Perilous (2 page)

He swore under his breath and rolled out of bed. He’d forgotten he was on call. He was supposed to be off, but he had agreed to switch shifts with another detective at the department. He better watch it, or Chief would follow through with the threat to make him get a landline.

Kristin was already asleep. How could she sleep like that? Flipping on the light in the kitchen, he held down the speed dial for the station.

“Idaho Falls police dispatch.”

“Monica, it’s Carl.” His voice was groggy with sleep. “Who’s working tonight?”

“Carl, there’s a missing persons report for four teenage girls. Boss wants you on it right away.”

“Lieutenant Stokes?” Stokes was over the detectives.

“No. Chief Miller.”

Carl straightened. If someone had woken the chief, this was expected to be hot. “How long they been missing?”

“Four hours.”

He ran a hand through his buzzed hair. “No answer on their cell phones?”

“No cell phones on them, Carl.”

He grunted. “Did someone check their boyfriends’ houses?”

“No known boyfriends, either.”

Carl frowned. “Is there a parent present?”

“Yes.”

“All right. I’m coming to the station.” He flipped his phone shut and changed into a suit.

Before walking out the door, he opened the fridge and scanned the contents. He needed brain food. His jar of bread and butter pickles was almost gone. He grabbed the baby dills instead and headed out.

Seven parents waited for him at the station. He spotted them through the glass windows in the lobby before he entered the building. Carl opened the door, nodded at Monica, who was answering the 911 calls, and approached the parents.

“I’m Detective Hamilton. Give me a moment to get briefed on the situation, and then I’ll sit with you and ask a few questions.”

He motioned to a corner of the room. “We have a coffee pot and sugar. Help yourselves.”

“Monica.” Carl leaned his head toward the opening in the plastic window. “Who took the call?”

She took a sip from her white Styrofoam cup, leaving red lipstick on the rim. “I did.”

“Okay. Tell me what happened.”

She hit a switch on the computer, pulling up a black screen with green letters. “The 911 call came in at ten thirty-two. Woman hysterical. She had left her daughter and three friends at the mall. There was an accident on Yellowstone Highway outside of Shelley around ten to nine, and both lanes of traffic were closed for thirty minutes. By the time she reached the mall, it was nine forty and the girls were nowhere. I asked her if they were sitting in the shadows. She said she’d checked. I asked her to check the local gas station. She said she had. I asked her to call their friends. She said she’d called her husband and had him call everyone. At this point she was ballistic. I sent a patrol to the mall to scout the area and bring her back to the station.”

Ten thirty. That was two and a half hours ago. “Did they find anything?”

“No. Everything appeared normal. But the mother said the street lamps were off. She said they turned back on around ten o’clock.”

“And the mall security guard? What did he say? Did he see them?”

Monica raised a thin, penciled eyebrow. “The patrol couldn’t find him.”

Carl nodded, making a list in his mind. Suspect number one. “I’ll go speak to the parents.”

Stepping back into the lobby, he pulled up a chair to the shaking mass of parents in front of him. “Please sit down. I know this is very hard on you.” He used his most sensitive tone.

The parents sat in pairs, except one woman. Carl pulled out his notepad. “I’m going to ask a couple of questions. Please don’t be offended, and I’d appreciate it if you answer as truthfully as possible.”

One man stood up, his face twisting. Stubble the color of red clay dotted his face. “We don’t have time for questions. You need to be out there, looking for them.” He pointed his hand out the door.

Carl met the man’s eyes and spoke calmly. “We’ve got officers out looking. The more information you give me, the easier it will be for me to do my job.”

“Jacob, sit,” his wife said, turning tired eyes up at him. Her curly blond hair fell in disorganized ringlets around her neck.

Carl eyed his notepad. “I know you already told this to dispatch, but tell me what your daughters’ names are and who goes to which set of parents.”

The single woman cleared her throat. Her thick black hair lay in uneven waves. “Jacinta Rivera is mine.”

“Sara Yadle is ours.” A man with dark brown hair and bloodshot eyes clung to his wife, a heavy woman with shoulder-length blond hair.

“Amanda Murphy.” The hostile man, Jacob, deflated when he said the name. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Callie Nichols.” The petite brunette said the name with a sob and buried her head in her husband’s chest.

“And which is the parent who drove them to the mall?” Carl kept his voice neutral. He wasn’t accusing anyone here, but they might perceive it that way.

“Me.” Mrs. Nichols lifted her head, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“You were the one who went to pick them up also?”

She nodded, biting her lower lip.

“Do the girls have any other place they might hang out?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Nichols said. “My brother’s lake. They were there earlier today. But it’s in Shelley.”

Carl nodded and wrote it down. “What do they do for fun? Social life?” He included all the parents in this question.

“Jaci runs track,” said Mrs. Rivera.

Carl focused on her. “Where’s Jaci’s father?”

“He’s out of town on a business trip. I’ve tried to call him, but the hotel number he left me doesn’t pick up.”

“Any boys?” Carl threw the question out and held his breath.

“Oh, no,” said Mrs. Nichols. “They’re too young.”

Mr. Yadle nodded. “Sara’s not even shown an interest yet.”

Interesting. He would check their ages later. He stood up, closing his notepad. “Thank you for your help. I’m going to authorize an
all points bulletin
. It’ll be all over the news within the hour. We have people searching. Please go home and rest. We’ll find your girls.” He shook each of their hands as they said goodbye. As soon as they left, he strode back to Monica.

“Well?” she asked. “What do you think?”

“I’m not sure yet.” He wrote down the name of the mall on a slip of paper. “We’re going to issue an APB. If they don’t show up by tomorrow morning, I’ll interview mall employees. Keep the patrols out. Have them be on the lookout for parked cars, drunk driving, the usual.”

“You think they’re out causing trouble?”

Carl grimaced. “I hope they are. It’s a lot easier to reprimand a kid than to pull ’em out of thin air.”

Chapter 3

Someone was shaking her. Jaci opened her eyes to darkness. A cold metal surface pressed hard against her cheek. They were moving, a steady rocking and jolting, like a stroller going over a dirt path. She coughed in the stifling air.

“Jaci? Are you okay?” Callie’s soft voice penetrated the darkness.

Jaci tried to sit up, but a wave of pain and dizziness kept her on the floor. She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them she made out Amanda, draped across some crates in front of her, auburn hair fanned out around her.

They’d been kidnapped.

Jaci fought a rising panic. She took several deep breaths like she did before a race. The throbbing in her head faded to a dull ache. The right side of her face hurt. She put her hand on Callie’s shoulder and hauled herself to her feet, being careful not to hit the ceiling. A sliver of light snuck through the cracks in the back doors, but that was it. There were no windows; they were in the cargo hold of a vehicle. “Where’s Sara?”

“Unconscious. By Amanda. She got hit over the head.”

Jaci looked at the light coming in the back doors. They had slept through the night. “Have you tried to get out?”

“Yes.” Callie’s voice was a whisper. “It’s got a latch on the outside.”

Jaci stepped over to the doors and peeked out. The blacktop road flew by underneath the van. She lifted her eyes and squinted against the light, unable to see anything except a few clouds. Wiggling her fingertips against the cracks, she tried to pry the doors open. No luck. She couldn’t even get her pinkie through.

Amanda let out a low moan. She rolled her head to the side, then opened her eyes. “Where are we?”

Someone banged on the wall between them and the cab. “Be quiet back there!”

The van made a sharp turn and began to bump around, as if going from blacktop to loose gravel. Sara sat up behind one of the boxes. Jaci flew forward, hitting her face on a crate. The van stopped. Jaci stared at the wooden box in front of her, her heart pounding in her throat.

The back door opened, displaying a broad-shouldered man with a small mustache. He wore baggy black pants and a dark green t-shirt. The sun reflected off his white arms.

“Bathroom break,” he said in a gravelly, deep voice. “Take care of business and get back in.” He looked like an escaped war criminal, with buzzed dirty-blond hair and bulging arms strong enough to break each of their necks.

Jaci followed Sara out of the van, keeping her eyes on the ground. They had driven off the road, into a cluster of bushes about twenty feet from the highway.

The road curved slightly to the right up ahead, and a large red-sand rock formation shaded them from view. Wind whipped up pieces of dust and dirt into her eyes. She moved closer to Callie.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Callie said.

Jaci nodded. “I know.”

“If we make a run for it together, they won’t have a target. We can get away.”

Jaci looked at her. How could she be so calm?

“Will you come with me if I run?”

Jaci nodded. “Of course. But make sure it’s the right time.”

A shorter man with brown hair joined the big one at the back of the van, and they talked while looking over a map. The sound of another motorized vehicle echoed down the road, and both men turned toward the girls.

“Steady,” the big guy growled at them, a warning in his voice. “Just act normal.”

“A car’s coming. Now’s our chance,” said Callie. “They can’t shoot us if we’re running toward a witness.”

Jaci froze, hardly understanding Callie. She wanted to try to escape now? With those guys between them and the road? She shook her head. “We can’t.”

“Now, Jaci,” Callie said, standing up. “I need you. Come on.”

Jaci felt her whole body tremble. She couldn’t. She was too scared. “Callie.”

“Run!” Callie shouted. She turned and ran toward the road, waving her arms. “Help! Help us.”

Jaci couldn’t tear her eyes away. She saw it as if in slow motion: the blue Jeep quickly approaching from the right, Callie running for the road. The big man pulling his gun from its holster and leveling it at Callie.

“No!” Jaci screamed. The word echoed through her mind, ringing in her ears, and then Callie went down.

The blue Jeep roared by, oblivious to the scene.

Someone grabbed Jaci’s forearm and yanked her up. She sobbed, not bothering to lift her feet as she was dragged over branches and rocks. The man with the bulging muscles, the one who had shot Callie, tossed Jaci into the back of the van.

“I warned you,” he snarled, spittle flying from his mouth, features twisted with rage. “This isn’t a game.”

“Callie…Callie,” Sara cried.

“Shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up. Or I’ll shoot you all and leave you here to rot.”

Jaci forced back her own sobs and turned around to stare at Sara. “Don’t cry,” she mouthed. “Look at me.”

Sara gulped and stared at Jaci, her hazel eyes filled with unshed tears.

The door slammed shut, and they were in darkness again.

“Callie?” Sara moaned softly.

“She can’t be dead,” Amanda said. “Maybe someone will find her. Maybe she’ll be okay.”

Jaci pressed her sleeve into her mouth and let the sobs spill out, wracking her frame.
Dear Lord, why Callie?

It was her fault. If only she’d had the courage to run with her friend, they might have reached the blue Jeep in time.

Chapter 4

Jaci guessed they had been traveling two days when the van ground to a stop for the fourth time. She didn’t open her eyes. It was cold now. She wrapped her arms around her knees, trying to keep warm. A constant pitter-patter on the roof almost lulled her to sleep before the vehicle stopped. Her stomach grumbled, but she didn’t feel hungry.

The door swung open, and the man with the thick, muscular neck appeared. It was raining, and the street looked slick and dangerous in the black of night. He hadn’t pulled off the road this time.

“Come on.” He waved a flashlight at them. “Take care of your business.”

Another man joined him. Jaci hadn’t seen him before. He had shoulder-length black hair and was younger and shorter than the leader, but his wiry body was just as muscular. He moved his dull black eyes over the girls’ bodies and licked his lips.

So there were at least three men in the van.

Amanda moved out first, crawling on her hands and knees and then dropping out of the van.

Jaci didn’t want to leave. It looked so wet and damp outside, but she knew the men wouldn’t wait. She pushed herself away from the wall, noticing that Sara hadn’t budged.

“Sara,” she said, tugging the younger girl’s arm.

Sara shook herself and crawled after her.

The rain fell in Jaci’s hair and soaked into her clothing. The men stood along the side of the road and shone flashlights on them as they squatted in the grass. Jaci felt nothing, no shame or fear. Only the desire to get back inside the van, where she could close her eyes and the world would disappear.

The two-lane road didn’t appear to be well traveled. There were no street lamps. The humidity and ample vegetation made her think they were very far from home. She saw none of the familiar junipers and sagebrush that littered the terrain in Shelley.

The tall muscled man spun back around. “All right, time’s up.”

No hesitation on Jaci’s part. She slipped and hit her shin on the van doorway. Amanda grabbed her hand and helped her up. The van began its sluggish forward movement.

Jaci settled herself back among the crates, the throbbing of her shin competing with her aching head.
“What should we do?”

Sara lifted her head, eyes unfocused. “Do? What is there to do?”

The expression on her face made Jaci’s heart lurch. She looked like she had given up already. Jaci sighed and pushed her hands through her hair, feeling it clump between her fingers. She pulled it in front of her face, staring at the dark strands. Her throat and eyes burned.

The van jolted as it went over a bump in the road. She listened to the wheels churn up the gravel. Sara put her head in her hands, her body rocking with the van’s motion.

Jaci looked at her. “Sara. We’re going to get out of here.” She turned to Amanda. “What now? Tell us what to do.”

Amanda lifted a shoulder. “Look for food, I guess. Let’s go through these crates.”

It gave them a place to start. The girls started opening the unlabeled boxes, most of them empty. They didn’t find any food, but they did find a few jewels in one of the larger crates.

Amanda’s green eyes lit up, and she slipped a necklace down her shirt. “Oo, this one’s really pretty!” She opened a smaller box and pulled out a large and ornate pearl necklace. She lifted her shirt up and snapped it around her slender waist.

It didn’t quite close, so she found a bracelet to join them together. Then she dropped her shirt again. Not even a bulge showed under the clothes.

“Are you crazy?” Jaci said. “What do you think this is—a shopping spree? Our lives are in danger here.”

Amanda lifted her chin. “Why shouldn’t I take it? We might need it later.”

“They’re going to look for that,” said Sara.

“Ha.” Amanda put a few other necklaces in the small box and closed it, then shoved it back under the other boxes. “Like he’ll notice a few missing. I doubt he knows what they grabbed. They were in a hurry.”

They rode in stillness for several more hours. Jaci leaned her head against the metal wall of the van, trying to guess the time of day by the exterior temperature. One of the tires seemed slightly flat. She could hear it bumping along the road.

The drive leveled out, and the van stopped. The engine shut off.

“Are we getting gas again?” asked Sara. The skin around her eyes tightened, and she pressed her lips together.

The two gas stops had been the only times the engine shut off. But they had already gotten gas twice that day, and Jaci doubted they needed it again. She reached out and squeezed Sara’s hand. “It’s okay. Whatever it is, let’s just stick together.”

The doors banged open. The early morning sunshine assaulted their eyes, bringing with it the crisp, late-summer air. Jaci blinked and glanced back at her friends. Their faces were pale, dark shadows under their tired eyes.

A large outline blocked her view, and they looked up to see the muscular man with the buzz cut standing in the doorway. He stood with his feet apart and patted a baseball bat into the palm of his hand. “Out. Follow me.”

The fat-lipped man and the one with dark eyes joined him, all dressed in baggy black pants and green t-shirts.

Jaci remembered the gun tucked away in his pants. She gazed at the mountain looming over them. There was nothing to see except a dense forest, the undergrowth thick and stifling. No roads or houses were in sight except for the four-story brick mansion at the end of the long paved driveway.

The trees encircled the large plantation house and descended a steep hillside in front of it. A large, open garage, which contained two other identical black vans and a yellow Camaro, was attached to the side of the house. White marble pillars ran from top to bottom, and symmetrical windows covered the entire surface.

The colors seemed muted, lacking the usual luster and brilliance of nature. A dismal pallor covered everything. As her gaze slid over a ring of steps on the porch, she spotted a thin, small man standing in the entryway of the house. He watched the girls with sharp, piercing eyes, scrutinizing them as their captor led them closer.

He must be the boss.
Jaci tried not to stare at him.

They walked past him into the house. Jaci felt his steely glare on her back, and she suppressed a shudder. She lifted her chin and tried to ignore him, focusing instead on the interior of the house.

It was sparsely furnished, only a few tables and chairs in the entry. A long red carpet covered the tile floor, leading down the hall. An end table with the granite bust of a woman on top sat under a coat rack.

Stolen, Jaci thought, studying it. Probably worth thousands of dollars.

Armed men surrounded them as their kidnapper pushed the girls up several flights of stairs. They came to a stop under a trap door in the ceiling of the fourth floor. A deadbolt sealed the door into the framing around it.

The thick-necked man undid the bolt and pulled the trapdoor down. A ladder appeared.

“Been a long time since we’ve had guests,” he drawled. He pulled out his gun and gestured for them to climb.

Jaci flinched and drew back at the sight of the weapon. He nudged Sara in the back with his gun. “Up. Go.”

Sara gripped the ladder, her face chalky. She started upward, and Jaci saw the streaks of tears on her cheeks.

“Claber.”

An authoritative voice behind them made all of them turn, except for Sara, who hurried up the ladder and disappeared into the attic.

“Yes, Boss?” the big-necked man grunted.

“I’ll take it from here.”

It was the man Jaci had noticed outside. The smaller man with the penetrating gaze. He eyed them with a strange curiosity.

The big man, Claber, nodded, casting one last glance at the girls. His mustache twitched, and he grinned. “Take a rest, ladies. Maybe tonight you’ll have company.” His heavy footsteps clunked down the hall.

“No company today, girls,” the boss man said, turning his hard, cold eyes on Jaci and Amanda. “This is my house, and I’m in charge. Do exactly what I tell you, and I won’t hurt you.”

A ghost of a smile crossed his face. “I don’t know about Claber, though. He’ll be in charge of you most of the time. Up, now. Go on.”

Jaci and Amanda climbed up the squeaky wooden ladder after Sara.

The boss man folded it up and slammed the door shut, leaving them in the dark, musty attic. Jaci heard him slide the bolt into place.

A small amount of light drifted in from a round window, catching dust particles in its beams. A few muslin sacks lay on the wooden floor.

Amanda shuddered, one hand under her shirt, toying with the necklace again. “I know what that creep has in mind, and if he dares come near me, I’ll poke his eyes out.”

Jaci clenched her fists together, feeling tense and ready to snap. “Amanda, you’re just as scared as the rest of us.”

Amanda looked at her. “No, I’m not.”

Sara wandered over to the window, no bigger than her face, and dusted it off with her sleeve.

“This is not good,” Jaci whimpered. A hard lump formed in her stomach. Thoughts of her family, Seth, Callie, flashed through her mind. She forced them away. “I knew something bad was going to happen.”

“What?” Amanda turned on her. “What do you mean, you knew? And you didn’t do anything? Then I guess that makes this all your fault.”

“Shut up, Amanda,” Sara snapped. “If it weren’t for you, we’d have called the police and been fine.”

Again the anger rose inside Jaci. It was so easy to feel anger. It gave her something else to focus on. “Sara’s right. It’s your fault we’re here.” There. She’d said it.

“My fault?” Amanda said, her eyes widening. “It was Callie who shrieked and attracted their attention!”

“Don’t you even try to put this on Callie,” said Jaci.

“Callie screamed because they dragged
you
into the store, Amanda,” Sara said. “Did you want us to just walk away and leave you?”

“You’re the runner,” Amanda retorted. “Why didn’t you run for help? You could’ve saved us all.”

“Oh, so it’s everyone’s fault except yours, huh?” Jaci jumped to Sara’s defense.

“Did you call 911?” Amanda demanded. “That’s what you were supposed to do at the phone. I was keeping watch for you guys. Did you even call?”

“I—” The blood drained from Jaci’s face. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She remembered now how she had dropped the phone without dialing anything.

The brief moment of silence was enough to cool the atmosphere. “Fighting won’t help anything,” Sara said, her voice empty again. She turned back to the window and drew in a shuddering breath.

Jaci turned to Sara, her anger fading in a rush of guilt. “You’re right. Sorry.”
I’m sorry, Callie. So sorry.
Tears formed in her eyes, and she didn’t brush them away.

Sara sank to the floor beneath the window. “If we’re lucky, we’ll make it out alive.”

“Let’s get some sleep,” Jaci said. “We’ll think better when we wake up.”

“No way,” said Amanda. “We’ve got to figure out how to get out,
now
. There’s no time to sleep. What if he comes back?”

“We’re stuck in this attic, and we don’t fit through that window.” Sara’s words slurred with exhaustion. “Let’s sleep.”

Jaci spread out one of the muslin sacks and lay down. The hard floor bit into her shoulder blades and tail bone. She swallowed, trying to moisten her dry throat. The blood pounded in every limb of her body. She closed her eyes.

Amanda coughed, waking Jaci. Judging from the darkness outside the window, it was late evening. Jaci sat up. “Well, at least we didn’t get any
company.
”

“Thank goodness,” Amanda agreed. “Though some water would be nice.”

“There is water.” Sara’s quiet voice came from the corner of the attic. She rolled a large bottle of water at them. “Someone put this up here while we slept. I saved some for you guys.”

Amanda grabbed the bottle, barely waiting to get the lid off before she started chugging.

Jaci rolled up the edge of her sack. It slowly unrolled itself. Her long fingers found the edge and rolled it up again. “I wonder when we’ll get home.”

“If we get home,” said Amanda.

“We will.” Jaci took the water bottle from Amanda and tried not to gulp it down. It was stale, but it ran down her throat like a river in a desert.

“But what if—”

Jaci forced the bottle from her mouth. “No ‘ifs.’ We’ll get home.”

A bang against the floor made them jump.

“Have excess energy?” a voice roared. “Then I’ve got plenty of work for you to do. Keep it quiet.”

“Like you haven’t hurt us enough already?” Amanda said loudly.

“What?”

Amanda gasped. “Nothing.”

Jaci clenched the bottle of water, white-fisted. “Amanda, you’re going to get us all killed.”

“I’m scared,” Sara said, curling her knees up to her chest and holding them to her.