Odd. The back door of Reid’s house stood open.
He entered through the front door with Jane on his heels. “Hello?”
“Olivia?” Jane called.
They went through to the living room, and he stopped dead in his tracks. Cushions were scattered on the floor. Drawers from the end tables had been upended, their contents strewn on the floor.
Jane pulled out her gun. “Olivia! Rebecca!” She held out her arm for him to stay back. “Call 911 while I clear the house.”
Reid pulled out his phone and put in a call for help, then stayed on the line as he followed Jane down the hall to the master bedroom. His gaze took in the scene in an instant. The bed was empty, and the door to the closet hung open. Piles of clothing and boxes lay heaped on the floor.
He stepped to the bathroom and gasped at a figure lying on the tile floor.
“Rebecca!”
He knelt by the prone woman and touched her neck. A pulse beat steadily under his fingertips. “She’s alive.” A brass lamp was on the floor a few feet away.
“Don’t touch anything,” Jane warned. “Where’s Olivia?” Her voice was a thin strain, and her eyes were full of fear.
“I don’t see her wheelchair.”
“Let’s check the upstairs.”
He backed out of the bedroom and followed her upstairs to see if Olivia was there, though she couldn’t get up the steps unless someone carried her. The other three upstairs bedrooms seemed intact. No drawers dumped. The beds were still made, and the closet doors remained closed. They’d found whatever they were looking for downstairs or in the master bedroom.
The pictures?
He left Jane behind to dash down the steps to the living room. The pictures had been on the fireplace mantel this morning. He’d noticed them before he left and had meant to tuck them away somewhere. The space where they had been was bare.
At the sound of sirens Reid headed around the corner of the house and arrived at the front as Jane came rushing from the front door to meet up with Jackson and the paramedics.
“I’ll take you to Rebecca,” Jane said. “Any sign of Olivia?” she asked Reid.
“Not yet. I’m going to check out back.” He went through the house to the back deck. “Olivia!”
A sound barely registered off to his right behind the shed. Was that a cry or just a bird?
He jogged across the grass and rounded the corner of the shed where he spied movement over by the river. Olivia’s wheelchair had sunk into the mud, nearly in the water. The water lapped against her legs and into her lap.
He raced to grab the wheelchair handles, but he couldn’t budge it out of the muck with her in it. “I’ve got you.” He splashed into the water and reached one arm under her knees. “Grab hold of my neck.” He lifted her out of the chair and struggled up the muddy bank to practically collapse onto his knees on the grass. “You okay?”
“Yes. Those men. They wanted the pictures.”
“Did you recognize them?”
“They wore masks,” she said.
“How long ago did this happen?”
“A couple of hours. I tried to call Jane when I heard the noise at the door, but I didn’t get her.”
He remembered the call just before the tornado hit. “How’d you get out here?”
“One of the men brought me out.” Her lip trembled. “He was going to drown me if I didn’t tell him where to find the pictures. Is Rebecca all right?”
“She’s unconscious but alive.” He pulled out his phone and called Jane. “I’ve got Olivia. I think she’s okay, but you might have a paramedic check her out. We’re out back by the river.”
“Be right there.”
“Let me get your chair now.” Reid left Olivia on the grass and tugged her wheelchair out of the muddy river. It would need a bath.
Jane and a paramedic ran out the back door to join them. Jane hurried to Olivia’s side. “Olivia, what happened?” She moved out of the way as the paramedic knelt beside Olivia.
“Two men broke in while I was napping. They wanted the pictures. I think they took them.”
Jane flinched and looked at Reid. “Did you search for the pictures?”
He nodded. “They’re gone. Good thing you already scanned them. And they took your laptop. I’m sure they’ll want that to make sure you hadn’t copied them in some way. You’d better get the pictures uploaded to the Cloud to make sure you have access to copies. There’s more going on here than we know.”
She nodded. “My entire computer automatically backs up to the Cloud so it’s all safe.” Her phone rang and she grabbed it. “It’s Captain Andreakos.” She put the call on speakerphone before she stepped closer to Reid. “Chief Hardy.”
“I found it,” the captain said without any preliminary greeting. “But someone else got there first, and there was only an open hole. It’s recent too. We had rain last night, and fresh footprints marked up the mud.” He sounded disappointed. “We might have seen the person who dug it up. A truck pulled away from the pullout in the forest as we were approaching. I didn’t think anything of it with all the hunting around here or I would have gotten the license plate number.”
Jane sagged against Reid. “Where could it be? Has a bomb like that been detonated in the area?”
“Not that I know of. It’s clear there was something in the hole. I’ll poke around and see if I can find any other clues. I’ll be in touch.”
She thanked him and ended the call. “No device.”
“Someone has it somewhere.” Reid clenched his hands into fists and bit back a groan. The realization was terrifying.
* * *
The air was heavy with silence and loss, and even the river’s scent felt foreboding. Jane watched Parker, ears up, as he lay by the railing watching bugs buzzing around the deck light.
The sun threw out its brilliance as it sank into the water, and Jane held Reid’s hand as they sat on the back deck of his house. They’d had little time to themselves and even less space to catch their breath from the day’s events. Rebecca was in the hospital overnight for observation, but Olivia seemed fine.
Olivia and Megan had wanted to hear all about the tornado. Megan cried when she heard their house had damage. But Olivia sat with a stoic silence at first.
“At least we weren’t there,” she’d said finally before she and Megan went to the bedroom to watch a movie and rest.
Jane and Reid had escaped after dinner. She would figure out who was behind this. There was simply no other choice. They’d both been silent with internal sorrow after seeing Will. It was hard to articulate what she felt, and she knew Reid had the same difficulty. What did they do with this?
And this missing nuclear material was horrifying. Had she provided the missing clue to a madman? She shuddered and hugged herself.
“It’s not your fault.” He gave her hand a tug, and she went with his need for closeness, especially since she craved it too.
“It’s hard to say when the device was taken, but it’s so disappointing.”
Bullfrogs croaked from the river, and the cicadas tried to overpower the sound. She was content to let Reid’s steady heartbeat under her ear soothe her as it drowned out the cacophony of the night creatures.
He pressed a kiss against her hair. “What are you thinking?”
“I don’t feel much like a chief. I can’t even get justice for our son. I’m a fraud. I don’t like being helpless.”
He hugged her tight. “Me neither. I always thought I had the power to change my life, to carve out a space in the world for Will and myself. This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
She let a few tears leak against his chest. “I’m so tired, and I need to sleep, but ever since Will was arrested, every time I close my eyes, I see the anguish on his face. Sleep won’t come.”
“Same here. If I had a sleeping pill, I might take it.”
“It’s so hard right now with the mud of despair sucking me down. I have to find out who is behind this. It’s all on me.”
“Hang on, honey. When this is over, we’ll grab our boy and go on a trip.”
She sat up. “Where?”
“What about Maine?”
She scowled at him. “I see what you’re trying to do, mister. My mother doesn’t want to see me. She doesn’t want me to destroy her perfect little life. And she doesn’t deserve to even know her grandson. Not after what she’s done.”
“That’s all true, but since when are we only supposed to be good to others when they deserve it? It might bring healing to both of you.”
“Oh sure, play the Christian card. I don’t want to have anything to do with Kim. I know now where I stand with her, and I don’t see any kind of relationship developing between us. I have you and Will. I realized today that’s enough.”
“I understand. I won’t push. But if you want to go at some point, we can. How about going back to Indiana to see my grandparents? We could meet my uncles.”
She loved the light of hope and anticipation in his eyes. “I could get on board with that, and so will our boy. I think it’s a good idea to get him out of town for a while, let the rumors die down. Even when he’s exonerated, people will stare and ask questions. They always do.”
“That’s what I thought too. I have to start that documentary on Rome, but I can put it off for a few weeks. I’ll be starting a new one after that on what sudden stardom does to teens.”
“That sounds interesting.”
“I thought so when the producer approached me. I have to get going on it in about two months.”
His calm optimism raised her spirits. “I guess a lot will depend on Olivia. We won’t be able to be gone for longer than a couple of days, and even then, we’d need to arrange night care for her.”
“True. I wasn’t thinking about her. We have to juggle a lot of balls right now. Maybe Olivia’s sister could come stay with her for a while. I know she would have loved to have taken her in, but she didn’t have room in her apartment.”
“She’d probably do that then. We’ll figure it out.”
Her team was working hard. There had to be a break in the case soon. She could feel they were on the verge of something, and she hadn’t sensed that before.
She palmed the rough stubble on his cheek. “You’re so good for me. You know just what to say to encourage me.”
He kissed her, and his warm lips jump-started her heart. “How did I live for fifteen years without you?” she asked.
“The good news is, you don’t have to be without us ever again. You’re stuck with me.” He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her thoroughly before he raised his head, staring into her eyes. “One of these days when we can relax, I’ll have an important question to ask you.”
She flushed all over. “The answer will be yes.”