by Sara L Foust
Cody picked up the credit card and read the name. Brian Moss. It must have fallen from his pocket, like he’d worried.
“That your dad?”
Cody nodded.
“He hiking recently in the Smokies?”
“What? No.” At least Cody didn’t think so. “Ain’t seen him in a month.” His insides chilled. The hike he and Braden had gone on. The gun. He felt the blood drain from his face.
“It was you. I can tell by the look on your face.”
Cody shook his head.
The man grabbed his face, pinching his cheeks in his massive fingers. “You know good and well what I’m talking about. Where’s the gun?”
“I—I got rid of it. Dumped in some kid’s yard.”
“Where?”
“Up on Dairy Pond Road.”
“Good boy.” He released Cody’s cheeks. “Now, where’s the money?”
What money? “I don’t know. I really don’t.” Cody shrank against the wall.
“Right. Cause you’ve been so good at telling me the truth so far.”
“I don’t. I—I swear!”
“Seems you need some more time to think.”
The man set a gallon of muddy water next to him and backed toward the door.
“No! Please...please don’t leave me in here.”
“Then tell me where my money is!”
Cody covered his ears against the man’s echoing shout and his eyes against the darkness thrust back over the room.
“GET OVER TO THE BANK of America, Baker.”
“Yes, sir.” Annalise rose from the desk where she and Captain Brooks had been discussing a plan for the last half hour.
“I’ll get down to the interstate and check the security camera at the banks there. Pray we caught a glimpse of this guy somewhere between here and there.”
“I am, sir.”
She walked the short distance to the bank under a cloud-dotted sky. How could the day be so beautiful when inside she was being shredded with worry?
The cool air inside the lobby dried the beads of sweat dotting her forehead. Was fall actually going to arrive at some point this year? “I need to speak with the manager, please.”
“Yes, Officer.”
A woman in an attractive business suit greeted her in the lobby a moment later. “How can I help you?”
“I need to see all security footage from the past twenty-four hours.”
“Is this about that missing boy?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Ain’t that such a shame? We were all just devastated to hear about it on the news this morning. And in our town. Nothing happens here.” She giggled but stopped when she realized Annalise wasn’t laughing with her. “Come right this way. Anything a’tall to help that poor boy’s momma bring him home safe.”
She led Annalise into a monitor room and typed in a series of commands. The last day and a half sprang to life on the television.
“Our ATM camera doesn’t really face the street, but you’ll see here that our front entrance camera has a clear view. Use the arrows to fast forward or rewind, just like a remote.”
“Thank you.”
“Just give a holler if you need me. I’ll be in my office.”
Annalise held her breath and studied the gray and black feed carefully. There had to be something here. Anything that would help them find Cody.
What must he be going through? Annalise shuddered. She didn’t want to let those images take life. It might make them more real than she could handle.
It didn’t take her long to realize there was nothing on the video feed. Her hopes sank a bit lower. What next?
“I BROKE UP WITH JO.” Zach didn’t wait long after Annalise’s hello to share the news.
“I’m sorry to hear that. And I didn’t even get to meet her. Though as much as you talked about her, I feel like I did.”
Zach switched the phone to his other shoulder and spread cheddar cheese on his onion bagel. “She was cute. Blonde like you. Loved that I was an officer.”
“Yes, I remember that particular point.” She chuckled. “So why did you break up again?”
“She wasn’t the one.”
“Right.” She cleared her throat. “Listen, I gotta run. I’m headed over to check on Celine.”
“Any progress?”
“None.”
The sadness in her voice tugged at him. “I’m sorry. Anything I can do?”
“Pray.”
“I have been. Hey, before you go. I found the bullet.”
“Huh?”
“From the campsite.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s great. Congrats.”
“Kirk says hi again. We know it’s terrible timing, but we’re both still crossing our fingers.”
“I can’t chat right now, Zach. I’ll call you later.”
She hung up, and he smiled. She hadn’t said no this time. Or I don’t know. She was getting closer to a yes any day now. As soon as he set his phone on the counter, it vibrated with another call.
“Special Agent Leebow?”
“Speaking.”
“It’s the lab. We have results for you.”
Wow. This task force stuff sure had a way of speeding up normally sluggish-as-snail processes. “Okay, go ahead.”
“The blood on the sleeping bag was a match to your John Doe.”
“Great. How about the bullet?”
“No DNA on the bullet, but it matched a gun already on file.”
Really? “That’s great.” Well, not great. If a gun was on file it meant it more than likely was involved in a crime already.
“Yes, an officer in a nearby town submitted it for testing. We lifted some fingerprints but nothing clear enough to make a match. Most of them were smudged, and we suspect someone tried to wipe it clean. We do know it had been fired recently.”
Sounded about right. “Send me the full report, please.”
“Yes, sir. On its way now.”
He hung up and retrieved the email on his phone. No way. It really was a small world. Annalise’s mystery gun matched his tree bullet.
Chapter Fourteen
CELINE HADN’T SLEPT. The rings beneath her eyes screamed at Annalise as soon as the woman opened the door. A flash of hope zinged across Celine’s eyes.
And Annalise’s heart clenched. “I’m sorry, Ms. Moss. I don’t have news.”
“Oh.”
“Have you heard from Mr. Moss?”
Celine shook her head.
Could Cody’s father be involved? She made a note to order an APB on Brian’s vehicle. They had given Celine enough time to try to reach him. “I need to talk to all of Cody’s friends too. Can you give me names? Other than Braden. I know him already.” That was her next stop, actually.
“Cody doesn’t have friends. Not anymore.”
Annalise didn’t have the right words for this situation either. She was wrong. This was why she didn’t want kids. This heartache. This fear. This terrible helplessness she felt for a mother she hardly knew and a child she’d found irritating but loveable.
She glanced at the kitchen clock. Closing in on thirty hours. She hated to leave Celine alone, again, but her work was outside this house’s walls. “Do you have anyone that can come stay with you during this?”
A tear slid down Celine’s face.
The officer waiting outside at the curb didn’t provide much company or emotional support. “Could you call a neighbor? The townsfolk are so worried about Cody, and you.”
Celine met her gaze. “They are?”
“Mmm-hmm. They want to help, but no one knows how.”
“Several ladies have called from Norris Fellowship. Cody and I went twice for services there.”
“Oh, good. Let someone come be with you. It doesn’t make you weak or needy.”
Tears splashed onto the countertop. Celine nodded and bit her lip. “Thanks.”
“I’m going to speak with Braden. I’ll be back to check on you soon, if I’m able
.”
Braden’s house, situated on the other side of the half-moon commons, was a short walk. Annalise knocked on the door.
Braden answered, and his face paled.
“I need to speak with you.”
He swallowed hard. “Okay. But I don’t know nothing.”
How was it that people who knew more than they were willing to tell always said the same thing? “Can I come in?”
Braden let the door swing wide and disappeared into the dark depths of the house.
Guess that was an invitation. Sort of. She stepped through, let her eyes adjust, and then shut the door. Following the sound of the television, she found Braden sitting in the living room. “Is your mother or father home?”
“Nope. At work.”
“You’re here alone?”
“Yep. I’m old enough.”
She wasn’t implying he wasn’t. “Why aren’t you at school?”
His gaze darted sideways and then back. “I’m sick.”
Right. Maybe he was bummed out about his friend missing? “Listen, Braden, I’m going to level with you.”
He muted the television.
So, she at least had his attention, if not his eye contact. “Cody’s been missing for over twenty-four hours. Every minute that passes, the less likely we are to find him alive.” She let that sink in. “If you know anything that may help us find him, now’s the time to be upfront with me.”
He sighed and dropped his head between his hands. “I don’t know if it means anything or not.”
“What is it?”
“We found a gun. Last weekend.”
“The gun in the wagon?”
Braden nodded.
Her heart sped up. “I need to know every detail you remember.” Her cell phone rang. Oh, not now. What terrible timing. She pulled it out and glanced at the caller ID, then silenced Zach’s call. He would have to wait.
“Cody and I went on a hike up in the mountains. We were looking for the old troll bridge.”
“Troll bridge?”
“Yeah, there’s a hike up there, and if you find the troll bridge, they say it’s haunted. We thought it would be cool to say we’d been there.”
“You’re only thirteen. How did you get to the hike?”
He laced his fingers.
“Braden.” She imagined that’s what her voice would sound like in a motherly tone.
“We went with this high school guy. Paul. He got his license last month.”
She jotted the name on her notepad. “Does Paul have a last name?”
“Dunno.”
Helpful. “Okay, so tell me about the hike. Where did you find the gun?”
“We hiked forever. Good thing Cody had the sense to bring a pack with water and snacks, or me and Paul woulda been in trouble.” Braden swallowed. “You’re going to find him, right?”
“I’m trying my best.”
“We heard a really loud pop, and Paul said it was a gunshot, but me and Cody thought it was a big tree falling. We got distracted looking for the tree, ’cause if it made that big a noise, it musta been a huge one. And we stumbled into this camp that wasn’t inside the markers for the campground.”
The one she and Zach had hiked to? Her heart skipped. “Go on.”
“Paul started rifling through the stuff. Cody and me told him to stop, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“What happened then?”
“Well, Paul found the gun lying over on a stump kinda near the tent. He picked it up and dared Cody to fire it.”
“And did he?”
Braden nodded. “He couldn’t look like a wimp.”
Oh, Cody. Had it never occurred to these kids they might have stumbled onto a crime scene? “Is that all?”
“As soon’s Cody fired the gun, we heard something crashing through the trees. And we all took off on a dead run. But Cody and me lost track of Paul. When we got back to the parking lot, his truck was gone.”
“He left you behind?”
“Yeah, had to call my mom. She was pretty mad.”
“I’d say so. What happened to the gun?”
“Cody put it in his backpack while we were walking down into town. Once we got to the store, we called my mom and hid. You know, just in case someone followed us from the campsite.”
At least they had enough sense to do that. “When did Cody ditch the gun?”
“The next day. He said he didn’t want to be caught with it, so he wiped it down and dropped it in that little wagon on the way home from school.”
She should scold them for their ridiculous level of negligence, but the look on Braden’s face tugged at her heart. “Anything else you can think of that may be helpful?”
“No, ma’am.”
She handed him a business card with her cell phone number scrawled across the back. “Call me if you think of anything. It doesn’t matter how small it may seem.”
He nodded and met her gaze for the first time since she’d entered. “Find him. Okay? He’s my best friend.”
She couldn’t speak over the lump in her throat, so she just nodded. Lord, please help me find Cody. She’d sent the same prayer up a hundred times already. Hopefully, He was listening. And already had a miracle in the making.
Chapter Fifteen
ANNALISE HEADED BACK for the police station, dialing Zach as she walked.
He answered on the first ring. “You aren’t going to believe this.”
“Well, hi to you too, Zach.” Annalise rubbed her forehead to stave off the ache forming.
“Sorry, hi. I’m glad you called me back. I have huge news.”
“What?”
“Your gun was the murder weapon for my John Doe.”
The wind flew from her. She had a feeling, but knowing the full extent of what Cody had stolen was huge. “Wow. I have news too.”
“Oh?”
“Cody is the one who brought that gun to Norris.”
He whistled.
Their cases were inextricably tied, and Cody’s chances of coming home alive had just dropped significantly. She told him everything she’d learned from Braden. “What do you think?”
“I think those boys did a really, really stupid thing.”
“Agreed.” But they were just kids. And immature, foolish decisions aside, all she cared about now was saving Cody. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Yeah. The murderer wants the evidence back, and he’s willing to go to any lengths to get it.”
A knot formed in her stomach. “What will he do when he realizes the gun is already in an evidence locker in Nashville?”
“I don’t know, Annalise. We need to pray really hard.”
She already was, but what if God’s plan wasn’t to save Cody? What if He had another lesson planned for them all?
“I may have a lead on the whiskey runner I mentioned. Want to go with me to talk to him?”
“Absolutely.” She still wasn’t sure how, but the two had to be connected. If one of the gang’s men was dead, the boss would have to know something.
“Meet me at Sugarlands Visitors Center in an hour and a half.”
“Deal.”
ANNALISE PARKED HER truck and hopped into his. “Hey. Where’re we headed?”
“Little old cabin in the middle of nowhere.”
“Seems fitting for a whiskey runner.”
He chuckled.
“What’s this guy’s story?”
“Ah, Jimmy Vern Buchanan. Released from prison about a year ago, where he served eighteen months for illegal manufacture and sale of moonshine. Though his mafia fell to the wayside a bit while he was incarcerated, rumor is he’s back in business. No one can figure out where his still is though.”
Zach followed the road between the mountains, weaving around curves and through shadows and sunshine until he found the gravel drive, and turned left. Two snarling dogs lunged at his tires as he pulled in front of the cabin and parked. “Great. Got any t-bones?”
“Oh, yeah, keep
those in my pockets.”
“You never know.” Zach waggled his eyebrows.
She giggled. “What now?”
She turned her face toward the passenger window, where a Rottweiler had planted his massive paws.
“Make a run for it?”
“Sure. You first.”
It was Zach’s turn to chuckle. He honked the horn.
The front door creaked open, and a shirtless man in overalls stepped barefoot onto the long porch. He could’ve been the poster boy for Tennessee moonshiners.
If Zach expected the man to react, he would have been disappointed. The guy whistled and shouted something to the dogs.
They instantly retreated under the porch.
“Pretty good magic trick.” He tossed a grin Annalise’s way. “Ready?”
“Locked and loaded.”
“Good. You’re my backup.”
They stepped from the truck simultaneously. Growls erupted from the shadows, but none of the dogs made a reappearance. “Jimmy Vern?”
“Yeah, who’s asking?”
“I’m Special Agent Leebow, and this is Officer Baker. We were hoping you could help us with something.”
Jimmy Vern spat a stream of tobacco juice over the porch rail, narrowly missing Annalise’s shined black shoes.
She grimaced and took a step back.
Zach would have to let that one pass. For now. He needed this thug to stay calm. “I wanted to show you a photograph and see if you recognize this man?” He held an eight by ten photo up and watched Jimmy Vern’s response carefully.
“Why should I tell you?”
Ah, there it was. Not a denial. Jimmy Vern knew the deceased. No doubt about it. “Should I remind you of the terms of your parole?”
Jimmy Vern sighed and sank his hands deep into the overall’s pockets. “Buster Helms.”
“Okay, great. And how do you know Buster?”
“Let’s call him an acquaintance.”
“Fine. When was the last time you saw him alive?”
Jimmy Vern cocked his head to the right. “I dunno. Maybe three weeks ago.”
He was lying, but Zach would let that slip too.
Annalise had slipped slowly toward the corner of the cabin and studied something in the distance.
