Dangerous Waters (30 page)

But he had to be mistaken. They were nice people, weren’t they?

“Thanks.” He stopped at the hardware store and tried the handle despite the lack of lights and
CLOSED
sign on the door. No one answered, so he got in his truck and headed to the Toben family home. Anita’s car wasn’t there. Nor was Mike’s truck. Where could they be? Then he remembered the old track that led through the back of the Toben property. It was used more by ATVs than cars, but that’s the route he’d take if he was trying to avoid being seen. Hell, he had nothing else to go on.

He headed off, feeling like the biggest fool until he saw the cut off and tire tracks in the mud. Vehicles had definitely come this way recently. He called Holly’s cell and experienced a sharp kick of adrenaline when it went straight to voice mail. So he left a message. She might be in someone’s house having breakfast. She’d probably laugh at him and they’d have to figure out exactly how he was going to deal with the inherent dangers of her job. Assuming “I love you” was the same as “I want to get to know you and spend a little time with you”—fifty years should just about do it.

When he found her he was going to drag her to bed for a week. Do nothing but have sex and go diving and have more sex. Maybe eat and drink beer. And, OK, that was a pretty lame guy fantasy, but
where the hell was she
?

He wound down his window, scanning for cars pulled off into the bush. He eased on the brakes as a big black bear ambled in front of his truck. It turned and gave him an unimpressed sniff. Finn eyed the creature warily. Then a gunshot made them both startle, and every drop of blood exited his veins. The bear took off, and Finn caught sight of two cars up ahead on the track. Anita’s little sedan and Mike’s truck. He turned off his engine and slid quietly out the door.

He moved silently through the damp, impenetrable forest, reined in the desire for speed over stealth. What if Holly had been hurt? Every second mattered. But bursting on the scene without a clue wouldn’t save anyone, and instinctively he knew Holly was in danger.

He dialed Malone, belatedly remembering to fill him in on his location.

“Holly dialed nine-one-one about five minutes ago. We’re trying to narrow down her location,” Malone told him, sounding out of breath.

“I think I’ve got her.” He gave him directions and rang off, stuffed his phone in his pocket, creeping through the bush, peering around massive pine and spruce trees, climbing over downed cedars without a sound. Finally he spotted them. Holly on her knees and Grant Toben holding a gun, while Mike Toben wandered around, looking confused. Anita was there too.

Holly tried to stand up. He didn’t see any blood, thank god. Then Mike pulled a pistol from the back of his pants, and Finn’s blood froze.

Time was running out.

“She’s lying. I didn’t kill anyone.” Grant Toben sounded pissed because she hadn’t died like a good girl.

Holly laughed and struggled to her feet, staggering and woozy. If she could get close enough to Mike to grab that gun, she’d take the chance. Otherwise, she was going to plunge into the bushes and run through the trees where she could at least try to lose them. Legs and stomach were a bit wobbly still, so it was a slim chance. But better than waiting to catch a bullet between the eyes.

She thought about Finn, hoped he didn’t end up as desolate as his brother, and felt tears prick. She forced the thoughts away. Thinking about Finn wouldn’t save her right now. Being pessimistic wouldn’t help either. Focus.

“You already told me you killed Len Milbank, Pop.”

Good to know
.

She watched Mike swallow convulsively. He stood between her and his father. She didn’t think Grant would shoot him, the boy they’d sacrificed so much for, but would Mike really defy his father? She doubted it.

“Stand aside, son. Let’s put an end to this.”

“You killed Gina too, didn’t you?”

“Gina was a tart who was going to get tired of you, run back to that asshole Carver, and open her flapping lips right along with her legs.”

“I loved her!” shouted Mike.

Grant looked startled for a moment and shifted his feet. “Now, son, you’re just upset—”

Mike flexed his hands into fists a split second before he lunged for his dad. They went down in a pile of arms and legs and spraying leaves. Mike’s gun went flying. She dived toward it and ended up flat on her face in the dirt.

Anita Toben leaned down and picked up the matte-black pistol and pointed it at her. “Don’t move.” Hands rock steady.

Holly finally accepted she
was
going to die. This woman had kept quiet while her husband committed atrocious acts. The cold, calculating gleam told her that killing someone who looked exactly like the woman who’d seduced her husband would be as simple as immunizing a baby.

“How did it feel when you found out he’d been unfaithful, Anita? That he’d had sex with other women? I bet she wasn’t the first, was she? How did it feel to know you weren’t good enough in the sack to keep him satisfied?”

“Shut. Up.” Anita’s hands shook violently. “It wasn’t like that. He wasn’t like that. She came sniffing after him like a bitch in heat. Wouldn’t leave him alone!” Saliva sprayed from her lips, and she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, but the gun didn’t waver.

“Did you kill your own baby? Smother him in his sleep because he wouldn’t stop screaming?” Holly pushed.

Her mouth dropped open in horror. “No! It was SIDS. I left him for less than an hour, and when I went back he was…cold.” Wide, horrified eyes stared at her as if she’d finally realized what she’d admitted. What both she and Grant had done.

Grant staggered to his feet, still holding the pistol. His lip was bloody. Holly cursed when she realized Mike was lying unconscious. Christ, she hoped he wasn’t dead.

“Is he all right?” Anita asked in a high, concerned voice.

“He hit his head on a branch.”

Anita took a step toward her son.

A figure came out of nowhere and tackled Grant to the ground.
Finn
. Anita pointed the pistol toward the fighting men and pulled the trigger.

Holly’s heart screeched. She used every ounce of strength she possessed to climb to her feet and snatch the gun out of Anita’s hand, knocking the stupid woman over. The men were still fighting. Holly swayed but used her momentum to wedge her knee between the woman’s shoulders, pull out her cuffs, and snap them tight around Anita’s skinny wrists. The woman lay crying in the dirt next to her stolen son.

Finn punched Grant in the mouth, and the man went flying. Grant lay on the ground, breathing heavily, his eyes wild and desperate. “Stupid asshole, interfering in something that has nothing to do with you!”

“That just so happens to be the woman I love you’re trying to dispose of, you bastard.” Her heart soared even as Finn picked up her pistol from where it lay in the leaves. “So it has
everything
to do with me. But you’re right. I must be pretty damn stupid compared to you. I mean you got away with murder for decades. Fooled everyone. Probably laughed your ass off at Thom. You must have had heart failure when Holly turned up.”

Grant spat out an expletive. “You’ve got some nerve. The Carvers are nothing. A bunch of drunken, inbred wastrels.”

“Yeah well, at least my brother had the balls to admit his crimes and serve his time, not to mention we don’t have any baby snatchers in the family.”

“Your brother is an illiterate moron and you’re no better.”

“Doesn’t make him any less worthy than you, Toben.” Sweat dripped off Finn’s temple. He was white with rage.

Holly hobbled toward him, touched his shoulder. “He’s trying to rile you. He wants you to shoot him so he doesn’t have to face what he’s done. Give me the gun. It’s my job to arrest him.”

“But it’s my job to protect the woman I love, or don’t you get that yet?” Finn said.

Holly let out a little laugh. “I’m not sure we can argue the relationship dynamics right at this exact moment, but we will discuss this.” She pulled out her phone. Showed it to Grant, who went pale. “I called nine-one-one earlier. They got everything. The whole confession. They know you killed Bianca Edgefield, Len Milbank, and Gina Swartz. You kidnapped two minors. Assaulted and kidnapped an RCMP officer. Grant Toben, I’m arresting you—”

“No!” Grant screamed, but Finn got hold of his arms and flipped him on his front.

Holly dug out a pair of flexi cuffs she kept in her pocket and cinched them tight around Grant’s wrists. She turned to face Finn, surprised when he stumbled away and sat in the muck and the leaves. And then she saw the blood soaking through the side of his T-shirt. “No.”

She forced him to lie back, pulling at the waistband of his jeans to get a clear look at the wound.

“We don’t have time for this now, baby.” His big hand cupped her cheek. He looked impossibly handsome in the heavy gloom of the forest. “But pencil me in for later.”

“Funny man.” She shook her head. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d been shot?” She tore off her shirt, and his eyes widened, and he was obviously about to add another inappropriate comment. “
Don’t
start with me.” She pressed hard against the oozing wound at his side, and his eyes rolled back in pain. She looked around. She needed both hands to apply pressure to stop the bleeding, and her phone was in her pocket. Sirens were close. “We need an air ambulance. Man down! I repeat, man down!” She yelled into the ether and hoped someone somewhere was listening. She could hear bushes thrashing. Grant stood up and tried to take off. He wasn’t going to get far.

“Your fellow officers are about to get an eyeful.” Finn’s mouth curved into one of his handsome smiles, but his skin was pasty, and his eyes were starting to glaze.

“They’ll survive.” She could be stark naked for all she cared.

“Holly.” His eyelids started to drift.

“Don’t you dare die on me, Finn Carver.”

“I’ll do my best. This isn’t the first time I’ve been shot, you know.” He gritted his teeth, grabbed her hand. “This one was worth it. To save you, anything would be worth it.”

Cops finally burst on the scene. They confiscated weapons, restrained the prisoners, checked poor Mike, but she didn’t care about anything except Finn. Someone wrapped a shirt around her shoulders and medics arrived, firefighters. Pretty much every person in Bamfield converged on this isolated expanse of forest that was supposed to be her burial place.

She watched them work. Finally, what seemed like hours later, the throb of rotors beat the air as a Coast Guard chopper flew over and landed somewhere nearby. They got Finn onto a stretcher and she held his hand.

“I’m coming too.”

“Only to the chopper. Not enough room on board and no time to argue,” one of the medics told her.

Finn reached out and squeezed her hand as they ran for the ambulance. “I’m not gonna die, Holly. I’ve got a lot of years that I want to spend wrestling with you in the sheets.” He grinned as she shook her head, then they piled inside the makeshift ambulance and started reversing along the rough track.

“Holy fuck that hurts!” he yelled when they hit a rut.

The medic laughed. “Well, at least your lungs are fine.”

Finn ignored the guy. Stared into her eyes. “I’m not going to go anywhere important without you for many years. Got it? We’re a pair—you and me—from now on you don’t get rid of me that easily.” She figured out she was crying only when tears dropped onto their joined hands.

“But you’ve got to finish what you started here, Holly. You’ve got to talk to Thom.”

She closed her eyes. He was right. She had to finish this. Write the reports, close the links, finish this thing.

“You’ll wait for me?”

He squeezed her fingers so hard they hurt, but she didn’t complain. She kissed him, then stood back as they loaded Mike Toben—who was probably really Tommy Edgefield—and Finn, the goddamned love of her life, onto a cherry red chopper.

Someone dragged her back away from the helicopter, and when she turned around she realized it was Professor Edgefield, his eyes full of concern, especially when he looked down and realized she was covered in blood.

The helicopter took off and blasted them with downdraft. Suddenly Holly didn’t want to be here. “Oh, god. I’ve got to go after him.” She whirled around and yelled at Furlong, who was striding toward them. “We need another chopper here ASAP.”

Instead of arguing, he nodded and spoke into his radio. Suddenly aware she was cold, she wrapped the shirt she was wearing tight around her body. She started to shiver hard.

“I’m so sorry, Professor Edgefield.” Christ, that sounded odd now, but she could hardly call him “dad.” “I found out who murdered Bianca. It was Grant Toben. I’m sorry to tell you the boy Bianca gave birth to might not have been your son—Tommy was probably Grant’s child, and he stole him when Anita’s own baby died.”

His mouth had dropped open in shock. “Tommy’s alive?”

She nodded quickly and felt a fresh onslaught of tears hit as an ecstatic smile lit up his face.

“And Leah?” he asked hopefully.

Holly opened her mouth several times, but nothing came out for a full ten seconds. “I might be Leah. We need DNA confirmation.” She held out her hand to him. “I’m sorry I messed it all up.” She bit her lip as he just stared at her.