Page 98 of Whispers at Dusk
But he broke off. He could hear that someone was near him. Dante was ahead of him and he didn’t seem to be working with accomplices. It had to be law enforcement.
“It’s me, Edmund Taylor,” a voice said. “I think I see you. I’m almost at your location. I’ll get the girl and get her to help. You get to that shack or...whatever it is. We’ll need EMTs ready to take her, and—”
“Get Fremont on the radio. He’ll get help here,” Mason said. “I’m trying to make sure she’s not still bleeding... She’s lost a tremendous amount of blood!”
“I’m coming in close, too,” Jeanne Lapierre said. “And I’ve got the radio going. Fremont is near us, too. He’ll know how to get her to help the fastest way. Mason, keep moving.”
“I can’t just leave—”
“I’m here.”
Mason heard the words through his earbuds and through the air. Edmund Taylor had made it to his position.
“I’ve got the girl,” Taylor assured him. “Move in. I think we’re running out of time. We’ll get her to help and sweep around the whatever that is in the middle of the trees.”
“Thank you,” Mason said. He nodded grimly to Taylor and started back through the trees. He didn’t think Dante would be watching for him. The man had thought he’d known them so well. Yes, they would have figured out who he was.
But in his mind, he was convinced law enforcement would be searching every property and spit of land that had been owned by the Dante family.
Mason moved silently, taking his time to make sure branches didn’t snap, and his travels through the last of the brush, tangling grasses and trees didn’t announce his arrival.
There was a door still on the place, but it had been erected from logs, and there weren’t windows in the structure, at least none that he could see. Odd. Some light probably filtered in because of the cracks and chips in the wooden walls of the structure. But not at the front, anyway.
Mason made his way carefully and silently around the house, listening to the conversation inside.
“You haven’t answered my question!” Della said.
“France, yes, I enjoyed every minute of the lovely lass I met there! She was all sass, a pretty flirt, a tease, until she imbibed my special concoction. And then I walked her out of the bar so easily and to my rental car and then...” Dante broke off with a satisfied laugh.
“You are remarkable. I mean, most men would have needed hideouts everywhere,” Della said.
“Have medical bag, will travel. Oh, and it works a few ways. People in general make way for a man walking around with a medical bag. Doctors do command respect.”
“Usually,” Della murmured.
Mason had made his way around the first corner of the place. The brush grew so tightly around it he had to tear at vines to continue.
But he found a window. Carefully looking in, he saw the two young women in the chairs by Della. Both were slumped over.
Both had needles in their arms.
He saw the glass containers collecting the blood by their feet and the tubes that carried blood from their throats and down to the containers.
He watched them drip.
Thank God their blood was dripping slowly! But then, how long had they been losing their blood? The containers were filling up.
Dante was hunkered down in front of Della, holding her Glock. Pointing it at her heart.
Gideon stood worriedly by her side.
Mason was afraid to speak; he might be heard inside no matter how quietly he tried to whisper. But when Della pressed Dante for an answer on the killings in England, the man gave her his full attention.
“Ah, London town! London, Big Ben, the Thames! Hey, you know, I do love castles. Castle Bran is so cool, I thought you’d enjoy it, but hey, you figured out I’d never use the standing castle as my display area... You never got to see it, right? You rushed here. Because you could have been my soulmate. Oh, well. So—”
“You brought in an idiot in Kirkwall, too. You’re not always the best judge.”
“Bear in mind, you have to find just the right people. And to stay ahead, I had to move like wildfire. Which, of course, I did. Really well.”
