by Tim Kizer
Jane indicated Michael’s toothbrush and the detective picked it up and placed it in the envelope labeled Michael Harmon.
“Do you and Michael share shaving cream?”
“No.”
“Can I take Michael’s shaving cream? We’re going to get his fingerprints off it.”
“Sure.” Jane indicated Michael’s shaving cream.
Buckley pulled out a plastic evidence bag and placed the shaving cream in it. “Can I take his aftershave, too?”
“Yes.”
After bagging Michael’s aftershave, Buckley followed Jane into the bathroom used by Angela, where he collected the girl’s small toothbrush that had a picture of SpongeBob SquarePants on it.
“Does your daughter have a tablet?” Buckley said as they stepped out into the hallway.
“Yes.”
“Can I take it?”
“It’s in our car. I can give you her old tablet.”
“Okay.”
“By the way, it has my fingerprints on it, too.”
“That’s okay.”
They walked into Angela’s room, and Jane’s heart ached as she looked at her daughter’s bed, her toys, her desk, her dresser. She could smell her little girl’s sweet scent in the air. Jane remembered tucking Angela in and kissing her on the forehead and breathing in her smell the night before they left for the ranch.
She opened the bottom drawer of Angela’s desk and said, “It’s here.”
Buckley picked up the tablet and put it in an evidence bag. “Can you come with us to police headquarters? We need to take your fingerprints for elimination purposes.”
“Yes, I can.” Jane shut the drawer.
Chapter 3
1
When they got into the detectives’ car, Bates and Buckley gave Jane their business cards.
“According to your statement, Michael and Angela were abducted while they were waiting for you in the parking lot of the Gordon Brothers grocery store,” Buckley said as they drove to police headquarters.
“That’s right,” Jane said.
“And your Lexus was parked in the same spot where Officer Burns found it?”
“Yes.”
Why was he asking these questions? Something in Buckley’s tone made Jane suspicious.
After she was fingerprinted, Buckley told Jane he had something to show her and took her to a small room with a desk and three swivel chairs. There was an open laptop on the desk.
“Have a seat.” Buckley logged into the laptop, then pulled up a chair beside Jane and said, “This is the surveillance tape from the parking lot. I want you to watch it.”
He clicked a button, and the video began to play. It showed the parking lot of the Gordon Brothers grocery store; the time stamp read 3:25 p.m. The camera was mounted somewhere on the front of the store. Buckley fast-forwarded the tape until a white Lexus sedan appeared in the frame.
“Is this your husband’s car?” Buckley asked, pointing at the Lexus.
The time stamp read 3:29 p.m. They had arrived at the store around three-thirty, so it probably was Michael’s car.
“I think so,” Jane said.
Michael pulled into a space next to a cabover recreational vehicle that had parked a few seconds earlier. The RV was large enough to completely hide Michael’s Lexus from the security camera.
About ten seconds later, Jane appeared from behind the RV and headed to the Gordon Brothers grocery store.
Jane and Angie had sat in the backseat, and she had kissed her daughter on the cheek before getting out of the car.
Jane’s stomach clenched as she braced herself to watch Michael and Angie being abducted. She stared at the screen intently, without blinking, expecting the kidnappers’ vehicle—she thought it had probably been a van—to enter the parking lot any moment now.
Thirty seconds passed; no van had pulled into the lot and no one had approached Michael’s car. About a minute later, the driver of the RV returned, climbed behind the wheel, and drove off, revealing the Lexus.
Jane was glad the RV had left: now she would be able to see the abductors force Michael and Angie out of the car.
Five more minutes passed; there was still no sign of kidnappers and Michael and Angie were still in the car.
What were the abductors waiting for?
Jane glanced at Detective Buckley. He was looking fixedly at the screen with his arms folded across his chest.
“Would you like me to speed it up?” Buckley asked.
“No.”
Buckley leaned toward the laptop and touched the screen with his finger where Michael’s Lexus was. “That’s your husband’s car, right?”
“Yes.”
Jane looked closer at the Lexus and suddenly realized that the driver’s seat was empty.
He must have changed seats. Perhaps he had gotten in the backseat to play with Angie.
When the video clock hit 3:40 p.m., Jane tensed up: the kidnappers were going to attack very soon.
3:41 p.m. Still no sign of abductors.
What if…
A thought began to form in Jane’s mind, but she discarded it because it was absurd. Utterly absurd.
At 3:45 p.m. Jane came out of the store carrying a plastic grocery bag, walked to the Lexus, placed the bag on the backseat, and then got in the front passenger seat.
Jane frowned. Why wasn’t Michael and Angie’s abduction on the tape? The parking lot camera had to have caught it.
Buckley paused the video.
The white Lexus in the video was Michael’s car, Jane was sure of that. The footage was dated July 21, the day Michael and Angie were abducted.
Why the hell wasn’t the abduction on the tape?
“Are you sure Michael and Angela were kidnapped while you were in the grocery store?” Buckley asked.
“Yes, I am.”
“Around three-thirty p.m.?”
“Yes. Was this tape edited?”
“No. I checked.”
“Are you sure it’s footage from the camera in the Gordon Brothers parking lot?”
“Yes.”
“Can you replay the video?”
“Sure.” Buckley rewound the footage to the moment Michael drove into the parking lot, and clicked Play.
As Jane watched Michael’s Lexus disappear behind the RV, she realized what had happened.
Michael and Angie must have been abducted while Michael’s car was hidden from the camera by the RV.
“Please pause it,” Jane said.
Buckley paused the video.
“They were kidnapped while my husband’s car was hidden from the camera by the RV.”
Buckley looked thoughtfully at the screen and then clicked the Play button. He paused the video when the RV backed out of the parking space.
“If they were kidnapped while Michael’s car was hidden from the camera, where’s the kidnappers’ vehicle?” he said. “No car parked next to your husband’s while the RV was there.”
The RV.
The kidnappers had come in the RV!
The driver of the RV had been in the store for less than two minutes, hadn’t he? He’d gone into the store not to buy groceries but to keep an eye on her.
He doesn’t look like Matt.
Pointing at the RV, Jane said, “This is the kidnappers’ vehicle.”
Buckley hesitated, then nodded. “You may be right.”
He rewound the tape a few seconds and paused it. Jane peered at the RV. Jamboree SEARCHER was printed on the side of the vehicle.
“It’s a Fleetwood Jamboree Searcher,” Buckley said. “A twenty-two-footer. My uncle has one.”
“Can you zoom in on the license plate?”
“Yes.” Buckley clicked Play and paused the tape when the RV’s license plate became fully visible. “I believe it’s a rental.”
“Why?”
“See this?” Buckley pointed at the cabover section of the RV. Printed on it was FORT WORTH RV. “Forth Worth RV. It must be an RV rental company.”
He zoomed in on the license plate, and Jane was disappointed to see that the image was so grainy that only the last two characters of the plate could be made out, barely: 73.
“I can make out only the last two digits,” Buckley said. “They look like seven and three.”
“I agree. Is that enough?” Jane pulled out her phone.
“I hope so.”
Jane opened Google Maps on her phone, searched for Forth Worth RV, and found that there was indeed an RV rental company in Forth Worth named Forth Worth RV.
“Are you going to talk to Fort Worth RV today?” Jane asked. “I found their address.”
“Yes, I’ll talk to them today.”
“Please keep me posted.”
“Sure.”
The kidnappers might have put fake license plates on the RV. If that was the case, the police might never track down the vehicle.
Jane’s heart sank at the thought.
“Do you have footage from inside the store?” she asked. “The cameras in the store might have caught the RV’s driver’s face.”
“Yes, we do.”
Buckley rewound to the moment the driver turned to the grocery store after getting out of the RV. The driver wore sunglasses, a blue baseball cap, a gray shirt, and blue jeans, and had no facial hair. Buckley wrote down the time the man entered the store, 3:29:40 p.m., stopped the video, and then opened a file containing footage from inside the store. He forwarded the tape to 3:29:30 p.m., and when the RV’s driver appeared on the screen, he said, “There he is.”
Jane noted that the RV’s driver had entered the store four seconds after she had. He had been sent to watch her, she was sure of it now.
The man had kept his sunglasses and baseball cap on the whole time he was in the store (he must have done it on purpose, to obscure his face), and left without buying anything.
“He didn’t take off his sunglasses because he knew there were cameras there,” Jane said.
“Maybe.” Buckley stopped the video and closed the laptop.
“Can you check if Michael received any calls from criminals?”
The detective stood up. “You think he hangs out with criminals?”
“Maybe he was a witness to a crime and they kidnapped him to prevent him from testifying.”
“We’re already doing that.”
“Did you find any calls from criminals?”
“No. Not yet.”
2
Jane retrieved Michael’s Lexus from the impound lot and drove home. Now that the police had a lead—a pretty strong one, in her opinion—she felt a little better. She kept imagining Buckley calling and telling her that they had found the driver of the RV and that the bastard had confessed.
Jane liked Detective Buckley. He hadn’t dismissed her theory, he had listened to her. He had believed her. He really cared about Angie and Michael.
Around two in the afternoon, Brian came to Jane’s house to comfort her, and she told him about Detectives Bates and Buckley’s visit.
“Who do you think could’ve taken Angie and Mike?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” Brian got up, sat beside her on the couch, and put an arm around her shoulders. “We’re going to find them, Jane.”
“Did Mike owe anyone money?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he ask you for money recently?”
“No. Why?”
“He might’ve been kidnapped by someone he owed money to. Does he have a gambling problem?”
Brian shook his head. “No, he doesn’t. He’s not a gambler.”
“Does he have enemies?”
“There are probably people who don’t like Mike, but I’m sure none of them hate him enough to abduct him.”
“Did Mike ever mention seeing someone commit murder or something like that?”
“No.”
Jane touched Brian’s hand. She was glad he had come; she couldn’t bear to be alone.
“Where’s Mike’s phone?” Brian asked. “Did the police take it?”
“No. It’s in the bedroom.”
“Did you go through his messages? There may be a clue there.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Let’s take a look.”
“Okay.” Jane got up and went into the master bedroom.
Chapter 3
1
Fort Worth RV was located in northeast Fort Worth near State Highway 121, next to a brewing supply store. Paul and Bates found the manager, whose name was Carlos Suarez, in his simply furnished office, which was separated from the sales area by a glass wall. Suarez was a short, stocky man with deeply tanned skin and jet-black hair.
“How can I help you, Detectives?” the manager asked.
“Do you have Fleetwood Jamboree Searchers in your inventory?” Paul Buckley said.
Paul hadn’t told his partner it was Jane Shepard’s theory that the kidnappers might have been in the RV parked next to Michael Harmon’s car. It wasn’t that he wanted credit; he just thought Bates would find the theory more credible if he believed it was Paul’s.
“Yes, we do,” Suarez said.
“We need the names of your clients who had them yesterday.”
“Sure.” Suarez turned to his computer.
A minute later the printer came to life and spit out a sheet of paper. Suarez grabbed the printout and gave it to Paul. “Here you go.”
Paul scanned the list for license plates ending in 73 and found one record. The RV was a twenty-two-footer, and the renter’s name was William Dobson. Dobson, who lived in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, had rented the RV on July 18 and returned it today.
Paul took his pen from his pocket, circled Dobson’s name, and handed the list to Bates.
“You think it’s his real name?” Bates said.
“I hope so.”
“Can I ask what happened?” Suarez said.
“We believe that one of your RVs was used in a kidnapping,” Paul replied.
Suarez frowned.
Paul took the list from his partner’s hand, placed it on the desk in front of Suarez, and pointed at the license plate of the RV rented by William Dobson. “Is this RV in the lot?”
“Let me check.” Suarez punched the inventory number of the RV into his computer and then said, “Yes, it is.”
“Has it left the lot since William Dobson returned it?” Paul asked.
Suarez glanced at the screen. “No.”
“I’d like to see it.” Paul picked up the list.
“Sure.” Suarez jotted the RV’s license plate number on a Post-it note, put on his sunglasses, then got up and took a key from a gray metal cabinet on the wall.
When they came out of the rental office, Paul gave the list to Bates and said, “Can you run Dobson’s driver’s license?”
“Okay.”
“And write down the address he has on file with the DMV.”
“Okay.” Bates headed to their car.
As he and Suarez walked through the lot, Paul said, “We need to impound the vehicle. Is that okay with you?”
“Yes, sure.”
Paul opened his folder and pulled out pictures of the front and the driver’s side of the RV in the security footage.
“Do you have the key?” he asked.
“Yes.”
They stopped in front of a row of cabover RVs parked at the western edge of the lot. The chrome grilles and bumpers of the vehicles gleamed in the sun.
“Here it is.” Suarez pointed at the third RV from the left.
Paul checked the RV’s license plate to see if it ended in 73—it did—and then looked at the photo of the front of the RV used to kidnap Michael Harmon and Angela Shepard. The RV rented by William Dobson matched the picture.
Paul tucked the folder and the pictures under his arm, took a pair of latex gloves from his jacket pocket and slipped them on. “Can I have the key?”
Suarez handed him the key, and the detective unlocked the driver’s door and climbed behind the wheel
of the RV. Paul started the engine, pulled out of the parking space, then switched off the ignition and got out of the vehicle.
The driver’s side of the RV matched the picture of the RV in the security footage.
“The driver’s license checked out,” Bates said as he walked up to Paul and Suarez. “No warrants, no arrests. The address he gave the rental company is the same as the address on the driver’s license.”
Paul stripped off the gloves. “Let’s pay Mr. Dobson a visit.”
He called Dallas Police headquarters and asked them to impound the RV rented by William Dobson.
THE END OF THE SAMPLE
Buy Abduction on Amazon.com
Other titles by Tim Kizer
Abduction
The Girl Who Didn’t Die
The Girl Who Didn’t Die (an audio book)
An Evil Mind
The Vanished
Days of Vengeance
Mania
Spellbound
The Mindbender
MANIA
Description
Serial killer Richard Brower buried his cheating wife, Mary, in the woods on Saturday.
On Monday, Mary calls her brother's girlfriend.
A few days later, she calls her mom.
Then Mary bumps into her friend at a mall.
Are all these people lying or has Mary actually come back from the dead?
Richard has no idea, but he will get to the bottom of this. Or at least he'll try.
CHAPTER 1
1.
“There’s something I need to tell you, Laura. It’s about your brother, Richard.” Jack placed his palm on Laura’s hand and looked into her eyes. “Your brother is a killer.”
After noting that Jack’s hand was soft and very warm, Laura drew her brows together and said, “A killer?”
“Yes.” Jack nodded. “He murdered a young woman a year ago.”
“How did he murder her?”
“He strangled her. And then he cut off a finger from each of her hands.”
“What?” Laura’s eyes widened. “How do you know it was Richard?”