Christmas Witness Pursuit

by Lisa Harris

  But where? That was what they had to determine.

  Griffin signaled to the hotel manager and pulled him away from the busy front desk before showing the man his badge. “The woman I was with is missing.”

  “What happened?”

  “We’re not sure, but I need to know if you or anyone else saw her leave,” he said, then quickly gave him Tory’s description.

  “I’m sorry, but I’ve been working at the front desk. I can ask my staff who are on this floor.”

  “Do it. And I’ll also need to see your camera footage for the past ten minutes.”

  “Of course. I’ll get you set up right now.”

  While the manager spoke with his staff, Griffin sat in the office in front of a computer screen and started watching the camera footage from the past ten minutes.

  Bingo.

  He found her, but it only showed her walking across the lobby toward a side door. Then nothing.

  “I’m sorry.” The hotel manager’s frown deepened. “I called together the floor staff, and I wish I could tell you more, but so far no one remembers seeing her.”

  Griffin sat back in the chair, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together as Agent Nevett stepped into the room.

  “Did you find her?” Griffin asked.

  “No, but we’ve got officers searching floor by floor.”

  “She’s not in the building. She’s long gone.” Griffin showed the agent the video footage of her leaving the building as his mind continued to work through her movements. Something on that laptop had triggered this, and he had to find out what it was.

  He turned back to the manager. “This might be a crazy request, but I need you to get me one of those tech guys. One of the conference leaders. Now.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Do it now and send them to Room 416.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Nevett turned to him as the manager scurried out of the office. “What are you thinking?”

  “Something happened when she checked her email. We need to know what. And we need someone who can figure out what she was doing.”

  Five minutes later Griffin was sitting across from a man at the small table in his hotel room. “What’s your name?”

  “Graham.”

  “Graham, I need you to recover the deleted internet history on this laptop.”

  The man squirmed in his chair. “Is this even legal?”

  “You’re doing this for the FBI. Our witness was looking at her email account.”

  Graham frowned but started clicking on the keyboard. “Looks like there was just one website erased from the history. A Gmail account.”

  “I need to get into that account.”

  “I can’t—”

  Griffin leaned forward. “A young woman could die if you don’t.”

  “But there are rules in place—”

  “Just do it.”

  The man tugged on the edge of his T-shirt, his frown deepening. “Okay, but it’s going to take a few minutes.”

  “Let me know the second you have something.”

  Griffin started pacing. There were half a dozen officers searching the blocks around the hotel, but he knew Tory had to be long gone. Where?

  He needed a distraction while Graham worked. He retraced her movements in his mind. She’d left the living room and gone straight to her bedroom. He opened the door and stepped into the room, feeling the emptiness without her there. She’d left a couple of things on the bed. Her small suitcase and coat were set neatly on the floor. He assumed she had some cash. Wearing her heavier coat would have been too obvious, so she’d left it behind. But why hadn’t she just come to him? After all they’d gone through, didn’t she trust him?

  She did. He knew that, but he also knew she’d do anything to keep her sister safe if that was what they were looking at. But doing this on her own...she never should have done that. They could have come up with a solution to keep them both safe.

  Still, it was hard to blame her for what she’d done. Her FBI escort had been hit and now, presumably, Jinx had discovered some kind of leverage on her. She might trust Griffin, but she had every right not to trust the system. If there was a leak somewhere, which he feared there was, she’d simply been protecting what she loved. He just wished they could have found a way together, because if anything happened to her...

  Feelings swept through him like a dull knife. Regrets for not anticipating what Jinx would do. Making her feel as if she had to do this on her own when he would have done anything in his power to help her.

  Because Caden had been right. He was falling for Tory. There was no denying it. But did that really change anything? He would have risked everything to save Lilly and yet that desire hadn’t been enough. And if he ended up losing Tory now... No. He couldn’t let his mind go there.

  He pushed away the thought, knowing if he was going to save her, he needed to focus on what was going on. He studied the room. The phone book had been pulled out of the desk drawer, and while it lay closed on the desktop, there was a pen set inside it.

  And an X next to one of the taxi services.

  She’d given him a clue.

  He quickly dialed the number. “This is Deputy Griffin O’Callaghan from Timber Falls. I’m looking for a young woman who called for a taxi from the Summit Hotel in the past fifteen minutes. I need to know where she was going.”

  There was a short pause on the line. “I have a call that came through for a pickup a couple blocks from the Summit Hotel, but no drop-off address. I can call the driver and get an address—”

  “Deputy O’Callaghan?” the computer tech shouted from the other room.

  “Give me a second,” Griffin hollered back at Graham, then finished his conversation with the taxi service. “See if you can find out where that taxi went. I’ll call you back.”

  Griffin rushed into the living room. “What have you got?”

  “I was able to restore the history. She’d erased it but hadn’t logged out of the account.”

  Griffin sat and pulled the laptop into his lap. There it was. The short email from Jinx.

  This isn’t over. I have your sister.

  Do not involve the police or she is dead.

  The words shot through him.

  There was also an address.

  “Can you tell me what’s at that address?” Griffin asked as Agent Nevett walked into the room.

  “Just a sec—” Graham said. “Looks like it’s a business...an insurance company.”

  Griffin stared at the screen. He was missing something.

  “Send a couple patrol cars to this address,” Griffin said to Nevett.

  “Do you think she’s there?” the agent asked, pulling out his radio.

  “I think she was there. But it makes more sense that he sent her there, then had someone pick her up.”

  Griffin grabbed his phone and put in a call to his boss, Sheriff Jackson.

  “I need some information,” Griffin said as soon as the man picked up. “You were given copies of the case files about Jinx Ryder, weren’t you?”

  “Yes...what’s going on?”

  “Jinx got to Tory.”

  “How?” the sheriff asked.

  “Through an email. He has her sister. I need to know if he owns any property in the area. Any place he might take her.”

  “I can look through the file, but I’m going to have to call you back. And, Griffin... I suggest we keep this as quiet as we can until we figure out who the leak is.”

  “I agree.”

  “I’ll see what I can come up with, then plan to meet you there.”

  Griffin grabbed his key before heading out and down the hall toward the hotel parking lot. Maybe his gut was wrong, but it was worth making sure they didn’t miss something. She was out there somewher
e, and he had to find her.

  He’d just made it to his truck when Sheriff Jackson called him back.

  “According to the records I have, Jinx doesn’t own anything in the city.”

  “Then where would he take her? His parents’ home, a distant relative, or one of his men. I need something.”

  There was a long pause before the sheriff spoke again. “I found a piece of property on record that’s owned by Jinx’s aunt who recently passed away. It’s a long shot—”

  “Send me the address.”

  “I just did. I’ll be right behind you.”

  A minute later Griffin jumped into the truck, started the engine and put the address into the GPS. He peeled out of the parking lot and headed east. According to the GPS, the house was twelve miles northeast of town, and Tory was already at least twenty minutes ahead of him.

  He knew her well enough to know that she’d do anything it took to save her sister, even if it meant risking her own life in the process. But now that Jinx had them, Griffin knew she’d just put both of their lives on the line.

  All he could do now was pray he got there in time.

  FIFTEEN

  Tory sat next to her sister on a flowered couch in the living room of a house somewhere outside of Denver. Memories continued to flood to the surface. She remembered everything now. Somehow seeing Jinx—and hearing his voice—had been the trigger that had opened up the rest of her memory. She squeezed her eyes shut, but she could still see his face that day. The details of the tan hunting jacket he wore and the mud caked on his boots. She remembered it all.

  Jinx shouting orders at his men as he walked toward the edge of the ravine.

  The sound of his rifle firing.

  The two people he’d killed in front of her.

  The horrifying memory that had been there all along and wasn’t going away.

  He stood in front of them now, the crease across his forehead sharpened by the scowl on his face. A white scar on his neck from a previous fight...a row of tattoos down his arm.

  Tory squeezed her sister’s hand. “It’s going to be okay.”

  Elizabeth shook her head. “I don’t think so—”

  “Shut up. Both of you, and just listen. Because let me tell you, I’m tired of all of this. Because of you, I’ve got every cop and FBI agent in the state after me.”

  Tory held back her snippy response. She wasn’t the one who’d somehow managed to escape a prison transport before kidnapping her and her sister, but it had suddenly become her fault? Her eyes shifted to the door behind him as she searched for a viable way out. She wanted to believe that Griffin was going to walk through the door any minute, but the clue she’d left him had been a long shot. He didn’t know where she was. That left her alone, trying to protect her sister from an armed, escaped convict.

  Jinx pulled up a wooden chair and sat across from them. “You tried to be so clever by scrubbing your identity online so I wouldn’t know you had a sister, but I found her. It wasn’t that hard, really. I should have realized that some sheriff deputy wouldn’t be enough to motivate you to tell the truth, but your sister...” He leaned forward and ran his thumb down Elizabeth’s cheek. “I have a feeling you’re going to react differently this time.”

  Tory bit the inside of her lip while she continued praying God would intervene. “Leave her alone and tell me what you want.”

  Jinx leaned forward. “You already know what I want. The identity of the other witness. Who was it? Because while the fools I sent after you might have fallen for your amnesia story, I haven’t. So here’s what’s going to happen. There’s only one thing I want from you, and if you don’t give it to me, your sister dies.”

  She closed her mouth. Arguing with the man wasn’t going to change anything.

  So he still didn’t know. And he thought she’d made everything up. She had no idea how, but somehow she needed to use that to her advantage.

  Tory kept her gaze straight ahead as an idea started to form in her mind. Her anxiety swelled at the thought of taking a risk that might affect her sister. If she went through with this, there would be no turning back. And she already knew what Jinx did to people who crossed him. If it backfired, she was risking both her life and her sister’s. But if it worked...

  All I wanted to do was what was right, God, and now...now it’s not just my life at stake, it’s Elizabeth’s, as well. I’m not sure I can do this alone...

  She kept praying as she looked up at Jinx, searching for the right words to say.

  “I’ll make a deal with you,” she said finally.

  “I don’t make deals.”

  “Maybe you’ll change your mind when I tell you what it is. You let my sister go and when I have proof she’s safe, I’ll tell you who was with me that day.”

  “Like I said...I don’t make deals.”

  “Then I’m sorry. Because you and I both know that there was someone else with me that day—someone that at least one or two people from the Bureau knew about. And if something happens to me, they’ll still have another witness. They’ll bring that witness in and convince them to testify against you. And trust me, if the second witness knows you killed me...they’ll testify.”

  “You lied before about losing your memory. How do I know you’re not lying again?”

  Tory wasn’t going to argue with him. She just had to convince him that he needed her. And to get what he wanted, Jinx had to agree to send her sister to safety. What happened after that didn’t really matter.

  She swallowed hard. “Let my sister go and I’ll give you what you want.”

  “Tory, no, you can’t do that,” her sister said. “I won’t leave you here—”

  “Shut up, because here’s the thing... I didn’t get to where I am by making deals with people and feeling sorry for them. You want your sister to live, then you’ll do exactly what I say. My timing. My rules.”

  Tory squeezed her sister’s hand tighter then drew in a slow breath in an attempt to calm her nerves. “And I’m supposed to trust you? I saw you murder two people without flinching. You shot them then walked away like you’d just done a round of...of target practice. So if you want to know who it is, you’ll do things my way.”

  She could see a glint of desperation in his steely eyes. Jinx might be tough, but he had his vulnerabilities. That was impossible to avoid. And she’d just tapped into one, which gave her an advantage. He was a man who’d spent his life covering all his bases to ensure the Feds couldn’t get him by never leaving behind any evidence or witnesses.

  She now had him in a place where he needed her.

  One of the other men stepped into the room. “Boss, I think we have a problem.”

  Jinx frowned at the interruption and nodded at the other man. “Take them both upstairs and tie them up.”

  Tory said nothing, but paid attention to the layout of the house as the man forced them upstairs, following his boss’s orders.

  The moment he left the room, she started working on trying to undo the rope. He’d been too distracted and hadn’t pulled the ropes tight, which she was going to use to her advantage. And now that they were alone, this might be their only chance. If they could make it out of the house and to the nearest neighbor, maybe they could get help.

  “He’s not going to do what he said.” Elizabeth’s chest heaved. “He’ll kill us both.”

  “No, he won’t. He needs me.”

  “Maybe, but if you let me go...once you tell him what he wants to know...he’ll kill you.”

  She was right. Tory knew that. But it didn’t matter right now. What mattered was keeping her sister safe and taking this window of opportunity to get them both out of there.

  The rope dug into her wrists, but she kept working it. “It will buy us time for Griffin to find us, and that’s all that matters.”

  “Who’s Griffin?” Elizabeth ask
ed.

  “He’s a deputy that was helping me. There are dozens of men looking for Jinx and now for us. They will find us.”

  “Tory—”

  “I’m free. We need to go. Now.”

  “If we try to escape, they’ll kill us both.”

  Tory reached down and started untying her sister. “It’s worth the risk. If we stay here, we’re both almost certainly dead.”

  Her mind formulated a plan as she quickly worked to undo the knots. She had no idea where her sudden burst of courage had come from, other than a determination to ensure Jinx and his men didn’t win. And knowing that this was what Griffin would do if he were in her place. She couldn’t stop doing everything in her power to get them both out alive.

  “One more second...” She tugged on the end of one of the ropes until it slipped out. Elizabeth was free. “Let’s go.”

  “Where?”

  Tory hurried to the window and looked out. The drop made an escape from this room impossible.

  “Follow me.”

  Not only had she studied the layout of the two-story house, she’d taken in as many details of the property as possible when she’d arrived with Jinx’s men. The property itself was expansive, surrounded at least in part by a fence and filled with trees. They were now on the second floor of a large house, at the end of the hall. She’d only seen one staircase, but there might be another window they could use as an escape in one of the other rooms.

  Tory grabbed Elizabeth’s hand and pulled her to the door, listening for movement before she slowly opened it. She could hear voices coming from downstairs. She had no idea what the problem was, but at least Jinx was occupied for the moment.

  A second later footsteps pounded up the stairs in front of them.

  “Tory—”

  “We need to hide. Now.”

  Tory pulled her sister through the closest doorway, knowing there was really no place to hide in the house where Jinx and his men wouldn’t eventually find them. They would know that she and her sister couldn’t have gone far. All they needed to do was a systematic search of the house, which meant her only option at the moment was to buy them time. Time enough for Griffin to find her, which she knew he would. But how long was that going to take? It was a question she couldn’t answer.