Touch & Go (Tessa Leoni, #2)(90)

“So”—he straightened, warming to the subject—“we should check out roads. The kidnappers would look for multiple byways. Otherwise, they risk driving directly past arriving officers. Their target hideout would include rural lodges, campsites that lie near multiple points of access… I need a map. And not one of your digital screens. But a real, impossible-to-fold-up paper map that we can mark up with highlighters and abuse with drippings from our lunch.”

“Got it,” Nicole said, and headed for the rear of the mobile command center, where apparently even the FBI kept things as antiquated as real maps.

While Nicole dug through a pile, Wyatt used the opportunity to ask, “Any luck interviewing Ashlyn Denbe’s friends?”

Hawkes took the liberty of answering. “Yes and no. According to Ashlyn’s BFF, Lindsay Edmiston, Ashlyn didn’t have a boyfriend and wasn’t the type to sleep around. However…”

Wyatt and Tessa eyed him expectantly.

“Even Lindsay thought Ashlyn was keeping a secret. Friday night, when the parents were supposedly on their date night, Lindsay had invited Ashlyn over to her house, but Ashlyn had refused. According to Lindsay, that was unusual, Ashlyn not being the type who preferred staying home alone. Lindsay had begun to suspect there was a boy in the picture. In fact, Lindsay wondered if on Friday night when the parents were out, Ashlyn had really been all alone in her bedroom.”

“She had the boyfriend over?” Tessa asked sharply.

Hawkes glanced up at them. “Maybe. But Lindsay already swears not anyone from the local high school.”


NICOLE AND HAWKES HAD MORE INTERVIEWS to conduct. They departed, leaving Tessa and Wyatt to work the map. Wyatt fixated on roads, towns and wilderness areas in northern New Hampshire. He couldn’t get Ashlyn Denbe out of his head. The way she’d perked up, looking briefly excited at the promise of her and her family’s safe return. Only for her face to freeze over again, as she and her mother continued to read down the script, getting to the part detailing what would happen if the kidnappers’ demands were not met. The killing of the first member of the Denbe family.

Wyatt got on the phone with his deputy, Gina, who’d apparently been working with the cellular providers to block out sections of the mountains that lacked cell service. Then, he contacted Fish and Game, as well as the wildlife agency, updating their own tireless searches of dozens and dozens of campgrounds and trailheads with more Xs, more Os.

In the end, he marked up the map with multiple games of tic-tac-toe, while identifying a mere quarter of a million more acres to search. Taking into consideration major thoroughfares, he homed in on his three “most likely” northern cities: Littleton, which had a major interstate, 93, running right through it, ready to bring the captors down to Boston or up into Vermont. Second choice, Colebrook, on the New Hampshire/Vermont border, with Route 3, as well as 26 and 145, all converging in one extremely isolated town. Finally, Berlin, on the eastern side of New Hampshire’s narrow tip, bisected by Route 16, but also very close to Route 2 into Maine. Bigger than the first two options, and a rougher town given the boarded-up mills, but then again, probably a comfortable enough place for hired muscle.

Wyatt drew three big Os, based solely on assumptions and guesses and gut feel. A lot of maybes, given an entire family was on the line. Ashlyn. Libby. Justin Denbe.

Wyatt set down his pen.

He sighed heavily.

Tessa, standing across from him, seconded the motion.

“Tomorrow, three o’clock. It’s not going to happen,” she stated simply.

“No,” he agreed. “Even if the insurance company pays… No good reason for a bunch of professionals to let that family walk away.”

“We have to find them.”

“Yep.” He glanced at his watch. “Twenty-six hours and counting.”

“I want to know the identity of Ashlyn’s mysterious boyfriend,” Tessa muttered. “Innocent bystander, or one more person with access to the security code for the house?”

“Good point.”

“Is it just me, or does every member of this family have a secret?”

Wyatt shrugged. “Find me a family that doesn’t.”

“Good point.” But her tone said she wasn’t happy about it. For that matter, neither was he.

Wyatt looked around. FBI’s command center had emptied out, everyone pursuing various leads, their own insider information. Dividing and conquering, the best way to cover the most investigative ground in the shortest amount of time. Frustrating, though, when others were covering the questions you wanted answered most.

“FBI is covering Ashlyn,” he stated now, refocusing. “That puts us on Denbe Construction. You know, interviewing all the various liars on the management team.”

Tessa brightened. “I wonder if Ruth Chan’s plane has landed.”

“Excellent idea.”

They left the mobile command unit, and went to find the CFO instead.





Chapter 32


MICK ESCORTED US TO DINNER. The moment he appeared at the cell door, Justin was tense. By unspoken agreement, Justin took up position on one side of Ashlyn, while I stood on the other.

In contrast, Mick seemed relaxed, positively grinning as he gestured for all three of us to exit the cell, no hand restraints, no person-by-person procession. Like Z, he took the lead, allowing the three of us to walk unhindered behind him. He kept his right hand lightly caressing the Taser holstered at his waist. Otherwise, Mick strolled along as if he hadn’t a care in the world.