26. Daisy
Chapter twenty-six
Daisy
“Overwatch to Command, comms check,” I say, testing out the communication device while peering through my scope on the west side of the campground.
I’m across the two-lane highway, lying prone on a hillside, wearing a ghillie suit, and looking at six dozen girls trying to figure out how to pitch their tents.
Northwyck Academy for Girls isn’t some rinky-dink school that survives on donations.
It’s a boarding school that comes with a six-figure price tag to attend.
Roger replies, “Command has you five by five.”
The rest of the team checks in, even though we ensured our equipment was operational before dispersing to our various vantage points.
Scott is perched between two boulders on the south side of the campground, 500 yards away from the last tent site, while Owen is a quarter mile east of my position and dressed like me.
Then there’s Angel, positioned to the north, 1,500 yards away on top of a hill and hidden under some brush.
Between the four of us, we have visual on roughly 80% of the campground.
The other 20% is obscured by tall pine trees intermittently scattered throughout.
That’s where Jeremy, Jack, Faith, and Jaxon come in as they patrol the area.
As for Vinny, he’s in the back office of Dottie’s diner, where she’s let him set up his equipment to operate the drone. He could have done it from the cabin, but this puts him ten minutes closer to us in the event something goes down.
“No sign of Eva or Kenneth,” Faith says as she and Jaxon hold hands while strolling along the paved driving path.
I was surprised when Angel told me how Eva and Kenneth were working together, about Uri’s appearance and protective stance, and then Roger’s call to bring the team home without capturing the two suspects for questioning.
If only Roger hadn’t done so, we could know more about where she’s been for the past 15 years.
Did she murder Andrus Saaren?lv? Does she know the location of Dominion?
There are other questions burning in the back of my mind, such as: Does Eva know who the man behind the abductions is?
Was she sold to Andrus, or did she choose the life she’s now leading?
And Kenneth, how did he figure out where the next kidnapping would take place?
How long have he and Eva been partnered up?
None of it makes sense. Bennett promised that once he’s out of the hospital, he’ll give me answers.
I’m not sure why Bennett had a change of heart regarding giving us information, but the only conclusion I can come to is that my team was right.
By opening up to him and sharing the reason why this case is so important to me, his resolve softened.
Granted, telling him I lost someone close to me was as close to the truth as I could get without lying because a part of me did die that day in the cave.
I lost my youth and what was left of my childhood.
Instead of living the carefree life children deserve, I harbored vengeance in the depths of my soul and even fear; fear that my new life could be snatched away in an instant.
Jack’s voice pulls me from my thoughts. “Jordan and Benjamin still have eyes on Brad Callahan. He’s currently camped near the Rogue River in Grants Pass, but was last seen entering a sporting goods store less than an hour ago.
Are you sure he isn’t our guy? Seth followed him inside and said that it looks like Brad plans on disappearing for a while. ”
“This weekend is the anniversary of Emily’s death. Just like her parents, Brad pays homage by spending a week in the great outdoors because that’s what she loved,” I tell him. “He didn’t hide the fact that he plans on hiking for an extended length of time.”
“Convenient,” Jeremy retorts.
Roger chimes in. “Keep your eyes open for anyone who looks suspicious. If Logan Bloom is still alive, then he could be anyone or anywhere. All we know for certain is that he’s a male in his late forties, around six feet tall. He should be fit considering his love of the outdoors.”
Mason and Gemma told me that he and Emily used to spend their weekends rock climbing and backpacking. Every year for Emily’s birthday, the Bloom family would choose a National Park to visit, never visiting the same one twice.
“Logan Bloom is alive,” I say. “I’m sure of it. There are just too many similarities between what happened before his supposed car accident and the string of kidnappings since. Then there’s the secretive job Gemma told me about. It reeks of Dominion.”
“If only Bennett were here to shed some light on the situation,” Jaxon says. “I’m honestly surprised he didn’t give you any more information once you shared what you had learned from the Blooms.”
I bite my lower lip, moving my rifle slowly so that my position remains undetected. I study each of the girls, ignoring any who don’t have dark hair. “About that. I didn’t exactly tell him. And before any of you question my judgment, it’s not that I don’t trust Bennett….”
“Then why?” Jeremy asks.
“Because Bennett would have told us about Logan if he knew. What good would it do to tell him we had a new lead while he’s laid up in the hospital and can’t do anything about it?
I don’t have anything to prove the Blooms’ claim, not even an obituary for Logan.
I promise that once we have something concrete, I’ll tell him. ”
Jack walks into my line of sight, picking up broken tree branches and collecting them to place next to the fire pit near his and Jeremy’s tent.
When he bends down to hide his face so that he doesn’t draw suspicious looks for talking to himself, he asks, “Daisy, do you see any girls that you think would be a target?”
“So far there are three that I think would be high on the list. The first is the girl in the puffy pink jacket. You’ll notice that she’s standing around, arms crossed, and wearing an expression that clearly says she’d rather be anywhere else other than here.”
Jack glances her way, then turns his back. “I see her.”
I look through my scope and find the second girl. “Jeremy, at your three o’clock position you should see a girl wearing a Colorado Rockies sweatshirt. She might be a target just because of what she’s wearing.”
Jeremy casually walks by with a phone to his ear. Then he stops and holds it up, spinning in a slow circle like he’s trying to get a cell signal. When he sees the girl, he places the phone back to his ear and keeps walking. “Would he really choose a girl based on her clothing?”
“Who knows for sure how he chooses his victims,” I reply.
“All I know is what he told me when I was in that cave. He saw me argue with my parents and figured I’d likely be deemed a runaway.
Regardless of whether it’s Logan or Brad behind the abductions, there’s a clear fixation on Emily’s death.
So yes, as morbid as it seems, that girl’s sweatshirt could decide her fate. ”
Angel hears the anger rising in my tone, and rather than try to calm me down, he changes my focus. “And who’s the third girl?”
“The one we should put at the very top of the list.” I shift and bring the girl back into view.
“Faith, you and Jaxon are closest to her. It’s the girl pitching the tent all by herself because no one is willing to help her.
Her jacket is threadbare and well-worn. She’s isolated from her peers, either by circumstance or by choice.
Everything about her screams ‘scholarship kid.’”
“That’s like having leprosy in a school full of rich kids,” Faith says. “We’re going to help her set up.”
While I feel for the girl, I can’t allow that to happen. “No. You need to keep walking. There are about a dozen other girls who could be targets, and if Logan is in the area, no doubt he’s watching you. If you help her, then he’ll only choose someone else.”
“Daisy, we can’t use her as bait,” Jaxon says.
“There’s a whole bucket full of bait,” I retort. “I called the school and warned them. Owen called and even provided his FBI credentials. No one listened. The best thing we can do now is to be prepared since they chose to come despite the threat.”
One of the adults claps their hands to get the girls’ attention.
“Ladies! For the duration of the weekend, you will need to rely on the buddy system! I have it on good authority that there are bears in the area and other predators! They’ll be looking for food, so clean up your areas, keep snacks in the locked coolers at the edge of your campsite, and don’t go anywhere without your buddy! ”
“Okay, maybe they listened a little,” Owen mutters.
“But what if we have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night?” one girl asks. Thank goodness Faith and Jaxon are close enough that I can hear what’s being said through our comms. “I’m not waking Tyffani up at two in the morning. I like to keep my eyes intact, thank you very much!”
“Then wake me up,” the woman replies. “I’ll go with you. Under no circumstances are you to go off by yourself. Are we clear?”
“Yes, Ms. Toohey,” the girls say as one.
I zero in on Ms. Toohey and notice there’s a rigidity to her posture as she looks around with caution.
Roger speaks up. “Faith and Jaxon, go get some rest. You have the night shift. Jeremy and Jack, stay vigilant. Scott, move to Daisy’s position and take over. It has the best vantage point. Owen, stay where you are. Angel and Daisy will relieve you both at 2300 hours.”
Considering I haven’t slept since I left yesterday morning to go to Colorado, I don’t have the energy to argue or question orders. I pull back inch by inch until I’m certain I’m no longer in view of anyone who might look my way.
An hour later, I’m packed up and moving out. That’s when the sound of a twig snapping deeper in the woods captures my attention.
Standing still, I wait for any sign that I’m not alone. It could have been a squirrel, but the sound of the cracking wood was sharp, as though something heavy had broken it.
“Is someone there?” I ask, removing my sidearm and keeping it in the high-ready position as I cross one foot over the other to keep my footfalls soft. By rolling my feet slowly from side to side, I can feel an object under my boots before I break it.
Another cracking stick and a grunt of pain. “Don’t shoot!”
“Come out, and I won’t have to!”
Two large hands covered in blood appear from behind a tree, and the person who follows is none other than Kenneth Johnson.
He’s armed, but his rifle is slung over his shoulder. “Eva’s missing, and I didn’t know who else to turn to. She says that I can trust….”
The moment Kenneth’s eyes roll back in his head and he collapses, I holster my weapon and rush over to him. Dropping my pack, I grab the first aid kit I keep at the top. In an emergency, seconds matter, and the last thing I need to be doing is digging for medical supplies.
I relay the situation to my team, who are already well aware of what’s going on and en route to my location.
In triage mode, I quickly note that the source of the blood is a bullet wound to Kenneth’s arm. But when I cut away the sleeve, I’m perplexed by what I find. It’s not a superficial wound by any means, but it certainly isn’t deep enough to cause fainting.
Since his chest is rising and falling, I don’t have to worry about performing CPR for the second time in the span of 24 hours. I clean the wound with saline from an irrigation bottle, then patch him up as best I can in the field.
Angel arrives and looks at the man on the ground, then at the rifle in his own hand. It’s one of the new Noctira SMART rifles like the one I used on him. “Wow! It works! I’ve used simunition rounds before, but never at 800 yards.”
Then I see it: a glimmer of gold buried under some leaves. I reach for it and inspect the emptied bullet tip, which, until a few minutes ago, contained a paralyzing agent. That toxin is now coursing through Kenneth’s body.
“I can’t believe you shot him! He needs our help! Eva’s missing!”
Angel taps his ear to remind me that he could hear everything. “And he’ll get it, Daisy. But not here, and not right now. Once we have him secured for questioning, he can tell us who shot him and took Eva. We’re not mounting a rescue without facts.”
“Well, we’re going to have to wait four hours until he comes to.”
We drag Kenneth through the woods for nearly half a mile before we find Vinny waiting by our SUV.
He helps load Kenneth into the back of the vehicle.
Once he’s done, he hands me a set of keys.
“Daisy, take my vehicle, go back to your cabin, and get some sleep. Angel and I will take care of Kenneth.”
“And by ‘take care of,’ you mean you’ll stitch up his wounds, right? Not give him new ones?” I ask.
Vinny shrugs. “I guess that depends on how cooperative he is.”
Angel laughs when he sees the worried look on my face and then walks with me to Vinny’s vehicle.
He waits while I put my rifle and pack in the back seat and then holds open the driver’s door, leaning his elbow against the frame while I buckle up.
He presses his lips to mine briefly before smiling.
“I hope you know that Vinny’s only kidding.
If Kenneth needs our help to find Eva, then he won’t need prodding to divulge information. ”
“I hope you’re right because I can’t stop wondering if Kenneth came here looking for our help, or if someone made sure he would.”
Leaving Angel and Vinny to take care of the situation, I drive back to the cabin lost in my thoughts. The entire time, one question keeps turning over in my mind.
What if I’m next?