Deadly Cross (Alex Cross #28)(82)

Bree said, “Home?”

“Let me make a call first,” I said, dialing.

Gina picked up. “Dr. Cross?”

“I was just about to call you,” I said.

“Then you found her?” she cried.

My stomach sank a little. “No.”

“Dee went to bed last night around ten,” Gina said, frantic again, on the verge of crying. “When I got up this morning, she was gone. Not a trace. And she’s not answering her phone. I called the police, but they say they can’t do anything until she’s been missing twenty-four hours. Tell me this isn’t like Maya Parker, Elizabeth Hernandez, and the others! Please, Dr. Cross, she’s the only child I have!”

“Mrs. Nathaniel, I am on my way to you right now. Do not touch her room. And I promise you, we’ll find her.”





CHAPTER 94





THE STORY OF DEE NATHANIEL going missing exploded and went viral because she was yet another young woman to vanish in Southeast Washington, DC, in the past fifteen years and she was also a longtime friend of the most recent victim, Maya Parker. The media played up the fact that in the past, the killer had dumped his dead victims within forty-eight to fifty-six hours of grabbing them. If Dee had gone missing after midnight, she had between a day and a day and a half to live.

By four p.m., Verizon had given us Dee’s most recent data. Just as her mother had said, the GPS in the phone had Dee at home at seven. She’d texted friends and surfed the internet until 10:45, when her phone was shut off in the Nathaniels’ home.

She got on her laptop in her room five minutes later but used a private browser that gave us no history of what she did between 10:50 and 11:20, when the laptop was put to sleep.

Sampson and other officers had gone in search of security footage and discovered that every camera in a two-block radius around the Nathaniels’ home had been smeared with Vaseline, distorting the footage.

“That’s the same play the killer made with Kay and Christopher,” Sampson said in the middle of the afternoon. “Maybe we’ve got it wrong, Alex. Maybe Christopher and Kay were shot by the serial killer.”

That threw us. Were they killed by the same person responsible for the deaths of Elizabeth Hernandez, Maya Parker, and now, possibly, Dee Nathaniel?

Sampson had to leave to pick up Willow around five and deliver her to Jannie, who was arriving at his house around six. We went outside the mobile command post to where Bree was talking to a crowd of people over a mega-phone.

“If you are interested in helping us search, go to Detectives Newton and Martin here to give them your name and phone numbers,” she said. “They will assign you a specific area to go and knock on doors. And thank you. Metro PD and Mrs. Nathaniel deeply appreciate your help.”

Sampson left and I waited for Bree. She came over to me, took a deep breath, and blew it out. “I don’t know how Gina Nathaniel is holding up the way she is. I’d be a basket case if I knew someone was going to kill my daughter sometime in the next two days.”

“So would I,” I said. “But she has hope and so do we. And I’m leaving.”

“Oh?” Bree said.

“I don’t think I lend much to a door-to-door search,” I said. “And I think Sampson might be right. The same person who’s got Dee might have killed Kay Willingham and Randall Christopher.”

“Where are you going?”

“To see the only person in this case who I absolutely know did not put Vaseline on security cameras and grab Dee Nathaniel last night.”

“Who’s that?”

“Elaine Paulson,” I said and walked away, heading for my car, which was parked down the street.

The sun was getting low, but the heat had not dwindled a bit. Even so, there were at least a hundred people lined up to register to be part of the search.

As I skirted the crowd, I heard a female voice call, “Dr. Cross?”

I turned to see Tina and Rachel Christopher at the end of one line. Rachel was stone-faced, as usual. Tina reached out to shake my hand.

“You’re going to help look for Dee?” I asked.

“Yes,” Rachel said. “We went to middle school together.”

“Your grandmother know you’re here?”

“Yes,” Tina said. She looked pleadingly at me. “Dr. Cross, please prove our mom’s innocent. They won’t let us see her and… it’s just too…”

When she couldn’t go on, Rachel put her hand on her twin’s shoulder and stared at me. “Brutal. Harsh. Cruel.”

“I can’t begin to understand what you’re going through,” I said. “And I will do everything I can. In fact, I’m on my way to see your mother about some things that may work in her favor.”

“Really?” she said, her stony demeanor softening. “Right now?”

“Right now,” I said.

Tina said, “Please tell her we love her. We don’t know if our letters are getting through.”

“I’ll tell her,” I said. “And I’ll tell her how much we appreciate you searching for Dee. Please go together. Stay safe. If something feels off, back away and notify us.”

“Off?” Rachel said.

“You’ll know it when you feel it,” I said and wished them luck.