Her Broken Wings by D.K. Hood
Twenty-Eight
Shots rang out and a tree beside the truck shattered into a million pieces. Wood splinters rained down on the truck in a strange brown dust.
“Dammit!” Jenna scanned the area, looking for the shooter. “Get us out of here.”
More shots peppered the ground, sending up plumes of dust. “Move it, Kane. With the sun in my eyes, I can’t see if it’s coming from the ridge. We’re sitting ducks here. Go, go, go.”
“Hold tight. This is gonna be rough.” Kane spun the wheel and hit the gas.
As the truck reversed at speed, Jenna ducked down and gripped the seat. The engine roared as they flew backward, bumping over the uneven driveway. “Did you make out the shooter?”
“No.” Kane had turned to look out the back window. “Rifle, from the west I figure.”
Jenna looked up at his grim face. “Get us out of range. Head back to the ranch. We’ll suit up and get backup.”
The truck rotated and rocked for a second and then, wheels spinning in the dirt, careered down the driveway. Trees rushed by in a blur and the truck bounced like a bucking bronco as Kane maneuvered over the deep grooves. Thrown forward, Jenna hit her head on the console but held on for dear life as the world turned again. The truck seemed to rise at the front as Kane pushed it to full speed. They slid onto the highway, drifting around the corner and fishtailing in a scream of tires as he accelerated away from the carnage. A wave of nausea hit her and she looked up at Kane’s combat face. “We good?”
“If he’s on the ridge, we will be once we make our driveway.” Kane didn’t take his eyes off the road.
“I’ll call the cavalry.” Jenna eased her cellphone out of her pocket and called Rowley. “Shots fired. We need backup, my ranch. No sirens. Call Wolfe. Tell him to bring Webber and pack for bear. Wear full gear including com packs. We have a mass murder at the Old Mitcham Ranch.”
“Holy cow. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Move it.” Jenna disconnected.
“Okay, we’re coming up to our gate now.” Kane slowed to make the ninety-degree turn and then hit the brakes, waiting for the gate to swing open.
Jenna pushed up and rubbed her forehead. “Okay, what is your take on the scene? It sure looked like a mass murder to me.”
“From what I could see, the men on the porch are all headshots. I’d say the killer allowed the woman to bleed out. The blood is fresh.”
Jenna stared at him open-mouthed. “Your eyesight is obviously better than mine. Could she still be alive?”
“Nope.” Kane pulled up outside her ranch and rubbed his thumb over the bruise on her forehead. “Sorry about that, it’s just a bruise.”
Jenna batted his hand away and glared at him. “You had a few seconds to take in the scene, how could you possibly know she was dead?” She touched the throbbing egg on her forehead with trembling fingers. “I only figured out they were people and not store mannequins from the smell.”
“I’ve seen a lot of death, Jenna, and I recognized the woman. Her throat was cut.” Kane’s expression was grim. “She was the new girl at Aunt Betty’s. I think her name is Ruby.”
Horrified, Jenna swallowed hard. “Jesus. What kind of lunatic are we dealing with now?”
“If he’s the same man who murdered the others, unpredictable and escalating fast.” Kane gave her a concerned look. “We’ll probably need an army to take this one down.”
Jenna had never seen Kane this on edge, and a wave of anxiety slid over her. “It’s never easy.” She cleared her throat. “Get your gear, backup is on the way.”
Although she’d handled many murders in her time in Black Rock Falls, it didn’t get any easier. She hadn’t become hardened to seeing mutilated bodies, and under the bravado of leadership, she still had to conquer her fear and force her legs to move. “I’ll suit up and then tell Mr. Dickson to go home. From the smell, he’s already fired up the incinerator.” She slid from the vehicle and then went around the back to collect her new liquid Kevlar vest and helmet.
“Why? We need that work done.” Kane joined her.
Jenna pulled on the vest and then shrugged. “Dickson doesn’t like dogs and Duke doesn’t like him, so you can’t leave them together.”
“Okay, Duke can stay in the truck.” Kane assembled a rifle in seconds and laid it in the back. “I’m ready.”
Wolfe’s ringtone chimed on Jenna’s phone. “We’re safe, Shane. What’s your ETA?”
“I was on the way to my office. I’ll be there in ten.” Wolfe disconnected.
Jenna looked at Kane. “Ten minutes. We’ll do an equipment check.”
They spent the next few minutes stuffing useful items into their pockets. Jenna went inside the house to exchange her buff-colored Stetson for a black woolen hat. As she went down the steps and headed for Kane’s truck, she caught sight of movement near the barn. She heaved a sigh of relief when she spotted Dickson coming from around the back.
“Is there a problem?” Dickson limped toward them. “Anything I can do to help?”
Jenna turned to look at him. “Nothing to concern you, Mr. Dickson. We’re just picking up a few things.” When he nodded and headed back to the barn, she took one of the rifles out of the gun locker in the back of Kane’s truck and checked it. “Hand me some spare clips.” She shoved them in her pockets. “Let’s go, we’ll wait at the gate for the others.”
She climbed back into the truck and waited for Kane. He was staring at his phone and passed it to her as he climbed behind the wheel. She glanced at the screen. It was the CCTV feed from the front gate. “Ah, good thinking.”
“Did anyone follow us?” Kane headed down the driveway.
Jenna took the recording back to when Dickson arrived at the gate. She could see them leave and return but no one else had used the road since they’d arrived home. “No, and I wouldn’t expect to see many people. The guy that owns the snowplow and brine spreaders is the only other person who uses this road, and he’s in Florida. There is access overland, even from here. There are tracks all over, left from when the Old Mitcham Ranch was split up. Most of the ranches use them to move livestock.”
“What about the crew working on the Old Mitcham Ranch?” Kane waited for the gate to creak open and then drove through and pulled out onto the road. “They’d be back and forth collecting supplies.”
The sight of the dead bodies set up on the porch shuddered into Jenna’s memory. She rewound the feed a full twenty-four hours, and apart from her and Kane, no one had passed. “The shooter must be one of the men working on-site.”
“Unless they know about the dirt roads. You can get to town via the other ranches if I recall?” Kane took his phone from her and slid it inside his pocket.
“Yeah, apart from mine there are three ranches over the hill. They all have dirt roads that lead to the highway. I would imagine I’m the only owner who has a perimeter alarm system, and they didn’t set off any of our alarms, so they came from a different direction. Since the last owners sold the land, I have no idea if anyone uses the old tracks anymore.” Jenna turned in her seat. “Here comes the cavalry.”
“How do you want to play this?” Kane looked at her.
Jenna thought for a moment; she had a tactical professional in Kane and yet he asked her opinion. “We should split into two teams. We take the front with Rowley, head up beside the trailers, and Wolfe and Webber go around back of the ranch house and come in from there. Any suggestions?”
“I’m not sure we’d have enough cover for a frontal approach. The shooter could be holed up in one of the trailers, or the barn.” Kane turned and looked at her. “Or maybe he was using a hunting rifle from up on the ridge. We’ve been shot at from there before.”
Jenna nodded. “Okay, I’ve got a better idea.” She slid from the seat as Rowley pulled up behind them and Wolfe stopped his van in the middle of the road. Webber jumped out, rifle in hand. She waited for the men to gather. “Okay, we have four men with gunshot wounds to the head, one woman with her throat cut. No one has left or visited the ranch in the last twenty-four hours so we have to assume the shooter is on scene or has escaped overland.” She turned to Wolfe. “Webber is with you. Head up the road with caution, don’t slow down, go past the ranch. There’s a trail just on the bend; you can park there and come in on foot around the back of the house. Use your coms to keep in touch.” She turned to Rowley. “You’re with us. Leave your truck here. There’s a dirt road just before the Old Mitcham Ranch’s driveway which leads to the paddock at the back of the barn. We’ll go in from there and use the barn for cover.” She looked at Kane and noticed a slight nod of approval. “This way, if the shooter is there, he won’t know we’re coming.”
“If there’s one shooter.” Kane frowned. “From the carnage it could be two. I made out single headshots but that was from a distance.”
Jenna nodded. “Okay, move out and stay safe.” She looked at them one by one. “We could be facing a psychopath responsible for homicides across the country. No heroics, he won’t give you a second chance. Shoot to kill.”