Page 324 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

His work-roughened hand gripped her throat. “Try that again and you won’t live long enough to fulfill your seven days which would be a crying shame.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Wade let the ringing continue until voicemail picked up his call. “Emily, call me. I’m worried.” He disconnected. It was the second time he’d called and she hadn’t answered.

He dialed Gavin. “I need Sandra’s number.” His friend spit it out and he called Sandra. The call rang until voicemail picked it up. He called Gavin back. “Can you trace her phone?”

“Sure. Why?”

“I can’t find Emily. She’s not answering her phone. I tried Sandra, and she didn’t answer either.”

“Sure. I’ll text you with the GPS coordinates, and I’ll meet you there shortly.”

“You don’t think I’m overreacting.”

“Not at all. Sandra wouldn’t ignore your calls. Either they’re in a dead spot, or they’re in trouble. Considering what happened to Jamie, we shouldn’t wait around to see which it is.”

Worry gnawed at Wade’s gut as he waited for the coordinates. Less than two minutes later, the text came through. He set his phone to take him there, and ten minutes later, heturned onto a dirt road surrounded by thick forest. He’d driven another three minutes down the windy dirt road, avoiding as many of the ruts as he could when he came upon Sandra’s vehicle. He stopped his car in the middle of the road and hopped out. He walked closer and froze when he saw her lying there. There was a tiny wound in the center of her forehead and an ever-widening puddle of blood beneath her. He knew it was a kill shot, but he checked her pulse anyway. Nothing.

He called it in and searched the area while he waited for Gavin and backup to arrive. The monster who’d butchered Jamie had Emily, and there wasn’t a thing he could do to protect her now. If he didn’t figure out where she was, she’d be his next victim.

Wade called Austin.Voicemail. Was every ranger in the park missing? He dialed again, and it connected.

“What’s up? I’m kind of in the middle of a crisis.”

“There is no ‘kind of’ about it. Emily’s bodyguard is dead, and Emily is missing.”

“Her, too?” Austin swore under his breath. “I told her to stay with Pete. Why didn’t she listen?”

“Give me Pete’s number.”

Austin rattled it off, and Wade tried calling. He growled low in his throat when he didn’t receive an answer. If Sandra was murdered, maybe Pete was attacked, too. He could’ve been tossed out the side of the vehicle. Injured or worse. Or he could be the killer. The possibility had occurred to him over the course of the investigation, but he’d dismissed it.

When the uniformed troopers arrived, Wade drove away from the scene. He needed to clear his head. They had to wait forthe medical examiner anyway. Before he realized what he was doing, he was sitting on the side of the highway with his phone in hand.

“Lieutenant?”

“What’s up, Wade? Are you investigating the scene you called in?”

“No. Ranger Davis is missing, so I’m investigating her disappearance.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Emily was with Pete Cunningham when she disappeared.”

“Are you suggesting what I think you are?”

“John Cunningham took the donations at Senator Martin’s galas, but her son Pete was at the events, as well. He would’ve met the same women his cousin did, and he was supposed to be going with Ranger Davis to drop off an owl at a rehab center when she disappeared.”

“Sounds like conjecture.”

“I know, but we knew Senator Martin was the link. Pete Cunningham was so helpful he was barely on my radar. It was a huge blunder on my part. There was circumstantial evidence I dismissed along the way. Pete worked with the judge, he was the one to find Lorraine Moore’s body at Boulder Field, he removed the memory cards from the game cameras before we could check them, and he sent me on a wild goose chase investigating a truck seen at the park.” It seemed obvious when he said it out loud. He’d been so busy investigating Parsons, he’d missed it.

“Are you sure about this?”

“I’m not sure about anything.”

“What about Swartz? How do you know he isn’t your guy?”

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