Chapter 1

ONE

NOW – MONDAY

Special Agent Dax Styles swallowed the lump in his throat. He'd never imagined in his wildest dreams that his partner and expert in cybercrime, Special Agent Beth Katz, could have found his sister. He'd spent his entire life in law enforcement. Before joining the FBI, he'd attained a high rank in the military police and finding AWOL soldiers came with the territory. In his time with the bureau, he'd worked on a wide variety of criminal cases, and yet with all his experience, after hunting for his sister for ten years, he'd assumed she was dead and given up. The guilt never left him. He'd carried all his life the soul-destroying knowledge that the blame for her being kidnapped was his. If he hadn't run away and played the fool, she would be alive and well. Emotion overwhelmed him as he stared at Beth in disbelief. He blinked away unshed tears, unable to believe his ears. "You found Ginny?" He sprang to his feet and went to her desk. "Is she alive? Where is she?"

"Hold your horses, cowboy." Beth smiled at him. "I'm not one hundred percent sure but I figure I'm close."

The pain around Styles' heart tightened and then dissipated like a popped balloon. "Have you found a lead on her whereabouts or not, Beth? You're torturing me here."

"Yeah, I've found a lead but it's old." Beth searched his face. "I'm sorry to build up your hopes but let me explain." She indicated to the screen. "I used a few AI tricks to age the photograph you gave me and fed them through the facial-recognition program. I used driver's license images, newspapers, yearbooks, and other ambiguous publications just in case I got a hit. Well, I got more than one hit and they all come back with the same name, except one—and that's the image the newspaper ran when she went missing."

Deflated, Styles dropped down in a spare chair next to her and stared at her computer screen. "Okay, that's all I found as well. Everything led back to the old image. So what's new? Show me what you've got."

Styles had respect for Beth and valued her opinion. She'd joined the field office at Rattlesnake Creek under a cloud of uncertainty. She'd failed a psych test after the bloody murder of a kid killer she'd been following. The notorious and almost mystical Tarot Killer had gotten to the killer and cut his throat before he raped and murdered his last victim. Beth had come along moments later and tried to save the perp's life. Personally, he wouldn't have bothered but he tended to do things his way, most of the time. With Beth around he had to pull his head in and act as an example. He'd found her blunt, very professional, although unconventional in her approach to law enforcement. She went in boots and all, as if lacking any fear, to catch a criminal. In fact, she was much like him.

Although Beth was like a chameleon. She'd been working undercover for a time and excelled in disguises, was proficient in many occupations, including pole dancing, and had passed as a young prostitute at one time. Her slim build and blonde hair made her look much younger than her late twenties, and with the application of makeup, wigs, and contacts, she'd fooled him more than once. Yeah, Beth was an asset, but a slightly eccentric one. In fact, one day he admired her and other days she scared the heck out of him.

"Look at these images." Beth opened a file with images lined up to show the progression of age of a young girl to a woman in her late thirties. "These have a ninety-nine percent chance of being Ginny, but this woman's name is Rene Shoebridge. She lives out of Louan. It says here she is married to a security guard. That's about all I have apart from her high school and college records. Seems she stays at home, no jobs, zip." She opened another image. "This is all I could find on him, although it looks like he's wearing some type of disguise, unless men wear their hair like that in Louan. He looks way older than her and I discovered she has a child by the name of Billy."

Excitement and trepidation gripped Styles in equal measure. He stared at the images, zooming in to look closer. His heart raced. The woman could be Ginny. She looked like his mom. Emotion gripped him in an uncontrollable wave. He swallowed hard. Could this be true? Was this really Ginny? He noticed Beth's concerned stare and pinched the bridge of his nose to stay a headache and leaned back in the chair. "Ninety-nine percent chance of it being her? That's incredible." Beside him his dog, Bear, a Belgian Malinois, whined and rested his large head on his knee as if sensing his anxiety. "I gave up too soon. I should have kept on searching."

Concern gripped him. Maybe after all this time, Ginny didn't want to be found. He gave Beth a long look. "Why didn't she try and contact the family?" He gestured to the images. "She attended high school. It's plain she wasn't being held against her will."

"Hmm." Beth leaned back in her chair and clicked the top of a ballpoint pen on and off while eyeing him with annoyance. "You're not looking at this logically, and blaming yourself is crazy. Someone obviously abducted her. The case before I came here: A young girl had been groomed by a cleaner at the school to trust him. When he told her that her parents had been in a car wreck, she went with him willingly." She eyed him critically. "Do you recall anyone coming by often or anyone at school hanging around Ginny?"

Absently stroking Bear's ears, Styles allowed his mind to drift back twenty-five years. Not many people visited his home. His dad wasn't sociable, apart from chatting to the other fathers at the Little League baseball games. He didn't recall anyone hanging around or talking to Ginny at all. He shook his head. "Nope. I can't remember anyone at all. The cops asked me the same question at the time, and thinking back, I really don't believe Ginny would allow any man to get close to her. Mom was always warning her about men."

"It could have been an opportunistic abduction." Beth placed the pen on the table and met his gaze. "The perp was driving by and saw you walk into the woods. He decided to see if he could grab Ginny. Most would murder or rape them right away but when you ran away and left her alone, maybe he told her he'd seen you somewhere and offered to help look for you. She could have gone with him voluntarily. What you don't understand is these men have so many aces up their sleeves and kids are vulnerable. They know how to charm a kid and convince them to go with them. They've lost a puppy, they have candy in their vehicle, so many ways to make the kid go with them."

Shaking his head, Styles stared at her. She didn't know Ginny. "There is no way she went voluntarily. She knew about stranger danger."

"So where were you?" Beth wrapped one hand around her coffee cup and then brought it to her mouth for a sip and eyed him over the rim. "If she didn't go willingly, how come you didn't hear a scream? You didn't see anything either, did you?"

Standing and dashing a hand through his hair, he spun to face her. "I was hiding. It was a joke and, no, I didn't see or hear anything. I was down alongside the river hiding in the rocks. The rush of the water would have covered any noise."

"So why are you blaming yourself constantly?" Beth raised both eyebrows. "You were a young kid, pranking your sister. That's normal behavior for an eight-year-old. You'd played at the same place many times previously and nothing bad happened. You believed it was a safe place to play and so did your parents, so why do you blame yourself for something that was out of your control?"

Styles recalled the beating his father had given him when he returned home without Ginny. His mother's accusations about being irresponsible and blaming him for her disappearance. The arguments that followed and his father leaving home and later taking his own life. He blamed himself for everything that had happened. It was his fault and he should not have left her alone. He lifted his gaze to Beth. "My parents blamed me. The following two years after her disappearance, my parents' marriage fell to bits. My father left home and later took an overdose of prescription drugs. My mom told me that it was my fault. If I hadn't left Ginny alone that day, we would all be happy."

"That is one heck of a burden to put on a small child." Beth's expression turned sympathetic. "It's just as well you haven't got psychopathic tendencies or maybe you would have ended up a serial killer." Her mouth curled up in the corners. "Take it from an expert, you were not to blame. When we find the man who took her, you can take out your frustrations on him and I'll watch." She snorted and held up one finger. "No, wait a moment. I'll definitely help."

This was typical Beth. Her wonderful dark sense of humor took some getting used to, but after a year working with her, he'd started to see her in a different light. Beth hated abusers with a passion, and he understood that every joke she made carried an underlying truth with it. If she found a pedophile, in truth, she'd like to mess them up real bad, but her badge prevented her from acting. Luckily, she'd be satisfied with bringing them to justice. He smiled at her. "Well, I guess we can hope that he comes at me and I have to defend myself."

"I have to admit that using a weapon is counterproductive if you want to get revenge." Beth picked up her pen and twirled it in her fingers. "A good old street fight is much more satisfying. Like you said, in a street brawl there are no rules." She chuckled. "We've been in a few of those and didn't kill anyone. I've come to the conclusion that no one takes any notice of an FBI badge around these parts. Every time we run into a group of angry men, it's game on. Do you figure it's the same out at Louan?"

Styles thought for a beat and then shrugged. "I'm not sure. Louan is a wealthy town. They mine sapphires, so there will be miners the same as here. One family seems to run the town. The law enforcement is the sheriff and his four sons. I heard lately that they had taken on a couple of extra deputies, so maybe they keep the miners under control."

"How do you want to do this? I have a current address and it's not far in the chopper." Beth spun in her chair to look at him. "The problem is, without DNA we don't have any proof this is Ginny and we can't really go by her house unannounced and start demanding answers."

Styles nodded. "Yeah, we can. It's a cold case and you have new evidence." He smiled. "I'll run it past the director to ensure my involvement in the case doesn't create a conflict of interest." He went to his desk to make the call.

After explaining the situation, the director wanted to speak to Beth as well, and Styles put his phone on speaker.

"Have you looked into the background of Rene Shoebridge?"

"Yeah, I can't find anything before high school." Beth brought up a screen of information on her computer. "The records at the high school state that she was homeschooled. Her maiden name is listed as Rene Blackstone. Everything looks legit. Whoever faked her documents is very good. This type of coverup would be expensive and not what I'd expect from a pedophile. He's gone the extra mile to keep her for himself, and it's very unusual for them not to tire of them once they get older."

The hairs on the back of Styles' neck stood to attention. "Blackstone was the name of the town we lived in when she disappeared."

"Okay, that's good enough for me. Notify the local sheriff that you are in the area and investigating a missing persons case. I don't believe that your involvement constitutes a conflict of interest in your sister's case. Her case is outside the statute of limitations. However, if this person is still abducting children, I would expect you and Agent Katz to bring them in. Good luck, Styles. I hope you find your sister."

Styles disconnected and smiled at Beth. "Pack a bag. I'm planning on staying until we get answers." He glanced at his watch. "Wheels up at eleven."