Gone

by Karen Fenech

  “Oh,” Jonathan said.

  “If she does call, let her know Dannon’s lawyer has a family situation and we’ve postponed until two o’clock.”

  “Will do. Jake, I traced the label on the outfit. The manufacturer supplied a list of his retailers. Many of them have online websites. I found the exact outfit that Sara McCowan was wearing for sale on a lot of these retailer’s sites.”

  “Okay,” Jake said. “We need a warrant for the customer lists of each retailer, Jonathan. I want to know which one sold that outfit to someone in Farley.”

  “Rich Dannon, you mean?”

  “Maybe not.”

  * * * * *

  “Beth?” Clare’s voice came out on a shaky breath.

  Lowney laughed as he released Beth. Beth’s eyes dropped from Clare’s and she hunched her body, assuming the same position she’d held when Clare had first entered the shaft.

  “I wish I could stay and watch y’all get acquainted,” Lowney said. “but I got a business to run.”

  Clare’s thoughts were reeling from being with Beth. With some effort, she focused on Lowney. “How long do you think it will take before I’m missed?”

  He snagged Clare’s wrist. He flicked his finger across the cracked crystal of her watch then twisted off the silver band, and jammed the watch into his pocket.

  “Not too long, I imagine,” Lowney said. “But then, I won’t be keeping you long.”

  Clare wondered what Lowney meant by that. “After I spoke with you on the phone, I called Jake and let him know that I was meeting you and where. He’s going to be all over that rental house. All over you.”

  Lowney brought his fist down on her temple. Clare hit the dirt face first. Her teeth cut into the inside of her lip and blood filled her mouth.

  “Don’t play that game with me,” Lowney said. “You’re out of your league.”

  He yanked her arm, pulling hard enough that it threatened to pop from the socket. Clare stifled a cry. He bent her arm at an awkward angle to shackle her wrist to a post cemented in the ground beside her. The chain was short and when he released her, her arm hung in the air.

  Lowney flicked the switch on his flashlight then doused the flame in the lantern. He left the shaft, taking all of the light with him. Though she couldn’t see him, Clare imagined him sliding the cover slowly over the hole. She went up onto her knees, as if by doing so she could stop him from entombing them in the shaft.

  Sweat soaked Clare’s skin and her breathing was instantly rapid and ragged. She yanked at the shackle in a futile attempt to free herself. All she managed to do was spend the little energy she had. Even if she had managed to free herself, she needed to climb the ladder to get out, and if she accomplished that, in her present condition, she didn’t know if she would be able to move the cover from atop the hole.

  She closed her eyes, taking in that reality. Willing herself to stop struggling with the shackle, she took a deep breath. Then another. The air was musty but there was enough of it and for the moment, she was in no immediate danger. And, she was with Beth.

  Clare spat blood from her mouth and wiped her lips with the back of her hand. She said just above a whisper. “Beth?”

  No response.

  Clare tried again. “Beth, my name is Clare Marshall.” Clare waited and when the other woman failed to speak, added, “I’m with the FBI. I’m going to get you out of here.”

  Still no response from Beth and another thought struck Clare. “Beth, are you able to speak?” Clare went cold thinking of Lowney’s mistreatment. “Beth, please let me know that you can hear me.”

  Time passed. Clare believed she would not get a response. Then Beth said, “I—I hear you.”

  At the sound of Beth’s voice, tears sprang to Clare’s eyes. It was more than Beth’s reassurance that had Clare in tears, it was hearing her sister’s voice for the first time in twenty-five years.

  Clare swallowed to clear her throat. She didn’t want to scare Beth with the force of her own emotion, or have Beth misinterpret her tears of joy as tears of hopelessness for their situation.

  “People are looking for us, Beth.” Clare thought of Jake and her heart thudded. “We’re going to get out of here.” When there was no response, Clare prompted, “Beth?”

  Beth did not respond.

  There was so much Clare wanted to say, but she held back, afraid to overwhelm or worse frighten her sister, so she said only, “It’s going to be all right. I promise you.”

  Clare was still on her knees. She inhaled carefully. Each breath brought a fresh wave of pain. Her head felt too heavy for her neck and the darkness began to swirl. She had to lie down, but before she could, her stomach heaved and she vomited. Weakly, she picked up dirt and dropped it on the mess, but the sickness and the movement left her shaking and she lowered herself to the ground again. She closed her eyes, concentrating on keeping what remained in her stomach in there.

  Somehow she needed to turn the tables on Lowney to wrest the power from him. To do that, she needed to level the playing field. Clare tried to remember what she’d seen in the shaft. What could be used as a weapon against Lowney? How could she remove the shackle?

  “Beth,” Clare said. “Does Lowney ever unshackle you, even for a brief time?” Clare stopped speaking and the silence dragged on. “Beth?”

  No response came and Clare’s heart broke, thinking that Beth may be retreating into herself as a result of what she’d endured from Lowney.

  “We’re going to get out of here,” Clare said. “It will be okay.”

  Her sister began to cry softly.

  “I will get you out, Beth.”

  “You can’t.” Her voice was raw and weak. “You can’t do anything to stop him.”

  “I will stop him,” Clare said. “I promise you.”

  “You can’t stop him. You can’t.”

  Beth’s voice trailed off. The despondency and the hopelessness in Beth cut Clare like a knife.

  “Listen to me, please. You can trust that I will make sure you leave here alive. Nothing is more important to me than that. Nothing, Beth.” Clare’s tone rang with conviction.

  “FBI agent or not, you’re caught just like me and you can’t stop him!” Beth cried.

  “I will stop him because I’m your sister,” Clare said.

  “What?”

  Clare hadn’t meant to blurt that out, had decided the truth could and should wait until they were away from Lowney, but there was no going back now.

  “I’m your sister,” she said. This time the words came out in a choked whisper.

  “I don’t have sisters or brothers.”

  Clare got out the rest. “You were adopted by Hank and Gladys Linney.”

  “Why are you lying to me? Earl is going to kill us. Why are you telling me these things!”

  There was hysteria in Beth’s voice now. Clare kept her tone even as she said, “It’s the truth. We are sisters, Beth.” Clare scrambled for a way to prove her claim, then remembered something. “You have a birthmark high on the back of your neck, at your hairline. It’s shaped like a cloud.”

  “How do you know that?” Beth’s tone was sharp.

  “One time when you were a baby, I colored that mark blue with a crayon.” Tears burned Clare’s eyes at the memory. “I’ve been looking for you for years. I promise I will answer all your questions about how and why we were separated, but for right now, you can believe me when I say that now that I’ve finally found you, I won’t let Lowney or anyone separate us again.”

  A silence ensued. Eventually Beth’s voice came out of the darkness.

  “You’re my sister?” she asked.

  The doubt in Beth’s voice was fading. Clare’s throat constricted, and her eyes filled with tears. “Yes. Yes, I am.”

  * * * * *

  Jake followed the sheriff’s deputy to the interview room where Rich Dannon waited with his attorney. Dannon’s attack on Clare was fresh in Jake’s mind and the urge to hurt Dannon was strong. He
had to remind himself that this wasn’t about Clare. Not to make this about Clare.

  As Jake was about to enter the room, he turned to the deputy. “If Agent Marshall arrives, bring her right in.”

  The deputy nodded.

  Dannon and his attorney were seated when Jake entered the room. Dannon’s hair was matted to his scalp with sweat. He’d sweated through his clothes and his rank odor filled the room.

  “This is a mistake,” Dannon said. “I didn’t do anything!”

  “We have a shitload of evidence that says you definitely did do something,” Jake said, his tone sarcastic. “At this point, you’ll never set foot outside of a prison again. You have a chance, a small window of opportunity, to help yourself, Rich, and perhaps change that. Tell me where Beth Ryder is.”

  “I already told you, I don’t know.”

  “When was the last time you saw Beth?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know!”

  “What did you do on the day Beth disappeared?”

  “Don’t answer that,” Gentry said.

  Dannon’s brows lowered, and he reared back from his attorney. “The hell you say!” Dannon shouted. “What have you done to get me out of this! I was at Charley’s.” Dannon’s voice was shrill. “Like I am every day. Ask Charley. Ask the others who are in there every day like I am. I don’t know what happened to Beth!”

  Jake went on, asking questions at intervals. When he asked where Dannon had purchased the outfit Sara McCowan had been buried in, Gentry advised Dannon once again not to respond, and this time, Dannon heeded his lawyer’s advice. He slumped in the chair and said nothing, but the look of confusion on Dannon’s face at the question spoke volumes and further fueled Jake’s belief that Dannon was not Sara’s killer.

  Without concrete proof of Dannon’s innocence, however, Jake kept at the man, asking about Sara, and about Beth, until Gentry glanced at his watch and calmly announced that his client was due in court for his bail hearing.

  Jake intended to be present at the hearing. Clare was due to sit in the courtroom as well, while the Assistant District Attorney added Dannon’s attack on a federal agent to the crimes against Dannon and request that bail be denied.

  As Jake left the sheriff’s office, he checked his cell phone for messages. There were several. None from Clare.

  She’d missed the interview with Dannon. Where was she?

  As he made his way to the courthouse for the bail hearing, he called her cell phone again. Again, she didn’t pick up.

  He pulled into the Blane County courthouse parking lot some twenty minutes later. Clare’s car was not in the lot. He remained in his vehicle. The appointed time for Dannon’s hearing came and went. Clare didn’t show.

  Instead of going into the courthouse, Jake left the parking lot. He rubbed a tightness in his shoulder. Clare had left his house before seven that morning. Approximately nine hours ago. She was a grown woman and nine hours without contact with her should not be cause for alarm, but alarm bells were ringing in Jake’s head just the same.

  No matter their personal differences, Clare would not remain out of touch with an investigation pending, particularly one that was personal to her. He needed to find her. Now.

  Jonathan was at his desk when Jake entered the Bureau office.

  “Did Clare call?” Jake asked.

  Jonathan shook his head.

  “Clare was going to check into a hotel or motel in Columbia this morning. I need to find out where she is.”

  Jonathan nodded briskly. “I’ll get right on it. Customer lists from the retailers just came in. Wainscott is expecting them. I was just going to send them.”

  Andrea Wainscott was a technical analyst at the Columbia field office.

  “Go ahead,” Jake said. “I’ll call her now.”

  Jake placed the call. Wainscott came on the line.

  “Agent Sutton,” she said. “I just got the lists from Jonathan. What can I do for you?”

  “We need those lists cross-referenced with the residents of Farley, Blane, Arkenwood, and Grave counties and the city of Columbia.”

  “Will do.”

  Jake waited on the phone while Wainscott checked her databases for a possible match. After a few moments, she said, “Nothing, Agent Sutton. I can branch out if you like?”

  “No.” Jake exhaled a quick breath. It didn’t make sense that the unsub would live far. He was pushing it by extending the perimeter as far as he had. “I’ll need you to cross-reference another list shortly.”

  “You know where to reach me.”

  Stan entered Jake’s office as Jake ended the call with Wainscott.

  “No match with anyone from Farley?” Stan asked.

  “No one who gave his Farley address to one of those companies. Our unsub may not want packages from one of those retailers delivered to his home and may have rented a P. O. box. Post offices would have the billing addresses of its clients. We need to flag anyone in Farley, Blane County, Grave, Arkenwood, and Columbia who has a P.O. box.”

  Stan nodded. “I’ll get the warrants for the post offices.”

  While Stan attended to the warrants, Jake checked his watch again. Clare had been out of touch for almost ten hours now. Jake called Jonathan’s extension number.

  “Yes, Jake,” Jonathan said.

  “Have you found Clare?”

  “Nothing yet.”

  * * * * *

  Clare heard the pad of footsteps on the hard-packed ground. The sound overrode the scratching and squeaking of the rodents who shared this space with her and Beth. Lowney was back.

  The beam from the flashlight appeared. Lowney went to the table and lit the lantern once again.

  “Hi girls, did you miss me?” He grinned at his own humor.

  He went to the tripod where his DVD recorder was set. He aimed it in Clare’s direction, then flicked a switch and a light came on, indicating that it was now recording.

  “Smile pretty for the camera, Clare,” Lowney said, his own smile wide.

  “Why Beth?” Clare asked.

  “Why Beth?” Lowney repeated. “Why not ‘why Sara’ or ‘why Jane’ or ‘why Marissa’?”

  So many. Clare forced herself not to think of the others and pressed on. “Why take a risk by abducting a woman from your own town?”

  Lowney grinned. “Beth made it so easy for me.” He glanced over his shoulder at Beth. “Didn’t you, Beth?”

  He turned back to face Clare. “I was driving by Connie’s when Beth pulled out. At that moment, she just looked so pretty. In a way she hadn’t before. I just had to have her. I pulled in behind her and followed her out to the county road. When she pulled the car off the road, and got out to walk, I pulled out in front of her. She didn’t even try to run. She wasn’t afraid. Didn’t think she needed to be since I wasn’t a stranger. She knew me. At that time, I didn’t know that up a ways on that road, she was planning on meeting that trucker.” Lowney laughed. “If she’d taken a few more steps, she’d have seen him parked on the roadside. And he’d have been able to see her. I would have had to kill him.