Bayou Born, page 10
“This is where the Claremont girl vanished,” I said in case he didn’t recognize the area. Passing on the ride with Santiago meant we ended up walking the exact path she had taken that fateful day. Perhaps the decision had been a subconscious one on my part, meant as a goodbye since she was no longer mine to find. “She was last seen by a classmate who lives in the Dunleavy Apartment Complex.”
The brick buildings hunched together across the street, about fifteen minutes away if you stuck to the sidewalk.
“This is fresh blood.” Another shift of his broad shoulders, one I caught on the edge of my vision. Had he dipped his fingers in the liquid to test viscosity? Scented it to be sure maybe? I shifted my weight forward, and caught the glitter of moisture on his fingers. I rocked back on my heels, shook my head. He must have used a wet wipe, cleaned his hands. It’s not like he would have licked his fingers. “Who do you want to call?”
“How sure are you someone needs calling?” The yellow beam of the SUV hit me across the cheek. “We can’t know it’s human.”
The noise he made in the back of his throat disagreed with me, but I wasn’t ready for what it might mean. Fresh blood near where the Claremont girl had been taken. Fresh blood on a path Maggie walked daily, which she had no reason to stroll at night. None.
A fresh wave of soothing coolness yanked me back from the precipice and focused my mind.
“I need to get to the school.” I stepped into the road and around him. “Can Santiago call . . . ?”
“Are you determined to make honest men of us all?” A wisp of humor laced his words.
I couldn’t find it in me to crack a smile. Not until I had laid eyes on Maggie. Not until this ice block in my chest thawed.
Cole stood and gestured the SUV to the curb. He crossed to Santiago, who lowered his window, and they exchanged words that resulted in Santiago piercing me with a scowl I was starting to recognize as his default expression around me.
“He’s calling the police,” Cole informed me. “He’ll wait here for them to preserve the scene.”
A jerky nod was all the thanks I could offer before my feet wrested control of my body away from me, and I broke into a steady jog aimed at the kindergarten wing of the John W. Rosen Elementary School. Most of the classrooms sat dark and empty, but a few lights gave me hope. I coasted to a stop at the rear doors leading to the parking lot where the buses lined up and pounded my fist against the locked metal door. No one answered. I jumped a chain-link fence that cordoned off a cluster of air-conditioning units and approached one of the lit windows. I banged on the glass until a sour-faced man frowned down at me. He cranked the window open a fraction and pursed his lips.
“Hi there. I’m Luce Boudreau with the Canton Police Department.” I pasted on a winning smile I didn’t feel. Swallowed by Cole’s enormous shirt, I must have looked more like a kid than a cop. “I’m also a friend of Maggie Stevens.”
“Jeremy Hendricks,” he answered with reluctance. “I’m one of the first-grade teachers. Is there something I can help you with, officer?”
“Maggie didn’t come home from work today. Her fiancé became concerned when she broke dinner plans with him and called me. I was hoping you could let me in to check her classroom. I want to make sure she didn’t lose track of the time.”
“Maggie left hours ago.” His expression softened a touch. “One of the other teachers—Robert Martin—backed over a stray. Maggie was walking to her car and saw it all. She scooped up the dog, and Robert drove her to Rice Animal Hospital.”
Hope, that most useless of emotions, closed tight fingers around my throat. The blood on the sidewalk . . . Maybe the dog had run from them after being injured. Cole could be wrong about it being human. Except the staff parking lot wasn’t on that stretch of road. There were a few spots, yes, but Maggie didn’t often park at the curb. The walk was too far for the spiky heels she loved wearing.
“Thanks for your help.” I pulled out my wallet, thumbed one of my business cards and passed it to him. “Call if you think of anything else or if you see her before I do.”
“I hope you find her soon.” He accepted the paper rectangle through the slit and tucked it into his front shirt pocket. “Maggie’s got a big heart. She’s a favorite around here. I can’t keep my kids from popping back into her classroom for hugs.”
“One last question.” I couched it as an afterthought. “Robert Martin. Do you have a number where I can reach him?”
“No. Sorry. He teaches three grades ahead of me. Our paths don’t cross often.”
“Okay.” I waved. “Thanks.”
I was slower going over the fence this time. Cole offered me his hand, but I swung my legs and jumped without assistance. We’d had a fence three times this height as part of the obstacle course at the academy. Chain link I liked. Plenty of hand and footholds. It was the wooden privacy fences that got you.
“Do you want a lift out to the animal hospital?” Cole fell in step beside me. “We can use my SUV and Santiago can catch a ride from one of the others.”
“Let me call Justin first.” I dialed him. “Hey, did you have any luck?”
“No one’s seen her.” Metal clanged in the background. Had he thrown a pan in the sink? “People don’t vanish into thin air.”
I rolled in my lips to keep the cop in me from admitting that sometimes, yeah, they did. Instead I passed on what Mr. Hendricks had said about the dog and the emergency trip to the vet. “Has she ever mentioned Robert Martin to you?”
“The name doesn’t sound familiar, but I know the other K5 teachers best.” He pushed out a sigh. “You know what a softie Maggie is. She would have jumped into a car with Freddy Krueger if it meant saving an injured animal.”
“Rice Animal Hospital closes at five.” Dad and I had used the same clinic for his ancient lab, Yeller, until she passed from old age. “The closest emergency vet is about forty-five minutes away.” Also a fact I knew thanks to Yeller and her tendency to eat pennies. I held out my phone, checked the time. “It’s eight o’clock now.”
During the school year, it wasn’t unusual for Maggie to stay well past the three-oh-five bell. She sanitized the classroom, commiserated with the other teachers or babysat stragglers whose parents couldn’t pick up their little ones on time due to their work schedules. Say she left at five, her usual, then the forty-five-minute drive there and back plus the time required for the vet to tend the dog framed up a reasonable window of time. But my heart pounded so hard it threatened to bruise my ribs. I couldn’t shake the sensation of impending doom.
Justin must have been running the same mental calculations as me, because he interrupted my thoughts. “This could all be a big mix up.” His punch of relief nauseated me, because it hit me square in the gut for an altogether different reason. “She might be on her way home.”
Maybe. I hoped so. But why hadn’t she borrowed a phone and left Justin a message warning him she would run late? There might not have been time in the moment, but after? Martin must have a cell. Who didn’t these days? Say his battery was dead and they were too frantic to charge it during the drive. Okay, well, the clinic had a landline phone. No battery required. No spotty coverage worries. No reason for her not to pick it up and dial home.
I scuffed my toe on the concrete. “Maybe.”
“Thanks for your help, Luce. I’ll call when she arrives.”
Please let her arrive.
“You told him the truth.” Cole dipped his chin, watching me tuck away my phone. “It’s not your fault people hear what they want.”
“Speaking of hearing, what big ears you have, Grandma. The better to stalk me with, I presume?” He didn’t take the bait, so I massaged my forehead. “I want to check the lot before I go.”
He swept out his arm indicating I should lead the way. I crossed the grassy lawn and strolled under the awning until we reached the parking lot. Maggie’s sunshine-yellow Prius sat beneath her favorite tree.
“I don’t like this.” I circled the car but didn’t touch it even to test the door handle so fingerprints could be lifted if necessary. “Maggie forgets things, but she isn’t thoughtless. She would have called if her plans changed. Why not borrow a phone to call Justin or use the one in the main office?”
“I can trace Robert Martin,” Cole offered.
“That’s okay.” I rolled my head on my neck. “I’ll run him down at the station. Tomorrow, I guess.”
“I’m right here.”
“Kind of hard to miss you.” I glanced over at him. “You’re like a baby mountain that got tired of where it was planted and invested in a nice pair of boots to go adventuring.”
“That’s not what I meant.” He anchored his hands at his hips. “I have resources at my disposal. Why not use them?”
“I have my own resources, but thanks.” I patted his elbow. “I’ve already told you I can’t afford you.” I cocked my head at him. “I’m not even sure why you want to help. Where’s the angle?”
He didn’t protest having one, which assured me I would cut myself on his one day soon.
“Can I request one last favor?” He nodded that I could, and I trespassed on his hospitality. “Can you drop me off at the station?”
“You’re going to file a missing person report.”
“Yes.” The prospect drained me until I had no energy left to contemplate what this might mean. “Justin is going to realize she may not be coming home soon. I can’t give him much, but I can give him this. The quicker the report is filed, the sooner the search can begin and the sooner I can access full departmental resources to help locate her.”
“I’ll drop you off and ask Miller to get your keys from Portia. He can bring the Bronco around for you.”
“That would be perfect.” I cut a path for the SUV, which had been joined by a cruiser. The ripple of the lightbar, usually a welcoming beacon, locked my knees, and I lost all motivation to walk the rest of the way. Once I spoke to another cop about Maggie, it was real. She became a file on someone’s desk, a stack of papers to flip through. “This is one time I wouldn’t mind ducking out on the cops.”
“Let me see what I can do.” Phone in hand, he started texting. “This will only take a minute.”
Sensing his dismissal, I drifted a short distance away and began pacing. I had counted on the ride to the station to digest what this meant. Canton was a small town. The fact Maggie worked at the same school as Angel Claremont’s little sister had meant nothing. Until Justin’s call. Until the blood on the sidewalk. I prayed the latter got dismissed as part of the dog incident, but what if it didn’t? What did that mean for Maggie?
A horn honking snapped me from my thoughts. I don’t know how long I’d been standing on the curb, but Cole had already made himself comfortable in a black SUV identical to the one up the road. Thom sat behind the wheel of this one, and he finger-waved at me.
I got in beside Cole in order to avoid Thom, but he tracked my progress and grinned like the Cheshire Cat, all bright teeth, when I opened the door.
“You smell nice.” He sniffed the air. “Cole’s scent is all over you.”
Fire zinged up my spine, thawing me further, but I kept the heat out of my cheeks. “Um, thank you?”
He nodded his satisfaction, then faced forward and made a U-turn to avoid the lightshow up ahead. I was dreading the ribbing I’d get entering the station dressed in Cole’s shirt when Thom wrenched the wheel hard to his left. My head cracked against the window to my right, and my ears rang. Fireworks rocketed behind my eyelids, and the world exploded in a shower of agony as the vehicle screeched to a stop. Everything hurt. Nothing worked. My eyelids kept slipping lower and lower.
“No . . . hospitals,” I murmured. “I won’t go back. I won’t . . . ”
A bellow rose from the seat beside me. More of that harsh language flowed between the front seat and the back. But I was having trouble focusing, their conversation half English and half unknown, too fluid for me to cup in my hands.
Briiiiiiing.
That damn ringtone followed me into oblivion.
CHAPTER NINE
“Ms. Boudreau.” A cold metal disc pressed against my chest as the congenial voice droned, “Ms. Boudreau, can you hear me?”
“Luce.” A fierce growl laced with command splintered my head. “Wake up.”
“No.” I pried open my eyes and squinted at the pockmarked ceiling. “No . . . hospitals.”
“This isn’t a hospital.” The first speaker solidified into a middle-aged man with thinning hair. “This is a private clinic.”
Pulse hammering in my ears, I swatted away his hand. “Don’t touch me.” I braced my palms on the table and pushed upright while my body protested going vertical. “Just . . . don’t.”
“He didn’t examine your arms or your shoulders.” Cole shuffled the doctor aside so that he dominated my field of vision. “I carried you in, and I stayed with you the whole time. I never let you out of my sight.”
Stupid, grateful tears welled in my eyes. “Thank you.”
“I called your father. He’s on his way.” His gaze lingered on my damp cheeks. “Can you lie back down for me?”
“I don’t . . . ” My elbows buckled and went out from under me. Cole lunged forward, caught me in his arms and lowered me as softly as a whisper. “I meant to do that.”
“I’m sure.” Amusement glinted in his eyes, and I traced the crinkles at their corners. The fine lines vanished at my touch, and he firmed his lips. “You hit your head pretty hard.”
A distant part of my brain rebelled against me wasting precious time. I had been on my way somewhere to do something important. The urge still clawed at me, but I couldn’t remember what I had been doing, and my icy calm had abandoned me. “What happened?”
“Thom swerved to miss a deer.” He arranged a wafer-thin pillow under my head then withdrew. “You hit the right side of your head on the window. You’ve got a concussion.”
That all sounded scary, so I pushed those worries aside. “Dad’s on his way?”
He checked the cheap, plastic wall clock. “He should be here any minute—”
“Luce.”
“—now,” he finished. “Thom, lead Sergeant Boudreau back.”
Shuffling noises sounded behind me. Thom had either been standing watch at my back or in the hall. I couldn’t tell. My sense of direction skewed to one side, and, without Cole’s touch anchoring me, I gripped the edges of the table to keep from rolling off onto the floor.
“Relax. I won’t let you fall.” Cole made it a promise.
“You.” Dad choked out the word. “Get away from my daughter. I can handle things from here.” Dad interrupted my line of sight. “Baby girl, what have you gotten yourself into this time?”
“A car wreck,” I told him matter-of-factly. “A kamikaze deer got me.”
“Is that so?” He aimed the question at Cole. “A deer?”
If Cole answered him, I didn’t hear.
“Daddy.” I rolled onto my side. “I think I’m going to . . . ”
Gut heaving, I emptied the contents of my stomach onto his boots.
“Is it safe to move her?” he asked the doctor. “Can I take her home?”
“Home is the best place for her. She’s shaken, a little woozy and nauseated, but stable.” He passed a note over me, a prescription maybe. “Seek medical attention immediately if her condition worsens.”
“Thank you for your help.” Dad clasped hands with the doctor, then jerked back, his face purpling as Cole slid his warm hands under my back. Dad gripped the front of the much bigger man’s shirt. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m carrying her out to your truck.” Cole tucked me against him with a possessive growl. “Are you going to fight me over this or get the door?”
Thom materialized at my elbow, and his lip curled at my father.
“I’ll get the door.” Dad pointed at Thom. “You stay right where you are, Thomas.”
I must have gotten hit a lot harder than I thought, because it sounded like my dad had just called Thom by his full name. The incident at Hannigan’s would have made the rounds by now, so I figured Dad knew Cole’s record like the back of his hand. But Thom hadn’t been there. How could Dad know him? Unless he had pulled files for all of White Horse’s people. That was a Dad thing to do.
Thanks to the thousand-pound gorilla clapping my throbbing head between his cymbals, I nuzzled the space between Cole’s pectorals and shoved all that nasty logic business into the back of my head for later dissection.
The men didn’t exchange another word until Cole had me propped up on the passenger side of Dad’s pickup. That all changed once the door shut. Dad was madder than a wet hen, and Cole didn’t look far behind him. They kept their voices too soft for me to pick up the particulars, but neither man looked pleased when the confrontation ended. Cole ignored my dad while he cleaned off his boots, his stare a cutting, vicious thing.
He didn’t want to let me go. I could tell. I don’t know how, but I could. That protective streak of his kept popping up when I least expected, and . . . it was nice. Maybe that’s why it made me so suspicious.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I settled in and let my eyes shut. “You and Cole have history, don’t you?”
“We’ll talk tomorrow, after you’ve rested.”
“Promise?” Of all the things I might forget about tonight, this was not one of them.
“I promise.” He patted my knee. “Now rest.”
I scooted closer and curled against his side, resting the good side of my head against his shoulder. “Okay, Daddy.”
CHAPTER TEN
Morning sucked. Hard. It was bright and loud and shiny. And bright. Really bright. So bright it felt like the sun was standing over my bed drilling into my temple with a sharpened ray of light. I sat up and immediately wished I hadn’t. I dry-heaved a couple of times, but my stomach was empty. Thank God. The inside of my mouth already tasted like I’d been making out with Rixton—which is to say a horse’s ass.
