Page 49 of Once Vanished
April nodded, rising from her chair with the careful movements of someone much older than her years.Gabriela followed suit, reaching out to squeeze April’s shoulder.
“Would you like some tea before you go to bed,” she asked April.“The chamomile?Would that help?”
“No, but thank you, Gabriela.”
As she and April started to head away, Gabriela turned to Riley and said, “Thank you for the sedative.I will use it.It will help me sleep.”
Bill watched them leave.Gabriela’s motherly concern for April felt like a knife-twist reminder of the family’s fracture.He could see the slight tremor in Gabriela’s hands, the way she held herself as though physically keeping her grief contained.April walked with her head down, shoulders curved inward, making herself small as if trying to disappear.
When they were gone, Riley slumped back in her chair, her show of strength crumbling now that her daughter was out of sight.
“I’ve been wondering,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper, “if this is what it felt like for the families of all those victims over the years.This...helplessness.”
Bill started to respond, but Riley’s phone vibrated on the table, the screen lighting up with Van Roff’s name.She snatched it up, putting it on speaker.
“Van, you’re on with Bill too.What have you got?”
“Maybe something,” Van’s voice crackled through the speaker, his usual irreverence muted.“I’ve been dropping breadcrumbs on some dark web forums.Places where elite hackers hang out.I’ve been casually mentioning ShadowCipher and some of the FBI cases I’m working on.”
Bill leaned forward.“And?”
“Someone’s been nibbling.A user called ‘QuantumGhost’ responded to one of my posts with a quote from Alice in Wonderland about the Cheshire Cat.That’s been ShadowCipher’s calling card in the past—Lewis Carroll references.”
Riley gasped, “You think it’s him?”
“Can’t be sure yet.But I’m getting warmer.If it’s ShadowCipher, and if I play this right, I might be able to reach him.These guys usually have an ego the size of Montana.”
“How long will that take?”Bill asked, already calculating days, hours—time Jilly might not have.
Van’s sigh rustled through the speaker.“Unknown.Could be tonight, or tomorrow, or next week.Could be never.These guys are paranoid for a reason.”
Bill shared a glance with Riley, seeing his own disappointment mirrored in her eyes.Another maybe.Another waiting game.
“Keep us posted,” Riley said.“Directly.”
“You got it.I’ll call the minute I have something solid.”
The call ended, leaving Bill and Riley in silence.Bill studied the grain of the wooden table, not wanting to meet her gaze, afraid of what he might see there—or what she might see in his.
“I should...”Riley began, then trailed off, as if she couldn’t decide what she should do.
“Yeah,” Bill agreed to nothing in particular.
The silence stretched between them, thin and brittle.They’d faced countless horrors together over the years, had seen each other through the darkest moments of their lives up until now.But this—this felt different.This was Jilly.This was personal in a way no other case had ever been.
“What if we never find her?”Riley’s question came out in a rush.“What if we never even know if she’s alive or dead?What if this hangs over us for the rest of our lives?”
Bill reached for her hand then, finally breaching the distance between them.Her fingers were cold in his.
“We’ll find her,” he said, the words hollow even to his own ears.
Riley pulled her hand away.“You don’t believe that any more than I do.”She stood, pacing the small kitchen.“Leo has won.I don’t even understand the game he’s playing, but he’s won it.”
“Riley—”
“No, I’m serious, Bill.”She turned to face him, her hazel eyes fever-bright in her exhausted face.“I’ve built my entire career on my ability to get into killers’ minds, to understand how they think, what drives them.But Leo—he’s in my mind.He’s in your mind.He knows us better than we know him.”
Bill stood too, needing to be on her level.“You’re not thinking clearly.We’re both exhausted.”