Yuletide Abduction

by Virginia Vaughan

  “She didn’t have many. Brooke Martin was her closest friend, and she’s only been at the school a few months.”

  Elise recognized the girl’s name from her conversation with Josh yesterday. “That’s the girl who said she was planning to run away? I’d still like to speak to her and any other students who had contact with Candace during the school day.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem. The whole town is upset over the disappearance of Candace.”

  Elise wasn’t so sure she believed that. Most towns where girls had been abducted would be on full alert, organizing searches, and the newspaper headlines would announce updates of the search. From what she’d seen of this town, the townspeople had continued on with very little concern for Candace. It broke Elise’s heart to see that a girl could go missing with so little fanfare.

  Except for Josh. He was concerned enough to be seeking her out, to be excited to have the FBI join the search. She hated to disappoint him with the news that no one else was coming. She was the lone agent looking into this case, and if she didn’t find any evidence of an abduction quickly, she would have to move on.

  “I’ll mention the interviews to Candace’s mother when I speak to her.”

  “Interview Patti?” He seemed surprised by her suggestion.

  “Of course. I’d like to go right over there after the electronics store.”

  Josh’s expression fixed firmly. “No.”

  “No?” What did he mean no? Speaking with the parents was always the starting point.

  “I need to speak with Patti before you interview her. Can it wait until later this afternoon?”

  Elise frowned. Why would Josh want to speak with the girl’s mother before she spoke to Elise? “Is there some reason your sister-in-law doesn’t want to speak to the FBI?”

  “It isn’t about being FBI, Elise.”

  She realized where he was heading...her connection with Max. She felt herself flush, suddenly realizing what an awkward interview that would be. Still, she was a professional and she would conduct herself as one despite what had happened between her and Max. “It’s not necessary that she knows. I can be discreet.”

  “I’m sure you can, but she deserves the truth and she’s at school until this afternoon. I’m asking you to please wait.”

  She nodded her agreement, understanding his reservation and suddenly fearful of facing this woman. After all, her husband might still be alive if it wasn’t for Elise.

  Suddenly a wave of dizziness rushed through her and Elise gripped the table as the seat beneath her seemed to fade in and out.

  Josh saw and stood up, holding out his hand. “That’s it. I’m taking you back to the hotel.”

  “No.”

  “No arguments, Elise. You need to rest for a couple of hours. I’ll talk to Patti then come by later and take you to get the laptop. We’ll swing by her house and you can ask your questions.”

  She finally conceded and took his hand, thankful again for the strength he displayed as he helped her to her feet then drove her back to her hotel.

  * * *

  Elise tried to manage the hotel steps alone, declining his offer to help. He stayed beside her just in case and was glad he did. Her injured leg buckled three steps from the top and she slipped and fell right into his arms.

  Josh took the remaining steps easily and set her down, careful of her injured leg, but didn’t immediately release her. She glanced up at him, her green eyes ablaze with speckles of brown darkening them. He pulled his eyes away from her gaze only to find them focused instead on the fullness of her lips and wondering what it would feel like to kiss her.

  He took a deep breath and let it out, making himself remember who she was. Besides being the woman Max had died for, she was also someone who placed her life in danger every day. Working for the FBI meant you were always aware of the danger you placed on yourself—you could never promise to come home to your family each night. He’d left the army because of that very reason. He certainly wouldn’t now place himself in a situation of getting involved with someone in the same predicament.

  When he released her, she pulled out her hotel card key, opened the door then turned to thank him.

  “I’ll come back in a few hours and we’ll go see Patti together,” he said and she nodded. “Try to get some rest.”

  “Thanks for your help today, Josh.”

  “Thank you for being here, Elise.”

  He turned and jogged back down the stairs, grateful to be free of the pull she seemed to have on him. He had to remind himself that Elise Richardson was everything he’d determined he didn’t want. She was the “jump first then look to see if it was safe” type of person. He knew those people. He used to be one of them. He’d lost army brothers, good men who’d left their wives widowed and their children without a father all for the sake of the job. He’d lost Max, who’d placed himself in danger to protect someone he didn’t know.

  Elise was the type of woman he would spend his life worrying about because of the danger of her job and the risks she took. Even if he was looking for a relationship, it would not be with someone like her.

  Josh heard his name and saw Bobby heading his way. “How is Agent Richardson?”

  “I just dropped her off to rest. She’s one tough lady.” He smiled, realizing that pretty much summed her up.

  “Is she really here because of Candace? I didn’t realize the FBI was interested in cases of runaways.”

  “Candace did not run away from home.” He gritted his teeth, tired of people so easily jumping to that conclusion.

  “But I heard she wrote a letter to her mom. Has Agent Richardson seen that?”

  “She saw it. I’ve been saying all along there is something fishy about that letter and Elise agrees with me. She thinks Candace might be a victim of human trafficking.”

  Bobby’s eyes widened. “Human trafficking? Here in Westhaven? That’s hard to believe. This is such a small town. I thought things like that only happened in big cities.”

  “Me too, but I’m still suspicious of Candace’s teacher Mr. Larkin. I know he had a hand in Candace’s disappearance. Whoever took her is going to pay. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “I hope you find her safe,” Bobby said.

  “Thank you.”

  Bobby headed back toward the hotel office and Josh slipped behind the wheel of the Jeep and headed home.

  He spent the next few hours following up on a background check of a staff member at the hotel housing one of his security clients on an upcoming trip. It was probably nothing, but he liked to be thorough. No one understood better than he the importance of fully vetting those surrounding his clients. Perhaps if the CIA liaison to his ranger unit had done a more thorough job of checking the credentials of his translator, Josh’s squad wouldn’t have suffered such calamity.

  He pushed that thought from his mind. He couldn’t focus on the past. That part of his life was over now and he was trying to work through his bitterness at the CIA and the other three-lettered agencies that had let them down. An image of Elise this morning when she’d opened her door popped into his brain and he smiled. Perhaps working with Elise would help restore his faith in the government agencies.

  Trusting her seemed to come easily to him. She’d impressed him and he couldn’t deny it. She sent his senses rumbling, reminding him that he was hungry for life and ready to step back into a world where it was okay to laugh and love and live again.

  That realization terrified him as much as it excited him.

  Lord, please don’t allow her to build up our hopes only to let us down.

  He was used to the disappointments, but he didn’t think Patti would be able to take it.

  He glanced at the clock and realized he couldn’t wait until later to talk to Patti. He needed to see her now, to warn her
about Elise and her connection to Max. But could he make her understand how much they needed Elise to do her job? Would it even be a concern for Patti? She didn’t seem to harbor the same anger over Max’s death that Josh did. She’d told him several times that she’d let go of that pain a long time ago.

  But Josh hadn’t been able to let go. He’d carried it with him through years of dangerous missions with the Rangers, through years of top-secret raids and rescues that shouldn’t have succeeded. But Max’s death had always been there in the back of his heart, the mission shielding him from the pain of it. Until the last mission, when his pain had finally encompassed him.

  He picked up the phone and dialed the school, hoping she could find a few minutes to speak with him. She always turned off her cell phone when she was at work, so he knew the main line at the school was the best way to reach her. When the school’s secretary answered, he asked to speak to Patti.

  “I’m sorry, Josh,” she said. “Patti wasn’t feeling well, so she went home early.”

  Now he was worried. Patti never left work early. Ever since Candace’s disappearance, she’d been a trouper, insisting that work kept her mind off the situation. Was it possible her facade of strength was finally crumbling?

  “I’ll swing by her house.” He thought about calling Elise and putting off the interview until Patti was feeling better, but he hated to postpone it any longer than he already had. Finding Candace had to be priority one, and Patti was a tough lady. But maybe it wasn’t the right time to break the news to her about Elise’s connection with Max. Maybe that information was too much for her to handle right now.

  * * *

  Elise hated being so weak. Why was this affecting her so? She should be able to push past the pain and dizziness. Too much was at stake. Lives hung in the balance, and she had to return to her hotel to rest? It didn’t make sense to her why she couldn’t muster the strength she needed to push through this.

  After all, Josh had rammed his truck into another car and he seemed fine. He amazed her with his determination to find his niece. It so reminded her of Max stepping between her and that gunman. Was strength and character a family trait? Or was it something he’d picked up in the army? Either way, it was good to have someone on her side. Since taking on this project, she’d lost her backup at the Bureau. Everyone thought she was searching for patterns that weren’t there. Even Lin believed she was stretching, an adverse reaction to a difficult situation.

  Allie Peterson.

  Elise had ignored her gut on that case and Allie had been found dead. Why had she allowed the opinion of others to sway her from doing what she knew needed to be done? Finding Allie’s body had been the breaking point. She’d taken this job with the FBI to help locate these girls, not bring them home in body bags. She’d delved into cases that matched Allie’s, searching for patterns, and when her supervisors had insisted she move on to other cases, Elise had taken a leave of absence to follow her gut. Maybe she was committing professional suicide. And maybe, as Lin believed, she would turn up nothing, but she had to try. She owed it to the Allie Petersons of the world.

  But this case was different. Now she owed more than a missing girl. She owed Max’s family.

  Josh’s belief in her meant the world, but she couldn’t deny his determination was likely misplaced. In all probability, they wouldn’t find Candace in time and Elise would have to watch this family suffer another loss.

  She picked up the letter and examined it again. Armed with the contents of such a note, she’d usually interview the parents of the missing girl as a first step, but she’d promised Josh she would wait.

  She hated waiting and she was too keyed up to sleep. What had possessed her to agree to his request? She didn’t have to wonder. She knew why. Like many of the parents who received these notes, Elise had been paralyzed by guilt—the guilt of confronting the woman whose husband she was responsible for taking away. Plus, it was difficult to argue with a man who was practically holding you up. And the blue of his eyes hadn’t helped, either.

  She rubbed a spot on her temple where a drum line seemed to be playing. Why was she letting this man affect her so? It had to be the concussion impacting her judgment. That mixed with the crazy traumatic shock of discovering she was investigating the disappearance of the daughter of the man who’d saved her life.

  But she couldn’t allow guilt to rule over her life. She had an investigation to perform and her first step was the first step. There was no way around it, and she didn’t need Josh Adams to oversee her interview with Candace’s mother. In fact, it was better that he wasn’t there.

  She made her way outside to her SUV and climbed in.

  No one told Elise Richardson how to conduct her investigation...not even Josh Adams.

  She punched the home address from Candace’s file into her GPS and started the car.

  Minutes later, despite several moments of light-headedness when she’d nearly driven off the road, Elise arrived at the home of Patti and Candace Adams. She parked her car at the curb and stared at the single-story house. The blue shuttered windows and flower-lined sidewalk broke her heart into a million pieces. Was this the same house where Max had lived? Or had this home been purchased after his death? Whichever, his widow had raised their daughter alone in this house, and that was Elise’s fault.

  She had to face this if she hoped to get anywhere on this case. Her personal life and professional life were at a crossroads, intersecting at the worst possible point. She couldn’t rule out Candace as a victim of the human trafficking ring without gathering the details she needed, and gathering those details meant interviewing the victim’s mother.

  She jammed the SUV into Park and got out, facing the house. She smoothed her jacket and braced herself for the meeting, pushing past a rush of dizziness along with the knot in her stomach. She could do this. She had to do this.

  Patti Adams—a petite woman with short dark hair and brown eyes made red from crying—answered the door, and Elise introduced herself.

  “Josh told me the FBI was in town,” Patti said. “Please come inside.”

  Elise stepped into the small but open living area. A decorated Christmas tree stood in the corner, and on the mantel sat a photograph of Max holding a baby that had to be Candace. He was notably absent from more recent photographs and no one had to tell Elise why.

  “Thank you for coming,” Patti stated, inviting Elise to sit. “I thought everyone had given up on looking for Candace.”

  There were a thousand questions that ran through her mind. She wanted to thank this woman for the sacrifice her husband—her family—had made for her all those years ago. But she could see the lack of recognition on her face. Josh had told her the FBI was in town, but he hadn’t told her yet who the FBI agent was.

  She couldn’t be sure if she was relieved or disappointed.

  She pulled out her notebook and turned her attention to the matter at hand. “When was the last time you saw her?”

  “The day she vanished. We’d stayed up the night before decorating the Christmas tree. We got into an argument and the next morning she said she was going to walk to school instead of riding with me. I know she made it to school, but she never came home.” Patti took a deep breath, choking back sobs. “I can’t believe the last words I may have spoken to my daughter were angry words.” Tears pooled in her eyes. “Excuse me.” Patti jumped up and disappeared down the hallway.

  Elise glanced at the photos layered around the house. The frames missing a father screamed at her to look at them, to see what her actions had caused, a family missing their husband, father and brother.

  She glanced up at the photo on the mantel then stood to get a closer look. The only picture she had of Max was a cutout from the newspaper account of the story. In her mind, his face was grainy and unclear, but this photograph, taken with his daughter on her fifth birthday, was cle
ar, like the one at the police station. She could see the bright blue of his eyes, the dark color of his hair. The glint of happiness in his face. He’d had no idea his life would change so dramatically only a few months later.

  “That’s my late husband.” Patti spoke from behind her. “Candace’s father. He died not long after that photograph was taken.” She picked up the picture and ran her finger over the lines of his face.

  “His eyes remind me of Josh’s.”

  “They’re a family trait. Candace has them, too. Bright blue.” She handed Elise a photograph of Candace, an awkward-looking redhead with braces and those same blue eyes her uncle and father possessed.

  “How did he die?” That question slipped out, but she didn’t take it back, knowing it would help her to examine what she saw in Patty’s face when she answered.

  “He died a hero.” Patti replaced the photograph. “He was taking night classes. He wanted to finish his degree because he said it would help him provide for his family. The police said he saw a girl being abducted and stepped in to help her. The attacker shot him.”

  Elise shuddered against the roar of emotions Patti’s story brought up. She shook it off. She needed to get away from all these memories and focus on the missing girl. “What did you and your daughter fight about?”

  “You have to understand my husband died many years ago. It never crossed my mind that I might ever want that again with someone else.”

  Elise breathed in. “You fell in love.”

  “No, nothing like that...at least, not yet. I mean, we’re not in love. I don’t think we are.” She shook her head to clear it. “It’s much too early for that, but I had met someone. Candace was not happy with the idea of me dating again. After all, it’s been she and I for as long as she can remember. This was all just so unexpected. I mean, I’ve known him forever. I can’t even explain when something changed between us, but it’s exciting. For the first time in a long time, I found myself smiling and wearing mascara again.”

  Elise was grateful to hear Patti was once again finding love. She was also more than a little relieved. If Patti was moving on, it helped Elise’s case when Patti learned the truth about her.