“But I am her sister.” Her grip was so tight on the knife, her hand hurt.
The man laughed, and thankfully kept his distance.
“I know who you are, Sophia. You put my employer in jail.”
“Your employer?”
“Vega.”
“You aren’t the one who took Lisa?” His smile dropped. It was unnerving to see the stranger lose whatever humor he had.
“No, ma’am. I was hired to find her and bring her home safe.”
Sophia eyed him warily.
“You can put the knife down. I have a gun in the back of my pants. If I wanted to kill you I would have done it by now.” Sophia’s stomach flip-flopped as he pulled the handgun out to show her before putting it back into the waist of his pants. “I was supposed to update Vega but seeing as he’s in jail, I’m reporting to you.”
That got Sophia’s attention. She lowered her arm but kept the knife in hand.
“Do you know where she is?”
He shook his head. “But I found her car.”
* * *
BRAYDON WAS STARING down into his never-ending cup of coffee. He’d already been getting bad sleep the past few days. Now time was starting to blur for him—he couldn’t remember the last night he’d slept solidly. Tom and Officer Whitfield had stayed with him after all of the searches, going through phone records, financial reports, and trying to pinpoint where the women had last been before they’d disappeared. He was paying most attention to where Lisa had gone. He told himself it was because she had been the first to go missing, but a part of him knew the focus had been forged out of sympathy for Sophia Hardwick. No matter the motives behind the search, nothing was fitting together. No new evidence had popped up during the women’s house searches or work searches. Aside from Richard’s admission of tampering with potential crime scenes and withholding information, they didn’t have any other leads.
Braydon took another long pull on his coffee. He knew he needed sleep—it would make him think better, but he couldn’t bring himself to try. That would be valuable search time he would be wasting. Lisa, Trixie and Amanda couldn’t afford for him to catch up on beauty sleep.
Sophia couldn’t afford it, either.
Thinking of her, of her determination to find Lisa, was enough to push him into his third wind. He went over to the map of Culpepper stretched across the wall and looked at the locations of interest. All three women lived as far away from each other as possible. Lisa lived at the back end of Pebblebrook; Trixie lived on the opposite side of town in a house that was tucked away in the middle of some acreage; and Amanda lived with her mother in a house that backed up to the bay. His eyes stuck to the Alcaster tack on the map.
After all of these years, it was once again a part of an investigation. He just hoped this time it didn’t involve a murder.
His concentration started to lose traction as he thought about Amelia—her vibrant smile, her infectious laugh...and her bloody corpse. It sent a familiar fire through him. If he had only been there sooner, if he had only protected her like he had promised when they were young, Terrance Williams wouldn’t have had the chance to kill her.
He punched the top of his desk, his thoughts turning turbulent.
“Braydon.” Tom knocked on the side of the opened office door. He craftily ignored the anger that was seeping out of his partner and waved with a phone in his hand. “You left this in the conference room. It’s Sophia Hardwick.”
“Thanks.” He grabbed his phone and tried to tuck back into his normal self. He took a few breaths before answering. “Thatcher here.”
“I know where Lisa’s car is!” the woman all but screeched.
“What? How?”
“A man broke into the house and—”
“A man broke into the house? Are you okay? Is he still there?” Braydon put his gun back into its holster, grabbed his keys and started to leave the station. He motioned to Tom to follow him.
“I’m fine. He’s gone. He works for Richard. He was one of the ‘friends’ he told me about.”
That relieved Braydon, but only a bit.
“Where’s the car, then?”
“I’ll tell you when you pick me up.” There was that stubbornness weaving into her voice.
“Sophia,” he warned.
“I promise I’ll tell you when you get here. I don’t want you to leave me behind, Detective. Now please hurry so we can go see if it’s true.”
“Fine, but lock yourself in a room and wait for us to get there.”
“He’s not coming back,” she said. Braydon blew out an irritated breath.
“Sophia, three women in town have already disappeared. A man just broke into the house. Unless you have him chained up in the garage, I want you to go into a room and lock yourself inside. Do you understand me?”
There was a pause. He may not have known Sophia that well but he bet she was currently rolling her eyes. She finally sighed and said, “Okay.”
Braydon had a patrol car closest to Pebblebrook search for a suspicious person while Tom followed behind to Lisa’s. The heightened sense of urgency, he realized, wasn’t for Lisa or the other missing women, but for Sophia. He didn’t know how someone he barely knew had gotten so far under his skin, like a plant that had taken root years ago. He did, however, know that he had to protect her.
The drive to Lisa’s would normally take ten minutes—Braydon got there in five.
“I’ll secure the perimeter,” Tom said as they met on the sidewalk. “You go check the house.” They both pulled out their guns, Tom disappearing around the house, Braydon slowly opening the front door. He was going to go straight to the bedroom, thinking she would most likely hide there, when a crash from the kitchen snagged his attention. He rounded the corner with his gun raised.
“Sophia!” He found the woman standing over a broken glass. She jumped at his appearance.
“What are you pointing a gun at me for?” she said, face reddening.
“What are you doing in the kitchen? I thought I told you to lock yourself in a room. The front door wasn’t even locked!”
“I was about to go to the bedroom but I was thirsty! And I left the front door unlocked so you could get in without breaking it down. Lisa would kill me if she came home and her door was destroyed.” She put her hands on her hips. “Can you please put that thing away?” She motioned to the gun still raised in his hand. “It’s not like I’m armed or anything.” It was his turn to roll his eyes.
“You are a very maddening woman,” he said. “Do you know that?”
“I’ve been told I’m difficult.”
He put the gun back into its rightful place against his side. “Now stay here while I search the rest of the house.” Braydon could tell she was about to argue, so he put up his hand to stop it. “Just let me do this.”
She surrendered. “Fine by me.”
The house was clean, he noted once again, as he searched each room and closet. It was also empty. There were no broken windows, doors or any signs of a break-in. The man hadn’t used force to get in, that was for sure.
“All clear?” Sophia asked when he finished his round. She put down a dustpan to get the remainders of the glass. Without thinking he crouched down to hold it. If the act surprised her like it did him, she didn’t show it. Instead she swept the rest of the shards in without commenting.
“Were all the doors locked before he showed up?” he asked.
She nodded as he moved the pan back so she could get to the line of bits that never seemed to want to go in the first time. Braydon’s house was all hardwood. He knew what a pain it was to sweep. “Of course I did. I doubled-checked all of the windows and doors. He either picked the lock or...” She stiffened a fraction.
“Or what?”
“I think he had a key.”
Braydon stopped, the dustpan in his hand.
“A key?”
“It makes sense—I don’t remember hearing anything weird like someone working on a lock. He unlocked it with ease. He did say that Richard hired him to find Lisa. I guess he gave him a way to get into the house.”
That didn’t sit right with Braydon. His brow furrowed. Sophia put the broom down and took the dustpan from his hand. Their fingers brushed. They paused in unison. Electricity coursed between their touching skin. Whether it was a desire to protect the black-haired beauty or something more sensual than that, he wasn’t sure. She looked up at him through her long lashes. There was a feeling that flickered behind her deep green eyes, but he couldn’t place what. Sophia cleared her throat and took a step away.
“But, I—that’s not what we should be focusing on here,” she said, emptying the pan into the trash can.
“I don’t know about that, but we’ll revisit this topic.” Tom came in then and reported the lot was clear. He said a quick hello to Sophia before she led them into the living room. Barely veiled excitement propelled her forward—a bounce lining each step—the moment between them in the kitchen short-lived.
“The man, and before you ask he didn’t give a name, went through Lisa’s office and found something we all missed.” She handed him a Post-it note. “He said it had fallen between the desk and the trash can. Do you know where this is?”
Braydon froze. It read Dolphin Lot.
He knew exactly where it was.
Chapter Five
Sophia didn’t have to know the men all that well to know something was off. Instead of immediately jumping into the cars to go to Dolphin Lot, there was a mass hesitation. Tom was staring at Thatcher while he stared at the note. She didn’t understand the cause of the silence attached, either. Lisa had been missing for five days—locating her car was a lead she was happy to have found...or rather, been given.
“So, you do know where the Dolphin Lot is?” she prodded when neither man answered her first question. Thatcher nodded. He didn’t elaborate. Sophia looked to Tom for answers.
“Braydon and I were actually near there the morning you showed up.”
“Well, great! Then we can go there now.” Tom cast a quick look at Thatcher, concerned. Sophia didn’t understand why everything had suddenly slowed down. This was the first real clue they had. She was about to say as much when Thatcher folded the note and put it in his pocket.
“I guess I can’t get you to stay here,” he said to her. His voice was flat, cold. It was such a drastic change from his earlier tone that she took an involuntary step back. Thatcher noticed the movement and tried on a small smile. Sophia wasn’t buying it.
“No. For good or for bad I want to be there,” she said. “I need to be there.”
The detectives looked at each other, passing a message with their eyes, until Thatcher nodded. “Fine but only after you give us a brief description of the man who gave you this note.”
Sophia held her temper and described the man’s appearance to Tom as best she could.
“Are you going to arrest him? Shouldn’t we have as many people as possible out there looking for these women?”
“What would be more helpful is if we were all on the same page,” Thatcher was quick to answer. His jawline had set so hard that Sophia bet she could wield it as a weapon if she wanted.
Though, she couldn’t disagree with the truth of what he said.
The detectives sent out the man’s description to all of the on-duty cops. Sophia doubted they could catch the missing-tooth man. Even if he had a key, he had still caught her off guard. Plus, if Richard had hired him to “do whatever it takes” to find Lisa, then maybe it was better for everyone involved if he stayed elusive.
Sophia went through the familiar motions of getting into the passenger side of Thatcher’s truck. She had ridden in it so much in the past twelve or so hours that she was met with the scent of her perfume as she sat down. She caught herself wondering if Thatcher liked it...and if the scent had attached to him, as well. If someone was close enough to him, would they smell it and think he was taken? Would the aroma act as a barrier to keep women from trying to hit on him?
Sophia quite liked that idea.
“So where is Dolphin Lot?” she asked. They pulled out of the driveway and drove into the night. Lisa’s next-door neighbors peeked out from their windows as Tom reversed in his car and followed. “There seemed to be some tension at the mention of it.”
Thatcher shifted in his seat. He kept his eyes straight ahead.
“It backs up to the bay on the outskirts of town. It’s an undeveloped piece of land, maybe five acres in total. The closest house belongs to the Alcasters.”
Sophia gasped. “Amanda Alcaster?”
“Technically her mother, Marina, owns the house, but, yes, Amanda lives there, too.” Before Sophia could completely process that, he continued. “What’s more is Dolphin Lot is owned by Marina, as well.”
“That can’t be a coincidence, can it?”
“I don’t have all of the information to make a conclusion either way,” he said before adding, “but, no, I wouldn’t chalk it up to that.”
The car filled with a pregnant silence. Sophia didn’t know what to think now. Why had Lisa written down that address? Had Amanda called her over for help? Or maybe she had lured her in? Maybe it had nothing to do with the disappearances. Maybe it was just a coincidence. There were too many unknowns and she was starting to feel the lack of sleep drag her senses down.
Now that the small mystery of why the detectives had such a reaction to the address was solved, the more troublesome mystery started to settle in. What would they find once they got to Dolphin Lot?
* * *
THIS WAS ALL too familiar. The winding dirt road, the blanket of darkness, the feeling of growing anxiety... He had done this before. He had traveled down the same road, hitting every bump and dip in the dirt path, hurtling toward an uncertain future with a gun at his side. He had been here before.
Eleven years ago.
The difference now was that he wasn’t alone. Sophia sat with her shoulders squared, lips thinned and hands back to fidgeting in her lap. Although she was looking at where the truck’s headlights fell, he doubted she was seeing anything there. The happiness at finding a solid lead had ebbed away. She was worrying about her sister and what they would find now. He couldn’t blame her one bit.
“This road will take us through the entire lot until it stops at the bay toward the end of the property,” Braydon said. They turned with the road and crossed what he knew was the property line. “Those trees—” he pointed out her window “—divide the property in half. Tom will take the road that cuts across the field on the other side of them. We’ll drive through first to see if we see anything, then we’ll go out on foot.”
Sophia nodded.
“I guess we got lucky with the weather,” she said. “If it was cloudy we wouldn’t be able to see anything.”
She was right about that. The moon wasn’t full but it was bright enough to allow them to see most of the field on each side. What would have been better was if they had found the sticky note during the day and not after midnight. The fact that they technically hadn’t found the clue at all was a nuisance to his detective pride—he should have found the Post-it, not one of Richard Vega’s hired thugs. He didn’t have time to dwell on it too much. He needed to stay focused. He looked to his left while Sophia kept watch on the right. He wanted to keep her spirits high, but was having a hard enough time trying to push the past out of his thoughts.
Eleven years had passed. Terrance Williams wouldn’t be back here. This might be familiar but there was no way it was the same as when he was eighteen. Braydon was thinking of ghosts when he needed to be focusing on finding Lisa. She had written
the lot down for a reason, most likely to meet someone. If they could find her or why she had potentially gone there, then they might be closer to finding Trixie and Amanda, as well. He was still having a hard time swallowing that each disappearance wasn’t connected. Like he told Sophia, he didn’t buy that they were all coincidences.
“Are there any houses or buildings back here?” Sophia asked.
“No.”
“Why not? If it backs up to the bay, I’d imagine you could sell it for a good amount.” She was nervous, trying to distract herself, but she was closing in on bad territory. He may not want to talk about it, but Braydon didn’t want to lie to her, either.
“Marina is a very superstitious woman. There was an incident here a while back where a man died.” He shrugged, hoping his composure stayed firm. “She bought the land from the previous owner because she didn’t want someone to build near her house but she refuses to touch the lot. Afraid of spirits and the like.” The man hadn’t been a good one and that was why she wouldn’t build. Braydon kept that detail out, however.
“Hmm...” She went back to searching her side and Braydon attempted to ignore the growing anxiety in his chest. In less than two miles they would pass the area where the incident that changed his life all those years ago had taken place.
If the dock was his personal hell, that spot in the Dolphin Lot field was his personal devil.
“Does anyone come out here usually?” Sophia asked after a minute or two had passed.
“The occasional fisherman but only if they clear it with Marina. She’ll call us if someone drives out here that she doesn’t know. Out-of-towners don’t usually know about it.”
“I’m just trying to figure out why Lisa would be out here. She isn’t the most outdoorsy kind of woman. One time she—”
Sophia may have been the most interesting woman Braydon had met in a long time, but he stopped listening to her halfway through. He slowed the truck involuntarily. Last time he had been here he had been so young and so angry. Ready to do what needed to be done. Ready to end a life. Now, as they neared the area, he kept his eyes to the left.
Manhunt Page 6
