Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“We’re wasting time!” I bark at Everett, desperation clawing at my skin. “She’s not with her friends or anyone else. She’s not at work. Her purse and keys are still in the car. She wouldn’t just wander off.” My voice cracks. “Someone took her.”
From Everett’s SUV, his radio crackles, making him trot back to respond.
Every minute we spend standing around is another minute she gets farther away.
We have to find her.
A dark sedan tears into the parking lot, a single red light spinning from the top. Luke jumps out.
I hurry over, my mind racing. “Tell me you’ve found her.”
He grips my shoulders, his serious eyes locking with mine. “Does the name Jeremy Fisher mean anything to you?”
“Jeremy? Why?” I squeeze my eyes so tight my vision sparkles. “It’s him? But he’s—” My mind empties, sending another chill over my skin.
“Ava gave us permission to download her messages yesterday. He’s been texting her stuff that stood out. ”
“Luke.” It comes out like a plea. “It’s my fault. Fuck! I asked Jeremy to look after her.” My throat clamps shut. “Please tell me it’s not too late.”
“Where does he live?” Luke asks.
“I don’t know!”
“Get me an address!” Luke calls to Everett.
Everett’s radio crackles a series of numbers. “Got it! Let’s roll.”
“Get in,” Luke says, jumping behind the wheel. I race for the passenger side and Luke takes off after Everett.
“What if we’re wrong?” I grip the handle above the window as Luke accelerates down the long straightaway.
“I cross-referenced the list of customers buying white roses on the date Ava found one on her car. His name popped.”
“What if he hurts her?” The green trees and blue sky outside the windows may as well be a tunnel of black.
Everett’s voice comes over the radio. “Four minutes out.” Behind Luke, another Finn River Sheriff’s Department SUV catches up, lights and sirens blaring.
“What if he’s taken her somewhere else?”
“We won’t know until we apprehend him. That’s the first step.”
We’re heading south toward the confluence of Finn River and the Clearwater. The tidy farms give way to vast tracks of forest, some with narrow driveways snaking out of sight, some with trailers or dilapidated houses surrounded by abandoned farm equipment or vehicles.
“He’s former law enforcement. Worked base security at Travis,” I say. What if he’s got an arsenal of weapons and is prepared to use them?
Luke relays my message into the radio, warning the others.
Sheriff Olson replies with a series of orders in code that I can’t decipher. Not that it matters. The second we get there I’m going in. I don’t have a weapon, but that won’t stop me.
“When we get there, you are to stay put,” he says, as if reading my mind .
I stare straight ahead. Please let her be okay.
What if we’re too late?
Ahead of us, Everett slows, then turns down a gravel drive. Luke follows, his unmarked sedan jostling over the potholes. Ahead is a house with pale pink siding and a narrow porch covered by an aluminum awning, the stripes on the sides faded to a pale green.
A black Ford Explorer is parked facing the house, making my heart tick into my throat.
“Is that Jeremy’s?” Luke asks.
“Don’t know.” I think back to the searches where Jeremy and I crossed paths, but I didn’t exactly memorize the make and model of the cars.
Jeremy’s goofy hang-loose sign flashes through my mind.
How could he act like we’re friends?
More cop cars fill in behind us down the driveway. Everett skids to a stop behind the Explorer, blocking it in. Luke parks in the center, and Zach swings around to the left side.
Luke steps from the vehicle, removing his gun from his holster. Using his door as a shield, he points his gun at the front door. Everett stands from his vehicle, drawing his weapon just as Zach jumps out, gun drawn. He and Everett exchange a nod, then Zach stalks to the back side of the house.
Everett and Luke lock eyes for a moment, then Everett walks toward the porch.
From the two windows flanking the front door, both covered in thin, lacy curtains, there’s no movement. The only sound is the shifting of gravel under Everett’s boots as he moves and the distant shussh of cars on the road.
I know Everett’s being cautious, but I want him to kick down the fucking door.
Moving swiftly, I slip from the car.
“Hutchins,” Luke warns.
I ignore him and move to behind the Explorer, using it as cover. I follow the length of it, and crouch in front of the bumper, giving me an unobstructed view of the front door and a partial one of the woods crowding in behind the house. What if he’s keeping her in some shack back there? What if he’s hurting her?
Why didn’t I take Captain Greely’s offer for that Glock?
Everett thumps on the door then presses his back against the house. “Jeremy Fisher?” he calls out. “It’s Finn River Sheriff’s Department. Open up.”
The doorknob turns with a squeak and Jeremy appears behind the screen. I watch him take in the vehicles filling his driveway and Luke standing behind his open driver’s door, weapon ready.
“What’s this about?” Jeremy asks. His hands are out of sight, making my pulse pound in my temples. What if he’s holding a gun?
“We have a warrant to search the premises,” Everett says, nodding to Luke. “I need you to step outside.”
Jeremy pushes open the screen door and takes a step onto the porch.
“Are you alone in the house?” Everett asks.
“Yes.”
Liar. Or maybe he’s got her somewhere else.
“We’re going to have you wait in the back of the squad car,” Everett says, sliding his pistol into the holster. Zach comes around the opposite side of the house, gun fixed on Jeremy. He shakes his head at Everett—meaning no sign of Ava yet.
Jeremy flashes his palms. “No problem.”
Everett and Luke usher him toward Zach’s cruiser. I vault onto the porch and slip inside the house.
“Ava!” I call out, my heart thumping.
The square living room contains an easy chair and matching couch with a coffee table between them and a TV on a stand in the corner. The lacy curtains covering the window match the white lace covers on the backs of the furniture, the kind a grandma might use. There’s a smell in here I can’t identify—mothballs or medicine.
I move to the kitchen. Faux tile vinyl flooring warped and stained a dingy yellow. Off-white appliances that look like antiques. Another window with a lacy curtain. “Ava!” I call out again, pausing to listen, but I hear only the hum from the refrigerator and the muted chatter from the radios outside.
Zach slides in behind me. “Hutch, you need to stand down. Let us handle this.”
“She’s here.” My gut is telling me so, but what if it’s just wishful thinking? What if we’re mistaken and we’re looking in the wrong place? What if we’re wrong about Jeremy?
Zach gives an impatient huff. “Hutch. If this is a crime scene?—”
I pass through the kitchen to the bedrooms separated by a bathroom in the back of the house. All three doors are open. And empty. There’s nothing of hers visible. Doubt creeps further into my thoughts.
Where, where, where?
I spin around on the faded shag carpeting. There’s a closet between the kitchen and living room, but when I snatch the handle and tug it open, I find only shelves of towels and linens and knickknacks.
“The house is clear,” Zach says into his radio, his eyes locked on mine.
“Shit!” I put my hands on my hips, my mind racing.
“There was a trail in the back yard,” Zach says.
“Tracks?”
Zach shakes his head. “Don’t know. I was focused on the house.”
I try to center my thoughts, but Zach’s radio erupts. “Hayes, report.”
It’s the sheriff.
“We’re going to check the trail in the back yard,” Zach says into his radio.
Leaving the house feels wrong, but maybe moving will help me think. Zach opens the back door and we file down a rickety, narrow set of steps to the soft ground. Thick, tall cottonwoods interspersed with fir and alders crowd in from all sides, but a path leads straight, towards the river .
“Ava!” I call out, then force myself to be still so I can listen.
Unease tickles my gut, but I swallow it down. I have to believe Ava’s alive. Everett escorted her home less than two hours ago. As much as it sickens me to consider it, that would not give Jeremy enough time to…
Zach hurries ahead, his boots sinking into the soupy ground. I force my mind to refocus. Were Jeremy’s shoes muddy when he was led from the house? Was there mud on the front stoop?
I follow Zach, but the farther we get from the house, squelching through mud, the farther away from Ava I feel. But what if that’s just my mind, refusing to consider the worst? The river would be an obvious place to dispose?—
No . I won’t think that.
Zach squats down to inspect the muddy trail leading into the woods. Tread from what looks like large boot prints are barely visible.
I’m no tracker, but these prints look old. And the grass flanking the trail doesn’t look trampled.
“Fuck this,” I grit out, and turn around.
“Hutch!” Zach calls out, but I’m done guessing.
I take off, anger and frustration fueling my momentum, and sprint past the side of the house. Luke is pacing next to his cruiser, one hand on the radio he’s barking into and the other gripping his hip. Everett is in his blue SUV, likely keeping watch on Jeremy.
Luke’s eyes fill with concern as I race past him and yank open the back door of the SUV. Fury fizzling in my veins, I reach in and grab Jeremy by his shirt and yank him from the backseat.
“Hey!” Luke cries at the same time Everett jumps out from the front seat, eyes dark.
But I’m not going to let them stop me.
“Where the hell is she?” I slam Jeremy against the side of the cruiser. He turns his head away, like he doesn’t want to look at me. “Where, you piece of shit!”
His lips curl in a half sneer, his eyes fixed on some distant point. It flashes so quick I almost miss it .
“That’s enough, Hutch!” Luke tears me from Jeremy as Everett ushers him into the back of the SUV.
“She’s here, damn it!” I wrestle against Luke’s hold.
That smug look said it all. It’s why Jeremy surrendered so easily. He thinks we won’t find her.
I break free and race back inside the house. “Ava!”
Where could he be keeping her?
Zach enters the house from the back, the screen door slamming behind him. He steps into the living room, his eyes flashing with a warning. “Hutch, we gotta?—”
His radio bursts with chatter, and he raises it to talk, his jaw tense.
I tune him out.
She’s here. I will tear down the fucking walls to find her.
“Remember Aleppo?” Luke says from the doorway behind me.
I spin around as an old memory fires. Luke and I were sent to extract a diplomat from his home in the middle of a military coup that had escalated. The streets were a war zone, and the house was partially cratered thanks to the bombing campaign that had started the night before. We had exactly seven minutes between patrols to get in, find him, and get out.
At minute five, we found the entrance to the basement.
“Where?” I scan the room but there’s no evidence of an entry here. I walk the short hallway to the kitchen, my eyes glued to the seams and corners in the floor and walls.
Zach comes out of the bedrooms, shaking his head.
I step into the center of the kitchen, my insides churning. The entrance has to be here. I scan the walls while I try to formulate a 3D map of the house. Where are the voids?
Something catches my eye in the corner of the floor, where the carpeting meets the linoleum. It could be the carpet is peeling back from the wall, or…
Before I know what I’m doing, I’m on my hands and knees.
“Something under here?” Zach asks, joining me .
The carpet is held down by a magnetic strip, and when I peel it back, it reveals the outline of a door in the plywood.
Heat flushes over my skin.
Zach gets on the radio, but I’m not listening. I peel the carpet all the way back, then lift the O-ring. The trapdoor opens to a narrow, open space below. It’s pitch dark, but the light coming in from the kitchen window is enough to make out the beginning of a steep staircase.
“Hutch, let us handle this,” Luke says behind me, breathing hard.
Ignoring him, I shove the trapdoor all the way open and vault into the space. “Ava!” I call down.
Sheriff Olson barks an order at Zach, but I’m already feeling my way down the stairs, searching for the door I know is here.
“I need a light!” I call out. “Ava!” I bang on the wall. From the other side, I hear something. Is it her?
“Ava!” I shout but my voice cracks.
I pound on the door again, but it’s solid, like it’s reinforced. There’s no doorknob. How do I get in?
A beam shines behind me as Zach enters the space. “Hutch, I need you to come out of there. We don’t know what we’re going to find.”
“No fucking way!” I shake my head, like I can clear the implication. Because we’re not too late. I won’t believe that. I heard something from the other side of the wall. It’s her. She’s here. She’s alive.
“Ava!” I shout, pounding on the door. “We’re coming!”
From above, boots scuff the flooring, like more officers are entering the house.
Zach stops at the last step behind me, his flashlight beam washing up the walls of the tiny space.
A small ring hanging by a thick cord from the ceiling catches the light. I tug on it, and the door releases.
“Ava!” I grip the edge of the door and yank it toward me enough to get through. Zach barks orders but I’m already in the dim room, racing for the figure struggling to stand.
Ava.
Please, let her be okay.
Her haunted eyes fill with tears as she reaches for me.
I grab her and squeeze her tight. She’s cold and her whole body is shaking, but she’s alive.
She’s okay.
“Oh my God, Hutch,” she says, her teeth chattering between sobs.
“I’m here, sweetheart. I’ve got you.” I cradle her against me, wrapping her tight.
The chain attached to her ankle gives a dull rattle. I close my eyes and shove back my fury so I can focus on taking care of her. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
Her breaths are coming in tight gasps. “Oh my God. I was so scared.”
Radio chatter and the constant stream of commands fills the space.
“I thought…I thought I was going to die down here.” She chokes back a sob.
I stroke down her hair and press my lips to the top of her head. “Just hang on, baby. I’m here. It’s going to be okay.”
Luke dives for the floor near Ava’s feet, making her cry out.
“Easy now,” Luke says in a steady tone. “I’m gonna unlock this.”
“Okay.” Her garbled tone is like a spike to my chest. How could Jeremy do something so terrifying?
After a clatter of keys, Ava sucks in a gasp.
“You’re free.” Luke yanks the chain into the darkness.
I lift Ava into my arms and hurry toward the doorway now flooded with light. “I’ve got you, sweetheart. You’re safe.”