My mind races as I accelerate my BMW through a yellow light in front of the entrance to the mall, narrowly escaping getting sideswiped by an angry driver of a pickup truck. I suppose I could apprise K.C. of the situation since she’s a full 2-hour drive away. It would be safe to alert her of my whereabouts…just in case. At least she wouldn’t get here soon enough to stop me. As I park in front of the hotel among a row of cars, I dial the number she gave me the other night at the pizza parlor.

  The moment I hear her intake of breath in preparing to answer, I blurt, “Another twelve-year-old girl in Mankato was just reported as missing, K.C. It was the exact same situation as mine—um, I mean—Jackie’s. They found her bike and an overnight bag on the gravel road leading up to Minneopa park.”

  “Oh, shit. I saw the Amber Alert.”

  “After we returned from visiting Diane and found my house ransacked with a threatening note, Theo’s dad just happened to stop by for a visit. I think it’s too soon to rule out anyone else as the killer, but the recent turn of events seems too coincidental to not be his father. I mean, a girl went missing the same night he returned to Mankato, and he mentioned he hadn’t spoken with Theo in a decade. So I’m on my way to ambush the son of a bitch, see if he’s even where he told us he’d be. Even if he’s innocent, I still have some questions for him related to the girls. I don’t want Theo to worry, so I’m only telling you in the event that something happens to me.”

  “You’re going to confront Theo’s dad on your own?” She makes an exasperated noise. “That can’t be a good idea. Theo told me little snippets of what went down last night—he said you were ready to bash his old man’s head in with a crowbar.” The ding of a car alerting to an open door echos through the phone. “Where are you? I’m already in Kato for a funeral.”

  “Shit,” I hiss, annoyed by the wrench in my plan. “It’s too late, I’m already outside his hotel. But in the event I don’t check in with Theo in the next hour, he’ll know where—”

  "Sterling, listen to me,” she pleads, her voice all at once thick with emotion. “This déjà vu bullshit is too much for me to handle. You probably know Jackie told me nearly the same thing the night she went missing—to let her sister know if anything happened. I couldn’t live with myself if you suffered a similar fate. Theo wouldn’t let me live if he knew I didn’t try to stop you anyway. So please, I beg of you, tell me where I can meet you and I’ll be there just as fast as I can so we’re both able to live another day to see Theo ridiculously happy with your weird ass.”

  I hang my head and sigh. “I’m in the parking lot of the hotel right behind Scheels.”

  “Perfect. Stay right where you are. I’m just a handful of miles down the road.”

  The call ends and my phone immediately vibrates with a call from Theo. Staring at his rugged features on the screen, captured in a candid I took one night while we’d snuggled naked in his bed, I reject the call and scold myself for being stupid.

  Stupid or cautious?

  Although Theo certainly hadn't “charmed” me as Chief Nielsen suggested, I was initially so drawn to him that it would’ve been almost impossible to simply walk away. But it’s not like he sought me out, nor would he have had any way of knowing I had a connection to Jackie. And he was just a kid himself when the four girls were abducted. A kid with ample insider information because of his father’s involvement with law enforcement.

  The biggest flaw in Chief Nielsen’s suggestion is glaringly obvious—Theo was with me from the moment I got off work last night until we crawled into bed at his place a little before midnight. But I slept hard, not stirring until my alarm went off this morning. And it’s not clear if they know an exact time the girl went missing. For all I know, it was late afternoon.

  Unable to entertain such ridiculous thoughts any longer, I spring out of my car and start for the entrance of the hotel.

  “Oh no you don’t!” I hear, turning to find K.C.’s head protruding from the window of the light blue Bronco from the other night. Without taking her eyes off me, she parks in an open space two down from my BMW and jumps out, slamming her door. In a black tank top that shows off her brightly colored tattoo sleeves, black jeans and combats boots, oodles of necklaces, and ponytail styled in a Mohawk fashion, she may very well be my new favorite fashion icon. “You were told to wait for me, young lady.”

  “I waited!” I snap, half stomping toward the hotel’s entrance. She hurries ahead and holds the door open with a smug look, motioning for me to enter.

  The college-aged woman behind the front desk gathers her luscious blond hair behind one shoulder and flutters her false eyelashes. The poor girl looks utterly exhausted, as if it’s physically hurting her to sit upright. Her eyes flinch when she plasters on a wide smile. “Good afternoon, ladies! What can I do for you today?”

  “We’re here to see Theodore Davies.” I say.

  Her light green eyes flicker back and forth between us. “Us, as in…?”

  “As in he’s expecting us,” K.C. clarifies, slipping a hand inside her back jeans pocket to produce a $100 bill. She holds it precariously beneath her fingertips on the desk between her and the younger girl. “When did your shift start?”

  The receptionist’s eyes widen on the bill before she glances over each of her shoulders. “I’m on the tail end of a double,” she tell us with a snarl. “I’ve been here since five last night.”

  “Were you here when Mr. Davies checked in?” I ask.

  “Yeah,” she snorts, her eyes all at once dull. “He was a total prick. Talked down to me like I was five.”

  I snort in a similar way. If she only knew. “Do you remember what time he checked in?”

  “It was just a few minutes after I got here. He was my first guest of the night.”

  “Did you see him leave the hotel again at any point?” I ask, vaguely wondering if I should’ve insisted Chief Nielsen or one of his officers accompany me on this mission. What if there’s a glaringly obvious question I forget to ask?

  The blonde bobs her head in confirmation. “He went out for a short while right before it got dark, like for half an hour, then he came back and ordered dinner at the bar. He got super wasted and refused to leave at closing. The bartender had to call security to help drag him up to his room. He took a swing at the security guard—one of State’s star football players. It wasn’t pretty.”

  If he was only gone for half an hour, it would’ve been just long enough to stop by my place. A round trip to Minneopa would’ve taken an extra 40 minutes minimum, and that’s not taking a kidnapping into consideration. “Did he leave again after that?”

  “I haven’t seen him again since. The security guard said he’d passed out cold before he’d left the room.” Her eyes flicker back to K.C.’s bribe. “But some guy came to see him a little bit ago. He’s still up there.”

  K.C. and I exchange a glance. “What did the guy look like?” I ask.

  Her eyebrows wiggle. “Bearded dude…super fit and crazy hot, but kinda old and a bit cranky.”

  Cramps of worry spread through my stomach. “Was he wearing tan cargo jeans and a plain black t-shirt?”

  “That sounds right.”

  “What’s the room number?” I demand with urgency.

  Her long, manicured fingernails snag the bill from K.C.’s fingers and she gives K.C. a sideways look. “Hmmm…I’m not sure I remember.”

  Rolling her eyes, K.C. retrieves a twenty from her other back pocket and throws it onto the desk. “That’s all I have, you conniving little shrew. What’s the number?”

  The receptionist grabs the twenty and sticks it into her pants pocket along with the hundred before throwing K.C. a satisfied smile. “Five ten.”

  K.C. and I race to the elevators where I repeatedly stab the up arrow button. “Theo might not be able to contain his anger for him on his own,” I say to her.

  “Probably the reason he came here without telling you,” K.C. agrees, nodding with a distant look. “Either that or he saw the Amber Alert and came to the same conclusion as you.”

  “He tried calling me a few minutes ago,” I admit. “But there’s no way he made it here that soon after the alert was issued. I was already halfway here when it went off.”

  The elevator doors open with a ding and we simultaneously step into the empty car. I bite my lip as K.C. presses the number 5 and the doors close.

  She tilts her head. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Earlier this morning, Chief Nielsen said something ridiculous that I can’t erase from my thoughts. In my heart I know it can’t be true, especially because I’ve spent so much time inside Jackie’s head, but the logical side of me that knows sociopaths are skilled at hiding in plain sight can’t stop processing the facts.” Eyes locked with hers, I let out a stuttered sigh. “Do you think there’s any chance in hell Theo would’ve done something to Jackie?”

  Right as she opens her mouth, the elevator dings and the doors open. Theo and his father stand waiting on the other side. Their reactions of surprise are nearly identical, giving me a new sense of unease. How many of his father’s undesirable traits did Theo inherit?

  “What are you two doing here?” Theo asks, taking on a cautious posture.

  I’m unable to form a coherent answer once I get a good look at his father’s face. In addition to a swollen nose and the start of two black eyes, a deep cut slashes through his bottom lip and another slices parallel with one of his eyebrows. Confusingly enough, the wounds are as congealed as the damage Theo inflicted upon his nose.

  Theo notices my expression and grunts, “Wasn’t me. He went a round with hotel security.”

  “They’re fools if they don’t think I’ll sue,” his father grumbles, glancing off into the empty hallway.

  As K.C. holds the doors to prevent them from closing, I bite down on a smirk, wishing I’d been there to watch. “Why are you here?” I ask Theo.

  His lips twist with a scowl. “Wanted a chance to tell him about your theories, see what he had to say.”

  “And?” K.C. asks, eyeing his father.

  Theodore, Sr. raises his chin. “I’m headed downtown to speak with Chief Nielsen.”

  “He remembered Pastor Babel drove a blue four-door back in the day,” Theo explains. “It was registered under the church’s non-profit corporation.”

  A brief flash of Jackie’s memories returns to the night she went missing. “That wasn’t the same kind of vehicle,” I say with a firm shake of my head. “They were different shades of blue, and the pastor’s car was already old back then. The one that’s been following me is maybe only a few years old.”

  “How would you know what he drove in eighty-six?” his father sneers with arrogance.

  “Wait for me in the lobby,” Theo tells him, his tone sharp with malice. “I’ll be down in a few.” He then takes my hand and leads me out from the elevator. I flinch from his warm grip, tempted to pull away even though it sounds as if he’s genuinely trying to aid in the search for my stalker.

  “Come on, K.C.,” I call to our friend, knowing she also can’t be trusted alone with the abusive prick any more than the rest of us. She steps out of the elevator, casting Theodore, Sr. a deadly glare. The three of us watch him step inside, not moving a muscle until the doors close in his face.

  “I really wish you still had that crowbar,” K.C. says, flashing a middle finger at the doors.

  I turn to Theo. “You know about the missing local girl?”

  “The alert went off while I was with my old man in his room,” he confirms with a nod.

  “I don’t think he could’ve taken her, even though it’s strange that he happened to pick the same night to return. Sounds like he came back here after he left my place, then proceeded to get wasted before passing out for the night. The woman at the front desk kept a close eye on him after he checked in.” I rest my hand on his chest, telling myself he’s still the man I fell in love with and isn’t capable of anything dark. “The girl that went missing—Theo, her circumstances were almost identical to Jackie’s. Either someone’s trying to send us a message, or we’ve made the killer nostalgic.”

  Theo grunts in response and digs inside his pocket. My throat goes dry when his shirt inches upward with the movement, revealing the grip of a handgun tucked into his jeans. He removes a folded piece of paper from his pocket and holds it up between us. “My old man called a buddy still with the bureau, got the addresses for the pastor and Darrel Heinrich. You may not be able to convince Chief Nielsen to act on what you know, but we can tail them for a while…see what they’re up to.”

  Belatedly, I remember there’s one thing Theo failed to mention in our conversation with Chief Nielsen the night before. I stroke my hands over his t-shirt. “Why was your father fired?”

  He releases a deep sigh. “A handful of years back, he pulled a crucial suspect over in a kidnapping case, let him go without making an arrest.”

  “Did he say why he let him go?” K.C. asks.

  “No, but there was an internal investigation.” His gaze darkens as it falls back on mine, filled with an air of distress. “They found the suspect’s abandoned car half an hour later with a little girl’s body in the backseat. She’d been dead for hours, and there wasn’t anything to suggest she’d been anywhere other than in that back seat, in plain sight.” His eyes shift away. “The bureau believed my old man knew she’d been there when he’d pulled the suspect over.”

  25

  STERLING - 2018

  The whirl of a state patrol helicopter buzzes high above my BMW as Theo and I continue to monitor the minister’s little rambler on the north side of Mankato. The quaint house with a one-stall garage is outdated and rather modest compared to the other homes in the neighborhood, most of which are at least two stories high and feature 2-3 garage doors. We’d seen movement in front of the bay window after we first parked and haven’t witnessed anything since.

  Theo’s father had told him that the minister has been a widower for three years and now lives alone. For whatever reason, Theodore, Sr. seemed convinced the elderly minister was involved despite the discrepancies in vehicles. I’m convinced we’re wasting our time, and worry I won’t have a job by the end of the day. When I’d called Megan to let her know I had a personal emergency that needed my attention, I detected a trace of disappointment in her tone. After all, I had called in sick last Friday. Maybe she’s starting to think I’m not as valuable of an employee as she’d first thought.

  From the corner of my eye, I watch Theo shift around in the passenger’s seat, clearly uncomfortable from sitting for so long. At first I was a little reluctant to be alone with him, especially knowing he’s carrying a deadly weapon, but he refused to allow me to conduct the surveillance without him, and K.C. was okay with tailing Darrel Heinrich on her own. Before we’d parted ways in the hotel parking lot, she’d patted me on the backside and assured me I had nothing to worry about. From the determined gleam in her eye as she held my stare for a beat longer, I sense it was a delayed answer to my question of Theo’s involvement.

  The explanation behind Theodore, Sr.’s dismissal from the police force hasn’t sat right with me ever since Theo disclosed the details. Although Theo had told me his father vehemently denied the allegation, Theo agreed the circumstances were unsettling.

  I drum my fingers on the steering wheel. There’s so much I still don’t know about Theo’s family and his childhood. “When you met Jackie, you told her that your father had brought you back to Mankato.” I turn to him, eyes narrowed. “How long did you live here the first time?”

  “When I met Jackie that was my first time living here,” he clarifies with a slow shake of his head. “My old man was born and raised in Mankato. He met my mom in Connecticut while he was attending a police academy and she was going to college nearby. I was born there, then we moved around a few times after that.”

  “Did you meet any of his friends after he moved you here?”

  He lets out a curt laugh. “Not sure he had any. I get the feeling he was a loner as a kid. He wasn’t into sports or clubs.”

  “How old is he now?”

  “Sixty-something, I guess.” He grunts, clearly irritated. “Don’t really know, don’t really care.”

  “Can you at least guess?”

  “Probably closer to seventy. My parents were both young when they had me…maybe twenty, twenty-one.”

  After doing a little math in my head, I pull up a web browser on my phone and type in “Mankato high school 1969.” I receive over a million results, the very first of which is a website created for the class of 1969’s upcoming 50th reunion and includes a link that lists the classmates’ names. I scroll down to the ‘D’s and promptly locate Theodore, Sr. When I click on his name, I’m asked to create a login profile.

  I rub circles into one of my temples, sensing there’s more behind the old man’s history that Theo doesn’t know. “What about hunting? Was he into that?”

  What I’d really like to know is if he had any kind of obsession with dead animals.

  “Couldn’t tell you, but I remember him once mentioning that people around here take deer hunting season seriously. Now that I live here, there’s no denying he was right.” His fingers begin to toy with the end of my side braid resting on my shoulder. “Listen, sweetheart. I get that you’re worried about this girl, but you’ve been…distant. If you’re afraid of me after I punched my old man, you should know I’ve never hit a woman, never will. I’d let one beat me to death before I’d raise a hand.”

  I close my eyes, sensing with every bit of my soul that he’s speaking the truth. “I trust you,” I say quietly. “It’s just—”

  “Hold on,” he grunts. “The minister’s garage door is opening.”

  We silently watch as a slender, gray-haired man in a cardigan sweater who possesses a hunched back and wears wire-rimmed glasses lugs a black trash bag from the door separating the house from the attached garage. Behind a shiny red crossover, he drops the bag at his feet and leans against the trunk, panting.