by Dana Marton
The line went dead.
Kate tried Emma again. “Pick up, please. I love you. You’re the best sister ever.”
She locked her office door while she waited for a call back that never came. The phone didn’t ring.
Then she thought of Cirelli and called the agent next.
“Everything all right, Kate?”
“I haven’t been able to reach my sister since this morning. What if Asael got her?”
“Emma Bridges, right? Does she still live in California? She should be fine.”
“She’s spent the past week with me here in Broslin. She left my house this morning to drive back to LA.”
To her credit, the agent didn’t waste time on telling Kate not to worry. She snapped straight to the details. “When was the last time you saw her?”
“A little after eight a.m.”
“What is she driving?”
“White Honda Civic. I don’t know what year or the license plate number. It’s a rental. She was going to drive west on Route 76.”
“I’d like to have her cell phone number.”
Kate rattled it off. “You can track her location through the phone, right?”
“I’m going to do my best.”
“Do you think he has her?”
“There could be a number of reasons why a person doesn’t answer their phone. Maybe she put it on mute. Or she could have forgotten it at a rest stop. Or it could have been stolen.”
Cirelli said all that so calmly, so reasonably, that Kate almost believed it. Almost. “But you’ll check into the phone and the car?”
“I’ll check. Are you at a safe location?”
“I’m at work. The police are on their way.”
“Good. This might have nothing to do with Asael, but let’s take all precautions. Let me see what I can do, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I have anything. If I find any indication that this is connected to Asael, I’m going to suggest that we take you into protective custody. Are you all right with that?”
Kate couldn’t think about herself, not right then. “Just find my sister, please.”
After hanging up with Cirelli, she tried Emma again. Then she canceled her afternoon appointments. Then she called her mother, because she didn’t know what else to do. “Any news? Did she call?”
“No. And she still won’t pick up either. Hold on I’m putting you on speaker. Oh God, if she was in an accident…Do you think we should call the police?”
“I just talked to Murph. He said he’d call the local police captain as soon as we hung up.”
“Good. He used to be one of them. They’ll pay attention to him.”
Kate didn’t tell her mother about the FBI or Asael. The assassin was such a far stretch. There had to be a simpler, more likely explanation for why Emma had gone silent.
For all Kate knew, Asael was still in Colorado, the other side of the country, stalking his latest assignment. Or the whole facial recognition hit could have been just a glitch. Cirelli had said it’d been a partial match. No, a partial match didn’t merit Kate giving her mother a heart attack.
She gripped her phone.
Don’t think the worst.
“Maybe she lost her phone at a rest stop. Or someone could have stolen it out of her back pocket while she was standing in line for coffee,” she repeated what the agent had told her. “You know how Emma gets. Head in the clouds, lost in thought. Or lost flirting with a handsome barista.”
“She’s right,” her father was saying in the background. “Don’t worry.”
Her mother drew a shuddering breath. “Of course. She’ll call any minute, tell us some wild story, then we’ll all laugh.” But she sounded very much as if she were crying.
“Listen to Dad. Try not to worry too much, all right? And—” Kate fell silent when someone rattled the doorknob.
“It’s Joe,” Joe said through the door. “Just wanted to let you know I’m back.”
“I have to go,” Kate told her mother. “The police are here. I’ll call you if I have any news. Love you, Mom. Love you, Dad!” she shouted so her father could hear.
“Oh, honey. You know how much we love you back.”
As soon as Kate hung up, she opened the door, and Joe stepped inside. “Murph says I have to have eyes on you at all times until he gets here.”
“Have you had a chance to have lunch? We have a cafeteria. I could walk you over.”
“Grabbed pizza at the station.” Joe walked into her treatment room and checked it thoroughly, as if Asael could be hiding under her massage table and she wouldn’t have noticed.
“Coffee?” She needed to keep busy.
“All tanked up.” He came back out. “Murph gave me a quick update as I was driving over. You think this Asael guy could have taken your sister?”
“It’s a very slim possibility, but it’s a possibility.” Kate grabbed a clean mug and popped a pod of decaf into the machine, just for the comfort of the scent and the feel of the warmth in her hands. “Or she could have lost her phone. Or she could have been in an accident.”
Maybe repeating those alternate explanations enough times would help her to believe them.
It didn’t.
“Not sure about the accident,” Joe said. “Caught an update from the captain on the radio just as I was coming in. State police say they had no accidents on Route 76 this morning involving a young woman.”
Instant relief filled Kate. Emma wasn’t hurt, in a hospital somewhere. But that small burst of relief disappeared way too fast.
Joe’s news didn’t rule out her worst fear.
* * *
Murph
Murph was ready to grab Kate and get on the road with her, drag her back to Ohio even to keep her safe, but she would have none of it.
“Please,” she begged him. “If you care about me at all, look for Emma.”
He hated seeing her scared. If she was scared, if she was in danger, then he had failed. In every way.
He squared off with her. “You are Asael’s main target.”
“Joe will protect me.”
Joe Kessler was watching the hallway, while Chase Merritt monitored the lobby. Two outstanding policemen. Yet not enough for Murph.
Kate stood behind her desk, wearing the turquoise sweater Emma had knitted for her this past Christmas, with bells and ribbons, and the words Jingle Bells under them, except the “e” in bells was crooked and could be mistaken for an “a,” which Murph was pretty sure had been deliberate on Emma’s part.
Kate kept the sweater in her desk drawer for when she got cold. Murph thought the office was plenty warm, but she’d pulled it out and put it on regardless. Maybe just to feel her sister with her.
“I’m not leaving you.” His protective instincts raged at the thought. “The whole PD is looking for her. Everyone who’s not here with you, is out looking.”
“I want you to look.” She dropped her voice and held his gaze. “If you ever loved me…”
In his imagination, he already had her over his shoulder and halfway to his truck. “I still love you.”
For a moment, everything went still. Tears glistened in her eyes. She wouldn’t blink, wouldn’t let them fall.
“Please find Emma.” Desperation thickened her voice. “Please.”
He hated the living shit out of the idea of walking away from Kate. He wanted to murder the thought with his bare hands.
“Murph?”
He was flayed by the fear and worry that clouded her blue eyes. He clenched his jaw as he silently swore. “All right. But I take you home. Joe will be inside the house with you. We’ll have two men outside, one watching the front of the house and one in the back. And you’ll have a loaded gun in your hand at all times.” He fixed her with his serious-as-the-apocalypse look. “Even when you’re in the bathroom.”
Some of the tension on her face eased. She nodded. But before he could relax even a shade, she came up with her next brilliant idea. “Or I could come with you to look for Emma.”
>
“No,” he said as firmly as he could without shouting. First of all, she’d be going into danger over his dead body. And also… “If Bing lets me assist, he’ll be doing me a huge favor. I can’t bring along another civilian.”
She looked like she might cry. She didn’t. Once again, she steeled herself, would not allow herself to fall apart. She gave a small nod as she accepted his logic. “Okay.”
The few sentences they’d spoken to each other amounted to the longest conversation they’d had in weeks. He missed her—in his heart, in his guts, in the endless, sleepless hours of the night. Something was broken between them, and damn if Murph knew how to fix it, and that helplessness didn’t sit well with him. Now more than ever. He wanted to draw her into his arms, hold her, and never let her go. But it wasn’t what she wanted, so he stepped back.
“Let’s go. Grab your bag.”
At least she had still come to him when she needed help with something truly important to her. That was something. It spoke of trust. If they still had trust, maybe, when Emma was home safe and sound, they could rebuild from there.
“Taking Kate home,” he told Joe in the hallway. “Can you follow us?”
“No problem.”
The three of them walked out to the lobby together, where Murph asked Chase to join them as well.
Kate rode with Murph. He wouldn’t let her out of his sight until he absolutely had to.
She said nothing on the ride, just kept checking her phone over and over. Murph called Bing to tell him what they were doing and that they needed another man.
“I’ll send Hunter,” Bing said without argument.
When they reached Kate’s house, Murph kept her in his pickup while Joe and Chase checked out the place. Then he walked her in. Walked her to her little gun safe and checked her weapon, made sure it was loaded.
“I’m not an idiot.” Her temper flared at last. A good sign. She was finding her spirit. “I remember what you taught me.”
“Good. You see the bastard, you shoot. No hesitation. If he comes, he’ll come for one reason only.”
“I’ll be fine. Hunter will be here in a few minutes. Please go and look for Emma.” She put her free hand on his arm.
Need roared through Murph for more. “Kate?”
She leaned forward. And then she rested her forehead against his collarbone, as if all her energy had been sapped, as if she was exhausted beyond words.
He didn’t put his arms around her, even if he wanted to, wanted so much it made his teeth ache. He let her give or take what she needed.
In the end, she only needed two seconds. Then she pulled away.
And because staring at her balefully while desperately wanting her back wasn’t going to help anything, he took off without further argument. He only stopped at the door to tell Joe and Chase to guard her with their lives.
He called the captain from outside. “I’ll be at the station in ten minutes.”
“Everybody’s out already, checking abandoned buildings. If Emma Bridges was kidnapped, if it is Asael, she could have been picked up a street or two from Kate’s place. She could still be in town somewhere.” Frustration sharpened Bing’s tone as he added, “Damn hard to know where to start. Most of the time, a kidnapper takes his victim somewhere familiar. An abandoned house he might have played in as a kid, or a campsite in the woods he’d visited in the past.”
Murph jumped into his pickup. “What would be familiar for Asael in Broslin?”
“Nothing. As far as we know, he’s never been here.”
“His lover had. Has anyone checked Fred Kazincky’s apartment?”
“I doubt it’s sitting empty. And it’s in the middle of town. Hardly a hideaway.”
“Asael might be trying to make a point.”
“Like, he’s smarter than the rest of us combined?” The captain’s tone said he was warming to the idea. “All right. I’ll head over.”
“I’ll meet you there.” Murph ended the call and floored the gas.
He reached the location minutes later but got stuck behind a red light at the intersection. He could see the run-down apartment building across the road and watched as two cruisers pulled up to the front, lights flashing. Gabi and Mike ran to the door, talking on their radios. Then Bing was there, hurrying past them, going in.
No, no, no. Dammit! Not like this. Not for Asael.
Then the light was finally green, and Murph sailed through it, shot into the parking lot, and jumped from his pickup.
“Going after the captain,” he told Gabi, who was securing the entrance. Mike wasn’t in sight, probably securing the back.
Murph dashed up the stairs to the second floor. He’d been there before. Right after Mordocai—masquerading as Fred Kazincky—had kidnapped Kate. He’d hoped never to have the occasion to come back.
Bing was knocking on the door at the end of the hallway, standing to the side, gun at the ready.
No response, but as Murph slowed, he could hear someone moving around in there. He pulled his own weapon.
Bing acknowledged his presence with a small nod, then knocked again.
“Who is it?” a child’s voice asked, a young boy.
“Police,” Bing answered. “Can I talk to your mom or your dad? Could you send them to the door, buddy?”
“My dad is at work. My mom went over to the store. I’m not supposed to open the door to anyone.”
Murph tucked his gun away. So did Bing.
“Are you home alone?” the captain asked.
“I’m with my sister, but I’m in charge ‘cause I’m bigger.”
“How old are you?”
“Six and a half.”
“All right, buddy. You did a good job here not letting any strangers in.”
They backed away, then stopped at the top of the steps.
“Asael could be in there with Emma,” the captain said, “holding the family hostage, but I doubt it. Kid didn’t sound scared.”
Murph agreed. “Would have been too easy.”
“Instinct is often right. This was your first thought.” Bing started down the stairs. “Worth checking out.”
Murph hesitated at the top. “Not going in?”
“We will, but I’m not kicking the door down with a kid in there. We’ll wait for the mother.”
Definitely the right thing to do. Although, Murph was willing to kick in every door in the universe for Kate’s sister.
“I talked to Betty Gardner’s possible heir, by the way,” Bing told him. “He was at work the morning Betty died. Has about fifty witnesses. Whether he gets the house in the lawsuit or not, he had nothing to do with Betty’s death.”
“Asael?”
”Don’t see why. Unless it’s just to rattle Kate.”
“How about Tony Mauro?”
“Again, for what reason? He’s awake and alert, but can’t remember being hit. Couldn’t give me a description of the driver when I went in to check on him. They’re keeping him for the rest of the week.”
As Murph stepped outside after Bing, for a second he thought Emma was found. Gabi was holding back a frazzled young woman, Emma’s age, with similar long black hair, same build. Hope about lifted Murph out of his boots for that one second before it dropped him hard.
“I have to get back to my kids,” the woman who wasn’t Emma insisted, gallon of milk in one hand, a jar of peanut butter in the other. Anxiety drew her every feature tight. “Did anything happen? Did something happen to my kids? Oh God.” She burst out in tears without waiting for the answer.
“Kids are fine,” Bing told her. “I’d like to go back up with you and check out your apartment, with your permission.”
“Why?”
“We’re looking for someone who knew a guy who used to live there.”
“We’ve been living here for a year. I don’t know who lived here before us.”
The captain nodded. “I need to make sure my guy isn’t in there, that’s all. We have reason to believe he might be ba
ck in town. Want to make sure he didn’t pop by for a visit. You think you can give me a minute to walk through?”
“I only ran out for milk. Just over to the gas station across the road. Five minutes.”
“You’re not in trouble, ma’am. I’m asking you a favor here. I’d appreciate the help.”
“Okay.” She drew a shuddering breath. “I can go in?”
When Bing nodded and Gabi stepped out of her way, the woman took off running.
They went after her and had her unlock the door, but they went in first.
Two small children stared at the intruders from the middle of the kitchen, eyes wide, the little boy pushing his sister behind him in a protective gesture.
“Is anyone else in here, buddy?” Bing asked in a tone as friendly as Murph had ever heard from him. He could be a teddy bear when he wanted to be.
The boy shook his head.
“Why don’t you and your sister go out into the hallway to your mom while we check?”
“It’s okay, baby,” came from behind them, and at the sound of their mother’s voice, the kids took off running.
Bing went to the left, Gabi, who’d come up behind them, to the right, Murph forward. The apartment was clean and neat, too small to hide much. Kitchen/living room, two bedrooms, bathroom.
“Clear.”
“Clear.”
“Clear.”
“Clear.”
They filed right back out.
“Thank you for your cooperation, ma’am,” the captain told the woman who was crouching, holding her kids, the gallon of milk and jar of peanut butter on the worn beige hall carpet next to them.
“Are we okay?” She held on tight. “Nobody’s in there?”
“The apartment is empty. You’re free to go in. Thank you again for your help, ma’am.”
Gabi was heading back down the stairs already, and Murph followed, trying to figure out where they needed to check next.
“All right,” the captain said once they were all outside, Mike joining them. “Back to our systematic search of the town.” He pulled a printout from his back pocket and handed it to Murph. “List of abandoned buildings. Map on the back. You can have this area.” He made a circle with his finger on the paper. “You can approach, but if you see anything suspicious, you call it in. You don’t go into any building on your own under any circumstances. If you have a problem with that, turn around and go home now.”