Magnum Force Man Read online

  The Facility.

  The pounding in Jack’s head intensified. For a moment, the world spun out of control and he stumbled, almost losing his balance before he could grab the porch railing to regain his equilibrium.

  Just as quickly as it had come, the memory faded, leaving him with only faint traces of what had been there before. But already new information was being imprinted over those traces. He closed his eyes and called forth the image of Claudia that had drawn him to her.

  Standing with her back to the edge of a cliff, she reached out to him, and then her arms flailed wildly as she lost her footing. She screamed his name and he lunged toward her.

  For a split second—for an eternity—their gazes clung before she toppled backward and disappeared.

  Chapter Fourteen

  When Jack came back into the house, he went straight over to the fireplace to warm his hands. Claudia caught only a brief glimpse of his face, but she thought he definitely looked troubled.

  As well you should. I’m on to you, buddy.

  Although if her hunch was right, he had his own problems and she really did feel bad for him. God only knew what had put him in such an unstable state.

  Still, she wasn’t about to let down her guard, even in the face of what she had discovered. She remained at her desk, but swiveled her chair so that she could watch him. The gun stayed in her pocket, within easy reach, but she wasn’t really afraid of him anymore.

  What did she feel?

  A little devastated, to be honest, because he wasn’t the protector he’d professed himself to be. Just a poor guy caught up in his own delusions.

  Until that Google search, Claudia hadn’t realized how much she’d been hoping he would turn out to be one of the good guys. She’d had no idea how utterly alone and abandoned she could feel until she found out the truth. Which was crazy because she’d been on her own for a long time. She knew no one was coming to her rescue. This was it. This was her life now.

  “I’ve been on the Internet this morning,” she said in a conversational tone. “And I’ve turned up some pretty interesting information.”

  He turned to face her, his gaze going to the desk behind her. “You used the computer?”

  “That’s normally how you get on the Internet,” she said. “Do you want to see what I found?”

  He hesitated, then nodded, already a little leery of something he’d seen in her eyes or heard in her voice. He walked over to her desk and waited.

  “I did a Google search on Coronet Blue,” she said.

  He didn’t offer so much as a flicker of recognition, and Claudia wondered if he’d already forgotten mentioning the phrase to her the night before. He also didn’t appear to comprehend what she meant by a Google search.

  Made sense. She doubted he’d had access to a computer where he’d been.

  “Do you remember talking about Coronet Blue last night?” she asked as she returned to the page she’d read a few minutes earlier.

  “Yes.”

  She nodded to the picture of the man who appeared on her screen. “Do you recognize him?”

  He knelt beside her as a little frown puckered the skin between his brows. “His name is Michael Alden.”

  “That’s right. Well, sort of. He’s an actor. Michael Alden is the name of the character he played on a TV series that aired back in 1967 called Coronet Blue.”

  She shot him a sidelong glance but he didn’t react. “In the show, Michael had amnesia. All he could remember was running from a group of men intent on killing him, and the words coronet blue.” She clicked off the page and turned to him. “You’ve seen this show, haven’t you, Jack?”

  He was silent, his gaze glued to the computer screen.

  Claudia tried to keep her voice soft and non-threatening. “Wherever you came from, you’ve obviously been exposed to some old television shows.” She thought of his absorption the night before in The Brady Bunch episode. “When you came to last night, you remembered that phrase and that’s why you thought I was in danger.”

  He was still staring at the computer screen. He seemed mesmerized, almost as if her voice had sent him into a deep trance.

  “Jack?”

  He still didn’t speak. His eyes were riveted to the monitor, but Claudia had a feeling he wasn’t really seeing the screen. She reached out a hand to touch his arm, then thought better of it.

  “Hey, are you okay?”

  His eyelids fluttered as he seemed to shake himself out of the trance. He drew a long, shuddering breath. “I’ve seen him.”

  “What, you mean Michael Alden? I’m sure you have. On TV, right?”

  “No. Here.” He touched his fingertip to his temple.

  Oh, dear.

  Claudia bit her lip. Maybe showing him the image of the actor hadn’t been such a hot idea after all, but she’d hoped it would jar his memory. Then she would at least know who he was and what to do with him.

  “You’ve seen this actor in your head?”

  “Not the actor. The boy.”

  “What boy?” Claudia was clueless. What on earth was he talking about?

  He lifted his hand and pointed to the computer screen.

  Puzzled, she swiveled her chair around. Closing the tab to the Coronet Blue site had taken her back to the news site. The image on the screen was of a ten-year-old boy who’d disappeared on a family outing in the woods a few weeks ago. He was one of a handful of youths who’d vanished without a trace in the past several months. Even with all the modern advancements in crime scene investigation, the police and the FBI continued to be stymied by the lack of forensic evidence and eye witness accounts in the cases.

  “I’ve seen the boy,” he said again.

  There was something so odd about the tone of his voice—even more than his statement—that stirred a deep uneasiness inside Claudia. He’d seen the missing boy? When, where? How was it possible unless…

  No!

  Oh, God, that was too horrendous to even contemplate.

  She tried to take her mind someplace else. Far better to believe that he really did possess precognitive abilities.

  Or that he was making the whole thing up.

  Or that he was just plain crazy.

  Get him out of your house! her mind screamed as all her fears and doubts came flooding back.

  Whether he was dangerous or demented or a little of both, Claudia had no idea at that moment. All she knew was that she had to be very careful how she handled him.

  She swallowed as the blood in her veins turned to ice. “You saw the boy? Where?”

  He tapped his head again.

  “You mean like in a vision or a dream?”

  He nodded.

  Claudia turned back to the screen. The missing child was towheaded and freckle-faced with liquid eyes and a sweet, mischievous smile.

  His parents must be going out of their minds.

  She could hardly imagine the hell they were in, fearing the worst but clinging to every last vestige of hope.

  So many monsters in the world. So very many.

  She turned back to Jack. Was he one of them?

  She tried to control her panic. “If you know anything about this child, you have to tell the authorities. I’ll drive you into town and you can talk to someone at the police department.”

  His gaze lifted, trapping her with his intensity. “They won’t believe me.”

  Claudia pushed back her chair and rose. “We still have to try. You’ll have to find a way to convince them. If you know where this boy is—”

  “I don’t. Not him.”

  She sat back down, her heart hammering in her chest. “But you said you’ve seen him. There must be something you can tell the authorities about his whereabouts.”

  “I didn’t see this one. I saw the other one.”

  “One of the other missing boys?” Claudia didn’t know whether to believe him or not. Nothing he said made much sense.

  “He’s wearing a blue coat and a red cap…” His voice t
railed off as his eyes narrowed. “There’s an emblem on the hat.” He looked around, grabbed a pen and notepad from her desk and started to frantically sketch. “Like this.”

  Claudia snatched the notepad from him. “That looks like the Chicago Bulls emblem.” She pulled one up on the screen and compared it to his drawing. “Is this it?”

  “Yes.”

  The missing boy in his vision wore a Bulls cap. Yet another connection to her past life in Chicago? Claudia didn’t want to think about that right now.

  “So where is this boy, the one wearing the cap? Who has him and how can we find him?”

  Jack tore his gaze from the screen. His eyes were dark, bleak, haunted. “No one has him yet. But they’ll come for him soon. And I know where he’ll be when they take him. If we don’t get to him first…”

  A shadow dropped over his features, and Claudia found that her breath was trapped in her throat. She struggled to regain her composure.

  He put a hand on her arm. “We have to find him. We have to save him. There’s no one else. Just us.”

  The knot of fear in her stomach was like a lead weight. Was he telling the truth? She had no idea. But at that moment, something in his eyes made her want to give him the benefit of the doubt because this was no longer about her. If a child was about to be taken—a boy who might one day have the same haunted look in his eyes as this stranger—she had to do everything in her power to save him.

  She shoved the notepad back into his hands. “Can you draw the child?”

  He took the pad and she watched in fascination as his hand moved over the paper. When he was finished, he handed it back to her and she stared down at the image. This boy had dark hair, dark eyes, a scar above his right eyebrow. He looked to be around the same age as the missing boy in the photograph. Their features were as different as night and day, and yet, if she could believe Jack, they were both targets of a monster.

  “This is him? The kid in your vision?”

  “Yes.”

  She gave him a hard, penetrating look. “If you’re lying to me about this…”

  “I’m telling you the truth,” he said as he put a hand to the side of his neck. “If we don’t find him in time…” His voice dropped. “He could end up like me.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Tense and strangely excited, Claudia gripped the wheel as the SUV glided down a hill and rounded a sharp curve. They passed the spot where the tree had come down the night before, and she slowed for the crewmen who were still busy with chainsaws at the side of the road.

  “Do we even know where we’re going?” she asked as she turned on the wipers to clear the layer of mist that settled over the windshield.

  Jack thought for a moment. “West.”

  She shot him an uneasy glance. Ever since they’d left the cabin, his behavior had been odd, even for him. He’d withdrawn even deeper into his own thoughts and Claudia didn’t have a clue what was going on inside his head. She wasn’t at all sure she wanted to know.

  At least heading west would take them into Rapid City. Once there, she could decide what to do.

  She knew what she should do. Drive straight to the police department. If Jack really did have information about a missing child—or rather a child who was about to go missing—the authorities needed to be alerted.

  But he was right. Such a warning posed a big problem. Would the police give him the benefit of the doubt or would they be all too willing to smack the crazy label on him the way she’d done?

  He is crazy, a little voice in her head argued as she gave him a sidelong scrutiny. Has to be. Don’t believe it? Just take stock:

  Dashing into the middle of the road in a rainstorm—crazy.

  Insisting he had come to save her—crazy.

  Believing he was a character from an old TV show—crazy out the wazoo.

  Claiming he had precognitive abilities—not so crazy, but the authorities wouldn’t see it that way. If they didn’t ship him off to a psychiatric ward, they’d at least hold him for questioning on the chance that he might actually know something about the disappearances. In the meantime, if he was telling the truth, if he really had seen a vision about the next kidnapping, time was of the essence and going to the police might be the worst thing they could possibly do.

  How did I get myself into this mess? Claudia silently bemoaned.

  But even as she cursed herself for being so gullible, she also felt a curious exhilaration, as if she were on the verge of a thrilling discovery. Maybe it was time to take a few chances and trust that her luck hadn’t yet run out altogether.

  She risked another glance at Jack and caught him staring back at her. The look on his face—those dark, fathomless eyes—quickened her breath and she quickly averted her gaze back to the road.

  The day was utterly still with mist clinging to the treetops and swirling like a dancer’s filmy skirt around the car. The hushed softness cocooned them in lush velvet, and for a moment, it seemed to Claudia that they had left the road and were floating in some esoteric, dreamlike world. Then the tires thundered across a wooden bridge and brought her rudely back to earth.

  She sat rigid in the seat, eyes darting occasionally to the rearview mirror. The closer they got to Rapid City, the tenser she became, and her hands tightened on the wheel in an agony of indecision. What to do, what to do?

  Even as they entered the city limits, she still vacillated. She knew exactly where the police station was located because she’d pinpointed it, along with the nearest hospital, as soon as she arrived in the area. She could head to either of those places right now, drop off Jack Maddox and just keep driving.

  Maybe she wouldn’t even go back to the cabin. She’d stashed emergency cash and supplies in various locations. She could disappear yet again, start over somewhere else, forget about the stranger and his outlandish claim that a child was in danger.

  But what if he was telling the truth?

  What if another boy really was about to be taken…and she and Jack were the only ones who could stop the kidnapping?

  As preposterous as it sounded, Claudia couldn’t quite dismiss the possibility. Something about that flash of horror in Jack’s eyes…the fear and desperation in his voice…

  If we don’t stop them, he could end up like me.

  A man who didn’t like memories.

  The bottom of her stomach dropped as the road dipped and swelled beneath them. She closed her eyes briefly and let out a breath. No matter how much she might wish to, she couldn’t ignore Jack’s claim. Not when a child might be involved. Not when Jack himself seemed so tormented.

  Despite all her fears, Claudia knew she had to see this through. She had no choice. But she would be on guard every second. If he tried anything, she was armed and fully prepared to take him down.

  As if reading her thoughts, he turned his head slowly and their gazes met yet again. Claudia felt that same eerie prickle of recognition.

  Who was he and why did she feel so drawn to him?

  Maybe it’s just the loneliness, she tried to convince herself.

  She’d been on her own for a long time, even before her move to the Black Hills. Her father had died when she was a child, her mother during Claudia’s first year of college. She was accustomed to the solitude. Loneliness had been a part of her life for as long as she could remember, and she’d learned how to keep the worst of it at bay. But a stranger’s abrupt arrival in her life had opened a door, painfully reminding her that self-reliance—no matter how necessary—wasn’t always enough.

  She drew another breath, letting her decision sink in. Where all this was headed, she had no idea. But she had the uncanny feeling that it was out of her hands now. All of it. Her destiny had already been altered by the man sitting beside her.

  “Where to now?” she asked softly as she navigated the streets.

  He said nothing for a moment as his gaze drifted from hers to the surrounding scenery. “Southwest. Toward the faces.”

  She stared at him in
surprise as they pulled up to a traffic light. “Faces? You mean Mount Rushmore?”

  He seemed to blank out for a moment as he closed his eyes and she saw him shudder. The traffic noises faded, and it seemed to Claudia that the world came to a complete stop along with the vehicle.

  She waited, breathless, as a chill lifted the hair at her nape. “What’s wrong? What else do you see?” She spoke hesitantly, reluctant to admit, even with her history, that he had the power to foresee future events. Because if he really had come to save her—

  She glanced away. Maybe she wasn’t ready to accept that quite yet.

  He took another moment, then opened his eyes, staring straight ahead. “We need to hurry.”

  That was it. That was all he said, but something in his tone instilled a deep sense of urgency in Claudia. Without thinking, she tromped the accelerator and the vehicle blasted through the intersection as if the devil himself was on their heels.

  Glancing in the rearview mirror yet again, she saw that the road behind them was clear.

  Maybe because the devil is right here in the car with me.

  CLAUDIA HAD BEEN TO Mount Rushmore a couple of times when she first moved to the area, and though it had never been at the top of her list of places to visit and things to do before she died, she’d been struck by the rugged beauty and grandeur of the sculpture against the majestic backdrop of pristine mountain vistas and dense coniferous forests.

  After her first visit, she’d made a point of reading up on the history and had come across a few fascinating details, such as the secret chamber behind the sculpture and the nearby unexplored caverns. She supposed being a hunted woman had naturally ignited her interest in hiding places.

  She climbed out of the car and shivered in the chilly air as she tugged on her thermal gloves. Since Jack had nothing to ward off the damp cold except a lightweight jacket, she felt a bit guilty for bundling up. But not shamed enough to shed any of her warm layers. What would be the point in both of them freezing? Resolutely, she pulled up the hood of her parka.