Chapter 43

LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS

Poppy sits on the bed, trying to recover from what Dash is saying. The night Alison Lane was taken, he witnessed the abduction, called their father. And then…

“Was it the Missouri River Killer who took her?” she asks.

Dash shakes his head.

“Then who?”

“Let’s get that drink.” He stands, leaves his bedroom. She follows. In the kitchen Dash pours himself another glass of Jack. Takes another glass from the cupboard and pours her one.

She downs the drink in one gulp, then takes the bottle, refills the glass, and follows Dash into the living room.

Poppy sits in Dad’s lounge chair while Dash stares absently at the photos on the fireplace mantel. There’s one of Poppy after basic training, her effort at a tough expression, the American flag behind her. Then one of their mother. One of Poppy as a little girl, smiling wide, before she grew self-conscious about the gap in her front teeth. Dash picks up another frame. It’s of Dad and Sheriff Walton and another man in desert camouflage standing on a sand dune. Despite his haunting memories from that time in his life, her dad is smiling in the picture. The same gap-toothed grin as Poppy’s.

“I followed the car. The man who took Ali drove from Lovers’ Lane to Suncatcher Lake. He was parked there like he was waiting for someone. After I called Dad, I hid and watched. Then Dad and the sheriff got there.” Dash stares at the framed photo in his hand now. “They told me to leave.”

“But you didn’t.” She can see it in his eyes.

“I loved her… I hid in the trees.”

“What happened, Dash?”

Dash swallows.

“Tell me what happened.” This time, her tone matches her new police role.

“Alison’s father showed up.”

“What?”

Dash turns to her. “Dad must’ve called him.”

Poppy shakes her head. “Why would he—”

Dash puts his index finger on the photo.

Poppy doesn’t understand. She snatches the frame from her brother and examines the photograph of her father in Iraq.

Then it hits her.

“Alison’s father was in Dad’s bomb squad?” she says in disbelief. Her father, the sheriff, and Alison’s dad served together?

Dash nods. He continues recounting what happened: “So Alison’s dad shows up. Not discreet like Dad and the sheriff. It spooked the guy who took her, and the guy ran.”

Poppy nods for him to continue.

“Alison’s father was freaking out and he talked to Dad and the sheriff.” Dash is fidgeting now. “Dad and the sheriff went after the guy who took her while Alison’s father got her out of the car. She was tied up. That’s when I first realized that Ryan wasn’t in the car. I thought maybe the guy killed him, dumped his body. I didn’t know he was knocked out, still back at Lovers’ Lane.”

“What happened to the man who took her?”

Dash shakes his head like he doesn’t know. But his face is drained of color. “Another car pulls up. Alison’s father sees it, gets Ali hidden in the woods, hides himself, and then he…”

Poppy feels a shiver travel through her. “And then he what?”

“The two guys who showed up, they walked over to Ali’s car, looked inside. And her father sneaks up behind them and shoots both of them in the head.” Dash’s breaths are uneven now. “Dad and the sheriff came back. They caught the guy who took Ali from Lovers’ Lane. I thought they were going to kill him too, but they let him go. Then they helped Alison’s father put the dead guys in the BMW and roll the car into the lake.”

Poppy can’t believe what she’s hearing.

“I came out after the car went in the lake. I was in shock. Dad told me to get home, not tell anyone what I saw. I saw Alison’s shirt in the grass, took it with me.”

“So what you’re saying is that…”

“Alison’s alive.”