“No. Is everything okay?”
“Yes. Just tracking her down.”
I could hear the concern in his voice. “Okay. Well, let me know if you need anything.”
“Sure,” I said and hung up.
I called Susan next, but she said the exact same thing.
I didn’t want to admit it. I didn’t want it to be true.
But the fact was, Laney was missing. She was gone. I had expressly told her not to leave the house without me for any reason, and I knew she wouldn’t do it. I knew she wasn’t dumb enough to leave the front door open.
I stood up and went into action mode. I left the house, got back into my car, and floored it toward the Sheriff’s office.
Fifteen minutes later and at least one blown red light, I parked out front and jumped out. I stormed in through the front door.
The guy sitting at the desk was a bored sergeant that would have rather been anywhere else, but he was stuck on duty. Probably the worst day possible, too, since I was on the fucking warpath.
“You,” I said to him. “Get me Sloan.”
He raised a lazy eyebrow. “Who are you, sir?”
“Easton Wright.”
“Okay. The Sheriff is busy.” He looked back down at his newspaper.
Anger boiled up through my veins. I grabbed the paper from his hands and threw it on the floor. “Listen to me, you dumb desk monkey,” I growled. “Get Sloan and get him now. My fucking sister is missing.”
Needless to say, the sergeant didn’t respond well to that. He stood up, one hand on his pepper spray, his face deadly serious. All eyes in the office were suddenly on us, and I realized that I was surrounded by fucking cops.
“Sir,” he said, “you need to calm down right now.”
“Get me Sloan, you brainless fuck. My stepsister could be dead right now. We need to find her.”
“Who took your stepsister?”
“The fucking serial killer.” I wanted to break his idiot nose, snap his thick-headed limbs. “Get. Me. Sloan.”
The guy stared at me for a second, and I thought he was finally hearing reason. Instead, two other cops came over.
“You need to leave, sir,” the sergeant said.
“Fucking assholes.” I stepped forward and cracked the sergeant in the nose. His head snapped back and I saw blood.
I was on the ground in half a second.
I felt more than one boot hit me in the stomach as the cops piled on me.
The office was a fucking madhouse. I doubted anyone had ever had the balls to punch the desk sergeant in the face, much less break his nose. But they didn’t know me.
Soon enough, I was up on a bench, aching from a ton of different blows and in cuffs.
“You dumb fucks,” I yelled. “She could be dead right now.”
The cops just eyed me. The sergeant flipped me off, holding an ice pack to his face. His eyes were already turning black.
They held me there for fifteen agonizing minutes before Sloan finally came out of his office.
“Easton,” he said. “Come on back.”
The desk sergeant helped me up and walked me back. I gave him a big smile and he just ignored me.
“These cuffs?” I asked.
“Take them off yourself,” the sergeant said and then walked away.
I grunted and walked into Sloan’s office, sitting down in front of his desk.
Sloan stared at me, shaking his head. “You’re an idiot.”
“He has her, Sloan. He has her.”
“Slow down now. We don’t know he has anybody.”
“Can you take these cuffs off?”
“No. You punched a cop. Why didn’t you just call me?”
I shrugged. “I needed to see you now.”
“Well, here I am. You think the killer has her?”
“I know he does.”
“Tell me why.” He held up his hands as soon as he saw the frustration on my face. “Please understand me, Easton. You come in here yelling and punching people. You need to give me a reason to help you. I want to, but you seem a little unhinged.”
I took a deep breath, getting myself together. “Okay. Listen.”
And then I told him about the badge. I told him about my office being tossed over, and I told him about the missing pictures. I told him that I had made sure Laney wouldn’t leave the house, and how the front door was left ajar when I had gotten home. I told him about her phone going to voicemail.
“You have to see,” I said. “It’s all been a personal message to me. And now he took her.”
Sloan nodded slowly. “I see what you’re saying.”
“So then help.”
“Why the badge?” he asked.
“The badge? Fuck the badge, Sloan.”
He just leaned back in his chair. “The badge seems odd. How did the killer even get it?”
I narrowed my eyes. I hadn’t thought of that before. It was odd that the killer had the badge; as far as I knew, only Martin’s family had it.
The realization jolted me physically. I was suddenly both elated and incredibly sad as I realized who I was hunting and why it was all happening.
“Easton, we don’t know he has her,” Sloan was saying, but I barely heard. “She could have left on her own, decided she didn’t want to be involved with a murder investigation.”
My mind was spinning, moving through the possibilities.
“Why not tell her parents then?” I asked, halfhearted.
Sloan just shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“You’re kidding me.” I felt like I was in a nightmare.
“Sorry, kid. We need more time before we know if she’s really gone or not.”
“She’ll be dead by then.”
“I doubt it.”
I stared at him for half a minute, too surprised to feel anger. Finally, I held out my hands. Sloan sighed. “Rick,” he yelled.
The desk sergeant came in.
“Take off the cuffs,” Sloan said.
Rick walked over and unlocked the cuffs. “Asshole,” he muttered.
I smiled nicely at him and stood. “Please change your mind, Sloan. You’re going to have another body in your hands soon.”
“Maybe we will. But come back when you have something more concrete.”
I turned and left the station without looking back.
The cops had let me down. The fucking police had failed. They were too slow, too unwieldy.
But not me. I was going to find her. I wasn’t going to let some psychopath fucking hurt Laney.
I finally knew who I was hunting. The whole time it had been staring me right in the face. Someone close, but not too close. Someone that hated me personally. It was so clear it hurt.
Nobody was going to get hurt because of me ever again.
25
Laney
My head is swimming when I finally regained consciousness.
At first I thought I was blind. The room was pitch black, and it took me a second to understand that I couldn’t see because there was no light.
No light. Anywhere.
Groggy, I began to mentally check my body. I wasn’t in pain, or at least not bad pain. My whole self felt achy and my head was pounding, but it was nothing life-threatening.