VANISHED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (Edgars Family Novel)

by Suzanne Ferrell

  “Who was the party for?” Luke asked and Frank recognized the speculative look in his eye.

  “I didn’t get the name and it was held at a private club, but there was some serious dudes in that room.”

  “Senator Klein one of them?”

  “White-haired dude, tall and skinny? Stands like he’s a general or something?” Kirk said.

  “That would be him.”

  “Yeah, he was there. Along with his son.”

  “Greg?”

  “Nah, I heard someone call him Dylan. He’s the one the girl in the picture was with.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Jeffers growled and before anyone knew it, he had Luke by the shirtfront, pushed up against the refrigerator. “You knew about this senator’s involvement with missing girls and you’ve kept it to yourself?”

  Frank held a hand out to stop Kirk from interfering. Might do the hacker-genius some good to get a little sense knocked into him.

  Stunned, Abigail watched the fury etched on Jeffers’ face.

  “How many more women were you going to let them take before you passed the information on?” He shoved Luke harder against the fridge. Despite the anger in Luke’s face, he wasn’t resisting the detective’s attack.

  “I. Didn’t. Know,” was all he said.

  “Bastard! Don’t you lie to me. Three women are dead and you could’ve stopped it.”

  Jeffers shoved him again and this time, Luke moved—so quick you would’ve missed it if you’d looked away. He held the detective in a choke hold.

  “Luke,” Frank said, finally moving to stand in front of the pair. “Take it easy, kid.”

  “Back off, Castello. He started it.” Luke looked around at Jeffers. “I said, I didn’t know. Not ’til just this minute, when all the pieces started coming together.” He paused and seemed to squeeze the other man’s neck a little tighter. “Now, do you want to listen or am I going to have to take you down?”

  “Listen,” Jeffers managed to choke out.

  “Good.” Luke released his hold and the pair stepped apart.

  Abigail looked from one to the other, both breathing heavy and enough tension between them that one wrong word and she was sure they’d be at each other’s throats again. Her own heart pounded in her chest. She’d never seen that kind of male aggression except on television or at the movies, and certainly not in a confined space of the kitchen. It was way scary up close and personal.

  “Wow, dudes, that was…intense,” Kirk said in awe beside her.

  “You. Sit.” Luke pointed at the teen, the intensity in his eyes suggested Kirk obey. “I’m going to need details.”

  Kirk sat as Luke went into the bedroom, returning with his tablet-laptop.

  “Jeffers,” he said, opening the computer and running his fingers quickly over the keyboard. “When you started investigating these missing women, what was your gut instinct?”

  “That I had a serial killer on my hands.”

  “What made you think that? There were no dead bodies.”

  The policeman leaned his hands on the counter, his head down a moment and he took a deep breath. “I had women of about the same age and body type, loners, no one really missed them when they went missing.”

  “You had an MO and a gut suspicion the cases were all connected. Classic signs of a serial perpetrator.” Luke kept typing as they talked.

  “Right. But if this kid,” Jeffers pointed at Kirk, “saw Casey alive, then it’s not a serial killer I’m looking for.”

  “No. What I think we’re looking at is something just as sinister. Maybe more so.” Luke flipped his computer around. If you take your MO for the missing women, plug them into all the missing-women reports from major cities in the Midwest alone, this is what pops up.”

  Everyone stared at the page as Luke scrolled down, showing name after name.

  “Dear God, there are hundreds of names!” Abigail whispered. “How can that be?”

  “A few here, a few there, none too close in any one area for a pattern to really occur.”

  “How did you get these?” Jeffers asked. “I couldn’t find any national database.”

  “There isn’t one,” Castello said. “Edgars is the black sheep in his law-abiding family. He’s a hacker.”

  “Dude’s a fed and a hacker?” Kirk said, awe written all over his face.

  Luke took a moment to focus on Kirk. “When it looked like I was headed down the wrong path, my brother Dave set me straight. Said I could spend my life in jail, because I would get caught, and no more computers ever, or I could take my skills and use them to help people.”

  “So, if it’s not a serial killer, what are we looking at here?” Jeffers said, redirecting them back to the case.

  Luke looked at Abigail, sympathy and compassion in his hazel eyes. “Human trafficking.”

  She shook her head, not breaking the connection in their gaze despite the pain in her chest. “Not just that. We’ve found a sexual slavery ring.”

  Luke hated to see the pain in Abby’s eyes and the pallor of her skin, but she was too smart not to put the pieces together just as he had. “It doesn’t mean she’s part of it yet.”

  “If she’s not dead yet, it’s only a matter of time.”

  He reached across the island and took her hand in his, willing her some of his strength. “No, it’s not. They don’t know we’re looking for her. This bunch has been doing this so long, they’ve grown cocky, as evidenced by them leaving three bodies almost out in the open. They think of her as just another woman with no one to care about what happens to her. But Billie Jo is different.”

  “Brianna.” She smiled, a shaky one, but a smile nonetheless. “She’s different because she’s got me.”

  “And us.” He gripped her hand tighter and looked around the room at the others. Each man, including Kirk F. Patrick, nodded their heads, a look of pure determination in their eyes. “But I do think we need to move fast. After the police raid on that car repair warehouse last night, our criminals may get a little nervous. You good now?” he asked Abby.

  She squeezed his hand and nodded to let him know she was okay. “Where do we start?”

  “You pull up each missing girl case on this list, study each file and memorize the face.” He held up his hand when she opened her mouth. “It’s a lot, but if a State senator is mixed up in this, we have to assume some police officials may be, too. I’d rather not use official channels to get the files right now. Also look for patterns of any kind.”

  “So, I’m the filing system,” she said, but there was less tension in her voice this time.

  “A very sexy filing system,” he said, ignoring the groan and cough coming out of Kirk and Castello. “While you’re doing that, I’m going to see what Kirk F. here can remember from that party.”

  “Not sure what else I can tell you, spy dude.” The kid held up his hands, palms out. Despite the submissive action and Castello’s faith in him, Luke wasn’t buying Kirk’s innocent act. He’d learned to read people from years of hanging out with his older brothers. Both cops said you could tell a person’s true nature in their eyes. Kirk’s pale-blue ones were sharp and intelligent. Innocent? Not buying it.

  “You might know more than you think and the name’s Luke Edgars,” he said, then nodded to Abby. “That’s Abby, but she prefers you call her Abigail.” Abby was just for his use. “You know Castello and this is Detective Jeffers.”

  The kid nodded at each person, offering a smile to Abby that Luke had the bizarre urge to wipe off his face, especially when she returned it. “Focus, kid,” he all but barked at Kirk, but he had the kid’s attention. “Let’s start before you went to the party. Did your boss say where the party was?”

  “Some new private club down on Shoreline Drive, built into one of those old estates. The driveway from the gate to the house was like two miles long.”

  “Well hidden from any prying eyes.”

  Kirk nodded. “From the street. But there was a great view of the lake.
Saw it a couple of times when I had to circulate the canapés out on the patio and balcony.”

  Castello lifted one brow. “Canapés?”

  Kirk gave a nonchalant shrug. “Hey, I have to tell guests what they are when I carry the trays out and about. Boss sort of insists on it.”

  “So like fancy cheese on crackers?”

  “Nah, man. Paolo, my boss, has more style than that. He has these bruschetta that are like one-bite steak sandwiches, and then there’s the lime shrimp wrapped in bacon. Great leftovers.”

  “There was an upper balcony, so at least two stories?” Luke asked, drawing him back into the more important facts and away from fancy food.

  “Three. Like I said, mansion, dude. The serving staff wasn’t allowed up to the third floor and only on the second floor balcony. Nowhere else. Even Paolo couldn’t go into the basement where the wine cellar was. One of the house staff guys went. Lucky Paolo got what he wanted, since those guys looked like they drank the cheap stuff and wouldn’t know a Merlot from a Chablis.” An odd look crossed over Kirk’s face. He’d remembered something.

  “What?” Luke asked, his eyes meeting Castello’s.

  “You know, it was a little weird. I was making my third pass through the main room. All the guests had gathered there. Must’ve been a hundred or so.”

  “What’s so odd about that?”

  “Been doin’ this about a year now, so I’ve been to a butt load of those auctions for charities and when the peeps gather together, that’s when the bidding starts takin’ place. Only, you usually see what they’re auctioning off. The guy running the thing, some old, skinny, bald geezer would just call out a number. Then the men would raise a hand. No amounts was called out or nothing. Then after a few minutes, he’d say sold, then move on to another number.”

  “Fuck.” Luke ran his hand over his face and stared at Abby, seeing her brain taking it all in.

  “Dear God,” she said, growing pale. “They were auctioning them off right there in the room.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Castello said, shaking his head and his jaw clenching tight.

  “But that’s just it, Abby—I mean Abigail—I’m telling you there wasn’t nothing there to auction off,” Kirk said.

  “Oh, they had something to auction off,” Jeffers said, his voice deadly calm.

  Kirk looked at the others, his brows drawn down and his head tilted slightly. “What?”

  “The girls. They were on display the whole evening and those bastards were selling them right in front of everyone.” Abby gripped the side of the counter and tensed her shoulders. Eyes narrowed, she stared straight into Luke’s eyes. “Treating those women like cattle. How dare they?”

  Damn, she was pissed, like an avenging angel or an Amazon warrior. And wasn’t he a bastard for thinking she looked sexier than ever? “We’ll find them, sweetheart.”

  She jumped out of her seat, nearly toppling the barstool if Jeffers hadn’t caught it. “I want them dead, Luke. Every one of them. Dead.”

  He held up his hands. “Whoa. You know our job is to take them in alive, unless of course, we can’t help it.”

  “You try to take them alive. Any of them that get in between me and freeing those women I’m planning to shoot in the crotch.” She stormed into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

  Luke and the others stared in uncomfortable silence at the closed door, still reeling from the passionate threat she’d just made.

  “She didn’t mean—” Kirk started to say.

  “Oh, she meant every word,” Luke said.

  “She’s a trained agent for real?” Jeffers asked.

  “Yep, same class as me.”

  “How accurate?” Castello asked.

  “Only person to beat my scores.”

  Frank let out a low whistle and Luke couldn’t agree more.

  Abigail stalked the confines of the bedroom from the window to the door and back again, hands clenched in fists at her sides. Stopping at the bedside table she drew out her gun. She checked the clip and chamber then slid the clip back in place, finally placing her gun back in the drawer. As angry as she was, she didn’t trust herself to have the weapon at easy access if one of those arrogant males in the other room dared to bother her right now.

  “Men,” she muttered pacing again. “Whoever put them in charge? Mucked things up since the beginning of time. Politics. Wars. Famines. Making slaves out of women.”

  She stopped at the window, crossing her arms across her torso and leaning her shoulder against the frame, she shivered and stared out onto the street.

  Where was Brianna? Was she alive still? There was so much blood at the Brianna’s home and then at the warehouse. Could she have survived all that torture only to be turned into a toy for some man’s pleasure? Was fate getting even with her friend for all her years of using men?

  “Men are so easy to manipulate, Abby.” Brianna slipped on the stilettos and looked at her outfit in the full-length mirror.

  “You’re going to get hurt, Brie.”

  “You worry too much,” she said, grabbing her bag and heading for the door.

  “Dating two guys at once is bad enough, but now you’re seeing the computer lab teaching assistant on top of it?”

  “It’s just a friendly dinner.”

  She looked at her friend’s slinky black dress that revealed too much cleavage and leg to be anything less than a seduction waiting to happen. The guy wasn’t going to know what hit him. “Yeah, right. Just a friendly dinner.”

  Brianna laughed. “If he decides to raise my grade above the two-point-eight it is now, I can’t help it.”

  Strong arms wrapped around Abigail and pulled her back against Luke’s solid frame, the heat from his body soothing the chill that had replaced her anger. She leaned her head against his neck, feeling the steady thrum of his pulse against her cheek. “After what I just said out there, I’m surprised you want to come within ten feet of me.”

  He chuckled. “The others think I’ve got brass balls for coming in here.”

  For a moment she allowed herself a smile, then set it aside. “I wasn't making an idle threat, Luke. When we find this scum—and I have every faith we will find them—I plan to make them pay for treating women like this, especially my friend.”

  “I’m not planning to stop you, unless it means you go to prison, sweetheart. I’m not into conjugal visits.” He continued holding her and looking out the window. “You know, Brenda might be more important to these guys than just for what information she has.”

  “Brianna, and exactly what would that be?” she said turning her head to look at him.

  “If they are selling women, she’d bring big bucks. Probably more than the other women.”

  “Because she’s so beautiful. You know, she’s more than a pretty face and sexy body. Inside she’s smart and she does care about people.” Abigail took a deep breath and tried to pull away, but he held her still.

  “You’re right, she is much more, but in this case her outer shell may be what’s keeping her alive.”

  “And you’re telling me this why?”

  Releasing her, he stepped back as she turned, setting his hands on her shoulders. “Because I believe she’s still alive and you should too. Planning to sell her as one of their sex slaves explains why they haven’t killed her, but given what we’ve just found out, how big this slavery ring is, we need to focus and move fast—”

  “—before they move her out of the area and we never find her,” she finished his thought.

  He nodded.

  “What do you need me to do?”

  “What you do best.” He grinned that charming grin that used to irritate her in their training days. “Follow the money.”

  His words struck another sensitive spot with her, his belief that she was better suited behind a safe desk somewhere and not out in the field. Almost from the day they first met he’d voiced his opinion on that. Apparently it hadn’t changed.

  As he turned to leav
e she grabbed his arm to stop him. “I need to know something.”

  “What?” He drew his brows down slightly, fixing his hazel eyes and all his attention on her. She ignored the way her body warmed at his intensity.

  “When we were training in Georgia, why did you try so hard to make me fail?”

  With a deep breath he looked around the room before settling his gaze on her once more, as if he were looking for the right words to say. “We don’t have time to go into this now.”

  “I need to know why. You and I both know I ended up chained to a desk in Washington because of how you pointed out my analytical skills over my physical abilities to the trainers at every turn.” She released his arm and bit the inside of her mouth to stem the burning of tears in her eyes. Dammit, she thought she’d gotten past this, but even five years later it still hurt.

  “You know your analytical skills were miles ahead of the rest of the class, Abby. You have the kind of brain the agents in the field depend on to feed them accurate intel. I didn’t think it should be wasted out in the field.”

  “Bullshit.”

  He blinked.

  She’d shocked him. Heck, she’d shocked herself. She rarely cursed, but Luke seemed to bring out the worst in her.

  “It’s the truth.”

  “No, Mr. Hacker, you have great analytical skills, too, yet no one questioned you being a field agent.” She poked him in the chest. “You targeted me from the moment we met. At first I thought it was because I was a woman.”

  “That's crap. I have no problem with women being field agents.”

  “I know.” When she’d had time to think about it after their training ended, she’d acknowledged he treated all the recruits the same, male or female, everyone but her.

  “You know? Then what is this paranoia of yours about?” His brows had drawn down as he studied her in puzzlement.

  “I realized it wasn’t female agents you had a problem with. Just me. What I want to know is, why?”