Page 86 of Bring Them Home

Some time passed in silence. Amanda couldn’t know what Trent was thinking, but the heat of Lloyd’s request chilled her. “Do you want us to call anyone to come be with you?”

“Who, Amanda? Who’s left? Besides I should have known better than to get my hopes up. Statistics tell me that much. I’ve dreaded a call like this for the last eight years. Now it’s here, well, why am I surprised? It’s just that I thought someone took her, not that she left me. I would have gone into WITSEC with her.”

“She did it to protect not just herself but you and the rest of her family. She didn’t want to upset your entire life.” Without the ability to ask Abigail, Amanda could only surmise this.

“Too late for that. My life was tilted upside down. But why now? How did Hernandez catch up to her after all these years?”

Amanda sat on the chair nearest to Lloyd and turned to him. “We believe that Abigail found out about her nephew, Landon, needing a bone marrow transplant. We think she was going to get tested.”

“How could she have known about any of that?”

Amanda didn’t want to come out with the fact Valerie had been in contact with Abigail for the last year. That betrayal would cut deep. On the flipside, avoiding Lloyd was for his protection, so that Hernandez would have no reason to go for him. The sole thing that drew her out of hiding was her nephew’s health. As for why she was in contact with Valerie long before that, it was hard to say. Amanda surmised she checked in on Lloyd through her sister-in-law, but there was nothing to back that up. Those texts were long gone. “She may have been watching over all of you from a distance all this time.”

“I’d love to believe that.” Lloyd shook his head. “But not if that’s what ended up getting her killed.”

Amanda took the following silence as a cue to leave. “If you need anything,” she said, repeating what Trent had offered earlier.

“You just make that bastard pay. If the system doesn’t, someone will.”

Amanda made eye contact with Lloyd for a few seconds. McGee hadn’t given up hope for the last eight years. He’d joined Missing Persons because of his wife’s disappearance, proving he wasn’t the type to let things go. She just hoped he didn’t do anything stupid.

FORTY-THREE

Amanda startled awake in a cold sweat, heart racing. Her bedroom was mostly dark, but some sunlight inched around the edges of her curtains. In her nightmare, Nina had been standing over her with a blade. She had just been about to stab her when Amanda’s eyes shot open.

The alarm clock told her it was 7 AM, and she threw the covers off.

Notifying McGee had drained her. Things were at an impasse, and stepping back felt like it might lend a fresh perspective. Amanda called her mother and confirmed she was able to keep Zoe for the day. They were going to play mini golf and eat ice cream. Amanda wished she could join them. But in two hours, she’d be in Manassas, where Rideout would be cutting into Abigail McGee. She could only hope he’d find something that brought them closer to Valerie and Brooke.

When she’d been on with her mother, she’d asked to speak to Zoe, but she’d refused. Amanda would have loved to run to her daughter, but she was committed to seeing the investigation through. And Steeles always kept their word. Hopefully, one day Zoe would come to appreciate the integrity and importance of that. In the short term, if Amanda solved this case, she might win Zoe’s love back.

Amanda was happy to leave the house because it felt empty without Zoe. Her first stop was Hannah’s Diner, and she sighed with relief upon seeing the parking lot wasn’t overflowing with vehicles. Though it was Sunday and only 7:45 AM.

As she waited for her coffee order, she fired off a quick text to Briggs. His shift ended at 7 AM, but she still expected he’d answer her.

Did you find anything on Hernandez’s camera footage?

She watched the screen, anticipating a response, but none came.

Even when she pulled into Central twenty minutes later, there was no message from him. It wasn’t like Briggs not to reply.

She called the uniformed sergeant on duty, balancing a takeout tray with two coffees in one hand, her phone in the other, as she walked toward her cubicle.

“Sergeant Gordon,” the man answered.

“Detective Steele. I’m just checking in to see how things went last night with executing a warrant on Lucas Hernandez.” Officers would have been sent to accompany Briggs to serve it on Hernandez. It was expected the footage from the rural property could be accessed through a computer in the kingpin’s residence. She didn’t want to give much thought to the possibility he’d erased the video. Though he was just cocky enough to think he could explain himself away if he had it. Barring that, he may have thought he could bribe someone to look the other way. As she waited on the sergeant to reply, she became chilled. What might have been a few seconds stretched out like an eternity.

“Smoothly,” Gordon said.

“So he cooperated?”

“Seems like.”

“Thanks.” She ended the call. There must be some reason for the cooperation, and Amanda didn’t trust it. It didn’t help that Briggs still hadn’t reached out to her.

“Good morning. You hear anything?” Trent whisked into his cubicle, speaking to her over the partition.

“Briggs is silent. I texted, but nothing.”