The Watcher in the Wall Read Online Free PDF

question remains,” Stevens asked Windermere, “why the heck is Ashley Frey so intent on staying hidden?”
    Windermere didn’t answer. Didn’t have an answer. Figured, whoever Ashley Frey was, her clock was ticking.
    < 12 >
    Windermere watched Nenad walk back out through CID to the elevators. Felt empty inside, nauseous. Felt like she’d just let Ashley Frey die.
    The phone was ringing behind her. Windermere turned, watched Stevens pick it up. Watched him answer, nod, do more listening than talking. When he hung up the phone, he went to where she stood in the doorway.
    “Harrisburg PD,” he told her. “Turns out there’s more than a handful of Freys in the phone book. Even a couple of Ashleys, they said, but they’re older, grown-ups, not our person. The PD is hitting every Frey household, looking for underagers named Ashley, asking around.”
    He shook his head. “Thing is, none of the schools in Harrisburg have any record of an Ashley Frey in their registers. High schools, middle schools, private schools, none of them.”
    Windermere watched the elevator doors close behind Nenad, knew Stevens was waiting for her to come up with something good.
    “They try outside the city?” she asked her partner. “Surrounding districts? Heck, maybe she lied on her profile. Maybe she’s not in Harrisburg to begin with.”
    Stevens followed her gaze out across the office. “Yeah, I mean, maybe. That girl’s using some pretty heavy-duty concealment technology, Carla. She could be anywhere on the planet, for all we know.”
    She looked at him. “And?”
    Stevens made a face. “I’m just saying,” he said. “This is starting to look a lot like one of those needle-in-a-haystack gigs we tend to attract. Only this time, there’s no FBI-slash-BCA-sanctioned investigation attached.”
    “You’re saying we’re wasting our time. You want to drop this thing?”
    “I’m saying . . .” he started. She could feel his eyes on her again. Refused to turn his way. “Sooner or later, the Special Agent in Charge is going to want to know why we commandeered his best tech guy—and Mathers—on a wild-goose chase, when we still have a case left to close on our desks.”
    Windermere turned. Studied Stevens until he looked away. “The sex traffickers are dead or in jail, Stevens,” she said. “We’re just tying up loose ends, and you know it. There’s a girl out there who needs our help, and you—”
    “It’s been two days, Carla,” he said, and she could tell he was trying to be gentle about it. Kid gloves. “For all we know, she’s dead already.”
    “But we
don’t
know, Kirk,” she said. “I’m not going to let this girl offherself while I stand around and file paperwork. We could still find her if we—”
    “How?” Stevens asked. “You heard what Nenad said. If this girl wants to stay hidden, we’re never tracking her down.”
    “Bull-
shit
.” She was aware that heads were turning across CID, people staring at them over the top of their cubicles. She ignored them. “I’m freaking finding her, partner. If the SAC wants to tell me otherwise, he can come and tell me himself.”
    She walked away. Didn’t look back, didn’t know where she was going. Felt Stevens’s eyes on her from the doorway, the rest of CID.
    Windermere walked fast. Tried not to let on she was hurrying away. Kept going until she knew they couldn’t see her anymore.
    < 13 >
    It started with the hole in the wall.
    Randall Gruber was fifteen years old when his mom took up with Earl and his daughter, moved them out of town into that shitty double-wide, the place nothing more than a few flimsy particleboard walls and some aluminum siding. Sarah would have been sixteen, just a few months older than he was.
    He’d noticed the hole within an hour of moving in, after his mom shoved him into the little bedroom and Earl chucked his batteredsuitcase in behind him. He’d lain on his bed, drawing pictures in his sketch pad, stifling hot and