Free Vendetta by Lisa Harris Page B

fever . . . poison ivy . . . swollen mosquito bites. The next year my mom listened to me and sent me to computer camp, where I finally found my calling.”
    â€œYou’re in the parking lot of the visitor center.” Nikki laughed, shaking her head. “You’re not exactly roughing it yet, Jack.”
    â€œHe’s just allergic to the great outdoors,” Gwen said, coming around the front of the vehicle. “That, and he got stung by a yellow jacket at the last rest stop.”
    â€œThere’s nothing wrong with preferring a good sci-fi movie over a day in the pollen-filled, polluted air,” Jack countered, pulling down the foldout steps beneath the side door of the command post. “Especially considering I’m like a magnet to anything that stings, bites, or hisses.”
    â€œDo you need to take some kind of allergy pill?” Nikki’s amusement was quickly changing to concern.
    â€œNurse Gwen here has already doped me up with enough Benadryl and Tylenol for a dozen bee stings. And no, you don’t have to worry about me going into anaphylactic shock.” Jack sneezed. “You’ll just have to listen to that all day.”
    â€œYou’re lucky,” Gwen said. “My brother has to carry an EpiPen with him everywhere he goes.”
    â€œLucky? Yeah, I’m really feeling lucky today,” he said as they started setting up the command center.
    Ten minutes later, they were ready to brief everyone involved. Nikki made the introductions between the different agencies beneath the vehicle’s rolled-out roof awning. For the moment, they were looking at a joint search between the local park rangers and the Gatlinburg Police Department, with their task force leading the investigation.
    Nikki shoved aside the personal memories and held up the photo that had been bagged into evidence. “We’ve got a possible new lead on our abductor. This Polaroid is the same MO as that of the Angel Abductor, who terrorized East Tennessee in the early 2000s.”
    â€œWait a minute. Your sister’s case?” Gwen’s gaze narrowed.
    Nikki nodded.
    â€œCouldn’t it just be a coincidence?” Jack asked. “I thought he hadn’t struck for at least a decade.”
    â€œHe hasn’t and, yes, it’s possible that this is just a copycat. But if it’s not . . .” Nikki ran her fingers across the photo. Part of her wanted to believe that this was simply a coincidence. That whoever had taken Bridget was simply playing the role of a copycat. But the other part of her longed for a chance to bring her sister’s abductor to justice. Whatever that took.
    â€œCare to fill the rest of us in?” Anderson clutched the brim of his ranger hat between his fingers.
    â€œOf course.” Nikki ignored the knot in her stomach as she attached the photo to the dry-erase cabinet front on the outside of the truck. “Ten years ago, my sister went missing after school in a Nashville suburb. The police tied her disappearance to a serial abductor in East Tennessee who took at least six girls between 2002 and 2005. The media named him the Angel Abductor.”
    â€œI remember reading about that case.” Anderson stepped in front of the photo. “What do you know about him?”
    â€œPretty much anything you want to know.” She drew in a short breath. “I’ve memorized case files and spent the past ten years trying to track this man down.”
    â€œWell then, it’s a good thing the boss put you in as the lead in this case,” Jack said.
    Simpson, another park ranger, held up his pen. “Why did they call him the Angel Abductor?”
    â€œHis victims were all young girls with blond hair.” Nikki spit out the details matter-of-factly. All she had to do was keep to the facts and leave her personal connection aside. “He left Polaroids of them—like this one—at the crime scenes.