Chapter Five
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Jesse sat in Lauren’s office and worked on his laptop. And he was getting exactly nowhere. The second message that Abilene had given Lauren was cycling over and over again in his head, and it was whirling around with the first one.
Lauren, we have unfinished business. And Lauren, you should have saved me, too.
On the surface, it appeared the messages had come from one of the other girls who’d been abducted with Lauren.
Maybe someone who’d gone through hell, had escaped and now held a serious grudge against Lauren.
Since he didn’t have names or even any kind of descriptions about those abductees, it was like searching for the proverbial needle in a big-assed haystack.
To narrow down his search as much as possible, Jesse had focused on young females in their late teens or early twenties who escaped from some form of captivity in the past sixteen years.
He’d already found 308 of them.
And those were only the ones who’d come forward to tell what part of their story they could. It was entirely possible there were more who had quietly rejoined society and kept quiet so their abductor or captor wouldn’t find them.
So far, none of those 308 had connections to Lauren, Outlaw Ridge or their one suspect, Dr. Ethan Graves. But Jesse would keep digging. Keep digging into the other moving parts of the investigation as well.
Jesse rolled his shoulders again to work out the tension that had settled deep during the drive back from the hospital two hours ago. More tension had built when Hallie had informed them she had contacted Dr. Ethan Graves and that he would soon be coming in so that Lauren and he could talk to him.
Jesse very much wanted to hear what the doctor had to say, but he knew this wouldn’t be a piece of cake for Lauren.
Then again, none of this was. The wounds of the past had been reopened.
Man, had it. And not only did they have a sixteen-year-old cold case to solve but a new one involving Abilene Joyce and the other missing woman, Nicky Holden.
He had struck out on those, too. There’d been no sightings of Nicky, no reports of a dead, unidentified Jane Doe that would match her description so the hunt was on to find her. Added to that, they hadn’t found either woman’s vehicle and had no idea how the two had gotten to Outlaw Ridge.
Abilene’s doctors were on their own hunt, to try to stabilize the woman enough so they could try to help her recall what’d happened to her.
It was possible that her abductor had kept anything about himself concealed, the way it’d happened with Lauren.
Still, Abilene might be able to recall some small detail that would help them identify who was behind this.
Either a former victim. The original abductor.
Or a copycat.
Yeah, there were a lot of moving pieces to this investigation.
When he sighed, Lauren looked up from her own laptop, and she didn’t have to tell him that she was just as frustrated and concerned as he was. He could see it in her eyes, and she was no doubt replaying the second message right along with the first one.
“You know, maybe the messages are just bullshit,” he threw out there.
Obviously, that surprised her because she lifted an eyebrow. “How so?”
“A distraction,” Jesse went on. “Maybe Abilene and Nicky have nothing to do with what happened sixteen years ago. This could be the work of some copycat asshole who wants to cover his tracks.”
Lauren didn’t dismiss that, and a few seconds later, she nodded.
“Maybe. If so, then Nicky would be the primary target, and Abilene could have been taken to muddy the waters. And deliver that message.” She kept her gaze on him.
“But you’ve found no link to Nicky and Graves.
Because if you had, you would have led with that. ”
“I would have,” he admitted. “But I’ve put a bug in the ear of the lead Austin investigator on Nicky’s case, and she’s going to ask Nicky’s family about any possible therapy she might have had.
In the meantime, I’ll keep going through all of Nicky’s social media accounts to see if she mentions a link with Graves. ”
When he heard the voices in reception, he glanced at the office door and saw their visitor. “Speaking of the devil, Graves is here.”
That brought Lauren to her feet, and together, they went to the doorway and watched as Dr. Graves made his way through security.
Jesse had seen photos of the profiler/psychologist before, but in person, Graves looked less like a seasoned psychologist and more like an aging rock star.
Long silver-streaked hair tied back at the nape of his neck, a faded black leather jacket over a My Chemical Romance tee, and rings flashing on his fingers as he pushed his designer sunglasses up onto his head.
Graves glanced around, a sort of cocky amusement on his face, until his attention landed on Lauren.
Jesse watched him carefully for any signs that he could indeed be the sick bastard who’d abducted Lauren, but he didn’t see it.
Graves didn’t have a flash of any kind of emotion.
In fact, he seemed to purposely put on a poker face.
Which could or could not mean something.
“Lauren,” Graves greeted. “Or should I say Deputy Whitman?” he amended, his attention shifting to the badge she had clipped to the waist of her pants.
Graves finished going through security and made a beeline toward them. He stuck out his hand to Jesse. “I’m Dr. Ethan Graves.”
“Deputy Jesse McCain,” he replied.
Graves opened his mouth and then seemed to do some sort of mental doubletake. “Jesse,” he repeated. “I recall Lauren mentioning you.”
Now, it was Jesse doing the mental doubletake, and when he glanced at Lauren, he could tell she was a little uncomfortable that it’d been brought up. “Dr. Graves and I went over a lot of things,” she murmured to him. “Including you.”
“Yes, I think you’re one of the reasons Lauren was able to hang on while in captivity,” Graves supplied.
He stopped. “But that’s probably not my info to tell.
Sorry. But I didn’t break any professional confidences,” he was quick to add.
“Lauren was never my patient. I only interviewed her so I could refine the profile I’d done on her abductor. ”
Maybe he hadn’t broken any professional confidences, but spilling that felt wrong to Jesse. It felt like some kind of power play, and Jesse could understand why Lauren said there was something off about the man.
Graves took in a deep breath and smiled. “I’m guessing that’s why the sheriff asked me here. To go over the profile and maybe do an updated one for this latest incident. I heard about it on the news. Terrible stuff.”
Jesse didn’t even glance at Lauren before shaking his head. “No, you’re not here to do a profile.”
Graves raised an eyebrow. “You sure? Because from what I understand, this is hitting pretty close to home for you, Deputy Whitman.” His gaze flicked to Lauren, watching her reaction like he was analyzing her right there on the spot.
Lauren’s jaw tightened. “The county has a profiler. We’ll be using her for this.”
Graves let out a low whistle and rocked back on his heels. “Suit yourselves, but it seems a waste of time to bring in someone new when I’m already so familiar with the investigation.”
“You’re familiar with what happened sixteen years ago,” Jesse pointed out. “Not with what’s going on now.” He speared the doctor with the iciest stare he could manage. “Or are you familiar?”
“Well, no, not exactly, but they have to be connected—”
“We’re going to need your whereabouts for the past four days,” Lauren interrupted.
The question wiped the smirk off Graves’ face. For a second, something cold flickered in his eyes before he let out a rough chuckle. “Oh, I see. I offer to help, and suddenly, I’m a suspect?”
“You’re someone we want to interview,” she stated, and before he could respond, Lauren fired off another question. “Do you know Abilene Joyce?”
“The woman who was abducted,” Graves supplied. “No, I don’t know her. Should I?”
Jesse leaned in, still watching the doctor’s expression. “Possibly. Someone abducted her, and while the person had her, he showed her a picture of Lauren and told her to give Lauren a message.”
Graves let out a sharp laugh, shaking his head.
“And you think that someone was me?” He scoffed.
“I’m a respected profiler and psychologist. Not a kidnapper.
” Then, his smile faded, and he huffed. “Wait a minute,” he said, his words trailing off before he snapped toward Lauren.
“This is about your visit, the one where you grilled me about the date I’d put on the profile.
And about that asinine allegation that I’d had an inappropriate relationship with a patient. ”
“It’s about finding out where you were for the past four days,” Jesse insisted.
Graves’ eyes narrowed. “I was at home and work,” he spat out. “My assistant can give you those details. And if there’s anything else you want from you, you’ll have to go through my lawyers. I won’t be called in here like some common criminal—”
“Tomorrow morning at nine,” Jesse interrupted. “Be here with your lawyer, and we can have a formal interview. We’ll use one of the interview rooms and record everything. You know, keep it all very official.”
Jesse could practically feel the anger bubbling up in the man. With his whole body like a coiled spring, he turned to leave but then whirled right back around to face them.
“If you’re looking for someone with an obsession over Lauren’s case, maybe you should be asking Tim Reardon,” Graves spat out like profanity.
Lauren stiffened beside him. Jesse narrowed his eyes. “Reardon? The county sheriff who got involved with Lauren’s abduction?”
Graves nodded, his smirk returning. “Yeah. The golden boy cop. Everyone thought he was the hero trying to save the missing girl, but I always had my doubts.”
Jesse exchanged a glance with Lauren. Reardon had been respected, even decorated, but a couple of years later, he’d resigned under a cloud of suspicion. Jesse couldn’t recall the reason for that suspicion, but he’d soon find out.
“This is the thanks I get for trying to help the cops,” Graves muttered while he stormed away.
Jesse watched the station door swing shut behind Graves. The profiler-psychologist had left them with more questions than answers, but one thing was clear, he was either trying to throw them off his scent or nudging them toward something they hadn’t yet considered.
Lauren let out a slow breath, crossing her arms as she stared at the door. “I hate that he got to me,” she murmured.
Jesse didn’t push. He could see the way she was working through something, the way her fingers tapped restlessly against her arm.
Finally, she turned to face him. “I never told anyone this, but… I had doubts about Tim Reardon, too.”
That had Jesse’s full attention. “You think he was involved?”
Lauren hesitated, then shook her head. “I don’t know.
But something’s never sat right with me.
” She exhaled sharply, running a hand through her hair.
“After I escaped, he was the one who interviewed me. Over and over. I thought he was just trying to help me process what happened, to find details that might lead to the other girls. But looking back, maybe it was more than that.”
Jesse frowned. “More how?”
Lauren’s expression darkened. “What if he wasn’t just studying me to help me heal? What if he was studying me for his own fascination? Or worse, what if he was trying to find out if I knew anything that could incriminate him?”
Jesse absorbed that, his gut tightening. Hell, had that happened?
“I don’t have an ounce of proof against him or Graves,” she admitted.
“But there’s something else about Tim Reardon.
Something I learned when I started digging into him a few years ago.
” She hesitated before meeting his gaze.
“When he was five years old, his father abducted a young woman and murdered her.”
Jesse couldn’t bite off the profanity before it left his mouth. “What? I never heard about any of this.”
“It happened before we were even born. From all accounts, Tim adored his father. It crushed him when his dad was sentenced to life in prison.” She shook her head.
“No, there aren’t any direct similarities between what his father did and what happened to me.
But what if it twisted him up? What if it made him into something worse? ”
Jesse’s jaw clenched. Reardon had been a damn good county sheriff at the time. The one leading the search. The one questioning Lauren, guiding the investigation.
And now, with new victims appearing after sixteen years…
“What if he’s the one who took me?” Lauren whispered.
Jesse felt the weight of Lauren’s words settle over him like a storm rolling in over the plains.
What if he’s the one who took me ?
He wanted to tell her she was wrong, that it was impossible, but he knew better. The world didn’t work like that. People wore masks, and sometimes the ones you were supposed to trust the most were the ones hiding the darkest secrets.
Before he could say anything, Jesse’s phone buzzed against his hip. A call from the hospital. His gut twisted and bracing himself, he answered. “Deputy McCain.”
The voice on the other end was tight, urgent. “Deputy, I’m Sal Becker with hospital security. You need to get back here right away. Abilene Joyce is dead.”