"A forest?" Tears streamed down Zoe's cheeks.
"What about the man who did this to her?" Jonathan asked Jasmine.
"Can you give me any details about him? Is it Master? Are we on the right track there?"
"I have no idea. I only know that this guy must seem normal or he would've stood out by now, drawn attention. He has a good job. He has a family. Something. He's no one you'd typically suspect."
"How can he have a family and get away with this kind of thing for days, weeks, months?" He knew it happened, but it still surprised him.
"It's easier than you might think. You heard about the man in Austria who kidnapped his own eighteen-year-old daughter and imprisoned her in a cellar for twenty-four years, didn't you?"
"Yes." That was a highly publicized case, one with a very sick twist: That same man had fathered seven children with the daughter.
"His wife had no idea. She believed him when he said their daughter had gone missing."
"That would be much less likely to happen in Rocklin, where we've got new houses built on small lots with no cellars."
"But it would be possible if the perpetrator hid his victims somewhere else," Jasmine suggested.
"Like out in the woods," he said grimly.
Had anyone he'd spoken to during the investigation been out of town recently? No. Except--
Suddenly, Jonathan remembered Colin telling him that Tiffany was at some cabin. She hadn't participated in the search on Saturday because she was gone.
His hand tightened on the phone. What was he thinking? He had to be jumping at shadows. Colin couldn't be Master because he and Tiffany were together whenever they weren't working. And they both had regular jobs that kept them tied to the city, except for a brief weekend getaway here and there. They couldn't keep someone hidden out in the forest. Besides, Colin was at work when Sam went missing.
But then a snippet of conversation he'd had with the deputy about Toby rose to his consciousness:
He wouldn't trust the man who first came upon him, so the guy got his wife, thinking a woman would be less threatening.
Did it help?
Not much. Toby would let her come closer, but dodge away before she could actually touch him, all the while crying for his mother.
Toby was equally frightened of the woman. Was that significant?
"You don't think it could be a...couple?" he said to Jasmine.
"That wouldn't be unheard of, either," she said. "Remember that husband and wife in Canada who victimized the wife's sister in addition to murdering two other girls?"
The odd circumstances surrounding the way Jonathan had found Zoe in that motel room made the idea seem more feasible. She'd just had dinner with Colin and Tiffany Bell....
But couples like the one in Canada or England's Hindley and Brady, who'd committed the Moors murders, were a rare exception in the criminal world. And if Colin and Tiffany were guilty of harming children, why wouldn't they maintain a lower profile? Why would they invite Zoe into their house? Help organize a search for Sam? Call Zoe on Mother's Day?
Because they thought it would make an effective cover?
Possibly.
Jonathan thanked Jasmine, told her to call if she came up with anything else and disconnected. Colin and Tiffany were a long shot, but he couldn't get them out of his mind. Partly because of Colin's involvement in the case since Sam's disappearance. A lot of criminals tried to insert themselves in the investigation of their own crimes....
He pictured Zoe's neighbor standing in the parking lot at Sierra College talking about how desperately they needed to find Sam. Was it all a charade? "How well do you know Colin and Tiffany Bell?" Jonathan asked Zoe.
"Not well," she said. "Hardly at all, actually, until Sam went missing."
Until Sam went missing. Those four words sent chills down his spine.
"You don't think they could've taken Sam...."
Shoving the hair away from her face, she scowled. "You're kidding, aren't you?"
"No."
She shook her head. "In the nine months we lived next to them, they paid very little attention to her. Colin has always acted more interested in me. And, like you said, he was at work the day Sam disappeared. I can't see Tiffany hurting anyone."
Zoe was probably right. There were other things that didn't add up, either. If Colin and Tiffany had Sam, why would they drug Zoe and remove her clothes only to dump her, unharmed, in a motel room? If the person who'd hurt Toby had another incapacitated victim, he would've taken advantage of it.
"I can't imagine Tiffany going along with the brutality of what happened to Toby," she added.
"Neither can I." He didn't want Zoe to feel she'd been betrayed by her neighbors if she hadn't. But Sam's kidnapper had to be close. And Colin and Tiffany lived right next door.
Chapter 32
The receptionist at Scovil, Potter & Clay was on the phone when Jonathan arrived, but she gave him a broad smile and held up a finger to indicate she'd be with him in a moment.
"You bet I'll tell him," she said into the phone. "Yes, sir, I always do.
Why...thank you. Maybe I'll let you hire me away." She laughed. "Okay, you, too."
Her smile lingered as she made a quick note on the telephone pad.
Then she removed her headset and glanced up. "Can I help you?"
"Yes, I--"
"Wait! I recognize you!" She managed to get out of her chair, but for someone her age--twenty-six or twenty-seven--it shouldn't have required so much effort. Those extra hundred pounds obviously weren't easy to lug around. "You were at the search on Saturday. For a minute, anyway. I have a good memory for faces. Not that a girl would be likely to forget yours," she added with a nervous chuckle.
He grinned, hoping to put her at ease. "I'm a private investigator. I--"
"I thought maybe you were a detective. With the police, I mean."
"No, I've been retained by The Last Stand, a victims' charity here in town, to find Samantha Duncan."
She sighed. "That is such a sad situation. I've been hoping and praying she'd be found safe. Have there been any breaks in the case?"
"None."
"Phooey!" She smoothed her hair, self-consciously fighting the static electricity caused by the headset. "So...you're here to see Colin?"
"Yes. Is he in?"
She nearly knocked a small stuffed dog off the file cabinet with her elbow but caught it before it could fall. "I'm afraid not."
"His car's in the underground parking," Jonathan pointed out.