Vanished (29 page)

Her heartbeat drumming in her ears and Cassie’s image in her mind, Evelyn reached the bottom. The same claustrophobia she’d felt the first time she’d come down here, the same panicky trapped feeling, settled inside her. The smell of dirt, mold and death filled her nose, even though she knew the last one was just in her head.

Gripping her gun too tightly, she crouched low and stepped into the cavern.

In the corner, hunched beside the child’s bed where Cassie had probably once slept, was Noreen. She had her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped tightly around them. She was filthy, streaked with almost as much dirt as Evelyn. But clean tracks ran down her cheeks. She’d been crying.

She looked up as Evelyn entered, her eyes brimming with tears. “I begged him so much to let me keep Cassie,” she cried. “She was the right one. My dad didn’t see it, but I knew.
Cassie
was meant to be my sister. And I tried so hard to find one just like her, but I couldn’t do it.”

“Keep your mouth shut,” Evelyn croaked. “Put your hands over your head and stand up slowly.”

Noreen didn’t move, but she blinked back the tears, her gaze seeking Evelyn’s, pleading. “If only he hadn’t gotten sick... He told me about you, how you and Cassie were like sisters. That’s what I wanted.”

“Get. Up.” Evelyn’s hands clutched her weapon so tightly they hurt.

“I just want you to understand,” Noreen whispered.

Evelyn willed herself to relax, but her arms started to shake with anger, and she couldn’t keep the words inside. “You let her die! You let Cassie
die
!” She choked on the last word and felt her own eyes well with tears.

Noreen shook her head. “I didn’t want him to do it. But I was six. I couldn’t stop him. He took her down into that cellar and...”

Evelyn’s ears started ringing and her vision seemed to dim, Noreen’s words fading out. Some part of her had hoped, prayed, that there was still a chance. But Cassie really was gone. And Noreen had
known
.

Evelyn’s breath came way too fast as she centered her SIG on Noreen’s forehead. A memory of the very first time she’d seen Cassie ran through her mind. Cassie had come to the door and asked if Evelyn wanted to play. She’d said they were going to be best friends. And they were.

Noreen and her father had stolen that from her. They’d stolen Cassie and they’d stolen any chance Evelyn had of a normal life.

The gun shook in her hands, her finger tense as it slipped inside the trigger guard.

“Evelyn.” Kyle’s calm voice penetrated the fury fueling her. “I have extra cuffs.”

Hers were dangling from her wrist. Not that she was sure she needed them. Maybe Noreen still had her weapon. Something inside her wished Noreen would pull it now, to give Evelyn a defensible reason to fire hers.

She’d seen horrible, horrible things as a profiler. Never in her life had she actually wanted to shoot anyone.

“Bring her up,” Kyle called, his voice so calm, even though he had to know what was running through her head. “Let’s get her into custody. Give Cassie the justice she deserves. Do it the right way.”

Evelyn loosened her painful grip on the weapon, moved her finger outside the trigger guard where it belonged.

She wanted to shoot so desperately that it scared her. She’d never been that person. She didn’t want to become that person. Not even to avenge Cassie.

A sob escaped and she swallowed, tried to rein in her emotions. “Go up now, Noreen.”

“Just do it,” Noreen whispered back. “I’d rather die down here like my sisters. This is where I belong.”

“Walk out of here yourself,” Evelyn ordered, “or I’ll knock you out and bring you up. Your choice.”

For a minute, Noreen looked as though she were going to resist, but then defeat settled over her features. She stood slowly and climbed out of the cellar.

A moment later, Kyle called down, “She’s unarmed. And cuffed.”

Evelyn looked around the cellar one last time, feeling a deep sadness she wasn’t sure would ever leave. Then she holstered her SIG and started climbing up.

Noreen was kneeling on the ground beside her uncle, both of them cuffed. On the road that dead-ended at the field, police cars approached, sirens wailing. Kyle held out his hand.

Evelyn turned and stared into the depths of the cellar, then raised her head and put her hand in Kyle’s, holding on tight.

She’d found the truth she’d searched for, for eighteen years. Now she just had to find a way to live with it.

Epilogue

“Y
ou can do this.”

Evelyn looked at Kyle as her rental car idled in the Byerses’ driveway. She’d been watching the house for five minutes, trying to work up the courage to go inside.

Last night, after Noreen and Frank had been booked down at the station, and Jack was stitched up at the hospital, Evelyn had returned to the hotel with Kyle. She’d awakened to the sound of her cell phone. The forensic anthropologist had conclusively identified the skeletons from the field. They were the three original Nursery Rhyme Killer victims.

Cassie’s parents had already gotten the news, but Evelyn couldn’t leave town without talking to them personally.

Kyle’s fingers wove through hers. “You gave them the closure they needed, Evelyn.”

She nodded and turned off the engine. “Yeah, I just wanted to have different news.” It was ridiculous, because Cassie had died when she was twelve years old, but some irrational part of her felt as if it was her fault for not being able to give the case a different ending.

“You want me to wait here?” Kyle asked, obviously expecting her to say yes.

She shook her head. “Come with me?”

“Of course.”

He stepped out of the car and walked beside her up to the big wraparound porch, so much like her grandparents’. So much like the porch on the house she’d bought in Virginia, because it had reminded her of the good days here.

This wasn’t the outcome she’d hoped for when she’d flown out here five days ago, but despite everything, there was a sense of peace inside her that she hadn’t felt in a long, long time.

Evelyn reached for the bell, but Julie Byers opened the door before she rang it. Evelyn didn’t say a word before Julie stepped forward and wrapped her in a hug.

The arms around her felt stronger today than they had a few days ago. “Thank you, Evelyn,” Julie whispered. “Thank you for bringing her home.”

When she stepped back, there were tears in her eyes, and Evelyn could tell she’d cried this morning when she’d gotten the news. But there was something else on Julie’s face, too.

It took Evelyn a minute to figure out what was different and then she realized. The lines of strain that had dominated Julie’s face the last time she’d seen her had eased.

Evelyn gestured to Kyle. “This is Kyle McKenzie. He works with me.”

“I remember.” She took Evelyn’s hand and pulled her into the house. “Come in.” She nodded at Kyle, who followed silently.

Julie led them into the living room Evelyn remembered from her childhood. It had new furniture, but the big bay window at the back was exactly the same. Evelyn could picture Cassie sitting there, smiling.

Cassie’s father sat in a chair in the corner. He seemed as frail as he had when Evelyn had seen him earlier and she felt her heart seize, knowing how much hope he’d pinned on finding his daughter alive.

He held out his hand and Evelyn came closer, Julie still clutching her other hand. “Thank you,” he croaked. Unshed tears hazed his eyes as he looked up at her. “The coroner told us she didn’t suffer.”

Evelyn gave him a trembling smile and nodded. There was no way to truly know that, but they’d been able to determine she’d died not long after she’d been abducted. Noreen had patterned her actions after her father’s, so chances were Cassie hadn’t been harmed until then, and she hadn’t rotted away in the cellar, hungry and alone.

They didn’t know for sure how Earl had killed his victims, and the skeletons only told so much. Noreen didn’t know, either, just that her father had taken them away when he decided they weren’t “right,” didn’t fit the mold of his dead daughter.

But Evelyn did know one thing for certain.

“She was brave,” Evelyn told them, remembering what Noreen had said about Cassie refusing to pretend to be someone else. “She never gave up. And she never gave in.”

Her own tears slipped free as she added, “I’m so proud to have called her my best friend. She’s one of the best people I ever knew.”

Cassie’s parents smiled back at her, real smiles, and Evelyn knew they were going to be okay.

“We’re going to get her a stone tomorrow,” Julie said. “It will be good to have her close to us, where we can go and talk to her.”

Cassie’s dad squeezed her hand, tighter than she’d thought he could. “I hope you’ll come back and visit us sometime, Evelyn.”

She nodded. She’d thought this would be her last visit to Rose Bay, but suddenly she realized that she wanted to return some day. To see Cassie’s parents again. To see Cassie’s gravestone, the rightful tribute to her life. It might have been short, but it had been special.

As she and Kyle went back to the car a few minutes later, Evelyn asked, “Do we have time to go to the beach before our flight? I want to show you something.”

He lifted her hand to his lips and grinned. “If we miss it, I’ll commandeer something and fly you home myself.”

“Good.” She didn’t actually think he could do that, but with Kyle, who knew?

As she drove toward the beach where Darnell had caught up to her days ago, Evelyn considered how much the town had changed since she’d arrived. Noreen and Frank were in custody. Frank probably wasn’t looking at much time, but Noreen would never get out.

Neither would Darnell Conway. The murder charge alone would put him away for good, but cops were already looking through his computer history and putting together additional charges. Because of his confession about Charlotte, Kiki was doing everything she could to help. Evelyn hoped Walter Wiggins would be joining him in prison soon. Evelyn had talked to Jack at the hospital and he’d denied having anything to do with the pictures in Wiggins’s house. She still had some niggling doubt there, but not about the likelihood that Wiggins was a potential reoffender. Tomas had put officers on him around-the-clock, determined to make sure he never got near another child.

Rose Bay had a lot of healing to do, but people here were finally getting the chance to move on. And the same was true for her.

Evelyn parked and led Kyle down the long path to the beach. Then she clambered over the outcropping of rocks that took them to the spot Cassie’s mom had shown her and Cassie eighteen years ago. Kyle followed without question, and minutes later they were alone on the small stretch of beach.

The dunes lay behind them, the pristine white sand sparkling in the sun. In front of them, the ocean lapped at the shore, the color of the water almost the same shade as Kyle’s eyes.

Evelyn slipped off her shoes, felt the sand between her toes as she took Kyle’s hand and stared out at the expanse of the ocean. “This was our spot. Cassie and I thought this was our own private island.”

She closed her eyes and breathed in the salty ocean air, throwing her head back to feel the breeze across her face.

She had no idea what was waiting for her back in Aquia. Her place with BAU was in trouble. She’d have to fight like hell if she wanted to keep it. But more than that, her whole life’s mission—to find out what’d happened to Cassie—had concluded.

Evelyn couldn’t remember the last time she’d thought about what she wanted and it didn’t have anything to do with Cassie. But now the whole world had opened up to her in a different way, possibilities she’d never allowed herself to even contemplate. She was going to be able to figure out what it was
she
wanted.

In some ways, that was terrifying. In some ways, she wasn’t sure
what
she wanted. But in others, it was suddenly very, very simple.

Evelyn opened her eyes and looked at Kyle, waiting patiently beside her, and suddenly all the reasons she’d had to resist dating someone in the Bureau seemed unimportant. “What is it you always say about having no censures in your personnel file?”

He grinned at her, showing the dimples that made her heart flutter like a teenager’s. “If you don’t have any, it means you’re either an ass-kisser or just sitting on your ass.”

He tugged on her hand, pulling her into the edge of the water. “So don’t worry about the procedural stuff. You’re too good. Dan’s not going to let you go.”

She grinned back at him, a lightness in her heart she couldn’t remember feeling since she was twelve years old. “Good. Now what was it you said about taking some time off?” He’d been joking about going away somewhere, but she knew that underneath the joke was hope. “Can you still get the time?”

Surprise widened his eyes, but he nodded. “Hell, yes.”

“Good.” She yanked the hand still wrapped around hers, diving into the water, drawing him with her, heedless of ruining their clothes or what they’d wear on the plane. It was time she started living her life.

She was pretty sure Cassie would have approved.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from HUNTED by Elizabeth Heiter.

Acknowledgments

I’d like to give my sincere thanks to the people who shared their knowledge, including the Special Agents at the FBI Academy at Quantico, and from the Washington Field Office. I’d also like to offer a special thank-you to Ian Anderson and Chris Kobet for helping me figure out key details and always answering my tough questions. Any mistakes or liberties are mine alone.

Thank you to my critique partner, Robbie Terman, who is always willing to brainstorm, critique or just talk me off ledges. And to my mom, Chris Heiter, who reads every book, in every short time frame I request. Thank you to my Aunt Andy Hammond and my Uncle Tom Dunikowski, for giving me feedback and for being so excited about each novel—hearing from you always makes me want to write more. Thank you to my sisters, Kathryn Merhar and Caroline Heiter, for your support and love through the nerve-wracking process of seeing my first book out in the wild. Thank you to my friends Charlie Schaldenbrand and Kristen Kobet, for wanting the next book before I’ve even written it. To Mark Nalbach, for making my video trailer, fixing my website and jumping in whenever I have graphics needs—thank you for making it all look so good. And to my mystery writers’ group: Ann Forsaith, Charles Shipps, Sasha Orr and Nora Smith—thank you for pushing me to make every scene better.

Thank you to my agent, Kevan Lyon, for believing in me for so long, and for your unwavering support through every step of the process. Thank you to my editor, Paula Eykelhof—I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I do know that working with you has impacted my writing and my life in huge, incredible ways. And to the entire team at Harlequin—thank you for all your hard work on my novels, from cover to marketing to sales and everything in between.

Finally, a huge thank-you to my family and friends, for the love, support and encouragement you’ve given me over the years.