"You should get some sleep," Detective Ryan Lucas said to Michael after he finished the paperwork on the missing persons case Michael filed.
Michael shook his head. "I couldn't," he said and rubbed his forehead. "I can't go back to the apartment."
"Sorry, man," Lucas said. "I understand. There's a sofa in the break room you can stretch out on, if you need a place to chill."
"Thanks," Michael replied. "I may go and do some work on my laptop, but I don't think I could sleep."
Lucas nodded and went back to his work, so Michael left the main office area and went to the break room as Lucas suggested. He didn't want to be a burden to the detectives who were working the evening shift, and he didn't want to go home.
He could have gone to the DA's offices, but he wanted to stay close to the MCU in case anything broke during the night.
He fixed himself a fresh pot of coffee, and sat on the sofa, laptop open, and read everything he could about the Hubbard case. The car had been set on fire near Rimrock Lake, on a deserted side road. It was unlikely that Kincaid would return to that exact area, but he was obviously familiar with the roads and felt comfortable enough to operate there. But Kincaid had also killed someone and left the body near Clear Lake, which was off Interstate 90 on the way to Yakima.
He could have taken Tess anywhere in the area.
The break room had a clock on the wall with a very audible tick tick tick as the seconds passed. Usually, he could tune out distractions and focus in on his work, but not that night. The sound of time passing so slowly wore on his nerves and he finally closed his laptop and turned the volume up on the flatscreen television that was mounted on the opposite wall.
He should have warned Tess more forcefully to be careful. He should have been more suspicious about Lisa turning up and wanting to meet out of the blue, but he was happy for Tess, knowing how much Lisa's fate weighed on her mind over the years.
While he was beating himself up over what happened, he heard the phone ring from the main offices, and perked up. Lucas answered, and Michael listened carefully, hoping against hope that it was about Tess.
He went to the doorway and leaned against it, watching Lucas as he took the report.
"A floater found off Pier 57. Probably an accidental drowning or a suicide, most likely."
Michael nodded, discouraged, and returned to the sofa and the local news report.
He flipped through the channels, trying to distract himself from the sense of impending doom he felt, magnified by his helplessness. He decided what he needed to do was go for a walk, get some air, clear his head.
He went into the main office and spoke with Lucas.
"I need to stretch my legs. I'm going to go for a walk. Is there a place that has a decent sandwich around here?"
"Go to Vic's down Cherry Street," Lucas said. He reached into his pocket for his wallet and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. "Get me a pastrami on dark rye while you're there."
"Will do. Anyone else?"
Michael turned to the other detectives sitting at their desks.
They all put in an order and Michael left, glad to have something to do to keep his mind off Tess. He walked down Cherry to Vic's Sandwich Shop and put in his order, watching the street pedestrian traffic as he waited. It was getting late, but there were still quite a few civilians on the streets. He paid for the sandwiches and then walked back to headquarters and to the MCU offices. When he entered the main office area, he could see that there was some excitement. Lucas was flipping through a file and speaking on the phone, while his partner was pulling on his jacket.
Lucas put his phone down and glanced at Michael.
"I was going to come and get you. We got a call from the Lewis County Sheriff's Office. They received a 9-1-1 call from Lisa Tate. She was with Kira Hubbard near Packwood Lake on Forest Road. And get this," he said and came over to Michael, one hand on his shoulder. "Eugene Kincaid did abduct them both. He's there and he's dead. Lisa killed him."
"What?"
Lucas nodded. "With a screwdriver."
Michael swallowed back his fear. "Was Tess there?"
Lucas shook his head. "No. There was no one else there. Lewis County Sheriff's Office is currently on the scene, but we're welcome to come and check it out. Let's go. I figured you'd want to go right away and would like some company. I'll follow you in my own vehicle."
"Let's go," Michael said.
For the first time since he realized that Tess was missing, he felt a modicum of hope.
On the drive south to the area in Lewis County where Lisa and Kira were found, Michael thought about the cases, starting with Lisa's abduction nineteen years earlier.
After what happened last year, Kincaid has been on every police radar ever since and different departments had looked through their own missing persons cases for potential victims. There were a couple over the past two decades in Lewis County, which suggested that Eugene had victims there as well. Lewis County police had been in touch with the FBI and had added their missing persons cases onto the list of potential victims. Now with Eugene dead, there was no way they would get a confirmation out of him. Hopefully, whatever evidence they turned up in the area might help close some of their cases.
Michael's pulse was raised as the two vehicles arrived on scene. There were several SUVs from the Lewis County Sheriff's office as well as an ambulance and a vehicle from the Lewis County Coroner's Office. The Coroner, Alex Miller, was on scene, examining the body, of which Michael could see only a pair of legs. Crime scene techs from the County were also there, photographing the scene.
Michael went right over to Miller's side and watched as he and one of his techs turned the body over.
Yes, it was Eugene Kincaid. Former brother-in-law. Serial killer of a yet-unknown number of people, including maybe two dozen or more young girls over the previous two decades.
Michael couldn't help but gloat at the sight of him, his dead eyes half-open, the screwdriver impaled in the back of his neck, the tip of it protruding through his flesh next to his Adam's Apple. His mouth was bloody, his tongue protruding between his teeth. The technician and coroner lifted his body and placed it in the body bag, then the tech zipped it up, and that was the last Michael hoped to ever see of the monster.
He could have rejoiced at Eugene's death, given all the people he had killed over the years, but he couldn't. Tess was still out there, and Michael had no idea if she was even alive. Had Eugene killed her and buried her body somewhere they'd never find her? That would be the worst possible outcome.
Michael didn't know if he could take it, if that was the case.
"You want to go look for the cabin Lisa mentioned?" Lucas asked as Michael turned away from the scene.
"Yes," Michael said, his gut in a knot. "Right away. This road is pretty winding with a lot of side roads leading off. You go south and I'll go north. Let me know if you find anything."
"Roger that. Let's go," Lucas said and they took both vehicles and drove off.
Michael took the road heading north from the site where Eugene had been killed, driving for about five minutes before he encountered the first side road. He took it and drove to the end, but there was no cabin in sight on either side of the narrow road. He turned his Jeep around and drove back, his flashlight in hand so he could shine it into the forest, looking for any sign of a driveway, but there was nothing. He continued down the main road until he came to another side road, which he took, his hopes higher that perhaps this was the one. He drove down, watching the side of the road for a driveway, but there was nothing once more.
Lisa had told the Sheriff's Deputy that they had walked for several hours, and given that the normal walking speed was about three miles per hour, he figured they had to be within ten or fifteen miles of their current location. When checking his odometer, he noticed that he had already gone seven miles. He kept driving and finally arrived at a side road heading east. He took it, fully expecting it to be another dead end, but it wasn't.
There was a narrow lane almost covered by overhanging branches leading to a weather-worn cabin at the end of a short driveway. Michael drove to the cabin and jumped out, his heart beating rapidly as he went to the front door. He jiggled the handle and it was locked, so he peered inside the darkened interior.
There, on a bed, was Tess.
He kicked down the front door, his adrenaline surging, giving him strength he didn't know he possessed, and ran inside, bending down and touching her face. Her skin was cool to the touch and he placed his fingers over her carotid artery.
He closed his eyes when he felt her pulse. Although it was too rapid and thready, meaning she'd lost blood and was in shock, she was alive.
He grabbed his cell phone and called Lucas.
"I'm at a cabin on the third side road from the crime scene. Tess is alive but she's injured -- looks pretty bad. Have the ambulance come right away," he said.
"Roger that," Lucas said and Michael examined Tess, checking for wounds. He switched on the lights and saw her injured face, one eye completely swollen shut, her lip cut and bloody, blood on the back of her head.
"Oh, Tess," he said and cut the zip-ties that bound her hands and ankles. Then, he picked her up into his arms, holding her close. "Stay with me. Please, hold on…”
It seemed like it took forever for the ambulance to arrive, the red and white flashing lights visible through the dingy cabin windows. The EMT entered the cabin, a black bag in hand, and came right over to where Michael was holding Tess.
"Let us take over," he said firmly, pointing to Tess as he put down the bag. "We need to check her vitals."
Michael let her go with reluctance, lying her back down on the bed and stepping back as the other EMT came inside with the gurney. They applied an oxygen mask to Tess's face, and wrapped a blood pressure cuff around her arm. The first EMT listened to her heart and spoke in a low voice to the other EMT, who nodded without saying anything. Then, they lifted her onto the gurney and removed her from the cabin.
"Where will you take her?" he asked, following them out.
"The closest hospital with a trauma center is Tacoma. We're going to contact the Lewis County Emergency Response Team and get an med evac chopper to take her to Tacoma General. We need to drive to a location where we can transfer her to the chopper."
"How is she?"
"Are you immediate family?"
Michael shook his head. "I'm her fiancé."
The EMT nodded. "She's pretty unstable and probably has a fractured rib or two, sounds like a collapsed lung. Could be other internal injuries."
"Can I go in the chopper with her?"
The EMT shook his head. "There's not enough room in the chopper for anyone else but the medical team. You'll have to meet them at the hospital."
"Okay, thanks. You said Tacoma General?"
The EMT nodded. Michael followed the gurney down to the ambulance and watched as they loaded Tess into the back.
Then, they drove off and there was nothing else Michael could do besides drive to Tacoma General and wait.
She was alive, and that kept Michael focused as he drove back to the main highway.