Elizabeth Heiter - Vanished

Evelyn shook her head. “No. If he’s a strong suspect, we need to monitor him carefully. If we make him too nervous, if he feels like we’re paying him special attention and he does have Brittany, he might kill her.”

“If she’s still alive,” T.J. contributed softly.

“If she’s still alive,” Evelyn agreed. “But we have to proceed as if she is.”

“Well, what if we don’t do anything and that gives Wiggins time to kill her?” Jack argued.

Tomas and T.J. turned to look at her.

Tension knotted in her neck. “Where was this guy eighteen years ago?”

“College,” Jack replied. “About an hour north of here. He spent his summers there, taking extra classes so he could graduate early. But he came home on weekends often enough. After he moved back home and word got out about what happened in DC, people started wondering if he could’ve snuck in and out of the towns back then. Only one of those original abductions was in Rose Bay...”

Jack broke off, because of course she knew that. Only Cassie had been taken here. The other girls were from small towns up the coast.

Jack cleared his throat and continued. “Once a molester, always a molester, right?”

Evelyn felt her shoulders slump and forced herself to stand straighter. “Not necessarily, but once a pedophile...”

“Always a pedophile,” Jack finished. “See?” He looked at Tomas. “We’ve got to act on this before it’s too late!”

“Was he ever investigated in connection with the original abductions?” Evelyn asked.

“He was,” T.J. answered. “Once he moved back here from DC. I was part of the force then and we pulled the Nursery Rhyme Killer as a cold case to revisit. It was...what?” He glanced at Jack, creases forming around his eyes. “Nine years ago?”

“He was arrested nine years ago?” Evelyn asked.

“No. He was arrested when he was twenty-five. But he finally got sick of the harassment nine years ago and came back here.”

“Like we wanted him,” Jack put in.

“So? Did you find any connection to the Nursery Rhyme cases?”

T.J. shook his head. “Jack and I were part of the team working on it, but we couldn’t come up with anything.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s not guilty,” Jack insisted. “I have a bad feeling about this guy.”

So did she. But experience told her he was far from the only sex offender in the area who preyed on children. And it didn’t mean he was the Nursery Rhyme Killer.

“I’ll go through the interview notes and come up with a strategy for you,” she promised Tomas. “I’d like to do that with any promising suspects you have.”

Jack leaned forward and opened his mouth, but Tomas silenced him with a long, hard look. “Okay, but hurry. And start with Wiggins, if you think he’s probable. Brittany’s been missing for...” He checked his watch. “Almost seventeen hours now. And damn it, I want to bring her home alive.”

* * *

“Let’s hear it. What’s the strategy on Wiggins?” Jack demanded an hour later.

He was sitting too close to her in the CARD command post, his wide shoulders invading her personal space as he read the notes from Walter Wiggins’s interview over her shoulder. Why he needed to read them again when he’d been part of the interview team, she didn’t understand. It was probably to piss her off.

Evelyn shifted subtly away. “Walter talks repeatedly in this interview about how people in town follow him around wherever he goes.”

“Can you blame them?” Jack asked. “Everyone knows what he did. No one wants him here. But if we can’t get rid of him, we’re going to watch his every move.”

Evelyn raised her eyebrows pointedly, but Jack just stared back at her until she sighed. “If people are constantly watching him, could he really have stalked and then abducted Brittany without being noticed?”

“It’s not like we have some kind of schedule. The Nelsons follow him around from two to six, then the Grants take over, then...”

“Yeah, I get it,” Evelyn broke in. “But if people tend to be aware of him, could he actually pull this off? Think about it, okay? I know you don’t like him and I don’t blame you, but let’s not waste time on him if he’s not a viable suspect.”

Jack scowled, but he was silent for a minute before admitting, “He’d have to be really sneaky. If people saw him on High Street, they would’ve taken notice, you’re right. It’s not like, I don’t know, say if T.J. was walking down the street. Most people wouldn’t remember it, because he belongs. But Wiggins? Yeah, people would chase him off with sticks. And they’d definitely remember if they saw him around Brittany’s house close to when she was grabbed.”

“Okay, so...”

“But I’m not counting him out. I’ve been a cop a long time and experience tells me that coincidences like this are rare. I mean, we have one sex offender who likes girls the same age as Brittany and one man abducting them. What are the chances it’s not the same person?”

“Experience must also tell you that if you check the database, you probably have a couple more registered sex offenders in the area who also fit.”

Jack nodded. “Yeah, well, I got partnered with the CARD agent interviewing those particular scumbags, so believe me, I know. There’s a guy one town over who’s nonpreferential—he’ll screw anyone or anything and he’s been arrested for all of it and keeps getting out. And there are two more in the town where the first girl was abducted eighteen years ago who could fit, too. But all three of those assholes have pretty solid alibis for Brittany’s abduction.”

“Are you sure? Because the ones from the town where the first girl was abducted...”

“I’m positive,” Jack interrupted. “The alibis are airtight. So, let’s focus on Wiggins. I see your point, but this guy is slimy.”

Evelyn held in a sigh. Walter Wiggins seemed like a dead end to her, but if she dismissed him and turned out to be wrong, she’d hate herself for it later. “Okay. What might Walter do with Brittany if he abducted her? You said he lives with his father?”

Jack tapped his thick knuckles against the table, his brow furrowed. “Yeah, he does. But hell, who knows if he kept her at all, right?” His anger suddenly seemed to deflate, leaving him looking older than he was, and very tired. “If he just...you know, raped the girl and then buried her...” His voice broke.

Evelyn nodded, staring down at the interview notes again. “I’ll talk to Tomas about putting an officer on him. We might try interviewing his father, but if Brittany is still alive, we can’t spook him. If Walter is the perp and he feels too much pressure, he could kill her out of fear.”

“It doesn’t matter what we do. Wiggins is feeling pressure right now. The whole town knows what he is. His dad’s house has already been vandalized. Someone spray painted the words child killer and pervert all over the front door. No one was outside when we went to talk to Wiggins, but I could see the curtains moving on the neighbors’ houses. They’re all watching him.”

Evelyn tried to think positive. “Well, in some ways, that’s good. If he does have Brittany, that makes it harder for him to move her.”

“I guess.” Jack looked around the room.

The CARD command post was empty except for the two of them. Even Carly had gone, to meet with Noreen Abbott, the Rose Bay PD administrative assistant coordinating the search parties.

In fact, most of the station was empty. The cops who’d come in to hear her profile had cleared out. Those who hadn’t been on shift had headed home. Most of the others had gone back to canvassing neighborhoods.