Chapter Seventeen
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By the time they pulled into the station parking lot, Lily’s nerves were stretched to their limit. She hadn’t let go of her phone since the text came in, like somehow holding onto it would keep Caleb safe.
Every passing minute felt heavier than the last.
Griff parked close to the entrance. He kept one hand near his holster the entire drive, eyes flicking to the mirrors, his jaw tight. They’d both been on edge, scanning for tails or a potential ambush. Whoever had Caleb could be using this to draw them out. To launch another attack.
To kill them.
But Lily didn’t see anyone lurking around. Didn’t see a sniper on the rooftops, ready to gun them down. So, with the seconds ticking away, they hurried inside, ready to get to work.
Hallie and Jesse were waiting for them near the back entrance, grim-faced. Griff had called ahead, giving them the bare bones of what was going on. Now it was time to fill in the gaps and figure out a plan before that one-hour clock ran out.
Inside, they headed straight for the cold case office. Lily dropped her coat over the back of a chair and brought up the threatening text again. The image of Caleb, terrified and bound, burned behind her eyes. She couldn’t stop thinking about how young he looked. How helpless.
Hallie leaned over her shoulder, frowning at the screen. “Mickey and Jacob are out patrolling the town, looking for anything out of the ordinary where someone might be holding Caleb. They’ll check Rhett’s place, Everett’s home and businesses and Margo’s mother’s house.”
Good. Because the boy very well could be nearby though it would be risky as hell to stash him in a place that could be directly connected back to one of them. Still, this might have been an impulse abduction, and if so the kidnapper could have left some evidence behind that they could use.
Lily was counting on that.
“We’ve got the techs working on the image you were texted,” Hallie went on. “They’ll enhance it, analyze light, background, shadows and see if they can figure out where the photo was taken.”
“And if they can’t?” Jesse asked quietly.
Griff answered without hesitation. “Then we do what they want. Buy time. We can’t let a kid die.”
“Agreed,” Jesse, Hallie and Lily muttered in unison.
Lily turned toward Hallie. “Have Jacob or Mickey reported having actually seen our three suspects?”
Hallie was quick to shake her head. “Just the opposite. No sightings of any of them.”
“Then, we need to find them,” Lily muttered, and Hallie made a sound of agreement.
“On it,” Jesse said, and he went back toward his desk in the bullpen.
Hallie crossed her arms, her expression tight.
“Whoever’s behind this doesn’t just want us to stop.
They want the investigation dead. Case files destroyed, evidence erased, everything shut down.
And they want it to be public. A press release, a statement—something visible.
They’ll be watching to make sure we comply. ”
Lily’s gut twisted. “They want this buried like it never existed.”
Griff’s voice dropped. “Which means they’re afraid of what we’re about to uncover.”
Her phone rang. The sharp, sudden sound sliced through the room like a blade, and every head turned. Lily’s heart jolted when she saw what popped up on the screen.
Unknown Number.
Without hesitating, she answered immediately, putting the call on speaker and hitting the record function. “This is Deputy Lily Oliver. Who is this?”
A shaky breath came through the line. “It’s… it’s Caleb.”
Her knees nearly buckled. “Caleb,” she blurted on a rise of breath. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“I’m not hurt,” the boy said, his voice tight and scared. “They said I had to call. I’m supposed to tell you…” Caleb paused, voice trembling. “You’re not just supposed to burn the files. You have to stream it. Post the live video to a private page. On Facebook.”
“What page?” Griff asked quickly, already scribbling.
Caleb answered with a sniffle. “JusticeNeverMatters23. All one word. They said you’ll be granted temporary access when you go live.”
Lily exchanged a quick look with Griff. “Caleb, do you know where you are?” Lily asked, trying to keep her voice calm.
“No. I’m not supposed to say.”
She closed her eyes for a second, fighting the surge of panic threatening to break loose. “Can you tell me what happened? Anything you remember?”
“I was taking the trash out. To the curb because it’s trash pickup tomorrow and that’s one of my chores. Someone came up behind me and hit me with something. I think it was a stun gun. I fell. They dragged me into a car.”
“Could you see what the person looked like?” Lily pressed.
“No. They had a mask and this big coat. And gloves. I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman.”
So, maybe the abduction hadn’t been a total impulse if the person had been dressed to conceal who they were.
“Can you describe the car?” Lily tried again. “Sound? Smell? Anything?”
A pause. Then, quietly, “I’m not allowed to tell you. That’s… that’s one of the rules.”
Lily’s stomach dropped. “What rules?”
“They taped a list to the wall. I was supposed to read it. It says: Don’t try to escape. Don’t give the police any details that might help identify who has me. Just make this call and then stay quiet, and I’ll be let go.”
Griff muttered a curse under his breath. Jesse had pulled out his phone, already signaling the call was being traced. Or rather an attempted tracing. It was probably a burner. Still, they had to try.
“Caleb,” Lily said softly, “you’re doing great, okay? Is the person who took you with you right now?
Lily clutched the phone tighter, her voice barely above a whisper as she asked, “Caleb, is your abductor there with you now?”
There was a long pause. A shift of breath. “Yes,” Caleb said. “But standing back. In the dark.”
Lily’s throat tightened. She opened her mouth to ask more, but then Caleb added quietly, like the words hurt to speak, “They have a gun. Not a stun gun this time. A real one.”
Griff swore under his breath and stepped closer, his entire body tense, ready to move. Hallie’s mouth flattened into a grim line, eyes hardening with fear and fury.
“Caleb, listen to me,” Lily said, willing her voice to stay calm even as her heart pounded. “Don’t panic. Just stay as still and quiet as you can. We’re coming for you—”
“I have to hang up now,” Caleb interrupted, his voice cracking. “They’re watching. Please… get me out of here.”
The line went dead.
“No,” Lily whispered, staring at the phone in her hand as the screen faded to black.
She immediately tapped to redial, but there was nothing. No ring. No voicemail. Just silence.
Before Lily could process the weight of what Caleb had just told them, Hallie’s phone buzzed.
The sheriff answered, and within seconds her entire posture shifted. Her spine snapped straight, her eyes narrowing in that don’t-mess-with-me way Lily had come to recognize.
“They’ve tried twice?” Hallie said, walking a few steps away before turning back to them. “Got it. Lock it down hard.”
She ended the call and looked at Griff and Lily. “Someone’s trying to hack into the department’s computer system. Specifically the cold case files.”
Lily felt her chest go cold. “You think they’re trying to destroy Hannah’s case files themselves?”
“Looks like it,” Hallie said. “They couldn’t get in. System kicked them out both times. But they’ll try again.”
“Our tech is better than most small-town PDs,” Griff said, already reaching for his tablet. “Strike Force made sure of that. But if they’re determined, they’ll keep at it.”
He tapped quickly across the screen, his mind clearly working faster than he spoke.
“Here’s what I suggest we do. We make a clean backup of Hannah’s file—every report, every image, every scrap of evidence—then we bury it.
Deep. Encrypt it and hide it where no one will find it, not even an internal admin. ”
Lily nodded, tracking his thought. “Then we let them believe they’ve succeeded.”
Griff looked up at them. “Yeah. We let them in. Let them think they’ve wiped everything clean. That way they stop pushing. Stop threatening.”
Hallie raised an eyebrow. “You sure we can pull that off without risking the real file?”
Griff’s mouth quirked at one corner, just a little. “I’ve got about six years’ worth of ops that say yes.”
Hallie exhaled. “Let’s do it, then. Let them think they won.”
But in Lily’s gut, she knew this wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.
Griff strapped on his vest and then shrugged on his coat over it. Not his usual coat, but a military camo one that she knew had been brought over from Strike Force.
Without a word, he turned and headed for the breakroom. A moment later, the metallic scrape of the trash can echoed through the station as he rolled it toward the side exit where they parked their vehicles. He didn’t go out yet though. He waited for Hallie and her.
Lily zipped up her own coat, her vest snug beneath it, and met Hallie at the evidence room. Together, they carried the decoy files. The ones meant to convince a killer they were destroying Hannah Cole’s case for good.
At his desk, Jesse was still glued to his screen, tracking every lead, running every name. He glanced up briefly, his face tight with frustration. “Still nothing. I’ve been running down their usual hangouts, phone records, traffic cams. No hits.”
“Jacob and Mickey?” Hallie asked, pausing as she adjusted her gloves.
“They just checked in. Still no sign of the suspects, and nothing that points to where Caleb might be.”
Lily’s stomach twisted, but she nodded and kept moving.
They stepped into the bitter cold of the back lot, sleet beginning to fall in icy pellets. Griff dragged the trash can away from the building and the parked vehicles and into the center of the lot.
Lily saw that he’d already put wads of paper towels in the can, and he lit them with a small lighter that had obviously been stashed in that Strike Force jacket. While he did that, Hallie got out her phone, ready to live stream to the FB page that Caleb had told them about.
Griff drew his gun and glanced around them. Staying vigilant. Making sure they weren’t about to be ambushed. Lily hoped he’d spot any signs of trouble before it started. Since this was what Caleb’s abductor wanted them to do, maybe there’d be no ambush. Maybe this would put an end to things.
Well, some things anyway.
Even after they got back Caleb, they’d still need to find the person who’d put this nightmare into motion. But that was for later.
Lily waited for the blaze to catch in the trash can before she began feeding in the files, one at a time.
Her hands felt too cold and too shaky, the weight of what they were doing pressing down hard on her chest. Hallie kept her phone camera steady, recording the flames as they grew with each page added, the fire crackling louder with every addition.
Maybe this—this spectacle, this staged destruction—would be enough to free Caleb.
God, it had to be.
Lily pivoted when without warning, a louder whooshing sound split the air. And she saw something she sure as hell didn’t want to see.
A second blaze.
It roared to life directly across the parking lot, only about twenty feet away from them. In a blink, there were flames shooting from the rear of the antiques shop. The fire spread fast, licking across the pavement in a shining trail of gasoline.
“Someone doused the lot,” Griff blurted.
Lily’s gaze dropped to the pavement—and her breath caught. A snake-like coil of gasoline shimmered on the surface of the parking lot, slithering toward them in a gleaming, oily trail. The fire was already chasing it, rolling forward in a hungry line of heat.
It was the opening strike. And they were under attack.