Read Online Vendetta by Lisa Harris - Free Book Online Page B

she’d learned to keep what she discovered to herself. Her parents, especially her mother, couldn’t handle the emotional roller coaster. Most of it, she’d never even shared with Katie, let alone Tyler.
    He leaned his shoulder against the stone wall beside her. “Tell me what happened the day Sarah disappeared, Nikki.”
    The minutes and hours clicked automatically through her mind, frame by frame. Detail by detail. As many times as she’d wanted to, she’d never been able to erase them. “I was supposed to pick her up after school. I’d promised to take her out for ice cream to celebrate a good grade on an algebra test. She hated math and was determined to do everything possible to avoid going to summer school.
    â€œI’d just gotten off work. It was my first year teaching at Oak School Elementary. On my way to pick her up, I decided to stop at the mall to buy some shoes I’d had my eye on. The store was having a sale, and I figured I’d have plenty of time to grab them on my way and pick her up on time.”
    Days later, she’d found the shoes in the trunk of her car, still in the box with their tags and the receipt. She’d tossed them in the trash.
    â€œI ended up getting to the school fifteen minutes late. I couldn’t find her. I didn’t think much about it at first. I thought she might have caught a ride home with a friend. But when I got to my parents’ house, she wasn’t there.”
    It was at that point she’d begun to realize something waswrong. Sarah would never have gone anywhere without telling someone.
    â€œThe police canvassed the neighborhoods, and we spoke to everyone at the school. Door-to-door in the surrounding neighborhoods, a grid search of the area. The police set up roadblocks, put out an AMBER Alert. The only clue we had was the Polaroid photo of Sarah found outside the school, left presumably by her abductor. No one we spoke to saw her get into a car. None of her friends or friends’ parents. She’d just . . . vanished.”
    Tyler stood quietly beside her while she worked to settle her emotions. “We finally got an eyewitness statement from a student who remembered seeing her get into a car with a man. The description matched a serial killer the police and FBI had been looking for over the past few years.”
    â€œThe Angel Abductor.”
    Nikki nodded. Even ten years later, the media’s name for the man still managed to send chills through her. “After that day, I spent weeks poring over every phone call and lead the police received.
    â€œI was the one who ended up working with law enforcement to make a long-term plan. My parents paid for a private investigator to look into the case, but I still went over Sarah’s file dozens of times, memorizing every detail, looking for anything crucial that might have been overlooked. I kept meticulous notes, studied serial abductor and killer cases, and made sure the media was kept involved. I was completely focused on finding that one clue that would lead us to Sarah.”
    The missing persons file on Sarah had become extensive. Pages and pages of information containing medical information, personal descriptions, and coded dental characteristics, along with the initial entry report and categories and leads. She’d memorized them all, along with every fact they knew about the abductor.
    â€œIt didn’t take long for me to realize that I—along with my entire family—had changed. My parents considered closing their restaurant, and at one point considered divorce. Thankfully, they had a lot of support in their church and eventually managed to slowly find their way out of the darkness. But I couldn’t give up on the possibility that Sarah was still out there.”
    Alive.
    Nikki paused while Tyler gave her the space she needed to continue.
    â€œI finished up my first year of teaching, turned in my resignation, and applied