Page 17 of Once Vanished
“Any word?”she asked the moment she reached him.
“Not yet,” Bill replied, taking her backpack and placing it in the back seat.“Your mom’s on it, April.Every law enforcement agency in the area is looking for Jilly.”
April nodded, but her expression remained haunted as she slid into the passenger seat.Bill circled around to the driver’s side, still thinking through what to tell her, how much detail to share.April was seventeen now, no longer a child—but this was her sister who had been taken, and the perpetrator was a man she’d met right there on campus.
As he pulled away from the curb, Bill glanced over at April.Her eyes were fixed on her phone, her thumbs flying over the screen.
“Who are you texting?”he asked.
“Gabriela,” April replied without looking up.“She blames herself.”
“It’s not her fault.”
“That’s what I’m telling her.”April’s voice cracked slightly.She set the phone down and pressed her fingertips against her eyelids.“But I can’t help thinking it’s more like mine.”
Bill frowned.“What are you talking about?”
“Because I’d already met him.”The words tumbled out in a rush.“I talked to him, Bill.To Leo.Like he was some kind of normal person.When he came right up to me in the cafeteria, introduced himself like it was the most natural thing in the world.”She shook her head, disgust on her features.“And I just...talked to him.Like an idiot.”
“April—”
“He was so normal,” she continued, her voice hollow.“Charming, even.Asked about my classes, told me about his studies.I even...”She swallowed hard.“I even thought he was kind of cute.I didn’t recognize him for what he was.Until I told Mom about him later, and she went white as a sheet.I talked to him and I didn’t see … I didn’t warn anybody.”
“April, look at me,” Bill said firmly, pulling the car to the shoulder of the road.He turned in his seat to face her directly.“That is exactly what Leo wants you to think right now.He approached you deliberately, made himself seem harmless on purpose.That’s what psychopaths do—they’re experts at appearing normal, at hiding in plain sight.”
April stared back at him, her eyes shining with unshed tears.
“You did nothing wrong,” Bill continued.“You had no reason to be suspicious.And the moment you mentioned it to your mother, she recognized the threat.That’s not failure—that’s exactly what you were supposed to do.”
“But if I’d known sooner—”
“If you’d recognized him somehow, he would have simply adjusted his plan.That’s what people like Leo do.They adapt.They find another way.”Bill’s voice softened.“This is not your fault.It’s his.All of it.”
April wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.“Then why do I feel so guilty?”
“Because you care about your sister.Because you’re human.”Bill pulled back onto the road, his eyes fixed on the stretch of pavement ahead.“But don’t give Leo the satisfaction of blaming yourself.That’s part of his game—to make everyone in Riley’s life feel responsible, to spread the pain as widely as possible.”
They drove in silence for several minutes, the landscape gradually shifting from the manicured grounds of the university to the tree-lined streets leading toward the highway.
“What do you think Mom is doing right now?”April asked, her voice steadier.
Bill considered the question.What would Riley do?He knew her investigative instincts better than anyone.
“She’ll be following Leo’s trail,” he said finally.“Looking for patterns, connections.Your mom has a way of...seeing things others miss.”He didn’t mention her uncanny ability to step into a killer’s mindset, to anticipate their next move.April already knew about that particular gift—and the difficulties it brought with it.
“She’ll find Jilly,” Bill added, trying to infuse his voice with a confidence he didn’t entirely feel.“And we’ll be there to help her when she does.”
As the car accelerated onto the highway, Bill’s thoughts turned to Riley—alone somewhere, hunting.He’d seen her in this state before, the desperate focus that sharpened her abilities and blinded her to danger.With Leo, the stakes were impossibly high.This wasn’t just another case; this was Jilly.
Bill pressed down on the accelerator.Whatever Riley was facing, he needed to be there.They were partners—in work, in life, in everything that mattered.And right now, nothing mattered more than bringing Jilly home.
*
Riley followed the winding road toward Harper’s Ferry with Elizabeth’s directions repeating in her head—the stone pillar with the carved deer, the half-mile private drive.If Leo had taken Jilly to the Dillard family cabin—the place where his sister had died—every second mattered.
She forced herself to focus on the road ahead, on finding the marker that would lead her to her daughter.There—a weathered stone pillar in the undergrowth, its carved deer barely visible through years of lichen and neglect.Riley swerved onto the narrow dirt road, branches scraping against her car as she accelerated down the rutted path.The forest closed in around her, dense and secretive, afternoon shadows deepening beneath the canopy of oak trees.
After what seemed like an eternity, the trees parted to reveal a clearing.A cabin stood in its center, a two-story structure of darkened logs and stone chimney, its windows like vacant eyes staring out at nothing.Five years of abandonment had taken their toll—the porch sagged in the middle, shutters hung askew, and vines crept up the walls as if nature itself were reclaiming the site of tragedy.