The police lead her away. “We’ll put her in an interview room and see if we can get her to talk.”
“I have a feeling she’s not going to say very much,” Jim says as they go.
I look at Jim. “How were we so off the mark on who was terrorizing Corrine?”
“I’m sorry. We talked to the real Valerie Knudsen. You did meet her at the same conference and actually spoke to her. She checked out. We just had no sense until now that your Valerie wasn’t the real Valerie.”
“Corrine always called her Jennifer, and I don’t know why. I wonder if her actual name is Jennifer? Fuck! What are we going to do?”
Brian comes in. “The police are taking her to Kahului. I’m going to follow. I have Gabe back at Clear Security looking through the state and federal databases for a match on her fingerprints.”
I nod.
Jim gets on his radio with the team who are sitting at the camera feeds. I follow him outside, and they alert us when they see us on the camera. We can see an impression in the mud where Corrine dropped to her knees and looked up at the cameras. Jim points to the garage. We try the door, but it’s locked.
As we walk around the house, he gets updates from his team as they look at different angles and watch us. We step inside the estate and walk out of the garage. With a gloved hand, Jim opens the garage door. “Can you see me?”
“No, sir.”
“What about now?”
“No.” Jim is in the bushes before the camera picks him up on the feed. “I see you now.”
“Shit! This is a big blind spot we didn’t catch.” He radios his team to be sure they pull fingerprints off the door handle from the door. We push through the bushes into my neighbors’ property and wander around the garage area. I know we looked here last night and didn’t see anything. “You guys think maybe she drove her somewhere?”
“The footprints stopped about halfway across the driveway, but we can’t be sure. We looked in the house, but everything was dark, and the gate at the road is locked.”
Jim picks up his phone. “Gabe, did we get the name of the owners from the gardening service?”
He listens a few moments, and as I look inside, suddenly I’m convinced Corrine is in there. I know it as surely as I know anything.
I try the door, but nothing. It’s locked, though I can see the panel for the alarm is green, which means the house alarm isn’t set. I notice a rock garden across the driveway. I pick up a rock as big as my hand and throw it as hard as I can at the window. It beams itself right at me. I duck seconds before it nails me in the face.
Jim turns and looks at me. “Gabe, call them and call me back.” He disconnects from his call. “What are you doing?”
“The house alarm is not armed—I can see the panel with a green light. I thought I’d break the window.”
Jim pulls a slim, zippered case from his back pocket. “Gabe is calling the owners in Japan to tell them we’re breaking in because we fear Corrine is being held hostage.”
Jim positions himself in front of the lock and manipulates his picks until the door pops open. He motions me to stand back.
“Hello?” Jim yells into the house.
Three more from the Halona Moana security team follow us in. The house is silent, and my stomach is in knots. I was really hoping to hear Corrine call for help. We walk through the main level. The house is a good size, but between the five of us, we cover it quickly. Stairs lead down to the basement. We follow them and immediately fan out once we get downstairs. This house goes down the cliffs, so the view looks over the ocean.
We move from room to room. Nothing. There is a gated barrier, and I look through and see a door in the back. I have no idea what I’m looking at. There’s a lock on the gate. There are rows and rows of empty shelves for wine bottles.
I turn to Jim. “Why would they lock this gate if there isn’t even one bottle of wine?”
He looks over. “Good question.” He pulls out his tools and quickly picks the lock. We walk into the dark room with empty shelves, but I don’t see anything.
“Where is she?” I yell.
We hear a thumping, but I can’t quite tell if it’s someone upstairs. It’s very faint.
We hear thumping again. “Where is that coming from?”
Jim looks at each shelf carefully. Suddenly he pulls on a section of shelving, and a door behind the racks opens.
Immediately I see Corrine’s foot. “There she is!”
We rush in, and I see her tear-stained face. She’s bound and gagged.
“I’m here, baby.” I cradle her in my arms.
Jim cuts her free and removes the ball-gag. “Are you okay?”
Corrine nods and begins to sob. “I’m so glad you found me.”
Chapter 42
Corrine
Jim cuts my wrists free of the zip-ties, and it feels so good to be able to move again. Stretching my fingers to get the circulation running through them, I look at my wrists. There are cuts and bruises from my pulling on the bindings, trying to break them. My fingers are freezing, but I feel better.
“Are you okay, Corrine?” Jackson looks me over and inspects my injuries. I know I must be a complete mess.
“Yes,” I whimper. “I couldn’t scream loud enough to be heard, so I kept kicking the shelves
