Vanished

His rigid stance told Madison more than words what a toll the past hours had taken on J.T. Susan might think he was holding himself together, but Madison knew it was a very fragile connection that any second could give way.

She came up beside him with her own mug nestled in her hands, relishing the heat that warmed her cold body. She faced the darkness and saw their reflections. He was only a few inches taller than her five feet eleven inches, but where she was slender, almost reed thin, he was broad shouldered and muscular.

Madison remembered J.T.’s two older children reluctantly agreeing to go home with Reverend Colin Fitzpatrick and his wife, Emma, to get some rest. She’d also seen the silent struggle waging within J.T. Did he allow his children to go or stay with him where he could keep an eye on them, possibly protect them from whomever had taken Ashley? J.T. was sure his youngest daughter had been kidnapped, and after going over what evidence they had, she agreed. Deep down it felt like an abduction.

She turned toward him, her arm brushing against his. The brief contact riveted her attention on him, causing a catch in her throat. “I’m glad the rain finally stopped a while ago.”

“Yeah.” J.T. sipped his coffee.

“Did you have a chance to talk with Colin when he picked up Kim and Neil?”

“Just a few minutes. He’s bringing my son back at dawn, so Neil can help with the search.”

“How about Kim? I want to talk to her again.”

“Emma will stay with her at Grace’s house. Between those two they should be able to—” he cleared his throat “—take care of her, keep her safe.”

“If I recall correctly, Grace was a drill sergeant in the army before she retired.”

“Yes. I have to know Kim’s in good hands or—” He worked his mouth but no other words would come out.

A tightness clogged her own throat. She put her mug on the windowsill and faced him. “Let us take care of everything. I don’t know how you’re keeping yourself together.” She reached out and touched his arm, wishing she could take his pain away, wishing she could do so much more.

His muscles tightened beneath her fingertips. His gaze bore into her. “No! My daughter is missing. I will bring her home.” His mouth firmed into a fierce expression. “You don’t need to worry about me falling apart. I won’t allow it. I have the most important job of my life to do and nothing will stand in my way.” His savage tone, directed more at the situation than at her, never rose above a loud whisper.

When he brought his mug to his lips, her fingers slipped from his arm, but not before she noticed the hand holding his coffee quivered slightly. “We all have a breaking point.”

Over the rim of his cup, he glared at her but didn’t say a word.

Determined to make him see he had his limits, she didn’t back down from him. “I’m available if you need someone to talk to. And I’m sure Colin is, too.”

“I know.” The hardness in his features melted some. “I know you’re worried, but don’t be. I haven’t been a sheriff of a small town all my career. I’ve seen bad situations before.”

“But none that involved your own family.”

A distant look flared in his eyes as though a memory surfaced, best left in the past. “I know what I have to do, Madison. I won’t fail Ashley.”

His professional facade, locked in place, shut down any further discussion about how this was affecting him. Madison drew in a calming breath. “Okay. Then let’s talk business for a moment. I see Eric Carlton on the list of people you interviewed, but nothing was written down under his name. Why?”

“Because we couldn’t find him. I have two deputies out looking for him right now. He’s the only person in Crystal Springs that has been convicted of a sex crime. He lives outside of town near the lake. One of the teams with a dog from the K-9 unit will be concentrating around his cabin.”

“Then he’s your prime suspect at the moment?” Although she felt out of the loop, she had to remember she was just one agent and could do only so much. For the past hours she had concentrated on going over what physical evidence they had, then looking at all the logs of the interviews so she could talk with each person and possibly discover something that could help the investigation.

“The only suspect at the moment unless you count all the people I’ve put away who are now out of prison. Your boss has one of your agents over at Carlton’s cabin waiting for him in case he decides to return home.”

“Do you think he will? Or will he flee?”

“I think he’s long gone. I put an APB out on him and his black Ford truck. Maybe we’ll get lucky and someone will pick him up.”

“How about any other sex offenders from the surrounding towns or Central City?” He flinched as she asked the question which had to be asked. The thought of a sex offender having Ashley terrified her, so she could imagine how J.T. felt.

“I have Rachel working on that.”

She studied his thoughtful expression, his creased forehead. “But you don’t think that’s it?”

He looked long and hard at her. “No. Someone came into my yard and took Ashley, probably through my back gate that leads to the woods and lake. It feels calculated to me.”

“So you’ll start the search at your back gate?”

“No, the swing set, although I think the trail will lead to the back gate. Our goal will be twofold. We’ll look for any evidence left behind and for a trail that leads to Ashley’s whereabouts.” His gaze shifted to the window. “Last night before it become totally dark, I checked out the immediate area by my gate. I didn’t see anything, but the shadows could have hidden something.”

Madison twisted around and saw the shift in the degree of darkness. “While you’re searching, I’m going to canvass your neighbors again, especially Mrs. Goldsmith. Maybe she’ll remember something about that car she saw pull out of the side street near your house. After that I want to talk with Kim.”

He squeezed his eyes closed for a few seconds. “She’s not taking this well. She blames herself. I’m hoping Colin can help her. He’s especially good with teens.”

“Are you blaming yourself?”

He stiffened. “Kinda hard not to. I think someone from my past has decided to make me pay for putting him behind bars. While working in Chicago, I received some threats, usually when the criminals had been convicted and were going to prison. They like to blame the cop who caught them rather than themselves.”

Her heart broke at the desolate expression on his face. “Is anyone making a list of people you caught who are now out of prison?” In Chicago when she’d jumped at the chance to return to Crystal Springs to help find J.T.’s daughter, she hadn’t realized how hard it was going to be to keep herself from becoming emotionally involved. Nearly impossible.

“Rachel. She’s good with the computer.”

“I want both her lists when they are compiled.”

After he put his mug next to hers on the sill, he rolled his shoulders then worked the kinks out of his neck. “Let her know. If the search doesn’t produce anything, that’s where I’ll be concentrating next.”

“You know, something is bothering me about this whole situation.”

He slid his gaze to her, his head tilted. “What?”

“From the gate at the back of your yard to the swing set is a good twenty feet. If a stranger had come into the yard, wouldn’t Ashley have reacted? Screamed or something? Which means Kim or a neighbor would have heard her.”

His eyes widened. “You’ve got a point.” He glanced behind him at the throng of people in the large room, all waiting for the first rays of light. “That would mean the person who took her was someone she knew and possibly trusted.” The hand he pushed through his hair trembled.

“It’s something we need to consider.”

“Which would blow my theory out of the water. Because I know no one in this town has been in prison because of me. I grew up in Crystal Springs. I came back here five years ago and I know everyone. I have a hard time believing it could be someone I know. It’s more likely an ex-con.”

“The evidence says otherwise. Prove me wrong.”

He straightened. “I will.”

The door to the sheriff’s office opened and Colin, followed by Neil, came into the station. J.T.’s eighteen-year-old son looked almost as bad as his father. Dark circles under his eyes gave him a haunted look. And from Colin’s appearance, Madison surmised no one got any rest at the Fitzpatrick household.

J.T. strode toward the pair and enveloped his son in a bear hug, patting him on the back. Madison stayed off to the side for a few seconds while father and son exchanged some words. When she finally approached the threesome, both J.T. and Neil had their emotions under control.

“Dad, any news?”

J.T. shook his head.

“No ransom demand?”

“No, son.”

Neil perked up. “Then Ashley might just be missing.”

“That’s a possibility.”

The way J.T. had said the sentence left no doubt in Madison’s mind that it was a distant possibility, and his son picked up on that fact. Last year during the murder investigation J.T. would never have allowed his tone of voice to give any hint of what he was thinking unless he had wanted it that way. Now however, exhaustion and a father’s love had stripped him of his usual defenses.

“You don’t think it is, do you, Dad?”

“I’m not gonna lie to you. No, I don’t.”

“But if the person doesn’t want money, what…” All the color drained from Neil’s face. He collapsed back against the desk behind him and clutched its edge to keep himself upright. Tears sprang to his eyes.

J.T. grasped his son’s shoulders and forced Neil to look him in the eye. “Nothing is going to happen to Ashley. I will bring her home alive and safe. I won’t lie to you and I won’t mince words with you. I think some felon from my past has taken Ashley to get back at me.”

“Then she could be dead,” Neil said in a raw whisper.

“No!” J.T. pulled away and placed his fist over his heart. “I would know in here. She’s alive.”

As J.T. talked with Neil in a low voice, their heads bowed in prayer, Madison moved to Colin’s side. The emotional impact from the brief encounter between father and son left her reeling.

“Okay?”

The reverend’s question forced her to acknowledge what this case was doing to her. “No, I’m having a hard time distancing myself from this one. I wanted to come to Crystal Springs to help in the search for Ashley, but maybe I shouldn’t have.” The constriction in her chest rose into her throat. “His pain—it must be unbearable.” She twisted toward Colin. “If I’m having this much trouble keeping my personal feelings under control, how in the world is J.T. going to manage to keep his professional perspective?”

“One moment at a time. That’s all he can do. He knows God is with him and will take the burden from his shoulders. They will face it as one.” Colin took her hands. “The Lord has already eased J.T.’s load. He brought you here to help. You two worked well together last year.”

Madison glanced over at J.T. and saw him put an arm around his son’s shoulder. She prayed the reverend was right. A little girl’s life hung in the balance.

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