Vanished (14 page)

Jayne dashed from the building, and Ava caught her breath. She hadn’t seen Jayne in several months. She was blonde again. And extremely thin.

Ava reached to move her purse from the passenger seat, but Jayne grabbed it. “I’ll hold it. It’s not in my way. Good to see you, sis!” She leaned over the console between the seats and gave Ava a hug and kissed her cheek. She prattled on about the job while Ava took stock of her sister’s appearance. Jayne’s hair was long and curled, parted on the side and dyed a bright blonde that made Ava’s eyes hurt. Her brows were shaped into strong dark wings, and her top was cut way too low. Especially for a job interview. She had to be wearing the best push-up bra in the United States. Her sister was deep in a Jayne Mansfield phase.

Ava wanted to cry.

When Jayne embraced the image of the actress, it meant she had lost touch with herself. She became someone else, an actress who’d died violently in the prime of her life.

The phases terrified Ava on a visceral level. Jayne demonstrated what Ava could be capable of. She hated her sister for displaying how low Ava’s genetics could take her. Only sheer willpower and determination kept Ava on a different path than Jayne.

She focused on the road, holding the steering wheel in a death grip as Jayne continued to talk. She couldn’t look at her sister anymore; she saw herself with platinum hair and boobs that screamed for attention.

I’d never be like that. I’ll never be like that.

Or would she? What if her life suddenly went to shit? What if that bottle of wine became all she could think about? What would she do to find a job?

“Hey, did you get a new car? What happened to the Honda?” Jayne’s question penetrated her fog.

“I still have the Honda. This is a company car.” She tried not to talk about her job with Jayne. It would lead to more questions and trigger Jayne’s habit of giving backhanded compliments.

“That’s right, you said you had a work meeting today. That’s crazy that they make you work on weekends. You’d think that a prestigious job like that would be nine to five.”

See?

“Crime doesn’t take the weekends off.”

“What are you working on today? You don’t look like you’re dressed for the office. You look like you’re going to the county fair.”

Ava bit the inside of her cheek. She was wearing jeans and boots. Her standard weekend wear. She swallowed a comment about Jayne’s skintight jeggings. Teenagers could get away with wearing those, not women her age.

“I’m not in the office today. We’re working on site.”

“Ohh. Did someone get killed? Where are you working?”

Ava strangled her steering wheel. “No one has been killed. There’s a child missing.”

“The little blonde girl on the news? I saw that. That’s so sad. You’re searching somewhere for her today?”

“No, I’m staying at the family’s home, keeping them informed of the investigation.”

“Like sleeping in their house? Living there? That’s got to be weird. I don’t know if I could do something like that. It’s a good thing you got that job and not me.” Jayne went into an in-depth description of an art show she’d attended recently.

Ava sighed. Whenever Jayne heard about Ava’s job, she changed the topic to art to demonstrate that her life was just as important as her sister’s. Jayne always talked about Ava’s position like Jayne had been an inch a way from working for the bureau but simply chose not to. Familiar territory. And Ava let Jayne think that way; it seemed to make her feel better.

Plus, it wasn’t worth starting an argument. Jayne would never agree that Ava had her career because she’d worked damned hard.

She pulled up in front of the restaurant. It was a dive bar. Ava wanted to drive away and take her sister with her. This place looked exactly like the type of place Jayne shouldn’t be working. It screamed easy access to drugs and losers.

The type of place that always drew Jayne.

Ava suddenly knew there was no job interview. Her sister had simply needed a ride to a bar. What type of person was she meeting? The excitement and shine in Jayne’s eyes told Ava it was a man. No doubt one she was eager to sleep with. Ava wanted to bang her own head on the steering wheel.

“What the fuck are you doing, Jayne?” she said in a low voice under her sister’s monologue.

Her sister stopped midsentence and turned wide eyes to Ava. “What? Why did you say that?”

“You don’t have a job interview here. You just needed a ride.”

Jayne’s eyes narrowed, and thin lines framed her mouth.

Ava shuddered. She’d triggered the bitch. When would she learn?

“You don’t know what’s going on in my life. How dare you make assumptions,” her sister spat.

“Do you have a job interview?” Ava slowly and loudly stated the words, holding her sister’s gaze.

Please don’t lie to me again.

Jayne stared back; her mouth opened and closed a few times. “No,” she finally said.

Ava closed her eyes.
Thank you.

“Why didn’t you just say you needed a ride?”

“Because you wouldn’t come get me!”

Jayne was right. If she’d told Ava she needed to meet a friend, Ava would have told her to find someone else.

“You’re right. But it pisses me off when you lie to me to get what you want. I’m not your bus service. What’s wrong with your car?”

“I don’t know. It just makes clicking sounds when I try to turn it on. David says he’ll look at it.”

Ava didn’t ask who David was. She didn’t care and definitely didn’t want to start a discussion about his role in her sister’s life.

“Could I borrow your car until I get it fixed? You can’t drive two at a time.”

“No.”

Jayne pouted. “You’re so selfish.”

Ava wanted to pull her hair out. Of course she couldn’t drive two cars at once. The point was that Jayne had no respect for anything. She’d loaned Jayne a vehicle before. It’d come back with spilled coffee on the dash and an empty gas tank. Ava had considered herself lucky. Her sister didn’t associate value with any item. Because she’d never worked for anything.

She saw Ava’s home and car and assumed Ava should share.

“You never answered if I could stay with you for a few days.”

“You know you can’t.”

Jayne turned in her seat, pointing her chest at Ava and giving her sister her best dumbfounded look. “It’s almost Christmas! You won’t even open your home for me at Christmas? Mom would be horrified at how you treat me.”

Their mother had died of ovarian cancer five years ago. Their father had left before they were born.

“Don’t you dare bring mom into this, Jayne.”

“You’ve become an absolute bitch.”

“Get out.” Ava kept her gaze forward. “Don’t call me anymore. You only call when you want something.”

“Well,” Jayne sputtered. “You never call. I at least call you when it’s an emergency.”

Ava looked her sister directly in the eye. “This is your definition of an emergency? I’ve got an eleven-year-old who was snatched from the street. Her parents are sick with worry that their girl will never come home.
That is an emergency!
”

Jayne threw her door open and leaped out, spilling Ava’s purse in the street. She glared at Ava as if the spill was her fault, but she bent over to shove the items back in the bag. Ava’s jaw dropped as her sister’s low neckline gave her a view down her shirt.

“Did you get a boob job?” Ava squeaked.

Jayne glanced up from shoving Ava’s wallet back in her purse. “That’s none of your business.”

“You did! You can’t afford to get your car fixed or find a new place to live, but you can shove money into your chest?” Ava’s mind spun. Disbelief and horror swept over her simultaneously. Jayne had always moaned about their lack of assets, but Ava had accepted that they would both always be small chested and moved on.

Now they were physically different.

Hair could be dyed. Weight could be gained and lost. But Jayne had gone under the knife to change herself permanently.

“You’re jealous.”

Ava wanted to slap the smirk off Jayne’s face. “Give me my purse and go get yourself sloshed.”

Jayne tossed the purse on the passenger seat and slammed the car door. She spun on a heel and marched into the bar. Ava watched her leave and fought to control her shakes.

It was a twin thing. In the past, they’d fight like wolves and then love each other the next day. It wasn’t unusual for them to be cruel to each other, because it was assumed that their bond couldn’t be broken.

I could never be like her.

Ava had a sickening feeling that their bond was beyond repair.

15

50 HOURS MISSING

According to Mason’s neighbor, she’d seen the dog around eight when she’d put some food in its bowl. Mason stared at the bowl of food. It’d been filled the night before and was still full? He squatted down and peered in the kennel. The cushion was free of fur. Yesterday he’d brushed off quite a bit of dog fur from one night’s sleep. The dog hadn’t slept on his porch last night.

Had he finally gone home?

The dog had to have several sleeping places. Perhaps he’d chosen one of those last night. It might be warmer than the spot Mason made for him. But his porch had to be a good spot for the dog to sleep. It was partially enclosed and always at least ten degrees warmer than the surrounding cool air.

Mason straightened and scanned the neighborhood. The morning was quiet and still. No dog. But what about the food? Why was there so much left? The dog always attacked the food when Mason filled his bowl. What if he was sick?

He kicked himself for not taking the dog directly to the vet. Then he would know if there was a chip under its fur and whether or not it was healthy. He’d put off the task.

You didn’t want to know if he belonged to someone else.

Fuck that. He wasn’t a dog person. He didn’t have time to take care of one. They needed walks and shit. He was too busy with work.

Mason pushed his hat back with one finger. He and the dog had established a frail pattern of food and company. Now the animal had broken the pattern, and Mason was acting like a pansy. Dogs were tough. It would be back when it felt like it.

He sighed and shoved his key in his front door. He hadn’t even stepped inside his house when he first arrived. He’d gone straight to the neighbor’s when he spotted the full food bowl. He closed the door and didn’t look at the blanket on the floor. He moved to the window beside the door to check once more in case someone had appeared to eat his doggy breakfast.

Nothing.

A spot of white under the dog-food dish caught his eye. Mason hadn’t seen it from his position on the porch a minute ago. He stepped back outside, lifted the food bowl, and read the piece of paper under the bowl.

I don’t leave ransom notes.

His heart tried to pound out of his chest.

He’s been at my house. Henley’s kidnapper. He knows where I live.

A sour taste gathered at the back of his throat, and a flood of thoughts crashed through his brain.

He’s reaching out. He wants to be heard, and he just slipped up.

Mistake number one.

We’ll catch you, you bastard.

Fury narrowed his vision. He read the note again, snapped a picture with his phone, and carefully picked it up by one corner to check the back. Blank. He laid it back in the exact position he’d found it and called Ava.

“I think he took the dog,” Mason stated to the small group of agents. He shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels.

Ava had shown up within fifteen minutes of his call. She’d taken his address and called Wells, who said he’d stop by with a forensics team. Mason hadn’t expected Ava to show up; he’d called her because it was the quickest way to get his message up the chain of command. When her vehicle stopped in front of his house, something inside him calmed. It wasn’t that she signaled the arrival of the FBI, it was simply her presence. She had a rational way of treating people and problems that made them feel better. Anxiety had percolated under Mason’s skin as he waited for the team of agents, but it vanished as she stepped out of her vehicle and frowned, causing two lines to form between her eyebrows. “Anything else missing?” she’d asked.

“I haven’t looked,” Mason answered. “I was waiting for you guys before I snooped inside.”

She moved up the stairs to the porch and looked at the dog bowl and kennel. “What kind of dog do you have?”

“A black kind. It must have a half-dozen breeds in its genes. It’s not really my dog. It sorta started hanging around a couple of weeks ago, and I started feeding it.”

Ava looked at him and smiled. “No collar?”

He shook his head. “And no, I haven’t taken it to the vet to be scanned for a chip.”

She continued to smile at him, her blue eyes sparkling.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing. You seem like a dog type of guy. I’m surprised you didn’t already have one.”

A dog type of guy? Is that good?

“I haven’t had a dog since I was a kid. Did the command center briefing go okay this morning?” Mason changed the subject.

“Yes, you saw the airport footage already, right?”

“Yes, I saw it when they showed it to Jake to ask if he thought it was his bag.”

“They haven’t been able to trace the guy outside of baggage claim. And they’ve checked out that ex-boyfriend of Lilian’s who has the sexual-offender record. He doesn’t have an alibi, but he let agents search his home, and his interviews went well. They’ve given him a lower priority. The big question is why someone who’d kidnap Henley would also take Jake’s bag.”

“That’s been bothering me, too,” Mason admitted. “It makes me want to believe Jake’s bag was simply stolen by some scum.”

“But now you’ve had something taken,” Ava pointed out. “And at the briefing I brought up that you’d had a CI murdered the night before Henley disappeared.”

Mason stared at her, pieces of a puzzle clicking together in his mind, and he didn’t like it.
He was not connected to Henley’s kidnapper.
“It’s just his way of letting us know he wouldn’t do a ransom. It was convenient.”

“You’re not looking at the big picture. One of the things we talked about was if anything unusual had happened to any other family members. I’d call this and your CI’s murder unusual,” Ava said. “He’s possibly taken Jake’s bag and now your dog. You’re connected here somehow.”

“The dog probably wandered off. It doesn’t stay here all the time.”

“Then why did you say you thought he’d taken the dog? Those were the first words out of your mouth.” Ava’s gaze was frank and direct. “You are in serious denial. Why won’t you consider these as possible links to Henley?”

Mason stared back.
Was he avoiding something?
“I don’t know. I’m hoping that the dog just wandered on.” He paused. “And in my mind, I’m not really family. I’m just Jake’s dad.”

Silence filled the porch.

Ava shook her head at him. “You’re family,” she said firmly. “You were married to Robin, and you’re Jake’s dad. You’re as tied to them as Henley is. Face it.” She turned to look at the dog’s dish. “The note was under his dish,” Ava said. “I think someone is being clever. He’s using the note to state that he didn’t have a connection to the ransom last night, but he’s also flaunting that he can walk up to your home and take something.”

“Cocky.”

“Yes, which is usually what will trip them up.”

“But why me?”

“Why Henley?” Ava pointed out. “When we figure that out, it will all fall into place and we’ll find her.”

Two vehicles joined Ava’s on the street, and Special Agent Wells’s lean figure got out from behind the wheel. Two forensic specialists climbed out of the SUV behind him.

The interruption unbalanced Mason. His conversation with Ava had already thrown him for a loop. He’d always felt like an outsider in the Fairbanks home. He held himself apart from any family activities. He rarely had the time to spare, and he’d come to rely on Robin and Lucas to supply the family-oriented life for Jake. Was that mindset keeping him from looking at the odd happenings surrounding Josie’s case and now the dog dish? Could there be a connection to Henley?

Wells jogged up Mason’s stairs, and Ava moved to greet the man and gestured at the dog dish. The two agents and specialists talked while Mason stood useless, like a drunkard trying to get his equilibrium back.

One investigator placed the note in a bag, and the other snapped pictures. “Any security cameras on the property?” the female investigator asked.

“No,” said Mason. He saw Ava raise a brow at him. Some cops felt the need for a heavy security system in their homes. He’d never been one. He had a damn good dead bolt, locks on his windows, and a weapon in his nightstand. That was good enough for him.

“One of the points discussed at the meeting this morning was whether or not any other family members have had something go missing,” Wells said to him.

“We don’t know if the dog was taken. It may have just wandered off somewhere else to sleep and eat last night.” Mason argued. “I think it was just a good place to leave a note.”

“Someone is watching your movements,” Wells pointed out. “Someone knows you’re involved with the family. The same person must have known about the fake ransom note.”

“They couldn’t have learned about the note until the late evening news,” said Ava. “At least the general public didn’t know what was going on until then. We tried to keep the operation quiet beforehand, but the restaurant management and the Portland Police Department knew a ransom demand had been made. Leaks happen.”

“And the woman who found the ransom note at the grade school. I’m sure she told someone. We asked her not to, but people talk,” added Wells.

“So there’s a slim possibility that the person who left this note on my porch may have found out before the eleven o’clock news. Or not. We can’t use that as a guide for a possible time when he could have been here,” stated Mason. “But my neighbor said she filled the food dish around eight. Usually the dog finishes the food within minutes. There’s a good chance that someone was here close to that time.”

“We’re going to go knock on doors,” said the male forensic specialist. “See if anyone else has camera views of the street.” The duo headed down the stairs.

“Ready to go inside?” Wells asked Mason.

“I went in but didn’t go farther than inside the door. I spotted the note when I looked back out the window.” Mason opened the door with Wells right behind him. Ava stooped to pick up the Sunday newspaper that had been tossed on the porch. She handed it to Mason.

“The door was locked?” asked Ava.

“Yes.” Mason scanned his living room. Everything looked normal. He glanced at Ava as her gaze took in his bachelor existence. What did his home look like to a woman?

Ava could tell Mason had been thrown for a loop. He’d stared at the dog dish for several minutes, shaking his head as they theorized that Henley’s kidnapping was linked to his dog. His feelings were getting in the way of his objectivity. He didn’t want to be connected to Henley’s disappearance. Wells seemed to feel there was a strong link, and she did, too.

Mason appeared to be in some serious denial. Maybe he was too close to the situation to look at it objectively. If he’d been an outsider on the case, he would have pointed it out right away as something to consider.

Mason’s phone call about the note couldn’t have come at a better time. She’d been struggling to drive straight after leaving Jayne. Her twin had managed to put Ava’s thoughts into a tailspin. Mason’s issue had yanked her out of it and given her something to focus on. There was truth in the statement that we hurt the ones we loved the most. A simple car ride had resulted in Jayne shredding Ava’s psyche, and she’d lashed back. Would she never learn?

She firmly put Jayne out of her mind.

Ava took a deep breath and surveyed the inside of Mason’s home. It was a bachelor pad, but a clean and neat one. The house was a small ranch-style home with a partially enclosed front porch. The grass in the front yard was neatly trimmed, and the landscaping spoke of someone who sought low maintenance, not flash. Inside, his living room had a couch, an easy chair, and a huge flat-screen TV. His kitchen didn’t have a single knickknack on the counter. Just a block of knives and a toaster.

She and Wells stood back as Mason tossed the newspaper on the kitchen table, opened a few drawers, and shook his head. “I don’t think anyone has been in here.” He strode down the hall to the back of the house, peeking in rooms. He vanished into a bedroom at the end of the hall, and she heard him open a closet. Wells moved through the kitchen and checked the back door to a deck. It didn’t budge. Mason reappeared. “I don’t see anything missing or disturbed. All the windows are still locked. If he came in, I can’t see it.” His brown eyes looked stressed as he mashed his lips into a tight line.