Authors: CJ Lyons
Lucy wished she had an answer. Or even a concrete direction to head in.
"Okay." He sighed, his shoulders heaving as he put his hat on and opened the door. "I'd best be going. You okay staying here?"
"Yeah. Someone should."
With Harding and the sheriff gone, the house echoed with quiet. Lucy wandered through the downstairs until she found Jenna in a study beside the dining room. She was buried in her laptop, reading something, forehead wrinkled.
"Did you know we have another missing kid?" Lucy asked.
"Sally. I know. Did you know she's also the New Hope Killer's child? Just like Darrin. It can't be a coincidence. I'm watching the security footage of Bob's killing, trying to see if there's something we can use to identify this other girl. She's got to be the key."
"Any luck?"
"No. I sent it to Taylor in Pittsburgh in the hopes his techy friends could work some magic. But I haven't heard back from them yet."
"Weird we haven't had a missing person report on her. She's young enough someone should have missed her by now."
Jenna looked up from the computer. "Unless her mom isn't in a position to report her missing." She paused. "I know you won't like this, but what if the New Hope Killer isn't dead? At least, not his partner. What if he took this girl's mom?"
"I thought you thought Adam Caine was behind all this? There's no way he can be the killer. He was an infant when the oldest case we found happened."
"Maybe he's working with—no, that doesn't make any sense," Jenna interrupted herself. She did that a lot, Lucy noticed. "He'd never partner with the man who killed his mom. Or got his mom killed. Whatever." She blew out her breath in frustration. "I don't know. It doesn't make sense. But it's too much coincidence not to be tied to what happened here four years ago."
"Keep working it. I'm going to check on Karen."
The way Jenna immediately focused on the computer once more, Lucy had the feeling she thought Lucy had the more difficult task. In a way she did. Waiting was always the hardest part.
Karen wore gray today. The color didn't suit her. Made her look more washed out than the white had. She practically blended into the mist shrouding the windows of her bedroom. Lucy wondered if she'd left the room since yesterday.
"Have you eaten? Can I get you anything?"
Karen shook her head. "Olivia made me eat some eggs a little while ago. I think they were eggs. I didn't really taste them, just spooned them in until the bowl was empty and she was happy."
"You need to take care of yourself."
"I need to take care of my daughter." She inhaled slowly, her body expanding then emptying once again. "Better than I did my son."
Past tense. Never a good sign. "You can't give up hope."
"Hope?" Her voice broke on the syllable as if the word was foreign.
"Yes. Hope." Lucy sat down across from Karen, their knees almost touching. "What you endured, what you survived—that takes a rare kind of strength. But I think you've forgotten that. You've forgotten you have that in you. You need to find it again, Karen. For the sake of both your children."
Karen shook her head at Lucy's words, forbidding them, casting them away. "I'm not like you. I can't just grit my way through the fear. It's like suffocating. The only way to get any air is to surrender to it. Then you find just enough to survive. But that's not enough to share."
"Are you sure? Because if that's true, you've already lost both your children. When Darrin gets back, he's going to need you to be there for him. Olivia, she needs you now."
"They don't need me. They never have. I'm just a burden to them. I'm not strong. Not like you."
"Like hell you aren't. You survived, Karen. You want to forget that along with everything else that happened to you. But if you deny that part of you, there's nothing left."
Karen was silent, knees pulled up to her chest, rocking in her chair as she thought. Lucy waited but she said nothing, so finally she stood to go.
"Lucy." Karen's voice was a whisper. "Do you really think I might get him back? That he's still—alive?"
Lucy knelt before Karen's chair and took both her hands in her own. "I promise you, Karen. We're doing everything possible to find him." Lucy never made promises she couldn't keep, especially not to parents in situations like this. But she knew platitudes weren't going to be enough to give Karen the strength she needed to dare to re-enter her life. "We'll bring him back."
"It should have been me. I would have gone."
Lucy shrank away from the other woman's words. "What do you mean?"
"It was…peaceful. After awhile, I didn't think, didn't exist, didn't feel. There was no fear. Not like here, not like every day since."
Dissociation. Common among victims of prolonged trauma. Lucy wished she could call Nick for a consult. "That was your way of coping. Then. When it was just you. But Karen, that won't work. Not now. Not if you're going to be there for Darrin. Not if you're going to help Olivia get through this. Can you do that? Help your kids?"
Another soul rattling sigh. "I'll try."
"Good. Why don't you get some clothes on, come on down for lunch?" Lucy waited for Karen's reluctant nod, then left, knowing she'd pushed her as far as she could.
She reached the bottom of the steps when the doorbell rang. She opened it, surprised to see Colleen Brady standing there. No coat, no hat, hugging herself against the cold. "Did you know? They called off the search. Just called it off. Where's Kurt Harding? I want to know why he told them to stop looking for my son."
Chapter 30
Jenna heard the commotion at the front door and ran out of the office. Colleen Brady stood there, snow melting in her hair, eyes wide with fear or maybe anger. Lucy escorted the woman inside and closed the door behind her. They sat on the wide leather couch facing the windows. Jenna stayed standing, not liking the waves of panic rippling off the mother.
Somehow Lucy didn't seem bothered. "They had to stop the search. Just temporarily."
"Why? Someone said it was because they heard from kidnappers. Why didn't they call me? Did they say if Marty was okay? Send a picture or video or something? Please—" Colleen collapsed forward, elbows on the large slate coffee table, face buried in her hands. "I can't take this. Not knowing."
Lucy wrapped her arm around the woman and pulled her into a hug. Like she was a friend, not just a victim. "I know. I know."
They sat together crying. Olivia came to the landing and looked down, followed by her mother. Karen Harding whispered something to the girl who nodded, came down the stairs and disappeared into the kitchen. Jenna's phone buzzed and she retreated to the study to answer it.
"I found her!" Taylor's excitement jumped through the airwaves. "Morgan Ames. Lawrence, Kansas. Disappeared two years ago when she was eleven."
"Good work. Are you sure?"
"You only get her full face in a few frames, but the photo from the NCMEC is a dead ringer. Even down to the mole on her left eyebrow."
"Anything on the family or how she went missing?"
"Report says she was last seen walking away from her house with a taller boy, brown hair, hunched posture. No other descriptors. No one got a good look at him or where they went."
Tall, brown hair, hunched posture. "Caine. Sonofabitch." So he and this girl were accomplices? But he would have only been twelve when he took her. "All the way from Kansas? There has to be an adult."
"You asking me or telling me?"
"Anything pop on that background check I asked you to do earlier? Colleen Brady?"
"Found a report alleging an assault. Filed almost seven years ago. Closed as unfounded."
Seven years ago? And Marty Brady was six. Too much of a coincidence. "What kind of assault? Where did it take place? Who were the suspects?"
"Sorry. All it says is unfounded, complaining witness emotionally unstable."
"What the hell? What kind of report is that?"
"Military Police. Fort Rucker, Alabama. Can't find any other records about it. Either they scrubbed it or maybe junked it before an investigation was begun. Couldn't tell you. Have to go through the Army. And you know how much they like to share."
Assault. Too vague. Could be a simple attempted mugging or even a drunk soldier getting frisky. Hell, could be a fellow army wife pissed off about something. Who knew?
One person knew. "Thanks, Taylor. Call me if you find out anything more about the Ames girl."
"Yeah. But," he hesitated, "shouldn't we call the family? Let them know we found her? They've been waiting for two years."
"Not yet. Not until we actually have her."
"You don't really think she killed that deputy, do you? Such a tiny thing. She looks so, well, sweet. Innocent."
She shook her head. She might be the rookie on the team, but she sure as hell wasn't the most naive. "Just call me. Thanks."
Jenna pocketed her phone and peeked outside to the living room. Lucy and Colleen still huddled on the couch facing each other, cups of tea steaming from the slab of slate that served as a coffee table. Damn, this was going to be hard. Should she let Lucy take the lead?
Last time she let Lucy take the lead, a police officer ended up dead.
She walked out to the living room and sat in a leather chair perpendicular to Colleen. "Mrs. Brady, I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Inspector Galloway. I work with Special Agent Guardino."
Lucy cut her a look filled with warning. Tread lightly.
"Ma'am," Jenna continued, trying to keep her voice even and non-threatening. "I was wondering if you could tell me about an assault you reported seven years ago at Fort Rucker in Alabama?"
Colleen didn't gasp or faint or anything dramatic. She just vanished. Her body frozen, her expression an absolute blank. Lucy leaned forward and placed one hand on her knee. "What is it, Colleen?"
It took a moment before Colleen's thousand-mile stare retreated. Her shudder rocked her entire body. "I hoped I'd never have to think of that night again."
"What happened?"
"I went shopping. Off post. Must have picked up a nail or something, because on the way back, it was dark and Rucker is in the middle of nowhere. Tire went flat just as I was passing Lake Tholocco. Couldn't reach anyone on my cell, so I was getting ready to change it myself when this mail truck pulled up."
"A delivery vehicle?" Jenna asked.
"No. A semi. But the trailer was marked US Mail. He said he was headed to Rucker, would be happy to drop me off at the gate. Or he could send someone back for me. He even offered to change the tire himself, but I could tell he was on a schedule and he seemed so nice and so I said I'd wait in the car if he could send help as soon as he got to an area with cell phone reception. He said fine, but first we better push the car farther off the road so no one hit it in the dark and so we both went to the back to push and—" The headlong rush of words fractured into silence.
Colleen gasped for air, hands clenched around her knees, hanging on tight. "He used a stun gun on me. Next thing I knew I was in the dark, in a compartment on his truck. I knew we were moving, I could feel the vibration below me like I was just above the road. It was so noisy, but I couldn't see anything. My hands were tied with plastic loops. They were so tight, it hurt so bad." She dragged in a breath. "He pulled off the road and came inside and…"
"He raped you?" Jenna asked, despite Lucy's warning scowl. Hell, they weren't ever going to court with this, and they didn't have time to waste.
Colleen nodded. "Over and over. All that night. And—" The thousand mile stare was back. "Other things." Then she straightened. "But I got the better of him. He thought I was unconscious, left for a while. I'm not sure how long. I was ready for him when he came back. Broke those plastic zip ties just like Martin taught me to. I waited by the door and when he came inside, thinking I was in the front of the trailer where he left me, I ran out, slammed the door, and kept on running.
"He'd parked near a roadside bar at the edge of the camp. Place with a few rooms out in back where guys would go to blow off steam, you know, with hookers. I was naked, half crazed, and I guess the owner thought it best to call the MPs instead of the county sheriff. By the time they came, the truck was long gone. They took me to my car and the tire wasn't flat any more.
"So," she shrugged, "they said if I was lonely because Martin was busy training or I was trying to cover up a one night stand or affair, there were better ways to do it. As a favor to Martin, to protect his career, they were going to close the case. Even said I was lucky they didn't press charges against me for filing a false report."
Jenna didn't blame her for the bitterness that colored her voice. She'd spit nails if anyone tried to do that to her. "Did you see your attacker?"
"Yes, a little. Had a ball cap on and a very full beard. Wore tinted glasses even though it was night. My description was pretty worthless. He could have been any one."
"Did you go to the hospital? Have an exam done?"
Colleen glared at her, her gaze clear for the first time since she began telling her story. "I'm a nurse. Of course I did. Even talked to the county attorney, but no one wanted to pursue it. The chain of command was too tangled. The truck was parked on Army property, but they wanted no part of it. And…" Another shrug. "Without evidence, what could they do?"
"I'm so sorry you went through that." Lucy nodded to Jenna. She finally got where Jenna was heading.
"One good thing came of it. In the ER they did a pregnancy test—didn't want to give me the Ovral if I was already pregnant. And that's when I found out about Marty."
Jenna sat up. "So he's not the rapist's child?"
"No. He's Martin’s. Through and through." Colleen looked at them. "Why did you need to know? I mean, my case couldn't have anything to do with what happened here or to Karen Harding, could it? He was just a sick truck driver, not a serial killer." Despite her words, she hugged herself and pulled back into the corner of the couch.