Alaskan Courage: Silenced Part 32

"Kayden." He searched under stalls. Empty. She wasn't there. He raced past the blonde and out the back door. The alley was narrow but wide enough for a vehicle. Had Angela . . . ?

Terror choked the breath from his lungs.

Kayden woke to the sound of an engine and road noise. She opened her eyes, but darkness engulfed her. She was lying on her back on what felt like a hard metal floor-a pickup?-and something hard was poking beneath her shoulder blade.

She shifted, her hands bound, her legs too. It didn't feel like rope against her skin. It was sticky and tight. Duct tape, perhaps. It covered her mouth as well.

She turned her head to her right and saw two slits of red equal distance apart. Taillights. She shifted to move her feet closer to one of the lights. Whatever was poking her back dug in deeper. Leading with her casted foot, she kicked at the red light, trying to bust it out. It took several kicks until it shattered. Hopefully it would draw a cop's attention.

She kicked at the pickup's hard top, trying to pop it open, trying to keep most of the force on her uninjured leg, but pain radiating down her leg was all she got for her trouble. She settled back, knowing the next best thing she could do was listen for any markers that might help her identify where Angela was taking her.

Jake burst into Landon's office. "She's taken Kayden."

"Angela? Are you certain?"

"Kayden went into the bathroom at the Imperial Garden and never came back. I checked the bathroom and it was empty. The rear door is only a few feet away. And there's s.p.a.ce in the alleyway for a vehicle."

"You think Angela followed you there and then sat in wait?"

"That's exactly what I think."

"Did you try calling Kayden's cell?"

"It was in her purse, at the table with me." He dropped it on Landon's desk.

Landon picked up his phone. "Let me call Piper and make sure Kayden didn't bolt . . . for some reason."

"Like what?"

"Maybe she realized you two were on a date and-"

"She just took off without her purse, cell phone, or a means of transportation?"

"I know it's farfetched. I just need to confirm." He moved his hand off the mouthpiece. "Hey, babe. Is Kayden with you?" His expression hardened. "When's the last time you heard from her? Jake's here." He went on to explain, trying to calm Piper down in the process. "Let me get on this, and I'll call you back. You don't have to . . . Okay. See you soon."

"She's on her way over?"

"I imagine they all will be."

"That's good. The more people we have to track Kayden, the better." They were going to need all the help they could get. They had no leads on Angela's whereabouts. Wait a minute . . . "Kirra. I'm such a fool."

"What about her?"

"When we checked with the DMV and didn't get a hit on anything registered to Carol Jones or Angela Mark.u.m, we let it go, decided we'd hit a dead end, but Kirra must at least know what her car looks like. We can put out an APB on the description."

"You really think she's stupid enough to drive the same car she did when posing as Carol?"

"It's a long shot, but right now it's the only lead we have to go on."

Landon lifted the phone. "I'll call Kirra."

Within twenty minutes all the McKennas, Darcy, and Kirra had descended on the station.

"We should call Cole," Gage said.

Jake hated to bother him on his honeymoon, but if he had a sister who'd been kidnapped, he'd want to know ASAP.

Kirra provided a description of the car Angela had used when posing as Carol-a Nissan Altima. Silver. Four-door sedan.

"Any chance you caught some of her license plate?" Jake asked.

Kirra grimaced. "Sorry. I don't notice things like that."

"Was that the only car Angela ever drove?"

"Yes . . . Well, there was one day she showed up in a truck. She said it was a loaner while her car was in the shop."

"Can you describe it?"

"It was an older model Toyota Tacoma. Midnight blue. Still looked to be in good shape."

"Did she say which shop she went to?"

"No, but I asked. Told her Lenny's was the best in town."

"And she'd gone to . . . ?"

"William Rogers' place."

Jake nodded. "On it."

Jake entered William Rogers' garage. William was in his sixties, and both of his sons ran the shop. "Hey, Will," he greeted the junior William-he was working late; it was almost eight.

"Hey, Jake. Don't tell me your truck's acting up again."

"No. I'm here for an entirely different reason." He took a moment to give Will the details.

"Yeah. I remember the Altima. Needed a new timing belt."

"Did you happen to note the license plate number by any chance?"

"Yeah, actually. We record the license plates of all the cars we service."

Thank you, G.o.d.

Jake anxiously paced while Will retrieved Angela's records.

"Here you go, man."

"Can I take this, or do you need me to make a copy?"

"I'll copy it for you. It'll only take a sec."

"Thanks." Now they had a way to track her, possibly, if she hadn't changed vehicles. "Oh, Kirra Jacobs said Angela drove a loaner truck while you repaired her car."

"She might have, but I don't recall seeing it."

"You didn't loan her the truck?"

"Nah. We don't have the resources for that sort of thing."

"So, if she got a loaner . . . ?"

"You should talk to Nadine over at the rental-car company. Only place I know she'd get one, but they don't usually rent out trucks. They get too much wear on the four-wheel-drive vehicles."

"Thanks. Heading over there now."

Jake made the quick walk two blocks down the street, praying the rental company wouldn't close before he reached it. The night air was cool on his heated skin. He rounded the last corner and found Nadine locking up for the night. "Hey, Nadine."

"Hey, Jake." Nadine's close-cropped hair was a deep shade of red, though dark roots crowning her part said the color wasn't natural. "What's going on?"

He explained, showing her Angela's photo.

"I'm sorry. I didn't rent anything to her. And I don't have any trucks that fit that description. We try not to rent out four-wheel-drive vehicles, because people use them to go off-roading and bring them back all muddy and busted up."

So Angela Mark.u.m had kept a second car. Very smart, but thankfully they had a description of the vehicle from Kirra. It'd be better if they had a license plate to go with it, but at least they had someplace to start.

The truck pulled to a stop with a jerk, and Kayden readied herself to kick out as soon as Angela opened the truck-bed cover.

The cover lifted and she kicked, but Angela stood, still dressed as a man, a safe distance away.

"I suggest you settle down or I'll have to make you."

No way she'd comply willingly. She'd never go down without a fight.

"I expected as much. I see we're going to have to do this the hard way." Angela lifted a pole and jammed it at Kayden, sending jolts of electricity through her.

37.

Landon put out an APB on both known vehicles of Angela Mark.u.m, praying they'd get a hit, but so far, no luck.

The Altima was registered to Carol Willis, which meant not only had she adopted the persona of Carol Jones that she used when meeting people in Yancey, she'd also used a second false name to establish fake doc.u.mentation. Two layers of disguise. Angela had thought of everything-and that terrified Jake.

Unfortunately the Altima was the only vehicle registered in Carol Willis's name, so chances were she'd stolen the secondary vehicle or paid cash for it to someone desperate enough to sell it without going through official channels.

"I'm going to go talk with Ralph Barnes, find out if he remembers seeing Carol driving the truck," Th.o.r.eau said. "He might have had a reason to observe the license plate."

"Good idea," Landon said. "All of Yancey's search and rescue have been called in. Gage is coordinating search parties now."

If Kayden was still on Tariuk, they'd find her. Jake's fear was that Angela had gone off the island with her, and that would greatly extend their search parameters.

Gage paired up the search teams. Kirra was frustrated when she ended up with Reef, but she didn't want to make waves by asking for another partner. Kayden's life was on the line. Surely she and Reef could work past their differences for his sister's sake.

"Let's run by and pick up Rex before we start our grid," she said, heading for the door.

"Why?" He followed her out of the station into the cool evening air. "We have our grid. We should get started."

"Rex is Kayden's favorite, and he adores her. Using him will greatly aid our search."

Reef stood, leg twitching. He always wanted to race straight to action. And to be honest, his way of approaching things-act first, think later-was part of what made him so attractive to her . . . and what most annoyed her about him.

"Trust me," she said.

"Fine, if you really believe it will help, but let's hurry. That's my sister out there."

"I know."

The ride back to her place took fifteen minutes, and Reef's leg never stopped bouncing. She fought the burning urge to reach over and clamp her hand on his knee just to make the constant motion stop.

She pulled up outside the barn and raced inside.

They'd been a.s.signed the grid surrounding Northface, along a line of hunting and fishing cabins, but they would follow where Rex led.

She grabbed the sweatshirt Kayden had left hanging on the hook inside the barn and let Rex out of his kennel. "Here, boy." She let him sniff the sweatshirt. "Let's find Kayden."

Kirra drove while Rex rode in the back. "Where's the last place Kayden was seen?"

"The Imperial Garden. She went to use the bathroom and never came back."

Kirra stepped on the gas. "The Imperial Garden it is."

"But we're supposed to cover Northface."

"And we will, but Kayden's scent will be strongest where she was last seen. Rex can even track which direction she was taken."

Reef looked back at the husky. "Really?"

"Yes. He's a trained search-and-rescue scent dog."

"Who trained him?"

"I did."