Because the smartphone had been in standby mode, the battery life had been conserved long enough for them to determine the exact GPS coordinates of the device. And the truck.
Within hours, a tactical team had been assembled and converged on the location.
Olivia knelt in the thick shade that pooled beneath the trees at the clearing’s edge and scanned the scene. Thirty yards away, the blue truck was parked next to an old cabin with a green metal roof that drooped over a covered porch. The building’s darkened windows gazed out like hollow eyes at the thick forest that crowded it on every side.
Her attention lingered on the truck for a long moment.
“You okay?” Benner said at her side. He was clad in a black Kevlar vest and held a 9mm by his side.
“I’m fine.”
They’d staged their operation from the main road and moved on foot to avoid drawing attention. The plan was simple: Olivia and Benner would enter the front with Asheville SWAT and secure the cabin. Local FBI assets would provide secondary support on the exterior. Speed was the key, which is why they were moving now, with the sun still high in the sky, not later. Every minute they waited was a minute wasted.
“Adam Three in position,” a voice crackled in her earpiece. The backup unit was in place.
“Copy that, Adam Three,” she whispered. She gave a nod to the captain of the SWAT unit. “Let’s roll.”
He motioned his team of five forward with Olivia and Benner bringing up the rear. Moving low and fast, they left the cover of the forest and angled toward the northeast corner of the cabin in single file, weapons raised.
Olivia’s pulse quickened with each step, her nerves raw and humming with adrenaline. They reached the edge of the cabin, rounded the corner, passed beneath the front windows in a low crouch as they closed the distance to the front porch.
The SWAT leader lifted a clenched fist as they approached the front stairs, bringing everyone to a silent halt.
Olivia’s eyes flicked from the door to the window. No movement that she could see. She scanned the clearing, half expecting the man to make a run for the truck. But there was no sign of the man, no sign that they’d been seen.
We have to move . . . we have to move . . .
After a breath, the man motioned forward with two fingers. One of the men broke rank and climbed the steps with a black battering ram at his side. In unison, the others followed close as he crossed the porch and, in one smooth motion, swung the metal ram.
It connected with a loud boom that rattled the cabin’s front windows. The force of impact nearly knocked the door from its hinges as it swung open violently.
The man stepped aside, dropped the ram and drew his weapon as the others rushed past him and into the cabin.
Olivia entered the dimly lit cabin close on the SWAT unit’s heels.
Weapon leveled, she crossed the room, eyes sweeping right to left as she went. The main room was empty. Daylight filtered through the grimy windows and the tang of woodsmoke and bacon hung on the air. Her focus clicked through the surroundings, registering every detail as she moved toward a narrow hallway straight ahead.
To the left: a dinette with two wooden chairs and a small kitchen.
To the right: a brown couch and two chairs gathered around a large crate used as a coffee table. Beyond it, a fireplace with a heap of gray ash.
She pulled up in the hallway as SWAT kicked in the door on the right and two men rushed through, weapons snugged against their shoulders. The fast rustle of bodies and gear. Boots clomping against the hardwood floor.
“Clear!” the voice came from inside the room.
The remaining officers turned their attention to the rickety door on the opposite side of the hallway. Forced their way in without hesitation. Two seconds later it too was declared clear. Empty. Then the next room: a bathroom.
Olivia angled into the first room. She stopped, eyes searching. A small bed covered with a tattered quilt. A pillow with a teddy bear, one eye missing, on top of it. A single window—bars on the exterior.
But no Alice. They were gone.
“Get forensics in here! I want every inch of this place searched. She’s a smart girl, she might have left something behind for us.”
Benner stood in the doorway with his gun at his side. “You got it.”
“And gather the others. Our guy’s made a run for it.”
6
AN INVESTIGATIVE team comprised of thirty-two local police and FBI agents gathered in front of the cabin as the whump of a circling helicopter filled the air. Two men held a large map of the area as Benner spoke.
“The only tire marks coming or leaving the cabin are the truck’s. That means he didn’t drive out of here. The K-9 unit picked up Alice’s scent in the house and followed it to two sets of fresh tracks leading into the woods on the south side of the property. Our guy left on foot, and he may have left under cover of night. We don’t know.”
He drew a line with his finger from the cabin’s location to the flowing green contours of the mountains. “There’s nowhere else for him to go, but along this ridge or over it. Search Group Three is staged here.” He pointed to a location to the south. “They will sweep north and converge with the teams departing from here. If our perpetrator’s in the area we’ll box him in. We don’t know how much of a head start he has, but he’s got Alice in tow, so he’ll be slower than us.”
He looked at Olivia. “Local police has eyes in the sky providing support. If our guy’s still in the area, we’ll get him. Special Agent Strauss will coordinate Search Group Two and Captain Richardson with Asheville PD will oversee Group One. Any questions?”
The group was restless, but no one spoke.
Olivia scanned the team. “This is our best chance, folks. Remember, we don’t know what this man is capable of or what his mindset is. We have to assume he’s armed and willing to harm Alice if he gets pinned down. Be smart; I don’t want her hurt.”
They watched her without responding—she was saying nothing they didn’t already know.
“Let’s go.”
The group broke up, each team forming up and setting out from the clearing with their assigned task.
Olivia stood for a long moment, studying the squat cabin, which now stood vacant and lifeless. The CSI team meticulously processed the blue truck sitting next to it.
Judging by the contents of the trash bag Forensics found behind the cabin, the perpetrator had kept Alice here for several days, likely since the night of the abduction. Question was, when had they left?
She turned from the cabin and hurried to join the search.
Hold on, Alice. Just hold on a little longer.
7
Day Six 5:37 pm
LOUISIANA. That’s all I knew. Because Wyatt had blindfolded me and asked me to lie down on the front seat for the last four hours of the drive.
He’d kept me at the cabin in the woods for three days, just as he’d said he would. I felt like I was living in a strange dream most of the time. Sometimes, like when I thought about how he’d taped Louise up and put her in the closet, it felt like a nightmare, but mostly it felt like we were just pretending. And most of that was because of Wyatt.
He was a moonshiner, he said, and being in the woods was home to him. He was perfectly happy living on a diet of eggs, bacon, sausage, white bread, peanut butter, boiled cabbage, pork, milk, an occasional Snickers bar (which was a real treat for him), and a slug of moonshine now and then, though he was careful not to drink too much. He said it could make you go silly in the head.
But it wasn’t only that Wyatt was at home in the woods; he didn’t seem to have a care in the world apart from making sure that I was safe and comfortable. Not once did he talk about any concern that the authorities might find and take me, or the trouble he might be in for kidnapping me. He was only thrilled that he’d succeeded in rescuing me, as he kept putting it.