by Lisa Harris
“I want to see the car that went off the road,” Nikki said, “then we’ll need to ask you a few questions, Ms. Lane. I also want an updated ETA on the arrival of the ambulance and rescue team.”
“I’ll put in another call to dispatch right now,” Officer Blyth said, pulling out his radio.
Nikki moved to the edge of the cliff with the pair of binoculars the officer had handed her. From the angle where she stood, she couldn’t see inside the car. Something orange lay in the bushes.
“It definitely could be the car we believe Erika was driving,” Jack said. “I can’t see the license plate, but it’s the same make, color, and model as Kim’s car.”
“There’s no movement,” she said.
“She’s got to be either inside the car or maybe in the bushes.”
Nikki turned to Ms. Lane. “Did you see the car go through the guardrail?”
“No.” The woman’s face was splotchy from crying. “I’m sorry. I know I’m a mess.” She blew her nose on a tissue. “I haven’t been able to stop shaking or crying, because I … I didn’t know what to do. They were both driving recklessly, but then that one car …”
She leaned against the side of her vehicle and started sobbing again.
“Ma’am,” Jack said. “I know this is hard for you, but we need you to tell us what you saw.”
“Okay.” She nodded, then drew in a deep breath. “I … I was on my way home. There were two cars driving in front of me pretty fast. One was chasing the other one and even hit it a couple times. I slowed down, not wanting to get involved. I figured it was just a couple of teens, but then as I came around the bend, I noticed that the first car was gone and the second car was driving away from this turnoff.”
“Did you ever assume that the first car had simply driven off?”
“Yes, except when I saw that the guardrail had been hit, I had to look. Just to make sure there wasn’t a car down there. But when I got out and looked—” Ms. Lane blew her nose again. “I’m sorry. When I got out and looked, I realized that the first car had gone over the edge.”
“But you didn’t see the second car push the first car over the edge.”
“No, but I did see the skid marks and pieces of broken taillight near the guardrail.” She drew in a ragged breath. “By then the other car was long gone, so I called 911 and waited for someone to show up.”
“Can you remember what the other car looked like?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know cars. It was … dark blue. Yes, I’m sure.”
“Were you able to see the license plate?” Nikki asked, knowing it was a long shot if the woman wasn’t even sure about the car’s color.
“No. It all happened so quickly. I called my husband. He’s on his way here now. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You did the right thing,” Nikki said. “Could you tell who was in the car? A man … woman … a child?”
She shook her head. “They were driving so fast … everything happened so fast. I don’t know.”
Nikki glanced up the road toward Nashville. Backup should be here by now. “Officer Blyth. Did you get an ETA on the rescue team?”
“Apparently there was a three-car collision about five miles east of here. It’s going to be at least another fifteen minutes.”
“That could be too long.” Nikki shrugged off her sweater. Erika—or whoever had gone off that ledge—had already been down there at least ten to fifteen minutes, judging by the 911 call Ms. Lane had made. Another fifteen minutes could be too late.
“I’m going down there,” she said, making her decision.
“Wait a minute.” Jack caught her gaze. “It’s too risky. We need to wait for the rescue team to get here. They’ve got the equipment needed to get down there safely.”
She knew what he was thinking. Chances were slim anyone could have survived this crash. But that didn’t matter right now. If there was any chance at all Erika was alive, she needed to get down there now.
“We don’t have time to wait.” She started back for her car, not waiting for his response. “Because if there’s any chance whoever’s down there is alive—”
“Nikki …”
“I’m going down there, Jack,” she said, hollering over her shoulder.
“So the rescue team will have a second victim to rescue.”
She stopped, turned around, and faced him. “It’s not exactly the first time I’ve done this.”
“But this is different.”
“Why? I’ve got gear in the back of my car, still stashed there from the last time I went climbing. I’ll need your help to get me set up. Then, as soon as backup arrives, it will be quicker to get her up with someone already on the ground. It makes sense, and you know it.”
She continued on to her car. The last time she’d gone rock climbing, she’d ended up wishing the whole time Tyler was with her instead of halfway around the world. She’d gone back home after barely half a day, and had never taken the time to take her gear out of her trunk. She’d decided to wait until they could go again together. But she didn’t need to be thinking about him and their future. Not right now.
She popped open the trunk and hurried to pull out her gear. She owed it to Erika to do everything possible to find her. Alive.
“You’re sure about this?” Jack asked, moving to help her get everything set up and ensure it was all secure, despite his reservations.
She pulled on her gloves. “There’s a chance she’s still alive, but if we have to wait for the rescue team, it might be too late.”
“Okay, but promise me you’ll be careful. You’ve been through a lot these past couple days, and I know how tired you are.”
“All I want right now is to find Erika and Lily.”
The officer ran over to where they stood, with a first-aid kit in his hands. “You might need this. Can you take this down there with you?”
Nikki secured it with a Velcro strap, then finished making sure the harness sat snugly around her waist. “Got it.”
“The EMTs should be here soon,” Jack said. “All you need to do is get her stabilized if she’s alive, and wait for help to bring her up.”
“I will,” she said. “And Jack, I’ll be okay. I promise.”
Seconds later, Nikki leaned back, rope tight, and peered over the edge of the embankment. She’d always loved rappelling, primarily because she loved the adrenaline rush. And the chance to get away from the busyness of her life. To spend a few hours of quiet in God’s creation.
Today, though, wasn’t the best scenario when it came to climbing. The rocky cliff, full of foliage and debris, was going to make it hard to ensure her rope didn’t get caught on one of the branches. She braced her feet against the side and tightened her fingers on the rope, reminding herself again that if Erika was alive, this was their chance at getting her stabilized before the rescue crew came.
A minute later, Nikki breathed out a sigh of relief as she reached the bottom of the embankment. She dropped onto the ground, undid the emergency kit, then slid out of the harness she was wearing. A branch scratched her arm as she moved away from the rock face, drawing a thin line of blood as she made her way through the brush toward the wreck, but she barely felt it.
Someone hollered at her from the top of the embankment. She looked up at Jack and gave him the thumbs-up, then headed toward the banged-up car. Pushing aside a large bush from the driver’s side, she managed to pull the door partway open and glance inside.
The car was empty.
The window of the driver’s seat had shattered. If Erika hadn’t been wearing her seat belt …
She glanced in the back. There was no car seat. No sign at all that Lily had been in the vehicle.
Nikki turned around. The most logical explanation was that Erika’s body had been thrown out of the driver’s window. She headed west, toward the sun that was already beginning to dip toward the horizon. There was a streak of color ahead of her. The orange she’d seen from the road.
She’d been right. Erika lay twenty feet from the crash, where she’d been thrown from the car. Her body lay twisted at a strange angle. Her eyes wide open and laced with fear.
“Erika … it’s Nikki Boyd.” She crouched down beside her and smiled. “We met on the plane yesterday morning. The flight from Houston to Nashville. I was sitting next to you, do you remember?”
“You had the photo of that cute guy.” Erika smiled back, but there was pain in her expression. “I thought about you today. Did he meet you at the airport?”
“Yes, but there are a lot of people worried about you. You left the airport in a taxi before anyone had a chance to make sure you were okay.” Nikki checked her pulse. It was weak, but steady. “I want you to stay still. Help is on its way.”
“If you’ll just help me up. I can’t … I can’t feel my legs.”
“Erika … Don’t try to move. There’s a rescue team on its way right now. They’ll be able to get you out of here.”
“Okay.”
“Does anything hurt?” She looked for signs of trauma. Erika’s neck lay at an odd angle and there was a trickle of blood across her forehead where she’d hit her head on something. Beyond that, there were scratches across her face and arms, but no obvious open wounds.
“No, but I’m not going to make it, am I?” Erika asked.
“Of course you are. You’re going to be fine.” Nikki fought back the stream of tears threatening to erupt. Because she knew Erika wasn’t going to be fine. “But I do need to ask you a question. Was Lily in the car with you?”
“How do you know about Lily?”
“I work for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. I’ve been looking for you since the plane crash.”
Erika’s chest was heaving with every breath. Her eyes blinked, then shut.
“Erika … Erika … stay with me.”
She opened them again, but it was obvious it was taking more and more effort. “It’s getting harder to breathe. I never should have told the FBI I’d testify against Brian for them. They promised me I’d be safe. And I thought I could keep Lily safe, but now … I can’t keep running from him.”
“Who pushed you off the road, Erika?”
“I don’t know. Someone Brian sent, or maybe—” She stopped to catch her breath. “Maybe Petran sent someone. It was pretty clear the FBI couldn’t really keep me safe … me or Lily.”
“Can you tell me where Lily is?”
“I had to keep her safe.”
“I know, Erika. And I need you to hang in there. Because we’re going to get you to the hospital, and then we’re going to go find Lily. But I need you to tell me where she is.”
“Helen has her.”
“Helen Pope?”
Erika nodded. “Maybe I never trusted him completely. I don’t know, but I kept secrets from Brian, and he doesn’t know about the Popes. But when I called … I couldn’t get ahold of them.” Erika was whispering now. “I told them to run, but you have to find her before he does. Please. You have to keep her safe. That’s all I ever wanted.”
Nikki crouched closer beside Erika in order to hear her better. How was it that she’d survived the airplane crash only to die barely twenty-four hours later in a car crash?
“Erika … Erika? Please stay with me … Please.”
Nikki pressed her ear next to Erika’s mouth to feel for a breath.
Nothing.
Nausea swept through her.
Erika had died. Her friend Kim had died.
None of this should have ever happened.
“I was supposed to save her, God.”
Nikki stared up at the overcast sky. This was her job. The thing that got her up every morning, because she knew she was making a difference. Stopping someone’s mother from having to go through what her mother had gone through. Find them and bring them home and ensure that those responsible never had the opportunity of doing this again. She’d promised to protect and uphold the law. That’s all she’d ever wanted.
And what about the chance encounter on the plane. Hadn’t that been an act of God? If she’d tried looking for Erika in those early moments after the crash, if she’d found her sooner …
But now she was dead.
Nikki’s phone rang in her back pocket. She stood up, stepped back from Erika’s body, and answered the call.
“What did you find?” Jack asked.
“She was thrown from the car. I was able to talk with her. I just needed a few more minutes, but she’s gone, Jack.”
There was a long pause before Jack responded. “Was Lily in the car?”
“No. We were right. She’s with the Popes, though Erika hasn’t been able to contact them.” She stared straight ahead at the twisted metal. “But they killed her. We were supposed to stop this from happening.”
“We can’t stop them all, Nikki. Even as much as we want to. You know that.”
She knew she was starting to sound hysterical. Knew she had to get control over her emotions. Because if she didn’t, she’d never be able to work a case again.
Nikki drew in a deep breath. “If Lily’s still alive, she’s never going to know her mother. It just … it wasn’t supposed to end this way.”
“Russell wants Lily alive, which means there’s a good chance she’s still out there. Safe.”
“I hope so.”
But they needed to find her before Russell did.
23
7:33 p.m.
Precinct
Nikki stood in front of the timetable they’d posted for Erika, trying to pinpoint where Lily might be … and to make sense of what had happened over the last few days. The room smelled like Chinese takeout, but all she could think about was how had Erika Hamilton gone from informant with promised FBI protection to dead in the bottom of a gully?
She’d spent the past hour combing through the information they had discovered, along with the file the FBI had given them. They needed to know where the Popes would take Lily, but so far, not only were there still holes in their timeline, every lead she’d followed up on had ended up being a dead end.
“You know this wasn’t your fault,” Jack said, stepping up beside her. “Erika’s death … there’s nothing else you could have done.”
“Maybe. I just didn’t expect things to end this way. I feel like I had the chance to stop this, and I couldn’t.”
She knew as well as anyone that sometimes you can’t stop bad things from happening. Sometimes all you can do is trust God and hold on when life sucks you into the darkest places.
But she’d been on the plane with Erika. She was the one who’d first discovered she was missing. She was the one who’d been pulled into the case by the FBI to find her. And now Erika was dead. “I just wanted to save her.”
“We still can find Lily,” Gwen said, looking up from her desk.
“And if we don’t?” Nikki let out a deep sigh. “Russell’s been one step ahead of us this whole time, and it’s as if the Popes have vanished.”
“Maybe that’s what Erika wanted,” Jack said.
“I know that’s what I would have wanted.” She rested her hands on her hips. “But no one simply vanishes. They have to be somewhere. Someone has to have seen something that will help us find the Popes.”
“Let’s walk through the timeline again. Maybe we’ve missed something.”
“Okay.” She took a step closer to the board, praying for the answers they needed. “Here’s what we know so far. According to Justin, Erika’s biggest fear was losing Lily. If Russell went to prison, then she could keep full custody of Lily and not worry about him taking her away. So for her, working with the FBI was her only way out.”
“Her motivation,” Jack said.
“Yes, but before she agreed to work with the FBI, she had to make sure Lily was at a place where she’d be safe. Which was—according to Erika—with the Popes. Maria told us there was a birthday party for Erika last Wednesday night in Houston. Lily was there as well.”
“So how did Eri
ka get Lily to the Popes?” Jack asked.
Nikki nodded. “We know that on Friday morning, Erika told the FBI she would agree to testify against Russell. This was after several attempts on their part to get her to talk. They took her to a safe house, where they spent the next two days listening to her evidence.
“After two days of interviewing with the FBI, someone broke into the safe house and attempted to grab Erika. Fortunately, the agents managed to stop him, but he got away.”
“And we now know,” Jack said, “that the description of the attacker is the same as the man who broke into your apartment.”
“Exactly. Then at some point after the attack, early Sunday morning, she warns the Popes to run. We know this because Helen Pope left a note for her boss at Ray’s diner saying she’d be out of town for a few days.”
“I think there was someone else involved. Someone else who helped Erika. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Someone had to take Lily to Tennessee—”
“I think you’re right. She ensures Lily is safe in Tennessee while she goes back to the FBI to get ready for the grand jury.” Gwen shoved her chair back from her desk. “But I can give you another reason I think someone else is involved.”
Nikki stepped away from the timeline to give Gwen her full attention.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I’ve been going through that cell phone you found in Erika’s car at the crash site. There were files hidden inside it. Most people, when they want to hide something, use encryption, which will obscure the data, but it’s still obvious there is something there. That’s not what Erika did. She encrypted the data and then managed to hide its existence.”
“What did she do?” Jack asked.
“She—or someone—used a stego technique that makes it almost impossible to even tell that there is any private data with the file,” Gwen said. “According to her FBI file, she told them that she had more information. Hard evidence that included information that could put Brian Russell away for life, but she wasn’t ready to give it to them yet. The file on her phone must be what she was talking about.”
