Chapter One
“How are you doing there, Kate?”
“Well, let’s see. I’m standing around in a sweaty camouflage bite suit which makes me look like a combat Michelin man, five large dogs have mauled me so far today, and I’m more than ready for lunch. To tell the truth, Sal, hiding is boring enough to make me look forward to Agnes nagging me about the wedding. Have you sent out Billy yet? I’m visualizing a sandwich and a cup of tea with my name on it as I wait for his Malinois, Rosco, to find me. Honestly, filling in as the criminal on these search and capture practice runs stinks. I prefer being on the right side of the law searching with Dillon.”
“Billy left three minutes ago. He’s trying to beat everyone’s time so it won’t be long until you eat.”
“I hope he remembers to use his release word this time. I don’t want people saying the bride wore black and blue. Agnes should be here soon and she’d freak.”
“Hang in there, kid. Billy’s should arrive in four minutes. You and I both know you can’t keep the diva waiting. She’s already upset that we scheduled this test run so close to the wedding.”
Kate put her phone back in her pocket and put back on the protective mask she’d ditched to make the call. Agnes, recently retired as America’s favorite supermodel, was not only her cousin and maid of honor but a whirlwind who kept people hopping and was lovingly referred to as Hurricane Agnes. The wedding was one hundred and sixty-eight hours away and thanks to Agnes and her family, everything was ready. Everyone invited was coming. The food, which her brother would cook, was ordered. The reception venue, which was her barn, would be converted on Wednesday, and her grandmother had even made her a spreadsheet to ease the job of sending thank-you notes for the presents. So instead of working on the wedding, the bride-to-be was hiding in the woods in a sweaty bite suit.
Leaning against a hemlock tree, she crouched, as she listened for signs of movement. A half dozen state troopers with their search dogs had previously found her, but she wasn’t making it easy for this last one, hunting her. She maneuvered around the tree, making sure not to break the silence. Not breathing, she heard only two blue jays squabbling, and a squirrel shouting profanity at her for infringing on his space, but other than that, nothing.
She snagged a branch, steadied herself by transferring weight onto her right foot as she stepped out to the left and was about to ease out from behind another massive hemlock tree when a snap of a twig made her freeze. The noise had come from behind her. She waited but instead of nature’s chorus, this time she heard only silence. Seconds went by, but still nothing. She began to chalk it up to her imagination when a twig snapped again.
Billy couldn’t be that close this soon plus he and Roscoe would approach from the east, not the southwest. Another twig snapped, proving she wasn’t alone. Whoever it was, they had stopped using stealth.
A man wearing a camel hair topcoat, city shoes, with a silk scarf around his neck, and soft leather gloves on his hands walked into the clearing. His attire may have been Fifth Avenue, but his face looked, pure prizefighter. He strode along the trail until she lost sight of him behind the curve of the hill. To find a better way to see him, she eased herself forward, her camouflage clothing blending with her surroundings. He had gotten much closer when she spotted him again.
Mr. Big City did not belong in her woods. She almost laughed out loud when he walked right through a patch of poison ivy. He was going to itch for at least a week. He glanced left and right as he moved, and seemed to be looking for someone. Unfortunately what he wasn’t watching was the ground. An exposed root caught his foot making him stumble. He caught himself just short of wiping out. Kate thought about warning him, as he plowed through still another patch of poison ivy, but didn’t since his furtive behavior gave her an uneasy feeling.
He had reached a spot just below her when Kate realized that Billy was due in two minutes. A man standing between Rosco and his search quarry would throw off their score to say nothing of being a surprise for the stranger when the Belgian Malinois burst out of the underbrush. If this guy was having trouble dealing with the trail and poison ivy, he would completely freak out when faced with an aggressive pursuit dog in attack mode.
Kate braced herself to stand but then stopped as he pulled a gun from his pocket. It was an automatic like the one in her fiancé’s gun cabinet. This man’s weapon had a larger magazine than Harry’s. It was a gun designed to kill people － lots of people.
She had to do something. Billy was barely a minute away and completely unaware of his danger. She squatted again, putting out a hand out for support. The hand connected with a rock. With more instinct than thought, her fingers tightened around it, prying it from the ground. She saw the man swing the gun left, then right holding it steady then he twisted to check behind, looking away from her. At that second, Kate stood and threw the rock is far she could toward the ravine. Then she dropped as shots rang out. The gun had a hair-trigger. She’d counted at least 10 rounds in rapid succession.
The silence, which followed the shots, gave way to the noise of barking. Billy must have noticed the shots, but from the sound of movement in the brush, he was still coming.
Kate pulled her phone from her pocket and sent a fast text message to Sal telling him to warn Billy of the shooter then she switched off her phone so its ring couldn’t give her position away, and searched for another rock. Tim, her brother who loved baseball, had taught her to throw. He said she had a hot arm and she prayed he was right.
The man hurried toward the ravine but stopped when dog barks began sounding closer. He pivoted, lifted his gun and gripping it with both hands, aimed it toward the sound.
Kate acted. She snatched up the second rock, adjusted her grip, focused on her target, and as Tim had taught her, drew back her arm, let out a breath and let fly. Three shots went off as she knocked the gun out of his hand and watched as it slid across the ground and fell over the edge of the ravine.
The shooter shook his hands in pain. He whirled around trying to spot his attacker but abandoned that to head toward the ravine. He had only taken two steps when the woods filled with the sounds of approaching dogs. With more speed than she imagined he had, the gunman whirled and raced back toward the main trail.
Kate didn’t move until Rosco sprang from the underbrush followed by Billy Albert. Kate rose and pointed to the trail. “Shooter! He ran toward the logging road.” As Billy, raced in pursuit, he was followed by Alan Waller and Dani DeFelice with their dogs Luther and Jake. Sal came up right behind them, but he veered off in her direction. Kate sank to the ground, her legs no longer supporting her. The bite suit, which had seemed hot, felt icy and chills traveled through her body. She shivered as Sal came up behind her. Noticing her shaking, he lifted her from where she’d been hiding.
“Kate, what’s going on here?”
She fought for control of her body then said, “I don’t have a clue. I was hiding from Billy, when this idiot, dressed for Park Avenue came strolling through my woods. He pulled an automatic and fired. I knocked the gun from his hands with a rock and it slid into the gully over there. We’ve got to retrieve it before some kid finds it.”
Eyeing the spot where she last saw the gun, she started for the gully, but Sal pulled her back. “Wait a minute, Missy. Somebody shot at you and you want to climb down a gully to find up a gun? Kate, I need information here.” She kept going. “Can you stop, please?”
“Sal, we’ve got to locate that gun.”
“I know we do, but first talk to me. You said, someone went walking in your woods and shot at you.”
“Yeah, a Park Avenue guy with an ugly face, though he didn’t shoot me. He ran down the trail and the troopers are after him. We’ve got to get that gun, Sal.”
“Tell me more.” Sal grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him but she kept looking over her shoulder at the edge of the gully.
That was when her hands began to shake hard, and soon the shaking took over her whole body, causing her to have trouble standing. He lowered her to the ground as she lost her balance.
“Kate, say something,” Sal yelled. He pulled out his phone and hit speed dial. “Roger, bring the ATV out here now. We’re out at the far end of the trail just before the big turn. Kate needs help.”
Sal took the helmet from her head and unzipped the top of the bite suit so that Kate could breathe. He checked her pulse then took her head and held it trying to force her to focus on his words. Her teeth were chattering as though they might break, so he pulled the strap off the helmet and forced it between her teeth. Then he held her tight.
With a screech of brakes, Roger Argus arrived, with his Lab, Moren, in the back. Sal pulled Kate to her feet, as Roger grabbed her helmet. Once she was standing, he picked her up and placed her in the vehicle and climbed in behind. Roger turned in a tight circle and headed back towards the barn. Sal wrapped his arms around her, holding her while she shook. Bypassing the barn, Roger drove straight to the door of Kate’s cottage. Sal lifted Kate from the ATV, set her on her feet, and with Roger’s help, unzipped her from the bite suit and pulled the strap from her mouth, then holding her tight, half-walked, half-carried her toward the door.
Once inside, he settled her in a kitchen chair and turned on the kettle to make tea. Roger grabbed bread, meat, and cheese, from the fridge and began to make a sandwich, Sal ducked into her room and pulled the quilt from the end of her bed and wrapped it around her. Then he made her tea and placed it as well as the sandwich in front of her as Roger left to take the
ATV and go to fetch the troopers.
The shaking had lessened. He took her face in his hands and said, “Now you sit here, Kate, and eat.” Holding the tea mug, he kept it to her mouth until she drank. Then he put the sandwich in her hand, lifted it to her mouth and said, ”Eat. We need to put food into you to counteract the blood-sugar drop. You’re in shock, but you’ll be okay. Finish that sandwich. When you’re done, we’ll talk this out.”
She clutched the cup seeking warmth as she drank the tea. After she’d finished the 1st cup, Sal took the cup to refill it and placed some more of the sandwich in her hand. Once she was eating, he refilled her mug, and she’d finished the sandwich by the time the state troopers arrived. They crowded into the kitchen and Billy passed something to Sal.
Kate scanned the serious faces surrounding her then asked, “What’s going on?”
The looks that passed between the troopers had her uneasy, but Roger stepped forward and said, “The shooter got away Kate. But, when he reached for his car keys, something fell out of his pocket.”
“What? What did he drop?”
Kate glanced from Roger to Sal who was holding a scrap of paper and looking furious.
“What is it? What does it say?” Kate demanded.
Sal sighed and placed it in front of her. Her eyes traveled from his face to the white piece of paper which lay beside the plate. It contained only three words－Kill Kate Killoy.