“So he wasn’t in the gang during the Explorers?”
“No, but he wasn’t in the club for the right reasons. He wanted to learn to shoot and take out the gang that killed his dad. Oddly enough, if I remember correctly, he finally got ‘Chains’ in Amarillo and ended up in prison in Texas, and joined one of the prison gangs.”
One of the officers scrambled to get the information, and there it was. “He legally changed his name when he was released in 2007. His lawyer got him out on good behavior.”
Garrett was overwhelmed with information. “So where would he go now? Where’d his parents live? He hasn’t been downtown, which is where I’d have gone if I were insane.”
Kent slapped his back, then squeezed his shoulder, none of which Garrett could feel through the Kevlar vest. “We’ll find her, Gar.”
“I want her now, alive and…”
“We know,” his dad said sympathetically.
Garrett rested his forehead on his hands and closed his eyes. He didn’t know what else to do but pray. Take care of Amber, Father. Be her guardian and protector. Shield her from Melendez’s evil. Give her strength, Lord, and wrap Your arms around her. Let her know that we’re looking, that I love her and I won’t stop until I’ve rescued her.
Twenty minutes later the police car was located with the GPS and computer ripped out. What he didn’t understand was that it would be useless to him outside the car. Nevertheless, it was also useless to them, since the wires had been cut.
“Any other cars reported missing since the kidnapping?” Fingers tapped on the keyboard as the investigator ran a query.
“Where did they find the car?” his dad asked.
“Northridge High.”
“Fifteen years ago that was a housing development, and close to where the kid’s family lived. A couple of the houses left out there are now used by the school for storage. Find out what Tony Melendez’s previous address was.”
“How do I find that out?”
“Ask his uncle. Lieutenant Chavez.”
Garrett and his dad rode with Kent in his unmarked beat-up narc car, and the chief ordered the SWAT team to head out there. It was only a couple of minutes until they heard back from Chavez, who said he’d been looking for his nephew since his release, but hadn’t found Anthony yet.
“Why didn’t you tell me Chavez was Melendez’s uncle? He’s probably been covering for him all along.”
His dad shook his head. “Not Chavez. He did everything he could to straighten the kid out. He’s probably been working double time to try to figure out where he’s hiding.” They each had their full gear, but were in plainclothes.
As they passed the abandoned police car, Garrett watched for footprints. They headed directly toward the outer buildings of the school. “I’m not waiting for the SWAT team,” Garrett warned. “So if you want…”
“We’re right behind you, Gar,” both men said at the same time.
Sure enough, there was a window broken out of one of the buildings, and drag marks to it. It would have been a long walk from the police car in this weather.
His dad was first to the door to provide cover. Kent kicked it in, and Garrett rushed in first.
Amber was huddled in the corner by some boxes, but Melendez was nowhere to be found. Garrett threw the boxes aside and pulled Amber to her feet. She’d been gagged and tied up, but at least she still had her coat on and looked to be okay.
Garrett wrapped her in his arms and held her close. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Just scared. It smells in here, Garrett. Get me out of here.”
He sniffed. “Kent, Dad, look around. I think Amber’s found a decomposed body.”
He took her out to Kent’s car. “Do you want to get in? Are you warm enough?”
“I’ll be fine, Garrett. It’s just good to have some fresh air and to be safe. I heard gunshots a while ago. I heard two men yelling, and then it got quiet.”
The SWAT team searched the rest of the buildings, finding Melendez, with his gun in his hand and a bullet through his head.
Before they took Amber home, she would need to see the body, in case it was Jenna Miller. “Later,” Garrett said.
“But…”
“Send pictures,” Garrett insisted. “She’s been smelling the body for hours—I’m not about to make her go back in there.”
Kent and his dad joined Amber and Garrett, leaving the detectives to process the scene. As they discussed the case, Garrett took hold of Amber’s hand, thanking God for answering their prayers.
Amber closed her eyes and said a prayer that this wasn’t the woman she’d seen kidnapped that night. She didn’t want to be the last person to have seen Jenna Miller alive.
When Kent stopped the car, Garrett escorted her into the police station. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
“Hi,” Nick said. “Good to see you.”
“Thanks,” she said to Nick, then looked at Garrett.
“Do I have to look…?”
“Just pictures for now,” Garrett confirmed. “That should be enough, I hope. It looks like she’s been dead for a few days.”
Amber felt her breakfast threaten to come up. “Could I get some water, please?”
Nick escorted her down the hall, while Garrett disappeared to get her something to drink. He opened a door and motioned for her to go on inside. “Garrett will be back in a few minutes and Detective Wang should be here pretty soon. Have you eaten recently? I could get you some crackers if you’re not feeling well.”
“That might help. Breakfast was a long time ago.” But about now she was wondering if eating would be a good thing. She found herself praying she wouldn’t get sick all over the interrogation room and make a fool of herself.
Another officer followed them into the cold, stale room, and said, “go ahead and have a seat.”
She looked at the dingy chair and unsightly walls, remembering the door of the jail cell that had closed behind her. “Wait,” she said, her heart pounding and her breathing quicker than normal. She didn’t want to sit in here alone. “Where’s Garrett?”
“He’ll be right back,” the officer said, blocking the doorway. Whether it was to keep her from leaving the claustrophobia-prone room, or to show her that he was still in charge, Amber couldn’t tell. Just then, Sarah Roberts walked into the room. “I’ll wait with Ms. Scott.” She was so short, she had to look up to Amber. “If that’s okay?”
Amber nodded, and the other officer let the door close. She glanced at Sarah, still in awe that someone so petite could hold her own as a cop. Sarah offered a hug and Amber felt tears stream down her face.
Sarah walked to the table and pulled out the chair. “Try to relax. This is much less traumatic than going to the morgue,” she said gently, then filled Amber in on what to expect from the photos. “Think of it as a scene from a television show and it’s a little easier. Go ahead and make yourself comfortable.”
Amber lowered herself into the chair, careful not to touch anything, as it didn’t look terribly clean. “Does it ever bother you?”
“Only when I let myself get attached….” Before they could continue the conversation, two men crowded into the room, Garrett following them both. He handed her a bottle of water, and the older man introduced himself as Chief Thomas and the other man as Detective Wang.
“Ms. Scott,” Detective Wang said with a nod. He then reviewed the specifics of Amber’s report and asked her to verify that she was the same person who witnessed the incident. Once she verbally confirmed, he continued. “We’ve identified the body of Jenna Miller based upon the yellow sport utility vehicle that you identified.”
Detective Wang articulated the details of the case, as known at this point, anyway. Amber wondered if that was because he’d never contacted her before, or if this was common. Or…she stole a look at Garrett.
She hadn’t seen him in uniform since the night of their accident and liked the reminder of her first impression of him—when h
e’d captured her heart.
“Ms. Scott,” he reiterated, as if he knew her mind was wandering. “Is this the woman you saw that evening?” He pulled photographs out of the folder. “Take your time—there’s no rush.”
She took a sip of the water Garrett had brought her and glanced at him standing across the room facing her. He looked irresistibly handsome in his navy blue pants and shirt. The corner of his mouth twitched, and she felt as if he was trying to shield her from the shock of looking at photographs of Jenna Miller.
She inhaled deeply and let it out, then looked at the photos. Each one had been taken from a different angle. The lighting was so different from that night and it was hard to tell for sure if the woman’s hair had been this red at sunset. Would it look darker in the lower light? Was this the woman Amber had been determined to find?
“It might be her. I’m not sure. Do you have other pictures of her…alive, I mean?”
“What isn’t right?” Garrett asked.
She looked at him. “Her hair is so red here. But it’s probably the sunlight. It looked darker and browner that night.”
Detective Wang jotted notes on a pad of paper. “I’ll see if her family can bring some pictures when they come, but for now, this is all we have to go on.”
“She looks so pale and puffy,” Amber said, staring at Jenna’s face.
“It’s normal postmortem.”
She wondered if she could have stopped this from ending this way. Amber wiped at her forehead and then covered her mouth. She looked at Jenna’s clothing. “I’m pretty sure it’s the same woman I saw kidnapped. I recognize her shirt.” Details of that night flashed through her mind. It seemed a lifetime ago.
Garrett cleared his throat. “Can we get onto today’s incident?”
“Sure. Ms. Scott, would you identify this man, for the record?”
“I don’t know him. Who is he?”
Detective Wang stared at her. “This isn’t the man who kidnapped you or Jenna Miller? Or the man who broke in to your apartment?”
The room went silent and Amber felt as if she was remembering things totally wrong. “No, I’ve never seen him before.”
Garrett looked at the photo. “This isn’t the man from her apartment. So it looks like he has an accomplice.”
“Had an accomplice. Let’s hope he’s the only one. Find out who this is, ASAP, and be sure to check for any gang ties.” Detective Wang handed the photo to an officer, then focused again on his notes. “So, Ms. Scott, go through everything as it happened today.”
She went through the events, clarifying questions as the detective wrote things down. By the time she got to the end, nothing seemed real. “And when did the suspect take your cell phone from you?”
“When he stopped to disable the computer. He couldn’t get it to turn off. That’s when he asked if I had a phone. I told him I thought I’d dropped it in the car. He yanked me out of the car and threw me against it…” She tried to get the image out of her head.
“What did he do?” Wang asked quietly. “Did he frisk you?”
She nodded. “After he tased me.”
“He tased you before frisking you?”
She was breathing faster. “I’d tried to get away, and that’s when he tased me. I finally figured out that he liked it when I fought him. It was like he was living out some fantasy or something. So I told him where the phone was, and he took it and drove in the opposite direction, then took out the battery and drove over the cell phone.”
“Any idea where that was?” Wang asked.
“We were on that back highway between Fossil Creek and Bondurant. He kept calling someone, asking if the coast was clear. It wasn’t very far, but with the bad roads, I was afraid we were going to slide off the road and die.”
There was a long silence, as the officers looked to Wang for the next question. “When you heard the suspect talking to the other person, did you recognize the voice?”
“Not that I recall. It was a man with a deep voice.”
“Can you give us any impressions of the relationship between the two?”
“They talked about covering each other’s backs, like they’d been close friends who helped each other through a tough time.”
“Now? Or at some other time?” Wang clarified.
“Both,” she answered. “Oh, and the second guy said they needed to take out his uncle. I didn’t realize at the time who that was, but Melendez said he’d take care of him, not to worry about that.”
The chief whispered to Nick, then Nick left the room in a hurry.
“Did you hear anything else?”
“I heard sirens, and a car. Then there was one gunshot, and then Garrett and his dad and brother broke in to the building I was in, and then a few minutes later there was another round of shots, and then Garrett took me outside because of the smell.”
“After the one shot, you’re sure there wasn’t another vehicle?”
“I was focused on the sirens, just hoping the police were coming to get me. Sorry.”
“Ms. Scott, I understand you live alone. Do you have somewhere else you can stay for a while?”
“I’m staying with friends right now,” she said, uncertain whether she should tell who exactly.
The chief shook his head, motioning for Sarah and Detective Wang to leave. After the door closed behind them, he waved his hand at the two-way mirror. “Ms. Scott. The other day I assigned Officer Matthews to provide twenty-four-hour surveillance. I appreciate your cooperation. I’m sure it has been a hardship closing down the shop for a few days, but I need to ask you to remain closed while we make sure we have the right man behind bars.”
“But the shop has a new security alarm.” She looked at Garrett, wondering why he hadn’t told her about the chief’s change in plan. “I can’t just close down my business.”
“Unless you’d like to end up—” the chief started to say, but Garrett interrupted him.
“I’m sure my parents would be willing to let her stay with them as long as necessary. I could bring her in at two or three in the morning, and help her, while providing…”
“No,” she said before thinking clearly. “Thank you, but no. I have to do this on my own.”
“There’s no way I’m going to let you keep endangering yourself and your employees,” Garrett argued. “We take care of our own, Chief, and the same applies to those we love. And you may as well know now, I plan to convince Amber to marry me, sooner or later—her choice.”
Amber stared at him in disbelief. He was probably the most honorable man she’d ever known. She couldn’t let him risk his job like this.
“Aren’t you going to—” the chief began to ask.
“I’m not going to test with the federal agencies.”
The chief paced the room, then ordered Detective Wang to get in there. No one moved. “Good, they cut the speakers.” He leaned his hands on the table and glared at Amber. “What I started to say is, aren’t you going to give Matthews an answer?”
Her lip quivered. “Yes, sir, I will.”
“You will? He risks his job, his entire career, and you can only say you will? You’re a wedding planner and you—”
“I mean I will give him an answer, but not in the middle of an interrogation room in a police station.”
The chief let out an unexpected chuckle. “You are aware that because of officer safety, part of his employment hinges on an interview of a potential spouse, don’t you?”
“It stands to reason. I’ve already told him that I’m a liability for his career goals.” She looked at Garrett and smiled.
The chief did, too. He looked from Amber to Garrett and back. “I’ve known the Matthews family for decades and I don’t think I could recommend marriage to a better man.” He went through the reality of a cop’s life and marriage, divorce rates, stress and the importance of having a support network.
Amber wasn’t swayed. “If I was going to give up when the going gets tough, I would never have taken
over my grandmother’s business in Old Town. Stress is only negative if you don’t have someone in your life who can make you laugh, even in the middle of troubling times.”
“Take your fiancée back to her shop to get her things, Garrett. Amber, I don’t want to unjustly scare you, but from all the evidence we’ve seen, I do believe there’s reason for taking these precautions.”
“Why?” Amber said eyeing Garrett. “What makes you think…”
“I don’t believe the vandalism of CiCi’s car was a random incident.”
“How’d you know about that?”
She expected some glib remark, but was surprised when he admitted that he’d been watching her, even when she thought he’d gone home for the night. “When I saw you leave to make deliveries, Sean told me something had happened to CiCi’s car, that you’d taken the last set of magnetic signs. I called dispatch and got the details.”
She thought back to CiCi’s phone call. After that, she’d noticed the car following her. “Why would he go after CiCi? And why wouldn’t he have come after me immediately?”
“Until this week, Parties Galore only existed on your van. It was in the shop. The bakery is still listed and advertised under the previous name, until your new sign was put up. So now that you have the magnetic signs, and have the new sign, it’s possible that the suspect believes he’s now found the witness. I don’t think Melendez associated you with the case until the new sign went up. I think he was after you to hurt me.”
Amber let out a gasp.
The chief stood with his arms crossed over his chest. “Could be trying to make sure he has the right person, but that would mean he actually has a conscience. We haven’t found any similar profile between his victims or pattern to his crimes. And I don’t plan on letting one develop.”
“I suspect he’s inflicting the same torment that he’s been through, knowing that someone can identify him.
Vandalizing CiCi’s car was a message that he’s found you. Then, this morning, he made sure you knew he was there. He drove the same car so you’d recognize it. He pulled up next to you, then dropped back.”
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