Gone without a Trace

by Patricia Bradley

“I can’t believe you’re back. Why did you leave in the first place?”

  “You know how it is. Things get bad at home, you look for a way out. But it never turns out like you think.”

  He nodded. “Heard your husband got shot last night. He okay with you working here again? If I remember right, he had a little problem with it before.”

  “We . . . we haven’t worked things out yet. I need the job.” She lifted her gaze and tried not to react as he stared at her.

  Johnny B smacked his hand on the counter. “I do believe I see a little of the old Robyn in your eyes, the shape of your face. Never knew you looked so much like your sister.”

  Bailey. Stay in character. Livy lifted up the corners of her mouth in the hesitant gaze she’d seen Robyn give all her life. “Yeah, she was the pretty Adams girl. Can I have the job?”

  “Can you start now and work until eight?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “It’s the evening rush so fill out the paperwork later.” He jerked his head toward Callie. “See her about an apron and whatever else you need. You know what to do after that. And welcome home.”

  “Thanks.” Livy pasted Robyn’s uncertain smile on. “Hey, Callie,” she called. “Johnny B said you’d get me an apron.”

  The waitress turned, and her penciled brows almost met. “Do I know you?”

  “You should. We worked together a year.” She twirled a curl around her finger before tucking it behind her ear. “It’s me, Robyn.”

  “Robyn?” Callie’s mouth gaped, and she blinked and then stared at her as though she didn’t believe what she saw. “You had a nose job!”

  A few diners looked up from their meals as Livy nodded. “Yep.”

  “It looks good, girl. How much weight have you lost?”

  She stood a little taller and squared her shoulders. “A little over fifty pounds.”

  Callie tapped her on the arm. “Get outta here! Girl, you’re going to tell me how you did that.”

  “Sure.” Just get your jaw wired together. That’s how Robyn had lost the weight.

  “Come on back here and we’ll get you an apron and ticket book. And, start spilling the beans about how you did it.” She patted her ample hips. “I have to lose a few pounds myself.”

  “Exercise and dieting, that’s what I did.” Livy tied the apron on and slipped the ticket book into one of the pockets. “You want me to work the front section or the center, like I used to?”

  “Center section will be fine. We had a new girl working it, but she was involved in an accident last night and she up and quit.” Callie beamed at her. “Sure glad you showed up.”

  “Thanks.” Livy surveyed the back section. “I see the Three Musketeers are here.”

  Callie looked to see who she was talking about. “Oh, Jason, Timothy, and Bobby. I declare, I think they’d starve if we closed. They’ll be glad to see you. All three of them ask about you every now and then.”

  She looked them over. It was hard to believe one of them could be a killer. She’d much rather think it was one of the truckers she didn’t know as well. She turned to Callie. “How many of the same big rig drivers still eat here?”

  “Let’s see . . . Bobby’s not actually a driver, but other than those three? I don’t think any. Long-haul truckers come and go—they find a new place to stop for a while, then they come back. I think those three only eat here regularly because they live here. And I see Bobby raising his cup. Better take care of him.”

  Livy grabbed a full pot of coffee and took a minute to familiarize herself with the menu. Robyn had drawn a diagram of the restaurant and shown her which section each waitress worked. Livy counted her customers. Seven and three empty tables. Maybe she’d have time to work in a few questions with the Three Musketeers.

  Two hours later, Livy found Alex alone in the break room.

  “Tired?” he asked.

  She nodded. “I can only take a minute. I don’t know how Callie does it day after day.”

  “Working in the kitchen isn’t too much fun either. How did our four suspects react to you?”

  “I didn’t seem to set off any alarms. Robyn had filled me in on each of their favorites and gave me little tidbits about them that I threw around. They all seemed to buy that I was actually Robyn. Surprise that I came back was the prevalent reaction, even for Johnny B. Timothy left right after I arrived. Jason was nervous, as usual, and Bobby was overfriendly.”

  “Do you think Timothy was afraid you’d recognize him?”

  “He’d finished his meal, and there wasn’t any reason for him to hang around. Jason left soon after—said he had a delivery to pick up and take to Nashville, but he did seem more nervous than usual.”

  Alex leaned forward. “It’s just hard for me to believe it’s Jason, even though he wears camos all the time. I think if he planted the billfold, he would’ve worn something else.”

  “Our guy is smart. Maybe he figured you’d think that way.” She massaged the back of her neck. Unless he made another move, she didn’t know how they were going to catch him. Her cell phone dinged an incoming text, and seconds later, Alex’s phone chimed. Livy read her text. “Ben wants us to stop by the jail on our way home.”

  “Looks like he has the logs for our truck drivers.”

  “Good.” She checked her watch and groaned. “Time for me to get back to work.”

  “Me too.” He squeezed her hand. “You’re doing a great job.”

  “Thanks. I do think everyone bought it.”

  He tilted his head toward her. “Friday is Valentine’s Day. Do you think we could take an hour and do something special?”

  Warmth spread through her chest. Sometimes she got so caught up in the case, she didn’t think of anything else. She was glad he did. “As long as we’re back in time for Ben and Leigh’s wedding. What do you have in mind?”

  “I almost forgot their wedding.” A grin played around his lips. “I’ll surprise you.”

  That could mean trouble. “I hope we’ve solved this case and Samantha Jo is home with her parents so we get more than an hour,” she said. “Otherwise, this guy is liable to kidnap someone else.”

  He stood in the shadows of the parking lot, torn between finding Sharon and waiting for Robyn to come out. Robyn. After all his looking, she plops in his lap out of nowhere. If it was really her. Certainly didn’t look like Robyn. Well, maybe some. The hair was right, and the best he remembered, she was about that height, but she wasn’t that size. He supposed she could have lost weight. He had a photo of Robyn from before he kidnapped her. Maybe he’d slim it up and see how it compared to the new waitress.

  His thoughts drifted to Sharon. Why hadn’t she shown up today? She hadn’t been hurt last night. He’d followed her to the hospital and watched as she’d paced the surgery waiting room.

  The door opened, and Robyn came outside. Here was his chance. He felt inside his coat pocket for the syringe. All he had to do was grab her and pop the needle in. Then he’d take her to the farm. Samantha Jo would probably like a roommate. He eased between the cars until she was only ten feet away.

  The door opened again. “Wait up.”

  He clamped his jaw. The guy staying at the bed and breakfast with Sharon. Alex somebody. He’d seen him working in the kitchen the last few days. He slunk back in the shadows as they passed by him.

  “I’ll follow you to Ben Logan’s office.” That was Alex. His heart plummeted. Robyn was going to the sheriff—she must have made him. But if that was the case, why hadn’t the sheriff arrested him?

  “Check your cell phone.”

  Robyn stopped at her car. There was a subtle change in her stance. The man pulled his phone out and then looked around, like he was searching for something. She’d seen him.

  He ducked down, and footsteps came his way. He dropped to the ground and rolled under a car, gravel digging into his back. It was too dark to see who had passed, but he wasn’t waiting around for them to come back. He scooted his body to the next car,
feeling every rock.

  “Let me get a flashlight.” The man again. He had to get out of here before they found him. The parking lot backed up to a wooded area. If he could get to the woods, he could get away.

  Wait. Why was he running? If they knew who he was, he would have already been arrested . . . unless she’d just made him. But if that were the case, he’d be hearing sirens. He slipped out from under the car and darted between the shadows to the overhang of the building.

  The door to the restaurant opened again, and a group exited. Perfect. When they passed him, he eased in behind them and walked to his car. Once inside, he waited until one of the other cars pulled from their parking space, and followed them out.

  When he arrived home, he booted up his computer and pulled up the photos he had of Robyn. He didn’t have many, but there was one that was pretty good, although in it, she looked nothing like the skinny waitress at the restaurant tonight. In the photo, Robyn’s plump figure and Roman nose made him think of the beautiful women in a Rubens painting. The “new” Robyn was too skinny for his taste. He went over each of her features. The hair was the same and the eyebrows—they both had strong, arched brows . . . and the glasses were similar.

  He opened his browser and typed in a weight-loss simulator website. After he uploaded Robyn’s photo, he clicked on the weight loss selector and chose forty pounds and then hit enter and waited. The image revealed from the top down, and as it did, he blinked. Not an exact match, but if he imagined the photo with the nose smaller, it would be close. Maybe if he adjusted a little here . . . and here. He bit his lip, concentrating on the picture that emerged on the screen. Slowly, he nodded. So, Robyn had found her way home.

  “Who do you suppose was in the parking lot?” Alex walked with Livy toward the sheriff’s office. Was it possible they’d been that close to the man who had Samantha Jo?

  “I don’t know. I’m beginning to think it was my imagination.” She slipped her cell phone into her pocket. “I called Robyn to let her know nothing out of the ordinary happened tonight.”

  “Good. I’m sure she was anxious to know how things went.” The droop of Livy’s shoulders and dark circles under her eyes advertised her fatigue. The strain of the case and pretending to be Robyn was getting to her. Or maybe it was something else. “Have you heard from your dad about when he’ll arrive?”

  “Oh, my goodness! With everything going on, I forgot to tell you. This morning, when you had to wait to take off, it was my dad in that twin prop.”

  “You’re kidding. That makes me feel better about getting you out of bed so early.”

  “Go back to feeling bad about it. He only touched down to refuel. Hadn’t planned on letting us know he was in the area.” She rolled her shoulders. “I sort of came down hard on him until I learned he was transporting a kidney to a kid in Jackson.”

  “From Alaska? That’s at least a ten or eleven hour flight. I didn’t know a kidney would be viable that long.”

  “I think there’s a forty-eight-hour window, but the sooner it’s transplanted, the better.”

  “Is your dad coming back through here?”

  She nodded. “Don’t know when, though. How about your dad and granddad? Have you heard from them?”

  Livy was an expert at rolling the conversation away from herself. “No, which is a good thing.” He would just as soon not hear from them. The bar exam hanging over him was enough.

  Alex held the door open for Livy and followed her in. Ben’s chief deputy was at the front. “Is Ben in his office, Wade?” Livy asked.

  “He’s in the conference room.” Then he looked up and his jaw dropped. “Wow! Ben told me what you were doing, and while you don’t look like the Robyn I remember, you do remind me of her sister, Bailey—except for the dark hair.”

  “That’s what everyone says.”

  They walked down the hall, and once again Alex held the door open for Livy. He hadn’t realized how much he liked the atmosphere of a small town, where knowledge of someone extended to the whole family. It seemed to Alex that everyone cared for and looked out for their neighbors. At least everyone except the man they were after. Ben looked up from the stacks of paper on the table when they entered. “Livy?” He gave his head a shake. “Well, you were right. No one will mistake you for yourself, but did they buy you were Robyn?”

  “The customers seemed to, especially when I knew things about them, like their favorite dessert and the kind of coffee they liked. I just slid right into place.”

  “When we came out, Livy thought she saw someone lurking in the shadows.” Alex pulled one of the chairs away from the table for Livy. “We never saw who it was, but it could’ve been our guy, stirred up because he thinks Robyn is home.”

  Ben tapped his pencil on the table. “Maybe he thought he could catch Robyn alone.”

  “That’s what I think.” Livy slid into the seat. “Tomorrow night, Alex can hang back, and I’ll go out by myself. Just make sure you have a deputy or two there.”

  Alex picked up one of the papers on the table. “Are these the log sheets?”

  Ben nodded. “I’m trying to get them organized.”

  “I can help—I’m good at organizing,” he said.

  Two hours later, they took a break, and Livy stretched. “I wish these were on the computer.”

  “That would be nice,” Ben said. “As it is, it’s going to take until sometime tomorrow to cross-reference them to see which trucker not only had routes to the cities where the girls were abducted but also cities where they were dropped off.”

  Alex sorted through the stacks he’d organized by drivers. “Have you seen any logs for Timothy? I’ve found Jason’s. And did we get a schedule of Bobby Cook’s salesman route?”

  Livy glanced through her stack. “I don’t have anything for Timothy. How about you, Ben?”

  He shook his head. “He has his own truck and contracts out for different companies. Said he’d get them to fax his logs over.” He picked up his cell phone on the table. “I think I’ll give him a call and get a list of the companies he drives for. Maybe we can hurry them up.” After a minute, he laid the phone back on the table. “He doesn’t answer. I’ll catch him tomorrow.”

  “It’s after eleven,” Livy said. “He may be asleep.”

  Alex tossed a folder on the middle of the table. “Here’s Bobby’s itinerary. Looks like his sales route carries him through Nashville to Kingston, Tennessee. There’s no record of him being in the other areas. I think we can rule him out.”

  “Who has Jason’s logs?” Ben asked.

  “I do.” Livy opened the folder and glanced through it. “He doesn’t have regular runs, and he only works a couple of days a week. When he was at Johnny B’s, he said he was making a trip tonight and wouldn’t be home until tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Jason’s an odd one,” Ben said. “I doubt his taxidermy business brings in much money. I think he only drives the big rigs to support his hunting and fishing obsession.”

  Livy’s lip curled in distaste. “I’m like Robyn. Stuffing dead animals gives me the willies.”

  “He does good work.” Ben’s phone rang, and he picked it up. “It’s Timothy Nolan.” He slid his finger across the screen and answered. “Thanks for getting back with me. Your companies haven’t responded. Can you give me a list of them so I can call and see what the holdup is?”

  Ben was silent for a minute. “I see. Okay, tomorrow will be fine.” He disconnected. “It seems Mr. Nolan is in Cullman, Alabama, on his way to Birmingham to deliver a load.”

  “Explains why he left the diner so soon after I got there,” Livy said. “That makes two of our local boys on the road tonight.”

  “Does it eliminate them from being in the parking lot?’ Alex said.

  “Cullman is two hours from here. It would be difficult for it to have been Timothy, unless he’s lying about where he is now.” Livy rubbed her temples. “How about the drivers who don’t live here? Are any of them a possibility?”
>
  “It’ll take a few more hours of research to know that,” Ben said. “I think I’ll send a deputy by Timothy’s place to see if he’s there.”

  Alex’s phone vibrated in his pocket, and he fished it out. A quick look at the ID made him groan. It must be a life-and-death matter for his dad to pick up the phone and call him. He excused himself and stepped out into the hallway. “Hello.”

  “I thought you’d want to know your grandfather is having bypass surgery at seven in the morning.” His father’s hollow voice reflected the shock that reverberated through Alex.

  “What happened?”

  “He’s been having pain that radiates down his left arm. It got bad enough to send him to the hospital this morning.”

  The pain must have been really bad—his grandfather hated hospitals. Alex chewed on the inside of his cheek. He’d fueled up when he returned from Nashville. Could he leave the case? He felt in his bones they were close to a breakthrough. But this was his grandfather. “I’ll be there as soon as I can, probably around one.”

  “Good.”

  The line went silent, and Alex looked at the screen to see if his father had disconnected. Then he heard him take a deep breath.

  “Be careful, son. I hear night flying is dangerous.”

  Alex was almost too stunned to answer. His father, concerned about him? That was a new one. “I will, and don’t worry, I’m rated to fly at night.”

  His mind raced. What had the weather report said earlier tonight? He opened his weather app and checked the weather between Dallas and Memphis. A low-pressure area was moving from west to east with thunderstorms preceding it. It might get a little turbulent. Livy looked up as he reentered the room. “I have to leave. My grandfather is having heart surgery in the morning.”

  “Oh, Alex, I’m so sorry,” Livy said. “Is he in the hospital now?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be back tomorrow as soon as he’s out of the woods.”

  23

  The smell of cleaning solution stung Alex’s nose as he walked through the door into the darkened ICU waiting room. All hospitals smelled the same, even at one in the morning. In one corner, a faint light glowed—a few people were still awake. He glanced around for the doors to the patients’ rooms. He’d already called the number his dad had given him and talked with his grandfather’s nurse. She’d said he could see him if his grandfather was awake when he arrived. He approached the area that was lit, and a woman who looked as though she hadn’t slept in a week glanced his way.