Page 19 of Dad's Cop Buddy

“I won’t mention it, but I am going to talk to them. I need to know if these two cases have any commonalities.”

“Fine, but be careful. I’d hate to have something like this blow up in your face.”

“Funny, I don’t think it’s my face that you’re worried about,” I shrug my shoulders and walk away.

I check the time and see that I have about two hours before I need to go get Kendal. I stand a little taller and approach the Millers. “Why don’t you meet me at the station so we can talk?”

“Yes, of course. We can’t thank you enough for taking the time.”

“That’s the job, Sir. I’ll see you shortly.”

As I drive to the station, I begin to worry that Sanders may be the perpetrator of this crime. If so, he’s definitely no amateur and has probably done this several times already. I may need to place Kendal under twenty-four-hour surveillance.

Mr. and Mrs. Miller are waiting for me when I arrive, and I usher them to my office. The patrolmen who were here when the Miller case was active see us and turn in their seats to watch as we pass. I close the door behind the couple to keep the prying eyes and ears at bay.

“Thank you for speaking with me today. I’m sorry but I don’t know any of the details of your daughter’s case. Can you tell me her first name so I can try to pull up the case file?”

“That doesn’t surprise me. Your Mayor has been less than cooperative. Her name is Casey. That’s C-A-S-E-Y.”

“Thank you. So… Casey Miller… Let’s see what we have.” I type her name into the system and her case file appears. It includes a scan of her high school graduation photo. That, combined with the written physical description, tells me that she and Kendal share a lot of physical features. Not a good sign. It means, at least, that Timothy Sanders has a type, which is disturbing.

“It says here that on the days leading up to your daughter’s disappearance, she called you and told you she’d been feeling uneasy. She felt like someone was watching her, following her.”

“Yes, she did. We told her to go to the security office and make a report.”

“And did she?”

“Yes, that very night. We stayed on the phone with her while she walked there. She didn’t have a car on campus. Maybe we should have given her one so she didn’t have to walk around after dark.” He puts his head down and I see the repressed guilt bubble out of his pores.

“Blaming yourself won’t help, Sir. I used to work in the city and I can tell you having a car probably wouldn’t have made much difference. Do you know who she spoke to in the security office?”

“Um, it was a young man. She said that she’d only recently started seeing him around. What was his name? Anders? Andrews?”

“Sanders,” his wife speaks up for the first time.

“Yes, that’s right. It was Sanders. I remember how livid I was with him when she went missing.”

“Why were you angry with him?”

“Because he never filed a report. She sat with him for an hour, and he never filed the paperwork. I wanted him fired but I don’t know if anything ever came of it.”

“Timothy Sanders?” I ask.

“Yes, that’s him,” the wife nods. “I remember when we went to the security office after Casey’s disappearance. When we saw him for the first time, something about him just didn’t sit right with me. He was creepy, menacing. It was as though he was enjoying our suffering.”

“Now, let’s not get carried away. I didn’t see anything like that,” her husband corrects her and pats her hand.

“No,” I smile and lean across my desk. “I think your wife has very keen instincts. Now that I have this information, I assure you I’ll be looking into your daughter’s case. I’ll contact the FBI liaison today and put some pressure on them, too. Leave me your contact information, so I can call you when I have an update.”

They thank me and leave, and I rush out behind them. I’m sure Sander’s abducted their daughter, and I don’t want Kendal spending another second out of my sight.

I arrive on campus thirty minutes before her last class ends and watch the front entrance to the building from my vehicle. My mind races as I consider my next move. Sanders has to be sleeping somewhere. I need to find out where. I haven’t been as diligent with this investigation as I should have been, and now the sense of urgency is creeping to the surface.

I check my watch again and see that Kendal should be coming outside any second. Straining my neck, I look through the crowd of students that filter out, but she isn’t there. I think maybe she had to stay behind for something, and I step out of my car and cross the street to the quad.

Ten minutes pass and she still isn’t here, so I text her. She doesn’t read or answer. I call and it goes straight to voicemail. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up and my heart races. I rush into the building and scan the halls, but there’s no sign of her.

This can’t be happening. Not today. She has to be here somewhere. I call out to her, hoping that my echoed voice in the silent hall will reach her, but she doesn’t reply. Jesus, I’m too late. I waited too long.

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