I heard a chilling, whirring roar start up that sounded like nails being ground up and spit out.

“Daddy!” Hallie’s voice came on. “He’s going to kill me, Daddy! Daddy, you have to help me, please . . .”

“Hallie, you just hold on!” I shouted back, my guts wrenching. My fingers wrapped around the metal pipe.

“Hear her, Doc?” Hofer came back on. “She’s saying you better get here quick, ’cause all the fun . . .” The saw blade started to whir again, and Hofer elevated his voice above it. “It’s happening now!”

I almost lost it, hearing Hallie’s cries. I couldn’t wait for Carrie anymore.

She would be too late.

“Hey,” Hofer said, almost cackling, “don’t you want me to tell you where we are?”

I didn’t need to know.

It was happening now!

I ran. I clicked off the phone and grabbed the pipe, rage and desperation and fear all jumbled up inside me.

I sprinted out of the woods, heading for the shed’s door.

I had no idea what I might have to face in there. If Hofer had a gun, he could just blow me away. I figured I had one thing going for me and that was the element of surprise. If I was even figuring . . . I wasn’t thinking of anything except saving my daughter.

Then I heard her scream.

I yelled out, “Hallie! God help you if you’ve hurt her. . . .” Tears flashed in my eyes.

I reached the door, my mind and blood a rampage of wanting to kill him. I bolted through, rearing the pipe above my head, ready to swing at anything that moved.

I saw Hallie—fear and anguish and now shock all over her beautiful face—bound to a kind of bench. A trickle of blood ran down her chin, but otherwise she seemed okay. For a split second our eyes met and it was one of the happiest sights of my life. But then it all fell apart as she screamed in terror, “Daddy, watch out!”

I spun, wildly swinging the heavy pipe behind me, hoping to connect with Hofer.

Instead all I felt was a bludgeoning blow to the back of my skull, and my knees buckling, blackness filling my head. I found myself on the floor. I fixed on my daughter and a biting fear ran through me that I had let her down.

And then Hofer stepping over me as I blacked out completely.

“Well, now, we’re just one big happy family now, aren’t we, Doc?”

Chapter Seventy-Two

My eyes opened foggily. My head was ringing, the sound alternately loud and pounding, and then distant like in an echo chamber. I didn’t know how much time had passed. I was propped up against a wall. I blinked, pain throbbing in my head—then it all came back to me.

Hofer.

Hallie.

Why I was here. I raised myself up, jolted by this body-shaking spasm of dread.

Then I heard his voice.

“I wouldn’t get any ideas, Doc. Not unless you want to see your little girl here dead.”

The first thing I saw was Hallie, which for a moment felt like heaven to me. She still seemed okay. The next thing was Hofer, positioned directly behind her on the bench, which I suddenly realized was the feeder bench for a circular saw, a gun to the back of my baby’s head.

She was trembling. A trickle of blood ran down her chin. “Daddy, listen to him. Do what he says. He’s crazy . . .”

“She’s right. At least, about the ‘listen to him’ part. The rest . . .” He shrugged. “That you’ll have to decide yourself.”

“Let her go,” I said to him, shifting in pain. I wasn’t bound. Just leaned beside the wall against the leg of a worktable. My eyes shot around, looking for something I might use if I had to. I saw an ax, hanging on a Peg-Board. A hammer. Both were far out of reach. “It’s me you wanted. I’m here. Let her go. She hasn’t done anything to you.”

“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, Doc. In fact, she’s done everything to me. So tell me, just how did you manage to find me?”

“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “Blind luck.”

“Don’t push me, Doc.” His face went blank and he dug the gun into the back of Hallie’s skull.

She winced, shutting her eyes, tears escaping from them. “Daddy, please . . . Don’t let him do it. Please.”

“No,” I begged. “Hofer, don’t . . . In the name of God . . .”

He wagged his gun at me. I assumed it was the gun that killed Martinez and Mike. “You oughta recognize this little baby, Doc. You the one who bought it, right?” He laughed. “Well, I’m not surprised—I figured that would be the first thing that came out. You have to admit, I did have you all going there for a while, huh? All those things fit together just like honey and a bee. That thing about you in college, at that swimming hole . . . Lord in heaven, how could I even make that one up? So how did you find me? And don’t bullshit me, now”—he winked—“unless you want to find your girl’s brains all over your lap.”

I made a sudden move, and Hofer raised an eyebrow warningly, motioning me back against the wall with his chin.

“Your daughter. I went to see her,” I said. “In prison. I posed as a lawyer and told her I had something for you. A monetary settlement. I said I couldn’t find you, and she told me you might be here.”

“Settlement?” Hofer grinned, as if amused. “So where is it? Show me the money?”

I just looked at him.

“Shit, there weren’t no money . . .” He grunted, curling a sly grin. “Damn, they will shit on you if you give ’em the chance. The women . . . Nothing you can do about it. You sure you don’t want me to blow her head off right now and . . .”

He cocked the gun and Hallie shut her eyes and squealed.

“No.” I started to lunge toward him. “No. No, please . . .” Tears filled my eyes. “I’m begging you . . . I called the police. There’s no way out. Let her go. Let her go and take me. They’ll be here any second.”

“No matter.” Hofer shrugged dully, evincing a slight smile. “Let ’em come. It’s over for me anyway.”

He looked at me, and for the first time I saw with aching clarity just where this was leading. Where it had been leading from the start. What had begun as a twisted but fatherly attempt to right the wrongs he believed had befallen his daughter had now just fallen into a free fall descent into malice and self-destruction.

“So what do we do?” I looked back at him.

“I don’t know . . . Sit back. Wait a spell. Trust me, you’re in for quite a sight.” He pressed the pedal with his foot and the large saw blade spun into motion. Hallie jerked forward, pulled along on the feeder bench. She let out a scream, terror flashing in her eyes, her arms suddenly dragged toward the blade, held back only by Hofer. “Daddy!”

“Stop!” I shouted, lurching toward her. I had to get her out, and I had to do it now. Hofer shifted the gun toward me. I felt like hate bubbled to the surface out of every pore on me, but there was nothing I could do other than have him shoot me down. I felt shame and anger thinking he had outwitted me. “Please, don’t, no,” I begged, hot tears burning my eyes.

Hofer lifted his foot and caught Hallie by the shoulder. He grinned, all pink in the face and seemingly pleased with the entertainment.

I exhaled a breath, grateful for the momentary reprieve.

I looked at Hallie, who was now sobbing, helpless and afraid, trying my best to convey some ray of hope to her. I looked around the shed and focused on that ax. I’d be shot, I knew, but maybe I could somehow get to him first and free Hallie. I wasn’t going to let him kill us without a fight.

“I love you, peanut,” I said to Hallie.

She forced a terrified smile through her tears. “I love you too, Daddy.”

I inhaled a final breath, seeing the gun at my daughter’s back, Hofer’s foot bobbing on the pedal, his eyes empty of anything but insane gloating and the urge to see me die.