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His broad shoulders, she would guess, could either bulldoze someone or offer a landing place for tears. Muscles rippled beneath the material of his button-down shirt, confirming that he was not someone she wanted to mess with. His jaw was strong and tense with thought.
But right now, he leaned back, as if softening.
Her guard went up. This man wasn’t her friend, and he would do whatever he had to in order to get answers. She’d be wise to remember that.
“I have no idea. But she didn’t seem happy this morning. Maybe this was random. Maybe she ran away. Maybe she’ll check in at any minute.” Her voice escalated with each new sentence. “There’s nothing else I can tell you.”
Someone tapped on the one-way glass that composed half a wall. The detective excused himself and stepped out of the room.
She sucked in some deep breaths. Detective James had perceptive eyes. He was watching her every move, just waiting for her to mess up. But she had no reason to walk on eggshells, she reminded herself. She’d done nothing wrong.
Would he ever believe her? She wasn’t sure.
When he came back into the room a few minutes later, his face looked grimmer than before. The lines on his forehead had tightened. His eyes cooled. His shoulders were rigid. Something was in his hand.
He sat across from her and held up a device. Her phone, she realized. How had he gotten her phone? Had they gotten her computer, as well? She hoped not, although the classified projects she was working on should be safeguarded by the measures she’d put in place.
“Do you recognize this?” he asked.
She nodded stiffly. “Of course I do. It’s mine.”
His eyes flickered. “Do you recognize the message on the screen?”
She peered closer and sucked in a breath as she read the text message.
Meet me at 11:30. It’s urgent.
Those were Laney’s words. Written from her phone. Listed as coming from her. And the message was being sent to Sarah. She recognized her number.
Sarah replied:
I have school.
The person pretending to be Laney had written:
It’s urgent.
Laney backed harder into her chair and shook her head. Someone was framing her—and they were doing a good job at it.
“I didn’t send that,” she muttered, knowing she was wasting her breath.
The detective’s blue eyes were unyielding. “So you’re saying someone took your phone and sent this for you?”
“I know it sounds far-fetched. But yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.” But, in her gut, she knew this was far worse than she’d ever imagined.
* * *
Mark met his police captain in the hallway outside the interrogation room an hour later. Captain Hendricks was a stoic man who was twenty years Mark’s senior, putting him at around fifty years old. The man had a light brown mustache and thick hair that matched. He was well respected in the department and was known as a man who could get the job done.
In the hours since her arrest and the interrogation, Laney hadn’t caved in the least. If anything, she seemed even firmer in her insistence of her innocence. Honestly, he felt a little sorry for her. It was his job to get answers, but the woman seemed downright frightened.
“Let her go,” Captain Hendricks said, staring through the glass at Laney.
Mark followed his gaze. She looked so innocent and unassuming. Like a computer geek—the cutest computer geek Mark had ever laid eyes on. But beneath all of that, who was hiding? Someone manipulative? Out for herself? Drowning in her own delusions?
“Let her go?” Mark asked, certain he hadn’t heard correctly.
The captain put his hands on his hips and frowned—though the man always looked like he was frowning. “We don’t have enough evidence to hold her.”
Mark thought back to his sister. If the police had stayed on top of the case, she would still be alive right now. He never wanted that to be the case for one of his investigations. He’d vowed to be better than that.
“What about the phone call Mr. Novak got?” Mark reminded him. “The neighbor across the street who saw Sarah go into her house?”
The captain’s gaze flickered to Mark, a touch of annoyance there. The captain didn’t take kindly to being questioned. “It’s all circumstantial. Keeping her here won’t help us find the girl.”
Mark drew in a deep breath, trying to pace his thoughts and remain respectful. “What are you thinking?”
The captain continued to stare at Laney, his eyes narrowing with thought. He was calculating something, Mark realized. But what?
“I want you to keep an eye on her, stick by her side,” he finally said. “Hopefully she’ll slip up and lead us right to Sarah.”
“Did you check the records? Did Sol call her?” Many times in situations like these, the parents were the first suspect. Even though Sol’s coworkers had verified he’d been at work all day, the detectives still needed to follow up.
“We confirmed he called her house phone.”
“Her house phone? She said she was out walking. Why didn’t he call her cell?”
“He claims he couldn’t find the number. Anyway, we’re going to focus on Laney in this case. There’s more evidence against her.”
Mark didn’t like the way this was playing out. Though he was reserving his judgment on Laney’s guilt, everything was pointing to her. Still, he had to follow the evidence. The team had just finished up at her house, but processing everything would take longer.
However, he’d been pressing her hard for answers. She hadn’t once asked for a lawyer. She hadn’t broken under the pressure.
That took a lot of strength.
Mark shifted, grateful he could speak openly to his captain. “What if she’s not guilty, Captain?”
He raised a shaggy eyebrow. “Everything is pointing to the fact that she is guilty. The text message. The money. An eyewitness. If you weren’t able to break her, I doubt she’s going to at all.”
Mark wasn’t ready to let this drop. “Maybe she didn’t break because she’s innocent. She has no motive.”
The captain’s jaw flexed. “Her motive is there. Maybe it’s buried down deep. But it’s there. We’re going to figure out what it is. Drive her home. See what you can get out of her. Play the good cop for once. See if she’ll open up.”
The problem was that Mark wasn’t one for being fake. But he knew better than to argue with the captain. He nodded instead. “Yes, sir.”
As he walked back toward the interrogation room, his shoulders felt heavier. Feeling even more brisk than before, he threw the door open and charged into the room. Laney jerked her head up from where it had been buried in her hands. Her eyes were red rimmed, as if she’d been crying. He inwardly flinched at the despair on her face.
“You’re free to go,” he announced.
Laney blinked. “What?”
“You heard me. You’re free to go.”
She stared at him a moment before quickly standing, almost as if she feared he’d change his mind. “Okay, then.”
“I’ll drive you home,” Mark said.
“That won’t be necessary. I can—”
“I insist,” Mark said. “It’s for your safety.”
“My safety?” She blinked again. “You think I’m in danger?”
“People don’t take kindly to child abductors. We need to take every precaution possible.”
She stared at him another moment before nodding. “I see. That’s fine, then.”
Mark escorted her outside and into his car. Awkward tension crackled between them as he started down the road. Laney crossed her arms and stared out the window. She was obviously uncomfortable. So was he, for that matter. But he would do whatever it took to find the missing girl.
Rush hour traffic was in full swing, and the sun was already sinking low enough to cause a blinding winter glare as he headed west.
What if Laney was innocent? Allegations like these could turn her life upside down in a way that was hard to recover from.
Then he remembered the text message. He couldn’t overlook that.
“Tell me again what you do for a living, Ms. Ryan.”
She continued to stare out the window. “I work for a company called CybCorp.”
“What exactly do you do for them?” They’d been over some of that already, but it seemed like a safer—friendlier—conversation than bringing up Sarah again.
Build trust. That was what he needed to do if he wanted to find answers. He’d had the opportunity to do that very thing with the man who’d killed his sister. If he could go back, he would go through whatever means necessary to make the man open up. Maybe Lauren would still be alive if he’d tried a little harder, if he’d pressed a little deeper, if he hadn’t given people the benefit of the doubt. He hadn’t been a cop back then, but he’d been in contact with the perp all along; he just hadn’t realized it.
“I’m a programmer. CybCorp handles security for various businesses throughout the country. They’re a smaller company, but they’re reputable and they allow me to work from home.”
“Must get lonely working at home.”
She cut a sharp glance his way. “Let me guess—you’re trying to trap me into confessing I abducted Sarah because I was lonely.”
He shook his head. He actually hadn’t been. He’d just tried to imagine what it would be like being single and also working alone. “I was just making conversation.”
Her shoulders slumped slightly. “I like solitude, believe it or not.”
“You said earlier that you’re not married.” He already knew the answer, but he needed to develop some rapport with her. He’d read the police report—these details didn’t appear relevant to the current investigation but were essential for putting together a psychological profile of Laney.
Laney frowned, staring out the window and rubbing her hands together. “No, I’m not. Not anymore. I’m widowed.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sure you are.” Her shoulders slumped even more, as if the burdens she carried overwhelmed her. “Sorry. You didn’t deserve that one.”
“What happened?” He kept his words soft and light.
“He survived Afghanistan, only to be killed by a home intruder here in the States. He’d only been home for three weeks when it happened.” Her voice cracked and she finished with a deep gulp of air.
“I can’t imagine. How long ago did that happen?”
A new somberness washed over her. “Three years. I was down in Norfolk at the time. I decided to get a fresh start here in Richmond afterward. There were too many memories down there. I had to get away.”
“Makes sense. How did the two of you meet? A computer programmer and a navy SEAL.”
“Proof that opposites attract, I suppose. I was actually in my last semester at MIT. I came with some friends down to Virginia Beach. I nearly got pulled out to sea by a riptide. Thankfully, Nate was there with some of his SEAL buddies. We were an unlikely pair, but Nate wasn’t the type who always had to be macho and tough. He liked watching sitcoms and eating popcorn with melted mints at the bottom and playing old-school arcade games. We were inseparable after that. I graduated and got a job down in Norfolk so I could be near him. We got married four months later.”
“Sounds like a nice story.”
“Yeah, it is...it was.” She absently rubbed her arms. “I know you probably won’t believe me, but I was actually planning on being at that school banquet with Sarah tomorrow night. I’m incredibly sad that won’t be happening. I’d been so looking forward to it.”
“You like Sarah?”
“She’s a great girl. Smart. Curious. Personable.”
“Let me guess. She reminds you of yourself at that age.”
A sad smile tugged at her lips. “Actually, she kind of does. It might sound crazy or maybe even expected. I don’t know. But I guess I did see part of myself in her—my old self, at least. I’m not that person anymore.”
He pulled to a stop in front of her house. It seemed the press hadn’t caught wind of this case because they were surprisingly absent, and, at the moment, all the neighbors were inside their houses. Hopefully that meant no drama. The front door had been temporarily fixed—more to prevent an insurance claim than to be helpful.
Laney’s hand went to the door handle, and she turned toward him. “Thank you.”
He nodded toward her house. “I’m going to walk you in.”
She visibly bristled at his announcement, as if the very idea offended her. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I do,” he insisted. “I need to make sure your door was put back on its hinges and that no one is nosing around your place. Believe me, it happens. No more tragedies today.”
She seemed to hesitate before nodding. “No more tragedies.”
They climbed out of the car and started through the dry grass toward the porch.
At the door, Laney slid her key into the lock and paused, her lungs heaving with what he assumed was anxiety. Inside, there were probably too many bad memories for her. The invasion. The accusations. The interrogation that followed. Besides, the flash bang could shake up the steadiest of personalities.
“Let me go first,” he said.
Before she could argue, Mark slipped past her. He kept his hand on his gun as he walked from room to room. This time, he saw the house through different eyes. No longer as a potential suspect’s place, but instead as the residence of someone whose life had been turned upside down.
He saw pictures on the wall and on the entryway table of Laney with a man whom he presumed to be her deceased husband. He saw the pictures of vacations together. Of Laney in front of the Christmas tree. Of the smiling couple standing in front of a backdrop of autumn-entrenched mountains.
She appeared to have had, at one time, a full life.
