“He’s at Josh’s house. He should be here in a few minutes.”
“Good, we can’t let Tyler see him leave with evidence.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got you covered.”
I nodded and continued to look around the place. The destruction was enough to drown me. I wasn’t sure I was really looking at things clearly. The fact was, Carter was right. I needed someone else to come in here and process the scene.
“I can’t focus,” I muttered, squeezing my eyes shut. “I can’t see anything but Christy hurt somewhere.”
“Somewhere,” Carter said, gazing off in the distance. “That’s what we need.” He snapped his fingers and waved for me to follow him. “Forget the crime scene. We’re not going to find anything in here right this minute. However, your neighbors have their cameras set right to this house.”
I pulled out my phone and called Andrew, knowing he was already on the way. “It’s Jack. Meet us across the street at the Relish’s house.”
“For what? What’s going on?”
“I need your skills. Hurry.”
“Alright. I’m almost there.”
Rushing across the street, we banged on their door. Carter already had his badge out when the door swung open. “Mrs. Relish, we need to see your camera footage from earlier this evening.”
“Is everything alright?”
“No,” I stepped in. “Someone broke into Christy’s house and now she’s missing.”
“Oh, please come in.”
She stepped aside, shutting the door after we were inside. She rushed over to the office, Carter following, obviously knowing where to go since he’d watched from over here earlier this month.
“Let me pull it up for you.”
She quickly got to work and then stood, pushing the seat to me as she stepped back. I scrolled back through the footage, looking for anything that might be of note.
The doorbell rang and Mrs. Relish ran off to get it. A minute later, Andrew walked through the door, a frown on his face. “What’s going on?”
“Someone broke into the house and took Christy. We need to find out anything we can from this footage.”
Carter cleared his throat, turning to Mrs. Relish. “Could you grab us some water?”
“Of course.”
She turned and hustled out of the room. Carter handed over the badge to him. “We found this inside, but we don’t know what it is. Can you find out what it belongs to?”
Andrew nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.” He jerked his head at the screen. “Any luck with the footage?”
“Nothing yet,” I muttered, still scanning.
“There,” Carter pointed at the screen. “Right there. Go back.”
I rewound the video, watching as a man literally walked right into the garage after the door opened. No one else was around, so how the hell did he get the door open? I let it play out, checking the time stamp. “This is about ten minutes before Christy got home.”
“She called us right after we got called out,” he added.
“Right, on a call that was bogus. What are the chances it’s related?”
“Fuck, he used us as a distraction,” Carter muttered.
“Because there are only two of us. He knew that if the call was at night, both of us would go out. He fucking played us.”
I fast-forwarded to the part where Christy pulled in. We couldn’t see anything in the garage, and when the door shut, there was nothing more to see. I watched all the windows, thinking I could get something from movement inside the house, but nothing was clear until Christy’s vehicle pulled out again.
“He’s heading into town. That doesn’t tell us anything.”
I zoomed in to try and get a visual on his face, but it was too dark to see anything.
“Let me take this back and look at it with my equipment. I’ll see what I can find,” Andrew said.
“Thanks.” I stood, shaking my head in frustration. I had all these clues, yet nothing pointed to anything. I called my contact at the Chicago Police Department. Now that we had a little more to go on, I needed to check on the status of the ex-boyfriend.
37
Wood
I parked the car on the country road far out of town. It didn’t seem like many people took this road, so it was the perfect place to put my plan into effect. Locking the doors, I shut the driver’s side and ran across the field to where my own vehicle was parked. I could almost see the sheriff’s face as he ran into the house.
I had been watching them for weeks. Little did they know their lives were about to be turned upside down, just as mine had been. I wouldn’t have done anything like this, but she forced my hand the minute she got involved in my family issues. I was the man of the house, and it was my job to keep them in line. And just as she got involved in my life, I got involved in hers. Originally, my plan was to get to her through the kid, but I couldn’t see a good time to grab him.
I even planned to take him in the night, but after getting into the house several times and studying the cameras inside the house, I knew it wouldn’t be easy. Not to mention, I’d overheard several conversations the dad had with the kid about gun safety.
I had intended to shut off the cameras tonight, but the bitch had solved that problem for me when she attacked the security system. They couldn’t get anyone out there for another week to fix it, which was why my plan had to go into effect immediately.
Getting into my car, I pulled out my black box and set it on my lap, grinning like a fool. I had this specially made for tonight. Taking the detonator in my hand, I flicked the safety off and slowly looked up at the vehicle in the distance. Grinning, I depressed the button and watched in awe as the car burst into flames.
I wanted to stay and watch the aftereffects, but I knew it was too dangerous to stick around. Putting the car in drive, I left my hiding spot and headed on to my next destination. Now that it was over, I could finally move on with life and forget that Ms. Price ever existed. She was dead to me now.
38
Jack
I paced outside Christy’s house. Tyler’s team was inside, bagging evidence and searching for clues. I had removed myself from the scene, unable to stare at the destruction anymore.
“We’ll find her, Jack.”
“Will we?” I asked, my head snapping up to meet his gaze. “Because from where I’m standing, they can’t find jack shit to tell us where she is. It’s gotta be the ex,” I muttered.
“Chicago P.D. says he’s still at home. They have a cruiser outside his house. It’s not him, Jack.”
“It’s him. I don’t know how, but it has to be.”
“Let’s just wait to see what Andrew says. He’s working on the footage and the badge,” he said, lowering his voice. “He’ll find something.”
“But will it be too late by then?” I asked, running a hand through my hair.
I was a fucking wreck. I couldn’t stand still, I couldn’t focus on anything, and my thoughts kept drifting to Brody, wondering how he would hold up if we lost Christy.
“She promised him,” I said quietly.
“What?”
“She promised Brody…She had a migraine and he was worried about her. He thought she was going to die like his mom. And she promised him she wasn’t going to die, that she wouldn’t leave him. She’d better not break that fucking promise,” I said through gritted teeth.
He placed his hand on my shoulder, squeezing slightly. The door on Christy’s house flew open and Tyler came running out.
“We just got a call from dispatch. There’s a vehicle on fire out by the old campground.”
I raced to Carter’s squad car, getting in the passenger side. Carter flipped on the lights and peeled out down the road. My heart thundered in my chest. It couldn’t be a coincidence, but was the car on fire because someone was getting rid of evidence or was it for another reason?
As we flew down the country roads, the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach grew. Tears pricked my ey
es when I saw the flames glowing in the distance. It was burning hot. We got as close as we could, beating the fire department out here since they were further away. As Carter slowed, I jumped out of the car and ran toward the flames.
I was close enough to make out the plate in the flames. It was her car. “Christy!” I ran to the driver’s side, praying that I didn’t see her inside. It was empty as far as I could tell, but I couldn’t get close enough to see inside. Panic hit hard. The flames were burning too hot for anyone to survive. If she was in there, she was already dead. I ran my hands through my hair, falling to my knees as the first threads of despair leached into my body. I took a gasping breath, trying not to think about her in there, being burned alive.
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the images in front of me, but it was too much. I cried out into the night, hating that this was happening again. First Natalie and now Christy. It couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t lose Christy. She was everything to me. I promised her I’d never leave her, but I hadn’t protected her when she needed it. I’d let her down, just like Natalie.
The fire truck pulled up, parking as close as possible. I recognized Shane as he passed, his eyes meeting mine solemnly for just a moment before he got to work hooking up the hose. The foam hit the vehicle and was out moments later. I was on my feet, rushing toward the car, but Shane held me back.
“Just hold on. We have to disconnect the battery before you go anywhere near the car.”
I gritted my teeth. I just needed to see inside. It seemed like it took forever. I understood they needed to be careful, but it was taking too long. Shane held up his hand as he walked around the vehicle, warning me to stay back.
“Come on,” I muttered. “Hurry the fuck up.”
He finally looked up at me. “The inside’s clear.”
I swallowed hard, my eyes flicking to the back of the car. “We need to check the trunk.”
He nodded and had one of the guys open the back. With a poker, he moved things around, but then turned to me and shook his head. “Nothing.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, my knees almost giving out. “She’s not in there.”
“Which means he most likely still has her. We need to track him down,” Carter said, pulling out his phone. “Andrew, tell me you have something.” I waited impatiently as he listened to what Andrew had to say. “Alright, we’ll be right there.”
“Let’s get to Andrew’s house,” he whispered. “Tyler can handle Christy’s house.”
I nodded and got back in the car as Carter quickly spoke with Tyler. When he got back in the car, we headed back the way we came, then headed out to Andrew’s house.
“What did you tell him?”
“I said we were following up on some leads at the office, and asked him to finish processing the crime scene.”
“That should buy us some time.” I fidgeted as I tried to clear my head. I needed to think, but every time I went over what we knew, I thought of the blood in the kitchen.
“Talk it through with me,” Carter said, drawing me out of my thoughts.
I took a deep breath and nodded. “This isn’t a random break-in. The guy somehow got into the garage, suggesting he had been planning this. On top of that, he took her vehicle and lit it on fire.”
“Why the car fire if she wasn’t in there?” Carter asked.
“He wanted to get rid of evidence,” I said, thinking that was pretty obvious.
“Or he wanted to throw us off. He’s playing with us.”
“To what end?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“It’s gotta be the ex,” I murmured. “Who else would do something like this?”
“Then he hired someone, since he’s still in Chicago,” Carter suggested.
“But the ex was obsessed with her. I don’t think he’d hurt her. We need to find out where he would take her.”
I was itching for answers as we pulled down Andrew’s driveway. Now that I had a direction to go in, I could get Andrew working on it. The fact was, if I worked through legal channels, everything would take way too long. Andrew was still a hacker, and a damn good one. I knew he could get me the answers I needed much faster than if I relied on the police department.
Banging on the door, it swung open quickly. Lorelei stood there, her face instantly falling when she saw me. “Come in. Andrew’s working in his office.”
She pointed through the living room to the back of the house.
“Did you find anything?” I asked as I walked in.
He held up the badge. “Yeah, I’ve got a lead on this.”
“I need you to search for any ties to a Thomas Mann.”
“Who’s he?”
“Her ex-boyfriend.”
“Is he by chance an engineer of some kind?”
“No, a lawyer. Why?”
Andrew shook his head. “This badge is from a manufacturing facility out of Chicago.”
“Then check for anyone associated with him. He must have hired someone.”
Carter’s phone rang and he stepped into the other room to answer. Andrew’s fingers flew across the keyboard as he cross-referenced any connection between Thomas and this factory.
“I’m not getting anything. There’s literally no connection between them. He’s never worked on a lawsuit or done any legal paperwork for this company.”
“What about their locations? Is it possible they’ve met somewhere? Two strangers crossing paths?”
“Anything’s possible, but they’re on opposite sides of the city. I can dig into both their lives, but it’s going to take some time.”
“Fuck,” I swore. Time wasn’t on my side.
Carter walked back into the room. “Tyler just called. They found Christy’s DCFS card on the floor of the kitchen. It had a bloody print on it.”
“That could have been her blood,” I said, not quite sure where this was going.
“He said it appears someone left it for her in an envelope on the counter.”
“But that would mean…” My eyes widened as it suddenly clicked. “Andrew, can you hack into her old case files? We’re looking for someone that she worked a case with, that could also be connected to the factory.”
He snorted. “Of course I can. This is what I do.”
He got to work as I paced behind him. I had been so focused on the ex that I hadn’t considered this could be related to her old job.
“Got it,” Andrew announced. “She was working a case not too long ago. The father worked at the factory.”
“Worked?”
“It looks like he was fired as of three weeks ago. His file says he stopped showing up for work.”
I leaned on the desk, scanning through the file. “Any picture of him?”
He scrolled to the top, showing the employee picture. He did another search, pulling up all the information he could on the father.
“He used to be a hardware engineer. It looks like he had a pretty good job up until five years ago. He was fired for showing up to work drunk several times. Since then, he’s been working the night shift at the factory.”
“What does the DCFS file say?” I asked.
He brought up the case file on a second screen. I read through it, taking a step back when I read the outcome of the case. “The mother and son were found murdered in their home, found by DCFS worker Christy Price. Fuck.” I ran my hand down my face, feeling like a massive idiot for not checking into this after she told me what happened. “That was her last case. That was why she moved back here. I didn’t think…”
“Why would you?” Carter asked. “How the fuck did he even find her?”
“She said she gave her card to the son. He must have found it.”
“Yeah, but DCFS wouldn’t have handed over her forwarding address to him.”
“He’s a hardware engineer,” Andrew supplied. “This guy obviously knows his way around computers. He could have hacked the system.”
“If he’s a hardware engin
eer, does that mean he would know how to reprogram a garage door opener?”
Andrew nodded. “She has a security system, right?”
“Yeah, it covers everything from doors to windows,” I answered.
“The garage would have been tied into the security system. He could have had access to the whole house,” Andrew confirmed.
I rubbed my hand over my eyes, irritated that I hadn’t noticed anything being tampered with. “Fuck, I practically let this guy into our home.”
“Alright,” Carter nodded. “This is good. We know who he is now. We can search for him.”
“Only if she’s with him,” I clarified. “If she’s…” I couldn’t acknowledge that she might be dead. I had to keep thinking that she was alive. “Logically speaking, he’ll keep her alive. If he wanted her dead right away, he would have killed her at the house.”
“The car was a distraction,” Carter added. “He wouldn’t be worried about evidence after the way he left the house.”
“But that also means the clock’s ticking. We have no idea what plans he has for her. We need to find him now.”
“Can’t you just put a BOLO out on this guy?” Andrew asked as he continued to research.
“Technically, we stole that evidence from the crime scene. So, legally we have no connection to him,” I answered.
“He rented a car two weeks ago.”
I leaned over Andrew’s shoulder. “Rental places use GPS tracking now.”
“Yeah, but our guy disabled it,” he said, still typing away, “but he didn’t get the Lojack,” he grinned, turning to face me. “We have him.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, some good news. “Where is he?”
“A no-tell motel, about a half hour away.”
“He didn’t go far,” I said thoughtfully.
“I’m pulling up the footage now,” Andrew said under his breath. “The camera angle sucks…There, that’s the car,” he pointed at the screen. We watched as Spencer Woods got out of his car and headed into the office.
Four Horsemen: A Small Town Romance (A Good Run Of Bad Luck Book 5) Page 30