CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
C HAPTER T HIRTY -F IVE
Bree crouched in the weeds behind the vacant supermarket, waiting for the Wildlife Whisperer to make an appearance. The setting sun fired the sky in bright orange. A gnat buzzed by her face. She waved it away.
Next to her, Matt rose onto his knees and looked over the low cinder block wall that defined the former receiving area. He used the scope on his rifle to sweep the area. He might not be able to qualify with a handgun, but his aim with a long gun was excellent. Todd and another deputy were on the opposite side of the building. Empty fields stretched out behind the vacant store. The surrounding landscape was too open to take cover anywhere else.
“Who thought building a store out here was a good idea?” Matt asked, lowering the rifle. “It’s too far from town.”
“It’s too far from anything.”
“I see a vehicle approaching,” Matt said.
“Right on time.” She lifted a pair of binoculars and peered over the wall. “Light-colored minivan.” The sun blazed into her eyes.
“If our killer drives a black SUV, then maybe that’s the buyer,” Matt said.
“Here comes another vehicle.” She waited for it to come into focus. “I can’t see the details.” She looked away from the binoculars, blinked, then tried again. “Looks like a dark-colored SUV.”
“Bingo,” Matt said. “I’ll bet that’s our man. Can you read the plate?”
Bree adjusted the focus on the binoculars, but it didn’t help. “No. We’ll give them a few minutes to get out of their vehicles.” She touched her earbud and relayed the situation to Todd.
The two vehicles parked a few yards apart. Doors opened. Two people got out of the minivan. A man stepped out of the SUV. They met behind the SUV.
“It’s go time,” she said into the mic. “Stick to the plan.”
She and Matt returned to her SUV, hidden behind the building. There was no way to creep up on the meeting. The fastest way to cut them off was by vehicle. She started the engine. She’d parked the SUV facing the direction of the lot. Now she eased forward, then stomped on the gas pedal and whipped the steering wheel left. The vehicle shot around the corner of the building. They roared forward. The three men froze for a few seconds, then sprinted for their rides. But they didn’t have a chance.
Bree used the vehicle speaker. “Put your hands up.”
All three men, clearly seeing that escape was not possible, froze. Their hands shot up to the sky.
Bree stomped on the brake. Her tires slid on the sandy asphalt before coming to a stop behind the dark SUV. Todd’s cruiser blocked the minivan. Bree flung open her door and leveled her weapon at the men. Matt sprang out of the passenger seat, rifle in hand. Todd and the deputy jumped out of their cruiser and took aim at the three suspects.
“Don’t move. Sheriff’s department,” Bree commanded.
“Please don’t shoot!” One man cringed, his hands as high as he could lift them.
Todd and the deputy moved in, patted down the men, and cuffed them.
Matt went to the minivan. He glanced inside the rear hatch and shook his head. “Just an empty animal crate.”
Bree approached the SUV, a dark-blue Mazda. She saw a cardboard box with holes poked in the top in the cargo area. She shouted at the three men, “What’s in the box?”
“Nothing,” a bald man answered.
She reached inside and flipped off the lid. “Confirmed. Empty.”
No animals. Disappointment crashed down on Bree. None of these men were the Wildlife Whisperer. They were all his potential customers.
Todd walked to Bree and handed her three wallets. Taking them, Bree approached the men. All three were middle-aged. None looked fit enough to be the man she and Matt had chased. She read the names on the driver’s licenses, then matched the photos to their faces.
“Check for outstanding warrants,” she instructed the deputy.
“Yes, ma’am.” He retreated to the patrol vehicle.
She pointed to a bald man. “Paul, is this your Mazda?”
He nodded.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
Paul frowned. “I don’t have to answer your questions. I haven’t done anything wrong.” He rattled his cuffed hands. “You have no right to detain me.”
Bree stared him down. “We’re looking for a murderer.”
Paul went pale and sputtered.
Bree repeated, “Why are you here?”
Paul’s jaw tightened but he didn’t answer.
Bree turned to the other two men, who had arrived together in the minivan. “How about you two?”
The bearded one, Jake, said, “We came to meet someone.”
“Who?” Bree asked.
“I don’t know his name,” Jake said. “He goes by the Wildlife Whisperer on Facebook.”
His friend tried to elbow him. “Dude. Shut up.”
Jake was clearly the weak link.
Bree focused on him. “Why were you meeting?”
“Don’t say anything,” the companion warned.
Jake shrugged. “She thinks we’re here to make a drug deal or something. We’re not.” He faced Bree. “We’re buying a monkey. Nothing wrong with that.”
“Do you have a permit?” Bree asked.
“Why would I need a permit?”
“Because it’s illegal to keep a monkey as a pet in the state of New York.”
“Huh.” Jake’s face creased. “I did not know that.”
She speared Paul with a glare. “What were you going to buy?”
His shoulders drooped. “I haven’t bought anything.”
Yet.
Paul shuffled his feet. “Hypothetically, I might have been interested in a chimpanzee.”
Bree rubbed her forehead. Why? Why did people want to own weird animals?
“You were going to put a chimpanzee in a cardboard box?” Matt yelled. “Have you even seen a chimpanzee? What the—” He stepped away to collect himself.
Bree spoke to Paul. “Exotic animals are illegal to buy and own. Most of them come from horrific situations. Many are poached and their parents slaughtered. A good number die en route. If they do survive, there’s a good chance they aren’t healthy, and they’ll be even harder to keep. You could catch a disease from them. Chimpanzees are known to bite. They are strong animals and can be dangerous unless kept by a professional.”
“This was supposed to be a baby,” Paul said to his shoes.
“They grow!” Matt shouted from twenty feet away. He muttered. Bree heard the word stupid multiple times. He was usually a very controlled and calm person, but when animals or kids were at risk, he could lose his temper.
Jake and his companion had the decency to look ashamed. “I didn’t know any of that. I won’t buy anything. I promise.”
His companion nodded like a bobblehead.
But Paul didn’t look sorry. His glared at Bree in silence.
The deputy returned. “No outstanding warrants. No criminal records. Paul has a few speeding tickets, all paid.”
She stepped closer, addressing all three men. “We are taking your names and information. We will be watching you.”
She motioned for her deputy to remove their handcuffs. She had no option. She couldn’t arrest them for wanting to commit a crime.
Matt joined her, and she said, “We’re no closer to finding him.”
“Was he tipped off?” She scanned the area.
“I don’t see how,” Matt said. “We weren’t visible from the road. We were in position thirty minutes early, and we didn’t see anyone around.”
But Bree wondered. “Then why didn’t he show?”
Matt lifted a palm.
Bree’s phone buzzed. She pulled it from its belt holder. Zucco. She answered, “Taggert.”
“Claire is missing.” Zucco explained in a few sentences. “I didn’t expect her to run.”
“I’m on my way.” Bree lowered the phone and relayed the news to Matt as she headed for the SUV. “I’m afraid that might be why he isn’t here.”
Matt finished her thought. “Because he was busy going after Claire?”
Bree called for backup. She also put out a BOLO on Claire as she and Matt raced for Zucco’s house. Her deputy met them in the driveway. One look at Zucco’s face told Bree she was devastated.
“I can’t believe I lost her,” Zucco said.
“What happened before she left?” Bree asked.
Zucco recounted a very normal afternoon and evening. “She seemed excited to help make dinner. I was hoping I could get her to eat an actual meal.”
Bree closed her eyes and thought. “Did she seem upset?”
“She’s been upset since I met her.”
“Good point.”
“I checked the doors and windows before she took her bath. Everything was locked up tightly. I kept an eye on the street all day. No unusual cars. It was a very ordinary day.” Zucco piled both hands on top of her head. “She seemed good, considering.”
Another patrol vehicle—the K-9 team—pulled up to the curb. In the back, Greta barked. Collins unloaded the black shepherd and outfitted her in her tracking harness. Greta began to dance, excited to work.
Zucco pointed out the window where Claire had climbed out of the house. “Claire took her backpack with her. We don’t have an item of hers.”
“That’s OK,” Collins said. “She’ll pick up the scent from beneath the window.”
Greta was a long, lean dog with energy to spare, but Bree was grateful the sun and temperature had dropped. The fading light meant nothing to the dog, but excessive heat would make her job more difficult. Collins walked her beneath the window, gave her a command, and let her sniff the grass. The dog’s nose hit the ground, then lifted to scent the air. She circled a few times, then charged forward, leaning into the harness. Collins let out some leash and broke into a jog to keep up. The dog stayed on the scent like it was a line marked with powdered chalk.
Bree, Matt, and Zucco stayed well behind the K-9 team. They jogged two blocks, then the dog abruptly stopped on the side of the road. She sniffed in a circle several times, alternating between scenting the ground and air before looking back at her handler and whining.
“She’s lost the scent. We’ll try to pick it up again.” Collins led her in a spiral pattern. The dog lunged sideways, then sat next to the storm sewer grate and whined. Collins watched her dog. “She found something.”
Matt approached the grate and crouched. “It’s a cell phone.” He pulled a glove out of his pocket and picked up the phone by the edges. The case was bejeweled and purple, with a cardholder attached to the back.
Collins pulled a stuffed hedgehog out of her pants cargo pocket and tossed it to the dog. “That’s a good girl. You did it.”
Greta leaped and snatched the toy from the air. Wagging her tail, she squeaked the stuffed animal over and over.
“That’s Claire’s phone!” Zucco said.
Bree looked over Matt’s shoulder. The phone screen was a spiderweb of cracks. “That’s a newer model. It should be fairly durable. I drop mine all the time. It doesn’t shatter that easily.”
Matt agreed with a nod. “It didn’t drop out of Claire’s pocket. It was intentionally smashed.”
Collins rubbed Greta’s head. “If she lost the scent, Claire was probably picked up in a vehicle.”
Bree pointed to the four closest houses on both sides of the street. “Let’s see who has doorbell or security cameras.”
They split up. Bree jogged up the driveway facing the sewer grate. She spotted a camera mounted under the eaves over the driveway, pointed at an older-model Mercedes sedan. She knocked on the door. A fiftyish man in basketball shorts and a T-shirt answered the door. Bree explained what she needed in rushed words.
“Of course. I bought the driveway cam after my car window got busted a few months ago.” He stepped onto the porch and pulled his phone from the pocket of his shorts. He tapped and swiped the screen. “Do you know what time the car stopped here?”
“Within the last hour,” Bree said.
“OK.” He lowered the phone so she could see the screen. With one finger, he fast-forwarded the video. Claire came into view.
“That’s her,” Bree said.
Claire was walking in a rushed pace, almost jogging, and looking over her shoulder. A dark SUV sped into view and stopped next to her. She tried to run away, but a man leaped out of the vehicle and caught her by the arm before she’d taken two strides. His back was to the camera. He wore shorts, a T-shirt, and a black baseball cap pulled down low. He whirled her around and got in Claire’s face. She shook her head, pulling backward and trying to free her arm. But the man was too strong. He dragged her back to his SUV and shoved her into the back seat. He closed the door and drove away. Between the camera angle and the cap, his face was a mystery.
“Shit,” said the homeowner. “Do you know who he is?”
“No.” But he looked familiar to Bree. She was almost certain he was the man who’d shot at them at the playground. “Can you see the license plate number?”
The homeowner nodded. “I got you, Sheriff. Let me zoom in.” He rewound until the plate was in view. Then he stopped the video and took a screenshot. Switching to his photo app, he selected the picture and zoomed in. “Bingo.”
Bree wrote down the plate number. “Thank you. Would you please send me the video and photo?” She read off her cell phone number.
“You got it.” He tapped a few more times. “Done.”
“Thank you.”
“Happy I could help.”
Bree met her team back on the sidewalk. “I got the plate of the vehicle that took her.” She ran for Zucco’s house, using her shoulder mic to relay the plate to dispatch. She opened the door to her SUV and slid into the driver’s seat. Before dispatch could respond, she’d plugged the license plate number into the computer.
Matt stood next to the open door of her vehicle, his hand propped on her seat. “Well?”
Bree stared at the result. “The SUV is registered to Denver Sawyer.”
Matt leaned back. “Huh.”
Dispatch repeated the information.
Bree tapped the steering wheel.
“Did she go with him willingly?” Matt asked. “Maybe he called her.”
Zucco appeared behind him. “Then why did she sneak out the window? Why wouldn’t she tell me she was meeting her brother?”
Bree opened the text from the homeowner and showed them the video.
He watched. His brow furrowed. “She didn’t go willingly.”
“No,” Zucco said.
“Are you calling the Chandler PD to intercept them at his place?” Matt asked.
Bree pointed to the dashboard computer. “Denver doesn’t live in Chandler. That’s where their mother lives. Denver’s address is in Grey’s Hollow.” She plugged the address into the map app.
Matt leaned closer. “That’s near the Scarlet Falls township line. It’s also very close to the auto shop where Gloria Klein’s SUV was stored last weekend.”
Bree digested that fact for a minute. “Did Denver Sawyer kill the Masons?”
Matt said, “It makes perfect sense if he found out that Josh Mason killed his dad and stole his sister.”
“But did he have any connections with the Masons?” Bree agreed the motivation was solid, but how did he accomplish the murders?
“The logistics don’t matter right now,” Zucco said. “We have to go get Claire.”