Free Long Lost by David Morrell Page A

Denver? Kate’s father was breathing so fast that he sounded like he was going to have a heart attack.
    “Stay put,” I said. “All we can do now is wait.” I had a terrible mental image of Kate’s father rushing to get to Denver, losing control of his car, and plummeting down a gorge. “You can wait just as easily at home. I’ll let you know the instant I learn anything.”
    Setting down the phone, I took a deep breath, then noticed Webber and Pendleton at the entrance to the kitchen.
    “What?” I asked.
    “We just got a call from the Wyoming state police,” Webber said.
    I braced myself.
    “A woman from Casper’s been reported missing. Saturday evening, she was en route from visiting her sister in Sheridan, which is about a hundred and fifty miles north of where she lives.”
    “You think my brother carjacked her?”
    “The timing fits. Just after dark, she would have approached the rest stop where the Wyoming state police found your wife’s Volvo. If the woman had to use the rest room …”
    Inwardly, I flinched as I imagined Petey coming at the woman and how terrified she must have been.
    “She was driving a 1994 Chevy Caprice,” Pendleton said. “Apart from the fact that she was driving alone, her abductor probably singled her out because that type of car has a large trunk. He kept heading north. The Wyoming police gave the license number to the police in Montana, who found the Caprice at a rest stop on Interstate Ninety near Billings.”
    “Were my wife and son …”
    “With the Caprice? No.”
    Something about Pendleton’s tone made me suspicious. “What about the woman who owned it?”
    He didn’t answer.
    “Tell me.”
    Pendleton glanced at Webber, who nodded as if giving permission.
    “Her body was in the trunk.”
    “Dear God.” I didn’t want to know, and yet I couldn’t stop from asking, “What did Petey do to her?”
    “Tied her hands and covered her mouth with duct tape. She”—Pendleton’s voice dropped—“had asthma. She choked to death.”
    Thinking about the woman’s desperate struggle to breathe, I could barely concentrate as Webber explained that Petey could have driven the Caprice from Casper, Wyoming, to Billings, Montana, that same night. He’d presumably carjacked another vehicle at the Billings rest stop. As the driver got out of the car to go to the bathroom, Petey would have lunged from the shadows.
    I imagined how horrifying it would have been for Kate and Jason, pressed next to the dying woman in the dark, the air foul, feeling her thrash, hearing her muffled choking sounds, her frenzied movements, her strangled gasps slowing, getting weaker, stopping.
    “It’s never going to end,” I managed to say.
    “No, we could be close to boxing him in,” Pendleton said. “You predicted right. He was headed to Montana. Probably back to Butte. Billings is on the interstate that leads there. The local police don’t have any criminal record for someone named Peter Denning. But they’researching for a man who matches this guy’s description, especially that scar on his chin. The driver of the most recent vehicle he carjacked will soon have somebody report him or her missing. Once the Butte police get the make and license number of the vehicle, they can narrow their search. Meanwhile, they’re checking motels and any other places they can think of where your brother might be able to hide your wife and son. Butte’s not a big city. Believe me, if he shows himself, he’ll be spotted.” “But what if Petey senses the danger and leaves?” “We thought of that. The Montana state police have unmarked cars along the interstate, watching for any white male in his thirties who’s driving alone. As soon as the FBI processes his fingerprints, we’ll have a better idea of who we’re dealing with. The way he operates, he’s had practice. He’s probably got a criminal record, in which case the feds will come up with a recent mug shot we can distribute.”

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