Page 6

Five

Jenna stared out of the window and drummed her fingers on the counter.

The mist had lifted from the mountains over an hour ago, and before her the forest stretched out in various shades of green against an endless blue sky.

She turned to look at Kane working at his desk.

They had spent all morning organizing search parties and anyone with a helicopter was in the air, including the medical examiner, Dr. Shane Wolfe.

“How could we possibly lose a white stretch limo? It would be one of the hardest things possible to hide and the fact that it’s filled with ten high school kids makes it even more impossible. ”

“I called Bobby Kalo.” Kane stretched out his long legs and leaned back in his chair. “Now everyone is saving their CCTV footage to the cloud, he can gain access to everything that’s happening around town.”

Jenna pushed away from the counter and sat down slowly in her chair.

Her back ached constantly and the weight of the baby was starting to become uncomfortable.

She couldn’t wait for it all to be over but having a case to solve made the wait easier.

“So what did our FBI computer whiz kid discover? Did he actually find them on the footage or has someone gone and mysteriously managed to change everything? With the AI capabilities at the moment, I’m not discounting any possibility. ”

“He has footage of them leaving town, but nothing outside the range of the cameras.” Kane twirled a pen in his fingers.

“Rio just issued a media report to ask anyone with dash cam or any visual sightings of the limo last night to call. Many people were heading toward the prom around the same time. As the limo service is new in town, its car gets a lot of attention, so we’re hoping someone noticed it, especially if it left the route it was supposed to be heading.

” He ran a hand through his hair and looked at her.

“I hope we find it soon or it will become another legend of Black Rock Falls and people will start seeing ghostly white limos traveling through town every prom night.” He shook his head.

“Honestly, I’ve never lived anywhere with so many weird stories.

The people who live here just live for this stuff.

I hope the limo going missing isn’t a prank.

Kids are doing weird stuff these days and posting it online.

If it is, when we find them I’ll mention that I don’t appreciate being woken up at three in the morning, especially on my day off. ”

Jenna turned to him. “I’m sure they wouldn’t put their parents through the torture of believing they’d been abducted.”

“I guess not.” Kane rubbed his chin. “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, right now.”

Concerned for the young people, Jenna checked her phone for messages again.

“There are many aspects of this case that don’t make sense.

The main one is that kids of that age always have their heads in their phones.

If something was going down, why didn’t they contact their parents?

Even if they couldn’t call them because they had no bars, they could have sent texts.

They would know that once the phones came back into range, they would send the texts.

There were ten kids in the back of that limo, you would have thought one of them would have tried to make contact or called 911. ”

“Which makes me wonder if it’s a prank.” Kane tossed the pen into a mug on his desk with aunt betty’s café written on the side.

“Although I don’t believe kids would give up their prom for a joke, especially when Olivia and Evan were nominated for prom king and queen.

It’s a big deal, isn’t it? I recall my prom.

I even made it to a couple of reunions, but being in the service I didn’t get much downtime.

” He smiled at her. “I bet you were prom queen.”

Jenna shook her head. “Nope I wasn’t. At that age, I was tiny and very scrawny. My natural color is blonde, as you know, but at that time it was a dirty blonde. I went to the prom with a nerd called Nigel. He was a very nice boy. What about you?”

“Well.” Kane ran a hand down his face. “Although bringing up past girlfriends is something I never want to do with you, we did promise to tell each other the truth. My date was a cheerleader by the name of Mia. We were prom king and queen.” He held up a hand to prevent Jenna from asking questions.

“I left for college just after. I wanted to enter the Marines with a degree.”

Intrigued, Jenna leaned back in her chair.

Talking about Kane’s real life was fraught with danger.

Like her, he had a new name and face after terrorists placed a bounty on his head.

She knew very little of his past life and he’d never revealed his true name.

As far as anyone was concerned, that person died in a car bombing that took him and his pregnant wife, Annie.

Kane was left with a metal plate in his head, which still troubled him in winter.

“I won’t ask any more questions, but I’m intrigued to know what subject you studied.

You seem to have so many skills, especially speaking nine languages. ”

“Criminal justice.” He grinned at her. “Maybe someone up there”—he pointed to the ceiling—“knew I’d need it one day.”

Jenna’s phone chimed. She stared at the caller ID and then placed the phone on speaker. “Hi, Shane. Any news?”

“Yeah, it’s bad news I’m afraid. We spotted the limo at the bottom of the river near Bear Peak.

” Wolfe’s footsteps could be heard as he walked through the morgue to his office.

“I need a team to get out there and recover the bodies. Do you have anyone on your team who are divers? Only one of the search-and-rescue team is qualified. I’ll need Kane and I’ve called in Carter and he’s on his way.

As luck would have it, he was in the air over Blackwater when I contacted him.

He’ll be landing here in about ten minutes. ”

Jenna nodded. Agents Ty Carter and Jo Wells worked out of the Snakeskin Gully FBI field office. Carter was a Navy SEAL before joining the FBI and came with a K-9 Doberman explosives-detection dog by the name of Zorro. His partner, Jo, was a world-renowned behavioral scientist.

“I’m here, Shane.” Kane stood and walked to Jenna’s desk. “I’ll go and check my diving gear. It’s stored here at the office.”

“I have extra gear and spare tanks, but I need people who will cope with dead bodies.” Wolfe sighed. “One of the search-and-rescue guys went in for a look and confirmed the fatalities. He won’t be going back down. There’s no way I can see of retrieving the limo.”

Shocked and desperately sad, Jenna forced her mind to stay focused. She needed to lead her team and not allow her pregnancy hormones to take over. “How did this happen? Any signs of it being an accident?”

“I was in the air, Jenna.” Wolfe was moving again.

“There’s no room to land a chopper there.

It’s close to the fire road, so that must have been the access point but from what I could see, the limo left the fire road and went along a trail before running into the river.

The bank is steep there, if the driver lost control at speed, it’s very possible.

Blackhawk is on his way to the scene. He’ll backtrack the limo’s trajectory and we’ll have a better idea of what happened.

I’m getting my team together now. I’ll send you the coordinates.

Wait for Carter. He’ll need to go with you. You’ll be able to drive right there.”

“I’m on my way.” Kane headed for the door as Wolfe disconnected.

Jenna glared after him. “Just a minute. I need to get our team organized.” She’d call in Johnny Raven a new deputy and K-9 handler and trainer.

Being a chopper pilot and a medical doctor, he made a great addition to the team.

“I want Raven and his dog out there and I’m coming too.

” She pressed her fists into her hips and stared at him.

“It’s close to the fire road and there’s a track.

Hardly any walking. I’ll be fine. I need to know what’s happened to those kids, Dave.

I’m the one who’ll be speaking to their parents. ”

“Really?” Kane wiped a hand down his face. “This isn’t a serial killer and you promised to leave all the other cases to the team. I don’t want you delivering our baby in the forest.”

Jenna rubbed her belly and smiled at him. “I don’t want you to be miles away from me either. This way, you’ll be able to drive me to the hospital in the Beast—the fastest most tricked-out ride in town. I need to be at the scene—with you.”

“Okay.” He walked to her and pulled her into his arms. “But promise me you’ll take it easy and don’t overdo.”

Jenna looked up into his caring eyes. “I promise. Now can I organize my team?”

“Sure.” Kane kissed her on the forehead and then hurried from the room.