She slipped him her card. “Make sure you keep me updated, too.”
He blinked.
But before he could say more, Kurt’s lawyer was opening the door and the guy was waltzing out with their number one suspect.
“Showtime for you, Deputy.” Samantha inclined her head toward the door.
Finn waited a moment, probably trying not to look too obvious, and then he slipped out after the others.
Samantha exhaled. She didn’t think Kurt was their perp, but things sure weren’t adding up for her.
Dad’s out back. She grabbed the file that Jill had prepared on Christy Anderson’s disappearance, and she flipped back through the witness testimony. Theodore Anderson had been questioned about his whereabouts at the time of his daughter’s disappearance. According to him, he’d been out on a solo fishing trip. He’d left late the night before and hadn’t gotten back until midday...long after his daughter had been taken.
But why did Kurt say his dad was out back if the guy was actually out fishing?
Had Kurt been lying to her? Or had his father lied to the authorities years before?
Samantha nodded to Deputy Hollow—Wendy had taken over the check-in desk—and then she hurried outside. She needed to find Jill and talk to her more about that old case. Maybe Jill remembered details that could help her. She grabbed for her keys and hit the button to unlock her rental car. Her heels clicked on the pavement and the roar of the ocean filled her ears.
A sudden awareness had her tensing. A shiver slid down her spine and Samantha knew that she wasn’t alone.
She looked to the left—the lawyer and Kurt Anderson were gone. Finn’s patrol car was slipping from the lot.
Her gaze slid to the right—and to the man who was walking away from the shadows.
“There you are,” he said, his voice deep and rumbling. His stride was determined as he stalked toward her. “Want to tell me what the hell you are doing?”
Her brows lifted.
“Partners don’t just cut out of town without any word,” he added darkly. The light from the station fell on his face. And her new partner at the FBI—Blake Gamble—sure didn’t look happy with her. “If you’re working a case, we’re working it. You don’t get to leave me in the dust.”
What in the hell is he doing here? “How did you know where I was? And why are you here?”
“The director sent me down. Said I should be with you, even if it isn’t an ‘official’ investigation for us.”
It was official as far as she was concerned. “I was called in as a favor,” she said, turning to face him fully. Blake was a big guy, well over six feet, and built along the same hard, tough lines as Jill’s Sheriff Black. “I’m here for a friend.”
He stopped walking when he was less than a foot away from her. “And you didn’t think I’d agree to help out your friend?”
She was still trying to feel out her new relationship with Blake. So far, the guy seemed to be a definite by-the-book type. But she had a feeling Blake had lots of layers hidden beneath his careful control. “I wasn’t sure what you’d do.”
“Well, let me tell you... I’d have your back.”
The words were simple. Easy.
“That’s what partners do, right?” Blake continued. “We watch out for each other?”
“Yes.” That’s what they were supposed to do.
“Besides, I know Jillian West, too. Not as well as you do, but I would never walk away from a case or from my partner. So tell me what I can do to help.” He gave a decisive nod. “Because the boss said there was a missing kid in this town. What can we do to bring her home?”
Chapter Fourteen
“Seriously, Hayden, you don’t have to walk me up.” Jill had opened her door and the car’s interior light spilled down on her. “I’ve got this.”
He locked his jaw and forced a nod. He wanted to go up there, do a full search and make sure the place was safe...because it’s Jill. But the woman was armed. She knew how to spot the signs of an intruder, and—
Hell, I just don’t want to leave her.
“I’ll check in at the station and be back,” he assured her.
She climbed from the car. “You don’t have to do that.”
He jumped out and followed her, catching her arm before she could head for the stairs that would take her up to the main level of the cabin. “I want to do that.” Didn’t she get that? He wanted to spend his days and nights with her. They’d talked about a second chance, and he wasn’t going to let that chance get away. For him, Jill was it. His everything. His one shot at happiness. He wouldn’t lose her again. “I’ll check in, then I’ll be back.” But as he stared at her, worry gnawed at him. “Hell, I’ll just stay here.” The woman had a concussion after all, damn it. “You might need me and I—”
“I need some time alone, Hayden.” Her gaze was on the waves, not him. “Just...give me tonight, would you? I don’t need you to keep guard over me. I can protect myself, and I need that time.”
You’re pushing her too hard. He looked down at his hand. “Right.” Hayden made himself let her go. “I’ll send a patrol by to—”
“Always the protector, aren’t you? Even when I don’t want protecting.”
He was missing something. She wasn’t looking at him and her voice seemed too calm. Too reserved.
“I need this night on my own. If it makes you feel better to send a patrol circling by later, then do it. But I’d rather every available unit you have... I’d rather your efforts be focused on Vanessa and not me.” Now her gaze finally did come back to him. “She’s what matters now. You understand that, don’t you?”
“Jill—”
She backed away from him. “If I see any trouble, you’ll be the first one I call.”
This wasn’t right. The scene was wrong. She was wrong.
“Good night, Hayden.” Jill turned away. She hurried up the stairs and didn’t glance back at him. He stood there a moment, watching until she disappeared inside. The lights flashed on in her cabin.
He still didn’t leave. Something was wrong. Something was nagging at him. She’d kissed him so frantically on the beach...
And now she’s sending me packing.
He lingered for a moment longer, then headed back to his patrol car. He slipped inside and a few moments later, he was heading away from Jill and her cabin by the shore.
He glanced in his rearview mirror, but Hayden only saw darkness.
I’ll be back tonight, Jill. Whether you want me here or not. I’ll be back. Because finding Vanessa Gray was absolutely a priority for him. But keeping Jill safe?
That is always my first mission.
* * *
JILL HELD HER BREATH as she stared below and watched Hayden’s car slowly pull away. He’d been suspicious at the end, and she hadn’t been sure that he’d leave her alone.
She hadn’t wanted him to go. She’d wanted to pull him in, to get him to help her stop the perp out there. But he was watching. And if Vanessa’s abductor saw her rush in with Hayden at her side, then an innocent girl could die.
She put her phone down on the kitchen table. She stared at it a moment, willing the thing to ring. It didn’t.
So she moved back. She went into her bedroom, and opened her suitcase. Jill took out her backup weapon and she strapped it to her ankle. Then she checked her service gun. Its weight was reassuring in her hand. She might be playing by the perp’s rules, but she didn’t intend to make herself easy prey.
No, when morning came, Jill intended to still be standing.
And Vanessa Gray would be at her side. Alive. Safe. She wouldn’t lose another victim. She couldn’t lose her.
Her phone rang, jerking her attention and Jill rushed back into the den. Her phone was shaking on the table, vibrati
ng. She peered down at the broken screen.
Unknown Caller.
* * *
SHE JUST WANTS her brother.
Hayden slammed on the brakes. The car’s tires screeched.
Jill’s words had been replaying in his head as he tried to figure out why she’d withdrawn from him. Back at the beach, she’d been talking about Vanessa. About the girl being afraid.
And Jill had said that Vanessa wanted her brother.
Maybe she’d just been talking, piecing together parts of Vanessa’s life and assuming that the girl would be afraid and wanting the security of having her brother close. After all, Jill had talked to Vanessa’s mother. She’d known that Vanessa had an older brother who was currently out of the country.
Maybe she’d been making a victim profile.
He spun the car around and shoved his foot down on the gas.
Or maybe Jill had been repeating what she’d heard Vanessa say. Her voice had softened when she spoke on the beach. There’d been pain whispering in her words...
And then Jill had wanted to go home. Alone.
Sonofa—
He used his Bluetooth connection to call the sheriff’s office. When his call was answered, he demanded, “I want to talk to Samantha Dark—is she still there?”
“No, Sheriff,” Wendy answered. “She left a few moments ago.”
Hell. “Do you know if she called Jill West before she left? Did Agent Dark make any phone calls while she was at the station?”
“I don’t know, sir. Sorry.”
“If you see her again, get her to call me. Right the hell away.” He ended the connection and narrowed his eyes on the road up ahead. If Samantha hadn’t been on the phone with Jill...then Jill could have been talking to the perp again. The guy had called her once, offering up a deal, maybe he’d called again.
But Jill would have told me. She would have—
He was near Jill’s cabin. Close enough that he saw her car. Saw her heading to that car.
Hayden killed the lights on his own vehicle. Jill was moving fast as she spun her car out and left the beach. She’d had her phone to her ear. She’d been talking frantically to someone.
To the perp?
Jill would lie to me...if it meant that she could help a victim.
The killer had offered Jill a trade once before. Hayden was very afraid that the guy had made her another deal.
Her voice slipped through his mind. She’s what matters now. You understand that, don’t you?
She’d been telling him, right then, and Hayden hadn’t picked up on the truth. As her car headed down the narrow road, he didn’t even hesitate. Hayden had followed Jill once before, followed her on a dark and desperate path, and he’d damn well do it again.
He’d follow Jill anywhere, even straight to hell, if that was what it took. He kept his lights off and he didn’t go too fast. He didn’t want Jill to see him. Jill...or the perp. He could be watching.
Whatever twisted plans that jerk had, they weren’t going to happen.
You aren’t getting her, bastard. I’ll do whatever it takes, but I won’t lose Jill again.
* * *
“IT’S THE NORMAL houses that hide the worst monsters,” Samantha said as she slammed her car door and stared up at the house located at 1509 Sea Breeze Way. “They always look so innocent and then—too late—you see that facade was just a lie.”
Blake hurried around the front of the car and came to her side. “So...we’re going to interrogate the guy? Right now? In the middle of the night?”
“Not an interrogation. Just one follow-up question.” She patted his chest and tried not to notice that the guy was seriously muscled. He was her partner. Only her partner. There was no mixing business with pleasure at the FBI, no matter how handsome she might find Blake to be. “And it’s not as if the guy is asleep. He just got released a little while ago. His lawyer dropped him off and Kurt’s in there, probably pacing the floors.” She inclined her head toward the house that waited—with seemingly all of its interior lights turned on.
“As long as he doesn’t go screaming to his lawyer about FBI harassment...” Blake muttered.
“He won’t.” She was sure of this. “Because something else is going on here.” Something that Kurt knew but wasn’t sharing, something that seemed to be tearing him apart. She glanced down the street, and, sure enough, sitting three houses back, underneath the heavy shelter of an oak tree’s limbs, she saw Deputy Finn waiting in his patrol car.
It was good to know the sheriff’s office was keeping watch on the Anderson house. Especially because that perfectly trimmed, perfectly normal house felt wrong to her.
Nothing is ever as perfect as it seems. Her friend Cameron Latham would have said that bit. Like her, Cameron had gotten his PhD in criminal psychology from Harvard. Cameron was her sounding board, whenever she had a particularly good—or bad—theory swirling in her head, she’d run her thoughts by him. Cameron would take one look at that little house and say, Too perfect, Sam. Find the lies inside.
That was just what she was there to do.
Samantha lifted her chin and led the way up the carefully trimmed lawn. She reached the door and rapped against the wood. She heard fumbling inside, the shuffle of footsteps, the hum of a TV and then—
The door opened soundlessly. No little creaks, no groans of the hinges. Perfect.
Kurt Anderson stood in the doorway, and he looked far, far from perfect. His hair stood on end, as if he’d been raking his fingers through it. His face was pale, his gaze desperate.
“Mr. Anderson?” Samantha tried a quick smile. “Our conversation was interrupted earlier...” Conversation, interrogation—whatever you want to call it. “I just had one question for you.”
“He’s not here.”
Samantha frowned at that abrupt response. “Um, who isn’t here?”
“My dad.” Kurt’s hand raked through his hair. “Knew this would happen... I was gone too long...He’d been so good...so good, but to mess up now...”
She didn’t look back at Blake, but she could practically feel her partner’s sudden tension. “Mess up what, exactly?”
Kurt’s hand fell. “He’s been sober for a year and seven months, ever since I came back to town. I made him get sober. But me being taken to the station... Jill pushing about Christy...opening up the past, I know it’s pushed him over the edge. I found a whiskey bottle in the kitchen.” He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “It’s empty.”
“May I come inside?” Samantha asked him, her voice soft.
Kurt stumbled back. “He’s gone. I need... I need Hayden to put out an APB for him. My dad isn’t the same when he drinks. He could get hurt.” If possible, Kurt’s skin turned even paler. “He could...hurt someone else.”
The inside of the home was in shambles. The couch had been turned over, a lamp was smashed and a picture frame... Samantha bent to pick up the frame from the floor, and shards of glass dropped near her feet. She stared at the picture of the smiling girl with blond hair and dimples. The same girl who had been in the old file at the police station. A picture of Christy Anderson, standing with her father.
“Did you do this?” Blake’s deep voice rumbled from behind her.
“This?” Kurt appeared confused, and then he glanced around the room. “No, no. Dad must have done it. I told you, when he drinks, he’s not the same. He gets so angry, like a different person. But he was sober until Jill came back.” His hands fisted. “She should have stayed away. He saw her the first day she was back in town, saw her and Hayden and everything came rushing back for him. Like a ticking bomb... I could see it happening.”
A ticking bomb...pretty interesting description considering what had happened to Jill and Hayden.
“Wait. Who the hell are you?” Kurt sudd
enly demanded as his gaze sharpened on Blake.
Samantha kept her grip on the picture frame. “He’s my partner, Blake Gamble. I told you, we had one more question for you.”
“Forget your damn questions!” Kurt yelled. “Get Hayden on the line! Make him go look for my father! Get the guy out here, now!”
“I will,” Samantha assured him. “I’ll get a whole team to look for your father.”
Kurt nodded, appearing a bit appeased.
“But I just need you to answer one question for me first. Just one.”
“Lady,” Kurt growled as he took an aggressive step toward her. “You aren’t playing with my dad’s life.”
Blake was suddenly at her side. “Watch the tone, buddy. Watch it.”
Her chin notched up as she met Kurt’s blazing stare. “I’m not playing any game. I’m just trying to find out the truth.” A very long overdue truth. “The day your sister disappeared, your father said he was out fishing. But tonight at the station, you told me that he was home, that you’d told Christy your father was out back.”
Kurt licked his lips.
“What’s the truth, Kurt? Just tell me that. Where was your father when Christy vanished?”
* * *
JILL PARKED HER car near the pier. She sat behind the wheel for a moment, her hands gripping the steering wheel. And the phone beside her rang again.
Her hand flew out and her finger swept over that fractured screen.
“I can see you, Jill. And you came alone. Just as you said.”
She was so tired of the grating voice. So tired of the games.
“Go to the end of the pier...and then jump in the water,” he ordered her.
“Are you insane? Why would I—”
“Swim straight out, and you’ll find my boat.”
Jill sucked in a sharp breath. He’s on a boat. No wonder he was able to see me when I was on the beach with Hayden earlier. The guy was watching us from the water. Probably using night vision binoculars.
And the man who’d broken into her cabin...they’d found his motorcycle but not him. Why? Because he’d swum out to his boat?