Page 50 of Three Girls Gone (Detective Amanda Steele #14)

FORTY-THREE

Nothing much compared to a manhunt taking place in the dark, and in a wooded area, no less. The weak moon was intermittently suffocated by cloud cover, leaving them reliant on flashlights and headlamps. Amanda kept thinking how terrified Eloise must be if she was out here.

Marshall’s rental car was in one of the parking lots, but there was no sign of him or Eloise. He could have left by other means. But with Eloise? That scenario seemed too risky. If Marshall had abandoned the Kia and called a car service, Amanda feared they’d be finding the girl’s body in the woods.

Amanda hoped like hell they weren’t too late for Eloise.

Would her body be in a freshly dug grave, or on display somewhere like little Hailey Tanner?

She held her breath as images of her laid out in her tutu and slippers struck with vivid clarity.

She turned to Trent beside her. “Let’s check out the play area. ”

He nodded, and they headed over .

The playground wasn’t far from the parking lot, but it felt farther out at night. Amanda set the beam of her flashlight ahead of her and hurried as fast as she could, hindered by fallen branches and uneven ground.

Trent swept his flashlight over the play equipment, and nothing stood out. No lumps or unexplained shadows. But something about the playground sucked Amanda in. An energy? A hunch?

Amanda took cautious steps and rounded the sandbox.

Directing her flashlight on it, she held her breath, but it hadn’t been disturbed.

She carried on past the swings to the jungle gym and the slide, illuminating each section as she went along.

When the beam hit the top of the slide, she froze, paralyzed in place.

“Trent,” she whispered.

“What is—?” His flashlight beam joined hers. “Shit.”

“Yeah, this can’t be good.” She was going to be sick. “Eloise!” she yelled out as loud as she could. Her throat was throbbing after she pushed out the girl’s name several more times.

It drew some officers over.

“Detective Steele, are you okay? Is everything all right?” Officer Traci Cochran asked.

Amanda felt her walk up next to her but never took her eyes off her discovery. She pointed at the top of the slide.

A stuffed unicorn, Eloise’s favorite toy, was sitting there staring back at them. The beams from their flashlights reflected in the toy’s glass eyes.

“Dear Lord. Does that mean what I think it does?” The whites of Traci’s eyes appeared larger than normal when Amanda turned to her. Trent spoke before she could respond.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions. All it means for certain is Wilcox was here,” Trent said calmly.

Amanda couldn’t understand how he was holding himself together so well.

“We could tell that by the Kia. This… that is a message, Trent. He’s already killed her, or he’s very close to doing so.

This is his game, and he knew we’d track him down.

This toy is like him telling us, we’re just a little too late. ”

“You don’t know that for sure,” Trent pushed back.

Amanda admired how he was clinging to light in this darkness while she was struggling for ground. But his optimism was foolish and naive. She turned to Traci. “Report over the radios and loop everyone in on this.” One of the other officers who had come over beat Traci to it.

Amanda set out toward the woods. She could hear Trent’s footsteps cracking over small twigs in her wake. She stopped walking and turned around to face him. “What are you doing?”

“I’m not letting you go out there alone.” He thrust a pointed finger at the woods.

“Time is running out for Eloise, Trent. I feel that. Let me go on my own, you go your way. We’ll cover more ground, faster.

” Going off alone presented a risk, but it was one she was prepared to take.

She had her gun, her training, and her wits.

Even if she was being borderline obsessive about one little girl right now.

“I don’t know. You seriously think that’s a smart thing to do? You thought he was panicking when he thought Katherine was getting close. What do you think his mental state is now, with cops chasing him through this park? There’s no telling what Wilcox will do if you run into him.”

“Trent, please. If you fan out that way fifty yards and head toward the river like I’m doing, we’ll meet up soon. This is our best chance of stopping Wilcox and saving Eloise.”

He stood there, facing her. She could feel his eyes drilling into her through the night.

“Seconds count, Trent. Every. Single. One. As you just said, there is a lot of backup here. I’m safe.”

“Tell yourself that. This guy is unhinged. ”

“He might be, but there’s a little girl who needs us.”

“Fine,” he consented. “But one sign of Wilcox, and you yell like a freaking banshee. Got me?”

“Got you.”

Trent set out east, and Amanda continued going straight. The river was a bit of a walk from here, and a thick forest stood in between. With Trent gone, it suddenly felt like the trees had eyes. The darkness closed in around her, but she kept moving forward with her flashlight’s beam fixed ahead.

Taking one step at a time for Eloise…

But she stopped, holding her next breath at the sound of dogs barking in the distance. Had one of the K-9s found the girl?

She set out in that direction, hurrying her pace until her path was blocked.

Marshall Wilcox stepped out from behind a large tree. Eloise was limp in his arms, cradled like a baby. She couldn’t tell if the girl was alive or not.