Vendetta

by Lisa Harris

  Similar to her sister’s abductor.

  Nikki’s cell phone rang and she grabbed it out of her back pocket.

  Jack.

  “What have you got?” she asked.

  “We’ve changed routes and are headed to you now. Bridget’s phone just turned back on. I can’t get a call through, but I did manage to track it via GPS.”

  “Where is it?”

  “Two miles from where you are. Just inside the entrance to the national park.”

  5

  Nikki ended the call with Jack a minute later, then headed back toward the officers who were wrapping up the scene. “We’ve got another possible lead. Bridget’s phone signal just popped back onto the grid.”

  “Where?” Tyler asked.

  Nikki glanced at the map Jack had sent to her phone. “According to the GPS coordinates, she’s close to the Gatlinburg entrance of the park, somewhere around the visitor center.”

  Officer Walker nodded. “We can be there in a couple of minutes. Parker . . . Yates . . . make sure this car gets towed into evidence, then meet us there. I’ll notify the park rangers and let them know we’re on our way.”

  Nikki hesitated. “And since there’s a good possibility our guy is armed, I want all tourists cleared out of the immediate area in case this turns into a hostage situation.”

  She turned back to Tyler as she slid into the backseat of the squad car, nerves strung tight. Her mind continued to work through the possible scenarios as they sped down the two-lane, tree-lined road toward the park’s entrance. “I need to get inside this guy’s head, Tyler. How did he miss the fact that she left her hat? And that she has a phone? He knows too much about technology to do something stupid like allowing the police to track him.”

  Tyler’s fingers drummed against the seat on the empty space between them. “All you need in a case like this is one bad move. He thinks he’s smart, but you’re the one who’s always telling me they’re never as smart as they think they are.” He ran his hand down the side of her arm, then hesitated before pulling away. “You need to be careful going in there. If this guy’s armed . . . ”

  “I know.” Nikki’s nerves bristled.

  “What does your gut tell you, Nikki?”

  “Just how little we know. We have a profile of a young man that’s complete fiction, which essentially means we know nothing beyond what we can speculate. I’m also wondering why he’d take her to a crowded place like a visitor center. The only reason that makes sense is that abductors tend to take their victims somewhere familiar. Maybe that’s the reason he decided to take her inside the park.”

  Nikki had hiked the trails through the Smoky Mountains dozens of times. Beyond the marked routes of mountainous terrain were endless varieties of plants. Rhododendron and mountain laurel amid weathered rocks, hundreds of species of flowering plants, and other shrubs so thick you couldn’t even get through them.

  And on top of that, the Smoky Mountains held half a million acres of wilderness and hundreds of miles of hiking trails. Phone service was poor. There were dozens of small towns and scenic routes. They’d have better luck trying to find a needle in a haystack.

  “So for now we’ll assume he’s familiar with the park,” Nikki continued as they approached the entrance. “He decides to take her inside, thinking they can get lost. A perfect place to disappear.”

  “Or dump a body,” Tyler threw out. At her look he shrugged. “Sorry, but I’m just being realistic.”

  She wasn’t ready to go there. Not yet. “Let’s assume she’s still alive for now. She manages to leave her phone near the visitor center because she knows we’ll track it? She clearly proved resourceful with the hat earlier.”

  “But why dump the phone? Why not just keep it with her if she knows it can be tracked?”

  “I don’t know.” Nikki frowned, her mind searching for a plausible answer. “Maybe she was afraid he was about to discover she still had it? She finds an opportunity to turn on the phone and call for help, and he almost catches her so she dumps it.”

  Tyler leaned back against the seat. “Let’s go with the idea that he’s here because the place is familiar.”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Then who is he? A park ranger? An avid hiker? Maybe an eco-friendly guru?”

  “Or even a volunteer.”

  “Which is the problem,” he said. “That doesn’t exactly narrow down your suspects. Beyond the permanent and seasonal personnel that run the park, you have hundreds of volunteers and more than nine million visitors a year.”

  Nikki’s frown deepened as the sergeant pulled into the parking lot. Tyler was right. The scenarios were only guesses based on what little evidence they had gathered. What they needed was an eyewitness. Someone who could positively put Bridget at a specific place at a specific time.

  Nikki joined the rangers, the search and rescue team, and local police officers outside the visitor center at the park entrance, while Tyler waited on the perimeter. She undid the side straps of the bulletproof vest one of the officers had handed her and slipped it over her head. The incident commander, Ranger Jerry Anderson, briefed them on the layout of the visitor center they’d already evacuated before dividing them into teams.

  Her pulse accelerated. No matter how many times she did this, there was always the inevitable adrenaline rush of that first step inside. The anticipation of not knowing what was on the other side of the door.

  Like the initial step off the edge of a sheer cliff.

  She stepped through the glass doors of the building seconds later, gun raised, heart beating, focus narrowed. The inside of the building was well lit, as she made her way past the information desk, map kiosk, and theater entrance. Past signs, exhibits, and a huge map of the park.

  Please let us find her, God . . .

  The normally crowded gift shop was empty as she followed her team inside. Books, maps, DVDs, and all the typical souvenirs sat for sale on neat rows. She searched the aisles systematically, looking for every possible hiding place. But there was no sign of the phone. No sign of Bridget.

  “Clear.”

  “Clear.”

  “Clear.”

  Officers called out their status one by one, then regrouped back in the lobby next to the information desk.

  Nikki drummed her fingers across the countertop, frustrated, as she waited to get Jack back on her cell. “She’s not here, Jack.”

  “Her phone still hasn’t moved.”

  “Then why can’t we find it?”

  “I don’t know. She might not be there, but the phone is. Keep looking.”

  She hung up, then turned back to the incident commander. “We need to do another search of this building. The phone is here somewhere. And I want a team interviewing everyone you just evacuated. They can hand out flyers with her photo so we can see if anyone remembers seeing her. And that includes everyone who comes through that entrance from now on. I want everyone to see her face.”

  Anderson nodded as one of the officers emerged from the other end of the building carrying a trash can. “We found a cell phone.”

  Nikki pulled on her rappelling gloves, took the phone, and pressed one of the keys. A selfie of Bridget smiled up at her. This was her phone. Her link with the world. The one link she’d never simply drop in a trash can.

  “I want this place swept, video surveillance gone through, anything you can get me. We need an ID on our abductor.” She was back on the phone with Jack seconds later. “What’s your ETA?”

  “Thirty . . . forty minutes tops.”

  “Okay, we need to expand the search. I want you to double-check that Bridget’s name is on every possible missing persons list, with an update of her possible location. Send it to every agency in the state, including the FBI, and the state’s missing children’s clearinghouse. As soon as you get here, we’ll regroup.”

  As soon as she hung up with Jack, another call came through.

  “Nikki?”

  Nikki paused, then turned a
way from the officers. “Mom? Hey . . . is everything okay?”

  “No, it’s not . . . It’s Jamie.”

  Nikki’s heart raced, but this time not from the adrenaline of the search. Her sister-in-law had waited too long for this baby. If anything went wrong now . . . “What’s going on?”

  “I know this is your day with Tyler, but there’s been a complication with her pregnancy.”

  Nikki pressed the phone tighter against her ear and moved to the far end of the counter, away from the noise, so she could better hear what her mother was saying. “What happened?”

  “The doctor said it’s a placental abruption.”

  “What exactly does that mean . . . a placental abruption?”

  “The placenta has partially peeled away from the inner wall of the uterus.”

  “And Jamie and the baby?”

  “They’ve checked Jamie into the hospital and are monitoring her closely. If the abruption progresses, they’ll have to do an immediate C-section, or . . . or they could lose the baby.”

  No, God . . . no . . . no . . . no . . .

  “I’m on my way there now,” her mom continued. “Jamie’s mom is driving in and should be here in an hour or so. I didn’t know if I should call you—”

  “Of course you should have called me.” Nikki pressed her hand against the counter, going through her options. “My boss pulled me onto a case this morning. There’s a girl missing.”

  “Oh, Nikki . . .”

  Nikki heard the emotion in her mother’s voice. Ten years hadn’t come close to erasing the memories of the day Sarah went missing. Even all these years later they never forgot Sarah’s birthday. The empty chair at the Thanksgiving table. Or the fact that she hadn’t graduated from high school or college. So many milestones of Sarah’s life they’d missed. And she’d never stopped praying, searching, or hoping that one day they’d be able to bring her sister home.

  “Let me call you back as soon as my team gets here. I could be back in Nashville by this afternoon—”

  “It’s okay, Nikki. I know that girl needs you right now. Her family needs you . . .”

  Nikki felt the tug of duty. Toward Tyler . . . Bridget . . . and now Jamie.

  “As soon as I talk to my team, I’ll be able to let you know how soon I can get away.”

  “Okay. And I’ll keep you updated.”

  Nikki hung up and stared across the room.

  Why does everything have to happen at once, God? Because this day can’t end this way. Not with Bridget still missing. Not with Matt and Jamie losing another baby. And Tyler—

  “What’s going on?”

  Nikki looked up at Tyler and shook her head. Until two nights ago, the pregnancy had been uneventful. Jamie had called her, worried about a few cramps, but her obstetrician had assured her there was nothing to worry about. And now she was facing losing another baby?

  Nikki traced her fingers around the patterns on the countertop of the information desk. “It’s Jamie. She’s in the hospital. The placenta has partially separated from the uterus. There’s a chance she could lose the baby, Tyler.”

  He placed his hand on hers. “Then you need to be there.”

  “I know.” Nikki rubbed the back of her neck. “But I need to be here too.” She tried to sort through the facts of the situation without letting emotions cloud her thinking, but instead, an overwhelming fatigue washed through her. She’d expected today to be emotional. What she hadn’t expected was feeling as if her emotions had been completely shattered into tiny shards.

  She pressed her lips together. “My mother’s on her way to the hospital right now. Jamie’s mom is driving in from Memphis. If I went, there’s nothing I could do, but here—”

  “I think you’re wrong, and you’d regret it later. I know how close your family is.”

  Nikki stared across the open space of the visitor center. Like every family she knew, hers had its own drama, but Tyler was right. They were close, and she needed to be there. Dinner on Sunday nights at her parents’ restaurant, birthday parties, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and yearly extended family reunions had helped to make her family close-knit.

  She nodded, turning her hand over and squeezing Tyler’s. “You’re right. My team will be here any minute. They’re capable of finding Bridget without me. And I’ll have my phone if they need me.”

  “I’ll find us a ride back to Obed, then I’ll drive you back to Nashville.”

  She nodded her thanks. “About today . . . again. I know I’ve already said it, but I really am sorry. Nothing went the way we planned.”

  “And I’ve already said you have nothing to be sorry about. I wanted to spend the day with you—someone who cared about Katie as much as I did. You were her best friend. I told you before, I wouldn’t have made it through this last year without you, and I meant it.”

  The day Katie married Tyler, she’d told Nikki she was the luckiest girl in the world. They’d experienced the normal ups and downs of typical newlyweds, but even through their first years of marriage, Katie had never stopped teasing Nikki about how she needed to find someone like Tyler. Because he made her happy, protected, and complete. For Katie, a girl who’d grown up in a broken home, Tyler had become her knight in shining armor.

  Nikki massaged her neck. The tension headache was back and now settling into the muscles of her back. “I’ll let you drive us home, if you let me treat you and Liam to dinner.”

  At least she’d be closer if her family needed her. And at the same time be there for Tyler.

  “I’ll be okay, Nikki.”

  She knew he was right, but when she looked into his eyes, she didn’t miss the flicker of pain. Grief pressed against her chest. He might be okay, but she also knew how he still slept in the guest bedroom. How he hadn’t finished remodeling the master bathroom. She knew about Liam’s nightmares. His fear of water, even taking a bath. Neither of them had set foot on the Isabella since the accident. A couple of months ago, she’d finally convinced him to start turning the baby’s nursery into a playroom for Liam. They stripped off the pink wallpaper and packed away the unused baby gifts before painting the room in bright yellow and lime green, adding bookshelves, and setting up a tepee she’d found online.

  For a man who’d spent so much time defending his country, he hadn’t been able to escape the scars Katie’s and their baby’s deaths had left behind. Sometimes pain stacked up, its weight crushing. Lifting it off to put life back together felt impossible.

  “Nikki?”

  She nodded, the decision made. “Let me go speak to the other officers, then as soon as Jack and Gwen get here, I’ll be ready to go.”

  Tyler squeezed her hand. “We’ll leave as soon as you’re ready.”

  She slipped quickly back into her professional mode. Organizing. Directing. Trying to ensure everything that could be done was being done. Once volunteers started to trickle in, they’d need to be briefed. Tasks would be assigned in order of importance, then added to as new leads were uncovered. They needed to move quickly, but if Bridget was in the park, they were going to be up against thousands of acres of daunting wilderness.

  “Agent Boyd?” Ranger Anderson was walking toward her. “You’re going to want to see this. One of the rangers found this in the women’s restroom.”

  “What is it?” Tyler asked.

  Nikki felt her heart stop as she picked up the photo in the evidence bag. She didn’t have to ask that question. It was a Polaroid photo of Bridget.

  “Someone must have dropped it.”

  She shook her head. It wasn’t dropped. It was his signature. One she hadn’t seen at a crime scene for ten years.

  “Nikki, what’s wrong?” Tyler asked.

  Nikki turned around slowly, the photograph in her hands. No one used Polaroid cameras anymore. But he had.

  Her mind flashed to another crime scene, the last time she’d seen his signature. Yellow tape surrounding the forested area. Officers working, cameras flashing. The crunch of the pinecones u
nder her shoes. The smell of decaying flesh in the distance, the rain against her cheek . . . Each and every nuance of that afternoon had been embedded into her brain. None of those memories had completely faded away.

  “Nikki?” Tyler asked.

  “I know who’s behind this.”

  “Who?”

  She’d been hired by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation because she’d memorized each and every abductor’s signature. She’d studied every detail and pattern. Anything that might one day help her discover the identity of her sister’s abductor. Anything she could do to stop the same thing from happening to someone else’s daughter.

  They were all looking at her. Waiting for her answer. Waiting for her to tell them what she knew about the significance of the photo.

  Instead she stood there, the photo frozen in her hand. Terrified. Terrified he was out there, mocking her. Stalking her. Except that couldn’t be true. He didn’t know her. Didn’t know she’d been looking for him for the past decade. Didn’t know she’d dedicated her life to saving girls like the one he’d stolen from her family.

  “I’m sorry, I need some air.”

  Nikki escaped through the front door of the visitor center. Officers were interviewing tourists and handing out flyers with Bridget’s photo. She had to find a way to get ahold of her emotions. Calm down and stay focused. Six hours had passed since Bridget had gone missing, and she knew if it was him, the chances of her being alive continued to diminish. Because she had no name, no current description . . . nothing. She slowly inhaled and counted to four while holding her breath. When they’d agreed to hire her for their newly expanded missing persons task force, she’d assured herself she could keep her professional and personal worlds separate.

  One, two, three, four.

  She slowly breathed out. Until now, she’d managed to find a way to remove herself from her cases. But she’d feared it would come to this one day. The day when the past collided with the present. She leaned against the stone wall of the building and stared out across the manicured flower beds and wooded area beyond them. But all she could see was Bridget’s photo.