Too Close to Home (33 page)

Connor was beginning to believe that it was actually possible to go stark-raving mad from worry. Samantha had stayed at the scene. He went with Tom to the hospital. Once the guy was patched up, he wanted to be able to talk to him in minute detail about everything that had happened.

Hang on, Jenna, baby, I’m coming. Daddy’s coming.
Horrible visions clouded his mind, and it was all he could do not to scream. He didn’t want to be riding to the hospital, he wanted to be searching for Jenna. But Tom was the only person who’d come into contact with the guy killing girls and lived through it—except for the unconscious cop. Talking to Tom might net him that one clue that would lead him to his daughter.

And the killer.

He had to be patient, be smart.

At the hospital, Connor followed the gurney into the emergency department.

“Connor?”

He turned. “Jamie. Hey, how are you?”

“I’m all right, thanks. I’ve been praying for Jenna.”

His throat worked. “Thank you.”

“Is Tom in there?”

“Yeah, they’re stitching him up.”

“Do you think they’ll keep him?”

Connor shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s possible. I know he conked his head and was unconscious for a while.”

She grimaced. “Ouch.”

“Detective Connor Wolfe?”

Connor stood. “Yeah, that’s me.”

The doctor walked over. “He’s going to be spending the night. I want to keep an eye on him due to the head trauma. He’ll be up in a room in about fifteen minutes if you want to meet him there. Room 525.”

“Thank you.”

Jamie popped up. “Do you mind if I come with you?”

“No, I’m sure Tom would be glad to see you.”

They walked to the elevator and made their way up to the room to wait.

Samantha had a feeling they were missing something. They’d found Tom’s car parked around the back in a small storage building. Jenna’s phone along with her backpack had been recovered. The car had been impounded and any fingerprints found would be run through AFIS, the Automated Fingerprint Information System. Hopefully, there would be a match.

Before they could adequately finish the search of the area and the grounds surrounding it, the sun sank below the horizon, encasing her side of the world in darkness.

She wanted to get to the hospital, but before she left, she called Connor. “They’re going to keep at it, but there’s no way to make sure we’ve gotten everything, even with the artificial lights. We’ll have to go over it again in the morning light too.”

“I’ll arrange to have third shift officers keep watch overnight. I don’t want our guy coming back and trying anything funny.”

“Fine, I’m on the way to the hospital.” But first she’d call the prayer chain at her church.

Oh Lord, please keep Jenna safe.

Samantha was tired. A bone-deep weariness stalked her. When this case was resolved and Jenna was safe, Sam planned to sleep for a week.

Back to business.

She left the warehouse and crawled into Connor’s car to head to the hospital.

Jenna kept the scream from erupting by sheer willpower. She’d never been a weak person. According to her dad, from the time she could talk, her favorite word was “no.”

She used it now. No, she would not scream. No, she would not pace. No, she would not give in to the panic threatening to consume her.

No, no, no, no . . .

“Do they bring you food?” Patty sat up abruptly. “Or are we just going to be left here to starve to death?”

Veronica’s eye twitched. “Yes, they brought us food, obviously. But here . . . I don’t know. We haven’t been here long enough for me to know what they’re going to do. But they planned this.”

“What do mean? I thought they ran from the other place not to get caught.”

“They did, but this was no doubt their backup plan in case something went wrong with the original setup.”

“And you know this . . . how?”

“The panic button.”

“Come again?” Jenna wished the girl would just spit it out.

“Right there.” She pointed to a red button on the wall by the foot of the stairs.

Jenna examined it. “What does that do?”

“It means one of the pregnant girls is in trouble or labor and it brings them running. But no one dares to push it without a good reason. He’s already warned us of that.”

“What would happen if I pushed it and no one was in trouble?” “He’d punish someone.”

“Who?”

“There’s no way to know, but he’d cause someone a lot of pain. Most likely one of you three.”

Great big tears filled Patty’s eyes. “I don’t want to stay here. I don’t want to have a baby. I don’t want to die. I want to leave!” She jumped up to race up the stairs and pound on the door.

Jenna sighed, heart clenching for her friend. Feeling partially responsible for her friend’s predicament, she rose from her spot on the bed and went after her.

“Patty. Stop. You’re wasting your energy. Stop.”

She tried to put an arm around the girl, but she wasn’t having it. Patty whirled so fast she nearly knocked Jenna back down the steps.

“Patty, watch it!”

“This is your fault,” she sobbed. “All your fault.”

Indignation welled up. “Hey, you’re the one who messed with my phone and told Danny you’d meet him. So don’t go blaming this on me.”

She stomped back down the stairs, wanting to blister the air with curses. Instead, she clamped her teeth into her lower lip and held on to her fragile control.

Veronica and Julienna just sat there watching all the commotion.

Jenna stopped and asked, “How do you guys just . . . sit?”

“Not much choice. When you’ve been locked up as long as we have, you just kind of . . . make do. Adjust.”

“I’d go insane.”

“Or that.”

Wondering if she was joking, Jenna looked into Veronica’s eyes. She wasn’t. “Who brings the meals?”

“Usually Danny. Occasionally, the nurse, Crystal. I’ve seen this other woman every once in a while, but don’t know who she is.”

Jenna paced, thinking. What would her dad do in this situation?

First of all, he wouldn’t have been dumb enough to land in this situation, but if he did, what would he do?

Figure out how to get out of it. Patty came back down the steps and brushed past Jenna to fling herself across the nearest bed.

Jenna ignored her, thinking. “What would he do if I got sick? If I were bleeding or dying and needed medical attention?”

Veronica eyed her. “If it was beyond Crystal’s ability to help you and you weren’t pregnant yet—or you’re an unplanned complication causing him trouble, he’d probably just let you die.”

Lovely.

Jenna’s gaze landed on Veronica’s stomach.

“What?” Veronica asked, wariness oozing from her.

“What if it were you?”

The girl wasn’t slow. “If it were beyond Crystal’s expertise, he’d get me medical help. Somehow.”

“Because he’s got a lot of money riding on Junior there, I’d bet.”

Veronica nodded slowly, dark eyes flashing. “I hadn’t thought about it. Actually have done everything not to think about it. But yeah, you’re right.”

“Okay, here’s the plan.”

28

By midnight, there’d been nothing new from any direction. Samantha paced as she took refuge in her apartment. They’d agreed to meet again at dawn. Connor had gone home to break the news to his parents about Jenna’s disappearance.

Jamie decided to stay at the hospital and watch over Tom, who hadn’t bothered to call his siblings to let them know what had happened. And had refused to allow anyone else to call them either.

“It’s not a big deal. I’ve been hurt a lot worse.”

Unfortunately, Tom hadn’t had a lot to offer in the way of leads on his attacker. He’d been surprised from behind, yanked from the vehicle as he’d stopped to get gas, and tossed to the ground. The assailant had jumped into the idling vehicle and taken off—with the car and Tom’s cell phone.

He explained that he managed to get to a pay phone and call the FBI office to get a trace on Jenna’s phone and a cab to get him back on the road. Once in the cab, he hadn’t had time to stop and find a way to contact Samantha and Connor.

Tomorrow, Samantha and Connor would retrace Tom’s steps to see if they could find someone who saw something. Until then, she might as well try to sleep.

Samantha’s phone rang. She looked at the clock: 12:40.

This wouldn’t be good.

With a sigh, she answered it.

“Hey, Jamie, what’s up?”

Hesitantly, worried, Jamie answered. “I . . . I’m not sure. I need you to come by the hospital tomorrow when you can, all right?”

“Sure, you want to tell me what’s wrong?”

“Well, that’s the problem, I’m not sure anything is wrong. But there may be. I just need a little more time to figure out for sure.”

“You know you’re being aggravatingly vague here.”

A small chuckle filtered through the line. “I know and I don’t mean to, but I wanted to catch you and ask you to stop by sometime tomorrow.”

“Not a problem. I’ll probably head over to the crime scene first, then come by. All right?”

“Thank you, Sam.”

The Agent grunted as he shifted and thought about how to handle the coming morning. Boss had already taken care of the girls. And Boss had told him not to worry about anything but covering his tracks.

He glanced at his cell phone sitting on the end table. An FBI operative had brought one by to replace the one he’d tossed to ensure he didn’t have it on him in case something went wrong. And boy, had something gone wrong. The only loose end was that he’d been stupid enough to say he’d called someone at the FBI to trace Jenna’s phone. Hopefully, no one would check that out. And if they did . . . well, he’d be long gone before then.

Calling Boss might have been a mistake too, but it couldn’t be helped. Too much money rode on this, and he needed Boss to care for the girls until he could get back there undetected.

Officers were guarding the warehouse while the CSU team searched it. He wracked his brain trying to think if there was any possible way someone could find the entrance to the underground room and locate the girls.

He didn’t think so. It had been especially made for the purpose it was being used for. Plan B. Fury stirred within him at the fact that Plan A had been disrupted. Everything had been going along so nicely.

Until Crystal’s betrayal.

But he’d taken care of her.

A scalpel to the throat had shut her up for good. He’d seen the news covering her death. But there’d been no mention of the basement in the house at the farm. No mention of her death being related to the missing girls. And no mention of her working at the doctor’s office where she’d made sure the girls he’d snatched were appropriate for their needs.

And he knew they knew.

The authorities were playing with their cards held tight against their chests, not offering much in the way of information about the investigation, but warning parents to keep tabs on their kids and admonishing teens not to meet strangers over the internet.

The Agent smiled for the first time that day.

But they never listened.

Because it could never happen to them.

At least that’s what they thought.

Until they met him.

And then he changed lives.

It was as simple as that.

Sunday morning, Samantha hated to skip church, but she had a case to solve. Her gut told her the end was in sight and she wanted to be there for Connor—however the ending played out.

She did take time to pause for about five minutes and have a heart to heart with God, asking for Jenna’s safety and Connor’s peace of mind. And that they would find the rest of the girls alive.

Then she slipped out the door into the still-dark morning, climbed in her car, and headed for the precinct. Jamie’s comment about checking into something surfaced in Samantha’s thoughts. She made a mental note to follow up on it—whatever it was, her sister had sounded worried.

Samantha made her way to the conference room where the task force would plan out the day. The crime scene guys should be on their way back to the scene to examine it more fully as soon as the sun made its appearance.

Entering the room, she pulled up short. Connor was already there, looking drawn and haggard. She doubted he’d slept the night before. Probably spent the wee hours of the morning going over all the evidence—or the lack thereof.

She laid a hand on his shoulder and he looked up. “How you doing?”

He released a sigh. “Hanging in there. Praying.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“So you don’t blame God for this? Feel like he’s out to get you?”

He flinched. “No. For some reason I don’t.”

“God’s grace is sufficient.”

“What?”

“It means don’t question it, just accept it, be thankful for it. He’s there with Jenna no matter what. He wouldn’t let her go through this alone. He won’t let you either.”

“That why he sent me you, huh?”

Shivers quivered through her. Not touching that one—yet. Later? Definitely worth exploring. The rest of the team filtered in and Samantha put her personal agenda on the back burner. “So, what’s the plan?”

Dakota set a folder in front of him as he took a seat. “The warehouse is owned by a corporation called Steam Liners. The corporation went out of business about a year ago, and the warehouse has been empty since.”

“Do you have the name of an individual?”

“Not yet. The information’s been buried pretty deep. I’ve got a contact gradually peeling back the layers. He should have me the information within a couple of hours.”

“Great.” Connor stood. “Call me when you get it, will you?”

“Sure. You need some help at the scene?”

“All the help I can get. I just have a feeling we’re missing something obvious.”

“Then let’s get out there and find it.”

Twenty minutes later, they stood on the fringes watching the crime scene unit do their thing. Connor ducked under the tape and Dakota followed him.

Samantha walked over to the single garage where Tom’s car had been found. Decidedly curious about what was bugging Jamie, she glanced at her watch. She considered pulling her phone out to call, then decided to give it a little more time. Jamie might not be up yet.