Cold Case Revenge
Автор
Jessica R. Patch
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HarlequinONE
Nick Rossi glanced up at the pewter sky and snatched his Stetson before it blew off his head into the gust of wind that rolled off Lake Chelan. Lake Chelan National Recreation Area rested in a glacially carved trough in the Cascade Range of Washington state and took one’s breath away. It was only one of the reasons that Nick had settled in Stehekin Valley.
“It gonna rain, Daddy?” his three-year-old daughter, Zoe, asked as her service dog, Goldie, licked the caramel from her half-eaten apple on a stick. She’d gone almost five months without a seizure, and Nick thanked God for it. Zoe had been diagnosed with epilepsy at nine months old then they’d lost her mom, Penelope, three months later in a car accident. Rubbing the bare spot on his left ring finger, he shook off the painful memories and surveyed the recreational area.
The open grounds, flanked by evergreens, was set up with food trucks, crafts, games, vendor tents and a live bluegrass band. He hadn’t always loved bluegrass, but then his friend Jodie had introduced him to the band Steep Canyon Rangers. Not even the music could soothe him at the moment, and most everyone wore the same expression as Nick.
Grim.
Rain might be an understatement if the rolling thunderclouds had anything to say about it. Local news had forecasted possible storms later today, but it appeared the weather had a mind of its own and didn’t care to listen to meteorologists and hold off.
“It gonna rain, Daddy?” Zoe asked again, this time tugging on his hand, which was sticky from her earlier cotton candy and caramel. She was going to be sick from all the sugar.
“I think so, baby girl. We better play a whole lot before it does.”
“Yay! Me and Goldie want to paint. Can we?” She pointed to an open tent with a green canvas roof. Preschool-sized easels and finger paints filled the area the Arts & Humanities of Stehekin had concocted for young artists.
“Of course, you can. Let’s go.” He led her to the tent and an easel, then helped her into a painting smock and ordered Goldie to place. The sweet retriever dropped at Zoe’s feet at the command, watching patiently. With Zoe being too young to qualify for a service dog, Nick had trained her himself...with some help from a friend who had knowledge about teaching service dogs. Goldie was now skilled to sense when Zoe might lapse into a seizure and alert Nick in time for him to help his daughter from falling and hurting herself. Sometimes she fell fast, though, and if that happened, Goldie would position herself to buoy Zoe’s fall. Then she’d remain by Zoe’s side and lick her little leg. Nick was convinced Goldie loved Zoe completely and wholly. Exactly how Nick loved his baby girl.
Zoe dipped her fingers in the green paint. “I’m gonna make the trees.”
“That will be very pretty.”
“And our horsies.”
“Perfect.”
Thunder rumbled again and the clouds grew soggier. The lake wind was chilly and damp, and the firs, spruces and pines rustled. The painting paper whipped upward on easels and kids squealed, including Zoe.
The Lady of the Lake ferry cruised down the fifty miles of Lake Chelan toward the Cascade Mountains. The peaks glistened with early snow that hadn’t reached the valley yet. Overhead speakers warned tourists that the weather was getting rough on the river and the ferry would only travel once more—weather permitting.
The only way into Stehekin was by plane, boat or on horseback. This storm could easily strand tourists and there wouldn’t be enough lodging for everyone. Not to mention they’d have no real way of communicating unless they owned a satellite phone, which most tourists did not. Very few in Stehekin had them. Business owners, mostly.
The horse outfitter he owned, Cascades Stables, had horses out on trails with guides. They provided day rides to loop rides, camping adventures and family picnics. He used his sat phone to check in with his employees and to make sure they were cutting the trip short. Which would mean refunds or rain checks.
He stepped out from under the tent, a few feet away from Zoe, and watched her paint. Goldie was alert but lying quietly at her feet. Candy, his former main trail guide now manager, answered.
“Hey, boss.”
“Checking in. Storm is coming fast. Ferries are taking a last call.”
“Yeah, we felt some rain so we headed in, and I rain-checked them.”
“Good deal. Take care of the others for me, would you?”
“Say that again. Storm’s messing with your reception.”
He turned and glanced at Zoe, who was now dipping a paintbrush into a little plastic cup. He repeated himself then ended the call. Candy had been with him for about four years. A year younger than his own thirty-three, Candy had become the manager and his right hand around the stables since Penelope’s death. He’d fallen off the deep end and she’d picked up the business slack and helped with Zoe. She hadn’t minded, said it kept her busy and gave her and her husband, Garrett, good parenting practice for when they had their own family.
“Excuse me,” a woman said and pointed at his gray T-shirt with his business logo printed in the center. “Do you work for Cascades Stables?”
“I own it, yes.”
She grinned, then pointed in the distance to a little boy standing with a man Nick assumed to be the child’s dad. “My son wants to ride horses before we leave, and I heard you start at age three. Do you think we could set something up?”
“I’m sure we can.” He patted his pockets and realized he’d left his business cards at home. “I was going to give you the number, but I don’t have a card.” Instead, he quickly gave her directions, operation hours and prices. No Wi-Fi in Stehekin except for at the Stehekin Lodge, which only had limited access.
“Let me write that down or I’ll forget. I have a notebook in my purse.” She released the strap from her shoulder and unzipped her bag, and he glanced over at Zoe painting. The purse clattered to the ground, diverting his attention as the contents spilled out. “I am so clumsy. I’ll probably fall off a horse within five minutes.” She kneeled down and Nick followed suit. He handed her a pen and a set of keys.
“We give a small learning course for beginners. You’ll be fine,” he said.
She took her items and shoved them inside her purse, then grabbed her little notebook. “That number.”
“Just a second.” He turned back. His heart hiccupped and his breath left his lungs.
Zoe and Goldie were gone.
Missing child. The words continued to hit Pacific Northwest K-9 Officer Ruby Orton’s gut like a cement block against a crystal vase.
A preschooler in North Cascades National Park. Three years old. Epileptic. The little girl had had her service dog, a golden retriever, with her when she disappeared, but the dog hadn’t responded to calls from the father or the park rangers. That unsettled Ruby as she shifted in her seat in the floatplane that was carrying them to Stehekin Valley.
The child might have been abducted, and something harmful could have happened to the service dog. Something Ruby refused to imagine. She glanced down at her working dog, Pepper. The black Lab had been with her for four years, and they were inseparable. Pepper was her best friend and an excellent trail-tracking, search-and-rescue dog.
“This weather isn’t going to make things easy,” Tanner Ford, her PNK9 colleague, said as he scratched the ears of his boxer, Britta. She, too, was adept at tracking missing persons. According to the park ranger who radioed them, the father was borderline hysterical.
Ruby understood. North Cascades was over five hundred thousand acres, and risks of falling, drowning or even being attacked by wild animals abounded. The rugged, steep, glacial terrain was hard enough on experienced hikers and visitors to the park. A child alone... Ruby shuddered.
“Hey, don’t think like that yet,” Tanner said, as if knowing exactly where her thoughts were going.
“Hard not to. It’s a little girl who was painting and playing, then gone.”
“I know. I know,” he said quietly and rubbed Britta’s ears.
Pepper nestled closer to Ruby as the floatplane jostled them through the rough air currents. “Hold fast, back there,” Dylan Jeong, their other PNK9 colleague, called as he piloted them toward Lake Chelan, to eventually land in Stehekin Valley. His Saint Bernard, Ridge, sat as his copilot in a leather harness that had the words Bad for the Bones on it. Dylan’s dog was as cool and admired as Dylan himself. Ridge was skilled in mountain rescue, and they needed all hands and paws on deck.
Ruby wasn’t a fan of boats, and they didn’t have four hours, which was the length of time it would have taken had they chosen water over air. She’d fallen off a boat when she was twelve and the trauma never left her. But she did her job and if it meant traveling by ferry, she’d do it like the strong South Alabama woman her mama and grandmama had raised her to be. She might live outside North Cascades now, but it would take more than four years living here to take the Mobile out of this girl.
As the small plane made its descent to the choppy waters, Ruby held tight to Pepper. “Ready to work, girl?”
Pepper licked her hand in response. Pepper lived for the work and was her best friend. Too bad she couldn’t go back in time, or Ruby would have paid attention to Pepper’s cues concerning her ex-boyfriend, Eli Ballard. His business partner, Stacey Stark, and her boyfriend, Jonas Digby, had been gunned down this past April in Mount Rainier National Park, and PNK9’s rookie crime-scene investigator, Mara Gilmore, had been the prime suspect from the get-go. The ex-girlfriend of the male victim, she’d been seen looming over the body, then fleeing from the murder site and been on the run ever since.
But the team had recently discovered that Eli might be involved. He’d been so charming and sweet. Ruby had instantly liked him when they’d met during the early investigation. Pepper hadn’t warmed up to him, though, and maybe that should have been a clue. Though she chalked it up to Pepper being a little jealous. And that still might be the case. Either way, Ruby had had no choice but to end things with Eli.
She’d done it subtly, but lamely, through a text, in case he was connected to the murders, so as not to tip him off that they were looking at him as a person of interest. Truth was, her work schedule was getting in the way, which is what she’d used as her excuse. Besides their normal day-to-day routines, the PNK9 unit was working 24/7 to find Mara and to work the Stark/Digby case as well as searching for the three bloodhound pups they’d been training for scent work.
The cases hadn’t given Ruby much time for a romantic relationship, but she’d attempted one with Eli, thinking she might be able to fall in love with him. Now, she was pretty disappointed in herself because Eli might be a slick liar. Per the investigation, the team was operating on the assumption that Mara Gilmore was in hiding because the real killer had threatened her father, who was in a memory-care unit in a nursing home. A man fitting Eli’s description had visited that same home, and Eli Ballard had no other reason to be there.
Ruby sighed. She’d yet to pick a romantic winner.
People often did irrational things when it came to love—even murder. And sadly, Mara fit the bill for killing Stacey Stark and Jonas Digby, though it was a hard pill to swallow. Mara did have a strong motive—she and Jonas had dated before he began seeing Stacey, and Mara had been heartbroken by the breakup. A week later Stacey and Jonas had been found shot to death and Mara looming over their bodies. Since April she’d been MIA. Still...innocent until proven guilty, and the team had been tracking leads—now, especially Eli Ballard—while searching for Mara.
Ruby shook away the thoughts and focused on the missing little girl. As if reading her mind again, Tanner sighed. “We’ll find her, and we’ll get to the truth.”
“I know.” He was right. She pointed to his head, where he’d been shot just barely a month ago. Thankfully it had been a minor wound only requiring stitches, but that proved just how serious all their cases were. “I just hope it doesn’t kill us.”
“I hear ya.” He laughed but this was no joking matter.
The plane’s landing upon Lake Chelan wasn’t pleasant, but they made it to the dock and she exited with Pepper, Tanner and Britta behind her, then Dylan and Ridge joined them. They donned their green PNK9 windbreakers, and Ruby slipped on the hood as it began to drizzle. She clutched Pepper’s leash and straightened her harness, which had PNK9 in black lettering on each side.
They were met by two North Cascades National Park rangers, who quickly gave them the details of the missing child as they all jumped inside two Polaris Rangers. The wind rocked the vehicles as they drove toward Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, where the Labor Day festival was being held and where the child had vanished. They maneuvered the terrain and Ruby spotted several bright-colored tents as they approached. It looked like many had already evacuated due to the storm.
A muscular man with a cowboy hat clutched in one hand paced as he raked his dark, almost black, hair with his free hand. No doubt that was the dad who had lost the child. While fear lined his face, she also noticed frustration—probably with himself. Parents typically blamed themselves. But even as he paced, his gait was smooth, as if this manner was the way he processed tough situations.
Ruby jumped from the vehicle and calmly strode ahead with purpose, Tanner and Dylan flanking her. “Mr. Rossi?” she asked and extended her hand first since she was the lead on this. “I’m Officer Ruby Orton with the Pacific Northwest K-9 unit. This is Officer Ford and Officer Jeong. And these are Pepper, Britta and Ridge. We’ll be searching for your daughter, and we don’t want to waste time.”
He shook her hand with a firm grip and his ice-blue eyes met hers. His square jaw twitched. “Thank you. She has epilepsy, and stress and anxiety can trigger a seizure. We have very little time to find her.” He spoke with authority, but she heard the fear in his tone.
“We will do our very best and move quickly, but I have to ask a few questions, Mr. Rossi.”
“I know. Let’s just get them done so we can cover the terrain. The last time I saw Zoe was almost an hour ago over there by that easel. I had stepped out from under the tent because I needed a satellite signal to check on my employees. They were giving horseback tours today. Weather is... Zoe hates storms.” His eyes filled with moisture. “She’ll be afraid if the thunder gets louder.”
As if on cue, it did.
Her heart felt for him. He was doing an excellent job of keeping it together. And he was right. The weather was not on their side—it was working against them.
He continued without her redirection. “I called my employee, Candy Reynolds. Then a woman approached me about horseback riding for her son. She dropped her purse, and I kneeled to help her pick up the items. It wasn’t but a few seconds. Then I turned and Zoe was gone, and Goldie, too.” The girl’s service dog. A golden retriever. “She hasn’t responded to my calls or dog whistles. That’s unlike her.”
That’s what had Ruby rattled. She glanced at Tanner, then at Dylan, and they both wore grim expressions.
“Well, our dogs are highly trained, and we should get them started now. I need an item that belongs to Zoe. Something that she alone would have and not carry any transference from anyone else.”
He nodded. “I have her ‘lovey.’ It’s a baby blanket she carries and sleeps with. It may have my scent on it from putting it in the backpack, but only she uses it.”
Ruby took the worn pink-and-purple blanket and put it in front of Pepper. “Scent, Pepper.” The dog sniffed at the blanket then looked at Nick Rossi. She’d caught his scent. “Scent, Pepper,” she said again, letting the dog know that she wanted the other scent tracked.
Pepper sniffed again and sat, which let Ruby know she had it and was ready. Ruby then passed the blanket to Tanner and Dylan, and they gave their dogs the scent. Once all the K-9s were ready to work, Ruby patted Pepper. She would move fast, so she made sure she had the twenty-foot leash on her, just as Dylan and Tanner had on their dogs.
“You can come with us, Mr. Rossi, if you like, but please don’t get in Pepper’s or the other dogs’ way.”
“I won’t. Thank you.”
“Ready?”
Tanner and Dylan nodded.
“Track, Pepper,” she called sternly, and Pepper’s nose hit the ground as she sniffed her way to the tent where Zoe had been painting. She paused, then sniffed again and moved to the other side of the tent, out the back area and through the crowd heading east. The two park rangers drove alongside them in their UTV.
A gust of wind kicked up and Pepper paused, raised her head in the air and sniffed. “Did she lose the scent?” Nick asked. He was jogging along with them, unable to sit in the UTV. Ruby understood nervous energy.
“No, she’s just catching the right one.” She didn’t explain that patience was required. His daughter was in this harsh area alone, or with a dog...or with someone. Patience wouldn’t be a word he’d want to hear and she wouldn’t be trite. “Track, Pepper.”
Pepper began again, briskly, across the rocks and terrain that dipped between the jagged peaks of the mountains. Ruby worked to keep up on the loose rock.
Suddenly the leash was no longer taut. Pepper must have sat—her alert.
“What is she doing? What’s she found?” Nick asked, his voice wobbly. Ruby put out her arm.
“Please stay still, Mr. Rossi.” Ruby glanced at Tanner and he called Britta to him, then sidled up next to Nick to keep him from following Ruby. Just in case the worst-case scenario was up ahead.
Dylan followed her. Both dogs had alerted and were sitting up on the crest of the trail—sitting beside a small pink tennis shoe. If Pepper and Ridge were alerting, the shoe belonged to Zoe Rossi, or she’d had it in her possession.
“That what I think it is?” Dylan asked and rubbed Ridge’s head. “Good boy, Ridge.”
“Yeah. We’re less than half a mile from the event. Rugged terrain. If she wandered away, how did she end up here? Why not just mosey around all the other booths and games?”
Dylan sighed. “Because she might not have wandered.”
Ruby snapped a photo with her cell-phone camera, since the park’s crime-scene investigator wasn’t here...yet. They could download it later when they had Wi-Fi access. She surveyed the area. Below the crest was a huge lake. She rubbed Pepper’s head.
“Officer!” Nick called. “Did you...? Is she...?” His voice broke.
“I hate this part of the job,” Ruby whispered.
“Same.”
“No, but you can come up.” Might as well let him identify the shoe as Zoe’s, or not.
Nick, the rangers in the UTV, Tanner and Britta hurried up and Nick paused when he saw the shoe.
“Oh, no. No.” He fell to his knees and picked up the shoe, clutching it to his chest.
Ruby clenched her teeth to hold back the emotion about to erupt from her eyes. “Mr. Rossi,” she murmured. “Don’t go there yet, okay? Just...hold on a little longer for us.”
She patted Pepper. “Good girl. Track, Pepper.”
Pepper left the shoe and continued her search as Ruby prayed they’d find the little girl alive and well. The missing shoe didn’t give her much hope, but she refused to let the father see that. He needed hope. Pepper continued her trek up the crest and through a dense area of trees that opened up to a small clearing that overlooked Lake Chelan.
A black-tailed doe ran across the trail, but the dogs ignored it. Pepper sniffed to the edge of the cliff and sat, alerting her. Ruby saw nothing. But something was here. Ridge and Britta also alerted.
“What am I missing?” Ruby asked.
Tanner and Dylan, who were searching the foliage and behind trees, both shook their heads.
“Below is a ledge,” Nick said and hurried to the edge. He stretched out on the ground and hung his head over. “Oh, baby! Zoe!” he hollered.
“Hey, Daddy!” a tiny, scared voice called. “I was waiting on you.”
Relief flooded Ruby, but the situation wasn’t over yet. She joined Nick on the forest floor. Five feet below was a narrow grassy strip where the little girl was sitting with her golden retriever nestled beside her. How in the world did she get down there?
“I wost my shoe.”
If she moved any closer to the edge, she could fall into the lake or on jagged rocks below. Ruby’s heart rate sped up. Before she could devise a plan, Nick was already lowering himself down.
Nick’s hands were shaking, and his heart banged against his ribs as he stared down at his baby girl sitting still, but so close to the edge, even with Goldie acting as a barrier between the cliff’s edge and Zoe. He loved that dog.
“Be real still, baby. Okay?” Nick lowered himself down. The ledge was sturdy and secure, but he wasted no time. He grabbed his daughter; her hair had matted to her cheeks from rain and possibly tears. But she was now safe, and he thanked the Good Lord.
When she’d disappeared, he’d been in a panic, but had then forced himself to go into investigator mode from his military-police days, when he worked for the Criminal Investigations Division. But this wasn’t one of the children victims’ cases he’d been assigned to at the military base. This was his daughter. Those crimes he’d seen so often always reminded him of the worst day of his life.
This couldn’t have happened again.
He’d been so careful with Zoe. Overprotective. He’d even bought a backpack with a leash on it to make sure she didn’t get away when she’d learned to walk. It was like his little sister, Lizzie, all over again. But his daughter had been found.
His sister never had.
He lifted up Zoe, and the agent—Ruby—took her. “It’s okay, baby girl. She is going to help you.”
Ruby smiled, her big brown eyes radiating compassion and relief. Her smile was wide, revealing a set of dimples in her light brown cheeks. A few raindrops ran down the side of her face, but she didn’t seem to mind.
“I got ya, darlin’, so don’t worry. You’re okay,” the pretty officer said and he noticed her Southern accent. Once Zoe was secure, the agent grabbed her satellite phone and a few seconds later let her team know that Zoe had been found safe. He could hear cheering on the other end of the line.
He lifted up Goldie and the two male officers helped him. Then he hoisted himself up and took back Zoe, hugging her to him. “How did you get out here? Did you get lost?”
“I did just as her said. I was hided good.”
His blood turned to ice. “Who said?”
“The wady who’s your friend. She said we was pwaying hide-and-seek. She helped me hide and said you’d find me. You did find me, Daddy! You winned.” She squished his cheeks with her hands and kissed him right on the nose. “But I don’t know what you winned.”
“Do you know the nice lady who brought you out here, Zoe?” Ruby asked.
“No. I felled and wost my shoe.”
“We need to get to shelter. It’s about to blow up,” Ruby said. The sky had turned a deep inky shade and thunder boomed. Behind the ominous clouds, lightning shot through the horizon.
“I’d like to see if Britta can track the abductor. I don’t want to lose the scent due to rain. If I move fast—”
“I’ll help. Cover more ground,” Dylan said, and Tanner nodded.
“We might be able to pick up the scent. Find her.”
Ruby nodded. “Be careful.”
Tanner squatted. “Zoe, this is Britta. And Britta would like to sniff you. It might even tickle. Can she do that?”
Zoe nodded.
Britta and the other dog both sniffed his daughter, then their handlers gave them the cue and the dogs immediately went to work, ignoring the thunder and lightning. One UTV went with the two officers, and one stayed behind with them.
“Let’s go,” the ranger said.
“If we don’t hurry, a downpour could get us into a mudslide,” Nick hollered over the whistling wind. Ruby pulled a poncho from her gear bag and covered Zoe. Zoe shivered against him, and he held her tight.
“It’s okay. You’re safe.”
But a woman had guided her away and hid her on a cleft where she could have fallen and died. Who would have done this?
And why?
His parents calling for Lizzie flashed in his mind. Their frantic eyes and voices. The terror of that day gripped him. He now knew what his parents had experienced. Those memories came raging back, though they’d never truly left him...
“Where’s Lizzie?” Mom had asked.
“She had to potty. She’s in the bathroom with you,” Nick said.
Dad walked up. “What’s going on?” He handed Nick an ice-cream cone and held the one for Lizzie in his other hand. “Where’s your sister?”
Mom rushed into the bathroom.
Nick’s heart beat too hard. Too fast. It hurt inside his chest.
Mom bolted from the bathroom, her face as white as snow. “She’s gone! She’s gone, David!”
Ice cream ran down Nick’s arm. He couldn’t eat it. Couldn’t even look at it.
And he’d never eaten ice cream again...
Not once in the almost twenty-five years since Lizzie had disappeared from the North Cascades National Park.
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