Steph might have found it odd that Peters hadnt said Jillys name once since hed arrived, but that thought disappeared the instant Officer Murphy smiled. They found her across the street in that little park. Shes okay.
Thank God! was Stephs only thought as her feet carried her out the door to her daughter.
A SCANT HOUR later the Patriot cops were ready to pack it up and call it a day, but Reid wasnt so sure.
Something about this just doesnt feel right, he insisted. Youre telling me that a three-and-a-half-year-old girl wanders across the street, down a half mile of paths, and nobody sees her? Then two hours later, a jogger tells Officer Dunphy he saw a little girl over by the duck pond, and boom! There she is? Where was she the rest of the time? And wheres the jogger?
We have his name and number, Officer Murphy replied, irritated. And its not unheard of for a young child to follow, say, a puppy and end up lost. Jilly is home, and the paramedics said theres absolutely no evidence of anything beingdone to her. Were canvassing the neighborhood to see if anyone saw something suspicious, and beyond that its a closed case. Why dont you goconsole Miss Alberts rather than trying to make my job harder than it has to be?
Reid glared, but couldnt completely fault Murphy. She had a point, there was zero evidence that Stephanies daughter had been the victim of anything more than a lapse in babysitting on her great-aunts part. And she was also right that he was there strictly as Stephanies friend, not as a cop.
Speaking of whichhe should probably be going. Crisis over. Time to get on with his day off.
He scratched at the low-grade itch between his shoulder blades and nodded curtly when Murphy excused herself. He glanced into the living room, feeling as though his eyes were being forced there by a magnetic pull. Mother and daughter were wrapped around each other on the couch, and it tugged at his heart to see Stephs soft red curls clutched in the little girls fist. The kid was awake and seemed content to snuggle in her mothers lap.
Reid couldnt blame her. And boy, did he need to get out of here.
He didnt do the kid thing. He did the casual thing.
But the bad feeling he just couldnt shake compelled him to ask Stephanie, Are you sure she wont answer a few simple questions, even if you ask them? It seemed to him that three and a half was plenty old enough for some gentle interrogation, even if Officer Dont-Make-My-Day-Longer-You-Schmuck Murphy thought there was no reason for it.
But Stephanie shook her head. Jillys a little shy. She doesnt talk much. Were working on it. She dropped a kiss on her daughters dark hair, and Reid found himself wondering about the little girls father.
Again, he thought of paintings. He hadnt been to the MFA in fifteen years and hadnt painted in longer, but Stephanie Alberts made him think of art. So did her daughter. While Stephanie could have been the model for Botticellis misty, ethereal Birth of Venusbefore Venus got father daughter had stepped straight out of the Spanish works of the next century. She was a study in sharp angles and warm, dark eyes.
What about her father? He hadnt meant to ask, but once the question was out there, Reid consoled himself with the thought that it was a logical next step. More often than not, kids were snatched by family members.
Luis? What about him?
Would he take her?
Stephanie clutched her daughter until the child squirmed a protest. She wasnt taken. She wasnt. She just wandered off. But Reid could see the doubts in her big blue-green eyes. Or were those his doubts? And besides, Luis isLuis couldnt have taken her.
Detective? The others are leaving now. At Maureens gesture, Reid joined her at the front door. They bade goodbye to the last of the Patriot District cops.
When he was alone with the older woman, Reid said, Stephanies daughter doesnt talk at all?
Though they hadnt kept in touch, he and Maureen had become friends of a sort while they had both watched over Stephanies bed at the hospital. The older woman nodded. Thats right. We keep hoping shell start speaking again, but She shrugged. Not yet.
Reid glanced back toward the living room. It would help if she could tell us what happened today.
Maureens gray eyes sharpened. You dont think she just wandered?
He shrugged. Theres nothing to say any different. I just like to be thorough, thats all. Not wanting to dwell on his unfounded suspicions, Reid changed the subject. Have you taken her to any specialists? Do you know why shesquiet?
He didnt really want to know about the kid, he assured himself. He didnt do kids. He was just gathering all the information he could. Then hed be on his way home.
Her father left when she was about a year old, Maureen supplied after a quick glance into the other room. It wasmessy. Jilly had just begun talking, but shut down after that. The doctors said not to worry, shed sing when she was ready. Shed just started to come out of her shell last fall
She trailed off and Reid nodded. And then Steph was attacked.
Yes. We didnt tell Jilly what had happened, of course, but children know things. Shes been extremely shy ever since. Steph has been talking recently about more therapy, but Jilly hated it so much before that were afraid of making things worse. Maureen shrugged. And then this? I dont know what happens now.
Reid touched Maureens shoulder. Shes home. Thats what matters, right? Leave the rest of it to the policeits our job.
Like it had been their job to arrest small-time drug dealer Alfonse Martinez six months ago, never dreaming that the ensuing firefight would take the life of a three-year-old girl who wasnt supposed to be in the house in the first place. A little girl who looked an awful lot like Stephanies daughter.
He really needed to get out of here.
Reid touched Maureens shoulder again, then took himself back into the living room to say goodbye, standing far away from the pretty, domestic scene on the couch. If his own father hadnt been enough to convince Reid that cops have no business around small children, the memory of that little girl curled around a blood-soaked rag doll had driven the point home.
There was no way to mix a badge with family.
And since Stephanie was a mother and Reid was a copwell, he was just lucky shed turned him down last year when hed let lust overrun his good sense and asked her out. Twice.
Lucky. Yeah, that was it.
She lifted her head from her daughters hair and gave him a watery smile. The kid had dropped off to sleep with one thumb in her mouth and her other hand clutching her mothers hair. Steph stood, balancing the little girl easily on one hip. Follow me up? I want to put her down for a nap, then maybe youll join me in a cup of coffee.
Reid felt a tightness in his chest, a strange tug of war. Then he took a step away and held up an impersonal hand. Thanks for the offer, but Im going to take off. Everything seems okay here.
Oh. The warmth in her jade-green eyes faded a little, the corners of her wide, generous mouth turned down at the edges, and the misty radiance around her dimmed a bit. Im sorry, I thought never mind. Her mouth turned up again and she held out her free hand to him. Then thank you so much for all your help. Im sorry to have interrupted your day off.
He took her hand and felt as though he ought to kiss it. Suckle her fingers one by one.
Hit himself over the head with a brick until sanity returned.
He gave the dainty hand a brisk shake instead. Thats my job, Miss Alberts. Im just glad your daughter is back safe and sound. II guess Ill see you around. And he escaped out onto the cobbled street with barely a goodbye for Maureen.
Once he was outside and felt that he could fill his lungs for the first time in hours, Reid sucked in a deep breath and took a casual look around the neighborhood while he waited for his heartbeat to return to normal.
He thought about the free weights back at his place near the Chinatown station house. Thought about the frozen pizza hed planned for his dinner, and about the Red Sox game that was scheduled to start in an hour. Thought about She Devil, the enormously pregnant stray cat that had adopted him a few weeks ago and just that morning had started building a nest in his underwear drawer.
He thought about his day off.
And headed for the park where Jilly Alberts had been found.
WELL, I GUESS I read that wrong, Steph murmured to her sleeping daughter as she climbed the stairs, then put Detective Peters and his incredibleintellect out of her mind. Mostly. Tonight was for Jilly, not for sexy detectives in cutoff sweatshirts, or for a moment of forgetting that shed sworn off men for good.
She paused in the doorway, thinking of how panicked shed been standing in her daughters bedroom just hours ago. She could hardly believe that the horror had ended in hours rather than the days that seemed to have elapsed between Aunt Maureens call to the genetics lab and the police finding Jilly unharmed in the park.
Her daughter had simply wandered away. She hadnt been kidnapped. Hadnt been hurt.
Steph tucked Jilly into bed and the little girl didnt make a sound as she curled on her side and wrapped one thin arm around her favorite stuffed bear. Steph kissed her daughters forehead and brushed the dark hair smooth. Dont ever scare me like that again, okay, baby? I dont think my heart can take it.
Leaving the door ajar and the light on in the hall as she hadnt done in months, she padded back downstairs, meeting her aunt in the hallway. Maureen was carrying a pair of mugs. Offering Steph the one with a cartoon cat dangling from a tree branch and the caption Hang in There, Maureen said, Thought we could both use some hot chocolate.
Hot chocolate in the middle of the summer. It had seemed an odd idea to Steph when shed first come to live with Aunt Maureen after the car crash that had killed her parents, but over the years shed realized it was Maureens best answer for things she didnt know how to fix.
Steph had downed gallons of the frothy liquid in those first few months.
Bless you. She took the mug and they both collapsed on the couch. Steph sipped, coughed and grinned as the liqueur kicked at her chest. Hot chocolate, hot toddy, same thing. She closed her eyes. You were a rock today, Aunt Maureen. I cant thank you enough.
Maureen shook her head. Dont thank me. If Id been paying better attention, this never would have happened. I was watching her and that man next door was making an awful racket on that horn of his. I turned my head for an instant to demand that he have some respect for the sanctity of our neighborhood, and when I looked backshe was gone.
Aunt Maureens eyes welled up at the memory, and her lower lip began to tremble. Then, as if her words had conjured it, there was a wail from outside. The eerie noise shivered up several octaves, then ran back down like water, leaving the hairs standing up on the back of Stephs neck.
She had a quick vision of the lost souls of the Revolutionary War calling to each other across the cobbled streets.
The sound rose again, eerie and sad, and Maureen swore, tears forgotten in the face of her long-pitched battle with their neighbor. That man! Has he no sense of decency?
She launched herself from the couch and stomped for the front door, seeming not to notice that the banshee screech had resolved itself to a glissando of sweet, sexy saxophone.
The door banged open and Steph heard her aunt bellow, Mortimer, you dog, Ill sue you for noise pollution, see if I dont! Cut that out!
Her words were answered by what sounded like a Bronx cheer à la saxophone, and the door slammed shut behind Maureen, muting both the sax and the yelling. Steph didnt bother to run upstairs and close Jillys door, knowing that her daughter could sleep through anything
Including the digital ring of the telephone.
Steph picked up the handset and glanced at the display, which read Out of Area. It shouldve read No Number Listed Because I Pay To Negate Your Caller ID. She sighed. Some pieces of technology were downright useless.
She punched Talk. Hello?
Silence. A dead, heavy, pregnant silence. Then breathing.
Steph rolled her eyes. If youre trying to scare me, youll have to do better than that, buster. I walk through the Combat Zone on the way to work.
There was a chuckle. Then a harsh, oily voice. I know how you walk to work, bitch. I also know where your pretty little girl went today, and it wasnt the park. Have I scared you yet?
Scared wasnt the word for it. Not even close.
Terror, pure and clean, knifed through her like a scalpel and left her bleeding fear. She sucked in a breath, heard her aunt and Mortimer arguing outside and felt as if she was drowning.
She could almost feel the person on the other end of the line smile. Thought that might get your attention. Heres the deal. Today was a warning. I have a little job for you. If you do it, you and your family will be safe. If you dont, or if you tell anyone about this, youll get the little girl back in pieces next time. Or Ill do the old woman. Or both. Do you understand?
Her whole body shaking, Steph could only nod into the phone. When he continued to wait, she tried to speak through her suddenly parched mouth and managed a whispered, I understand.
There was a satisfied silence, then a murmur in the background. The voice returned. Oh yeah, and no cops or both the kid and the old woman are dead. Understand?
Steph could feel the walls of the cage slide into place around her. Felt the fear bleed through to drip on the floor. She managed, I understand, and felt the numbness spread up her fingers to her heart. What do you want me to do?
The voice turned hard. Implacable. Make sure the Makepeace DNA is a positive match. Or else.
Chapter Two
The next morning, Stephanie awoke feeling as though shed slept in a bed that was three sizes too small for her. When she glanced around at the animals and ruffles and felt the small, hot bump of her daughter beside her, she realized that was exactly what shed done.
Then she remembered the rest of it and her stomach clenched like a fist.
God! She jolted in the bed and her hands flew to Jilly, grabbing up the sleepy girl and making sure she was really there.
Another child might have yelled in protest, but not this one. She just looked up at Steph with wide, worried eyes as if to say, Whats wrong this time? Shed lived through so much alreadyLuiss rages, Stephs tears, her time in the hospital after Roger
Whats wrong this time? Jillys eyes asked, and Steph might have laughed, but she was afraid it would come out a scream, because everything was wrong.