Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
Anthony had failed yet again. First, he’d let Sosa get away. Now, Della had been missing for five hours, taken under his watch. Here, he wanted to bring these convicts in, prove he was ready for more responsibility and to become a detective. Instead, he should be turning his badge in.
Permanently.
Where was the “light” in this that he was supposed to see?
Chatter buzzed all around him. The bullpen wasn’t usually this busy in the middle of the night. Then again, they didn’t usually have the chaos of three missing convicts and a kidnapped firefighter thrown into the normal caseload.
“Will you stop the pacing already? We’ll find her.” Officer Junior Ramble glared over his computer screen at Anthony. “Why don’t you do something helpful like track down any other known associates of Vaynes?”
“You think I haven’t done that already? Dead end.
Every single one of them. The guy was a loner.
No record of visitors at the prison. No calls for him.
Nothing. There’s no clue as to where he found the deceased woman that was in the house.
I’ve gone through all the missing persons reported and still haven’t ID’d her.
And the trail Penny and I followed in the backyard led nowhere. Vaynes had a getaway vehicle.”
“And we now know what it is.” Penny slapped a paper on the desk in front of Anthony. “Black 2006 Ford Explorer.”
“How’d you find it?” Anthony asked.
“Canvassed the neighborhood and something finally paid off. Caught this image on a nearby security system. That’s Vaynes in the driver’s seat.
I already ran the plates. The SUV was stolen.
The owner is out of town for the holidays.
He was crankier about being woken in the middle of the night than to hear about his stolen car. ”
“Let’s put out the BOLO. I’ll get that started.” Junior took the paper and ran off.
Penny grabbed a candy cane off Olivia’s desk. “How you holding up, Tony?” She kept her voice low, calm as she unwrapped the candy. Somehow it helped him, to see her keeping it together.
“Any minute, I’m sure, the chief will come out here and call for my badge.”
“That’s not true.”
He pushed his hair back off his forehead. It was probably a mess right now, but he didn’t care. “I screwed up. That’s not the kind of image the department wants for its officers, let alone detectives.”
“You were hoping to move up?”
Anthony nodded, staring out the windows at the bleak darkness. “Guess I can kiss that goodbye.”
“Hey.” She waited until he made eye contact. “This job is about way more than image. You are more than the image you’ve been trying so hard to project.”
“And what’s that?”
“The image that says you have it all together. You have everything in control.”
Anthony huffed.
But Penny didn’t stop. “You’re a good man, Tony. You have heart and integrity. I’m sure the chief knows that. No one is asking you to turn in your badge. Besides, everyone has cases like this. You think Basuto or Donaldson haven’t had their fair share of bad guys slip through their fingers?”
“Maybe. At this point, I just want to find Della.”
“Me too.” She gave him a sad smile. “I know it feels like there’s no hope right now, that evil and darkness are winning. But that’s not the last word.”
But it sure seemed that way. He’d prayed. So where was God in all this?
“I get—”
“Hey! Look at this! He’s made contact.” Detective Savannah Wilcox called out from the other side of the bullpen. “He sent us a file.” She pointed a remote at the smart screen hanging on the wall. Within seconds, a video played.
Della sat in the middle of the shot, tied to a chair. Dirt smeared her face. Her silky hair was tangled and half falling out of a braid. She didn’t look too banged up. Then Anthony noticed her hand. It was strapped to a table, two of her fingers mangled and bloodied.
What in the world had he done to her?
Anthony’s hands fisted as Vaynes came on-screen. He wore a long black robe and faced Della. “Are you ready to tell the court what you’ve done?”
Della lifted her chin. “I said I would. Just turn yourself in and I will.”
“You know what you have to do.” Vaynes held a hammer over her hand, ready to strike.
“Let me go.” Della’s voice shook, sending a tremor of fury through Anthony.
“Where is this coming from?” he yelled over to Wilcox.
“It was sent to us. I’m trying to trace the email.” Savannah kept typing as the video played.
“Is it live?” Penny asked her.
“Maybe. I’m looking.”
A scream brought all attention back to the screen. Vaynes had done it. A third finger lay broken.
Anthony slammed his fist onto the desk.
She was at the mercy of a killer because he’d failed to do a simple job. He’d failed to protect her. Why wait for them to ask for his badge? He didn’t deserve it.
“Tell the court the truth. You promised to tell nothing but the truth.” Vaynes walked behind Della and yanked her head up by the hair. “Look into the camera and tell them.”
“The truth is you killed Lily.”
He lifted the hammer again with his free hand. “You know what I’m talking about. Tell them! I’m not going to stop until you tell them the truth.”
She looked straight into the camera, her voice wobbling. “I lied.” Tears mixed with blood ran down Della’s beautiful face. She dragged in a breath and continued. “I said that I saw him, but when I was abducted, I never saw his face.” She closed her eyes, and her shoulders drooped forward.
“So what you’re saying is, you committed perjury.
” Vaynes let go of her head but stayed there, speaking right behind her ear.
Loud enough for the camera to pick up. “You never saw your captor’s face.
You were drugged the whole time. He wore a mask.
Isn’t that right?” Everything within Anthony wanted to lunge through the screen and take Vaynes down himself.
But it was the sight of the woman he was growing rather attached to being tortured that broke his heart.
His failure had caused this. He never should’ve let her out of his sight.
Anthony was not a violent man, but he’d never wanted to hurt another human being more than he did right now. The darkness pressed in on his very soul.
God, where are You?
Suddenly Della opened her eyes. Narrowed them slightly.
She lifted her chin and looked straight at the camera.
“The only way you would know that I didn’t see his face, the only way you would know about being drugged or the mask is if you were there.
” Her lips went tight a second before she threw her head back into Vaynes’s skull with a loud cry. Then the video cut out.
“Where’s the rest?” Anthony rushed over to Wilcox’s desk. “What happened?”
He needed to see, because suddenly, scenarios of Vaynes torturing Della in retaliation stormed all logic and clear thinking.
She pounded on the keyboard. “I don’t know. That’s it. It was cut off. In the email, Vaynes is demanding that his case be thrown out. He says he’ll be in touch.”
Penny sprinted over with the candy cane still in her mouth. “Play the video again. We need to look for clues. Figure out where they are.”
This time, when Savannah played the video, Anthony studied the background. But his eyes kept wandering back to Della. The pain, the terror there, left him shattered.
Oh God, keep her safe.
The final spark before she threw her head back gave him hope.
She was a fighter.
But she needed help, and he wasn’t there.
But I am.
A gentle voice inside pushed back the panic and despair. It didn’t get much worse than this kind of darkness, Della at the mercy of a killer. But what had Penny said?
I know it feels like there’s no hope right now, that evil and darkness are winning. But that’s not the last word.
The LED candle display in the window caught his eye.
“Tony, did you see anything?” Penny’s question shook him out of the haze.
“No, play it again.”
God, help us to see what is hidden in the dark. Shine Your light. Help us to find her.
This time, Anthony stayed focused on the background and surroundings. “The building looks old. Check out the wooden walls behind her.” Peeling white paint and gaps between warped planks showed the building’s age.
“Where do we have old wooden buildings like that?” Junior was back and watching the video with them.
“Who knows? He could have her in an old barn out in the country, or downtown in one of the historical buildings,” Savannah said.
Historical.
An emblem on a podium off to the side caught Anthony’s attention. He stilled. “I know where she is!” He ran to his chair and grabbed his coat. “It’s Sagebrush City.”
“Sagebrush City?” Olivia walked in, already wearing her winter gear, carrying a bunch of coffee orders.
“It’s a historical mining town, up in the foothills. A ghost town. It’s open to tourists in the summer, but no one would be out there now.” Anthony checked his weapon.
“I’ve never even heard of it, and I grew up here.” Junior threw his coat on over his sling as they all ran for the parking lot. “Are you positive? We could be way off track if we’re wrong here.”
“My mother used to sell produce there. Spent a lot of time there as a kid, so yeah, I’m sure. That emblem is the city seal.” They rushed outside, the freezing precipitation hitting them in the face. “We’ll need chains. The road is going to bad with the ice and snow.”
But at least he knew the way.
Hang on, Della!