“McKenzie’s description sounds close enough. I’d say someone has been stalking Jake for a while. How much does he put out about himself on social media?”
“I don’t know,” Mason admitted. “I’ve told him to be careful.”
“But have you looked?” Ava asked. “Is his Facebook page private? Do his other accounts list Duke in his bio for the world to see? Instagram, Twitter, ask.fm, Snapchat. All that crap. Kids post stuff all the time that they shouldn’t and assume no one will ever see it but their friends.”
“Shit.” Mason rubbed his forehead. He had never asked Jake to show him what he posted about his life. “I can’t keep up with that stuff.”
“You don’t try,” corrected Ava. “You’re like 99 percent of parents—you choose to not educate yourself about it. I hear it every day.”
Mason wanted to deny it, but she was right. He knew there were sites out there where kids communicated. He’d never asked Jake to show him. And he’d never tried to look for his son’s info other than a halfhearted peek at Facebook.
She pulled in front of McKenzie’s house, mere blocks from the Fairbanks home. Cars from Clackamas County and the FBI filled the street. Mason wondered how long it would take the media to put two and two together about the activity so close to the hub of Henley’s disappearance. He spotted a few neighbors watching from their windows and figured not long.
Inside, they found McKenzie sitting with a female deputy and ASAC Ben Duncan. Other officers and agents littered the scene. Mason had never met the girl. Heck, he hadn’t even known she existed in his son’s life until a few days ago. She turned swollen but beautiful blue eyes his way, and he understood why his son had fallen so hard. A welt was reddening on her cheekbone.
“Are you Jake’s dad?” McKenzie asked before he’d said a word.
Mason nodded.
“The hat,” she said. “He always said you were a cowboy.”
Mason twisted the brim of the hat in his hands. “Who was it?” he asked, his gaze taking in Duncan and the female deputy.
McKenzie shook her head. “I don’t think Jake knew him. He seemed completely surprised to see him and didn’t say anything that indicated he knew him.”
“I told you that you can wait to talk until your parents are here.” The female deputy touched McKenzie’s arm.
McKenzie shook her head, pulling her arm from the woman’s touch. “I’m eighteen. I can talk to the police if I want. And they need to know now what I saw to help get Jake back. Not when my parents get home.”
“You’re doing just fine, McKenzie,” Ben Duncan said. “You’ve been a big help already. Let’s talk about what he looked like again.”
“I told you what he looks like,” McKenzie said, holding up her hands. “There isn’t any more.”
“Say it again for Mason to hear,” Duncan suggested. “Maybe something will ring a bell with him.”
McKenzie straightened and met Mason’s gaze. “He looked like anyone’s grandfather. Silver hair, tall, maybe six foot two, good build. It looked like he hadn’t shaved in a few days. His shoulders were wide, not hunched at all.”
“Age?” Mason asked.
The girl lifted one shoulder. “Sixties? I don’t know. He was still strong. He hauled Jake out of here with no problem.”
“He carried him?” Duncan frowned.
“No, he pulled on Jake’s arms. They were tied behind him, but he was so fast, he had Jake nearly tripping over his feet.”
“What did you talk about while you waited for Jake?” Mason asked.
McKenzie’s eyes looked down and to her right as she remembered. “He wanted to know about us. How long we’d been dating, where we went on dates. I told him we mostly just texted and Skyped since we lived in different states. We hadn’t really gone on a date since he left for school.”
“He knew Jake went to school at Duke?” Mason’s stomach was in a vise. His son was missing, yet part of him felt like he was analyzing the case of a stranger. His heart was being ripped in half, but his brain was on autopilot; his rational cop side was kicking in to protect his emotions and discover the fastest way to find his son.
“Yes, he seemed to know that already.”
Mason exchanged a glance with Ava and Duncan, who both nodded. It looked more and more like the same man who had approached Jake near campus. His arms ached to wrap around his son and never let go again.
“Did he talk about Henley?” Ava asked.
“He asked Jake if he wanted to know what he’d done to his sister, but then he wouldn’t say if she was alive or not. He kept taunting Jake about her fate. He told Jake he’d slit my throat if he didn’t do what he said.” She shuddered. “I thought it meant he’d done that to Henley. I think Jake thought the same thing.”
A Clackamas County deputy stepped in the room. “None of the neighbors noticed a strange vehicle here today. One neighbor noticed when the parents left, but no one else spotted a car or truck nearby.”
“He parked it in our garage while we waited for Jake,” McKenzie told Mason.
“How’d he know your parents would be gone for that long of a time period?” Mason asked.
She blinked. “He asked me. I told him they were going to a party for a few hours. But he couldn’t have known that before he came in.”
“How were they dressed?” Duncan asked McKenzie.
“Nice. Dad had on a tie and mom a dress. They were clearly going to something.”
“He was willing to take a chance they’d be gone,” Mason mused, focusing on McKenzie’s words instead of racing out the door to blindly search for Jake. “Did he seem stressed over the fact that they might walk in any second?”
McKenzie thought for a moment. “He seemed stressed the entire time. He was more focused on getting Jake over here. Over and over, he asked if I thought he’d come. I think he only asked about my parents once or twice.”
“Did he have anything besides a knife?” Ava asked.
McKenzie nodded. “He had a gun.”
Mason’s heart stopped.
“She’s described a revolver to us,” Duncan added. “Kept it in a coat pocket most of the time.”
“He kept touching it through his pocket,” she added. “Like to make certain it was still there. He seemed more comfortable with the knife.” She gestured at her neck, and Mason realized she had a thick bandage under her ear, hidden by her hair.
The man who did that has Jake.
Mason gritted his teeth. “I’m sorry you had to go through this.”
“This? This was nothing,” McKenzie’s eyes sparked with anger. “He had Henley for days, and now he’s got Jake. Who knows what he’s got planned? I was tied up for a few hours. Big deal. We need to find out where he’s taking Jake.”
Mason admired her spunk but knew she’d feel the shock of her experience later. He glanced at the female deputy, who nodded back at him. She knew it, too. McKenzie would suffer emotional consequences for the rest of her life.
His cell vibrated in his pocket. Jake? His heart sank when he saw it wasn’t his son’s number. Of course it wasn’t. Jake’s phone was in an evidence bag on the coffee table in front of Ben Duncan.
He moved a few steps away from the small group and turned his back for some privacy. “Callahan.”
“Hello, Mason. It’s been a very long time.”
Mason froze. He slowly turned back to the group and met Ava’s curious gaze. He stared at her and saw understanding click in her blue eyes. She gestured at Duncan, who stood up, watching Mason carefully.
Mason didn’t know the voice. “Who is this?”
“Someone who’s made your life miserable. Just as you made mine.”
His mind raced and a roaring rang in his ears. “Who are you? Where’s Jake?”
The man laughed. “You don’t remember me yet? You will soon. Very soon.”
“What have you done with Jake?”
“I haven’t done anything yet. I’m waiting for you.”
“What? Waiting for me for what?” Mason watched Duncan have a hurried discussion with another agent, gesturing at Mason’s phone. The other agent was shaking his head. They hadn’t set up his phone to be tapped. The most they could do now was contact his carrier and triangulate the location of the call’s origin. Not a quick process.
“I’ve been waiting for you for a long time, Mason. You ripped up my life and tore it apart.”
“I did? You better remind me how I did that.”
Ava moved closer, and Mason tipped the phone slightly for her to hear. His heart pounded, making his rib cage hurt.
“You’ll remember soon enough.”
Mason heard faint Christmas music on the other end of the call. Was he in a public place? Or in a vehicle with the radio on? “You didn’t hurt Henley,” he stated. “We found her. She’s fine.”
“Oh good. I don’t have the heart to injure small, innocent girls. Naughty big ones are another story. They usually get what’s coming to them.”
Mason couldn’t breathe. “Josie?” He forced the name out.