“So what’s the deal? You said they moved you.”
“Yeah. Yesterday. Or maybe it was today.” Veronica sighed and placed both hands on her lower back, pushing her belly out. “This is not how I envisioned having my first child.” Tears welled and overflowed.
Jenna felt tears of her own surface. Ruthlessly she shoved them back. Tears wouldn’t get her—them—out of this.
“Is this place bugged?”
“Huh?”
“You know. Do you think they listen in on your conversations?”
“Oh.” Veronica shrugged. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it.”
Julienna grunted. “I wouldn’t put it past them.”
A groan from the cot by the door pulled Jenna’s attention to her friend. “Patty.” She rushed over to her side. “Are you all right?”
“What did I drink last night?” She held a hand to her head.
Grimly, Jenna responded, “A killer cocktail.”
Connor couldn’t help thinking that the lawyer was the link. “We can’t get the warrant on the Abbott place again, can we?”
“We’ve got no proof that he’s involved other than that weird receipt. And we don’t have a viable reason to search the man’s house again.”
“So, how are we going to find more evidence if we can’t access his house?”
“I know. It’s a catch-22.”
“We need to set up some kind of sting, but there’s just no time.” Connor put the binoculars in between the seats and looked at Samantha. “No suspicious activity going on. The mail was just delivered.”
“Is Mrs. Abbott home?”
“Yeah, I think I saw her walk in front of one of the windows a few minutes ago. But I’m not sure. Could have been the housekeeper. I guess I could go knock and see who answers the door.”
“And tip them off?”
“No.” He glanced at the sky. “The sun’s going to start going down in a couple of hours. I wish Dakota would call with something on Jenna.”
“He will. As soon as he has something.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than his phone rang. He snatched it and put it on speaker. “Yeah.”
“GPS tracked Jenna’s phone coming from 55 Baker Street.”
A cold feeling slid through him. A street full of abandoned warehouses, run-down businesses, druggies, and hookers. Nothing good happened there.
So, he had her. Connor looked at Samantha, who’d gone pale.
They’d been right. “He’s got Jenna.”
“And Tom.”
“Looks like it might be a distinct possibility. But how? How would he know?” He spoke into the phone once again. “How soon can we get a team over there? I’m on the way.” He cranked the car.
Dakota sucked in a breath. “Connor, just because her phone is there doesn’t mean Jenna is. Don’t do anything stupid like try to find her without backup.”
“Where’s the lawyer? Do we have someone on him?”
“Yeah. Looks like he caught a flight out of town. To give the man credit, the trip had been scheduled for almost two weeks, his ticket purchased way in advance.”
“Was he with anyone?”
“No, he’s on his way to a conference in New York where he’s the guest speaker on handling adoptions.”
“Great. Just great. And no one thought to stop him?”
“For what, Connor? We have no proof, nothing at all on the guy, just suspicions.”
“And we still have four missing girls that he might know the whereabouts of.”
“I know, it stinks, but it’s the law.”
Connor breathed out and looked at Sam. “I’m going to knock on the door and see who’s in the house, then we’re going to get over to that warehouse.”
The Agent grunted and tossed Jenna’s backpack into the trunk of the car. He’d have to get rid of it later. Just like he’d have to get rid of Patty and Jenna. And if Julienna wasn’t pregnant yet, she could go too.
Veronica, however, he’d have to be careful with. The clients buying her baby had already forked over some big bucks. If he didn’t deliver, they would cause definite problems. But it shouldn’t be too hard to hide one pregnant girl. After all, he’d hidden a lot more.
Jenna kicked at the door and grimaced at the shooting pain. That was dumb. The girls were right. There was no way out. If only she’d been able to grab her phone. The creep had even taken her backpack. She thumped back down the steps. “How often does he come down here?”
“Not often.” Veronica got up and paced from one end of the room to the other.
“What do you
do
all day?”
“It’s different here,” Julienna said softly. “The other place had a game room type area plus a small television where we could watch some movies.”
“I pray a lot.”
“Yeah, we’ve been doing a lot of that.”
Jenna studied them. Were they serious? “Pray? And has it helped? What good is that? You’re still stuck here.” She didn’t mean to sound so sarcastic, it just came out that way.
Veronica shrugged, stuck out her chin. “Physically I may be trapped here, but he’ll never have my spirit.”
Jenna just looked at her. “Huh. So, can we not overpower him somehow? There’s four of us.” She looked at Patty who sat on the edge of the cot holding her head. She’d already lost the contents of her stomach twice. “Okay, three of us. Why can’t we gang up on him and get out of here?”
“Because he’ll kill a girl.”
“What?”
“If I were to attack him, he might shoot you. Or Patty. Or Julienna. He made that very clear. Are you willing to risk that?”
“You mean if I jump him . . . or we jump him . . . he would shoot someone else?”
Veronica chewed her lower lip, then nodded. “Exactly.”
“Whoa.” She dropped onto the bed. “Does anyone else ever come down?”
“At the other place, there was a nurse. Her name’s Crystal Bennington. I haven’t seen her today, though.” Veronica sat in the glider across from Jenna. “She was actually pretty nice. I think she got sucked into all this by accident—at least at first. She’s the one who left her cell phone on the counter and walked out of the room. I managed to text my mom but don’t know if she got it or not. I would have called 911, but couldn’t take a chance on them not answering right away or not understanding who I was.”
“Wait, wait. Back up. What exactly is ‘all this’?” Jenna wanted to know.
Veronica and Julienna looked at each other.
“Come on. I’m in this now. What?”
Veronica patted her bulge. “They’re making and selling babies.”
Jenna blew out a breath. “So that’s what you meant by ‘in vitro.’”
“Yep. As near as we can figure out, they ‘take orders’ from couples who can’t conceive for some reason, then snatch girls who look like the couple. That way they have a pretty good chance of getting a kid that looks like them.”
“But that’s . . .”
“Crazy? You don’t have to tell me that.”
She studied the girls, wondering how they’d stayed sane in this completely whacked situation. Patty raised tear-filled eyes to Jenna’s, sighed, turned her back to the room, and curled into a fetal position on the bed, escaping to another reality. She’d be no help.
“I can’t just sit here and wait for him to come kill me. We’ve got to think of something.”
“What do you mean? Wait for him to come kill you?”
Jenna stared at them. How did they not know what had happened to the girls who’d been snatched by this guy? But maybe they hadn’t made the connection. After all, the average teen didn’t really keep up with the news and junk. Jenna did simply because her dad was often a part of it. Plus, most of the information from the first girls who’d been reported missing hadn’t come out until after these girls had disappeared.
Great. “You didn’t get to watch the news, did you?”
At their blank looks, she changed the subject. “What I mean is, I don’t like anyone keeping me locked in a room against my will. I mean I’m going to figure out how to get out of here.”
The two girls exchanged another look. Jenna read it. They wondered if she was going to do something to cause their death.
She certainly didn’t want to, but if getting out of this alive meant doing something risky, she’d take risky over certain death any day.
Connor climbed back into the car. “It’s just the housekeeper. So, where’s Mrs. Abbott?”
“No telling. I need to give Jamie a call and let her know Tom and I aren’t going to make it to her house tonight.”
“You do that. It’ll be about twenty minutes before we get to Warehouse Row.”
Before calling Jamie, Samantha pulled the laptop out and called Dakota. He answered on the first ring. “Dakota, can you put Jenna’s GPS signal through to the laptop?”
“Sure, hang on a second.”
Samantha waited, city map pulled up on the screen. Then a little red dot appeared right where Dakota said it would. Warehouse Row.
“Thanks, Dakota.”
“Welcome.”
She hung up. If this guy really did have Jenna, he hadn’t yet discovered her phone or he would have dismantled it and the GPS wouldn’t still be getting a signal.
Keeping her eye on the dot, she dialed Jamie’s number. When her sister answered, she sounded distracted.
“Hey, Jamie, what are you doing?”
“Oh, Sam. Sorry, I’m working on finalizing graduation requirements and all that fun stuff.”
“Listen, Tom and I aren’t going to be able to make it tonight. We’re still working on this case.”
“I hope you’re making some headway. I haven’t been much help, have I?”
“Don’t worry about it and yes, we’re tracking a new angle.” She paused. “Could you do serious praying for Jenna, Connor’s daughter?”
“She’s in trouble? I’ll start now.”
“Thanks, Jamie. I’ll catch up with you later, okay?” She didn’t want to mention Tom might possibly be in the hands of a killer. No need to say anything about that yet.
“Absolutely, I’ll be praying. See you later.”
Samantha hung up and said, “I can’t believe how far she’s come lately.”
“I’m glad for her. For you too.”
She smiled at him, then turned back to the computer. “He hasn’t found her phone yet.”
“I’m trying to think of what information Jenna might have overheard me talking about or what I might have said to her.” He slapped a hand against the wheel in frustration. “I’m drawing a blank.”
“You’re worried.”
“Scared spitless.”
“Jamie’s praying.”
He looked at her. “I am too.”
Pacing the floor, The Agent pondered his next move. He stood at the window and looked out. A car drove past. One he thought he recognized. What? Slowly, it turned into the deserted parking lot and around to the back.
Connor and Samantha! How had they found this place? Thank goodness he’d had the dumb luck to be standing in the window and spotted the car, otherwise . . .
A string of curses flew from his lips as he whirled from the window. They probably had a SWAT team on the way. He’d be trapped.
How in the—
Jenna’s phone. She’d lied. Managed to hide it somewhere and they tracked it to here.
He thought. It wasn’t in her backpack. It wasn’t anywhere on her person.
Only one place it could be.
His car.
Clamoring down the steps, he raced into what had been renovated into a makeshift kitchen.
Think, think.
He grabbed a knife from the wooden block.
Don’t panic. You’re
in control.
But he wasn’t. For the first time since he’d gotten into this, he wasn’t in control anymore. Placing both hands on the counter, he studied the knife.
A plan formed.
He had to get rid of the evidence. Fast.
Samantha curled her fingers around the butt of her gun and kept her eyes glued on the door in front of her. Movement sounded from the room behind it. Connor caught her eye and nodded.
They really should wait for backup, but Samantha knew Connor’s thoughts were on Jenna, worry eating him from the inside out. On the other hand, if they walked into something beyond what the two of them could handle, it wouldn’t do Jenna much good.
Samantha glanced at her watch. Backup should be here at any moment. Two steps farther in and she could see out the nearest window. Four police cars pulled in.
Before she or Connor had a chance to react, the door flew open and a bloodied figure stumbled out.
“Tom!”
She holstered her gun and ran to his side. She grabbed his arm to hold him up. “What happened to you?”
He weaved, leaning heavily on her. Connor slipped to the other side of the man and held on tight. “Where’s Jenna?”
“I . . . I don’t know. I lost her. Guy jumped me at a rest area. Stole my car. But I grabbed a cab and managed to track Jenna’s phone here. I called Marty at the FBI office, and she pulled up Jenna’s phone on the GPS and directed me here. When I got here, they were in the kitchen. Guess I should have called for backup.” He grimaced.
Samantha saw the color drain from Connor’s face. “Marty didn’t say anything about your call.”
Tom shrugged, then groaned in obvious pain. “Oh, wait. It wasn’t Marty. I don’t remember who I talked to.” He swayed, and Sam clung to his arm.
“Come on, we’ll hash this all out after you’ve seen a doctor,” she grunted. “We’ve got to get you some medical attention.”
“Don’t tell me. They’re already gone,” Connor said.
“Yeah. He got me with the knife.” Tom raised a hand to his head. “I fell and cracked my head. Next thing I know, you’re here.”
Connor spoke into his radio. “Secure the area. We need an ambulance.”
Tom protested. “No. I don’t need an ambulance.”
“I’ll ride with you.” Connor tossed Samantha his keys and went on like Tom hadn’t spoken. “I’ll also need a statement from you. Samantha, you can meet me at the hospital.”
“You might as well go. He’s not going to take no for an answer,” Samantha told Tom as her cell phone rang.
Jamie. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I just wanted to check in with you and see what was developing. I knew if you couldn’t talk, you wouldn’t answer. Is Jenna okay?”
“No, not really. Unfortunately, she’s missing right now.” Fear for the girl crowded her throat and she swallowed. “Tom’s hurt and on the way to the hospital.”
“What?!”
“Yeah, I’ll fill you in later.”
“Tell Tom I’ll meet him there.”
“I’m sure he’ll appreciate that.”
Sam hung up and watched the crime scene guys get to work.