42
“How’s Truman holding up?” Noelle asked Ben as they strode down the hall at the Eagle’s Nest police station with Max.
“Not bad,” said Ben. “After Ollie’s knee surgery yesterday, he stayed overnight in the hospital with him. The boy will be discharged later today.” He gave her a sympathetic look. “Both he and Ollie are upset about Emma—we all are. Everyone’s looking for her. We’ll find her.”
“Thank you,” said Noelle. The young woman had been missing for a second night, and Noelle struggled to think about anything else. Max discreetly touched her hand; they’d been up late last night discussing how to find Emma. There’d been no solid leads.
At least Belle is back.
It was hard for Noelle to celebrate.
“This Elise woman keeps saying I need to let her go before it’s too late,” Ben said. “So I asked too late for what, but she refuses to tell me.” He shrugged. “She’s a tightly wound woman,” he added in a lower voice.
I’ve been tightly wound for the last five days.
Emma’s continued disappearance was making it worse.
Ben knocked on a door, then opened it. Inside, the woman who’d been posing as Elise Nunevillier sat in a chair, her cuffed hands fastened to a ring in the center of the table.
She was frowning but kept her gaze on her hands, not looking up as Max and Noelle entered and took the two chairs on the other side of the table. They exchanged a glance.
She’s irritated that she was immediately caught after dropping off Belle.
“We know you’re not Elise Nunevillier,” Noelle started, annoyed by the woman’s lack of response to their presence. “But apparently you’ve been living her life for a while. We also know you were Sydney Beason’s roommate, but you were clearly not her friend.”
That brought the woman’s chin up, and she shot an angry gaze at Noelle. “She was my closest friend!”
“Holy crap,” said Noelle in shock as Max abruptly straightened beside her.
I know her!
“Emma . . . you’re Emma’s mom! You’re Crystal Chambers,” Noelle squeaked, staring at the woman.
She has Emma’s pale-green eyes and face shape.
“That’s right,” snapped Crystal, “and if you don’t let me go, he’s going to torture Emma!”
“You know who has Emma?” Noelle managed to say, still reeling at the sight of the woman before her who looked so much like her daughter. Crystal’s hair had originally been blonde like Emma’s but now was a dark red.
“I’m going to kill him myself!” said the woman. “I can’t let another person die!” She lowered her head to wipe away tears with her cuffed hands.
“Who died?” asked Max, sounding as stunned as Noelle felt.
“Sydney! And all the others!” Crystal rocked in her seat, unable to stay still, her eyes pleading with them.
“I think you better start at the beginning,” said Noelle as confusion swamped her.
I’d expected to discuss Belle Beason.
“There’s no time! I know he has Emma, and he’s trying to hurt me through her because he’s still angry with me!”
“Why is he angry with you?” asked Max. “Who are you talking about?”
Crystal stared at them in disgust. “Just let me go so I can kill him. I owe Sydney that much.”
“Where’s he holding Emma?” asked Noelle. “We’ll send the police to get her.”
Is she making this up?
Uncertainty crossed Crystal’s gaze. “I think I know. I’ve been combing Google Earth maps for a long time, but I think I found it.”
She’s trying to steer away from explaining about Belle.
“You’re not sure where he is?” asked Noelle. “Why should we trust you on this?”
“It happened ten years ago.” Crystal proceeded to tell a shocking story about witnessing a man murder a woman point-blank in the forest and how the same man had held Crystal captive for two months, informing her she was now his wife, until her harrowing escape from his remote house of horror.
“Who is he?” asked Noelle, her stomach turned by the gut-wrenching story of this evil man who might have Emma.
I still don’t quite believe her.
“His name is Drew Mims,” said Crystal, “but I guarantee you won’t find him at any address associated with him. He’ll be at this place in the woods with Emma. He’s fanatical about the location.”
Max started to tap on his phone, no doubt seeing what he could find out about a Drew Mims.
“Check if he has a black Expedition,” said Noelle. Her nerves were buzzing at the thought of finding Emma, but caution flags about Crystal’s story were waving in her brain.
“It’s my fault he killed Sydney,” continued Crystal. “He was after me, but Syd got in the way. I don’t know why he killed her. He could’ve just let her go!” Crystal’s gaze pleaded for Noelle to understand.
There’s a lot more to this story.
“But why did you hide Belle?” asked Noelle. Crystal’s complicated story was hard to believe, and Noelle wasn’t ready to forgive her for disappearing on Emma for ten years. “You had to know the FBI and her family had been looking for her.”
“He’d kill Belle next if he couldn’t find me.” Sincerity rang in her tone. “Everything is about hurting me. I’m the wife who got away.”
“You should have brought Belle to the police,” said Noelle.
Crystal scoffed. “The police,” she said, disgust in her tone.
“Why would I? You take forever. Someone needs to act right away to rescue my daughter, but instead, you’re just sitting here talking to me.
Typical. I know how it works. Belle and I didn’t have time for paperwork and questions.
We needed to hide or else he’d find us. I couldn’t risk that little girl getting hurt. ”
“Why did you not contact your family for ten years?” asked Max.
“I couldn’t go back home after I escaped from him,” Crystal said earnestly. “Drew Mims lives around here, and Gage knows him! Gage would have immediately turned me back over to him. He brought Drew the woman I saw him murder in the woods! Home was the last place I could go!”
Noelle sensed Crystal was leaving out some details. “Again, you could have gone to the police for protection back then.”
Crystal slumped back in her chair. “You don’t understand.”
“Believe me, I’m trying my hardest,” Noelle said. “I love Emma a lot, and right now you’re the only thing keeping me from getting her back!”
Anger, then shame, flashed in Crystal’s eyes.
“Why did you return now, Crystal?” asked Noelle.
Now that your daughter has grown up without her mom.
She shifted in her seat. “A few reasons. I read about the explosion at Tommy’s and saw the news about the shooting of that militia leader a couple months ago. That asshole got what he had coming. I read how he held Emma hostage.”
Max shifted in his seat.
He delivered the militia leader’s justice.
“I spotted Emma in the background of one of the news videos,” continued Crystal. “And I instantly knew it was her.” Loss was reflected in her eyes. “I just wanted to see her again . . . not be back in her life. Just see her.”
Maybe she did miss Emma.
A little.
“The main reason I came back was to kill Drew Mims.” Her tone hardened, and her gaze was pale-green ice. “Instead, my return got Sydney murdered, and Emma will be next if you don’t stop him soon.”
The utter conviction in Crystal’s voice told Noelle the woman believed every word she’d said.
“Drew Mims,” said Max, looking at his phone. “Age forty-two, six four, lives in Bend. Works for UPS. Has an eight-year-old black Expedition.”
He continued to tap on his phone. “Sending two deputies to his address.”
Find the bastard.
“I told you he won’t be there. You’re wasting time,” said Crystal, leaning forward. “He’s most comfortable in the woods, and that’s where he’ll have Emma. That’s where he always takes them.” She blanched at her words.
“We still need to check,” said Max.
“You said he killed Sydney,” said Noelle. “You’re aware of where she was found?”
“I saw the news,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Are the other bodies in the woods victims of Drew?” asked Max.
“Most likely. I heard they were women. I know he’d had wives before me. He talked about them in past tense like they were dead.”
“One man’s body was found there,” corrected Noelle.
Crystal shrugged. “Maybe he pissed off Drew about something. He’s a big angry bastard.”
“How is it your fault Sydney was killed?” asked Noelle.
Crystal straightened and took a deep breath, her flat gaze fastened on the wall beyond Noelle and Max.
“I went to high school with Sydney. We were pretty good friends but didn’t keep in touch after school.
After I saw the news about the hostage situation and Emma, I reached out to Sydney, told her I’d changed my name to avoid an ex and that I was looking for a job in town. She invited me to stay while I looked.”
“You’d been living in Boise,” added Noelle. “Before that South Carolina.”
Crystal shook her head. “That was the real Elise in South Carolina. I decided to use her identity after I saw Drew murder her.”
“She was the woman that you said Gage had brought to him? And then Drew shot her point-blank?”
“Yes. I’d looked in her purse because I thought Gage was cheating on me with her. I figured it was a safe identity to use since she was dead.”
I can’t decide whether I should appreciate how she escaped and hid for ten years or continue being angry that she abandoned Emma.
“Elise had brown eyes. I can tell now that her license photo is you . . . but you had brown eyes in it,” said Noelle.
“Contacts.”
She thought of everything.
“You never heard from her friends or family?” asked Noelle.
“No. I didn’t do social media under her name—or mine—and no one ever contacted me.”
“You moved in with Sydney,” prompted Max. “Then what?”
“It was really good staying with her,” said Crystal with a sad smile. “Sort of like old times. Her daughter was adorable, and I’d watch her when Syd went out. But I did tell Syd some of what I’d gone through with Drew ten years before, and that it was why I’d left.”
“She knew that you’d returned to town to kill him?” Noelle asked bluntly.