Chapter 6
SIX
That Linc had to buzz and wait to be let in the school made him feel better. However, he wasn’t taking any chances leaving his nephew here or putting the other kids or employees in danger.
“Is everything all right with Jalen’s grandmother?” the director asked as she escorted him to Jalen’s room.
“Uh, I’m afraid she’s still missing.” He didn’t elaborate.
“I’m sorry. Does you being here to get Jalen early have anything to do with the police cruiser out front?” Rachel paused outside the classroom.
He doubted much got by this woman. “It does. There’s a possibility she may have been abducted.”
“Oh, dear. At the risk of sounding paranoid, there was a white van parked in the elementary school lot next door last night.”
Linc froze. “A minivan or . . .”
“No. A work-type van. It could have been a facilities maintenance van, but, while I was trying to get ahold of someone for Jalen, a man tried our front door. He didn’t buzz but walked back toward the school and went off-camera. The van was the only vehicle there that late, and it left right after Ms. Andrews picked Jalen up. That he’d come to the door made me uneasy, but I didn’t want to sound paranoid.”
“No. You’re right to be cautious. Did you get a look at the man?” Linc’s training enabled him to project a calm demeanor as the director summoned the teacher and told Jalen to get his backpack.
“Mostly from behind. I think he was white, wearing jeans or dark pants, a gray shirt, and a black baseball cap. My guess is maybe five-foot-ten, average build, and late twenties or early thirties.”
It sounded like the same man who’d taken Regina. If he’d followed Kendra last night, Linc needed to let her know as soon as possible.
“I get to leave early?” Jalen asked. “Is Mommy coming home?” His face lit up.
“Not yet, J-man. But we’re going to have a little adventure.” He hadn’t thought beyond getting to Jalen, but these people knew where Bri lived. Tonya knew Bri had a brother. It wouldn’t be hard to find out where he lived simply by checking property records. That complicated things.
Once Kendra concluded her client interview, she checked her phone on her way to her car. Both the missed call and one of the text pings were from Linc. Before calling him back, she logged in to her email and verified his drug test results were clean. With that box checked off and him in charge of Jalen, she could focus on other things.
Linc answered before the second ring. “Have you talked to Clara?”
“Not since she called to say they had found Regina’s car. What did they find out?” Why hadn’t she told Clara to call Linc directly? She’d done her job with Jalen, and it would be better for her to limit her interaction with Bri’s brother, who stirred up too many complicated emotions. His dedication to Jalen and commitment to helping his sister were unexpected because of her Grandma Ruby’s repeated warnings.
“The footage showed a man putting her into a van.”
“Oh my goodness.” Even with what Linc told her about Bri’s call, she had not expected that.
“I need you to think…”
Linc’s commanding tone didn’t calm her.
“…when you picked up Jalen last night, did you notice a white van in the school lot next door that may have followed you?”
“Not then, but a white van?” Kendra’s mouth went dry, and her breathing became labored.
“Yes. Why?”
“Because there was one parked next to me when I left the fast-food restaurant. The man sitting in the van had been eating near the play area, but he didn’t have a child with him when he left.” What if the man had tried to take Jalen? Thank goodness she’d sat right near the entrance to the play area and kept an eye on him while she’d made calls trying to arrange respite care. Had Regina been in that van?
“Did he follow you from there?”
She closed her eyes and thought back. “He turned out the same way I did. I was headed to the office, but when you called, I cut over to Bri’s apartment. I don’t remember seeing it after that. But Linc, I swear a white van followed me when I left my office this morning.”
“Where are you now?”
“Leaving a client’s home on the south side of town.” Why would they still follow her? Studying the street, she didn’t see a white van, but the man could have changed vehicles. “This was my last appointment of the day. I was headed back to my office, but someone needs to get Jalen.”
“He’s with me. Don’t go to your office. Not with the possibility he was staking you out. Meet me at the police station. I’ll fill you in there.”
Good idea. Clara would know what to do. Kendra called her office to let them know she would be working from home the rest of the afternoon and drove to the police station gripping the steering wheel and checking her rearview mirror every few seconds.
Kendra entered the police station only a few minutes after Linc and Jalen had settled in to wait.
“Keep finding the matches while I talk with Ms. Andrews.” He left Jalen doing one of his cognition exercises on the tablet and moved out of earshot to join Kendra at Clara’s desk.
“We’ll need your keys so they can sweep your vehicle just in case they put a tracker on it,” Clara told Kendra, who handed her keys to a uniformed officer.
“What is going on? Do you think they’d track me?” Kendra cast a wide-eyed glance from Clara to Linc.
“It’s possible.” Clara filled her in on the phone message Bri had left for Regina.
Kendra sank into the chair next to Clara’s desk. “This sounds bad.”
His sister had done a great job conveying information about the situation, except for the vital piece Linc needed—where she was—so he could save her from being beaten, killed, or trafficked.
“These people don’t mess around,” Clara stated. “I’m not taking chances when it comes to you. Plates on the van were stolen, and we don’t have a VIN number to know who it’s registered to. Every patrol officer has been alerted to be on the lookout for it. I need the name of the restaurant you stopped at, what time you were there, and when you left. That could help us determine where he went last night. I also need the time you think you saw it outside the Social Services building, so we confirm if it was the same van you saw this morning.”
“There’s no guarantee he didn’t follow her to Bri’s place last night or home. You need to stay somewhere safe over the weekend until they catch this guy.” Linc wasn’t risking taking Jalen back to Bri’s or even to his place.
“They may think Jalen is staying with you since you picked him up,” Clara cautioned. “You need to stay with me and Derrick.”
Kendra rolled her eyes. “They’ll see I don’t have him.”
Clearly, she didn’t understand the situation. “That doesn’t matter. They may think that you know where to find him,” Linc said. “These organizations can find out who you are and where you live. Who your family and friends are.”
Kendra still didn’t appear convinced.
“We had a mission that put my team in the crosshairs of a Colombian cartel. They couldn’t find anything on us, as we keep low profiles, but they found out who the American pilot was who picked us up. They found her back here in the States. Even though we put protection protocols in place, they still got to her and took her to Colombia.”
“Did they . . .?” Now Kendra’s voice shook.
“We got her back. Alive . But it took our entire team. Our highly elite team.” He let that sink in. “If they find you two are related, they will not care that you are a cop,” he said to Clara. “You can’t be around to provide twenty-four-seven security.” He shifted his focus to Kendra. “Do you have family or friends out of town you can stay with for a few days?”
“I’m not putting anyone I know in danger,” Kendra stated.
She didn’t leave him much of a choice. He wouldn’t have to worry about her now that she’d been dragged into this, and she could watch Jalen while Linc did what he needed to do. “I’ve got a place. You and Jalen will be safe.”
“Where?” Clara.
He hoped she’d agree and not buck his plan. “At one of my teammate’s homes. He’s deployed with me. Whoever these people are won’t be able to connect us due to security protocols.”
“We can’t just break in and hide out at his house,” Kendra protested.
“We wouldn’t be breaking in. I have the code for the lock. With everything going on, you want me to call and ask permission?”
“Yes.”
“She’s a rule follower,” Clara said, her lips tightening into a smirk.
He checked his watch. “My team’s not gonna be happy if I wake them up.”
Kendra crossed her arms.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and called Dev.
“Hey, man.” Dev’s low tone meant the team had turned in for the night. “Everything okay with Bri?”
“No. She was duped by someone to go on vacation in Mexico. The real purpose is to force her to smuggle drugs back.”
“Shit. Did she know they were using her as a mule?”
“No. Somehow, she figured it out. They’ve got her passport and snatched her grandmother, who was watching Jalen.”
“Shit,” Dev said again. That was about the only swear word the Boy Scout used. “What are you gonna do?”
“Right now, I don’t even know what city they went to. Police contacted the airlines, so I should have a destination and return flight info soon, but finding her Grams is our best shot at learning where they’re staying so I can go down and bring her back.”
Clara cleared her throat, and Linc angled away from her disapproving stare.
“On your own?”
Linc didn’t like the doubt in Dev’s voice. “What choice do I have?”
Dev’s sigh weighed in across six time zones. “Let us know what we can do.”
“We need a place to stay off their radar. Can we crash at your place?”
“You know you don’t have to ask. Anything you and J-man need. Keys to the Camaro should be on the counter.”
“You’re fine with me borrowing your car?” he asked for Kendra’s benefit.
“Not for teaching a defensive driving class, but other than that, yeah. Angela’s been swinging by to start it up and takes the Ducati out every few weeks. I’ll have Vincenti let her know you’re there.”
“Have him text me her number. I may need some intel she can access.” With Angela’s FBI and CIA background, Vincenti’s girlfriend had connections that had helped the team in the past. Maybe she could pull a rabbit from the hat to find out who this Tonya was and where she and his sister were in Mexico.
“Just a thought,” Dev used his diplomatic tone, “but her best shot could be to go with it. Bring the drugs in, then turn them over to authorities.”
“But if she’s caught, she could spend decades in a Mexican prison.”
“She proves it was under duress. Testifies. She could get off. Better than what the cartel could do if she refuses.”
“But there’s no way to tell her that.” They had her grandmother, but they knew she’d do anything to protect Jalen. They needed him .