Chapter Twenty-Five

B etween the search for Alasdair’s shipment and the hour-long drive back through the rain that only began to let up when they left, Olivia felt like she and Brock had wasted a whole day. The sun was beginning to set by the time they blew past the sign that read Welcome to Cape Fremont. Olivia didn’t feel very welcome, and knowing what they knew now made her want to warn off anyone who ever wanted to visit this town again, particularly the teenagers. She felt fatigue weighing her eyes down, the bags forming under her eyes indicative of a day spent with exhaustion being the only result of her and Brock’s work that day.

“We’re here,” Brock assured both her and himself as he passed the sign. The traffic bunched up in the lanes again as they moved through the town, and Olivia clawed her fingers through her hair. “We had to come right at the end of rush hour.”

“We’re going to make it.” Brock took over being the positive one. Olivia appreciated how they balanced each other out, leaning on one another for the positivism they needed. Even though the situation looked bleak, Olivia refused to give up hope. It hadn’t quite been twenty-four hours yet and she believed what every agent, officer and detective was told: the first twenty-four hours were crucial, the highest chance of finding a missing person. After that, the chances started to dwindle.

She relied on Sheriff Billy Carter to put out the Amber Alert and for Susanna’s picture to be shown all over social media, but was it enough? If Alasdair, Alana, or anyone else was a trafficker, they knew how to keep their victims hidden. Which is why they were going to see this person that Brock insisted could help.

Brock pulled into the parking lot of the sheriff’s office so fast that his tires gave a little squeal. “Sorry,” He muttered. “Just trying to get there.”

“It’s fine,” Olivia shook her head. She knew Brock wasn’t a reckless driver, but he knew when to hasten. Right now, this was just a stop, a stepping stone to get where they needed to be. Olivia viewed it as a bridge, but one that would easily collapse and prove to waste more of their time. All of their hopes of gaining some ground in this search rested on this one visit.

She and Brock got out of the car. The rain had dulled to a mist that danced in the air, threatening to bring fog the next morning but hopefully no more rain. Olivia pushed the buzzer next to the door and waited for what felt like an eternity before the voice answered.

“Can I help you?”

“We’re with the FBI, here to have a meeting with a suspect.”

The door unlocked, allowing Olivia and Brock to slip through before it sealed shut behind them. Olivia had called Billy ahead of time from the road, informing him that they needed to talk to Josh Gallegos as soon as possible. Josh wasn’t going to be thrilled about any of this, and Olivia felt torn between trying to establish a better relationship with him or playing tough. Right now, she just wanted answers. Every second that ticked by was a second that Susanna was slipping away from them, possibly to join the rest of the kids from this town that had never been found.

They found Josh in his usual belligerent state, his knee bouncing up and down again, slumped in the chair. His only greeting was another sigh and roll of his eyes.

Olivia didn’t care. She abandoned the idea of trying to be friendly with him. That would take too long. She didn’t even sit.

Brock leaned his palms on the table, leaning into Josh’s space with eyes wide with intensity. “Josh.”

He kept his eyes lowered on the table, refusing to look up. His closed-off behavior didn’t deter Brock at all.

“We need to know where you got those drugs.”

“I told you.” Josh snapped up to meet Brock’s gaze, fire blazing in his eyes. “I found them outside a building.”

Brock’s palm met the table with a jarring noise that nearly startled Olivia. “ What building? ” Brock demanded, all the fight blazing right back in his eyes. “Is it here local?”

Josh broke off eye contact with Brock, choosing instead to look at the table. And shrugged.

Olivia didn’t have time for this! Nor did she feel like putting up a fight. After seeing his shut-down behavior in regard to Brock’s demands, she entertained the idea of the quieter approach. One that sparked an idea when she laid eyes upon his moon and star tattoo snaking around his neck.

She scooted the chair out, the sound slamming into the isolated walls of the interrogation room, and seated herself across from the one who could possibly give them any answers at this point. She lowered her voice to an almost motherly tone, wondering if she could break through to the kid that way. “Josh? ”

“What?”

“I know you’re into astrology.” She had long abandoned the idea of a cult, but she attacked this angle nonetheless. “Your stars are out of alignment with all of this anger and shouting.”

The phrase caught the kid’s attention and he slowly raised his eyes from the table to meet hers. She had his attention. She gave him a soft smile, attempting to soothe her voice even further. Something zen. Maybe she wasn’t very good at it, but she could put on a show. “I know you’re angry, but isn’t it more mindful and centered to simply recognize that emotion rather than let it control you?”

“What are you, my yogi?” Well, that was better. A little bit of the bass was out of his tone, though not the sarcasm. She was at least getting somewhere and she wouldn’t stop until she broke through to him.

“No, see, that’s where none of this is going to work out.” Olivia leaned back, taking in a deep breath that emphasized the rise and fall of her chest. “Doesn’t your spiritual practice teach you to respond with compassion, rather than aggression? I know you’re angry. We’re angry, too. But I’m calm. You can see I’m calm. So if you really want your stars to be in alignment, and you know what I mean, you might as well start acting like it.”

She hurled an accusation at him. She believed in kooky astrology stuff about as much as she believed that Alasdair was a good guy, but she played to his side. And it worked. Josh’s shoulders and chest rose, then fell again with a sigh. When he spoke again, his voice was calm.

“Why do you want to know?”

Brock took a seat beside Olivia and threw one stunned look at her before looking back at Josh. She could almost read what he was thinking: Way to go, Olivia. She kept going, keeping her voice controlled, though she wanted to raise it with the intensity that pounded inside of her. Everyone was calm. Great. Susanna was still missing .

She realized that the chances of Josh being involved were slim to none, having been in custody during the time of her disappearance. Whether or not he was involved somehow with the other kidnappings or disappearances, surely he knew Susanna and what a wonderful girl she was. Olivia started again. “Susanna Webster is missing.”

The calm began to dissipate as his eyebrows raised. He sat back, clearly trying to keep himself composed, and folded his hands, a pile of fingers on the table. “Susanna?”

“Yeah.” Brock had cooled off enough to calm his own voice down.

“She went missing this morning,” Olivia informed him. She noted how his behavior was nothing short of shocked, but the kind of shock that came with expectation. She couldn’t make sense of it, so she kept talking. “Josh, if you know something about it, please. You’ve got to tell us.”

All the fight leaked from his eyes. His gaze dropped to his folded hands as his right thumb stroked his left. Pondering, he sounded defeated and half-whispered. “Susanna?”

Her name wasn’t spoken in love, but rather, respect. Everyone probably loved Susanna, romantic interest or not.

“Yes.” Brock pressed. “ Now do you happen to remember where you got those drugs? This is important. It could help us locate her.”

If there was a clock in the room, the ticking would have driven Olivia insane. It was as if she was hyper-aware of every second being dragged out to an hour in the time it took Josh to fully process if he wanted to come clean or not. Olivia shot a look at Brock, raising her eyebrows and warning him to remain as calm as she did. If he dared to flare his temper again or show any aggression with the kid, the progress they’d made with him might shatter.

Finally, he worked up the courage to let go of whatever was keeping him back and his voice came through clenched lips, a murmur. “The warehouse. ”

Finally! An answer. Olivia fought the urge to shout for joy. “What warehouse?”

Josh never made eye contact, but his behavior told her he wasn’t lying. In fact, it was almost like he was unleashing a burden from his shoulders, something he’d wanted to say but couldn’t for whatever reason. “There’s this warehouse, farther inland. It’s just barely outside city limits. It’s one of those eight-to-five deals where the employees split the second it hits quitting time. No one is ever around after six, no one , so it’s a spot where a lot of kids go besides Breakers. Only for more of an edgy kind of fun than what Breakers has.”

“I gather that,” Olivia said out loud. Nothing good could possibly happen at a place like that after hours with a group of teens.

“Me and some of the guys were hanging out there one time. We weren’t doing anything really wrong, no graffiti or anything, just... well, maybe share a couple drinks.”

Nothing really wrong. Sure. A reason not to tell them where they found the drugs, lest they get in trouble for underage drinking. Which was a lot less than any kidnapping charge, which he seemed to understand now. “Go on.”

“This was on Sunday night, around sunset. Last week, obviously. None of us were ready to go back to school, so we were having kind of a pre-weekly party. We didn’t want to get caught by being out too late, so we started back around seven-thirty. We were going to go get some food at Breakers to sober up, you know? Mila never asks questions.”

Of course she didn’t. And that’s why six underage kids were “helped” to a better life. Olivia nodded. “Go on.” He was telling his story like a novel, but if it helped them find Susanna and understand more details, she’d take what she could get.

“You know how it is when you’ve been drinking.” A small laugh burst from his lips. “Heh. You gotta look down, watch where you’re going. ”

“Yeah, the world gets kinda funny, doesn’t it?” Brock related. “It feels a little unstable.”

“Yeah.” Josh sniffed, finally unclasping his hands to run a finger under his nose. “Well, I was looking down, watching where I was going. and I saw the packet lying there. There were some tire tracks in the gravel outside of the warehouse, there’s kind of a back alley road that leads to the back and it hasn’t been paved yet. That’s where the tire tracks were, and the packet was in the tracks. Looked like it fell from a car or something. I picked it up and it was pretty obvious what it was.” He chortled another laugh and looked up at Brock with eyes heavy with confession. “Like you said. ‘This isn’t powdered sugar,’ huh?”

Brock nodded, his face grave. “Right.”

“But the place, it was creepy, man.” Josh’s gaze gained a far-off look, as if he were reliving some haunted memory or something that goaded him like a thorn stuck in his sneaker. “The same day that I found the drugs in the tire track, there was some yelling going on inside the building.”

Well, that took a different turn. Olivia felt herself perk up, latching onto that. “Yelling?”

“Yeah, yelling.” Josh shook his head. “There was a girl screaming or something. I didn’t know what it was, but it scared me and my buddies, so we ran away.”

Brock’s fingers closed into a fist and Olivia could tell how he fought to keep himself in control as he asked, “Why didn’t you come forward with this information? If someone was screaming for help, they could have gotten help!”

Whoever it was, it was too late now. Sunday night, he’d said. If it was a girl screaming, was it possible that girl was Ellie? Between sunset and seven o’clock would have been the time she disappeared. If only one kid had come forward, this whole thing could have been stopped.

“I was scared.” For the first time, the cocky, confident young man that Olivia had come to know and dislike fell away into a teenager who didn’t know his place in the world. “I didn’t want to get discovered with the drugs or explain what I was doing out there.”

Olivia could pursue it. But there was one more pressing matter. She met Brock’s gaze and directed her attention to Brock. “Which warehouse was it?”

Josh sighed. “It said Crosby Inc on the side or something.”

Crosby. Of course. Olivia stood to her feet, scraping her chair back. Brock followed her. That was all they needed to hear. “Thank you, Josh.”