Vengeance (Oak Grove Suspense Book 1) (19 page)

“There's a body near the pier. It matches Shayla’s description,” Riley responds hesitantly.

I feel like the earth has opened up and swallowed me whole. This can’t be happening. This isn’t how he plays the game. He should be contacting me, leaving me a clue, something. He doesn’t just kill his victim, especially one who he’s using to get to someone else. I spent almost two years with this guy. He’s sneaky; hence the name The Fox. He playfully torments his victims and anyone else from whom he seeks a response or reaction. He delights in others suffering. That’s what made him the perfect mob boss; it’s also what made him so hard to catch. He had the means and know-how to cover his tracks. It wasn’t until I infiltrated his organization that we were able to catch him. Whoever let this piece of scum out of prison is going to pay! Shay and Dylan wouldn’t have been in any danger if it weren’t for that.

“Boss,” Jessica says, touching my arm to get my attention.

I blink and few times, coming out of my thoughts. “It’s not her,” I say solemnly.

“You don’t know that for sure,” Jonathan says.

But I do know. He won’t break from his pattern. He won’t hurt Shayla until he has me where he wants me. “Let’s go,” I command, not bothering to explain myself to my men.

“Are you going to get dressed?” Marsh asks as I grab my gun. I look down at myself and shake my head.

“Yeah,” I grumble before heading to my room where my son is still sleeping. Quietly, I grab a pair of jeans and a shirt then go to my bathroom to change.

Dylan is sitting up, yawing and stretching when I come out. “Where are you going? Did you find her?” he asks, jumping out of bed.

I shake my head. “We’re going to go investigate something. We’ll be back soon.”

“Can I go?”

“No, bud. This is serious and highly dangerous. I can’t take you. You can stay here with Riley and help with the mapping if you want.” He sighs and nods his head. I squeeze his shoulder. “We’ll find her. It’s going to be okay.”

“Stop telling me that,” he says angrily as he stalks out of the room.

“Dylan,” I call after him.

He wheels around so quickly, I almost run into him. “No! Stop lying to me. That’s what you’re doing when you say it’s going to be okay. You’re lying. You have no clue if she’s okay. She could be hurt or dying or dead! You don’t know!”

“You’re right. I don’t know. But I do know The Fox. I know how he works. He’ll want me to witness whatever it is he’s going to do. He’s playing the same game he always has. He likes to make people suffer.”

“What if it isn’t this guy?”

“I have no reason to think it’s anyone else. He’s sent me clues and messages. I’ll take every precaution I can, Dylan. You’re just going to have to trust that I know what I’m doing.”

“I don’t know if I can trust you. You haven’t been there my whole life, she has!” He turns and storms out of the house before I can say anything else. 

“I’m on him,” Paul says as he follows Dylan.

“He’s just stressed, that’s all. I’m sure he trusts you,” Jessica says, trying to comfort me, but it doesn’t.

Dylan’s right. I haven’t been there for him; we have a fledgling relationship. Sure he calls me dad, but I think it’s more about wanting to fit in with the other kids his age than because he feels that way towards me. I choose to ignore this situation for now and deal with the death of the girl, who most likely only died because she looked like Shayla. This is all on me.

“Let’s go,” I command, this time dressed and ready.

I leave Riley and Paul behind with Dylan, as Marsh, Jess, and I head out to the crime scene.

“I knew you’d show up,” Chief says exasperated.

“Of course. You can kick me off the force, but I won’t stop until Shayla is home safely. This guy isn’t the run of the mill kind of bad guy. He’s doing this to get at me. You’ll never find him.” I stare at the chief. I won’t back down. Not from this, there’s too much at stake.  

He grunts irritated. “You have no idea who this person is. There’s no proof. I suspended you; now get out of my crime scene before I have you arrested for interference.”

I glare at him for a long moment, trying to reign in my temper. “You’ll regret this,” I say as I turn to storm off.

“You threatening me, Jacobs?” he yells. I give him the finger and keep going.

As my team climbs back into the SUV, I tell Marsh, “Go to the hospital. I want to at least question some people.”

“You’re not worried this body is Shayla?” Jessica asks.

I dry scrub my face before answering. “Yes, of course I’m worried, but I really don’t think it will be. Mathis, The Fox, he wants to get me back for everything I did to him. He won’t make this that quick or easy.”

“Any idea where he’d take her?”

“No. If we were back east, I’d say yes and give you about a dozen locations. Here, I don’t know. I mean, there’s lots of forest areas around here. There are plenty of abandoned hunters lodges this time of the year. It could be anywhere in a hundred-mile radius.”

“Why don’t you drop me off at the house? I’ll get Riley to help me get started on a map listing all the hunters cabins or any other type of building, abandoned or not.” Jessica types away on her phone as she speaks.

“Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks. I don’t know why the chief wouldn’t let me train you. You’re a much better detective than Nathan.”

“Well, when you’re chief, just remember that.” She beams at me.

I smile back. “I will.”

We drop her off and I debate on going in to see Dylan, but opt to leave him be. I need to talk to some of the people she works with before the chief lets them know I’m suspended. Marsh parks on the level that Shayla was taken. I know the likelihood of finding something new is slim, but we search anyway.

“There’s nothing here. Let’s go see who we can interview,” he suggests.

“I know just who I want to speak with first,” I say as we head into the main lobby.

We head to the OR area where Shayla would be working if she was here. I absentmindedly rub my chest. Each thought of her makes me hurt. We stop at the nurses station. I recognize Julie, the girl who I spoke to about the anonymous delivery.

“Detective, what can I do for you? Dr. Thorn isn’t in today,” she says.

“I know. Actually, I’d like to talk to a few of you. Shayla was taken last night on her way home. Were you working?”

She gasps loudly, her hand going over her heart. “Oh, my God. I had no idea. I was off yesterday.”

“Do you know who was working last night?” I ask.

She nods and flips through some pages, before handing me a sheet of paper. “This is our schedule. D stands for doctor, N for nurse. It’s pretty self-explanatory. I’ll help you with finding whomever you need.”

“Thanks. I see here that Dr. Daniels was working. Is he here today?”

“Yeah, he came in a few minutes ago. He was late,” she explains.

Red flags are flying everywhere. This guy is up to something. I find it hard to believe that his showing up late the day after Shayla was taken to be coincidental.

“Point me to his office.”

“I’ll take you.” She smiles broadly. I remember Shayla telling me Julie was one of the only nurses that couldn’t stand the guy. She knocks on his open door. “Dr. Daniels, Detective Jacobs is here to see you.”

“He doesn’t have an appointment. He can make one,” Daniels says without looking up from his computer.

“Sir, he’s right here. He needs to speak to you about a case.”

Daniels glares at her and then looks over to us. “Come in,” he says tersely.

We enter but don’t sit down. “Where’s Shayla?” I ask immediately.

Marsh smacks my arm. “What my partner means is, have you seen Dr. Thorn?”

“I saw her here, at the hospital, last night.”

“Do you know what time?” Marsh continues.

“Why? What’s going on?” Daniels asks.

I take several deep breaths. This guy is trying my patience already. He’s so smug with a stupid smirk on his face. He thinks we can’t touch him. He’s dead wrong. If he’s involved with this at all, I’ll kill him.

“Shayla was taken from the hospital last night. We’re looking for clues as to who took her or where she might be.”

He looks a little taken aback. “Taken? As in abducted?” I nod. “Wow, um, I have no clue. I saw her yesterday around seven when I went into surgery. I didn’t see her after that. She’s not scheduled today, so I never thought anything about her not being here.” He sounds and looks sincere, but I have my doubts. From what Shayla has said about him, he seems to be good at hiding his true emotions.

“Let us know if you hear anything or remember something else.” Marsh hands him his card and shakes his hand.

“Let’s check her office,” I tell Marsh as we exit Daniels office.

I try the door; it’s locked. I pull out my keys and use the spare key she had at her house. I’d grabbed it as I was leaving one day, wanting to plan a surprise for her.

“What are you looking for?”

“I don’t know. She gave me the notes. I don’t know what else could be in here. I’d like computer access, but I’ll have Riley do it. There’s too much red tape to go through. The chief would never agree anyway.”

“I don't think anything’s here,” Marsh announces after we’d been searching a good fifteen minutes.

We head back to the nurses station to question a few more people, and as suspected, no one noticed anything off yesterday or this morning. This was planned. The abductor knew she wasn’t working today.

“Julie, who knows the schedules?” I ask.

“Just the nurses and doctors, but I guess if someone new were to look, they could find it. I mean, we’re short on people during the night. So if one of the nurses was with a patient and another patient needed something, then no one would be at the station.”

“What times are there only two people here?” I ask.

“Between two and six. At six, two others come in and then at eight, we’re fully staffed. There’s between six to eight nurses on the clock during the day. We’re not all behind the desk, but between the OR’s and patients, we’re pretty busy. Normally, the desk has at least one person behind it all day,” she explains.

“Thanks. You’ve been a lot of help. Here’s my number. If you remember anything or suspect something, call me,” I tell her. She agrees and we leave. We’re almost to the SUV when Marsh’s cell rings.

“Marsh,” he answers. He listens for a few moments and then lets out a curse. “When?” He listens again. “We’re on our way. Keep me posted.” He hangs up.

“What’s going on?”

“Dylan’s gone.”

I stop walking. “What do you mean gone?”

Marsh runs his hand over his beard. “He ran away. Tyler and Faith are most likely with him. Tom is out looking for them.”

“Why did they let Shayla’s dad go out alone?” My temper is skyrocketing. “Get me home now.” I slam the car door.

We drive home in silence and as soon as the car comes close to a stop, I’m out and running into the house. “You were supposed to be watching him! It was your job to protect him! Why weren’t you watching him?” I demand looking at Riley.

“We were. He snuck out. He said he was going to the bathroom. It was taking too long. When we looked, he was gone. Then when we came back, the other two were gone.”

“That’s …” I can’t go on; I’m too angry. “How long has he been gone?”

“About twenty minutes. They took one of the maps we were charting. I think he’s going to look for Shayla.”

“Which way did Paul and Jess go?” I ask, slightly more calm. This is my fault. I should have talked to him earlier.

“Paul headed into the woods behind your house, Jessica to the street heading east, and Tom took the street heading north.” I nod then take off out the door.

“Hey,” Marsh calls running to catch up with me. “We’ll find him.”

“This is just what I need. My girlfriend is taken by a madman who would like nothing more than to kill her and Dylan up and runs off on some misguided mission to save his mom all because he doesn’t trust me. I mean, I can’t blame him. He barely knows me.”

“He knows you. Words are said out of fear that aren't truly meant. He’s scared. He probably feels like it’s his fault. You saved him, not her. He probably has a lot of guilt that he doesn’t know how to process.”

I don’t really want to hear Marsh and his psychobabble. “Save it. I’m not in the mood to hear any of this right now. My son ran off because he doesn’t trust me. I failed at my job. I’ve been an awful father his whole life. Why stop now?”

“Ry,” he starts.

“No, stop.” I stop walking and face him. “This isn’t helping me find my son. Why don’t you head east? I’ll go west.”

“Fine. Just don’t forget who’s really to blame in all this. It’s Mathis, not you.”

“He wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me.” I don’t let him say anything else. I dart off behind my neighbor’s house.

We all search for hours, but come up with nothing. There are no tracks in the woods, so our assumption is they ran down the street to the gas station and possibly hitched a ride with someone, or took off down the road on foot. Either way, they’ve stayed close to the main road. I’m walking up my porch steps when my cell phone rings.