by Rita Herron
“Blunt-force trauma. Looks like she fell and hit her head on a rock.”
“Or someone smashed her head with one.”
“That’s possible, too.”
“Gunshot wound?”
“No.”
If she’d been shot with the same gun used on Charlotte, they could have linked the cases.
“Did she have defensive wounds? Any DNA under her nails?”
“There were bruises on her wrists.”
“Have the parents been notified?”
“Not yet.”
“The sheriff and I will handle it,” Lucas said. “Maybe the parents can tell us more about this boyfriend.”
For all they knew, he could have sold her to this group.
* * *
AN HOUR LATER, Lucas and Harrison drove to the Summertons’s house. Death notification was one of the worst aspects of the job.
“When is the baby due?” Lucas asked. They both needed a distraction from what they were about to do.
“March. She’ll probably be showing soon.”
“Are you excited about being a father?”
“Yeah, but I’m a little nervous, too,” Harrison admitted.
“That’s probably normal,” Lucas said.
“Honey’s going to be an amazing mother.”
His brother’s love for his wife was obvious. “You’ll make a great dad, Harrison. God knows you fathered me and Dex and Brayden after Dad left.”
Harrison clenched his jaw. “I still can’t believe he never contacted us.”
“I know. I thought for sure when the news aired about us finding Chrissy that we’d hear something.”
Lucas drove through a small neighborhood of older ranch homes and parked in front of a redbrick house overgrown with weeds and bushes.
“Guess that’s one mystery that may never be solved,” Harrison muttered.
Lucas nodded. When he’d first joined the Bureau, he’d searched for his father, but had turned up nothing. He wished to hell he could sit down and talk with him.
But he had no leads. As time passed, he’d decided either his father was dead or he just didn’t want to be found.
He opened his door and climbed out, and he and Harrison walked up to the house. Harrison knocked while Lucas scanned the property. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but the job had taught him to always be alert.
A male voice yelled that he was coming, and a minute later, the door opened. A stout-looking man, probably in his forties, stared back at them, a hammer in his hand.
“Mr. Summerton?”
The man’s bushy eyebrows formed a unibrow as he frowned. “Yeah.”
Harrison was wearing his sheriff’s uniform, but he introduced himself anyway, and Lucas did the same.
The man’s face paled. “You have news about Louise, don’t you?”
Lucas nodded grimly, and the man stepped back and opened the door. “Let me get my wife.”
He followed Harrison inside, dread curling in his belly.
Mrs. Summerton appeared, her eyes haunted, as if she already knew what they’d come to tell her.
She fiddled with the collar of her blouse, her hand trembling. “You found our daughter?”
Lucas nodded, and Harrison offered her a sympathetic smile. “Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry,” Harrison said.
Her face crumpled, tears filling her eyes as she reached for her husband. He put his arm around her and the two of them walked over to a threadbare sofa and sank onto it, hands clenched together.
Lucas and Harrison followed, giving the couple time to absorb the news.
“Where?” Mr. Summerton finally asked.
“Not too far from Dead Man’s Bluff,” Harrison said. “We’re investigating the kidnapping that happened in Tumbleweed and were checking out abandoned properties. We believe the kidnappers are part of a human-trafficking ring and thought they might be keeping the girls at a ranch or farm in the area until they could move them. That’s how we found Louise.”
Mrs. Summerton gasped, horror darkening her eyes. “You think they’re the ones who took Louise?”
“We don’t know,” Lucas said quickly. “But we will find out what happened to her, I promise you that.”
Tears trickled down the mother’s face. “My poor darling... When can we see her?”
Lucas exchanged a look with Harrison, and Harrison spoke. “She’s at the medical examiner’s office at the moment. I’ll let you know when he releases her body so you can make arrangements.”
The couple nodded, grief riddling their faces.
Lucas knew they needed time to process the news, but the other girls were still alive. If the cases were related, these people might have information that could help save them.
He cleared his throat. “We understand this is difficult, and we’re sorry for your loss.” He paused. “But we need to ask you some questions.”
“You said that you thought Louise ran off with a boyfriend,” Harrison began. “What can you tell us about him?”
Mrs. Summerton swiped at her tears. “I thought we were close, but I didn’t even know she had a boyfriend.”
“I never believed she’d run off like that,” Mr. Summerton mumbled.
Lucas narrowed his eyes, confused. “Then why is it in the report?”
The couple looked at each other as if silently debating how to respond.
“Please tell us what you know,” Lucas said.
Footsteps sounded, and a young boy of about ten shuffled into the room, his face drawn. “I told him she ran off.”
Mrs. Summerton bit her lip. “This is Roger, Louise’s brother.”
Lucas angled himself toward the kid. “Roger, why did you think your sister ran off with a boy? Did you see her with him?”
The kid shook his head. “He never came here, but she talked to him on the computer.”
Lucas softened his voice. “Is that computer here?”
Roger nodded.
“I need to examine it.” Lucas glanced at the parents. “It would be best if we took it with us.”
“My daughter was not promiscuous,” Mrs. Summerton said. “She was a good girl.”
“I’m sure she was,” Lucas said. “And I promise that whatever we find on the computer will remain confidential. We are not here to disparage your daughter, only to find out who took her from you.”
The couple nodded, and Mr. Summerton gestured for them to follow him. Roger bolted ahead.
Lucas’s heart ached for the woman. It had only been a short time since he and his brothers had had to deliver bad news like this to his mother.
They’d thought that having answers would help them heal.
They’d finally found Chrissy’s killer.
But it hadn’t brought Chrissy back. Just like nothing he could do would bring the Summertons’s daughter back to them.
But four other girls’ lives were at stake.
And that computer might hold the key to finding out who’d taken them.
Chapter Ten
Lucas followed Roger to Louise’s bedroom, where he gestured toward a laptop on an oak desk in the corner. “We’re supposed to share, but Louise always used it at night when I went to bed. She didn’t want Mom or Dad to know.”
Although the boy had obviously taken it over since his sister’s disappearance.
“We would like her computer returned when you’re finished,” Mr. Summerton said from behind him.
Lucas nodded. “Of course.” He glanced around the boy’s room, noting the basketball posters on the wall along with posters of superheroes. A typical preteen boy’s room. Tennis shoes on the floor, dirty clothes piled on top of a hamper, a collection of model airplanes the kid had put together on a shelf above his bed.
“I’d like to see Louise’s r
oom,” Lucas said.
Harrison exchanged a knowing look with him, and they followed the father to the girl’s room. Mrs. Summerton stood in the doorway, tears trailing down her cheeks as she stared at the room.
“I haven’t changed a thing since she left,” the woman said, her lower lip quivering. “I kept thinking she’d come back.”
Lucas’s chest tightened. “I understand,” he said quietly. “My family lost my little sister years ago, but her room is still the same.” He couldn’t stand to go in it, but holding on to Chrissy’s things obviously gave his mother comfort, as if part of Chrissy was still with them.
Lucas held the computer to his side while he walked through the room. Harrison went straight to a white wicker desk and checked the top, then inside the drawers.
“What are you looking for?” Mr. Summerton asked.
“Something that might indicate where your daughter met this guy when she left,” Harrison said.
Lucas opened the closet door, looking for a treasure box or journal, something private that held the girl’s secrets. “Did she have a cell phone?”
Mr. Summerton nodded his head. “Yeah, we finally caved. Only because we thought she might need it for an emergency.” He made a sarcastic sound. “Look what good that did.”
He stepped from the room and returned with a prepaid phone and handed it to Lucas. The phone was dead. Keenan could retrieve whatever was on it.
Harrison turned, a small diary in his hand. “Mind if we take this? Maybe Louise wrote something about the boy in it.”
“She didn’t,” Mrs. Summerton said, her expression sad. “I read through it. Mostly she talked about how she wanted to get out of this town, away from us.”
“That’s not uncommon for teenagers,” Lucas said, although it was obvious that the girl’s statement hurt her mother.
“I know,” Mrs. Summerton said. “We weren’t perfect, Agent Hawk, but we loved our daughter.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Lucas said. Although if there had been tension within the home, Louise might have written about it in that book or on her computer. You never knew what really went on behind closed doors.
“We’ll return the journal, phone and computer when we’re finished,” Lucas said.
“Just find out who took our little girl from us,” Mrs. Summerton said. “He has to pay.”
* * *
CHARLOTTE TOWEL-DRIED HERSELF in the bathroom. She felt almost human again. Although showering in the dark was daunting, at least she was clean again.
Unfortunately, nothing could wash away the stain of the kidnapping from her mind.
A knock sounded at the bathroom door. “Do you need help?” Honey asked.
Charlotte bit her lower lip. How humbling to think that she might. “No, I’ve got it. Thanks.”
“I hung your clothes on the hook on the back of the bathroom door.”
Charlotte had no idea where the towel bar was, so she dropped the towel on the floor by the shower, then felt along the wall until she reached the door and the clothing.
She ran her fingers over the garments in search of tags to determine if they were inside out and where the neck of the shirt fit.
Frustration knotted her insides, but she chastised herself. Coping with her vision loss was nothing compared to what the girls were going through right now. She would learn how to manage on her own.
And she wasn’t going to whine.
She fumbled with the clothing but managed to finally get dressed. The nurse had given her a toothbrush and toothpaste so she ran her hands over the sink vanity, found them and brushed her teeth. She reached for a cup for water, but couldn’t find one, so she used her hand as a cup to rinse.
She felt again for a hand towel and discovered a wall-mounted paper-towel holder and dried her hands.
She searched the sink for a comb or brush. Her hand hit something and knocked it to the floor. Water sloshed onto her feet.
There went the cup of water.
Annoyed, she tried to find the towel to clean it up, but banged her leg on the toilet.
“Charlotte?”
“I’ll be out in a minute,” she said through gritted teeth. She finally found the towel but was so disoriented she didn’t know if she was drying up the water or making it worse.
Finally, she opened the bathroom door. “I spilled a cup of water on the floor,” she said, derision lacing her voice.
“Don’t sweat it. It’s not a big deal.” Honey took her hand and led her back to the bed, then disappeared for a minute to clean up the spill. Charlotte fiddled with the bedding as she settled on top of the bed.
A second later, Honey’s footsteps padded from the bathroom toward her. She slipped a brush into Charlotte’s hand.
“I figured you needed this now.”
Charlotte nodded, silently reminding herself not to whine.
“Harrison texted,” Honey said as Charlotte brushed her hair. “They found a female body near Dead Man’s Bluff.”
Charlotte gasped. “No, please...not one of my students.”
“No,” Honey said quickly. “The medical examiner identified her already. She disappeared about four weeks ago. Her parents thought she ran off with her boyfriend.”
“Do they think her death is related to the trafficking ring?” Charlotte asked.
“They don’t know yet,” Honey said. “They went to talk to the parents.”
Fear threatened to paralyze Charlotte. She’d comforted herself by thinking that the kidnappers wouldn’t hurt the girls, not if they intended to sell them.
But what if that wasn’t their intention?
Or what if one of the girls fought or tried to escape?
If they’d killed one girl, they wouldn’t have qualms about killing another.
The girls might be in more danger than she thought.
* * *
LUCAS AND HARRISON carried the computer and phone to the lab for analysis. While he watched Keenan run a preliminary search on the phone, Harrison called Honey.
“What can you tell by analyzing her phone?” Lucas asked.
“The same number popped up numerous times, but it belonged to a burner phone as well so there’s no way to trace it.”
Lucas cursed. “How about the computer?”
Keenan checked Louise’s search history and social-media sites.
“She was active on Facebook,” Keenan said. “But the stuff she posted is tame.” She clicked on the girl’s Facebook page and Lucas noted pictures of Louise and her family, then Louise and two other teenagers.
“Who are those girls?” he asked.
Keenan scrolled through the posts and Louise’s friends. “A girl named Phyllis and another named Connie. Looks like they attend school together.”
“I need the police reports from when Louise first went missing, I assume the detective or sheriff who investigated spoke with them.”
Keenan gestured to another computer, and Lucas used it to access the files while Keenan searched for other sites Louise had visited.
Lucas quickly skimmed the file on the initial investigation into Louise’s disappearance. The investigating officer had cleared the family of suspicion. He’d also questioned Phyllis and Connie, who both claimed that Louise met a guy online and had become secretive.
Neither knew the boy’s name or if they actually hooked up in person.
Lucas rubbed a hand over his face. Could have been a pedophile or stranger, not involved in the trafficking ring. Predators were everywhere.
“I’ve got an address for a contact Louise made via a teenage singles site,” Keenan said. “She and someone who called himself Devon were corresponding for weeks.”
Lucas moved over to look at the computer screen with Keenan. “He was flirting with her,” Lucas said.
Keenan nodded. “Judging
from her posts, Louise wasn’t confident around boys. I’m sure this guy’s attention flattered her.”
Disgust gnawed at Lucas. If the guy was simply a normal teen looking for a friend, that would be all right, but his gut instinct warned him that wasn’t the case.
“Did they meet in person?” Lucas asked.
Keenan tilted her head to the side with a sigh. “They were supposed to meet the day she disappeared.”
“This secret boyfriend has to be involved.” He’d bet his life that he wasn’t a boy, either. That Louise had been lured by a stranger, perhaps one of the trafficking ring.
Keenan nodded. “The IP address leads to an office building in El Paso.”
“I’ll get someone in El Paso to check it out. Anything else?”
“Where were they supposed to meet?”
“He suggested a teen center about ten miles from the girl’s house.”
“How was she going to get there? The parents didn’t mention that she had a car.”
Keenan frowned. “He was supposed to pick her up at the computer café near her house.”
“Good God.”
“I know,” Keenan said softly. “You’d think with all the crazy, scary stories on the news that young girls would be more careful. Unfortunately, teenage hormones overpower common sense.”
Especially if a girl was needy or felt homely and was starved for attention.
“Give me the address. I’m going to canvass the people at the café and see if anyone saw or heard anything.” He stood, anxious to check out the shop.
Harrison returned and Lucas explained what Keenan had found. “I have a feeling they never made it to the teen club,” Lucas said. “But it’s on the way to the computer café so we’ll stop there first.”
* * *
CHARLOTTE WAS ANXIOUS to go home. Honey wanted to stay until Harrison and Lucas arrived, but she insisted her friend leave. The last thing she wanted was to put her pregnant friend in danger.
Her head was throbbing so she took a couple of painkillers, then laid back against the pillows and closed her eyes. Images of those men barging into her studio filled her mind. She struggled to see something helpful, but the masks covered their features.
All except for the cold eyes. They were men without a conscience. Men who killed. Who took children and teenagers and sold them like cattle.