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CHAPTER TWENTY

W ade let the ringing continue until voicemail picked up his call. “Emily, call me. I’m worried.” He disconnected. It was the second time he’d called and she hadn’t answered.

He dialed Gavin. “I need Sandra’s number.” His friend spit it out and he called Sandra. The call rang until voicemail picked it up. He called Gavin back. “Can you trace her phone?”

“Sure. Why?”

“I can’t find Emily. She’s not answering her phone. I tried Sandra, and she didn’t answer either.”

“Sure. I’ll text you with the GPS coordinates, and I’ll meet you there shortly.”

“You don’t think I’m overreacting.”

“Not at all. Sandra wouldn’t ignore your calls. Either they’re in a dead spot, or they’re in trouble. Considering what happened to Jamie, we shouldn’t wait around to see which it is.”

Worry gnawed at Wade’s gut as he waited for the coordinates. Less than two minutes later, the text came through. He set his phone to take him there, and ten minutes later, he turned onto a dirt road surrounded by thick forest. He’d driven another three minutes down the windy dirt road, avoiding as many of the ruts as he could when he came upon Sandra’s vehicle. He stopped his car in the middle of the road and hopped out. He walked closer and froze when he saw her lying there. There was a tiny wound in the center of her forehead and an ever-widening puddle of blood beneath her. He knew it was a kill shot, but he checked her pulse anyway. Nothing.

He called it in and searched the area while he waited for Gavin and backup to arrive. The monster who’d butchered Jamie had Emily, and there wasn’t a thing he could do to protect her now. If he didn’t figure out where she was, she’d be his next victim.

Wade called Austin. Voicemail. Was every ranger in the park missing? He dialed again, and it connected.

“What’s up? I’m kind of in the middle of a crisis.”

“There is no ‘kind of’ about it. Emily’s bodyguard is dead, and Emily is missing.”

“Her, too?” Austin swore under his breath. “I told her to stay with Pete. Why didn’t she listen?”

“Give me Pete’s number.”

Austin rattled it off, and Wade tried calling. He growled low in his throat when he didn’t receive an answer. If Sandra was murdered, maybe Pete was attacked, too. He could’ve been tossed out the side of the vehicle. Injured or worse. Or he could be the killer. The possibility had occurred to him over the course of the investigation, but he’d dismissed it.

When the uniformed troopers arrived, Wade drove away from the scene. He needed to clear his head. They had to wait for the medical examiner anyway. Before he realized what he was doing, he was sitting on the side of the highway with his phone in hand.

“Lieutenant?”

“What’s up, Wade? Are you investigating the scene you called in?”

“No. Ranger Davis is missing, so I’m investigating her disappearance.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Emily was with Pete Cunningham when she disappeared.”

“Are you suggesting what I think you are?”

“John Cunningham took the donations at Senator Martin’s galas, but her son Pete was at the events, as well. He would’ve met the same women his cousin did, and he was supposed to be going with Ranger Davis to drop off an owl at a rehab center when she disappeared.”

“Sounds like conjecture.”

“I know, but we knew Senator Martin was the link. Pete Cunningham was so helpful he was barely on my radar. It was a huge blunder on my part. There was circumstantial evidence I dismissed along the way. Pete worked with the judge, he was the one to find Lorraine Moore’s body at Boulder Field, he removed the memory cards from the game cameras before we could check them, and he sent me on a wild goose chase investigating a truck seen at the park.” It seemed obvious when he said it out loud. He’d been so busy investigating Parsons, he’d missed it.

“Are you sure about this?”

“I’m not sure about anything.”

“What about Swartz? How do you know he isn’t your guy?”

“Gut instinct.”

“You aren’t one to put much stock in your gut.”

“It can be unreliable.”

“Do you think you’re too emotionally involved in this since you worked with Jamie?”

“My head is clear. I can do this.” It was best to keep his newly rekindled relationship with Emily quiet. If Mac knew he was in love with her, he’d have him off the case before he could snap his fingers.

“Go ahead. Follow up, but tread carefully. Don’t go knocking down any doors.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Wade made another call knowing if he found what he believed he might, he would have to choose between violating the rights of the Cunningham family and throwing away his career or saving the woman he loved. If it meant saving Emily, he wouldn’t hesitate to break protocol.

Wade answered on the first ring. He’d been anticipating the call from Steve, the researcher. The man was good at his job. And fast. Wade preferred to do his own research, so he didn’t often require Steve’s services, but he appreciated him today.

“What did you find?”

“A large property formerly owned by a Peter Francis Cunningham, Sr. It transferred to his wife when he died.”

“It belongs to Senator Martin?”

“Yes,” Steve answered.

“What’s the address?”

“I’ll text it to you.”

Twenty-five minutes later, Wade waited at the end of a long driveway until his team was assembled. It was time to search the property, but so many things could go wrong.

Austin pulled up in his personal vehicle.

Wade approached him. “Shouldn’t you be at the park?”

“I clocked out hours ago when my pap went missing.”

“What’s a pap?”

“Sorry. My grandfather.”

“Your grandfather went missing? Today?”

“That’s what I meant when I said I was in the middle of a personal crisis.”

“What led you here?”

“Gavin told me you were assembling here to search for Emily.”

“I didn’t know you were friends with Gavin.”

“We weren’t until he started guarding Emily. It’s hard to miss the same man following her around for days at a time.”

Wade cracked his knuckles. “Did you find your pap?”

“No.”

He drew in a deep breath. “It’s time. Do you think your pap could’ve been taken to lure you away from Emily?”

“I didn’t until I received Gavin’s phone call.” He sighed. “The dots seem to connect. The call came through about my senile grandfather going missing and before I can locate him, Emily disappears too. It sounds suspiciously coincidental.”

“It does.” Wade scratched his chin. “And it adds a new variable to the mix. Stay put. I can’t have you getting in the way.”

He updated his team, and they moved in. They would approach the property from four different locations as stealthily as possible.

Wade saw the old farmhouse in the distance, right where Steve told him it would be. He made his approach silently, not allowing himself to even step on a dried leaf. When he reached the building, he peered in a window. Nothing but boxes. He moved to the next window and looked again. A box of cereal sat on a counter beside a bowl with a spoon in it. Someone had been here and hadn’t cleaned up their dishes. Where were they?

He kept moving until he reached the back door. When he tried the handle, it turned easily. Pulling his weapon from the holster, he entered and cautiously made his way from room to room. The silence was eerie. He let out a sigh of relief when he looked into a den and found an old man snoozing in a recliner, his chest moving rhythmically with each breath he took.

Wade snapped a picture and sent it to Austin with a text. “Is this your pap?”

Once he had confirmation, he completed his search of the house, finding it empty save the old man. After he radioed for someone to come and get the old guy to safety, he woke the elderly man, and led him to the back door where a trooper met them.

Wade exited through the front door and was met by John Cunningham. They’d purposely kept him off the team and out of the loop, but someone had obviously filled him in on the happenings at his aunt’s property.

“Why are you here, Wade?”

“I suspect your cousin is holding Emily here.”

“Pete wouldn’t do that.”

Two uniformed troopers reached for John’s arms, but he shrugged them off.

Wade shook his head to get the cops to back off. “Let him go.”

“You sure?”

“I am. John saved my life. I trust him.”

They released him, and John took another two steps forward. “I suppose I should help you then. You seriously think Pete’s involved?”

Wade nodded. “Austin Crowley’s grandfather is here. He kidnapped the old man. That’s how he lured Austin away from Emily, so he could kidnap her.”

John rubbed his forehead. “There are a couple of places he could be holding her. The basement.”

Wade shook his head. “Already checked the house, including the basement.”

“There’s a tack room on the barn that can be locked.”

“They’re searching the barn as we speak.”

“The last place I can think of is the old root cellar. We used to play in it when we were kids until my dad tanned our hides.”

“Where is it?”

“I’ll show you.”