VANISHED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (Edgars Family Novel) (20 page)

“What do I owe you?” Frank said as he started unloading the food into the fridge, setting the creamer to the side.

“That’s right. It’s all about the green stuff.” Kirk pulled out the sales receipt and handed it over. “Total came to forty-five-sixty-two, but I think you owe me an extra twenty for making me get this sissy stuff for your coffee.” Kirk held up the French vanilla creamer.

“Kid’s got a point, Castello,” Luke chimed in. “What kind of cop drinks frou-frou crap like this?”

“The kind that can shoot your ass before you can make it down the street.” Frank took out his wallet and paid Kirk, adding in the twenty anyways for a tip. “How’s your grandmother?”

“Nana is good. She’s been making me help her and the other church ladies take soup and sandwiches to the homeless, which is way better than having to drive her to the beauty parlor, you know?” He glanced down at the pictures of the missing women on the table, stopping to stare at them. “This the case you’re working?”

Luke started turning the pages over. “Not for your eyes, Kirk F.” But the kid stopped him before he could turn the last one.

“I’m just askin’ coz she looks familiar.” Kirk picked up the photo and studied it.

“You know her?” Abby asked.

“She looks like this girl I saw over at a party my boss catered last month. You know, real swanky party for some rich dude.”

Jeffers leaned in and tapped the photo of Casey. “You saw
this
girl at a party?”

“Well, she looks like the girl, only a plain version of her. The girl I saw looked like a supermodel—short but blinged out to get attention. Like a working girl, you know what I mean? In fact a lot of the women at that party looked like high-paid…” he glanced at Abigail a moment, “…escorts.”

“Who was the party for?” Luke asked and Frank recognized the speculative look in his eye.

“I didn’t get the name and it was held at a private club, but there was some serious dudes in that room.”

“Senator Klein one of them?”

“White-haired dude, tall and skinny? Stands like he’s a general or something?” Kirk said.

“That would be him.”

“Yeah, he was there. Along with his son.”

“Greg?”

“Nah, I heard someone call him Dylan. He’s the one the girl in the picture was with.”

“Son of a bitch,” Jeffers growled and before anyone knew it, he had Luke by the shirtfront, pushed up against the refrigerator. “You knew about this senator’s involvement with missing girls and you’ve kept it to yourself?”

Frank held a hand out to stop Kirk from interfering. Might do the hacker-genius some good to get a little sense knocked into him.

Stunned, Abigail watched the fury etched on Jeffers’ face.

“How many more women were you going to let them take before you passed the information on?” He shoved Luke harder against the fridge. Despite the anger in Luke’s face, he wasn’t resisting the detective’s attack.

“I. Didn’t. Know,” was all he said.

“Bastard! Don’t you lie to me. Three women are dead and you could’ve stopped it.”

Jeffers shoved him again and this time, Luke moved—so quick you would’ve missed it if you’d looked away. He held the detective in a choke hold.

“Luke,” Frank said, finally moving to stand in front of the pair. “Take it easy, kid.”

“Back off, Castello. He started it.” Luke looked around at Jeffers. “I said, I didn’t know. Not ’til just this minute, when all the pieces started coming together.” He paused and seemed to squeeze the other man’s neck a little tighter. “Now, do you want to listen or am I going to have to take you down?”

“Listen,” Jeffers managed to choke out.

“Good.” Luke released his hold and the pair stepped apart.

Abigail looked from one to the other, both breathing heavy and enough tension between them that one wrong word and she was sure they’d be at each other’s throats again. Her own heart pounded in her chest. She’d never seen that kind of male aggression except on television or at the movies, and certainly not in a confined space of the kitchen. It was way scary up close and personal.

“Wow, dudes, that was…intense,” Kirk said in awe beside her.

“You. Sit.” Luke pointed at the teen, the intensity in his eyes suggested Kirk obey. “I’m going to need details.”

Kirk sat as Luke went into the bedroom, returning with his tablet-laptop.

“Jeffers,” he said, opening the computer and running his fingers quickly over the keyboard. “When you started investigating these missing women, what was your gut instinct?”

“That I had a serial killer on my hands.”

“What made you think that? There were no dead bodies.”

The policeman leaned his hands on the counter, his head down a moment and he took a deep breath. “I had women of about the same age and body type, loners, no one really missed them when they went missing.”

“You had an MO and a gut suspicion the cases were all connected. Classic signs of a serial perpetrator.” Luke kept typing as they talked.

“Right. But if this kid,” Jeffers pointed at Kirk, “saw Casey alive, then it’s not a serial killer I’m looking for.”

“No. What I think we’re looking at is something just as sinister. Maybe more so.” Luke flipped his computer around. If you take your MO for the missing women, plug them into all the missing-women reports from major cities in the Midwest alone, this is what pops up.”

Everyone stared at the page as Luke scrolled down, showing name after name.

“Dear God, there are hundreds of names!” Abigail whispered. “How can that be?”

“A few here, a few there, none too close in any one area for a pattern to really occur.”

“How did you get these?” Jeffers asked. “I couldn’t find any national database.”

“There isn’t one,” Castello said. “Edgars is the black sheep in his law-abiding family. He’s a hacker.”

“Dude’s a fed and a hacker?” Kirk said, awe written all over his face.

Luke took a moment to focus on Kirk. “When it looked like I was headed down the wrong path, my brother Dave set me straight. Said I could spend my life in jail, because I
would
get caught, and no more computers ever, or I could take my skills and use them to help people.”

“So, if it’s not a serial killer, what are we looking at here?” Jeffers said, redirecting them back to the case.

Luke looked at Abigail, sympathy and compassion in his hazel eyes. “Human trafficking.”

She shook her head, not breaking the connection in their gaze despite the pain in her chest. “Not just that. We’ve found a sexual slavery ring.”

Luke hated to see the pain in Abby’s eyes and the pallor of her skin, but she was too smart not to put the pieces together just as he had. “It doesn’t mean she’s part of it yet.”

“If she’s not dead yet, it’s only a matter of time.”

He reached across the island and took her hand in his, willing her some of his strength. “No, it’s not. They don’t know we’re looking for her. This bunch has been doing this so long, they’ve grown cocky, as evidenced by them leaving three bodies almost out in the open. They think of her as just another woman with no one to care about what happens to her. But Billie Jo is different.”

“Brianna.” She smiled, a shaky one, but a smile nonetheless. “She’s different because she’s got me.”

“And us.” He gripped her hand tighter and looked around the room at the others. Each man, including Kirk F. Patrick, nodded their heads, a look of pure determination in their eyes. “But I do think we need to move fast. After the police raid on that car repair warehouse last night, our criminals may get a little nervous. You good now?” he asked Abby.

She squeezed his hand and nodded to let him know she was okay. “Where do we start?”

“You pull up each missing girl case on this list, study each file and memorize the face.” He held up his hand when she opened her mouth. “It’s a lot, but if a State senator is mixed up in this, we have to assume some police officials may be, too. I’d rather not use official channels to get the files right now. Also look for patterns of any kind.”

“So, I’m the filing system,” she said, but there was less tension in her voice this time.

“A very sexy filing system,” he said, ignoring the groan and cough coming out of Kirk and Castello. “While you’re doing that, I’m going to see what Kirk F. here can remember from that party.”

“Not sure what else I can tell you, spy dude.” The kid held up his hands, palms out. Despite the submissive action and Castello’s faith in him, Luke wasn’t buying Kirk’s innocent act. He’d learned to read people from years of hanging out with his older brothers. Both cops said you could tell a person’s true nature in their eyes. Kirk’s pale-blue ones were sharp and intelligent. Innocent? Not buying it.

“You might know more than you think and the name’s Luke Edgars,” he said, then nodded to Abby. “That’s Abby, but she prefers you call her Abigail.” Abby was just for his use. “You know Castello and this is Detective Jeffers.”

The kid nodded at each person, offering a smile to Abby that Luke had the bizarre urge to wipe off his face, especially when she returned it. “Focus, kid,” he all but barked at Kirk, but he had the kid’s attention. “Let’s start before you went to the party. Did your boss say where the party was?”

“Some new private club down on Shoreline Drive, built into one of those old estates. The driveway from the gate to the house was like two miles long.”

“Well hidden from any prying eyes.”

Kirk nodded. “From the street. But there was a great view of the lake. Saw it a couple of times when I had to circulate the canapés out on the patio and balcony.”

Castello lifted one brow. “Canapés?”

Kirk gave a nonchalant shrug. “Hey, I have to tell guests what they are when I carry the trays out and about. Boss sort of insists on it.”

“So like fancy cheese on crackers?”

“Nah, man. Paolo, my boss, has more style than that. He has these bruschetta that are like one-bite steak sandwiches, and then there’s the lime shrimp wrapped in bacon. Great leftovers.”

“There was an upper balcony, so at least two stories?” Luke asked, drawing him back into the more important facts and away from fancy food.

“Three. Like I said, mansion, dude. The serving staff wasn’t allowed up to the third floor and only on the second floor balcony. Nowhere else. Even Paolo couldn’t go into the basement where the wine cellar was. One of the house staff guys went. Lucky Paolo got what he wanted, since those guys looked like they drank the cheap stuff and wouldn’t know a Merlot from a Chablis.” An odd look crossed over Kirk’s face. He’d remembered something.

“What?” Luke asked, his eyes meeting Castello’s.

“You know, it was a little weird. I was making my third pass through the main room. All the guests had gathered there. Must’ve been a hundred or so.”

“What’s so odd about that?”

“Been doin’ this about a year now, so I’ve been to a butt load of those auctions for charities and when the peeps gather together, that’s when the bidding starts takin’ place. Only, you usually see what they’re auctioning off. The guy running the thing, some old, skinny, bald geezer would just call out a number. Then the men would raise a hand. No amounts was called out or nothing. Then after a few minutes, he’d say sold, then move on to another number.”

“Fuck.” Luke ran his hand over his face and stared at Abby, seeing her brain taking it all in.

“Dear God,” she said, growing pale. “They were auctioning them off right there in the room.”

“Son of a bitch,” Castello said, shaking his head and his jaw clenching tight.

“But that’s just it, Abby—I mean Abigail—I’m telling you there wasn’t nothing there to auction off,” Kirk said.

“Oh, they had something to auction off,” Jeffers said, his voice deadly calm.

Kirk looked at the others, his brows drawn down and his head tilted slightly. “What?”

“The girls. They were on display the whole evening and those bastards were selling them right in front of everyone.” Abby gripped the side of the counter and tensed her shoulders. Eyes narrowed, she stared straight into Luke’s eyes. “Treating those women like cattle. How dare they?”

Damn, she was pissed, like an avenging angel or an Amazon warrior. And wasn’t he a bastard for thinking she looked sexier than ever? “We’ll find them, sweetheart.”

She jumped out of her seat, nearly toppling the barstool if Jeffers hadn’t caught it. “I want them dead, Luke. Every one of them. Dead.”

He held up his hands. “Whoa. You know our job is to take them in alive, unless of course, we can’t help it.”

“You try to take them alive. Any of them that get in between me and freeing those women I’m planning to shoot in the crotch.” She stormed into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Luke and the others stared in uncomfortable silence at the closed door, still reeling from the passionate threat she’d just made.

“She didn’t mean—” Kirk started to say.

“Oh, she meant every word,” Luke said.

“She’s a trained agent for real?” Jeffers asked.

“Yep, same class as me.”

“How accurate?” Castello asked.

“Only person to beat my scores.”

Frank let out a low whistle and Luke couldn’t agree more.

Abigail stalked the confines of the bedroom from the window to the door and back again, hands clenched in fists at her sides. Stopping at the bedside table she drew out her gun. She checked the clip and chamber then slid the clip back in place, finally placing her gun back in the drawer. As angry as she was, she didn’t trust herself to have the weapon at easy access if one of those arrogant males in the other room dared to bother her right now.

“Men,” she muttered pacing again. “Whoever put them in charge? Mucked things up since the beginning of time. Politics. Wars. Famines. Making slaves out of women.”

She stopped at the window, crossing her arms across her torso and leaning her shoulder against the frame, she shivered and stared out onto the street.

Where was Brianna? Was she alive still? There was so much blood at the Brianna’s home and then at the warehouse. Could she have survived all that torture only to be turned into a toy for some man’s pleasure? Was fate getting even with her friend for all her years of using men?