Profile of Fear: Book Four of the Profile Series (Volume 4) (20 page)

“Well she can get in line. All parents believe that, no matter how hard we’re working the case. Listen, I assigned Dean Maxwell, one of my rookie detectives to the case. I’ll ask him for an update, and see what’s going on. What have
you
found out?”

“Lea disappeared from Sycamore Mall where she worked at a cell phone kiosk. She had plans with her mother after work, but she never came home. I went to the mall where she worked and talked with a co-worker, her boyfriend, and mall security.”

Gabe pulled his laptop out of his briefcase and opened it on the table with the screen placed so both could see. He pulled a USB drive from his pocket and inserted it. “I got surveillance footage from mall security. This first clip is from the day before Lea disappeared.” Gabe pointed to the screen. “There is Lea now at the cell phone kiosk. She’s not very busy until this man and woman approach her with a stack of what looks like flyers.”

“Can’t see their faces.”

“I’m sure that was their plan. They talk to Lea for about five minutes before they hand her a flyer that she tucks under the cash register. I returned to the mall and her co-worker found the flyer and gave it to me.” He pushed a bright pink flyer across the table to Cameron. “The flyer advertises a call out for models. Perfect con for a young woman. Promises glamor and big bucks.”

“So you think this flyer is connected to her disappearance?”

“Hell, yes. Especially after what you said the other night about schemes used by Juan Ortiz’s men to recruit young girls. But I’m not sure Lea Essick fell for the con. You’ll see why I say this when we skip ahead on the tape to the night she disappeared.” Gabe fast-forwarded the tape to the time in question. “Here is Lea leaving work and going through the back exit to where her car is parked. See the white utility van parked near the exit? The side door is open and there are two young girls inside. Watch what happens as Lea tries to walk by them. One of the young girls calls out to her. She stops and immediately this guy in a black hoodie grabs her and shoves her into the van. He slams the door, jumps in the passenger seat, and they drive off.”

“We can run that license plate.”

“I already did. It was stolen from a car parked in the Kroger grocery store parking lot. Dead end. And the faces are so blurry, you can’t make them out.”

Cameron thought for a moment and said, “I bet this is what happened to Brandy Murphy.”

“Who’s that?”

“Murder victim who was around Lea’s age and worked at the mall. Brandy left with a suspect driving an Escalade. I’d bet anything he used this exact con with her. When we found her body, she had Juan Ortiz’s ownership tattoo on her hip. I think you’ve identified his recruiting scheme. We’ll search her father’s house again to make sure. And I hope we can find Lea Essick before she becomes his next murder victim.”

Chapter Forty-two

Kaitlyn did a quick 360-degree scan of the parking lot before she lifted Becca out of her car seat. Carly secured the baby in the shopping cart and they headed toward the GoodBuys store entrance. GoodBuys was a new store in town, a Target wannabe, and they were celebrating the store’s grand opening with bargains in all departments. Of interest to Kaitlyn and Carly were the sales in the children’s department. Becca was outgrowing her clothing and they planned to stock up for fall weather, even though it was months away. Armed with Cameron’s credit card, they headed toward the area where they might save some money on clothing, toys, and children’s books. Cameron had given them the green light to purchase anything Becca needed.

Deciding to divide and conquer, Carly headed toward children’s clothing and Kaitlyn turned the cart into the aisle that had toys for toddlers.

Kaitlyn had made a stop to look at a
LeapFrog Shapes and Sharing Picnic Basket
when she noticed Becca pointing to a colorful book. “Bunny. Bunny,” she called out. Kaitlyn made a closer look at the book and discovered that, indeed, there was a rabbit on the cover. She picked up the board book and handed it to Becca.

“Can you point to the bunny?”

Becca extended her chubby little finger to touch the baby rabbit on the cover and Kaitlyn planted a kiss on her cheek. “Very good, sweetie.”

Proud of the way Becca was learning new words, Kaitlyn had worried about how the baby’s consumption of meth would impair her development, but so far, so good. The pediatrician assured them she was progressing well.

Kaitlyn added a few more books and toys and then joined Carly in the toddler clothing aisle.

“Check out these little dresses I found.” Carly held up a blue jumper with a pink flowered top. “Do you like this, Becca?”

The little girl quickly glanced at the outfit. She was too busy looking at the baby animals in her new book to give it her full attention.

Kaitlyn looked over the other outfits Carly held and then put them in the cart. “These are great. She’s also going to need new jeans and long-sleeved shirts and sweaters. I see a clearance sale sign down there. I’ll check it out.”

Carly dug in an overstuffed bin of toddler pajamas and pulled out a couple in Becca’s size. She turned to put them in the cart.

That’s when she made a dead stop in the middle of the aisle, a chill rushing down her spine, the hair on the back of her neck standing up. Something was wrong. Her intuition had saved her more than once and there was no chance she’d ignore it this time. Doing a 360-degree turn, she checked her surroundings. Nothing out of the ordinary. Kaitlyn stood not far from her at the opposite end of the aisle, checking out a display of little girl’s blue jeans. A woman with a shopping cart was thumbing through a rack of toddler shirts. Carly’s eyes swept back to the end of the aisle. The shopping cart! Where was the cart? Where was Becca?

Carly called out to Kaitlyn as she rushed to the end of the aisle. “The cart’s gone! Where’s Becca?”

Racing down the aisle, they looked in every direction, but Becca was nowhere in sight. They reached the main corridor, finding it clogged with shoppers, and ran in opposite directions to cover more ground.

Once she’d checked every aisle in her section, Carly hurried into the women’s restroom. It was empty. She then barged into the men’s restroom, hitting a man coming out with the heavy door. No sign of Becca.

Carly found the small customer service area and slammed her identification on the counter. “Listen closely. I am a federal agent and I work for the Shawnee County Sheriff. A child is missing. Lock down the store.” Her eyes wide, the panicked employee behind the counter froze.

“Move it! Lock it down. No one leaves.”

“Oh, God. I don’t know how.”

“Get your store security manager here
now
!”

“I’ll get my manager.” The employee with the name Sam on her nametag paged the store manager. A thin man moved next to her, pulled out a pager and called the checkout manager, and told her to alert the checkout clerks.

Carly stepped back into the shopping area. Her hands on her hips, she scanned the area again for a little girl with bouncing blond curls.

Her heart in her throat, Kaitlyn cursed herself as she frantically searched each aisle for Becca. It was all her fault. She should never have left the child alone in the cart, even for a second. There was no excuse. Now Becca might be in the hands of a child predator. The thought was unbearable and tore at her insides.

Kaitlyn was nearing the front of the store when she found their shopping cart filled with clothing and educational toys—but no Becca.

Up ahead she noticed a short man in a hurry, dressed gangsta style, with low-hung jeans exposing his underwear like a white beacon, and a gray hoodie covering most of his face. He held a small child on his hips like it was a sack of potatoes, its legs flailing. Who carries a child like that? And why was he in such a hurry?

He moved faster as he neared the front doors, so Kaitlyn picked up speed and pushed a shopper’s cart out of her way, ignoring the woman’s protests. Pulling her pepper spray out of her purse, she slipped it into her pocket. Breaking into a sprint, Kaitlyn dug deeper and found her stun gun at the bottom of her handbag, clutching it in her hand as she ran toward him. He was going down.

The child’s small body jerked against the man with each step he took. The child kicked and screamed and cried hysterically. It was Becca!

Getting closer, Kaitlyn shouted, “Stop that man! He has my baby!”

The man heard Kaitlyn, glanced back at her, and then rammed into an elderly woman’s cart. Stunned, the woman snatched up her purse and began hitting him with it as she screamed for help.

“Stop him,” Kaitlyn shouted. Chaos ensued as a crowd of shoppers nearby rushed to the elderly woman, still screaming for help. A teenaged boy in an athletic jacket stuck out his foot and tripped the man, who tumbled onto the floor, releasing Becca from his grasp. The boy grabbed Becca and ran in the opposite direction. Kaitlyn turned to see Carly making her way to the boy and Becca.

The man in the gray hoodie struggled to his feet, stumbled, then sprinted toward the store’s front doors with Kaitlyn close behind. He charged through the exit door and disappeared in the parking lot. She’d lost him.

Kaitlyn turned to see Becca in Carly’s arms, standing near the checkout area. With tears streaming down her face, she hugged both of them tightly and repeatedly said, “My fault. All my fault. I’m so sorry.”

“I share the blame, Kaitlyn. My attention should have been on the cart. It all happened so quickly. He had to have been following us.”

The store manager approached them. “What happened?”

Carly stepped in and held out her I.D. “We can explain that later. Right now we need to see your surveillance tape.”

Inside a glassed security office upstairs, Carly handed Becca to Kaitlyn and sat next to the security manager, who looked like he was an eighteen-year-old high schooler. She told him the area in which they were shopping and he alerted her attention to the second computer display. He backtracked the tape until they could spot Kaitlyn, Becca, and herself in the toddler clothing aisle.

“Go slow. Take it frame-by-frame.”

He slowed the replay to a crawl until the man in the gray hoodie came into view. The man inched his way along their aisle, pretending to look at children’s clothing, until he came within a couple of feet of their shopping cart. Still eyeing them, he waited until Kaitlyn walked to the opposite end of the aisle, and Carly bent over the clearance bin. At that point, he handed Becca a small object, perhaps a book, and smoothly moved the cart, picking up speed as he neared the end of the aisle. In the corridor, he moved at a natural pace so as not to attract attention, weaving in and out of clusters of shoppers, aiming toward the front of the store. Then he turned to see Kaitlyn chasing after him, and he accidentally slammed into the elderly woman’s cart. He stops and removes Becca from the cart

“Please enlarge the picture, and take it back again, still going frame-by-frame, so we can get a better look at him.”

She turned to Kaitlyn. “Does he look familiar?”

“No,” Kaitlyn replied, as she patted Becca’s back to calm her. “Thanks to the hoodie he’s wearing, I can’t really see his features on the display. But I can describe what I saw when I was chasing him. He’s very short for an adult male. He’s younger, maybe in his twenties or thirties. Dark hair and features. I’m guessing he might be Hispanic?”

Carly switched her attention to the display. “Let’s see the surveillance camera shots from the parking lot.” Soon the man in the hoodie came into view, running from the store. He got into a late model Ford truck and skidded his tires in an effort to flee the parking lot.

“I’d like a copy of the footage from both cameras.”

He soon handed her a thumb drive, which Carly slipped into her pocket. Once they reached the store’s first floor, she turned to Kaitlyn and winced. “Now I have to call Cam to tell him what happened. Hope he stays calm.”

“Not likely. He’ll probably go ballistic and not allow Becca out of the house until she’s thirty.”

After Carly and Kaitlyn discussed the matter further, they decided not to tell Cam until dinner. It was Gabe and Kaitlyn’s turn to cook, and they made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and steamed fresh green beans, with a German chocolate cake for dessert—Cam’s favorite meal.

Carly didn’t have to wait until dessert was served to broach the subject of Becca’s aborted abduction attempt. Cameron got the topic rolling.

“So how did your shopping trip go today?” Cameron asked as he mounted a scoop of mash potatoes on Becca’s plate.

“About that…” Carly began. “Something happened at GoodBuys that you should know about. But I want you to promise not to freak out.”

“Does it have to do with Becca?”

“Yes.”

“Can’t promise. What happened?” The tone in Cameron’s voice changed and his words were clipped.

“We were in the toddler clothing aisle when a man took off with Becca in the shopping cart.”

“What the hell? One might assume a child would be safe shopping with an armed federal agent and a woman who has a self-defense arsenal in her purse.”

Kaitlyn interjected. “We take full responsibility, but it happened so fast. Wait until you see the surveillance tape.”

“Did you identify him?”

“No. He was wearing a hoodie that covered his facial features. He was short, maybe five feet something, with dark hair. Might be Hispanic.”

Cameron clenched his jaw to keep from exploding. “Hispanic? Like Juan Ortiz?”

Carly spoke up. “We can’t automatically make that connection with what we have, which is zero evidence and no identification of the perp. The guy doesn’t fit Juan’s physical description. Ortiz is much taller. In addition, we have no way of knowing if Melanie Barrett gave out Becca’s location.”

“Don’t you think it’s just a little too coincidental Becca’s mother, Donda Hicks, was found hanged just hours later?” Cam scrubbed his face with his hands in frustration. His gut was saying this had Ortiz written all over it.

“We ran the license plate on the old truck the jerk was driving and it had been reported stolen. It was found later today in a ditch near a 7-Eleven convenience store near the town limits. Dusted the truck for fingerprints, but the entire vehicle had been wiped down.”