She blew into her whistle again, and the crowd slowly started to calm down. There was a lot of panic in the crowd, but everyone nodded, clearly scared. A lot of people looked at the scene on the stage, and others looked around as if they feared that the killer was still nearby. It was only a matter of time before the police descended on this beach, and then they would start questioning everyone.

  Nicky looked back at the coffin. Ken was over there now, talking to some of the actors. They were stunned, and talking about what just happened.

  "Who could have done this?" someone was saying. "Who would bring a dead body onto the stage like that?"

  "I thought it was part of the show," someone said. "I thought it was part of the performance."

  "No," Nicky said. "No, this isn't part of the show."

  Nicky walked up to them. "Can you all please stay here," she said. "We need to interview you all."

  "Are you really the FBI?" one of the actresses asked. She seemed to be the one in charge of the scene.

  "Yes, I'm Agent Nicky Lyons," she said. She held out her hand, and the woman shook it.

  "Kara Anderson," she said. "I'm the one who found her. The girl in the coffin. It's part of our show to open it, but--there isn't supposed to be a real body inside."

  "It's a sick joke," another said. "I can't believe someone would do that."

  "Terrorist, maybe?" one of the girls suggested. "Maybe they're trying to scare people."

  "No," Ken said. "I don't think it was a prank. It's real."

  "Oh my God," someone said. "That's so sick."

  Nicky stared at the coffin. There was a dead girl inside of it. A dead girl, and there was some sicko who was keeping track of it all.

  Nicky felt a lump in her throat, and she had to turn away, or else she would lose it. She couldn't lose it, not now. She had to stay focused, keep her anger and her fear under control. That was going to be tough, especially with the sight of Amanda's dead body on the stage.

  But she had to. She couldn't help Amanda now. She could only look toward bringing justice to her and finding her killer.

  Police sirens erupted over the beach as the officers arrived. Nicky and Ken broke away from the actors and met the officers down by the beach, where other festival goers were standing around, waiting and confused. Nicky knew some had left, but they could at least interview those who'd stayed and find the others later.

  Nicky jogged over the sand, meeting up with a tall, hulking man with a mustache who she had the sense was the chief around here. Nicky and Ken held up their badges as they met with him and his other officers.

  "I'm Chief Wilcox," the man said. "What's going on here?"

  "We have a situation," Nicky said. "There's a dead body on the stage. We need to interview everyone, and we will need everyone to stay on the beach."

  "You're kidding," the chief said, looking around in shock. "A dead body?"

  "The girl onstage is Amanda Smith," Nicky said. "She's the missing girl. She's dead, and it looks like the killer has taken another."

  "Shit," one of the cops muttered.

  They all started making their way up to the stage, and Nicky told Wilcox, "Get forensics in here now and have your men question everyone. They need to find out if anyone has gone missing. There was a note left with the body--I think the killer has taken someone else."

  "Son of a bitch," Wilcox said. "I'll get them started now."

  Nicky nodded and then followed the others up to the stage. She glanced down at Amanda's coffin. She wished there was a way to leave it closed, but she knew that would be a bad idea. She needed to see the body. She had to check, see if she could somehow figure out the killer's identity.

  She went back over to Kara, the woman who'd found Amanda's body. Kara was holding herself, still dressed in a medieval style costume. "Kara," Nicky said, and Kara looked at her. Time was of the essence. If the note was true--and the killer took someone else--then another person was in danger. "Is anyone missing?" Nicky asked. "Anyone at all?"

  "I--I don't think so?" Kara said. "I don't know. I was busy with the show. I'm not sure."

  "This is going to be hard for you," Nicky said. "But I need you to sit down, take a moment, and think. A man has taken someone else. We need to find out if anyone is missing."

  Kara nodded, tears in her eyes. "I'll try."

  Nicky tried to keep her own fear under control. She didn't want Kara to see it. She had to stay calm, and she had to keep Kara calm. The entire town had to stay calm.

  "Who else was on stage with you?" Nicky asked.

  "Just me and John, plus Eric, Philline, and Jessica," Kara replied, nodding toward the group off to the side, who Ken was talking to. "The next part of the play would have Daisy and Mia come out and do their roles."

  "Where are they?" Nicky asked.

  Kara led her to the backstage area. "Mia!" Kara called out. A young girl turned--she was talking to an officer, who looked up at them as they approached. Behind them, on the main stage, Nicky turned to see forensics had arrived. Good.

  "Hey," Mia said, "what's going on now? I was just telling this officer--I didn't see anything."

  "Where's Daisy?" Kara asked.

  "I don't know," Mia replied. "She never showed up to meet me behind stage--I thought she was just in the bathroom."

  Nicky's heart dropped. "When was the last time any of you saw this Daisy girl?"

  Kara and Mia shifted on their feet uncomfortably. "Well... maybe this morning?"

  "And she was supposed to be here right now?"

  "Yeah," Mia said. "I have no idea where she is."

  Shit, Nicky thought. This Daisy girl could be the target--then again, anyone could be. But they had to find her and rule her out.

  "Stay here," Nicky told the others, then she ran up to Ken and the other performers, including John from earlier. "Have any of you seen Daisy?" she asked.

  They all frowned, shaking their heads.

  "She should be around here somewhere," John said.

  "What does she look like?" Nicky asked.

  John pulled up a picture and flashed it. It was a blonde-haired girl dressed up in a medieval costume, performing with another person. This was who they were looking for.

  Nicky locked eyes with Ken. "Let's search the beach."

  Ken nodded, and they ran down the sand, toward the water. They split up, running in different directions. Nicky felt her heart beating in her chest. She didn't want to think about what would happen if it were true.

  "Daisy!" she called out. "Daisy, can you hear me?"

  She kept running, searching the beach, the sand, looking for any sign of Daisy, or any sign of the killer. She just hoped Daisy was still alive.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The missing girl, Daisy Finn, was nowhere to be found.

  Nicky's head pounded as she talked to yet another group of festival goers--two young women who'd been there when Amanda's body was found.

  "Did you get any footage at all?" Nicky asked them.

  One girl held up her phone. "Yeah, I was filming the whole thing..."

  "Can I see it?" Nicky asked.

  The girl, blonde and pale with freckles, nodded. "I--I'll pull it up."

  Nicky followed her over to the stage, and the girl showed Nicky the footage she'd recorded. She'd started filming with the coffin coming out, and she'd gotten a few good shots of the body.

  "Did you see anyone else around?" Nicky asked. "Anyone who might have been watching from the shadows?"

  The girl shook her head. "I wasn't watching too closely. I just thought it was supposed to be part of the play."

  Nicky tried to keep her expression neutral. "It was. A part of the play."

  "This is the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me," the girl said. "I mean, I came here to see a festival, and the girl onstage actually turns out to be dead."

  Nicky took out her phone and showed a picture of Daisy. "And have you seen this actress anywhere? Do you recognize her?"

  The girls shook their heads.

  They hadn't seen Daisy.

  It had been over an hour since the search for Daisy had begun, and time was dragging on as Nicky and Ken, as well as the police, gathered as much footage as they could from the festival. A lot of people had smartphones out and had gotten shots, but it would take even more hours to look through everything once it was all collected.

  Nicky's resolve was dying.

  She'd already lost Amanda Smith. Now, Daisy Finn was likely the girl she needed to save.

  She left the other girls and stepped off to the side, giving herself a moment to breathe. She looked out at the ocean. The festival was mostly clear now, and things had calmed down. Forensics had collected everything from the crime scene, and Amanda's body was being transported to the coroners to confirm her cause of death.

  Breathing in the salty ocean air, Nicky took a moment to go over the case. The kidnapper... he'd taken Amanda from a festival in another town six months ago. Why did he wait so long to kill her? Why did he kill her here, and not where he found her?

  And where had he kept her for all those months?

  She must have been hidden somewhere, confined, unable to escape. And where was Daisy Finn now? In the same spot as Amanda, Nicky could only assume. But she wondered if the killer would wait six months to kill her this time... or if he was escalating.

  He might not wait at all.

  He may not even take the time to take her back to his lair.

  He could kill her right now.

  Nicky's heart beat at the thought.

  She had to find Daisy before it was too late.

  She had to stop this killer before anyone else was killed.

  "Nicky?"

  She turned to see Ken, standing with his hands in his pockets. The wind blew his suit jacket off, and he stepped closer to her.

  "Hey. Anything?"

  He shook his head. "No one has seen Daisy Finn. Her friends tried calling her--no answer. The police will keep looking, but we're fairly certain she's the one the killer took."

  Nicky felt her heart drop. "And she's still missing?"

  "Yeah."

  Nicky sighed. This was it. If Daisy Finn was truly missing, that meant the killer had already taken another victim. There was no telling how many people's lives he'd end before this was all over. If Nicky didn't do anything else, she was determined to save Daisy Finn.

  She faced Ken. "Let's go review all the footage."

  ***

  The Vitaly police department was not a busy place. It was old, just three stories of brick, and sat in the middle of downtown Vitaly. It reeked of cigarette smoke, stale coffee, and desperation. It left much to be desired, but Nicky had seen worse.

  Sitting across from Ken in a vacant room with cold coffees in their hands and a dim light, they had their laptops open in front of them. There were no windows in the room, but Nicky could feel the day slipping away. They'd put out an APB for Daisy Finn, but there'd been no sightings of her yet. In the meantime, Nicky and Ken were reviewing all of the cellphone footage captured at the festival--not only of the play itself, but of every moment leading up to it.

  Anything that could catch a glimpse of Daisy. Maybe then, they'd have a clue as to who kidnapped her.

  Nicky sighed, sipping her coffee. She felt exhausted, and she hadn't even done any of the heavy lifting. "Maybe we're looking for a ghost," she said.

  "What?" Ken asked.

  "The killer," Nicky said. "Maybe he's a ghost. One of those people who manage to stay invisible all the time."

  "Maybe," Ken said. "But Rebecca, that woman--she really did see Amanda at the festival with a man, a man who matches John's description."

  "But it's not John."

  "Of course not. We cleared him."

  Nicky sighed. It wasn't John. But potentially a man who looked like him.

  "So, what's his motivation?" Nicky asked.

  "We don't know," Ken said. "But he likes to hold his victims for a long time before he kills them."

  Nicky sighed. "And we don't know where to find him."

  "No," Ken said. "We don't. We don't know anything about him. We don't where he's taking them, or how he's doing it..."

  Nicky turned to her laptop and started a video. It was made in selfie style by a girl at the festival, filming herself and her friend. In the background were many people--none of them Daisy.

  All Nicky could do was keep reviewing footage, but most of it was entirely useless.

  She clicked on the next video, keeping her eyes peeled for anything or anyone suspicious.

  She'd been reviewing videos for ages--all of the festival footage, all of the footage from the incident.

  She'd watched it all.

  She'd seen the girl from the selfie video come in and out of the picture, clearly oblivious to Amanda's death. She'd seen others fleeing in horror, and she'd seen the police questioning everyone.

  Another video. This one was of the stage, earlier in the day--before Amanda's body had been found. Whoever took the video was fairly close to the stage, and they were trying to catch footage of the actors as they were on their breaks. The video was shaky and unclear, and the person filming zoomed in on John.

  "Oh my God, he's so cute in person!" the person said.

  It got closer and closer to John, who was oblivious that he was being filmed. He was smiling, talking to his manager.

  But then, Nicky noticed something in the background.

  A woman... a girl... blonde hair...

  In the shadows of backstage, Nicky swore she saw a blonde woman talking to someone--a blonde woman who looked a lot like Daisy. But the focus of the camera was on John. Either way, Nicky clicked pause. She frowned at the screen before she opened up the video editor and brightened the footage, zooming in more.

  And there she was. Daisy Finn. And she was seen talking to a man--a short, balding man. Nicky hadn't seen this guy at the show earlier--he would have stood out, as his hair was thinning and he must have been under five-foot-five inches tall, so his appearance didn't match up with the stars--who were mostly young and beautiful. Nicky would have noticed him.

  So, who was he?

  And why was Daisy talking to him?

  "Did you find something?" Ken asked.

  Nicky froze the screen and turned to Ken. "I think I did."

  "What is it?"

  She looked at the timestamp.

  Daisy was talking to this man... before Amanda's body was found.

  It matched up with the time that she vanished.

  Ken came over and looked over Nicky's shoulder. "Who is that guy?"

  "I don't know," Nicky said. "Maybe Grace can run him through the system." She took a screenshot of the man's face, then quickly brought up her email and sent it to Grace, then took out her phone and called the tech. As always, Grace was quick to answer.

  "Agent Lyons--how can I help?"

  "Grace, I just sent you an email with a picture attached," Nicky explained. "See if you can run him through the database and come up with a facial ID."

  "Will do," Grace said. "It's a good picture, I think it'll do the job."

  "Thanks," Nicky said. "I'll keep reviewing the tapes." She hung up and clicked back to the video. "You think this guy is the killer?" Ken shook his head. "There was no sign of struggle at the festival. If this man was kidnapping women, he wouldn't have just been walking around like this."

  "Unless he is the perfect killer," Nicky said. "Maybe he's the type that looks like a harmless old man, but in reality, he's a psychopath, who plans his attacks thoroughly..."

  "But Nicky... if he'd already had the girl at the festival," Ken said, "Why would he still want to kidnap her? It looked like they were having a casual conversation."

  "I don't know," Nicky said. "But I'm sure there's a reason."

  Moments later, Nicky's phone rang--it was Grace.

  "That was quick," Nicky commented into the phone.

  "That's because I didn't even need to use the system," Grace said. "Nicky--this guy is Daisy Finn's manager, Francis James."

  "Her manager?" Nicky asked. "What's his story?"

  "Nothing," Grace said. "His record is clean."

  Damn. Nicky gritted her teeth. "Thanks, Grace. Talk soon."

  Nicky hung up and looked at Ken, who was standing beside her, leaning against the table.

  "It could be innocent," Ken said with a shrug.

  "If that's the case," Nicky said, "then where is he? Why wasn't he around when Amanda's body was found?"

  "Maybe he went home," Ken said.

  "If he's Daisy's manager, he should be worried about her," Nicky said. "He hasn't called or come in to make a statement, and he might be one of the last people to have seen her."

  Nicky's pulse raced. This Francis guy--he was looking more suspicious by the second.

  Ken seemed to be reading Nicky's mind, as he went back over to his laptop and started typing. "Francis doesn't have an address here," he said. "They travel for their plays, but..." He looked up. "He has a houseboat registered. Looks like he checked it into the docks down by the beach."

  "A boat?" Nicky asked.

  "Yep," Ken said. "Let's go."

  Nicky nodded, and they both headed out.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Nicky's car pulled up to a dock, where a multitude of houseboats were set up. She cut the headlights and put the car in park, and silence filled the space. Ken checked his phone again, the light brightening the car for a moment.

  "He should be at the end of dock seven," Ken said. He faced Nicky, who nodded.

  "We should go."

  They stepped outside of the car. Although it was a summer night, a cool breezed wafted off the ocean, making Nicky's skin prick. The sky was clear, giving life to a sea of stars that blanketed over the docks. Boats bobbed and creaked on the water.

  As they headed down the pier, the sound of the waves crashing against the walls of the docks echoed in the background. Nicky's shoes clacked against the wood of the pier, and the further they went, the louder the sound became.

  Nicky tried to push aside her fear and focus on her mission. The killer was still on the loose, and she needed to catch him.

 

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