“Right,” she replied. “No one saw him.”
“And that has me thinking.” He looked at her, his gaze tentative as if he didn’t want to rock the boat.
“Go on,” she encouraged.
“You briefly entertained the idea of the abductor being female, but when the profiler got involved, you dropped that possibility.”
Her shoulders went up, but she forced them to relax and took a sip of the coffee before answering so she didn’t sound defensive. “It’s not like we didn’t interview the women in these girls’ lives. We thoroughly vetted them. But yeah, the profilerdidmake it clear that a male likely abducted the girls.”
Evan continued to drink his coffee, and that uneasy hint of treading lightly with her remained in his expression.
While she appreciated his consideration, she wanted to find the girls more than anything. “Spit it out. I can handle it.”
He placed his palms flat on the tray table, then looked back at her. “I only bring this up because I recently worked an investigation near the border where women were going missing. It’s not unusual for illegals to disappear, and especially not in or near Mexico. Turned out in this investigation that a woman—one of their own—was leading them out of the country and turning them over to a cartel to traffic them.”
Kiley didn’t want to believe a woman would do this, but Kiley didn’t doubt he was telling the truth. “Why would a woman do such a horrible thing to another woman?”
His fingers curled into fists. “The cartel threatened her children, and you know mothers will do anything to keep their own children safe. Even hurt other children. Or friends. Even family.”
“So, you think we should give more thought to a female abductor?”
He shrugged. “You know the investigation better than I do, but if it was my investigation, I would run it down more. It would be hard for a man or woman to take three girls at a time without one of them freaking out and screaming or trying to run away. So maybe these girls went willingly with this person, and they would be more apt to go with a woman.”
“Yeah, maybe. But I really feel like we exhausted that avenue.” She stared into her coffee, swirling it in the cup, the sloshing liquid an image much like her brain of late. “The only person to see anything that night recently remembered the van they drove off in had a red circle with green letters on it. We investigated and didn’t turn up any businesses with such a logo. Maybe if we factor in a woman as the business owner or former owner with these details, we might find something.”
“Sounds worth the effort.”
“Yeah. Thank you for the fresh look. Maybe it’ll pan out.” She smiled.
“I have another thought.” He sounded even more tentative, not at all his normal mode.
Maybe she’d been coming across as defensive, and he thought she didn’t want him butting in. “Please. Tell me.”
“It’s about the van.” He tapped one of the notes he’d made. “Cartels deal with suspicious vehicles by burning them or hiding them in tunnels and caves. I don’t know anything about Montgomery’s topography, but maybe a cave or tunnel is a possibility too.”
Kiley pondered his suggestion. “We did a statewide search for the van, but we didn’t specifically look at the abductor dumpinga vehicle up north where the state is hillier. So yeah, we should look into it. We’re running this investigation on the sly, so I can’t task an analyst to find a most likely location for me. If Cam wasn’t already swamped, he could do it.”
“I can read a map,” Evan said.
“That would be great,” she said with enthusiasm. “If you want to, that is.”
“Glad to do it for you.” He smiled, a soft, intimate number lifting the corners of his mouth—a smile she hadn’t seen in years.
The smile called to her, and she was powerless to look away. The ache in her chest since Firuzeh’s death simply let go, leaving a flutter of butterflies in her heart. Kiley suddenly felt like she’d agreed to much more than a search for caves or tunnels. So much more, and mistake or not, she didn’t mind. Not in the least.
CHAPTER 13
EVAN FOLLOWED KILEYtoward the smoldering carnage. Caustic smoke rose into the air permeated with the stench of diesel and charred metal. They’d both donned Tyvek suits, booties, gloves, and respirators, not only to prevent scene contamination but also to protect them from chemicals and noxious gases.
Kiley shuddered, and her footsteps faltered. Evan stopped next to her and thought about taking her hand. Not that he would act on it. He wouldn’t do something so personal in front of her peers. Instead, he moved closer to her and hoped she understood that he was here if she needed him.
He’d never seen anything like the sight before him. A locomotive remained on the track, the front completely blown away and the insides hanging out as if someone had cracked it open like a raw egg. A hole the size of a railcar revealed daylight on the other side of the torched metal. The remaining cars lay on their sides, jackknifed off the tracks.
Hazmat workers and firefighters attended to the large tanker farther down the tracks where it balanced precariously on a slope. They’d secured the heavy car with thick ropes and wood cribbing. And amongst all of that, FBI agents and forensic techs combed through the scorched wreckage, as did paramedics.
Evan took a deep breath and let it out through the respirator. The scene in front of him was nearly unfathomable. Gruesome. Unspeakable. What would an attack that was intended to harm millions look like if they didn’t stop the terrorists from carryingout their planned horror? He had to fight not to shudder at the thought and turned his attention to Kiley instead.
She ran a trembling hand over her hair, her eyes wide. Evan hoped never to see a sight like this again, and he wished at the moment that Kiley didn’t have to take it all in. He wanted to protect her from things nightmares were made of. He couldn’t, of course. Not if she was going to do her job. Which he knew she wanted to do more than anything. Certainly more than she wanted his support and comfort.
