“Based on Cam’s site visit and input from Jace, Doug, and Colt, I’ve made the decision to go forward with the purchase of Damon’s business. Cam, you’ll take the lead on integration. Let me know who else you need and it’ll be handled. You’ll need to be out there next week. Don’t plan to stay over on weekends. You’ll fly out Monday mornings and fly back Friday afternoons for the next few weeks. We’ll revisit everything when you feel it’s necessary.”
Heath shuffled through a couple of papers before pulling out the one he sought.
“Now to new business. We’re looking at buying a business in Montana that provides bulls to the rodeo circuit. There are three partners, two want to sell, the third doesn’t. The two contacted me confidentially, asking to meet and discuss a potential sale. This is tricky as all three have been close friends for years and own equal shares in the company.” Heath glanced at Jace, then continued. “The two want to retire, or at least cut back their responsibilities to focus on their families. We’ll address those issues if we believe the acquisition would be a fit for us. Eric, you’ll be part of the evaluation team along with Colt and Doug. Cam will fly up to help evaluate after we’ve made a preliminary decision to proceed. Jace and I will stay out of it until we have more information from the three of you. I’ve told them we wouldn’t be able to start evaluations for at least four months, which is agreeable to the two partners.”
Eric nodded as he jotted down notes. “Have you met the third partner?”
Jace and Heath shared a look before Heath spoke up. “He’s our brother. Rafe.”
******
“Wow, I didn’t suspect the Montana business had anything to do with Rafe.” Eric and Cam walked back to their offices, discussing the bomb Heath had dropped on them.
“Trey and I talked about Rafe a little when I visited him last year at the base. That’s all I know about him besides what we’ve been told about the brothers having a falling out before Trey was born. Rafe moved around, finally settling in Montana. Guess none of them have seen each other since.”
“That’s a long time to hold a grudge.” Eric stopped at his office. “Guess this one’s going to be a real learning experience—for both of us.”
“It sure is.” Cam checked his watch. “I’m off to a lunch appointment.”
“That so?” Eric could guess who his brother planned to meet. “Say hi to Lainey for me,” he grinned before closing his office door.
Cam pulled into the restaurant a couple of minutes late, noticing right away that Lainey’s car wasn’t in the lot. Good, he’d have time to get a table and make a couple of quick calls. Fifteen minutes passed with no sign of Lainey. He punched in her number and left a voice message. Cam waited another fifteen minutes before paying for his drink and driving toward her house. Something was wrong. Lainey would’ve called him if she couldn’t make their lunch date.
He pulled into her drive to see the SUV parked near the back of the driveway. Cam bounded up the front steps, knocked, and looked through the newly replaced window while he waited. Her purse sat on the dining room table and a jacket had been thrown across a chair. He knocked again, called her name, and waited, thinking she may be upstairs or in the laundry room. Still no answer or sign of Lainey.
Cam ran around to the side. Both the kitchen and laundry room doors were locked. He looked around the yard. That’s when he spotted her phone on the ground near the burned rubble of the old shed. He grabbed it. The last two calls were from him while he’d waited for her at the restaurant. Cam didn’t waste any more time.
“Is Sergeant Towers available?” Cam’s heart raced as he processed the possibilities of what had happened at Lainey’s since they’d last spoken. All of them left a sick feeling in his gut.
“Towers.”
“Buck, it’s Cam Sinclair. Lainey, Ms. Devlin, is gone. She was supposed to meet me for lunch. When she didn’t show up I drove to her house. No one’s here but her purse is inside and her phone was on the ground in the back. Something’s not right.”
“I’m on my way.”
The police headquarters were no more than five minutes from Lainey’s house, and that’s how long it took before Cam heard the sirens. Buck had wasted no time getting on the road. A minute later two squad cars pulled up front, two officers getting out of each one and approaching Cam.
“Show me what you’ve seen,” Buck called as he and Cam ran toward the front porch.
Cam didn’t have a key, but that didn’t stop Buck from getting inside. Nothing felt right about the scene in front of them. A full cup of coffee, now cold, sat on the kitchen counter. A small television in the living room displayed an afternoon news program. A notebook with a list of items in the shed lay next to Lainey’s purse on the dining room table—the name and phone number of the insurance adjuster written at the top.
“Sergeant? There’s a neighbor outside who’d like to speak with you,” one of the other officers called from the front door.
“What can I do for you, Mr…”
“I’m Pete Gomez. I live next door.” He pointed to the house on the side of Lainey’s house closest to her driveway. “I just got home and saw the cars. Is this about Lainey?”
“It is. Did your wife see anything today?”
“She told me an old brown van had been parked in the alley for at least an hour this morning—got there sometime before eleven. Maia, my wife, kept checking on it but never saw anyone inside. Anyway, she’d gone to the front yard and saw Lainey come out the kitchen door. Not long after, Maia heard an engine start up in the alley. She checked the back, and sure enough, the van was gone. She didn’t see Lainey again and was about to call you folks when he pulled up.” Pete acknowledged Cam with a nod of his head.
“I’d like to speak to your wife, Mr. Gomez.”
“Sure. She’s out front.”
Buck followed Pete outside, Cam close behind, when Cam’s phone rang. The SAR headquarters number appeared.
“Cam, we have a situation.” Frank’s voice sounded calm yet urgent. “A man called. He’s stranded on some type of rock cliff near Platt Mountain. Says somebody pushed him off the trail then left. Mentioned we can find him if we locate his brown van. God only knows how the guy got cell service up there.”
Cam’s eyes grew wide. “A brown van?”
“Yeah. Guess the guy drove up there. After that I don’t know any specifics except someone he met pushed him off the edge of the trail. The guy landed on a rock outcropping.”
“Frank. Listen to me. Lainey is missing.” Cam could hear Frank cursing through the phone. “I’m at her house with Buck Towers. The neighbor said a brown van was seen in her alley not long before she disappeared. Did he mention anything about a woman?”
“No. You think he’s connected to this?”
“I don’t know. I’ll grab Buck. Who else do you have available?”
“My brother Tony and a couple of others.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes. I need everything you have about the man’s location.” Cam shoved the phone into this pocket.
“Buck! There’s a stranded hiker near Pratt Mountain. He says someone pushed him off the trail and he landed on a rock shelf. He told Frank we’ll find him if we locate his brown van.” Cam ran toward his truck, then called back to Buck. “You coming?”
Chapter Sixteen
“There it is.” Tony pointed to a brown van parked to the side of an old county access road. “It can’t be more than twenty feet away from the edge.”
Cam pulled to a stop and jumped out, Tony and Buck following as Cam ran out onto a small trail toward a drop-off. A second truck stopped, and four more men emerged—two SAR members and two police officers.
“Hello! Anyone down there?” Cam cupped his hands and shouted.
“Here! I’m down here!”
Cam and Tony peeked over the edge enough to see a man about twenty feet down the side of the mountain, crouched low on a shelf that appeared to be about six feet in diameter.
&nbs
p; Cam started to grab his gear before Tony put a hand on his shoulder.
“We’ll handle this one, Cam,” motioning toward the other volunteers. “You stay up here with Buck.”
“But…”
“You need to be up here when we bring the guy up. You understand?”
Cam hesitated before accepting that Tony’s approach made sense. He’d be at the top with Buck, able to hear his story, and perhaps locate Lainey.
“Sir, you’ve got to see this.” The youngest of the deputies spoke to Buck, indicating the van the other officers had been searching.
Cam followed Buck to the van, curious as to what the men had found.
“Shit,” Buck murmured when he looked inside. Several coiled ropes, chain cutters, duct tape, cans of gasoline, a bag of rags, a crow bar, a case of water, a laptop and other electronic gear, a leather case holding four knives, a couple of blankets and two pillows, extra clothes, and several pairs of shoes. “This is quite a setup. Whatever the man does, he’s organized about it.” Buck turned toward the deputy. “I want lots of pictures and a detailed list of the contents.”
Cam’s eyes continued to scan the inside of the van, locking on one piece of paper on the side, near the middle. “What’s that?”
The deputy climbed inside, careful not to disturb anything, and snatched up what appeared to be a card. “It says Sunshine Preschool.” He crawled out and handed the card to Buck.
“That’s Lainey’s business.” Cam ran back to the edge of the cliff as the man’s head appeared over the rim. Five minutes later the gear had been removed from around the man, he’d been placed in handcuffs, and sat rigid, on the ground with his back against a boulder.
Buck pulled out his notepad and got right to business. “What’s your name?”
“Hey, I didn’t do anything. This guy pushed me off the edge and took off.”
Cam stood two feet away, impatient, angry, and ready to beat the truth out of the guy.
“Your name.” Buck’s voice held an edge Cam hadn’t heard before.
“Benny.”
“Last name?”
“Kurtz.”
“All right, Mr. Kurtz, is that your van back on the road?”
“Why?”
Buck got into Benny’s face. “Is that your van?”
“Yeah, it’s mine.”
Buck pulled out Lainey’s card. “Who does this belong to?”
Benny took a quick look then turned away. “Don’t know. Never seen it before.”
“It was found in your van. It belongs to a woman who was taken from her home a few hours ago. Neighbors saw your van, can identify it, and identify you. You’re in a heap of trouble. It will go better for you if you tell us where the woman is.”
Benny pursed his lips, refusing to speak.
“All right then. Deputy, book this man on arson, kidnapping, and possible murder charges…”
Cam’s gut clenched at Buck’s words.
“Wait…”
“You have something to say, Mr. Kurtz?”
“He took her. Pushed me off the path and took her.”
“Who took her and where did they go?”
“The guy who hired me to scare the Devlin woman. Don’t know for sure where he took her.”
“Scare her or kill her?”
Benny jolted at the accusation. “I wouldn’t have killed her. He just wanted me to scare her, get her to leave town, move back with him. She didn’t scare much, so he wanted me to grab her, bring her up here to him so they could talk, in private.”
“That why he pushed you off the cliff?”
Benny looked down into his lap. “He didn’t push me. The woman ran. When he caught her, she shoved him, and he fell toward me. I lost my footing and slipped.”
Buck and Cam exchanged looks, not sure what version of Benny’s story to believe. For now, what they needed was the man’s name and description.
“His name, Benny. I need the name.”
“Don’t know his first name, but last name is Crafton.”
“Shit,” Cam spit out and lunged toward Benny before the deputies pulled him back.
“You know him, Cam?”
“Crafton is the last name of Lainey’s ex-fiancé. Robert Crafton.”
“That’s him.” Benny fidgeted on the hard ground. “That’s the name she called him. Robert.”
******
Cam ran to his truck, pulled out his phone, and started making calls as soon as Buck had given him the description of Crafton and the make, model, and color of the car Crafton drove. The deputies loaded Benny into one of the trucks while Buck placed emergency calls to law enforcement agencies about the kidnapping.
“Eric, it’s Cam. Lainey’s been taken by her ex-fiancé, Robert Crafton. I’m with Buck Towers on Pratt Mountain.” Cam paused a moment. “I don’t know what the family can do. Right now, just be aware that I’m okay and I’ll do what I can to find Lainey.”
“Hold on, Cam.”
Cam could hear voices in the background before his stepfather came on the line.
“Cam, it’s Heath. How can we help?”
“Don’t know just yet. Buck’s calling it out to all the agencies. He says the FBI may get involved if Crafton crosses the state line. Personally, I think the man would be insane to try and take her back to Idaho. I think he’ll stay in Arizona, try to talk Lainey into moving back to Idaho and marrying him.”
“Give me the details and I’ll put our people on alert. You can stay with Buck or come back here and take the helicopter. Let me know and I’ll have it ready for you.”
“I’ll be there in thirty minutes.” Cam jumped into the cab of his truck as Buck climbed in next to him and Tony slid into the back. “Heath’s getting the helicopter ready for me. I’ll take Eric and Todd, the other pilot. You can reach me through Heath.”
“Cam, it’s best if you let us handle the search for Crafton. Who knows what the man will do. You’re not trained in this, we are.” Buck didn’t hide his displeasure at Cam’s desire to hunt down Crafton, but as a husband, he understood how the young man felt.
“I’ll just be using the helicopter to help. Maybe we’ll spot something from the air.”
Cam sped down the rutted mountain road, wasting no time getting to the airfield and up into the sky where he might spot Crafton. His gut told him the man wouldn’t hurt Lainey. Crafton’s goal was to talk her into leaving Fire Mountain, something the man wanted with a desperation that had driven him to actions most would consider delusional.
“Roger that, Buck.” Todd turned toward Cam as he ascended and turned the helicopter north toward the Arizona-California border. “We’re okay to go with our plan. They’ll cover the east and south.”
Cam, Eric, and Todd all guessed Crafton would head west, then north, staying south of the Nevada border and west of Flagstaff. There were several small towns in that direction, any one of which would be the perfect place to hide as those communities relied on a small number of officers for a vast area of the state.
Eric sat in the back, binoculars up as he scanned the ground below. They kept to the major roads most the time, occasionally veering off to circle specific areas before heading back to their pre-set route.
“Could he have picked a more common car as a rental?” Eric grumbled. “A white, four-door import. There must be thousands of those between Fire Mountain and Nevada.”
“Kurtz said it had Idaho plates. That’s a misstep. He should’ve rented a car here, then switched in Nevada, and again in Utah.” Todd peered out the front and side windows, having the same issues as Eric—too many cars that looked alike.
“Problem is, he’d have to use different credit cards and ID each time. Plus it would hold up his progress.” Eric slid to the other side of the helicopter and looked down. “That’s assuming he talks Lainey into going back with him, which I doubt. She seems to be the type of woman who’d dig in her heels at being ordered around. Somehow, I don’t think our Cam’s preschool teacher is going to cross
the state line.”
Cam listened to the banter and hoped Eric was right. He knew for a fact she could be stubborn and independent. Now she had to stay calm and believe they’d find her before anyone got hurt.
******
“Why are you doing this, Robert? You know I won’t change my mind and return to Bluebird Falls. My life is in Fire Mountain, not Idaho.” She tried to keep him talking, distracted, and off-guard. She found he slowed his speed when they spoke, especially if he became agitated. The two lane road they’d been on for almost two hours would hit a major intersection twenty miles north.
“You’re confused Lainey. I don’t know what happened a few months ago to make you change your mind and break off our engagement, but I’m certain in time, you’ll realize you made a mistake and want to come back. I’m simply speeding up the time table.”
He hadn’t tied her hands, locked the door, or threatened her in any way. She truly believed Robert thought hiring Kurtz to scare and intimidate her had been an appropriate way to drive her back to Idaho, and him. She shook her head when she realized how irrational he’d become. Or perhaps he’d always been this way and she’d just never figured it out.
“Robert, if you turn around now and take me back, I won’t press charges. I’ll do whatever I can to see you get back home and continue to practice law. You do know what you’re doing is kidnapping, right?”
“Of course, I know most people would consider this kidnapping, but I don’t. I’m taking you on a drive until you’re convinced I’m the man you’re supposed to be with, not some wealthy businessman from Arizona.”
Lainey’s heart raced at the reference to Cam. Robert hadn’t mentioned anything about him until now. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He cast her a disdainful look. “Don’t play dumb, Lainey, it doesn’t become you. Sinclair, the man you’ve been seeing, and sleeping with. Ah, you thought I didn’t know? Well I do, and regardless, I’m willing to take you back and rebuild what you threw away.”
One More Day Page 13