“Then what it is it?”
“TJ Heathers is missing. No one has seen him in four hours.”
“We’re on our way.”
“Watch yourselves. Stay safe out there.”
“Will do.”
Paige disconnected.
“What is it?”
“TJ’s missing. At least four hours. We need to find him.” Paige hoped he’d just wandered off, needed to clear his head. A little boy grieving could do things he normally wouldn’t.
But TJ was smarter than that. And he wouldn’t scare his mother and grandmother like this.
Something had to have happened to him. “Hurry, Al. He’s just a kid, and he’s out there all alone.”
“When did he go missing?” Al asked.
“Mick said approximately four hours ago.” Paige checked her watch. She and Al had been in the midst of Tracey Linsey’s bedroom four hours ago. “Al—it’s Tracey Linsey. I bet she has him.”
“It makes sense. Call Nugent. Get an APB on their vehicles.”
“What if we’re wrong and it’s someone else?’
“Who else could it be?”
“I don’t have a clue. Nothing we’ve found so far even connects them to Wade.”
“Other than biology.”
“And possibly a missing ten-year-old.”
A ten-year-old she was going to find, no matter what.
Chapter 49
TJ’s head banged into the side window when the bright lights came and slammed into Grandma Tracey’s van. The blanket fell over his head. He thought about just hiding under there until the police came. But that was stupid. Ashley was crying for her dad. What if she was hurt or something?
He flipped the blanket back and looked for his cousin. She had landed on his legs. He reached down and grabbed her hand. “Shhh. It’s ok.”
“I want Daddy.”
You and me both, TJ thought. But that wasn’t going to happen. At least not for him. He had to be a man now. He looked up as a bright light went over the front of the van.
He thought it was a flashlight.
There was a blue flashing light from behind it. TJ leaned up and looked through the frost covered window.
A police car sat there.
For a moment, he thought the police were there to help them.
But then what Grandma Tracey and Uncle Troy had been arguing about climbed back into his head.
A policeman had told that Jon Mundy guy to kill his dad.
But TJ didn’t know what policeman it was.
He looked at his grandmother.
She wasn’t moving.
He was almost sure she was dead. She couldn’t help him and Ashley anyway. Maybe she was in a coma or something.
He hoped that was it. He didn’t want her to be dead.
Uncle Troy’s door was open.
His uncle was arguing with the policeman. TJ couldn’t see the policeman. Just the guy’s silhouette.
That’s what they called it on the forensics shows.
He looked like a monster.
“Shhh, Ash. We have to be really quie—”
A gunshot went off right next to the window.
Uncle Troy fell against the side of the van.
TJ covered Ashley’s mouth with his hand. “Be really quiet and don’t move, Ashley. We have to be really quiet.”
Uncle Troy had a gun, too. TJ watched him shoot it at the policeman.
He and Ashley couldn’t stay there. If Uncle Troy lost, the policeman would come for him and Ashley next.
The back window of the van was next to the ditch. The van lay on its side next to an embankment.
He could get out.
TJ wasn’t sure about Ashley, though. And he wasn’t about to leave her behind. “Listen, I’m going out the window. When I do, I’ll lift you out. Then we’ll hide until the FBI come for us. We’ll get help for your dad and Grandma Tracy. I promise.”
Chapter 50
Paige saw the squad car first. The blue lights were hard to miss, even in the never-ending, inky darkness.
The flashing illuminated the almost overturned van. It matched the make, model, and color of the one owned by Wade Heathers’s mother.
“There!”
“I see it, Paige. Hard to miss.”
Paige called it in to Seb. He’d see that Kentucky State Police and all available backup in the vicinity found its way to their sides.
As fast as possible in the snow, anyway.
Thankfully, it had lightened to only flurries now. But if it picked up again, they’d not be able to see at all.
That terrified her.
Not for her and Al’s sakes—but for TJ’s. They had to find him.
Al slammed the squad car into park and turned on the sirens. “I’ve always wanted to drive one of these things.”
Jacobs had joined up with one of the volunteer deputies to set up road blocks after leaving Tracey and Troy Linsey’s home.
Now it was just Paige and Al and whatever they were about to find. “I don’t like this, Al.”
“Neither do I.”
“But we’ve got at least one kid out there. Possibly two.” Paige knew what she and Al were going to have to do.
“Agreed.”
“Let’s find them.”
“Doubly agreed.”
Paige approached the van first.
Chapter 51
Al found the blood first. And the signs of a scuffle in the snow. “Paige, I have blood.”
“I have spent shells. Forty caliber. And…thirty-eights. Two different weapons.”
As the senior agent at the moment, it was Al’s call. But Paige was taking the initiative.
She approached the front passenger window and lifted the small penlight Paige always carried. “I have a body!”
Al covered her partner while Paige circled the van. “Identity?”
Chances were good it was a Linsey. She just hoped it was an adult one and not one of the kids. Since Paige was at the driver’s side window, she suspected it would be.
“Tracey Linsey. DOA.”
“Footsteps go around the van.”
“I have smaller footsteps here.” Paige’s tone turned frantic.
“Shine your light inside.” Al pressed up to the window as Paige did. There were no more bodies inside—except a primary-colored action figure she’d seen before.
Next to the drawings TJ and Paige had done the day they’d first interviewed him.
It had chew marks from a dog on one raised fist—she could just barely see the whiter indentations in the beam of the flashlight.
And there were signs of a little girl there, too.
One no older than Al’s niece, Ruthie.
And now they were out there in the snow.
With at least two gunmen.
“Paige, we have to find them.”
“I have another set of prints here. But I can’t tell which set is the kids and which are the shooters.” Paige shined her light toward the left. Into the wooded darkness northeast of their location. “They go in two different directions. I’m assuming one is Troy Linsey. The other has to be the cop friend.”
“He’s definitely in on whatever is going on. But who is he?”
“There are only four paid deputies. Allenski, Jacobs, that Hendricks guy, and…” Paige thought about all of the deputies they’d interacted with on this case. There hadn’t been that many. Half a dozen.
“Carroll. It’s either him or Allenski. They’re both the right age to be close buddies with Jon and Troy.”
“Allenski’s with Cody right now,” Al said.
Paige knew what she meant. Either that eliminated Allenski from being out there with them now—or the possibility existed that Allenski had harmed Cody. “Which squad car was she in when she left?”
“I don’t know. We left before she did.”
“I’m going after the kids. We’ll identif
y the shooters later. The kids have to take priority.”
“I’m right behind you.” She wasn’t about to let Paige go searching alone. Not in this. Al called it in quickly, reaching Nugent. He was the most effective at spreading the word and rallying the troops.
Paige took off into the woods.
Al tore off after Paige the instant she disconnected.
But it was too late.
Paige, in her dark clothes, had practically disappeared.
Al just followed the footsteps in the snow. She caught up, though.
She could almost make out Paige’s shadow sixty feet or so ahead, along with the flashlight Paige was using, but there was no way for her to be certain it was her partner.
Not in the darkness. And the snow that blocked almost all visibility.
How far ahead could two kids get in this? Al had no way of guessing. She just kept going.
Until something slammed into her head from behind and she went down hard, striking her forehead on a snow-covered log.
She never even had time to cry out.
Chapter 52
Blue lights on a snowy country highway at nearly ten at night could mean only one thing. Cody knew it.
Trouble.
Allenski swore next to her. “This isn’t good.”
“Whose cars?”
“Jacobs, and Carroll’s. Hendricks always rides with someone.”
“That’s the van owned by Tracey Linsey.” Easily recognized by the make and model. “Something went down here.”
“Yes.” He had his weapon ready in one hand. He called it in with his radio in the other. Reporting possible officer-down calls.
It would bring help running quickly.
As quickly as they could come in these conditions.
“You stay with the car, ma’am. This isn’t any place for a tech.”
“I’m a federal agent, Deputy. I’ve not always been in the lab. We’ll stay together until we find out what we’ve got here.”
It took them less than two minutes to find Tracey Linsey—and to find the set of footprints she suspected were Paige’s.
Her friend had always worn very distinct boots, after all. “This way. This is Paige. I recognize the treads.”
“Stay close.”
Cody thought that was a good idea. But there was no way she was leaving Paige and Al out there alone right now.
Even if it meant hiking into a frozen hell with a man she didn’t trust. One who was bigger than she, armed, and knew the area far better than she ever could.
Just how precarious a position she was in hadn’t been lost on her.
“Let’s go.”
“The FBI breeds them tough. A man has to admire that.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet.” She just hoped she wasn’t making a big mistake.
Chapter 53
Mick fought the panic. He had to stay objective. He wouldn’t be able to do his sister a single bit of good if he lost his cool right now. She had been perfectly fine on the phone, Nugent had said.
But she and Paige were in definite trouble. And needed help.
They were five miles away, at least, in near whiteout conditions. He wasn’t certain how long it would take to get to them. Or what they would find when they got there.
“It’s Carroll. It has to be,” Sebastian said.
Mick wasn’t even certain how the guy had made it to the rental SUV as fast as he had, but the team leader had been only a few steps behind Mick. “Allenski’s with Cody. Jacobs is checking cars on one end of the city limits. Hendricks and the chief of the fire department, the other. But Carroll is unaccounted for.”
“Makes sense. Guy was in the same class. Same neighborhood as a kid.” Mick didn’t give a damn who it was. He just wanted to make certain no one else got hurt. And then he’d shake his sister and Paige for going off and doing something so reckless. They had no business out there without backup.
None at all.
And he was going to tell them that. And then Director Dennis.
Whether that was what the older man wanted to hear or not.
The blue lights were a beacon. Mick drove straight toward them.
The highway was dark as sin, and the lights were seen above the tree line a good ways away.
There were two squad cars blocking the road, except for a small nine-foot width on the shoulder. Mick parked behind the first.
No one was visible. Mick checked the van after pulling his weapon free.
He wasn’t required to carry, but after nearly dying in his own damned driveway, he was never going to be caught without a weapon again.
Mick followed the crushed boot prints through the snow.
He almost tripped over the body. Agent Therez leaned down and checked vitals quickly. “It’s Troy Linsey. And I have a pulse. He’s been shot.”
Mick cursed. “Stay with him. I’m going on.”
“There’s most likely an active shooter out there, sir.”
“And my two federal agents. I’m going out there.”
“Three,” Nugent said, coming up behind them. “Agent Cody’s bag is in the front seat of the rear squad car. She was with Deputy Allenski. Footprints indicate both went into the woods.”
“Along with Deputy Carroll.” Mick knew the lead deputy was dirty. But they’d have to catch him before they could prove it. After they got Al, Cody, and Paige back where they belonged.
So he could tell them what fools they’d been. Even if what they’d done hadn’t violated PAVAD procedure at all.
“And two missing kids,” Therez said. “We have to find them. The kids could be injured already.”
“Then let’s get moving.” Seven people out there somewhere.
In these conditions.
Odds were against them now.
Chapter 54
Cody stayed within sight range of Deputy Allenski. She had her flashlight—she always carried one in her field kit. She wasn’t certain she trusted him, but out here—he was all she had for now.
Coyotes howled, probably closer to her than she wanted to think about. Cody kept going.
Until she tripped over the body in the snow.
She directed her light toward the head area first.
Blond hair almost blended in with the snow. “Al!”
She dropped to her knees and reached for a pulse. It was there. Strong and steady. But her hand came away covered with blood.
She checked for injuries.
No gunshot wounds. But Al had been hit in the back of the head. Hard enough to do some serious damage. Cody grabbed her phone and called in another officer involved call. They needed help out here, and fast.
Because Paige was out here somewhere, too.
She wouldn’t have been far from Al.
Cody packed snow against the wounds and pressed the gloves Al’s own mother had knit for her over them. Then looked around as best she could.
Al’s gun was three feet away. She grabbed it quickly.
As Allenski came running up beside her. “How is she?”
“Hurt. She needs to get to help.”
“Paramedics aren’t going to be able to get to her up here. Not easily.”
Al moaned and flipped to her side. Her eyes fluttered open in the beam of the flashlight.
“Al, it’s Cody. You’re ok. What happened?”
“Don’t know. Something hit my head. Where’s Paige?”
“We don’t know.”
“You have to find Paige. Now. Can’t remember why—”
“Go.” Allenski looked at her. “I’ll carry her to the road and the squad cars and come back to help you look for Agent Daviess.”
“Kids. There are kids out here, Cody. Little girl…Ruthie, Lucy’s age.”
“I’ll find her. You go.” Cody gripped Al’s gun tightly as Allenski lifted Al into his arms.
He was a big, strong guy in his early thirties. Not quite as big as Al
’s brother, but close. He’d be able to get Al down through the snow.
“Find them. Just find them.”
Chapter 55
TJ pulled Ashley behind him up the side of the hill. They were only a few miles from his friend Riley’s house. He thought. They had passed the church with the funny steeple on it right before the policeman had run them off the road.
If he could find his way to Riley’s house, he’d call his mom. She’d tell him what to do and would come get him. Probably with the FBI.
TJ didn’t know if he was going in the right direction, but he wasn’t going to stop until he found a house or something.
It was hard for Ashley. She was so little, and the snow was almost up over her knees. And they were cold. They were both so cold. “Come on, Ashley. We have to keep going.”
“I don’t want to.”
“We have to. Or we’ll freeze forever.” He could make them shelter out of the snow, maybe. Or find a cave. But there could be animals in a cave. TJ didn’t know what to do.
So he just kept going.
Until he slammed into a tall, dark shape coming over the hill. He couldn’t help it.
TJ screamed.
Chapter 56
Paige wrapped the little boy in one arm and pulled his cousin closer with the other. “TJ, it’s me, Agent Paige from the FBI. I’m out here looking for you and Ashley. Are you hurt?”
He just kept shaking. “N-no. Not really. Grandma Tracey is.”
She hesitated. Did he realize his grandmother was dead? She wasn’t going to tell him. Not now. “I know. We found her and called for help.”
“There was a policeman, but he was bad,” the little girl said.
Paige ran the beam of light over her. There was a cut on her forehead, probably from the wreck, and her coat was torn. But she was in one piece. “I know. Did you see his face?”
“It wasn’t Deputy Jacobs,” TJ said. “It was a white guy. And not as old.”
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