by Desiree Holt
Except those kisses…
He wondered again if she might be right. If there was something everyone was trying to keep swept under the rug. That was a hard concept for him to wrap his mind around. He knew these people. None of them fit the profile of a vicious killer, nor did he think it likely the parents who still mourned their children would be willing to hide that killer.
“Cole? Am I losing you?” Tate stirred his ice cubes with a finger, the clinking sound snapping Cole out of his mental wandering. “Maybe this new homicide will scare her away.”
“Not her. She’s seen worse than this, I’m sure. Anyway, she’s fresh eyes and been through this before. She just might see something everyone else missed.”
“I’m just telling you…”
But whatever he started to say was interrupted by the ringing of the cell on Cole’s belt.
“Yeah, Grace. What it is?”
“Sheriff, you better get back here right away. We got ourselves a big problem.”
Cole felt as if a stone had just dropped into his stomach. “What kind of problem?”
“Shannon Fowler’s mama, Bootsie, just called in.” Grace’s voice was with filled with tension. “The girl’s three hours late getting back from school.”
Cole knew all the parents were skittish after what happened to Leanne. “She’s probably just gone off with one of her friends. Anyway, school doesn’t get out until three, right?”
“Not today. They were supposed to be off all day, but they didn’t finish the testing yesterday, so the principal made them all come in for two hours this morning. She should have been home long before this.”
“Has Bootsie Fowler called the school?” He knew that was a stupid question. Of course, Shannon’s mother had called. Still, he had to ask it.
“Of course she has. The buses left with all the kids more than three hours ago. Andi was in the office and called some of her friends, and they haven’t seen her, either, except to watch her get on the bus.”
“All right. I’m on my way. Round up everyone you can and have them meet me in the conference room.”
He clicked off and pushed himself out of the chair. “I’ll have to miss Adele’s smothered pork chops. We’ve got ourselves a missing teenager.”
“Damn it to hell.” Tate set his glass down and stood up. “Who is it?”
“Shannon Fowler. I’m praying she’s just off doing some stupid thing and didn’t call home.”
“You let me know what’s going on,” Tate said, clapping him on the shoulder. “And if I can help in any way, just holler.”
“I will. Thanks. Make my excuses to Adele, okay?”
He covered the distance to his office in record time. Five of his deputies were waiting for him, all of them wearing sick expressions.
“What? Did someone find her?”
Andi spoke first. “No. No body. But Sheriff, I tracked down the bus driver and he swears he dropped Shannon off at the head of her road. She has to hike more than a mile to her house and there isn’t another living soul on that whole stretch. Only thing out that way is pastures and the Fowlers’ house.”
“Anyone could have come along and taken her,” Mickey pointed out. “And if, like Leanne, it was someone she knew offering her a ride, she’d hop right in.”
Cole felt his stomach roil and a headache begin at the back of his head. He looked at his deputies.
“I’m assuming someone’s driven that road end to end and stopped to see Bootsie?”
Gaylen Kleist, his senior deputy, nodded. “I did, boss. Grace knew I was out that way and hollered at me to check it out. As soon as I got the call I went right over.”
Cole dropped into the chair at the head of the table. “And?”
“And nothing.” Kleist shrugged. “I drove the whole length of the road, both ways, real slow. Twice. Nada. Not a sign of her.”
“But if the bus driver dropped her off at the head of the road, she disappeared somewhere between there and her house.”
Andi cleared her throat. “Sheriff?”
“Yeah, Andi.”
“If this is the same man, he could have taken her anywhere. How the hell do we know where to look?”
Cole was feeling sicker by the minute. Salado County covered a big area and there were a lot of uninhabited acres. Much of it was ranchland, and he didn’t think the perp would risk going onto land under the watchful eyes of cowboys. But there were huge pastures of coastal hay and other grasses, not to mention wooded areas.
“All right. I think the first thing we need to do is call in Search and Rescue. Tina Solize is the best there is. And besides the dogs, they recently got funding for a helicopter, so they can search by air.” He shoved his chair back from the table. “Mickey, get a map of the county and divide it into five sectors. We’ll start with the area where the Fowlers live. I have a feeling he’ll dump her close to home, just like he left Leanne near her friends.”
“He wants us to find her, doesn’t he?” Andi commented.
“Yes. I think he does. He’s sending a message. The bastard’s so arrogant he thinks he can pull this off right under our noses and get away with it. He’s done it once.”
“You know, once the word gets out, we’ll be flooded with people,” Gaylen pointed out. “Everyone will want to help and they’ll be trampling all over the place.”
“You’re right.” Cole rubbed his jaw. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. Gaylen, where are those two rookies I’ve got appointed to night shift?”
“Probably home sleeping.”
“Wake ‘em up. Get ‘em down here. Have them report to me, and I’ll get them set up taking calls and giving people instructions on what to do. Find out from Grace who’s worked with SAR looking for lost kids before. We’ll need someone with some smarts in each area.”
“Got it. I’ll go call right now,” Gaylen headed toward his desk with a long stride.
Cole turned to the others. “Mickey, make copies of that map after you draw out the sectors. Give one to Gaylen and the others to me.”
“I’m on it.”
“The rest of you get your assignments from Gaylen.” Cole slid his chair back, his frustration mounting with each ticking of the clock. He headed to his office to contact Tina Solize.
“I’m just back from a trip to South Texas, Cole.” Tina sounded a little ragged when she answered the phone.
“I hate to pull you out again with practically no rest,” Cole told her. “I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t an emergency.”
She gave him a rusty laugh. “Cole, everything for me is an emergency. If it wasn’t, no one would need me.”
“I guess you’re right.” He explained how he was setting up the search sectors and what Gaylen would do with the volunteers.
“Good. Very good.” Tina stifled a yawn, then cleared her throat. “Okay, give me an hour and I’ll meet you with my team. We’re racing the clock here so let’s start with the sector containing her house.”
“Good. I think this bastard wants us to find her so he probably dumped her close to home.”
“Good thing I’ve got that new chopper. We’ll need air support to cover the entire county. My pilot can also fly a grid pattern over each search area, but using it ups the cost.”
“I’ll find the money to pay for it somewhere.”
“Okay. I’ll call my pilot and get him going.”
By the time Cole hung up, Grace was at his door with a mug of her poison. “I don’t care how bad you think this is,” she told him. “You’re gonna need it. The word’s out. We’re flooded with people who want to look for Shannon, and they’re all pissed off.”
“Where’s Gaylen?”
“Trying to get everyone organized. He’s got the two rookies on their way in. He told them come as you are as long as they got here ASAP. And the phone’s ringing off the hook.”
“All right. I’ll come out and give him a hand.”
He fortified himself with the thick brew in the mug, found Mickey w
ith the maps, grabbed one, and then hurried to the front of the building. As he’d expected, the news had spread faster than measles. This was not working out quite the way he envisioned. The lobby was jammed with people, clustered around Andi, who was trying to organize them. He spotted Gaylen on the front steps, trying to get everyone’s attention in the front parking lot.
Cole opened the door and eased himself out beside his deputy. “Go on inside and take the phones from Grace until the rookies get here. I’ll talk to the mob.”
He was immediately assaulted with questions.
“Where’s Shannon?” someone shouted, the minute Gaylen moved inside.
“Why can’t you catch whoever’s doing this?” came from another direction.
“Are you letting our county go to hell?” a third person yelled.
Cole held up his hands. “Hold it, hold it. If everyone will give me a minute, I’ll give you a heads up on where we are.” He waited until the noise level dropped to steady mumble. “Here’s the deal. We don’t know if anything has even happened to Shannon Fowler. She could be off with one of her friends some place not even aware of the uproar she’s causing.”
“Shannon’s a good girl,” someone protested. “She’d never do anything like this. Cause her folks to worry and all that.”
“I didn’t say for sure that’s what happened,” Cole pointed out. “I’m just saying we have to look at every possibility. Now. I’ve called in Tina Solize’s SAR team. She’ll be here shortly, and we’ll start searching closest to the Fowlers’ home. That’s the last place she was seen. I know you want to help, and we can certainly use you. We just need to do this in an organized fashion so we don’t miss anything.”
“What do you want us to do?” a man at the front of the crowd asked.
Cole knew these were basically good people and he really needed their help. “Find your neighbors here in the crowd. Then go back to where you live and start searching your area. Work in groups of two and three.”
“Are we looking for a body or a live person?” someone wanted to know.
“I’m hoping a live person, but I’m preparing for any eventuality.”
“Hey, Sheriff.”
Cole turned at the shout. A man he vaguely recognized as a friend of Tate’s was waving a hand at him. “Yes?”
“How come it’s taking so long to find out who’s running loose in our neighborhood?”
Cole swallowed the retort that bubbled up in his throat. “It’s been less than forty-eight hours. Please keep that in mind. This is our only priority, and you can rest assured I’m prepared to call in the Rangers at a moment’s notice.”
“What can we do to help?” someone shouted.
“Hold on just a few minutes. Someone will come out and organize you into groups and tell you which sectors to hit. Thanks for coming.” He ducked back inside and spotted the rookies who had obviously come in through the back entrance.
“We’re flooded with calls,” he told them. “And I want to keep dispatch free. I’ll have Grace set one of the phones so all incoming calls go directly to these phones. If one line is busy, it will roll over to the other. If you get anything at all, pass it along to Grace to put it on the radios.
He left them to it and checked in with Gaylen.
“I need to go meet Tina. Are you set here?”
Gaylen nodded. “I’m good.”
“You know word’s out, and any minute we’ll have a media mob. I don’t want any of the press inside this building.”
Gaylen nodded. “Believe me, they won’t get in. Go on. I’ll take care of things here.”
****
Dana heard the news when she stopped for gas at the Gas and Go and overheard two women talking about it at the next pump. When she finished, she approached them. “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but hear what you were saying. Is there a young girl missing?”
The women stared at her. Finally, one of them said, “You’re that writer stirring up all the mess from those old cases, aren’t you?”
Dana pasted on a smile and held out a hand. “Not stirring up, just investigating. But you’re right. I’m Dana Moretti, the author.”
Their stares were unblinking. Then one woman gave her a limp handshake. “I suppose you want all the gory details about what’s going on.”
Dana shook her head. She was getting used to the hateful attitude that kept following her around. “I’m just really concerned there’s another victim. Can you tell me who it is?”
The women looked at each other.
“Shannon Fowler,” the handshake woman said. “Lives at the edge of town. She got off the school bus and no one’s seen her since.”
Sentence by sentence, Dana pried the details out of them, trying not to show how upset she was. It was him. All her intuition told her it was. But why now? He was safe. Had been for twenty-five years. So why had he started again? What was driving him now? God, she hoped people were wrong and her showing up hadn’t triggered it.
And why was he after older girls now? Was it too dangerous to go after the little ones? And how was he choosing his victims?
Temporarily pushing the Garzas to the back of her mind, she headed for Cole’s office. Maybe she could help in the search. Use her volunteer SAR experience. Nausea bubbled up in her throat. Maybe by now Shannon had been found safe and sound. Alive. Not a body.
Not again, she prayed. Please, God, don’t let it be happening again.
Chapter Nineteen
The lot at the sheriff’s office was filled with news crews and a variety of vehicles parked every which way so Dana had to find space more than a block away.
Cole must be having fits.
She didn’t even know what she was doing here. He’d be much too busy to see her. Still, she was pulled by an invisible string and wanted to help if she could. Realizing the back door would be her best option, she skirted the building and was almost at the side when a woman yelled out.
“Hey, isn’t that Dana Moretti over there? What’s she doing here?”
A reporter blocked her path, shoving a microphone at her. “Miss Moretti? Deandra Billings, NBC news. Can you tell me why you’re here?”
“Sorry. I really have nothing to say.” She forced herself to be polite. She hated newshounds.
“Just a few words. Please.” The woman moved closer, signaling to her cameraman to follow. “Are you working on a new book? Does the murder and disappearance have anything to do with it? Give us your take on what’s happening here.”
“I don’t have a take. Sorry.”
She moved up one more step, trying to edge away, but the woman was actually blocking her path. Suddenly hard fingers closed around one arm.
“This way,” a strange masculine voice said.
She looked up to see one of Cole’s deputies holding onto her.
“Back off,” he told the reporter. “All of you. When we have something to tell you, we will. Meanwhile don’t make things worse by harassing people.” He literally dragged Dana inside and pushed the door shut. “Sorry I had to drag you like that.” He gave her a tired smile and held out his hand. “Gaylen Kleist. Grace, our dispatcher, recognized you from the other day.”
“No apology necessary,” she breathed. “I really appreciate your help. These people don’t need me to be the focus of what’s going on.”
He gave her a curious glance. “Just exactly why are you here?”
“I heard about Shannon’s disappearance and I wanted to volunteer to help search.” She brushed her hair back from her face. “I’ve work with a lot of SAR teams while researching my books. Things the teams and the police might miss because I search differently.”
“You get no special treatment and no information,” he told her. “And anything you learn has to be cleared with Sheriff Landry. If it turns out all you want is to dig for information, I personally will take you back to your house, help you pack, and show you the edge of town.”
And he’d have every right to do just that.
> “Of course. I completely agree. Just tell me where I’m needed the most.”
He studied her for an endless moment, as if debating with himself. “All right,” he said at last. “Sheriff Landry’s out at the staging area at Hancock Road. This county’s more than six hundred square miles so we had to pick a starting place.”
“Is that close to where Shannon lives?”
“Yes. Sheriff’s thinking whoever took her might have dropped her close to home. There’s nothing out there for miles but hay fields, pasture, and trees. And the Fowler house is smack in the middle. Hardly anyone every goes down that road except on purpose, so there wouldn’t be much danger of whoever this is being seen.”
“You think she’s already dead,” Dana guessed.
Gaylen looked at her. “Yes, and so do you. Come on. I’m just heading out there. I’ll take you with me. And hope Cole doesn’t take my head off for bringing you.” He looked at the deputies manning the phones. “You guys good? I’m heading out to Hancock Road.”
They both nodded, giving Dana a look of curiosity.
“Okay, then. Grace can get me on the radio if there’s a problem.”
“We may be rookies, but we’re not dumb,” one of the men told him. “We can handle this. And we’ll keep the media out of here.”
Gaylen’s mouth twitched with an involuntary smile as he hustled Dana out the back door and into his SUV.
“Hang on,” he told her. “I’m taking a short cut to avoid the vultures.”
In a minute, she realized what he meant. Instead of pulling out onto the highway, he drove across the field behind the building, jouncing across bumps and holes until he reached the road running parallel to the street the office was on.
“Now I see why all of you drive SUVs,” she commented when they were back on pavement again.
“Lots of places in this county with bad roads or sometimes no roads at all. Only a four-wheel drive will do you any good if you have to reach someplace over rough terrain.” He reached for the microphone on his radio and pressed the transmit button. “Grace, patch me through to the sheriff, will you?”