by Kay Hooper
“That could be important?”
“At this stage, there’s no telling what may or may not be important,” Luke said, matter-of-fact. “Sometimes we start with the most recent case and work backward, mostly because the freshest crime scene is the most likely to hold some important information or detail. But in this case . . . we can’t really call them crime scenes. According to your reports, nothing was disturbed at any of the scenes, no blood, nothing suspicious. Just missing people. Might as well start with the first scene and work up to Vanessa Tyler’s disappearance last night.”
“Her parents are basket cases,” Jonah said. “My second’s been with them all day, as well as their pastor, with various relatives and friends coming and going. I had to follow the missing-child protocols and put out the Amber Alert for surrounding areas, and I have people manning the tip line.”
Robbie tilted her head slightly as she looked at him. “But you don’t believe either will help find Vanessa.”
“Nessa,” he said in a rather automatic tone. “They call her Nessa. And, no, I don’t expect either to help. If this was a child abduction, just simply that . . . But it isn’t. It’s the sixth disappearance in less than a month, and even though they were all different, they all have . . . things . . . in common. Whatever happened to Nessa, it’s happened to five other people. I don’t want us to focus on just the disappearance of a child, as difficult as that may be. They’re all gone. They all need to be found.”
Luke nodded. “Understood. And agreed. When did you put out the Amber Alert on Nessa?”
“I waited as long as I could,” Jonah said frankly. “It’s a second marriage for Caroline; Matt is Nessa’s stepfather—though he adopted her legally. Her biological father, Curtis Hutchins, hasn’t been part of her life since she was a toddler. He was abusive; Caroline left him with the baby and came here, where she had family. Filed for divorce, uncontested, and got full custody. She and Matt were married a bit over a year later.”
“Hutchins was a suspect?”
“To Caroline he was. Probably still is. She’s convinced even after nearly nine years that he got in somehow and abducted Nessa.”
Luke said, “You’re sure he didn’t. Because her disappearance matches these others in certain . . . details?”
“That. And the fact that shortly after noon today we tracked down Curtis Hutchins. He’s doing life in a Nebraska prison. Aggravated murder, nothing to do with a child.”
“I’d call that an alibi,” Dante murmured.
“Yeah. Once I more or less persuaded Caroline he couldn’t possibly have taken Nessa, of course she and Matt both wanted the Amber Alert. But I kept it low-key.”
“To delay the media descending on us,” Sam said.
Jonah nodded. “It gives us a little breathing room. But if I’m wrong, if Nessa’s disappearance isn’t connected to the others and somebody did simply abduct that little girl . . . I know the odds on stranger abductions of children. Delaying the Amber Alert could have signed her death warrant.”
—
SINCE IT WAS quicker to drive than walk to the spot where Amy Grimes and Simon Church had vanished, Jonah led the way in his Jeep, with three of the feds following in their SUV.
Lucas Jordan rode with the chief.
Almost as soon as they pulled out onto Main Street, Luke said, “You seem very sure Nessa’s abduction wasn’t someone local.”
It wasn’t exactly a question, but Jonah answered anyway.
“No registered sex offenders in Serenity. I know those monsters can hide in plain sight and often do, but I also know my town. I grew up here. Look, we went through the paces. We questioned neighbors, friends of the family, and Nessa’s friends, asked all the right questions of all the right people. I believe a stranger who watched Nessa long enough to be able to get into that house, take Nessa, and get out without leaving so much as a fucking hair behind, even assuming that was possible, would have been noticed.
“That leaves a stranger abduction—and I have the same reservations for that, for the same reasons plus one more. Because her disappearance was too similar to five other disappearances this month for me to be able to ignore that.”
“How do the parents feel now that the biological father has been eliminated from suspicion?” Luke asked, looking around as they drove.
“The whole town knows about the disappearances; even though I tried to keep details quiet, once others were nearby—girlfriends, husbands, parents—most of those details got out quickly. The Tylers believe Nessa’s abduction is connected. They want answers, naturally. And the sooner the better. They’ve also scared themselves more than necessary by going onto the Internet and reading stats on abductions, especially child abductions. Why do people do that?”
“They think they want to be informed, to understand.” Luke shrugged. “Though it usually just scares them more, as you said.”
“I get it. I just don’t like it. People still believe every word they read on the Internet is true, the way they used to be able to trust newspapers. It’s hard as hell to convince them to read critically and check sources. It also wastes my time,” he added.
Calmly, Luke asked, “Have you managed to keep the real oddities of the disappearances under wraps?”
“The oddities of people disappearing into thin air, no,” Jonah said after a moment. “Conspiracy theories are popping up like weeds.”
“And the rest?” Luke smiled faintly when Jonah shot him a quick look. “You asked for the SCU. For us, specifically. We’re all assuming there are details you didn’t put in your reports or tell Bishop. Details you’ve been keeping to yourself. Details that make you certain these disappearances are connected.”
“My second knows,” Jonah said finally. “Sarah Waters, lead detective. She discovered the kids’ car abandoned at the first site, where we’re going now, and was the first to reach the stream where the judge disappeared. She knows all the . . . oddities.”
“And you don’t want to tell us what those are.”
Jonah sent him another quick look. “It isn’t a test or any of that bullshit. It’s just . . . I don’t want any of you influenced by our knowledge or perceptions. People disappearing into thin air is bad enough; I don’t want my imagination running wild. At least not any worse than it already has.”
“I don’t disagree,” Luke said. “About not telling us, I mean. History is filled with disappearances, with people walking away—and apparently vanishing without a trace. But six people in one small town in less than a month is definitely outside the norm.”
“It’s certainly outside the norm for Serenity. We don’t have a disappearance on record until this month. Not a single one, not even runaways.” Jonah hesitated for a moment, and then said, “The spot where we found Simon Church’s car is just up ahead. Before we get started, I should probably confess that I have a pretty good idea of what’s so special about the Special Crimes Unit.”
Mildly, Luke said, “We more or less assumed.”
“Because I called Agent Bishop directly?”
“That—and your visit to Quantico last year. The SCU started out as being something of a guilty secret the Bureau wanted kept at all costs, but the years and the successful cases have made us more respectable, even a solid plus for the FBI. We still tend to keep our abilities quiet in public, but at Quantico and even among most law enforcement organizations we’ve worked with in recent years, we’ve been more or less open about them. Not to the extent of putting too many details in official reports, you understand, or giving interviews to the media.”
Jonah nodded. “I asked around, and that’s what I heard. Your unit has investigated all over the southeast, but especially in the Blue Ridge mountains. You’ve earned a lot of respect. Cops I know are too hardnosed to believe in the supernatural talk about your abilities like they’re just useful skills.”
“They are,” Lu
ke said. “And that is the point. We have abilities that are completely natural to us. And when we can, we use them as investigative tools. Sometimes they help; sometimes they just make a situation more difficult.”
“I have questions,” Jonah admitted. “But I expect I’ll have plenty of chances to ask them.”
“Probably. We aren’t shy, so don’t hesitate. But it might be easier to absorb if you get the information in smaller-to-digest pieces rather than all at once.”
“Noted.”
Jonah pulled his Jeep onto the wide shoulder of the road and stopped it. He and Luke got out, and Jonah waited until the black SUV pulled in behind him and the other three feds got out before he said, “Simon Church’s car was parked on the shoulder about twenty yards straight ahead. I’ve still got the car in the police garage, so you can see that later. I should warn you that just after we found the car and moved it into the garage, we had a hell of a storm with inches of rain. Whatever footprints or other signs there might have been were certainly washed away.”
Sam shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket and frowned at him. “There were photos in the file, when the car was still here. Presumably taken before the rain. No sign of any footprints, and no mention of them.”
“True,” Jonah said. And that was all he said. He didn’t exactly look stubborn, but it was clear he had nothing else to say for the moment.
To his people, Luke said, “Let’s just walk the area, okay? Keep an open mind, see if we notice anything helpful.”
Jonah waited at the Jeep, leaning back against the front, not showing much expression except weariness.
As soon as they were a few feet away, Sam said, “We being tested?” She was still more than a bit touchy about that sort of thing, especially given her background as a carnival “seer.”*
“No,” her husband and partner replied. “He’s not asking us to jump through hoops, Sam. He hasn’t offered details, but it’s clear Bishop was right about there being things Jonah didn’t put in his reports. There’s something odd about every one of these scenes, something connecting them. Whatever it is, he couldn’t explain it, and he wants to know if we find the same thing.”
“Without prejudice.”
Luke nodded. “Without prejudice. Are you sensing anything yet?” Samantha was a touch clairvoyant, which meant that she generally only had to shield when she was touching something connected to a crime or other violent event. She had, however, been working with other SCU clairvoyants as well as Luke in teaching herself to sense more intangible things—such as the mood of a small town.
“I feel that the whole damned town’s on edge, but it’s a general sort of uneasiness and bafflement. Plus a lot of fear. But faint. What about you? Sensing anything from the missing?”
“You know my shields are up.”
She did. “Yeah, but you’ve gotten better at picking up on fear or pain even with them up.”
“I didn’t want to try until we got to the scenes.”
“Well,” Sam said, “here we—” She stopped so abruptly that Lucas stopped as well, half turning to look at her.
“Sam?”
After a long moment, she said in a distant-sounding voice, “What?”
Luke glanced at the other two agents, who had stopped just behind them. Both looked curious—and guarded. Typical for new agents. He looked back at his wife.
“What are you sensing, Sam?”
She looked up at him, blinked, and then her eyes closed and she went completely limp, only Luke’s quick catch keeping her from hitting the ground.
—
“WELL, I KNEW you all had some kind of abilities, psychic abilities, but I didn’t expect them to knock any of you out.”
“They don’t, as a rule—though we do have a couple of agents who suffer from blackouts. But Sam can be exceptionally powerful, and unlike most clairvoyants or seers, if what she senses is unusually strong, sometimes she . . . goes somewhere else.”
“Somewhere else? Like where?”
“A galaxy far, far away,” Samantha murmured as she opened her eyes, blinking several times with a frown. She was in an unfamiliar vehicle—she assumed Jonah’s Jeep, since it had been closer—mostly sitting up in the backseat.
The door was open and Luke was standing there beside her. She looked at his hand holding both of hers in her lap, then turned her head enough so she could see his face. He didn’t look quite as grim as he might have, which told Sam she must not have been out long, and he wasn’t showing any external sign of strain.
“A galaxy far, far away?” he said to her, dryly.
“When I was coming out of it, I could hear you and Jonah talking,” she said. “And I couldn’t resist.”
“So where were you?” Jonah asked in the tone of a man who wanted answers. “The future, or now?”
“It wasn’t a vision. Nothing from the future.”
“Then the here and now. What was it?”
“I have a question first.” Samantha looked at her fellow agents one by one. “Anybody else feel anything unusual up there?”
Rather surprising everyone, including herself, Robbie immediately said, “Some kind of energy. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck stirring. And really faint, there was sort of an uncomfortable crawly sensation in my skin.”
“Any idea what kind of energy?” Luke asked her.
Robbie shook her head. “I haven’t really learned to differentiate. “But . . .” She drew a quick breath. “For just a few seconds, I could hear whispers.”
“Saying what?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know. I was caught off guard. It happened too fast, and they were too faint.”
“Sam?” Luke was watching her steadily. “What did you sense?”
“Something dark,” she replied slowly. “Something really, really dark. And really, really hungry.”
FIVE
Jonah didn’t quite understand when Luke told him that they would need to wait until the following day to again approach the site where Simon Church’s abandoned car had been found.
“Sam might get something from the car, though,” he added. “After she’s rested a bit.”
“I don’t need to rest,” she protested, getting herself out of the Jeep under her own steam and rather relieved when her legs remained steady. “And even if trying again here is useless for the time being, we still have four other sites where people disappeared. One of us could pick up something at any of them. The judge was next, right?”
“Right,” Jonah said.
Telling herself she was only reading the frustration on his face, Robbie said, “It’s like static electricity.”
“What?”
“When psychics pick up on an energy signature. If it’s a place, then tapping into that energy once is like—walking across carpet in your socks and touching something metal. You get shocked the first time. But then the static has to build back up for the same thing to shock you again.”
“Okay,” he said slowly. “I get that. I think.”
“We’re happy to answer questions as we go,” Luke told him. “But when we get to the areas where people are likely to be all around the site of a disappearance, we might want to be discreet.”
“We definitely want to be discreet,” Jonah said. “Sarah is the only one of my people who knows about your unit; nobody else at the station could even access the law enforcement FBI database, because it’s password-protected. And I’ve told nobody in town. As far as they’re concerned, you’re FBI agents, period.”
“Probably for the best,” Robbie said. “Prevents those what-kind-of-freak-show-have-I-wandered-into glassy-eyed stares.”
Jonah looked at her but didn’t comment.
Before the silence could become obvious, Luke said, “Sam, why don’t you ride with us to the second site.” It wasn’t really a question. Or
a suggestion.
“I told you I’m fine.”
“Still.”
“I didn’t get a nosebleed. And I’m not tired. Stop fussing.”
“Since when was that an option? Come on, let’s go. We’ll be losing daylight soon.”
Samantha sighed but climbed back into the Jeep’s backseat while Luke went around to the front passenger seat and Dante and Robbie returned to the black SUV. In just a couple of minutes, they were turned around and headed back toward town.
“Who’s the lady in the cast?” Samantha asked.
Without looking as they passed the house, Jonah said, “Mildred Bates. If it weren’t for that cast, she’d have joined us back there.”
“Town busybody?” Sam guessed.
“Yeah, pretty much. She’s not malicious, but she does like to know what’s going on. Sounds awful to say, and no pun intended, but it’s a break for us she’s laid up with that cast.” He paused, then changed the subject. “What was that about nosebleeds?”
“I get them sometimes,” Sam answered readily. “If I push too hard. Reach too far.”
Luke said, “Most of us pay some kind of price for our abilities, Jonah. They always come with strings. Pounding headaches and nosebleeds are fairly common. Especially—”
Jonah glanced over at him as the fed broke off. “Especially?”
Sam leaned forward, an elbow resting just below the headrest of Luke’s seat, and said, “Especially for those of us not born with our abilities,” she said.
“Sam, you don’t have to,” Luke said without turning his head.
“Oh, I’m not going to offer details. No offense, Jonah, but I don’t know you that well.”
“Okay,” he said, obviously puzzled. “No offense taken.”
“It’s just that those of us not born with psychic abilities, even latent ones, usually have them triggered at some point in our lives. Almost always because of trauma. Emotional, psychological, physical. Sometimes all three. The more traumatic the trigger, the stronger the abilities tend to be.” She paused, adding, “As Luke told you, I have strong abilities.”