holding vigil until dawn appeared. His lonely vulnerability drew her across the room. They had less than an hour until the sun came up and everything that could be done had been done. Now they just had to wait for dawn.
His rigid stance told Madison more than words what a toll the past hours had taken on J.T. Susan might think he was holding himself together, but Madison knew it was a very fragile connection that any second could give way.
She came up beside him with her own mug nestled in her hands, relishing the heat that warmed her cold body. She faced the darkness and saw their reflections. He was only a few inches taller than her five feet eleven inches, but where she was slender, almost reed thin, he was broad shouldered and muscular.
Madison remembered J.T.’s two older children reluctantly agreeing to go home with Reverend Colin Fitzpatrick and his wife, Emma, to get some rest. She’d also seen the silent struggle waging within J.T. Did he allow his children to go or stay with him where he could keep an eye on them, possibly protect them from whomever had taken Ashley? J.T. was sure his youngest daughter had been kidnapped, and after going over what evidence they had, she agreed. Deep down it felt like an abduction.
She turned toward him, her arm brushing against his. The brief contact riveted her attention on him, causing a catch in her throat. “I’m glad the rain finally stopped a while ago.”
“Yeah.” J.T. sipped his coffee.
“Did you have a chance to talk with Colin when he picked up Kim and Neil?”
“Just a few minutes. He’s bringing my son back at dawn, so Neil can help with the search.”
“How about Kim? I want to talk to her again.”
“Emma will stay with her at Grace’s house. Between those two they should be able to—” he cleared his throat “—take care of her, keep her safe.”
“If I recall correctly, Grace was a drill sergeant in the army before she retired.”
“Yes. I have to know Kim’s in good hands or—” He worked his mouth but no other words would come out.
A tightness clogged her own throat. She put her mug on the windowsill and faced him. “Let us take care of everything. I don’t know how you’re keeping yourself together.” She reached out and touched his arm, wishing she could take his pain away, wishing she could do so much more.
His muscles tightened beneath her fingertips. His gaze bore into her. “No! My daughter is missing. I will bring her home.” His mouth firmed into a fierce expression. “You don’t need to worry about me falling apart. I won’t allow it. I have the most important job of my life to do and nothing will stand in my way.” His savage tone, directed more at the situation than at her, never rose above a loud whisper.
When he brought his mug to his lips, her fingers slipped from his arm, but not before she noticed the hand holding his coffee quivered slightly. “We all have a breaking point.”
Over the rim of his cup, he glared at her but didn’t say a word.
Determined to make him see he had his limits, she didn’t back down from him. “I’m available if you need someone to talk to. And I’m sure Colin is, too.”
“I know.” The hardness in his features melted some. “I know you’re worried, but don’t be. I haven’t been a sheriff of a small town all my career. I’ve seen bad situations before.”
“But none that involved your own family.”
A distant look flared in his eyes as though a memory surfaced, best left in the past. “I know what I have to do, Madison. I won’t fail Ashley.”
His professional facade, locked in place, shut down any further discussion about how this was affecting him. Madison drew in a calming breath. “Okay. Then let’s talk business for a moment. I see Eric Carlton on the list of people you interviewed, but nothing was written down under his name. Why?”
“Because we couldn’t find him. I have two deputies out looking for him right now. He’s the only person in Crystal Springs that has been convicted of a sex crime. He lives outside of town near the lake. One of the teams with a dog from the K-9 unit will be concentrating around his cabin.”
“Then he’s your prime suspect at the moment?” Although she felt out of the loop, she had to remember she was just one agent and could do only so much. For the past hours she had concentrated on going over what physical evidence they had, then looking at all the logs of the interviews so she could talk with each person and possibly discover something that could help the investigation.
“The only suspect at the moment unless you count all the people I’ve put away who are now out of prison. Your boss has one of your agents over at Carlton’s cabin waiting for him in case he decides to return home.”
“Do you think he will? Or will he flee?”
“I think he’s long gone. I put an APB out on him and his black Ford truck. Maybe we’ll get lucky and someone will pick him up.”
“How about any other sex offenders from the surrounding towns or Central City?” He flinched as she asked the question which had to be asked. The thought of a sex offender having Ashley terrified her, so she could imagine how J.T. felt.
“I have Rachel working on that.”
She studied his thoughtful expression, his creased forehead. “But you don’t think that’s it?”
He looked long and hard at her. “No. Someone came into my yard and took Ashley, probably through my back gate that leads to the woods and lake. It feels calculated to me.”
“So you’ll start the search at your back gate?”
“No, the swing set, although I think the trail will lead to the back gate. Our goal will be twofold. We’ll look for any evidence left behind and for a trail that leads to Ashley’s whereabouts.” His gaze shifted to the window. “Last night before it become totally dark, I checked out the immediate area by my gate. I didn’t see anything, but the shadows could have hidden something.”
Madison twisted around and saw the shift in the degree of darkness. “While you’re searching, I’m going to canvass your neighbors again, especially Mrs. Goldsmith. Maybe she’ll remember something about that car she saw pull out of the side street near your house. After that I want to talk with Kim.”
He squeezed his eyes closed for a few seconds. “She’s not taking this well. She blames herself. I’m hoping Colin can help her. He’s especially good with teens.”
“Are you blaming yourself?”
He stiffened. “Kinda hard not to. I think someone from my past has decided to make me pay for putting him behind bars. While working in Chicago, I received some threats, usually when the criminals had been convicted and were going to prison. They like to blame the cop who caught them rather than themselves.”
Her heart broke at the desolate expression on his face. “Is anyone making a list of people you caught who are now out of prison?” In Chicago when she’d jumped at the chance to return to Crystal Springs to help find J.T.’s daughter, she hadn’t realized how hard it was going to be to keep herself from becoming emotionally involved. Nearly impossible.
“Rachel.
