Chapter 6

J ustine woke with a start as someone knocked loudly on the door. It took her a few moments to realize whoever it was, wasn't after her, not when she took note of the décor around them. Tyler sat up, dropping a kiss onto her lips quickly before he grabbed up a pair of sweatpants from the floor and slid into them.

"It's okay, baby. Let me get rid of whoever it is," he said, dropping another quick kiss onto her lips as he headed out of the room.

She couldn't stay in the bed, especially not fully naked as she was. Not when she didn't know who was at his door.

It was the first time she'd spent the night at his place, something they'd worked up to in the last six weeks since she promised she was staying. She had no idea how no one had realized they were together. It'd been nine weeks since she came home, her parents and family were constantly asking her if she was back for good, but while she'd told her boss she wasn't coming back, she hadn't told her family her decision yet.

She was still technically ‘living' in the hotel. Something that prompted her family to question her regarding her financials, worried she was going to get herself in a deep hole. Her parents offered for her to come stay with them the day she got back in town, but after spending the last ten years on her own, she couldn't handle that. Especially not when it'd mean she couldn't have her space to deal with everything that sent her here, not to mention it'd mean she couldn't spend her nights with Tyler.

The more she resisted, the more they asked her about how she was covering the cost. Claiming that even if she'd gotten a weekly rate, the expense on top of her normal ones had to be hurting her checkbook. They had no idea the total of the insurance payout she had in the bank. It could cover five houses in their town with ease and still leave some remaining.

That definitely wasn't something she could tell her family about, so instead, she lied. Said she'd been about to move places, but the new place fell through after a construction fire, and she'd instead put her stuff in storage and came here to visit. After all, a storage unit wasn't anywhere close to a mortgage payment or rent, so the cost of the hotel wasn't affecting her.

They were still curious to know if she was almost out of vacation time, but she truthfully hadn't been using any of her saved hours. Technically she'd been on medical leave for the last three months. Paid leave due to her issues stemming from the job. She still had all her vacation hours sitting on the books. Her boss said she understood her decision, until her medical leave was officially ended—which would require her talking to one of the agency's shrinks to assess her ability to make the decision rationally, she was still legally employed. Melissa wouldn't accept her official resignation until she was cleared, or they deemed her unfit for duty.

She'd avoided talking to the agency shrink for weeks—although not all of it was her fault. The few times she'd worked up the courage to broach the subject of what sent her running, scheduled a teleconference with them, something urgent had come up on the shrink's side and they were forced to reschedule yet again. The one appointment she did manage to get was cut short, but at least they'd managed to get enough discussed to show that she wasn't crazy, could potentially return to duty after an assessment from her supervisor if desired. Melissa wanted her to finish a full appointment before she'd sign off on things and she'd been playing tag with the woman for days.

Honestly, she was ready to just get it done and over with now. Try to put it all behind her as best as possible and move forward with her life—a life with Tyler.

She slipped over to the bedroom door, opening it just a hint to see if she could hear whoever was at the door to know what to expect next. The voice that floated up to her was honestly one of the last she expected, especially at nearly six a.m. on a Friday morning of their official summer break.

"Hailey, slow down," Tyler said. "What's going on?"

"I can't get hold of Isabelle," Hailey said, and Justine's brow rose at the panic in her tone.

"Isn't she sleeping over at Samantha's?" he questioned but Justine felt a tension in the air that didn't sit right at all. She'd learned long ago to trust her instincts when something didn't feel right, and while it might have failed her once or twice, it'd kept her safe far more often than not.

"That's what we told Mom and Dad," Hailey stated, her tone betraying her panicked truth. "I promised I wouldn't say anything. You know how they are when it comes to boys. She's been talking with this guy we met on TikTok and with school out now, they thought it'd be a good time to meet up. So she drove over to Vincent to meet up with him, but I haven't heard from her since the message yesterday afternoon that said she got there safely. She was supposed to text me after she met up with Sean, but I haven't heard anything and I'm really getting worried about her. I pulled up the tracking info on her phone and it's offline."

"Maybe it just died? They talked longer than they anticipated, and it died on her way home?" Tyler suggested but a cold wave took hold of Justine, and her worry exceeded Hailey's by a dozen as a hundred different scenarios played through her mind. The worst of the last five years hit hard, and she was pulling on clothes long before Hailey finished arguing that it wasn't likely because they had phone chargers in the car.

"I don't have a good feeling about this now, Ty. I know I need to tell Mom and Dad, but I don't want to do it on my own," Hailey added, and Justine had no doubt that Tyler would be back in the room in a moment to finish getting dressed himself.

"Okay, let me grab some clothes and we'll go talk to them, see what they want to do," he said, and a few moments later, he slid back into the bedroom, his brow lifting seeing her dressed in her running clothes. "Hey…"

"It's okay. I overheard," she said quietly, not knowing how far voices travelled down the stairs.

"You don't have to go anywhere, baby," he returned, slipping up next to her, his eyes showing he was more worried than his tone betrayed downstairs.

"Probably better that I head back to the hotel with this going on though," she suggested, not adding that her laptop was there and since her resignation wasn't officially accepted, she should still have access to the databases they maintained. "If she would come by here knowing she's likely to be in trouble if she went directly home that wouldn't be a good thing, would it?"

"Probably not," he agreed, giving her a soft kiss, breathing her in for an extra moment. "I'll let you know as soon as I hear something. It's not like Isabelle to do something like this."

"If you weren't the one I was sneaking around with, would you have ever suspected that I was sneaking around to see you when we were seventeen?" she asked making his chin lift slightly higher as he nodded. "Look, why don't you shoot me her phone number? I have some friends back in D.C. that could try and get her last known location if nothing else. The apps don't always update timely when a phone shuts off."

"I'll text it to you," he said, grabbing clothes and changing quickly, before heading back downstairs to get to Hailey and go by their parent's place.

Justine gave them a few minutes before heading out to get to her car. It was parked in a little overlook thankfully in the opposite direction of Tyler's parents' place. She hooked up her phone as soon as she was in it, calling Moe as she pulled up the text Tyler sent her with Isabelle's number.

"Justine, damn girl, I thought you'd disappeared off the face of the earth," Moe said when he answered, and she wished she didn't have a need to call them ever again. Not because she didn't like the people she'd worked with, but so she could simply put all of it behind her.

"Just taking some time to get my stuff worked out," she lied. "I actually was hoping to get a little bit of help with something. Are you at the office?"

"Always on the day shift, Justine, you know that. What do you need, sweets?"

"A friend's seventeen-year-old little sister is missing. Her twin last heard from her yesterday afternoon and it's not like them to not be in communication. Her phone's turned off as well," Justine added pulling a low ‘oh' from Moe. "She was supposed to be meeting up with some guy she'd been talking to on TikTok."

"Damn…did you share your thoughts of what might be for her being unreachable?"

"No, I didn't want to freak him out if it's really nothing. If she just lost track of time I don't want to get into my job stuff. Can you see what you can get off the phone for me?" Justine asked, rattling off the number for it.

"Will do," he said, and she heard typing in the background as she pulled into the lot for the hotel.

"If you find anything disturbing, call me right back. I'm going to hop on my computer and see if I can find their TikTok connection," she stated before heading upstairs, logging into her computer then pulled up the account connected to Isabelle's phone number.

It took a little over an hour before she was able to trace the messages between Isabelle and the other account without getting into Isabelle's actual account and none of it soothed her worries.

Her phone rang and she answered, holding her breath when it wasn't just Moe on the other end of the line. "Hey boss…"

"Not the way I wanted to be talking to you again, Justine," Melissa said, and her tone sent a chill straight through Justine.

"What did you find Moe?" she asked.

"Photos of UL-23 that were sent to Isabelle," Moe said, and her breath stalled as a wave of nausea rushed through her.

"We thought he'd gone under but apparently you were right, and they simply moved the use of that unknown lure somewhere else," Melissa stated. "I'm sorry we pulled you off that trail now."

"Dammit," she muttered under her breath.

"We can have a team out there by this afternoon to help if we get an invite. Does your friend's family think she's missing?" Melissa added.

"No…I don't know," she sighed leaning back in her chair pinching her nose before admitting the truth to her boss. The woman knew her better than anyone else. Well, other than Luke who was her contact when she was deep undercover, but he wasn't aware of her history here in town. "It's Tyler's sister."

"Wait, Tyler as in your hometown high school love Tyler? The guy whose family has some weird feud with yours Tyler?" Melissa asked.

"Yeah…home felt like the safest place to chill out at after everything that went down in D.C. So I came out here, ran into Tyler again, and we've been seeing each other on the downlow again. I was at his place when Hailey stopped by telling him she hadn't heard from Isabelle, and my brain instantly went to worst case scenarios. I didn't want to freak Tyler out or waste time explaining about my job since I hadn't told him what I'd been doing the last five years…"

"Have they filed a police report?" Melissa questioned.

"I honestly don't know. We didn't tell Hailey I was there, and he went over to his parents' place with her while I headed here, calling Moe to check on Isabelle's phone."

"How do you want to proceed? Honestly, we need more than what Moe got off her phone. It looks like a lot of it was erased or deleted. When or by who we can't tell just yet," Melissa added making her stomach tighten in fear.

"If she did it just so her parents didn't see it, it's possible she didn't erase things off her computer that we can use if you can get into it," Moe said, and she knew that meant going to the Anderson house and that was not going to be an easy task.

"There's no way they're going to accept my help. You don't have any clue how deep this stupid feud goes. They'll never just give me their daughter's computer," she warned.

"Not even to potentially save their daughter's life?" Melissa asked.

"Not if it comes from me, no. They won't listen to me. My involvement will have to come from an outside push," she said going into the file that Moe created on it. The photo of the UL sickening her. The message with it was far too similar to others they'd investigated to not be from someone, or some group, that lured Isabelle away from home for nefarious reasons.

Her phone buzzed in her hand, and she pulled it down, reading the new text from Tyler.

"Tyler just texted that the sheriff is putting in a missing persons report now since she's a minor and technically the last time anyone saw her was Wednesday morning. I guess she was really supposed to stay at Samantha's Wednesday night, but she didn't show. Samantha didn't say anything because she had a message from Isabelle saying she was heading up to Vincent early."

"Good, with a report out there, we can pull it down and offer our assistance. Especially since one of our best is right there in town," Melissa said making her chuckle sarcastically.

"Except I'm on medical leave and the last person the Andersons would want help from."

"Leave the medical leave to me. I'll make sure you're cleared to help on this since you're familiar with the UL and have more experience than anyone there might in these things. Moe, as soon as the report hits the web let me know and I'll get on the phone with the sheriff to offer our help," Melissa said. "Justine, if there's any chance of us finding Isabelle, we need you there working things immediately."

"I know…I thought it was enough of a longshot if she's been gone all day but add in an extra…you better warn the sheriff that he'll likely need some extra men on the scene when I get there," she warned, hanging up to change into something a bit more presentable than her running clothes to go over to the Andersons.

The message that came through fifteen minutes later had her heart in her throat as she slipped down to her car, and when she pulled into the drive, it tightened further. She drug in a deep breath as she opened her trunk, taking out the bag with her kit in it, slipping her jacket on as footsteps headed her way.

"Justine Crawford?" Sheriff Davies said, his eyes widening in surprise as she turned to face him. "You're…"

"FBI? Yeah," she admitted. "My boss said she'd warn you about the need for interference."

"She did, well, somewhat I realize now. She didn't say it was because you were the one coming, just that she had an agent nearby that could help us," he stated, and she nodded certain it was so no one here could try and talk the sheriff out of allowing their help. Not when he was well aware of the stupid feud idiocy.

"I've worked to locate traffickers and abducted children the last five years. A missing teen is something I've dealt with many times," Justine assured him. "To find Isabelle, I need to know more about this boy she was meeting which means talking to Hailey and getting into her computer."

"Which Grant Crawford isn't likely to allow easily," Sheriff Davies said, and she nodded. "Alright, we'd better get this over with. The sooner he stops arguing the sooner we can find Isabelle."

Justine drug in another deep breath as Sheriff Davies pushed open the front door, leading them into the living room of the Andersons house which she'd never been in, only seen in pictures or through a window when she and Tyler were sneaking around as teenagers. Inside, not only was Tyler there with his parents and Hailey, but also Caroline and their first cousins Jeremy and Grace in the room with them.

She stepped up next to the sheriff, watching the faces as they took note of her presence first, but that was quickly followed by the letters on her jacket. A chorus of gasps and grunts ran through the group, but it was Tyler's reaction that drew her attention the most.

"Justine? What the…you're FBI?" His eyes were wide with shock, and she hated that this was the way he was learning about what she did.

"Grant, Barb, you know Justine," Sheriff Davies said before anyone else could speak. "She's been home on vacation, but she's been asked to help out until a full team can get here from Seattle. Lucky for us, she's familiar with missing and abducted children cases."

"No…I won't have any damn Crawfords in my home!" Grant raged jumping onto his feet heading towards them quickly.

Justine gave a quick shake of her head to keep Tyler from stepping in. She wasn't scared of the man. He was all bark compared to the monsters she'd dealt with the last five years, and he was coming at her head on, not lurking in the darkness, attempting to murder her in her sleep.

"Mr. Anderson, I understand that you'd prefer to have nothing to do with my family, but time is of the essence in cases involving missing children, even more so when it's a teen in my line of work. Arguing with you will only waste time that's best suited to trying to locate Isabelle. While the sheriff's department is wonderful at keeping the county safe, this is entirely outside of their wheelhouse, and to wait until a team can get here from Seattle will waste precious hours that trust me, you don't want wasted," she warned, her heart stuttering at the look that crossed Tyler's face at her words. "You don't even have to see me. I need five minutes with her computer and to ask Hailey some questions to ascertain the direction we should take here. If the case isn't something that needs my expertise then I'll be gone as soon as the team gets here, but it's better for us to learn that now than in two to three hours," Justine stated calmly, keeping her attention from lingering on Tyler as she finished, so his reaction to it wouldn't affect her tone.

"And if your expertise is needed?" Grace asked when Barb slid her hand onto Grant's arm, stopping him from advancing any further.

"Honestly, pray it's not," she said truthfully, making Grace's eyes widen in shock. "Are we in agreement?" she added back towards Grant and Barb.

"No…I won't…"

"Dad," Tyler said cutting him off as he rubbed Hailey's shoulder, the tears in her eyes pulling at Justine's heart deeply. "Don't be an idiot right now. Isabelle is more important than having to accept help from a Crawford. I'll stay with Hailey, show Justine her computer while you call the rest of the family, see if anyone's heard from Isabelle since yesterday," he added, and the dark look he shot towards Jeremy and Caroline kept them from saying a word as he motioned towards the hallway that led to the twins' bedroom.

Justine's eyes met his in the space outside the door as Hailey moved into the room, the questions in them urging her to lean into him but she resisted—barely. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to have to tell you like this," she whispered to him before moving into the room behind Hailey.

"This is Isabelle's," Hailey said, motioning to the laptop on the desk. "I usually just use my iPad when school's out since we have to turn in our Chromebooks, but Isabelle always carries her laptop with her."

The fact that it was still there said Isabelle didn't run away, but she was already certain of that. She sat down at the desk, bringing up the login screen and glanced towards Hailey with as best of a comforting smile as she could muster. "Do you know her password? If not, I'll have to get some help from someone in D.C."

"Umm…" Hailey glanced at Tyler before looking back to her.

"It's okay, Hailey. You can tell her whatever you know. Justine knows how to keep a secret clearly," he said, lifting a brow her way. His tone was a bit snarky, but his eyes showed his love was still there calming her wildly racing heart.

"If you'd prefer not to say it, you can type it in instead," Justine suggested, watching as Hailey did, a hint of color in her cheeks and Justine understood why she didn't want to speak it in front of her brother. Most older brothers wouldn't want to know that their seventeen-year-old little sister was thinking about sex, let alone using it in her password.

"How can this help?" Hailey asked when Justine started pulling up emails and her sister's social media accounts. The DM's seemed to be complete, which helped immensely, and Justine quickly sorted through the different accounts until she found the UL's three main ones. It seemed that Isabelle either didn't see the messages from the first two, or had ignored them, forgetting the photo was the same on all of them when she began responding to him.

"If Isabelle and this boy are somewhere, we can hopefully find him through his account," she said, before taking out her computer to sync the information to forward to Moe to run through his system. It would be quicker than her doing it one by one. "Now," she added turning around to look at the girl, "what did Isabelle tell you about this guy she was meeting?"

"Not a lot honestly," Hailey said, her face tightening. "Her last date hit on me, said he'd wondered if we'd kiss alike since we looked nothing alike, after I asked him about something he was interested in, which upset her, so she hasn't wanted to talk about guys with me as much since then. She said he was nineteen, at college in Vincent but living there year round now and working, which is why he was too busy to come down here to meet up with her."

Justine nodded, asking more basic questions until Moe messaged her back with the info she needed. Her breath stuck in her chest seeing the similarities to old cases in it, and her neck tensed, knowing this had just gotten ten times harder. The words the phrases these sickos used were far too common to be a hundred percent certain that it was the same lure being used, but there was more than enough here to say it was feasible.

"What is it?" Tyler asked drawing her attention off the screen and towards him as he leaned against the doorjamb. "What's wrong?"

"I don't think Isabelle was talking to a nineteen-year-old college student," she admitted.

"Then who was she talking to?" Hailey asked.

"Someone much more dangerous, someone that uses a lure in photos to get people interested and away from their normal routine to abduct them," she answered honestly. Lies at this moment were pointless and would only put more distance between their families.

"No, that can't be. She talked to him Tuesday night on her computer. I came in and she said she had to go, but it was him. I saw him moving and talking. It wasn't just a picture," Hailey stated.

"Unfortunately with AI, it's possible to fake an entire video, but if there's a history on it, it's possible we can use it to backtrack his location," Justine said, calling Moe to check on it.

"You said the video chat was Tuesday night? Do you know about when?" Moe asked and Justine glanced at Hailey for help.

"Nine, nine-thirty at the latest."

"Let me dig into the computer traffic from then and see what we get."

"Do you need anything else from us until a team can get out to you, Justine?" Melissa added.

"Can you call Sarina in? This is probably about the best time to tell you that I had her continuing to research UL-23. I was up to date on everything she found until…I went on vacation," Justine hedged since Hailey and Tyler were in the room and listening. "If we're going to find them, we need everyone on it."

"We'll discuss you not listening to directions when we're done," Melissa said, and she bit back a smile. There wasn't a whole lot they could do to her since she still planned to leave once things were handled.

Justine ended the call, pulling up the information on her computer to dig into all of the history of UL-23.

"I take it your expertise isn't in simple missing or abducted kid cases?" Tyler said, pulling her attention back towards her. "Is it?"

"No, it's not," she answered him, and he nodded, his eyes holding hers seeing more than she needed him to see in this moment—far more but it was comforting in a way for it to be out finally. Even if it was just the tiniest hint of it.