He took the final turn in the trail and stepped out onto the road. Caroline stood with the deputy by the cars, rocking a bit on her heels as she watched the woods where they had originally entered, waiting, not yet seeing him. The deputy saw him first and said something. Caroline turned. She knew, just as soon as she saw only him coming back. He watched the realization blanch her face, and then she walked toward him, and by the final steps she was running.
He caught her and wrapped his arms tight, feeling bony elbows bump him and her jawbone collide with his chest. “She wasn’t there.” He rocked her and said it again, unable to explain this. “She wasn’t there, Caroline. We opened the trunk where she had obviously been held and Sharon wasn’t there.”
“They took her with them?”
He picked her up rather than release her. He nodded to the deputy who opened the door of the squad car for him. Luke set Caroline down on the seat and knelt to lean against the side of the door beside her.
She hurriedly brushed at her tears. “I’m okay,” she whispered. “Tell me.”
“The trunk was empty. Sharon had been there, but she’s been moved. There are three dead men in the camper, shot, apparently taken by surprise. The money I paid is sitting on the camper table.”
“Did Sharon shoot them?”
He blinked. The idea had not even crossed his mind. “No. Someone had to force the trunk lock to get her out. We think one of them arrived with the money, they sat down to distribute it, when someone opened the camper door and shot all of them, very fast. Then he went to the car and forced the trunk to get Sharon out.”
“Someone rescued her? Or took her?”
“I don’t know. I’m sorry, Caroline. If it was a double cross, they would have taken the money and left Sharon. But they left the money. We don’t know where she is; we don’t know who took her. And it’s going to be a long confusing time sorting this out.”
She leaned over and wrapped her arms around him. She didn’t say anything for so very long. He reached up and rested his hand on the back of her neck, wishing he could say this was a nightmare that was a dream and not real.
Caroline took a deep breath and let it go, then sat up. “You didn’t tell me she was dead. She was alive at noon today, and not badly hurt. You didn’t find her, so she’s likely still alive. I’ll take that. It’s enough that I’ll still hope for the next hour.”
He didn’t deserve the quiet comfort she offered. “You’re tougher than you look, Caroline. Strong like a willow that bends and doesn’t break.”
“I’m learning from you. You’ll cope with this. I know you.”
He dreaded what he now had to do. “I need to call Mark.”
“I’ll do it for you.”
He shook his head, knowing this news had best come firsthand. “I need to be the one to tell him.”
“How can I help without being in your way?”
“We’re shutting down the park and throwing up roadblocks all around the area. This happened recently; Sharon can’t be far. You can stay with Jackie if you like.”
“Please.”
He leaned against her a moment to find some strength, then picked up his phone and walked away to call Mark.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Luke could feel the sun burning down the back of his neck. Sharon must have baked inside that car trunk. He walked across the campsite and down the road to the command post they had set up. Jackie leaned out of the communication van to hold out a fax.
“The third guy is also from Atlanta—Billy Klein,” Jackie confirmed. “A distant cousin of Ronald Parks. Maybe he was the one who set up the campsite? We know three people grabbed Sharon. Is another guy involved who just shot all his accomplices?”
“The money was left behind. Whoever shot these men and took Sharon—I don’t think he was ever part of the kidnapping ring. It doesn’t make any sense to me—gun down three people and leave the money?” Luke asked.
“Marsh said some of the cash was missing.”
Luke ran a hand through his hair. “Four packets, four hundred thousand, and that may just have been sloppy handling on the part of the guys who brought the ransom here. Or one of the couriers pocketing a little extra for himself.”
“If Ronald was involved, I think we have to conclude Frank Hardin was also part of this kidnapping,” Jackie said. “We know he’s connected to a white van. Was this shooting his handiwork?”
“The one thing we know about Frank is he loves money. He wouldn’t leave that kind of money behind.” Luke thought about it, and the only thing that made sense made this unrelated to the kidnapping. “Tying up the details of the kidnapping isn’t going to help us, Jackie; it’s looking back in time. We need to be looking forward to who would kill these people and also leave the money behind.” He could feel that precious time slipping by.
“Forensics will give us a lot. The murder weapon used may already be in the system, and there are likely going to be prints.”
“I know, it’s the time involved to develop those facts that is against us.” Luke looked across the campsite to the picnic table where Caroline sat, nearly motionless as she watched officers move around the crime scene. They would be moving the bodies soon, and Luke didn’t want her to see the body bags coming out of that camper. He motioned for Jackie to join him, and he walked over to Caroline.
The hillsides and lake echoed with the sound of an approaching police helicopter, and conversations stopped as it came in to land at the open field north of the campsite. As rotors spun down, four officers ran to meet the helicopter, loading the evidence bins. Two officers climbed aboard. It was on the ground for only a minute before rotors began to turn again, and it lifted off.
“If Sharon wasn’t taken out of here over water, is she still somewhere in this state park, or was she driven out?” Jackie asked, going back to the question they were all trying to solve.
“When did her phone go dead?” Luke asked.
“12:32.”
“And the campsite was spotted when?”
“3:10.”
“The shots had to echo on the water, through nearby campsites. Someone we interview should be able to give us that time. We need to know how much of a lead he has.”
“Do we have a vigilante in our own group?” Taylor Marsh asked, joining them. “Someone who knew we were searching this state park for her car and decided to take matters into his own hands? A rogue cop who could take these guys by surprise?”
“If someone wanted to be a hero, Sharon would still be here,” Jackie pointed out.
Luke shook his head. “I think we’re incidental to this. I think this guy was already watching them, and already following them. They were so busy absorbing their newfound wealth, they didn’t realize they brought trouble back with them.”
Luke got up from the table and looked over at Caroline, distressed by the conclusion he had reached. “I think your stalker just killed three men in order to take Sharon. And I don’t think he’s going to be interested in giving her back.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Luke walked down to the lake to watch the water. Six hours since he last spoke with Sharon, roughly four since someone had taken her out of the car trunk and disappeared with her. The sense of sickness inside him grew stronger with each hour. So close. And now they couldn’t find even a thread of a lead to work.
“You really think this is the work of my stalker?”
He turned his head, watching Caroline walk toward him with her hands in her pockets and a jacket borrowed from Jackie draped across her shoulders to protect against the wind. Luke met her gaze, then looked back to the water. He’d lost her sister. He didn’t deserve the sympathy he saw in her eyes.
She stopped beside him and after a moment reached over to touch his hand. “You need a strip of tape on that.”
He looked at his knuckles and the still-bleeding scrape. “It will heal. Don’t be kind, Caroline. Right now it’s like salt in a wound.”
She leaned her h
ead against his shoulder. “You couldn’t win today. No matter how determined you were in what you set out to do this morning, the fix was already in. She was alive, as of six hours ago. Hold on to that hope. I know you’ll find her again.”
“Had I resolved this last fall, it wouldn’t be coming back.”
“You didn’t miss anything last fall. Whoever this is, he never came far enough out of the shadows last year to catch. He hasn’t bothered us in months. This weekend was the work of a bunch of guys who wanted to get rich at our family’s expense. And if you got mad and reacted as the law allowed, he got mad too; he just reacted outside the law. You told me that a stalking is not an impersonal action. I think this guy cares about Sharon because he knows she matters a great deal to me.”
“First disturbed, now a murderer. He won’t be calling to ask for a ransom. He’s not going to be coming forward to give her back.”
“But the odds that he would hurt her?” Caroline shook her head. “I’ll take those odds. You can find this man.”
This was going to go on for days, weeks, and he had to find the energy to face it. He was so tired. “It’s going to be slow work. And that assumes my leap to say this is your stalker is even in the ballpark of being true.”
“Let the evidence confirm that answer; it will, one piece of news at a time.” Caroline tucked her hand under his arm. “Come on, let’s go home.”
“I don’t deserve you, Caroline.”
“On the contrary, I think I got the better deal. You’ll just have to trust me on that.”
* * *
Luke knew what it was to receive grace. It was to sit on the back porch with a little boy who was still missing his mom and not find himself blamed. Benjamin pushed the heel of his tennis shoe at the lower step.
“You weren’t able to find her?”
“No. But I talked to her. I tried to get to her, but something happened and someone took her away before we could reach her.”
“And bad men are dead?”
“Some are.”
“I wish I could have gone to see where she was last at.”
Luke brushed back the boy’s hair. “She was thinking about you and your dad. She really misses you too.”
“I read the note she wrote to me.” Benjamin leaned over and wrapped his arms around Luke’s neck. “Take me to see my future tree house. Please.”
Luke reached for the boy’s hand.
“I don’t like to cry around my dad. He’s sad enough.”
Luke blinked away a couple tears of his own. “I know. But it’s okay to be sad, Benjamin.”
“I miss Mom. She always tickles my toes to wake me up.”
Luke walked with Ben down the path to the woods and the tree where the tree house would be built.
“I was thinking that maybe when Mom came home, she might like me to have done something with my time rather than just be sad. I thought I might start on my tree house.”
“She might like to hear that you were sad and that you worked on your tree house. You can do both.”
“Would you help me?”
“I’ll be glad to try. We can move brush and stuff until your dad can walk down here and help us read the blueprint so we can build the flooring.”
“It’s a good place. A nice sturdy tree.”
“Dad says it’ll last a long time.” Benjamin walked around the tree trunk, looking at his tree. “Do you still like my aunt?”
“A lot.”
“She’s going to miss Mom so much.”
“I know.”
Benjamin sat to rest against his tree. “Mom was going to make me the ladder for my tree house.”
Luke sat beside the boy. “I hope she’s back soon to do so.”
“What does he want? More money?”
“I don’t know what this man wants. I think he likes your mom and was risking his own life to help her when he rescued her.”
“Then why doesn’t he bring her home?”
“Maybe he will, or we’ll find him. I do know your mom is a brave and smart lady, and she will do everything she can to come home soon. She loves you so much.”
Benjamin leaned over, and Luke felt the boy’s shoulders begin to shake. “Can I give out more flyers?”
Luke lifted the boy on his lap and let him cry. “I’ll give them out with you.” He had nothing left inside after this day, or he would cry along with Benjamin. Luke knew what it felt like to be a failure.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Luke took a legal-size notepad with him to the kitchen table and set it down. He poured himself a cup of coffee. The house was finally quiet, Mark and Benjamin in bed, and Caroline napping on the couch not wanting to turn in. There was work to do now, the kind of thinking best done when it was quiet.
Luke drank his coffee, picked up the pen, and started to write.
STALKER PROFILE:
1. This guy is older. He’s probably known Caroline and Sharon for several years. Lives in the area. Comfortable with Caroline’s routine. Able to blend into her life last fall to leave small gifts, to call when she was just getting home, to know her favorite flowers.
2. Caroline likely knows him without realizing it. She probably smiles when she sees him, stops to casually pass a few minutes in conversation. Those events fed his broader delusion of them being together. He focused on Caroline last fall. RESULT? He spooked her and backed off.
3. Roses sent to Sharon’s office Friday suggest his attention had recently turned to Sharon. Perceived as a way to expand his connection to Caroline by getting to know her sister?
LINK TO KIDNAPPING:
1. Was he watching Sharon on Friday and saw the snatch? BIG IF. It would explain aggression at the campground. He saw who made the snatch, didn’t know where they had taken her, where the white van went, but knew who to tail. Stayed with them until they led him to Sharon.
2. Guys milling around campsite enter the camper when the money arrives. Stalker moves in. Fearing for Sharon now that ransom has been delivered, he moves in to protect and take her. Events of this weekend must have seemed like fate—a way to heroically prove his commitment to Caroline by saving her sister. He’s a troubled man driven by intense emotion. Escalates to killer. He won’t be afraid to act now, to make what he wants happen. Long ago he made his interest in Caroline clear. Sharon isn’t a substitute, but a new dynamic in a bigger plan?
IMMEDIATE GOALS:
1. Forty-eight hours of adrenaline-induced flight driving him—he wants to get away from campground while trying to keep on top of news developments. He’ll get to a safe place and take steps to make sure Sharon won’t be taken away from him. Maybe head to same place he’s envisioned taking Caroline? Remote and a place he’s very comfortable with?
DELUSION VERSUS REALITY:
1. He has always been the one entering their world. Now he will bring Sharon into his. He will want to please her, make her comfortable, happy. If Sharon is smart, she’ll walk that fine line and sincerely appreciate his efforts while waiting for the moment to get word out as to where she is.
2. In a few days the reality of shooting people will hit him, the doubts: Does he have enough cash? food and clothes? Delusion and reality are rubbing against each other. Stress will build. What he once thought he loved he may now hate. Will he snap and lash out at Sharon in violence? Or snap and just abandon her?
3. How long that destructive spiral lasts has variables—how well Sharon understands what’s happening . . . how many steps he takes to match his dream with reality . . . stalker’s tolerance for setbacks. Time measured in weeks and months, not days.
4. Of course all this assumes he’s not crazy. If he is crazy, he may simply kill Sharon, his Caroline substitute, and himself so they might be together forever.
Luke set down his pen. He knew what was coming. How did he get ahead of it, where did he step into its path to stop it? They wanted Sharon back. This guy wanted to keep her. Where they collided and how determined how many people might get hurt.
r /> Caroline, will you understand the risk that will have to be taken? When it came down to it, Luke was confident Sharon would at least walk away. He would give his life for Sharon’s if necessary, to return her to her family. He looked at his summary of the man he thought had her. I know you. Now I need to know your name.
There had to be a way to put together what had happened last fall and what had happened recently to identify who this man was.
Luke saw car lights coming up the driveway. He closed the pad of paper and went to meet the sheriff.
* * *
Luke looked through the original stalking report from last fall, searching for the one detail that would give him a place to work. The sheriff, sitting on a chair across from him, turned the last page in Luke’s handwritten assessment. “It’s a big jump to go from working a kidnapping to now working a stalking. I understand the FBI task force doesn’t see it your way.”
Luke kept reading. “They think there was a falling-out among kidnappers, and we are going to get another ransom demand for even more money.”
“But you think we’ve got a stalker who took Sharon.”
“Yep.” Luke closed the folder. “And since it keeps me out of their way as they work the kidnapping angles, I’ve got their full blessing for Jackie and me to chase this idea.”
The sheriff tapped the document Luke had written. “I’ve never met a kidnapper who would leave a ransom behind. If you’re not 100 percent accurate in your guess, you’re probably 80 percent. I wish I did have a name for you. Whoever we’re dealing with, it’s not going to end well.”
Luke set aside the file. “I’m afraid one of the officers searching for Sharon and manning one of those roadblocks will encounter them. This guy is over the edge. We can’t afford an unplanned encounter with him, not while Sharon is with him.”