by R E Gauthier
“Fuck! How can this be happening? I have to call Mack and warn her; she’s going to want to know because Washburg threatened if he ever got out, he was coming for her.” Nikki took her phone and made the call. The call went to voicemail. Cursing, she tried again; getting the same result. Deciding she had to reach Mack at any cost, she called Miranda’s phone in case Kelsey had turned off her phone this morning. The call connected, and Miranda answered with a giggle.
“Don’t tell me, Kelsey is too afraid to call me and tell me she’s working late today. I shouldn’t be too surprised; I was quite amazed she kept her mind on me for an entire day.”
Nikki knew she couldn’t ask Miranda where Mack was. Mack had told her fiancée she’d be working today and then told Nikki she’d be home all day. Mack must have had her reasons to mislead them both. She decided it was best not to worry Miranda and go along with the rouse that fell into her lap. “You know her too well.”
“You can tell my little chicken-shit I still love her even if she didn’t have the guts to call herself.”
Nikki stiffly chuckled when she wanted to scream. Something was wrong if Mack’s phone was off, but it could be she had wanted a break. Then why not just tell everyone that? Nikki told Miranda she’d relay the message and ended the call. “Fuck! Something is wrong! Mack isn’t answering her phone, and she lied about where she’d be today to Miranda and me.”
Deb said, “that can’t be good. Does Mack usually go off and not tell anyone where she’s going?”
Nikki shook her head. In all the time she knew Kelsey MacGregor, she never knew the woman to lie about her whereabouts or turn off her phone for longer than short periods while she was home or away with Miranda Gauthier. Knowing Mack had also lied to Miranda, told Nikki whatever was going on, was not normal. “I’m going to see if I can find her with the GPS tracker I put in her SUV.”
“You installed a tracker on her car?” Torres asked.
“Yes, after we got back from Lansing and discovered Washburg had been stalking Mack, I installed a tracker on her vehicle and mine. I need to activate the tracking app on my computer, and then we can see where her car is. I’m also going to get Mack’s phone logs; if she made calls or someone called her, we’ll know about it.”
“Red, maybe you’re taking this a little too far. It’s not like she’s been missing for a day; it’s only been several hours.”
“Mack can get up in my face if I do all this for nothing, but with Washburg on the loose, I’m not taking any chances. He could have made the trip from Greensville to Canonsburg overnight and lay in wait for Mack when she went for a run this morning.”
“If Washburg abducted her, why would she have lied to you and Miranda about where she’d be today? Deb asked.
“Washburg may have grabbed Mack on her way to come here, then text me with Mack’s phone that she’d be home to throw us off his trail.”
Deb and Torres agreed that Nikki could be right, but cautioned not to take it too far.
With Mack MIA, there wasn’t anything Nikki wouldn’t do to find her. Nikki started the tracking app on her computer and waited for it to connect to the device on Mack’s SUV. While she waited, she called to put an APB out for Mack’s black 2012 Lexus LX 570 with a MACK 1 Pennsylvania vanity plate. Even though Mack’s phone seemed to be off or lost connectivity, Nikki also set-up to track the phone that would notify her once it was turned back on and could trace to a specific area. The computer chimed to inform Nikki it had connected and located Mack’s vehicle. The star cursor blinked over a remote area North West of the Pittsburgh Airport. “Who’s with me? I’ve located Mack’s SUV on Service Church Road in Raccoon; North West of the airport.”
Deb stepped forward. “I’ll go, and Torres can stay back to see if Mack or the police call. Let’s hope this is a simple misunderstanding, maybe she went for a drive and got lost, and her phone died.”
As per Mack’s wishes, Nikki hadn’t told Torres or Deb about the attempt on Mack’s life in London. Nikki thought that the fewer people who knew would keep Nanna and Miranda from learning about the incident. Nikki decided to keep the secret a little while longer until she found Mack’s SUV. “I hope you’re right Deb; I want this all to be a huge misunderstanding. Torres call me if that cursor moves or if anything else happens and whatever you do, don’t let on to Miranda or Nanna that Mack may be missing. We’ll cross that bridge if Mack is still missing tonight.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Driving to a remote area Northwest of Pittsburgh, Late Afternoon, March 30, 2012
Nikki tried to keep her mind from going down all the possible scenario paths. Was Mack dead somewhere? Had the people, trying to kill Mack in London, tracked her down? Had Washburg drove from Greensville and exacted his revenge on Mack for using his mother to catch him? What would they find at the remote location where Mack’s SUV stopped?
“Should we call and have the state police meet us at that location?” Deb asked.
Apparently, from her question, Deb was also running scenarios through her head. Nikki smiled. She liked the petite blonde, and it wasn’t just because she was cute, funny, and smart; Nikki liked everything about the woman. At that moment she was glad Deb was with her. “Not yet; that could be taking it too far if Mack is stranded on the road. We’re almost to where the tracker located her SUV.”
Sirens blared, and lights flashed as a Pennsylvania State Police car flew past them. More sirens could be heard coming up from behind as more emergency vehicles caught up to them. Nikki counted four police cars, two fire trucks, two emergency response units, and an ambulance.
“Christ, Nikki look at that smoke. There must be a fire or an accident up ahead of us.”
While trying to keep her eyes on the road and pulling over to let the emergency vehicles past, Nikki hadn’t had the opportunity to assess her surroundings. In front of them, a giant ball of thick, black smoke rose up into the air. A huge clap of, what sounded like thunder, tore through the air as a ball of bright red flames licked at the cloud of black smoke. Their advancement down the road came to an abrupt end as police cars stopped and several troopers with neon yellow vests were stopping traffic.
Nikki pulled the car over and checked the location on her GPS. They were maybe half a mile away from the coordinates she entered from the position the tracker app had found Mack’s SUV. Swearing under her breath, she exited the car and made her way toward the first trooper she could reach. “Excuse me, can you tell me what is going on?”
“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask that you turn around and go back the way you came. We’ll have this road closed for quite a while.”
“Has there been an accident or a wildfire ahead? We might be able to help; we’re FBI agents, we can help with setting up a command post or triage.”
“The report I have so far is that a vehicle left the road up ahead and went down a ravine. The car burst into flames, and we’re trying to contain the fire so we can assess the situation.”
Nikki swallowed the bile that came to her mouth. All the scenarios she had played out in her head, had not come this far. Before she arrived at the wrong conclusion, Nikki decided to glean as much information as she could. “Do you have a description of the vehicle? Were there any witnesses?”
The state trooper didn’t reply as he talked into his radio strapped to his shoulder, “I’m needed to cordon off this area; go talk to Chief Ackerman, and he will answer whatever questions you may have and let you know if your assistance is needed.”
Nikki thanked the trooper and then walked back to her car. Going to the trunk, she grabbed two FBI jackets and reflective vests. “Here put these on, I need to go talk to a Chief Ackerman to find some answers.”
“What is it?” Deb asked.
“A vehicle went off the road and burst into flames. We can’t go any further, so I offered our assistance to speed things along. We need to get past here if we’re going to find Mack.”
“What if…?” Deb’s words trailed off withou
t verbalizing her full thought.
“No, I’m not going there. Mack’s somewhere without cell service and gas, and we’re going to go find her once we can get through here.”
“Is there another way we can go around?”
Nikki had thought about that as well. “We’ll see if we can help and how long this road will be closed and then we can plan to go around the other way.” Nikki checked her phone for cell service and only had two, bars. They likely would get through if they did try to call Mack on her phone. Maybe she was on the other side of this mess; hunkered down waiting for help to come to her.
Deb and Nikki walked over to where a group of emergency personnel discussed the situation. “Excuse me, who is in charge here?” Nikki tried to sound as official and larger than life than her physical stature would command. She’d learned early in life that her size wouldn’t make people respect her, so she used her voice and courage to control the situation.
A tall man wearing a long coat with the State Police written on the back turned around. “I’m Chief Ackerman; can I help you?”
“I’m FBI Special Agent Hyland, and this is Agent Norman; we’re trying to track down one of our colleagues, and we need to get past here. Her car’s GPS tracker led us to about a half a mile up the road. Is there any way we can get through?”
“I’m sorry, but it’s too volatile a situation at the moment. The fire officials have informed us they can’t get close enough to extinguish the fire. We may have to wait until the fire uses up the last of the fuel and it puts itself out; until then we’re doing all we can to contain it and prevent casualties.”
“Are there any witnesses or do you know if the occupants of the car got out?”
Shaking his head, Chief Ackerman frowned. “From the one witness’ report, the SUV went over the embankment at high speed. A man and woman got out to see if they could help and saw that it kept going and went down into the ravine. They didn’t see the driver or passengers and no one has seen anyone who may have escaped the crash.”
“You said it’s an SUV; did the witnesses see it enough to give me a description.”
“May I ask…?” Chief Ackerman started to ask, then stopped. “Oh, yes, most certainly; you can go over and ask them. They’re there in the white truck.”
Nikki was grateful that Chief Ackerman didn’t make her explain her need to speak to the witnesses; she still wasn’t ready to go down that path of possibilities yet. Taking a few deep breaths, Nikki explained to Deb that she would go over and ask the witnesses about the description of the vehicle that they saw go over the side of the road. She asked Deb to hang back to see if she could be of any assistance in helping clear the area.
Walking to the white truck seemed to take forever, and the whole time, Nikki kept telling herself not to jump to any conclusions. This man and woman will tell me what they saw, and Deb and I can turn around and look for Mack on the other side of this mess.
Upon reaching the passenger side of the white Ford Bronco truck, a woman asked, “can you tell us when we can leave? The police told us that an accident analyst might come to ask us more questions; are you the analyst?”
Shaking her head, Nikki said, “sorry, I’m not the accident analyst but I’m with the FBI, and I do have some questions for you.”
“What does the FBI have to do with a simple accident?” The man in the driver seat asked.
“Sorry Ma’am, Fred and I were driving to visit his sick aunt when we saw the accident. We couldn’t leave without making sure everyone was alright. My name is Lydia; how can we help you?” Lydia put a hand on Fred’s arm and said something low enough, Nikki couldn’t hear.
“Did you see the vehicle clearly that went over the side? Can you tell me the color and make, and if you saw a license plate?”
Fred nodded. “Lydia was talking about the plate; it was one of those special ones, not the usual letters and numbers. It was a black SUV, one of those expensive ones. We don’t see too many of them around here. Most people drive pick-ups and cars. This SUV was one of those fancy SUV’s.”
“We came upon it as it sped up and went over the side, but I got a good look at the back of it; I remember seeing an ‘L’ and an ‘X’ and numbers where the name usually is.”
Nikki closed her eyes. Mack’s Lexus was an LX model. “You said you saw a unique kind of license plate. Do you recall what it had on the plate?”
Lydia nodded. “It was a Pennsylvania plate with M-A-C-K-1 on it.”
Nikki felt her legs buckle. Her head spun, and she tasted bile in her mouth. “Are you certain of the letters?” Nikki squeaked out past the wave of nausea.
“Yes, Lydia kept asking me why anyone would get Mack on their license plate…”
The rest of Fred’s comments drifted in the wind as Nikki looked around for a way to get out. She ran toward the billowing smoke and didn’t let anyone stop her. She kept running until she reached the side of the road and looked down. No, please no. It can’t be you, Mack.
Deb reached Nikki’s side and put an arm around her. The feel of a supporting body against her caused Nikki to crumble to the ground. “No! Please, no; it can’t be.”
“Shhh, what is it? What did they say?”
Nikki shook her head. “They must be mistaken; it’s not her.”
***
At Accident Scene, Northwest of Pittsburgh, Late Evening, March 30, 2012
Nikki’s body shook with the cold she felt deep inside. The night air was surprisingly warm for late March, but nothing reached the numbness she felt. The wait for the fire officials to return from their search of the vehicle along with the path the SUV took to make its way down the ravine, dragged out agonizingly. Bright searchlights illuminated the large area in the blackness of night. One hour ago, some four hours after they arrived at the scene, the fire finally lost its vim and vigor to allow a safe descent of the fire investigation team to go and assess the scene. Deb stayed close to Nikki and offered her comfort and water from the command truck they set-up for the emergency personnel.
“Nikki, we can go sit in the car where you can be warmer; we can see when they come back up.”
Shaking her head, Nikki said, “we should go drive around and see if Mack is on the other side of this mess, maybe she cannot get through because they won’t let her.” She wanted to hold out hope that Mack had jumped from her SUV before it went over. “I can’t go sit in the damned car knowing my best friend is out there. She could be hurt and cold.”
Deb’s phone rang. “Hi, Torres, do you have any news?” She asked.
Nikki watched as Deb quietly listened to what Torres had to say on the other end. Fidgeting with the buttons on her coat, Nikki wanted to grab the phone and demand Torres tell her what she knew. The cell reception up there, was spotty, and several times they received a call from Torres, but the call cut out before she was able to say much.
Deb said quietly, “nothing yet, we’re waiting to hear what the fire officials found when they went down. I will, okay thank you.”
Nikki looked into Deb’s eyes and knew from the look she saw there, Torres didn’t have any good news. “What did Torres say? Is there any news?” Please, I need some good news, she pleaded silently.
“Mack’s cell phone signal came back on and pinged nearby. Torres said it looked close to where the car’s coordinates were. Miranda has called to ask if she could speak to Mack and Torres told her that she was out with you and didn’t have good cell reception.”
“That’s it? Nothing else?”
Deb shook her head. “No, I’m sorry.”
Nikki turned around and looked down toward the area where smoke still filled the air. Searchlights were making their way back up the steep slope. Hoping the searchers had good news, she ran to meet the first ones that came up over the precipice. Searching each face, Nikki saw grim determination, and not one looked hopeful. She caught bits and pieces of the reports of the searchers that returned. They found a body; they were extracting it and bringing it up with anot
her crew equipped with a rescue basket and grappling ropes.
Making her way toward the man she recognized as the Chief of the rescue squad, Nikki put a hand on his coat. “Have they found any signs that someone survived the accident?”
“I’m afraid they found a lone occupant in the driver’s seat. The person was still buckled in, so they never attempted to get out. We’ll have to wait until we have confirmation, but they did find this and a phone that must have been ejected from the vehicle as it went down the embankment.”
Nikki took the familiar-looking leather wallet, that used to have a badge on it, from his hand. Opening it, she saw the FBI credentials with Kelsey Laren MacGregor printed on it. Mack’s photo, taken shortly after graduation from the Academy, showed the younger version of Nikki’s best friend. Crumbling to the ground, Nikki felt Deb grab her and hug her. The world spun off its axis; Mack cannot be dead.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Nanna’s House, Canonsburg, Pittsburgh, Morning March 31, 2012
Nikki sat in her car unable to get up the nerve to walk up to the door and knock. How do I tell them? Knowing she had to keep her promise, Nikki unfastened her seatbelt and took a deep breath. Her hands shook, ice flowed through her veins making her body tremble. Yesterday played out in her head over and over again. How could this be happening? If Mack didn’t die in a fiery crash; where was she?
Nikki recalled the moment the recovery team brought the black body bag up from the accident site. Their grim faces, the acrid scent of burned flesh permeated the air surrounding them, and then they said she wouldn’t want to see the body. Nikki had demanded to look for herself to see how badly burned the remains were. Even now the sight of seeing the heavily crusted and charred body made her shudder. There were no recognizable features left to determine the sex or identification of the remains. She couldn’t even identify hands or feet, as they appeared to be burned almost entirely off of the attached limbs. Nikki never saw a body that badly burned before; her only experience had been a few fires in a home and one in a burned car. The difference with this fire is that it burned for several hours at extreme temperatures Identifying the remains wouldn’t be straightforward.