Say Goodbye (Romantic Suspense #25) - Karen Rose Page 0,22

here.”

“I’ll be eighteen in two weeks,” Cameron protested. “I need to make sure someone is looking for Hayley.” He swallowed. “She’s pregnant and due soon. She’s got to be so scared.”

“He’s not being accused of anything,” Jeff inserted. “You can talk to him without a guardian. The law allows it.”

Croft frowned at Jeff. “I’m aware of what the law allows, Mr. Bunker.”

Jeff didn’t back down. “Then you know you don’t need a guardian.”

Croft rolled her eyes. “It’s to protect him. But . . .” She waved her hand. “Mr. Cook, please start from the beginning.”

Cameron folded his hands on the table and drew a breath. “Hayley has been my girlfriend since we were fourteen.” His cheeks darkened with embarrassment. “She got pregnant. We . . . well, we weren’t careful once, but that was enough, I guess.”

Croft’s expression softened. “I guess. How far along is she?”

“Eight and a half months. We . . . we saw the ultrasound. It’s a girl. We call her Jellybean for now.”

Croft smiled. “Cute. What about your folks? How did they feel about the pregnancy?”

“They weren’t thrilled, of course. We’re too young. But we always planned to get married as soon as we could, and my folks knew that. So when we told them, they took a day to cool off, then brought us into Dad’s office and told us that we would go to college and live with them. That they’d help us as much as they could. I expected them to be supportive, but Hayley . . . She cried. She was so sure that my folks would throw her out, that she’d have to be homeless.”

“Her folks weren’t as supportive, I take it,” Croft murmured.

“No. Her mom isn’t married. Divorced when Hayley was ten and Graham was five. Graham’s her little brother. Kid is wicked smart. Her mom is very . . .” Cameron paused, searching for the right words. “Old-fashioned?”

“Judgmental,” Jeff muttered.

“That too,” Cameron admitted. “I don’t want to be cruel about her mom, because it was a shock. Mrs. Gibbs believed Hayley was a virgin. That she was pregnant didn’t go over well. She screamed and threw a fit.” His expression darkened in anger. “She called Hayley names, like ‘whore’ and ‘slut.’ And that’s not true.”

“Did she throw Hayley out?” Tom asked, already feeling sorry for these kids.

“She didn’t throw Hayley out. We told my parents first, because I knew we’d have a safe place to fall, you know? When we told her mother, she threw me out. Like, dragged me out by my hair, screaming at me. I wish I’d taken Hayley with me, but I didn’t want to make it worse.”

“And then?” Croft prompted.

Cameron shoved his hands through his hair. “Then they were gone. The next day. All of them—Mrs. Gibbs, Hayley, and Graham. Just gone. The house was put up for sale, with all the contents included. They disappeared. I’ve been crazy with worry.”

“But you heard from Hayley,” Tom said quietly. “When was that?”

“A month ago.” He pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and gave it to Croft. The paper was limp from handling and falling apart at the creases. “I got this e-mail.”

Croft read it silently, then passed it to Tom.

“April nineteenth,” he said quietly, and Croft nodded her understanding. The date was the exact day that DJ Belmont had murdered Ephraim Burton, destroying any link the FBI had to Eden. Until now.

“ ‘Dear Cam,’ ” Tom read aloud, noticing Cameron mouthing the words. He’d obviously memorized the e-mail. “ ‘We are in a place called Eden. We are at these coordinates. Please come ASAP and bring the cops. This place is insane and we are being held against our will.’ ” Tom put the paper down. “What did you do next?”

“I went to the police station closest to the coordinates. My dad took me, but when the cops got there, it was forest. No houses, no signs of life at all. Nobody lived there.”

“You didn’t find anything?” Tom probed, because he’d seen Eden’s most recent compound, now deserted by the cult. It had been populated with earth shelters and camouflaged with branches to hide the settlement from any satellite cameras.

“No. There was no evidence that any people had been there, ever. It was just forest. After the cops told us that they hadn’t found anything, Dad and I checked an area about a mile square around the coordinates. That day, anyway. We’ve been back several times and expanded the search. Every weekend, my dad and I