by LENA DIAZ,
Gene was a friend of Cole’s and had worked in conjunction with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office on many a search-and-rescue operation over the years. Jasper was a veteran from the Northwest Regional FFW Office in the state’s panhandle. He’d taken vacation for the express purpose of driving down here to help. All of these men and women had volunteered their personal time to slog through the mosquito-laden, alligator-infested swamp looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.
“Some of you know the routine already but some of you are new so it bears repeating. We’ll all meet in the parking lot at zero nine hundred sharp. From there we’ll caravan out to the search grid where some deputies will establish our base of operations, providing us food, water, medical supplies, basically any support we might need. That’s the rendezvous point for everyone at day’s end. Your shifts end at sundown, which is about nineteen-hundred this time of year. For the civilians among you, that’s nine in the morning to about seven at night, with breaks whenever you need them. If we find something promising, we’ll mark the spot and head straight there the next day using four-wheelers to save time. Then we’ll continue the search from where we left off. I know a lot of you are anxious to help, and get frustrated that we’re so strict about the cutoff times. But it’s too dangerous out there to be fumbling around in the dark. And each of you has to check in at the base so we know that everyone is safe and accounted for.”
He looked around, making sure everyone was paying attention. “My usual speech still applies—don’t count on your cell phones or even the GPS in your cars to do much good out there. Something about that swamp plays havoc with electronics. Tomorrow morning we’re searching an area we searched previously, between five and ten miles northeast of a town called Mystic Glades, depending upon which grid you chose. So some of you on the far side might actually have better luck with your cell phones. But don’t rely on that. Memorize the landmarks we’ve noted on the map to help keep from getting lost. If you find anything that you think could be a clue about Miss Fullerton’s whereabouts, or her abductor, or if you just get turned around and lost, stay put, fire a flare, wait for backup.”
“Wait,” one of them said. “Why are we going over the same search area if we’ve already checked it out?”
“Because new evidence has surfaced to make us believe that a fresh look at these areas is warranted. Those of you in law enforcement, wear your vests. The rest of you, we’ll pass out vests in the morning. I know it’s hot and muggy out there and Kevlar can be miserable this time of year. But it might also save your life. So keep it on. We believe the killer may have returned to this section of the Glades, so everyone needs to be on high alert and extra careful.”
Surprised glances were exchanged around the table, and the low buzz of conversation filled the room as they considered this new development. Zack made a point of looking at each one of them until he regained their undivided attention. Even though he was just a police chief without any of his own deputies yet—having canceled the interviews the day he found Kaylee—he’d been trusted with the role as the search coordinator. And he took that role very seriously. He didn’t want to have anyone hurt or lost on his watch.
“Above all,” he continued, “be alert for predators of both the two-foot and four-foot variety. The gators will pretty much leave you alone as long as you leave them alone. But if you end up stepping on one, you’re likely to get your leg bitten off. So don’t put your foot somewhere that you can’t see the bottom. Meaning, stay out of the water, ladies and gentlemen. We’re doing a dry-land search. If we decide it’s warranted, we’ll have teams who specialize in water searches finish up our grids the next day.”
“How do we know if it’s warranted?” That question came from one of the newer deputies, Rick Carlson. Even though he was a rookie, in his first year on the force, he wasn’t some greenhorn kid that Zack had to worry about. This was Carlson’s second career after being laid off from his previous job. And he’d been one of the first to volunteer to help with the search.
Everyone, from newbie to seasoned officer, was pulling together like a big family in an effort to locate Fullerton. Zack just hoped he’d be lucky enough to find some deputies half as dedicated as them when he was able to return to the chore of hiring his own employees.
“Each of you is the one who makes that decision,” Zack said, in answer to Carlson’s question. “After your shift is over tomorrow and you check in at the base of operations, you’ll fill out a report showing what grid you searched, along with your recommendations for any further searching of that area. Recommendations include things like footprints, drag marks, bent or broken branches leading to the water...pretty much anything that might indicate that someone went through there into the water.
“In the shallow areas, be on the lookout for fabric or discarded items like canteens, trash of any kind. We’re not going into a common camping area so trash would be a dead giveaway that someone’s been out there who shouldn’t have been. Note those things clearly in your notebooks and then later in your reports. I’ll evaluate those reports and decide if other resources and search teams should be brought in to finish up the grids.”
Carlson nodded.
“Sounds good.” This from Carlson’s search partner, Deputy Alan Thomas. Like the rookie, Thomas was fairly new to the force. But unlike Carlson, he had a dozen years of policing underneath his belt, having transferred from Broward County. An avid outdoorsman, he’d grown up in the area, claimed to know the Everglades better than anyone else. And he was itching to find the man who’d dared to use his sacred Glades as his own personal torture chamber for three women.
“Thank you again for volunteering,” Zack said. “I’ll see you all in the morning.”
The teams filed out of the room, leaving Zack to rehang the map on the white board using the magnet circles someone had placed on the upper-right corner. Then he went off to find Deputy Holder, his search partner. They’d been working together for several weeks and he trusted Holder. But after they’d returned from the airport, Holder had disappeared. Zack assumed he’d been sidetracked filling out a report or perhaps doing a favor for one of his teammates. But he was surprised that Holder hadn’t at least attended the end-of-day debriefing and planning session like he usually did. Zack was counting on Holder to be his search partner tomorrow. He’d personally chosen the most important grid on the map—the one that encompassed the exact spot where Kaylee had stumbled out onto the road in front of his truck.
He headed down the back hallway, past several other conference rooms on his way to the squad room again. As he passed the room where he’d been with Kaylee earlier, he couldn’t help stopping to check on her. He leaned against the wall, several feet back from the large glass cutout.
Sitting at the middle of the table, Kaylee was surrounded by five detectives, including Cole. The FBI had left a week ago, leaving the search to Collier County. They were still engaged in the investigation long-distance, and had offered to put a rush on processing any forensic evidence that might be found. But for the most part they’d gone on to other, higher-profile cases with a better chance of success.
Still, Special Agent Willow would probably spit nails once he found out that he’d missed his chance to interview Kaylee. He’d believed she would be the key to the investigation all along. And from seeing the determined look on Kaylee’s face right now as she answered questions, Zack was inclined to agree.
She’d been in that room for hours. Judging by the piles of fast-food trash on the far end of the table, she hadn’t even gotten to leave for lunch. But she seemed to be holding up well, so Zack continued down the hallway. At the sound of a door closing, and footsteps behind him, he looked back to see Cole coming out of the conference room where Kaylee had been and heading his way.
“Hold up, Zack.” Cole hurried toward him and they stopped and faced each other. “Where are you headed?”
; Zack waved toward the end of the hallway that led into the open squad room. “Trying to find Deputy Holder so I can prep him about our search plans for tomorrow. Have you seen him?”
“He got a call from his kid’s school. His youngest son is sick so he took off to pick him up and take him to the doctor before they close.”
“Anything serious?”
“I don’t think so. But the kid was running a fever and the school won’t let him come back without a doctor’s note.”
Zack nodded. Since Jo Lynne’s cancer had canceled his plans to be a husband and eventually a father, he wasn’t fortunate enough to have any kids himself. But he had enough friends with kids to know the routine. “Guess I’ll have to reassign one of the other search teams to join me in the morning.”
“Before you go, I wanted to catch you up on the interview with Kaylee,” Cole said. “She’s remembered an amazing amount of information. She’s even worked with a sketch artist to give us a rendering of her abductor.”
“I thought he wore a mask the whole time.”
“He did, but the artist was able to help her remember other details that could be helpful—like that he’s about six feet tall, broad-shouldered, muscular. He’s Caucasian with dark eyes, probably brown. From his build and general mannerisms, she guessed him to be anywhere from his late twenties to late thirties.”
Zack snorted. “Which means he could be at least half of the men in this building, including me if I wore brown contacts. I thought you said she’d given you an amazing amount of information.”
“She did, mostly about his routine, how often he was there.” His eyes took on a haunted look. “What he did to her. I’ve seen a lot over the years, but what she went through is just...beyond horrible. The only good thing is that she was never successfully sexually assaulted, if you get my meaning. But she was still assaulted nonetheless. He just couldn’t penetrate because of whatever problems he has in that area. He blamed her and punished her for it, thus the cuts, the burns, the bruises.” He shook his head. “It’s a miracle she survived as long as she did and didn’t end up suffering a complete breakdown. She—”
While Cole continued to talk about the interview, Zack tried to tune out the parts about what Kaylee had suffered. The idea that someone could willingly hurt her was beyond his comprehension, and had him fighting mad. It also had him wanting to rush back to the conference room and pull her into his arms, which was beyond stupid. She might have latched on to him as the man she felt had saved her, but that was all she felt for him.
This odd sense of protectiveness that he felt toward her was something he needed to deal with and get past. She’d been through too much to ever want anything more from him than his protection—in spite of how his own thoughts had been turning since picking her up at the airport.
It shamed him to admit it, but seeing her somewhere other than a hospital for a change had him noticing her as the beautiful woman she was and not as a victim anymore. And that had sent a jolt of lust straight to his belly. Which of course made him disgusted with himself for even thinking of her that way. She’d been through unthinkable trauma at the hands of a stranger. She shouldn’t have to worry that the man that she thought of as her protector had more than protective feelings for her.
“Which leads me to my next question,” Cole said. “Will you do it?”
Zack stared at him, trying to think back to what Cole had been saying.
“Did you hear anything I just said?” Cole asked, sounding exasperated.
“Some of it. Sorry. My mind wandered. What did you want me to do?”
The door to the conference room opened down the hall again and Kaylee stepped out, along with her contingent of detectives. She saw him and immediately started his way.
“What’s going on?” Zack asked, wishing he’d paid more attention. Because he had a very bad feeling about whatever Cole was expecting of him, and why Kaylee and the others had just stopped beside him, looking at him expectantly.
“Give us a second.” Cole pulled Zack several feet away and leaned in close. “You and I both know the investigation has stalled. The only commonality that we’ve found between the victims, aside from gender and that they were each vacationing alone, is that they all booked their trips through a travel agency. But none of them used the same travel agency. We need a break in this case, otherwise I wouldn’t—”
“Wait. I hadn’t heard that. All three women booked through a travel agency? That’s a heck of a coincidence. Do the agencies share some kind of online reservation service? Maybe the killer hacked in and found out the women’s itineraries. That’s how he was able to surprise them and abduct them.”
Cole nodded. “I’ve already got my team looking into that angle. Even though there isn’t an obvious connection between the agencies, we’re going to try to get the owners to come in voluntarily for interviews—tonight if we can swing it, or early in the morning. Assuming the owners are cooperative, we’ll look at their financials, search for red flags. But it’s probably a waste of time, certainly nothing worthy of trying to get a warrant over. At least, so far. We’ll see. The problem of course is that even with detectives working the case around the clock, the investigation is slow going, with no truly promising leads. You and I both know that the longer Fullerton is missing, the lower the odds are that we’ll find her alive. Which is the only reason I would ever dream of asking you to do this.”
Zack narrowed his eyes. “Asking me to do what?”
“Take Kaylee with you to the swamp in the morning, to try to jog her memory.”
Zack swore beneath his breath. “There’s no way on God’s green Earth that I’m taking a victim back out to the scene of the crime. Not this victim, not this crime. She’s suffered enough already.”
Cole winced. “I know, but she makes a persuasive argument for doing it. She really believes she can lead you to the camp. And if we find that camp, a CSU team can comb it for evidence. A fiber, a fingerprint, could blow the case wide-open and give us a clue that could help us find Fullerton.”
“I’m already going back out to search the area where we found Kaylee. So her going with me isn’t necessary. If that camp is out there, I’ll find it. Without her.”
“Like the search team found it the first time?”
He frowned. “We’re going deeper this time. And I’ve checked the weather forecast for tomorrow. Sunny, clear, no problem with it washing out the area and making it impassable. Plus, this time I’ll be leading the team in that grid. I was born with a hunting rifle in my hand. I was tracking deer through the woods from the time I could walk. If there are any clues out there to find, I’ll find them. But not if I’m slowed down by having to keep an eye on Kaylee the whole time.”
Cole glanced back at the others who were watching them and then pulled him a few more feet down the hallway.
“Look, Zack.” He kept his voice low. “I understand that you don’t want to do this. But I already spoke to the lieutenant and he’s on board. We’re out of time. I know it. You know it. And Kaylee swears that if we don’t take her out there, she’ll go by herself.”
“Yeah, she made that threat to me earlier, too. We’ll just put her in protective custody.”
Cole shook his head. “Can’t, not against her will. The circumstances don’t warrant it unless we had a suspect we were pursuing and a case ready to prosecute—which we don’t. So it’s our duty to make sure that she’s protected when she goes out there, which means assigning her to one of the search teams—yours.”
Zack swore and narrowed his eyes at Kaylee as she watched from several feet away. It was obvious that she knew they were discussing her, because her spine stiffened. But she didn’t look away or back down. Instead, she returned his stare and crossed her arms over her chest, letting him know that she had no intention of changing her mind.
“She also said t
hat if I didn’t agree to her terms that she would tell the media that we didn’t let the only witness help with the investigation,” Cole said.
Zack immediately shook his head. “I don’t think she’d do that. She wouldn’t want Mary’s family to hear that and get upset.”
“Yeah, honestly, I don’t see her doing that either. She wouldn’t want to hurt anyone. But she sounded fairly desperate on the phone. That media thing was thrown in at the end because she didn’t think I’d cave otherwise.”
“Her ploy may have worked on you. But that doesn’t mean that I have to play along,” Zack said.
“She went through hell out there. She wants to help. Can you really blame me for giving in?”
Zack understood the position Cole was in. And of course he understood wanting to help Kaylee. But this? How could this be called helping?
Cole put his hand on Zack’s shoulder, capturing his attention again. “She is going out there. And she needs to be with someone who will protect her, someone she trusts. We both know who that is. The psychologist told us in the hospital that Kaylee had bonded to you because you found her, you rescued her. And we brought that same psychologist to the conference room earlier today. Believe it or not, the doctor thinks it’s a good idea for Kaylee to revisit the scene, to face her fears basically, and she agrees that if anyone is going to take Kaylee out there, it has to be you.”
“You need to fire the psychologist,” Zack growled.