Alaskan Courage: Silenced Part 33

"I didn't realize you knew how to do that."

"I do. I run Yancey's canine search-and-rescue unit."

"Kayden mentioned that. I just didn't realize you did the training too."

"I've been doing it for years, along with my dad, until my parents moved away." Dogs were so much more faithful than people, at least in her experience.

"Interesting," he said with a smile.

She shifted to study him better. Reef McKenna found something she did to be interesting? Well, that was a first.

For the rest of the drive to the Imperial Garden, she tried to keep her mind focused on the task of finding Kayden and not on how very handsome Reef McKenna was sitting beside her-tall, sculpted body, curly blond hair, deep blue eyes. The man was breathtaking. Just like William.

Agony p.r.i.c.ked her afresh. It'd been weeks since she'd thought about . . . since her last nightmare. More than a year had pa.s.sed, and she still had nightmares. When would they stop?

After Reef notified the owners, Kirra led Rex through the front of the Imperial Garden, had him smell Kayden's sweatshirt. He immediately picked up her scent and followed her path from the front table to the ladies' room and on to the back door. Kirra opened it, and they stepped outside, the alley nearly dark. Rex sniffed, signaling east.

"She left from here, heading east in a vehicle."

"He can tell that?"

"Yes."

"What's your best guess of their destination?"

"The docks."

Jake hung up, trying not to chuck his phone against the wall. The ferry. He should have known, but how did Angela get Kayden on the ferry and keep her subdued during transport?

No doubt she'd knocked Kayden unconscious or drugged her, and what . . . ? Hid her in her truck? Kirra had said it had a hard-sh.e.l.l cover over the bed. Angela had clearly put a lot of thought into her plans. It was downright frightening, and he feared what else she had in store before their nightmare was over.

His stomach clenched. If Kayden had been at full strength, there was no way Angela could have overcome her. But being nearly immobile, Kayden . . .

He had to focus. The ferry. From Yancey there were only two direct options-Imnek and Kodiak. That helped narrow their scope, but only if Angela remained on one of those islands. If she took another ferry from there . . . He rushed to the ferry station. Reef had said he would call everyone else.

During the summer, the ferry ran every three hours. The ride to Imnek only took an hour and a half. The ride to Kodiak took about three hours. Jake looked at his watch. "Call the ferry stations. Have them watch for Angela arriving," he said to Landon. He prayed she was headed for Kodiak and they'd still have time to intercept-but she was probably too smart to give them that much time to figure out she had taken the ferry. And if she'd gone directly to Imnek, they were probably too late.

Once Landon was on his cell with the ferry station in Imnek and Gage on the phone with the Kodiak station, Jake stepped inside Yancey's terminal office. "Hey, Cal," he greeted the man working the desk, "any chance you remember this lady buying a ticket in the last three hours?" He held out Angela's photo.

Cal studied the photo. "Can't say that I do, but the boys were working the line." During tourist season, the guys stood outside by the vehicle line and sold tickets directly to the drivers, helping avoid a backup.

"Are they still on shift?"

Cal raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. I'll call them."

Jed and Russ met Jake by the pier. Jed was young, early twenties, with light blond hair; Russ was older, midthirties, with the weathered skin of a mariner.

Jake showed them Angela's picture. Both inspected it, and Jed tapped the photograph. "That looks a lot like Carol. I've seen her plenty of times, but not today."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, a real hottie for an older lady."

Jake supposed a woman in her midforties would look older to a twenty-year-old.

"Why do you remember her?" There had to be some reason she stuck in his mind.

Jed shrugged with a smile. "Because she was nice. We chatted during her trips. Maybe even flirted a little."

"Trips?"

"Yeah she made weekly trips to Imnek and back."

"For how long?"

"Past couple months."

So she'd been preparing for this all along. "What did you two chat about?"

"I don't know." Jed leaned against the rail. "Nothing in particular."

"Did she say why she was going to Imnek so frequently?"

"Nah. I think I asked once, but she just changed the subject. You know how folks around here are about their privacy."

"Yeah." People in Yancey, in most of Alaska, prided themselves on the privacy that living in such a rugged land, away from crowded cities and the need to always be in your neighbor's business, afforded them.

"And you're positive you haven't seen her tonight?"

"Positive . . . but I saw her truck. Some dude was driving it."

"A man?"

"Yeah."

"And you're sure it was her truck?" He pointed to Angela's picture.

"I'm sure. Had the cool Brembo calipers that kick-started our first conversation. Thought it was pretty cool a chick like her was driving a truck with red Brembo brake calipers."

"Which ferry did the man with her truck take? Imnek or Kodiak?"

Jed thought a moment. "Imnek."

"Has it docked there already?" Unfortunately, Jake already knew the answer. He just wished it were different.

Jed looked at his watch. "Twenty minutes ago."

Jake exhaled, frustration searing through him.

"Can you describe the man?" Landon asked, coming up behind him.

Jed raked a hand through his close-cropped hair. "He was kind of short for a dude."

"How short?"

"Maybe five-six or five-seven."

"What else?"

"He had short dark hair and a goatee."

"Have you ever seen him before?"

"Nope." Jed shook his head. "Not that I recall."

"Never with Angela?"

"Angela?" Jed squinted.

"Angela is Carol's real name."

"Oh, right. No, I never saw them together."

"Did you talk to him at all?"

"The man?"

"Yeah."

"Nah. Just saw him pull up in Carol's truck. I thought it was kind of odd, but I just figured he was a friend of hers."

"Was anyone else with him?"

"Not that I saw." He looked at his co-worker, who to this point had remained silent but interested. "You, Russ?"

Russ shook his head. "Sorry, I don't know who you're talking about. And I don't remember the truck either."

Landon glanced over at Jake. "You think she has an accomplice?"

"It's possible. Or it could be Angela, wearing a disguise." He lifted his chin at Jed. "Could you describe her truck, besides the brake calipers?" Though that detail alone was extremely helpful. "Make? Model? Any chance you saw the license plate?"

"It was an older Toyota Tacoma. Dark blue."

Jake nodded. "When you say older . . . how old are you talking?"

Jed exhaled. "Oh, I'd probably say an '03 or '04."

"Any chance you saw her license plate?"

"It wasn't a vanity plate. Just a regular Alaskan plate. Three letters. Three numbers." He draped his arms along the rails, his fingers tapping the wood as he thought.

"Any guesses?"

"I have no clue about the letters." Jed rubbed his chin. The faint shadow of blond whiskers dappled his sun-tanned skin.

"Any idea on the numbers?"

"That was 122."

"You're sure?" Seemed an odd thing to remember.

"Positive. I do a thing with license plate numbers and football stats. Keeps things interesting. Anyway, 122 . . . Staubach was number twelve and he won two Super Bowls. The man's a legend-and I'm telling you, that lady looked like she could have been a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader back in her prime." He blushed a bit. "Well, that's how I made the connection."

"Thanks, Jed." Jake clamped him on the shoulder and then pulled a card from his pocket with his cell number scrolled across the back. "If you think of anything else-anything at all-you give me a call."

Jed nodded.

Landon ran the partial he supplied through the database while Jake called Ned at the Imnek ferry station to let him know they were looking for a truck that had arrived on the last ferry.

n.o.body had noticed Angela's truck unloading on Imnek, but Ned said they would comb the parking lot for it, just in case Angela was waiting to take another ferry out from there.

"I've got two possible truck matches to the partial on Tariuk," Landon said. "A 2004 Toyota belonging to a Paul Freeman, and a 2003 that last belonged to a Roger Harris."

"Last belonged?"

"Tags haven't been renewed in three years."

"You think he just had it sitting on his property?" He'd seen it before. Unable to afford the vehicle expenses, the owner let it sit, collecting dust.

"That'd be my guess. Somehow Angela connected with him and paid cash to take it off his hands. Smart on her part. It keeps her name off of everything and leaves no paper trail." She was one shrewd woman.

"I'll send Th.o.r.eau to talk to Mr. Harris, and then I'll call the Imnek Sheriff's Department and inform them of what's going on," Landon said. "Get an APB out on the plates."

"All right. I'm heading for Imnek," Jake said, his first instinct to ask Kayden to fly him there.

"We don't know that they're still on Imnek."

"We know they aren't here. Imnek is the last point of reference. I need to be there."

"We'll come with you," Gage said behind him.

He wasn't going to argue. The more people he trusted looking for Kayden, the better. "Okay. Grab anything you need and meet at the airport. We have no idea how long we'll be gone or where we may end up." He looked to Piper. "Call Chuck La.s.siter to see if he'll fly us over. He's got a ten-seat Cessna."

Piper nodded and stepped from the room.

"I'll call my volunteers so they can arrange to watch the dogs while I'm away," Kirra said.

Jake checked his watch. "We need to be airborne in thirty."