Page 71 of Crash and Burn

He did have Seline’s number. So he called her next. The sweet lilt of her French accent colored her words as she answered the phone. “Hello, Sebastian.”

“Do you know where Maggie is?” He couldn’t help the harsh tone in his voice.

“What? No. I left at seven-thirty. I’m in Lincoln, teaching. I had classes this morning.”

Yes, he thought. That was exactly what he’d understood. School had recently started up again. He told himself that Seline was in the right place and everything was okay. Everything was fine. Maggie would be in the right place, too. But his racing heart didn’t agree with the bullshit his head was pedaling. “Did she go somewhere for research? Her car is still here.”

Many things were close by in Redemption. Had she walked?

“Maybe she hit the library, or the county clerk for records. She said one client was trying to divide some land …?” Seline offered and he felt his chest loosen from where it had tightened down to a pebble. That was a valid point. Chances were Maggie had simply gone somewhere. But she had to know she would petrify him if he didn’t know where she was.

“Thank you, Seline. I'll check,” he said, trying to keep his voice light and his worry from bleeding into someone else's life.

Sebastian bolted out the front door not sure which way to head as both directions lead back to the main street. He made a loop, trying not to look frantic, he ducked into storefronts, checked the library, and dialed her phone repeatedly.

When he’d completed his panicked search, he was back at her house, but hadn’t found her. He went in through the front door again, checking rooms when he heard her phone beep.

Thank God, she was here. “Maggie!”

She didn’t answer and he headed toward the sound. It beeped again, and this time he followed the noise to the kitchen. He turned the corner, concerned again when she wasn’t there. When he saw her phone, unattended on the counter next to the pantry every cell in his body went rigid.

Why was her phone here if she wasn’t?“Maggie?”

He practically screamed it as he ran around to the back of the house and out the back door. He knew, hejust knew, she was gone.

He bolted across the yard almost missing the trail of footprints in the grass. The morning had been humid, which helped them fight the fire. It also made the grass more likely to leave tracks, and Sebastian didn't like what he was seeing.

It didn't quite look like footprints, but he moved fast and didn't analyze as quickly as he moved. When he reached the back gate, he saw it was unlatched.

He and Maggie had bolted everything. But now it had been opened and pulled almost shut, but it wasn’t as they had left it. He tried to convince himself that Maggie had gone into the woods and hadn’t told him … and had left her phone behind?

No. She wouldn’t do that.

Cold dread replaced the heat of rage again. If he looked back at the grass, and checked the marks from this angle, he could see now that someone had been dragged to the back gate.

Maggie was gone. And the La Vista Rapist had her.

Chapter Fifty-Six

“9-1-1, what's your emergency?”

Sebastian opened his mouth, but no words came out. His emergency was far too big to speak in a sentence or ten that had any clarity. He needed to run after Maggie, but he fought the urge because he knew protocol saved lives.

He could only hope that it would save Maggie’s.

The voice repeated, “How may I help you?”

This time, he took what should have been a deep breath, but was merely a short chop of his lungs, and said, “My name is Sebastian Kane. My girlfriend, Maggie Willis has been kidnapped.” He rattled off the house address. But he didn’t stand still—he couldn’t—so he bolted back into the house and looked around while he rattled off information.

The voice stayed too calm. And for the first time he understood why people got so frustrated with the dispatchers, even as he reminded himself it was her job to stay disturbingly calm. “And why do you believe your girlfriend was kidnapped?”

He wanted to yell but, instead, he snapped, “Damnit, Tracey. Talk to Officer Balero. She and the FBI have been working the Blue River Killer and La Vista Rapist cases. The rapist is Merrit Geller—” he didn’t care if he was wrong, he was naming the man, “—and he’s been breaking in and leaving fingerprints all over my girlfriend's house for the last four weeks. They know this.”

He took a breath as he heard Tracey tapping on the keys. At least he’d gotten someone he knew was competent, but as he dashed through the house, he didn’t see anything new. “As of right now, Maggie's not here and there are drag marks out the gate in the back yard. I'm following them. Send Officer Balero and FBI Agents Watson and Decker.Now.”

He hung up then, realizing he would have been better suited to call Marina directly. So this time he did that.

“Officer Balero—”

---