Shattered (LOST #3)(31)

“Here,” Sarah said as she stopped near the entrance to an alley. “You get her far enough away from the others that no one would hear in case she screamed. And your car could have been stashed right here, right between these buildings. You drove it out . . . and you were home free.”

“But why did she come with him?” Wade asked, sounding confused. “Dean told us that her friends at college said Molly never hooked up with strangers. She’s the classic ‘good girl’ here, Sarah. She doesn’t just wander away at night with a strange man.”

Sarah thought of her father. “Even good girls wander when you tell them the right things.” She looked up at him. “Her brother was supposed to pick her up, but this guy . . . he made sure her brother wasn’t around for that job.”

Wade whistled. “He sent the brother after you.”

“A diversion.” She headed into the alley. A big, green Dumpster waited to the right. “So maybe this guy showed up, and he told Molly that Eddie had sent him.” You told Molly just enough that she felt safe walking with you.

“Why her, though? Why would he go after her?” With Wade, it was always about the victims. He identified with them, no, he wanted to save them. Maybe because he’d worked homicide for so long in Atlanta. By the time the cases had crossed his desk, those victims had been long past saving. Now . . . now he wanted to bring the vics home alive.

But we can’t always do that.

Sarah made her way to the Dumpster. She hefted herself up. The place reeked, but if this was the scene of Molly’s abduction, they might need to check for—

The Dumpster was empty. It had already been cleaned out by the city’s team. Dammit.

“Sarah? Why her?” Wade pressed.

Sarah shoved away from the Dumpster. She dusted off her hands and stared around at the buildings. And up at them. Her gaze drifted to the upper left. “Got you,” she whispered.

“What?”

Sarah pointed up. Someone had an apartment up on the second floor of that building. The balcony was covered with hanging plants, and, right at the corner of that balcony, she saw a small surveillance camera.

“Hot damn,” Wade said.

Now they just needed to get the footage from the camera. She and Wade ran out of the alley. They went around to the front of the building, but even though they banged on the doors, no one answered.

She looked up. “Hello!” Sarah yelled. “Is anyone up there? Hello!”

Wade was still struggling with the door. If it weren’t for those hanging flowers up there, she would have thought the old building was abandoned. But the flowers . . . the video camera . . .

Someone was there.

“There’s another entrance,” she said to Wade. “Has to be. Let’s check the back.” And, once more, they were running through that alley. Goose bumps rose on Sarah’s skin as they headed to the back and . . .

A door was at the rear of the building. A big, red door.

Sarah’s phone rang.

She yanked it out of her pocket, her heart racing because she thought it might be the perp calling her again. But it wasn’t Molly’s number. It was a number she’d never seen before.

It could be him.

Wade ran toward the door.

“Wait!” Sarah grabbed his shoulder.

Wade stared at her as if she were crazy.

She lifted the phone. This could be him, Sarah mouthed. She put the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

“Sarah! Where are you?” That low, growling voice—it was Jax’s voice. Only . . . wasn’t Jax in police custody?

“I’m with Wade,” she said, staring into his golden eyes. Wade was frowning and obviously impatient as he glared at her. “We think we found a lead. A video camera, on a balcony just a few streets over from Bourbon. I think the perp took her from the alley here, and I think—”

“He’s after you.” Jax’s voice was dark. “I want you and Wade to get back in the car, and get away from that place, do you understand?”

No, she didn’t understand. Running made no sense. Not if they had a lead on Molly.

“I’ve got my men coming to find you now.”

What? “We’re going to get that video feed. It will show us what happened!” Every instinct she had screamed that this was the place.

“He’s after you.” Jax’s words were grim. “Don’t you see? Everything . . . it’s about you.”

Sarah shook her head.

Wade swore. “We’re wasting time.” He slipped away from her and marched for the door.

“Sarah, listen to me.” There was an intensity in Jax’s voice that pulled at her. “This is off. Everything—it’s wrong. You think you’re the only one who knows criminals? I understand them, too. I’ve lived with them my whole life. This guy—he knows your father.”

“H-How do you know that?”

“Because Eddie told me.”

He’d gotten Eddie to talk? How? When?

“This guy wants you to pay for something your father did. I think he’s been watching you, Sarah. Studying you, and I think he’s trying to lure you into a trap that you can’t resist.”

Sarah glanced over at Wade. He was reaching for the back door. That bright red door. One that was like a giant X mark on a map. She could see the knob turning easily in his hand. But why would the back door be unlocked when the front had been sealed so securely? Her gaze jerked around, rising, up, going to the left, the right, the—