“You said this couldn’t happen. Your promised me that…”
The rest of Hope’s sentence was swallowed up by the screaming sound of an ambulance, which raced by and veered into the entrance of Sunny Gardens.
“Who’s hurt?” Hope demanded.
“A nurse. Felicity did to her the same thing she did to Ashley. Then, she stole her uniform and her car and left through the rear entrance.” Casey seized Hope’s hands. “I know what I promised you. And, yes, Felicity was more clever than we expected. She either spotted an agent, or noticed the unusual number of staff members nearby. I don’t know. What I
“Oh, dear God.” Hope shifted in her seat. “I’ve got to do something.”
“Yes, you do. You’ve got to fight the urge to act. If you interfere, it could blow this entire rescue. Especially if you try to take on Felicity. The agents won’t be able to tell you two apart. That could have horrible results. Just follow my instructions. We’ll get Krissy back.”
They watched as the lineup of unmarked law enforcement cars took off, traveling in different directions.
A few minutes later, Marc ran Hero back to the car. He’d brought one of Felicity’s scent pads from the garden so her scent would remain under Hero’s nose. “Let’s go. We’ll navigate the local roads, and cover a five-mile radius. The streets are curvy and narrow. She couldn’t have gone far.”
“I’ll use my new GPS,” Ryan said. “It’s sophisticated enough to register even the small local streets.” He’d already turned on the ignition and was shifting gears, waiting only until Marc was inside the vehicle before roaring off.
As Marc had predicted, the country roads were winding and narrow. If Felicity was familiar with them, then she had a definite advantage.
They’d covered a half mile of territory, when Casey’s phone rang.
She glanced down at the number as she answered. “Hutch?”
“They found the car she stole,” he reported. “It was abandoned in the woods across from the railroad station, two miles west of Sunny Gardens. I figured you’d want to know.”
“Thank you.” Casey got it. Hutch was extending an olive branch after his harsh display at Sunny Gardens. Last time, he’d passed on the task force’s update to Marc. This time he was going directly to her-furious or not. “We’re on our way.”
Casey hung up and shifted forward on the seat, staring at the GPS. “Head for the Garrison train station. About a mile and a half from here. There.” She pointed at the railroad tracks on the GPS monitor. “She dumped the car and hopped a train.”
Ryan nodded, taking off like a bat out of hell.
They arrived at the station along with a bunch of agents and cops.
“The train left ten minutes ago,” Hutch informed them. “It goes from Garrison to Poughkeepsie, and makes three more stops along the way. There’s no way we can reach each of those in time-the first is four minutes from here. The next is eight minutes farther. And the last, seven minutes from the previous stop. After that, it’s seventeen more minutes to Poughkeepsie. The roads suck. Peg is having the transit authority hold the train in Poughkeepsie. Some of us are heading straight there. Three cars are driving, one each, to the three local stops. The agents will show photos around, hope that someone recognizes Felicity. It’s a long shot. It’s midday on a Wednesday, and very few people are around. But we’ve got to cover all our bases.”
“You’re going to Poughkeepsie?” Casey asked.
“Yes.”
“We’ll do the local stops and let Hero sniff one of Felicity’s scent pads. He’ll sniff out each of the areas and tell us if she got off the train. If you call and tell me that Felicity’s on the train in Poughkeepsie, we’ll drive straight there and let Hero take over. Hope brought along one of Krissy’s T-shirts. And, as I said, we have Felicity’s scent pads. This is it, Hutch. Felicity didn’t just take some arbitrary train. She’s going home. She plans to grab Krissy and run.”
“That’s not going to happen. I’ll call you.” Hutch strode back to his car.
Casey ran over to the train station and grabbed one of the schedules that was hanging outside. She glanced down at the locations of the stops as she returned to the van. Cold Spring. Beacon. New Hamburg.
She gestured for Ryan to lower his window. He complied. Casey leaned inside, thrust the schedule into his hand and pointed. “Map these three stops.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Hero had finished sniffing out the station at Cold Spring, and the team was racing to Beacon when Casey’s cell phone rang.
“We’re in Poughkeepsie,” Hutch updated her. “She’s not on the train. We manned every exit, searched every car, questioned every passenger. No one noticed her. She’s gone. So she had to have gotten off somewhere between Garrison and here.”
“I doubt it was Cold Spring. I know you have agents here, doing their thing. But Hero hit a dead end. And we took him everywhere-inside the station, up and down the stairs, across every platform-you name it. We’re on our way to Beacon.”
“That means it’s probably either Beacon or New Hamburg. We’ve got agents at both stations. They’re showing Felicity’s picture around, and asking questions. I’m sure you’ll run into them there. Either way, keep me posted.”
“You do the same.” Casey ended the call and filled in her team.
A minute later, they pulled into the Beacon station.
The place was deserted, with just one person and no employees in sight. The members of the task force were walking around, trying to do their thing.
Ryan took off to start looking around. Marc harnessed Hero and began their search. And Casey, reluctantly, stayed behind to babysit Hope. She had no choice. Despite the warning Casey had given her, Hope was at the edge of her seat, craning her neck to see a signal from anyone indicating that Felicity had exited the train here. And if she got that signal-well, that would be a nightmare waiting to happen.
Casey fidgeted in her seat, wishing she could get the hell out of there and assist with the investigation.
As she contemplated her dilemma, a slew of teenagers came sauntering along, laughing and drinking sodas. It looked as if they’d been there for some time. So they’d have to be questioned. Ryan was at the other end of the station. And the kids were about to leave.
Talk about being careful what you wished for. Casey was screwed.
“Hey, you stay put,” a muffled voice called from outside the van. “I’ll talk to them.”
Casey’s head whipped around, and she blinked as she saw Patrick standing beside the van.
He gave a half smile at the stunned expression on her face. “I might not be Claire, but I have a sixth sense for knowing when I’m needed. Besides, I wanted to be a part of bringing this thirty-two-year nightmare to a close. So I drove up here. You hang out with Judge Willis. Just lower the window on her side. I’ll interview the kids.”
They all looked over. But there wasn’t a shred of recognition on any of their faces.
Ryan had no better luck, returning to the van and shaking his head, adding that the agents and cops he’d run into were drawing the same blank as he was. A few minutes later, Marc and Hero returned, and Casey could tell by the grim expression on Marc’s face that they, too, had come up empty.
Leaving the task force to continue their work, the Forensic Instincts team left the station for New Hamburg, with Patrick following behind in his car.
“This is our last chance.” Hope’s desperation was a palpable entity. Hysteria was bubbling up inside her and the
