Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Redemption for Avery (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Ryker Townsend FBI Profiler Book 2) (7 page)

Off North Shore Drive

Big Bear Lake

Evening

Lucinda expected Mrs. Barbour to lead her to an upstairs bedroom, but when she departed through French doors onto the patio, Crowley had a good idea where the woman would take her. Grayson lived in the pool house in back. He had a separate entrance through a gate. If the kid brought Lily to his place, it would’ve been entirely possible that no one had seen her.

She had a bad feeling, especially after she entered the premises.

“What’s that smell?” she asked Grayson’s mother.

“It’s the fresh paint. He never wanted me in here, but he finally agreed to a paint touch up. They finished today.”

“I smell bleach.”

The woman scrunched her nose and shook her head.

“Maybe he cleaned off paint. I don’t know.”

People who tried getting away with murder used bleach to destroy evidence, but the cleaning solvent never got rid of everything.

“I’ll come find you when I’m done, Mrs. Barbour.” She smiled, to make her polite way of saying she wanted privacy to appear harmless.

“Yes, of course.”

After the woman left, Lucinda pulled on latex gloves that she carried in her pocket. From the disheveled condition of the room, she found it hard to determine what mess could be attributable to the work crew or the normal behavior of a teenage boy. She wandered around the quarters, searching through a computer desk before she hit his bathroom. When she opened his medicine cabinet, her eyes grew wide.

The kid had bottles of prescription meds. With gloved hands, she pulled each container off the shelves and read labels for antidepressants, antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers. Lucinda knew doctors treating certain personality disorders would often prescribe meds to control the associated symptoms—irritability, aggression, and impulse control.

But this combination of meds could also be used to treat the symptoms of another condition.

“Are you a psychopath, Grayson?”

Something disturbed her more. The kid had packed to leave home, but it didn’t look as if he’d taken his meds with him.

“Not good, kid.”

Lucinda pulled all the meds from the cabinet and set them on the counter. She’d want a doctor’s opinion of Grayson’s scrip cocktail and what authorities could expect if they encountered him off his meds.

When she came out of the bathroom, she spied something colorful under his unmade bed. With gloved hands, she dropped to her knees and pulled out a pair of red twill vans—Lily’s shoes. Dark smudges and specks were across the toes. Blood.

“Oh, Lily. What happened to you here?”

Lucinda retrieved her cell and called Hutch. She had enough probable cause to support a warrant to search the Barbour home, but Grayson’s mother had given her consent in front of a witness, the deputy. When her ERT answered, she explained what she’d found and gave Hutch the address.

“Bring your kit. We’ll need luminol and I’ll want to seize his computer.”

The smell of bleach had triggered a warning in her mind, but after finding Lily’s shoes—the ones her mother had described her wearing on the night she went missing—Lucinda had probable cause to suspect Grayson had lied about everything. Hutch would soon spray luminol over Grayson’s room. Any blood evidence would fluoresce under a black light. If Lily died in his room and he tried to bleach out stains and paint over spatter, Lucinda would know.

She’d have enough proof to issue an arrest warrant for Grayson Barbour.

***

Big Bear Sheriff’s Station

8:30 p.m.

Ryker Townsend

Perhaps Crowley had influenced me more than I cared to admit, but after leaving the interrogation room of Wade Thomas Altamonte, I almost broke down and called him ‘despicable.’ The man had admitted to multiple counts of sex with minors. He claimed they were all consensual, but he vehemently denied knowing anything about Lily Rae Hubbard.

While I’d been interrogating our suspect, Sinead had left a voice mail message. She hadn’t found a direct tie to Altamonte and Betty Sanderson, but she still had places to search. She also didn’t find a pattern for the missing person reports linked only to summer months. Our circumstantial evidence had gaping holes we would need to shore up.

But it wouldn’t matter if Altamonte confirmed or denied. If his DNA could be found on Lily’s body, I wouldn’t need a confession. Science would put him at the scene beyond a reasonable doubt with direct evidence.

I kept him talking by listening and letting him do all the work. Whenever he slowed down, I would entice him with imagery in the guise of a question, designed to get his blood churning over the notion of young girls.

“It couldn’t have been easy to register as an offender and get a good paying job. How did you cope with that?” I had asked him.

His answer repulsed me, but my face remained stoic.

“Many of these girls in Big Bear, they come from wealthy families. They dress nice. Smell good. Did that make it harder? Any man would be tempted, right?”

I had to admit there were days I preferred the company of the dead. Today, with Altamonte, I had hit my limit of tolerance. After I left the interrogation room, I grabbed a bottle of water from a small refrigerator in the break room and went searching for Crowley, but the observation room had been empty. I wanted her impressions of Altamonte and to pose a question to her.

Could Grayson Barbour have been wrong about Lily’s affair with her teacher?

***

Off North Shore Drive

Big Bear Lake

8:45 p.m.

Lucinda blinked her headlights at Hutch as he pulled away from the Barbour residence in the sheriff’s patrol car he’d borrowed to meet her. She couldn’t stop thinking of Lily.

They had found enough blood evidence to confirm a physical altercation occurred at Grayson’s pool house. In one area of the furniture that Grayson had cleaned with bleach, luminol revealed a spatter of droplets consistent with a severe beating, a different type of pattern than from a high velocity mist if a gun had been used.

For the blood that the painters had covered over, forensics methods could still determine evidence underneath the paint. With the pool of blood absorbed into the carpet, Hutch had cut away a sample of fibers and padding to show the stain under the floor covering. But since Lily had been butchered by the UNSUB with her internal organs removed and her chest cavity splayed open—that kind of blood loss didn’t match what had been found in the pool house.

It would take time for Hutch to confirm the blood came from Lily, but he promised to put a rush on it. Lucinda had a suspicion Lily had called Grayson and accepted his hospitality for the night, but something happened. She started the engine to the Chevy Tahoe and pulled from the driveway before a question nudged her brain.

Lily had left her shoes behind. If she ran from Grayson, barefoot, where would she go?

Lucinda desperately wanted to sweat the Barbour kid, to get him to tell them what happened to his girlfriend. They couldn’t trace where Lily had gone, unless he told the truth.

She drove through the quiet, residential neighborhood and stopped at the first few neighbors closest to the Barbour house. If Lily were hurt, she might’ve run to the nearest home, but after hitting three to four houses, Lucinda ruled that option out and jumped back into her SUV.

With her hands tight on the steering wheel, she peered into the darkness and pictured where a scared young girl might go if she were hurt and barefoot. At this time of night, everything would have been nearly pitch-black. The meager use of streetlights outside the brick wall of the secluded residential neighborhood didn’t help much.

Down the frontage road, a bright light caught her attention and she headed for it. It might’ve been a beacon to Lily.

The light she had seen reflected off a large cross, a monument on the front lawn of True Light Ministry, Elias Fenton’s church. She pulled the Chevy Tahoe onto the property, hearing the gravel ping onto the undercarriage of the SUV as she navigated through the shadows.

“The Lord works in mysterious ways,” she muttered under her breath.

The pristine white church had an impressive bell tower and stained glass windows, and looked large enough to accommodate a good crowd, but after she drove around back, she noticed the rest of the property needed work. A dilapidated shack appeared to be an old wooden garage with overhead doors

When she heard a dog bark from behind the outbuilding, she pulled her weapon and chambered a round. She took aim with her Glock in a two-handed grip and crept toward the neglected garage. Shadows and the movement of tree branches in the wind played tricks on her mind. Adrenaline ramped up the beat of her heart until she heard the hammering in her ears.

As she inched closer to the dirty windows, she used her sleeve to wipe off dust and cobwebs. She reached for the Kel-Lite on her duty belt and flicked on the light. The beam cast a pale glow inside the run-down garage.

The color red jolted her. She grabbed her cell phone and hit Ryker’s speed dial as the vicious dog barked louder.

She’d found Grayson Barbour’s Mustang.

“Come on, Ryker. Answer your phone.”

The dog launched into a frenzy. The noise rattled her.

But before she heard the next ring, someone struck Lucinda hard. Blinded by an intense pain, she doubled over and saw stars until she fell to the ground and the darkness swallowed her.

Big Bear Sheriff’s Station

9:15 p.m.

Ryker Townsend

When I couldn’t reach Crowley, I called Sinead to have Lucinda’s phone pinged, but her cell had been turned off.
Very odd.
I glanced through my missed calls and saw her number. She’d tried to reach me, but after only two seconds, the call ended and she hadn’t left a message.
Stranger, still.
Against my better judgment, I went looking for Deputy Lovell and found him eating cold pizza in the break room. I almost didn’t recognize him without his toothpick.

“I can’t reach Agent Crowley. Do you know where she is?”

“Yeah, maybe. While you were in with Altamonte, I got an important message.” Deputy Lovell told me about a neighbor seeing Lily leave Friday night in a red Mustang. “Your lady agent followed me out to Grayson Barbour’s house, but the kid was gone. He could’ve left the state. I put a BOLO out on his vehicle. My idea.”

“When did you last see Agent Crowley?”

“She called one of your other agents and they processed the kid’s pool house. I stayed until they both left. I don’t know where she went after that.”

After I confirmed Crowley had driven the Tahoe, and that it hadn’t been parked in the sheriff’s lot, I asked the deputy to issue another alert.

“Put a BOLO on the Chevy Tahoe. I have someone in DC who can give you the license number and particulars.” I gave him Sinead’s contact information. “I want to know the minute anyone spots that SUV.”

I needed fresh air and found an exit toward a back parking lot. When I noticed it free of news media, I took a chance and wandered outside to make a few calls. I contacted Hutch and Cam and received the same answer. Lucinda had left the Barbour residence and no one had seen her since.

“Go to her motel room and call me if she’s there or if you spot the rental car,” I said to Cam.

“Hutch borrowed a sheriff’s cruiser. We’ll both look for her and call you if we find anything,” she said.

“Yeah, thanks.”

I ended the call and tried her number again, but as I listened to her cell ring, my mind tortured me with thoughts of Grayson Barbour. According to Deputy Lovell, the kid had motive and enough pent up anger toward Lily to be our UNSUB for her brutal murder.

Had Crowley crossed paths with Barbour tonight?

“Is someone missing?” A low voice came from the shadows behind me. I turned to see Mozart Reed step into the light. “I heard about the BOLO on your rental car from my police scanner. Anything I can do to help?”

With muscled arms and a broad chest, Mozart filled out his black tactical gear and wore a Glock 19 in a drop-leg holster. He looked like a SWAT action figure.

“I’m not a guy who sits on the sidelines. I
need
to help,” he said. “If Hurst didn’t kill my sister, I owe it to Avery to see the right person pays. You can understand that, right?”

“Yeah, I can, but bringing your sister’s killer to justice doesn’t mean you get a license to kill,
007
. You take orders from me.”

Mozart stared at me as if he were weighing his options. When he finally nodded, he said, “Agreed. Come on. My truck is close by.”

Reed led me to a Dodge Ram 1500 Limited. After I climbed inside, I noticed a child seat strapped behind the driver. I raised an eyebrow and Mozart noticed.

“You have something to say?” he asked.

I pursed my lips and shook my head.

“Nope. I know better than to come between a man and his
Snuggy Ride
.” As we pulled from the parking lot, I asked, “You have weapons?”

Mozart grinned.

“You’re kidding, right?”

***

Outside Big Bear Lake

11:30 p.m.

Ryker Townsend

Under normal circumstances, I might’ve said something about my macho quotient hitting the red-line as I rode shotgun in Mozart’s Dodge Ram, but I’d been too worried about Lucinda. We’d started at the Barbour home and canvassed the neighbors earlier in the evening and tried the motel again. Nothing. Sinead had no better luck ‘pinging’ her cell.

You never would’ve turned off your phone
, I thought. Lucinda’s smiling face haunted me and I ached to hold her. I’d lost my objectivity and I didn’t care. A ribbon of center lane captured in the headlights had me mesmerized as I stared through the windshield of Mozart’s truck. Switch grass wafted in the night air as we drove by.

When a singer by the name of Dustin Evans sang the haunting song, ‘If I Die before You Wake,’ the lyrics cut through me like a knife to the gut. I couldn’t get Lucinda’s face from my mind. I didn’t need a song to remind me that I might not see her again.

“Could you please turn off the radio?”

“Yeah, sure.” After he turned off the music, he glanced at me. “This woman, she means more to you, doesn’t she?”

Mozart didn’t flinch when he asked the question.

“There’s something personal between you,” he said. It hadn’t been a question.

Reed was the kind of guy who made it easy to confide in him. In the short time I’d known him, it felt as if we’d been friends in another lifetime, but I didn’t answer him.

“Don’t bother denying it. I’ve seen that look before. When Summer went missing and I knew Hurst—” He stopped out of mercy. “Sorry. We’re gonna find her.”

It surprised me to realize that talking about my personal relationship with Lucinda had calmed me. The silence and my unrelenting fear of losing her had been worse.

“Summer is your wife, right?” After Reed nodded, I said, “How did you know she was the one?”

He grinned.

But before he had a chance to say anything, the shrill sound of my cell phone shattered the moment. When I looked at my display, I saw the call came from Deputy Lovell.

“SSA Townsend.” I shut my eyes and waited for what he would say.

“We got a hit on that BOLO for the Chevy Tahoe. I’m standing by the vehicle, but your lady agent isn’t here. At least, we haven’t found her yet.” He cleared his throat. “It doesn’t look good.”

I clenched my jaw until it hurt.

“Where are you?”

“We’re at the trailhead of the San Bernardino National Forest, the footpath where those hikers located Lily Rae. We found your agent’s cell phone off the path. It’s got blood on it.

I gripped the phone harder and took a deep breath.

“I’m on my way.”