Message of Murder 04-Message in the Snow Read online

  Message in the Snow

  Messages of Murder Book 4

  Holiday Bonus

  Dawn Merriman

  After a lovely Christmas Eve dinner at Grandma Dot’s, Gabby and Lucas are heading home to have a quiet night with his daughter and wait for Santa.

  Gabby senses something’s not right on the ride home. A wrecked car and missing children change the quiet Christmas Eve into a wild chase to find the kids. As usual, Gabby gets herself into some interesting messes. Thankfully she has Grandma Dot, and now her mom Emily too, to help her out.

  A fun romp of psychic mystery and suspense.

  Message of Murder Series

  Each book can be read alone, but for maximum enjoyment, you may want to read then all in order.

  #1 – Message in the Bones

  #2 – Message in the Fire

  #3 – Message in the Grave

  #4 – Message in the Snow

  Books 1-3 also available as a collection – Message of Murder Trilogy

  Enjoy your story!

  Chapter 1

  GABBY

  “Gabby, are you Daddy’s girlfriend?” Olivia asks from the backseat of Lucas’s car on our way home from Grandma Dot’s Christmas Eve party.

  The question unsettles me more than it should. After months, maybe even years, of dancing around our feelings, Lucas and I finally danced our way to each other. I’ve been labeled a lot of things in my life, freak, witch, even murderer and the devil. Girlfriend is a label I never expected to wear.

  At only eight, labels make things easier for Olivia to understand. “I saw you two kissing. That means you’re boyfriend and girlfriend, right?”

  I can’t fault the girl’s logic. Lucas’s hand on mine squeezes tighter. “Would you like it if Gabby was my girlfriend?” He asks his daughter.

  My breath catches in my throat. It seems my whole world is riding on her answer. I’d rarely spent time with Lucas on his weekends with Olivia. Christmas Eve dinner at Grandma Dot’s suddenly feels like some sort of relationship test. What if Olivia doesn’t like me? Will that matter?

  Olivia takes her time answering. I can see her face in the rear view mirror. Her eyes are squinting the same way Lucas’s do when he’s thinking hard. She feels me watching her, and meets my gaze in the reflection.

  “I like you,” she says through the mirror. “You make Daddy laugh. He needs to laugh more.” The innocent remark sets my life back in balance.

  “I like you, too,” I say to her reflection. Olivia has already lost interest in the conversation and has gone back to the book Grandma Dot gave her tonight.

  I dare a glance at Lucas for his reaction. He’s trying to keep himself from laughing, but loses the battle. A chuckle escapes his clenched lips.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You should have seen your face. Terrified of a little girl,” he says so only I can hear.

  “What if she didn’t like me?”

  “How could she not like you? You’re wonderful.” He lifts my hand and kisses the skin of my wrist exposed at the edge of my glove. “To answer her question, yes, you are my girlfriend. If that’s okay with you.”

  I snuggle closer, mumbling. “Perfectly okay with me.” The whole evening has been perfect. Grandma Dot finally got the Christmas Eve with her whole family that she has always wanted. My mom, finally released from prison, her innocence proven, was the best gift of all. Even my brother Dustin and his wife were pleasant.

  “Did you see Alexis actually handed Walker to me and let me hold him?” I ask Lucas. “Maybe she and I will become friends.” I humph at the thought. “I mean it is Christmas. Miracles do happen.”

  Lucas kisses the top of my head. “You never know,” he says vaguely. My brother Dustin is head detective of the River Bend, Indiana Police Department. He’s not only Lucas’s partner and best friend, but also sort of his boss. He’s found it best not to get too involved with family squabbles. Alexis and I will just have to sort out our differences on our own terms, and leave the men out of it.

  Fine with me. I prefer fighting my own battles the way I have my entire life.

  The snow had been falling soft and pretty all evening, a lovely addition to the holiday. Now that it’s fully dark, it starts blowing harsh against the windshield. The moon that had magically twinkled across the white fields before has been swallowed by clouds. In typical Indiana fashion, the weather is changing fast.

  The shift in the atmosphere matches a shift in me. Suddenly jumpy and nervous, I push away from Lucas and sit up tall in my seat. I rub my gloved palms down my thighs, anxiety tingling in my legs.

  Lucas switches on the wipers, and they squeak against the glass.

  The sound brings back a memory of me tearing the wipers off of my Charger and throwing them across a wet parking lot. I shake my head to stop the memory and shove it back into the box where I keep all the terrors I’ve been through.

  “What’s wrong?” Lucas asks, his eye flitting quickly to Olivia in the back seat. “It’s just snow.”

  “I’m not sure.” I jam my palms against my thighs, to keep my hands from shaking. “I’m sensing something.” I stare out the windows into the blowing snow. I scan the side of the road and the edges of fields and wooded areas lit by the car’s headlights. I have no idea what I’m searching for. “Can you slow down?”

  Used to my strange abilities, and trusting in my instincts, Lucas slows the car almost to a crawl.

  “What are you looking for?” he asks.

  “I don’t know. I’m just, itchy, you know?”

  He nods. He does know.

  My left arm begins to tingle. On the inside of my left arm, a few inches below my elbow, I have a tattoo of a delicately drawn cross. Through the thickness of my winter coat, I rub my arm.

  “What’s going on?” Olivia asks.

  “Be quiet for just a minute, Ollie-bug,” Lucas says, his eyes locked on my hand rubbing my arm.

  “Is Gabby having one of her psycho spells?” she asks.

  “It’s psychic, not psycho. And yes she is.” Lucas tells her. “Please sit quietly.”

  “Mommy always calls it psycho,” Olivia mutters.

  Lucas watches me intently, his face a mix of cop curiosity and boyfriend concern.

  The psycho comment has thrown my concentration off. I don’t want to do this in front of Olivia. I don’t want this tonight at all. It’s Christmas Eve. Why can’t I have a normal holiday, a normal life?

  The jumpy, anxious feeling escalates. I want to fly out of the car, I want to hide from the message I know is coming. I want to run away from myself.

  There’s nowhere to run.

  Lucas has stopped the car on the side of the road. Snow blasts past the beams of the headlights.

  I stare at the blowing snow and breathe.

  And listen for His instructions.

  Turn around.

  “We’ve already passed it. Turn the car around.”

  Lucas makes a quick three point turn and returns the way we came. The wipers work furiously at the blowing snow. A car passes us from the opposite direction driving slow in the snow. I search the side of the road, my anxiety creeping as our car creeps along the asphalt.

  “Do you know what we are looking for?” Lucas whispers.

  I shake my head, concentrating. “He just said turn around.”

  The tingle in my tattoo grows unbearable. “It really stings, we have to be close,” I say desperately.

  “There.” Lucas points at the side of the road.

  “I don’t see anything.” I press my nose to the cold glass of my window, wipe away the fog created by my breath.

  “There’s a
gap in the snow. Looks like tire tracks.”

  Olivia leans forward, concerned by our tones. “Daddy, what’s happening?”

  “Just sit tight Ollie-bug. I need to go check on something.” He’s already undoing his seat belt, reaching into the glove compartment for his gun belt and tools.

  “Police stuff?” Olivia whines, sitting back in her seat with a hard humph. “It’s always police stuff.”

  “Just stay here and do not get out of this car.” Lucas commands his daughter as he straps on his police gear. “Understand.”

  “Yes,” Olivia says. “I know the drill.”

  I barely hear the last of her words, as I’m already out of the car. The wind whips the hood of my coat and blows my dark curls into my face. I tuck my hair into the hood and pull the string tight, tying it into a bow under my chin. I pull the zipper as high as it will go. Protected as much as possible against the growing storm, I follow the tracks Lucas spotted.

  This side of the road falls steeply away then flattens out. The land beyond is choked with brush and a few trees. Two tracks, barely visible in the blowing snow, slide down the bank and into the brush.

  Lucas’s flashlight bounces behind me, but I don’t wait for him. My dress boots aren’t made for hiking down a snowy bank. After about two steps, I slide on my rear to the bottom of the hill.

  “You okay?” Lucas calls against the wind.

  I jump up and follow the tracks into the brush, not hearing him. I can only hear the one word repeated by my tattoo.

  Hurry.

  Chapter 2

  GABBY

  The tracks clearly show a vehicle skidded down the bank, picked up speed and disappeared into the brush. Some of the brush is broken and scattered, but a lot of the branches closed back in behind the vehicle. I have to duck under and push against the branches to follow the tracks. One nasty vine of thorns catches on the hood of my coat and traps me.

  “If you’d wait for me, I could help you,” Lucas says, as he untangles the thorny vine.

  “I can’t wait. All I can hear is ‘hurry’.”

  “Well, getting yourself hurt in the process won’t help anyone. At least take my light.”

  “A light would help. Where’s my phone?” I dig my phone out of my pocket and turn on the flashlight feature. I scan through the brush, following the tracks.

  The beam glints off chrome a few yards away. “There’s the car!” I run ahead, oblivious to the clinging vines and branches.

  The car may have picked up speed from careening down the bank, but a tree caused a sudden stop. The front end on the driver’s side is crumpled around the tree. The red metal of the hood looks like crinkled tissue paper wrapped around the dark brown tree trunk. Broken branches and chips of paint dot the snow like confetti.

  I trudge through the snow as quickly as possible to the driver’s window, hoping against hope we’re not too late.

  The window is broken, but still intact. The spider web pattern of shattered glass and the snow blocks my view of the driver. Lucas is talking on his radio and simultaneously, hollering at me over the wind.

  “Gabby, be careful. Wait for me.” I rub my glove against the window, trying to clear the snow and see through the broken pane. The inside of the car is dark. I hold up my phone light and peer into the car.

  A man’s head leans against the window, his temple flattened at the center of the cracked glass. Blood dribbles from his slack mouth and from his nostrils, bright red against the pale of his skin.

  I fumble with the door handle, anxious to get to the man. The door is hopelessly stuck, a mess of wrinkled metal.

  Lucas takes me by the shoulders and turns me away from the scene, expecting to comfort me. I don’t need comfort. I need to act. My senses are zinging and the hurry is still screaming in my head. The driver is already beyond our help.

  He’s not why I was called here.

  I push away from Lucas and slip and slide around the car. The back door on this side is hanging open, but a quick look inside shows there’s no one in that seat. I reach the passenger door. Lucas is shining his light on the dead man on the other side of the car. A human shaped lump of shadow leans against the passenger window.

  I cling to the door handle, the metal so cold it penetrates my thin gloves. I pull the handle, and the door creaks open.

  A woman tumbles against me, barely conscious and held in the car by her seat belt. I hold her upright, her head drops onto my shoulder, her ice cold cheek brushes against mine.

  “Run, kids,” she mumbles into my ear.

  “She’s alive,” I shout. “We’re not too late.”

  The beam of Lucas’s flashlight fills her face, searches her body. Thank God, all of her limbs seem to be intact or at least in place. While I hold her up, he leans into the car and unhooks her seat belt. Lucas pulls the woman from the bashed car and sets her on the snow. He kneels next to her, while I look on, unsure what to do to help. “The ambulance is already on its way,” he tells her. “Just hang on.”

  The woman’s eyes flutter open and lock on mine. “Save my kids.”

  The woman’s eyes flutter again but remain closed, her face calm. “Stay with me, now.” Lucas tells her.

  I step away from the woman and the first aid Lucas is administering to her. The whole scene feels wrong. Car crashes happen every day, but something about this one is making my senses zing.

  The open back door creaks as the wind blows against it.

  “The back door’s open,” I shout to Lucas.

  “Probably popped open on impact. Can you check on the man?”

  “He’s dead,” I say flatly. I don’t need to touch him, I can tell from here. “He died on impact.”

  I climb into the back seat. An empty baby car seat and booster seat fill most of the space. A few toys and other kid’s things are on the floor. A small pink bear with unbelievably large eyes looks up at me. I pick up the bear, smoothing the hot pink fur with the tip of my black gloved finger. The bear’s huge eyes seem to beg me for answers I don’t have. I place it back on the floor, face down, so it will stop looking at me.

  Squeezed next to the car seat, I open my mind and listen.

  Laughing, joking, holiday merriment. Five voices.

  “Gabby,” Lucas barks. “I could use some help, here.”

  “I’m working,” I shout back, annoyed he broke my contact.

  I take off my left glove and from the backseat, I touch the dead man’s shoulder.

  Headlights too close. What the--. The hill, the brush, the tree.

  “They were run off the road on purpose,” I tell Lucas. “Someone was following way too close and forced them off the road and down the bank.”

  “I don’t even need to ask how you know that, do I?”

  Far in the distance, carried by the wind, sirens sing. “The ambulance is coming.” I begin to climb out of the back seat, still disturbed, still jumpy. Maybe it’s the lingering, recent death of the man.

  With my bare left hand, I touch the door handle on my way out.

  Screaming, children screaming. Run kids. Don’t take the road, they’ll find you. Run, before they come back. Indecision. Mom’s hurt, but she said go. Three different hands touch the handle on the way out into the winter storm. Small hands.

  I slam back in the seat, shocked by the strength of the vision. I touch the car seats, touch the toys and kids items strewn about. Three children. An older boy, about Olivia’s age, a girl about five and a boy not much older than Walker.

  “Her children are out here!” I shout to Lucas. “They were in the car during the wreck. She told them to run.”

  Lucas scans the brushy area with his high powered flashlight for any sign of the kids. “Are you sure? I don’t see any footprints or anything.”

  “The wind’s been blowing like crazy. We were lucky to see the tire tracks, let alone tiny footprints in the snow.”

  “Why would she tell them to run?” He doesn’t doubt what I saw, only doubts the woman’s choice
s.

  “She said run and hide before they come back. That’s all I know.”

  I’m hopping around and anxious to begin searching. Lucas reads my mind. “Don’t go running off into the dark by yourself. The ambulance is almost here. Dustin’s on his way as well as some patrol officers. We can launch a search as soon as we get a party together.”

  I pull the collar of my coat tighter under my chin. “But it’s freezing out here and any trace of the kids is blowing away in the wind as we speak.”

  I’ve already started into the brush, following my instincts but searching for footprints. “Gabby, please. I’m begging you to wait for backup.”

  I spin and face him. “Lucas, I love you dearly, but I have to do things the way I do them. The only backup I’ve ever had is God.” I hold up my left, tattooed, arm. “Right now he’s telling me to go.”

  A pained look distorts his face. I’ve crossed a line and I know it. “Do what you’re gonna do. I can’t stop you anyway.” We stare at each other for a few tense moments. I know I’ve screwed up, but don’t know how to fix it, not right now. I turn, thinking the conversation is over. “God may always have your back,” Lucas calls after me, “But don’t forget who’s always been here right next to you.”

  Detective Lucas Hartley, that’s who.

  He’s saved my life on more than one occasion. He’s saved my heart.

  I almost turn around and throw myself at his feet, beg for his forgiveness for my loose tongue.

  The lights and sirens are closer now and a crush of people will soon swarm the scene.

  I’ll have to apologize later. Right now, I have three missing children to find.

  I open my mind to the universe and listen. A nudge to the right here and a press to the left there, I follow the trail only I can feel. Now and again, I find a series of depressions in the snow that look like footprints only half filled in with blown snow. Tiny signs that I’m on the right path.

  The chill of the icy blast blows up the back of my coat. I wrap my arms tighter across my waist to block the cold out. My fingers sting with cold, the thin gloves I always wear are no match for the frigid weather. I think of the children and how cold their tiny bodies must be.