Deadly Relations (14 page)

“
If she was abducted, he could have gotten her out of the park through the service road,” Jennifer said, glancing at Blake, who had joined them.

“
Right,
if
the tire prints have anything to do with the girl who’s missing.” Bob responded.

Holding a small pink purse and a backpack, a
young blonde-haired man with a wide-shouldered, rangy body approached them. “Blake, thanks for coming.”

“
Lance, this is my partner, Jennifer Brennan.”

Placing
the purse and backpack on the ground, Lance shook Jennifer’s outstretched hand and said, “I’m glad you’re here to help find Tiffany.”

“
Lance, I want you to wait for us on that bench over there. Jennifer and I need to check something out,” said Blake. “We’ll be right back.”

“
Jennifer, let’s check out this service road.” Blake and Jennifer carefully made their way around the crime scene tape, careful not to step on anything that might be related to Tiffany’s disappearance. Using the embankment, they waded through brush and weeds to follow the service road.

Pointing at the road, Blake said, “See the tire tracks. I think Bob’s right when he said the tracks looked like they belong to an ATV pulling some kind of cart.”

Blake and Jennifer
continued walking about a mile until they came to a three-car garage next to what looked like a maintenance building. Parked next to the building was a red Honda FourTrax Foreman All-Terrain Vehicle. Attached to its hitch was a metal cart, filled with large black plastic bags, presumably stuffed with garbage.

Jennifer pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, “Bob, bring your kit and follow the service road until you come to the maintenance building. We may have found that ATV and cart you were talking about.”

Blake held his hand above the motor, careful not to touch the vehicle. “It’s still warm. We need a conservation officer here stat.”

“
You’ve got one.”

Blake and Jennifer turned around to see an older man in a green uniform approach them. “I’m Sam McGee. I’m the conservation officer in charge of the park. Got a call about all the commotion. Who are you?”

Blake and Jennifer simultaneously pulled out their badges. “We’ve got a missing girl who may have been transported out of the park using this ATV. Who has access to the keys?”

“
My employees. But it’s not likely any of my people took out the ATV since the key is locked up inside the maintenance building.” Sam moved to the ATV, holding his hand over the motor as Blake had. “I’ll be damned, the motor’s warm.” He rushed to the side door of the maintenance building and found the door unlocked. Jennifer and Blake followed him to a pegboard inside with dozens of hooks with keys attached. “It’s missing!” Sam exclaimed. “The key to that ATV is missing.”

“
Don’t touch anything,” said Blake. “We’ve got a crime scene tech coming who will dust for prints.”

Frowning, Jennifer said to Blake, “So we have a perp who breaks into this building to steal keys as well as an ATV. For what? To take a joy ride at night in the park? If so, what’s with the filled garbage bags?”

“
Here’s another scenario. Our guy steals the ATV and cart, then rides around the park emptying garbage cans so he doesn’t look suspicious. He’s trolling for a victim and finds her when Tiffany comes out of that restroom. He subdues her with a stun gun, drugs or something, hides her body under the garbage bags then drives back here to return the ATV.” He pointed to the east. “It’s then only 100 yards or so to the parking lot where he stashed his vehicle.”

<><><>

When Blake and Jennifer returned to the camping area, they found Lance sitting on the bench where they
had left him. As soon as they were close enough, he handed Jennifer the purse and backpack. He seemed distraught. “These belong to Tiffany. I’m so glad you’re here. I don’t know what to do. I can’t believe Tiffany’s gone. I’ve looked for her everywhere.”

Placing the backpack on the ground, Jennifer peeked inside the purse, “Not good. Her cell phone is here, in her purse. We won’t be able to track Tiffany by her phone.” She opened the phone to look for recent calls. “She hasn’t made any calls since yesterday.”

Blake sat down next to Lance and said, “Let’s start from the beginning.”

After listening to Lance’s story, Jennifer asked, “How well do you know Tiffany? Is she someone who would leave because she wasn’t having a good time?”

Lance leaned forward, put his head in his hands with his elbows braced on his knees. “I don’t know her very well at all. This was pretty much a first date.”

“
How did you meet her?”

Lane scrubbed his hands over his face. “She’s in one of my classes. We started talking about our mutual interest in camping a couple of weeks ago. I invited her to join me this weekend.”

“
Well, if she’s an avid camper, she may know her way around the park. Maybe she decided to hike a trail?” Jennifer offered.

Lance shook his head. “No, that’s the thing. I don’t think she was honest about her camping abilities. She didn’t even know how to set up the tent.”

Jennifer focused on a long, red scratch on Lance’s arm. “How did you get that scratch?”

“
Got it while I was looking for wood for our fire. I didn’t see the low hanging branch before it cut the hell out of my arm.”

Jennifer gave him a skeptical glance and said,
“Lance, we need to take you back to the station to get an official statement. You’ll need to be photographed, and with your permission, we’d like to get a DNA sample. Do you have anyone you want to call to meet you there?”

<><><>

Just like taking candy from a baby, capturing this bitch was that easy. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Too bad, so sad for her. He
’d gotten her out of the park in record time. Still unconscious, she lay naked strapped on his wooden kitchen table, her arms and legs restrained by duct tape.

Worrying he’d given her too much tranquilizer; he tapped her arm with his fingers. It had been over an hour. She should have come to by now. He checked her pulse and found it to be a little slow, but that was to be expected. He moved to the living room and threw a couple of logs onto the fire in his fireplace. Sitting in his recliner, his mind wandered to Jennifer Brennan. What he wouldn’t have given to see her face when she discovered Catherine Thomas’ cell phone lying on her dining room table. He chuckled aloud. He bet that sight sent her heartbeat racing, that is, if the icy bitch had a heart. Leaving the phone was payback for the tongue-lashing she’d given him at Deer Run State Park the day Catherine’s body was found. Finding the cell phone must have caused quite a stir, he decided, judging from the number of deputy and crime scene tech vehicles at her house later when he drove by. Amusing. He wasn’t through with Jennifer Brennan.

He rubbed his hands together, not from the cold, but from the excitement. The cops were probably combing Rocky Cliff State Park at this very moment, looking for the bitch duct-taped to his kitchen table, but he was confident they’d find nothing. He snickered to himself. He couldn’t wait to see the morning news anchor reporting his prey missing.

He’d checked the weather report this time. Rain was predicted before the end of the week. He didn’t want to be saddled with the bitch he’d captured tonight as long as he was with Catherine Thomas.

Hearing a muffled scream, he rushed into the kitchen. His prey was awake. Let the fun begin.

<><><>

If there was anything that Jennifer dreaded, it was delivering bad news to parents. Okay, it wasn’t the delivery part; it was their reaction to it. There’s no positive spin for the message, “Your daughter is missing.”

Blake parked the SUV outside the residence of Vic and Sasha Chase, who lived outside Rockville on a three-acre estate in a gated community. A maid answered the door, and after a glimpse of their badges, quickly summoned Tiffany’s mother.

A pretty, dark-haired woman in her forties came to the door, a flash of apprehension in her eyes. “I’m Sasha Chase. How can I help you?”

Jennifer spoke first, “I’m Jennifer Brennan and this is Blake Stone. We’re with the sheriff’s office. May we talk to you inside?”

Fear raced across the woman’s face, and she crossed her arms across her body protectively. “Yes, of course, come in. We can talk in the living room.” She motioned for them to follow her. “Mandy, please bring some coffee.”

The living room was a study in white, white walls, drapes and fireplace. Several large oil modernistic paintings provided splashes of bold color in red, royal blue and black. Jennifer and Blake sat down on a red sofa in front of the fireplace while Sasha sat in an armchair near them.

The maid who answered the door appeared with a tray of coffee mugs, cream, sugar, and a hot pot of coffee that she laid down on the black coffee table before she rushed out of the room.

“
Mrs. Chase...” Jennifer began softly.

“
Please call me Sasha. Mrs. Chase is my mother-in-law.”

“
Sasha, we’re here to talk to you about Tiffany.”

Sasha gasped as her hand flew to her chest. “Oh, my God! Has something happened to Tiffany?”

“
Tiffany was reported missing from Rocky Cliff State Park last night.”

“
What in the world was she doing there?” The mother seemed incredulous.

“
It appears she was camping.”

Sasha sighed with relief. “You have the wrong Tiffany. You couldn’t pay my Tiffany to camp.”

“
Mrs. Chase...” Jennifer began.

Sasha held up her hand. “No, I’m serious. If you looked up ‘spoiled princess’ in the dictionary, you’d find Tiffany’s photo. She’s an only child and her daddy and I have always pampered her. Tiffany is the
last
person on earth who would be camping. You have the wrong girl.”

Jennifer pulled out a small pink leather Coach purse in a plastic bag from behind her and showed it to Sasha. “Does this purse belong to Tiffany?”

Instant tears appeared in Sasha’s eyes. “I bought the bag for her for Christmas. Was her driver’s license inside?” Reality slammed into her and she choked back a sob.

Blake nodded. “Last night between eleven and midnight, Tiffany left the campsite to use the public restroom facility a short distance away. She hasn’t been seen since. The police were called at one-thirty this morning, and have been searching the area for her ever since.”

“
I can’t believe it,” Sasha said, but the terror in her eyes revealed she did. “Who was she with? There is no way she would have been at that park alone.”

“
She was camping with a young man who attends ISU with her by the name of Lance Brody. Is that name familiar to you?”

“
What? Lance who? Tiffany is engaged to Evan Hendricks. Why was she with this Lance boy?”

Jennifer jotted Evan’s name down in her notebook. “Do you know where we can find Evan?”

“
He’s the youth minister at the Methodist Church in town.”

Blake nodded toward a photo of Tiffany on the fireplace mantel. “May we borrow that photo?”

“
Yes, anything you need.”

“
Does Tiffany have a computer?” asked Blake.

Sasha nodded. “Yes, she has it with her on campus.” She began sobbing, rocking back and forth in her chair.

“
May we borrow the laptop? There may some information on it that will help us find her.”

“
Yes, of course.”

“
Is there anyone we can call for you? Anything we can do?” Blake asked as he and Jennifer stood, ready to leave.

She wiped the tears from her face with her hands. “Yes. You can find my daughter and bring her home to me!”

<><><>

Jennifer backed the SUV out of the driveway, while Blake opened his laptop to get into Tiffany’s bank and credit card information.

“
That poor woman was devastated,” Jennifer said. “Now I know what my parents went through when I was missing.”

Blake glanced at her and said, “I’d never known your dad to be anything but calm and controlled until the day he called to ask me if I would take the dive team to Monroe Lake to look for your car. I could literally hear the fear in his voice.”

“
It kind of makes you want to not have kids. How can you ever hope to protect them twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week?”

“
Not me. I want kids someday. I want to be the kind of parent to them that my parents never were for me.”

Jennifer looked at him thoughtfully and said, “C’mon, Blake, I’m sure your parents love you.”

“
Not unselfishly, like your parents care about you. I felt more like a bargaining chip during their divorce,” Blake said, as he pulled up Tiffany’s VISA information. “No luck. Tiffany hasn’t used her bank or VISA card in the last forty-eight hours.”

“
Are you thinking what I’m thinking? I mean, we’ve got another girl who is taken from a state park. Maybe that’s his M.O.”

“
We need to talk to the boyfriend first. But am I thinking Tiffany may have been taken by the same guy who abducted and killed Catherine Thomas? Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. If we’re right, we don’t have much time to catch him. He kept Catherine for five days before he killed her.”