Missing at Christmas

by K. D. Richards

Shawn parked the SUV behind Ryan’s rental three houses down from the address Ben had given him.

  Ryan and Gideon met Shawn and Addy in the darkness between the two cars.

  Ryan glanced from Addy to Shawn. “How do you want to play this?”

  “I’ll go through the front.” Shawn looked at Ryan and Gideon. “You two come through the back.”

  Ryan nodded and opened his hand. Three small earpieces sat in his palm. Shawn and Gideon each took one.

  “What about me?” Addy asked.

  “You stay in the car,” Shawn said, fitting the earpiece in his right ear.

  “I already told you—” Addy began.

  “And now I’m telling you. You stay in the car until we clear the house. I’ll come get you when we know it’s safe.” When she looked like she was ready to argue, he softened his tone and added, “Addy, please.”

  She scowled. “Okay. But I want to be there when you talk to Ben.”

  “Done,” he promised, relieved that she’d agreed without further argument. No matter what, he was determined that she would not be hurt again.

  Addy returned to the car, and he waited until he heard the door locks click into place before motioning for Ryan and Gideon to take up stations around the house.

  The exterior of Ben’s grandmother’s home was covered in chipped, faded white stucco. Rotten wood fencing encircled the overgrown front yard.

  Shawn walked along the crumbling concrete walkway, his eyes scanning back and forth for shapes lurking in the adjacent yards or too-curious faces in neighboring windows.

  An American flag rippled on the house next door, but unsurprisingly he saw no one. It wasn’t a neighborhood where it paid to be curious.

  He waited for Ryan and Gideon to round the side of the house before climbing the front steps to the porch.

  Just in case someone was watching, Shawn kept his gun in its holster under his jacket. He knocked on the front door. “Ben? It’s Shawn West.”

  Nothing but silence answered from inside.

  He attempted to peer through the window at the side of the door, but it was covered with years of grime, making it impossible to see anything inside.

  Shawn knocked again, then tried the door. It opened easily.

  “Front door is unlocked,” he said, knowing Ryan and Gideon would hear through their earpieces. “Going in.”

  Shawn stepped inside, pulling his gun.

  The cold temperatures had done nothing to quell the smell of garbage and animal feces that permeated the air. Only abject fear and desperation would lead a person to seek shelter in the house.

  “Front room clear,” Shawn said.

  “Coming in the back door.” Ryan’s voice came through Shawn’s earpiece.

  “Ben? Are you here?” Shawn called out again.

  He inched past the faded burgundy velvet couch in the den and the aged yellow linoleum flooring in the kitchen. Almost everything in the house was covered in a thick layer of dust, but the kitchen table had been wiped clean, and a single plate and cup were in the sink.

  In his line of work, Shawn had learned to trust his instincts, and he had a bad feeling about the current situation. It smacked of a setup, but if there was even a small chance that Ben knew where to find Cassie, it was a chance they had to take.

  “Basement’s clear.” Ryan’s voice came through the earpiece.

  “Kitchen clear. Holding here,” Gideon responded.

  The home’s two bedrooms were at the back of the house.

  “Ben? It’s Shawn West,” he called, identifying himself again in case Ben was afraid to come out of hiding.

  The house was still.

  He and Ryan converged at the opening to the hallway leading to the bedrooms and a single bath in the house.

  Ryan motioned, signaling he’d clear the first room.

  Shawn nodded and moved to the second door on the right.

  A heavy wooden dresser lined one wall and a woman’s dressing table sat against the other. A four-poster bed stood between them. A single pillow and a tousled blanket lay across the otherwise unmade bed.

  Ben lay on the floor at the foot of the bed. Shawn swept the closet quickly to make sure no one hid in the room.

  It looked like Ben had been wrong about no one looking for him at his grandmother’s, but he’d been right to be scared. It had taken less than thirty minutes for Shawn and Ryan to get to Ben’s grandmother’s house, but they’d still been too late.

  Shawn crouched next to Ben. The bullet hole in Ben’s head left no doubt that he was dead, although the still-congealing blood indicated he hadn’t been that way for long.

  “The house is clear.” Ryan’s voice came in stereo through the earpiece and from behind Shawn.

  Shawn stood and moved aside, giving a clear line of sight from the door to Ben’s body.

  Whatever Ben knew about Cassie or the fraudulent chips, he’d never reveal now. Ben’s killer had gotten to him quickly. And by all appearances, they had just missed Ben’s murderer.

  How had the killer known where to find Ben and that he’d been about to tell all?

  Shawn scanned the small room for Ben’s cell phone but didn’t spot it. The killer might have taken it with him in an effort to conceal his communication with Ben. They’d probably never know. If Ben’s killer had his phone, he’d certainly destroy it the first chance he got.

  Shawn and Ryan backed from the room. They made it back to the living room as Addy came through the front door.

  Shawn swore. He stepped in front of Addy, putting his hands on her shoulders to keep her from barreling down the hallway they’d just come from.

  “Where is he? Did he tell you where Cassie is?” Addy craned her neck to see around Shawn.

  He looked down at her. “You can’t go back there, Addy.”

  Addy’s expression was fierce. “Move, Shawn.” She tried to shake his hands off, but he held firm.

  “Listen to me. Ben’s not talking to anyone. Addy, he’s dead.”

  She froze.

  “No. He...he can’t be. He knows where Cassie is. He knows.”

  He pulled her to him, holding her as her shoulders began to shake with sobs. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Shawn shot Addy another concerned look. The last of several since they’d left the police station. He mercifully hadn’t tried to engage her in conversation. She didn’t have it in her to talk anymore right now.

  Sheriff Donovan had been apoplectic when he’d arrived at the scene. He’d threatened to arrest all four of them and probably would have if he could have found any cause. At the station, the sheriff had asked a hundred questions a dozen different ways, even after she’d told them she hadn’t seen anything. After hours of questioning, he’d finally let them go well after midnight.

  Addy felt hollowed out, yet she wanted to scream.

  They were so close. Deputies had found Cassie’s scooter in a shed in the backyard, but no sign that Cassie had been at the home.

  She was sure Ben had known more than he’d told them, maybe even where Cassie was being held.

  “I’m not going to find Cassie. She’s probably... I’m probably too late.”

  “Don’t say that.” Shawn reached a hand across the middle console, but Addy pressed into the side door. “We’re doing everything we can, and we’ll keep doing everything we can.”

  “I’m always too late.” She’d been too late in noticing her ex-husband pulling away. Too late seeing how sick her father had become. And now, too late to save Cassie. The words looped around her heart.

  The SUV jerked as Shawn slammed into a parking space in the hotel’s parking lot.

  He turned to her and took her by the shoulders. “Stop! You’re doing the best you can.”

  “That’s just it. M
y best is never good enough! No matter what I do, the people I care about just keep leaving me, no matter what I do.”

  Shawn wrapped his arms around her. She clung to him, shaking with silent sobs. She couldn’t remember ever crying as much as she had in the last several days. But for a few precious minutes, she put down the mantle of the strong sister and daughter and let herself fall apart. It probably meant something that she felt comfortable doing so with Shawn, but she’d have to save that analysis for a time when she wasn’t having a nervous breakdown.

  After several minutes, she gathered herself. They walked from the car to their room, Shawn’s arm around Addy’s shoulder, hers around his waist. As much strength as she drew from Shawn’s presence, what she really wanted and needed was time to sift through her emotions alone.

  Addy crossed to the bedroom, turning back to look at Shawn before going in. “I’m going to take a shower.” She needed a nice long soak in the suite’s Jacuzzi tub, but she’d have to wait until she got her stitches out. The injury to her side throbbed, and she desperately needed a painkiller.

  In the bedroom, she grabbed the pill bottle from the bedside table and swallowed two pills with a glass of water from the bathroom sink. Her torso muscles still felt like a tight rubber band on the verge of snapping. Until that night it had been easy imagining Cassie was still alive. But Ben’s murder moved the entire situation into a new, much more dangerous place.

  She started the shower, then padded into the bedroom while the water warmed to grab a change of clothes from her suitcase. She could hear Shawn’s and Ryan’s voices, low but still audible through the closed door. They weren’t arguing, exactly, but the tone of the conversation was tense. She pressed her ear to the bedroom door, catching more of the conversation.

  “I honestly don’t know. I’m sure Ben is involved in both the fraud and Cassie’s disappearance, but there’s no hard evidence the two things have anything to do with each other,” Shawn said.

  “Cassie Williams knows computers, and she worked at Spectrum. She could be in on the fraud, too,” Ryan responded.

  His words reminded her that Ben had mentioned something about delivering fraudulent chips when he’d called. That must be the other case Shawn was in town for. But what did Cassie have to do with any fraud?

  Addy swung the door open and marched into the living room.

  Ryan sat on the sofa, Shawn across from him in an armchair.

  “Are you insane?” Addy fisted her hands at her sides, glancing from Shawn to Ryan. “Cassie would never have gotten involved in any fraud.”

  She noted that the utter surprise on their faces would have been comical in another situation. But at that moment, she was too angry to laugh at anything. She turned to Shawn. “Is this the case you’ve been working on? Have you been investigating Cassie?”

  Shawn rose from his seat. “I’m not investigating Cassie.” He glanced at his brother before training his gaze back on Addy. “I’m investigating the production of fraudulent computer chips. We think Ben is somehow involved.”

  “And Cassie?” Addy took a step backward, putting space between them. She felt like the pieces of a puzzle had just snapped into place in her mind, and she finally saw the whole picture. “That’s what this has been all along. You helping me but really trying to find Cassie because you think she’s involved in your other case.”

  “That’s not true.” Shawn moved toward her.

  She shot both hands out in front of her, stopping his progress.

  “I considered whether Cassie could be involved in the fraud, but I never believed it. Addy, you have to believe me.” Shawn’s gaze beseeched her.

  He sounded sincere, and her heart cried out for her to believe him.

  “We have to consider the possibilities,” Ryan said from his perch on the couch. “Whether you want to believe it or not, your sister has the knowledge to do something like this. The disappearance could be her way out.” Ryan crossed his arms over his chest.

  Addy shook her head. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Shawn cut off the rest of her rebuke. “Someone at Spectrum is behind the fraudulent chips—I think it’s safe to say that’s the case—and they’ve been manufacturing the frauds for a while, starting well before Cassie began working with the company.”

  “Maybe they recruited her? It is somewhat strange for a young woman to move from New York City to a relatively small town. Or Spectrum could have just gotten lucky when Cassie walked in looking for a job.” Ryan continued to argue his point.

  Ryan didn’t know her sister like she did. Cassie was kind and gentle. She believed in doing the right thing, even when it was difficult. She never would have taken part in fraud.

  “What about what Ben said when he called? Lance Raupp kidnapped Cassie.”

  “We can’t take anything Ben said at face value,” Ryan answered.

  “You just want to believe the worst of Cassie to give your client a scapegoat.”

  Ryan didn’t respond.

  The drum of the still-running water in the bathroom filled the silence. Addy turned back to the bedroom. She shut off the shower in time to hear someone knocking on the suite door. Hurrying back to the living area, she caught Gideon strolling into the room.

  “I just got a tip on Teddy’s whereabouts.” Gideon stopped in the center of the room, looking at them each in turn. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing. Whaddya got?” Ryan answered.

  Addy wasn’t finished with this conversation by a long shot, but with Ben dead and not enough evidence to pressure Lance into coming clean about his part in whatever was going on, Teddy might be the last hope for finding Cassie alive.

  Gideon’s expression remained skeptical, but he let the matter drop. “Teddy is holed up at a girlfriend’s place the next town over. My source says he has a bullet hole in his arm.” He quirked an eyebrow at Addy.

  Ryan moved back to the couch and pulled the laptop into his lap.

  Gideon, Shawn and Addy followed suit, each one pulling a chair over from the dining table. Gideon relayed the information he’d gotten from his source. Addy had seen the town name on an exit sign on the highway between Bentham and Garwin. As far as Gideon’s source knew, Teddy was still there.

  Ryan called up a satellite map of the address, and after several minutes of strategizing, the guys settled on a plan of approach.

  “Okay, what time are we leaving?” Addy asked, looking from one brother to the other.

  Ryan gave a hard shake of his head.

  “You can’t come with us,” Shawn said.

  Now Addy stood, too. “Cassie’s my sister, and I am not going to sit around while she’s out there needing my help.”

  “This is not a place you want to be,” Ryan said.

  “It’s not safe. Teddy shot at us once already,” Shawn agreed.

  She wanted to argue with him. She could probably wear him down until he gave in, but to what end? Her side still ached, and all she’d do was slow them down. What she wanted, what she needed, was information that would help her locate Cassie. If hanging back was the best way to get it, then she’d do what she had to do.

  “Fine.”

  Shawn reached for her hand, stopping her before she walked away from the table.

  “We will find Cassie.”

  She prayed with everything in her that he was right.

  * * *

  ADDY FINALLY GOT into the shower after Shawn and Ryan left to track down Teddy. The hot water helped loosen up the muscles in her body. From being shot at to finding Ben dead, cords of tension wound around her muscles. She stood under the shower until the hot water ran tepid, then got out. Try as she might to turn off her thoughts, her mind kept going back to Ryan’s ridiculous suggestion that Cassie could be involved in fraud.

  Cassie was a sweet, kind computer nerd. She wanted to mak
e technology accessible for everyone, to use it for the common good. She wouldn’t be involved in stealing from members of the community she loved being a part of. Cassie had once returned to the grocery store to pay for a bag of chips a cashier had forgotten to ring up. Cassie would have gone straight to the sheriff if she’d known about any fraud.

  But what if Addy was wrong? Was the big-sister lens through which she saw Cassie painting a picture of Cassie that was rosier than what the rest of the world saw?

  She grabbed clean underwear from her overnight bag and put it on before shimmying into pajama bottoms.

  Her cell rang on the bedside table. A local number she didn’t recognize.

  “Hello.”

  “Addy?”

  The weak but familiar voice sent Addy’s heart into her throat.

  “Cassie! Cassie, where are you?” Tears of relief streamed over her cheeks, leaving wet splotches on her shirt.

  “Ms. Williams, you and your sister have been far more trouble than either of you are worth, so if you want your sister, come get her.” Addy’s pulse raced. The cultured voice that flowed through the line was Martin Raupp’s.

  “Where is she?” Addy stripped off her pajamas and pulled on the jeans she’d worn that day.

  “Our old fabrication facility on Route 29. I’m willing to let your sister go, but if you involve the police, well, I’ll have nothing to lose then. Understood?”

  Addy snatched her purse from the coffee table and headed for the door of the suite.

  “How do I know this isn’t a trap?” She headed out the door as she spoke.

  “You don’t.”

  The line went dead.

  Addy ran down the hall, forgoing the elevators for the stairwell. She hit the heavy door with enough force to send it flying open and pounded down the stairs, the phone still in her hand.

  She ran across the parking lot to the Mustang, sliding behind the wheel while she dialed Shawn’s number. Her heart pounded hard enough that she wouldn’t have been surprised if he heard it on the other end of the line.

  His phone went straight to voice mail.

  She let loose with a string of swears and barreled out of the parking space. “Shawn, Raupp just called me. Cassie is alive. He’s holding her at his factory on Route 29. I’m headed there now.”