Chapter 35

It seemed that we were going to take on board both of the jobs, though so far, I wasn't sure of just how much money was involved. I'd leave that up to Stanley because to be honest I didn't need anything. Ethan was going to be trying to chase down exactly where Alessi was which gave us time to work on finding out as much about Kirk Lawley's mother as we could. Lizbeth and I would be going to San Francisco to get first hand information but first we needed as much background info as possible.

That was what I was doing when Lizbeth interrupted my thoughts as I was taking notes from the search through newspapers that I'd done.

"What do you have Steph?"

I heard from Lizbeth as I finished putting together my notes.

"I worked from after the father died. There was nothing much for the first two years but then she started cropping up in the tabloids"

"That would have been when Kirk went away to university"

That made sense, she'd be on her own in a large house with not much to do.

"I found photos of her in the local papers, mainly attending functions and charity events. She seemed to have a different man with her each time but maybe they were old friends of her husbands. Then two years later she stopped attending that kind of event and she was seen at some high end parties"

Lizbeth looked over and smiled as though it coincided with what she'd found out.

"Yeah, she got arrested for drunk driving a couple of times and her name came up when a club was raided on a drugs bust. According to the searches she was living beyond her means, rang up debt but then seemed to calm down"

That to me sounded as though she had either been scared and withdrew from that life or she'd found herself something else.

"Her financials show that she used the same shops and salons. Maybe that's where we need to start. It also shows withdrawal of cash over time"

I was interested to know what she'd done with the cash. Our next course of action was to visit the area that she'd lived in, the shops and salons that she frequented. Maybe someone would remember what the rumors had been concerning Lilian Lawley.

I wasn't so much worried about being in San Francisco more about getting into the States. Travelling by air and through immigration didn't seem the best way to do it, especially as it was easy to track people through immigration and flight manifests. In the end we flew from Belize city up to Tijuana, Mexico. From there the easiest method to get to San Diego was to literally get a taxi to the border, walk over the border and then get another taxi up to San Diego airport when we could then finish our journey by flying up to San Francisco. Simple, you might think. The main problem that we were having was the timing because we had no idea how long it would take us to cross the border. I was worried enough about using one of those passports let alone having the stress of missing a flight. I opted to travel as Sophia Fernetti hoping that no one would pick up on the use of that name.

In the end Lizbeth booked a nights stop over in San Diego which I was grateful for. We'd have four days in San Francisco to find out as much as we could about Lilian and by then hopefully Ethan might have traced the email. Lizbeth was going to be talking to the son and canvassing the neighbors while I was going to be visiting the shops and salon. I decided that the salon was a more likely place to pick up information. Hell, that was where Grandma always picked up her gossip from. I had booked an appointment at the one Lilian had used more frequently just before she disappeared.

Wearing black jeans with a cream top and a smart black jacket I felt that I'd hit the right tone of dress for blending in with the other customers. In some ways it felt strange to have spent time on putting on makeup.

"Can I help you Ma'am"

I looked up to see a very young girl stood in front of me as I entered the salon, disappointed because she looked as though she'd just finished school so wouldn't have known Lilian.

"I have an appointment, Sophia Fernetti"

I watched as she scrolled through a computer and then looked back up and smiled at me.

"Right this way Ma'am, Rita should be ready for you"

Rita was a big black woman who looked so much like Lula that I ended up staring her.

"Is something wrong sweetheart?"

"No, it's just that you remind me of an old friend of mine"

She had purple highlights running through her hair that had been braided and bright pink baubles at the end. Her attire matched, just as Lula's would have done, with a purple halter neck top that was straining to keep her girls controlled. I missed Lula, and with that thought I knew that I missed a lot of people. I was deep in thought about that as I was led to a chair. What would my parents be thinking with how I'd disappeared, especially when they heard that Morelli was dead? Would they be worried about me? Then there was my grandma. She'd definitely miss me even if it was that she had nothing to gossip about. That had me making plans for what I would do just before we left San Francisco.

"You want me to shape your hair? Layer it?"

"Layer it"

I replied without thinking. Then added.

"Oh, and add some highlights as well"

That was what I'd booked myself in for, knowing that it would give me more time inside the salon. Of course, like any other hairdresser that I'd ever known Rita was keen to chat while she worked.

"You on holiday or something?"

"Travelling up the coast to visit my sister. My older sister said to use you if I needed a hairstylist, a friend of hers had recommended it to her"

Of course, that had Rita both pleased and curious.

"We get a lot of folk through here"

"She'd probably be my sister's age, though I'm not sure how they knew each other. It was a couple of years ago when she last saw her. Lilian something"

I wasn't sure if Rita remembered Lilian, but she was obviously thinking through anyone that she knew of that name.

"A couple of years ago, you say?"

"Maybe not that long ago, my sister lost touch with her so maybe she moved"

"The only Lilian I know from then was Lilian Lawley"

Now that I had Rita remembering Lilian, I needed to get her to start talking about her.

"That could be her. What happened to her because I'm sure my sister might want to reconnect"

Seeing Rita shake her head with her hair going back and forth told me that she either wasn't going to say anything or didn't think that it was a good idea for my sister to find her.

"I felt sorry for her at first. Losing her husband an all. But she went wild that one. I heard she'd found the love of her life and was gonna go live with him"

At least I'd discovered that Lilian had a man at the time that she'd disappeared so who was it and where had they gone?

"Maybe he was what she needed to settle down"

"Humph"

Was Rita's response to that.

"He was only after her money. Hell, I heard that she sold all of her jewelry just to be with him"

"Do know where she ended up?"

"She talked about going to Las Vegas"

"You'd need a lot of money to live there. What did her new boyfriend do?"

I was pretty sure that Rita wasn't at all impressed with what Lilian had told her, or maybe she thought that the new boyfriend was just using her for the money.

"Sleazeball if you ask me. If you ask me, I'd say he worked the tables there because that's how she met him here, in some lowlife gambling joint"

As Rita finished putting in the last of the foils, I guessed that I would be sat on my own while the color developed and that was exactly what happened. I was given a coffee and a few magazines to keep me occupied as I watched Rita walk away to tend to another customer. To be honest I found it hard to concentrate on reading anything and my thoughts were all over the place.

I wondered how Lizbeth was doing and if she'd managed to find anything that could lead us to where Lilian had gone. I was keen to know if Ethan had managed to pin down the source of the email but the thoughts that kept coming to me was of that little girl whose father had taken her. Of course, as I watched the other customers, I couldn't help but think of my grandmother and how much she enjoyed her weekly visit for her hair to be done. I was sure that the opportunity to catch up on gossip was also a motivator for her.

At last, a young girl came over to me and took me across to one of the sinks, removing the foil before rinsing and then shampooing my hair. I hadn't expected her to talk to me so was quite surprised as I lay back with my eyes closed to hear her.

"Rita was saying that you were asking after Lilian. My Ma knew her, me and Kirk went to the same nursery, so they got to know each other. My Ma reckons that she's dead. She said that man, Gary Danswick, that he tried it on with her. My Ma wasn't stupid, she saw through him, but Lilian wouldn't listen to my Ma, she said that he wasn't like that"

I felt the towel come around my head and was suddenly back in the chair with Rita behind me. There was no more conversation from Rita about Lilian which didn't bother me too much. I now had a name to go on and a possible third scenario. I had to remember to ask Ethan if the son, Kirk, had asked for proof of life. I left the salon quite pleased with the final style of my hair, okay it probably wouldn't last long before my curls took control. For now my hair was straight and layered, looking every inch like the sun kissed styles so popular in the area. I was meeting Lizbeth back at the small hotel where we had a room, but if she was late arriving, then I knew that I now had a name to do a search on. I was feeling excited as I made my way back to the hotel, that feeling of being on the chase for someone was invigorating.

Entering the room, I saw Lizbeth sat on the couch busy watching TV. Maybe she hadn't had as good a day as I'd had.

"You look bored Lizbeth"

I commented as I went over to the fridge to get a bottle of water.

"Nothing, zilch. Man, those people in that neighborhood lead such boring lives. No one ever saw anything because they never looked and Lilian wasn't part of their inner circle"

Wow, I wondered what it was like to live in a neighborhood like that.

"I got a hit at the salon. Gary Danswick. Though the girl I spoke to said and I quote "My Ma reckons that she's dead"

That had Lizbeth sitting up and looking at me.

"We need to do a search on the man and check in with Ethan"

My thoughts exactly as I sat on the couch and opened up the one laptop that we had, going straight into the search program. Lizbeth was on the secure phone, so I assume that she was taking to Ethan, yeah, I heard her say proof of life. Gary Danswick wasn't a popular name especially when I input San Francisco into the search as well. He was 49 years old, 2 years younger than Lilian, so I went to a photo of him provided from his driver's license. I didn't think that he was that good looking but maybe I was biased. Having Ranger and the Merry Men and I suppose Joe as male companions had definitely spoilt my opinion of what a good looking guy should look like. Hell, any of them could have taken up a job working as a male model.

Gary, he was okay. He had dark hair that had been cut short and dark eyebrows and a moustache. It gave him as being 6 feet tall and average build, no tattoos or birth marks or the need for glasses. Going back to the printed search I started at the end, at the last thing that had been recorded officially. It gave his address as here in San Francisco and his job as a bouncer for one of the casinos down town. That had been two years ago when Lilian had supposedly disappeared.

Going back in his history it seemed that Gary was a bit of nomad having spent most of his adult life travelling from city to city. It was weird because he didn't seem to return once he'd left. That was when I noticed that there looked to be a pattern. it seemed he moved about every three years. I sat back as I thought through his last stay in San Francisco. According to the search he'd arrived here three years ago, so did that mean that he had the same pattern for the other cities? A year in the city and then two years away? A shiver went down my back as I contemplated that. Did he find a woman in each city and then disappear with them for two years? So what had happened to the women?

I looked up at Lizbeth as she came and sat down next to me, the phone still in her hand.

"There was a photo of Lilian with the email. Ethan's put it on the shared cloud account"

I minimized the search and went onto the internet and logged into that account. I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened the photo, but it was of Lilian sat at a kitchen table with a mug in her hands. She was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and wasn't looking like the sophisticated women that we'd seen on the photos before we came. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail showing a face devoid of makeup and to be honest she looked miserable. It was certainly a photo that depicted a woman in a situation that she didn't want to be in.

"Can Ethan work out how old the photo is?"

I expected the frown that came from Lizbeth, but I just had an awful feeling about this.

"I think that he's taken women before, I just, I think that maybe she's dead and has been for a while"

I listened to Lizbeth as she called Ethan back and put that question to him, but I knew if we were going to find any answers then we'd have to find where this photo had been taken. I went back to the search to look at his family history. He'd been born an only child in a place called El Reno, Oklahoma but his parents were dead. They'd died when he was a young boy when a tornado hit their home. Gary had been at his uncles house, hidden in a storm shelter underneath the house. He'd spent his childhood with his uncle, but I couldn't find a recent connection for Gary to that area now.

I minimized the screen to show the photo again forgetting that Lizbeth was reading the report as well.

"Hey. What are you thinking Steph?"

Looking again at the photo I was trying to identify anything in the background and that was when I realized exactly where the photo had been taken.

"Look at the clock on the wall, what time does it say?"

"Err, 2 o'clock"

I looked at Lizbeth hoping she'd see what I was seeing but all I got was her shrugging her shoulders at me.

"There are no windows, and that glare there is from the light in the center of the room. I think this is his uncles storm shelter"

I went back to the search and pointed to where it said about where Gary had been when his parents had died. It made perfect sense to me. I just hoped that Lilian was still alive.

It was 1600 miles from San Francisco to El Reno, Oklahoma and would probably take us over a day to get there travelling by car. Neither of us wanted to wait that long to get there so after talking to the rest of the team we decided to fly there. Stanley would be flying there with Ethan to meet us, though I had no idea how Stanley had access to another plane, something I was determined to ask him when the time was right. Ethan had already organized a rental car for when we arrived, well truck for us, so we met them at the rental agency.

"Do you have the coordinates Steph?"

I nodded my head as I climbed into the truck and passed the paper that I had written the address down on to Ethan. As we travelled out of the town, I was still amazed at the vastness around us. Yes, we'd flown over here but it was very different here on the ground. The roads were so long and so straight as we travelled past fields and the occasion track that must have led up to a property. It was half an hour later when Ethan turned off the road, onto a single track that seemed to lead to nowhere. There had been trees planted every so often making it difficult to judge how far away we were from where Gary's uncle had lived.

We'd discussed how we would approach the place, so I was prepared for us stopping under the shade of some tress before we got there. A satellite image showed that there were only ruins left of the house, but we had no idea where the shelter was or if Gary was around. Ethan and I were going to be approaching from the front while Stanley and Lizbeth went wide of the location to come in from the back.

"Here, I brought this for you"

I turned to Ethan seeing a gun in his hand and hesitated. I hated having to carry one and the idea of using one frightened me to death, but I took it, getting a slight smile from Ethan.

"Angels, you'll need these"

Turning to Stanley he held a flack vest to Lizbeth and myself, making it suddenly feel real that we that we might be in danger if Gary was still here. I pulled on the vest over my T-shirt noting that it covered the top of my jeans, in fact it went low enough to reach the top of my thighs. Attaching a mic to the top of my vest and pushing the ear set around my ear we tested out the comms units ready to search the area.

Ethan led the way as we approached the ruins of the house and squatted down so we could look around the area.

"No vehicle"

Was all that Ethan said as we continued to move forward. There was no cover now for us to hide behind and I felt my senses go into hyperdrive.

"Over there"

I said as I touched Ethan's arm. I was pointing to what looked like a door set at an angle into the ground. What caught my attention was the reflection of the sunlight from what appeared to be a shiny new lock.

"Clear behind, coming to you"

Stanley's voice had me feeling relieved, so with Ethan ahead of me we made our way over to the wooden door. I kept watch behind us as Ethan quickly picked the padlock and as he swung the two halves of the door to each side. In front of us were steps that had been carved out of the ground, leading down into pitch blackness. I was grateful for the flashlight tucked into the pocket of my vest shining it down to the ground below where the steps finished.

"Stay close, Steph"

Were the instructions from Ethan as we made our way down the steps. I wasn't too confident that Gary wouldn't be able to hear my heart hammering inside my chest. Another door and another padlock allowed us entrance into a room. I recognized it straight away as the one from the photo with Lilian in it. As we looked around nothing moved. I was surprised at how tidy the place was, with crockery stacked neatly on the shelves. The only evidence of habitation was the large collection of empty plastic water bottles in one corner.

I was following Ethan as we walked through a low archway, afraid of what we might find. I was right to be fearful, as I saw an old mattress on the floor and it revealed my worst fears, what looked to be a person laid on their back. Lilian. I knelt down on the rough soiled floor, taking in how pale and still she was. Her hair was dusty, and she had streaks on her face probably from crying. Her clothes were no better, I recognized the jeans and T-shirt that she'd been wearing in the photo. My hand swept down her cheek as tears filled my eyes with the sadness of being too late. What I didn't expect were her eyes flickering until she was looking up at me. I nearly fell backward with surprise.

"Ethan, she's alive"

I screamed totally forgetting that he'd hear me through the mic. Stanley was the one by my side and he was quickly calling 911 with directions for where we were. I moved to allow Stanley to get closer to Lilian the only words I could hear myself say were.

"You're okay, you're safe. We're going to get you out of here"

Stanley was trickling water onto her parched lips as he continued to talk to her. I stood up to see where we were, a small room only maybe 8 feet square and wandered over to yet another much smaller archway. I could see the play of light from Ethan's flashlight so curious I ducked down and under the arch. My breath hitched and my hand flew to my mouth at the scene in front of me.

"Steph, you don't need to see this"

I was suddenly being turned, Ethan's arm around my shoulder, as he pulled me to him and led me out. We followed Stanley who was carefully carrying Lilian up the steps and out of this horrendous place. I had seen, though my brain was reeling from the sight, something I knew I wouldn't forget. It was only as I stood outside in the fresh air with a breeze whispering across my cheeks that I realized that the smell down there was putrid, and now I knew why.

"I'll deal with the police and the EMTs. Get the girls out of here"

I didn't argue or object as Ethan maintained his hold on me and helped me into the truck. I felt Lizbeth remove the coms units and release the straps of my vest before she just held me.

It was three hours later when we were all onboard the plane that I think I stopped crying. Lizbeth had plied me with soda and then water I think concerned with how I was behaving. I'd seen dead bodies before, ones that I'd shot, one's that I'd found, but that wasn't what was piercing my heart and thoughts. Those women had died alone with the image of their destiny to see, sharing their end with the sight of what would happen to them. The room had been filled with the despair that each one of them must have felt, finding other woman who were dead. Each one looked to have died in that place, surviving until any food or water ran out. I couldn't even imagine what thoughts went through their heads or the desperation that they felt.

"What happened Stanley, after we left?"

It was Ethan who was asking though I'm sure it was to try and pull me out of the shock that surrounded me. Stanley was ahead of us, piloting the plane so I had no idea what he was feeling and could only take solace from his words.

"Lilian is in the hospital, but she's going to be alright. Dehydration and I suppose the shock of what happened to her, the things for her to overcome. The police picked up Gary Danswick and have charged him with murder and kidnapping. They'll probably call in the FBI to take over"

"How many?"

I asked almost afraid to ask as the images rolled through my head of what I'd caught a glimpse of. Bodies, in varying states of decay, though the dry atmosphere had almost mummified their remains.

"Five. There were personal effects down there, so they'll be able to identify them and notify relatives. To answer your next question Steph, I don't know how long they were down there for. The coroner will solve that question along with the timeline from when they disappeared"

"Steph"

I turned and looked into Ethan's face as he said my name, feeling his hand cup my cheek to make sure that I wasn't going to look away, not sure what he was going to add.

"You saved Lilian. We couldn't have helped the others, but we've stopped it happening to others in the future. You did a brilliant job, Steph, tracking him down. You should be proud of yourself"

I knew that he was right and given time I would move forward from this and see the positive result that we'd got, but his words didn't take away the sadness that I was feeling.

I hadn't a clue where we were going, for some reason I'd just assumed that we were heading back to Belize. I was a bit disorientated as we landed, checking things out through the window, because I didn't recognize where we were.

"Monterrey, Steph. Mexico"