Vendetta (3 page)

Kyle shook his head. “I'm sorry.”

Ten years, and she'd yet to give up hope that Sarah was still alive. Never completely let go of the fact that her sister's disappearance was her fault. She'd watched her parents over the years as they struggled after Sarah's abduction to put the shattered pieces of their lives back together—if that were even possible. Not with the gaping hole Sarah had left. Because it wasn't over yet. And Nikki wasn't sure it would ever be over.

“What that means is that I know that one of the hardest things a person can face is not knowing where a loved one is. Which is also why I will make sure everything is done to find her, even if that means asking tough questions.” Nikki waited for his nod. “It also means that we need to get the local authorities
involved. The good news is that the majority of missing persons are found within a matter of hours.”

She wasn't going to tell him the other statistics. All she could do for the moment was pray that Bridget really had gone out for a bit of fresh air and taken a wrong turn.

“We'll need to talk with the other girls,” she continued. “I also need Bridget's phone number so we can start trying to trace her cell, and any photos of her you might have.”

“Of course. There's tons of pictures of her on her Facebook account.”

Kyle gave her Bridget's number while he got up and grabbed his iPad from the kitchen counter. A minute later, he found her Facebook page. With long blond hair and bright blue eyes, Bridget smiled up at Nikki. There were dozens of selfies and group photos with friends. A couple with her and her brother.

On the sidebar of her account were places she'd visited. Where she went to school. Her favorite sports teams, movies, TV shows, and books. Her entire life on one tidy page.

Nikki scrolled down Bridget's timeline through the dozens of recent birthday messages from friends. “She looks happy.”

“I think she is. You can download them from her account, then email them to yourself.” Kyle motioned to the stairs leading up to the second floor. “In the meantime I'll go get the girls.”

Nikki leaned against the back of the couch, a photo of Bridget staring up at her. The sun streamed through the window, leaving floating patterns of light on the hardwood floor. She would forever link the first day of spring and the scent of mowed grass with her sister's disappearance.

“You shouldn't have brought up my sister,” she said to Tyler, her gaze still focused on the computer screen as she quickly downloaded the first photo.

“You needed a way to connect—”

“I don't want a way to connect.” She looked up at him. “Not that way.”

The urgency of the situation began to build as she downloaded a second photo, but for a moment she was there again. Standing on the curb in front of the school in the sunshine waiting for her sister. It had been warmer than normal that afternoon. The sound of a lawn mower filled the air. Nikki had checked her watch . . . again. She was late, all because of a pair of shoes she'd impulsively decided to buy at the nearby mall. She'd assumed Sarah would wait the extra few minutes it took to try them on and ring them up with the cashier. But when she arrived, Sarah was nowhere to be found. Nikki had questioned everyone she could think of who might know where Sarah was. Then came the desperate 911 call. Hours later, the police interviewed the last person known to have seen Sarah. Another sophomore girl who'd seen her get into a black sedan ten minutes after the last period bell had rung.

No one ever saw Sarah again.

She downloaded one more of Bridget's recent photos onto Kyle's iPad, then emailed copies to herself, refusing to get lost in the past. When Nikki joined the force, she'd trained herself to separate the emotions of her past from her work. She used her experiences to help motivate herself to ensure that other families didn't go through what her family had gone through. She'd researched every serial killer and kidnapping case across the state over the past twenty years, noting and memorizing every detail, including the Polaroid photo Sarah's abductor had left behind. But she prefered to keep those pieces of her past to herself.

Her phone rang, interupting her thoughts. It was her boss again.

“Have you spoken to Kyle yet?” he asked.

“Yes. We're here now. I'm recommending we bring in the
local police to start a search of the area. I've already sent Jack and Gwen the information I have so far so they can run a trace on the girl's phone and see what else they can find out.”

“Use Tyler if you need to until I can get you some backup. With his background he's got plenty of relevant experience.”

She glanced at Tyler as she hung up the phone. Her boss was right. Today wouldn't be the first time she'd turned to him for advice. Tyler had gained his experience fighting terrorism in three separate tours as a part of a special ops team in the Middle East. Which meant his input—especially in the face of a crisis—was nearly always right on target.

His hand grasped hers. “You were right. I shouldn't have stepped in.” His fingers pressed against her palm. Warm. Reassuring.

She shook her head. “I'm the one who should be sorry.”

“Don't be. Today's one of those days that's thrown both of us off-balance.”

She couldn't let herself forget that she wasn't the only one dealing with the past.

“What do you think?” he asked. “About Kyle.”

“He's nervous, distracted, defensive, but all those things are understandable considering the situation. We need to hear what the girls have to say. And we need to get a team out here on the ground looking for her as soon as possible.”

He released her hand. “I agree. Why don't you go ahead and start questioning the girls as soon as they're ready? I could call the local authorities and get a team out here.”

Nikki nodded. All they needed to do was stay until the local police arrived, then she and Tyler would be free to leave.

She grabbed her cell phone again as Tyler headed for the front door, then punched in a call to Jack Spencer. For over eight years, she'd made her way through the ranks in the local police department until her promotion to the governor's miss
ing persons task force. Learning to depend on her team had become second nature.

“Jack, this is Nikki,” she said as soon as he answered.

She quickly filled him in on the details and asked him to report Bridget was missing to all local agencies, as well as putting a trace on her phone.

Nikki ended the call as Mia and Chloe walked down the stairs in front of Kyle, hesitating in the middle of the living room. They exchanged looks, then sat down on the couch across from Nikki.

Kyle made the introductions, pointing to the girls as he spoke. “This is Chloe and this is Mia. Bridget's best friends.”

Nikki shook their hands, then took a second to study the girls. Mia had shoulder-length blond hair and wore black jeans and a pink, zippered hoodie. Chloe was a few inches taller with darker skin and long black hair pulled back into a braid. Both looked scared.

“I need to ask both of you some questions about Bridget.”

“Of course,” Mia said, glancing again at Chloe. “But before you start, there's something we need to tell you.”

“Okay.”

“Bridget didn't just go out for a walk this morning.” Mia drew in a sharp breath before continuing. “She met a guy online a couple months ago. She planned this entire weekend so she could meet him.”

Nikki felt the air rush from her lungs as her mind worked through the ramifications of the girls' confession. While it was possible that Bridget had come to meet an innocent guy she'd fallen for, online predators targeted both boys and girls of all ages. Most were master manipulators who looked especially for the emotionally vulnerable. They knew how to befriend their victims. To empathize with them while building trust. And they were everywhere.

“Who is he?” Nikki asked. The urgency germinating inside her had just skyrocketed, because the odds that they were still looking at a lost hiker had substantially diminished.

“What?” Kyle crossed the room until he was standing in front of the girls. “Why didn't you guys tell me that this morning when we were out looking for her?”

Mia picked at a broken nail, tears forming in her eyes. “We didn't think it was a big deal. Not until now, anyway. Bridget made us promise not to tell you.”

Chloe chewed at her bottom lip. “They were just going to meet. We figured she'd be back by now.”

“Who is he? Wait . . .” Kyle's voice rose. “It's that Jacob . . . somebody, isn't it?”

Chloe shook her head. “She dumped Jacob a few weeks ago.”

“Then who in the world is this guy?”

“Kyle . . .” Nikki held up her hand. “I need you to stay calm. Why don't you go make another pot of coffee while I talk to the girls. I promise we'll get to the bottom of this, but right now we've got to keep cool heads about it.”

Kyle hesitated for a moment, the vein in his neck pulsing, then strode away.

Nikki turned back to the girls once he'd stepped out of the living room. “I need the two of you to start from the beginning and tell me everything you know about this guy she was planning to meet as quickly as you can.”

Chloe nodded. “Like Mia said, she met him online.”

Nikki's gut clenched. Sometimes missing persons cases revolved around random strangers plucking a person off the street, but more often than not, once they began peeling back layers, the truth was much closer to home.

Chloe looked to Mia, then dropped her gaze. “She didn't really talk about him that much. But honestly, you have to believe us. We didn't know she was planning on meeting him here this weekend. At least not at first.”

“Do you know how easy it is for a predator to set up a false account? A false ID and photos?” Nikki asked. “You have no idea who's really behind his profile.”

“Not this guy. We do know he was sweet and charming. Bridget trusts him completely.”

“And so because he was sweet and charming online, he has to be a sweet and charming guy in real life.” Nikki frowned, holding back a wave of anger. What she'd really like to do was throttle some sense into the girls.

“You should read some of the things he wrote her.” Mia
fiddled with the zipper of her hoodie. “He was always complimenting her. Telling her how pretty she was. He's got a couple of younger sisters. Showed her photos of him and his family. She really liked him.”

“And they were planning to meet this morning?”

“She told us about it last night and we swore we'd keep her secret. It sounded so . . . romantic. Like some prince straight out of a fairy tale. They just wanted to meet and talk. I've never seen Bridget so happy.” Mia started sobbing. “We thought—”

“For now, let's go on the assumption she did go to meet a guy, and he's everything he says he is.” Nikki worked to rein in her anger. “Tell me what the plan was.”

“They were going to meet here for her birthday,” Chloe said. “It's why she asked her brother to come here.”

“Why here?” Nikki asked.

“I don't know.” Mia shrugged. “They both like outdoor stuff. He said it would be romantic.”

Nikki listened to the girls' confession. Their original theory of Bridget simply having gone out for a walk and gotten lost had just been completely shot down. Clearly Bridget had never had any plans for an innocent walk in the woods.

“What's his name?” Nikki asked.

“Sean . . . I don't remember his last name,” Chloe said. “He even told her he knew some producers in Nashville. Kyle doesn't like the idea, but Bridget wants to get into the music business one day. She's pretty into country music. Sean promised he could get her an audition.”

How many clichés had this guy used?

Nikki woke up the screen of Kyle's iPad that was still in her lap so Bridget's Facebook page stared up at her. She'd seen it all before on Instagram profiles and Facebook statuses. Girls falling prey to predators who fed on their desire to be loved and cared for. While parents with all their good intentions
were out earning a living, their children were sucked up in a world of instant messaging and social media. And while moms and dads thought everything was fine, their kids had managed to completely disconnect from their parents and instead were connecting with strangers. Lonely girls, lured by promises of love and acceptance by strangers to replace the holes in their own lives.

She went to the top of Bridget's timeline and touched the screen to open up the friends' search box, then typed the name Sean. One name popped up.

Sean Logan.

Mia leaned forward and glanced at his photo. “That's him.”

Nikki clicked through to his profile page. His cover photo was of him and a couple of other guys hiking. She clicked through his photos and “about” page. On the surface, everything looked legitimate. From where he went to high school to places he'd lived, to his favorite movies and basketball teams. It was all there, along with a few dozen random photos.

Nikki turned to Kyle, who walked back into the living room as the smell of percolating coffee began filling the space. “Did you know anything about this guy?”

Kyle stared at the page. “Do you think I would've brought her here if I'd known she was planning to run off with some stranger?”

“He wasn't a stranger, and they're not planning to run off,” Mia insisted. “They'd been friends for a couple of months. They chatted every day. They just wanted to meet.”

“A couple of months?” Kyle's frown deepened. “Why didn't she ever mention him to me?”

Mia's gaze dropped. “She knew you'd overreact.”

“Overreact to her seeing a guy secretly that she'd only met on the internet? Of course I'd overreact.”

A sick feeling spread through Nikki's gut. She pulled out her
phone and typed a text to Jack with the information he'd need to do a complete background check on Sean Logan. Because this was the potential setup for every parent's nightmare. Girls believing they'd found their Prince Charming who would save them from school or home. Except they weren't princes or even charming once the truth came out.

Kyle sat down beside Nikki on the couch. “You're not buying the Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers scenario, are you?”

Nikki sent the message. “We don't have enough information to make a judgment yet. But we'll find out.”

“Then what about putting out an AMBER Alert in the meantime? Isn't that what normally happens next?”

Nikki shook her head, feeling his frustration, but there were procedures in place for a reason. “There are specific guidelines that have to be followed before an AMBER Alert is issued.”

“You're telling me this situation doesn't meet the criteria?”

“Not yet. The primary one being that we have yet to confirm an abduction.”

“Bridget's been gone for what . . . at least three . . . maybe four hours. That's not confirmation enough?”

“All we know right now is that she went to see a guy she met online. We have no proof her life is at risk.”

“So what does that mean?” Kyle asked, his voice rising. “That it will take finding my sister dead somewhere before anyone takes this seriously?”

Nikki bit back a sharp response hovering on the tip of her tongue. She knew Kyle's words weren't meant as an attack on her. Helping families negotiate the tangled web of emotions was one of the toughest aspects of her job.

“I assure you we are taking this situation extremely seriously. But to abuse the system would only end up weakening the effectiveness of the alert.”

“It's just that . . .” Kyle stood back up, clenching his fists at
his sides. “Tell me what our chances are of finding her if this guy isn't who he said he is.”

“I can't answer that,” Nikki said.

“Then what am I supposed to do?” he asked. “I can't just sit here doing nothing.”

“Good, because I'm going to need your help. All of your help.”

Mia drummed her pink nails against her leg. “Tell us what we can do.”

“A couple of officers will be here any minute. They will be equipped to coordinate a ground search of the area, but we also need to get the word out as quickly as we can. And we'll need a complete rundown of Bridget's information. I'll give you the website of a checklist, but write down everything you can think of, like height, weight, age, hair color, distinguishing marks, and what she was wearing when she left this morning as well as anything she might have taken with her.”

Chloe leaned forward and nodded. “We can do that.”

“Great. Get started. As soon as you get that together, I'll have my teammates send out the bulletin to all missing persons databases.”

Kyle pointed to the kitchen. “There's a notebook over there by the telephone.”

Nikki wrote down the address for the website, then turned to Kyle. “What kind of support do you have, Kyle? Extended family . . . friends . . . church?”

Kyle was pacing again. “The last time I went to church was probably junior high.”

“Friends? Family?” Nikki asked.

“She's in Nashville right now, but my girlfriend could help,” Kyle suggested. “She works for a local television station and could easily handle coordinating whatever needs to be done from there.”

“Perfect. Once that list is together, we're going to need short clips for local media that can be used to break into their regularly scheduled programs. Some officers feel like the media will only get in the way, but I believe it helps. The more eyes we have looking for your sister—the more her photo is out there—the better our odds of bringing her home quickly and safely.”

Nikki turned to the two girls, who were already at the dining room table with the pen and paper. “Chloe and Mia, keep at that list, but you also need to contact your parents. The last thing you're going to want is their finding out about this on the morning news.”

She could see the fear in their eyes as the reality of the situation sank in. And feel the fear in her own heart as she realized that each second that passed meant Bridget could be that much farther away.

“I need to go update Tyler, but I'll be back in a minute.”

Nikki grabbed a couple of Tylenol from her bag, downed them with the rest of her lukewarm coffee to stave off the headache that was coming on, then walked out onto the front porch, where Tyler was just hanging up a call. Morning sunshine spread across the open field in front of the cabin, though she didn't miss the dark clouds that had begun to gather along the horizon. They mirrored exactly how she was feeling inside.

“The girls confessed that Bridget set up this weekend to see a boy she met online,” Nikki began.

“A boy?” Tyler gave her his full attention.

“His name is Sean Logan. I sent Jack the information so he can do a background check. We need to find out if this guy's legit.”

“Because if she didn't simply get lost out there . . .”

“Yeah . . .” She sighed. “And we need to know where to start looking.”

“If this does turn out to be an abduction,” he said, “at least
we've got the ball rolling. I've contacted the local police department. They're sending out some officers now who will coordinate with your team as well as the Morgan County Sheriff's Department for a ground search.”

“Good. The sooner we get a team out, the better our chances of finding her.” Nikki searched his expression, needing to know what he was feeling beneath the urgency of the moment. “Thank you. For everything. This day was supposed to be about you and remembering Katie.”

Tyler stuffed the phone into his pocket. “You don't have anything to be sorry about. There's a girl's life at stake here, and you, more than anyone else I know, realize that time isn't on your side. However innocent this situation might turn out to be, we need to find her.”

“We?” Nikki shook her head. She wasn't going to involve him in this. Not today. “You need to go home—”

“No, I don't.” He ran his hand down her arm, then squeezed her fingertips. “You're going to need volunteers, and I want to stay and help. I've just spoken to my mother. Liam's doing fine,” he continued without giving her a chance to lodge her complaints, still holding her hand. “They're getting ready to go to the zoo.”