Chapter Twenty-Two

“L et’s start with Susanna’s house.” Brock pushed the speed limit as his car sped toward the hotel. “We saw where she went.”

“If her dad is even there…” Olivia held onto the handle on the roof of the car, refusing to look away from the windshield and the dismal gray that painted the afternoon in appropriately gloomy colors. “Susanna said he’s never home.”

“Well, then we get a warrant and search her house.” The intensity in Brock’s voice only doubled, leaving no room for argument. Coming from the same man who had reminded Olivia that they weren’t here to help Susanna, they were here to find Ellie Cline and her band of missing teens, he had one focus on his mind at the moment. His focus fused with Olivia’s, and it became all about finding Susanna before she became another victim, lost and never found, with nothing but an epitaph and unanswered questions to honor her memory.

Brock pulled into the parking lot that led to Breakers Cafe. He shifted the car into park and killed the engine before Olivia could even unbuckle her seat belt. The parking lot of Breakers was swarmed with police cars, flashing lights indicating that they weren’t here for breakfast, and they were called out for some sort of emergency. Olivia got the feeling that they were here for the same purpose that she and Brock were. But how did they know about it so quickly?

“I guess they know about it, too?” Olivia mused before swinging her door open. A mist pelted her face as she stepped out, closing the door behind her. Hurried footsteps carried her and Brock to the door that faced the parking lot and Brock swung it open.

The entire atmosphere was no less stormy than the building supercell outside. Only a few guests lingered, but all eyes were on the police at the bar counter where Olivia and Brock had shared many a meal. Mila stood at the counter, eyes wide and pooling with terror. A man stood before her, the second one to yell at her in a week, only this one wasn’t Alasdair. The voice matched the angry tone they had heard yelling at Susanna the morning she was out enjoying her surf and his demanded questions removed all doubt as to who he was.

“Where is my daughter?” He slammed his hands down on the counter, causing Mila to jump and step back. “She’s always hanging out here, where is she?!”

“Sir.” The officer in charge pinned him with a tone of authority. “I’m going to need you to calm down and step back from the counter.”

“Not like I’m gonna hurt anyone!” The man spun around to face the officer. “I’m just tryin’ to find my daughter and y’all are just standin’ around useless! ”

“Sir, we are doing everything we can…”

The trained response was cut short by Susanna’s father slamming yet another fist down onto the counter. “No, you’re not! You’re here, talkin’ to me!”

Olivia and Brock approached the scene with caution. The officer in charge let his gaze flicker up to them. They took this moment to throw their cover to the wind and flash their badges. “We’re with the FBI.”

Mila gasped and her eyes widened even further. A hint of betrayal rained on her expression, but Susanna’s father shouted over any questions she might have asked.

“You guys don’t understand. My daughter is gone. This is serious. She took her surfboard !”

Oh, no. Had something happened to her early that morning? Perhaps she had gotten upset and went out to surf anyway, despite the stormy weather? What if she wasn’t a part of the missing teens, what if something else had happened? Olivia cast another glance out to the ocean but a red flag billowed on the flagpole to warn any beachgoers to stay out of the water while the storm was raging. Susanna was practically a pro surfer. She wouldn’t ignore the red flag warning and go out there anyway. But if she had taken her surfboard, that could only mean two things. She had either had enough and run away, or she had left with someone she trusted. And this close to that surfing competition, the latter option became the more likely.

Brock took over with a few questions. “Special Agents Brock Tanner and Olivia Knight. We’ll take it from here.”

The officer in charge stepped back and Susanna’s father faced them, his face beet red with rage.

“What’s your name, sir?”

“I’m not the one missing.”

Brock worked to control his anger. His jaw twitched but his voice indicated no hostility. “I’m aware of that, sir, but we need to ask you a few questions that will help us locate your daughter. Right now, we know just as much as you do, and by asking these questions, we’ll know more and have a better chance of finding her.”

“Fine.” The guy huffed a sigh and his arms folded over his chest. “Jim Webster. My daughter, Susanna, is missing.”

“When was the last time you saw Susanna?” Brock’s calm voice brought order to the chaotic scene.

“Last night, right before bed. When I woke up this morning, the house was unusually quiet. When she didn’t come out for breakfast, I went into her room to check on her. She wasn’t there. And her surfboard is missing. If you know Susanna, that’s huge. She loves that surfboard more than me.”

Maybe because you loved other things more than her? Ever think about that? Olivia kept her silent retorts to herself and let Brock do the talking.

“Is it possible that she was out surfing and maybe got caught in the storm?” Brock repeated the questions that Olivia had already dismissed.

“No. She never surfs in the storm. Not even after we fight.”

“Do you two fight often?” she asked. If Susanna wasn’t going to speak up about her abusive relationship with her parents, then Olivia would drag it out of her father with hard-hitting questions that left no mercy.

“I don’t see how that has to do with my missing daughter!”

Olivia placated him with an outstretched hand. “Sir, we’re just trying to gather details that might help us find her faster.”

“What, you think I killed her or something?” Jim exploded.

Mila gave a cry of distress and Olivia fought a sigh. “Does your daughter have any boyfriends or anyone she hangs out with other than her teenage friends?”

“No. She doesn’t have time for boys.” Jim folded his arms against his chest. Olivia was glad he didn’t pursue a demand for her to answer him. For all she knew, yes, he could have killed her. The man had a raging temper and this could be a nice little cover-up for the murder of his own daughter .

“Is she into any kind of spooky stuff that could be considered cultish? Astrology or anything like that?”

“No.” Annoyance infiltrated Jim’s sight.

“Don’t go anywhere,” Brock instructed him. “We’re going to find her.” He shouldn’t make promises, but he did. Olivia had made the same vow, only to no one but herself. “We just need to talk to a few people to get some more details. We’ll also need to see her phone and her laptop.”

“She doesn’t have a laptop. We could never afford that. And her phone is gone. I’m assuming she took it with her. Can’t y’all track it or something?”

“What’s her phone number?” Brock took out a pen and scribbled the ten-digit code that would lead to voicemail. Still, Olivia gave it a try. She dialed the number into her phone and pressed it to her ear. But instead of a series of rings, a squealing trill met her ears.

“ We’re sorry. The number you called cannot be connected. Please hang up and try again .”

“You’re sure this is her number?” Olivia hung up.

“You don’t think I’d know my own daughter’s phone number?”

Olivia had had enough of his sarcasm. “Well, you don’t know her well enough to know where she could have gone, so I wouldn’t put it past you.”

His lips clamped into a thin white line on his face, no doubt his attempt at keeping angry words from flooding through. Olivia gave up on him and turned to Mila instead. Mila was the definition of a hot mess, falling apart and hugging herself. Her face had been washed by tears and she worked to stifle her sobs. “Mila?”

She gasped in a breath that shook with sobs. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Olivia leaned on the counter. The reality became evident on Mila’s face. She didn’t have the look in her eyes that indicated she was innocent in the matter. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Her eyes betrayed her, telling Olivia that she knew exactly what had happened to Susanna.

“Brock and I need to talk with Mila alone,” Olivia instructed .

“Let’s talk outside.” The detective nodded to Jim, who flashed an angry look at Olivia for putting him in his place but followed them out without a word.

As soon as the officers and Jim had left, Olivia leaned all her weight on the counter and burrowed her gaze into the waitress who had been so helpful. Could it be that she was the one they were searching for all along? Not that Olivia was throwing the possibility of Alana Fleming out, but Mila obviously knew something. Maybe they were in cahoots, with Alasdair at their center? “Mila. I need to know everything you know.”

“I don’t understand.” Mila’s words barely made it through the hiccupped sobs that wracked her body. She clamped her arms around her stomach as if she wanted to make herself smaller. What didn’t she understand?

“Do you know anything about this?” The friendliness leaked from Brock’s tone, not unkindly but with a gravity that conveyed how serious this was. Olivia held her breath, willing the woman to speak honestly.

“Of course I don’t know.” More telltale signs of lying appeared on Mila’s face. Her eyes darted to the left and she simply could not stand still on her feet. “I just know she’s gone.”

“How did you know she was gone?”

“Her…” Mila waved her hand. “Her dad came in here, raving and ranting, demanding to know where she was.” She kept her gaze averted from Olivia’s as her lies continued to feed. “When I finally got him to calm down long enough to tell me what was wrong, he said she was missing. He blamed me and the people here at Breakers for it. I had to call the cops, he was out of his mind!”

He was out of his mind, there was no denying that, but there was no denying that Mila had known aside from the little visit from Susanna’s father. She leaned even closer, trying to get Mila to look up at her.

“Mila.” She pronounced her name with intention .

Mila’s red-rimmed eyes flickered up to meet Olivia’s and she froze, no doubt realizing that she was caught in her own web of lies.

“Talk to us.”

Her lip quivered and she took a quick breath, but Olivia cut her off before she had a chance to spill more lies. Mila wasn’t as vindictive or cruel as Alana had been; her lies seemed rooted more in fear than anything else. What was she hiding? Who was she hiding?

“We’re with the FBI.” Olivia dropped the cover of the newlywed couple entirely and laid out the situation in brilliant colors for her. “We’re investigating the missing teenagers that have been disappearing over the last while.”

Mila’s eyes grew wide with the realization and she stuttered a bit. “But... but Susanna... she’s not just a missing teen.”

So she did know something. That much Olivia had already figured out. Now that she’d admitted that much, it would hopefully be easy to extract the information from her to figure out where Susanna was. And possibly, a few of the other teens as well. She racked her brain, thinking over everything they knew so far. “Do you know Alana Fleming?”

Mila shook her head. “She’s a teacher at the school, right? I didn’t have any classes with her. Susanna and the other kids talk about her sometimes. She’s really popular with the students. Charismatic, lighthearted, you know. Really nice.”

She was to them. Brock and Olivia had seen an entirely different woman altogether. The angel face she showed to the kids was nothing more than a mask to cover up her true self.

Brock took the reins for a moment, getting straight to the root of the situation. “I need you to tell us everything you know about Alasdair Crosby.”

“Mmmph.” Mila’s lip quivered and two tears spilled down her face with no control. “Why?”

“We don’t believe he is who you think he is. ”

“What?” Mila sucked in a breath. The look on her face shattered as if Brock had just ripped every hope, dream, and good thing from her. “He’s... he’s a philanthropist.”

“Does Susanna know him?” Olivia asked, gravely.

“Look, just because he was yelling at me that day, that was a one-time deal.” Mila’s head shook so rapidly that Olivia wondered if she had given herself a headache because of it. “He’s not usually like that, he’s a great guy, he’s—”

She heaped defense after defense on her answer, but it didn’t answer their question. Brock lifted his chin ever so slightly, asserting authority. “Mila.” He assured her that he would not be taking “no” for an answer. “Does Susanna know Alasdair Crosby?”

The thickness of the defeat radiated off of Mila in strong, tangible waves that threatened to knock Olivia over. Mila had entangled herself in a web of lies and could go no further. Her shoulders sagged and the sigh racked from the depths of her soul. “Yes.”

Now they were getting somewhere. Olivia and Brock both found themselves leaning closer, eyes intent on whatever Mila was about to confess.

Mila took her time, which irked Olivia as she tried to be patient. Mila took her hair and gathered it into a ponytail between her thumbs to swing it over her shoulder. A shake of her head. She flattened her hands on the counter and looked into Olivia and Brock’s eyes with genuineness. “Alasdair is a good man. He’s been helping young people who have a rough home life find a better life and doing it anonymously because he doesn’t want the attention.”

Olivia felt her body tingle with a gripping numbness. Helping young people find a better life? Oh, Mila, are you really that naive?

“He found a surfing competition in Hawaii and he knows how much it meant to Susanna, so he offered her a way to get to that competition. If she won, he was going to help her establish her life there and live comfortably. She’s almost eighteen, time to be out on her own, anyway, so by the time the competition takes place, she’ll be ready to live by herself or with a roommate. She’ll be legal.”

Olivia felt each word as if it were a blow to her chest, her stomach. She released a pent-up breath she hadn’t realized she was holding as reality sank its talons into her. Gone. Susanna was gone. That surfing competition had been too good to be true, and this guy, Alasdair, had been using it as nothing more than a fishing lure to get her to run away with him. Only, she wasn’t going to Hawaii, now, was she?

For the first time, Olivia found herself almost too defeated to talk, to say anything in response. That was fine. Brock made up for it. Astonishment gripped him, countering her numbness as he blinked at Mila in shock. “You let a minor run away from home? To Hawaii ?”

“She’s almost eighteen!” Mila defended again as if that somehow made it okay. Presenting her case before them like a defense attorney would, she kept digging a deeper hole for herself. But in her eyes burned nothing more than concern for her dear friend Susanna. “She was in an abusive relationship with her dad and wouldn’t talk about it with anyone in authority, so Alasdair was going to help her get established in Hawaii doing what she loved. She has a chance at a new life!”

Yeah, she did. A new life she didn’t want. A new life that would make her old one look like she grew up as a princess of a peaceful kingdom.

Olivia released another breath through tightly closed-off lips. “So.” She drew out the word even as the conclusion came together in her mind. “Alasdair was that ‘friend’ that was going to help her get there.”

Mila nodded. “Yes.”

“And he was probably that ‘special someone’ she talked about, wasn’t he?”

Mila’s face fell. She didn’t cry, though she looked like she was struggling to keep the hurt from plucking tears from the corners of her eyes. She wiped at a sniff with her fingers. “He loves me.” The broken conviction with which she pronounced the words was enough to break her spirit. She really believed that he cared about her, didn’t she? Even after yelling in her face over that tattoo. Now that tattoo theory Olivia concocted made so much sense. But even after all of that, Mila was buying into his lies, hook, line and sinker. Oh, how he was playing her! “He said I was the only person who could help him with this.” Pride started to beam in her tone as if she were doing something good. “He said it was wrong for kids to be forced to live in bad conditions because of the laws stating otherwise, so he asked me to help him secretly give these kids a better life.”

In other words, something illegal. There was a reason it was illegal. Dread formed in the pit of Olivia’s stomach as she forced herself to ask, “How many kids are we talking?”

“We’ve helped about six, so far, over the past two years.”

Six? So there was another partner in crime. Probably Alana Fleming. She could deny knowing Alasdair all she wanted. Her defensive behavior and subtle signs of lying gave her away.

“He really is a good guy, he isn’t doing anything wrong!” Mila cried.

“Unfortunately, he is.” Brock brought her back down to earth with the grave reality. “No matter his motive, helping minors run away is, in fact, a crime.”

“But she didn’t want the life of social services getting involved, foster care…”

“It doesn’t matter.” Brock gave his head a single shake. “It’s still illegal. That’s human trafficking , Mila. Do you understand?”

Her jaw dropped. In that moment, Mila’s expression turned to fear as she realized how she was probably no less in trouble than Alasdair was, even though it appeared that she was doing what she did in innocence.

“Where is his shipping company? You said “out of Charleston?”

Mila seemed more than willing to answer Brock’s question now that she realized she was in trouble and nodded. “Yes. ”

“Let’s go.” Brock pivoted to leave the restaurant and Olivia shadowed his heels. She fought the gripping feeling that they were already too late.