“Why do you do it?” Her right hand crept toward the side pocket on her pack.
He glanced her way, then back at the road that required more concentration than just a straight highway. “Do what?”
“Kill.” You creep, she wanted to add, but refrained.
He pulled in a deep breath just as his phone rang. He swore and took one hand from the wheel to pat at his pocket. He located his phone and barked, “What?”
Jenna watched him frown, heard him swear again. She inched her hand closer, waited until he spoke again, and pulled the side pocket open, praying his voice would cover the scratchy sound of Velcro opening.
He glanced at her, and she raised a hand to rub her head as though trying to erase a headache.
He glanced back at the road, saying, “I’ll be there shortly. Don’t worry. I have our insurance policy.” He looked at her one more time.
She stared back in stony silence, wondering if he could see the fear raging through her.
In one smooth movement, she slipped the phone out of the pocket and dropped it to the floorboard, all without moving her body or taking her eyes from the killer beside her.
He hung up with another curse and muttered something under his breath.
“Problems?” she asked with a sideways, sardonic glance.
“Shut up.”
She really should learn to keep her mouth shut. She didn’t need his attention on her if it was focused elsewhere.
He turned back to her with a snarl. “And if you try to say a word or attract the attention of anyone, I’ll make sure your dad gets a bullet in the brain. Understand?”
Jenna gulped and nodded. With a small shove of her heel, she managed to work the phone under the seat. She just wished she could remember if she had it on vibrate or not.
Dakota was having a hard time getting the search warrant, seeing how they pretty much had nothing to go on. Jefferson Abbott had been released and was now on his way home.
The return address on Jenna’s envelope was a post office box registered to a Daniel Lucci. No surprise there. Connor had shown Samantha the evidence and she’d been as horrified as he. “When was it delivered?”
“Two weeks ago according to the stamp.” He paused, then said softly, “I let her keep the computer in her room.”
“What?”
“How many times have we bashed parents for letting their teenager have a computer in their bedroom?”
“A lot.”
“I should have moved it when she started spending so much time at my parents’ house.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Connor.”
“It’s hard. I hate . . .”
She placed a hand over his, curling her fingers around his. “Connor, stop. Don’t let the guilt eat you up. Your parents put the computer in that room. It was already there when Jenna started staying there. If you’d moved it, you might have sent her the wrong message. That you don’t trust her.”
“I don’t. I didn’t. But now . . .”
“But as far as you knew, she hadn’t done anything to cause you to be suspicious to warrant removing the computer. Besides, you can’t watch her 24/7. She could have gone to the local library and done anything she wanted and you’d never know it. She’s practically an adult.”
“I know that too. I do. I just . . .” He sighed. “You’re right. Could you give Tom a call and make sure Jenna’s all right? I just want to hear that she’s okay.”
Poor guy. She dialed Tom’s number. It went to voice mail. “Hi, Tom, Samantha here. Could you have Jenna give Connor a call? Thanks.”
“No answer, huh? Wonder what that means?”
“Nothing probably. He might be on the other line. He’ll call when he gets the message.”
“Right. Okay.”
She could tell he was still worried. Samantha dialed Jenna’s number, hoping the teen would answer.
Jenna dragged in a deep breath as Danny pulled into the parking lot of a deserted warehouse. He pulled around to the back and into a covered garage. He looked at her and she shivered.
“Get out.”
Her muscles felt paralyzed, the fear sweeping through her sucking every ounce of strength from her. God? God? If you’re there, I need you. I want my dad, God, please send me my dad.
She must have hesitated too long because the next thing she knew, strong fingers wrapped around her upper arm and started pulling her from her seat toward the open driver’s door.
“Wait!”
“Come on, now!”
Her phone.
She tried to pull away from the clamp on her arm with no success. He was way stronger than she. Her fingers groped blindly under the seat, but no luck.
Jenna felt herself being yanked toward the door. She flung out her hand and snatched her backpack. As she landed in the driver’s seat, a grunt escaped her. “Hold on. Stop!”
He just pulled harder. Keeping a death grip on her backpack, she practically fell from the vehicle. A sudden yank on her right arm nearly took it from the socket. The backpack was caught on the gearshift, hooked by one of the key chains.
Another hard pull landed it beside her. She absently noted the strong smell of wood. When she finally looked up, she could see she was somewhere in the middle of nowhere. A large warehouse-type building loomed in front of her.
“Give me that.” Danny gestured to her pack.
“No.” She wrapped her arms around it, wondering why she was being so stubborn. There was no way she could beat this guy in a tug-of-war.
He proved her point by taking it from her with a rough jerk. “Where’s your cell phone?”
“In my backpack.” Shock, fear, adrenalin all had her shivering in the ninety degree heat. She felt like she was going to puke.
Danny snarled at her to stay put and then proceeded to tear the pack apart. He glared down at her. “It’s not here.”
“Then I must have left it back at the camp.”
“Stand up.”
“What?”
He grabbed her arm and propelled her into a standing position. Jenna cringed and pushed at his hands as he patted her down. Anger swept over her and she lashed out with a right hook, catching him on the chin. His head snapped back and ignoring her throbbing knuckles, she took off running for the front of the warehouse.
Rounding the corner, she pulled up short. The gun pointed in her direction said no one was playing games.
“Get back there. Now.”
Somehow, the eyes behind the gun scared her more than the man who’d snatched her and brought her here. Jenna backed up slowly. A hand entangled itself in her curls. She winced as she was half directed, half dragged back to the little garage where Danny had parked the car.
“This wasn’t the arrangement we had, Daniel.”
Danny shuffled his feet and looked down. The grip on her hair loosened, and she glanced between the two. Jenna thought Danny suddenly seemed to shrink into himself.
“Sorry, Boss, but her dad’s getting awfully close in finding out what’s going on. I needed her for insurance.”
“That’s two girls we now have that we didn’t plan on. I hope you’ve got it figured out how to move them. Soon. I want them off this property. If the cops come here—”
“Even with a search warrant, they won’t find them. And besides, why would they come here? How would they even know about this place?”
Jenna watched the person called Boss sigh, then say, “Get her out of sight. And make sure you don’t leave any sign of her anywhere.”
“Right, Boss, no problem.”
26
Connor pulled into the hospital parking lot. He needed to see how Rick was doing and if the man had regained consciousness. Questions needed answers, and so far Rick was the only person who’d lived after coming in face-to-face contact with the killer.
Samantha hurried along behind him. Dakota was keeping the crime lab to the grindstone. This case had taken top priority. All available personnel had been ordered to do w
hatever it took to find this killer.
The media had camped out at the precinct. Neither the governor nor the mayor could leave their offices without being hounded by the press.
They wanted this case closed—yesterday.
Connor watched Samantha punch another number in her phone and listen. Tension coiled around her so tight that he thought if he touched her, she’d snap. She was worried.
“Who do you keep calling?”
“Jenna and Tom.”
“Not getting through, huh?”
“No and I don’t like it. Tom almost always answers his cell phone when I call. This is really not like him and it’s got me concerned.”
“And that worries me.” He strode to the information desk and flashed his badge. “I need to find Rick Tremaine, please.”
The woman raised a brow and clicked a few keys on her computer. “He was brought into the ER, but it looks like he’s being transferred to a room. I don’t have a room number yet.”
“Of course not,” Sam muttered under her breath, “why would this be easy?”
Connor heard and silently agreed. “Is there any way to find him?”
“Go to the ER and they can tell you where he is. I only have the information available as it’s updated.”
“Thanks.”
Samantha and Connor headed down the halls, following the signs to the emergency department. Connor noticed Samantha didn’t even glance at them. It occurred to him she probably knew the layout of the hospital as well as her home. From what she’d told him about Jamie, her sister had spent a lot of time here following her rescue.
Connor caught the first person in a uniform that he came to. Flashed his badge again. “Where can I find a patient who’s in the process of being transferred to a room?”
“That way. Stop at the desk and ask.”
Five minutes later, they were allowed back to a room. Rick was still in the ER.
Connor looked at the doctor who followed them in. “How long before he regains consciousness?”
“Hard to tell. We’ve run quite a few tests already. He’s suffered a pretty severe head trauma, but fortunately there’s only minimal swelling on the brain. He should wake up in a few hours.”
Connor groaned. “I don’t know that we have a few hours. He may be the only witness we have to the killer who’s running around our city.”
“The missing teens case?”
“Yeah.”
“Man, that’s tough. If I could make him wake up, I would.” Samantha sighed and pushed redial on her phone. Jenna’s rang four times, then went to voice mail. Tom’s just went straight to voice mail. Had he turned the phone off or was the battery dead?
Connor handed the doctor his card and said, “If he wakes up, will you call me immediately?”
“Absolutely.” He pulled out his phone and placed the card behind it. “I won’t lose it that way.”
Samantha intervened. “We need to find Jenna and Tom. I’m really worried now.”
They exited the room making the trek back through the maze of halls to the parking lot. Connor unlocked the car. “What if the guy shot Rick, then followed Jenna to the campsite?”
“And then was surprised when she got into Tom’s car?”
“Yeah. What if he waited until they were halfway home on one of those little deserted roads and—” He broke off, swallowed hard.
“I know. That scenario’s been going through my head too. Or at least one of a similar vein.”
“He’s lost control.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s turned this case personal. I should have sent her away.”
“If what you say is true, it wouldn’t have mattered.”
“You think?”
“He would have tracked her down one way or another.”
“That doesn’t help much.”
“I know.”
“I’m going to get Dakota to track her phone.”
“Good idea.”
Connor got back on his phone and called Dakota. The man answered with, “I don’t have anything yet, Connor, I’m only one person in a lab full of criminalists who get mad when I invade their space.”
“Can you put a GPS tracker on Jenna’s phone? I’m worried about her.”
“Does she have it turned on?”
“Yeah.”
“Give me the number.”
Connor obliged and Dakota promised to call him back shortly.
As soon as he hung up, Connor’s phone rang again. He vaguely recognized the number. Then he realized it was the number that Jenna had called him from at the campsite. “Hello?”
“Detective Wolfe?”
“Speaking.”
“I’m a friend of Jenna’s. My name’s Bradley Fox.”
“What can I do for you, Bradley?”
“I’m at the campsite and she asked me to wait an hour, then call her. I did, but she’s not answering.”
“I know, I can’t reach her either.”
“She said to call you if she didn’t answer her phone. It was like she thought something bad was going to happen to her.”
Dread crawled through Connor’s midsection. “But Tom picked her up, right?”
“If that was the dude she got into the car with, yeah. I didn’t catch his name. Blond-haired, good-looking guy.”
“Sounds like Tom. Thanks for calling, Bradley. I’ll have Jenna call you when I find her.”
Connor hung up and he looked at Samantha. “I’m feeling mighty worried right now.”
Samantha grabbed his hand and squeezed.
Ah, Andrew, I need you, partner. I need to bounce things off of you, I need you tell me God’s going to keep my baby safe.
“Hey.”
Connor looked at the beautiful woman sitting beside him.
“Whether you believe it or not, God’s got it under control.”
He blinked. And almost believed her.
Jenna paced the large underground room. Her prison. She looked across at the other two girls. They stared back.
Patty lay on the cot near the door, unconscious. Jenna suspected she’d been drugged with something.
Her stomach hurt. She clasped her arms across it, gripping her elbows with her hands. She’d been here all of five minutes and already she felt like she was smothering.
“Who are you?” From the girl who looked about five months’ pregnant.
Jenna recognized her picture from the news. Veronica Batson, a pretty black girl who looked like she needed to gain about twenty pounds. If it weren’t for the basketball-sized stomach, she’d appear skeleton thin.
“Jenna Wolfe.”
“Hey, I recognize your name. You go to Stanton High, don’t you?”
“Yeah.” Jenna uncrossed her arms and moved to sit on an empty cot. The room was about five hundred square feet and had six beds. An open door led to a full-sized bathroom at the back. The only door in or out of the room was at the top of a flight of stairs.
“I’m Julienna Harris.”
“Are you pregnant too?”
The girl flinched and said bitterly, “I don’t know, but it’s not for a lack of trying on their part. In vitro.”
Ew. Jenna grimaced.
“So are the other girls okay? We kept hoping that one of them would tell someone where we were. Only now, they’ve moved us, so the others wouldn’t know where to tell anyone to look.”
Jenna looked at them, the expectation on their faces piercing her. They didn’t know. She swallowed hard. “Uh, no, no, they couldn’t tell anyone where they’d been held.” That was certainly true. There was no way she was telling them that the other girls were dead. “So you guys wanted to be models too and met Danny online, right?”
Twin nods of confirmation. Jenna pounded her thigh. “We’ve got to figure out a way to get out of here.”
“There isn’t a way.” Julienna shook her head, defeat crossing her pretty dark features. “Up those stairs is it. Believe me, we’ve tried. I believe that
door’s made out of soundproof material. In fact, I’m pretty sure the whole room is soundproof.”
At Jenna’s questioning look, she said, “My dad’s a professional musician. We have a soundproof basement.”
“So what’s the deal? You said they moved you.”
“Yeah. Yesterday. Or maybe it was today.” Veronica sighed and placed both hands on her lower back, pushing her belly out. “This is not how I envisioned having my first child.” Tears welled and overflowed.
Jenna felt tears of her own surface. Ruthlessly she shoved them back. Tears wouldn’t get her—them—out of this.
“Is this place bugged?”
“Huh?”
“You know. Do you think they listen in on your conversations?”
“Oh.” Veronica shrugged. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it.”
Julienna grunted. “I wouldn’t put it past them.”
A groan from the cot by the door pulled Jenna’s attention to her friend. “Patty.” She rushed over to her side. “Are you all right?”
“What did I drink last night?” She held a hand to her head.
Grimly, Jenna responded, “A killer cocktail.”
Connor couldn’t help thinking that the lawyer was the link. “We can’t get the warrant on the Abbott place again, can we?”
“We’ve got no proof that he’s involved other than that weird receipt. And we don’t have a viable reason to search the man’s house again.”
“So, how are we going to find more evidence if we can’t access his house?”
“I know. It’s a catch-22.”
“We need to set up some kind of sting, but there’s just no time.” Connor put the binoculars in between the seats and looked at Samantha. “No suspicious activity going on. The mail was just delivered.”
“Is Mrs. Abbott home?”
“Yeah, I think I saw her walk in front of one of the windows a few minutes ago. But I’m not sure. Could have been the housekeeper. I guess I could go knock and see who answers the door.”
“And tip them off?”
“No.” He glanced at the sky. “The sun’s going to start going down in a couple of hours. I wish Dakota would call with something on Jenna.”
Too Close to Home Page 25
