Chapter 24
After calling Michelle and thanking her for her time and help with the O’Malley case, Rachel packed her overnight bag. She told Red about Matt’s meeting with the FBI and the fingerprints found on the truck. They both agreed it would be a good idea to head over to Houma for the day to take a look around the site where Erin’s arm was found. After clearing it with Agent Krapek, Rachel assembled her core team. Rankin Smartz was her lead guy on search-and-rescue missions. He always brought along his black Lab, Max, who was a trained search-and-rescue dog. Max was invaluable to helping them find clues. Peter Moore was her equipment specialist. He had all kinds of gadgets and gizmos, as Rachel called them, that were used during searches. His handheld thermal imager was used the most during their missions. It helped the rescuers search large areas in a short amount of time.
“Time to go, Red,” said Rachel. She’d arranged for Rankin and Peter to drive separately to Houma and meet them at the site. Rachel hopped behind the wheel and headed out to their destination.
“It should take us about an hour and a half to get there,” Red said, checking the GPS system.
Rachel was just settling into the drive when her company cell phone rang.
“Rachel. Long time no hear. Still looking for Mallory?”
Rachel almost dropped the phone at the mention of Mallory’s name. She pulled over to the side of the road, her hands shaking. Red noticed her distress and motioned for her to put the phone on speaker.
The voice was familiar, but she couldn’t place it. There was a lot of static on the line, and putting the call on speaker made it worse. “Who is this?”
“Scotty Jensen.”
Rachel fumbled the phone again and caught it before it hit the floorboard.
“Are you still there, Rachel?” Now Scotty’s voice came through loud and clear.
She had to take a second to pull it together. After all this time of trying to track down Scotty Jensen, now she had him on the phone. She didn’t want to blow it without finding where Mallory was.
“I’m here,” she answered.
“How was your trip to Mexico? I heard you got a little R and R in. Paddleboarding?”
Rachel’s face turned red. Her nervousness disappeared quickly, replaced by anger. She looked over at Red, who had stepped out of the vehicle and was now on his cell phone. No doubt calling the FBI to try and get a trace on her phone, she thought. She would have to keep Scotty on the line as long as possible.
“Where’s Mallory?” she asked.
A brief silence on the other end. Then his answer: “I don’t know.”
“Bullshit! Your name was all over the place on those seized computers.”
“Believe it or not, I had nothing to do with it.” Scotty paused for a moment. “I might know where she is, though. For the right price, I can find out.”
Rachel’s hand gripped the phone so hard she felt it was going to break into pieces.
“Then stop playing games and tell me. Where is she?”
“I’ve got to go, but we’ll stay in touch.” And the connection was gone.
Rachel put the phone down, resisting the urge to throw it. “Son of a bitch!”’
Red got back in the car and handed her his cell phone. “The FBI wants to talk to you. They weren’t in place to pull a trace.”
Rachel went over the details of the phone call. Agent Hammond Lewis, who’d worked with Rachel in Mexico, listened to her frustrations.
After a few minutes, Rachel hung up.
“What did he say?” Red looked concerned.
“Hammond said they’d put a tap on my phone and be ready if Scotty calls again. Of course, he’ll probably find another way to contact me. That’s if he gets in touch at all.”
Rachel got the car back on the road and headed toward Houma.
“I’m sure he will,” said Red. “I think he likes the attention. The question is, does he really know where Mallory is?”
“His name was all over the computer the FBI confiscated. E-mails back and forth between him and the Amsels.”
“Nothing in those e-mails mentioned Mallory, though,” Red said. “Just her photos were on that computer—along with photos of tons of other kids. And I hate to point out the obvious, but Scotty could still be furious with you for helping Janine get her son back. He might just be pulling your strings.”
“I’ve thought about that, but it’s a little suspicious that he got involved with a kidnapping ring after he tried to take back his own son.”
“Maybe he was always involved in kidnapping. Rick told you about all the employment problems he had with Scotty. Always late to work. Sometimes not showing up at all. Seeming to pull extra cash from thin air. Maybe it was after Rick fired him that Scotty started cultivating a vendetta against your family.”
“I’ve been all over Scotty. Tracking down his whereabouts the last days of his employment at the dealership and around the time Mallory was kidnapped. I’ve come up empty-handed each time. There’s nothing to tie her disappearance to him.”
“We just have to look harder.” Red patted Rachel on the arm. “We’ll get him. One way or another.”
A sign announcing their arrival into Houma greeted them. A low rolling fog seemed to greet them at the same time. After ten minutes of following the directions Krapek gave them, Rachel gasped as she noticed a sign that read McDaniel’s Fish Camp. Madame Verdene had mentioned a fish camp when they’d first met. She’d said that was where Erin could be found.