Vanished (2 page)

“But it still takes a few hours to process.”

“Well, they have to compare the attendance to the sick calls. That’s entered by hand. Discrepancies trigger the calls and emails.”

“What happened when Lilian called here?”

“Robin assured her Henley had gone to school and immediately called the school to confirm that she was there. I think Lilian called them, too. Henley’s homeroom teacher said she hadn’t shown up.”

“What about the school bus driver? What about the other kids on the bus? Anyone talk to Henley’s friends?” Mason rattled off question after question.

Lucas seemed to deflate more. “They’re working on all that.”

“Wait. How does Henley ride the bus if she doesn’t usually live with you?”

“We live in the same school district and have the same elementary school boundaries.”

“I didn’t know you lived so close to your ex. Has it always been like that?”

“Yes, Lilian has a place about five minutes from here. It’s really convenient for Henley. Lilian and I get along pretty well.”

“Is she remarried? Do they have more kids?”

Lucas shook his head, and his gaze went over Mason’s shoulder as the volume rose in the dining room. Mason turned around to see more people joining the group—judging by the dull suits, FBI agents. Good. No one knew more about child abductions, and the unique skills the FBI could offer to the local police were gold. Depending on its size, a police department might deal with one major child abduction over a decade. The FBI dealt with them monthly. Mason had never seen the CARD team in action, but he’d heard good things.

Mason turned back to Lucas. “Officially I can’t join whatever task force they set up, but I can help as a family member. I’ll be the family voice for the media and the liaison to the police and FBI. Let me do this for you guys. I’ve already told work I’m taking some time off. However long it takes to bring Henley home.”

Lucas started to refuse, and Mason put a hand on his shoulder, giving the man a little shake. “Listen to me. Your wife and ex-wife are gonna need you for support. You don’t have time to deal with the politics of the situation. I know how these guys work. Let me handle that. Everything I find out, I’ll immediately pass on to you. Robin, Lilian, and you are going to want to be in the center of the investigation, and that’s not going to help.”

Lucas’s eyes looked bleak. “Will they let you do that?”

“If you back me up. Make it clear you’ll step back a bit, and they might be more accepting.”

Desperation lurked in Lucas’s gaze as he looked into one of Mason’s eyes and then the other.

“I don’t know what to do,” he whispered. “I have to help. I have to know what’s going on. She’s my
daughter
, for God’s sake. I can’t just step back and do nothing.”

“You won’t be idle. They’re going to interview the heck out of all of you. Over and over. Everything you can tell them will help, but they’re not going to let you look over shoulders in the command center. I’ll do that and report back to you.”

“Command center?” Lucas’s voice cracked. “You think they’ll need—”

“They’ll set up something within the hour I’m sure. You need to let them do their job. That’s going to be your hardest role.” Mason frowned as he glanced back at the growing crowd.

He’d originally hated Lucas with a passion, ever since he’d first heard Jake excitedly talk about the man. Lucas was everything Mason wasn’t. He’d coached every boy sport in existence, and Mason had never heard a foul word from the man’s mouth. Lucas always had a big smile. Until today. Mason had fought the urge to wipe the smile off Lucas’s face the first few times he’d met him, believing the man was gloating. But it’d turned out he was one of those rare always-happy guys. Lucas wasn’t a faker. It’d taken years for Mason to accept that the man was the real thing.

He couldn’t have asked for a better man to help raise his son.

Didn’t mean they had to be best friends.

Guilt swept through him again as he remembered all the resentment he’d held against the man. Part of Mason had been jealous that he hadn’t created the type of picket-fence family with Robin that she had with Lucas. Now he didn’t want to be in this man’s shoes for anything.

“Where’s Jake?” Mason asked. His son hadn’t made an appearance.

“In his room. He was down here for a while but said he couldn’t handle seeing his mom fall apart. I don’t blame him,” Lucas said with a glance at his wife. She and Lilian were still clutching hands but paying close attention to the man speaking quietly with them.

A dizzying need to see his son swamped Mason. “I’ll be right back.”

He left Lucas behind as he headed for the stairs.

2

5 HOURS MISSING

“Afternoon, Ava.”

Special Agent Ava McLane nodded at Assistant Special Agent in Charge Ben Duncan as she stepped into the Fairbankses’ crowded dining room. “How’s it going, Ben?” The number of bodies in the room was claustrophobic. Everyone talked in low voices as they moved around, speaking on cell phones or in private conversations. Determination and focus filled the air.

His brown eyes met hers, and he gave a small smile. “We’re still in the process of organizing everyone. We’ll find her.”

Good man. Staying positive.
It was her personal number-one rule when searching for kids. She blew out a breath and surveyed the room, taking stock of the players. She was one of two Crimes Against Children coordinators at the Portland FBI office, and she’d been the special agent to take the call about Henley from Clackamas County this morning.

Ava’s gut had twisted as she’d listened to the county sheriff. She’d known they needed to act fast. She thanked her stars that Clackamas County hadn’t dithered about starting an investigation. They’d moved rapidly to comb the school and question neighbors.

The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office had recommended that Henley’s elementary school move all the children to the gym for a “fun day” while they did a sweep of the school and the surrounding area. Henley Fairbanks was nowhere to be seen. They weren’t certain that she’d even made it to the school bus. Mom and stepmom hadn’t heard from Henley, and most of her close friends’ parents had been contacted to see if the girl had appeared at one of their homes. Eleven-year-olds didn’t simply disappear. They hid, wandered off, or were abducted. Henley’s teachers and parents were convinced the girl didn’t qualify for the first two categories, and the sheriff’s search was rapidly proving them right.

The probability of abduction was growing by the hour.

With these facts in hand, it’d been Ava’s decision to request that headquarters activate the CARD team. They’d agreed with her assessment and put the wheels in motion. Six special agents with unique skills to solve child abductions were on their way to Portland from various FBI offices in the western half of the US.

To the FBI, there was no such thing as over-responding when a child vanished. Whether the child had wandered off or been abducted, they didn’t wait to act. Waiting cost lives. The FBI reacted as if the worst-case scenario had happened. Ninety percent of the Portland office’s special agents were clearing their schedules for the next forty-eight hours to have more feet on the ground for the search. The lines between the official divisions in the office were gone; today, every agent belonged to VCMO, Violent Crimes and Major Offenders. It didn’t matter if an agent was assigned to terrorism, white-collar crime, cybercrime, or art theft. Today everyone was looking for a child.

There’d be tons of grunt work. Interviews of every resident in the neighborhood and each adult at the school. Interviews of children. Leads from citizens to follow. Miles of square footage to search. Surveillance tapes to review. And that was just the beginning.

Ben tipped the eight-by-ten photo in his hand so that Ava could see it. Brown-eyed, blond-haired Henley Fairbanks smiled at her from a school photo. She was missing an upper front tooth. Ava’s heart contracted.

“Any fights with her parents or bad times at school to make her hide or run away?” Ava questioned, even though she knew it’d already been asked a dozen times.

Ben shook his head. “Nothing has indicated that she’s a runner.”

“Where do you want me?” Ava asked Ben.

He frowned as he studied her for a second. “Stay close. I’m going to have you talk to the mothers in a moment. Sanford has been speaking with both of them, but their body language is screaming that they don’t like him.”

Smart women.
Sanford was a great agent, but he couldn’t establish a rapport with a woman to save his ass. What he believed he projected as kindness came across as condescension. Ava was surprised Ben had let him talk to the women at all.

“He was the first one here,” Ben said quietly as if reading her mind. “I knew you were on the way, so I let it run for a while. I think you might relate better to them.” He glanced at his phone’s screen and his face lit up at a new text. “There’s a church several blocks away that’s agreed to let us use their conference wing for our command center. Sounds like it’ll be perfect. I’ll assign Sanford to help set that up. He’s had the training for crisis-management coordination.”

“He’s not going to just walk away from the interviews,” Ava muttered.

“Wells is taking notes.” Ben dipped his head toward the lean special agent sitting next to Sanford. “He’s been listening in for the whole interview. He can get you up to speed.”

Ava nodded. Zander Wells was one of those quiet agents who drank in information and facts like he was dying of thirst. His memory and assessment skills were out of this world. He could probably repeat the whole interview verbatim without looking at his notes.

Ava agreed that Sanford’s organizational talents were better utilized setting up the command center. Within hours the church’s wing would explode from a simple space into a high-tech computer lab. Locating the center close to the victim’s homes and school was ideal since Henley had vanished nearby.

Or so they suspected.

Don’t assume anything.

Ava studied the two moms. She knew the brunette was Henley’s stepmom and the blonde was the birth mom. Both women looked like typical upper-middle-class moms in their thirties. Yoga pants, ponytails, and probably a minivan in the garage. Ben was right about their reactions to Sanford. The blonde scowled at him, and the brunette sat so straight she appeared to have a spine of steel.

Will they like me any better?

A silly female part of her wanted the women to like her, not simply trust her in her role as an agent. For some reason she struggled to form female friendships. She had lots of male friends, but women usually kept their distance. Her fellow female agents respected her and treated her well but never invited her out for drinks. Her blunt-spoken sister had said it was because she was no fun. According to Jayne, she was straitlaced, all about business, and impossible to get loosened up.

Nothing wrong with that.

The mothers were around Ava’s age, but they’d both experienced marriage and children. They’d traveled a path that hadn’t presented itself in Ava’s life. From day one, her path had law enforcement scribbled all over it. In grade school that had meant reading every mystery she could find, like Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew. Later on, that fascination had extended to true-crime novels and a hands-on teen Explorer program at her local police department. College had brought an FBI-as-goal-driven degree. The marriage and children part had never cropped up.

“Sanford.” Ben stepped up to the table. “I’m gonna need you to get in touch with Morales about setting up the command center. I want you as one of the crisis-management coordinators.”

Sanford looked at the ASAC in surprise and blinked. “But . . .” He didn’t finish as he saw the determination in Ben’s face. Agents didn’t question orders. They went where directed. Sanford glanced behind Ben and saw Ava waiting. Comprehension crossed his face.

Ava could read his thoughts.
Oh, sure. This needs a woman’s touch.

He’d assume he was being bumped because he wasn’t female, but Ava knew the issue was his manner, not what hung between his legs.

Sanford looked to Wells and then back at Ben. “Is Wells—”

“I want Wells to stay with his notes and bring Agent McLane up to speed.”

Sanford excused himself to the women, stood, and pushed in his chair. He pulled out his cell phone as he silently left the room, not giving Ava another glance.

Ava hoped setting up the command center would heal his ego. That was a big project to manage. She pulled out Sanford’s chair and slid into the warm spot. “I’m Special Agent McLane,” she said to the two women, meeting each of their curious gazes. “I’m one of the Crimes Against Children coordinators.” She spoke in a calm, low voice. Her sister Jayne called it Ava’s I-know-what-I’m-doing voice and claimed it made the listener instantly confident in her. Ava didn’t do anything special. It was her everyday voice, and it’d bugged her as a teen that she had a lower timbre to her voice than the other girls. The women introduced themselves, and Ava asked Wells to catch her up as she pulled out her notebook. “Let me know if something doesn’t sound right to you two, okay?” she asked the women, looking one and then the other directly in the eye. The women nodded in unison.

Ava took notes as Wells covered the women’s stories. She stopped him occasionally and asked the women to clarify a few points, but basically Wells recited their stories perfectly. Ava had crossed paths with Zander Wells a few times. He belonged to the cybercrimes division, which would intersect with her cases when children were exploited online. His social skills might be a bit weak, but she knew she could rely on his work.

From Wells’s account, Ava confirmed her earlier information. Henley Fairbanks was a fifth grader at Westridge Elementary School. Today was the last day of school before two weeks of winter vacation. Henley had been with her dad and stepmom since Sunday night and had been looking forward to the last day of school. “It’s one big party on the last day,” Robin had said. “There’s no way she would have wandered off. She was so excited to go to school this morning she could barely get to sleep last night. She bounced out the door today.” She’d kissed Henley good-bye at seven thirty that morning and watched her walk to the sidewalk and turn east, heading for her bus stop seven houses down. That’d sounded like a short distance until Ava had driven into the neighborhood and noticed its oversized lots and curving streets.

“What have we heard from the kids at that stop?” Ava asked Wells.

“Nothing officially. The school wants the parents present before we question any of the kids.”

Ava bit her lip. “What about unofficially? Has anyone just asked them if Henley was there this morning?”

Wells glanced at Duncan, who was deep in conversation with three other agents. “Two of the kids told Clackamas County that Henley wasn’t at the stop this morning.”

“I knew it,” Robin whispered.

“Until we’ve talked to all the kids that were there, I don’t want to state that she didn’t make it to her stop. But yes, two preliminary accounts say she didn’t make it.” His eyes pleaded with the mothers. “Let’s not accept this as fact yet, okay? And we’re investigating both avenues simultaneously. We could miss possible leads by assuming that she didn’t make it to school.”

“What about the bus driver?” Ava asked.

Wells frowned. “She says she doesn’t remember. A half-dozen kids get on at that stop. Sometimes more, sometimes less. ”

“Any parents waiting with their kids at the bus stop?” she questioned.

“Not this morning,” Wells stated. “And Henley walks around a large curve in the road right before the stop. There’s no line of sight for the other kids to see her approaching.”

“Why is no one telling us anything?” Lilian burst out. “So far all we’ve heard is speculation and secondhand statements from kids. You have to give us more than that.”

A tall man Ava had seen speaking with a local plainclothes cop pulled out the chair next to Robin. “I’m Lucas, Henley’s dad,” he said to Ava. She noticed immediately that he had Henley’s brown eyes. He took Robin’s hand and squeezed it while leaning toward Lilian. “I don’t think they have much to tell us yet, Lilian. But Mason has offered to be the liaison between the family and the investigation. I think we need to let him be the one to deal with them, and trust that he’ll keep us up-to-date, instead of us pestering the FBI nonstop to keep us informed.”

“Who?” Ava and Wells asked at the same time.

“He’s my ex-husband,” Robin said quietly. “He’s a Major Crimes detective with the Oregon State Police. I think that’s a good idea. Mason knows who and what to question. And I trust him. He has time for this?” she asked her husband.

“He says he’s taken the time off work, and that it won’t be a problem.”

“I’m sure he has plenty of vacation time available,” Robin muttered.

Ava raised an internal brow at the comment. Were there some sore feelings between Robin and her ex-husband? But Robin had been quick to chime in with a vote of confidence for him to act as a liaison. Ava liked the idea of a liaison for the family, and she knew Ben would, too. Managing a family during kidnappings took manpower. They deserved to know what was going on, but the agency didn’t want ten family members asking multiple agents the same questions. A conduit, especially someone in law enforcement, would be ideal.

Would Ben embed an agent with the family? It wasn’t uncommon for an agent to move in with the family to help manage their side of the investigation.

“But how long can this last?” Lilian asked, her voice rising. “You’ll find her soon, right? Do you really need to set up a command center, and do we need a liaison? She can’t be far away. It’s only been a few hours, right?” Desperate-mom eyes stared at Ava.

It’s been over five hours.

Ava looked directly at Lilian. “We want to catch every opportunity we can. When it comes to kids, we jump into action. We don’t wait. That means immediately investigating each lead we get. To do that, we need our resources pooled in one area. It’s more efficient. Trust me, we know what we’re doing.” She ended softly and gave Lilian a sad smile. “I know it’s hard for you. You’re sitting in here and can’t see the fifty agents who’ve already joined the search at the school and in the neighborhood. And a lot more are on their way.” Her heart ached for the parents. The FBI had extensive experience organizing searches for missing children. It was a finely honed set of skills, acquired in a painful way.

“Is someone at Lilian’s home?” Ava asked Wells.

He nodded. “Yes, we have agents waiting there and canvassing the neighborhood. She doesn’t have a landline, so any phone calls she gets will go to her cell.” He raised a brow at Lilian for confirmation. She nodded and touched her iPhone on the table, making the screen light up. Ava caught a glimpse of a photo of Henley. It wasn’t the school photo Ben had shown her. This one had been taken at the ocean.