The Madison Jennings Series Box Set

by Kiara Ashanti

  “No. There is a limit on how many you can do at a time, so I used the ones from the last day and a half.”

  “OK, I’ll look at them and compare them to what I looked at today. I gotta go.”

  Maddie hung up the phone, placed it back into her pocket, then stripped off her clothes and jumped into the shower. She did not need one, but she could not walk out of the bathroom dry and in the same clothes.

  She turned up the heat and let the shower stream hit the back of her neck. The piercing water felt good as it loosened the muscles she had strained from looking down at her phone screen. Multiple chirps sounded off from her phone, indicating several incoming texts. A long night of picture examination loomed ahead of her.

  After her shower, Maddie headed to the kitchen to grab a snack. She was not hungry, but she needed to keep up appearances. Afterward, she ascended the stairs but stopped halfway. “Dad, I’m gonna be stretching in my undies in my room. Make sure you knock first if you need me.”

  “Ugh. I don’t want to hear that. Just lock the door.”

  Maddie giggled and made her way to her room. Her undies excuse had done the trick. Confident that she would not be disturbed, she closed her door, locked it, and hopped on the bed.

  Tommy had sent fifty pictures. She started scrolling through them again, this time to look for people who matched the people in the pictures Tommy had previously sent. She matched a few of them, but nothing in the photographs stuck out.

  Then she saw it.

  A youngish olive-skinned man in the picture she was looking at now was also in some other pictures. By itself, this meant nothing. But in a snapshot taken that morning, that same man was dressed in a park-cleaning uniform placing a “closed” or “repairs” sign in front of one of the restrooms.

  The only other person with a parks uniform had been an older white male, and he was seen multiple times working the park. The man she was looking at now had not been in any of the other shots with a uniform. Not once.

  Maddie looked at the location, then brought up a map on her phone. It took her awhile to find the area she was looking for, but when she did, she smiled grimly. The restrooms there were in front of a patch of trees. A small pathway several feet from the trees extended all the way out to a back road. If you grabbed someone there, you could carry them through the woods to a car or van without anyone being the wiser.

  Gotcha. It was time to put part two of her plan together—the one she had not told Tommy and Aden about.

  Chapter Seventy-Four

  Morning came too slow. Maddie had no objective reason to believe it, but she felt the end was near. She had cracked the case, though the men and women charged to do that were not even on it. They had their own agendas and concerns separate from the lives of a few missing girls. Some of those concerns might even be legitimate. Maddie did not care.

  She would resolve this herself.

  She rose from her bed and gathered her things. Into the bottom of the duffle bag went her camo hunting clothes, empty camo backpack, and Realtree hunting boots. She reached under her bed to pull out a medium-sized, self-cocking pistol-styled crossbow. She had won it a few years ago and rarely used it. Her parents had forgotten all about it. Thus, it had missed being swept up into her mother’s hunting equipment ban as a punishment for getting into fights.

  She reached back under the bed and pulled out a small case. Inside were fifteen crossbow bolts, five of which had orange vanes. She grabbed the orange-vanned bolts, then slid the case back under the bed.

  If Maddie did run into someone, she might need something to protect herself. A gun was out of the question since all of her pistols were locked away in the gun safe. The crossbow was not optimum, but at eighty pounds in draw pull, it was not a simple toy. She had even taken a few rabbits and squirrels with it when she first won it. As long as she had a few seconds to load, it would be a good deterrent. She wrapped the bow and vanes into a towel, then placed them at the bottom of the bag. Next, she placed her cheerleading outfit and gear into the bag and double-checked to make sure it concealed her camo hunting clothes. Satisfied, she dressed in her 5.11 pants, a baggy shirt, and light jacket before leaving her room.

  The ride to school was another silent affair. Her father was the driver this morning and had tried to engage her in conversation and a couple of jokes. Maddie simply grunted. She was focused on the task she had set for herself. Idle talk may have been a good cover for appearing as if everything were normal, but she had no desire for the ruse. So, she said nothing until they neared the school.

  “Dad, drop me off in back, please. I don’t feel like lugging my squad clothes through school to put them in my gym locker.”

  “Can’t you just put them in your normal locker?”

  Maddie glanced pointedly at her duffle bag in the backseat. “Dad, even my backpack barely fits in that thing.”

  Shrugging, he drove past the main entrance, swung around the street block, and drove up to the back entrance adjacent to the gym and football stadium. A few players were milling around, which suited Maddie perfectly. It made it appear as a place the students involved in sports activities entered on a regular basis.

  The reason she gave her dad was, of course, a lie. As soon as she was sure he would not return for some ungodly parental reason, she started walking away from the school. The teachers’ entrance was in another part of the building, so she was not worried about running into one and getting a dozen questions. She walked a half mile down to a shopping center and headed to the back of it. She sat down and waited for the rideshare car she had ordered.

  Ten minutes later, she was on her way.

  Maddie had the driver drop her off a mile away from the park. Her plan had been to change in the store, then head into the woods that abutted the back of the station. But there were too many customers, and the ringing bell that sounded off the moment an employee entered from the back entrance meant she could not slip out that way. She did not want people staring at the young girl in camo, so she elected to just enter the woods first and change there.

  She walked around back, delighted to see a porta potty set up for workers who were doing some construction repairs. None of them had arrived yet, so she took advantage by slipping into one and locking the door. The model was one of the newer ones, designed for wheelchair access. Why anyone thought a person confined to a wheelchair would be working construction repairs was a mystery to her, but it allowed her to change quickly.

  Once she was dressed, Maddie gathered everything else she needed. She put the crossbow, bolts, phone, water bottle, knife, and tactical flashlight into her camo backpack after unearthing it from the bottom of her duffle bag. She stared at the two pet trackers Tommy had given her. She slipped one into her pocket, then stashed another on her person. She didn’t think she would need either one, but prudence was a good idea in this situation. She slipped off a boot and pulled its flap completely out. With her knife, she made a small cut at the bottom then slipped a tracker inside. It was a perfect spot. Unless you knew a cut opening was at the tip, you would not see it, even if her boots were removed. Then she tossed Tiffani’s tracker into the duffle.

  She folded up the duffle bag, then snuck a glance out of the porta potty. Happy to see no one around, she exited, headed to the tree line, and stopped only to stuff her bag under the garbage container. Without a backward glance, she headed into the woods.

  Goggle Maps had indicated that the section of park she wanted to reach was more or less a straight line through the woods for a mile and a half, assuming she did not face any large obstacles. She had not seen any streams or creeks, but Goggle’s satellite images only showed the top of the trees, so anything was possible. If she did have to navigate around anything, getting lost was not a concern. In her side pocket was her Garmin GPS tracker with her destination plotted in it. She could have used her phone, but she did not want to drain its charge.

  It took Maddie a little over forty minutes to reach her desired location. On her hike
, she encountered a number of spots with dense vegetation. She did not have a machete, so she’d had to navigate around it. As she grew close, she slowed her steps. She was in stalking mode. Her camo would do nothing for her if she crashed through the woods like a wild pig.

  She kneeled, pulled out a small pair of binoculars, then scanned the area. She was twenty feet from where the trees and thickets cleared to grass, dirt, and walkways. She was searching for two things. One, she wanted to make sure no one was around, including a would-be kidnapper waiting for a victim. Two, she needed a place to hunker down. She had an idea of where she wanted to be, based on where she had placed the cameras, but she needed to look again now that she was here in person.

  Sure enough, the spot she thought would be good no longer had enough vegetation. She’d have to sight from another spot. She scanned the area again. Off to the right of the restrooms loomed a large patch of sumac. It was thick, she could see in either direction from the spot, and sumac had a wonderful smell. It was a perfect hiding place. The only problem: She would have to cross the open space to reach it. That meant she would have to move fast to make sure she was not seen trying to crawl into it. As if to underscore the concern, Maddie heard barking off to her right. Even though she was too far back to be seen, she hunkered closer to the ground.

  She frowned when the dog and its owner walked into the view of her binoculars. It was her favorite keg-beer-waisted man. The morning temperature hovered around fifty-eight. It was warm for Colorado but not balmy enough for the scandalous shorts the man liked to wear. His dog meandered a few feet in front, then stopped and looked in her direction. The barking started again and at a high octave. He knew she was there. Lucky for her, his owner had a firm grip on his leash and tugged him along.

  She waited fifteen minutes before checking the area again and moving ahead. Despite the need she felt to get to her spot quickly, she moved slowly through the vegetation and undergrowth. When she cleared the bushes and trees, she sprinted across space.

  Without hesitation or fanfare, she bent to the ground and crawled into the sumac. The noise could not be helped, but once her feet were in a ways, anyone approaching from afar would think it was squirrels or some other woodland animal. The fit was tight, but with minimal noise, she turned herself around to get into a more comfortable position. There was no telling how long she would have to wait—assuming, of course, she saw anything at all.

  Now, it was a waiting game. Just what she would do if something happened, she did not know. Then it dawned on her—she had not taken out her crossbow. Now, she could not. The noise and movement needed to unzip, pull out, and load the small bow would be impossible to miss if anyone was near. Maddie berated herself. She imagined that Marines and SEALs never forgot to load their M4s.

  She pushed the concern from her mind. She could do nothing about it now. The die was cast, and she was not going to get up and leave, which would be the only solution. As long as a ranger or cop did not get a feeling to walk around the park and into her bush, she would be OK.

  Her mind settled, Maddie inhaled the pungent aromatic scent of the sumac surrounding her. Intermingled with the forest smells so soothing when hunting, it calmed her and allowed her to focus on watching and waiting.

  Two hours later, she found herself constantly tensing and relaxing each leg to keep them from falling asleep. She was used to waiting in the woods for hours but never while lying prone and on the cold ground. Her underlayers and camo were more than enough to keep her dry, but she would have to rethink this setup soon. She knew she would be stiff and slow when getting up—not exactly the image of the takedown she had visualized.

  A noise from the left froze her. A female was talking—Maddie assumed on her cell phone—but too low for Maddie to discern anything. When the speaker finally walked into view, Maddie cursed.

  Tiffani!

  Maddie’s friend held the phone close, talking low into it while looking left and right as she walked. She walked past the restrooms, then across an open area near a hidden trail camera. She did not look at it directly. Instead, she continued to cast her head back and forth.

  “God.” Maddie did not finish the muttered curse. Before this adventure was over, she figured she might need his help. No reason to piss him off by cursing his name. Clearly, Tiffani was looking for her, though she had no idea why. When Tiffani walked back toward the restroom, Maddie caught the name “Tommy” on Tiffani’s lips.

  Maddie scooted from under the sumac and stood up.

  “Eek!” Tiffani exclaimed and lost her grip on the phone.

  “What are you doing here, Tiffani?” Maddie closed the distance between them. Before the girl could answer, Maddie grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the front of the restroom. She walked till they reached the side of the small building and out of the immediate view of anyone coming down the path. Then she thought better of it, grabbed Tiffani’s arm again, and walked around to the back of the structure. “What are you doing here?” she repeated, the question a low hiss.

  “Damn, girl, you scared me half to death coming up out of the ground like that. What are you wearing? Is that soldier camo?”

  “God, don’t be daft. Desert camo doesn’t look anything like this. I’ve got shades of green in this thing for Christ’s sakes.” Maddie held up a hand and took a deep breath. “Keep your voice down. I don’t want anyone who might come down the path to hear us.”

  Suddenly, Tiffani jerked her head back and forth. “What is this? Are you stalking the kidnappers here?”

  “Yes. And you’re blowing my cover.”

  “Your cover . . . Oh good God, you’ve lost it.”

  “Where have you been anyway, Tiffani? We’ve been texting and calling you constantly.”

  “Actually, Tommy is the one calling me constantly,” Tiffani griped.

  Maddie could tell Tiffani was aggravated, but she would delve into that thicket of thorns another time. She stepped back to take a glance around the corner of the building. Over her shoulder, she said, “How did you know where I was anyway?”

  Instead of an immediate answer, Maddie heard Tiffani take a step in her direction. “Tommy told me,” she answered, her voice flat.

  “That damn boy. Wait . . . I didn’t—”

  The words died in her mouth as a cloth snapped over it. Startled, Maddie instinctively inhaled. A sickly sweet smell filled her nostrils before a sharp sting hit her neck.

  Darkness followed.

  Chapter Seventy-Five

  In a school bursting with young teachers straight out of a CW television series, Juanita Wilson was one of the favorites. She taught French, Creole, and, of course, Spanish. She was a gorgeous Latina with mocha skin, long black hair, curvy hips, and an ample bustline. Best of all for the hormone-imbalanced teenage boys of Galvin High, she did not own a single item of clothing that did not accentuate her figure. She never showed off, just never shied away. If other teachers did not like it, they kept their mouths shut, lest they be accused of racial bias.

  Her classes were always full. There were no assigned seats. Since she liked sitting at her desk, there was always a rush to grab the desks directly in front of hers. Aden always got one of them. He also always messed up once or twice in class to garner a little extra attention from Miss Juanita, as she insisted everyone call her.

  Today, she was wearing a figure-hugging white dress. Not nightclub tight, but snug where everything was known but not scandalous. The boys were swooning. The girls envious.

  All of it was lost on Aden.

  He sat at his desk with narrowed eyes shifting from Miss Juanita’s left shoulder to the clock on the wall. Beneath his desk, one leg shook like a jackhammer, pistons moving a mile a second, desperate to pump his anxiety and annoyance away.

  He had not seen Maddie all day and neither had Tommy. Both had texted her twice with no response. Tommy had become suspicious and begun looking on his phone at pictures of happenings in the park, courtesy of the trail cameras. His gut had told
him that Maddie was trying to catch the kidnappers and prove the missing women and Lilly were connected. Bingo! His gut had been right. In a photo, he found her in one of the parks dressed in a crazy outfit. On a whim, he had also put her tracker code into his phone app, and sure enough, she was wearing the device. Now, he could really keep up with her.

  But Aden didn’t know all of this. He just knew that Maddie wasn’t responding to calls and texts. He was getting anxious. School needed to end, and it needed to end now.

  When the bell rang, he bolted from his desk and nearly knocked over fellow students. Even though his phone had not vibrated once with an incoming text or call, he pulled it from his pocket to check. All he saw was his default screen interface. Cursing under his breath, he switched from a desperate bob and weave walk through the hallway crowd to pushing people out of his way.

  Coming toward him from the opposite side was Tommy, who, despite his smaller size, was plowing through everyone too.

  “Any word?” asked Aden the moment Tommy reached him.

  “No, but the pet tracker—”

  “Oh man!” Aden exclaimed. “I forgot all about those things. So, we know where she is, right?”

  Tommy huffed as he turned and started walking. Aden fell in next to him. “Yeah, I know, but the ‘where’ isn’t the problem. It’s that she’s ignoring all our calls and texts. I’m sure the dumbass girl is trying to catch or beat up the kidnappers if she finds them. It’s just the type of thing she would do. Ugh! I should have seen it coming.”

  Aden shared his frustration with a strung-out grunt. He brought his hand to the top of his head and clutched a fist full of his own thick blond hair and shook it in exasperation.

  “Don’t pull my hair out, big boy. I don’t date bald guys.”