Find Me If You Dare (The Chronicles of Elizabeth Marshall Book 2) (22 page)

                    Chapter Fifty-Eight

It was amazing what that woman could do with a laptop. With a few clicks of her mouse and passwords and access I’m certain few people in this country had, she gave me the thumbs up. She had plugged both phone numbers into her computer and was ready to do a trace. If I called Martin’s phone and anyone answered, and if the signal could be “pinged” off of any cell tower, we would know where the call was coming from. We might be able to find Elizabeth. We might know if she was still here in this area or if she had moved on to her next target, her next victim.

“Just remember, keep her on the line as long as possible.”
Madeline directed, poised at her laptop, waiting for her fingers to fly.

I glanced up at Logan, seeing the encouraging look on his face. Come on, he was saying, you can do this.

I felt every muscle in my body tense as I gathered the courage to push the simple button to make the call. I wasn’t even certain Elizabeth had Dr. Ross’ cell phone. If she did, would she even answer? If she answered, what was I going to say to her?

A part of me was so angry with her.  I just wanted to rage at her, to make her see how many people and lives she had damaged with her actions. I’d never lost my temper with her, never even so much as raised my voice to her, unless it had been when I had been speaking with one of the other family members.  This time, I didn’t want to hold back. I wanted her to know and understand how much pain she had caused.
I wanted to yell at her until there was no more breath in my lungs.

The other part of me had to be more logical and objective though. So much was on the line here.
I had to find out where she was and where she was going. I had to find out what she was planning on doing next. I would never accomplish that with anger. Anger had never been a way to deal with her.

I pressed the tiny button to make the call.

One ring. Two. Then a third. Was she going to answer? If it was her that had called a short time ago, she would recognize my cell phone number. A fourth ring, then…

The call was answered but there was nothing but silence.

“Hello?” My voice sounded weak, almost timid. No answer. Just silence. I tried again. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

The silence, the stillness stretched on. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe she had taken the phone but had already ditched it. It could be in any stranger’s hands by now. Someone could have just found it and dialed the last number on the list, mine.

Still, it was the only chance we had at the moment.

“Hello? Is anyone there? Someone just called me from this number. Are you there?” My voice sounded stronger, more confident.

No response. Well, it was a shot in the dark anyway. There was no telling where Martin’s phone was or who had it. For all I knew it could have been a pocket-dial. Maybe even a nurse at the hospital had found it with his things. Maybe….

“Caitlyn?” My heart almost stopped at that voice. That pure, innocent voice of my youth. “Is that you Caitlyn?”

“Elizabeth?” I almost choked the name out. I felt the blood drain from my face, fear and memories rushing back to me.

“Since when have you called me by my formal name?” Her voice was soft, almost pleasant, with just a small hint of curiosity.
She paused for a moment in expectation. It took a heartbeat more for my numb brain to understand what she was asking.

“Lisbeth? Is that you?”
I fought to keep any signs of strain out of my voice.

“Oh Caitlyn, I’ve missed you so much.” It was evident in her tone. She sounded just like that old childhood friend of mine.
Her voice was calm and clear, sincere.  Just hearing those familiar words spoken through the phone was enough to start dissolving some of the pent up anger inside of me. It was the same thing she would say to me when I would come to visit her at the mental hospital. The plea was in her voice, that same plea she used when she was trying so hard to convince me that she was innocent of her mother’s murder.

She had been right then
. She had been innocent of killing her mother. But not so innocent of killing many more. I had to remember that. I had to steal myself from softening towards her. But I was still unprepared for her next statement.

“I’ve really needed to talk to you. You have no idea what I’ve been going through. Whatever you think I’ve done, I didn’t do it. It wasn’t me.”

                         Chapter Fifty-Nine

I looked up at Logan as he crossed the room. Director Phillips stood in the doorway, a curious look on his face. In a low whisper, Logan brought him up to speed on what we were doing. I could tell the moment Logan told the director that I had Elizabeth on the line. He stiffened and his eyes widened a bit in surprise.

I was still trying to digest what she had just said to me.
Had I really heard her right? Was she trying to say she was innocent now? Maybe I was finally losing my mind. I had to make sure I wasn’t the only one hearing this.

I looked around the room, held one finger to my lips to indicate silence, then pushed the “speaker” button on my phone.

“What do you mean, Lisbeth?” I had to draw her out. I wanted the other people in the room to hear what she had just said to me. “I don’t understand.” She took the bait.

“I know you think I’ve done some terrible things, Caitlyn, but it wasn’t me. I promise you.” Her words were still soft with a slight edge of desperation. “I know it looks bad, but I’m not capable of doing things like that. Please believe me.”

I looked around my mother’s kitchen at the three people watching me, staring at my phone. They had just heard the same thing I did. There was a mixture of expressions on their faces. Director Phillips had his usual poker face on, cautious, wary. Madeline was intensely going back and forth between the phone conversation and her laptop, holding her breath we would have enough time. Logan’s face must have mirrored my own, shock, disbelief.

Something inside me snapped.

“Elizabeth, I know you committed those crimes. You killed those people.” My voice was more forceful now. “There’s DNA, fingerprints, and I know your symbol. There’s no question it was you.”

“My symbol?” Her voice was low, barely audible. She sounded genuinely confused.

“Yes, the symbol you leave behind at every crime scene, carved in bodies, written in blood. You can’t deny that you leave that symbol for us to find.” My voice held a brittle edge to it. I knew I should be more composed with her, more careful. I couldn’t afford to scare her off. I had to keep her on the phone as long as possible. But I couldn’t help the frustration in my voice. How could she possibly pretend at this stage that she didn’t commit these murders?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Caitlyn.” She sounded truly baffled by my words. I looked over at Madeline to gauge her reaction.
She seemed to be concentrating more on being a detective at the moment than on being a psychologist. She signaled to me that I was doing well and to try to keep her talking.

“
Be honest with me, Lisbeth.” I made an effort to soften my tone and words. “You killed the man who molested you as a child. You killed my ex-husband Lewis, because you never liked him.  You’ve wanted me to know it was you. You’ve wanted me to follow you.”

“Really, Caitlyn, it wasn’t me. I could never do those things.
How could you think that I would be capable of killing someone? You’ve known me most of my life. This is me, Lisbeth, the girl that sat in that hallway in the Junior High with you. Do you remember the pictures we used to draw? Do you remember the dreams we used to have? You know me. This is your best friend.”

For her to choose that memory, that one memory of the first day we met.
              I gripped the cell phone so tightly my hand hurt. I felt like someone had just punched me in the stomach. The pain was real, physical. I tried to pull myself together. I couldn’t let her weaken my resolve.

“How do you expect me to believe that
, Lisbeth?” I insisted. “What proof can you give me?”

Silence. Just dead silence.
I immediately wished I could take back the words. Had I pushed her too far? It was risky to bring up the murders so soon. I shouldn’t have confronted her with it so quickly. I should never have insisted on proof.

Maybe it wasn’t too late.

“Lisbeth?” I had to keep her talking. “Are you still there?”

Still, the silence. I waited, quiet, listening. It didn’t sound as though the call was disconnected yet. I had to keep trying.

“Lisbeth? Talk to me.”

“Lisbeth?”
A sing-song voice echoed back at me, mimicking me. A chill went down my spine and I froze. There was soft laughter in the background, ice cold and sinister.

I drew a quick breath and paused. Who was I talking to now?
What had I done? Had I pushed too hard and opened up Pandora’s Box? I couldn’t identify who it was from one single word. And it was harder to tell over the phone with no facial expressions, no eye contact.

“Who is this?” I asked in an urgent whisper.

More silence, then another slight laugh in the background.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Came the smug reply.

It sounded like Sophie, but I couldn’t be certain. It had been a while since I had really spoken one on one with her or any of the other family members.

“Let me talk to Lisbeth. I wasn’t finished talking to her.” I was hoping I could find out more with Lisbeth than the others.
“Let me talk to her again.”

“We shouldn’t have let her talk to you in the first place.”
It didn’t sound like Sophie.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something different in the voice. “We’ve talked too long as it is.”

Suddenly, t
he line went dead and I tensed. I had to know more. I wasn’t done with her yet. I had to know why Elizabeth was saying she was innocent. I didn’t get anything out of her. I didn’t find out where she was going, who she might be targeting next. I didn’t get anything that would help us with the investigation. I felt as though I was going into a panic.

Maybe I should try calling her back. Maybe she would answer again and I could-

“We have a hit.” Madeline’s excited voice immediately grabbed my attention. Logan and Director Phillips both moved to the kitchen table to see the laptop. Madeline was grinning. “We got a ping off a cell tower right outside of Grand Junction, Colorado. She’s left the area and seems to be heading east.”

It took a moment for her words to sink in. It
took a bit longer for it to wash over me that perhaps my parents and family might be safe now. I could only hope.

                          Chapter Sixty

I looked over Madeline’s shoulder at the map she had pulled up on her laptop.

“I think you were right.” Madeline still had excitement in her voice.

“About what?” I wasn’t ready to celebrate yet. I had blown it. I could have found out much more during that phone call. It wasn’t like me to let my emotions get the best of me. Maybe this was all starting to take its toll.

“Look.” Madeline used the cursor on her computer to mark a path. “I think she’s heading east on I-70 into Denver. From there, all she has to do is travel south on I-25 and she’s on her way to New Mexico. I think you were right on target.
She’s going after her biological father next.”

I found the nearest kitchen chair and sank down into it in exhaustion. It was too soon to hope that we might be right. We had been one step behind her the entire time. Was it possible we might catch a break and actually be able to prevent a crime this time?

Madeline must have sensed my fatigue and frustration. She made a few clicks on her laptop then turned the screen around to face me. I don’t know what I expected to find, but it wasn’t the photo-copied document before me.

“Birth certificate?” I asked as I started looking over the document. I was beginning to see there were very few things this woman didn’t have access to. I looked at the child’s name: Elizabeth Marshall.  Barbara, her mother, was right where it should be. I checked for the father.

“Robert Marshall.” Madeline answered as I found the name. “No middle name or initial. It certainly would have made it easier if they’d put social security numbers next to the parent’s names. All we have to go by is his birthplace, Dubuque County, Dubuque, Iowa. Director Phillips, are we making any process at your end?”

The director cleared his voice and spoke for the first time.

“There are more Robert Marshalls in the state of New Mexico than I would have thought.” He took another seat at my mother’s kitchen table. I suddenly realized how odd it was to have FBI agents and police detectives gathered not in a secure environment like a police department but around the table where I had shared so many meals with my family. “Because we have so little to go on, we’ve had federal agents as well as local authorities already on the ground there throughout the state making contact with any possible targets we can reach. We’ve alerted the local and state agencies of the possible threat and we’ve been conducting welfare checks. Obviously, from the cell tower hit we just got, she’s not in New Mexico yet, but if she’s heading there and her father is her next victim, maybe we’ll get there before she does this time.”

I sat for a moment in stunned disbelief.  All the time, manpower and resources dedicated to this based on a hunch from me? It was incredibly humbling for me to see how much Director Phillips had come to trust my judgment.

Then I swallowed hard. What if I was wrong? I had thought she was going after my parents, but I might have been wrong. The threat was certainly clear enough. But it looked as though it could have just been a bluff to throw us off her real target. I was starting to doubt my own judgment, how could I ask the FBI to trust it?

“Have you had any luck with finding him?” Logan’s question interrupted my thoughts.

“No.” Phillips didn’t hide a bit of his own frustration. “At least we haven’t found anyone willing to admit to being her biological father. The research Caitlyn has provided us with stated he left shortly after her birth and had little to no contact over the years. If he moved on and started a new life and family, he might not want to admit that he had another life before the one he has now.”

The director was interrupted by a soft buzzing. He pulled out his cell phone and answered it.

“Yes.” His face turned into a mask of concentration. “Yes. Okay. Go ahead.” He signaled to Madeline to use her laptop. She moved it back around until it was in front of the director. “Two-thousand nine Dodge Caravan, dark gray, Utah license plate SRW-063. Yes, that explains it.” He was taking notes on the laptop as he spoke. “Contact the Highway Patrol for both Colorado and New Mexico as well as any local jurisdictions in Grand Junction and Denver. Get the description out there. We might get lucky this time.”

“What do we have?” Madeline asked anxiously
after he disconnected his call.

“We just had a minivan reported stolen from the
Farmington Crossing shopping center. It was probably stolen earlier today about the time Martin Ross’ Range Rover was abandoned. The owner of the minivan works at one of the retail stores there and didn’t notice her car was gone until she got off work.” He let out a heavy breath. “The alert is going out. Maybe we’ll find her this time.”

As he spoke, I looked down at my own cell phone, still in my hands. So close, we were so close to finding her. I had to give it another shot. I went back to the menu, found Martin’s phone number and dialed it again and hit speaker. The others in the room immediately knew what I was doing.

“Do you think…?” I’m sure that Madeline was about to question the wisdom of what I was doing when we all heard the call go immediately to voicemail. Martin’s recorded message could be heard.

Should I leave a message? Would it just be a waste of time? What did I have to lose at this point?

“Lisbeth?” I deliberately kept my voice soft and calm. “If you get this message, please call me back. I want to believe you. If you’re innocent, like you said you were, we can help you. I’ll never be able to try to prove that if you don’t contact me. I tried to help you before. I was the only one that believed in you. Let me help you now.”

I disconnected the call, my head dropped forward and my shoulders sagging in fatigue and dejection. Would my words do any good?

I felt a small but firm hand squeeze my own tightly. I looked up to see Madeline’s beaming face.

“That was absolutely brilliant!” Her words of praise were quiet but filled me with renewed hope. “I couldn’t have scripted it for you any better. You are her lifeline, Caitlyn, you always have been. The best chance we have is if she believes
you are her advocate, that you’ll be willing to help her. That was genius!”

I struggled to put on a brave smile.

“I hope you’re right. I hope she will believe me. I just hope that Dr. Ross’ cell phone isn’t already at the bottom of a dumpster somewhere.”

We all looked at each other and realized that was a very real possibility at this point.