The Last Time We Saw Her. Robert Falcon Scott

      PINNACLE BOOKS

       Kensington Publishing Corp.

       http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      I’d like to thank the staff at the Benton County Courthouse for their help on this book.

       And I’d also like to thank my editors, Richard Ember and Michaela Hamilton.

      I heard a bloodcurdling scream.

      —Nathaniel McKelvey

      Joel Courtney is a bad dude.

      —Spokesperson, Albuquerque PD

      Brooke Wilberger became an icon for our community.

      —DA John Haroldson

      Contents

      PART I

      CHAPTER 1: TERROR ON A DARK STREET

      CHAPTER 2: CLOSE CALLS

      CHAPTER 3: VANISHED

      CHAPTER 4: SEARCHING

      CHAPTER 5: VOLUNTEERS

      CHAPTER 6: KIM

      CHAPTER 7: A TRAIL OF BLOOD

      CHAPTER 8: ABDUCTION CENTRAL

      CHAPTER 9: THE MAN IN THE SKI MASK

      CHAPTER 10: PSYCHIC VISIONS

      CHAPTER 11: AN “AHA!” MOMENT

      CHAPTER 12: AN ARREST AT LAST

      PART II

      CHAPTER 13: BREAKING NEWS

      CHAPTER 14: A BAD DUDE

      CHAPTER 15: MAY MADNESS

      CHAPTER 16: SERIOUS CHARGES

      CHAPTER 17: THE OTHER GIRLS

      CHAPTER 18: THE BLOND GIRL WITH BROWN EYES

      CHAPTER 19: “I WOULD SPIT IN YOUR FACE …”

      CHAPTER 20: ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS

      CHAPTER 21: AS IF BY MAGIC

      PART III

      CHAPTER 22: OUT OF THE PAST

      CHAPTER 23: “I STARTED SCREAMING AND CRYING.”

      CHAPTER 24: “I’M READY TO TRY THIS CASE IN ANY COUNTY IN THE STATE!”

      CHAPTER 25: CRIMINAL MISCHIEF

      CHAPTER 26: A BODY IN THE WOODS

      CHAPTER 27: RECOVERY

      CHAPTER 1

      TERROR ON A DARK STREET

      Albuquerque, New Mexico

       November 29, 2004

      Natalie Kirov was a beautiful young woman. Twenty-two years old, blond, petite, and vibrant, she was very far from her native country of Russia. An exchange student at the University of New Mexico (UNM), in Albuquerque, Natalie had learned to love the area that was so different from her own homeland. Every morning colorful balloons rose from the fields around the Rio Grande and wafted aloft on winds that made them soar along the Sandia Mountains. Old Town, with its collection of historic buildings dating back to the early 1700s, was just down the hill from the campus. And as each day went by, Natalie’s English skills improved, and she became more and more a part of the student life on campus.

      Natalie worked part-time on campus to make ends meet, and on the evening of November 29, 2004, she left her job at a day care center at UNM, around 5:30 P.M. She took a shuttle bus to an area near the duck pond on campus and then started walking home through a neighborhood where many students lived. This was an area that Tony Hillerman had written about on several occasions in his series of Navajo mysteries. As Hillerman noted in Coyote Waits: It was a neighborhood of small frame stucco bungalows left over from the 1940s with weedy yards and sagging fences. By 2004, some of the homes in the area were newer, with well-kept yards, but there were also empty lots filled with weeds and overgrown shrubbery, and still those that had “weedy yards and sagging fences.”

      The residential area below campus may not have been the most luxurious in the city, but it was filled with plenty of students returning to their residences and commuters arriving home from work at 6:00 P.M., so Natalie felt safe as she walked along. There was one drawback to this illusion of safety, however. Much of the street upon which she walked was unlit, and at this time of November, it was already dark. There were also gaps in the rows of houses with screens of dark vegetation. As Natalie neared the intersection of Harvard Drive and Garfield Avenue, there was even an old barn sitting on a wooded lot next to the street, which made that locale look more like country than city.

      Suddenly, as if in a nightmare, a shadowy figure came up behind Natalie. Without warning his hands clasped around her waist and throat. In a rough voice the stranger whispered into her ear, “Come with me! Get in my car! I have a knife!”

      For a brief moment Natalie thought it was all a joke. After all, this was the heart of the city, just a little after six o’clock. She thought it was someone she knew from school who was playing a prank on her.

      That perception quickly disappeared as the man pulled a knife out of his pocket and placed the sharp blade against her neck. Its cold steel dispelled any more thoughts that this was a prank.

      Knowing that she had to comply, or die right there on the street, Natalie allowed herself to be manhandled toward the assailant’s vehicle. She was thrust into a small red Honda and told not to move or scream.

      Her assailant got into the car right behind her through the passenger door. He climbed over her, moved behind the steering wheel, and started the engine. As the car began moving down the street, she could see in the dim light that her attacker was about thirty years old and scruffy-looking. She also noticed that he was very agitated and his eyes had a wild look.

      Even though the car was now moving, Natalie decided to take her chances. She grabbed the passenger-door handle and jerked on it, deciding it was better to throw herself from a moving car than to end up wherever this man was taking her. But to her surprise and horror, the door would not open.

      The man growled at her and flashed his knife. “Don’t do that again!” he snarled. “Or I’ll hurt you!”

      Extremely frightened now, Natalie complied. She even obeyed him when he said, “Take off your clothes and put them on the backseat.” He pointed the knife at her once more with his free hand. Natalie disrobed, item by item, until she was completely naked. He glanced at her momentarily and then kept driving.

      Even under these extreme circumstances, Natalie kept her wits about her. She told the man, “Please don’t take