Murder in the Forest, Chapter 44
Blacklaws commanded four vehicles of a SWAT team and other deputies that drove down the road to the cabin where Courtney was held. They slipped in quickly, and one SUV went behind the house and disgorged its personnel to block escape from the rear and one side of the house. The other covered the front and the other side, and Blacklaws's vehicle stopped just to the left of the front door. He and his team bailed out and rushed the door, weapons ready and a couple of men with a battering ram in case of need.
"Police with a warrant!" he shouted and demanded that anyone inside open the door and show their hands. After a few seconds, he nodded to the ram team and they smashed open the door with one swing of the heavy blunt pole. The door burst open, and deputies swarmed in, two going to the left of the door and two to the right, both also watching the doors leading back into the house.
Peter and Ashley stayed together with a third officer and they swept through the house as men from those who'd broken in the back door ran upstairs. The search was swift, but thorough.
They found the door to the cellar and used the battering ram on the lock, hoping that it wouldn't set off any booby traps. The door open, they heard Courtney scream, begging for help. "There's a bomb down here and one upstairs somewhere! Get down here and disarm it. I think you just have to unplug a cord. Hurry! I've only got a few minutes before it blows up and sets this house on fire!"
"Who are you?" demanded Blacklaws, although he was almost sure that he recognized the Cassidy girl's voice, from having talked with her several times at Harry's Boobalicious.
"I'm Courtney Cassidy! I was kidnapped and I'm chained in this damned cell. Get me loose, please, please!"
After asking if anyone else was down there, the team descended the stairs, guns sweeping the basement as their eyes confirmed what the blonde girl in the fenced-in cage had said.
Courtney directed them to the bomb and bucket of gasoline on the floor a few yards from her and the third team member, an Explosive Ordnance Demolition (EOD) specialist, looked over the bomb and decided that it was indeed simple and easy to disarm. He unplugged the extension cord leading to a wall socket and flipped off a switch on the triggering device and deactivated the clock. The smell of gasoline was heavy and they looked for a way to get Courtney free.
She recognized Blacklaws and called his name. "Will your handcuff key fit these?" She turned and lifted her manacled wrists as far as she could, the handcuffs being locked behind her to the chain at her waist. Her ankles were in standard police style leg irons, and Blacklaws agreed that he could probably release her with his key. "But we need to get the locks off the gate and get that can of gas out of here."
He sent a deputy upstairs with the gas bucket, the man being exceedingly careful not to spill any of the flammable liquid.
"Device!" yelled a deputy checking a second story room. And the EOD man ran to see if that bomb could be disarmed.
"I think there's a bolt cutter back in that corner," said Courtney, nodding at the right wall of the basement.
There was, and it was a fairly simple matter to cut a hole in the fence, the cutter not doing well on the tempered locks themselves. They heaved and made a wide hole that let them slip into the cell and cut the commercial chains securing the girl to the floor and help an unsteady Courtney Cassidy out of her prison. The leg irons unlocked, as did the handcuffs. The bolt cutter snipped the waist chain, which was secured by a Master lock like those on the gate, but smaller. An unsteady Courtney was helped upstairs, where she stood blinking in the harsh sunlight from the kitchen window and the open door.
"Get the hell out," shouted the EOD man. He was carrying another bucket of gasoline, headed for the back door. "The bomb upstairs is too complex to disarm in time. We have about four minutes to be out of here and away from the house. Is anyone else in here, Miss?" He looked expectantly at Courtney.
That frightened girl shook her head: no. "One of those bastards has my friend," she explained. "But they drove off a few minutes ago. He wants her as a hostage and a slave. He'll try to keep her for now, if he can. Please find her. Her name is Melissa Winters. Where do I need to run? Peter, get us out of here. That bomb is real. This isn't a TV show!"
Blacklaws nodded, slung his submachine gun, and took her hand and Ashley's and led them rapidly out the front door and they ran for the vehicles, Courtney still naked, save for her gold loop earrings. The deputies were torn between staring at her exposed beauty and running for their lives, but chose the latter option, starting the SUVs and backing quickly down the road.
Peter and Ashley and another agent stumbled into his Suburban and he turned the key and backed away fast from the house just as the bomb on the second floor exploded and a window and a part of the wall blew out.
"Well," said the EOD man, "That was a thrill! I reckon the explosive force there was about that of three hand grenades, maybe four."
He had barely spoken when there was another blast from the garage, followed in seconds by a second one, and the structure erupted in violent flames. This second blast was from the gas tank in the white van that Mason had left in the garage, a bomb rigged to explode beneath it, rupturing the tank and scattering glowing bits of incendiary material.
"Get the vehicles back down the road and pull off into that lay - by that we passed," ordered Blacklaws, using the radio on the dash of his car. "I'm calling in the fire department. Stay clear of that place. They may have other devices set to blow."
"Mr. Mason only mentioned one upstairs and the one on that chair opposite me in the basement," explained Courtney. "I didn't know about the one in the garage. Not that it mattered: he meant for me to have been blown to pieces and burned by the one where I was, before the garage one went off. Hey, Peter? Have you got any water? I'm dying of thirst."
"Do you two know one another?" asked the EOD man.
Courtney and Blacklaws looked sheepishly at one another. "I, uh, sort of know her from where she works," admitted the senior deputy. "We've talked a few times."
Ashley got a bottle of water from a Styrofoam chest, twisted off the cap and handed it to the girl. Courtney looked at her in surprise. She hadn't previously registered that Seaver was female, as she was in a flak vest, Kevlar helmet, and a raid jacket with "FBI" lettered on it. She also wore military style black trousers and boots.
"Hey, you're a girl!" exclaimed Courtney.
Seaver laughed. "Guilty as charged. We thought that you might want a woman along when we found you. And guess what? Your mom gave us some of your clothes. If Peter will hand us a towel and another bottle of water, we can go behind a tree and wash you off and be sure that you don't have any wounds or scrapes, and you can dress."
Courtney smiled directly at an agent watching her. "You think I need to dress? I already have my wide earrings on. The three-inch ones. That's more than I got to wear sometimes for the past week or more. Oh, hell, hold me; I'm going to cry!" And she clutched Ashley to her and wept openly as the men averted their eyes and felt guilty for having wanted to get a look at her before she was taken from their intimate view.
Seaver asked Blacklaws to bring a blanket and the water and towel, and she led a sobbing Courtney Cassidy to a stump off of the road and helped her to sit on a car cushion there and sat by her, letting Cassidy sob into her shoulder. Blacklaws draped the Army blanket around them until Courtney got control of herself and apologized for making a scene. "My parents and sister would be so ashamed if they saw me now," she gasped.
Seaver patted her shoulder. "Courtney, I've met your family, and I can say with full confidence that they're going to be so delighted to see you alive and safe that they won't care about how you looked when rescued. Not that the guys here have any objection to your looks. They're having trouble keeping their eyes in their sockets, including Peter here. " She gave that fellow an irritated look tempered with amusement.
Blacklaws asked if Courtney knew which vehicle Mason had taken. But she didn't, never having been allowed into the garage or having seen them in the driveway. So, they had no idea what to look for, the fire in the garage having ruined their hopes of examining the van inside. They'd have to wait until the blaze was out and cooled, and then, just maybe, the Crime Scene people could find some unburned paint and other clues to what was left there. They could then narrow it down by checking a list of all vehicles owned by both Bamka and his surviving partner.
Seaver got on her cell phone and called her boss. When he answered, she said, "Hi, Hotch. Say, we have some really good news and some bad news. The good news is that we have Courtney, but Mason is on the run with Melissa, in a vehicle that we don't have a description of."