, and McCoy was grateful.

He had never seen Brenda in such bad shape. His own fear was so rife that it was almost impossible to hold a rein on his panic. He had to. He was the Gman. And he was Tammy's uncle.

But he couldn't begin to deal with the situation until he had dealt with Brenda. And he couldn't even talk rationally with Brenda until he had managed to get her to calm down. She had been sobbing for hours, from what he understood. She had refused any kind of a sedative.

Men had begun combing the grounds as soon as they had discovered that the little girl was missing. It hadn't helped.

Then the call had come. The kidnapper was playing cat and mouse with McCoy. Tammy had been especially selected.

Not Julie, McCoy thought. Because the kidnapper hadn't been able to get to Julie. He was using Tammy to hurt McCoy instead.

McCoy knew Julie must hate him now. But he didn't dare bring her in on it. The kidnapper could make his try for Julie then, and McCoy might well lose them both. No, this time, he had to find Tammy. He had to best the kidnapper; he had to catch him.

It took him ten minutes with Brenda to calm her down enough to utter one comprehensible word. Then he managed at last to get her to agree to a sedative, and Dr. Willoughby, her local physician, managed to give her a shot. “She'll be all right—it will just take the edge off her. She'll be able to help you more,” Willoughby told McCoy.

And in a matter of minutes, it had worked. Her eyes swollen and red, Brenda described the day to her brother. Tammy, determined to play outside with her Popsicle sticks. Taylor in the woods. Brenda had come into the kitchen when Taylor had been pouring apple juice into a plastic cup to take outside for his sister.

But Tammy hadn't been there. Tammy had been gone.

“He's got her, McCoy.” Tears welled in Brenda's eyes again. “He's got my baby.”

“I'll get her back, Brenda. I'll get her back.”

“How?”

“He's calling me, Brenda. He wants me. I'll let him have me. We'll get Tammy back.”

She stared at him, her eyes glazed. “I want Julie, Robert. I want Julie here. I want her to help.”

He stiffened.

“You blame her for what happened before, Robert! You can't do that! She can help me. Please, Robert, she can help me!” Brenda was starting to sob again.

It was then that the phone rang. He gave a quick motion to Patty to see that a trace was started, then he picked up the receiver.

“You know the phone booth, McCoy, and you know the price. I want my money this time. Be there. Seven o'clock tonight.”

The line went dead. There was no possibility of a trace.

He swore and slammed the line down. Brenda stared at him hopefully. “It's going to be all right. He wants to meet me. I'll get her back.”

But Brenda wasn't falling for it. “I want Julie,” she said stubbornly. “You can't hate her—”

“Brenda!” he exclaimed, coming to his knees before his sister. “I don't hate Julie. I don't know—I don't know what powers I believe in, but I promise you, I would try anything in the world for Tammy. It's just that—Brenda, don't you see, we're risking Julie if we bring her in on this. He's called before. He watches Julie.”

Brenda didn't care. She knew that her brother liked Julie, really liked her.

But Tammy was at stake. And Brenda was nearly hysterical.

“Robert, Julie will be with you. And Rusty. Nothing will happen to her.”

He sighed, looking at his feet.

“Robert, he would have killed that other little girl if it hadn't been for Julie.” She paused. “Julie, and you. She had the perceptions, you had the logic. Robert, this is my daughter!” Her voice was rising hysterically.

He knew when he was beaten. “All right. Let's go out and see Julie. I'm sure she's home by now.”

“Get Rusty,” Brenda said vaguely.

McCoy frowned. He had sent the dog with Timothy Riker to go over every inch of his sister's property. But Brenda wanted the dog.

“Patty, radio Riker about the dog,” he said. “He can meet me at Julie's with Rusty. Chief, I'll be back once I've set Brenda up with Julie.”

“We'll get the stakeout cars arranged,” Petty said wearily.

He had a right to be weary, McCoy thought. It was happening all over again.

Just the same way.

They had saved Tracy Nicholson.

Now they had to save his niece.

But this time, they had to catch the man.

The car had barely come to a halt in front of Julie's place before Brenda leaped out of the passenger's seat. Julie stood, waiting tensely. She saw that McCoy had been driving. Brenda raced toward Julie. McCoy got out more slowly, staring at her. Julie tried not to meet his eyes. It wasn't difficult because Brenda reached her. She needed to be embraced.

“Julie, please. You have to find Tammy.”

Julie held Brenda, looking over her shoulder toward McCoy. He was silent, standing there by the car. There was no welcome light in his eyes. He still didn't want her involved.

There was nothing about him to suggest that they had been very close just hours ago.

She squared her shoulders. What happened between them didn't matter anymore. He had said that he would try. He didn't intend to try.

That didn't matter. Tammy mattered.

“We'll find her, Brenda,” she said softly, assuringly.

Brenda drew away, staring at Julie, the hope in her tear-stained eyes heart-wrenching. “Julie, she's alive, isn't she? Please, you'd know, wouldn't you, if she weren't. Please, Julie, oh, please—”

“She's alive, Brenda,” Julie said. “But she's—” She hesitated. She didn't want to tell Brenda that her daughter had been drugged into unconsciousness. “She's sleeping right now. I know that she's all right, but I'm not quite sure where she is.”

Julie expected to hear a sound, some snort of derision; from McCoy. But he didn't say a word. He was dead silent, watching them both.

“Should we go to my house?” Brenda suggested. “Maybe—”

“I don't think that will really help,” Julie said. “She was taken through the woods at the back of your place, I'm pretty sure. But she didn't see where she went, so I can't be much of a help there.” She stared at McCoy.

“I have to be at the phone booth at the same time tonight,” he said tonelessly.

“You'll let me come?”

He shrugged.

“Yes, yes!” Brenda cried. “He'll let you come.”

“So what do we do now?” Julie asked.

“We wait,” McCoy said flatly. “Brenda, go on in with Julie. I'll have to go into town and see about getting the money. Oh, Timothy Riker will be by with Rusty. I want him with us tonight, too.”

“Oh! The money—” Brenda began worriedly.

“I'll take care of it,” McCoy said. Julie felt his eyes on her again. “If you'll take care of my sister?” There was just the slightest suggestion of a plea to his voice. Julie nodded. Of course, she would take care of his sister.

McCoy left. Julie led Brenda into the kitchen. She quickly surmised that Brenda had been given some kind of a sedative, so she made her a herbal tea, a warm drink that wouldn't affect the drugs. Then she tried to talk, reassuring her. They sat in the parlor. She managed to get Brenda to lie back on the sofa. Julie wondered if it might not have been better to have Taylor here, too, but Brenda told her that she had taken him to a friend's house because she hadn't wanted him to see her in this kind of a panic.

“But he must be worried sick, too. I shouldn't have left him,” Brenda said.

Then to Julie's amazement, Brenda yawned. A few moments later, Brenda's red-rimmed eyes closed. She had dozed off.

Julie was greatly relieved. She tiptoed from Brenda's side and went to sit on the porch again. Sometimes it was best to be alone.

She closed her eyes. She concentrated.

Suddenly, a jolt tore through her. A wild jolt of fear.

Tammy. Tammy was awake now. And she was in darkness.

The panic washed over her like great waves of the ocean. It was a darkness unlike any darkness she had ever seen before. It was horrible. She was trapped in it. It was an enveloping, engulfing, awful darkness.

She raised her arms, trying to fight against it. Her arms hit something hard with a thunk. Oh, it was close, so close. She tried to shift her position. It was all around her. She could barely move.

She'd heard about the other little girl. She'd heard about Tracy.

She was buried alive …

Julie cried out, hearing Tammy's scream echo and echo in her mind.

Oh, Tammy, I'm with you. I'm with you. You're not alone. It seems so very dark, but I'm with you there, I promise. Tammy, I'll be with you
.

So dark, so dark, so dark
.

I'll be there, Tammy
.

I'm scared, I'm so scared. It's so horrible. I can't move. I can hardly breathe
.

Tammy, calm down. You have to calm down. You have to lie very still. I'll find you. Oh, Tammy. Your mother loves you so much, so be strong and brave, and we'll find you. Don't panic. I'm here. Close your eyes. Try to rest. Try to dream sweet dreams and don't let yourself be so scared
…

“Julie?”

She started, rising up from the ball she had bent herself into, to look into Timothy Riker's young, worried face.

“Timothy!” she gasped.

“Are you all right? I didn't mean to startle you. I've got the dog. McCoy wanted the dog.”

“Oh!” Julie exclaimed. Then she laughed nervously. How could she have missed the arrival of Rusty? He was straining at his leash to reach her, panting as if he had just run a mile.

Riker let him go. He bounded toward her, licking her face in one long lash and trying to land his bulk on her lap. “Some well-trained creature you are!” she told Rusty. She smiled at Timothy. “Thanks for bringing him.”

“Well, McCoy's right—he could prove to be a big help. We gave him one of the little girl's sweaters and he just about went wild. He barked all over the property, but he lost the scent after the woods in back.”

“That's because she was driven away,” Julie said.

“Oh,” Timothy muttered, a little uneasily. “Well, I'm going to get back now. Petty needs to set us all up for tonight. I imagine McCoy will be back for you right after. Patty is going to stay with Mrs. Maitland.”

“That's good,” Julie said.

Timothy smiled and waved goodbye and walked to the patrol car. Julie closed her eyes again. She waited. Rusty was licking her hands. She tried to concentrate. Tried to reach Tammy.

She found her. She was still breathing hard. Her little heart was beating wildly. But she was trying. She was saying her prayers. Saying them over and over again.

She was using too much air …

Tammy, don't be afraid. Please don't be afraid. Help me. Try to help me. Did you wake up at all before? What happened? What happened after the yard?