Chapter 5

  “So what do you think about Henry’s case? A regular grab and run?” Jason asked Erin.

  “He was walking to a friend’s house a block away and no one saw anything. You know, the boy has been gone for four hours. I’d say someone enticed him to get in his vehicle, offering some incentive and then just drove off with him.”

  When Erin and Jason arrived at Samantha’s red-brick house, Samantha’s mom and her mother’s boyfriend wouldn’t let them inside to talk. Not that it really mattered. They just wanted to learn what they could and where to take the investigation next.

  The mother was at once belligerent. “We already talked to the police because my damn sister stuck her nose in my business. My daughter runs off all the time. And, hell she’s only been gone for a couple of hours. The police know it and we know it and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it and not enough time has passed to make it an issue anyway.”

  But what Erin noticed right away was that a female jaguar had been here and that didn’t make any sense at all. These people were human.

  “She went to Houston,” the woman’s boyfriend said, surprising Erin and Jason.

  The woman looked sharply at him. “Pete…”

  Erin wondered if she’d known and it was a secret, or she really hadn’t known.

  He shrugged. “Samantha was upset about her cousin Henry She’s been calling everyone she knows, calling the neighbors in her cousin’s neighborhood, pacing all over the place here. I tried to tell her the police were out in force looking for him, but she was highly agitated and wouldn’t settle down. She went over to her uncle’s house twice, canvassing the neighborhood. Then she came home again.”

  Erin thought they might actually make some headway in the case on their first stop.

  “The police said she hasn’t been gone long enough to raise any red flags. I tried to tell them she’s been here and gone looking for her cousin,” the boyfriend said. “She and her mom aren’t on good terms. But Samantha and I actually talk to each other about her school and dating and books. Anyway, so she left for Houston.”

  “Why do you think she went to Houston, and did you tell the police that?” Jason asked.

  “I did tell them, but they still don’t think there is anything to it. She rode with some guy named Dale in a blue, Ford pickup truck, and she went willingly. And she hasn’t been gone that long. Her aunt was overly worried about her because of Samantha running away in the past. And with Samantha being so upset over her cousin, her aunt was just really concerned. I don’t know Dale’s last name. They are in high school together. She goes over to his house to study with him sometimes,” Pete said.

  “Study, my ass,” the mother said.

  Everyone glanced at her, but Pete continued, “Anyway, I heard her talking to him on her cell. She said she would meet him outside and he needed to drive her to Houston. Like I said, I told the police, but they didn’t believe there was any need for concern. Neither did you,” he said to Samantha’s mom.

  So the mom did know!

  “Do you know who Dale is? His last name?” Erin asked the mother, hoping she knew since the boyfriend didn’t. And that she’d tell them the truth!

  “Dale Baldwin.” She scowled at Erin, folding her arms.

  “Where were they going in Houston exactly?” Erin asked the woman’s boyfriend. “Did she give any clue?”

  “No, she just said that they were going to the city.”

  “Okay, well, thanks so much,” Erin told him. They didn’t have a whole lot more to go on, but it sounded like Samantha had hitched a ride with a guy she was friends with, and she hadn’t been abducted or running away from home. Erin glanced at Jason to see if he had any questions for them, but he was looking at his phone.

  “I’ve got his phone number. Come on.” Jason led her back to his car while the door to the house slammed shut. He was on his phone then, entering the number.

  “A jaguar’s been to the house. Did you smell her?” Erin asked.

  “Yeah, I did. I wonder what that’s all about. I don’t recognize the person’s scent, though I don’t know all the jaguars in the surrounding areas. She could just be a delivery person and dropped off a package.” Jason got an answer to his call. “Hi, I’m Jason Biggerstaff, a private investigator hired by Samantha’s aunt, Melanie Whitcomb, to look for Samantha and for her cousin Henry. Samantha’s mother’s boyfriend said Samantha hitched a ride with you to go to Houston.” He and Erin got into his car, and he put the call on Bluetooth. “Are you looking into Henry’s disappearance?”

  “Yeah, we have a lead.”

  “Where exactly are you headed? And what makes you think you have a lead for where Henry is?” Jason asked.

  “We’re driving to the Houston Zoo,” Dale said.

  “The zoo? Why?” Jason asked.

  “The guy who took Henry knows his dad is a zookeeper. He called Samantha to convince her to get Henry’s dad’s master keys. Now he wants her to bring the keys to the zoo. He said no police or we won’t get Henry back. She couldn’t tell anyone because she was certain they’d call the police. And she knew I had a truck, so here we are.”

  “How did she get the keys from her uncle?” Jason asked. “I can’t believe her uncle would agree to it and potentially lose his job over it if anyone learned of it. What if this is all a hoax?”

  That was Erin’s thought also.

  “Henry’s dad is home sick with the flu. He went home early from work last night and he had his keys at the house,” Dale said. “She went to see her uncle, but he was asleep, and she found he’d left the keys on a cabinet in the living room. Her aunt is a nurse and was on duty at the hospital so no one else was at home at the time. Samantha has a key to the front door of their house in case she needed to get away from her mother. Her aunt and uncle didn’t want her running off and getting herself into trouble any longer.”

  “So now Samantha has the keys to the animal exhibits?” Erin asked.

  “Yeah, and she has to give them to the man, and he’ll release Henry. He said he only needed the keys. He sounded desperate. Samantha had to do it if she wants to help her cousin. She didn’t have a choice,” Dale said.

  “What does the kidnapper plan to do with the keys?” Erin didn’t like the sound of it. He could release a bunch of the animals from their cages. She’d heard of a jaguar escaping his habitat enclosure and killing eight animals at a zoo. What if while the zoo was open, like now, the kidnapper released some predators on the unsuspecting crowds. They sure didn’t want that to happen. And if the boy was there, Samantha and Dale too, they could be injured or killed if the man did that. Not to mention she worried he might try to take Samantha and Dale hostage too.

  “He wouldn’t say. He just said no police involvement, or we’d never see Henry again. Even I like the kid,” Dale said. “And I don’t want to see him get hurt.”

  “Can we speak to Samantha?” Erin asked, wanting to make sure she was with him, unharmed, and she wasn’t being coerced to go with Dale. Not that she thought Samantha was, but she had to make sure. “I’m Erin Chambers, by the way, a private investigator, but also former FBI and I’ve handled cases like this before.”

  “Yeah, this is Samantha.” Her voice was breaking, and Erin wanted to give her a hug and rescue her cousin for her. “I’m all right. I can never tell my mother anything. Pete, her boyfriend, is easier to talk to than her. We didn’t tell him where we were going because we knew Pete would call the police and not let us put ourselves at risk. Pete must have overhead me talking to Dale about going to the city. I didn’t mention where in Houston we were going. Promise me you won’t tell the police.”

  “No, we won’t,” Erin said. “We’re on your side. We’ll help you out any way that we can. We’re on our way there to meet up with you. What about Dale? Does the kidnapper know he’s with you?”

  “Yeah. I had to tell him because I didn’t have any way of getting to the zoo. The man sounds desperate. I’m really worried. What if he gets upset about you being there and thinks you’re the police? He might run off with Henry or hurt him,” Samantha said.

  “We’ll be acting like we’re a couple just enjoying a visit to the zoo. We’ll be watching you but stay far enough away from you so as not to spook him. He won’t know we’re with you. I’ve done all kinds of cases like this,” Erin said.

  “All right, but don’t screw it up,” Samantha said, her voice angry through her tears.

  Erin sure hoped that they weren’t making a mistake by not turning this over to the police. She couldn’t believe she’d get involved in a PI case that was so much like handling one of her FBI cases, except without the backup.

  “Okay, we’re parking at the zoo right now. How long will it take you to get here?” Dale asked.

  “Another ten minutes. Sit tight and we’ll follow you in,” Jason said.

  “All right.” Dale sounded relieved they would have someone there to help them out in case they got themselves into real trouble.

  “I didn’t want to steal my uncle’s keys.” Samantha was sniffling and sounding like she was barely able to stop from crying.

  “We’ll save your cousin, Samantha. We’ll free him.” Erin prayed they would without any harm coming to any of the kids. She could just imagine the case being on the news, and her buddies in the FBI seeing her involved in the whole mess. But hopefully they would manage this, make a citizen’s arrest, free the kids, rescue the zoo keys, and all without causing any trouble.

  “Okay, we’re here,” she said. “We’re parking now. We’ll meet you at the ticket counter. Well, we’ll follow you in from a distance.”

  “What are you driving?” Dale asked.

  “A black Jaguar with a yellow stripe,” Jason said.

  “Oh, hot damn. I see it,” Dale said. “I mean, how could anyone not see it. If we weren’t supposed to be sneaking around the place, I’d come over and look at it. We see you now getting out of the car. Both of you are wearing black—she’s in black leather and you’re in a black turtleneck and a black leather jacket.”

  “Yeah,” Jason said. “We’ll make sure that we’re a few people behind you at the ticket booth.”

  “All right.”

  Then, to Erin’s surprise, Jason grabbed her hand, turned her, and pulled her against his body hard—and he was hard, sculpted muscle pressed hot against her body—and kissed her mouth. His lips were sizzling against her chilled ones, and she couldn’t help that her eyes widened, while his, she swore, were smiling. He was a great kisser; she just hadn’t expected it in a million years.

  “What was that for?” she asked, easing away, trying not to sound shocked or annoyed with him. He was one charmer, even if he wasn’t trying to be.

  “We’re supposed to be a couple. If the kidnapper sees us here without kids and that were just visiting the zoo as a couple, he might be suspicious. He won’t believe we’re two cops if we look like we’re dating or married,” Jason said, taking her hand and leading her to the ticket booth.

  Even holding her hand like this felt way more intimate than she thought it could. Never had she thought she’d be holding the sexy cat’s hand on a walk through the zoo on a kidnapping case, or that she would even see him as sexy! “If he saw what you drove up in, he won’t either.” She could imagine the kidnapper admiring the Jaguar, like everyone else did and not paying a whole lot of attention to the couple arriving in it.

  Jason smiled. “Yeah, you’re right about that.”

  They finally reached the ticket booth line and were located about three families behind Dale and Samantha. They recognized Samantha from the photo her aunt had given to Jason—a black-haired girl, wearing jeans, sneakers, and a blue jacket. The boy was wearing jeans, black sneakers, and a dark gray hoodie, his hood up. Both teens fidgeted as they got their tickets and moved slowly into the zoo, looking around for Henry and the man who had taken him, most likely. Samantha’s phone jingled and she answered it.

  Was it the kidnapper calling?

  Samantha said, “Okay. We didn’t call the police.” She started crying and Dale rubbed her back and took the phone from her. Erin was glad Dale was there for Samantha. She wouldn’t have managed on her own, Erin figured.

  “We’re headed to the big cats’ exhibit,” Dale said. “Don’t hurt Henry.”

  With the jaguar’s hearing, Erin and Jason were able to make out what Samantha and Dale said to the man.

  Erin was going to pay for the tickets, though it didn’t matter as they would charge them to the agency account, but Jason got them and leaned over and kissed her, then slipped his credit card into his wallet.

  Okay, more of the show, as if he were taking her on a date. “Do you want to get me a cookie?” She figured she might as well play along and see if he was game.

  He laughed.

  “I’m serious.”

  “Yeah, I know. That’s why I laughed. Sure. I’ll get you a cookie. You ate all your lunch.”

  That had her chuckling. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. Before, when she’d visited her dad at the agency, Jason had been aloof, and they had seemed to argue about everything. She’d had the distinct impression that he didn’t like the idea she would return someday to take over the business and he would be working for her. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe they could work together successfully. So far, things were going well between them on the case.

  “Do you know what you want?” Jason asked.

  “Chocolate chip.” She imagined if the kidnapper saw her and Jason and she was eating a cookie at the zoo, it really would look like they were here just to have fun.

  “Okay, you watch the kids and I’ll grab your cookie for you.”

  She observed the kids as they roamed through the zoo, stopping to look in the tiger exhibit while Dale was on Samantha’s phone still, not talking, just listening to instructions, Erin figured.

  Then Jason came out of the shop with a bag and handed it to her. She pulled out a chocolate chip cookie and peered at the other cookie inside and smelled her delightful chocolate one and the other was a cinnamon and sugar-coated cookie. “A snickerdoodle cookie.”

  “Yeah, mine. You didn’t think I could pass up having dessert too while you were eating in front of me, did you?”

  Smiling, she really hadn’t thought he’d get one too. “Okay, let’s go. They’re at the tiger exhibit but now they’re on the move again.”

  “All right.” He pulled out his cookie and ditched the paper sack in a trash receptacle. He took a bite, his hand on hers as they headed toward the tiger exhibit. “This is good.” He smiled down at her and kissed her forehead. “You have a melted chocolate chip on your lip.” But he didn’t wait for her to lick it off and did the honor himself instead.

  Now that enticed her to want to pull him into her arms and kiss him. “Were you ever undercover when you were on the police force?” she asked.

  “Nah, not me.”

  “Well, you do a good job at it.”

  “Thanks. They’re headed for the snow leopard exhibit.”

  “You sure know where everything is,” she said, surprised he had come to the zoo before.

  “Yeah, I bring all my dates here.”

  She glanced up at him, not believing him.

  He chuckled. “My sister, Layla Whitson, has two kids, a boy and a girl, Ethan and Kristie, twins, six years old. Whenever I have some free time, I go with her and the kids to the zoo.”

  “Aww. I didn’t know you had a sister.” And Erin sure had him pegged wrong.

  “Yeah, she was in foster care like me, and we had lost touch. I just finally found her, and she and the kids love trips to the zoo. She’s an insurance adjuster and puts the kids in a jaguar daycare, though they have wolves in it too now.”

  “Oh, how cool. And this cookie really hit the spot. Thanks.” She finished off her cookie and then pulled out her phone to text her dad with an update. Then she pocketed her phone and saw a man standing with Henry. “Right up there. There’s a man dressed in blue denim, jacket, black boots, blond, wearing an olive drab backpack and he’s got the boy with him. The boy appears to be really happy, smiling, not upset though.”

  “Yeah, I agree. Samantha and Dale are approaching him,” Jason said. “Do you smell that same female jaguar’s scent around here? I keep getting hints of it.”

  “Yes, I’m smelling it too. The wind’s whipping around so much, it’s hard to catch where it’s coming from.”

  They quickened their pace while the man was watching the teens and nothing else.

  Samantha handed the man the keys and he released the boy. The kidnapper hurried off past the location of the snow leopard exhibit.

  Erin and Jason reached the location of the kids and made sure Henry was okay, but immediately, Erin smelled the scent of a wolf on the boy, and the boy himself was a jaguar shifter. She looked sharply at Jason, his gaze colliding with hers. The kidnapper was a wolf? But they also had found the owner of the female jaguar scent—Samantha.

  “Can we call 911 now?” Dale asked.

  No! They couldn’t allow the man to be taken into custody. Not when he was a fellow shifter.

  “No!” Samantha said, smelling that Erin and Jason were jaguars too and she had to know the man holding her cousin hostage had been a wolf. It would be disastrous for them to call the police on the man.

  “No, we’ll call the police. The three of you—” Jason said.

  “I’ll go after the kidnapper.” Erin needed one of them to stick with the kids. “You stay with the kids. Then we can sort this out.” She couldn’t believe the man who had taken the boy hostage to get the zoo keys was a wolf! And that Henry and Samantha were jaguars. Dale was the only one who wasn’t a shifter.

  “You’re going to let a woman go after a dangerous kidnapper while you stay with us?” Dale asked, sounding like he was in disbelief.

  “I’m a former FBI agent.” Erin tried not to sound annoyed that the boy would think she couldn’t handle this.