Whisper in the Night (Detectives Kane and Alton)

Jenna nodded. “I see.” She turned to Wolfe. “Is this necessary or will you be doing an examination of the system?”

“I’ll go along with him and get the results.” Wolfe frowned. “It could be faulty. If Lindy walked out the front door, the motion sensors should have turned on the floodlights.”

“Not necessarily.” Charlie stared up at the house. “It depends which set-up they have – some turn off all the sensors once the system is shut down. Others prefer the floodlights and cameras are on a separate circuit, so folks can go outside without triggering the alarm.” He dipped into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone. After taking an age to scroll through an app, he held up the screen to show Jenna and Wolfe. “Mr. Rosen had the remote model with both options. I’ll explain.”

Wishing he would get on with it, Jenna huffed out a sigh. “Plain English and the abridged version please, I’ve a lost child to find.”

“Sure.” Charlie cleared his throat. “The Rosens have a remote in their vehicles so when they arrive home at night they can turn off the alarm but activate the floodlights. Or they can turn them off in daylight.” He met Jenna’s gaze. “My boss wants me to inspect the system and outside sensors for faults, so I’ll need access.”

Jenna turned to Wolfe. “Is he okay to go?”

“I’ve checked all possible access points to the house, so outside won’t be a problem.” Wolfe turned to Charlie. “Don’t enter the house without me, and as you’ve worked inside the house I’ll need your DNA and fingerprints to exclude you as a suspect.”

“Sure, but I’ll need to check the system first. The entire set-up won’t take me more’n a half-hour, then I’ll be on my way.” Charlie looked at Jenna. “Is that okay, Sheriff?”

“I’m on it.” Wolfe shrugged. “The tire track isn’t going anywhere.” He waved the man toward the house. “Let’s go.”

Jenna heaved a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Wolfe.”

She looked up at the house as Kane appeared at the door with Duke at his side. Kane issued commands and Duke walked to the Rosens’ car, then went back inside and sat down. It was obvious Lindy’s scent trail had stopped inside and she hadn’t left the house. She looked up at Kane. “You don’t think she’s still inside, do you?”

“Nope.” Kane pulled his

woolen cap down over his ears. “We searched the house from top to bottom. They don’t have a cellar but I pulled down the steps to the attic and looked up there as well. Duke reacted inside her room and the hallway. It must have been the strongest scent from his reaction; like Blackhawk said, he found nothing past the vehicle or he would’ve reacted.”

“Okay. There’s not much more we can do here.” Jenna shrugged. “Let’s go.”

They headed back to Kane’s truck. She climbed inside and leaned back in the seat. “This is a mystery. Any ideas?”

“We don’t have any evidence of an abduction as yet but my gut tells me she didn’t run away.” Kane waved a hand to encompass the property. “This place would be dark and creepy at night. I can’t see a kid who’s been scared stupid by a nightmare running out here alone in the middle of the night without turning on the floodlights.”

“Me either.” A cold shiver skittered up Jenna’s spine. She stared into the trees surrounding the house and sighed. “Where are you, Lindy?”

Two

Sheer terror gripped Lindy as she gasped in breaths of mold-smelling air. It was her greatest nightmare: trapped in the dark and unable to breathe. Her head ached so bad and she wanted to rub the throbbing pain in her temples but she couldn’t move an inch. A cold breeze like the tendrils of ivy brushed around her legs raising goosebumps but the smelly air in the room wasn’t freezing. Under her thighs, the smooth curve of a wooden chair pressed against her. The tight ropes binding her chest and ankles cut deep into her flesh. Her arms looped the back of the chair and its square corners dug into her biceps. An awful taste coated her tongue and a smell like rotting tomatoes sent waves of nausea rolling through her stomach.

It was an effort to hold up her head and her eyelids seemed so heavy. She hovered between awake and asleep, unable to grasp consciousness. How long had she been here? It seemed like days had dragged by. She was so thirsty and needed to pee. I have to wake up and escape.

Forcing her eyes wide, she tried to peer into the damp darkness. A tiny beam of light like a crack in a curtain glistened with dancing dust motes and illuminated a cobweb-covered beam. She clung to that tiny glimmer of light and struggled. The ropes rubbed her skin raw and nothing she tried gave her an inch of slack. Panic came in a rush and she rocked back and forth, gasping in the putrid, stale air. The chair creaked but was too solid for her to topple over or break. Exhausted, she flopped forward and sobbed. Tears blurred her vision and wet her cheeks. An unfamiliar noise came from close by. A motor was running and moments later a blast of stale warm air poured over her. Above her, a single dust-covered bulb attached to a long cord flickered into life.

The darkness had suffocated her but now her heart pounded with fear as she scanned the room in the dim light. The door was way across the other side of the room and there was no way she could get to it. A large plastic sheet, like the ones she’d seen inside the house when the men repainted the family room, spread out under her feet. To her right was a line of bunk beds, covered in a thick coating of dust; to her left a table and chairs. Piles of blankets sat on shelves alongside jars of brown preserves that looked like the specimens in the science lab at school. Dust-laden cobwebs hung like lace curtains from the beams above her head and the rustling sound of vermin came from the shadows.

Then she heard the footsteps.

Three

On the way back to the office, Jenna went down the list of Lindy’s close friends. All were aware she’d gone missing and were surprisingly helpful, but none of them knew of anyone she’d leave with in the middle of the night. She glanced at Kane. “We lucked out there. No boyfriend or anyone remotely close to Lindy, no crushes other than an ex-football player who works at the school but, her best friend told me, all the girls like him and he’s never paid any special attention to her.”

“Hmm.” Kane flicked her a glance. “Maybe we’ll need to find out who he is and pay him a visit.”

When they arrived at the office, Jenna made out Deputy Rowley surrounded by a crowd of people. He was handing out grid maps of the areas surrounding the Rosens’ ranch and giving the searchers stickers to display on their jackets. She waited for him to finish speaking, and then went to his side. “It looks like you have everything organized.”

“Yeah, search and rescue have a chopper in the air and we’ve a couple of park wardens leading groups of volunteers in both directions along the perimeter of Stanton Forest. Webber is out with another group door-knocking Glacial Heights, Maggie is manning the phones and Blackhawk is on his way.” He waved a hand toward a group of reporters. “They’re doing a live feed and asking for people to call in if they’ve seen Lindy, to check around their yards and volunteer to help.” His worried gaze scanned her face. “So far we’ve not had a single report of anyone seeing Lindy, not even the usual hoax calls.”

“That’s not good.” Jenna ran the list of men Rosen had given her through her mind; any one of them could have seen Rosen set the alarm. “I want to move fast on this case. I’ll leave you to handle the search and we’ll hunt down the tradespeople who worked on the Rosens’ ranch over the last couple of weeks. I’ll do background checks on the way.” She sighed. “Keep me in the loop via cellphone. I don’t want info leaking to the press via a police scanner.”

“Roger that.” Rowley turned and headed back to the crowd of people.