Page 117 of Diamonds in the Mud

But despite my efforts, she remained hidden, her absence casting a shadow over what should have been a joyous occasion. And as the minutes stretched into hours, I couldn’t shake the sinking feeling that something was terribly wrong.

Her parents continued to call her cell phone while everyone else scanned the fairgrounds. Every officer on the force was called in to search. We’d ridden there together, and her Jeep was still parked in the same spot.

“Here,” someone shouted. “I found her purse and her phone.”

Sabrina rushed up to me, holding the bag Rayne had been carrying earlier. “I only found it because the phone was ringing,” she said a little breathlessly. “I heard it over behind the toilets.”

“Where?” I asked, and then followed Sabrina as we ran to the spot where she had found Rayne’s bag and phone.

“There.” She pointed to the muddy ground behind the toilets. There was a chain link fence behind the area, separating the parking lot from the row of porta-potties. Part of the fence was not connected, and the space was large enough for people to get through it.

“Fan out from here. Let’s search the parking lots,” I called out to the dozen or so people who had followed us there.

Spying Aria, I held up Rayne’s phone. “Can you unlock it?”

Aria rushed over and punched in Rayne’s four-digit code. I made note of the digits for future use. “I only know this because we made our codes up together. It’s mine on my phone too,” she said, handing me the phone.

“What are you looking for?” Sabrina asked as I opened the photo app.

“Anything,” I said, grasping at straws.

I ran through all of the photos she’d taken of us in the past few hours. An image of us shortly after I’d proposed while we’d been at the top of the Ferris wheel. Another of us on the carousel before our engagement. Some of us with all the pies. One of Aria, Sabrina, and Rayne at the hair salon earlier today.

Then an odd image of a sheet of paper with numbers filled the screen and I frowned.

“What’s this?” I asked Aria and Sabrina, who both frowned at the image and shook their heads.

“Not sure,” they both said.

I sent a copy of the image to my own phone and scanned the images of us again.

I almost missed it, almost didn’t see him, lurking there in the shadows. The first image that I saw of him, right there in the background, was when we were in the hall of mirrors. Rayne and I were smiling at duplicates images of ourselves, and he was in the background. It was the look on his face that caused me to pause.

Then I scanned the other images taken that evening and noticed him in at least four others that Rayne had taken of the night.

“You took a video of our proposal?” I turned to Aria. “Let me see it,” I said, holding out my hand for her phone.

I watched as the video started and moved between the ground and far above. Aria’s head was smashed up against mine as we watched the moments before Rayne had spotted her. In the video, the Ferris wheel had just stopped, and I’d just wrapped my arm around Rayne’s shoulders.

Instead of focusing on the faraway images of us, I scanned the crowd below us. He was there, standing at the base of the wheel, watching, waiting.

“Shit,” I growled and glanced around for Randy. Taking both phones with me, I sprinted across the grass to where Randy was standing.

“Do these numbers mean anything to you?” I asked a little breathless.

Randy took Rayne’s phone and frowned down at them. “The last one is the number for the address to the city and county building.” He flipped through the images. He instantly saw what I had. “Jackson Pennington,” he said under his breath, then he glanced at me. “His office is in the city and county building.”

I nodded. “What’s his home address?”

“I’ll drive,” Randy said, taking off. “Aria, Tobias, please make sure that Edith gets home safe.” He tossed the van keys to Aria.

As we entered the parking lot, Randy yelled at Owen, who was standing by his patrol car directing traffic as everyone left the event.

“We’re taking this,” Randy said, jumping into the driver’s seat.

“Sure thing, boss,” Owen said. “Did you find…” Owen’s words were cut off as Randy shut the door and took off at full speed.

“That son of a bitch,” Randy said as he drove through town. “If he lays one finger on my daughter…”