29

Avery pulled her sedan against the curb, then put the vehicle into park, her protection detail still trailing a hundred feet behind her. She turned to Tory. “How much time to locate the cell phone?” They couldn’t waste time looking in the wrong direction.

“Not long. Give me a few minutes, and I should be able to locate her within fifty meters or so, thanks to the density of the mobile traffic in the area.”

“We don’t have a few more minutes. If he’s got her, he’s going to kill her.”

Avery grasped the steering wheel while Tory worked, wishing they knew more about their killer’s pattern. How long had he kept the girls before he killed them? Where did he take them? There were too many questions. Too many unknowns. And no time to make a mistake. She put in a call to Mitch and Carlos and told them to be ready as soon as they had a location.

“I’ve got her.” Tory pointed to the gridded map on the computer screen. “The triangulation pinpoints the phone’s location to a gas station seven miles from here. And at the moment, it’s not moving.”

Seven miles.

“We can assume that the distance was too far for her to have walked on her own.”

Which also upped the odds that someone actually had taken her.

Avery pulled out into traffic. “Let Mitch and Carlos know where we’re going, then give our protection squad an update. We could use the extra backup.”

Six minutes later, Avery pulled into the parking lot of the gas station and stopped beneath the huge overhead canopy, praying they weren’t six minutes too late. Exiting the car with Tory, she studied the scene. If her captor had brought her here, he’d probably chosen the busy station on purpose, where it would be easy to get lost in the crowd. Where no one would remember his face.

Or the face of a young, kidnapped Vietnamese girl.

Rows of pumps—most of them filled with customers—spread out to her left. The station’s convenience store ran parallel behind it. There were side entrances and delivery doors in the building, giving them a lot of ground that needed to be covered.

Avery turned back to Tory. “Any movement on the cell phone?”

“Nothing.”

She had to be here.

Avery’s focus narrowed. An old man stood beside his pickup truck, pumping gas. A woman came out of the store with two children eating ice cream. A car of teenage boys messed around while filling their tank. All of them were oblivious to a possible life-and-death situation taking place around them.

Where was she?

Mitch and Carlos pulled into the parking lot right behind them and jumped out, joining officers Kelly and Taylor.

“Where do you want us, boss?” Mitch asked.

Avery laid the photograph Mrs. Chu had given her on the hood of her car and started handing out instructions. “If our serial killer is involved, we’re going to need to work as quickly as possible. Mitch and Carlos, join Kelly and Taylor and start searching all the cars in the lot. We might not have a search warrant, but we definitely have probable cause. Tory and I will search inside. If she’s here, I want her found.”

Avery and Tory ran past the dozen cars fueling up with gas toward the convenience store. “Has the signal moved?”

Tory glanced at the computer screen in her hands. “The signal’s still not moving.”

Avery flashed her badge and announced their presence to the manager on duty before she and Tory split up to search inside the huge building. Avery headed toward the bathrooms past rows of junk food, a long line of fountain drinks, and for those feeling a bit more health conscious, a selection of fresh sandwiches and salads.

But there was no sign of Malaya.

Inside the white-tiled bathroom, she shoved open the door of the first stall with the toe of her shoe, letting the metal door slam against the wall. The woman standing at the counter applying a layer of lipstick paused, her eyes wide.

Avery held up her badge along with Malaya’s photo, then moved on to the next stall. “I’m Detective North. I’m looking for this young woman.”

The woman’s gaze dropped to Avery’s gun peeking out beneath her jacket before shaking her head and heading toward the exit. “I’m sorry. I haven’t seen her.”

Avery moved on to the last stall. It was empty.

She pushed open a cramped closet filled with mops, brooms, and the strong industrial smell of cleaning products. Nothing.

Avery turned to leave, stopping when she caught her profile in the mirror. Her face was pale and there were dark shadows under her eyes from lack of sleep. She hesitated. He’d tried to get into her head and won. The card, the flower, Michael’s signature, the break-in . . .

All of it was nothing more than a game to him.

But he wasn’t going to win this time. She was going to track him down and find Malaya before he did anything to hurt her. And then ensure that he spent the rest of his life in a high-security prison.

Which meant every second counted.

Avery stepped back into the brightly lit storefront. Tory was making her way down the chip aisle toward her.

“Anything?”

Tory shook her head. “I checked the men’s restroom and the delivery entrances. She’s not there and no one has seen her.”

“She’s not in the back either.”

Where was she?

The front door opened. Mitch entered, holding up a black cell phone, with Carlos trailing a step behind. “I found the phone.”

“Where?”

“Against the curb near the west entrance of the parking lot.”

“But no sign of Malaya?”

“Nothing. I instructed the other officers to expand the search, but there’s no sign of her so far.”

Avery felt the air rush out of her lungs. Without the phone in Malaya’s possession, they had no way to trace her.

God, where is she? We need another miracle.

She fought to put the pieces of the puzzle into some sort of semblance. Logic said that Malaya’s kidnapper—a theory she was going to assume true at this point—had stopped to get fuel for his vehicle and left as quickly as possible. Somehow in the process, Malaya had lost the phone. But that still didn’t put them any closer to knowing where she might be.

“He could have discovered the phone and dumped it.” Tory rested her hands against her hips, clearly as frustrated as the rest of them. “They could be halfway across the city by now.”

“I realize that, but there is also the chance—slim as it might be—that she tried to run and is still here. Tory, verify Mrs. Chu’s story about her husband being out of town, so we can eliminate him as a suspect. As soon as you’re done, you can help me check all the transactions that have gone through over the past hour and see if anyone came through here who is related to the case.” Pushing aside any emotional attachments to the case was the only way she was going to be able to focus. “Carlos and Mitch, get with the manager and go through the video footage for the last hour to see if Malaya is on there. I want to know every person who has passed through here, especially if we can somehow link them to this case.”

Avery started toward the front of the store, praying that the miracle that would point them in the right direction was here. A minute later, she was sorting through the receipts. Most were credit card transactions, and none of the names raised a red flag. After verifying that Mr. Chu had indeed left for New York three days ago and was scheduled to return tonight as his wife had told them, Tory started cross-referencing names in order to find any connections with the case or those with a criminal past.

“We’ve got five cash transactions.” Avery held up the receipts. “Let’s run the time stamp on the receipts against the times on the videos and see if we can get a match and identify the customers.”

They were one step closer.

Avery mentally sorted through what they had, trying to see the situation through their killer’s eyes. He’d picked one of the busier stations in the area, presumably hoping no one would remember his face. Paying cash meant risking a face-to-face encounter with the cashier, but it was less risky than using a credit card that would leave a paper trail. If taking Malaya had been a crime of opportunity, then he was making things up as he went along, which in the end, gave them a slight advantage. All he had to do was make one mistake. But they needed his identity.

Avery stood at the video monitor beside John, one of the cashiers helping them. “You were working out front?”

His hand trembled as he reached up to scratch his face. “Yes.”

“I need you to tell me anything you can remember—anything about these cash transactions while we watch the customers on the video.”

“I’ll try, but we have so many customers going through . . .”

“Anything you can tell us will help.”

“Okay.”

Mitch began cuing up the time frames on the video that matched the cash receipts. They watched the first match. An older woman, seventy, seventy-five, paid cash for her gas.

John nodded. “She paid her bill in quarters and pennies.”

“Doesn’t look nervous and certainly doesn’t fit any profile.” Just slow. “Next.”

John didn’t come up with anything until the fourth customer. “Wait. I remember him. He had his hat pulled low. Mumbled, seemed in a hurry. Nervous.”

The video feed was grainy. “Can you give a detailed description?”

“I don’t know. Midfifties. Asian, I think.”

Avery’s mind started clicking. It had to be him. “You’re sure about that?”

John nodded his head. “Yeah . . . yeah, I’m sure.”

“Okay. Mitch, see if you can get a clear shot of his face, then find the corresponding video from outside so we can identify him getting into his car.”

Two minutes later, Mitch paused the tape again. “There isn’t a clear shot of his face inside the store, but take a look at this.”

Their suspect unlocked a dark sedan with tinted windows. “That’s him.”

Tory tapped on the screen. “The car matches the description Mrs. Chu gave about a vehicle she spotted in the neighborhood when she went out to look for Malaya.”

“Rewind the video thirty seconds, before he exits the store, and slow it down to half speed.” Avery held her breath while Mitch rewound the video. “There . . . there she is. Malaya exited the vehicle right before he returned from paying for his gas.”

Avery watched the gray-scale video flick by frame by frame. Their suspect pulled open the driver’s door, cap pulled low, then looked around and noticed Malaya was gone.

“How much time has passed?”

“Thirty minutes, which gives us an approximate radius of two miles.”

Avery tried to put herself in Malaya’s shoes. With no circle of friends, whether she was in the country legally or not, she probably had no idea where she should go or where to turn for help. “She won’t go far. She’s feeling scared and vulnerable and doesn’t see any viable options.”

Tory nodded. “Which means she’s looking for a place to hide.”

Avery mentally ran over the block surrounding the gas station. It was filled with shops and apartment buildings, and there would be dozens of places to hide. Which gave them a lot of ground to cover. But first . . .

“We need an ID on this man.”

“Wait a minute.” Mitch forwarded the video a few frames, stopped, then zoomed in on the man’s face. “He must have panicked when he noticed she was gone because we’ve got him.”

Avery felt her breath catch at the familiar face. “That’s him.”

Robert Sourn.

But there was no time to celebrate. “Tory, I want a warrant put out for Mr. Sourn’s arrest. Carlos and Mitch, watch the rest of the surrounding footage to ensure we didn’t miss anything. Tory and I will coordinate with the other guys and help expand the search. You can join us as soon as you’re through here.”

Mitch grasped her arm. “Be careful, Avery. He’s still out there.”

Avery nodded at her partner, then headed outside.

“What do you think he did?” Tory hung up her phone, then hurried to keep up, a step behind Avery. “Went looking for her specifically, or was it simply another opportunity?”

“I don’t know, but if he thinks she can identify him, he’s not going to let her go without a fight. He knows she’s out there.”

Sourn had a lead on them, which meant that he could have already found her. Avery shook off the fear of that thought, refusing to believe that they had come this far only to lose her.

They quickly coordinated with the other officers, then headed north on foot. Lightning struck in the distance, and Avery caught sight of dark clouds moving across the city. It had become another game of cat and mouse. Of who could find her first. And Avery’s job was to save Malaya from the man who hunted her.

They made their way up one of the dozens of side streets in the area. Avery quickened her step with Tory right behind her, then stopped midstride. Something had caught her eye.

It was a shoe.

Avery felt her heart sink as she closed in on the figure. If they were too late . . .

They found her there. Hovering behind a Dumpster. Alive.

Avery called on the radio to the rest of the team. “I’ve got her. Tory, call in an ambulance.”

Avery knelt down beside Malaya, who sat curled up in a ball, unmoving, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. Blood ran down her face from a cut on her forehead.

But she was alive.

“Malaya?”

Big brown eyes looked up at Avery.

Avery knelt down beside Malaya, then turned to Tory. “Tell her she’s going to be okay now. Tell her the nightmare is finally over.”