DiNolfo waved for Adam and Liam to follow her. She couldn’t just hope they were all safe. She needed to make sure that no one else was hurt. She had to gather as much information as she could about what happened. She had no phone in which to call for back up. No radio either; she had left the cruiser at the station. She would have to make do until help arrived.
Upon performing a thorough search of the grounds, she found Frank and Bridgette being tended to by Angus as Moira sat by their feet. Bridgette was beginning to come to, but Frank’s condition appeared to be more serious. While the bleeding from the entry wound appeared to be under control, he was still knocked unconscious from his close encounter with Kendricks’ rifle. When he was in the ambulance on the way to the emergency room, he started to come to, shaking off the nasty headache associated with violent blunt force trauma. He looked over at his wife who was sitting by his head and said, “Please tell me she’s alright… Please tell me everyone is alright…”
Bridgette leaned down and stroked Frank’s bald head. “She will be just fine. Everyone will. It’s over. Jack ended it.”
Frank’s facial expression went from grim to shocked and amused. “Wait. What?”
Bridgette smirked at her husband. “I’ll explain it later.”
Frank breathed a sigh of relief as he closed his eyes and allowed Bridgette’s gentle touch to soothe his weary mind.
DiNolfo had finally finished searching the grounds, accompanied by Adam and Liam who had assisted her. With a smirk on her face, she turned to them, “You two would have a hell of a future in law enforcement.”
Looking surprised, Liam replied, “Who? Us? We were just trying to help out.” Adam looked amused at the idea.
“No. Not just that. You have excellent instincts. You knew to keep an eye on that fishing shack. You knew to stay out of view and monitor the forest at night. You knew that bear trap was there, and saved my leg from being chopped off. Cool under pressure, you two. You should consider taking the test for the academy in Danville. It just so happens that we have a couple of positions that just opened up.” Adam and Liam smirked at each other.
“We’ll consider it” Adam said, grinning at his younger brother, “It might be fun.”
DiNolfo laughed. “Oh, you have no idea!”
*
“Tristan, I know you’re shaken but I need to learn as much as possible about what happened when you were taken so that I can document this case file,” said DiNolfo, a sensitive and understanding tone in her voice.
Tristan, who was still clasped to her father’s side, nodded her head in agreement.
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything. Please start at the beginning.”
Tristan let out a sigh as she released herself from her father’s embrace. She sat on the floor, just a few feet from Kendricks’ sheet-covered body. Jack and DiNolfo waited patiently with hushed anticipation, as she prepared to tell them everything they needed to know about her disappearance and the dead man on the floor.
“The night he took me, it was October the eighth, I believe. I woke up around three A.M. The storm woke me up. That is when I noticed that my bedroom window was open. I got up to close it, and noticed him standing behind me in the reflection. When I didn’t move, he approached me. He looked insane. I will, for as long as I live, never forget that face. I tried screaming, but no sound would come out. He forced me out the window where I fell to the ground two stories below. That’s how I hurt my leg. He followed but landed much softer than me. I tried to run but my leg was causing me too much pain.