Kidnapped (20 page)

“Two hours, Jackie. Enough men, we can search the grid and find the car within two hours. What happened at the mall?”

“The transmitters showed the bag stopped moving. Guys started to move in, and someone pulled the fire alarm. People in the mall panicked.”

“Let me guess, he dumped the bag.”

“They found it in the bin you had placed it in. He must have shoved the cash into another bag, then pulled the fire alarm. There may have been a couple people splitting up the money to make it easier to carry out.”

“They won't get far, not with the trail they left us with this drive around.”

“That last locker was a mistake. The bus station has a permanent guest in a homeless man, and there's a sketch artist already working with him.”

“How's Caroline doing?”

“I'm bawling, Luke,” she replied, her first words on the line. “I've been passing on Sharon's words to Mark. He's on the other line.”

“I figured you might. Let's meet up at—” he found a restaurant near the search area and gave directions—“and you can ride with me. Sharon will be fine, Caroline. We'll find her.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

L
uke's car idled at the junction of park roads. Caroline used binoculars to scan the area and the campsites. “There are too many back trails in this state park. She could be anywhere.”

“Think it through; it's not as big a search as it appears. The car will be near a camper or a tent. It won't be off on its own where a park ranger would have noticed it as abandoned. But the site will also be somewhere that Sharon calling for help wouldn't have attracted attention in the last day or two. That means it has to be one of the more remote sites. Eliminate clusters of campers; eliminate vehicles out on their own. You're looking for probabilities.”

“Let's try the south branch of this road and go into the valley. She couldn't see the sun but she could hear water. That suggests one of these smaller tributaries flowing into the lake.”

“Good.”

Luke turned that direction.

“I want so badly to be the one to find her.”

Luke rubbed her tense arm. “We're close, Caroline. We're close.”

* * *

“We got it!” Taylor Marsh broke in on the radio. “Two troopers just spotted Sharon's car. It's back on lot MA-8, one of the primitive camper sites that has a concrete pad, picnic table, and water, but no electricity or sewer. The troopers are trolling the shoreline in a fishing boat. They can see the car parked under trees, a mini motorhome on the campsite. A pickup truck and a gray sedan are also on the lot. There's an empty boat trailer. The site looks deserted. The occupants may be out on the water, but the troopers don't see a boat tied up nearby. It's a high embankment; they can't beach near the site.”

Luke picked up the radio. “Tell them not to even try. Tell them to just keep trolling and to set up a ways down the shoreline, so they can tell us if anyone comes near the site from the water. Send two men to walk in silently and get binoculars on the site while we close the roads.”

Luke found a place to back up, turned the car around, and drove to the closest crossroad to the campsite. He pulled in behind Marsh. As he parked and reached in the backseat for his vest, more patrol cars rolled in.

“You have to stay here, Caroline. Stay with the deputy.”

“I know.”

He leaned over and hugged her. “Pray hard.”

He got out of the car to talk to Marsh as Henry James and Jackie both arrived.

Marsh set down his radio. “The site appears deserted. No movement in the camper windows, no sign of anyone around the lot there. And that is definitely Sharon's car, down to the hospital decal on the back window. That truck is registered to Ronald Parks.”

“Frank Hardin's old pal. Which suggests Frank has indeed been here,” Jackie said for them all.

“I hear you.” Henry looked at Luke. “How do you want to play it?”

“Send three men to the front and three men to the rear of the camper to stop anyone who might try to exit the vehicle. Jackie and I pop the trunk of the car and get Sharon out of the line of fire, then you take down anyone in the camper. Snipers cover us.”

Henry looked at Taylor and got a nod of agreement. “Okay. Let's do it. Marsh, you lead the group to the front; I'll take the rear. Let's get the snipers in place.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

M
idday sun suggested siesta time as they crept through the woods to the campsite. Luke wiped sweat from his forehead and dried his gun hand again on his jeans. Sharon was in sight. Where the foliage lightened he could see the side panel and rear fender of her car. The car had been parked near the woods, making it easier to approach as they didn't have to traverse over several feet of crushed rock.

Henry James moved his FBI group in to cover the back of the camper. Taylor Marsh moved with his officers to the front of the camper.

Henry nodded. Luke and Jackie crept toward Sharon's car. The silence from the trunk both concerned and comforted him, for his biggest fear would be Sharon hearing something and calling out, unintentionally alerting anyone in that camper to their presence.

Luke knelt by the car. “Sharon, it's Luke. Stay real quiet. We're popping the trunk.”

He slid the tool into the lock and used his muscle to force the mechanism, his hand stopping upward movement as the trunk popped. “Stay still.”

Luke lifted the lid.

He bit back bile. His expression spooked Jackie and she rose to see into the trunk.

It was empty.

The wind blew small pieces of paper around inside, scrawled writing on both sides—the notes Sharon had mentioned. Luke picked them up so the wind couldn't blow them out to the lake. All but one of the water bottles rolling around in the trunk were empty. The phone Sharon must have been using lay on the trunk mat.

Luke lowered the trunk lid. He used the car as cover and moved with Jackie to join Henry. “She's either in the camper, or they've already moved her on the water.”

Henry quietly cursed, echoing what Luke was feeling. Taking a deep breath, he leaned around to study the camper door. “Luke, you and I, we open that door nice and quiet and go in with Marsh and his guys covering our back. My guys will force the driver and passenger doors to take the front of the vehicle.”

“Let's do it.”

Luke took up position behind Henry, and they eased around to the camper door. Henry put his hands on the door and lock, Luke nodded, and Henry forced the lock and opened the door. Luke moved in.

He recoiled at the smell and yet kept moving forward. He'd smelled that odor too many times in his life. Henry James did too, and he tightened his grip on his weapon. Luke took the two steps into the camper in one big step, his weapon sweeping ahead of him.

The first man's body had fallen in the small aisle before the small kitchen sink and counter, a cup of coffee staining the center of the man's shirt, his hand still loosely curled around the cup.

Two more men were dead, one seated on the bench seat of the back table, the other the only one who looked like he'd been able to rise and attempt to react. He'd been killed by two shots, one to the face and one to the back, collapsing him across the first man's boots.

They were dead. Two unknown young men. Ronald Parks. And a gray backpack was sitting open on the table, stuffed with money, splattered with blood, attracting flies.

Chapter Twenty-Five

L
uke stepped outside the camper, walked halfway to the car where Sharon had been, and lost it. The post he kicked splintered, the picnic table crashed to its side, and the fishing boat trailer rolled back until it hit the railroad tie marking the edge of the campsite.

Marsh wrapped him up from behind before he could hit the grill and break his hand. “Don't, man. It isn't worth it.”

“I was just talking to her!” Luke choked on the words.

Marsh leaned on him, using his strength to stop Luke from breaking free. “You can't help her if you lose it. Sharon will need you even more in the next few hours than she did before.”

We were so close . . . so close.

Luke felt the explosive emotions coming back under his control, and the fist ready to strike the grill relaxed and dropped to his side. Marsh loosened his grip and Luke took a deep breath. “I'm okay.”

Marsh squeezed his shoulder. “We found her once; we'll find her again. Remember that.”

* * *

Luke walked through the woods back to the road, trying to figure out how to tell Caroline he'd failed. She expected him to walk out with Sharon. Instead . . .

No matter how much she braced for news, there was no way to be prepared for this. How was he going to tell Mark he was bringing back his millions but not his wife? How was he going to tell Benjamin he was coming back without his mom? And Caroline, to know her sister was gone and one real possibility was that she was dumped in the lake—Luke felt sick.
Jesus, is Sharon still alive? Or was I the last one to talk with her?

He took the final turn in the trail and stepped out onto the road. Caroline stood with the deputy by the cars, rocking a bit on her heels as she watched the woods where they had originally entered, waiting, not yet seeing him. The deputy saw him first and said something. Caroline turned. She knew, just as soon as she saw only him coming back. He watched the realization blanch her face, and then she walked toward him, and by the final steps she was running.

He caught her and wrapped his arms tight, feeling bony elbows bump him and her jawbone collide with his chest. “She wasn't there.” He rocked her and said it again, unable to explain this. “She wasn't there, Caroline. We opened the trunk where she had obviously been held and Sharon wasn't there.”

“They took her with them?”

He picked her up rather than release her. He nodded to the deputy who opened the door of the squad car for him. Luke set Caroline down on the seat and knelt to lean against the side of the door beside her.

She hurriedly brushed at her tears. “I'm okay,” she whispered. “Tell me.”

“The trunk was empty. Sharon had been there, but she's been moved. There are three dead men in the camper, shot, apparently taken by surprise. The money I paid is sitting on the camper table.”

“Did Sharon shoot them?”

He blinked. The idea had not even crossed his mind. “No. Someone had to force the trunk lock to get her out. We think one of them arrived with the money, they sat down to distribute it, when someone opened the camper door and shot all of them, very fast. Then he went to the car and forced the trunk to get Sharon out.”

“Someone rescued her? Or took her?”

“I don't know. I'm sorry, Caroline. If it was a double cross, they would have taken the money and left Sharon. But they left the money. We don't know where she is; we don't know who took her. And it's going to be a long confusing time sorting this out.”

She leaned over and wrapped her arms around him. She didn't say anything for so very long. He reached up and rested his hand on the back of her neck, wishing he could say this was a nightmare that was a dream and not real.

Caroline took a deep breath and let it go, then sat up. “You didn't tell me she was dead. She was alive at noon today, and not badly hurt. You didn't find her, so she's likely still alive. I'll take that. It's enough that I'll still hope for the next hour.”

He didn't deserve the quiet comfort she offered. “You're tougher than you look, Caroline. Strong like a willow that bends and doesn't break.”

“I'm learning from you. You'll cope with this. I know you.”

He dreaded what he now had to do. “I need to call Mark.”

“I'll do it for you.”

He shook his head, knowing this news had best come firsthand. “I need to be the one to tell him.”

“How can I help without being in your way?”

“We're shutting down the park and throwing up roadblocks all around the area. This happened recently; Sharon can't be far. You can stay with Jackie if you like.”

“Please.”

He leaned against her a moment to find some strength, then picked up his phone and walked away to call Mark.

Chapter Twenty-Six

L
uke could feel the sun burning down the back of his neck. Sharon must have baked inside that car trunk. He walked across the campsite and down the road to the command post they had set up. Jackie leaned out of the communication van to hold out a fax.

“The third guy is also from Atlanta—Billy Klein,” Jackie confirmed. “A distant cousin of Ronald Parks. Maybe he was the one who set up the campsite? We know three people grabbed Sharon. Is another guy involved who just shot all his accomplices?”

“The money was left behind. Whoever shot these men and took Sharon—I don't think he was ever part of the kidnapping ring. It doesn't make any sense to me—gun down three people and leave the money?” Luke asked.

“Marsh said some of the cash was missing.”

Luke ran a hand through his hair. “Four packets, four hundred thousand, and that may just have been sloppy handling on the part of the guys who brought the ransom here. Or one of the couriers pocketing a little extra for himself.”

“If Ronald was involved, I think we have to conclude Frank Hardin was also part of this kidnapping,” Jackie said. “We know he's connected to a white van. Was this shooting his handiwork?”

“The one thing we know about Frank is he loves money. He wouldn't leave that kind of money behind.” Luke thought about it, and the only thing that made sense made this unrelated to the kidnapping. “Tying up the details of the kidnapping isn't going to help us, Jackie; it's looking back in time. We need to be looking forward to who would kill these people and also leave the money behind.” He could feel that precious time slipping by.