Touched by Death (35 page)

"Even if he did, what does that have to do with
Jade? Let's focus on her and leave the dead for later." Meg stood
and paced the area nervously. "We have to find her."

"Do we want to try talking to John? Call in the
authorities? You said wait until we'd search. Well we have – now what."

"Not to mention, this is only sheer conjecture,"
Stephen said, groaning. "I think Jade's imagination is getting
to all of us."

"Well she came up that damn hill to find me.
I'm not going to bed tonight until we find her." Dr. Mike glared
at his crutches. "However, I am a little handicapped. I can stay
here and run command central or I can be a passenger as we drive around
looking. Two pairs of eyes are better than one."

"Was she so unnerved at that old lady's words
that she might go for a walk? Go to the beach, maybe? If so, someone
should go and drive that area, check out her familiar haunts, her places
to walk…on the off chance. Do we know if there's a vehicle missing?
Oh Right. Bruce, you checked that didn't you?"

Bruce agreed. "They're all here."

"Magrim said she should not trust those close
to her…"

Wilson snorted. "So what – we're supposed to
look at each other with suspicion?"

Meg shook her head. "No. That's not what I meant.
I'm wondering if we can trust Dane? And does John count as someone close
to her – because of his connection to Dane?"

"How about this – we assume they're both psychotic
killers?" Wilson stood up. "I can't just sit here. I'm going
to walk toward Magrim's booth and the little park. Otherwise, everyone
stay together and keep in contact. Enough people have gone missing."

Meg and Susan stood up. "We're coming, too."

Bruce pushed his chair back. "I'm going to loop
back through the hotel again. Talk to the staff. Maybe she's showed
up since we checked with them." He disappeared into the main building,
leaving the other two men alone.

Alone in his truck, Dane pounded the steering wheel.
There was no way that John would survive an accusation like this. He'd
been through enough already. It would destroy him. Like it had last
time.

Last time?

"Dear God." From the back of his mind, came
one old memory he'd forgotten about. With good reason. John's old girlfriend,
Celia. She'd gone missing years ago. Was it important? Or would it just
throw unnecessary suspicion in the wrong direction? He needed Jade back,
not wasting time doing a useless search in the wrong direction.

His stomach clenched with bubbling acid. Did the story
of Celia's disappearance have any bearing on today's? John's high school
sweetheart had run away several times during high school, so when she
took off for good, no one thought anything of it. Dane didn't know where
or when...
or
if
...she'd ever surfaced. She might have. It wasn't like he had
kept in touch with anyone from back then. No one he could call and ask.

If he could find out she was fine, then he could forget
about any connection to John's wives. And clearing that away would help
John's case. Letting Dane focus on Jade's disappearance without John
distracting him.

Then again, he just might know someone who could give
him the answer he needed.
His foreman back in Seattle.
He pulled off to the side of the
road, took a look around, hoping to see Jade walking toward him as he
dialed the Seattle number. He waited impatiently for the call to get
picked up.

"Thomas? Hey, yeah it's Dane. I have an odd non-work
related question. Do you remember Mark Coombes? From high school? Do
you remember if his kid sister ever surfaced? Remember she ran away
again just before graduation?"

Thomas, his curiosity leaching through the phone lines,
asked, "What's that about Mark's sister? Why are you asking me?
I don't know. Ask your brother John, he was closest to her."

"Was he? I couldn't remember." Except he
did remember that much. Dane leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
He swallowed hard. "I missed a lot of that year. I was in second
year of college back then."

"Yeah, we both were. Her brother Mark had a hard
time then. She was forever saying she hated her life too. So when she
went missing that last time everyone took it as normal behavior. Only
she didn't come home. I was pretty hot on her back then. Unfortunately,
she only had eyes for John."

Thomas spoke in reminiscent tones without any understanding
of the turmoil twisting through Dane. He cleared his throat. "I
thought they'd broken up before then?"

"They broke up and got together again, constantly.
It's hard to remember anymore. Like I said, talk to John. He was the
last one to see her before she disappeared."

Dane gut clenched. "Okay, I will. Everything
there all right?" Christ he hoped so. His life here had just drained
to the sewer level.

"Yeah everything's fine. I need you to go over
that bid for the Stortex job. Any chance you'll get that done today?"

Hell no.
"I'll see what I can do. I might be coming home
sooner than I'd planned."

Thomas cheered. "That's great news. We need you
here. I know long distance is fine for a while but I'm not you, buddy."

And Dane knew he needed to go home, not just for his
company but for himself. But not until he'd found Jade and helped his
brother get his life together. "I hear you. I'll call in a couple
of days."

"Do that. Don't forget to put that bid together."

"Will do." Dane rang off. He dropped his
head back and closed his eyes again, letting Thomas's words repeat in
his mind. His stomach wanted to heave as he considered a possibility
he could no longer ignore.
Oh God.

Had John done something to the women he'd loved? Even
worse, could he have done something to Jade – the woman Dane loved?

"Well I don't want to just sit here waiting until
the authorities arrive. What can we do?" Dr. Mike studied the area
where Jade had been sitting.

Stephen said, "If she were sitting here, she'd
have been taken out the back way." He pointed behind him. That's
the most direct route. With the road right there, someone could easily
have snatched her and stuffed her in a vehicle."

Stephen got up and walked around while Dr. Mike watched.
A short hedge separated the hotel's property from the side street but
it was easy to step over. "It would have been too damn easy. Especially
if he parked here."

He stood where the vehicle could have parked and in
ten steps reached where Jade had sat. He made a motion with his arm
demonstrating a simple choke hold, bent down, tossed an imaginary Jade
over his shoulder and hopped over the hedge.

"Simple."

With a decisive nod, Dr. Mike said, "Less than
a minute. Walk up, pick her up and walk out. Done."

Frowning, Stephen added, "And no one would have
seen her abduction unless they were sitting right here."

"No windows face this direction, no glass doors,
nothing."

The two men smiled grimly. "That's what happened.
I can just see it."

Stephen added, "Particularly if he'd watched
Meg and Dane walk away? He'd have known he had that window of time."

"I'm sorry to say that I agree; there's been
so much strange shit going on with John and his family, he comes to
mind automatically. But he wouldn't have known Jade was here. Or that
she was alone. It could just as easily have been an abduction by a stranger.
And those are the worst to solve."

Casting a narrow eye around the road and parking lot,
Stephen grimaced. "Maybe Peppe is behind this? He's conveniently
gone missing."

Shifting his crutches to the other side, Dr. Mike
hobbled to his feet. "We only have to look at what Peppe did to
me to realize what he's capable of. He could have snatched Jade. He
could also have snatched those women we found in the grave. Hell, maybe
Emile was even in on it."

"Now that's stretching it," Stephen stared
at Dr. Mike, doubt clouding his voice.

Anger colored Dr. Mike's voice. "Is it? Some
asshole kept those women chained up. Who had opportunity? Look at where
they live. No one would ever hear a woman scream out there."

Stephen stared at him. "That's ugly."

"True, but that doesn't mean it's wrong."

Dane had already checked all the side streets close
by when he pulled up right in front of the hotel. His heart was heavy.
This time everyone raced to meet him before he'd even hopped out. He
slammed the door and hurried in their direction. From the looks on their
faces they hadn't found her.

"Dane? Did you find her?"

He shook his head as he joined them.

"The others have just returned after looking
everywhere for her." Dr. Mike pointed toward the three team members
racing toward them from the other side of the hotel. "Any luck?"
he called out.

'"No. Nothing." The three arrived, gasping
for breath. "Do you have any news? Please tell us you have news,"
Meg asked, worry creasing her face.

Bruce walked out from the hotel. As everyone turned
to him he shook his head.

Hope died from everyone's faces.

Dane opened his mouth again, then closed it for a
second to gather his thoughts. "Except...well, I don't know if
this has anything to do with what's going on. I wanted to confirm something
that happened a long time ago so I phoned a friend of mine. Now this
isn't for sure, but…"

"Spit it out Dane. We don't have time."
Bruce frowned at Dane.

"I've been considering what you said about John.
When he was in high school, he had this girlfriend who ran away from
her home several times. She always came back. The last time was six
weeks before her high school graduation. As far as I can determine,
she's never been seen since."

Meg gasped, the color leeching from her face. Susan
reached out and grabbed her hand, then asked, "She's still missing?"

"Yes. I just talked to my foreman in Seattle.
He was a friend of the family. It may be that John had nothing to do
with her disappearance but..."

"He had motive and opportunity." Bruce pondered
the information. "What did the police say?"

"The police put her down as a missing person.
Apparently, John was the last person to see her alive."

Dr. Mike leaned forward. "Don't tell me – they'd
had a fight and she ran away without him, breaking his heart."

Dane stared at him. "Something like that, yeah."

Bruce stood up. "Let's go."

"Go where?" Dane looked over at the others
in confusion. What did they know that he didn't?"

"To John's place."

Whoa.
"What? On the basis of Celia having gone missing
years ago? There's a chance this is all a coincidence." But even
he was trouble believing that now.

Wilson's angry voice sliced through Dane's protestations.
"You said his other wife died too… Maybe he's killing Jade right
now."

The color bleached from Dane's face.

Meg gasped.

Bruce started walking to the parking lot. "Let's
not go overboard. However, if I can consider this guy killed a girlfriend
and then his two wives – I have to consider he's gone after Jade,
too."

Stephen, impatiently jingling the keys to one of the
SUVs, stood by the closest vehicle, waiting. He asked, "Maybe,
but why target Jade?"

Dane's face turned from white to red as a growing
fear burned the shock away. "
If
he's done this, and it's a fucking big if, then he's lost
everything. He might, in his anger, and considering his mental state,
want to strike out at me. He said something that surprised me earlier.
Essentially, he wanted to know why his life was shit and mine so charmed."

The others stared at him.

"Typical siblings," suggested Meg, hopefully.

"Step-siblings," he corrected. "My
mother married John's father and he came along as part of the package
deal."

Dr. Mike and Bruce exchanged grim looks. "Greed
and envy could be motive for snatching Jade. Not well thought out though,
if that's what he's doing."

Stephen opened up the SUV doors. "He's not thinking
– he's reacting – to his anger and fear. He's going to lash out
in the same way he has in the past."

Meg groaned. "I feel for him after what's happened
to his life. I can understand the anger, but to do something like this
to his brother...and Jade... "

Bruce hopped into the front passenger seat. "And
we need to find her before he has a chance to release some of his anger...on
her."

The trip to John's house was completed in silence.
Meg sat beside Dane as he drove. The SUV full of team members followed
Dane's truck.

Dane's mind churned with the mess in his head. It
was hard enough to consider the girlfriend-wife thing, but to take that
one step further and contemplate John abducting Jade was another altogether.

He didn't want to believe any of it. This was his
little brother. The kid brother he'd adored, helped and been there for
all these years. And now he was wondering if this same man could have
done what these professionals suggested. And if John had done these
things, how well had Dane known him? Really known him? Dane understood
anger – any man did. He didn't understand lashing out and hurting
others while in a temper. There were other ways to let off steam than
hurting people you loved.

And John had changed. Become someone Dane had trouble
understanding.

The property looked deserted as they drove into the
yard. There was no sign of John's truck. Maybe he was still in town.
But if he were in town that meant he could have been at their hotel
when Jade went missing. He swore under his breath and closed his eyes
briefly.

"Did you say something?" Meg turned to face
him.

"No. Just hoping this mess turns out better than
it's looking like it will at the moment."