by Robin Perini
Thayne had witnessed this kind of detachment in battle-weary veterans. The poor woman couldn’t seem to grasp that they never had to go back to the place they’d been held captive. They’d never again have to see the man they called Father, but it hadn’t seemed to sink in that they were free.
“Adelaide? Is anyone else at your home?” Riley pressed. “Was there a doctor with you? Cheyenne Blackwood?”
Adelaide toyed with the dirt at her feet. Furtively, she looked around. “Is Father coming back?”
“He’s never coming back,” Thayne said. “You don’t have to worry about him ever again.”
She swallowed. “He’ll be mad if I tell you.”
Riley leaned in to her. “Please, Adelaide. We have to help her.”
“The doctor was kind.”
Was. Thayne’s heart plummeted.
Riley reached her hand to Thayne’s. “Where is the doctor?”
“Father . . .” Adelaide’s eyes welled up. “Father took her to the omega room for punishment. No one comes home after he takes them there. No one.” She shuddered and buried her head in her arms.
Thayne struggled to keep calm. This couldn’t be happening. How could they be this close and be too late? “Can you show us where the omega room is?”
Adelaide snapped her head up, eyes wide with fright. She shook her head side to side and started to pant. “No . . . one . . .” She couldn’t catch her breath.
Riley moved in closer, not touching Adelaide but speaking to her in a calm, almost hypnotic voice. Slowly, she calmed. “It’s forbidden. Father said no one would understand the meaning but him, and no one can get in once he’s closed the door. There are four keys. That’s all I know.”
Thayne gripped Riley’s shoulder. She looked up at him, sympathy bathing her eyes. He refused to let himself consider the option. Not until he saw proof that Cheyenne wasn’t safe and alive.
“Where is the omega room, Adelaide?” Thayne asked. “Where is Doctor Blackwood?”
“Look for her behind the house. In a clearing beneath the cliff,” Adelaide said softly. “You’ll find all the secrets there.”
One of the girls began to rock to and fro. She began to hum a familiar song, something Thayne hadn’t heard since childhood. “Puff the Magic Dragon.”
A boy of about ten began to sing.
When things go bad, and life seems so unfair,
Just hold on tight with all your might, and I’ll always be there.
Riley gasped. “Where did you learn that song?” She grabbed the boy’s arms.
The kid’s eyes went wide. The other children stopped singing.
Thayne tore Riley’s hands from the boy and pulled her away.
“What’s wrong?”
“The song. That’s Madison’s special song, Thayne. She made it up the day she was taken.”
Riley’s entire body shook. Thayne pressed her close, knowing he could say nothing. She was facing her greatest fear. They both were. All he could do was hold her. And love her. “OK, OK, we suspected he took her, right? We’ll find her. We’ll find them both.”
A rustle of trees and pounding footsteps jerked Thayne’s attention away from the trembling woman in his arms. Jackson rushed over.
“We found the compound,” he said under his breath. “And you’re not going to believe it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The thick cluster of evergreens in front of them just appeared to Riley to be another dense wooded area. They’d traveled an additional hour to the location, which put them a good three hours from Singing River. Had Cheyenne really been only hours away?
Riley stood with Thayne and Jackson studying the foliage that concealed the entrance to the compound. The team had uncovered the mysterious black SUV well camouflaged at the end of an off-road trail barely wide enough to accommodate the vehicle. Without Adelaide’s help, they never would have found either.
“I would’ve walked right past and not even slowed down,” Thayne said.
They pushed through a thick grove of evergreens, ducked under some large tree limbs, and weaved their way through a series of large boulders. After navigating a second stand of trees, they emerged into the secreted clearing. A large, two-story stone house came into view, the front flush with the rock face on both sides. Thayne let out a whistle.
Jackson pointed to a bevy of satellite dishes that had been placed strategically to one side of the building. The place may be in the middle of nowhere, but it was definitely high tech.
Riley studied the perimeter, and a glint of metal mounted on the corner caught her eye. She elbowed Thayne. “Is that camera similar to Riverton’s prototype?”
“How did he possibly get access to technology that’s not available to the public?” She’d known the man who’d gone undetected for fifteen years had been smart, but she’d pictured the Unabomber, not someone as plugged in and sophisticated as this guy appeared to be.
“We have no idea, but Jackson contacted Brett and Cal. They provided my brother the intel to get past some of the security.”
Thayne’s satphone sounded out of nowhere. “Blackwood.” He listened for a few minutes. “You have to hear this.”
He punched the speakerphone, and Tom’s voice came through. “You sitting down, Riley?” he asked.
“Not really a place to do that here,” she said.
“We ran the rest of the kidnap victims. Every one of the missing kids is related to one another.”
“That’s not a surprise,” she commented. “One look at the children we found side by side, and it’s obvious they’re siblings.”
“How about this one, then?” Tom said. “We ran your perp’s prints, and they were on file because of a DUI. His name is David Aaron McIlroy. We completed a DNA comparison. He’s their biological father. All twenty of the missing.”
Riley froze. Inside, she’d known, but to hear the facts aloud . . . The man who had destroyed so many families, so many lives. The man who’d terrorized her that night fifteen years ago and taken her sister. He was Madison’s father.
The cold truth ricocheted around her mind before encasing her heart, chilling her to the core. That maniac was her sister’s biological father. And perhaps hers as well. She wouldn’t go there now. Maybe later.
“The guy sure got around,” Thayne commented with a frown.
“To sperm banks near the I-25 corridor,” Tom said. “Except for Gina Wallace, all the children were conceived using various fertility clinics. Seems he thought his genetic code was pretty damn valuable.”
Riley shook her head, the should-haves, could-haves slicing at her conscience. “We’ve had the victims’ DNA for years. I never—”
“Don’t finish that sentence, Riley,” Tom said. “Hindsight is always twenty-twenty. Why would we run the comparison? The matches weren’t close enough to be used for identification. They were never flagged until we suspected a pattern.”
“So this crazy guy was gathering his children?” Thayne asked. “Like some twisted Pied Piper?”
He clasped Riley’s hand, giving her a comforting squeeze.
Jackson shook his head in disgust before biting out a sharp curse. Riley was right there with him.
“He didn’t take all of his biological children,” Tom said. “After interviewing a few of the fertility clinics still in business, they were willing to tell us Mr. McIlroy was a favorite donor. Great bio, I guess. He has other offspring out there, but except for Gina, the abducted children all have unusually high IQs and are from less-than-ideal homes. We believe he chose his targets quite specifically.”
“Madison doesn’t fit his profile,” Riley said. “Our family was normal . . . until that night.”
“The unit will keep digging,” Tom said quietly. “I’ll be in touch.”
He ended the call. Part of her wanted to lock McIlroy in a room and force the bastard to tell her the truth, give her the why. The other half hoped he just disappeared so all those children would know this particular bogeyman c
ould never come back.
The wind whipped up, gusting cold from the north. Riley shivered against the onslaught. “Adelaide said to look behind the house at the base of the cliff.” Riley couldn’t push aside the deep foreboding and odd sense of déjà vu. She’d been in similar situations too many times in the last several months. None had ended well.
Maybe this time . . .
Deputies Pendergrass and Ironcloud, followed by Agents Underhill and Nolan, joined them in the clearing.
“We’ll search the inside,” Nolan offered.
Thayne, Jackson, and Riley rounded the house to the back. A well-sculpted lawn with a volleyball net, tetherball, and jungle gym peppered the green. Such an odd place. On either side, sheer cliffs stretched hundreds of feet up. At the back edge, the landscape morphed into a rocky berm. Large shrubs, boulders, and pines created a barrier, but a narrow crushed-rock pathway snaked toward the rocks blocking the rear of the property. Just as Adelaide had described.
They followed the trail until the foliage ended. Riley’s knees nearly gave way.
Fifteen gravestones were lined in three rows. Her gaze snapped to a freshly dug grave.
“Thayne,” Jackson choked out.
“No.” Thayne halted, shaking his head. “Not until I see her.”
Adelaide had warned them the secrets were here. Riley wove her fingers through Thayne’s. Did that mean all of the abducted children but the eight they’d rescued were buried in this cemetery as well?
“We need a forensics team,” she said quietly.
Thayne gave a quick nod and moved away, speaking softly into his satphone, the lines around his mouth drawn and tight with more than worry. As if he were preparing himself for the worst. She recognized the pain he and his family faced, and she wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
Riley squatted down, barely able to breathe. The smell of freshly turned dirt made her stomach knot. One more dead body. What was the chance Cheyenne didn’t occupy the new grave? She’d never expected to find Madison alive, but she’d begun to hope, to believe they’d save Cheyenne.
Bracing herself, she allowed her gaze to move from name to name across the headstones. With each stop, she grew more and more confused.
“I don’t recognize any of the names,” she said quietly to Thayne. “These must be their aliases.” And for all she knew, Madison was one of them.
Thayne frowned and shook his head. “He stripped them of their original identities completely. We won’t be able to identify them until we compare dental records or DNA.”
Are you here, Madison? Can I finally bring you home?
Deputy Pendergrass and Underhill joined them, and Jackson pointed to the fresh grave. The job of digging up the latest body began, and Riley looked away, unable to watch what they uncovered.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen.” Thayne stared at her, shocked. “We were supposed to find her alive and well and mad as hell.”
He’d once looked to her with hope. Now only devastation remained. She’d been in awe of his optimism, even when the odds had compounded against him, but faced with what stood before him, that hope was gone. Resignation and grief had etched themselves onto his very heart.
Riley leaned in to his side, wrapping her arms around his waist, not knowing what else to do. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m glad Mom’s not here,” Jackson choked out. “She wouldn’t have survived this.”
An overwhelming despair welled up inside Riley. Tears flowed down her cheeks. She swiped at them, but they just kept coming, so she gave in to the reality. The monster who had destroyed her family—and so many others—had destroyed the Blackwoods’ as well.
A movement grabbed her attention. Deputy Pendergrass stood up from the newly uncovered grave. “Thayne?” he called.
Thayne took a deep, shuddering breath. “Is it her?” he asked through a clenched jaw.
Riley steadied herself to hear the news.
“The grave is empty.”
She squeezed Thayne’s waist. His body shuddered.
“Where the hell is she?” he barked out.
“We’ll search every inch of this place until we find her,” Jackson said. “She has to be here.”
Pendergrass jogged over to Thayne. “Underhill found something very interesting you need to see.”
The agent pulled back a bush revealing a sixteenth tombstone, tucked away from the others.
The name carved on it: CALVIN RIVERTON, SR.
Cal and Brett Riverton’s father.
An eagle soared above, its call echoing among the tall cliffs surrounding them. Thayne shoved a hand through his hair.
“We’ll figure out Riverton’s connection later,” he said. “Where is Cheyenne?”
“If we can find the omega room, we should try there first,” Riley said. “It’s the last place Adelaide mentioned.”
“Right.” Thayne raced over the path and across the yard to the back door of the house, shouting out for Nolan and Ironcloud as he got closer. He didn’t have to turn back to know Jackson and Riley followed behind.
The two men met him at the rear entrance.
“The omega room. Did you find it?” Thayne panted.
“I believe so,” Ironcloud said. “But there’s no door.”
“Show us. Hurry.”
They entered the house and rushed into a large schoolroom, then through a playroom, a music room full of instruments that clearly had been played extensively, an electronics workshop that was littered with the Riverton camera prototypes and new designs, a chemistry lab, and even a state-of-the art computer center.
“The twisted bastard gave them the best of everything,” Nolan said.
“Except they were stolen from their parents and never allowed to leave,” Thayne said. “And of course, there’s that whole cemetery thing.”
Ironcloud led them down a set of stone steps into a large brick foyer with no furniture and no exit. The only décor was a framed picture, and embedded in the wall just above it, a large omega symbol.
“I’d say this is either the omega room or its entrance,” Riley said, squinting up at the symbol. “It’s inlayed. Wyoming jade, I think.”
Sure enough, the symbol had been created with the stone. “I’m no expert,” Thayne said, “but it looks like the shade of Cheyenne’s necklace.”
“From the Riverton mine. That’s odd.”
Thayne’s gaze moved down to a large print centered below. He recognized the double helix. Two men’s faces he didn’t recognize graced the left side. NOBEL PRIZE 1962 titled the poster.
Riley walked over to the image. “Watson and Crick were credited with discovering the structure of DNA.”
Thayne studied the picture, searching for anything off. “It’s slightly tilted.” He tried to shift the picture, but it wouldn’t move. He ran his fingertips along the edge until he encountered a notch on the left. “Hinges.”
Carefully, Thayne pulled on the right side of the frame and opened the print like a door. Behind it, flat against the brick, was a pullout alphanumeric keypad next to a metal door handle. “What is this? Alice in Wonderland or Harry Potter? We’re supposed to solve a riddle?”
“Adelaide didn’t know the code.” Riley ran her hand over the four rectangular digital displays to the right of the keypad. “Seems simple enough. Except there are ten digits and twenty-six letters. That’s . . . I don’t know how many combinations. But a lot.”
“Can we break in to it or blow it?” Thayne grabbed his phone and called down the hill. “We need someone who can—”
Nolan raced into the room. “We have a problem. We found a huge number of explosives set along the mountain. This place was rigged to blow.”
“Could we use some of the explosives to blow this door?” Jackson asked.
The FBI agent shook his head. “There might be trip wires. It could set off the whole thing. We need to get everyone out of here. The place is probably booby-trapped.”
“Cheyenne might still be here.”
Thayne crossed his arms. “Nolan, clear the area and call in the bomb squad, but I’m not leaving until we find my sister.”
The man left in a hurry, shouting orders. Thayne stared down Riley and Jackson. “You two get out of here.”
“Like that’s happening any time soon. Have you got a clue what to enter into the keypad?” Jackson asked.
“We know there’s an alphanumeric combination with four entries.” Riley rubbed her hands on her pants. “Let’s think this through.”
She closed the door and stared at the poster.
“The print is about DNA. McIlroy was all about sharing his genetic material.”
“What are you thinking?” Thayne could practically see the gears turning in her head.
“I’ve spent a lot of time recently in forensic classes that cover DNA. It’s made up of four chemical bases. Adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine. Try A, C, G, T.”
“I have no idea what you just said, but it’s worth a shot.” Thayne pressed four buttons. The letters displayed to the right.
A loud siren roared. Above the doorway, a red strobe light flashed. The key panel blinked, and a screen above the keypad lit up with the time of five minutes.
Four fifty-nine. Four fifty-eight.
Thayne let out a loud curse and looked over at Riley’s shocked expression. “We started a countdown.”
Nolan rushed back into the foyer. “Everything’s gone live. If I’m right, in less than five minutes, this entire area will be buried under a man-made avalanche.”
“Damn it. We don’t even know if Cheyenne’s inside.” Thayne rubbed his face. “Get everybody clear and safe, Nolan. We’ll follow you out.”
He rounded on his brother and Riley. “You have to leave.”
“We have a couple of minutes,” Riley argued. “I think I’m right. But it was the wrong order.”
“I don’t have time to try them all!”
Riley paced back and forth. “Let me think.”
Thayne met Jackson’s gaze. They glanced over at the clock.
“Keep trying,” Jackson said.
“T, G, C, A,” Thayne punched. Nothing. “T, C, G, A.”
