Page 43 of Yuletide Hero

“How has he been able to do all of this? And stay off the radar for days?” Paige asked, frustrated.

“From what we know of him this seems out of character. He hasn’t ever held a job for more than a couple of months. He spends most of his time drinking and beating his wife and kids, and he dropped out of school when he was fifteen. And yet he found somewhere to hide out after setting Hayley’s house on fire, and was able to contact his wife and get her to come to him. He was able to find out where Kinsley was and knew that eventually Hayley would show up there. He was able to find out where she lived and make an attempt to grab her. And he’s found a place to hide out where we haven’t been able to find him even though the entire police force is looking for him. We have obviously been underestimating him all along,” Ryan said.

“We aren’t underestimating him anymore,” Jessica assured him. “When we spoke to Kinsley, she mentioned a woman named Sarah who sometimes looked after her. We’re trying to track down that woman. We think there’s a possibility that he might be hiding out at her house.”

“What if you can't find this Sarah woman?” Paige asked. “He’s proven he’s determined to kill Hayley and that he won't stop until he succeeds. She can't stay in hiding forever.”

“We’ll find him,” Jessica promised. “Yes, so far it looks like we’ve underestimated him, but he’s so angry it’s clouding his thinking, and sooner rather than later he’s going to slip up, and we’ll get him.”

“We’re hoping Arianna might be able to help us,” Adam said.

“It happened so quickly, I don’t think I can tell you anything helpful,” Arianna immediately told them.

She didn't want Arianna to block any memories she might have by talking herself out of it. “Why don’t we just go through what happened and see what you do remember. No pressure. I know everything probably happened so fast that it all became kind of a blur, but anything at all that you remember could be helpful. So why don’t you just tell us from the beginning what happened?”

Arianna sighed like she had already gone through the attempted abduction several times. “I was driving home for the holidays. I parked in the street. It was snowing so I put on my coat, scarf, beanie, then grabbed my bag and got out of the car.”

So, it was likely that Jay had thought it was Hayley getting out of the car. Both Hayley and Ari had the same long dark hair and were approximately the same height. From a distance it would have been hard to tell them apart.

“How far toward the house had you gotten before he approached you?” Adam asked.

“I didn't move at all. I was just locking the car when I noticed him.”

“What did he say?”

“He was surprised that I wasn't Hayley, and then when I said that I was her sister he looked thoughtful, like even though it wasn't what he was expecting that was good news. I thought he was a friend or colleague and said I'd pass along a message. I didn't know that anything was going on with my sister.” Arianna paused to shoot both her parents an irritated frown.

“We were going to tell you when you got home,” Elias told his daughter.

“We didn't want you to worry,” Paige added.

“He said something to the effect of that’s right I'd pass on a message,” Arianna continued. “When I tried to walk around him, he grabbed my arm and said he bet Hayley would do anything to get me back. He was big, and I knew that he was too strong for me to fight off, so I screamed. That’s what my mom always taught me, if I was ever in danger, just scream, it would startle the attacker and alert people in the area that something is going on. It worked, he loosened his grip, and I was able to get free, then when he heard people coming he ran off.”

“Did you get his license plate?” Adam asked.

“No, I’m sorry.” Arianna dropped her gaze to her lap.

“Is there anything else that you remember?” Jessica asked. “Something about what he was wearing, the sound of his voice, or the way he smelled?”

“No—oh,” she paused, looking thoughtful now. “He did smell odd.”

Jessica couldn’t count the number of times that something a victim had smelled ended up helping them find the perpetrator. “Odd how?”

“Not how I'd expect a man his age to smell.”

“What did he smell like?” Adam asked.

“Lavender and camphor, he smelled like my grandmother.”

Lavender and camphor, grandmother smells. Could this be more proof that Jay Turner was hiding out at Sarah’s house?

* * * * *

2:02 P.M.

It was like fitting all the pieces of a puzzle together.

Now Jay was almost pleased that he didn't have Hayley Hood in his clutches just yet.

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