Midnight Crossing (Josie Gray Mysteries #5)(10)

Josie helped the girl inside the house and sat her at the end of the couch, where she once again pulled her legs up and hugged her arms around them. Josie took a blanket that lay over the top of a chair and wrapped it around the woman’s shoulders.

She sat next to her on the couch and said, “The car that drove in front of the house. Was it looking for you?”

She began crying and Josie was hopeful that she spoke at least some English.

“Are there other people with you?”

She whimpered like a child and finally looked out the front door and in the general direction of where the car had stopped on the road.

“Is there someone outside?”

She closed her eyes as if she wasn’t able to stand the image.

“Are the people who hurt you back there?”

Nothing.

“Is someone else back there? In the pasture?”

The woman sobbed at the question and Josie pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and called the night dispatcher. “Brian, this is Josie. Call Border Patrol. Call Otto too and tell him I need him out here. I don’t know what’s going on, but I want to be prepared.”

Brian told her Marta was on her way and should be there within five minutes. Phillips, from the sheriff’s department, was on a call but would be there within twenty minutes. “I talked to Sheriff Martinez. He’s on his way as well.”

Several minutes later Marta Cruz pulled up. Josie introduced her to the girl, who remained curled up on the couch and under the blanket. Marta sat beside the woman and placed an arm on her back, trying to reassure her while Josie briefed her on the situation and gave her instructions. “I’d like you to stay with her while I arrange a group of officers to search the pasture beside the house.”

*

Outside, Josie found Nick pulling a flak jacket from the back of his vehicle. “Let’s have a look around the house,” he said.

“Not until we have help. I just asked for support from Border Patrol but don’t have an ETA. Otto’s on his way. So are Deputy Dave Phillips and Sheriff Roy Martinez. We’ll partner up and head out when they arrive. We’ll each have an officer. I’ll leave one man posted at the house.”

Nick nodded. “How long?”

“We should have everyone here in twenty minutes.”

*

Josie called Dell to fill him in. It was three o’clock in the morning. He answered after the first ring.

“What’s the matter?”

“I need to make you aware of a situation. Nick is here. We heard a car drive by at about two this morning. This is the third night I’ve heard it. Nick and I went outside to check things out and watched it stop in front of your pasture.”

“They get out of the car?” he asked.

“No, it just sat idling along the road. After it pulled away we found a young woman hiding on my front porch. Physically she’s okay, but she’s terrified. She can’t speak. I’d guess whoever was in the car was hunting her.”

“I’ll be right down.”

“No. Don’t leave your house. Stay indoors with the lights out and gun ready until you hear otherwise. I don’t know who might be out here right now.”

“You have backup with you?”

“I do. We’ll fan out in groups. I’ll call you back as soon as I know something more.” She paused and he didn’t say anything. “Everything okay?”

“I ought to be out there helping you. At least checking my pasture.”

Josie sighed. “Dell, please. Promise me you’ll stay put. We can’t be worrying about running into you while we’re outside. You could accidentally get shot.”

“All right, then,” he said. Not one to sit idle, he was clearly frustrated. “You let me know what you find.”

*

Sheriff Roy Martinez was a burly retired Marine Corps sergeant. Roy spent most of his time running the jail and dealing with the dramas that come with supervising staff and criminals, but Josie trusted him as a solid officer.

Josie reintroduced Nick to Otto, Roy, and Phillips, who knew him as the kidnapping negotiator who had helped recover Josie’s ex-boyfriend. They also knew Nick by reputation as one of the best negotiators in northern Mexico. He had brought home an Arizona state senator after a nationally publicized kidnapping two years before.

Josie quickly briefed the group on the situation. “Let’s get our cars facing the road with lights on. We’ll travel in the dark, but I want whoever was stalking my house to think twice about driving up here while we’re out on foot. Marta will remain at the house with the victim. I’d like to leave Phillips positioned by the house to watch for anyone approaching the area. I’ll take Nick with me. Roy, you and Otto work together?”

“You bet,” Roy said.

“We’ll fan out in a line, about a hundred feet between each of us. At the back of the property Nick and I will head to the base of the mountain. You two check Dell’s barn and around his house.”

Each of the officers walked into the night, aware that something horrific had happened to the woman sitting in Josie’s house, and that someone, possibly multiple people, had come back to finish the job. Flashlights were necessary to check the pasture for evidence or clues to the woman’s terror, but the light also broadcast their presence to anyone who might be out there, waiting to strike.