The truck passed her and zoomed ahead. “Well done.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Sure you could have.” Her exit approaching, she put on her blinker and took it.
“Call me when you find Sooner.”
“I will.”
Tears glistened as she hung up, checked her screen to make sure no one had called while she was on with Angie, and then wove through the back streets toward the carnival. As she approached the carnival entrance, she picked up her phone and called Daniel. It rang once. Twice.
“Charlotte.” His deep even voice sounded tired yet chocked with a familiarity shared between people who were intimate.
She could have argued, dismissed, or ignored the tone but didn’t. She loved him. “Have you found her?”
“Not yet, we’re running those prints through AFIS now.”
She parked her car. “No one has seen her?”
“No.”
“Have you found Grady?”
“He’s still missing. We’ve had cruisers at the carnival several times, but no one can find him. The cops walked the grounds, but without a warrant, we can’t search the structures. We should have that warrant in a couple of hours.”
She set her handbrake and turned off the ignition. “Good. Call me if you find something.”
“Charlotte, where are you?”
“I’m at the carnival.”
“What are you doing there?” The urgency rocketed in his voice.
“I’m looking for Grady. And when I find him, I’ll call you.”
“Damn it, Charlotte. Go back home. Stay in your apartment today. Keep the door locked. Unpack. I’ll call you when I have something.”
“I’m not very good at staying put, Daniel.”
His voice dropped to a low growl. “Charlotte, get in your car now and drive home.”
“I can’t do that. I have to find Grady.”
“That’s my job.” He sounded as if he wanted to come through the phone and shake her.
“I know his little tricks and hiding places. I’ll find him before you get your warrant.”
“Exactly. And then I won’t be able to use the evidence.”
“Your warrant has nothing to do with me.”
“Do not go looking for Grady.”
She got out of her car. A breeze blew, chilling her skin. “If it’s any consolation, I think I love you.”
“Charlotte,” he groaned. “Please, go home.”
“I’ll call back in a few minutes.”
She closed the phone and shut it off. The carnival was quiet and all but deserted. The crew would have had a late Friday night and everyone would be sleeping for at least another hour because tonight was the closing and the place would see big crowds.
She spotted Grady’s trailer and moved toward it. She tried the silver, chipped handle but discovered it was locked. “You’re going to have to do better than that, Grady.”
Digging in her purse, she pulled out a metal nail file. Mariah had taught her how to wedge open the lock on Grady’s trailer when they were kids. A couple of times they’d pry open the lock and take beers from the fridge and cigarettes from his desk drawer. Mariah had handled the beer and smokes well. Charlotte, after half a cigarette and some beer, had grown light-headed and nauseated. She’d thrown up several times.
“Good times,” she quipped.
She reached for the lock when she heard the crunch of footsteps behind her. “Ms. Wellington.”
She slid her file between her fingers, a defensive technique she’d learned after the attack several years ago. Slowly, she turned and saw Lonnie White striding toward her. Behind him sat the black SUV she’d noticed following her on the highway.
He jabbed his index finger at her. “I want to talk to you.”
She moved away from the trailer, knowing it cut off one of her avenues of retreat. Keeping her expression neutral, she searched around him for signs of anyone else. They were alone.
“It’s time you and I talked.” Red-rimmed eyes broadcast a hangover, sadness, and anger.
“I don’t have time for you.”
“We need to talk.”
“We have talked. There is nothing else to say.” Her hands trembled as she walked toward her car.
He moved quickly in front of her and blocked her path. “Bullshit. You bitched at me enough, but I didn’t get to say my piece.”
“Sober up, Lonnie, and then we’ll talk.” The sternness behind the words belied her rising fears. She tried to sidestep him.
Lonnie blocked her, curling dirty, rough fingers into a fist. “You saw to it that Samantha went free. She’s a damn witch, and she doesn’t deserve to live, let alone walk the streets free.”
“What did you call her?”
“A goddamned witch. She cast a fucking spell on my brother, and she killed him. Then you used that legal bullshit and made the jury think she was innocent.”
She took a step back. He’d talked about witches and spells. He lived in Raleigh, but he’d been back in Virginia for several weeks. He could have killed those two women in Alexandria.
“Go home, Lonnie. Get some sleep and we will talk later.” She fished in her purse for her phone.
His hand shot out, he grabbed her by the collar, and he tugged hard. She stumbled forward and her phone flew out of her hands and skidded across the hard ground.
In a panic, she drove the flat of her hand into his nose, just as a self-defense instructor had explained. The nose was a sensitive spot, and if hit hard enough, could kill. The force of her strike wasn’t deadly, but the sharp painful jolt would slow him down enough so she could get to her car.
He seized her throat and squeezed. “I’ve been wanting to do this for weeks.”
She clawed at his hands, screamed, and kicked at his shins. He dodged her kicks and tightened his grip. White spots appeared as she grasped for a full breath. Was her life going to end on the grounds of the carnival? Grady would have a laugh over that.
Somewhere her fogged brain registered the thunder of footsteps running toward her. Daniel? Hope exploded. As he got close, she realized her savior wasn’t Daniel but Levi. Where had he come from?
Levi grabbed Lonnie by the back of his head and twisted hard. Lonnie screamed and, now off balance, was forced to release Charlotte’s neck. She sucked in a breath and stumbled back as Lonnie fell to the ground. Levi had Lonnie on the ground and his knee in his back.
“Levi?”
“Yes. You’re fine.”
Lonnie lay on the ground, struggling and squirming. “Let me up. That bitch is gonna pay!”
Levi ground his knee deeper into the man’s spine until Lonnie winced and cried out in pain. “I will break your spine in two before I let you get away.”
Lonnie shouted several expletives but pain forced him to go limp on the ground. “Charlotte, are you all right?”
“Levi. Where did you come from?”
“I brought my kids back out here last nig
ht. My daughter left her coat behind. It’s her favorite. Shit, what are the chances I’d be here?”
“I’m just glad you were.” Her fingers traced long scratches made by Lonnie’s fingernails as he gripped her neck. As adrenaline faded, the wounds grew painful.
“You better get those looked at,” Levi said.
“Yeah. You’re right.”
Lonnie growled. “Let me go. You ain’t a cop and you can’t hold me.”
Levi ground his knee again into Lonnie’s spine.
“And yet I am.”
“I’m gonna sue.”
Levi laughed. “I know a good defense attorney who just might help me out with the case.”
Charlotte nodded. “My services will be free of charge.”
Levi winked at her. “Appreciate it.”
Charlotte spotted her phone on the ground and reached for it. “I’ll call the cops.”
“Open your trunk.”
“Why?”
“I need to stow this bird somewhere.”
“You can’t put me in a car trunk!” Lonnie screamed.
Levi twisted the guy’s thumb until he screamed. “Get in the trunk, or I will break your hand.”
Lonnie screamed when Levi manipulated his thumb backward. He scrambled to his feet and moved toward Charlotte’s BMW as she hurried ahead and fumbled for her keys. With a shaking hand, she opened the trunk. The rising trunk blocked her view of Lonnie and Levi for a moment, and she used the interlude to run a shaking hand through her hair and gather her wits.
Thankfully, Daniel had not been the one to rescue her. He’d have been upset and she sensed he wouldn’t have been afraid to lecture. At least Levi didn’t have an emotional stake in her life, so he would be cool.
As she tried to calm herself, she heard a grunt and the whoosh of air. She moved around the open trunk door and saw Levi moving toward her. Blood covered his hands.
She glanced at him and then at Lonnie, who now lay on the ground in a thickening pool of his own blood.
“Levi?”
He jumped forward, and before she could process the situation, he drove a needle into her arm and jammed his thumb down on the plunger.