Chapter Fifteen
CAM EASED SEDONA back enough to see her face. “You weren’t alone at the school that night? Who was with you?” Could this be the clue to get them started on the right path? They needed a break, fast.
If they didn’t get one and the attacks kept coming, Cam may have to resort to asking his boss for a favor. David would do it, no question, but it could put his job with Fortress Security in danger to get Cam the help he needed to protect Sedona.
“Julio was there.”
“What was he doing at school that late?”
“His sister forgot her backpack, and she had homework that she still needed to finish for the next day. Their mother was at work, and Julio’s sister didn’t want her to find out that she’d forgotten the backpack.”
Spencer frowned. “Wouldn’t Mom have picked up on it when the backpack was nowhere to be found the next morning?”
“Well, the kids didn’t want her to be angry when she got home from work.”
“Wait a minute.” Cam held up his hand. “Julio is in kindergarten. How old is the sister?”
“Seven or eight.”
“Please don’t tell me that young children are staying home by themselves until midnight or after.”
“They have an older brother who drove Julio to school that night. I remember because Julio was griping about his brother parking at the back of the school so no one would see him. The brother was also talking to his girlfriend, which Julio thought was icky.”
The Thunderhawks chuckled.
Isaac said, “He’ll change his mind about that in a few years. Let’s go back to when the school bell rang to dismiss classes for the day. Tell me what happened from that point on.”
Sedona recounted her day again, this time mentioning that she’d heard a strange noise in the room across the hall and thought maybe her fellow teacher had rats in her room.
But no, it was just Julio who had left the lights off so that no one inside the school would know that he was there when he should have been at home.
“Did he find the backpack?”
She nodded. “After that, I returned to my room to grab my bags, and then Julio walked me out the back door.”
“His brother was waiting?” Rhys asked.
“Yes, but not where he was supposed to be. I don’t know if he got spooked because of the vehicle with the three men, but he’d moved his truck to the front of the school to wait. Julio was relieved to see him. I think he was afraid his brother had left, and he’d have to walk home by himself.”
Cam growled. “If he had done that, that teenager and I would have had a serious talk about taking responsibility for his siblings’ safety.” Just the thought of that little kid walking home alone at night made him furious.
“All right, Sedona.” Isaac patted her hand. “You walked Julio around the building to the front where his brother was waiting and helped him into the truck. Then what did you do?”
“Returned to the faculty parking lot at the back of the school. That’s where my vehicle was parked.”
“Close your eyes again. What do you see?”
“Two men.”
“What were they doing?”
“Talking and watching me.”
“Did they say anything to you?”
She shook her head.
“You said three men were there when you left the building, but when you came back around the building after seeing Julio off, you mentioned two men. Where was the third man, Sedona?”
“I didn’t see him, but I just kept going. I should have stopped. I should have gone back into the school.”
“Sedona, stop.” Cam couldn’t stand by while she blamed herself for what happened. “You had no reason to suspect that someone was waiting to kidnap you.”
“Do you know why they were behind the school?” Isaac asked.
Another head shake from Sedona.
“I’ll look around online to see if something went down in the neighborhood,” Rhys said.
“I didn’t even think about that.”
He shrugged. “That’s why you have us in your corner.”
“Did Julio mention seeing those men before?” Isaac asked.
“Not to me.”
“Would he have talked to someone else? Perhaps his mother?”
“Not about that night. Remember, his sister didn’t want their mother to find out that she’d forgotten the backpack at school.”
“What about before that night? Is it possible he mentioned the men or their vehicle to his brother or sister?”
“Not his sister. He’s very protective of her. That’s why he volunteered to come back to school to get her backpack.”
Cam frowned. “Don’t instructors lock their doors at night?”
“Yes, we do. Well, I do, at least. I remember now that Julio mentioned talking to the janitor. Perhaps he let Julio into the room if Jill locked her door.”
“Janitor’s name?” Rhys had his laptop booted up and ready to go.
“Alan Cromwell. He’s a really nice guy and would never hurt one of those children.”
“Maybe not intentionally, but it happens, Sedona.”
Cam turned to Rhys. “Look for traffic cams in the area around the school, as well as security cameras.”
“On it.”
He shifted his attention to Sedona again. “Let’s go back further into your past.”
“Why? Nothing in my past connects to what’s happening here.”
His lady protested too much. What could be in her past that she was trying to hide? “Do you know that for certain?”
“Yes, of course.” She paused, then sighed. “No, I don’t.”
“Good answer.” He cupped her chin in his palm and leaned in to kiss her lightly. “So, let’s go back to before you started teaching. Isaac?”
“I wondered if you were going to include me in this conversation.”
“Shut up, Barker,” he said mildly. “Remember, I know where you live.”
“Back at you, Sims. Ignore him, Sedona.”
“Hey,” Cam protested.
“You can hassle me when I’m on the hot seat. Right now, it’s your turn.”
He’d insist that Sedona inform him when she was working late from now on. Never again did he want to experience the fear that had nearly eaten him alive when she was in the hands of the kidnappers. Her being taken in the first place was on him. He wouldn’t let her down again.
“Back to business, Cam. Even though you weren’t involved in the kidnapping, you may know more than you realize.”
Right. Hadn’t he considered that a few minutes earlier?
If Sedona could endure a grilling from Isaac, Cam supposed he could as well.
“Go for it, my friend. I hope I can be helpful.” Although he doubted it.
He hadn’t spent nearly enough time with Sedona in the past few weeks.
That’s what happened when he spent too much time up in the forest and the mountains getting to know the trails in the area.
He had to do it, though. Search and Rescue training required an excellent knowledge of the area so the search volunteers wouldn’t end up becoming victims themselves.
“Good. Let’s see what you noticed.”
Minutes later, he was forced to raise a white flag in defeat. For a professional observer, he had lousy memory retention. “This is embarrassing,” he muttered.
Isaac chuckled. “It’s hard being on the other side of the questions, isn’t it?”
“Don’t gloat. I still know where you live.
” Not close enough yet. Soon, he hoped to persuade his team to move to Morgan County so they could use their Search and Rescue training.
He’d spent a lot of time on the trails for training.
While hiking those trails, he considered how to approach Sedona about a relationship beyond friendship.
Cam sighed. He was pathetic. That was all he could say. He’d wasted too much time trying to figure out how to approach her when all along, Sedona had been open to dating him.
“Focus, Sims,” Isaac snapped.
He stared at his teammate. How long had he been lost in his own head? “Sorry.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s try that question again. Did Sedona mention anything out of the ordinary that had been happening at her school?”
He thought about that for a minute, then shook his head. “No, I would have remembered that.”
“What about in her personal life? Any trouble there?”
“You mean except for her problem with Sims?” Dario teased.
Again, The Thunderhawks laughed. Cam could have gotten angry, but Sedona laughing as well made him back down and take the verbal jousting. He’d let himself be embarrassed a lot more than the pokes of fun from his teammates if he could break the tension for her. “Ha ha. You’re not funny, D.”
“You should ask your lady about that. She approved of my joke.”
Cam scowled. “Let’s get this interview back on track.”
“Yes, sir.” Isaac rested his forearms on his thighs and leaned toward Cam. “What about in her personal life, sir? Has anything unusual happened there? Perhaps an old boyfriend who popped up unexpectedly. Maybe a guy around Maple Valley not taking no for an answer. A dispute with her neighbors.”
“Hey,” Sedona protested. “I’m a good neighbor. I don’t play loud music late at night, and I don’t have a dog that barks all hours of the day or night.”
Isaac held up his hand to prevent her from making any further remarks. “I’ll get to you in a minute. Sir, has anything stood out?”
Cam stood up and walked to the window to look out. “Give me a minute.”
His teammates remained still and waited. That didn’t surprise him. What did surprise him was Sedona’s response to his request. She remained still. He shouldn’t have been shocked. She was intuitive and could read a room almost as fast as he and his team could.
He combed through the past few weeks to the few times and hours he’d spent with Sedona and their friends from the sheriff’s department.
And remembered a face, one that had pinged on his internal radar to watch for.
The same man paying a little too much attention to Sedona.
He couldn’t run a man through the computer database for looking at a beautiful woman, and Sedona was the most beautiful woman Cam had ever seen.
Feeling sick that he’d likely disregarded a man who might have kidnapped Sedona, Cam turned from the window to face her and his teammates. “Yes.”
Rhys lifted his hands from his laptop keyboard. “Talk to us, sir.”
“I noticed a man watching Sedona. I thought little of it because Sedona is beautiful and men notice beautiful women.”
“Looking back on it now?”
“His interest was too intense for a casual acknowledgment of beauty.”
“What does that tell you?”