“Atlas.” He answered after a single ring.
Kevin found himself tongue tied for a second before he was able to choke anything out. “Uh...”
He cleared his throat and tried again. “It’s Vance. I, uh, don’t think he’s alive.” Kevin felt himself going into shock.
“I’m sending a bus right now. How’s Naya?”
Seeing his friend dead had almost made him forget the reason he had come over in the first place. “She’s…she’s not here.”
“Jesus. I should have driven her home I knew she was too tired to drive, I need to check the accident reports—”
What Atlas was saying sunk in and he rushed to cut him off. “Her car is here. I’m looking at it.”
Now it was Atlas’ turn to be at a loss for words. The phone was silent for a moment.
“Fuck.” He whispered, then he took a deep breath. “I’m on my way. And I’m bringing the cavalry.”
Kevin doesn’t remember hanging up the phone. Maybe he never did. Maybe it had just gone dead while he was holding it against his ear, he couldn’t be sure. He didn’t even remember sitting down, but he was sitting frozen in the exact same position on the cement step with the front door still hanging open behind him when the ambulance and police officers arrived.
An EMT began asking him questions and all Kevin could do was motion to the open door behind him. The EMT went in only to come out a few minutes later and speak to one of his colleagues who had stayed outside with Kevin.
A different EMT offered him water and a cookie, saying what he was experiencing was shock. Kevin kind of wanted to yell at him because he clearly knew that but he couldn’t find the energy to do so. He was still holding the bottle of water and cookie when Atlas pulled up an intangible amount of time later.
He got out of his car and headed straight for Kevin.
“What happened?” He quickly turned and shouted orders over his shoulder, ordering the officers that had pulled up behind him to secure the scene after they removed the body.
Kevin shook his head. “I knew something was wrong when I walked in. The front mat was all bunched up and the door was unlocked. Naya wouldn’t just leave it like that.”
Atlas nodded. “What else? What did you do next?”
“I went up the stairs. Her bed was still made. I knew then that she probably hadn’t made it to her bed. But I checked the rest of the house to be sure. I knew it was dumb though. I had called her name when I walked in. If she had been awake and cooking breakfast she would have answered. Then I checked on Vance and…” He couldn’t bring himself to describe what he had seen then.
Atlas stood up and went to talk to the other officers that were there in a whisper. Kevin couldn’t even bring himself to listen in. But the more he sat there, the more it began to set in that Naya was missing.
Where was she?
Kevin remembered that he had called Trevor the night before to check on Vance. He wondered if he had spent the night and just left early or had left the night before.
He pulled out his phone and dialed Trevor’s number. The phone rang and rang. Finally, a recorded message came on to say the number did not have a voice mailbox set up yet. That was odd…
Atlas came back over. “Were you with Vance last night?”
Kevin shook his head and stood. He was finally getting his wits back. “No. Vance and I had a bit of a heavy talk on Sunday. So, I was taking a little break. Naya texted me last night and asked me to have someone check in on him. I called my friend Trevor.”
“Trevor who?”
“Carlson. We work together. Him and Vance are buddies too.” After the words came out of his mouth, he gulped. He couldn’t say those words anymore.
Atlas put a hand on his shoulder. “What’s his number?”
Kevin held out his phone. “I just tried to call him. He didn’t answer.”
“Okay I’ll have some officers see if they can intercept him at work. Can you tell me where you work?”
Kevin nodded and gave him the cross streets of the construction project Trevor had been on this week.
“What do you think happened to Naya?” Now that the shock was wearing off, panic was setting in. What was Naya going to do when she found out Vance died while she was working? This was going to crush her. Where was she? Had him not coming over last night caused her to do something rash?
“I have no idea. But my best guess is someone was waiting for her.”
“But who would want to take Naya? She doesn’t have any enemies.” As he said it, he realized he actually didn’t know that for sure. She could have had enemies in La Junta he didn’t know about.
Atlas shook his head. “She’s a detective and was a Sheriff. She’s probably pissed off any number of people over the years. I’m having a colleague send up her files from La Junta now.” He checked his phone for the time. “This is just really bad timing because our case was about to break. And now she’s missing.”
“Do you think they’re connected?” Kevin asked apprehensively.
Atlas thought for a second, he clearly hadn’t considered the fact that they might be yet. “I don’t know. But if they are, this isn’t good.”
“Why?” Kevin asked even though he knew he probably wasn’t going to like the answer.
Atlas shook his head. “Because this man is crazy.”
Another officer called Atlas over to ask him some questions. Kevin felt the guilt beginning to settle in. If he had been here last night, Naya wouldn’t have been taken. Maybe Vance would still be alive.
Then it hit him. If a crazy man really did have Naya, would he kill her? Would he ever get to see Naya again?
Oh God.
And he hadn’t been nice to her the past couple of days. Kevin felt sick to his stomach.
This couldn’t be happening.
He had just found the first woman to hold his interest in years.
And he might have already lost her.
CHAPTER 29
NAYA
Naya felt herself slowly coming to. It took her a minute to realize that something was wrong, her eyes were open, but it was still pitch black. And she couldn’t move her mouth. She tried to move her arms and legs and found she was bound, tightly.
The night before came rushing back to her. She had been drugged. And kidnapped. Her detective mind kicked into overdrive, trying to think of every person she’d ever pissed off and who would possibly want to kidnap her, but everyone she had put behind bars was still there as far as she knew.
Her mind snapped back to her current case.
What if? It had been Monday after all.
She felt a cold dose of fear run down her spine. If the guy who kidnapped her was their guy she didn’t have much time before he killed her. He only kept most of the women alive for an hour or two. She needed to think of a way out, and now.
She tried to relax so she could think clearly. She felt motion. Okay, so she was in a car. She was wearing a long sleeve shirt and pants. Probably her work clothes, so he hadn’t stripped her or anything. She rolled slightly so she could feel the material she was on. It felt like the floor of a car. She tried to listen, to see if she could notice anything distinct which would tell her where they were, but all she heard was the sound of the vehicle she was in. She barely had room to move, she had to be in the back of a car with no leg room.
Okay, now time to think back to the night before. When she had gotten home, Trevor’s truck had been out front. She had gone inside, leaned down to take off her shoes and someone had been waiting for her.
But the door had been locked when she had put her key in the lock.
Whoever had her, either had a key, or had been let in by Trevor and then locked the door behind them.
She felt dread settling as she came to realize that she probably knew her attacker. And that wasn’t good at all. What could Trevor want with her?
Naya started thinking back to all the interactions she’d had with him. But honestly, besides meeting him, she coul
dn’t remember having that many interactions with the guy, nothing noteworthy for sure.
She thought briefly about Vance and she hoped that Kevin would stop by and check on him today at least. She wondered what time it was; if it was light or dark outside. He had grabbed her at about one which meant that no one would be missing her until about seven when she was supposed to be back at work.
Dammit. She had been so tired the night before, Atlas might just think she had overslept.
She tried to see if she could move at all. If there was any weakness in the ropes where she could slip out a hand.
“Don’t even try.” Came the gruff voice of her attacker. So, he was keeping an eye on her.
She wanted to engage him so badly but couldn’t with the tape over her mouth. So instead, she decided to see what would happen if she kept struggling.
“I said stop. We’re almost there.”
Almost where? She wanted to ask, but nothing physical had happened so she continued to see if she could mess with the ropes. Nothing seemed to budge.
Trevor slammed on the breaks and she felt herself go forward into the seat in front of her. “I said stop it!”
She could hear he was getting annoyed. But, he was definitely acting alone. If he had been able to do anything other than slam on the breaks he would have done so. And honestly him slamming on the brakes didn’t bother her that much, so the joke was on him. Okay. She was going to keep struggling.
“STOP IT!” He screamed from the front seat and she felt the car swerve. He was clearly being distracted by her actions, she could tell he liked control and her refusing to comply was driving him nuts.
Suddenly, the tires screeched to a halt and she felt them swerve again. The ride got bumpier as he was apparently heading off the paved road.
“Goddamn it. I wanted to go further, but fine, you win. We will do this right here!” He roared as she felt him tear open the car door and he dragged her out by her feet. She dropped and hit the ground with a crash and a sharp jolt of pain traveled up her shoulder.
The ground was rough, and she could feel what felt like blades of dried grass cutting into her arms. Her mind immediately went to the fields Benjamin Rodgers worked.
Wait a minute.
Was Trevor also her perp? Had the guy who had been kidnaping and killing these runners been under her nose the entire time?
Oh God. She suddenly felt like an idiot.
But she had no time to work through it because this also meant that death was probably right around the corner unless she could act quickly. She immediately started going over every personal defense class she had ever taken. The answer had to be somewhere.
The way he was roughly dragging her across the ground had moved her blindfold just enough that she could tell it was daylight. Or would be soon. So, she hadn’t been out for all that long.
Trevor stopped suddenly and tossed her legs roughly to the side. She braced herself, waiting for him to do something, but nothing happened. She heard the grass rustle, he apparently was returning to the truck.
If this guy really was her murderer, he was going to kill her with an injection. She needed to get moving. And fast. She didn’t know where he had gone but he hadn’t dragged her for that long, so she didn’t have much time.
She began struggling with her wrist restraints again, they were really tight but she knew some tricks. That was probably the reason he had gotten so upset before. She began to rub her hands together, allowing the sweat to make her hands slick. She rubbed more vigorously until she finally felt her left hand coming free.
She quickly tossed the rope aside, pulling off her blindfold and looking around. She was lying in a grass field as she had already deduced. She lifted her head a little, Trevor was already walking back with a trunk in his arms. Although this slowed him down considerably, she needed to get her legs untied too, and fast. She leaned down as inconspicuously as possible and began working on the knot. It went quickly, but not fast enough for her taste. She could hear his heaving breathing, he was almost back. She would have to fight to get the head start she wanted, and then she would take off.
She rolled over onto her stomach and into a crouch position so she could spring the minute he noticed she had untied herself. She glanced down at her hip, confirming her fears. He had her weapon.
He wasn’t dumb. He noticed something was up with the way she was laying when he was still a few paces away. Well, she was going to have to skip the attack and go straight for the run.
Just as he slammed the trunk to the ground in fit of rage she popped up from her position and began to sprint.
She ran faster than she had in her entire life. She didn’t care where she was going, everything around her was yellow field. But the mountains were further than where they had found the other women, so this wasn’t the same spot.
When he had knocked her unconscious, he had taken her work boots. Which was good because she wasn’t sure how fast she could run in them, but it was also bad because she could feel grass and bits of the ground cutting into her bare feet.
She chanced a glance over her shoulder to see, he was indeed pursuing her. She knew she couldn’t run like this forever, maybe another minute or two at most. She looked to the horizon, looking for anything that wasn’t flat grassland. There was nothing. No cover. Just grass for miles.
Where was the road they had been on? If she could head towards that maybe she would have a chance of someone spotting her. It was still early, but it was her only chance.
Knowing the mountains were to the west, which was the direction she was heading, she made a sharp left, hoping that was the correct direction for the road.
She peeked over her shoulder, he was still behind her. He wasn’t as fast though. If she could run like this forever, she could probably outrun him, but her legs and lungs were already burning, protesting her exertion. She hadn’t gotten much sleep in the past twenty-four hours, the adrenaline wasn’t going to be enough to sustain her.
She had never been religious but now she started begging anyone who would listen to her to get her out of this situation.
She felt herself slowing, her muscles were screaming. She tried to push herself faster, but it didn’t work.
Before she knew it, she felt herself being knocked to the ground from behind.
She felt her head hit the ground as the wind was knocked out of her. She gasped for breath.
For the first time since her abduction, she was face to face with Trevor.
“Goddamn it. Get up.” He dragged her to her feet. She could tell she had surprised him when she ran. He hadn’t brought anything with him to drug her.
She was still out of breath, so she complied with his instructions for now. He twisted one of her arms behind her back and she heard her elbow pop. She didn’t call out.
Naya knew that in order to save herself, she needed to keep him away from whatever was in those trunks. Luckily, her mad dash to freedom had taken them a ways from the place where he had parked. She had a few minutes before she would have to enact the next part of her plan.
She didn’t know if it would work, but she had to try.
CHAPTER 30
KEVIN
He was sitting in the waiting room at the police station, resting his head against the metal table. Atlas had set a paper cup of coffee by his head some time ago, but he didn’t feel like moving.
“You okay?” Atlas came and sat next to him.
“No.” Kevin mumbled, slowly lifting his head from the table.
“It’s not your fault.” He replied, and he heard him take a gulp of coffee.
“Easy for you to say. Why aren’t you out looking for her?” Kevin regretted the accusation the minute it came out of his mouth, it sounded harsher than he had intended.
Atlas held up a hand. “I’ve got officers all over the state looking for her. But I am just one man, and besides me, you probably know her best. So, if I can figure out who took her, it will save us time. I can’t just knock on ever
y door in the state. Otherwise, I already would have.”
Kevin was quiet. He was embarrassed by his outburst now.
“I need you to tell me what you know about Trevor.”
Now he was confused. “What about Trevor?”
“He’s missing as well. The Foreman at the site said he never showed up for work today. We triangulated his cell and found that the last place it had service was at Naya’s house. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since, and his cell has been shut off.”
Kevin felt his mouth drop open. “Seems like you know way more than me.”
Atlas rolled his eyes. “Not like that, tell me what kind of man he is, how long you have known him et cetera.”
“Well, I met him about six months ago when he showed up at the construction site I was running at the time and asked for a job. We always need people, so I gave him one.” Kevin rubbed his chin remembering the day. Back when Vance had just gone on leave and they were constantly shorthanded.
“Did you do a background check or anything?”
Kevin hadn’t noticed, but Atlas had, at some point, pulled out a notepad and a pen and was taking notes.
“Uh. No. In the construction world we don’t really do much paperwork. If the men want direct deposit, we do need a check from their bank. Otherwise, a scan of their ID showing they live in the US and they are good to go.”
“So, you don’t run social security numbers through the system?” Atlas had one of his eyebrows raised.
“No.” Kevin shook his head. “That’s part of what makes construction so appealing to recent immigrants, they can work the job with just a green card or driver’s license.”
“Well, what kind of car does Trevor drive?”
“A Chevy Silverado truck, black, I’m not a huge car guy, but if I had to guess it is about the same age as my truck, so 2018 or 2019.” Kevin didn’t like where this conversation was going. “Wait, do you think he took Naya?”
Atlas pulled out his phone and sent a quick text, probably the car information if Kevin had to guess. “Well, I think there’s a chance, yes. Do you have any idea where Trevor lived?”
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