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He didn’t have to ask if Jenny and Billy had shown up. The answer to the unspoken question shone from Mariah’s worried blue eyes.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she said, her usually cool, composed voice holding a telltale tremble.
“I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about,” he said as he fell into step with her and headed back toward the house. “If I know my sister, this is all just some crazy misunderstanding, and she and Billy are probably down at the café eating pie or star-watching down at the park.”
“I’ve been to the park. They weren’t there.” She opened the front door and ushered him into the small entryway. When she turned to face him, her eyes flashed with a touch of impatience. “And I haven’t known your sister as long as you have, but I know her well enough to know that she wouldn’t just take off with Billy and not let me know where they are. Something’s wrong. Something is terribly wrong.”
She might think she knew Jenny, but Jenny had obviously been on her best behavior since moving in here. “You mind if I look around?” Lucas asked. In the two months that Jenny had lived here he’d only been as far as the front porch. Jenny had insisted that this was her space and she didn’t want him checking up on her. He tightened his jaw. Obviously somebody needed to check up on her.
“Please, be my guest,” Mariah said. “I’ve already looked in Jenny’s room to see if she might have left a note for me there, but I didn’t find one.”
“Which room is hers?”
She gestured down the hallway. “Second door on the right.”
She didn’t follow him, but instead moved back to the front door as if she could make them appear on the doorstep by sheer willpower alone.
Mariah’s house was exactly what he’d imagined it would be—slightly old-fashioned and immaculately clean. As he grabbed the doorknob to Jenny’s room he steeled himself for the chaos inside.
He adored his baby sister, but Jenny had always seemed most comfortable in the middle of chaos and drama. He hoped like hell she hadn’t orchestrated this to get attention. It was one thing to be a drama queen in your own life. It was quite another to involve an eight-year-old boy.
Her room was actually fairly neat, except the bed hadn’t been made and a pair of jeans had been thrown across a chair in the corner. He looked on the night-stand, checked the small desk but found no note, no clue as to where she might have gone with a little boy in tow.
Billy’s room was next door. Bunk beds stood against one wall, the lower bunk not made. A small toy box sat beneath a window. Lucas walked to the window and checked it out. The screen was in place and nothing seemed to be amiss.
The third bedroom had to be Mariah’s. He opened the door and paused in surprise at the sight of the king-size bed covered with a scarlet spread and plump matching pillows. Fat candles stood on the nightstand, their dark wicks letting him know they weren’t just for decoration but were burned regularly.
So, the cool and distant Ms. Harrington had a sensual side. Lucas was surprised by the little burst of heat that filled his stomach at the thought of her in the bed, candlelight stroking her features.
He frowned and shut the door behind him. He flipped open his cell phone and called his office.
“Deputy Ellis,” a deep voice boomed.
“Hey, Wally, it’s me,” Lucas said.
“Hi, boss, what’s up?”
“I want you to get a couple of the guys and check out the café, the bowling alley, the movie theater, places like that. I’m looking for my sister.”
“Problems?”
Lucas hesitated. “Jenny’s late getting back to the Harrington house and we don’t know where she is. I wouldn’t be so worried, but she’s got Mariah’s little boy with her.”
“Sure, no problem. I’ll call you back when we find them.”
Lucas tucked his cell phone back into his pocket, then walked back down the hallway.
He found Mariah where he’d left her, standing sentry at the front door. She didn’t hear his approach, and he paused at the end of the hallway to study her.
Though she’d been in town for almost a year, he knew almost nothing about her. He’d heard through the grapevine that she was a widow, and he knew she was a formidable barrier he often had to bulldoze through to speak with the dolt who called himself mayor. But he had no idea where she’d come from before she’d landed in Conja Creek.
As he watched, she tapped two slender fingers against the glass door, as if sending an SOS message in Morse code. Standing at the door, peering out into the deepening night, she looked smaller, more fragile than he could have imagined.
A protectiveness surged inside him and he reached out and touched her shoulder. She jumped and whirled around, as if she’d forgotten he was there. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said.
“No, I just…” Her eyes darkened to a midnight blue. “Where could they be?”
“Why don’t we go into the kitchen. Maybe you could make some coffee while we wait.”
“Wait? Shouldn’t you be rallying the troops? Getting together a search party?” Her chin rose a notch even as a sheen of tears misted her eyes. “You expect me to just sit and drink coffee while my son is someplace out there in the dark?”
“I’ve already rallied the troops. I’ve got my men looking now and yeah, there’s nothing much to do but have some coffee and wait.” He swallowed a sigh. “Look, Mariah, right now all we know is that Billy and Jenny are late getting home. There’s no evidence that a crime occurred, no indication that this is anything more than my sister’s thoughtlessness. Maybe she took Billy to a movie and lost track of time. I’m sure she’s going to waltz in here before long, and she’ll be shocked that you were so worried. Now, how about that coffee?”
She held his gaze for a long moment, then nodded and headed for the kitchen. As she began the coffee preparations Lucas sat at the oak table.
“I thought Billy went to a babysitter on the days you worked in the summer,” he said.
“Normally he does, but he woke up this morning with a sore throat. Jenny offered to stay home with him.”
“I thought she had those job interviews today.” Lucas frowned. He’d been the one to set up the two interviews for his sister for that afternoon.
“She called yesterday and canceled. She didn’t feel like either job was what she was looking for,” Mariah explained.
Lucas tamped down an edge of familiar frustration. “Did you speak to Jenny at all today?”
As the coffee began to drip into the carafe Mariah walked over to the table but didn’t sit. “I spoke to her around ten this morning.” Nervous energy rolled off her as her gaze shot to the kitchen window.
“Did she mention any plans for tonight?”
She focused her gaze back on him, and he saw a desperate fear screaming from the depths of her eyes. “No…nothing. Please, you need to do something. Jenny wouldn’t do this to me. Something is wrong.”
Lucas looked at his watch. Almost ten-thirty. He hadn’t realized how late it had become. For the first time since he’d gotten the call from Mariah, a whisper of deep concern swept through him.
Sure, Jenny had pulled some stunts in the past that had made him want to wring her neck, but he couldn’t imagine her pulling this kind of disappearing act with eight-year-old Billy in tow.
She turned back to the counter to pour them each a cup of coffee, but Lucas was suddenly in no mood to sit idle. The fact that his phone remained silent indicated that none of his deputies had run across them. Conja Creek was a small town, and it shouldn’t take this long for his men to find her…if she was someplace where she could be found.
He drew a breath of relief as his cell phone rang. He grabbed it from his shirt pocket and flipped it open. “Sheriff Jamison,” he said. There was a moment of silence. “Hello?”
“Twinkle twinkle little star, only I know where they are. A game of hide-and-seek we’ll play. Let’s see if you can save the day.” The voice was deep, guttural and sent shock waves through Lucas. Before he could reply, the caller clicked off.
Chapter Two
Mariah saw the blood leave Lucas’s face as he checked the caller ID box, then slowly closed his phone and placed it on the table. Rich, raw fear invaded her, chilling her to the bone. She sank into the chair opposite him, afraid her legs would no longer hold her up.
“Did they find them?” Her head pounded with nauseating tension. “Please, tell me. Is he…are they…” She couldn’t say the word.
“No! No, that wasn’t one of my deputies,” Lucas said hurriedly. A muscle ticked in his taut jaw, and for the first time since he’d arrived, she saw a touch of something deep and dark in his eyes. That frightened her as much as anything.
“Then who was on the phone?” She didn’t want to know, was afraid of what he was going to tell her, and yet she had to know. She drew a steadying breath.
“I don’t know who was on the phone. The call shows up as private on the ID. The caller indicated that he has Jenny and Billy and that a game of hide-and-seek has commenced.”
She stared at him for a moment, unable to make sense of his words. Hide-and-seek? That was one of Billy’s favorite games. But this wasn’t a game. This was something awful. As she tried to absorb what he’d just told her, he called the sheriff’s office.
“Wally,” he said into his phone. “Get all the men together and meet me at Mariah Harrington’s house. We have a situation here.”
A situation. Is that what this was? She swallowed against the scream that threatened to rip its way out of her throat. Billy. Where was Billy and who had taken him?
Calm. Stay calm, she told herself. It wouldn’t do any good to fall to pieces. She had to stay calm and focused for whatever came next.
“What happens now?” She was surprised by the composure of her voice when inside she was quietly shattering apart.
He rose from the table. “I’ll take a closer look around. We can talk to neighbors and see if anyone saw anything here today.” His dark eyes gave away nothing of his thoughts.
Did he feel the same panic for his sister as she felt for her son? Oh, God. As the full impact sank in, she began to tremble. “What can I do? Shouldn’t I be out asking questions? Looking for him?”
Lucas placed a hand on her shoulder as if to steady her rising hysteria, then returned to his chair in front of her. “Can you tell me if Jenny was seeing anyone in particular?”
She frowned and tried to focus on his question. “You mean dating?” She shook her head. “She was still nursing her wounds from when Phil Ribideaux broke up with her a couple of months ago.” She twisted her fingers in her lap. “But, I don’t know what she did or who she saw while I was at work every day. Do you think somebody she was seeing might be behind this?”
“I’m not sure what to think at this point.” He got up once again. “I’m going to go check around again. We’ll find them, Mariah. Try not to worry. We’ll find them.”
He left her there, and she knew he was going back to Jenny’s room. Try not to worry? Was the man insane? She got up from the chair, unable to sit still another minute longer.
Why on earth would somebody want to kidnap Billy? As her mind whirled with suppositions, she realized she didn’t want to go there. Too many of the answers were too terrifying.
A sob choked up from the depths of her as she moved to the window and peered outside into the black of night. Billy didn’t like the dark. Now he was out there somewhere, being held by someone so he couldn’t come home.
Cold. She’d never felt so cold. She squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself to remember every moment of that morning. She’d been in a hurry. She’d overslept and had rushed around to get ready for work.
When she’d awakened Billy, and he’d complained of a sore throat, she’d barely taken time to console him. She’d taken his temperature, which had been normal, had given him a brisk pat on the head, then had left for work knowing Jenny would handle things for the day.
All she wanted to do now was turn back the hands on the clock, somehow retrieve the precious morning. This time, when Billy complained of a sore throat, she would call in to work and take the day off. She’d stay home with her son and make him chicken noodle soup for lunch and peanut butter sandwiches with the crust cut off just the way he liked them.
She’d stay home, and he’d be safe. Another sob escaped her and she pressed her fingers against her lips in an attempt to suppress it.
She turned away from the window and headed to his bedroom. As she entered, the first thing that caught her eye was the inhaler on the nightstand, along with the nebulizer that had gotten Billy through a rough attack on many nights.
She whirled out of the bedroom and bumped into Lucas coming out of Jenny’s room. “Lucas, Billy has asthma and they didn’t take his inhaler. If he gets stressed or scared he’ll have an attack and…” Her voice trailed off, the sentence too horrifying to finish.
“Mariah, what I need from you is a recent photo of Billy.” His voice was calm, as if he hadn’t heard what she’d just told him.
“Billy has asthma,” she repeated.
“I heard you.” His dark eyes held her gaze intently. “But we can’t do anything about that right now. We have to stay focused on the things we can do. Now, I need a picture of Billy.”
Somehow his words penetrated through the veil of despair that threatened to consume her. She nodded, grateful for something, anything to do.
She went to the desk in the living room and grabbed the framed photo that sat on top. It was the school portrait taken last year. She stared at it. Until this moment she hadn’t realized how much he’d changed in the past several months. His dark hair was longer than it had been when the photo was taken, and his face was thinner. He’d been missing a front tooth then. Imagining his beautiful little face in her mind once again brought the press of tears to her eyes.
She set the photo back on the desk and began to dig through the top drawer. It suddenly seemed important that she find the perfect picture of her son.
In a frenzy she searched, more frantic with each second that passed. Her fingers finally landed on an envelope of photos she’d recently had developed. She opened the envelope and pulled out the photos.
The most recent one she had of Billy was of him and Jenny together. She picked it up and traced a finger over Billy’s dark, unruly hair. His smile was filled with mischief as he grinned into the camera while making horns with his fingers behind Jenny’s head.
Jenny’s pretty face smiled back at Mariah from the photo, and her heart squeezed tighter. In the two months that Jenny had been living with her, Mariah had come to care about the younger woman a great deal.
“Did you find one?” Lucas came to stand behind her. She could smell his scent, a subtle cologne she always noticed when he came in to see the mayor. Funny how the familiar scent calmed her just a bit. She turned to face him with the picture in her hand.
“You can use this one. It’s of Billy and Jenny together.”
He took it from her, and she watched him study it. Other than a muscle knotting in his jaw, there was no sign of emotion. Before he could say anything, the doorbell rang and the deputies began to arrive.
A total of five deputies took their orders from Lucas. They all gathered in the living room. Mariah sat on the sofa, numbed by the events swirling around her as Lucas took control.
“Wally, you and Ben start canvassing the neighborhood, see if anyone saw anything here today,” Lucas said. “John, we need recording equipment placed on Mariah’s phone in case a ransom call comes in.”
Mariah sat up straighter. “Ransom?” Her gaze shot around to each of the men in the room. “But, I don’t have any money to speak of.”
“If this is about a ransom, I reckon the kidnapper figures Lucas can pay big bucks to get his sister back safe and sound,” Deputy Ed Maylor said.
Lucas’s jaw once again tightened in his lean face. “Let’s just hope if this is about a ransom, we get a call soon.” He looked at Deputy Louis DuBois. “Louis, I need you to see if you can get into Jenny’s e-mail, find out if there’s anything weird there. I tried to log on earlier, but she has it password protected.”
The tall, thin man nodded. “It shouldn’t take me too long to find a way around the protection.”
“And what about me?” Deputy Maylor asked.
“Check all the windows and doors, see if you find any evidence of tampering,” Lucas replied.
As the men all left to begin their jobs, Lucas joined Mariah on the sofa. To her surprise, he took one of her hands in his and gently squeezed. The warmth of his big hands around her ice-cold fingers felt good. “You doing okay?” he asked.
“No. I want to scream. I want to claw somebody’s eyes out.” She wanted somebody to hold her, somebody to tell her that everything was going to be fine, that Billy would be back in her arms in a matter of minutes. But Mariah had never had anyone to hold her when she was afraid, to calm her when she was upset.
She released Lucas’s hands as she suddenly realized she was going to have to tell Lucas the truth about herself, about her past. She was going to have to confess that her life here in Conja Creek was built on lies.
It was possible Frank had found them, and it was equally possible he’d taken Billy. Jenny could have just been at the wrong place at the wrong time. And even though she knew that telling Lucas would destroy the facade of respectability she’d worked so hard to create, she’d do whatever it took to get Billy back.
“I have to tell you something,” she said. “I don’t know of anyone Jenny was seeing who might be involved in this, but I know somebody from my past who might be.”
Lucas sat up straighter. “Who?”
Mariah clasped her hands together. Even thinking about the man whose name she was about to utter created a knot of new fear in her chest. “His name is Frank Landers, and last I knew he lived in Shreveport.”
A deep frown etched across Lucas’s forehead as he pulled a notepad and pen from his pocket. “What’s his relationship to you and why would he want to kidnap Billy?”
She drew a deep breath. “He’s my ex-husband and Billy’s father.”
