Releasing the steering wheel, he pressed his left hand over hers on his arm and squeezed, but said nothing. When they parked at the agreed upon mom-and-pop meeting place and went inside, Shana wasn’t there. Sadie followed Gage to a booth where they could watch out the window while they waited for her to arrive.
A half an hour later, Gage called her number on his cell and it went to voicemail. Finally, he paid for their coffee and stood.
“What are you doing?”
“Something must have happened.”
“Do you think she’s hurt? Should we call the police?”
“I’m not sure it’s as serious as that. Something must have happened to prevent her from coming, that’s all.”
“But at the very least she could have texted you about that.”
He didn’t answer, but his serious expression told her he was worried.
Back in the vehicle, Gage started the ignition and pulled out his cell. “I’ll call her again. Text her too. See if she’s okay.”
But his cell rang before he made the call. He put it on speaker so Sadie could hear, as well.
“Gage Sessions speaking.”
“Agent Sessions, this is Shana... I’m sorry I couldn’t meet you like we planned. My boss gave me an assignment and he wanted answers by noon. I should have called earlier but I had hoped to get to our meeting.” She spoke in low tones. “He’s watching me too closely. So I decided to call.”
Sadie shared a look with Gage. The woman sounded scared.
“But even though I can’t meet you, I can give you the results of the water test.”
“What are they?” Gage asked.
“The results are normal.”
That news surprised Sadie and she spoke up. “Shana, this is Sadie. What was she testing?”
“An array of pharmaceuticals.”
Well, that told them nothing at all...or did it? She studied Gage’s reaction.
“Why would she test for that?” Gage asked. “It seems strange to me. There must be some reason.”
“It’s no secret pharmaceuticals have found their way into our water supply. Karon has been studying the impact of runoff pharmaceuticals on humans and marine animals. You know they get into the water through sewage. People flush their meds down the toilet. There’s also farm runoff. It all goes into the water. I’m not sure why she came back to test the water at night while on her vacation. That’s what seems strange to me, but I could be reading something more into it.”
“And since the water reads normal it sounds like we all were,” Gage said.
Still, Karon wouldn’t have been testing water on her vacation. Wouldn’t have done it covertly like Shana described without a reason. Karon was definitely on to something. But what?
Sadie leaned closer to the phone. “But when you say normal, you mean there are still traces of pharmaceuticals, just not in large amounts.”
“Exactly.”
“Is it possible for you to get me a list of everything that showed up?”
Gage glanced at her, surprise and admiration in his gaze.
“I’ll see if I can send that to you. I have your card and email...” Shana hesitated. “There’s...there’s something else I need to tell you.”
“We’re listening.” Gage set the smartphone on the console between them.
“I’m sorry I didn’t mention it yesterday but I really couldn’t. That’s why I wanted to meet you somewhere else. Our boss, Mr. Epson, whom you met yesterday. He had a thing for Karon. But she didn’t return that interest. She felt uncomfortable and awkward around him. He’d become jealous over a man Karon had met for lunch just the week before she left on her vacation. The fact that he’d known about her lunch, who she’d met, creeped Karon out. It creeps me out, as well. She felt like... Well, I should just say this. She felt like she had a stalker. And so she was secretly looking for a new job. Then she shows up to test water and the next thing I know... She’s gone.”
“And that didn’t seem suspicious to you?” Sadie couldn’t help herself.
Gage gave her a warning look.
“I admit it all sounds suspicious now that I’ve put it all together in one conversation. But her death had been ruled accidental and I guess I was shaken up over losing my friend. I’m sorry.”
Gage shifted forward. “No need to apologize, Shana. You did all you could do. We appreciate you sharing all this information with us. Is there anything else you can think of you want to share?”
“Not at the moment.”
“Well, you have my number so call me anytime if you think of something more that could help us. We’ll look for that email with the detailed results of the water test.”
Gage ended the call. He shifted in his seat to face Sadie. “Now, what do you think we should do next?”
“You’re asking me?”
“You said you knew how to investigate.” He grinned.
“There’s no question we need to check into Epson’s background. Also, find out what he was doing the day Karon was last seen. Her mother told me on the day before she was killed, Karon went to meet someone. Now I think that was Sean. Her mother was going to meet her at the beach rental house the next day but Karon wasn’t there.”
“I agree. We need to question Epson and find out where he was the day Karon went missing. But this, I’m doing on my own. I’m going to take you back to Joe’s, where you’ll be safe. If this is our guy, I refuse to put you in harm’s way or antagonize him further.”
Something about his tone warned her not to argue with him. That he might end up not allowing her to help him. She had to choose her battles carefully.
He started the car and headed back to Uncle Joe’s.
When he dropped her off, he walked her to the porch. “Stay here.” He hesitated, then added, “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Sadie nodded, knowing she wouldn’t argue with him. Had she imagined he’d hesitated because he didn’t want to leave her? Well, she didn’t want him to go. She didn’t want to sit here and do nothing but wait. That would drive her crazy. She watched Gage drive away. At least she could research on the internet while she waited on him to return.
A couple hours later Donna Casings, Karon’s mom, called Sadie.
“Donna. How are you?” Sadie knew the woman still grieved over her daughter’s death, as did she.
“Oh, Sadie, I’m so glad to hear your voice. I heard what happened to you. I’m so sorry. This has something to do with Karon’s death, I just know it. Do you have a few minutes to come see me?”
She’d have to borrow Uncle Joe’s truck. It had just worked out that she’d left her own vehicle back at Aunt Debby’s when they’d left the house for safety reasons. “Of course. Has something happened?”
“I’m not sure what it means but Karon sent me an email that you should see.”
TEN
Uncle Joe steered his truck in front of Donna’s house and stopped at the curb. Donna lived in Joshua, a small town on the bay side of the peninsula, but it took only a half hour to get there from her uncle’s house.
“I would have thought someone from the sheriff’s department would already be here.” Joe shifted into Park.
“Me too.” Sadie had let Donna know to call Deputy Crowley. Or she could call Gage, but Sadie could tell him when he got back.
Sadie got out of the truck. Joe followed. “I’m going too, so don’t give me that look.”
“Well, she might not want to talk in front of a stranger.” Sadie tossed her uncle a teasing grin.
“Just tell her I’m your uncle. That should suffice. She’ll understand somebody’s got to protect you when your CGIS man isn’t around.”
The way he said that... “Now don’t get any ideas. Gage and I aren’t like that. And I don’t need protecting.” Sadie had traveled the world. Had gone into the mi
ddle of nowhere with fishermen—strangers—for her research. Still, she’d had a couple of deadly close calls, so she would welcome the extra protection.
Uncle Joe chuckled. “Right.”
Sadie would have come back with something witty except as she approached the porch, the hairs on her neck stood on end. The door was half-open. She hiked slowly up the steps and drew near the door.
“Uncle Joe?”
“Right behind you.”
“Donna?” Sadie gently pushed the door wider. “Donna, you here?”
Joe grabbed her arm and tugged her back. “Don’t go in there, Sadie. Let me go in first.”
“No. I don’t want you to be in the middle of this.”
“I’m already in the middle, but we’ll both go in together, that is, if you think something’s really wrong.”
Sadie and Uncle Joe pushed the door wider to stand in the foyer.
“Donna!” Sadie called again.
Donna had known Sadie was on her way. Maybe she’d run an errand, except the fact the door was left opened like that seemed off. They continued through the living room.
Sadie approached the opening to the hall. A pair of shoes with the feet still in them rested on the floor, the rest hidden around the corner. Sadie’s heart pounded.
“Donna!”
Sadie rushed around the corner to find Donna’s form sprawled out on the floor. “No, no, no. Uncle Joe, call an ambulance.”
She dropped on her knees next to Donna to check her pulse. “She’s still breathing. She’s still alive.”
On his cell, Uncle Joe explained the situation to dispatch.
A noise erupted from the back of the house. Sadie’s breath hitched.
Someone was still there. She slowly rose from where she’d crouched over Donna.
Wide-eyed, Joe ended his call, ignoring dispatch’s request he stay on the line. “Don’t you even think about it.”
She snatched a lamp stand and removed the shade. “What? Are we just going to let him get away with this?”
Sadie took off searching the house with Joe on her heels. She gave him no choice except to follow. A window shattered. Sadie and Uncle Joe ran to the bedroom at the end of the hallway just in time to see a man wearing a mask jump out the window with something under his arm. He wore a black turtleneck and jeans.
Sadie would have followed but Joe yanked her away from the shard-laden window seal. “Are you crazy?”
Then he jumped out and took off. “Uncle Joe! You come back here.”
Sadie wanted to go, but she wouldn’t leave Donna alone. She was torn in two directions. But Uncle Joe could take care of himself. She hoped.
Lord, please keep him safe. If he gets hurt because of me, Lord, I don’t know what I’ll do.
She found her way back to Donna, who remained unconscious. What had he done to her? What had this monster done? And what had he taken? He’d been in the small office when he’d broken through the window. Had he taken Donna’s computer? Yeah, it looked like it could have been a laptop he carried away, and Sadie could guess why. He wanted to destroy the evidence. How had he known about Karon’s email in the first place? He’d obviously come to Donna’s home to fetch the receiving computer. What an idiot!
Removing the hardware couldn’t prevent a computer tech from finding the emails out in cyberspace, but maybe it could slow them down—maybe long enough the guy could destroy all the evidence. Sadie wasn’t an expert.
It seemed their guy was getting desperate—only the guy who ran from Uncle Joe didn’t have a limp. Could he have recovered that quickly?
Sadie called Gage but couldn’t get through so left a voicemail about what was happening. He would be absolutely furious, she was sure, that she and Uncle Joe had left the house. Furious that the man had hurt someone else.
Though she couldn’t remember what had happened during her abduction, she did remember one thing—the sensation that someone stood behind her.
And she had that same feeling now, that presence behind her.
She swung the lamp stand around to slam whoever was behind her in the head. He ducked and she missed.
He also wore a mask but had on a blue-collared shirt, so it couldn’t be the same guy who’d fled with the computer circling back to the house. Regardless, she could only hold him off so long.
What happened to Uncle Joe? Why wasn’t he back yet?
All these fearful thoughts raced through her mind at the same instant, but they were completely forgotten in the next moment when she saw what the man brandished.
A syringe...
Terror coursed through her veins. Oh, no. She absolutely couldn’t let this happen to her again. “Who are you? What do you want? Why can’t you leave us all alone?”
His mouth remained in a tight menacing grimace as he approached her. Was this the same man who had abducted her before? And if so, was he surprised to see her alive now? Then he would certainly make sure that she died this time. Or was it the man who’d tried to take her in the forest last night?
She would fight with everything in her. Die trying, if necessary. But she wouldn’t let him take her and kill her. This man had to pay for his crimes.
“I don’t know anything. I don’t know what you want from me!” She swung the lamp stand again. But he ducked and almost snatched her by the waist with his much longer arms. “And who do you think you are hurting innocent people? Nobody even cares what crimes you have committed, so just leave us alone.” Okay, maybe that wasn’t completely true.
He seized the lamp stand and held on to it. She shoved it forward and pushed him away, then ran for her life. When she reached the front door, he snatched her by the hair and yanked her back. How many times would this happen? Pain rippled over her scalp. She screamed and tried to free herself, her mind refusing to give in. She absolutely couldn’t let him inject her with that drug.
“No, please...” She hated begging. “I’ll be still, I promise, just let go of my hair.”
“Shh.” The man whispered as though calming a timid puppy.
Definitely insane, this guy. He slowly released her hair and as he attempted to gently wrap his arms around her neck from behind, she turned to face him. He held the syringe between his fingers. The needle glistened.
“I promise,” he whispered. “It won’t hurt.” A sickening, wicked half grin slid onto his face. He enjoyed this. “You’ll love it.”
“What...what is it?” Keep him talking. Just keep him taking. Buy some time. Maybe someone will get here.
“It’s just for you. Something new and exotic.” He gripped her arm and pressed toward her flesh.
* * *
That sixth sense he’d developed over the course of his career as an investigator kicked in as soon as he’d parked at the curb in front of Karon’s mother’s house. Something had gone terribly wrong inside. He’d pulled his weapon, but he had to be careful he didn’t hurt Sadie, Joe or Donna.
When he’d received Sadie’s voicemail he’d been furious but hadn’t wasted a second heading to Donna’s house while he tried to return Sadie’s call. She didn’t pick up. Joe either.
He ignored the fear that threatened to cloud his thoughts.
He didn’t approach the house from the porch. Too noisy. He peered into the living room through a window.
The contents of his stomach curdled as what he saw sunk in. A man about to inject Sadie with something.
And she just stood there, unable to move.
“No!” He fired his weapon into the ground to warn the man off, at the same moment Sadie shoved her elbow into the man’s throat. Gage sprinted around to the front of the house and burst through the door. Sadie slumped but he caught her.
“Are you okay? Did he inject you?”
She shook her head. “He ran off that way. Go get him. There are two of them. Uncle Joe chased on
e of them. Please, Gage, get them. And check on Uncle Joe.”
He couldn’t leave her again. Not after that close call. Sirens resounded in his ears.
She locked gazes with him and nodded. “Go, I need to wait here with Donna.”
What had happened to Donna? What had the men done to her? Gage rushed from the house in pursuit, though he wasn’t sure which way the guy had gone. He ran through the neighborhood searching. Caught sight of someone dashing around the corner a couple of houses down.
He sprinted after the man, adrenaline fueling his efforts. If he hadn’t made it there in time, what would have happened? He couldn’t think about it. That would reduce him to rubble.
Still, Sadie appeared to have been handling herself. But he doubted the man would have been so easily deterred had Gage not fired off a warning shot.
God, help me to catch him!
As he rounded the corner of a neighborhood house, he spotted a familiar man leaning against a privacy fence.
“Joe...” Gage slowed up and dropped next to the man. “Joe, are you okay?”
Joe gazed up, one eye swelling up pretty fast. “I think so. He coldcocked me. What was I thinking to chase after him?”
“Another man was in the house and almost took Sadie out.” Gage offered his hand. “Let me help you up.”
“No, you go find them.”
“They’re long gone. The sheriff’s department is here now.” Between the houses he could see the ambulance parked in front of Donna’s home.
Joe let Gage help him to his feet, and Gage assisted him back to the house. “Let a medic look you over, okay, Joe? I don’t want to have to worry about you too.”
“You don’t have to. Now go see to my niece.”
Sadie walked alongside the gurney as they carried Donna out of the house and pushed the gurney up and into the ambulance. They wouldn’t let her ride with the woman. Closed the doors and drove off. Sadie walked straight to Gage and she pressed her face against his chest. What was he supposed to do? Push her away?
Instead he wrapped his arms around her. Brushed his hand over her soft hair. Felt her shoulders rock and her body quiver as she grieved over Donna. Gage needed to find out what happened. Crowley spoke with Joe while a medic doctored his swollen eye. Gage was getting much too involved with Sadie, and he hoped Crowley didn’t notice that. Or anyone else for that matter. His SAC might remove him from the investigation and give it to Thompkins, but then who would protect Sadie like Gage would? No one. Except Gage wasn’t doing that great of a job, given the three close calls since Gage had been watching over her.
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