leave the next...drop...somewhere near Caddo Lake? That’s a lot of territory. So tell me everything about last night.”
Jake stood her Remington against the old hutch, but seemed to hesitate. What was he not telling her?
“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me everything,” she said with an air of gentle frustration. “I can take it.”
He nodded, glanced over at the Remington. “Took her from a car at the mall in Tyler just after closing time. She’d gone shopping with a friend after work, for a party dress. Her boyfriend, Luke Hurst, lives not far from here and he’d invited her to a Christmas dance.” Jake stopped and Ella watched as he reined in his emotions with a tight-lipped determination. “She was all excited about that dance.”
He went silent, then took in a breath. “The kidnapper apparently managed to park right next to them and when Macey went to get in on the passenger’s side, he hopped out of the driver’s side of his vehicle and used his open door to block her. So he grabbed her, held a gun to her head and shoved her into the truck, then got in and took off.”
“And the friend?”
“Rachel. Her best friend. Screamed her head off as she watched the pickup driving away.”
Ella’s heart hammered at the terrifying memories grabbing at her consciousness. Sweaty, dirty hands on her mouth and body. A gun held to her head. A sense of helplessness that she sometimes felt creeping back like a spider crawling on her skin.
“Description?”
“A dark hood and dark glasses, maybe a beard. The other girl was already behind the wheel in her car and it happened so fast, she didn’t get a good look at him. Said the truck was dark, maybe black. But she couldn’t tell us the make or model.”
“License plate?”
“Said she couldn’t see one in the dark. She was pretty shook up when the police called me.”
“And the boyfriend?”
“I’ve left messages, but his parents told me he works nights in town and sometimes doesn’t answer his phone when he’s at work. I came here first, but I’ve got people checking on him, too.” He checked his pocket pad notes. “Rachel—the friend Macey was with—knows Luke, though. She swears it wasn’t him and I believe her.”
“And when did you get the first clue?”
“Around midnight last night.” He sank back down on a chair. “I combed every inch of the mall and the surrounding neighborhoods. No black truck, no witnesses other than her friend. I went back to the mall to talk to the Tyler Police. When I got back to my truck, I saw a note on the dash. White paper, cutout letters of various sizes pasted on it.”
Just like the Dead Drop Killer. He never used phones or computers. Only left a paper trail leading to clues he called dead drops. Clues that he hid in obscure, out-of-the-way places and that worked like a scavenger hunt. The next of kin and law enforcement agencies had to follow the clues in hopes of reaching the victims in time.
They never made it.
They’d found all of the girls dead. Four of them over a two-year period until about five years ago. Five years ago, Ella had almost become his fifth victim. A decoy to flush out a killer, only the killer had somehow figured things out. Because, according to the profilers, the killer had always only wanted Ella. No one could explain why he might be obsessed with her. The theories ranged from the killer being someone from her father’s case files or maybe the killer hated FBI agents in general. They’d never traced him back to her because they’d been so intent on finding the last girl he killed.
Ella didn’t think he wanted her to seek revenge. She just believed he was an evil, sick man who’d almost gotten caught and he’d taken her to possibly have another victim. He’d never explained himself when he’d held her. He’d barely talked to her except to tell her he would kill her if she didn’t do as he asked. But he’d always called her “Sweet Ella.”
Jake, by then a seasoned lawman, had been on the team trying to find her. He’d been the one to find her. That case had brought them back together for the first time since high school, but neither of them had been ready for a true relationship. Or a second chance.
He’d just lost his wife six months earlier and...after he’d rescued Ella, she’d been in no shape to make a commitment to anyone.
You survived, Ella kept telling herself. You made it out alive.
But things had been different in her case. The killer knew she was FBI, knew she wanted to find him and bring him to justice. He’d lured her out with a special set of dead drops put up just for Ella. As if he’d been waiting for her to come.
She’d found him but he’d almost killed her. And he’d broken her. If it hadn’t been for her faith and her grandparents’ strong, enduring love, Ella probably would have curled up and died.
Pushing away the tremors moving up her backbone, she asked, “So what did the note say?”
Jake paced in front of the decorated fireplace. “Told me to go alone to a pavilion on the west side of the lake and look on the picnic table closest to the boat launch. I found the necklace dangling off a nail.”
She whirled around to stare at him. “And you must have found his next note.”
Jake nodded, tugged at his clipped light brown hair. “White paper, nailed on a nearby tree. ‘Tell Ella I miss her.’”
Ella hands trembled in spite of her clenched jaw. “He sent you to me.”
Jake started for her but stopped. “I’m sorry, Ella. He knows I’d come here and I had to come. For Macey’s sake. And to make sure you’re okay.”
“Do I look okay?”
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I should have killed him when I had a chance.”
But he’d stayed with her instead. Because when he’d found her curled up in a ball against a cypress tree like a wounded, dying animal, Ella had latched on to him and begged him never to leave her again.
Delirious. She’d been dehydrated and delirious and...Jake had taken her into his arms and held her. While the killer got away. They’d searched almost every inch of the lake and the surrounding areas and they’d put out APBs and a BOLO, but they’d never found the wounded killer.
She put that out of her mind. Remembered how she’d pushed Jake away after he’d come to see her in the hospital. Remembered how she’d once loved him and wanted to marry him.
She’d been too damaged and broken and burned out after her ordeal to handle what she considered his disapproval. Too damaged to go back into a relationship with the man she’d loved since high school, a man who’d become a Texas Ranger. Jake loved his job but after her two short years as a federal agent Ella hated anything having to do with criminals and lawmen. She’d become a coward. A big, scared coward. Jake’s wife had died the year before Ella’s ordeal and he’d deserved so much more than Ella could give.
Now, five years later, he’d come to her again but she’d only just begun to heal.
Finally.
She was headed right back into the nightmare but she couldn’t say no to Jake. Not when that madman might have his daughter.
Ella said a prayer for courage. “Okay, he’s got our attention. What next?”
Jake gave her a look that told her everything but said nothing. “I think he’s going back to the scene of his last crime.”
Ella’s head jerked at that. “You think he’s got Macey somewhere on the lake?”
“I think he’s brought her to the place where he brought you.” He shifted on his boots. “He didn’t get to finish that job.”
The place where he’d brought