Page 125 of All the Missing Pieces

“But it wasn’t for the reason we thought. He was at a motel with Tara Gibson.”

Emerson’s jaw went slack. “But—but she was only seventeen.”

“I know,” I said, a sick feeling swirling in my stomach.

“What about him?” Trey asked, tapping a photo in the yearbook.

It was a shot of Emerson with a guy I didn’t recognize. He was young. Maybe five or six years older than her, and it looked like he was instructing her on a swing.

Emerson frowned down at the book. “That was one of those clinics Coach signed us up for. Shawn Sullivan. He was All-American, just out of college. He?—”

Emerson’s words cut off as she started to shake. Trey dropped the book, his arm going around her. “Emmie, what’s wrong?”

She stared straight ahead, but I knew she wasn’t seeing the room in front of her. “Grape Bubblicious.”

Everything in me stilled and then instantly went wired. It was the one thing law enforcement had kept from the press. The scent of grape Emerson had identified.

“He always chewed grape Bubblicious gum. Always.” Emerson’s gaze shot to me. “Was it him? Was it Shawn?”

I was already moving, crossing to the back door and shouting for Ryan. She and Marshall were inside in a flash.

“Em remembered something,” I clipped. “Shawn Sullivan ran a tennis clinic for her team. Always chewed grape gum.” A memory flashed, Ridley recounting her attack at the campground. “And Ridley—” My voice cracked on her name. “She said that she smelled something sweet on the guy’s breath who attacked her.”

Ryan’s eyes flashed as she turned to Marshall. “Run him.”

He pulled out his phone, opening one of the apps we used. “Do you know where he’s from or his birthday?”

Emerson shook her head. Her whole body was trembling, and her breathing was shallow as Trey held on to her. Whether it was the memories or having new people in her space, I didn’t know.

“I think I got him,” Marshall said. “Tennis All-American?”

“That’s him,” I clipped.

Marshall scanned the screen as he scrolled. “Nothing on his official record, but he was questioned in a rape case in college. Looks like they circled him for a while but nothing stuck. No charges were ever filed.”

He switched to another internet browser page. “He’s got a website. Offers tennis clinics to high schools, colleges, and universities.”

My muscles started to buzz as rage burned. “The perfect cover for traveling the country and abducting women to rape and kill them.”

Just saying the words killed something in me. What was happening to Ridley in this very moment?

“Get Sanchez and Geary, and track it. Every woman on Ridley’s list. We need to see if it lines up,” Ryan ordered.

But we needed something else. “Where the hell is Shawn Sullivan right now?” I growled. “If he’s holed up somewhere, there has to be a trace. We have to find him.”

I just hoped like hell it wouldn’t be too late.

51

RIDLEY

Waves of emotionand sensation warred against each other as a man I both recognized and didn’t prowled toward me from the back of the RV—burning heat and shattering cold, disorienting confusion and terrifying panic.

My mind struggled to put the pieces together, to recognize the man in front of me. But none of it made sense.

Sully’s face twisted into a grin that was as far from warm and comforting as you could get. “What’s the matter, Rids? Don’t recognize me without the old-man getup?”

I wanted to look at what I’d seen on the table, the wig and the prosthetics, but I was too terrified to take my gaze off the man getting closer and closer. It wasn’t just the absence of wrinkles, graying hair, and a paunch. Sully even moved differently now, more agilely. Like he could strike at any moment.

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