“I just spoke with Eldon Mossey,” Nash Bowden told Thea as they stood on the street in front of Reggie’s house. “He’s at the hospital with Taryn. Looks like she’s going to be okay.”
“That’s a relief,” Thea said. “But still no sign of Derrick Sway?”
Chief Bowden shook his head. “We’ve got officers sweeping the area and traffic stops on all the major roads. There’s always a chance someone will spot him and call in.”
“Let’s hope so. He’s not exactly the type to blend in.” Thea combed fingers through her tangled ponytail in frustration. “I can’t believe he got away. He didn’t have that much of a lead on me. I could have sworn I was right behind him. For someone of his age and size, he moves fast. Makes me wonder if he was able to vanish so quickly because someone helped him.”
“When you first got here, did you notice a vehicle parked on the street? Anyone that looked suspicious or out of place hanging around the neighborhood?”
“No, but I haven’t lived here in years,” she said. “I don’t know the neighbors or the cars they drive. A parked vehicle or even someone walking down the street wouldn’t have stood out for me. Although I’m certain I would have noticed Derrick Sway.”
They were going back over the same information Thea had already provided earlier to one of the responding officers. Both she and Eldon Mossey had given brief statements as the paramedics had loaded Taryn into an ambulance. Then Thea had gone back to Reggie’s house to clean up and borrow a shirt. Once Nash Bowden arrived, he’d wanted to hear the details for himself.
He was a tall, serious man with a calm demeanor and brooding eyes. As they stood talking, she couldn’t help thinking about Grace Bowden with her too bright smile and flashes of melancholy. Thea still suspected all was not well in the Bowden marriage—a notion that his ringless finger seemed to confirm—but a few minutes into her interview and any lingering questions about his character began to wane. She could see why Jake liked him.
“Don’t beat yourself up over the Sway situation,” he said. “He got away because you stopped to help Taryn. I would have done the same in your position. If not for your quick action, she might have suffered massive blood loss or worse before the paramedics arrived.”
“I appreciate the kind words, Chief, but you’re giving me far too much credit. The cut wasn’t so deep as to be life-threatening. I’m sure she would have been fine regardless.”
He seemed determined to cut her some slack. “You couldn’t have known that for sure. The important thing is she’s alive.”
“Yes, but I can’t help wondering why Sway let her go. He could just as easily have killed her.”
Bowden shrugged. “He bought himself some time. He knew if he wounded her, you’d stop to assist. If he’d killed her outright, you’d pursue.”
“Which is exactly what I did, and I lost him anyway,” Thea said. “He could be anywhere by now.”
“He won’t risk any of the main roads. My guess is he’ll go to ground as soon as he’s able. For all we know, he may have a hideout somewhere nearby. That could explain why you happened upon him in the woods. Anyone in his position with a lick of common sense would have already fled the area. There must be a reason he’s sticking around here.”
“He did say he has a score to settle with my mother,” Thea said.
“What kind of score?”
“He didn’t elaborate, only that he had a lot of scores to settle after ten years in prison. That’s about all I got out of him. He didn’t seem at all concerned about being caught, which makes me wonder again if he has someone helping him evade the police.”
“It’s possible. He was born and raised around here. He could still have friends in the area or someone he’s coerced into helping him.” Bowden paused, his dark gaze moving over the street. His casual attire—jeans, rolled-up sleeves and dusty black boots—belied the tenacious vigilance in his eyes. “Tell me again what he said about Kylie.”
“That common sense should tell us she’s either dead or halfway out of the country by now—an implication that she might have been trafficked. An associate of mine is keeping a close eye on the deep web sites we routinely monitor in case Kylie’s photograph pops up.”
He frowned. “What kind of sites?”
“Auction sites,” Thea said.
He looked visibly shaken. “She’s four years old.”
“I’ve seen photographs of children even younger.”
He swore under his breath. “How do you get any sleep at night?”
“I don’t sleep well,” Thea said. “I do my best to compartmentalize. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m sure you have to do the same.”
“Four years old.” He looked sad and angry.
Thea understood only too well. “Sway sounded confident we wouldn’t find her, but he never confessed to anything.”
“Confession or not, he’s our most viable suspect at this point.” His features tightened resolutely.
“Maybe, but I got the feeling he enjoyed toying with me. Spouting things to try to set me off.”
“You don’t like him for the kidnapping?”
“I never said that. No, I agree with you. He’s certainly a viable suspect.” And it’s my fault he got away. I should have called for backup as soon as I saw him in the woods. I shouldn’t have tried to take matters into my own hands.
Aloud she said, “There’s something else that worries me about my run-in with Sway. Agent Stillwell and I drove over here together earlier, but we split up. I wanted to check on something in my mother’s house and he left to search the woods. I haven’t been able to reach him since. It’s probably nothing. I’m sure he’s just out of range or something. But after everything that happened with Sway...” She trailed off. “You can understand why I’m concerned.”
Bowden gave her a puzzled look. “You don’t know?”
A little tingle of fear worked its way up Thea’s spine. “Know what?”
“He called in earlier to one of his agents. He heard a suspicious noise coming from the cave.”
“What kind of noise?”
“Something that convinced him Kylie might be inside. He went down to check it out.”
Thea’s heart dropped. “He went in alone? People have died in that cave.”
Bowden gave her another strange look. “His team and some of my officers are down there with him now. He’s fine but...” An uncomfortable silence followed. For an experienced law enforcement officer, Nash Bowden didn’t have a very good poker face.
“What happened?” Thea demanded. “Tell me.”
“He found human remains in one of the caverns.”
Anyone involved in child abduction cases dreaded hearing such news, and yet Thea realized she’d been steeling herself for the tragic possibility ever since she’d arrived in Black Creek. But he’d said “remains,” not a body. Goose bumps prickled at the back of her neck. She took a gulp of air. “Not Kylie?”
He said with quiet emphasis, “I should have been clearer. He found skeletal remains.”
Thea stared at him silently.
“The body was buried under a pile of rocks and debris in a remote area of the cave,” he explained. “Whoever it is has been down there for years, possibly decades.”
The implication punched through Thea’s shock with the force of a physical blow, squeezing the air from her lungs in a painful rush. “Maya.”
“That was my first thought,” he admitted. “But we don’t know anything for certain. The remains are only partially exposed. Agent Stillwell had the tunnel that runs back to the cavern sealed until a forensic anthropologist from Tallahassee can get here to oversee the excavation.”
“When will that be?” Thea asked with a hitch in her voice. She swallowed and tried again. “We can’t leave her down there indefinitely. We have to bring her up.”
“We will, but the recovery has to be done right. You probably know better than I do that excavating skeletal remains is a delicate process.”
“I know. I know. It’s just...” She closed her eyes. “We’ve waited so long.”
His gaze was kind. “I understand. I can’t imagine what it’s been like for you folks. I see Reggie in the diner now and then. Tough woman.”
At the mention of her mother, Thea’s heart sank even deeper. Reggie would have to be told sooner rather than later.
“I’m headed to the cave now, if you want to come along,” Bowden said. “There’s always the possibility that something may have been buried with the body that you or your mother will recognize. That could speed up the identification process. Barring that, we can test your DNA against the remains.”
“I need to talk to Reggie before she hears about this from someone else,” Thea said.
“I thought you might. Just so you know, we’re trying to keep a lid on the news for as long as we can. Last thing we need is a bunch of sightseers getting in the way of the recovery efforts.”
“I’ll be discreet,” Thea said. “So will Reggie.”
“I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. I just wanted to bring you into the loop. Anyway, I’ll have one of my officers drive you to the hospital whenever you’re ready.”
“Thank you. But on second thought, I’d like to go out to the cave first.” Thea would never be able to explain it so that it made sense to anyone else, but she felt the need to be close to her twin. Maya had been alone in that cave for nearly thirty years.
“We’ll take the road,” Bowden said. “It’ll be faster than hiking through the woods.”
BY THE TIME they got to the cave, the owner of the property had been notified and had arrived to unlock the gate. Thea assumed he was the elderly gentleman with white hair and stooped shoulders who watched the activity from the shade. She wondered what had run through his mind when he’d heard the news. Did he think this place was cursed? He’d erected a fence and posted warnings after the drowning deaths of two teenagers, when all the while another body—possibly that of a four-year-old girl—might already have been hidden deep inside the cave.
Two uniformed officers positioned between the boulders were gazing down into the pit. One of them bent to offer a hand as Jake emerged from the opening. When he saw Thea, he gave a little nod of acknowledgment before he turned to say something to the person coming up out of the cave behind him.
Chief Bowden left her to join the officers at the opening. For some reason, Thea hung back. She’d been eager to get here as quickly as possible, but now she felt strangely out of place as she observed the commotion around the cave entrance. She received a few deferential glances from some of the officers who recognized her. Their well-meaning attention took her back to the night Maya had gone missing and to the following terror-filled days when the whole community had turned out to look for her. Had she been this close all along? Had she died alone in a dank, hidden cavern crying out for her mama and Sissy?
“You okay?” Jake touched her elbow and she jumped. “Sorry. I thought you saw me come up.”
His hair and clothing were wet and muddy, and there were scrapes on his hands and across both cheeks, most likely from crawling through close spaces.
Thea shuddered. “Jake, is it her?”
His voice was both soft and grim. “I’m sorry I wasn’t the one to tell you. I did try to call—”
“It’s okay. Just tell me now.”
“We don’t know. The skull is only partially exposed. Until the grave is excavated, we won’t know if the rest of the skeleton is even intact. Predation and the damp environment will have taken a toll.”
“How long do you think the excavation will take?” Her voice sharpened in a way she hadn’t meant it to. She didn’t want to take her nerves and impatience out on Jake.
If he noticed, he didn’t let on. He glanced over at the pit. “Under these conditions? Your guess is as good as mine. Getting all the equipment back to that cavern will be tricky. It’s a tight squeeze in places.” He rubbed his elbow. “Once everything is in place, the tedious work begins. The area will need to be gridded and the dirt sifted one screen at a time. It’s time-consuming for a reason. The bones and artifacts have to be meticulously labeled and cataloged. After so many years, we only have one shot at getting it right.”
The implication stunned her, though she wasn’t sure why. “Are you saying the cavern is a crime scene and not just a place where the body was dumped?”
“We don’t know that, either. But we can’t take the chance that a minute piece of evidence or DNA could be lost or overlooked out of carelessness or impatience. Something that might have the power to break the case wide open.”
“After twenty-eight years,” Thea said.
“After twenty-eight years.”
“Justice.” She said the word softly, but her voice was gritty with emotion.
He nodded, his jaw set with the same determination. But he said nothing else, giving Thea the opportunity to catch her breath. She’d noticed the abrasions on his face and arms and the wet, muddy clothing straight away, but now she saw something in his eyes that shook her—the look of a person who’d come too close to death. She’d experienced an inkling of that back in the woods with Derrick Sway, but this seemed different.
He must have seen something in her eyes because, just like that, a mask dropped, closing her off before she could probe too deeply.
Don’t do that, she wanted to tell him. Don’t shut me out. Let me in.
But he’d already turned his attention back to the pit where a uniformed officer had just emerged. “We’ll try to get as much done as we can before Dr. Forrester and her team get here,” Jake said in a matter-of-fact voice. “We’re setting up a harness and pulley system at the entrance and placing battery-powered lanterns throughout the passageways and caverns. The one thing we have in our favor is that we don’t have to worry about losing the light on the surface. Belowground, there is no night or day.”
Thea nodded. “When do you think she’ll be here?”
“Sometime this afternoon, if all goes well. She agreed to drop everything, but we’re still in for a long wait before we’ll know anything conclusive. Maybe you should head over to the hospital and talk to your mother. Let her know what’s going on.”
“Yes, I intend to, but I wanted to come here first.” Thea folded her arms around her middle as if she could calm the fluttery sensation in the pit of her stomach. She was hardly a novice to recovery operations, but no experience or training had prepared her for this eventuality. After decades of waiting, she hadn’t expected the discovery of her sister’s remains to hit her so hard. “I need to go down there, Jake.”
He looked worried. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s a hard scrabble through some of those passageways.”
“I’m not claustrophobic. I can handle it.”
“Under ordinary circumstances, I’d agree. But you were in a serious car accident yesterday. You admitted only this morning that you’re not at the top of your game.”
“I don’t need you to protect me,” she snapped.
“When have you ever? Being down there...” He lifted a hand to the back of his neck. “It’s weird. It can mess with your head even under the best of circumstances.”
Foreboding crept in as she wondered again about that look in his eyes. “I don’t care. I need to go down there. I need to be with her. And yes, I’m well aware of how unreasonable that sounds, but I can’t help it. It’s how I feel.”
“We don’t even know if it’s her,” he said. “You should be prepared for that possibility, too.”
“I still want to go in. And before you say anything else, let me point out that you’re hardly in a position to lecture me about safety.” She gave him a hard stare. “What were you thinking going down in the cave alone?”
He stared right back at her. “I was thinking that if Kylie was in there, frightened and possibly hurt, I’d never forgive myself if something happened to her in the space of time it took to get a crew out here. I was thinking that leaving her alone down there for even another second was too long. You would have done the same.”
“That’s exactly why I have to go down there. If the remains are Maya’s, she’s been alone in that cavern for twenty-eight years.”
It wasn’t even remotely comparable. He’d thought Kylie was still alive. Maya had been gone for a long time. She may have already been dead before her killer had carried her into the pitch-blackness of the cave. There was no rescuing her. No happy ending for her family.
Thea wanted to believe her sister had never experienced pain or loneliness or fear. She couldn’t bear to think even now how Maya might have suffered. Year after year, there had been nothing Thea could do but wait and imagine. Now, finally, there was something she could do.
Jake lifted a hand and brushed back her hair. His touch both shocked and moved her, but she didn’t want to react. Too many curious eyes were upon them. If she and Reggie had learned anything from all those years of side-glances and open stares, it was how to remain stoic in the face of unwanted attention. It only occurred to her later that her stoicism had shut Jake out, too.
He dropped his hand to his side. “I can tell you feel strongly about this.”
“I do.”
“Then I’ll take you down there myself. We’re trying to limit the number of people in the cave at a time, so it may be a little while.”
“I can wait. Jake...” She resisted the urge to touch his arm in spite of all those curious eyes. “I need to ask you something and I want you to tell me the truth. Something else happened down there, didn’t it? I can see it in your eyes. I’m guessing that’s why you’re all wet.”
“It’s damp and muddy in some of the passageways.”
She wasn’t buying it. “Your clothes are soaked. You may as well tell me what happened. I’ll find out sooner or later.”
Reluctantly, he took her arm and led her away from the opening where they could speak in private. “We’re not releasing a statement about this yet.”
“You know you can trust me. What is it?”
“About a mile or so back in the cave, an underground river flows up into a pool in one of the caverns. I found a doll floating on the surface. It matches the description of the doll that was taken with Kylie.”
“Oh my God.”
He glanced away, studying the activity back at the cave. “We’ve got divers on the way.”
“That’s why I can’t go in right now,” Thea said. “You should have told me. Of course, I’ll stay out of the way. Unless there’s something I can do to help.”
“No, trust me, this is a job for professionals. We just need to give them room to do their thing. I’ll go in with you as soon as we’re clear.”
“That doesn’t even matter anymore. Nothing matters now except finding Kylie. She could still be alive. A doll floating on the pool doesn’t prove anything. Three percent, Jake.”
He nodded wearily. “I’m not giving up, but the cave is a maze. Dozens of passageways and dead ends, and I only made it about halfway through. Combing back through all those tunnels will eat up at least another day. I can’t help wondering if that doll was put there as misdirection. A way to tie up our resources and manpower until it’s too late.”
“Maybe, but how would anyone know you’d go down there and find it?” Thea asked.
“No one could know for certain, but it was a good bet the cave would be searched more thoroughly after the initial canvass.”
“What about the sound you heard earlier? Chief Bowden said that’s why you went down in the first place.”
“I don’t know what I heard. Or who I heard.” He ran fingers through his wet hair, a physical sign of his frustration. “I very much doubt it was Kylie.”
Something in his tone alarmed her. “What do you mean?” Then, “You never said why your clothes are all wet.”
“While I was trying to fish the doll out of the pool, someone came from behind and hit me over the head hard enough to daze me. Next thing I know, I’m caught in a whirlpool several feet below the surface. I lost my flashlight, so I was spun around underwater in complete darkness. No up, no down.” He paused. “For a while there, I wasn’t sure how I’d get out.”
Thea watched his expression as he spoke. He still seemed shaken from the experience. She’d never seen him like that. “I knew something bad must have happened.”
He summoned a brief smile. “I know what you’re thinking. I even thought so myself at the time. So much for my keen instincts. Someone came up behind me and I never sensed a thing.”
“That’s not what I’m thinking.”
“No?”
“I’m thinking you could have died down there and I would never have known what happened to you.”
“Thea.” He said her name so softly she might have thought the tender missive was nothing more than a breeze sighing through the treetops.
The sun bearing down on them was hot and relentless, but Thea felt a little shiver go through her. It hit her anew how much she’d missed that tender glint in his eyes as their gazes locked. How much she’d missed his husky whispers in the dark. The glide of his hand along her bare skin, the tease of his lips and tongue against her mouth. The way he had held her afterward, as if he never wanted to let her go. But he had let her go and she’d done nothing to stop him.
She drew a shaky breath. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”
“Get caught in a whirlpool? I’ll do my best.”
She scowled at him. “Don’t make light. You know what I mean.”
“I’m fine, Thea.” He seemed on the verge of saying something else, but he held back. Maybe he thought she wanted his restraint. She did, didn’t she? They were in a precarious situation. Adrenaline and attraction could be a dangerous combination. Throw in unresolved issues and they were asking for trouble.
She flexed her fingers to try to release the pent-up tension. “You didn’t catch a glimpse of your attacker?”
“It’s pitch-black down there even with a flashlight. You can only see what’s directly in front of you.”
“Could it have been Derrick Sway? I had a run-in with him in the woods earlier. I’ll tell you about it later, but I don’t want to get sidetracked.”
“Yes, I heard about that run-in from some of the officers before you arrived.” A shadow flickered across his expression. “From the sounds of it, things got tense.”
“You could say that. I’m trying to figure out if he had time to attack you in the cave and then swing through the woods and come up behind me on the trail.”
“Aside from the timeline, Sway’s a big guy. He might have a hard time in some of the narrow passages.” Jake paused. “I thought at first the assailant must have followed me into the cave, but I was wrong. He or she was already inside. That’s how I stumbled upon the remains. I noticed a flickering light through a crack in the rock wall.”
“A flickering light?”
“Yes. Whoever was down there lit candles and left them burning in the cavern.”
“How strange,” Thea said with a pensive frown. “Why would someone leave lighted candles?”
“I have my suspicions.” He seemed hesitant to finish his thought. “Whoever was down there obviously didn’t want to be seen in the cave. He hit me over the head and pushed me off the ledge, hoping the whirlpool would suck me under. But even with me out of commission, he had to figure backup was already on the way. He fled without taking the time to crawl back to the cavern and snuff out the candles. I doubt he had any idea the light could be seen through a crack in the wall.”
Dread seeped in despite Thea’s best efforts. “I don’t want to say it out loud... I hate to even think it.”
“Go on.”
“Do you think he was down there to dispose of another body?”
Jake glanced away. “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered that possibility.”
“Maybe he intended to bury her in the same cavern where you found the remains, but when he heard you in another part of the cave, he had to improvise. I know I said finding Kylie’s doll in the pool doesn’t prove anything, but we can’t discount the evidence.”
“Which is why we have divers on the way.” He had one eye closed as he tracked a hawk against the sun. Now he glanced back at Thea.
“You’re holding back,” she said. “Something else happened that you don’t want to tell me.”
“It may be nothing.”
“Tell me,” she insisted. “If Maya’s remains are in that cavern, I have a right to know everything you found.”
He glanced away before he nodded. “There was something strange about those candles.”
“How so?”
He paused to consider his answer. “It seemed to me they were arranged ceremonially around the mound, as if it were an altar or...something. It sounds a little out there, but that’s the impression I had.”
She stared at him in horror. “Are you saying he came back down into the cave to specifically visit the remains? To use them in some kind of ceremony or ritual?”
Jake shrugged, but his expression remained sober. “We’re assuming the suspect is male because of the profile. But we don’t even know that for certain.”
Male or female, what kind of monster would come back after all this time to desecrate the grave of a four-year-old victim? The imagery shook Thea.
“We’re dealing with a very sick mind, Jake.”
“So it would seem.” His expression turned regretful. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you about the candles. It’s all conjecture at this point.”
“No. Don’t keep secrets. The not knowing has always been the hardest part. The things that go through your head...” She paused. “I never imagined this.”
“Let’s wait until after the excavation to draw conclusions. In the meantime, you have my word I’ll tell you everything I know as soon as I know it.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For your candor. For finding her.”
“We don’t—”
“I know. But if it is her...do you have any idea what this means to us? All these years, we never knew where she was or what had happened to her. To think she was right here all along. So near I should have heard her calling out to me.”
He seemed at a loss. “I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s all right. Neither do I.”
Their gazes clung for a moment longer before Jake said, “Do you want to take a walk?”
That surprised her. “A walk? Where to?”
“There’s something I need to check out. I’d like you to come with me, but it could be a hike. I noticed you were limping back at the station.”
“I’m fine. Just a superficial cut on my heel. I hardly feel it now. But, Jake, don’t you want to be here when the divers arrive?”
“This won’t take long. If my hunch is correct, I think you’ll want to see this,” he said mysteriously.