you, this is our best shot, Harper.” She knew how she sounded. Desperation had leached into her voice and she couldn’t control it. Seth must have picked up on it.
“You’ve got to be tired, Jess,” he said. “You’ve had a rough couple of days.”
“I’m okay…really.” She sighed and took a sip of coffee, ignoring her dull throbbing headache. “I’ll call you in a half hour. If I get a signal, I’ll call sooner.” She recognized wishful thinking when she heard it. “I’ve got a fresh tank of gas and my java juice. I’m good to go.”
After Jess left the gas station heading north, the receiver got a faint hit. She almost missed it, and once the sound registered in her mind, she downplayed it. No sense getting her hopes up until the signal showed real signs of life. When it got stronger, she was certain she’d hit pay dirt. She pounded her steering wheel with a fist, fighting the grin on her face. As soon as it was safe to make a call, she contacted Harper.
“I got a hit, Seth.” She gave him her approximate location, but had no idea where the transmission would take her.
“Pull over at a good spot and wait for me.”
She knew he was on the other end of Chicago. What if the computer bag was on the move? Should she stop and risk losing it? And once that Globe Harvest computer geek found Harper’s tracking software, could the transmitter be far behind? She had a feeling the clock was ticking down on her opportunity to tap into Baker’s illegal enterprise.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Seth.”
She kicked up the speed of the wiper blades as the rain got worse. The sound made it harder to hear the receiver, but it couldn’t be helped. Peering through the windshield, she leaned forward and looked over a dark horizon dappled with a blur of glittering lights. Their colors bled across the glass in streaks. Her heart was racing, pumped full of adrenaline and a fresh jolt of coffee.
“If I have to get off the interstate, I’ll call you again and we can talk, but I gotta stick with this. That bag may be on the move. I don’t want to lose it.”
“Oh, I think you’ve already lost it. And I’m not talking about the laptop,” he said. “Is it raining where you are? I hear rain in the background.”
She ignored his question. A discussion about the weather would only make Seth worry more.
“Funny, Harper. You ever thought about taking your act on the road?” She smirked. “Hell, I guess you’re doing that right now.”
She heard him sigh.
“Come on. I’ve got a full tank of gas and I’m driving the interstate. What could possibly happen?” She cringed, hearing the jinx come out of her mouth.
“Okay, we’ll do it your way. But Jessie, you better stick to this. You call me once you leave the interstate and you stay put until I get there. You got it?”
Even through the rain pummeling her vehicle, she heard the concern in his voice. The worsening weather would only aggravate their situation.
“Yeah, Seth. I’ve got it. I’ll see you soon.” She took a deep breath. “And thanks.”
Payton Archer wasn’t the kind of man Sam had expected. After speaking to Jess and getting her take on him, she pictured of a loudmouthed jock whose favorite topic would be sports and himself—and not in that order. But Payton Archer had nothing on his mind except for his missing niece, a girl he loved without question.
No, Archer was quite different. And that distinction also reflected in his choice of friends. Even if she hadn’t learned about Joe Tanu’s law enforcement background with the Alaska State Troopers from their introduction, she would have sensed it. Tanu had the eyes of a cop.
Tanu carried a .45-caliber Glock 21 in a holster under his windbreaker and a .380 Walther PPK/S strapped to his ankle, along with a lawful affidavit giving him authorization to carry a concealed weapon in Illinois. The man had been up front about it, showing his authorization before she had to ask for his license. She had no objection. Having a retired state trooper along might prove useful.
After a quick meeting at Archer’s Oak Brook hotel suite, the men shared information on Nikki’s disappearance and, together, they had come up with a game plan. Their first stop had been O’Hare Airport. Although Archer’s niece had already arrived in Chicago, showing her photo to airport personnel might have turned up a clue, and they hit a solid lead when airport security played surveillance video taken outside, at the customer pickup area.
Sam was able to isolate an image of a man and a young woman who had picked up Archer’s niece. And although the young woman had not been identified, after Sam e-mailed the digital photo downtown for review, she learned that the man in the video had an extensive arrest record.
None of this bode well for Archer’s niece, and by the look on his face, the man knew it.
“So what now?” he asked.
He sat next to Sam in her front passenger seat, looking out his window, watching other airline passengers coming and going from her parked vehicle. She felt the weight of disappointment in his voice. A town as big as Chicago had plenty of places for a felon to hide a young girl.
“I’ve put out an APB on the guy. And I’ve got one of our detectives looking for his known hangouts. We’ll find him,” she replied as she pulled away from her parking space. “For now, we need more to go on.”
Although she was confident they’d eventually find the bastard, she had no idea when. And her gut told her something else—the longer the clock ticked on Nikki’s time with the man in the video, the worse her situation would become.
From the backseat, Joe Tanu made a suggestion.
“The Alaska State Troopers are analyzing Nikki’s online chats. They faxed prelim comments to our hotel earlier today and there were local Chicago references made. Maybe you can help us decipher the significance.”
“Good idea.” Sam merged with traffic heading out of the airport, hitting her wipers to clear the rain from her windshield. “You have them with you?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Great. Then let’s head downtown. Maybe we can—” The sound of an incoming call on her cell phone interrupted her.
Keeping an eye on the road, she pulled the phone from her belt and looked at the number displayed, not recognizing it. With all the strange things happening with Jessie, she decided to take the call.
“Excuse me. I should take this.” She held the phone to her ear. “Yeah, Cooper here.”
“Sam, it’s me. Seth Harper.” It took her a moment to register the name, but before she could respond, the guy got down to business. “Jess is tracking Baker’s missing laptop and I don’t have a good feeling about this. I think we’re gonna need your help.”
“What? Slow down, Harper. I think you’d better explain.”
Seth told her what had happened. At first Sam got angry at Jess for bending her “no secrets” agreement, but after she filtered her irritation through her friend’s warped version of logic, she realized Jess probably didn’t feel that she’d strayed from the concept. Thank God Seth had taken the initiative to call her, but even that was part of Jess’s plan, so again she couldn’t fault her friend.
“Give me her last location, Seth.” After he did, she said, “I’m heading there now, but don’t you make matters worse. Both of you sit tight until I get there. Tell her I may have to bring Detective Garza into this. She’s given me no choice. Jess will know what I’m talking about.”
After hanging up, she tried Jess’s cell. It displayed an out-of-service message. The weather probably didn’t help. She wasn’t sure it was any cause for alarm, but something in her gut told her Jess was onto something big. A cop’s instinct.
Payton Archer turned toward her, waiting to hear what had happened, though he had no idea that the laptop Jess was tracking might break a murder investigation—a case that could be linked to Nikki.
If Jessie had been right about that e-mail on Baker’s computer, Nikki Archer might have been the delivery from Anchorage. The coincidence was significant enough to make Sam a believer—enough to volunteer for the chief’s assignment with Archer and Tanu in the first place.
She knew she had to find Jess, and she had no time to take Archer and Tanu back to their hotel. A part of her wanted to give these men hope. They had a right to know what was going on.
“Change of plans, gentlemen.” Merging into heavier traffic, she hit the gas pedal, heading south. “And I’ve got a lot of explaining to do on the way.”
“Stas. We need you in the control room. Now.”
