“If you give me her house keys, I’ll go and feed her cat.” Raven smiled at Jenna. “I’ll come by on Sunday afternoon and collect her. We can go by and get her vehicle. She can go home and pack a bag, grab the cat, and I’ll follow her to Her Broken Wings.”
Nodding, Jenna liked his plan. “I’ll get Rio to follow her to the school on Monday. She can give us a call when she’s leaving and we’ll send someone to follow her back to the foundation.”
“I don’t figure anyone is going to grab her off the street and we don’t have the manpower to act as personal bodyguards.” Kane frowned. “Or in the school grounds. There’s CCTV cameras very prominent outside the foundation and trained on the teachers parking lot. You’ll need to insist that she leaves and returns in daylight when there’s plenty of people around.”
Jenna nodded. “Okay, but Raven stick to your plan but collect her vehicle last. If there’s anyone hanging about watching her, they might change their mind about abducting her if they see her arrive and leave in a police vehicle. I can always ask one of the social workers at the foundation to make sure she gets to her vehicle okay and to watch out for her return. They do the same for many of the occupants living there.”
They came to her room and Jenna pushed inside. She smiled at Ellie sitting in bed watching TV. “How are you this morning?”
“I’m okay.” Ellie switched off the TV and looked at them as they walked to her bedside. “Strangely, I slept well last night. I didn’t have any bad dreams and I’m not having any flashbacks. It was a terrifying experience, but it seemed as if it were not happening to me at the time. I felt like I was outside my body watching what was happening like in a movie. Does that mean I’m crazy?”
“A knock on the head would do that.” Raven glanced at the vital signs on the beeping machinery beside the bed. “Everything looks okay, and no, you’re not crazy. The sheriff has found your keys, so I’ll drop by your house and feed your cat, if that’s okay? I figure you should stay here for another night and maybe go home tomorrow afternoon.”
“Okay.” Ellie smiled at him. “Everything you need for Precious is in the mudroom.”
Jenna pulled up a chair and sat beside the bed. She pulled out a pen and her notebook and opened it to a clean page. “Do you have anything to add to what you told us last night? Can you remember any details of the person who abducted you?”
“Nothing I haven’t already told you.” Ellie frowned and stared at her hands. “That’s all I’ve been doing since I arrived here. I’ve run what happened in my head over and over again. I closed my eyes and tried to see the parking lot again and if there was anyone there, but I don’t recall seeing anyone at all. Although the vehicle he put me into would have been close by, I don’t recall seeing it. It’s all very confusing as if that small chunk of my memory has been erased.” She looked up at Jenna. “I don’t remember how they got me into the car. I woke inside the hatch and I was bleeding. There’ll be blood all over the seats. I remember seeing it smeared on the door as I tried to climb out.”
“Run through that again.” Kane moved closer. “I’ve watched the CCTV footage. How did you get out of the SUV?”
“I climbed from the back into the back seats and managed to get the door open. I knew they would be close by, so I had to wait to make sure that they had their back turned in case the interior light came on when I opened the door.” Ellie gingerly touched the bandage on her head. “The vehicle was on the opposite side of the pumps to the roadhouse, so the vehicle shielded me from sight once I was out. I ran toward an eighteen-wheeler parked opposite in the dark and ran alongside it and then headed along the back of the roadhouse until I found a door. I hammered on the door until someone opened it.”
Jenna needed something to go on, anything at all to pinpoint a suspect. “Has anyone been hanging around lately or has anything unusual happened in your day? Have you upset anyone? Perhaps one of the parents of the children that you teach? Can you think of any reason why someone would want to kidnap you?”
“No to all of your questions.” Ellie sighed. “I believe living alone makes me more cautious than normal. I live a very quiet life and don’t upset anyone. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to kidnap me, it’s not as if I have any money for a ransom, or any family that would pay one.”
At a loss to know which way to take the investigation, Jenna folded her notebook and stood. “As we have no idea who the perpetrator is or why they did this, I would like you to stay at the Her Broken Wings Foundation for a few days until we can be sure that you’re safe. Hopefully this was just an isolated incident. It’s very nice at the foundation—and modern. You’ll be able to take your cat and we’ll make sure someone escorts you to and from your vehicle, if you want to go back to work.”
“Okay, I’d like that, thank you.” Ellie smiled. “I’m a little afraid of going home in case they follow me.”
“There is one other problem.” Kane scratched his cheek. “Your purse and phone are missing. We have to assume whoever abducted you has them. They’ve already used your credit card to buy gas and a meal at the roadhouse. We’d like your permission to track your phone and any purchases on your credit card, so we can find this person.” He took a notebook from his inside pocket and placed it on the overbed table beside her bed and maneuvered it into place. “If you wouldn’t mind writing two notes—saying you give the sheriff’s department permission to trace your phone and, on the second note, saying you give the sheriff's department permission to trace the purchases on your credit card, and sign both of them—we’ll getto work. I suggest you cancel your credit card without delay. I’ll also need your phone number.”
Ellie gave him the details and then wrote the notes and signed them. She handed the book back to Kane. He smiled at her. “Thanks.” He took a smartphone from his pocket and handed it to her. “This is a sheriff’s department phone you can use until we find yours. I’m sure there will be people you need to call.”
“Thank you, but I don’t have any contacts.” Ellie frowned. “I guess I can find the number of the school on the internet and I’m sure Ms. Bell will help me. She’s the office administrator.”
Jenna stood. “That’s good to know. I believe we have enough to work with for now. Get some rest and call if you remember anything. The number is in the contacts.”
“I will. Thank you, Sheriff.”
Jenna headed out the door and paused in the hallway. “I guess we follow this up and take precautions to make sure she’s safe.” She pulled a woolen cap from out of her pocket and pushed it on her head. “She seems like a very nice person, but her story doesn’t add up. The vehicle resembles her own, no one saw her abductor, and her credit card was used to pay for gas. I just can’t get it out of my head that she’s doing this to deflect our attention away from another crime—or she craves attention. How she managed to do it, is a complete mystery to me—unless she had an accomplice.”
“Maybe it’s because she’s not hysterical or acting the same way as people usually do when they’ve been kidnapped.” Kane shrugged. “She’s almost clinical as if she was expecting it to happen to her one day. She reacted very well to her fight-or-flee response and ran for her life. She made rational and clear decisions when injured. We’re used to interviewing terrified women who are losing it. I personally can’t see any way she could get from the convenience store to the roadhouse in a blizzard with ahead injury.” He glanced at his watch. “If we ask Kalo to follow up on the phone and credit card, we can go home.”
Jenna turned to Raven. “I figure we should go with Raven to her house. We have permission to be inside. We’ll check it out and make sure no one is lurking about while he feeds the cat.”
“Sure, let’s go now and then we’ll be home for lunch with the boys.” Kane headed for the elevator. “Maybe our weekend won’t be ruined after all.”
SIX
Constantly wondering if her imagination was playing tricks on her, Laney Prescott peered out of the window of her two-bedroom log cabin on the outskirts of Black Rock Falls. It had seemed like a good idea to live here in summer, but now in winter, it seemed more isolated than ever. The problem was she’d seen headlights behind her on her way home from work on Friday. No one had passed her and it was as if someone had parked along the highway, and when she’d taken the track to her house, they’d stopped to watch her. Her job as a social worker meant she came in contact with many different people, and some were more hostile than others. Although she tried to help everyone, it wasn’t always possible to produce the outcome they expected.
The feeling of being watched had started over a week ago when she’d heard footsteps behind her on the walk to the coffee shop and turned to see nobody there. Once inside and drinking her coffee, something brushed or touched her hair. There had been a man close by, but when she turned around, he just looked at her and smiled. Was she paranoid? Maybe, but she’darranged for a contractor to drop by and see her about installing a security system. Now sure that someone had followed her home, insecurity about the safety of her new home concerned her. Maybe it was all in her mind, but the strange noises all night like someone dragging fingernails over a chalkboard had scared her. She’d gotten up and walked around, peering out of windows, and seen nothing but snow falling hard. She’d found herself living in a snow globe.
Laney tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Eventually she got up and made herself a cup of hot chocolate. The house should be warm, but steam escaped from her lips as she breathed on her way back to the bedroom. Confused, she went to the thermostat on the wall in the hallway and discovered it had been turned down. At this temperature, she couldn’t survive—not with her asthma. She readjusted the thermostat and tried to recall when she’d first set it. She remembered that it had been at the beginning of winter when the temperature changed suddenly and the little cabin was very cold inside. Her stomach dropped considering the implications of a broken furnace. Her savings had gone to the house and it would cost a fortune to replace the furnace. Even repairs could be costly and she had only one wage coming in at the moment. Maybe she’d need to take on a second job.
By the time she’d finished the beverage, her head was aching with worry. She took two Tylenol from the bottle beside her bed and closed her eyes. Trying to push away the worry of the furnace and the insistent strange noises that continued to rattle through the house, she eventually went to sleep.
