Burn Out (2 page)

Mallory kept asking over and over,
“Mommy, will you please come play with me.”

“
Baby, Mommy is busy working. In a
little while, okay?”

“
Please, Mommy. I’ll let you be the
princess if you want.” Mallory pleaded.

“
In a few minutes, honey. Let me
finish this. Okay?”

Mallory poked her lower lip out.
“Please?”

She heard her phone ringing inside.
“Mallory, I’ll be right back.” She ran inside to answer it. It was
probably Rick calling to say he made it to the airport. She was
only gone a couple of minutes. When she came back outside, Mallory
was gone.

Frantically she looked everywhere
for Mallory. Front yard, inside the house, back yard, garage, and
up and down the street. Everywhere. No Mallory. Her world came
crashing down all around her.

That’s all it took. Two minutes and
her daughter vanished. No leads, no witnesses, nothing. It was like
she fell off the face of the earth.

Weeks later, when the story got hot
and received national attention, all the wacky leads came in. The
police followed up on as many as they deemed reasonable. It wasn’t
enough for Rachel. Mallory was never found.

She felt the guilt of not spending
enough time with Mallory. She cursed herself for not paying
attention the morning she was taken. Rachel’s obsession with
finding Mallory took a toll on her marriage. Rick eventually moved
out and their divorce soon followed.

Rachel took all her anger and grief
and turned into a positive thing. She would never stop looking for
Mallory, but she realized she had the money and resources to help
find other missing people.

After a year of putting together her
team – forensic experts, experienced search and rescue volunteers,
and top investigators – she started Florida Omni Search. Now, three
years later, she had located over a hundred missing children and
adults. She rarely turned down a case and would help just about
anyone who needed her. With over 2300 Americans, including
children, reported missing every day, how could she not?

Rachel sat down at her desk and picked
up a picture of her and Mallory she kept in a silver frame. The
picture was taken at Disney World the year Mallory disappeared.
They were standing in front of Cinderella’s castle and Rachel was
holding Mallory in her arms. Mallory was wearing her pink tutu and
was eating an ice cream cone. She had chocolate sauce dripping down
her little arm and a huge smile on her face. Rachel had tears in
her eyes as she put down the photo. She hardly recognized the woman
in the picture. The woman she used to be. The beautiful, well
put-together woman with long auburn hair that hung straight and
shiny down her back and makeup that was always perfect. Staring at
the picture, she longed to hold Mallory again in her arms. “I will
always, always look for you. I will never give up.” She repeated
those words every day as she looked at her daughter’s smiling face.
She missed her little girl so much it physically hurt.

She wiped away her tears and took a
deep breath as she refocused her energy on helping the missing
firefighter. She dialed the number on the paper Red gave her, and
after several rings, a child answered the phone.

“
Hello. This is Rachel. May
I speak to Nora?” The phone clunked down with a clatter. After a
few seconds, Nora picked up.

“
Hello?”

“
Nora, this is Rachel Scott
from Florida Omni Search. I’m returning your call about
Samantha.”

“
Oh, Ms. Scott.” Nora cried
on the phone. “Thank you so much for calling me back. I’ve seen you
on that TV show about missing people. I hope you can help me find
my daughter, Samantha. I just know something bad happened to
her.”

“
I will help you in any way
I can, Nora. Why don’t you tell me what happened?” Rachel leaned
back into her chair and listened to Nora’s bizarre
story.

After speaking with Nora about her
daughter’s strange disappearance, Rachel committed herself to
finding Sam. Before she headed up to Santa Rosa Beach, she wanted
to find out everything she could about the case. She ran a Google
search which came up with an article that was posted under
“breaking local news” in the Walton Sun newspaper that
morning.

FIRE DESTROYS CAMPBELL’S
FARMERS MARKET

ONE FIREFIGHTER DECLARED
MISSING

Firefighters at Santa Rosa
Beach Fire Department responded to a fire at Campbell’s Farmers
Market Thursday night.

Fire Chief Glen Toomey
said the twenty-five thousand square foot warehouse housed the
farmer’s market caught fire around 6:30 pm. The owner’s son was
reported to be trapped inside. Lt. Samantha Collins and her crew
were the first to respond and went inside to locate the victim.
After the victim was found, the firefighters pulled him from the
building. It was then noticed Lt. Collins was missing. A mayday
call was quickly sent out with no response from Lt. Collins. A few
moments later, the roof collapsed.

Firefighters and
investigators have searched the rubble and the surrounding area,
but Lt. Collins has not been found. Her firefighter helmet,
however, was discovered in the rear parking lot. A source close to
the investigation said the police department is stumped. They do
not know what happened to Lt. Collins.

In an interesting twist,
her husband, Ken Collins, the former captain of Santa Rosa Beach
Police Department, was arrested two months ago for running a
marijuana growing operation out of his property. Samantha was to
testify at his trial later this week.

Charges were filed against
Samantha Collins in the case, but were later dropped when no
evidence could be found that she knew about the grow operation.
Samantha’s mom, Nora Prince, does not believe Samantha would
intentionally leave her children, ages four and six. Nora was
watching her grandchildren while Samantha worked her regular shift
at the fire department.

“
Something happened to my
daughter. She wouldn’t leave her kids. She was worried about what
was going to happen if Ken was convicted and sent to prison. But
she is a strong person and was planning on going to his trial to
show support.”

Samantha’s best friend,
Tammie Knowles, repeated the same sentiment.

“
Sam would never run from
her problems. She was concerned about money and wondered how she
would support her and the kids without Ken, but she was working it
out. She would never leave them at a time like this.”

Santa Rosa Beach
authorities are considering Lt. Samantha Collins a "missing and
endangered adult.” Anyone with information is asked to call the
Santa Rosa Beach police department.

The news article confirmed everything
Nora had told her. Rachel emerged from her office to find Janine at
the front desk. She was training a new volunteer to answer the
phone.

“
Janine, I’m going to drive
up to Santa Rosa Beach after lunch. Will you find out what
volunteers we have up there and put them on standby? Also, I’ll
need the number for the fire marshal’s office. I want to call them
on the way and set up a meeting for when I get there.”

“
Ok, I’m on it. Red just
left to run some errands, but he can help out when he gets back.”
Janine grabbed her notepad to take notes. “What about Peter and
Rankin? You want them to go with you?”

Peter Moore and Rankin Smartz were
part of her search team and usually went on all search and rescue
cases with Rachel.

“
Just let them know what’s
going on. I’ll call as soon as I meet with investigators and get a
better handle on the case. This is not going to be your
run-of-the-mill disappearance case. I can feel it.” Rachel gave her
the details of the conversation she had with Nora and what
information she gleaned from the news article.

“
Are you taking Maggie with
you?” Janine asked. Maggie was a black lab Rachel had since she was
a puppy. She bought Maggie for her daughter on her second birthday.
Maggie was her only companion since Mallory’s disappearance. She
rarely went anywhere without her.

“
Not this time. I was
hoping she could stay with you and Jack,” Rachel said, smiling
hopefully. Jack was Janine’s ten-year-old and he absolutely adored
Maggie.

“
Of course,” Janine said,
smiling. “Jack has been missing her lately.” Jack was abducted by
Janine’s husband when he was two years old after a nasty custody
battle. Rachel was still dealing with the loss of her own daughter
and had seen the news about Jack’s disappearance. She reached out
to Janine and together they helped track down Jack and his father.
They formed a tight bond and opened up Florida Omni Search
together. Janine had a drive and determination equal to
Rachel’s.

“
I’m going home to pack, so
call me on the cell with the information when you get it. Pretty
please,” Rachel said.

“
Bossy,” Janine replied
back.

“
You know you love
it.”

“
Do you need me to make
hotel arrangements for you?”

“
No, I already took care of
that. I’m going to stay at a rental house my friend Michelle Couch
owns. You remember Michelle?”

“
Sure. You guys went to FSU
together.”

“
That’s right. She’s a
psychologist and lives near Santa Rosa Beach. Thankfully she owns a
few rental properties in the area and graciously offered to let me
stay at one. I’ll call you with the address and number when I get
there.” Rachel gave Janine a hug goodbye.

They had a great working relationship.
Janine had full custody of Jack now, so she rarely travelled with
Rachel. She had years of administrative experience and was better
equipped to run the office. On the other hand, Rachel liked to get
out and meet people. She also had an amazing sixth sense and had a
knack for knowing what made people tick. The arrangement worked
well for them.

Rachel walked back to the parking lot
and unlocked her truck. It was another change in her life. She had
traded in her black, 7 series BMW for a black four-wheel drive
Tahoe. She climbed in and headed home.

Rachel actually had two homes. When
Mallory went missing she couldn’t bear to sell her house. In the
back of her mind, she felt one day Mallory would come back home.
And she didn’t want strangers living there if that happened. So she
kept it empty except for a live-in maid and her husband, who was
the maintenance man. One day she knew she would have to sell. It
didn’t make sense to put over a hundred grand in maintenance and
taxes to keep a house she would never live in again. Her second
home was a cute Florida bungalow near the beach. It was three
bedrooms. One for her, an office, and a guest bedroom. She had a
small pool, hot tub, and a nice yard for Maggie. She was rarely
home, so it suited her nicely. And it was a quick drive from the
office.

It didn’t take Rachel long to get
everything she needed for the trip. She always kept a suitcase
packed since she travelled on the road quite a bit. Ever since
Mallory disappeared, her longing to help others got
stronger.

Rachel heard her phone beep, letting
her know she had a text message. She checked her Blackberry. Janine
had sent the phone numbers she needed to get started with the
case.

She called the fire marshal’s office
to make an appointment with the lead investigator, Jeff Stanton.
Jeff said he was familiar with her work. Rachel Scott and Florida
Omni Search made national headlines when they were involved in
finding Amber Knowles, the only daughter of Florida governor, John
Knowles. They agreed to meet at his office the next morning at
eight a.m.

She threw everything in the back of
her Tahoe and went inside to get Maggie and her things. When she
took Maggie to Janine’s, she always packed extra food and toys in
case she was gone longer than she expected. She grabbed the bag of
Science Diet dog food and reached into the wicker basket for
Maggie’s favorite squeaky toys. The purple dinosaur, a yellow duck,
and a red plastic ball all went into a baggie.

Maggie sat watching Rachel with great
interest, her thick black tail wagging. Her tail was so long and
heavy it would probably be illegal in some states. One
unintentional whip of her tail would leave a bruise on someone’s
leg.

The loyal black lab jumped in the
Tahoe. Rachel rubbed Maggie on top of her head. “Good girl. You’re
going to Jack’s house for a few days. Aren’t you a lucky
girl?”

Maggie gave a cheerful
bark.

Santa Rosa Beach, FL Monday
10:30 AM

Ken Collins paced in his eight by ten
jail cell thinking how fucked up his life had become in such a
short amount of time. He reflected back to just a few days ago when
he got the worst news of his life.

“
Get up, Ken. You got a
visitor.” The prison guard rapped on his cell.

Ken threw his legs over
the top bunk and jumped down. He wasn’t expecting anyone. His
lawyer came by every Tuesday like clockwork to discuss his case.
But today was Friday. He wondered what was up. Ken walked with the
guard down the long hallway towards the visitor’s room. However,
the guard kept walking.