She didn’t know what life experiences he’d had in the time they’d been apart. There were things they hadn’t shared. They were really virtual strangers now.
Still, there was no question being with him again had stirred some confusing emotions inside her, but she told herself all she wanted from him—all she really needed—was for him to bring Sadie home. Then they could both get back to their separate lives.
“MARIA,” EVAN YELLED to his little sister, who had just run into the alleyway chasing a butterfly. Reluctantly he got up from the stoop where he had been sitting with some of his buddies.
“Maria,” he shouted once again. Sometimes watching his little sister could be a real pain.
He entered the alleyway, the smell of the overflowing garbage cans beneath the heat of the day pungent and nearly overpowering. He narrowed his eyes as he advanced deeper into the darker narrow passageway.
He suddenly froze. A man, wearing a dirty blue bandana to hide the lower half of his face, held Maria against his body with a knife to her throat. A terror he’d never known before ripped through Evan.
“Go on, get out of here, boy,” the man said gruffly.
Maria’s big brown eyes pleaded with Evan to do something, anything to save her.
On trembling legs he took two steps forward. “Let her go.” Sweat trickled down the center of his back. Nausea rose in Evan’s throat, and his entire body flushed in horror. This was like something out of the scariest movie he’d ever seen. He had to do something to save his little sister.
“I told you to get out of here unless you want me to slit her throat,” the man growled.
“No, please don’t hurt her!” Evan exclaimed.
The man lunged forward and swiped the knife toward Evan’s face. Evan leaped backward as the blade slashed perilously close to his cheek. “Please...let her go. She’s my sister.”
“You aren’t in control here, kid. She’s mine now.” The man suddenly picked up Maria, then turned and ran. “Evan,” the little girl cried.
“Maria!” Evan screamed.
EVAN BOLTED UPRIGHT, his heart racing and his body bathed in a light sheen of sweat. For just a moment, he was a frightened eight-year-old again and in that foul-smelling alley, confronting a man with a knife who had his little sister.
He wiped a hand down his face and then realized it hadn’t been the nightmare that had ultimately awakened him, but rather Hendrick on a video call.
He scrambled out of bed and hurried to the desk where his computer was set up. “Hendrick, you have something for me?”
“The van.”
Evan straightened, now wide awake. “What about it?”
“I found it.”
“Where?”
“Believe it or not, in the parking lot of a grocery store five miles from the school,” Hendrick replied. “I ran security tape in the lot, and it looked like Jacob, Gretchen and Sadie left the van and then walked out of camera range. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to pick them up on any other cameras in the area.”
Evan cursed. “So, we don’t have any idea what kind of vehicle they might be in now or where they might have gone.”
“That’s about the sum of it,” Hendrick replied grimly.
“Is it possible they’re on foot right now?”
Hendrick shook his head. “I don’t believe so. They got out of that van with a sense of purpose. They didn’t look around, but rather started walking quickly. I think they knew there was another ride waiting for them.”
“Give me the exact location of the van,” Evan said.
He took down the pertinent information and then disconnected. He grabbed his holster and gun from the nightstand and then left his room. He knocked on Annalise’s door.
She opened the door. “Evan... I thought you were sleeping.”
“I just got a call from Hendrick. He found the black van in a parking lot about five miles from here, so I’m calling some of the men to meet me there.”
“I’m coming with you,” she said. “Maybe Sadie somehow left some kind of clue for us in the van. Just let me grab my room key card.”
Evan had hoped after a couple hours of sleep he would be able to better focus on finding Sadie. Although he felt physically refreshed from the almost two hours of sleep he had gotten, mentally he still felt half-exhausted with the weight of the case on his shoulders and trying to deal with his unexpected emotions where Annalise was concerned.
Minutes later, with her seated next to him in the rental car, he had an overwhelming need to reach out and touch her.
He gripped the steering wheel more tightly. He had to stay focused on the crime that had brought them together in the first place and not on anything else. He still had a little girl to find, and he was desperate to get that right.
While he drove he called Nick and Davis and told them where the van was parked and instructed them to meet him there. He then called Hendrick to see if there had been any stolen car reports from the area in and around the parking lot.
“Already done,” Hendrick replied, and so far there were no stolen car reports. “And I think it’s safe to say that if they had stolen a car, it would have been reported by now. According to the time stamp on the security tape, they had to have driven directly from the school to that parking lot.”
“It’s possible Jacob arranged for somebody at the compound to meet him with a car. See if you can get in touch with whoever is in charge of the traffic in and out of the compound. Maybe they’ll have a record of a car that went out sometime last night and then never came back.”
“On it. I’ll get back to you as soon as I have something.”
Evan hung up his phone and glanced at his passenger. She looked as tense as he felt as he pulled into the grocery store’s large parking lot. “The
