by Lisa Harris
“That she’d gone to the FBI?” Nikki asked.
Justin nodded. “I called her back yesterday. Said she was on her way here for some … deposition or something like that … against him for the FBI. She told me I was right, and that she had found evidence he was involved in some seriously illegal stuff.”
“Was she upset when she talked with you yesterday?” Nikki asked.
“It was more like she was scared. But I tell you, whatever he’s into, my sister isn’t involved. She might not have good taste in men, but she would never get involved in something illegal.”
“Love can make people do crazy things,” Nikki said.
Justin’s jaw tensed. “Not Erika.”
“Did she ever talk to you about the specific evidence she had?” Jack asked, changing the subject.
“She wouldn’t tell me anything. She was afraid it would put my life in danger. Brian, he’s got connections everywhere. Even here in prison. She was afraid if I knew, then he’d come after me as well.”
“If she’s afraid of him, why do you think she agreed to testify against him?”
Justin frowned. “I assumed you knew. Erika and Brian have a daughter.”
“A daughter?” Nikki glanced at Jack, wondering why in the world Brinkley would have left that out of Erika’s file.
“Lily turns four this month and is the cutest kid you’ll ever see. Erika brings me pictures of her. And when I get out …” Justin’s voice broke.
Clearly he had a soft spot for the young girl, but a child caught up in the middle of a missing persons investigation could change everything.
“Erika’s afraid for her daughter,” Nikki said.
Justin nodded. “After Erika had Lily, I think she expected her relationship with Brian to change.”
“She expected a marriage proposal?” she asked.
“Yes, but Brian has kept her hanging since Lily was born, and I don’t think he ever had intentions of marrying her. But neither does he want her to leave him. If she does, he says he’ll fight for complete custody. And she’s convinced he could get it. He’s rich and well connected. She works for not much more than minimum wage and has a drug conviction on her record. Who do you think the judge is going to choose in a custody battle?”
“So she’s trapped,” Jack said.
Justin nodded.
“But if Brian were to get convicted and go to prison, she could end up with sole custody of Lily,” Nikki said.
The picture of what they might be facing was slowly taking shape.
“Where is Lily now?” Nikki asked.
“She wouldn’t tell me. Only that she had her somewhere safe until all of this is over.”
“Friends? Family?” Nikki prodded. If they could find Lily, they might be able to find Erika as well.
“I don’t know. Like I said, Brian has connections that have a long reach. She didn’t want to take a chance that he’d find her until all of this is over.”
“Is there anything else you can tell us that might help us find your sister?” Jack asked.
“Maybe.” Justin was tapping on the table again. “When I talked with Erika about three weeks ago, she told me she was convinced she was being followed.”
“Why did she think that?”
“She said she’d seen some man on two occasions. I don’t have a description, but all I can think of is that Brian might have hired someone to keep track of her. I told her about a friend of mine who could sweep her house. He discovered that the house was bugged.”
Nikki frowned. There had to be a connection. Erika was being bugged and possibly followed. The FBI believed there was a mole. Who else had Brian Russell paid off?
“What can I do to help?” Justin begged. “Please? There has to be something.”
Nikki pushed a yellow notepad in front of him along with a pen. “I need a list of names. Anyone you can think of that Erika might have trusted Lily with.”
“I can’t even think right now.” Justin tapped the pen against the pad. “It would have to be someone outside of Brian’s influence that she would have trusted.” He started writing a list of names. “I hope it’s enough,” he said, pushing it back across the table at her a couple minutes later.
Nikki glanced over the list. “It’s a start.”
“My sister, she had this thing for falling for the wrong men. Like she thought she could change them or something. Brian wasn’t the first one.”
Nikki tapped her fingers against the file, studied his face, and caught the flicker of pain in his eyes. “Like Simon Crowley.”
He blew out a huff of air. “You know about Crowley?”
“I know Erika was in love with him and he ended up being convicted of killing four women, including your other sister.”
Justin rubbed the back of his neck. “Which is why I need you to promise me you’ll find her. Erika and Lily … they’re all I have in this world. If anything happens to them …”
“I will promise you one thing,” Nikki said, picking up the file along with the list of names and standing up before catching his gaze. “We’re going to do everything in our power to find them before it’s too late.”
11
8:45 p.m.
Nikki followed Jack and the guard out of the interview room, wrangling with more questions than she’d had when they’d first arrived. There were too many holes in the files the FBI had given her. Like why hadn’t they told her Erika had a baby? Or that she’d believed someone had been following her? And if everything Justin just told them was actually true, where was Lily?
“What are you thinking?” Jack asked as they made their way toward the entrance of the prison.
Nikki’s mind churned through the facts they did have. “That the FBI continues to keep us in the dark over this case. I’m not even sure why they need us at this point. Because, do you honestly think that the FBI didn’t know about Lily?”
“No, but if they were hiding that fact, I can’t help but wonder what else they’re hiding.”
“And if Erika hadn’t told them about Lily, then why? Wouldn’t she want protection for her child?”
“Maybe she didn’t trust them,” Jack said as they continued toward the exit. “And considering the fact that someone already managed to get to her while she was in the safe house, I’d say she had good reason for not trusting them. Lily gives both Erika and Russell motivation we didn’t know about before. And if what we know about Russell is true, he’ll use Lily as leverage to get to Erika if he finds her first.”
Nikki nodded, ready to get out of the claustrophobic feel of the prison, already knowing at least part of the answer to the question of why the FBI didn’t tell them about Lily. Clearly the stakes were far higher than a custody case. And whatever Erika had discovered was worth killing for.
“Nikki?”
Nikki turned around at the sound of her name, then smiled at the familiar face. Aiden Lambert worked as a deputy commissioner for the Department of Corrections and had called in a few favors for her the past few months regarding a recent lead on the disappearance of her sister.
“Aiden … hey. It’s been a while.”
Three months ago, she’d met him at a local restaurant, where he’d given her the name of the Coyote. And that name had become the only solid lead they had on her sister’s abductor, even after a decade of combing through every piece of evidence. Robert Wilcox, aka the Angel Abductor, had terrorized East Tennessee in the early 2000s by kidnapping and murdering young girls.
Her sister, Sarah, had been one of his last victims.
But knowing his name had done little to move forward her sister’s investigation and instead had proved to be another dead end. Robert Wilcox had escaped during a prison transport ten months ago, and no one knew his whereabouts. The leads they had might have all run cold, but she knew he was out there. And that not only did Robert Wilcox hold the key to her sister’s disappearance, but he had the capacity of striking again if they didn’t find him.
She
shivered despite the warmth of the hallway.
“Do you have a minute?” Aiden asked.
His voice pulled her back to the present.
“Yeah, sure.” She turned to Jack. “Give me a second, will you? I’ll catch up with you at the entrance.”
Jack nodded, then left with their escort as Nikki walked back to where Aiden stood, feeling the familiar ache churning in her gut. If he’d found another lead on the Angel Abductor …
“I’ve been planning to call you.” Aiden shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants. “Been wondering how you’re doing.”
“Wondering if I’ve been following your advice?” She stopped in front of him. He’d told her she should walk away from her sister’s case. That after ten years of searching it was time to let the past go. She might not have agreed with his advice, but he was only telling her because he knew the endless hunt for Sarah had put her through an emotional roller coaster. He was worried about her chasing ghosts. And getting hurt in the process.
Except Robert Wilcox wasn’t a ghost. And while she might not be any closer to tracking him down than the day Sarah disappeared, she wasn’t ready to give up. Because being on the victim side of a case was completely different from her day job.
He shot her a smile. “I knew you had no plans of taking my advice, but that doesn’t mean I’m not concerned. The not knowing can be just as tough as finding out the truth.”
“And you think I still need to walk away from my sister’s case?” she asked, already knowing his answer.
“I just know the odds of finding out the truth after so much time has passed. But you know that as well as I do.” His expression softened. “Did you follow up on any of the leads I gave you the last time we met?”
Nikki fiddled with the heart necklace where she kept Sarah’s photo. No matter what Aiden or anyone else thought, she was far from being ready to stop searching for Sarah. “I spoke to the sister of Wilcox’s girlfriend. She hadn’t heard from Wilcox in years.” It had been another dead end.
“What about Wilcox’s attorney?”
“She doesn’t know anything more than what you or I know. Or if she does, she won’t tell me. Which means unless we can actually track down Wilcox …” She didn’t finish her sentence, but ten years of dead ends took a toll on a person. Her mother. Her father. Her entire family. Ten years of not knowing if Sarah was dead or alive, or what she’d gone through in those moments during and after her abduction.
“I know that putting this case to rest isn’t going to be easy, but I still think it’s the right thing,” Aiden said. “I’ve seen too many people struggle for too many years trying to find a resolution that isn’t going to happen. It’s tough when there isn’t any closure, but sometimes there’s nothing more you can do.”
“Meaning Sarah’s dead and we’ll never find her?” Nikki tried to bite back the anger in her tone, but no matter how many years had gone by, no matter how small the chances were of Sarah being alive, there wasn’t a day that passed that she didn’t pray her sister would still walk through their door.
Flashbacks and nightmares came less frequently than they used to, but they still occurred. And sometimes it felt as if those moments had just happened yesterday. The day Sarah disappeared. The moment she’d realized Sarah wasn’t coming home. When the police told them they were no longer going to actively search for Sarah.
That day, the officer had shifted on the worn leather couch across from her mother, while Nikki sat quietly beside her. “Mrs. Boyd, I understand that you’re frustrated, but for the past eighteen months my department has been doing everything in our power to find your daughter. You know that. But in the last few weeks every lead we have has dried up. And unless we come across some new information …”
“So what are you saying? That you’re done looking for my daughter—”
“Of course not.” He leaned forward, hands on his knees, ready to bolt.
“But that is what you’re saying. Except my daughter’s out there somewhere. Some man has done something unspeakable to her, and you’re going to walk away.”
“Mom—” Nikki laid her hand on her mom’s arm.
“Don’t try to justify what you’re doing. Your job is to find her. To dig up new information. Whatever it takes.”
“Ma’am, I understand your frustration, but sometimes there’s nothing else we can do. Though that doesn’t mean that we won’t get a break in the case at some point. But right now—”
“Do you have any children?” her mother asked.
“No.” He was squirming again.
“Then don’t sit in the middle of my living room and tell me you know what it’s like to lose your baby. It’s been eighteen months and you haven’t found anything. No solid leads to where she might be. You can’t even tell me if my little girl is dead or alive.”
Her parents hadn’t been the only ones searching for new information. After Sarah’s abduction, Nikki turned in her resignation to her principal, applied to the police department, and entered the police academy training program.
“Nikki …”
She glanced up at Aiden, regretting the snap in her voice. Regretting that ten years later she still hadn’t found Sarah. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. It’s not an excuse, but it’s been a tough day.”
“Forget it. I really do understand.”
She caught something in his eyes. Something she’d never noticed before. “All this is personal, isn’t it?”
Aiden’s gaze shifted. “I don’t talk about it very much. My mom was killed by a drunk driver when I was seven. They never found the guy in the other car.”
She felt a shot of guilt slice through her. So he did understand. “I’m so sorry.”
“My dad eventually remarried a wonderful woman when I was nine. But I wish I had more than a few photos and fuzzy memories.”
Photos and memories were all she had left of Sarah. “Do you think it would make a difference if you found the person who killed her?” she asked.
“My dad has accepted and completely moved on with his life. But I always struggled to forgive and resented growing up without a mother. Anyway …” Aiden seemed to shrug off the question. “In the end, you have your motivation for taking your job. I have mine. Though I know your situation is different. At least we were able to have a funeral for my mother.”
Nikki bit the edge of her lip, wishing she didn’t feel so emotional. She forced the memories of Sarah back into their own compartment to deal with later. “I know that the odds of finding Sarah alive are almost nil, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to go there. I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready to go there.”
On the other hand, if Sarah was alive … But that was another tough reality. She’d followed the cases of the women who’d been held hostage for months and even years, like Elizabeth Smart, and like the three women who’d been kept for over a decade in Ohio. Studied their psychological profiles and the struggles they faced when coming back into society. Life would never be the same for them.
“What I need is closure for my family,” Nikki said. “Even if that means finding Sarah’s body or listening to a confession by the person who took her.”
Nikki studied Aiden’s darkening expression. He looked like he was trying to decide if he should tell her something.
“There’s something else, isn’t there?” she asked, trying not to get her hopes up. But even the smallest of leads allowed her to keep holding on to that thinning thread of hope that one day they’d find out the truth.
He glanced down at the tiled floor. “You always were good at reading people.”
“It’s my job.”
“I’ve started to pick up the phone to call you a dozen times over the past couple days, but I didn’t know what to say.”
“What do you mean? What happened?” Nikki felt her stomach drop. “There’s nothing you can tell me that could hurt me more than what I’ve already gone through.”
Because on top of the loss of Sar
ah was the guilt that she could have stopped what happened to her sister if she simply would have been on time to pick her up that day.
“Even if it changes everything?” he asked.
She nodded, bracing herself for what he was about to say.
“The authorities found Wilcox.”
“Wait a minute … They found him?”
“He’s dead, Nikki. They found his body in a back alley in Memphis.”
Nikki leaned against the cold cement wall, her heart pounding. If Wilcox was dead, she had just lost the only connection to the truth of what happened to her sister. “How did he die?”
“It looks as if he was murdered,” Aiden said. “But the coroner hasn’t finished his report yet. I’m sorry. I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear.”
“I’d like to see the coroner’s report as soon as it’s released.” It probably wouldn’t make a difference, but neither was she ready to let go. They needed to find out who killed Wilcox. See if there was a chance that he’d given someone details of what he’d done.
“Of course.” Aiden nodded. “I’m sure that won’t be a problem. And Nikki … I really am sorry.”
“I know.”
She fought back the swirl of emotions swelling inside her. After ten years of searching for the truth, was this how it was all going to end?
A couple uniformed guards rushed pass them, shouting something into their radios and pulling Nikki out of the past.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Probably just some routine drill.”
Nikki couldn’t help but let out a low laugh. Nothing had been routine about today. But an eerie feeling settled in her gut. She’d seen the look on one of the guard’s faces. There was nothing routine about this.
A second later, Aiden’s phone rang. He took the call, a shadow crossing his face as he turned back to her.
“Aiden, what is it?”
“I need to get you out of here,” he said, grabbing her elbow. “I don’t have any details, but there’s been an attack. One of the inmates and a guard are down.”