Chapter 15 Jordan
FIFTEEN
JORDAN
Check this video OUT! @carasloveisgold in the flesh! Badly in need of moisturizer but alive and well at the general store. #CaraOnTheLoose #Fugitive #AmericasMostWanted #Influencer #InfluencerLyfe #GlamLife #BadHairDay #Busted
Lights flashing and siren howling, Jordan slalomed from lane to lane on a road so narrow there wasn’t much shoulder for drivers to get out of his way. He knew this road well; Wen didn’t. He had lost her some miles back.
The tip had been another Amber Alert, a text from his wife with siren emojis and a link to a TikTok video.
When he opened it, it took him a moment to cut through the audiovisual overkill—subtitles competing with captions and a song that had been added as a soundtrack—and see what was actually happening.
It was her. Cara Campbell had a black eye and was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt as she tried to check out at the cash register at Ye Olde Country Store. She still had a Slim Jim in her hand as she hurried away from the TikToker. According to Amber, it had been posted twelve minutes ago.
Somehow Cara had gotten eleven miles away from the Thornberry Mountain Trailhead and somehow she’d found some money. Hitchhiking? Begging?
If he couldn’t catch her now, he would canvass for more witnesses.
Ten minutes later, he braked to a halt in front of the store. A dozen people were milling around out front, talking and showing each other their phones. Nothing moved faster than social media.
He killed the lights and siren and stepped out of the car. “Has anyone here seen Cara Campbell?”
“Yeah, we all did, dude,” said a kid with a braided chin beard and an embroidered Mexican blouse.
“In person,” Jordan clarified.
The kid looked down at his phone and shrugged. Nobody else volunteered.
He tried again, raising his voice. “Did any of you take the video of Cara Campbell in the store that was posted to TikTok?”
A woman in shorts and an I READ BANNED BOOKS T-shirt smiled and shook her head. “I think she left before I got here.”
Jordan realized that several people in the group were now aiming their phones at him. He was about to be all over the internet. He ducked inside the store—then, as everyone started to follow him inside, opened the door to address them.
“I need you all to stay outside. This is an active investigation.” Seeing looks ranging from resignation to outrage, he added, “I appreciate your cooperation.”
Only one of the two checkout lanes was open. The cashier was talking to a stock boy, who backed away nervously as Jordan approached.
“She was totally just here!” the cashier told Jordan with a broad smile. “See?”
Jordan looked down at the conveyor belt.
A nonfat vanilla yogurt, three granola bars, and a package of Reese’s peanut butter cups, plus a Mountain Spring water and a small box of Tampax.
Which made him realize something about the blood trail.
She might not be injured after all, which would explain why she was covering so much ground.
“I didn’t touch it in case you need to dust for fingerprints or something,” said the cashier proudly.
“Smart move,” Jordan said politely. “It would help even more if you can show me your security video.”
“No can do.”
“Look, a warrant’s going to take too long. Every minute matters right now.”
“I don’t have the access code. You think my manager trusts me with shit like that? I’m lucky she lets me handle money, and I’m a cashier.”
“Get her.”
No sooner had the cashier picked up his phone than Jordan realized he was wasting his time. The TikTok was the security video. It gave a better close-up than the ceiling-mounted camera would provide.
Think.
Campbell tried to buy supplies, got recognized, and ran. Where would she run? If she was smart, she wouldn’t risk going back on the road. And she had survived a good number of cross-country miles already.
In the video, it had looked like she was headed for the motion-activated front doors, where the pack of rubberneckers was now looking in.
Jordan didn’t want to go out the front.
The cashier was bargaining with his manager: “Look, if you give me the code, I can show him the video, and you can change the code tonight. This is a police investigation . . . Yes, he’s the sheriff. He has the hat and everything.”
Jordan pushed through a swinging door at the back of the store. He made his way past an unused kitchen and food-prep area, through a crowded stockroom, to the back doors. Outside, on the other side of an asphalt pad for delivery trucks, a tree-studded hill sloped steeply upward.
A red-and-white scrap of something at its base. He moved closer.
A Slim Jim wrapper.
Jordan walked back and forth until he found disturbed earth. Her feet had slid as she climbed.
He radioed it in and started to follow.