My Sister's Grave (Tracy Crosswhite, #1)(100)

Her father and Calloway had figured out that it was Tracy that House had wanted, that it should have been Tracy shackled in this hellhole, abused by the psychopath standing before her. James Crosswhite had forbidden them to say a word, knowing that the guilt would have been too much for Tracy to bear, that it would have killed her.

“I’m afraid I have to leave now.” House stood. “I have unfinished business.”

“You’re never going to get away with this, House. Calloway knows. He’s going to come for you.”

House smiled. “That’s what I’m counting on.”





[page]CHAPTER 65





Calloway stopped at the edge of what Dan surmised to be Parker House’s property, both men breathing hard, the wind howling. “Harley found the break in the gas line. House must have done it in Olympia while they were at the competition. Maybe it was supposed to be a trial run to see what would happen, how far the car would go.”

“That didn’t come out at his trial,” Dan said, bracing against a gust of wind. His hands and feet had gone numb.

“It was Tracy’s truck and Tracy had given Sarah her black Stetson. She wore it that night to protect her from the rain. They looked so much alike. In the dark, House couldn’t tell the difference. When he told me what he did to Sarah, how he’d repeatedly raped her before he killed her, he laughed and said, ‘and she wasn’t even the one I wanted.’ That also never came out at trial. James didn’t want Tracy living with that.”

“It would have killed her,” Dan agreed. “But Roy, why not stop Tracy before we got to this point? Why not tell her before it came to this?”

“Because I never thought it would come to this,” Calloway said. “I forgot about the Polaroid and that Sarah couldn’t wear the pistol earrings. Tracy held all that back, convinced it was a conspiracy. I also didn’t know the strands of hair had come from a brush they both used. Didn’t think about it back then. Besides, anything I said to try and convince her, she would have thought a lie, and her father was dead and her mother never knew. There was no one to convince Tracy to let it go.”

Calloway looked to a faint glow of light coming from a building at the back of the property. “I never thought I’d be here again.” He locked eyes with Dan. “I’m not sure what we’re about to find in there. If anything happens, you just shoot. Don’t even aim. You just pull the trigger.”

They moved forward from one snow mound to the next, until they’d reached the ramshackle house. When Calloway removed his gloves, Dan did the same, shoving the gloves in his pocket. The stock of the shotgun was freezing cold. It hurt when he flexed his fingers, balling them into fists. He tried blowing into them, but his mouth was bone-dry, and he felt like he couldn’t catch his breath.

Calloway held the .357’s barrel up and reached for the door. The knob turned. He gave Dan the same knowing look he’d given him when he uncovered the tree stump. He knows we’re coming.

He stepped in. Dan caught the door to keep the wind from slamming it open, followed Calloway, and quietly closed the door behind them. Inside the house, he heard the hum of a generator. He followed Calloway into an adjoining room, Calloway moving deliberately, his gaze darting left and right. Halfway in, he stopped abruptly, then moved swiftly to an armchair.

Parker House sat in the chair, spikes driven through the back of each hand into the armrests, which were covered in blood. Two more were driven through his boots into the floor, where blood had pooled. “Oh, God,” Dan said.

Calloway put a finger to his lips. He stepped down a hall and turned on his flashlight, directing it into two rooms, along with the barrel of his gun. Then he returned and put two fingers to Parker’s throat. The man was ashen, his lips blue. “He’s alive,” Calloway whispered, though it didn’t seem possible. Parker opened his eyes and the tiny movement was startling, like the dead coming back to life. His eyes were dull. He looked like he was half-asleep.

Calloway knelt. “Parker? Parker?”

His eyes fluttered open.

“Does he have her?”

House looked about to speak, then grimaced, struggling to swallow.

“Get him something to drink.”

Dan hurried back to the kitchen, opening and closing cabinets before he found a glass and filled it at the tap. When he returned, Calloway was dragging blankets and bedding from the hall. Calloway wrapped the blankets around House, took the glass, and tilted it to the man’s lips.

House took a small sip.

“Does he have Tracy?” Calloway asked.

“The mine,” Parker croaked.

Calloway set the glass on the floor and straightened, talking to Dan. “I need you to go back and get on the radio.”

“The radio isn’t working, Roy.”

“The radio is working. We just didn’t reach anyone. Finlay should be at the station by now and I told him to sit by the radio. You don’t have to do anything except hit the power button. Tell him you need an ambulance and every available officer in Cascade County. Tell them to bring chainsaws.”

“That will take forever.”

“Not if you hurry. You get there, you do as I say, and then you get back here and build a fire. If you can’t find wood, burn the damn furniture. Try to keep him warm until they arrive. That’s all we can do at this point. When Finlay gets here, tell him to follow my tracks. Tell him House has her in the old Cedar Grove mine.”