Page 7 of Bring Them Home

Kyle returned to the rig and moved it into position.

Officer Cochran turned to Amanda and Trent. “I’m going to stick around until he’s gone and then join the other officer over at the Archer residence.”

“Let me know if any of them turn up.” Amanda figured she and Trent would be catching up with her there soon enough.

“You know it.”

As Amanda walked away with Trent, she was breathing easier just from leaving her brother’s bouncy energy behind. Whatever had him so wired she didn’t know, but he was in rare form tonight. Unfortunately, she had something far more serious to concern herself with. For one, a deep, bone-chilling dread this family’s story wasn’t going to have a happy ending.

FOUR

Amanda updated Malone on the situation, and she and Trent submitted Valerie Archer’s purse into evidence intake. Next, they got started on the warrant process that would grant them full access to her phone and requested pings on the rest of the family’s phones. Since they had Valerie’s device on hand, they’d be able to view texts and call logs, even app and location data as soon as the approval came through. If it didn’t provide enough of a picture, they could request the carrier records, but that would require a separate warrant.

Since they were looking at a high-risk situation, the warrant to look at Valerie’s phone came through in an hour, and they were headed over to East Station for the Digital Crimes Unit. Amanda’s favorite detective there was Jacob Briggs, a man dedicated to the job and to getting the truth. His work ethic had long ago earned her respect.

He smiled at her and Trent when he came out to greet them at the front desk, after the officer manning the post called him up. “What brings you two here?”

Amanda laid out the situation and added, “It’s like the entire family just vanished.” She handed over the evidence bag containing Valerie Archer’s phone. “We already have a full-extraction warrant.”

“Wonderful. About the warrant, not the family, obviously. Do you want to stick around for a bit, see if we find anything that might help right away?”

Amanda’s phone pinged with a message. She read it and said, “We’ll need to leave you to it.” She turned to Trent. “We just got some leads to follow.”

Briggs waved a hand, gesturing for them to leave. “Go. I’ll work my magic on this thing and let you know what I find.”

“Thank you.”

Briggs dipped his head and left for his office.

Amanda and Trent headed for the door, which he held for her. She updated him on what she’d just learned. “The husband’s phone last pinged along Interstate 66 on Saturday afternoon.” That gelled with what Traci said about it ringing straight to voicemail when she tried reaching him.

“Okay, and the daughter’s and son’s phones?”

“The last time the daughter’s phone was active it connected to a tower near Potomac Mills mall.”

“That’s unlikely to be a coincidence since that’s also where her mother’s car was left.”

“Agreed.”

“Okay, so…” Trent left his sentence to dangle.

Amanda’s imagination took over from there. Would they find the teen’s body in the vicinity, or just her abandoned phone? She shook it aside and shared the rest of the update. “Now, the son’s phone hit a tower near Woodbridge Medical Center within the hour.” It was the general hospital in Woodbridge with an emergency department. “It’s still active.”

“Get in the car, and I’ll get us there as fast as I can.”

Amanda hustled to the passenger seat, relinquishing the wheel even though she had a heavier foot than Trent. But the drive gave them time to think and talk. She couldn’t read Trent’s mind, but she was wondering if Landon was injured or dead, his personal possessions being held until the medical staff could reach the family. And even if he was a patient there, it didn’t mean he was innocent. He could have been hurt during the orchestration of the kidnapping of his family. The text being nothing more than a cunning tactic to make him appear innocent. He’d only sent the one text. No follow-up messages when she didn’t respond. Her work in law enforcement had taught her that blood ties don’t necessarily mean anything. Often, they are the source of conflict and violence. One only needed to look at the news to see people killed members of their family every day.

It was nearing ten thirty when Amanda and Trent walked into the emergency room and headed straight for the registration desk. There were two lines of sick people ten deep, and two clerks scrambling to process them. They shot to the front of the line.

“How can I help you?” The woman’s eyes landed on their badges, which they both held up. Her shoulders dropped, and she let out an exaggerated sigh. “Listen, it’s a crazy night, as you can see. There’s nothing I can tell you about a patient, which is what I assume brings you here.”

“There’s a family we believe may have been taken, but one of their phones pinged back here.” It was a bit of a stretch since it wasn’t like they had an exact GPS location on Landon’s device. It was a ping off a nearby cell tower, which just put it in the vicinity. “The last name is Archer. First name, Landon.”

The clerk shook her head. “I’m sorry, but HIPAA doesn’t allow me to give out any information.”

Privacy laws were good when they worked, but in cases like this they became a tricky challenge to navigate. But they had a work-around. Amanda didn’t expect that the administrative employee would know the ins and outs. “Since the person we’re looking for is part of an active missing person case, you may disclose whether or not he is in this hospital.”

The other clerk finished up with a registration, sticking a folder in a sorter, and looked over at her colleague instead of summoning the next person in line up to the counter. She was older than the woman Amanda was speaking to, with some gray roots sprouting on the crown of her head. “In this situation, you can tell them if he registered in the ED.”