Classified K-9 Unit Christmas. Lenora Worth

years old. College student who grew up in Helena and worked for former State Senator Richard Slaton. She’d moved away from Helena this year but went home to visit her parents for Christmas. They’ve verified that and said she had left a message that she was spending the night with a friend. That was night before last. They’re on their way here.” Dylan hurried off and then turned back around. “Oh, and don’t mention the other girls to her yet. We’re still trying to establish if they’re connected. She could voluntarily fill in the blanks.”

      “Got it. We’re on our way to investigate.” Nina turned to Thomas. “Ready to question our witness?”

      “Been ready,” he said, grabbing his coat.

      Soon, they were in Nina’s SUV headed east to the Billings Medical Center.

      “How’d you sleep?” Nina asked, recalling how she’d tossed and turned and had nightmares the entire three hours she’d tried to sleep.

      “Like a baby,” he quipped with a wry smile. “I was exhausted after that long drive from Texas.”

      “Why’d you drive across the country in the dead of winter?”

      “I like long drives. Helps me think. Plus I was trying to track Russo’s every step so I could establish that he drove here, too. Found some rental cars he’d used here and there, but nothing concrete. So you didn’t see or hear him leaving in a vehicle last night?”

      Nina shook her head and merged into traffic. “Nope. He ran away, headed into the woods. I still don’t get it. He could have shot me, too.”

      “Maybe Sam distracted him. Sam would have gone after him, don’t you think?”

      “Possibly. I’m sure he’d have brought down the man. But I was worried that he’d shoot Sam and return to finish the job. Why do you think he ran like that?”

      “He panicked. He wasn’t expecting anyone to stumble on the scene.”

      “Yes. Sam and I did surprise him. I know the woods beyond that spot and across the stream are on private property. Someone owns a hunting lodge up there. He could have hidden in it, possibly, but until we find out who owns that place, we can’t get a warrant to look.”

      “But he shot at you—shot at us—last night,” Thomas reminded her. “And missed. Russo’s trained never to miss. Something’s not right about this whole thing.”

      “I’m kind of glad he missed,” Nina replied, wondering what was bugging Thomas. “So...we both think something’s off here, right?”

      “He’s after Kelly. We’ll have to watch the hospital. He might be trying to distract us while he moves in on her.”

      “We do have her surrounded,” Nina said. “Agents twenty-four/seven, guarding her room.”

      “I hope that will keep Russo away.”

      Thomas didn’t sound so confident, but they were dealing with a trained assassin. Nina couldn’t blame the marshal for being concerned. “Remember, for all he knows she’s dead. We only broadcasted that we were looking for him. Not that he’d tried to kill someone.”

      “But that kind of news tends to leak,” Thomas replied. “We might need to move her, and quickly.”

      They made it to the hospital without incident and were inside safe and sound in under an hour.

      After getting permission from the hospital staff to interrogate Kelly Denton, they went into her room. The guard at the door was a massive sheriff deputy. No one would get past that man.

      Nina approached the pale young girl, remembering her there in the moonlight last night. The bullet had just missed her heart and had become lodged in her left shoulder, but the surgery had gone as well as could be expected. Her prognosis was good, barring the killer didn’t come back. Now if they could match that bullet the surgeon had dug out to the gun that shot her, they’d have an idea what kind of weapon the killer was carrying. A stretch, but something to hope for.

      “Kelly, do you remember me?” Nina asked, hoping the girl would recognize her.

      She moved her head and stared with bleary eyes. “I... I don’t know.”

      “I saw you last night with that man...”

      The girl’s face turned deadly pale and all the numbers and graphs on the monitor jittered and changed. “He tried to kill me.”

      “I know,” Nina said, glancing to where Thomas stood by the closed drapery over the window. “I was jogging and I came upon you.”

      “You saved my life.”

      “I tried to stop him,” Nina said. “But he shot at me and he did shoot you.” Touching Kelly’s hand, she said, “Can you tell us how you wound up with him, so far from Helena?”

      “He...he took me when I was walking to my car,” the girl said, her whispers full of fear. “I’d just left a restaurant. He was waiting with an open van and he had a gun.”

      Nina wrote down the name of the place. “And he drove you here to Billings?”

      “Yes, he tied me up and put a blindfold on me. I was in the back—a small van.”

      “Do you know the color or model?”

      “No. He shoved me inside and put the blindfold on me and then tied me up. I couldn’t get to my purse or phone.” She tried to sit up, her eyes wild now. “Where is my phone? I need my phone.”

      “We didn’t find your purse or phone,” Nina said, gently lowering her back down. “He probably tossed them.”

      Thomas shot Nina a knowing glance. “Can you tell us anything else, Kelly?”

      The girl lay still, her fingers clutching the light blanket spread over her. Nina glanced at Thomas. She’d worked with enough traumatized women to know when someone was truly terrified.

      “He kept asking about a key,” Kelly said in a weak voice, her gaze darting down and to the left. “I don’t know what he was talking about. I don’t know anything. I shouldn’t have gone back there.”

      “Back where?” Thomas asked.

      “To Helena. I—I should have stayed away. When can I go home?”

      Thomas stepped away from the window. The girl’s vitals were going crazy. “Are you sure you don’t remember something? A detail we could use?” he asked, keeping his gaze on the beeping machines. “Were you in danger before you left Helena?”

      Kelly gripped the blankets, clutching them like a lifeline. “No. I can’t talk about this. I just want to go home. When are my parents coming?”

      A nurse came in, her expression stern. “Time’s up.”

      “Your parents are on their way,” Nina said, wishing she could comfort the girl more and find out what she seemed so afraid of. “You’re safe here. We have a guard on your room.”

      “Is he coming back?” Kelly asked, fear in her eyes. “That man? If he does, he’ll kill me! He told me he’d kill me.”

      “Not if we can help it,” Thomas said, honesty in each word. “If you remember anything—or decide to tell us the truth—please tell the deputy and he’ll alert us. The more we know, the sooner we can end this and then you’ll be safe.”

      The girl didn’t seem so sure. She was frightened, and for good reason. Nina talked to the deputy and felt reassured when he told her one of her team members would be here later with his K-9 partner.

      Nina tugged at Thomas’s jacket sleeve when they reached the elevator. “Let’s stay here a while. We can see her door from the waiting room. And...we can talk to her parents after they arrive and they’ve seen her. Maybe they can shed some light on whatever she’s not telling us.”

      He nodded.