Faces of Evil [2] Impulse (25 page)

“Ma’am.”

Jess tuned back in to the present.

“There is no answer at either of the numbers I have listed for the Dentons. But I’m not sure if what I have is home or work or cell numbers. Lori – Detective Wells or Chief Burnett usually communicated with them.”

Apprehension coiled tighter around her ribs. “Sergeant, I think we need to make a drive by. Manning and Black are here,” Jess pointed out. “There’s no need for us to hang around.”

“I’ll let Deputy Chief Black know we’re leaving.”

Tremendous willpower was required to keep Jess waiting for Harper to cross the warehouse, give Deputy Chief Black a heads-up and to walk back to where she waited.

Move it, Harper!

“Ready, ma’am?”

“Past ready, sergeant.”

By the time they reached Harper’s SUV way across the parking lot and on the street Jess fully comprehended that Harper absolutely knew how to hurry and that she had to start running again. She was seriously out of shape.

With no traffic to speak of, the drive to Montclair Road took less than twenty minutes. Harper said nothing. She said nothing. Each second seemed to echo in the silence, a taunting reminder that her cell phone had not rung.

Burnett was not going to call.

Best case scenario, there was new trouble. Worst. . . he was
in
trouble.

Harper slowed as he reached the Denton residence. The downstairs lights seeped through the slits in the blinds covering the front windows. Burnett’s Mercedes was not in the driveway. Where the hell was he?

“Ma’am,” Harper said, shattering the silence as he parked at the curb in front of the Denton home, “I’m thinking we should just go to the front door and see if anyone’s up.”

Jess moistened her lips. “I think you’re right, sergeant.”

“If it turns out the chief was called away for some personal reason, like an emergency with his parents, we’ll just be a little embarrassed showing up here like this looking for him.”

For once Jess would be thrilled to learn dear old Katherine had needed her son. She wished it would be as simple as that, but the potential for that possibility had come and gone in her estimation. Something was wrong or she would have heard from Burnett by now. “I’ve been embarrassed before.”

Harper offered her a faint smile. “Won’t kill us.”

“Definitely not.”

Harper pulled into the drive and shut off the engine. Her hand shaking, Jess reached into her bag to make sure her weapon was handy. With her other hand she tugged at the Kevlar vest she still wore. She hadn’t thought to take it off. Just as well.

Keeping an eye out for trouble, Jess joined Harper at the front of his SUV. They walked to the front door together. Her pulse rate revved faster and faster. She refused to allow any of those worst case scenarios related to Burnett to totally form in her head.

He was too smart to let this son of bitch get to him. But Lori had been smart, too. . . and Agent Miller.

If Burnett had been ambushed, why hadn’t she gotten a message of some sort?

Harper pounded on the door. The sound made Jess jump even though she knew it was coming. Brandon Denton opened the door. His expression went from worried to fearful in a heartbeat.

“Jesus Christ, what’s happened?”

“I’m Deputy Chief Harris and this is –”

“I know who you are, where’s Andrea?”

The bottom dropped out of Jess’s stomach. Before she could find her voice, Harper asked, “Sir, we were not aware that your daughter wasn’t home. We came here looking for Chief Burnett. He left to meet with you nearly three hours ago.”

Annette Denton pushed past her husband and stood trembling in the doorway. “Andrea didn’t come home last night. She said she needed some time away,” her lips quivered, “from us. She sounded so distraught I called Dan. Brandon was out driving around looking for her car.”

Jess managed a nod. “Did Chief Burnett come here after you spoke?”

Annette shook her head. “It wasn’t half an hour after I called him that he called me back and said he’d gotten Andrea on her cell.” Pain lined her face. “She wouldn’t answer our calls. She had gone to Dan’s house. He was on his way to meet her there. They were going to talk. He promised me everything would be fine. That was more than two hours ago.”

Fear thudded in Jess’s brain, the thump-thump-thump keeping time with the beating of her heart. “You haven’t heard from either since?” she deduced.

Annette shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. “He said we should wait here and be patient. He would call.”

“I got tired of waiting so I drove to his house,” Denton interjected. “I just got back. His SUV is there but Andrea’s car is not. There was no answer at the door. He’s not answering his phone. Andrea isn’t either. I was just telling Annette that we needed to call nine-one-one or something. What the hell is going on?”

Jess and Harper exchanged a look.

“Sir, we will find out what’s happened,” Harper assured him.

Somewhere in the house a phone rang. Denton rushed to answer it. Annette went after him. Jess wasn’t waiting for an invitation. She walked into the house with Harper trailing her.

In the massive great room Denton grabbed the back of the nearest chair in an apparent move to remain vertical, tears slid down his cheeks. “It’s okay, baby. Just tell me where you are.”

Annette clung to her husband and through her sobs demanded, “Is she okay?”

The girl’s father frowned. “Wait. . . honey, slow down. Who are you talking about? Is Dan with you?”

Goosebumps rose on Jess’s flesh. She needed to talk to the girl, but the parents were so emotionally overwhelmed that outside of jerking the phone out of the man’s hand, she wasn’t sure she could make that happen.

“Baby, listen to me,” Denton urged. “I’m giving the phone to your mother. We’re heading to you right now. Stay right where you are.”

He handed the cell phone to his wife and turned to Jess. “I couldn’t understand everything she said. But we have to go to her.”

“We’ll escort you, Mr. Denton,” Jess offered, struggling to sound calm. “Can you tell us where she is and what she said about Chief Burnett so we can make the necessary calls en route?”

“She was angry. She went to Dan’s house to talk but he wasn’t home. She has a key so she opened the garage and hid her car so we wouldn’t know where she was. She was angry with us,” he repeated. He stopped. Seemed lost for a moment. “I have to get over there.”

“Sergeant Harper, get a unit over to Chief Burnett’s residence now.” Jess fixed her firmest gaze back on Denton. “Sir, did Burnett show up eventually?”

“Yes,” Denton said, visibly confused and shaken. “She thinks he did. But someone else was already there when she first arrived. He was in the house when Andrea went inside and. . . he drugged her with some sort of injection.” Denton made a keening sound. “When she woke up just now, the man was gone and Dan’s SUV is in the drive but he isn’t anywhere in the house. . . she’s hysterical. I have to go to her.”

“Come with us,” Jess urged, fighting for calm herself. “We’ll take you there.” These people were in no condition to drive anywhere. “Sergeant, get the paramedics to Burnett’s house in case Andrea needs any medical attention.”

Jess led the Dentons to Harper’s SUV.

She sat in the passenger seat as Harper drove as fast as he dared through the quiet neighborhood. Burnett’s house was only a few minutes away. But that was a few too many. Wouldn’t matter anyway. . . he wouldn’t be there.

Jess bit her lips together. Tears crawled down her cheeks just the same.

As they approached Burnett’s house that wasn’t a home but it was the place where he lived. . . where he’d kissed her last night. . . where he’d admitted his fears about their relationship after all these years. . . that tiny thread of hope she’d been clinging to in order to get through this nightmare snapped.

Jess entered the number she needed to call. When he answered, she cleared her throat of the emotion and said, “Agent Gant, he’s taken another victim.”

Gant said some things but Jess didn’t get any of it until he repeated the demand for a name and location.

“Dunbrooke Drive in Mountain Brook,” she said, her lips trembling, “Police Chief Daniel Burnett.”

18

Dunbrooke Drive, 9:01 a.m.

Jess stood in the middle of the kitchen. She stared at the place next to the fridge where Dan had lifted her onto the counter and kissed her so longingly just a few hours ago. The case file still lay on the dining room table. Everything was exactly as they had left it around midnight.

Except Dan wasn’t here. . .

Evidence techs and cops were all over the house. Deputy Chief Black and Sheriff Griggs were working with Sergeant Harper, orchestrating the activities. The Dentons had gone to the hospital with their daughter.

Andrea had awakened on the sofa to find herself alone and Dan’s SUV in the driveway. The paramedics had found no indication of any physical assault to her. The man, she had identified as the one in the photo on Jess’s phone, had already been at the house when she arrived. He’d followed Andrea inside. Based on Dan’s call to Annette saying that he had spoken to Andrea, Dan had arrived here perhaps thirty or so minutes after Andrea.

The girl had come here thinking she could talk to Dan about how her parents were driving her crazy about every word she said and every move she made. After her abduction not two weeks ago and several days as a hostage, Jess could understand their concerns. Andrea had scarcely been home four days. Emotionally exhausted, she’d come to the one person she had known would understand. She hadn’t expected to find Dan gone. As the chief of police he rarely got called out to a scene in the middle of the night. But this was different. Evil had intruded into his life, following on Jess’s heels.

She shouldn’t have come back to Birmingham. She was long past the terror. What she felt now was something along the lines of numb. And defeated.

“Ma’am.”

Jess turned to Harper. “Yes, sergeant.”

“We’re heading downtown now. Are you ready to go?”

Jess looked around, lost for what to do. “Yes.” She managed a nod. “I’m ready.”

“Deputy Chief Black has called a conference with all the other division chiefs, Sheriff Griggs and Agent Gant. Afterward there’ll be a press conference.”

“All right.”

Jess moved through the house, unable to meet the gazes of all who stopped and stared. She knew what they were thinking.

This was her doing. She had to make it right.

Outside, the sun had already turned the interior of Harper’s SUV into an oven. Jess settled into the passenger seat, her bag in her lap. The air rushing from the vents was stifling. She didn’t care.

Harper drove for several minutes before he spoke. “What’s your assessment of the situation, ma’am?”

He wanted to know if she believed either one, Lori or Dan, would survive. She wanted to turn to him and demand to know how he expected her to have a damned clue. None of this fit the Player’s pattern – Spears’ pattern. None of her theories seemed to hold together as each new development evolved.

Jess closed her eyes and fought a wave of emotion. Harper had kept his cool extremely well through this whole travesty. He’d called Lily en route to Dan’s house and ensured they were safe. He’d called the chief of police in Pensacola and given him an update so that another layer of protection could be added to Lily’s family. He’d ordered another unit on surveillance duty at the Wells’ home and at the hospital where Belinda Howard was recovering.

Jess had done nothing but wallow in the nothingness.

He waited for her answer so she gave him all she had. “My assessment is that we can turn this city upside down and we won’t find him until he wants us to find him.”

It was simple really. She should have narrowed in on the goal hours ago. To some degree she had, only she’d flittered all around it rather than honed in on the exact definition of what he wanted. Too many unclear signals from the unsub. His communications with her were sporadic. His MO all over the map.

But now she understood. He could have taken her sister or her niece but he hadn’t. Jess had assumed he’d taken Lori because she was his type and because of the camaraderie he’d noted between them. He’d even sent that text last Saturday – or had it been Friday – saying he liked her friend. But that hadn’t been the reason he’d taken Lori.

The realtor fit the new scenario coming together, piece by slow piece. That one had thrown Jess off at first. Seemed reasonable to assume he was targeting people he deemed close to her. Like perhaps seeing the realtor give her that hug at Lily’s house.

But Miller didn’t fit that scenario. Taking Dan now rather than Lily or Alice before they were moved out of his immediate reach didn’t fit either.

Except that this wasn’t about Jess Harris the woman, the sister, the aunt or friend. This insane game revolved around Jess the agent. . . the deputy chief.

“Are we supposed to just give up?”

Harper was mentally and physically exhausted and emotionally devastated. He needed hope and she couldn’t give it to him. He braked for a traffic light. She felt his gaze on her but she couldn’t meet his eyes. What he wanted was something she couldn’t give him. What she had to offer as the only solution he wouldn’t want to hear.

Harper would only get in her way and if she was correct in her conclusions, he was already a target. Gant and the others with whom she had worked on the Player case were safe because they had turned on her. Discredited her in the media, which evidently tripped the bastard’s trigger. That was what he’d wanted. . . why he’d set her up. He’d wanted to ruin her as punishment for getting too close and, no doubt, as a new way to achieve pleasure. Her move to Birmingham had rained on his terrorize-Jess parade. But how could he have anticipated that Dan would offer her a position here? Even she hadn’t seen that coming.

Jess had taken something from Spears. Whether it was his playing field or something else, she wasn’t sure. There wasn’t enough information available to her yet to determine if he had sent this lookalike accomplice to Birmingham to keep an eye on her or if that was part of the reason he’d cut his losses by killing Special Agent Taylor and vanishing.