Georgina's Story Read online

  Georgina’s Story

  A Chase Adams FBI Thriller

  Book 4.5

  Patrick Logan

  Prologue

  PART I – The First Forty-Eight

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  PART II – A Cross to Bear

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Epilogue

  END

  Author’s Note

  Dirty Money

  Prologue

  PART I – Broken

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  [CM1]

  Georgina’s Story

  A Chase Adams FBI Thriller

  Book 4.5

  Patrick Logan

  Prologue

  PRESENT DAY

  TBI Director Terrence Conway watched Jeremy Stitts wrap his arm around his partner and help her to her feet.

  And then he was struck with a sudden and unexpected sadness.

  Chase Adams wasn’t just helpless, she was defeated.

  Broken.

  He'd only known her for a short time, but he liked the woman. Chase was smart, didn't take shit from anybody, and was one hell of a good Agent.

  In fact, if it hadn’t been for Chase and her special brand of persistence, the missing girls—Stacy, Tracy, Becky, and Stephanie—might have been destined to end up just like Chase’s sister and the others: lost souls living fake lives.

  But, for all her gifts, there was something important missing in Chase. Something even more profound than the piece of Terrence’s soul that had been wrenched from him on the night his own sister had been ruthlessly raped and murdered.

  Because Terrence hadn’t been there for his sister’s death. He’d been at home, tucked safely in his bed while Mary had been out trying to get someone to buy booze for her. Sure, he’d blamed himself, but years of therapy had eventually shined a light on the truth: there really was nothing he could have done.

  But with Chase… she had been there, and she could have done something. Sure, she was only a child at the time and it was unfair to levy such a responsibility on someone so young, but the fact remained, Chase could have stayed.

  As if that burden wasn’t enough, there was the added element that in some strange irony, Chase, too, had had her brains scrambled, her memories altered. Terrence couldn’t imagine what it must be like trying to piece together two contradictory set of memories that both seemed equally true, equally real.

  It was enough to shatter even the strongest of minds.

  And Terrence had no idea if someone could come back from something like that.

  Suddenly overcome by shame, he turned his eyes away from Chase and Stitts and looked to the three girls behind the glass.

  They claimed to be Sue-Ellen, Portia, and Melissa Jalston, but Terrence knew better.

  Chase had been right all along: these girls were Anastasia Blackwood, Kim Bernard, and Teresa Long. Like Chase, they’d been taken decades ago and they too had been brainwashed.

  The woman with dark hair that spilled to her shoulders pointed at the glass—which was a mirror on their side—and then giggled. One of the others plucked at a grass stain on her white dress and also laughed.

  Oh, they’d been brainwashed alright, brainwashed by Brian and Timothy Jalston… or Bobby Jenson and Tyler Woodcroft.

  With so many name changes, it was difficult for him to keep track.

  What those men had done… that was incomprehensible. But despite his harsh words to Agent Stitts about Brian or Bobby’s fate, he was having a difficult time reconciling with the fact that they too had been kidnapped.

  And brainwashed.

  And tricked and coerced and manipulated.

  The very things that they’d eventually perpetuated.

  Oh, how the past has a way of weaseling its way into the future.

  With a heavy sigh, Terrence raised the coffee cup in his right hand and swallowed the last of the sludge. Then he turned his gaze to the stack of papers that he was clutching in his other hand.

  It was Georgina Adams’ file, one that he’d read so many times that he’d pretty much committed it to memory. But he wasn’t interested in the typed manifest; rather, he focused on the handwritten note in the upper right-hand corner that had faded over the years but was still visible.

  Terrence had told Stitts that Chase deserved to know the truth, but he’d kept this note to himself. Telling Chase the truth was one thing but unraveling old wounds and adding even more elements to her trauma wasn’t necessary.

  He wasn’t sure why, but something in the back of Terrence’s mind had also told him to keep this short note to himself, that he shouldn’t even share it with his partner, Jordan.

  Direct all information to Franklin Detective Luke Rainsford.

  All was underlined three times and there was a phone number listed beneath. The number had long since been disconnected, but Darren had had no problem finding a new one for the detective.

  Once again, Terrence looked up at the women on the other side of the glass. He thought briefly of their parents, who had more than likely passed them off as dead years ago.

  Would discovering they were still alive heal them or ruin them?

  On the face of it, the answer was clear: finding a missing child no matter how long the intervening period was a good thing. An amazing thing. A miracle, perhaps.

  But he’d witnessed firsthand how shattered narratives could wreak havoc on a vulnerable mind.

  Terrence shook his head and tossed the empty Styrofoam cup in the garbage.

  “Fuck it,” he whispered and pulled out his phone.

  He’d only been on this case for a week, and it had done a number on him. It was incomprehensible to imagine what sitting on it for thirty years could do to a detective. After all, in his experience, child abduction cases were the worst; tougher, somehow, than even those that involved murdered children.

  His eyes darting back and forth between his cell phone and the number that Darren had given him for Detective Rainsford, Terrence started to dial.

  No matter how hard, no matter how twisted, convoluted, and downright fucked up the truth was, people deserved to know it… didn’t they?

  PART I – The First Forty-Eight

  THIRTY-ONE YEARS AGO

  Chapter 1

  “You guys want a ride? I’m just heading up the road… I can drop you off at your house if you want. It’s sweltering out there.”

  Georgina took a cautious step back from the curb. Then she turned and squinted into the sun.

  The man leaning out of the minivan window looked pleasant enough, with a wide face and an even wider smile. He had a small gap between his two front teeth and the beginnings of a beard on his full cheeks. His hair was thinning at the temples but ran longer at the back, the former flapping even though the van had slowed to a crawl.

  Georgina could feel the air-conditioning pumping out the window.

  “No, thanks,” she said in a quiet voice as she hooked her arm through her sister’s. Georgina instinctively picked up the pace, leading both her a
nd Chase, despite not being sure where they were going.

  In fact, Georgina wasn’t clear on why they were leaving mom and dad at the fair. After all, they’d come together. But Chase was her big sister, and Chase looked out for her. She’d proven this time and time again. Not that she was perfect, far from it. Chase often teased her about her curly orange hair and the freckles on her nose. Teased her so bad sometimes that Georgina felt like crying. But when someone else teased her? Like the big kids at the park? Chase wouldn’t let that happen, oh no. One time, these three teenagers had blocked the bottom of the slide and wouldn’t let Georgina come down.

  All she had to do was shout, and Chase had arrived with a stick in hand. These girls were twice her size, but Chase had given one of them, a pimply-faced girl with ratty brown hair, a solid whack on the side of her leg and they’d all scrammed.

  No, Chase wasn’t perfect, but she was her older sister. Which was why when Chase had grabbed her arm roughly and told her that they needed to go, that they had to go now, Georgina hadn’t questioned her. After all, Chase had used her loud voice, and she was already mad at her for running off twice.

  “You sure ‘bout that? The air-conditioning is great in here. I don’t want y’all to get heat stroke or nothin’,” the man continued.

  Georgina kept her head low and continued to walk.

  Her parents had warned her about not talking to strangers, but they also told her that a young girl should always be polite.

  Twice, Georgina opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again.

  There was just something about the man in the van that made her heart beat a little faster in her tiny chest.

  “Let’s go, Chase,” she said out of the corner of her mouth. When Chase didn’t immediately answer, Georgina turned her eyes up to her sister.

  Chase wasn’t even looking at her; she was staring off into the distance, chewing on the inside of her cheek.

  It was what their mother called her ‘thinking face’.

  Georgina tugged her sister’s arm.

  “Chase? Maybe we should go back… maybe we should go find mom and dad.”

  Georgina said this last part just loud enough for the man in the van to overhear. When Chase still didn’t answer, Georgina pulled her arm even harder.

  “What?” she barked, finally turning her eyes to her sister.

  Georgina’s brow furrowed.

  “We should go back for mom and dad,” she repeated.

  Just when it finally looked like Chase was going to answer, like she was going to take over the situation, the man leaned even further out of the van and spoke up.

  “You guys are coming from the fair, ain’t ya? Yeah… yeah… and I’m guessing y’all like them snow cones? Yeah, I bet you do. It’s all over your faces. Well, I work there—me and my brother do. He was the one who served you the snow cones, I reckon.”

  The man’s smile never faltered as he spoke, which Georgina found particularly unnerving. He reminded her of a robot she’d seen on TV once; a robot whose cardboard face reverted to the exact same artificial grin immediately after it stopped speaking.

  It wasn’t… normal.

  Despite the oppressive heat, Georgina suddenly shivered.

  “Chase, I really, really think we should get mom and dad—”

  Chase shook her head violently.

  “No,” she snapped. “We’re not going home with them.”

  Georgina was so taken aback by her sister’s tone that she let go of her arm and took a few steps backward.

  This wasn’t like Chase. Sure, her older sister could get angry, especially if Georgina messed with her toys, destroyed any of her Lego creations, for instance, but this was different. It didn’t seem like Chase was mad at her, but more like she was angry with mom and dad.

  “Did something happen?” Georgina asked in a soft voice.

  “Hey, you sure you girls don’t want a ride? I got plenty of room in here. Even got a booster seat for the li’l one.”

  Georgina ignored the man.

  “Did something happen with mom and dad?”

  Chase scowled.

  “Maybe we should get a ride,” Chase said unexpectedly. “It’s so hot and I’m sweating.”

  “I don’t… I don’t want to,” Georgina whined, her bottom lip starting to tremble.

  Behind her, she heard a door opening, but for some reason, she couldn’t take her eyes off Chase’s face. She had that far-off look again, the one that let Georgina know that she was deep in thought.

  Why is she so mad at mom and dad? Georgina wondered.

  The last time she’d seen her mom, she was giving them money for snow cones, the same snow cones that now painted her lips and cheeks with fluorescent sugar. Her mom had—

  An arm suddenly snaked over her shoulder and Georgina froze.

  “Come on, get in the van,” the man said. His breath was hot and sour on the top of Georgina’s head, and he reeked of sweat. She instinctively tried to pull away, but the man’s grip on her tightened.

  She gasped and managed to turn her head just enough to glance upward.

  The man was still smiling his creepy smile.

  He is like the robot, Georgina realized in horror.

  “Now, you be a big girl and get in the car with your sister,” the man said, his eyes focused on Chase. Even though he was smiling, the expression stopped at his lips; it never reached his dark eyes.

  Georgina swallowed hard and watched as Chase stepped forward.

  “Chase?” she whimpered.

  “Let her go,” Chase said suddenly.

  The man chuckled, and his huge belly rocked Georgina from behind. She tried to pull away again, but the hairy arm that was wrapped around her chest held fast.

  “I’ll let her go if you get in the van,” the man shot back.

  Behind her, Georgina heard the sound of the van door sliding open. Fear coursed through her then, causing her entire body to break out into a cold sweat. She’d already been sweating from the sweltering heat, but this was different; the substance that oozed from her pores now seemed thicker, almost like a paste.

  Just the thought of it made her retch.

  “Run,” Georgina whispered. “Run, Chase — go get mom and dad.”

  But Chase just stood there.

  “Thatta girl. Come on now, get in the van,” the man instructed.

  “Chase,” Georgina implored. “Run and get mom and dad!”

  But Chase seemed locked in place now, causing Georgina to wonder if it wasn’t her sister who was the robot.

  Somewhere in the recesses of her juvenile mind, Georgina realized that the longer she waited to do something, the more likely things would get worse.

  Chase is the thinker, you’re the one who acts, she remembered her mom saying.

  Act… I have to do something…

  Without hesitating, Georgina tilted her head downward and sank her teeth into the meaty part of the man’s arm.

  It was hairy and sweaty and horrible tasting, but it did the trick: the man cried out and his hold on her loosened. But before Georgina could spin away, the man flung her around, toward the van behind them.

  She stumbled, righting herself just in time to see another figure step onto the sidewalk.

  Unlike the man who’d grabbed her, this man’s face was narrow, and he had high cheekbones and thin lips.

  It was someone she recognized: it was the man who had sold her and Chase the snow cones.

  “Help!” Georgina cried, taking two large steps toward him. “Help us! He—”

  But then she stopped.

  Something wasn’t right. The man hadn’t just arrived on the sidewalk. No, he’d come from inside the van.

  “No!”

  Georgina tried to turn, to run as she’d instructed Chase moments before, but the man reached out and slid a black hood over her head before she could take but three steps.

  She was kicking and screaming now, but all her efforts accomplished was to cause more sweat
to drip into her eyes and start to sting. A second later, thin but strong arms wrapped around her chest, and then she was airborne.

  ***

  The van jostled and bounced, and Georgina’s stomach lurched. The thick black bag covering her head made it difficult to breathe and it was impossibly hot.

  To make things worse, her hands had been bound behind her back so tightly that her arms had started to go numb.

  The driver was erratic, swerving all over the place, uttering a string of obscenities that made her cringe.

  And then, suddenly, the man slammed on the brakes, and she was thrust forward. Her neck collided with the back of something hard and she yelped.

  “Please!”

  A door to her left opened, which was followed by more shouting and the sound of shoes hammering the pavement.

  Chase… please be Chase…

  “Let us go! Let us go!” someone shouted.

  Georgina’s heart leaped into her throat.

  It was Chase! Chase had come to save her!

  But when something hard struck her side, which was followed by the sound of a struggle, she knew that Chase couldn’t help her now.

  “Chase?” Georgina whispered as the van door was slammed closed.

  “I’m here, Georgina. I’m here.”

  And even though Georgina couldn’t see her sister, and her heart was thudding away in her chest so quickly that she thought it might explode, she felt a moment of calmness wash over her.

  Chase might yell at her when she ruined her Lego buildings, but she was always there for her.

  Chase always protected her from the big kids, from the bullies.

  Georgina turned her body, and even though both of their wrists were bound, her reaching fingers somehow managed to find her sister’s.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Chase said as she squeezed her tiny hand. “As long as we’re together, we’re going to be okay.”

  Chapter 2

  Kerrie Adams smoothed the front of her dress and then tried to make her hair look presentable. Noticing that her hand came back slick with sweat, she glanced around quickly for some sort of towel with which she could dry herself off.