Read A Penny for Your Thoughts Online
Authors: Bess McBride
Tags: #Romance, #Mystery & Detective, #Suspense, #Women Sleuths, #Fiction
Where was he taking her? What was he going to do to her? There was no way out of the parking lot by vehicle. All entrances were blocked because of the parade. Would he drag her behind the store? Was he going to rape her? Why? She’d never seen anything in his demeanor to suggest he could...would... Penny couldn’t finish the thought. It was too awful.
They approached the end of the parking lot which led to some sort of clearing. Penny tried to remember what lay on this end. Panic blocked her memory. Undeveloped land? Brush? One of the few remaining swampy areas in this otherwise developed region?
Desperate to find Matt though it was unlikely she could see him at this distance, she tried to twist around. Kevin gave her hair a vicious yank and almost pulled her off her feet.
“Don’t look back! No one’s going to save you.”
Penny clawed at his hands as they neared the darkened area. Her terrified instincts told her this was her last chance to escape before he dragged her into the brush. Kevin cursed and let go of her hair. He dragged her arms behind her back and wrapped one large hand around her wrists. He continued to press against her mouth with his other hand, fingers digging painfully into her cheeks. Fear robbed her of whatever air she could drag through her nostrils, and she swayed dizzily.
“Oh, no you don’t. You’re not passing out on me now.”
Kevin pulled her over the curb and dragged her into the brush. Prickly bushes tore at her unprotected arms and hands, and Kevin released his clamp on her mouth to feel his way in the dark. He kept his vice-like grip on her wrists.
“This is thicker than I thought. I should have planned better,” he muttered under his breath.
Penny opened her mouth to scream, but the earlier image of his fist near her eyes momentarily constricted her throat. She imagined the blow to her face versus what lay in wait for her in the dark. The blow to the face was preferable. She screamed...once and quickly.
Startled, Kevin cursed and loosened his grip, and Penny surged forward out of his arms and into the safety of the brush at full speed. Though she was desperate to head back toward the safety of the parking lot and Matt, Kevin blocked any retreat in that direction. She doubted anyone heard her scream from this isolated end of the parking lot. The merry makers continued to roar.
In a desperate frenzy of primal survival, Penny pushed on through the clawing and scratching bushes and undergrowth. She bit back cries of pain. She heard Kevin crashing through the brush behind her muttering her name intermingled with expletives, and she threw a terrified look over her shoulder, but couldn’t see him in the dark. The brush slapped at her exposed skin. Luckily, her legs were protected by the thick jeans, but her hands and arms took a beating. She ran deep into the dense swampy undergrowth, farther and farther away from the lights of the parking lot. Kevin stayed on her heels.
Penny threw another terrified glance over her shoulder and fell headlong into a watery ditch of some sort, crying out as she landed on her right shoulder. She bit down on her mouth and held her breath in a frozen moment. Kevin’s footsteps stilled. He must have heard. Penny dragged in a ragged breath and held it as long as possible. She’d fallen into a shallow culvert or canal of some sort. Water seeped in through her jeans but did not reach her face. She hoped she hadn’t landed on one of the famous alligators of the Gulf Coast, though she would have preferred her chances with the large mouthed creatures rather than Kevin.
“Penny,” he hissed nearby, somewhere to her left. “I know you’re out there. I heard you. Did you fall? Are you hurt?”
Penny dared not move, not even to pull her legs up into a protective fetal position as her instincts urged, not even to ready herself to run again. Where was Matt now? Was he looking for her? Did he think she’d just left the parade...and him? She wanted to scream his name more than anything in the world right now, but pressed a fist against her mouth. She slowly released the heated air that burned her lungs, and tried to inhale...quietly...through her nose, though her body pleaded for a noisy gulp of air.
“Penny,” Kevin hissed. She cringed as he approached, each crackling step slow and deliberate. “I’m not going to hurt you. I‘m sorry I grabbed your hair. Come on out. I promise I’ll let you go. I can’t just leave you out here.”
Penny wished she could jump up and agree to what sounded like a fairly reasonable request. Her shoulder throbbed where she’d landed on it. She tried to rise up on her knees in preparation for flight.
“Penny!” The cold rage in his voice made her freeze. “I swear I’m going to kill you when I find you. Come here.” He sped up and crashed through the underbrush, spewing low voiced curses, enough to bring her out of her current state of confusion.
Penny tucked her head low and brought her knees to her chest once again. Kevin moved away from her location, calling her name in a low voice. She waited, wishing she could hear the sound of responding sirens as the police came to her rescue. But no one knew where she was. Matt didn’t know where she was. She didn’t even know where she was at the moment.
Penny eased out another breath and inhaled as deeply and quietly as she could. The sound of Kevin’s retreating footsteps told her he’d moved toward the north. Could she get up and run south toward the highway, toward the parade and Matt? Would she make it in time before Kevin caught her? She lifted her head to listen. She couldn’t hear Kevin moving. Had he given up?
She struggled to her knees and then to her feet. Her awkward stance on the sloped surface made it difficult to balance, and she wondered how she was going to climb out without making too much of a racket. In the dark, she couldn’t even gauge the depth of the ditch. Hoping that Kevin had moved out of earshot, she rallied herself, gulped down a breath of air and scrambled out of the shallow water and up the side of the ditch. She turned toward the lights of the parking lot and began to run through the brush toward the east, protecting her face with her hands, fighting the instinct to scream. Kevin would surely find her if she screamed.
Tackled from the left, she had no time to react. Her right shoulder screamed in agony as Kevin came down on top of her. He clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle her cry of pain as he lay on top of her crushing the air from her body. She struggled against him but froze when she felt hard metal against her neck.
“Shhh,” Kevin whispered against her ear. “Don’t make me slit your throat here and now, Penny. I’m getting sick and tired of this game. Behave and come with me now.”
He hauled her to her feet with one arm and twisted her around. She saw the outline of the large switchblade that Kevin brought to her throat. Penny instinctively tried to pull away from the blade, but he pressed the flat of it against her neck as he bent his head to her ear.
“Do you seriously think I won’t kill you, Penny? Whatever gave you that idea? I will slit your throat in a heartbeat,” he ground out between clenched teeth. He scraped the blade against her neck as if he shaved her, and Penny whimpered. Her legs buckled, but Kevin held her up.
“Let’s go.” Kevin dragged her by her left arm deeper into the underbrush. He seemed to have a better sense of direction than she as he marched confidently to the southeast as indicated by the lights of the highway.
They approached the end of the swamp, and Kevin paused on the edge of an empty undeveloped lot dotted with construction equipment. Under the faint glow of the nearby streetlights, Penny could see his car parked in the dirt up ahead. Kevin stilled and seemed to listen intently. Penny pricked her ears though she could hear little over the pounding of her heart. The sounds of the parade were far, far away. Kevin dragged her out from the brush and pressed the knife tightly against her throat. He pushed her ahead of him toward the car and braced her against the side of it with his body while struggling to open the driver’s side door. He reached in, dropped the knife on the seat and brought out a short length of orange nylon rope. Penny tried to peer over her shoulder.
“Stay there, and don’t move. I’ll kill you if you try to take off again, Penny.” He yanked her wrists painfully behind her and tied them together. The abrasive ropes burned her skin.
“Get in,” he barked as he pulled her around by her bound hands and pushed her into the driver’s side of the car. Penny hit her head on the door sill and cried out.
“Shut up.” Kevin shoved her over to the passenger seat and climbed in after her.
“Where are we going?” Penny whispered.
“Somewhere nice, Penny. You’ll like it there.” The sneer on his face mocked his friendly words. Penny adjusted in the seat to accommodate for the pain of her tied hands behind her back. Her shoulder ached from her fall, even more so in her awkward position.
“I don’t understand,” Penny mumbled. “What--”
“Shut up, Penny. I don’t want to talk right now. I need to concentrate.” His tone remained neutral...almost conversational. Kevin started the engine and pulled out onto the road, turning right and heading away from the parade. Penny saw the last of the parade floats out of the corner of her eye.
The ringing of her phone in her pocket gave her a start. Matt! It had to be Matt calling. She glanced at Kevin fearfully.
“Is that your phone, Penny? Do you think your dear Chief Williams is calling you? Is he missing you already? Maybe he thinks you got bored and just decided to leave.” Something in his mocking voice caught her attention. A nuance, a particular way he said her name. She couldn’t put her finger on it.
“He’ll find me, Kevin.”
“He won’t find you in time, Penny.”
****
With a dry mouth and a pounding heart that felt like it would burst from his chest, Matt listened to the unending ringing on Penny’s line. He held the broken beads he’d found by the barricade in one hand and gripped the phone tightly with the other.
Where was she? Suddenly, a call broke through. Penny! He looked at caller ID and noted it came from the station.
“Yes, what is it?”
“Chief? Is that you?”
“Yes, I’m sorry, Patty, what is it?”
“Chief, I’ve got a report that someone heard a scream from the shopping center in Orange Beach along the parade route. You said you were going to the parade. Are you there?”
Matt swung his head around. People screamed all along the parade route, the parking lot behind him seemed quiet.
“Chief?”
“Yes?” He moved toward the parking lot, still clutching the beads in his hands. “Where did it come from?”
“Chief, I called the Orange Beach Police. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Patty. I’m right here at the parking lot. Where did the scream come from?”
“From the west end of the parking lot.” Matt scanned the darkened area to the west. He spotted Penny’s car in the middle of the parking lot. “Chief? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Penny Brown. I think she’s been kidnapped. I was just with her and now she’s gone. Put out an all points bulletin. Get Cliff Sutton on the line for me. Get Ben down here with his dog. And get me a helicopter to search this area.” Matt snapped the phone shut and headed on a run across the parking lot. He raced toward Penny’s car and took only a few seconds to see she was not in it. He ran for the western end of the parking lot and paused.
Who had her? Where did they take her? He heard screaming, but it came from the direction of the parade route. The last float appeared to be passing through.
Sirens began to wail, and two Orange Beach patrol cards screeched up to the west end of the parking lot. Matt stared into the darkness, desperate to run in after Penny, but realizing with a sickening dread that he had no idea where she’d been taken. He had to wait for a search party, the helicopter and the working dog.
Two officers jumped out and ran toward him. Matt gave them a quick rundown on what little he knew. They spread out and headed into the brush with flashlights. Matt moved behind in behind them.
The ringing of his phone made him jump, and he cursed silently.
“What!” he barked.
“It’s me, Matt. What’s going on?”
“It’s Penny. This guy’s got her. I’m sure of it. She was with me at the parade. I left for a minute. Her car is still in the parking lot.” He knew he wasn’t making a lot of sense.
Matt continued to move into the brush with the officers. He didn’t have a flashlight on him, but he used their beams to scan the bush. The night seemed so dark, the bush so thick. Would Penny scream again?
The soft rhythmic thudding of a helicopter approached as Matt strained to hear Cliff with one ear and to listen for screams with his other ear. He looked up. The helicopter hit the searchlight and began a sweeping search of the swampy growth.
Matt heard a muttered expletive from Cliff.
“Matt, I’ve been looking into this, and I think I know who this guy is and where he where might take Penny.”
“How do you know? Where is she, Cliff? Is she still alive?”
“I don’t know, Matt. Is that a helicopter I hear? You’re going to need it. Listen...”
Matt pressed the phone tightly against his ear.
****
Kevin reached over suddenly and jammed his hand into Penny’s pocket. He dug out her ringing phone and threw it out the driver’s side window.
“Now, he won’t find you at all.”
Hot tears burned Penny’s eyes. She still had no idea what Kevin was going to do with her, but she had begun to think rape would not be the worst of it. A cold hatred seemed to emanate from his eyes. She couldn’t believe those playful blue eyes could suddenly change so drastically. Nothing in her psychological training prepared her for this kind of menace. Nothing! Diagnostic terms and descriptions of personality disorders flitted insubstantially through her mind, but none of them could save her now. She was on her own with a predator. Matt had no idea she was in danger. For all he knew, she’d grown bored and gone home, or worse yet, taken off with a younger man.
Kevin turned right toward the town center and turned left again a few minutes later onto Fort Morgan Highway. Penny had driven down the long stretch of road to tour Fort Morgan at the end of the peninsula--a fort used during the Civil War to guard Mobile Bay from the Union Navy. The road also led to the Bon Secour Natonal Wildlife Sanctuary--an uninhabited marshy nesting of trees, alligators and birds which spanned a several-mile width between the highway and the shoreline.
“Where are you going?” She shifted again. Her tied hands had mercifully gone numb from lack of circulation.
Kevin shot her a quick glance and flashed his once charming smile. The grin looked the same but held a new terror for her now.
“To a special place, Penny, where you and I can be alone.”
His honeyed voice made her skin crawl.
“Why are you doing this, Kevin?” She heard the squeak in her voice and cursed herself for revealing her fear. She needed to stay strong. He was feeding off her fear. She was sure of it.
He slid his eyes in her direction once again. “You know? That’s what I love about all of this. You have no idea why I’m doing this. With all your education...all your fancy degrees in psychology, you have no earthly idea what’s going on. Don’t you think that’s funny?”
“W-what?” she stuttered. His words made no sense. They sounded as bizarre as the words of the man who’d been calling her.
Penny gasped. Her stomach lurched, and she broke out into a cold sweat. She didn’t think it possible to feel any more fear than she already did, but the hairs on her head stood painfully on end.
“It was you! You’re the one who’s been calling me!”
Kevin threw her a quick grin...a horrifyingly pleasant expression featuring a charming tilt to the corner of his lips.
“Aw, shucks, how did you finally guess? I didn’t think you’d
ever
figure it out.”
“Why, Kevin, why?” Penny heard the pathetic plea in her voice and swallowed hard against it.
Don’t give in. Don’t give him what he wants.
“I suppose you broke into my car, didn’t you?”
Kevin gave a short laugh. “Yeah, that was kind of pointless. I didn’t find anything of interest really. Although I did find your address book.”
Penny jerked.
“Gave your mom a call, just to see if she sounded like you...or maybe to practice calling. But I got shy, and couldn’t talk.”
“Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare mess with my family, Kevin. I’m warning you,” Penny ground out through clenched teeth.
The blow, when it came, shocked her. She felt no pain at first when her head hit the head rest. Then a sharp prickling sensation spread across her left cheek, and her nose began to burn. Was it broken?
“Don’t talk to me like that, Penny. Who do you think is in charge here, Miss High and Mighty Therapist? It sure isn’t you.”
Penny kept her face averted to the right, too shocked even to cry in pain.
“A penny for your thoughts.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him lean forward to look at her face.
“No thoughts, Penny? Okay, well, like I was saying, I didn’t get a chance to chat with your Mom. I just choked up. I’d like to meet her someday though. My own Mom... Well, she was--” He gave a short laugh. “Well, you just didn’t talk to her, not if you knew what was good for you, if you know what I mean. So, I figured all mothers were like her.”
Penny’s nose began to run. Was it bleeding?
“I tried to call you today...several times, but you didn’t answer your phone.” His voice carried a bizarre pouting sound.
Penny remained mute.
Kevin leaned forward to look at her again. She kept her face averted, and he laughed.
“Did I tell you I stopped by your apartment a few times? You weren’t there, so I went in anyway.”
Penny shivered. He’d been in her apartment? When?
“I spent quite a bit of time in there. I like it. It felt comfortable. Smelled nice, too, especially the clothes in your closet.” Kevin chuckled. “One night when you were sleeping, I couldn’t decide if I was going to hug you or kill you, but then the phone rang and I had to skedaddle.”
Penny began to shake uncontrollably. He had been in her apartment when she was there...when she slept.
“Then you had that deadbolt installed. That really made me mad, Penny.” His conversational tone terrified her more than his anger. “At any rate, I think you might have something I want, so we’re going to have a heart to heart tonight, and you can tell me where it is.”
At this, Penny did turn toward him. The lights of the console glowed eerily on his face while he kept his eyes on the road. Her instinct was to scream “What?” but her throat seemed momentarily frozen. What did he want?
The headlights of the car shone on the sign for the wildlife refuge as they drove past.
“We’re almost there.” Kevin made a sudden left hand turn off the highway onto a small lane which glowed in the dark with white sand, an indication they were near the beach. He drove slowly down the lane past a grove of indistinct dark trees and thick bushes until he came to a clearing dominated by a small structure that stood on stilts--a house. Penny had seen little traffic on the road, and she suspected many of the houses along this strip of land were boarded up and closed for the winter. She imagined she could scream and scream and no one would hear her on this thinly populated end of the highway.
“We’re here.” The enthusiastic childlike quality of his voice made her shudder.
Kevin jumped out of the driver’s seat and came around to the passenger’s side. He pulled open the door, and the smell of salty sea air assaulted Penny’s bruised nostrils. He hauled her out by her right arm. She lost her balance and fell against him. When he pulled her to her feet, the faint sheen of moonlight glinted of the knife in his left hand. Despite the pounding in her heart, Penny heard the sound of waves crashing against a nearby beach. A small measure of relief swept over her. As long as she was near the beach, she could find her way home. All she had to do was turn left toward the east and follow the shoreline...if she ever got away.
Kevin pushed her ahead of him toward the small building which appeared to be a beach bungalow. He shoved her awkwardly up the wooden stairs to a deck. Penny turned to scan the horizon. From the faint specter of the breakers, they seemed to be only a short distance from the beach. The house was well hidden from the highway by trees. Kevin reached for the door and pushed it open. He stepped in and pulled Penny in behind him. They entered a sparsely furnished living room. The house smelled moldy and damp. He flicked on a light switch, and the room came into view.
A simple dark blue vinyl couch and matching easy chair rested at an angle in front of a plain wooden veneer coffee table. An old concave screen television set with rabbit ears nestled on a portable stand against one corner of the room. A large picture window framed the front of the room which appeared to face out onto the sea, though it was too dark to see. To the left of the entrance, a small kitchen lay in darkness.
“Whose house is this? Is this yours?” Penny wondered if she could shout for help. Were any neighbors nearby?
“Shut up! I warn you if I have to listen to one more of your stupid questions...”
Penny did as she was told. Her cheek still throbbed.
Kevin pushed her down a hallway and through an open door on the right at the end of the hall. From the faint reflected light of the living room, Penny saw it was a small bedroom, devoid of furniture except a twin bed covered with an old olive green Army-style blanket.
Penny tried to dig in her heels. She’d begun to believe that rape was not his intention, but now she wasn’t so certain.
“Get over there,” he barked as he threw her onto the small bed. Penny landed on her stomach but quickly flipped over to face her attacker. She pulled her knees to her chest and stared at him belligerently. She was going to fight.
“Don’t get yourself in a tizzy, Penny. If I wanted to rape you, I would have already.” Kevin leaned against the doorsill and crossed his arms, appearing as if he were having a casual conversation with a friend. “I’ll admit you’re a nice looking woman, but you turned me down for that lover of yours, Chief Williams. So, I don’t owe you anything, do I?” The faint moonlight coming through the window cast his face in a ghostly grimace. “You aren’t the first woman who’s let me down. That’s for sure.” He rubbed his jaw, almost thoughtfully. “No, what I wanted from you was what you seem to give your clients. A friendly face, a shoulder to cry on...you know...all the things a therapist is paid to do.” He snorted. “Like the therapist I had once when I was a teenager. She was great!” He grinned. “I could tell her anything. And I know she liked me, too. A guy knows stuff.” His face hardened. “But then she got rid of me...transferred me to someone else...an old man. I hated him.”
“What do you want with me?”
Kevin blinked...as if he’d forgotten she was there. He moved quickly toward the bed and grabbed the back of her hair.
Penny cried out.
“I want you to give me Jerry’s keys.”
“What?” Penny stared at his face, older and harder than she’d seen it before.
Jerry?
“Jerry’s keys, the ones he always wore on his belt. I know you have them. They weren’t in his apartment. Where are they?”
“In my purse,” she answered automatically, too stunned to understand what was happening.
His grip on her hair loosened, and he grinned--that charming lopsided smile that once reminded her of Travis. He lowered himself to his knees in front of the bed, his face near hers.
“See? Now that wasn’t so hard, was it? Maybe I should just have asked you in the beginning instead of making all those calls, but I was pretty mad at you.”
Penny shuddered at his close proximity. Her brain whirled, and she simply couldn’t think straight.
“Jerry?” she whispered. She pulled her knees up closer to her chest.
“Jerry! Yeah, Jerry. Don’t you know who I am? Haven’t you figured it out yet?”
Penny wanted to close her eyes to gather her befuddled thoughts, but she dared not blink in case he made a move. She shook her head.
“You don’t remember telling Jerry that he needed to ‘let me go,’ is how I think you worded it?” His grip on her hair tightened and he pulled her head back to face him.
Penny’s mouth went dry. “David. You’re David.”
“That’s right. I’m the guy you screwed out of a pretty comfortable existence. You sure had some hold over Jerry, I’ll give you that. Of course, I know therapists can do that.” He gave her hair a vicious twist, making her cry out, and then he rose to tower over her. Penny tried to struggle to her knees. The rope around her wrists burned savagely.
“Where’s your purse?”
“In my car...in the parking lot at the parade.”
“The parking lot?”
Kevin stared at her for a moment, and she thought he was going to strike her again. She ducked her head to the side. He flung away from her. A jarring musical tune suddenly filled the tense air, and Kevin pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. His face contorted into harsh lines as he squinted at the instrument.
“What does he--” Kevin glared at Penny and spun around to head for the door. “Stay here. Don’t try to run. There’s nowhere to hide. I’ll find you.” He threw the words carelessly over his shoulder.
Penny opened her mouth to protest, but he strode out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him. She heard the lock click. She jumped up awkwardly and surveyed the room, wondering why it was so sparsely furnished. It seemed likely that she was safe from rape. She knew a second of relief until she remembered who he was.
He appeared to be a sociopath, and she knew she was in trouble. There were things worse than rape. He seemed to alternate between transferring his feelings for his first therapist onto her, yet hating her for turning Jerry against him.