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“What are you thinking?” Brady asked.
His gaze snapped up to meet his friend’s. “Thinking about what it’s going to be like if we don’t get Hayley back.”
“We will get her back.”
“You can't know that. She could be dead already. What would you do if you lost Aurora?”
“Rip out the heart of the person who took her away from me,” Brady answered candidly, his dark eyes growing darker.
“Is that what you did to the men who tried to kill her?” He knew a little about the way Brady and Aurora had met, which was far from a conventional story.
“No, I beat them to a bloody pulp. And I would do the same to anyone who ever laid a hand on my wife or daughter.”
Somehow Brady’s calm but violent fury soothed him a little.
It gave him a purpose.
If he couldn’t get Hayley back, he would make sure the man who had taken her from him suffered just like he had made Hayley suffer.
“How are you doing, Brian?” Adam asked as he and Jessica walked into the room.
Ignoring that, it mattered little at the moment, all that mattered was finding Hayley. “Did you ever find this Sarah person that Kinsley mentioned?” It wasn't just Hayley’s life that hung in the balance now, but little Kinsley Turner’s as well. After abducting Hayley, Jay and Maria had gone straight to the group home where Maria had pulled a gun and used it to escape with her daughter.
“We found Sarah,” Jessica replied.
“And?”
“And Jay Turner hasn’t been hiding at her house,” Jessica told him.
“How can you be so sure?” So far that seemed to have been the only lead the cops had in finding this violent man. How could they dismiss it so easily as a possibility?
“Because Sarah was a fifteen-year-old girl who lived across the street from the Turner’s. We confirmed with her and her mother that she sometimes babysat Kinsley. Sarah lives in the house with her mother, stepfather, three siblings, and another three half-siblings. There is no way Jay Turner could have been hiding out there and no one know about it. Just to be sure, we spoke with Kinsley and asked her if that was the Sarah she was talking about, and she said it was. We also searched Sarah’s house, Jay wasn't there. Wherever he’s hiding it isn’t there,” Jessica summarized.
“So, if he isn’t hiding at Sarah’s house, then where is he?” Brian asked, frustrated. This was why he could never be a cop. He didn't have the patience to go through piece after piece of useless evidence trying to find the one little thing that would make the whole case click into place.
“Adam and I have gone through every person we could think of. Both of Jay’s parents are deceased, no grandparents, an uncle who lives in France, his brother died in a drunk driving accident nearly four years ago, and we spoke with his sister who says she hasn’t spoken to her brother since she turned eighteen and got out of their house.”
“How can you be so sure of that?”
“We checked out the sister’s place, and we’ve had cops on it ever since, no signs of Jay,” Jessica explained.
“What about Maria’s family?”
“Biological father split before she was born, stepfather is in the end stages of liver disease from a lifetime of alcoholism. Her mother is deceased, no siblings, and no other family. Wherever Jay Turner is hiding it isn’t with a relative.”
“You’ve been quiet,” Brady said to Adam, who had taken a seat at the table in one of the conference rooms at the police precinct and not said a word since.
“I was thinking,” Adam said slowly.
“About?” Brian asked.
“Well, we know that Maria Turner is involved. We’re not sure to what extent, but we know at least she was involved in Hayley’s abduction as well as Kinsley’s. For all we know, she was also involved in Leah’s death,” Adam said. “We’ve been focusing most of our efforts on Jay and people connected to him, but so far that hasn’t led us to anything useful. Once we found out that Maria was an active part of the ruse to get Hayley out of the safehouse, Jessica and I started looking into her past more closely.”
“What did you find?” Brian was beginning to feel like they were never going to find Hayley. Just sitting around here wasn't doing anything. He would rather be out in his car just driving around looking for her. This was torture, and he wasn't sure he could endure it for much longer.
“Maria’s mother was also abused by her alcoholic husband. At one point, Maria was briefly removed from her home, she was five years old at the time. When Jay tried to abduct Arianna, she said she smelled grandmother smells on him. Assuming that she’s right and we are looking for an older woman, Jessica and I looked into the social worker who removed Maria from her home. The woman is now in her seventies, her name is Katherine Horton, she’s retired, she’s a widow, we’re just trying to track down her address.”
Hope flickered inside him.
