Vanished ericka stone ca.., p.1
Vanished, Ericka Stone Case #010, page 1
Vanished
Ericka Stone
Case #010
By
Felicia Rogers
Vanished
Ericka Stone
Case #010
Copyright ©2024 by Felicia Rogers
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
Contact Information:
Website: http://feliciarogersauthor.weebly.com
Email: feliciarogersauthor@yahoo.com
Published by:
Felicia Rogers
Cover Design by For the Muse Designs
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The author, Felicia Rogers, does not consent to any artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, and machine learning.
Dedication…
To my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
And to my family who continues to support me through this writing journey.
And to my father, who left this world too soon.
Table of Contents
Other works by Felicia Rogers
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Excerpt from Curveball, Ericka Stone Case #011
Other works by Felicia Rogers
Stand-alone works:
All I Have
The Holiday Truce
A Month in Cologne
Andrews Brothers (Regency Romance)
The Ruse
The Rescue
Southern Hearts Series (Civil War Romance)
Millicent
Amelia
Cora
“Justice” and Miss Quinn Mysteries (Regency Romance)
The Case of the Missing Cross (FREE ebook)
The Case of the Puppet Constable
The Case of the Secret Love
The Case of the Chinese Boxes
The Case of the Hidden Treasure
The Case of the Lost Island
The Kenelm Chronicles (Regency Romance)
The Golden Goose
The Silver Moon
The Bronze Heart
Hudson Hunts: The First and Last
Secret Defenders (Paranormal Romance)
Cian and Arin: Beginning (prequel)
The Key
Mara’s Secret
Iceas’ Victory
Meaningful Numbers Series (Christian Romance)
One of Forty
One of Twelve
One of Three
The Haywood Brothers Series (Christian Romance)
Love of a Businessman
Love of a Detective
Love of a Rancher
Redeemed Soldiers (Christian Romance)
Diamond Mine
Pearl Valley
Emerald Street
Ruby’s Way
Amethyst Cove
Sapphire Shoals
Opal Obsession
Ericka Stone Cases (Clean Detective Stories)
Freelance
Pendant
Treasure
Escape
Reunion
Reckless
Discovery
Detour
Journey
Vanished
Curveball (coming by October 2024)
The Board Series by F. A. Rogers
(novellas are listed in order)
Maralie (FREE on Amazon)
Reuben
Vanessa
Simon
Darla
Daniel
Irving
Levi
Francesca
Benjamin
James
The Return to Eden’s Hollow
Prologue
“Welcome to the Southside!”
Hollers, yelps, and whoops of excitement came from the crowd. Lex kept to the back of the room, his hood pulled over his head, and watched. The room was warm. His belly was full for the first time in months. He didn’t care what they jumped and shouted about. Let them have at it.
The man on the makeshift stage paced from side to side. All the heads in the room turned to match his pace, except for Lex. He kept his eyes on his slice of bread. If he could shove the entire thing in his mouth, he would just to protect it. But it was big. Really big.
“You have been chosen to join our organization. Some might call us a gang. Some might even be afraid of us, but we’re a family. We take care of each other. We take care of our own.”
“That’s right, man!”
“Thank you, Jess. Now, let’s get down to business. We’ve welcomed you into our fold. You will be given a room and food while you’re here. For now, nothing is required of you.”
Lex heard the unveiled meaning behind the dude’s words. He pinched off a piece of the bread and popped it in his mouth. It melted on his tongue. Others around him were eating as well. Some made pleasurable noises so loud he could barely hear. But he understood. The bread was good. He could figure out what the dude on stage was saying later.
The meeting ended and the crowd began to disperse.
“Hey, did you hear?”
“Hear what?”
“If we don’t have a place to go, they are letting us stay here.”
“Yeah, I heard that.” Lex slowly pinched off more bread. Just in case this was his last meal he was going to enjoy it.
“Of course, I kinda wonder what they goin’ want us to do later. You know?”
“Sure.”
“I mean, my momma told me stories about the gangs. My dad was shot, bam, dead on the street by a stray bullet. But she never said they were like this. She left the house like two weeks ago and never came back. I figured she’d met a man and she’s using him for some extra cash. She does that. But I’m hungry! I couldn’t waits no more.” He paused before holding out his hand. “I’m Jess.”
Lex returned the gesture. “Lex.”
“Nice to meetcha.”
“You too.”
“So, where do you come from? You got a mom and a dad? I don’t figure you do since you’re here, but I heard that some people be born and raised in it. You seem kind of comfortable.”
“I don’t have anybody.” Lex placed one hand around his bread. Jess hadn’t eyed it, but Lex couldn’t be too sure.
“I see. So, you hungry too? You be snacking on that bread like someone gonna snatch it from ya.”
“I don’t trust people.”
Jess nodded his head vigorously. “I get that. I get that. I tell ya what. You watch my back, and I’ll watch yours.”
Lex nodded.
Jess couldn’t be more than fifteen. The boy’s skin was as dark as coal and his hair needed a comb. The kid was practically skin and bones. Other than that, he seemed nice enough. How he could protect Lex was a mystery. But a second set of eyes wasn’t a bad thing. He'd learned that in the foster care system.
“You said that the leader was going to ask something of us. Did he say what it would be?” Lex took another piece of the bread and chewed it slowly. It was almost gone. He wanted to savor every bite.
“Nah, man. He didn’t say. Just said we could have a room and food, and we’d know when the time came.”
“So be it.”
Lex didn’t have a choice. He wasn’t going back to where he’d come. He would never go back there. It was better to be beholden to the gang than to those strangers who put strips on his back when he didn’t clean up a dog turd in the yard.
He didn’t even like dogs that much. At least he didn’t now. That dog had eaten steak while he’d been forced to have treat meat. At least he thought that’s what it was. The meat had been a mystery.
Still, he was glad to be out of there. Whatever he had to do to stay with this group, he would do.
Chapter One
Sergeant Greg Kane stood against the wall with a foot propped behind him. He yawned behind his hand then reached for his cup of coffee that sat on the corner of the mahogany conference table.
The office décor had really improved over the last couple of months. Director James Manis had style.
“First of all, I would like to congratulate everyone here on a job well done. Marsha Evers has given us a glowing recommendation. The Police Assistance Unit will be around for a little longer.”
The crowd cheered.
Someone blurted, “Now maybe we can actually work.”
“Here, here.”
Manis continued, “Let’s move on. This latest case brought to our attention is a growing problem. Kidnapping, human trafficking. It’s l
Greg rose up and let his foot drop.
On the screen in front of him a picture appeared. “Meet Maria Petrov, wife of Josef Petrov. Mrs. Petrov was recruited by our government to stop Josef, however, after much research it appears that Mrs. Petrov actually took over the operation and expanded the reach.”
Greg knew too much about the Petrov family. He also knew that Robert Stone and therefore Ericka were connected to said family.
Manis began to dole out assignments. Quinn and Maggie entered the room. They didn’t look at him. Quinn had his eyes lowered. Maggie frowned.
He’d sent them to check on Ericka. She’d left to go to her house the night before when Heidi arrived, and he hadn’t heard from her since. He’d gone over to ask if she needed a ride to work but there had been no answer.
He thought maybe she’d gotten a ride from someone else. Tito had suffered a concussion trying to free people from the guards while tied up, so he knew he hadn’t driven her.
Greg tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for Alpha Team’s assignment. When they didn’t get one regarding the case, he didn’t even care. Instead, he marched over to Quinn and Maggie.
“Well, where is she? Is she out celebrating with friends we don’t know about? Is she in the hospital again? She likes to do that. Did she try to go see Eliott or what? Why do you guys look like that?”
Quinn shuffled his feet back and forth.
Maggie didn’t look like she wanted to respond either.
“All right you guys are freaking me out. Just tell me.”
“It looks like Ericka didn’t stay inside her house last night.” Maggie blurted.
“Then where did she go?” He leaned in and used his hands to express his impatience.
“Well, we think she went to the park.”
“The park? At night? In the dark? Alone?”
“Yes. Video footage shows her walking there. I was even able to find a camera that showed her sitting on a bench one minute and then after the camera refreshed, she was just gone.”
“What do you mean gone? Did you ping her phone? Heck, did you call her?”
“We did both.”
“And?”
“Either her phone was turned off or the battery went dead, but either way, we can’t reach her. She’s vanished.”
Greg fell back against the table and slipped down into a leather coated chair. The soft buttery leather touched his exposed arm and almost offered comfort, but not enough to make him forget that Ericka was missing.
They had to find her and fast. With Maria Petrov out there taking people and Ericka’s father out there as well, it was only a matter of time before Ericka was next on the list. They had no time to lose.
****
Detective Ericka Stone scratched the developing red spots on her arms. The bush she’d gone through to meet Sasha must have been riddled with poison ivy. Only one other time had she gotten into the stuff. That was when she and Harrison Barton had gone out one night looking for a skunk.
All she wanted was to get Cecilia Drust back for sticking her in the closet… again. Ericka’s plan was to take a skunk and give it a nice bed for the evening—in Cecila’s bedroom.
Before their journey the one thing she hadn’t considered was how they were going to find a skunk. That had led to climbing in and out of weeds and bushes and both of them being eaten up with poison ivy.
“Don’t scratch, you’ll spread it.” Sasha was behind the wheel once again.
She was an expert driver. The night before she’d navigated the entire town without headlights and avoided traffic cameras in the process. It was as if she had had way too much practice.
“I don’t know that it matters now.” Ericka had clawed her skin until she could feel blood under her nails.
“It matters. We don’t have time to get you a shot if you get it in your eyes.”
Ericka placed her hands under her thighs and tried not to focus on the concern in that statement. It wasn’t for her; it was for something else they were about to do. She was sure of it. No one expressed that much concern for her well-being.
Ericka looked at Sasha and thought about the night before. She’d requested to see the safehouse under cover of darkness, but Sasha had refused. She’d asked who had raided the place and taken her father. Sasha said she wasn’t sure.
Whoever it was had hit Sasha in the face with their fist or an object. Sasha hadn’t exactly said.
The more non-answers Ericka received, the more suspicious she became. Now they were up at dawn traveling out of the city.
Greg and the others would no doubt be at the office learning their fate. If PAU, the Police Assistance Unit, remained as an entity then they might have a case to work on and here she was gallivanting around town with an ex-operative looking for her father again. It was the thing that had gotten her in trouble before.
She was so fired.
“What is the plan?” Ericka needed a distraction.
“You’ll know soon enough.”
“Sasha, I can’t keep doing this. My father avoided me for twenty-seven years. Why should I chase him down now? Maybe he’s fine with someone taking him away then he won’t have to talk to me.”
“Humph.”
“What does that humph mean?”
“It means other than one time, your father has been looking out for you.”
Ericka didn’t reply.
Without warning they turned off the road. The tires crunched along a gravel drive. She’d missed the time when they left the town and entered the backwoods. Overhanging tree limbs blocked the road but Sasha again, knew right where to go.
The car stopped outside a large rundown building. Words on a worn-out sign read, State Sanitorium. Ericka couldn’t be happier about entering an abandoned insane asylum. It was one of her top ten things to do.
She sighed.
At least night had passed by the time they arrived.
Sasha got out of the car and Ericka followed. She kept the door open and leaned on the hood with her arms folded.
She looked over the hood of the car. “Sasha, not to question your choice of stopping locations, but what are we doing here?” If they were there to use the bathroom then Sasha could forget it.
“I told her to bring you here.”
The voice didn’t sound like the one from her dreams. It wasn’t as deep, or as squeaky as she had imagined.
“Turn around, darling.”
Ericka feared doing so. He might disappear again. She stared at Sasha as she said, “Sasha said they took you.”
“They did, but she got me back. Now turn around, please. I want to see you.”
Ericka slowly turned her head.
****
Maria Petrov looked out over the bow of the Black Dahlia. An alert had been sounded on the radio about the lost cargo. The White Lily had handed them over, but those in charge of the final operation had lost them.
Roxanne and Sloan.
She was not surprised.
Although those two incompetents remained at large, Amy Guild would no longer be on the payroll. She’d taken the fall for the entire kidnapping and reselling scheme.
Convenient.
Although not a terrible loss. The woman had an overinflated ego and cost too much money for what she’d provided.
Maria looked out over the ship. The cargo ship was loaded with containers that would be left at the dock. Most of the containers were empty. A few held products they’d been contracted to haul from one country to another. Most had been retrofitted to carry human cargo back to those countries.
Maria left the bridge and went onto the main deck. Cool air struck her cheeks and lifted tendrils of hair off her neck. She lifted her face to the sun and drew in a deep breath.
As her shoulders relaxed, she looked out at the shoreline. They were supposed to make landfall and pick up a new load of prisoners from the White Lily. The countries in question wanted their people back.
Now.
Maria couldn’t agree more.
Those people deserved to be punished. They didn’t deserve immunity or to live in a free country, not after the things they’d done in their own.
Her phone pinged and she pulled it from her pocket. While Sloan and Roxanne were unaware that they worked with her, they were still free to work for her.
