When it All Falls Down: Gateway Investigations, #5

By Clara Kendrick

This is the fifth book of the Gateway Investigations series containing 49,000 words of romantic suspense.

 

Letting my wife divorce me was probably the stupidest thing I ever did. I would never say that out loud though, and I'll deny it if anyone asks. Colleen is an amazing woman. I just wish she would stay out of the way and let me use every resource at my fingertips to find our daughter. Does the woman not understand that the city is a powder keg and we're running around out there with matches? I know what to do. I know where to look. I've got a crack team of investigators and I've assembled all the specialists I could ever want. In the end though, it's going to take both of us to find our little girl…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clara Kendrick
• Release date: Sep 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9798224750344

Clara Kendrick

Discover the captivating world of Clara Kendrick's romantic suspense. With her masterful storytelling and skillful blend of intrigue, romance, and passion, Kendrick draws readers in and keeps them hooked until the very end. Get ready to be swept away by her thrilling and steamy tales of love and suspense. Signup and follow at: Books2read.com/ClaraKendrick Facebook.com/AuthorClaraKendrick

Book preview

Prologue

The darkness was complete. It felt oppressive and overly warm. The air was sticky. Her skin was damp and she felt heavy headed. There was a deep throbbing ache that seemed to permeate her body. She tried to lift her hand, but couldn’t. It felt as though there was a lump on the back of her skull. Was she tied up? Why? And where the hell was she?

Shawna Pulaski-Handler tried to breathe deeply. Her ribs hurt. That wasn’t important right now. She blinked. Her eyes were open. There was nothing to see and there didn’t appear to be any kind of blindfold in place. Okay. Check.

Wriggling a little, she realized that she was sitting on something cold and hard. It felt a bit like damp cement. A garage maybe? A few other possibilities nipped at the edge of her consciousness. Maybe it wasn’t a garage at all. Maybe she was in a pit. Perhaps she was buried deep underneath the ground. She could not get that notion out of her mind.

There was sound. It took her a few moments to realize that she could hear water dripping. This felt subterranean. Was it? Was she really stuck underground? Panic threatened to overtake her cool logic. She didn’t want to call out. Common sense suggested that wasn’t a good idea until she knew her situation. There was no reason to alert...well, whoever that she was awake.

Awake. What was the last thing she remembered? Squeezing her eyes closed, she forced her fuzzy brain to focus. She recalled a loud crash. There had been fire and shouting. People had been marching on the justice center waving signs in the air. It was a scene from some bad movie. They had been running. She had been with her father and her mother. She had been with friends. They had been sitting in front of the café across the street from the justice center when the whole scene seemed to explode.

That was it! She had been running. Everyone was running in pairs. Shawna had been alone. She was always alone now. The pressure of tears caught her by surprise. She should not cry. She should not allow herself to fall apart. She had to keep it together.

Jackson.

Her husband was in jail. That was why this was happening. It was why the world was burning down and everything felt as though it were falling apart. It was falling apart. Jackson was in jail for rape. For murder. They thought that he had killed thirteen people.

Shawna began rocking back and forth on the hard concrete. She pressed her lips together so hard that she thought they might never open again. She wanted to cry. She wanted to sob and scream and rant that it wasn’t fair. Her husband hadn’t done those things. He had been accused and charged by a man who wasn’t even alive anymore. A judge who had since stepped down had signed the order, but Jack still remained behind bars. The world was insane and she was stuck in the middle of it.

There was a new sound. Shawna stopped rocking. She held her breath. What was this? What was happening now? What was going to happen? Closing her eyes once again, she tried to imagine what she was hearing. The thunk of something hard on concrete. A bag maybe? A sack full of something heavy. Yes. A body?

I know you’re awake.

That voice. Shawna knew that voice! She struggled to place the sound in the darkness. Without a face she could not place who it was she was hearing. They were familiar. She knew that much, but from where?

The man−because it was most definitely a man−did not seem to need her response to continue talking. You can be awake. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. You can hear. I left your ears on purpose, you know.

He left her ears? Shawna began doing a wild mental inventory. Was she missing something else? Her head hurt, but her hands and feet seemed to be present. She wasn’t missing a finger. Her eyes were there even if she was blind in the darkness.

She started to relax. Perhaps he was just playing a mind game. People like him did such things. They thrived on mind games and lies. That was how they worked. The power was what they craved. Shawna would not give it to him. She would not give in.

Do you hear this?

Shawna bit down hard on her upper lip to keep from reacting as the soft sound of a whimper reached her ears. It wasn’t animal. It was human. It was plainly human. Oh God. What was he doing?

She’s not as pretty as you are, but she’s the same as the others. She’ll do. There was another soft whimper. You can listen while I have her. I’ve never had an audience before.

So familiar. Who was this person? The voice was slightly raspy. It was definitely male. The age was impossible to ascertain. There was a childlike quality to the word choice, but that was the psychosis and not the physical reality of the speaker.

Yes. Scientific forensic information. That was what Shawna needed to survive this. She could not think about what was happening across the room−the pit−wherever she was. She could not think about it. If she did she would go mad.

They all think they’ve caught their killer, the voice went on. They’re so arrogant, but I’m smarter than they are. I’m smarter than all of you. They want me to stop you know. But I’m not going to. Why would I? Stopping would mean quitting. And I’m not a quitter.

Shawna tasted the coppery tang of blood in her mouth. Her lip had split. She didn’t care. It didn’t matter. She had never believed that Jackson was guilty of the crimes he had been charged with. Now she knew beyond doubt that someone else was not only responsible, but wasn’t done committing crimes.

A sharp yelp from across the room made Shawna cringe. She did not want to listen. Unfortunately it was impossible not to hear.

Chapter One

Mitch Pulaski paced back and forth in the conference room of his office suite. A few feet outside the door he could see the unoccupied front desk. It was empty because his daughter Shawna should have been sitting there. She had run his office with a steady hand since he’d opened Gateway Investigations nearly ten years before. Shawna had barely been out of her teens. Between psychology classes at Saint Louis University, she had answered phones and returned calls. She had scheduled his appointments and kept him going in the right direction for years.

Mitch, you have to stop castigating yourself. The voice of reason belonged to his ex-wife and Shawna’s mother, Colleen. It’s not helping matters any.

Mitch turned and glared at Colleen. She was sitting at the conference table with a serene look of composure on her face. She was always fucking composed. It drove him crazy. How could one woman always seem to have it all together? Shawna had been missing for almost twelve hours now. He was waiting for the rest of his investigative team to get to the office so that they could try to... Hell, he didn’t even know what they were doing anymore.

She’s missing, Colleen, Mitch said sharply. "Our daughter is missing. That’s a big deal. You know?"

I know it’s a big deal. But there is nothing to be gained by your pacing and growling to yourself. You always do this. Colleen pulled out her smartphone and began scrolling through the contents of what he assumed was her newsfeed.

Oh I see! Mitch smacked his hands flat on the tabletop. At least Colleen flinched. Of course that just made him feel badly because he was behaving like a total lunatic. So I should just sit there like a bump on a log and ignore what’s going on?

I didn’t say that. She glared at him over the top of her phone.

Colleen was still the most beautiful woman that Mitch had ever seen. She had a special sort of class and grace in the way she carried herself and the way that she interacted with others. With her shoulder-length pale blonde hair and willowy figure, she was an older version of Shawna. He had never found another woman who could pull off the sort of elegance that Colleen seemed to have in spades.

Things are not going well here in the justice center, Colleen murmured. They’ve contained the riot, but the protestors are still massing. I think there were thirteen arrests. The news outlets are suggesting that this is about to blow up like the riots a few years ago too.

There’s no racial element this time, Mitch muttered. Hopefully that will keep things from being blown completely out of proportion.

I don’t think that’s going to help anything. Colleen looked up from her phone. You have a television in here. Why don’t you just watch the live feed? It would be easier.

Mitch shrugged. I don’t care about that. I only care about my daughter.

Colleen shook her head and tried to cut Mitch some slack. The guy had been carrying an emotional load that would have flattened other men. He had always been stronger than the usual suspects. It had been the one trait to draw her to Mitch in the first place. Mitch Pulaski was a man who got things done no matter what the odds were or what got in his way.

Right now he was the one getting in his way and it was driving Colleen out of her mind. It wasn’t like she wasn’t worried about her daughter. Shawna was the only thing that kept Colleen going on some days. Then her wonderful daughter had married a terrific young man. Colleen had been worried as hell about empty nest syndrome. Even though Shawna had been on her own for years now, Colleen worried that being married would take up so much of her daughter’s time. Then the world seemed to have tilted on its axis and all of a sudden Colleen’s son-in-law had been accused of rape and murder. Jack was now sitting in jail and Colleen could not help but wonder what had gone so very, very wrong.

The team should be here, Mitch growled. He was looking at the clock on the wall as though it had done him a grave wrong. Where the hell are they?

They’ll be here. I thought you said that yourself. Colleen tried to stay focused. Finally she heard the elevator door ding. Thank God! The team would be here and Mitch could be their problem. At least they were getting paid to worry about him. He had stopped paying her spousal support a decade ago, so that just didn’t apply to her anymore.

What are you doing? Adam Fielding strode into the conference room and reached immediately for the remote control sitting exactly where Shawna always kept it. Turn on the television!

The flat screen clicked on and a picture appeared. The sound was loud and it immediately caught Colleen’s attention. The reporter was speaking in a tense tone with excess inflection that immediately gave a sense of urgency. "The young woman was reported missing less than twenty-four hours ago, but since she was abducted in daylight from a sidewalk the authorities are asking for anyone who might have seen something to contact the tip hotline immediately. Please. This young woman was abducted at gunpoint by an unknown assailant in the middle of the day..."

We never reported Shawna missing! Mitch burst out. What the fuck are they talking about?

Adam swung around to face Mitch. Beside him, Dr. Harley Seward, a local psychiatrist, was gazing at Mitch as though she thought he might need some chemical intervention.

Mitch, Harley said in the careful voice she probably used for overwrought patients. Can you explain to us what you’re talking about? This news story is about a young woman named Gayle Valdez.

What? Mitch gaped at the TV.

Colleen felt her belly turn sour as she saw the photograph the flashed across the screen. Oh God, Colleen murmured. Another woman went missing.

Who’s missing? Adam demanded.

About that time the rest of the Gateway Investigations team poured out of the elevator and piled into the conference room.

Colleen cleared her throat. It was apparently left up to her to be the coherent one. Fantastic. Shawna went missing when we all ran from the justice center this morning. It’s now−she stared at the clock−thirteen hours later and we have no idea where Shawna is. She hasn’t answered calls or texts. She hasn’t attempted to make contact. Not even Jackson has heard from her. Colleen did not add that Jackson Handler Junior was now locked in solitary because he had become absolutely distraught at the idea that someone had abducted his wife in conjunction with his bullshit case.

Mitch stared at Colleen. She was struggling, he could tell. What was wrong with him that he couldn’t manage to keep it together for her? He took a deep breath. He needed to do better.

Mitch turned to face the television and tried like hell to focus. So basically this young woman and our Shawna were taken roughly at the same time.

Adam nodded grimly. It seems that way.

Harley looked as though her mind were working at a million miles a second. She paced around and around Adam. If Mitch were Adam, he would have been going nuts. But for some reason the two of them seemed to work really well together.

Finally Harley stopped pacing and looked around the room. "Let’s say that we go with the notion that Jackson Junior is not our killer. She raised her hand to stem the flow of snorts, derisive comments, and eye rolls. I realize we all know this, all right? Sheesh! Just humor me."

Fine. Mitch waved his hand to urge her on. Time is wasting.

If we say that the killer is still out there, then we have to go with the typical sociopathic profile of a serial killer which suggests that this individual is not going to just stop.

You make a good point, Juliet Tierney was nodding. "Think about it. The guy isn’t going to care if someone else is in the middle of a frame-up job. It’s never seemed like the killer is trying to frame Jack Junior for the murders. It’s like someone else is protecting him. Some corporate entity, or maybe a family member or something."

Exactly! Harley pointed at Juliet. So what’s going to happen when the killer loses the limelight?

Mitch felt his desperation rising as everyone else seemed to be getting excited. But it was Colleen who spoke next. So you’re suggesting the killer could have abducted both a new victim and Shawna?

Yes. Harley pursed her lips together in thought.