“It might not be the store but the shopping center. Now that we have video feed from the billboard, we’ll need to go through it and follow Mrs. Rand’s footsteps there a couple of days ago.”
“That would be good to do tonight after we see the owner.”
“And eat dinner. We forgot about lunch.” Dallas grinned. “And I have the perfect place.”
“Oh, where?”
“It’s a surprise. I’ll drive after we see Steve Tucker.”
“Only if you promise me that I’m dressed appropriately for this mysterious eatery.”
He chuckled. “Of course. Seeing as we’re both dressed in our uniforms.” Feeling the urge to make their lives a little bit normal under the circumstances, he decided to take her to his favorite restaurant as...what? Partners? Friends? Or more? In three years, he hadn’t been interested in dating, but what he saw in Rachel made him want to rethink his decision to go it alone.
Ten minutes later, Rachel pulled up to the curb in an upper-middle-class subdivision in San Antonio. “Nice place. I didn’t realize Mr. Tucker was doing so well.”
“Interesting, probably close to five thousand square feet. I’ve had Taylor at headquarters running some background information on him. We should have it by tomorrow.”
As they approached the Tuckers’ house, which had lights blazing from it, she paused at the bottom of the porch steps. “Since this isn’t my county, you should take the lead. I’ll sit back and watch his micro-expressions. A baby store would be a good place to search for the perfect matches if you were going shopping for a child.”
“May we have a word with you, Mr. Tucker?” Dallas asked when the store owner opened the front door.
Steve Tucker’s eyes widened as he looked from Dallas to Rachel. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s been another kidnapping that has a similar MO to the one in Cimarron Trail.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“Mrs. Rand visited your store two days ago. Your shop is the common denominator with the two abductions. You told us you delete your footage after two days. Since Mrs. Rand was there on Monday afternoon, you should still have it. We need to look at it. Tonight.”
Tucker’s face blanched. “Sure. Anything to help Mrs. Rand. Let me get my car keys.”
“That’s all right. We’ll drive you.” Dallas didn’t want any reason to think that the store owner would call someone to get rid of the tapes. Tucker couldn’t be ruled out as part of this baby ring.
“Okay. I need to tell my family where I’m going.”
As Dallas followed the man to his den, Tucker glanced over his shoulder twice but didn’t say anything. He kissed his wife’s cheek and said something to her that Dallas couldn’t hear. He stepped farther into the room.
Tucker straightened, his shoulders stiff. “Let’s go.” In the hallway, he turned toward Dallas. “My store had nothing to do with these kidnappings. I started my store to offer lower prices than other places because I wanted to support families with children.”
“Something on your security tapes might help us figure out this case. We don’t have time to wait until tomorrow morning to see what that is. Two babies’ lives are at stake. Two sets of parents are worried about their children. If you aren’t involved, you have nothing to be concerned about.”
“It was a good thing you came now because the system will automatically tape over the previous recording tomorrow morning when it starts up right before the store opens.”
Dallas climbed behind the steering wheel while Rachel sat in the backseat next to Tucker. The trip to the store only took twelve minutes. Dallas hoped this would give them the clue to break the case wide open. He parked in the back of the shop. When he switched off his engine and the headlights went out, the surroundings were pitch black.
Dallas leaned over to retrieve his flashlight from the glove compartment. “You don’t have a security light out here?”
“Yes. It comes on automatically when it gets dark. It must have gone out.”
Dallas opened the door. He didn’t like this. “Y’all wait here. I’ll check the store out first. Do you have a security system?”
“Yes. My code is 2975. One of the pads is inside the back door and another at the front entrance.”
Dallas strode to the rear of the store, inserted the key and turned the knob. He eased the door open, flipped on the lights and entered the code on the security pad. Then he stepped around a stack of boxes nearby and crept toward Tucker’s office where he turned on another switch. Light flooded the room. On the desk sat a computer, and on the counter to the left was a small TV. Everything seemed to be in place, but before bringing Tucker inside, he quickly made a sweep of the whole store.
Maybe the security light had gone out on its own. Maybe not. Dallas quickly returned to the cruiser. Rachel and the store owner walked with him back into the building. Tucker paused by the stack of boxes and frowned.
“What’s wrong?” Rachel asked.
“These weren’t there when I left. Did you move them?” Tucker looked at Dallas.
“No, I walked around them. Where were they originally?”
The store owner slid the three boxes a foot closer to the door. “I put them right by the back, so when I come inside tomorrow morning, I immediately put them in the trash out back or I’ll forget to throw them away.”
“Who else uses this door?” Dallas walked to the office.
“Delivery people throughout the day, but my employees come and go using the front entrance. Our space in the rear is limited, and I’d rather my deliveries come through the back so we need to leave some space for them to park.” Tucker shrugged and followed. “I guess I forgot to pull the boxes closer to the door when I left. This week hasn’t exactly been a normal one ever since you came to visit on Tuesday.”
“Let’s make this quick. The sheriff and I still have things we need to do.”
Tucker crossed to the cabinet below the small TV, opened the two doors, turned on the television and then punched a button on a VCR. Nothing happened. He tried to eject the tape, then looked over his shoulder at Dallas. “The tape should have been in the machine. I took yesterday and today’s tape out and put in my older one with Monday and Saturday footage on it so when the VCR started recording tomorrow it would be ready to go. I don’t know what happened. I only use two tapes. I’ve never been robbed. My alarm system has been good in keeping burglars away.”
“Let’s play the other one.” Dallas squatted in front of the cabinet and searched for the second tape while Rachel walked around the office, checking for any place that might conceal a VCR tape.
“I’ll take fingerprints off the VCR and TV as well as the front and back doors and the security pads nearby. I’ll get my kit.” Rachel left.
Tucker shot to his feet and spun around, looking frantically everywhere. “Someone must have been in here. Was the alarm on?”
“Yes. Who knows the code and has a key to the store?”
“Jan Thomas and Betty Biden both have a key. If I can’t open Baby and Things for some reason, one of them will. I give them the code, then change it after they’ve used it.”
“So having the key but no code wouldn’t allow them to get in without the alarm going off?”
“Right. And I change my code once a week whether I’ve had one of them open for me or not.”
Could one of the ladies have gotten the code without Tucker knowing or was something else going on here? “How long have they worked for you?”
“Betty was one of my first employees fifteen years ago. Jan has been with the store for five years. Neither one would have done this.”
“Are they working tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll be here before you open in the morning. Let’s walk around and make sure the tape is the only item taken.”
&n
bsp; As Dallas followed the store owner onto the main floor, Rachel wrapped up taking prints from the front door. She looked at him with a tired expression. He’d been in one wreck, but Rachel had been attacked several times. All he wanted to do was hold her and protect her. If he suggested she back away from the investigation and let him continue, he was sure she would refuse. Short of being in a hospital bed, Rachel would stay on this case until the kidnappers were caught. No matter what.
* * *
Rachel sat at a table for two in Cimarron Trail Café across from Dallas. “Something doesn’t feel right about Baby and Things,” she said. “I feel like when we get near a clue that might break this case open, something odd happens, like the VCR tape has been taken.”
“Yeah, and according to Tucker, not by him. So, who?” Dallas ran his hand over his jaw. “We’ll need to take every employee’s fingerprints tomorrow to be able to rule them out, then we’ll see who is left.”
“I think it’s someone in that store. Mr. Tucker has an old surveillance system, but customers wouldn’t know that from looking at his cameras in Baby and Things.”
Dallas finished his last sip of coffee. “Taking the prints from the employees and matching them with the ones you took from the equipment, we can rule out the possibility someone came in from the outside and took the tape. Then we really dig into their lives.”
“Of course! I should have thought of that. In my defense, I’m a little exhausted after being attacked for the past three days.”
He chuckled. “You and me both.”
Rachel’s cell phone rang. She quickly answered the call from headquarters. “Sheriff Young.”
“This is Deputy Jones. There was a match of the boot prints at the crime scene today. The dead man was one of the kidnappers. The same boot print, down to the sole being worn on the inside, was one of them on the dirt road.”
“Any results from the dead man’s prints?”
“So far not in the system, but we do have a picture of the male kidnapper.”
She’d hoped he could be identified by his fingerprints, but they still had their best lead now that they could put the dead man at Lenora Howard’s and at the grove near the lake. “I want it released to the media. Someone might recognize him, which could lead us to the woman kidnapper.”
When she ended the call, she couldn’t contain the smile that spread across her face as she told Dallas what Deputy Jones had said.
“Now all we need is someone to come forward to ID if not him, then the woman. I’ll be praying for that.”
“Me, too.” When she said it, she realized she meant it. She hadn’t prayed in over a year. It was high time she did.
“But identifying the kidnappers is only the beginning. This ring obviously has multiple people involved. We need to get a search warrant for Baby and Things just in case Tucker refuses to let us investigate his store tomorrow. I’ll work on the warrant and get it before a judge first thing in the morning. Then we’ll return to Baby and Things.” Dallas covered her hand with his. “You know, we’re a good team, you and I. And I just know that the answer is at that shopping center.”
The touch of his palm on her skin warmed her from the inside out. Spending forty-five minutes eating dinner with Dallas in the middle of all the chaos had given her a chance to catch her breath and work her way through the information they had gathered. But mostly she felt valued and knew in the end she was the right person for the job of sheriff, despite Marvin’s disparaging remarks since the first kidnapping.
“I’ve appreciated your help on this case, especially since it’s crossed county lines.”
Dallas cocked a grin. “I would have helped, even if you hadn’t asked me, but don’t tell my boss that. Officially I’m on vacation after such a long, intensive case.”
“I understand. When someone close to you is attacked, neither one of us is the type to be standing on the sidelines watching others try to figure out what’s happening.”
His dark brown eyes softened, capturing her full attention. “I feel like I’ve known you for months rather than days.”
She smiled. “We’re a lot alike. I had partners in Austin, but you’re the first that has made me feel comfortable from the beginning. Although we were partners for years, my first one was male and made it clear from the beginning he didn’t want a female partner. After months of getting used to each other, we finally had a good relationship. I often ended up questioning a suspect while he put together the clues to take the case to another level. I learned a lot from him and he from me.”
“That’s a good partnership—respecting each other and working together rather than against each other.”
“I’ve been in law enforcement for eleven years and still have a lot to learn.”
“I’m always learning, and I’ve been in this field fifteen years.”
In that moment, with his hand still cupping hers, a bond between them strengthened. Justin never really had accepted that she wanted to be in law enforcement as a career.
The waitress approached and laid the bill on the table by Dallas, severing their connection.
She reached for the check, but he snatched it up before her. She scowled. “You’re helping me on your vacation. The least I can do is pay for dinner.”
“Nope. It was my suggestion to come here. The food is great, and the atmosphere is calming in here. After the day we had, calm is good.” Dallas removed money from his wallet and put it on top of the check. “We’d better go. We need to work on the warrant.”
“And get some rest, somehow. One of my father’s best pieces of advice when I won the election was not to work so hard that I can’t be effective. Rest is important in keeping your mind sharp.”
“Good advice. I don’t always follow it, but I try to.”
“The same, but don’t tell Dad.” Rachel rose and started for the exit.
While she drove to Safe Haven Ranch, she listened to Dallas talk on his cell phone to Texas Ranger Taylor Blackburn at the San Antonio office. Their conversation had to do with the surveillance of Chesterfield Shopping Center from the billboard camera. She hoped there was something that would help them on the footage, and by Dallas’s tone of voice, there was.
When he finished, he looked at her, and she caught sight of his grin in the glow of a car’s headlights passing them going the opposite way. “A dark compact car came into the parking lot thirty minutes before we arrived at Baby and Things. The person parked at the far end and walked toward the store. He was dressed in black. The one good look from the angle of the camera indicated the guy was wearing a black ski mask. Under the awning the video feed lost sight of the man at the drugstore. There are three shops in a row we can’t see the front door. But the guy in the ski mask had to have gone into one of them.”
“So, we don’t know for sure if he went into a place or even which one? I wish the camera could have picked up the area in front of Baby and Things.”
“I do, too, but in order to remain hidden and still see the whole parking lot and both sides of the shopping center, it had to be mounted where it was. The good news is that the camera caught the license plate number of the car. It’s being tracked down. Taylor will let me know when he finds the owner and vehicle.”
Rachel turned onto the gravel road leading to her parents’ house. “The tire tracks behind your sister’s home were from a compact car. It could be the same.”
“That was what I was thinking. And remember, a man wearing a ski mask blacked out the lens on the outside surveillance cameras for Baby and Things and the drugstore. What if the guy went into the store and wiped the tape clean after Lenora visited the shop on Friday?”
“But tonight the tape was missing.”
“Maybe the person didn’t have the time to erase the tape so he just took it. He knows we’re closing in on him.” Dallas called Tucker to check as Rachel parked in front of t
he house.
When Dallas disconnected, he opened the passenger door. “Tucker said he changed out the tapes on Saturday night before he left, and on Monday the one he put in the VCR was still there, but he never checked to see if it had been erased.”
As Dallas climbed from the cruiser, Rachel did, too, and joined him as they headed to the house. “We must be making them nervous. He didn’t want to stick around and erase the tape. Instead he took the whole thing, knowing that would call attention to the store. The ring may be moving on.”
“Or they are using another way to target a baby with the attributes they want. I have to admit the baby store is a good way to see a lot of children. I’ll call Taylor back and have him check with the other locations where there were kidnappings and see if a baby store could have been involved in those cases.”
While Dallas remained on the porch, Rachel went into the house. She needed to hold her daughter. She found her family and Michelle in the den. Michelle was playing with Katie on the floor. When her daughter saw Rachel, Katie pulled herself up and toddled toward her mother with a big smile on her face. Rachel swept her up into her arms. She didn’t want to let her daughter go.
“I see Hurricane Katie destroyed your block tower,” Rachel said to Michelle. “She loves to do that.”
The teen continued to stack blocks on top of one another. “Where’s Dad?”
“On the porch talking on his phone.”
Michelle hopped to her feet. “I’ll be back in a sec,” she said.
As Michelle left the room, Katie reached out, opening and closing her hand. “Mimi. Mimi.”
“She’ll be right back, sweet pea.” Rachel carried Katie to the couch and sat next to her mother. Her dad was in the lounge chair across from them. “How did the ride go today?”
Her father smiled. “She’s a natural. I see her riding by herself in a few years. Like you, Rachel.”
“How’s Michelle doing? Has she talked any more about the attack?”
Her mom shook her head. “She’s a natural with Katie. Keeping Michelle busy with her has been good for both of them.”
Texas Baby Pursuit Page 11