They went straight to the church office and found it bustling with activity as several volunteers sat at a large table and folded bulletins. Kendall could easily imagine Eve here with her friends, chatting and laughing. But now she was missing, maybe injured, and though Kendall hated to even think it, Eve could even be dead. Not a thought she needed to dwell on.
She stepped into the room, Cord following, and chatter ceased as all eyes peered up at them.
“Can I help you?” a frizzy-haired blonde with a warm smile asked.
“That’s Cord.” A silver-haired and frail-looking woman stood. “Eve’s nephew.”
Cord smiled at the older woman as if he recognized her, but he’d mentioned that he didn’t remember anyone’s names so Kendall stepped forward and extended her hand. “I’m Deputy Kendall McKade. Do you have a moment to answer a few questions?”
“Gladys.” The woman’s suspicious gaze traveled between her and Cord. “What’s this about?”
“Eve,” Cord said plainly.
Gladys pushed her black square-framed glasses up her nose. “She okay?”
“Let’s step into the hall and talk about it, shall we?” Kendall suggested and smiled.
“If it’s about Eve, I’m coming, too.” A rotund woman with a cap of silver curls got up and shoved her hand at Kendall. “Name’s Pauline.”
“Nice to meet you, Pauline.” Kendall led them out into the hall.
“What’s going on, Cord?” Gladys asked him immediately.
He took a long breath. “Eve is missing.”
“Missing?” Pauline grasped her chest and gaped at Cord.
“What do you mean, missing?” Gladys’s eyes narrowed.
“She’s not at her house, but her car, purse and phone are there.”
Kendall was glad he didn’t mention the blood. “Do either of you know where she could be?”
Gladys frowned and shook her head, her glasses sliding down her nose and lodging near the end. “Once upon a time we knew everything she was up to, but she’s been distant the last month or so.”
“Distant how?” Cord asked.
“Closemouthed. Not sharing. Sure, she was down for months after the plane crash. That’s to be expected, but then her mood seemed to pick up.”
Pauline nodded. “And all of a sudden she would smile at us and say she had a secret that she’d tell us about when she could.”
“When was that?” Kendall asked.
“A week ago, maybe.” Gladys stabbed at her glasses again.
Pauline rubbed her forehead. “Yeah, about then, give or take a day or two.”
“She said she was cutting back on her volunteering and not to be surprised if she didn’t show up here or at the shelter,” Gladys added.
“I honestly wondered if she had a boyfriend.” Pauline giggled like a teenager.
“A boyfriend!” Cord’s voice erupted from his chest. “At her age, that’s crazy talk.”
“Hey, now. We’re old but we’re not dead.” Gladys winked at him. “But if she was dating, she didn’t mention it.”
Cord stood openmouthed, and Kendall took over. “Is there anything else you can think of that might help us find her?”
“Maybe she ran away to Vegas to get married.” Pauline smiled.
“Maybe,” Kendall said and tried to pretend that Pauline could be right so as not to alarm the women too much. But with the blood and the messed-up house, a trip to Vegas wasn’t the answer. “What about Facebook? Were you friends with Eve there?”
Gladys and Pauline both shook their heads.
“Never got into that computer stuff,” Pauline said.
“Can you think of anyone who might be friends with her online?” Kendall asked.
Gladys looked over her glasses at Pauline. “Doesn’t Maribel do the Facebook?”
Kendall almost chuckled at her use of the before Facebook.
Pauline’s forehead knotted. “I’m not sure, but we could ask her.”
“Would you mind checking with her now?” Kendall asked.
“Sure,” Pauline said. “I’ll be right back.”
Cord stood, his gaze vacant as he watched her leave, proving he hadn’t recovered from his shock at thinking his aunt might have a boyfriend.
Kendall pulled out her small notepad and pen and gave them to Gladys. “Would you mind writing down your last names and a phone number where I can reach you?”
Gladys scribbled down the contact information. Kendall confirmed she could read the chicken scratching, then handed Gladys a business card. “In case you think of something that can help us.”
She nodded and dropped the card in a pocket on her flowery blouse.
Pauline hustled back into the hallway. “Maribel says she left the Facebook when they shared her information with some company. She explained it to me, but I honestly didn’t understand it.”
“Thank you for checking,” Kendall said. “Call if you think of anything else.”
She urged Cord to head down the hallway. She was used to him being large and in charge, and this distracted guy wasn’t familiar to her at all. It worried her, on top of all the other things he’d gone through.
In the parking lot, he took her arm and tugged her to a stop. “Can you believe that nonsense? Eve dating.”
“Actually, it’s not nonsense. Seniors very actively date these days, and it’s an avenue we need to explore.”
“Seriously?”
She nodded.
“But where would Eve even meet this guy if she didn’t meet him here?”
“The animal shelter. Grocery store. Library. Senior center. You name it.”
He shook his head. “I just can’t see it. She still loved Ollie and talked about how much she missed him all the time.”
“You know, when love strikes, you often have no control over it,” Kendall said before she could filter her thoughts.
He eyed her then, long and hard, a whirr of emotions flashing over his face. “You’re right. You have no control over those feelings. We know that better than most, right? So I can’t ignore this lead.”
Kendall didn’t like that he’d made this personal, but she was glad he opened his mind to the idea. “I’ll check her phone at the lab. Maybe we’ll find something there.”
The sheriff department’s small conference room felt airless to Cord as he listened to Kendall describe her attacker to the sketch artist. The same man who’d likely abducted his sweet aunt. It was one thing to hear her describe the attacker last night, but the intimate details she now shared, as she clutched her hands together, was a different thing altogether.
It was far too easy for Cord to imagine the same man in the kitchen, with Eve cowering and fearful. The man hunkered over her. A knife in his hand. The blood on the floor. So much blood.
He forced the sight away, but a full-blown vision of Kendall’s attack replaced it. If Cord hadn’t arrived when he did, she might—no. He couldn’t let his mind go there. He refused to let this guy win even by conquering his thoughts.
“How’s this?” The stocky sketch artist handed his pad to Kendall. He’d been tenacious in getting the drawing right and reminded Cord of a little bulldog they’d seen at the local kennel when they’d stopped in to question Eve’s friends and the volunteer coordinator. Unfortunately, no one knew anything more about Eve’s whereabouts, but she’d also told them she was cutting back on volunteering, so they didn’t think anything of her absence.
“Yes!” Kendall shot to her feet. “That’s him. Perfect.”
She glanced at Cord, and her radiant smile had his heart fluttering. He was still attracted to her. That he got without question, but did he still have feelings for her? And what about her? Did she still feel something for him?
She ripped the page from the pad. “I’ll get this distributed and be right back.”
She charged out of the conference room, and Cord stayed with the artist while he packed his supplies. When Kendall didn’t return, Cord showed the guy out and ran into her in the hallway on the way back.
“I’m pumped about finally having something that might pan out. Let’s head to the lab and check Eve’s phone and computer.”
He nodded his agreement, and she bolted like an angry bull down the hallway. He loved her enthusiasm for her job. Always had.
At the lab door, she rang a bell positioned next to a card reader. Although she was a county employee, she didn’t have unfettered access to the lab, a rule put in place to maintain the separation of duties and prevent evidence tampering. Just down the hall, evidence lockers were available to detectives and deputies to secure evidence for the techs to catalog and process.
Tessa, wearing a white lab coat, opened the door. She looked annoyed.
Kendall held up her hands and smiled. “I know, I know. I interrupted your work. Sorry, but I’m here to check on the computer and phone.”
“Follow me.” Tessa spun on her heels, her athletic shoes squeaking on the tile floor.
Cord took a good look around, as the lab had changed a great deal since he’d worked for the county, and with only a few lights on last night, the place was dark and hidden, but today he could see that the space was spotless and well-organized. Plus it was filled with what he thought was state-of-the-art equipment, all newer looking than what was in the Houston lab.
Tessa unlocked the room where Kendall had left his aunt’s devices last night. The small glass-enclosed room was blessedly cool, likely set at a lower temperature to preserve equipment.
“I’ll be processing fingerprints if you need me. Let me know when you’re done, and I’ll lock up.” Tessa closed the door behind them.
“The lab has really come a long way,” he said. “Looks like you all are more up to date than my department.”
“When Tessa still lived at the ranch and had extra money to spend, she bought and donated the latest gadgets so she could use them.” Kendall sat down behind the computer terminal she’d plugged the phone into last night.
He gestured at it. “Like that machine.”
“Nah.” She grinned up at him. “I bought this baby. With so many mobile devices in circulation and the number growing each day, we needed a way to access phone information quickly.”
“This machine does that for you?”
“Yes. After we crack the phone’s password.” She tapped the screen. “Yes! We’re in. The phone. I have the passcode. Now all I need to do is image it like her computer hard drive, and we can look at her call logs.”
“Could be just the thing we need,” he replied.
Kendall typed for some time, and then rolled to the other computer, her chair moving like a bullet across the space. He’d watched her set up the equipment last night under the same configuration at Eve’s house, but here, she’d also connected it to a small gray box and then the lab computer.
He hadn’t wanted to delay her last night with asking for an explanation, but today he really wanted to understand the procedure. “What’s the gray box?”
“It’s a write blocker,” she replied without looking up. “The device prevents me or anyone else from writing to Eve’s hard drive. Because of that, I have proof that I have a forensically sound copy of her files.”
“By ‘write’ you mean alter the hard drive?”
She nodded but didn’t look at him, so he took the time to watch her when she was so intensely occupied. She wore her navy-blue uniform just like yesterday, but this one was freshly pressed, and she’d swept her hair into a high ponytail. He had the urge to reach out and brush it from her neck, then bend down and press a kiss on her soft skin.
She still had a large goose egg on her forehead with hints of a bruise that she’d covered with makeup. But even with the lump, she was still a striking woman and hadn’t changed much in six years.
She glanced up and caught him watching. He tried to smile in a laid-back and spontaneous way as he might with other people, but when she jerked back, he figured he hadn’t managed it.
Right. She didn’t want him to be interested in her.
“What in the world?” She scowled at her computer and leaned forward to squint at the screen. “Someone completely wiped Eve’s computer.”
That got his attention. “‘Wiped’ as in erased?”
She nodded. “The hard drive is totally empty.”
Cord could hardly believe the news. “How could that be? Eve barely knows how to use a computer, much less how to erase a drive.”
“Well, someone erased it. Maybe that’s why the intruder was at the house.”
“So we’re out of luck on her information, then?”
“Not necessarily,” she said. “I can run a file-recovery program to try to retrieve the information.”
“Will that work?”
“Depends.” She returned her focus to the screen. “If whoever erased the drive sanitized the data using a data destruction program or file-shredding software, it’ll have overwritten the data on the drive. In that case, I won’t be able to recover it. But if they only formatted the disk, I have a good chance of locating the deleted files.”
“I’ll pretend I understand what you just said.” He chuckled.
He expected a smile, maybe a chuckle, but she was too intensely focused right now. “It’ll take some time to run, so I’ll get it going.”
This latest evidence was another reason not to believe Eve’s disappearance had something to do with dating. After all, why would a man she dated need to erase her hard drive?
“Okay.” Kendall stood. “No point in watching this when Eve’s bank accounts could very well give us the lead we need.”
She left the room and got Tessa to lock up before rushing toward the exit. He appreciated Kendall’s sense of urgency in locating Eve, as each minute that passed worried Cord that if someone had indeed taken her, he could kill her.
After the station’s air-conditioning, the sun beating down hard in the parking lot was a sharp contrast, and the sizzling heat felt oppressive even for a native Texan like Cord. But that didn’t stop him from taking his time to search the parking lot for any potential danger, including the dumpster enclosure by Kendall’s car, before she stepped out.
When he felt it was safe, he moved aside, and she started for the car. He matched her step for step, and only when she was safely seated behind the wheel did he run around the back and get in.
He grabbed his seat belt and clicked it into place. “I hope the bank manager’s in a cooperative mood.”
When Kendall didn’t respond to his comment, he looked up. She sat staring straight ahead, her face ashen, her hands frozen in midair above the steering wheel.
His heart plummeted. “What is it?”
She pointed at the rearview mirror, and then he saw it. Right there. Dangling on the mirror. A small noose looped over the metal. The implication obvious: back off or you’re dead.