Mission--Colton Justice

by Jennifer Morey

  Jeremy couldn’t risk otherwise. “I’ll bring the money. Why the campsite?”

  The caller disconnected.

  “Jeremy, what if Jamie isn’t there?” Adeline ran with him out to the vehicle.

  Jeremy finished dialing Knox as he got inside. He couldn’t answer her. He feared as much.

  He told Knox the next instructions and raced to the highway that would take them to the drop site. Moments later, the headlights shone on the nearly imperceptible lane. Jeremy turned and drove through the darkness, parking where the campsite opened up.

  He got out with Adeline. No one was there.

  His phone rang again.

  “Yes?”

  “Leave the money and go.”

  “Give me my son!”

  “You’ll receive more instructions on where to pick him up. Leave the money.”

  He couldn’t trust a kidnapper.

  “I have no intention of harming Jamie. As long as you do what I tell you, you’ll have him back in the same condition as the day you last saw him,” the kidnapper said.

  The caring in the words seemed more appropriate coming from a female. Was he talking to Emily? He didn’t ask, not wanting to frighten her. Frightened, she might run and he might never see Jamie again.

  “Leave the money and go. You’ll get no further instructions until I know you’ve gone,” the kidnapper said. “Don’t pull what you did last time. I won’t warn you twice.”

  Jeremy turned to Adeline. He couldn’t make this decision on his own. If they left the money, what then? He had no guarantee the kidnapper wouldn’t kill Jamie.

  At last she nodded.

  Their only chance to get Jamie back was if they left the money. Jeremy dropped the bag.

  “All right. We’ll leave the money and go,” Jeremy said. “But if you don’t give me my son back, I won’t stop hunting you. And when I find you, I’ll kill you.”

  “You will never find me.” With that, the caller hung up, leaving Jeremy sickened.

  The kidnapper seemed so certain. Did he or she claim to be willing to return Jamie unharmed but have no intention of doing so?

  “How did they know we were here?” Adeline asked.

  The caller had contacted them right when they’d stopped. Jeremy searched through the darkness, looking everywhere the headlights reached. After a few seconds, he saw them reflecting on something about fifty yards away.

  “There’s someone out there,” he said.

  Adeline drew her pistol. As soon as she did, Jeremy heard running. Footfalls crunched through the understory. A whishing and snapping sound came; the runner must have brushed a branch. He ran toward the sound, Adeline on his heels. The vehicle headlights provided illumination for a short distance before the trees swallowed them in darkness. Jeremy had a small flashlight on his key chain and had the way forward lit enough to avoid colliding with anything.

  “Ahead to the right,” Adeline whispered loud enough for him to hear.

  He shone the light in that direction and caught sight of someone running, small of frame like Emily. He ran faster, leaving Adeline a little behind. He reached a clearing and stopped, checking to make sure Adeline did the same. She did, standing behind him and peering out to see the clearing and an old cabin in marginal disrepair. Light in the biggest front window indicated someone could be there.

  He searched for Emily and didn’t see her, but he heard an engine starting.

  Running into the clearing, he almost made it to the cabin when a midsize hatchback appeared from the other side of the cabin and raced down a nearly overgrown dirt driveway.

  Taking out his cell, he called Knox. Watching the taillights disappear into the trees, he listened to one ring before Knox answered.

  “She’s heading toward the highway. There’s a cabin near the campsite. It should be the next driveway down from there.”

  “We’re almost there,” Knox said.

  “We’re going to check out the cabin. It looks like Emily was here. Lights are still on.”

  “Roger. I’ll let you know when we have her.”

  Disconnecting, he saw that Adeline had already reached the cabin door. With her pistol drawn, she pushed open the door, which had been left unlocked. If Emily had walked to the campsite to watch them drop the money, she might have left the cabin door open.

  He walked to the door. A lamp on a side table next to a worn, leaf-green sofa lit the small living room and part of a smaller kitchen. Two doors opened off the living room, one to a bathroom and the other to a bedroom.

  A dirty plate on the table indicated someone had recently had dinner. There was no television, only a fireplace. A few flames flickered over cooling embers. She must have been here awhile.

  Adeline had moved on from the living room to the bedroom. Jeremy followed her. She searched the room, presumably for signs that Jamie had been here. He hadn’t seen any. The dishes in the kitchen sink and on the table suggested only one person had stayed there.

  His cell rang, bringing Adeline turning as he answered. It was Knox.

  “We got her.”

  Chapter 15

  Knox arranged for them to watch Emily Stanton’s interrogation in an adjacent room, through one-way glass. They’d first met with detectives to go over all they knew so far and to help the one Knox had assigned to lead the questioning.

  Adeline moved closer to the window. Emily sat with her hands folded on the table, her wrists cuffed. She seemed so at peace...even innocent, with her head slightly bowed. In black slacks and a black-and-white printed knit shirt, she looked businesslike. Her shoulder-length blond hair was clipped back, with a few strands falling loose as though her arrest had harried her.

  A detective entered the room and she looked up as he moved around the table and took the chair opposite from her. He introduced himself and informed her he’d be asking her some questions.

  Emily nodded, hazel eyes that leaned more to the gray side flashing up almost timidly. Her nervousness showed so obviously that Adeline had to wonder how someone like her could pull off a kidnapping. Then she reminded herself that she wasn’t working alone. A man had shot Adeline and taken Jamie, not this woman.

  Adeline contained her eagerness for her to reveal the man and Jamie’s whereabouts.

  “Were you involved in any way with the kidnapping of Jamie Kincaid?” the detective asked.

  “No,” Emily answered firmly.

  The door to the observation room opened and Knox entered. Adeline returned her attention to the interrogation room as his tall frame came to stand beside her. Jeremy stood to her left.

  “Who were you working with?” the detective asked.

  Emily didn’t respond. Her lips pursed slightly and her eyes seemed wider than normal.

  “This will go a lot easier on you if you answer all my questions.”

  “I don’t know who kidnapped him.” Emily’s hands clenched and released. She flattened them on the table and tapped her right hand three times, a nervous reaction. Adeline doubted she had any awareness of what she’d done.

  The detective stared at her awhile. Then he picked up a pen on top of a five-by-six notepad and tapped the top a few times.

  “Are you aware that we found a stolen Suburban seen at the location where Jamie Kincaid was kidnapped?” he asked.

  “I’m aware you found a Suburban.” She put her hands down onto the table.

  “Are you aware that we found it at the same location where you specified the second ransom drop?”

  “Me? What ransom?” Emily feigned ignorance and her attempt didn’t succeed. Adeline could tell she lied. She could also tell the detective had noticed, as well.

  “Did you plant a cuff link in the stolen Suburban?” he asked. “How did you get them in there?”

&nb
sp; Again, Emily didn’t answer. Would she demand to talk to an attorney? Did she know she had that option?

  “Did you know we found a cuff link in the Suburban?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  That much was probably true. Police likely wouldn’t reveal that detail. But she had to know they were in the Suburban. Did she arrange to plant a cuff link? Adeline glanced at Knox and then Jeremy, whose gazes remained on the interrogation room.

  “It had ES engraved on it,” the detective said. “Those are your initials.”

  Emily scoffed. “I don’t wear cuff links.”

  “No, men wear cuff links, don’t they?” The detective expertly led her toward the information he sought.

  Emily didn’t respond.

  “What were you doing in the woods in that location?” the detective asked.

  “I was staying in a cabin nearby.” She looked smug but only for a second or two. Her nervousness, her fear, took over her demeanor again.

  “Why were you watching Jeremy Kincaid and Adeline Winters?”

  “Who is Adeline Winters?”

  “She’s a private investigator Mr. Kincaid hired. Why were you in the woods?” The detective didn’t miss a beat, staying on target with the question he needed answered.

  Emily hesitated. “I was taking a walk.”

  The detective leaned back against the chair, propped his elbows on the armrests and entwined his fingers, looking relaxed as he contemplated her.

  “Why did you go to the cabin?”

  “I needed to get away.”

  “Ms. Stanton, I think you’re lying about why you were in the woods. Mr. Kincaid and Ms. Winters both saw you watching them. Don’t you think it’s too coincidental that you were there after they were instructed to leave money at the campsite?”

  “I didn’t have anything to do with Jamie’s kidnapping.”

  “Ms. Winters saw you drop a necklace at the first drop site. How do you explain that?”

  “I can’t. What necklace? And what drop site?” Emily seemed to be getting the hang of countering the detective’s inquiries. Afraid or not, she’d do and say whatever necessary to avoid prosecution.

  Adeline looked over at Jeremy, whose brow had crowded as he intently listened, no doubt feeling as discouraged as her.

  The detective stood and went to the door, knocking. The door opened and another detective handed him a clear plastic evidence bag. The first detective returned to the table and his chair, sitting and putting his ankle on his knee, again looking relaxed.

  He put the bag down onto the table. “Is this your necklace?”

  Emily glanced down at the bag and then began tapping the table with her hand again. “No.”

  “That’s interesting because one of our detectives asked your mother and she said it was yours.”

  “When did you talk to my mother?”

  Adeline looked over at Knox.

  “I asked a detective to go over there,” he said.

  “Just this evening, probably just before you left for the construction site,” the detective said.

  Emily stared at the necklace and Adeline felt her thinking the sheriff might actually have enough to throw her in jail. After several seconds, she raised her eyes. “I didn’t kidnap Jamie.”

  “Then who did?”

  Emily didn’t respond.

  “If you help us, we might be able to go easier on your sentence.”

  In the stone-cold silence that followed, Adeline didn’t think Emily would cooperate.

  But then she at last said, “I was blackmailed.”

  “Who blackmailed you?”

  “I was arrested for shoplifting a long time ago. He caught me shoplifting recently and threatened to expose me if I didn’t help him.”

  “Who?”

  Emily tapped her hand twice more and then went still, staring at the detective in indecision.

  “We can’t help you if you don’t tell us.”

  “You have the initials,” she said.

  “So you did plant the cuff link in the Suburban.”

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  She hesitated. “A friend helped me.”

  “Who?”

  “I cannot tell you that.”

  “If he is clean of anything other than helping you plant the cuff link, we will grant him immunity,” the detective said.

  “Deputy Rusty Nicholson.”

  Adeline glanced at Jeremy and then Knox with that revelation. The deputy was not as clean as he appeared.

  “You lost your necklace and feared being caught, so you left another clue to throw us off,” the detective asked.

  “Not to throw you off, but to lead you to the real criminal. I’m no criminal. So I shoplift on occasion. I would never hurt anyone, especially a kid. I was Jamie’s nanny. I was attached to him. I cared about him. I still do.”

  The emotion in Emily’s voice convinced Adeline she told the truth.

  “This person who blackmailed you,” the detective said in his leading tone, “did he catch you shoplifting?”

  “He got me on video with his cell phone.”

  The detective nodded. “What’s his name?”

  Jeremy and Emily said at the same time, “Evan Sigurdsson.”

  Knox’s sharp turn of head indicated he hadn’t put that piece of the puzzle together yet. Adeline had. And now it made perfect sense.

  “He threatened to give the video to the sheriff if I didn’t help him. He made me make all the phone calls and pick up the ransom money. He also made me take care of Jamie. He took care of the actual kidnapping and he was the one who shot the woman you call Adeline Winters.”

  “Where is Evan now?”

  “I don’t know. Home, probably.”

  “Where are you keeping Jamie?” the detective asked.

  Adeline flattened her hand on the glass. Jeremy took her other hand in his and squeezed gently.

  “My neighbor’s house. Julie Smith. I think Evan felt safe with Jamie there, not attracting attention to where he lived. That was his plan, to pin everything on me if he had to. He’d come by every once in a while to make sure I did what he said. And he also kept telling me he had cameras in Julie’s house and in mine. I never did find any, but I didn’t take the chance that he was bluffing.”

  Shocked, Adeline recalled going to Emily’s neighbor’s house. Jamie had been there. She’d heard sounds from a bedroom. He must have been there with the woman’s child. She’d come out onto the porch to talk to them. Had she feared detection?

  “She helped you in the kidnapping?” the detective asked.

  “No. I told her Jamie’s parents were out of town and I needed someone to watch him when I couldn’t. He was with me whenever I felt it was safe, whenever Evan wouldn’t be there.”

  “What about the Amber Alert?”

  “She must not have seen it.”

  “What about the woman in the minivan you met in the park?”

  Emily’s face contorted in mild confusion. “What woman? I met no one at the park.”

  She appeared to be telling the truth. Had the woman in the minivan been Livia or someone not connected to the kidnapping at all?

  “Why did Evan kidnap Jamie?” the detective asked.

  “I don’t need to hear any more of this.” Jeremy let go of her hand and went to the door.

  “Jeremy, you shouldn’t go there alone,” Knox said.

  He turned at the door. “I’m going to get my son. Evan did this for revenge over the way I fired him.”

  “I’ll get a team assembled. Don’t go there alone. You don’t know what you’re walking into.”

  Adeline would help Jeremy evaluate the situation when they arri
ved. She didn’t want to wait, either. She trailed him out the door.

  He took her hand again, hurrying for the exit. “Let’s go get our son.”

  * * *

  At Julie’s house, Jeremy pounded on the door. He pounded again when no one answered right away.

  The door opened and the woman they’d spoken with before stood there. “You’re back? Have you found Emily?”

  “Yes.” Jeremy pushed the door open and forced the woman out of the way.

  “Hey,” she protested. “What are you doing?”

  “Jamie?” Jeremy called, heart slamming with urgency. He heard Adeline talking to the woman.

  “We’re here to pick up Jamie,” she said.

  “Emily said his parents would be back from vacation today,” the woman countered.

  “Jeremy is his father,” Adeline snapped back.

  Jeremy headed for the hallway and shouted, “Jamie?”

  “But... Emily said she worked with his mother.”

  “She lied.”

  Reaching the first door, Jeremy saw a bathroom and moved on. Down the hall, he saw Jamie’s adorable blond head appear out of a bedroom door. A light was still on in the room, which told Jeremy he must have still been up despite the hour.

  His face lit up into a broad smile. “Daddy!” His little legs, clad in dark blue pj’s, ran toward him.

  Jeremy crouched, gladness choking him as he felt his son’s body crash into him. Wrapping his arms around him, he closed his eyes and let out an uncontrollable groan of joy. He pressed a kiss to Jamie’s head, smelling his kid scent. He smelled clean.

  In the hall he saw a little girl about the same age as Jamie step out of her room, looking sad with her hands clasped in front of her.

  Leaning back, but keeping his arms around his son, Jeremy inspected his boy. “Are you all right?”

  Jamie bobbed in a few jerky nods. “Chrissy has a train set! And a bunch of construction trucks!”

  “Construction trucks? Oh, yeah?” At least Emily’s neighbor had kept him amply entertained. “Sounds like you’ve been having some fun.”

  “Yeah.” Jamie’s animation abated. “Where were you?”

  “I’ve been looking for you,” Jeremy said. “I didn’t know where you were until now.” He gobbled up the sight of Jamie, seeing he had dark circles under his eyes. “They’ve been letting you stay up late, haven’t they?”