by CJ Lyons
"Are you sure? Because if that's true, you've already lost both your children. When Darrin gets back, he's going to need you to be there for him. Olivia, she needs you now."
"They don't need me. They never have. I'm just a burden to them. I'm not strong. Not like you."
"Like hell you aren't. You survived, Karen. You want to forget that along with everything else that happened to you. But if you deny that part of you, there's nothing left."
Karen was silent, knees pulled up to her chest, rocking in her chair as she thought. Lucy waited but she said nothing, so finally she stood to go.
"Lucy." Karen's voice was a whisper. "Do you really think I might get him back? That he's still—alive?"
Lucy knelt before Karen's chair and took both her hands in her own. "I promise you, Karen. We're doing everything possible to find him." Lucy never made promises she couldn't keep, especially not to parents in situations like this. But she knew platitudes weren't going to be enough to give Karen the strength she needed to dare to re-enter her life. "We'll bring him back."
"It should have been me. I would have gone."
Lucy shrank away from the other woman's words. "What do you mean?"
"It was…peaceful. After awhile, I didn't think, didn't exist, didn't feel. There was no fear. Not like here, not like every day since."
Dissociation. Common among victims of prolonged trauma. Lucy wished she could call Nick for a consult. "That was your way of coping. Then. When it was just you. But Karen, that won't work. Not now. Not if you're going to be there for Darrin. Not if you're going to help Olivia get through this. Can you do that? Help your kids?"
Another soul rattling sigh. "I'll try."
"Good. Why don't you get some clothes on, come on down for lunch?" Lucy waited for Karen's reluctant nod, then left, knowing she'd pushed her as far as she could.
She reached the bottom of the steps when the doorbell rang. She opened it, surprised to see Colleen Brady standing there. No coat, no hat, hugging herself against the cold. "Did you know? They called off the search. Just called it off. Where's Kurt Harding? I want to know why he told them to stop looking for my son."
Chapter 30
Jenna heard the commotion at the front door and ran out of the office. Colleen Brady stood there, snow melting in her hair, eyes wide with fear or maybe anger. Lucy escorted the woman inside and closed the door behind her. They sat on the wide leather couch facing the windows. Jenna stayed standing, not liking the waves of panic rippling off the mother.
Somehow Lucy didn't seem bothered. "They had to stop the search. Just temporarily."
"Why? Someone said it was because they heard from kidnappers. Why didn't they call me? Did they say if Marty was okay? Send a picture or video or something? Please—" Colleen collapsed forward, elbows on the large slate coffee table, face buried in her hands. "I can't take this. Not knowing."
Lucy wrapped her arm around the woman and pulled her into a hug. Like she was a friend, not just a victim. "I know. I know."
They sat together crying. Olivia came to the landing and looked down, followed by her mother. Karen Harding whispered something to the girl who nodded, came down the stairs and disappeared into the kitchen. Jenna's phone buzzed and she retreated to the study to answer it.
"I found her!" Taylor's excitement jumped through the airwaves. "Morgan Ames. Lawrence, Kansas. Disappeared two years ago when she was eleven."
"Good work. Are you sure?"
"You only get her full face in a few frames, but the photo from the NCMEC is a dead ringer. Even down to the mole on her left eyebrow."
"Anything on the family or how she went missing?"
"Report says she was last seen walking away from her house with a taller boy, brown hair, hunched posture. No other descriptors. No one got a good look at him or where they went."
Tall, brown hair, hunched posture. "Caine. Sonofabitch." So he and this girl were accomplices? But he would have only been twelve when he took her. "All the way from Kansas? There has to be an adult."
"You asking me or telling me?"
"Anything pop on that background check I asked you to do earlier? Colleen Brady?"
"Found a report alleging an assault. Filed almost seven years ago. Closed as unfounded."
Seven years ago? And Marty Brady was six. Too much of a coincidence. "What kind of assault? Where did it take place? Who were the suspects?"
"Sorry. All it says is unfounded, complaining witness emotionally unstable."
"What the hell? What kind of report is that?"
"Military Police. Fort Rucker, Alabama. Can't find any other records about it. Either they scrubbed it or maybe junked it before an investigation was begun. Couldn't tell you. Have to go through the Army. And you know how much they like to share."
Assault. Too vague. Could be a simple attempted mugging or even a drunk soldier getting frisky. Hell, could be a fellow army wife pissed off about something. Who knew?
One person knew. "Thanks, Taylor. Call me if you find out anything more about the Ames girl."
"Yeah. But," he hesitated, "shouldn't we call the family? Let them know we found her? They've been waiting for two years."
"Not yet. Not until we actually have her."
"You don't really think she killed that deputy, do you? Such a tiny thing. She looks so, well, sweet. Innocent."
She shook her head. She might be the rookie on the team, but she sure as hell wasn't the most naive. "Just call me. Thanks."
Jenna pocketed her phone and peeked outside to the living room. Lucy and Colleen still huddled on the couch facing each other, cups of tea steaming from the slab of slate that served as a coffee table. Damn, this was going to be hard. Should she let Lucy take the lead?
Last time she let Lucy take the lead, a police officer ended up dead.
She walked out to the living room and sat in a leather chair perpendicular to Colleen. "Mrs. Brady, I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Inspector Galloway. I work with Special Agent Guardino."
Lucy cut her a look filled with warning. Tread lightly.
"Ma'am," Jenna continued, trying to keep her voice even and non-threatening. "I was wondering if you could tell me about an assault you reported seven years ago at Fort Rucker in Alabama?"
Colleen didn't gasp or faint or anything dramatic. She just vanished. Her body frozen, her expression an absolute blank. Lucy leaned forward and placed one hand on her knee. "What is it, Colleen?"
It took a moment before Colleen's thousand-mile stare retreated. Her shudder rocked her entire body. "I hoped I'd never have to think of that night again."
"What happened?"
"I went shopping. Off post. Must have picked up a nail or something, because on the way back, it was dark and Rucker is in the middle of nowhere. Tire went flat just as I was passing Lake Tholocco. Couldn't reach anyone on my cell, so I was getting ready to change it myself when this mail truck pulled up."
"A delivery vehicle?" Jenna asked.
"No. A semi. But the trailer was marked US Mail. He said he was headed to Rucker, would be happy to drop me off at the gate. Or he could send someone back for me. He even offered to change the tire himself, but I could tell he was on a schedule and he seemed so nice and so I said I'd wait in the car if he could send help as soon as he got to an area with cell phone reception. He said fine, but first we better push the car farther off the road so no one hit it in the dark and so we both went to the back to push and—" The headlong rush of words fractured into silence.
Colleen gasped for air, hands clenched around her knees, hanging on tight. "He used a stun gun on me. Next thing I knew I was in the dark, in a compartment on his truck. I knew we were moving, I could feel the vibration below me like I was just above the road. It was so noisy, but I couldn't see anything. My hands were tied with plastic loops. They were so tight, it hurt so bad." She dragged in a breath. "He pulled off the road and came inside and…"
"He raped you?" Jenna asked, despite Lucy's warning scowl. Hell, the
y weren't ever going to court with this, and they didn't have time to waste.
Colleen nodded. "Over and over. All that night. And—" The thousand mile stare was back. "Other things." Then she straightened. "But I got the better of him. He thought I was unconscious, left for a while. I'm not sure how long. I was ready for him when he came back. Broke those plastic zip ties just like Martin taught me to. I waited by the door and when he came inside, thinking I was in the front of the trailer where he left me, I ran out, slammed the door, and kept on running.
"He'd parked near a roadside bar at the edge of the camp. Place with a few rooms out in back where guys would go to blow off steam, you know, with hookers. I was naked, half crazed, and I guess the owner thought it best to call the MPs instead of the county sheriff. By the time they came, the truck was long gone. They took me to my car and the tire wasn't flat any more.
"So," she shrugged, "they said if I was lonely because Martin was busy training or I was trying to cover up a one night stand or affair, there were better ways to do it. As a favor to Martin, to protect his career, they were going to close the case. Even said I was lucky they didn't press charges against me for filing a false report."
Jenna didn't blame her for the bitterness that colored her voice. She'd spit nails if anyone tried to do that to her. "Did you see your attacker?"
"Yes, a little. Had a ball cap on and a very full beard. Wore tinted glasses even though it was night. My description was pretty worthless. He could have been any one."
"Did you go to the hospital? Have an exam done?"
Colleen glared at her, her gaze clear for the first time since she began telling her story. "I'm a nurse. Of course I did. Even talked to the county attorney, but no one wanted to pursue it. The chain of command was too tangled. The truck was parked on Army property, but they wanted no part of it. And…" Another shrug. "Without evidence, what could they do?"
"I'm so sorry you went through that." Lucy nodded to Jenna. She finally got where Jenna was heading.
"One good thing came of it. In the ER they did a pregnancy test—didn't want to give me the Ovral if I was already pregnant. And that's when I found out about Marty."
Jenna sat up. "So he's not the rapist's child?"
"No. He's Martin’s. Through and through." Colleen looked at them. "Why did you need to know? I mean, my case couldn't have anything to do with what happened here or to Karen Harding, could it? He was just a sick truck driver, not a serial killer." Despite her words, she hugged herself and pulled back into the corner of the couch.
Lucy comforted the woman. "Thanks for sharing with us, Colleen. You know how important it is that we cover every possibility." She stood and beckoned to Jenna. They left for the study.
"The kidnapper couldn't know Marty wasn't his. That makes three for three," Jenna said in a rush as soon as the door was closed. She took a breath, half jazzed with adrenalin and half terrified by the enormity of it all. "Three missing kids, all the product of rape."
<><><>
Lucy called both Karen Harding and Colleen Brady down to the living room and sent Jenna to keep Olivia occupied in the kitchen. If what she suspected was true, the teen didn't need to be privy to her mom's secrets.
"I know this is hard," she said as both women took seats on the opposite ends of the long couch. They glared at each other as if opponents in a championship fight. Nothing like having both your boys' lives at the mercy of a kidnapper to make you wary. After all, a mother would do anything to save her child. But maybe not another woman's child.
"Time is short, so I'm going to be blunt," Lucy continued. "You both were the victims of a sexual assault seven years ago. And you both have ties to New Hope."
Colleen jumped, leaning forward, bracing herself on the slate coffee table. "Wait. You're not saying—" She turned to stare at Karen who was curled up, knees hugged to her chest, looking frail and vulnerable. "It couldn't be the same man. It just couldn't be."
"I think we need to explore that option."
"No," she persisted, shaking her head. "No. Her," she didn't use Karen's name, "attacker is dead. You saw him die. Four years ago. It's one of the reasons I brought Marty back home when Martin redeployed. I figured no town would be safer. The danger was gone." She gulped so loud, Lucy heard it. "Are you saying… Are you saying, Marty was kidnapped because I came back home?"
Lucy sidestepped the question. "Karen, you and your husband are both from New Hope. Did you return home seven years ago? You, too, Colleen. Any visits to your mom?"
"That summer," again it was Colleen answering, "was our tenth high school reunion. She probably doesn't remember me," another nod in Karen's direction, "but I remember her and Kurt. King and Queen of the prom. Again. But Martin and I still had a grand time." She touched her cheek, a soft touch as if remembering her husband's hand. "That's probably when Marty was conceived."
"Tell me about the reunion. Anything memorable?" Lucy looked to Karen, trying to get her to join in on the conversation, but she stared vacantly out the rapidly darkening windows.
"Martin got into a fight. Guy I dated in high school. We went out twice, that's all. I wouldn't even call him a boyfriend since both times we were with a group of kids. He tried to hit on me. Clint was drunk, it was no big deal, I was handling it. But Martin, well, he's an Army pilot, testosterone was pretty much what he lived on."
"Clint?" Lucy pounced on the name. "Clinton Caine?" Adam's father. The long distance truck driver. A shiver shook her as shadows crowded the room. But she kept her voice calm. "Karen, did you know Clinton Caine?"
Karen froze, not even breathing for a long moment. Then she let out her breath and said, "He proposed to me. On the night of the prom. We'd never even talked before, but he said he loved me. Wanted to marry me. I thought it was sweet. Had a crush on me since second grade, always shadowing me around. Never daring to even talk to me before that. But," she closed her eyes, wincing, "but, Kurt and the other football players overheard him. They beat the crap out of him. He missed prom and never came back to school. Not even for graduation."
Two women, the objects of Clinton Caine's affection. Two men who ridiculed him. The perfect fuel to feed a grudge. Or obsession. And it explained why Caine took so many risks with Karen. He not only wanted to humiliate, but wanted to own every part of her. Steal her from Kurt.
"Clinton Caine," Lucy murmured. She'd once met the man. Hadn't had a clue. Thought he was a loving husband and father. Grief-stricken.
Adam said he wanted to bring his father back to New Hope. Maybe he'd succeeded. Too well. Maybe Caine had returned. Only now he was collecting his children. His trophies.
But what did he want with them?
She needed to see if Morgan Ames could also be one of his children, the product of another rape-abduction. If Morgan was involved with Deputy Bob's death, did Caine teach her how to kill?
Adam had lived with the man his entire life. Did that make him a victim? Or an accomplice?
Maybe killing was in his blood.
Chapter 31
Lucy was an adult. And a FBI agent. She could take care of herself. Marty, Darrin, and Sally couldn't. They needed Adam.
That's what he told himself after Dad gave him a gun and sent him and Morgan down the mountain to Darrin's house. They had Bluetooth earpieces so Dad could hear everything they did and talk to them. Well, talk to Morgan. Adam was too busy thinking to pay much attention.
He couldn't stand up to Dad. He couldn't even stand up to Morgan. Look what happened to Deputy Bob. He should have stopped it. He knew what was happening, but he just sat there and watched like a dope. Helpless, stupid, dope. That was Adam.
Would he let that happen to Lucy? His boot heel caught on a tree root hidden by the snow on the trail and he slipped banana peel style. Morgan's laughter cut through the air, silencing the birds. Even the wind hushed when faced with Morgan. She owned any space she moved through. Even if Adam stood in her way.
Especially if Adam stood in her way.
&nb
sp; Dad gave her a gun, plus she had her knife. And Dad whispered last minute instructions to her after Adam started down the trail, thought Adam too stupid to notice. Or suspect that maybe once Dad had what he wanted, he might not need Adam anymore. Just like in Cleveland.
Maybe Dad hadn't come back to save Adam. Maybe he'd come to silence Adam.
Adam pushed back to his feet, wiping the snow from his jeans before it could melt. The house was just ahead. Dad would be pulling the van around, ready to pick them up as soon as they had control of things.
"Should be just Lucy, Karen, sweet Olivia, and that red-haired girl," Dad had said. "Everyone else is headed over to the ransom drop. You have plenty of time, but don't waste it. I want to be long gone before anyone squawks to the cops."
The approach was simple: Adam in through the basement, Morgan at the front door. No one knew her. They'd open the door to her and that was all they needed.
They reached the end of the trees. Morgan did a little dance as she pulled her gun out and unzipped her coat so she could reach her knife easily. "You ready, big brother?"
No. Not at all. He still hadn't figured a way out of this. He needed to save Lucy and he needed to tell her where the kids were before he ran. New Hope wasn't safe for him. Not anymore. Not with the cops ready to shoot to kill and Dad and Morgan ready to go fishing.
With Adam as bait.
<><><>
Lucy rushed into the kitchen where Jenna and Olivia were making spaghetti for dinner. "Yesterday I asked you to locate Clinton Caine. Did you find him?"
Jenna kept chopping tomatoes, not even looking up. "No. Sorry, it wasn't a priority, what with trailers blowing up and—" She dropped the knife and whirled. "Oh shit. You're not saying—"