Cold Hearted (Cold Justice Book 6) (32 page)

He nodded, tapping the code into Rachel’s cell. “It’s a good idea. They can look for her. We need to get back to the station.”

Rosemary Knight thrust the door open and started running toward the forest.

Erin shook her head. “Dammit. Look, call in S&R, then call the station. Get someone to give you a ride back to town. I’m staying here.”

“Erin—”

“I can’t leave her.” She pointed to the woman who’d dropped to her knees in front of the vast expanse of wilderness. “Look at her.”

His expression grew tight. “Your job depends on catching this killer, Erin, not tracking down a lost girl who is more likely to have committed suicide than been abducted,” he said angrily.

“You don’t know that.” Her eyes flashed to his. “And don’t tell me how to do my job, Agent Singh.”

His expression was disgusted, and Erin shriveled a little on the inside.

“Lady, I wouldn’t tell you how to do a damn thing.” He slammed the door closed and stalked away, already on the phone. Erin got out. When she reached Rosemary, she pulled her up out of the wet snow and hugged her tight. “We’ll find her. Don’t give up hope.”

But the woman collapsed, and Erin could barely hold her up as her sobs rang out in the deadening silence.

T
he next six
hours were a blur to Erin. Search and Rescue arrived, mostly volunteers who knew their way around the backcountry even when the weather was hostile. At least a foot of snow had fallen since morning, and Erin didn’t know how anyone out in the woods without the right equipment could survive.

Rosemary Knight sat in the back of Erin’s truck, wrapped in a blanket. Donald Knight was out there somewhere searching in the forest for his daughter. He’d come when Rosemary had called him, but the two hadn’t spoken. The strain between them was palpable.

Erin swallowed tightly against the sadness that welled up inside her. It wasn’t just the victim who suffered—although they suffered the most—but the people who loved them floundered too. Wanting to help. Failing through no fault of their own. She knew her own parents had been horrified by the knowledge her husband had beat her. And bereft when she’d picked up sticks and moved away. She’d done what she had to for her own survival. But looking at the devastation wrought on Rachel’s parents’ faces, Erin realized she needed to go home and face her past. They needed to see she was whole, not broken. That she’d come through the experience and was happy again.

Okay,
happy
was stretching it. Content maybe.

She thought of Darsh, and him saying he wanted more, and wrapped her arms tighter around herself. She’d dismissed it. Dismissed him when he’d taken that leap and asked her.

Had she refused to consider more because she wasn’t interested? Or was he right about her running away from the potential to be hurt again? She had a horrible feeling it was the latter because even the sight of the darkly handsome FBI agent sent a quiver through her, not just lust, but something else too. Something too small and frightening to bring out into the light.

She leaned against the hood of her truck. The engine was running to provide heat for Rachel’s mother and a warm refuge for anyone else who needed to defrost. There was a fire going over on one side of the parking lot, close to the entrance. Movement caught her eye, and she straightened. A group of searchers tromped out of the shadows of the forest. Erin recognized the team leader, Greg Thompson, from previous searches. Some had ended well. Others had ended badly.

She had no idea how this was going to end.

They’d put out news bulletins for anyone seeing Rachel Knight to get in touch with the cops immediately. There had been a few calls, but nothing had panned out.

The group headed toward the fire. She trudged over to meet them, her toes frozen nubs inside her boots. Someone had their rear door open with a waterproof map laid out inside.

“Anything?” she asked.

Greg turned to her and shook his head. “No sign of anyone out there. No tracks. Snow covered everything before we got here.” His breath came out in a frosty cloud. Someone handed him a drink from a thermos and he took it, looking grateful.

Another group arrived back, Prof Huxley leading the way. He’d been out since noon when his class had finished.

He shook his head as they approached, though it was obvious Rachel wasn’t with them. One of the men broke away and headed over to Erin’s truck. Donald Knight. He opened the door, said something to his wife, then slammed it before walking away to his own vehicle.

“Must be hard.” Huxley leaned close to her ear.

She glanced up. “What?”

“Not knowing where your child might be, whether they’re even alive.”

Erin shivered. “No sign of her at all?”

Huxley shook his head.

“Are you guys done for the day?”

“It’s dark.” Huxley accepted a warm drink from one of the volunteers. His skin was pale, cheeks ruddy. “We’re all sweaty and exhausted which is dangerous when it’s this cold. Can’t afford for the rescuers to become liabilities when they succumb to hypothermia.” His lips firmed. “I’m sorry, Erin. Very sorry. I know you’re close to the girl.” He eyed her with concern. “You look terrible. I bet you haven’t eaten all day. Let me take you to dinner.”

She shook her head. “I can’t leave yet.” She hugged herself harder.

He nodded thoughtfully and then turned away. Erin stood watching them all pack up their gear and start to leave. She went over to Greg. She pretended to be calm, but she felt shaky inside. “What’s the plan?”

“There’s so much ground to cover it’s like searching for a needle in a haystack while wearing a blindfold. I’ve arranged for a tracking dog to join the search tomorrow.” Regret flickered in his eyes. “But even a seasoned outdoorsman would struggle in these conditions. I don’t want to sound pessimistic but…”

Erin nodded silently. She understood, even though she didn’t want them to stop searching.

“We’ll be back at dawn.”

“Thanks, Greg. I know the family appreciates it.
I
appreciate it.”

“We all know what she went through last year…” He glanced over to Erin’s truck and Donald’s car. “Unless she took off and just left her car behind.” He grimaced. “I’d be pissed but relieved. It’ll be a miracle to find her alive in this weather, that’s for sure.”

Erin thanked him and the others and walked back to her truck. She opened the back door. “There’s no news yet.”

“They’re not giving up, are they?” Rosemary asked. The whites of her eyes glowed pink she’d been crying so much.

“They need to rest and recoup. They’ll be back at dawn,” Erin told her firmly.

“But what about Rachel?” The woman’s voice rose.

“They need to rest, Rosemary. And so do you. Do you need me to drive you home or will you go with your husband?”

The expression on her face was a mix of anger and deep longing. “I don’t know if I can face him.”

“Don’t you think he’s as upset as you are?”

Rosemary nodded. “He just buries himself in work to get through it, whereas I bury myself in looking after Rachel.” Her eyes welled with fresh tears. “I’ve been so awful to him. I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me.”

And yet he was sitting in his car, waiting.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Erin told her firmly.

Rosemary dragged the blanket from her shoulders and tossed it on the back seat. “I’m not giving up on her, Detective.”

“I’m not giving up on her either, Dr. Knight.”

Erin stood back as the woman climbed gingerly down and waded through the thick snow to reach her husband’s car. She got in and closed the door. Nothing happened immediately, but after a few minutes they drove away.

Most of the other vehicles had already left.

Erin’s phone rang. Darsh had been calling her on and off all day, telling her to get her ass into the police station. But she couldn’t abandon Rachel. She’d promised the girl she’d help her and not being here felt like the ultimate betrayal.

She snapped herself out of her funk. There was nothing she could do here now. It was time to get back to work. She had no idea if Rachel’s disappearance was in any way connected to the case or just a depressing coincidence. Her phone stopped ringing as she was about to answer the call. She figured she’d see him in person soon enough.

Drawing in a deep breath, she pulled out of the parking lot and up onto the highway, driving slowly. Her headlights met a wall of white, and she could barely see ten feet in front of her grill. She dropped her speed until she was crawling down the mountainside.

Today had started badly and gone downhill from there. She thought about what she’d done with Darsh—okay, maybe it hadn’t started so badly if you counted multiple orgasms.

A pair of headlights appeared behind her. The snow cleared enough so she put her foot down, speeding up, the back wheels losing a little traction and then regaining it, making her heart race. A few seconds later, she realized she was approaching a dangerous curve that she needed to slow down for. She tapped the brakes gently. The lights in her rear view went full beam, and she swore as they blinded her. Then the vehicle zoomed around to overtake her on the sharp bend. Her heart skittered at the insanity of the move. “Jackass.”

But he wasn’t overtaking her. Instead, the giant SUV slammed into the side of her truck and she was so surprised, the road conditions so slippery, that she lost control and started to fishtail. Another slam in the side panel had her gritting her teeth and holding on for grim life. She smacked the brakes, but they didn’t do anything as her tires slid smoothly over ice. The inevitability of it killed her—she wasn’t even going that fast. The truck crashed through the barrier and went over the edge in an avalanche of snow. A scream wanted to rip through her throat. Instead, she swore viciously, holding tight to the wheel as if she could somehow control the car as they flew down the steep slope. Time slowed, each second stretching to ten as adrenaline stormed her bloodstream. Her heart rammed her ribs so powerfully, it felt like it was about to explode from her chest. A tree sat directly in her path. She jerked on the wheel to try and avoid it, but momentum and gravity were more effective than the steering wheel. She was going to hit that giant monolith and chances of surviving the impact were slim to none. And, goddamn, there was nothing she could do about it, except pray.

*     *     *

He sat in
the car shaking.

Erin was dead. She had to be dead. No one could survive that crash. He’d killed her.

Sweat coated his body, and cold swept over his skin and down his torso, chilling him to the point that his bones felt like ice picks.

He rested his head on top of his leather gloves on the steering wheel. It had been a long day, and Rachel had made him so furious when she’d escaped that morning he’d had a hard time concentrating on anything else.

His teeth chattered.

Dead
.

The searing hate he’d felt earlier was softened by remorse. He hadn’t meant to kill Erin. He loved her. But when he’d watched her leave the parking lot, frustration and anger over what she’d done with the fed boiled over, and one thought had flashed through his mind—if he couldn’t have her, no one could.

His mouth was so dry his tongue stuck to the roof. Regret wrenched his insides and made him want to weep. But he shook it off. Regret was for losers. His gloved fingers slowly unclenched from around the wheel.

He looked around the garage and knew he had to get out of here. A cop had been killed and once they found her—
if
they found her—the town would be swarming with law enforcement.

He had three choices.

Give himself up—
not in this lifetime
. Disappear—which would make him look like another victim or guilty as hell. Or set up the next most likely candidate.

Good thing he was always three steps ahead of everyone else, which was what he’d been trying to tell them all from the start. They’d never catch him. He was too smart. He knew the system. And if you knew the system anything was possible. He opened the door, carefully closed it behind him, then slid into the darkness and disappeared.

*     *     *

Darsh pressed the
disconnect button on his phone and refrained from throwing the thing across the room.
Damn
that woman. Stubborn didn’t begin to describe her. He was doing everything he could to stop her performing career suicide, but she was hell bent on doing it anyway. And while it was one thing to care about victims, it was another to waste a whole day standing around in a frozen parking lot while other people searched the woods, especially when a killer was on the loose and your boss told you not to.

The chief was looking for an update on the murder investigation. Darsh had been covering for her, but time was running out. He checked his watch. It was dark outside. What the hell was taking her so long?

It wasn’t that he didn’t feel for the Knight girl, but he knew they’d both be more effective here.

He’d finished writing out the timeline of the rapes last year, then the trial, and added in the two new murders. Hopefully the dates themselves would rule out some suspects.