In hindsight, he should’ve waited another week. At which point, she probably would’ve dumped him. Then, this moment would’ve made him laugh, instead of shiver from deep freeze.
He pointed to a spot on the map, midway up the state, closer to Maine, which would be relevant in a moment. “Jacket was recovered here. Abandoned roadside diner, no other businesses or residents around for miles.”
“Witnesses?” Hawkes spoke up.
“No one around to witness. Welcome to the North Country. Now, tire marks show the vehicle resuming a northward course. Which brings us to”—he drew a large circle around the northern tip of the state—“hundreds of square miles of absolute nowhere. In other words, the perfect place for a bunch of kidnappers to hide.”
Nicole was frowning at his map. “You’re assuming they maintained a northern route.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Wyatt explained his logic, the mountains muddling up east-west routes and all. Based on the jacket’s disposal site, the kidnappers had taken 95 into New Hampshire, veering left onto Route 16, which followed the eastern border of the state. Call him crazy, but it seemed to him if you were a bunch of kidnappers with a family of three stashed in the back of your van, you’d go with the most direct route possible. Which would place them squarely in northern New Hampshire, an area remote enough to easily hide hostages that was also conveniently located just three to four hours from
Boston, making for easy access come time for ransom drop or hostage exchange.
Special Agent Nicole Adams seemed to accept his logic.
“Large search area,” she commented, her own finger starting to trace the various shaded regions on the map.
“Yeah, and being a rural sheriff’s department, we’re not exactly rolling in manpower, so I called in some backup.”
“Backup?” Hawkes spoke up. He had an accent. Maine maybe? Wyatt was still trying to peg him.
“US Forest Service, as well as Fish and Game. You know Marty Finch, the forest service investigator?”
Both agents nodded. While Finch worked out of Vermont, the federal agent’s territory also included New Hampshire and Maine. Given that US Forest Service lands were becoming a haven for drug operations, Wyatt had worked with Finch on a number of cases. He figured the same should be true for FBI agents out of Concord.
“I gave him a ring,” Wyatt continued now. “Gotta figure the largest chunk of real estate we’re facing is the seven hundred and fifty thousand acres of the White Mountain National Forest—Finch’s jurisdiction. At my request, he’s mobilizing the forest rangers, sending them to search parking lots at the various trailheads and campgrounds for a possible transport vehicle—I’m thinking a van based on the tire marks and need to hold at least seven. The rangers will also check out hiking huts, various rest stops. If you want to keep a low profile, hiding out in the various state parks or national wilderness areas would do it.”
“Do the rangers have enough experience to know what they’re looking for?” Nicole asked crisply.
Wyatt rolled his eyes. “Please. In New Hampshire, we all attend the same training academy. Sheriff, state, local, Fish and Game, we all go in, we all come out. Meaning that clearly, we’re all brilliant.”
Nicole raised a brow but didn’t say anything. It went without saying
that her precious FBI Academy remained a step above. Wyatt didn’t feel like pressing the point.
“What about the tolls?” Nicole spoke up. “Have you requested video footage? If your assumption about the kidnappers taking Interstate ninety-five to sixteen is correct, then they’ve passed through four major tollbooths.”
Wyatt shrugged. “Have a detective making the request. Can tell you now, given all the privacy concerns, actually obtaining that footage will be a royal pain in the ass.”
“Not like you to back down from a fight.”
“Consider it more like a strategic use of resources. I have two detectives and four deputies. There’s only so many investigative avenues we can effectively pursue. And given the urgency of the situation, I want to deploy my people smart. In my book, that means searching all local, state and federal recreation areas and campgrounds. Now, your turn to share.”
Nicole didn’t volunteer right away, so Hawkes did the honors.
“Boston PD ran a preliminary trace of the Taser confetti, identified a dealer out of Chicago. The serial number ties back to a batch of fifty he sold to another dealer for a gun show in New Jersey. That dealer says all fifty were sold at the show. If the individual buyers didn’t register their Tasers, that’s not his problem.”
“What kind of gun show?”
“Open to the public, with attendance from the survivalist and ex-military crowd.”
“We think the kidnappers are professionals,” Nicole stated curtly.
That got Wyatt’s attention. “How so?”
“They accessed a house armed with a top-of-the-line security system, and managed to overcome two grown adults and one teenager without ever alerting the neighbors. Furthermore, Justin Denbe is experienced in firearms and by all accounts, a man capable of defending himself and his family. As it is, there’s evidence the teenager put
up a decent fight. The suspects, however, were still able to overpower her and ambush her parents without ever spilling a drop of blood. It takes discipline to pull off that kind of controlled operation. Not to mention training and resources.”
“Ransom?” Wyatt asked with a frown.
“Not yet.”
“But you assume demands are coming?”
“As of this time, we have no other theories on motive.”
Wyatt got that. Especially if the situation involved professionals, who by definition were interested in payment. “Family has the ability to pay?”
“The family firm, Denbe Construction, is running the show. And, yes, the officers of the company have been in touch with local law enforcement and are willing to release whatever funds are necessary.”
“Except significant funds can’t be released before Monday.”
“True.”
“Meaning if these guys planned ahead, by definition they knew they’d have to hide a family of three for at least several days.”
“In our minds, further evidence that the suspects are professionals. This isn’t a rush operation. They obviously put thought and planning into the abduction scenario. Odds are, they put equal thought into the best place to secure their hostages for the long haul. When they feel ready, we’ll hear from them. But not before, I think. Even now, they are establishing a hierarchy of control, one where they give the orders, and we do exactly as they command.”
Wyatt didn’t like the sound of that. He returned to his map, considering the logistics behind such an operation. “They’re here,” he said, tapping the White Mountain National Forest. “It’s logistically perfect. Far enough away from Boston to keep out of sight, but not so far away they can’t return to accept payment. Rural, but not too rural. Wild, but not too wild. This is our haystack. Now, we just gotta find the needle.”
“All right. You work the haystack. We’re heading to Boston to conduct initial interviews. Justin Denbe owns a second-generation mega-construction firm. By all accounts, he made big money but also big enemies. We’ll prepare the list.”
Wyatt got the message clearly enough—the feds were running the investigation, though he was welcome to play in the woods. He simply decided to ignore it.
“Great,” he declared. “One of my detectives and I will meet you in Boston to assist with the interviews. Give us thirty minutes or so, and we’ll be on our way.”
Nicole rewarded him with an icy look.
He smiled back, already reaching for his hat. “And here I thought you’d never ask.”
Chapter 15
IN TESSA’S EXPERIENCE, if you wanted to know what was really going on in a woman’s life, you had to track down her prime confidant. And in at least 80 percent of the cases, that included the woman’s hairdresser. A single check of Libby Denbe’s favorites list from her phone had revealed the Farias & Rocha salon in Beacon Hill. Tessa had showed up in person, flashing her credentials. Which had earned her an introduction with James Farias, one of the single most beautiful-looking men she’d ever encountered. Frosted blond hair, strong jaw covered in artful stubble, piercing blue eyes and the kind of sculpted shoulders and arms rarely seen outside Hollywood.
Unfortunately for her, she had a feeling she was packing the wrong equipment to garner James’s attention. Yet another reason Sophie would remain an only child.
Also, James had taken one look at her and exclaimed that the real crime she should be investigating was the one that had been committed against her hair. Didn’t she realize that shade of brown—her real color, sadly—was too dull, totally washing out her complexion? Not to mention pulling her long hair back into a single hair clip was much too severe for her face. She needed softness, she needed warmth, she needed an immediate hair intervention. That was it, she must return for his next available appointment. Which turned out to be in six months.
Tessa dutifully made the appointment. In return, Farias agreed to answer her questions regarding Libby Denbe.
“The husband did it,” he declared now, leading her to a back room marked Experts Only. She took that to be a euphemism for Employees Only. “Trust me, honey. Justin will appear out of nowhere, sweet little Ashlyn will be found. But Libby will never be seen again. Don’t you read the papers? That’s always how these things work. Mango-pomegranate tea?”
“Um, no, thank you.”
“Wouldn’t hurt, you know. Rich in antioxidants for the investigator on the go.”
It seemed important to him, so she finally agreed. Maybe having been denied access to her under-tended hair, the man needed to at least provide vitamins and minerals.
“Did Libby love her husband?” Tessa asked, taking a seat at a black lacquer table while Farias fished out two bags from a beautifully decorated container.
“He wasn’t worth it,” James declared.
“How so?”
“Wasn’t even home most of the time. His job, his crew, his buildings.
Puuullleeeze.
Everyone was allowed to need him except Libby. She just had to maintain the perfect home, raise the perfect child and greet him each Friday night with a smile. I told her at the beginning she gave too much. And trust me, honey, men don’t appreciate what women give willingly. A thousand years of evolution later, it’s still about the chase.” James paused in the act of reaching for a row of mugs. “You know how many Libbys I see in a salon like this? Beautiful, talented women, each and every one. And they do everything their rich, self-centered hubbies ask of them, right up to the moment the rich, self-centered hubbies kick them to the curb in favor of the younger, fresher model. It’s like driving by an auto accident. No matter how many of them you see, you still think it’ll only happen to someone else.”
“Justin had a younger, fresher model?”
“Yep. Went on for months before Libby found out. She was blindsided by the discovery. Simply blindsided. File for divorce first, I advised her. Hire the power lawyer and go after him, big legal guns blazing. But no. They had a daughter, they had a marriage, they had a life. I’m telling you now, he didn’t stop seeing the bimbo just because his wife found out. I mean, maybe he told her he did, but a leopard never changes his spots.”
“Who was it?” Tessa asked, frowning.
James returned to the table with two mugs of fragrant tea. He set them down, then jabbed her in the forehead with his index finger. “Stop it. Didn’t your mother ever tell you your face will freeze like that? You don’t need to be developing any frown lines. Your face is stern enough as it is.”
“Well, I am an investigator.”
“That may gain you a suspect, honey, but it’ll never help you find your man.”
“So true. So did Libby know the bimbo?”
“Travel agent. His. Justin’s on the road all the time. Guess his firm uses a travel agency with offices in the same building to handle all their arrangements. Pretty soon, it became a
full-service
relationship.”
“Did Libby know the woman?”
“Please,
girl
is more like it.” James took a seat, leaning close. “Libby went in one afternoon. Wasn’t going to talk to her, wasn’t going to approach. Just wanted to size up the competition, you know. According to her, she walked through the doors of the agency, took one look and walked right back out. Said the girl couldn’t have been a day over twenty-one. Just some starry-eyed kid who no doubt hung on every word Justin ever said before catching up with her friends at a concert.”
“Name?”
“Kate. Christy. Katie. Something like that. Libby couldn’t take her
seriously. If anything, she seemed to feel bad for her, just some young girl getting involved with a married man. In her mind, Justin had taken advantage.”
“Generous of her,” Tessa remarked.
“Oh, she’s that kind of woman. Not a catty bone in her body, which is more than I can say for most of the felines around here.”
“How long have you known Libby?”
“Oh, honey, I never give out that information. Next thing I know, you’ll guess my age.”
“Okay. A longtime client?”
“Certainly. Woman needed help in the beginning, too. She grew up in the projects. A regular Little Orphan Annie with a hard-knock life. I understand no one thinks of Back Bay as being the mean streets of Boston, but trust me, love, they’re tough in their own way.”
“Didn’t exactly fit in?”
“Her husband’s in construction. Wears work boots. Seriously?”
“Yeah, but a hundred-million-dollar company…”
“And once word got out, trust me, attitudes softened. Plus, Libby herself is a fabulous artist.”
“Jewelry?”
“Exactly. The ladies who lunch liked that. Maybe Libby’s upbringing wasn’t Back Bay, but her fine-arts education was a step in the right direction. Not to mention her home is gorgeous. Have you seen it? I’ve been over several times, and with the exception of that chandelier in the foyer, there isn’t a single thing I would change.”
“Did Libby like the ladies who lunch?” Tessa asked. “Have a circle of close friends?”
For the first time, Farias hesitated. He covered the pause by taking a sip of his tea. “Libby… Libby is a kind soul. I’ve never heard her say a bad word about anyone. She doesn’t hold to social circles the way some do—she would have these dinner parties from time to time that would include, say, myself and her neighbors, but also Justin’s
construction crew.” James shivered. “Delicious bunch of men, positively divine, each and every one of them, even if they did make me fear for my life.”