Elizabeth Heiter - Vanished

Sometimes, the past can haunt you…

Eighteen years ago, FBI profiler Evelyn Baine’s best friend, Cassie Byers, disappeared, the third in a series of unsolved abductions. Only a macabre nursery rhyme was left at the scene, a nursery rhyme that claimed Evelyn was also an intended victim. Now, after all these years of silence, another girl has gone missing in South Carolina, and the Nursery Rhyme Killer is taking credit. But is Cassie’s abductor really back, or is there a copycat at work?

Sometimes, the past is best forgotten…

Evelyn has waited eighteen years for a chance to investigate, but when she returns to Rose Bay, she finds a dark side to the seemingly idyllic town. As the place erupts in violence and the kidnapper strikes again, Evelyn knows this is her last chance. If she doesn’t figure out what happened to Cassie eighteen years ago, it may be Evelyn’s turn to vanish without a trace.

Praise for Elizabeth Heiter’s Hunted

“This is a really excellent thriller—fast-paced and exciting, with a memorable cast of characters. Well done!”

—New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann

“Hunted is a terrific, gripping, page-turning debut by a talented new voice in suspense. A great read!”

— New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan

“When you pick up Hunted, get ready for a roller coaster ride that will twist, turn and spin you around until the very last page! I loved this book! Evelyn Baine is one of the most amazing characters created in print that I’ve ever had the pleasure to get to know.… If you love a book that grabs you by the throat and holds you there until the very end of a breathless journey, Hunted must be added to your wish list of books.”

— Fresh Fiction

“Elizabeth Heiter has written a thriller that grabs readers from the first page.… Hunted is a fast read because the pages fly by as the narrative gets more and more exciting and suspenseful. For a debut, Heiter has hit a high note right at the start of her writing career.”

— BookReporter

“Heiter…provides a fascinating insight into the minds of killers.… Author Heiter has created well-developed characters and a gripping story. I look forward to reading what happens next in The Profiler series.”

— Suspense Magazine

“Heiter’s Hunted is intriguing and tightly plotted. A strong debut!”

— New York Times bestselling author Laura Griffin

“A gripping, powerful read.… I love psychological suspense. Unlike many books where I can pick out the guilty party, this book is set up so that there is no possible way. I loved that! I learned things as Evelyn did, which is a real treat in a suspense or mystery novel. From start to finish, I was on the edge of my seat.”

— Roundtable Reviews

Vanished

Elizabeth Heiter

www.mirabooks.co.uk

This book is dedicated to the memory

of my grandparents. Thank you for always believing.

I love you. I miss you.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Praise

Title Page

Dedication

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Seven

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Extract

Copyright

Prologue

The girls raced through the backyard, holding hands and giggling, oblivious to any danger. They kept running, faster and faster, until they reached the far end of the property. It was a solid two hundred feet from the house. Too far for anyone inside to see them.

Anger burned, intense enough to light sparks of pain along his nerve endings. If he wasn’t here, anything could happen to them.

He hunkered deeper in his dugout in a clump of huge, blooming lilac bushes, drew a deep breath of South Carolina’s humid summer air and waited. Watched.

He’d been watching for weeks, so he knew exactly how much time he had before they’d be called inside for dinner.

It was the little blonde girl’s yard. Cassie. He’d noticed her first, the bouncing ringlets, eyes the color of the sky on a perfect summer day. She was too innocent, too trusting. Cassie had no clue what the world had in store for her.

He never wanted her to have to find out. He’d picked her before he’d seen her friend.

Cassie’s friend was different. Small for twelve, skin the shade of coffee with a generous helping of cream and moss-green eyes that were way too perceptive, way too wary. Evelyn.

Evelyn wasn’t the kind of girl he’d been searching for, but considering how everyone treated her, she’d be better off with him. Which was why he was watching them both, why he was still trying to decide which one to save. They both needed him. But which one could he save? Which one?

Pain punched up his back, vertebra by vertebra, until it ricocheted around in his head. Another migraine. Probably the stress of having to choose.

He didn’t want to leave either one behind. But he had no choice. He was already taking a big risk by doing this in Rose Bay. He’d never dared to scout so close to home before.

Cassie laughed, the sound loud and ringing. The vibrations seemed to skim along his skin, even though she was twenty feet away.

“Let’s play hide-and-seek,” Cassie said, closing her eyes and counting.

Evelyn pivoted too fast and let out a yelp as she almost pitched herself onto the dirt. He thought she was going to dash past him, but she stopped, running tiny hands over the purple flowers, as though testing whether she could crawl inside and hide there.

You can, he wanted to whisper.

She leaned closer, peering through the branches, and he hunched lower in his hiding spot. She tilted her head and he tensed, ready to grab her if she spotted him.

“Girls!” Cassie’s mother called. “Lemonade’s ready!”

Evelyn turned away from him, waiting for Cassie to race over before the two of them hurried back to the house, hand in hand.

Once they were out of sight, he left the bushes, the scent of lilac clinging. He wove through the hundred-year-old live oaks at the back of the property and out to the street behind, where his van waited. The migraine receded as peace swelled inside him. He’d made his decision.

He’d take this same route late tonight, when the whole town was sleeping, careless with their children, ignorant of what could happen in one unguarded moment. After tonight, none of them would be so neglectful again.

Because tonight, everything was going to change. Maybe he only needed one of them, but he couldn’t leave either behind. Tonight, they were both coming with him.

One

Eighteen years later

Evelyn Baine knew how to think like a killer.

In fact, she was damn good at it. Serial killers, arsonists, bomb-makers, child abductors, terrorists—she’d crawled around in all of their twisted minds. She’d learned their fantasies, figured out their next moves and chased them down.

But no matter how many she found, there were always more.

Even before she stepped inside the unmarked building in Aquia, Virginia, where the FBI hid its Behavioral Analysis Unit, Evelyn knew the requests for profiles on her desk had grown overnight. It was inevitable.

She strode through the entrance and a blast of air-conditioning chased away the mid-June heat, raising goose bumps on her arms. As she headed toward the drab gray bull pen packed with cubicles, the scent of old coffee filled her nostrils. The whiteboard near the front of the bull pen was covered in her boss’s distinctive scrawl—notes on a case. They hadn’t been there when she’d left last night.