Andrea Kane - The Girl Who Disappeared Twice

“You’re saying you think she had an accomplice,” Ryan said. “Are you reverting to the mob theory?”

“I don’t think so,” Marc interjected. “This is personal. It’s got to be Linda’s idea-she’d just need help with the execution.”

“Agreed.” Casey picked up where she’d left off. “I don’t buy the whole visiting nurse idea. I think that whoever’s getting Linda’s medicine, making her medical arrangements and assisting in her overall health issues, is also assisting in Krissy’s captivity.”

“Okay, I’ll buy that.” Ryan inclined his head, studying Casey intently. She had more on her mind than what she’d already said. “Are you thinking of someone in particular?”

“I have no idea. But I do have an avenue I want to pursue. It could be a far-fetched dead end.”

“But you don’t think so.”

“No.” Casey raised her chin, glanced from Ryan to Marc and back. “I think we need to revisit Claudia Mitchell’s murder. We’ve all been operating under the assumption that it was mob related. But if the mob wasn’t involved in Krissy’s kidnapping, then that eliminates any motive they might have had to silence Claudia.”

“Which means someone else wanted or needed Claudia Mitchell dead,” Marc continued for her. “Someone she surprised, rather than the premeditated murder we originally suspected. And the place where she surprised them is at the health care facility where she had her interview. Sunny Gardens. A facility that treats patients with everything from physical illnesses to dementia and Alzheimer’s.”

“You think Linda Turner is a patient there?” Ryan asked.

“More likely, a recent one,” Casey qualified. “Which means she’d need her accomplice to come to her.”

“It also means her accomplice probably did the actual kidnapping. And that would mean we’re dealing with a female accomplice.” Marc deduced what Casey already had. “Do you think it’s someone in Hope Willis’s circle? Someone Claudia would have recognized?”

“It makes sense, doesn’t it?” Casey’s reply was more a statement than a question.

Ryan let out a low whistle. “It’s quite a theory. But we’d be crazy not to check it out. The question is, how? Sunny Gardens isn’t going to give us squat. Law enforcement would have a hard enough time getting privileged information, and we’re not law enforcement. We have zero leverage.”

“We have Marc.” With absolute confidence, Casey eyed her colleague. “I’d be willing to bet that, on a dime, you can come up with a plan that will get us what we need.”

Marc looked thoughtful. “We need to verify that Linda Turner is actually a patient at Sunny Gardens. I’ll have to scale the gates and bypass the security cameras. Get around without being noticed. Blend in and disappear…not a problem.”

“I could go with you,” Ryan offered. “If I can install Gecko-”

“Let me handle this one alone,” Marc interrupted. “At least for now. Covert Ops is my thing. If Linda Turner’s there, I’ll find her. And I’ll find out what name she’s registered under. We’ll have our answer tonight. And if we’re right, then you and the little critter can go on a field trip together.”

“You’re planning something again.”

Patrick came up behind Casey the minute Ryan’s van and Marc’s car disappeared around the bend.

Casey’s head snapped around. “Where did you come from? Are you spying on me?”

“I saw Marc leave.” Patrick stuck his hands in his pockets and stared her down. “Then you slipped away. I used to be a federal agent. I’m pretty good at spotting the obvious.”

“My team was just meeting to discuss our options.”

“And the option you picked is something you don’t plan on sharing with the task force. Which means you’re coloring outside the lines again.”

“Coloring outside the lines?” Casey had to grin at his choice of words. “Does that mean you’re going to tell on me?”

“That depends. What do I have to tell?”

“Nothing.” Casey kept her expression carefully nondescript.

Patrick didn’t avert his gaze. “You’re a hell of a liar. I’d believe you, except that I’ve learned the way Forensic Instincts operates.”

“Then you’ve also learned that it’s best not to ask questions. Just accept our results with grudging admiration.”

Not so much as a blink. “That puts me in an awkward position. Because I have a strong feeling that you were bugged by what we just found out, and that you meandered your way to the same possibility I did. And I have to know whether or not to share that with the task force.”

Casey kept her cool. But she wasn’t happy.

“What possibility are we referring to?” she asked.

Patrick’s lips thinned into a narrow line. “In other words, show my hand first. Okay, fine. Normally, I wouldn’t. But we’re playing with a loaded gun here, and we’re racing time. So I’ll start. But no games, Casey. I want the truth.”

“You’ll get it.”

“Fine. You and I are both thinking that Linda Turner is in no condition to kidnap a kid. That she has a very active accomplice-one who actually did the work for her. Am I on track?”

“Yes.” Casey could read Patrick’s expression as if it were a polygraph. He knew. He wasn’t fishing. This was the real deal.

Time for her to give him something in return.

“I think Linda Turner is ill enough to be confined to a facility.”

“And you think that facility is Sunny Gardens, the place Claudia Mitchell interviewed at. You also think that when she was there, she saw someone she shouldn’t have, and was killed because of it.”

“Right. And, if Claudia recognized someone with a connection to Judge Willis, it probably means that our accomplice is someone Judge Willis knows from her time on the bench.” Casey was past wondering what Patrick knew and into worrying about what he planned to do about it. “I don’t care how this person hooked up with Linda Turner, nor does it matter right now. We just have to find her.”

“It has to be a woman,” Patrick agreed. “Based on every description we got from the crime scene and from the gardener.” He stiffened, and Casey could see the FBI agent surface in him. “If we figured this out, what makes you think the task force won’t?”

“I’m sure they will. But they’ll have hoops to jump through to get what they need. We won’t.” Casey let down her guard, and let her emotion come through. “Please, Patrick, just buy me some time. Let me run with this. Let my team run with this. Don’t tell Peg we’re following this lead. You’re not impeding anything, because you don’t know what we have in mind. But it might save Krissy’s life. Let the task force come up with this, and pursue this, on their own. I’m not asking you to stop them. Just don’t fuel the fire by ratting us out. Please. We just need a little time first, to try it our way.”

Patrick watched her from beneath hooded lids. “I’d never say yes,” he admitted flatly. “But I have a personal interest in this case. And I’ve seen how good you are. So do what you have to. Spare me the details. Just get it done, and get it done fast. As for Peg, I won’t tell her we talked. But I can’t stop her from doing what she has to. I’d do the same, if I were her.”

“Fair enough.” Casey paused. “And I’ll find a way to keep you in the loop,” she added quietly. “In a way you can swallow. I know how much this case means to you.”

“ Both cases,” he corrected her. “I care what happens to Krissy Willis. And I need to know what happened to Felicity Akerman.”

Marc tucked his car discreetly in a clearing surrounded by thick bushes, a good quarter mile from Sunny Gardens. He walked the rest of the way, positioning himself across from an entrance concealed behind a row of trees. He wanted at least two good hours of daylight surveillance before he planned to scale the fence and traverse the grounds. He needed to see when the various staff members came and went. And he wanted to see the staff’s routine of moving the patients from indoors to outdoors and back.