Vendetta by Lisa Harris Page A

next to the information desk.
    Nikki drummed her fingers across the countertop, frustrated, as she waited to get Jack back on her cell. “She’s not here, Jack.”
    â€œHer phone still hasn’t moved.”
    â€œThen why can’t we find it?”
    â€œI don’t know. She might not be there, but the phone is. Keep looking.”
    She hung up, then turned back to the incident commander.“We need to do another search of this building. The phone is here somewhere. And I want a team interviewing everyone you just evacuated. They can hand out flyers with her photo so we can see if anyone remembers seeing her. And that includes everyone who comes through that entrance from now on. I want everyone to see her face.”
    Anderson nodded as one of the officers emerged from the other end of the building carrying a trash can. “We found a cell phone.”
    Nikki pulled on her rappelling gloves, took the phone, and pressed one of the keys. A selfie of Bridget smiled up at her. This was her phone. Her link with the world. The one link she’d never simply drop in a trash can.
    â€œI want this place swept, video surveillance gone through, anything you can get me. We need an ID on our abductor.” She was back on the phone with Jack seconds later. “What’s your ETA?”
    â€œThirty . . . forty minutes tops.”
    â€œOkay, we need to expand the search. I want you to double-check that Bridget’s name is on every possible missing persons list, with an update of her possible location. Send it to every agency in the state, including the FBI, and the state’s missing children’s clearinghouse. As soon as you get here, we’ll regroup.”
    As soon as she hung up with Jack, another call came through.
    â€œNikki?”
    Nikki paused, then turned away from the officers. “Mom? Hey . . . is everything okay?”
    â€œNo, it’s not . . . It’s Jamie.”
    Nikki’s heart raced, but this time not from the adrenaline of the search. Her sister-in-law had waited too long for this baby. If anything went wrong now . . . “What’s going on?”
    â€œI know this is your day with Tyler, but there’s been a complication with her pregnancy.”
    Nikki pressed the phone tighter against her ear and moved to the far end of the counter, away from the noise, so she could better hear what her mother was saying. “What happened?”
    â€œThe doctor said it’s a placental abruption.”
    â€œWhat exactly does that mean . . . a placental abruption?”
    â€œThe placenta has partially peeled away from the inner wall of the uterus.”
    â€œAnd Jamie and the baby?”
    â€œThey’ve checked Jamie into the hospital and are monitoring her closely. If the abruption progresses, they’ll have to do an immediate C-section, or . . . or they could lose the baby.”
    No, God . . . no . . . no . . . no . . .
    â€œI’m on my way there now,” her mom continued. “Jamie’s mom is driving in and should be here in an hour or so. I didn’t know if I should call you—”
    â€œOf course you should have called me.” Nikki pressed her hand against the counter, going through her options. “My boss pulled me onto a case this morning. There’s a girl missing.”
    â€œOh, Nikki . . .”
    Nikki heard the emotion in her mother’s voice. Ten years hadn’t come close to erasing the memories of the day Sarah went missing. Even all these years later they never forgot Sarah’s birthday. The empty chair at the Thanksgiving table. Or the fact that she hadn’t graduated from high school or college. So many milestones of Sarah’s life they’d missed. And she’d never stopped praying, searching, or hoping that one day they’d be able to bring her sister home.
    â€œLet me call you back as soon as my