Page 61 of The Grave Between Us
“We start with that. Our timeline has narrowed. This is about eight miles from Oak Haven Meadows, which means they would have gotten here within ten minutes of leaving the parking lot. Kerrigan was abducted at or before one thirty p.m. Ingram overpowered him, subdued him, dumped his stolen car in the river, and then took off in Kerrigan’s car, with Kerrigan, we’re assuming, as a hostage. And you believe he would have taken him somewhere within a hundred miles.”
Cole paced away, his hands on his hips. His shoes crunched on the gravel with every slow step. “Yeah,” he finally said. “Yeah, I think he would have stayed close. He loves the torture. The killing. He wouldn’t want to postpone that.”
“That narrows our search to about half of Iowa. An hour and a half to two hours’ worth of driving. Now we look for him in those hundred miles. What draws him in? You said rural, private. Lakes, rivers. State parks?”
“State or national parks. Forests. Mountains.”
“Not a lot of mountains around here.”
“Then I’d look at all public lands with woods and water. The more isolated the better.”
“Let’s get back to the office and start putting together a list.” Noah peered at the darkening sky. “It’s getting late, and we don’t have much sunlight left to mount an all-out search of the area parks. But we can check the maps and come up with a plan for first thing in the morning.” He tried to smile. “Okay?”
“Okay.” Gravel crunched again until Cole was face to face, forehead to forehead, with Noah. His breath was hot on Noah’s lips. He took Noah’s open jacket in his hands, tugging him even closer until they were pressed together from knees to chest. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I wouldn’t have found any of this on my own.”
“I’ve been known to solve a case or two in my day.” Noah smiled softly. “Not all of them, but my clearance rate is pretty high.”
“You’re a great investigator.”
“I was always good at Clue when I was a kid.”
Finally, Cole smiled. Noah kissed him sweetly and squeezed his hips. Cole stepped back as red and blue lights flashed on the highway, the Dallas County sheriff’s deputy coming out from Booneville, heading west on County F90. They walked back to their parked cars, shook the deputy’s hand, pointed out the tire marks and broken glass, and then told him about the car sunk in the river and how it matched the description of a stolen blue Honda from Ames. The deputy’s scowl got deeper and darker, his pencil scratching over his notepad faster and faster as they spoke.
The deputy had questions about how the Honda was linked to Kerrigan’s disappearance, how the tracks on the road were made, and who they thought had ditched the Honda and driven Kerrigan’s car away. Noah answered carefully, giving him the FBI deflection as politely as he could.
“Sheriff Clarke is going to want to know more about this,” the deputy said, snapping his notepad shut.
“I know. Have him call me. I will share what I can. Right now, we need to get this scene processed, and hopefully that will help us find Mr. Kerrigan together.”
“Is the submerged car retrievable from the river with a tow? Or will we need to hoist it from the bridge?”
“A tow should work. It looks like it was left to roll in and drifted with the current.”
The deputy glared at the fading light and the darkening sky. “We’ll be working until midnight at least. Won’t get it out of the river for hours.” He fixed his gaze on Noah. “You recovering all right from that shooting, Agent Downing?”
“I am, thank you.”
“Mr. Kerrigan’s abduction wouldn’t in any way be related to your shooting, would it? We don’t have a highway attacker operating on our backroads, do we?”
Noah’s smile turned brittle. “I’ll check in with Sheriff Clarke first thing in the morning, unless he wants to give me a call tonight. Good evening, deputy. And good luck with your scene processing.”
The deputy gave Noah a two-fingered salute from his brow, then waited for Noah and Cole to pull onto the roadway before he set up his flares and his cruiser to reroute the few cars and trucks whirring down the highway. Cole flashed his brights behind Noah, Noah tapped his brakes, and they set off, making their way down County F90 to Interstate 35, where they turned north and headed to West Des Moines, back to the office.
Noah constantly scanned the sides of the road, the shoulders and embankments, the ditches shrouded in darkness, and the fields fading to shadow. His heart hammered as he remembered the sound of glass breaking.
Rifle shots coming through windshields, kidnappers breaking sideways through the window. Glass shattering, and Ian Ingram slamming into his life.
He watched Cole’s headlights behind him, all the way to the office.
Chapter Seventeen
By the timethey got back, it was almost time for Noah to pick Katie up from cheer practice. He gave Jacob his car keys, took his own keys back from Cole, and gave Cole the keys for one of the handful of cars Sophie had pulled for Director King and his team.
There was a sticky note on Cole’s computer monitor that said,You’re with me. King. Cole sighed and headed for the conference room. When Noah looked, he saw the door was open and no one else was in there, so he took the opportunity for a few more minutes with Cole. “Where is everyone?”
“King stays moving. He hates staying still during an investigation. He’ll keep the others on the move, too. Running down leads, chasing tips, working old files… anything to keep momentum going,” Cole said as he powered on his laptop. “Remember when I was running around the country?”
“I do. I’m glad you don’t anymore.”
