Page 105 of Nash Falls

“Can you check and see if a purchase like that occurred?” asked Ramos.

Judith left them for a minute. When she came back she said, “No, no charges on any of the cards she has access to.”

“That is strange,” said Ramos. “I mean, she has to be staying somewhere. And you’re sure none of her friends have seen her?”

“Not the ones who live in the neighborhood. But she has several who are at college over the summer, or who live in different places.”

“We’ll need a list of them with their contact info. She might be with one of them. She could have used their laptop or phone to do the filming and posting.”

Judith looked on her phone and provided that information to them.

Ramos said, “As you know, we searched through your husband’s things last night. And we did a thorough scrub of your daughter’s room.”

“What did you find?” said Judith fearfully.

Summers said, “In a bottom drawer in his closet were a pair of pants, a shirt, and a pair of sneakers. We matched fibers from the clothing to fibers found in your daughter’sbed.”

Judith shuddered and let out a low moan.

“We also found hair fibers there that matched ones we took from your husband’s hairbrush.”

“Damn,” exclaimed Rhett.

Ramos said, “And the imprints from the sneakers were matched to a set we found near where Adams died. Nash probably got out to see that he was dead and left the sole impressions in the dirt.”

Judith dumbly nodded.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Nash,” said Ramos. “But we’ll get him, I promise.”

“I just want my daughter back.”

The detectives curtly nodded and left.

Rhett said, “Look, I have to run an errand real quick, but I’ll bring back dinner. I don’t want you to be alone right now.”

He hugged her, and she gave him a tender kiss on the cheek. “That would be nice, Rhett, thank you.”

“Anything for you, Judith.”

“My rock. Mynewrock.”

Once outside he sat in his Porsche, took an elongated breath to calm himself, and then called his father.

“I think we have a big fucking problem,” he said.

CHAPTER

51

AFTER AN ALL-NIGHT DRIVE THAThad crossed state lines, Shock finally pulled to a stop in the late afternoon of the next day.

“Okay, we’re finally here.”

Nash slipped into the passenger seat from the back, and looked out at the metal security gate that looked like it could withstand the charge of an Abrams tank. “Where are we?”

“At my trainin’ center.”

Shock hit a button on a remote attached to the sun visor, and the big gate slid back with a whisper of hydraulics. He pulled through the opening, and the gate automatically closed behind them.