Page 112 of Night Hawk
“Smoke,” Clay said and shot a look around. Now was not the time for the stealth approach they’d planned. Now was the time for action.
He burst past Trent and Blake and barreled through the trees. Branches slapped at his body, but he didn’t care. Toni could be in the barn. Or the house. The girls too. And it could be on fire.
If Ursula set this fire, she could also have set the one at the hotel and high school. Could be her choice method to kill.
He had to hurry. Move. He plowed ahead. Reached the clearing and stopped behind a large tree. The small car rented by Sharkey was parked by the house.
“Thank you, God,” he whispered, but lost his voice when he saw fire crackling through the barn wall.
Toni could be in there. So could the girls. No sign of anyone, but a semi-truck sat out front of the barn, and a light shone from the house.
Were the girls in the barn? Toni?
“Rental car’s here,” he whispered to the others who’d come up behind him. “Means Toni’s on the property somewhere. Light at the house. Likely Ursula. Maybe Toni.”
Flames burst through the roof of the barn and high-pitched screams shrieked from inside.
“The girls,” Clay said. “They’re inside. We have to get them out.”
“Someone needs to go to the house to stop Ursula from leaving,” Trent said.
Clay had another choice to make and a split second to make it. Was Toni at the house or in the barn? Ursula obviously wanted Toni dead. So if the barn was on fire, Clay would find Toni there.
“I’ll arrange for backup. Trent got out his phone. “But put them on standby. Don’t want anyone rushing in and alerting Ursula to our presence.”
“Good,” Clay said. Out in this rural area deputies were few and far between and it would be good to have someone waiting if needed.
Trent looked at Clay before he made the call. “You and Blake take the barn. I’ll take the house. I’ll keep my phone on vibrate, so you can update me.”
Clay bolted for the front door. The screams intensified. Girls crying out for his help. His gut clenched over their distress. He grabbed the padlock and shook it, but the heavy-duty lock was bolt-cutter proof. “No way we’re getting this off.”
“Let’s check the sides.” Blake started off.
Clay passed him by as the smoke oozed out of the siding. He shone the beam from his phone’s flashlight along the wall. At the ground. Searching. Hunting. Trying to find a way into the building.
He spotted an old chain-link fence. “I’ll free a post. You find a place where we can wedge it into the building and pry off some of the boards to get in.”
Clay grabbed the post and started working it free. He heard Blake moving by the wall. In the background, the girls cries grew hysterical. Clay offered a frantic prayer.
“Got a spot,” Blake called out.
Clay shimmied the post free and charged toward the light Blake was focusing on a hole. Clay jammed the pole in and pried. He loosened a board and ripped it free but came up against drywall. He’d have to break through that too. He pried a few additional boards loose and rammed the pole through the wallboard. Once. Twice. Three times. Then he backed up and looked inside.
A small apartment. A woman huddling with a boy on the bed. A second woman by the door jamming the handle of a cast iron pan into the wall. She turned.
“Toni! Over here.” He spit the words out between coughs. “I’ll clear a place for you to get out.”
She shook her head. “The girls are in there. I have to get them.”
“I’m coming.” He summoned every ounce of strength to kick a hole large enough to slide into the smoky space. He looked at the woman cradling the boy, covering his mouth and nose with a blanket. “Go out the back.”
She didn’t move. Shock?
“Now, Lisa!” Toni yelled. “You’ll be free.”
Lisa?When she didn’t move, Clay led her to the exit, and handed her and the boy off to Blake. When they were safe, Clay rushed to Toni.
“Stand back,” he shouted and got a chest full of smoke.
