Cold Case at Carlton's Canyon

She just hoped they found her alive.

* * *

JUSTIN CONSIDERED THE circumstances and knew he had to remain objective and treat this woman’s disappearance like he would any other case. To assume Kelly had been abducted by the same person who’d killed the woman in the creek—and possibly a half dozen others who still hadn’t been located—was too presumptuous.

Making assumptions was dangerous. It could lead him to miss important details and send him on a wild goose chase.

After all, it was possible that Kelly’s fiancé was lying. He and Kelly could have had a major blow-up and she could have run off. She might need time to compose herself before contacting her father. Or hell, she might be off planning some sort of surprise for her fiancé.

But his gut instincts told him they were dealing with a serial criminal who’d been kidnapping female victims for nearly a decade and would continue until he was stopped.

But he wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t explore every option. With the publicity surrounding the ongoing missing-persons case, someone could use the disappearances as a smoke screen to cover up a more personal murder.

Like a fiancé getting rid of his girlfriend if she decided to call off the wedding...

“Sheriff, why don’t you take Mr. Lambert back for coffee while I talk to Mr. Fisher for a few minutes?”

Amanda’s gaze met his, questions looming, but separating victims or suspects was customary, so she nodded.

“Come on, Mr. Lambert. I’ll start the paperwork for the missing-persons report.” She glanced at Justin and Fisher. “Would you guys like coffee?”

Fisher shook his head no. “I don’t think my stomach could handle it right now.”

“Coffee would be good,” Justin said. “Black.”

Her brows rose a second as if to say that she wasn’t his maid, and his mouth quirked. After all, she had offered.

She led Lambert back through the door to the back and returned a moment later with a bottle of water for Fisher and a cup of coffee for him.

“Thanks,” he said with a small smile.

A zing of something like attraction hit him when her hand brushed his as she gave him the mug. Her mouth twisted into a frown as if she’d noticed it, too, and she jerked her hand away and rushed back to talk to Lambert.

Sweat trickled down Fisher’s forehead. Was he simply upset about Kelly’s disappearance or was he nervous because he was hiding something?

Justin took a sip of coffee, surprised at the taste. Most law enforcement workers could handle a gun but didn’t know a flying fig about how to brew decent coffee.

Amanda Blair could do both. Intriguing.

“Mr. Fisher, how long have you and Kelly been together?” Justin asked.

Fisher gripped the water bottle with white-knuckled hands. “We knew each other in high school but didn’t date until our senior year. We got engaged last Christmas. Kelly took some time after high school to do some mission trips, then decided to get her teaching degree. She just graduated with a masters in education and is looking for a teaching job.”

“What do you do?”

Fisher shrugged. “I’m a financial consultant. I just started with a new company in Austin. We were moving there after the wedding.”

“Any problems between you and Kelly lately?”

Fisher shook his head, his leg bouncing up and down. “No.”

“No recent fights? Arguments over where you’d live? Money?”

“Not really. We get along great.”

“Do you and Kelly live together?”

Fisher nodded. “We moved in together our senior year of college.”

“What did her father think about that?”

“At first he wasn’t too happy,” Fisher admitted. “But eventually he realized it made sense. And when a student was raped on campus, he said he was actually relieved she was living with me.” Emotions made his voice warble. “He felt like she was...safe.”

Justin heard the guilt in Fisher’s tone. He understood that kind of guilt. “Do Kelly and her father get along?”

Fisher frowned up at him. “Yeah, why?”

“Anything you tell us about Kelly might help us find her,” Justin hedged. “So they get along?”

Fisher nodded. “Kelly’s mother died a while back and they went through a rough patch. That was before we started dating. But they were both grieving and adjusting. She said the last two years they’ve been close.”

“How did her mother die?”

“Cancer. She was sick a long time.”

So no skeletons that might suggest Lambert had hurt her. “What did Mr. Lambert think about the upcoming marriage?”

Fisher sipped his water again. “He was cool with it.”

“But?”

Fisher shifted in the seat. “At first he wanted her to wait until we saved more money. But Kelly assured him we’d be okay.”

“You have money?” Justin asked.

Fisher shrugged. “A little. I had scholarships for college, so I saved over the summers, enough to get us by until we both started getting paid.”

“So Mr. Lambert gave you his approval?”

“Yes,” Fisher said a little curtly. “Now why all these questions? Shouldn’t you be doing something to find Kelly?”

“We will do everything possible, Mr. Fisher. But like I said earlier, we need to know everything about Kelly to help us.” He hesitated and decided to take another tactic. “You said Lambert wanted you to wait until you were more financially sound. Did he offer to help out financially?”

Fisher shook his head. “He was paying for the wedding, but not our rent or bills. I saved the money for a down payment on a house.”

Admirable of the young man. Maybe he had nothing to do with Kelly’s disappearance.

If not, he’d have to look at the father.

And the serial killer they had nothing on yet...

“How are Lambert’s finances?” Justin asked.

“He owns the bank in town. How do you think?”

“Being a smart ass won’t help you,” Justin said, his voice sharp with warning.

The young man shoved his hands through his hair. “Sorry, I’m just nervous and worried.” He gripped the edges of the seat. “I feel like I need to be out looking for Kelly.”

He’d check Lambert’s financials just to verify Fisher’s statement. If Lambert needed money and had an insurance policy on his daughter, that would provide motive. Although, the man appeared visibly distraught.

If he had money and had nothing to do with her disappearance, and this case wasn’t related to the serial kidnapper, Lambert might receive a ransom call.

Fisher unscrewed the lid of the water bottle and swallowed a huge gulp.

“What about arguments between the two of you?”

A slight hesitation. “We disagreed over seating my uncle Jim next to her cousin Monique ’cause Monique will talk your head off. But that was small stuff. Nothing she’d leave me over.”

“How about exes?”

His lips tightened, and he glanced to the doorway. “Her old boyfriend, Terry, called her a couple of weeks ago. Said he heard she was getting married and wanted to talk to her before we tied the knot.”

“Talk to her about what?” Justin asked.

Fisher shrugged, dropped the water bottle cap, then bent over and picked it up.

“She didn’t tell you?” Justin pushed.

“No,” Fisher said. “I asked her if she still had feelings for him, but she laughed it off.”

“Did he still have feelings for her?”

Fisher toyed with the bottle cap, rolling it between his fingers. “She said he didn’t.”

“But?”

Fisher scowled. “But I saw a text he sent her and it sure as hell sounded like he did.”

The anger in the man’s tone raised Justin’s suspicions. “Did she agree to see him?”

Fisher squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then opened them and took another sip of water. “I don’t know. When she didn’t come last night, I thought...maybe she’d met up with him.”

Justin pushed a pad in front of Fisher. “I’ll need his name and any information you have on him.”

“I don’t know his number, but his name is Terry Sumter.”

“When was the last time you saw or spoke with Kelly?” Justin asked.

Kelly’s fiancé dropped his head into his hands with a pained sigh. “Yesterday morning for breakfast,” Fisher said. “We had waffles, then she said she had a million things to do—a dress fitting, shopping for bridesmaids’ gifts.... The list went on and on.” Regret flickered in his eyes. “I was only half listening. I had no idea it might be the last time I ever saw her.”

Justin gritted his teeth. The man’s fear sounded sincere. So did his guilt.

But were his guilt and fear real because he was afraid of getting caught?

“She was supposed to come home last night?”

He nodded, rubbing at his eyes. “I called and called and finally I received a text saying she was going to spend the night with one of her girlfriends.”

“Which one?”

“Betty Jacobs,” he said. “But when I called Kelly this morning and she didn’t answer, I tried Betty and she said Kelly hadn’t been there.”

Justin would pull everything he could find on the ex-boyfriend as well as Kelly’s phone records and Fisher’s.

Three different scenarios skittered through his head.

Kelly could have met with the old boyfriend, decided she’d made a mistake in agreeing to marry Fisher and run off with him.

Or Sumter could have tried to convince her to leave with him and either kidnapped or killed her when she’d refused.

Or Fisher could have discovered Kelly had feelings for her ex, and fought with her about it and killed her...either accidentally or in a fit of rage.

* * *

THE PHOTOGRAPH OF Kelly Lambert went up on the wall beside the other girls’.

All such pretty young women with their glossy hair, perfect lips and orthodontist-enhanced smiles.

All girls who were ugly on the inside and deserved to die.

One by one they would leave this world.

And everyone at Canyon High would know the reason why.

Chapter Three

Amanda knew dividing Lambert from Fisher was the best police approach. If one of them was lying or hiding something, separating them was the best way to get the truth. But she didn’t intend to let the Texas Ranger run her investigation or tell her what to do.

Lambert glanced back at the door, a nervous twitch to his eye. “What’s that Ranger talking to Raymond about?”

“Just asking routine questions, finding out background information,” Amanda said. “It helps us to get a full picture of Kelly. He’ll want to know who her girlfriends are, when Raymond last saw her, anything that might help us figure out what happened to her.”

“We have to find her,” Lambert said. “I lost my wife... I can’t lose Kelly. She’s everything to me.”

Sympathy for the man made Amanda squeeze his shoulder. “I promise you, Mr. Lambert, that Sergeant Thorpe and I will do everything we can to find Kelly and bring her back home to you.”

He glanced down and studied his knuckles. Amanda narrowed her eyes. He had scrapes on his left hand. A gash on his right.

She casually poured them both coffee, an image of Kelly at eighteen, when she’d won an award for most congenial, flitting through her head. “What happened to your hands?” she asked, sliding a cup of coffee in front of him.

He twisted his fingers in front of him, his expression odd as if he didn’t remember. “I...was nervous when Kelly didn’t call me back. Went outside and cut some wood. Guess I scraped my knuckles.”

His explanation was feasible. Still...his daughter was missing.

“We’ll need a current photograph of Kelly for the media and to spread around to other law enforcement agencies.”

Lambert reached inside his back pocket, removed his wallet and pulled out a picture of her. Amanda’s heart tugged. Kelly had always been pretty and had grown more so. She was dressed in a print dress, her long hair sweeping her shoulders.

“That was a couple of months ago,” Lambert said. “I took her to the club to discuss the wedding plans.”

Amanda studied the photo, thinking of her own father and how special their father/daughter dates had been.

Worry gnawed at her for Kelly’s sake.

If Kelly had been kidnapped by the same person who’d abducted the other girls, they might never find her.

Kelly could already be dead.

Or...she could be suffering now.

Which meant every minute counted.

Amanda claimed the chair across from Lambert. “You say your daughter was excited about the wedding. Does she have any enemies that you know of?”

Another wave of sadness washed over the man’s face. “No. Everyone loves her. In high school she was voted most congenial and most likely to succeed.”

Amanda had forgotten about the most-likely-to-succeed award.

“In college, she worked on the school newspaper,” her father continued, “then earned her degree in English and planned to teach high school. She’s been applying for jobs and hopes to start in the fall.”

Amanda cradled her own coffee cup, aiming for a casual tone. “You and Kelly get along?”

“Oh, yes,” he said. “Kelly means everything to me.” He coughed. “When we lost her mother, she was depressed, and at first I thought what the hell am I going to do with a teenage girl? But then...we both missed Janelle and...” His eyes flooded with tears as he looked up at her. “She’s a good girl, Sheriff. A good girl.”

“I know she is,” Amanda said, battling to keep her compassion at bay so she could ask the tough questions that needed to be asked. The first rule of police work was not to let your emotions get involved. Her father had taught her that, God rest his soul.

“How about her and Raymond?” she asked. “Do they have any problems?”

“Not that I know of,” Lambert said. “She adores him. I wanted them to take it slower, not marry till they had more money in the bank, but they insisted on going ahead, said they’d survive on love.”

Amanda grimaced. She’d never been that naive. Maybe because she didn’t believe in love. Her mother and father sure as hell hadn’t loved each other.

“Mr. Lambert, what about you? Do you have any enemies?”

His eyes widened. “You think this might be about me?”

“I don’t know, but we have to look at all the possibilities.”

He stood and paced across the room. “No, I mean I own the bank and a few people got angry at me because I turned down loans. Filed a couple of foreclosures. But that’s business.”

Money was a powerful motivator. “I’ll need their names.”

He paused in his pacing, smoothing his hands down his suit jacket. “All right.”

“Tell me about your financial situation,” she said. “Do you have a large portfolio of investments? A big savings account?”

“You mean in case we receive a ransom call?”

“Yes,” Amanda said. “That’s a possibility.” In fact, it would be preferable to the alternative. If someone called with a ransom request, they might have a chance of saving Kelly and catching the kidnapper.

“I have some money,” he admitted. “Enough.”

“Enough that someone might take your daughter to force you to pay them off?”

He paled. “If this is about money, I’ll pay whatever they ask.”

“Just make me a list of all of the people who might have a grievance against you,” Amanda said. “We’ll also need a list of all of Kelly’s friends so we can talk to them.”

“Of course.”

He headed back to the chair but paused by the whiteboard in the corner. Amanda tensed. On the back of that board she’d tacked photos of all the missing women from the past ten years. She didn’t want him to see them. “Mr. Lambert, sit down and—”

But a strangled sound escaped Lambert as he flipped it over. He staggered back, shaking his head in denial.

Anger hardened his voice when he spoke. “You haven’t found any of those girls, have you? And you’re not going to find my Kelly either.”

Fear mingled with anger in Amanda’s chest. She’d inherited the ongoing case from Sheriff Lager, but Kelly had gone missing on her watch. An image of the pretty woman’s face taunted her. Kelly was her age, vibrant, planning her wedding. Looking forward to having a family and a long life ahead of her.

But her life might already have been cut off because some crazy maniac had targeted her.

And Amanda didn’t have a clue as to who it was.

What if Lambert was right? What if she couldn’t save Kelly in time?

* * *

JUSTIN TAPPED THE notepad in front of Fisher. “Make a list of the groomsmen in the wedding and their contact information for me.”

Anger blazed in Fisher’s eyes as he realized the implication. “What the hell? Kelly’s father and I came here for help, and now you’re treating me like a suspect. You think I had something to do with Kelly’s disappearance?”

Justin forced his voice to remain level. The majority of missing-persons cases wound back to the family members or close friends. The fact that a string of females around the same age had gone missing was suspicious, but he couldn’t discount anything at this point.

“I didn’t say that. But it’s important for us to talk to everyone who knew Kelly,” Justin said. “Female and male friends included. Maybe one of them saw or heard something that could be helpful.”

Fisher shot up, glaring at Justin. “That’s bull. You want to ask them how Kelly and I got along. If I was jealous enough of an old boyfriend to hurt her.”

“I will ask that, but it’s routine,” Justin said. “The first thing we do in an investigation is to clear family members and friends. Oftentimes, someone may tell us some detail to help us—it might be something small that you don’t even think is important.”

He motioned to the chair. “Now, if you want us to find Kelly, sit down and make that list. You’re wasting valuable time.”

Fisher’s gaze met his, his eyes stormy with emotions and red rimmed from crying or lack of sleep. Maybe both.

Finally he released a heavy sigh and dropped back into the chair. “All right. But I love Kelly, and I’d never do anything to hurt her.”

Justin studied him, wondering how he’d react if he was in this man’s shoes. He’d be tearing apart the office, demanding answers, pushing for the police to comb the streets.

Ready to kill the person who’d stolen his fiancé.

That is, if that was what had happened.

Fisher took the pen and began to scribble names and phone numbers.

Sheriff Blair and Lambert appeared in the doorway, Lambert’s face ashen.

“Mr. Lambert, Mr. Fisher, I’d like your permission to put a trace on your phones,” Sheriff Blair said. “Just in case Kelly calls, or you receive a ransom call. We’ll also need to look at Kelly’s computer and phone records.”

“Of course, whatever you need,” Fisher said.

“Yes, check the phone records and computer.” Lambert’s eyes cut toward her. “Do whatever you have to do. Just find my daughter.”

Sheriff Blair nodded, but she looked worried. “I’ll get Kelly’s picture in the missing-persons database and on the news right away. Hopefully someone saw something and we’ll get a lead.”

Fisher shoved the paper into Justin’s hands. “Call us if you find her.”

Fisher huffed, then strode out the door. Lambert glanced at Justin. “I saw the pictures of those other young women back there. I don’t want Kelly’s picture up there. I want you to find this bastard.”

Justin shook the man’s hand. “Yes, sir. We’ll do everything we can.”

“Do more than that,” Lambert said sharply. Heaving a labored breath, he followed Fisher out the door.

Justin couldn’t blame the man for being angry and frustrated. He didn’t even know Kelly Lambert, and he felt like kicking something.

“I didn’t mean for him to see the wall of photos,” Sheriff Blair said.

“He’s scared,” Justin said. “Do you believe him?”

Sheriff Blair winced and gestured toward the notepad in her hand. “I think he loves her. I want to look at his financials. He turned down some folks for loans this year, had to foreclose on a couple of people.”

Justin arched a brow. “So this could be about money?”

“We’ll see if he receives a ransom call,” Sheriff Blair said. “Maybe someone he angered decided to get their loan money from him after all.”

“Revenge is a powerful motivator,” Justin agreed.

“What about the fiancé?” she asked.

“He seems sincerely distraught, but it could be an act. Apparently a former boyfriend contacted Kelly recently and wanted to see her before the wedding. He or Fisher could have had a jealous streak.”

Sheriff Blair nodded. “I’ll have my deputy pull financials and talk to the folks at the bank.” She made the call while he finished his coffee.

“I have a list of Fisher’s friends and the ex’s name and phone number,” he said as she turned back to him. “I’ll request Kelly’s phone records and access to her computer as well as Fisher’s and the ex’s.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Sheriff Blair said. “At least a beginning.”

“Maybe we’ll find something at Kelly’s place.”

“Let’s go,” Sheriff Blair said. “You can make the phone calls in the car.”

Justin followed her outside, then climbed in the passenger seat as he removed his phone from the clip on his belt. “Sheriff, if we’re going to work together on this case, let’s start by getting on a first-name basis.”

An almost panicked look flickered in her eyes, making him wonder why she was so wary. Was it him personally or his badge that she didn’t like?

“All right,” she said tightly. “But just so you know, I don’t mix business with pleasure.”

He hadn’t asked her to.

She shot him a fiery look. “I may be a woman, but I can do my job.”

“I never said you couldn’t,” Justin said. Although her statement told him far more about her and her past than she probably realized.

Amanda chewed her bottom lip as she started the engine. “Good, I’m glad we got that out of the way.”

He had to admit he was intrigued at her spunk. Obviously she’d battled her way up against men in her field who probably thought she was incompetent based on her sex.

Either that or they were sidetracked by her good looks.

He wouldn’t make that mistake.

And he certainly couldn’t or wouldn’t allow her pretty little face to distract him. He was here to find Kelly Lambert and to solve the case of the missing girls.

Nothing else mattered.

Especially the little zing of lightning that had sizzled between them when he’d brushed her hand earlier.

* * *

THE DATES FOR the tenth reunion had been posted on the marquis in front of the high school. The members of that graduating class were returning to town to celebrate their accomplishments.

They would be partying and drinking and rehashing their fun times. The pep rallies. The football game wins. The dances. The bonfires by the canyon.

Graduation night.

They’d all be happy and laughing, bragging about their accomplishments and careers and awards. Showing off their wives and husbands, and their children.

Back together for the first time in years.

Which would make it easier to find the next ones who had to die.

Chapter Four

Amanda silently chided herself. She shouldn’t have blurted out that comment about being able to do her job.

But Sergeant Thorpe’s—Justin’s—suggestion that they use first names felt somehow intimate. Friendly.

Tempting.

Because he was the first man she’d met in years that made her want to forget her vow to not get involved with a coworker.

But doing so would mean losing his respect.

And holding on to her respect was all she had. She’d had her heart broken too many times to trust it to someone again.

Her own mother had left her father because she’d said he was married to the job.

Amanda was like her father—married to the job, too.

Justin phoned his superior to request phone records for Kelly, her father, her fiancé and her ex-boyfriend, then disconnected.

“Your father was a Texas Ranger, wasn’t he?”