Vanished On Vacation (Agent Victoria Heslin Series Book 6) by Jenifer Ruff

Author:Jenifer Ruff [Ruff, Jenifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Greyt Companion Press
Published: 2022-10-06T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 26

An unnerving grinding noise broke the silence. It came from the marina store. The man working there dragged a heavy metal door against the pavement and closed off the storefront. On the other dock, the chair by the gas pumps was empty and the man who had been working there was nowhere to be seen.

“Does it feel like the police just gave up on the search?” Tom asked, summing up Victoria’s thoughts exactly.

“Yes,” she answered him honestly. “Something happened. But I don’t know what.”

“Let’s head back to the resort and regroup there,” Rivera said. “I’m going to call Murphy…our boss, to tell him what happened, see if he can talk to the Chief of Police, and we should check in with the U.S. embassy again.”

With the sun on their backs, Victoria and Rivera hurried back to Azure Cove. Jennifer and Tom Jennings trudged behind them, looking more emotionally drained and defeated than before.

Rivera left a message for Murphy, asking for his advice. They didn’t want to burn bridges with the Mexican police, but something needed to change with their attitude, and fast. Rivera didn’t need to remind Murphy that if they were to find Avery alive, every minute mattered, but he did anyway.

They walked back to Azure Cove near the water’s edge and were approaching the pier. The white flyers with Avery’s picture stood out against the dark pillars. Victoria wondered how the Jennings would react to seeing them. Then something caught her eye. A flash of unnatural color amongst the ugly brown mass of seaweed below the structure. Something solid, tangled in the rocking tendrils. Victoria’s breath caught in her throat. She hoped she was mistaken, that her eyes were playing tricks on her. She strained to make sense of what she was seeing without calling attention to it.

Long dark hair. Pale long limbs.

It was a woman.

With a flick of her wrist, Victoria signaled for Rivera to keep moving down the beach with the Jennings. The signal came too late. Jennifer stopped walking and stared at the agents.

“Come on, let’s keep going,” Rivera said, his voice gentle but firm.

Jennifer looked beyond Victoria and gasped as she spotted the figure churning in the waves. She rushed to get closer. “What’s that? Is that…is that a body? Oh, my God. Is it Avery?” Jennifer stopped again and buried her face in her hands, wailing, “I can’t look. I can’t.”

Tom ran past his wife, stumbling in the sand.

“Tom! Stop!” Victoria shouted.

Still wearing his shoes and clothes and ignoring the agents’ shouts to wait, Tom charged under the pier and waded through the shallow water. His breath came in loud, ragged gasps. He was almost to the body when Rivera outran him and pulled him back.

“Don’t,” Rivera said. “It could be a crime scene. We can’t touch her.”

“But it might be Avery,” Tom said, craning his neck in Rivera’s grip to get a better look.

“Is it her?” Jennifer shouted. “Is it Avery?”

“I can see her and…I don’t think it is. It’s not Avery,” Tom said.

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