The Vanishing of Olivia Beck Read online

  “Let’s give him a minute to open the box, then we corner him.”

  “Deal.”

  They exited the truck simultaneously and paused at the front door. Zach counted to thirty, then entered with his hand on the butt of his gun. He sensed Annalise’s presence behind him. He stopped inside the door, shifted to the right, and scanned the lobby. Where had Harley gone?

  Annalise nudged his side.

  He trailed her gaze.

  Harley stepped from the door leading to the rear of the post office. With a gun held to the supervisor’s head and an arm around her neck. “Hi, officers.”

  Zach swallowed. “Harley, you don’t want to do this.”

  “Put your guns down, and she lives.”

  “Easy, Harley. We just wanted to ask you some more questions.” Zach tightened his grip.

  “Right. Well, ask away.”

  Audrey’s eyes widened even farther.

  Had Harley tightened his grip around her windpipe? Pressed the gun harder against her temple? Zach took a step back and lowered his gun fractionally. “Easy, Harley.”

  “Put the gun down, Harley. Let her go.” Annalise conveyed what Zach liked to call her puppy tone. He’d seen her rear Millie with it, and it worked to calm panicked criminals and victims alike. Usually.

  Harley just smiled. “I’m leaving, one way or another. You two decide if it will be as a murderer or simply a blackmailer.”

  Zach had a feeling there were other crimes already on that list too. “Okay, look I’m putting my gun down.” He bent ever-so-slowly and laid the gun on the floor. “Let Audrey go.”

  Annalise followed his lead, though he felt the tenseness in her shoulder as she brushed his arm.

  Harley shoved Audrey to the floor and fired a quick round in Zach and Annalise’s direction.

  They dove to the tile and a millisecond later the window behind them shattered into a million tiny, blue-green pieces.

  “Are you okay?” He rose onto his knees and hovered over Annalise.

  She rolled onto her back and stared up at him with his huge pupils. She nodded. “I’m fine. Go get him.”

  Zach kissed her forehead quickly and sprinted toward the back, where Harley had disappeared.

  ANNALISE LEAPED TO her feet and raced through the front door. Left or right? Left or right? Harley had approached from the left. She dashed in that direction and rounded the building. At the back corner, she paused, pulled her weapon to her shoulder, and peeked around. Nothing. No sign of Zach or Harley, but the back door swung on its hinges.

  Where had they gone?

  A gunshot splintered the air.

  Her stomach plummeted. Please, Lord, don’t let Zach be on the receiving end of that.

  She followed the sound, cautiously rounding each building. She pulled to a stop, gasping as she spotted Zach tangled on the ground with Harley. She took ten seconds to catch her breath and calm her shaking hands, then stepped out and approached with confident steps. “Hands up, Harley.”

  The tussle instantly froze.

  Before she blinked, Zach had rolled away from Harley and was standing next to her. “Thanks, partner.”

  “My pleasure. Can’t have you coming to work shot or dead, you know.”

  “Would be very hard to do dead.”

  “You’re under arrest, Harley. Roll over.”

  Harley complied, and Zach handcuffed him. He yanked the dejected man to his feet and led him back to Zach’s vehicle.

  It would be an entertaining ride taking Harley back on the bench seat between them. But she couldn’t wait to let Kirk at him.

  ANNALISE CROSSED HER arms over her chest and stared through the one-way glass.

  Harley shifted in his hard, plastic chair again, though he tried to portray calm.

  It wasn’t fooling her. And it wouldn’t fool Kirk. Where was he anyway? The longer Harley sat in there, collecting his thoughts and straightening his story, the more likely he was to ask for a lawyer. Because there was no doubt in her mind he had crimes. Whether they were related to Olivia Beck or not remained to be seen.

  The door in the interrogation room opened, and Kirk entered.

  Finally. Annalise sighed.

  He sat across the table from Harley and busied himself flipping slowly through a thick file.

  “Listen, man. This is all a mistake.” Harley fiddled with his water bottle.

  Kirk didn’t look up or act like he’d even heard the man.

  “I got a lot of enemies, some’s where badges.”

  Still, Kirk leafed through papers.

  “I panicked. Okay? Better safe than sorry, you know.” Harley chuckled and shifted in his seat.

  “This is Jonah Beck’s wife, Olivia.” Kirk slid an eight by ten photo across the table. “She’s missing. You know where she is.”

  Harley smiled for a millisecond and then must have realized Kirk wasn’t joking. “Wait, what? No. No, I have nothing to do with that.”

  Kirk folded his hands on the tabletop and pinned Harley with a steady gaze.

  “I swear. Jonah owes me money. That’s it.”

  “You threatened him.”

  “Aw, please. My threats are just that, empty threats. Are you crazy? Why would I risk jail for a couple thousand bucks?”

  The man had a point there.

  “You tell me, Harley. So far today you’ve assaulted federal officers, ran from those same officers, and sat here pretending like you aren’t in a big pile of trouble. Not much of what you do makes sense to me, so enlighten us.”

  “Look, man, I swear. I know nothing, zip, zero, zilch, nada about a missing woman. I did, I admit it, blackmail Jonah. But that’s it. I’m a business man. I saw an opportunity and took it.”

  “How many other customers are you taking advantage of with your upstanding business practices, Harley?”

  “I...uh...you know what, it’s time to call a lawyer. Now.” He leaned back in his chair and clenched his jaw firmly shut.

  “Of course.” Kirk exited the room.

  Great. Well, at least he talked before he clammed up. Problem was, Annalise believed Harley. He wasn’t involved in Olivia’s disappearance. Time to call the lab and see if she could encourage them to hurry.

  Back at her desk, she dialed their number. “I need to check on the status of a couple samples I sent in for comparison, please.” She relayed the case number to the technician.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, I don’t see anything registered under that number.”

  “I sent it in day before yesterday. Under Special Agent Baker, from Sevierville.”

  “Hmm, no. I’m still not seeing anything. I’m sorry.”

  “How—” What was happening? How had two samples gone completely missing?

  “Can I help you with anything else?”

  “I need you to try again. I know the samples made it there. I checked on them myself.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you, Special Agent. They aren’t here now.”

  Annalise’s rock-heavy stomach burned as she hung up.

  ANNALISE HANDED HIM a mug of hot chocolate and perched on the edge of her couch. “They’re gone, Zach. Gone.”

  Zach patted her knee and quickly withdrew his hand, wrapping them both around his mug instead. “The lab doesn’t lose samples.”

  She fiddled with her coffee cup and stared at the fire in her hearth. “I know.”

  “Something about this whole situation gives me a bad feeling.” And something about the tingling in his palm gave him a strange feeling he couldn’t explain.

  “Me too.”

  Millie’s head lifted, her ears perked toward the front door.

  Annalise and Zach both turned their gazes toward it.

  Millie growled.

  No knock sounded.

  “That’s weird. She never growls at the door unless someone is there.” Annalise set her mug on the table and rose.

  “Hang on, I’ll check it out.” Zach mirrored her movements. “Stay here.”

/>   “Oh, yeah right.”

  He snickered. Why had he expected that to work? He claimed the window to the right of the front door, Annalise the one to the left. “See anything?”

  Millie, now on her feet, let out another low rumble.

  “No,” Annalise whispered. “You?”

  “No.” He drew his weapon and turned the knob slowly. “Be right back.”

  “I’m coming.” She pinned him with a fierce glare as she pulled her backup weapon from the drawer safe next to the door.

  He knew better than to argue. He slid the door open silently.

  Millie dashed past him.

  “Millie, no,” Annalise hissed. “What if it’s a bear?” She darted after her pet.

  Zach wanted to follow, but something made the hairs on the back of his neck stand erect. From the front porch step, he peered into the night. The sounds of Annalise’s footsteps and the rustling of Millie’s paws in the leftover leaves reached him from the west. No night birds or frogs sounded, casting the night in an eerie silence.

  He grabbed the spotlight from behind his truck seat and shined it into the trees. Nothing reflected back to him other than trunks, underbrush, and grass, but he couldn’t help feeling something, or someone, was watching him back.

  “Annalise!”

  “Yeah!” Her voice came to him from around the corner of her cabin.

  He backed to the house, keeping the spotlight shining into the forest, and then made his way around to her. “You find Millie?”

  “No. It isn’t like her to take off like this.”

  “You getting the feeling we aren’t alone?”

  “Yes.” Annalise shivered.

  He released the button on the spotlight, fading them into darkness. After a few moments to let his eyes adjust, he nudged her side. “Come on. She will come back, and I would feel better getting you back inside.”

  “I can take care of myself, Zach.”

  “Always could.” But he sorely wanted to be the one to carry that responsibility now. He pulled her to the front door and, with one last glance behind him, shut and locked it.

  “I’m getting some food.”

  “I can always eat.”

  “Not for you. For Millie.” Annalise filled the dog’s bowl and stepped out onto the rear deck.

  This woman! Hadn’t he just brought her inside, away from whatever it was outside that made him feel so squirmy?

  Millie entered the back door, followed by a smiling Annalise.

  Zach sighed. “All clear now?”

  “Seems to be but...” Annalise shut the door and locked it behind her.

  “I feel it too.” He holstered his gun. “I’m staying tonight.”

  “Zach, really, you don’t have to do that.”

  “Try and make me leave.”

  She held her hands up in surrender. “I wouldn’t dare.”

  The sly grin she flashed his way made his stomach somersault. He cleared his throat. “I’ll take the couch.”

  “I have a guest bedroom.”

  Yeah, but it was closer to hers. “The couch will be fine. I can keep an eye on the front and back doors that way.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  “I’ll scope out the perimeter in the morning.”

  “Yeah, and then we have to figure out why my samples went missing.”

  “Or who caused them to disappear.”

  “Exactly.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Annalise sighed as Zach reentered the front door of her cabin and sat at the kitchen barstool. “There’s nothing there.”

  “Yeah. I kind of didn’t think there would be.”

  “I still can’t shake the feeling someone was there.”

  Zach had been scouring the edges of her property for over an hour as the morning sun rose above the canopy of full leaves. Meanwhile, she’d been scouring the online submission records of her case. It hadn’t taken long. There weren’t any.

  She handed him a plate of bacon and eggs and sat across from him. “Someone deleted every trace of the samples I sent, Zach.”

  “Who would do that? And why?”

  She bit her lip. “The entire case against Senator Marcum was ‘resolved,’ but I never really thought it was. Remember?”

  “How could I forget, Lise? You nearly ruined yourself looking for proof of Joanie’s murder.”

  “I know you know, I’m just thinking out loud, I guess.”

  “By all means, please continue.” He grinned. “And ask the question that’s burning your mind.”

  “Do you think Milt is involved?”

  He scratched his stubbly chin, sprinkled with just a touch of gray these days. “I trust him.”

  “I thought I did too.” But she had trusted Dave.

  “He isn’t like Dave.”

  “Ugh.” She dropped her chin to her palm. “Get out of my head.”

  “I like it in there.” He raised one eyebrow.

  She rolled her eyes.

  “It’s this beautiful mess of intelligence and emotion and worry and fear and bravery and honesty and...”

  With each new adjective, his voice had dropped until he nearly whispered the last and. Her voice matched his when she found the will to speak. “And what?”

  He shook his head. “Come on, let’s go to the lab ourselves. We can ask Scott to dig into the system and see where the deletion keystrokes came from. In theory anyway.”

  What word was he leaving out? It would drive her crazy, but something told her not to push. Something told her she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Whatever it was might change everything. “Okay, let’s go.”

  They dropped their plates into the dishwasher and aimed for the lab in Knoxville.

  SCOTT WORKED ON PULLING up the login history from the last twenty-four hours, while Annalise drummed her fingers on the edge of his desk.

  Fifteen minutes felt like an eternity.

  “I can’t exactly trace who did what once they were in the system, but I can tell you who logged in and you can cross-reference active case entries with those names. You should be able to narrow it down.”

  “One name will have no case,” Zach said from behind her.

  “That’s the idea.”

  “But not a foolproof plan, because someone could have logged in to check something and not started a new case entry.” Annalise sighed.

  “Right.” Scott hit a series of keys, and the printer to his left came to life. He handed it to her.

  She scanned the list and compared it to the next page he handed her of new entries. Her heart dropped. “It can’t be a coincidence,” she said as she handed the pages to Zach.

  He read over them and frowned. “Don’t jump to conclusions yet.”

  “He’d better be available. Milt’s been dodging me for days.”

  Scott’s eyebrows rose, but he didn’t comment.

  “Thanks, man.” Zach shook his hand, and they turned to go.

  They shot up the interstate and parked at the Norris Police Department’s picturesque front entrance.

  “Take a deep breath, Annalise.”

  She did as Zach instructed. “What if—”

  “Talk to him first.”

  She tried to quiet the anxiety roiling in her mind and stomach, but it wasn’t working very well. She burst into Captains Brooks’s office.

  He jerked his gaze toward her and then smiled. “Hey, guys. What brings you over?”

  “We need to talk. You haven’t answered my calls or messages for two days.”

  “Been busy.”

  Was he trying to pacify her? He was using his “calm-down-hyped-up victim” voice.

  Zach shut the door behind them. “This is serious, Milt.”

  “You know.”

  It was not a question, nor was there a hint of guilt, but Annalise’s heart thundered to life. “Know what, Captain?”

  “I erased the evidence you submitted, Annalise. I have flagged her case for any new activity. When you submitted the samples
, I was alerted, and I dealt with it.”

  She expected it, but it still felt like someone punched her in the gut. “Why would you do that?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  Zach put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I think you’d better tell us everything.”

  “Olivia Beck didn’t vanish.”

  Annalise sank into a chair, finding her legs no longer willing to support her.

  Zach took the one beside her.

  “She walked away to protect her family. The Senator Marcum case, Annalise. You were right all along. They tried to kill Joanie. We gave her a new life.”

  She knew it. “We?” Annalise’s voice shook on the simple two-lettered word.

  “WITSEC.”

  “I don’t understand. How are you involved? Why didn’t I know about it all this time?”

  Milt leaned back in his chair. “I have a dual role. Norris Police Department is the one everyone sees. The United States Marshals Service is the one you don’t.”

  “You’re a Marshal?” Zach added.

  “Mostly retired now. I monitor a few cases, keep an eye on a few Witness Protection members. Mostly in an advisory capacity now.”

  “Olivia is Joanie?” Annalise said.

  “Yes. And she’s in danger. She left me a note. They’ve found her, and she did what she had to do to protect Jonah and the kids.” He folded his hands. “You sending the samples in would raise too many red flags.”

  Clarity blossoming felt a lot like guilt. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

  “Don’t, Annalise. I should have been honest with you. I knew you’d figure it out.” Milt smiled. “Your brilliant mind was bound to see the big picture.”

  A weight lifted from her heart. “How can we help now?”

  “We have to find Olivia before they do.”

  “Who are they?” Zach leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees. “And what do they want?”

  “Revenge. Protection. Tie up loose ends. The possibilities are numerous. Olivia knows things about the Juarez Cartel she wishes she didn’t.” He chuckled mirthlessly. “I wish she didn’t too.”

  “Where do we start?” Annalise said.

  Milt sighed. “Open the letter, Zach.”

  “How did you—”

  Annalise thought the same question Zach voiced.