Читать книгу Manhunt On Mystic Mesa - Cindi Myers - Страница 10

Chapter Two

Ryan studied Jana’s reaction to Eddleston’s identification of the approaching visitor—shock, confusion and then anger played across a face that had the same fair beauty as her sister, but with a maturity that lent more angularity and sophistication to her features. Her eyes held more shrewdness than the photo of the missing young woman, as if she had learned the hard way to be skeptical of the promises people made.

The Camry stopped a short distance away in a cloud of red dust, and a slight young man with thinning blond hair and a boyish face stepped out. He assessed the quartet waiting for him with a glance and nodded, as if approving this welcoming party, then strode toward them and spoke in a loud voice, as if addressing a crowd. “I heard the Rangers had been assigned to the case,” he said. “Now maybe we’ll get some results. No offense to the local cops, but they don’t have the resources and expertise you guys do.”

Before either Ethan or Ryan could reply, Eric turned to Jana and seized her hand. “You must be Jana. Jenny has told me so much about you.”

Jana pulled her hand away and didn’t return Eric’s smile. “Funny. She never mentioned you.”

The wattage of his grin didn’t lower. “We wanted to give you the news in person,” he said. “We planned a trip to Denver to see you later this month. Jenny wanted it to be a surprise.”

“So it’s true—you’re engaged?” Jana asked.

“Yes.” He held up a hand like a cop halting traffic. “Now I know what you’re thinking—Jenny is young and we haven’t known each other that long—but when it’s true love, I guess you just know.”

“How long have you and Jenny known each other?” Ryan asked.

“Two months. We met when I was working on a story on this archaeological dig.”

“Eric did a wonderful piece about our work that was picked up for the Denver Post,” Eddleston said. “It was great publicity for our department.”

“How long have you been engaged?” Ryan asked.

“Not long,” Eric said. “We decided a couple of weeks ago, actually.”

“It isn’t like Jenny to keep something like this a secret from me,” Jana said.

“Well, she isn’t a little girl anymore, telling big sis everything,” Eric said. “She wanted her own life.”

Ryan felt Jana stiffen beside him. He didn’t blame her. Patterson had all the subtlety of a steamroller. But an argument between the two of them wasn’t going to help find Jenny. “When was the last time you spoke to Jenny?” he asked Patterson.

“We talked over breakfast at my place yesterday morning before she left to head out here for work.” The way he said it—emphasizing the word breakfast and watching for Jana’s reaction—made Ryan think he was bragging. He and Jenny had spent the night together and Patterson wanted to make sure Jana knew it. He was letting her know that he had been closer to her sister than she was.

Patterson turned to Eddleston. “I just came out to let you know I want to do anything I can to help,” he said. “If you think more publicity in the paper would be useful, I’m your man.”

“We’ll certainly have questions for you,” Ryan said before Eddleston could answer. “And we have a copy of the interview you gave the sheriff’s office. Right now, we’d like to talk to some of the other people Jenny worked with.”

“Of course.” Eddleston gestured toward the base of the mesa, where half-a-dozen people milled about amid a grid of pink plastic flags. “Talk to anyone you like.”

Ryan nodded to Jana and touched the brim of his hat. “Ma’am,” he said, then followed Ethan across the rough ground toward the excavation.

When they were far enough away from the others that they couldn’t be overheard, Ethan said, “Give me your impressions.”

“The sister doesn’t know as much about Jenny as she thought she did,” Ryan said. “Eddleston is most concerned about making a good impression. The fiancé is too cocky and sure of himself and for some reason he’s going out of his way to goad Jana.”

“If Jenny was the only woman missing, I’d put him at the top of the suspect list,” Ethan said. “But his name hasn’t come up in our investigation of the first missing woman, Lucia Raton, and it seems unlikely he knew an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who just happened to be passing through.”

“So he’s a jerk but probably not a killer,” Ryan said.

“Provided the women are dead,” Ethan said.

“Right. We don’t have any bodies, but we both know the stats.” When young women went missing for no reason, too often they were eventually found dead.

“Maybe this case will be an exception to the norm,” Ethan said.

For the next hour, the two Rangers questioned Jenny’s coworkers, who all professed sadness and shock at her disappearance. They were able to establish a timeline for yesterday. No one had noticed anything unusual before she vanished. They all agreed she hadn’t seemed depressed or afraid or anything like that. “Jenny was one of these really upbeat, look-on-the-bright-side kind of people,” said a twenty-year-old archaeology major, Heidi. “I used to tease her about it sometimes. If she had a flat tire on the way in, she wouldn’t complain about the tire, she’d talk about how amazing it was to be in such a beautiful setting with nothing to do but wait for something to come along and help.”

“So even if something had happened that might upset most people, she wouldn’t necessarily show any distress,” Ethan said.

“I guess you could put it that way,” Heidi said.

“What about her relationship with Eric Patterson?” Ryan asked.

Heidi slanted him a wary look. “What about it?”

“Was she happy? Excited about being engaged?”

“She never actually said anything about being engaged,” Heidi said. “First I heard of it was after she disappeared and he came out with the local cops this morning and told everyone. He said they had agreed to keep it a secret until she had a chance to tell her sister.”

“Did that strike you as odd—that she wouldn’t have shared something like that?” Ryan asked.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, it surprised me a little. I knew she had gone out with the guy a few times, but I didn’t think it was that serious. I mean, they hadn’t known each other long, but love makes people do crazy things sometimes, I guess.”

“Tell me a little more about her mood yesterday,” Ryan asked. “Did she mention anything at all about anything that had happened to upset her—an argument with someone, worry over finances, anything like that?”

Heidi shook her head. “Nothing like that. She was maybe a little quiet. When she took a break at about one, I didn’t think anything of it.”

“You thought she’d gone to use the restroom,” Ryan said.

“At first, but then when she didn’t come back, I figured she’d taken a walk. She did that sometimes, when things were slow. She was really interested in wildflowers and plants and stuff, and she liked to photograph the scenery.”

“What was your first thought when you realized she was missing?”

She shrugged. “I wondered if she’d gone too far from camp and gotten lost.” She swept her hand to indicate the surrounding landscape. “It’s pretty empty out here. I know I get disoriented all the time. But we spread out and searched and none of us saw any sign of her. I wouldn’t think she could have gone that far.”

The rest of the students who had worked with Jenny shared Heidi’s puzzlement as to what might have happened to Jenny. Ethan and Ryan finished their questions and headed back to the cruiser. Eric’s Camry was gone and Eddleston had returned to his work, but Ryan was surprised to find Jana Lassiter waiting beside the cruiser.

“Could I speak with you a moment?” she asked as he approached. She glanced toward Ethan. “Privately?”

“I’ll start filling out the reports,” Ethan said, opening the driver’s-side door.

Ryan walked with Jana about fifty yards, to the shade of a pile of boulders. “What’s on your mind?” he asked.

“What do you know about Eric Patterson?” she asked.

“No more than you do,” he said. “I’ve only been in town a week. I transferred to the Rangers from Grand Junction.”

She hugged her arms around her stomach, as if she was in pain. “I didn’t know about him—not just that he and Jenny were engaged, but I didn’t even know he existed. That isn’t like Jenny. Not that I expect her to tell me everything, but she always talks to me about the men in her life.”

“Maybe she didn’t say anything to you about Eric because this relationship was different from those others,” he said. “More serious. Maybe she wanted to be more sure of her feelings before she shared them with you.”

Jana shook her head. “That isn’t her. And he’s not her type at all. The men she dates are always funny and easygoing. Considerate. He’s so cocky and full of himself. He isn’t worried about her—he’s basking in the attention her disappearance is bringing to him.”

Ryan couldn’t disagree with anything about her assessment of Eric Patterson. “People react differently to grief,” he said. “Maybe he came off cocky just now because he was nervous about meeting you and trying to impress you.”

She gave him a sharp look. “Do you always feel the need to play devil’s advocate?”

“It’s a cop thing. Questioning assumptions is sometimes a good way to find out new information.”

She sighed and her shoulders slumped. “I suppose being disagreeable doesn’t mean he had anything to do with Jenny’s disappearance.”

“We don’t have a good enough picture of what happened to have any suspects yet,” Ryan said. “We have more people to interview.”

“Who?”

He didn’t see any harm in telling her. “There’s a group camped not far from here. We want to find out if any of them saw or heard anything.”

“I don’t understand why you don’t have more people out searching for her,” Jana said. “What about using dogs to track her? And what about her phone? Can’t you find someone through their cell phone? Have you issued one of those alerts—an Amber Alert? Isn’t that for missing persons?” With each new suggestion, she grew more agitated.

Ryan laid a gentling hand on her shoulder. “There are search and rescue teams combing the area right now,” he said. “The sheriff’s office has had a tracking dog out here and we’ve got people trying to trace her phone, but they’re not getting any kind of signal. And Amber Alerts are only for children. Your sister hasn’t been missing even twenty-four hours. There’s still a chance she’ll turn up unharmed. Maybe she just needed to get away for a while. She could have hitched a ride into town and be staying with a friend we don’t know about.”

She stared into his eyes, as if trying to read his thoughts and divine his intentions. “She wouldn’t let me worry this way,” she said. “If Jenny was with a friend, or anywhere she could make a call, she would let me know she was all right. I’ve tried calling and texting her dozens of times, but she isn’t answering her phone. I’m really worried about her.”

He took his hand from her shoulder and nodded. “From what you’ve told me, it does seem unusual for your sister to just walk away from everything. Right now, our best guess is that she is lost, so we’ll continue the search efforts, including interviewing everyone who might have seen her.”

She opened her purse and took out a business card. She scribbled something on the back, then handed it to him. “That’s my cell number. I’m staying at the Columbine Inn. If you learn anything new, please call me.”

He glanced at the number, then turned the card over. “You’re a CPA?”

“You sound surprised.”

His face felt hot. “It wouldn’t have been my first guess.”

“I get it. CPAs are supposed to be boring and plain. I hear librarians have the same problem.”

“You aren’t boring or plain.” He slipped the card into his pocket. “I promise to keep in touch.”

“I’m trusting you to do that.” She met his gaze and he felt the pull of that look somewhere deep in his gut—a surprising but not wholly unpleasant sensation. “And just so you know, I don’t give my trust very easily,” she added, before turning and walking away.

* * *

JANA’S FIRST INSTINCT was to remain near the dig site, walking the desert and calling for her sister. But she had no idea where Jenny might go, and in the vast, mostly featureless terrain she was liable to end up lost herself. So she returned to Montrose, but not to the motel. Instead, she headed to the apartment Jenny shared with another young woman. April was a medical assistant at the local hospital, and she had told Jana to feel free to come in and look around.

She let herself in with the key Jenny had given her and stood for a moment surveying the living room. She had been here before, of course, on visits since Jenny had relocated here for the summer. But she had never been here without Jenny. Already the place felt alien without her sister’s presence.

Steeling herself, she crossed the living room to Jenny’s bedroom. She didn’t know what she was looking for—what she might find that the police investigators wouldn’t have uncovered. April had told her the police had already been there. They had made copies of Jenny’s computer files and looked through her belongings, but shared no impressions of their findings.

Jana sat on the side of the bed and looked around, trying to see the room as an outsider might. The small space was as bright and sunny as Jenny herself—from the pink patchwork quilt on the bed to the paper flowers tacked to the bulletin board over her desk. Sophisticated cosmetics shared space with a stuffed pink bear. It was the room of a girl who was slowly transforming into a woman.

She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. She refused to give in to tears, as if grieving would be disloyal. But the knowledge that her sister might not be all right, might in fact be dead, lurked at the edge of her consciousness, a horrible specter she wasn’t yet willing to confront.

It’s only been one day, she reminded herself. Jenny is young and healthy and smart. If she did get lost, she knows to stay put and wait for help. And she’s got a lot of people working to find her. The memory of Officer Spencer’s hand on her shoulder, a reassuring, comforting weight, returned and made her feel more settled. She believed he was doing everything he could to help her and Jenny. In the future, the sisters would look back on this time and laugh about the adventure.

She forced herself to stand and walk to the desk and power up the laptop computer. She knew the password—the same one Jenny had used for years—and soon was perusing her sister’s files and email and Facebook page. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There was no journal detailing a secret worry or hurt, no anguished emails to friends, only the usual cheery greetings or gossiping about school or movies or weekend plans. She found a few emails from Eric Patterson, but they offered little insight into the relationship—invitations to dinner or confirmation of weekend plans. No words of love or secret scheming.

The sound of the front door opening startled her. “April, is that you?” she called. “I’m back here in Jenny’s room.”

“It’s not April,” came a man’s voice, and a moment later Officer Ryan Spencer filled the doorway of the bedroom.

Heart thudding painfully, Jana stared at him, caught off guard. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“The sheriff’s office gave us the information they had, but I wanted to see the place for myself.” He came into the room, and the already-small space seemed to shrink around them. “I thought it would help me get a better feel for your sister.”

Jana sank onto the bed again, fearful her shaking legs might not support her. Having the police here—in Jenny’s private space—made the magnitude of her disappearance that much greater. “This room is just like Jenny,” she said. She didn’t elaborate—let him make of that what he would.

His gaze roamed around the room. She had the sense that he was analyzing everything he saw, putting each item into a bigger picture he was forming of her sister. At last his eyes came back to her. “Have you found anything I should know about?” he asked.

She glanced toward the desk and the open computer. “I don’t know if it’s anything important,” she said. “But it’s something that struck me as odd when I was looking through her social media.”

“There are no pictures online of her with Eric Patterson,” he said.

“Yes!” She stared at him, impressed in spite of herself. “She has pictures of herself with other friends on her Facebook and Instagram pages, and here.” She indicated the bulletin board.

He nodded. “If you were engaged to someone, you would probably have lots of pictures of them.” He walked over to the laptop and hit a few keys. “There’s something else on this you ought to see,” he said. “Something I discovered looking at the copy of her hard drive the sheriff’s office made.”

“They made a copy of her hard drive?” She didn’t know whether to be comforted by their thoroughness or alarmed that the investigation was moving so quickly.

“We’ve learned the hard way that we need to take these cases seriously from the start,” he said. “There was a time when adults had to be missing for a while before law enforcement stepped in, but now we know the sooner we launch an investigation, the more likely we are to have a positive outcome.”

She nodded. “That makes sense. So what did you find?”

“Come look.”

Feeling steadier now, she stood and came to stand beside him, studying the screen, which showed a handsome, dark-haired man dressed in white, next to a blog post about the key to happiness. “What am I looking at?” she asked.

“It’s a blog by a man named Daniel Metwater. He calls himself a prophet and preaches a kind of back-to-nature spirituality a lot of young people find very compelling. Jenny’s browser history shows she had read quite a few of his posts and bookmarked his site.”

“Why is that important?” Jana asked.

“Because Metwater and his followers are camped very near where Jenny disappeared.”

Her stomach gave a nervous jump. “You mentioned wanting to question some people who were camped nearby. Did you mean this man, Metwater?”

“Yes, but I haven’t talked to him yet.”

“Why not?”

“I wanted to see what I could find out here first.”

“I want to go with you when you talk to him,” she said.

“No.” The word held all the finality of a slamming door, but she intended to push that door open.

“I can help you,” she said. “People will say things to me they won’t say to a cop.”

He shook his head, his jaw tense, blue eyes boring into her with an intensity that any other time would have been intimidating. But she had too much at stake to back down now. “If you don’t take me with you, I’ll go out there on my own,” she said.

“I can’t have you interfering with my case,” he said.

“This may be your case, but she’s my sister.” She hated the tremor in her voice as she said the last words and fought hard to control it. “I will do everything in my power to find her. I’ll talk to anyone and everyone who might have information that can help me find her, and you can’t stop me.”

“I could have you arrested for interfering with an investigation.”

“You could. But would you really do that? When we met earlier today, you didn’t strike me as a jerk.”

He actually flinched at the word, as if she had slapped him. “Am I supposed to take that as a compliment?”

“Take it however you like.” She lifted her chin and met his gaze, ignoring the tremor in her stomach as he leaned closer. She could smell the leather-and-starch scent of him, masculine and clean, and see the muscle jump along his jaw as he considered his answer.

“If I let you come with me, you can’t take part in questioning Metwater,” he said. “That has to be done by the book if we’re going to get anything we might be able to use in court later.”

“I understand. I thought I could mix with his followers. Find out if any of them know Jenny, or if she’s been in the camp.”

He rubbed his jaw, the scrape of beard against his palm sending another shiver of awareness through her. “You could talk to some of the women in the group,” he said. “I don’t expect them to be very cooperative with the police—they haven’t made any secret of their dislike of law enforcement. But they might be more sympathetic to you.”

She fought the impulse to throw her arms around him and kiss him—not so much because she thought he might object, but because she didn’t trust herself to stop with one friendly kiss. This sexy cop got to her in a way that alarmed her. The last thing she needed now was that kind of distraction. “I won’t get in your way,” she said. “But we could work together.”

His expression hardened again. “No offense, but I don’t need your help. My job is to solve this case and find your sister.”

She opened her mouth to argue, then thought better of it. He had agreed to what she wanted, so she might as well stay in his good graces—for now. “Do you think this man—Metwater—had something to do with Jenny’s disappearance?” she asked.

“We don’t know,” Ryan said. “Right now, let’s just say he’s a person of interest.”

“That means he’s a suspect,” she said, her heart beating faster again.

“I didn’t say that. If you come with me, you can’t do anything to interfere with the investigation and you can’t share anything we see or do with reporters. Especially not with Eric Patterson.”

She made a face. “I don’t have any desire to talk to him. Maybe it’s petty, but he rubs me the wrong way.”

He nodded, as if he agreed with her. “When you meet Metwater, maybe you can tell us if he’s someone who would have interested Jenny—would she have followed him into the wilderness?”

She swallowed past the sudden tightness in her throat. “And the more important question—if she did, why didn’t she come back?”