Page 58 of Summer Ride

When he stepped back into the house, Kara was sitting on the sofa working on her computer.

“Anything?” she asked, looking up at him.

“No, but it’s pretty much sand all the way around the place, besides the pool deck and the driveway.” He sat down beside her and looked at her screen.

“Who is David Samuel?” he asked.

“I think it’s Axel.” She showed him her screen, then hit play on a podcast.

While he listened, she got up and grabbed a glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee for him.

The more he listened to the man rant, the angrier he got. Finally, he got to what he’d been building up to. How God had destined that Axel Johnson would have Mary Ester. He leaned forward and shut the recording off.

“You think this is him?” he asked.

She nodded. “He sounds like him. It’s been years, but I can still hear his voice.” She closed her eyes for a moment and shivered. Then she opened her eyes and looked at him. “And he talks like him. Using the same phrasing.”

He thought about it, then pulled out his phone.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

He glanced up. “You’re not the only one who could have changed your name. Maybe they can’t find Axel Johnson because they don’t know he’s now going by the name David Samuel.”

Kara frowned and then turned a little pale.

He held her hand as he dialed Brett’s number and then put his friend on speakerphone.

“Hey, how’s your vacation going?” Brett asked.

“So far so good. Hey, listen, Kara had a thought. She’s here with me now.”

“Hey, care bear,” Brett said, using her nickname around the camp. “What’s up?”

“I found this podcast that sounds a lot like Axel.” She glanced at him, and he knew that she didn’t want to divulge all of her past. Brett had listened in on her interview with the police, but he figured she was better off not knowing that small detail. “Well, it makes me think that he’s changed his name to David Samuel.”

Brett was quiet for a moment. “I can check it out. Send me the link.”

Kara leaned forward and typed on her computer.

“I sent it to your camp email. I know it’s a long shot, but maybe it will help.”

“We sent out his latest mug shot but since it’s a few years old, we’re trying to get a more recent photo of him from the motel’s security video.”

“There was a video of him at the motel?” Carter asked.

“It’s grainy, but yeah, it’s definitely him with Abigail. He was carrying her like a father would a sleeping child,” Brett said with a sigh. “Thankfully she was still drugged when the police found her. Having to go through something like—”

Carter quickly changed the phone from speaker and put it up to his ear to shield the rest of what Brett was saying from Kara, who had paled at least three shades.

“Hey,” Carter interrupted Brett. “We gotta go but let me know if you find out anything.” He quickly hung up. “Sorry,” he said, pulling her into his arms.

“He hurt her, didn’t he?” Kara asked against his chest. “No more secrets,” she said when he didn’t answer right away. “The news isn’t reporting anything about it. About her physical condition. All they say is that she’s in the hospital recovering. Which tells me that he cut her. It doesn’t tell me anything else.”

“Yes, he hurt her,” he finally answered. “I’m not sure to what extent, but she had cuts all over her body. She had to undergo surgery for a few of the deeper cuts.”

Kara held onto him and cried.

They both understood that he wouldn’t have stopped at cutting. That he did what he’d done to Kara all those years ago.