Don't Breathe a Word

by Christie Craig

  She nodded. “Where’s my mom?”

  “Your mom’s in the hospital. We took her there last night.”

  “Why didn’t she come home with us?”

  “She’s sick and had to sleep there. So I brought you back with me.”

  “Why? Why did you leave her there all alone?” Tears filled her young eyes.

  “Your mom was sleeping and they don’t let kids stay in the hospital if they aren’t sick.”

  “Why not?” Her bottom lip trembled.

  “Because they don’t want kids to get sick. Why don’t we go back to my place?” He reached for her hand. She backed up.

  Considering what her father had done, he didn’t blame her. “Bell, you came to me to help your mom last night. I helped her. You can trust me, okay? Sweetie trusts me.” He knelt down and held his hand out to his dog. She came running over. “See?”

  Bell nodded. “I want to go get my mama. I don’t like hospitals. People die there.”

  “Actually, hospitals are where they go to get better.”

  “Not everyone gets better. People die there. I know it.” She inhaled a shaky breath. “I want to see her now.”

  He couldn’t help but wonder who it was that Bell knew who’d died. Her father? But according to Nikki he was alive.

  “I’ll have to find out if she can have visitors. If she can, we’ll go. But I need to feed you breakfast and you need to put on some clothes. Can you get dressed?” When she nodded he said, “Okay, go do that.”

  She took off. Juan, still feeling panic fizzing in his blood, took in a deep breath.

  A few minutes later, he was walking back to his place, Bell running ahead with his dog. Looking down, he saw Sweetie’s ball in the grass. When he reached to pick it up, he spotted something glinting in the sun.

  He reached over and found the silver chain. It was Nikki’s necklace.

  On the chain were two charms. One was a heart locket. The other had some kind of inscribed emblem. She hadn’t lost the necklace during their scuffle after all. Maybe it had been when she’d come out front to speak with the officers.

  He brought the necklace closer.

  You did it, Nikki. September 2015.

  On closer inspection he realized it didn’t read Nikki, but Vicki. Then he recognized the emblem as an Ironman triathlon symbol.

  Was Nikki not even his neighbor’s name?

  Chapter Nineteen

  Bell looked back at him. Juan dropped the necklace in his pocket.

  He heard his phone ringing before he got to the door. He ran to pick it up. It was the hospital again.

  “Acosta,” he answered.

  “Where have you been?” It was Nikki and she sounded panicked.

  “I was getting Bell some clothes.” He took in a breath. Should he tell her he’d found the necklace? Or wait until he looked into it? “How are you feeling?”

  “Is that my mama?” Bell asked.

  “Better,” Nikki said.

  Juan nodded at the child.

  “I want to talk to her,” Bell said.

  Juan watched Sweetie run over to the worried girl. “Bell wants to come to see you, but I’m not sure she can go into the ICU.”

  “They’re moving me to a regular room soon. Is she okay?” Nikki asked.

  “She’s fine. Just concerned about you. Here she is.” He handed Bell the phone and listened to see if she was going to rat him out about losing her.

  “Are you still sick?” Bell asked.

  Juan ran a hand over his forehead. The beginning stages of a headache had started to hum.

  “I want to come see you,” the child said, then listened. “I am. I just want to be with you.” Tears filled her young eyes. She nodded. “Okay. Please don’t die!” She started sniffling. “Promise?” Pause. “Okay.” She handed the phone back to him. “She wants to talk to you.”

  He took the phone and then put his hand on Bell’s shoulder, hoping to offer some comfort. She must not have been too mad at him because she buried her face in his leg. He continued to run his hand over her neck as she sniffled against him. Each little sound made his insides ache.

  “Thank you again so much,” Nikki said. “I’m sorry I was upset. I got worried when you didn’t answer.”

  “I get it,” he said, still reeling from his own Bell worry. And now he was also worried about who he was really talking to. “Call me when you get moved, and I’ll bring Bell.”

  “Are you…are you okay not going to work?”

  “I’ve got some sick days.”

  “I don’t know how I’m going to repay you.”

  I do. How about telling me the truth? He couldn’t say that to a woman still in the ICU. “Just get better.”

  “I will knowing she’s okay. Thank you.”

  “You’ve already said that.”

  “I know, but I think it merits saying again.”

  They hung up. Bell looked up at him. “Are we going to see her now?”

  “We have to wait until they move her to another room. She’s going to call. Then I promise I’ll take you to see her.”

  She studied him as if trying to decide if she believed him. “Pinky promise?” She held out her little hand.

  “Yeah.” He curled his little finger around hers. “What do you eat for breakfast?”

  “Cereal.”

  “I have Frosted Flakes. You like that?”

  She nodded. “Do you have cornflakes, too?”

  “What?”

  “Mama mixes the good kind with the healthy kind. She says the good stuff has too much sugar, but I like it.”

  “Well, I don’t think it’ll kill you this once.” He fixed her a bowl and told her he was going to change clothes. He almost got to his room and then turned back around. “Don’t leave the house, okay?”

  “Okay. Can I give Sweetie a bite of my cereal?”

  “Yeah, but just a little.”

  She stared at him. “I’m sorry I left earlier without telling you. I get scared sometimes.”

  “You’re not scared of me, are you?” He walked closer.

  She stood there almost as if considering her answer. “Not too much. Mama says you’re a good guy. And she doesn’t normally like policemen.”

  “Why not?” The question slipped out before he realized it.

  Bell stiffened. “I don’t know.”

  He touched the necklace in his pocket. “I’ll be right back.”

  In his room, he pulled out the necklace again. The locket had a little catch to open it. Part of him felt like he was invading her privacy. But he was watching Nikki’s daughter. If something was going on, he needed to know.

  He opened it. There was a tiny photograph on each side of the locket. Two girls. He studied them both. He couldn’t tell which one was his neighbor. The girls looked too alike.

  He turned the locket over and read the engraving. Vicki and Alison, Sisters Forever.

  Do you have any siblings? he recalled asking her.

  She’d lied. At the time he’d even suspected it. So why did it sting now? Because she trusted him to watch her kid, but not enough to tell him the truth?

  He closed the locket and stared at the Ironman emblem. An idea hit. He walked back to the kitchen, where Bell was still eating. “Hey.”

  She looked up. “You didn’t change your clothes.”

  “You noticed that, huh?” He forced a smile.

  She nodded.

  “Yeah, I needed to check something on my computer.”

  She scooped up another bite of cereal. “Can I go outside in the backyard and play ball with Sweetie?”

  “Sure,” he said, knowing Nikki…Vicki let her do that.

  He sat down at the table and typed in Triathlon competition 2015.

  Several links came up. He clicked on the one that listed the names of those who’d completed it. He narrowed the directory by country, gender, and age range.

  He scrolled through a few pages and saw it. The name Vicki. Vicki Trever.


  He went back and clicked on the links with images. He tapped on the table, waiting for them to load.

  The page popped up. He scanned the images. One. Then, two.

  The third one was a group shot. And there she was.

  * * *

  The nurse who’d let Vicki use the floor’s cell phone walked in. Vicki handed it back to her.

  “Did you find your daughter?”

  “Yes. Thank you.” When Juan hadn’t answered his phone, Vicki had panicked. Her heart told her that her niece was fine—that Juan was decent, kind, and he’d never do anything to hurt a child. But trust didn’t come easily.

  Vicki could hear the advice her mom had given her only a day before she’d died. “Take care of your sister. She’s not as strong as you are. She trusts too much. But someday I hope you’ll learn to trust. You don’t have to be alone in this world.”

  At the time, Vicki had been furious at her mom’s words. How could she have learned to trust when the majority of her childhood had left her unable to trust even her mom? How many nights had Vicki not known if her mom would come home, or stayed awake worrying her mom wouldn’t come home alone?

  And as much as Vicki had resented her mom, Alison had excused her. To the point that Alison wouldn’t let Vicki donate their mom’s things to charity. She’d insisted Vicki put them in a storage unit until they could go through them later when the grief had lessened. Her things hold memories, her sister had claimed. But Vicki hadn’t wanted to remember. Alison never again mentioned her mom’s belongings and Vicki preferred to pay for the storage than to face that trip down memory lane.

  Take care of your sister…You don’t have to be alone…As those parting words played in Vicki’s head again, they stung because not only had she failed to take care of her sister, but she realized how alone she really was right now. So maybe her mom had a point.

  The beeping sound had Vicki opening her eyes. The nurse looked at her blood pressure reading on the machine. “From one to ten, how is your pain?”

  “It’s not bad.” Vicki lied because she needed to be clearheaded when she saw Bell. The thought of how close she’d come to dying and abandoning her niece kept echoing in her conscience. What if Juan hadn’t come to the house? What if she’d died last night? Sooner or later, someone would have discovered their true identity. And Bell would have been sent to live with Pablo’s sister. And then Pablo could have gotten to her.

  Vicki had thought by not trusting anyone she was protecting her niece. But that no longer felt so true. She needed to trust someone. And no one had come closer to earning her trust than Juan.

  But how much could she trust him? Should she tell him everything? What if he didn’t believe her? What if…?

  * * *

  Juan did a Google search on Vicki Trever. The first hit that came up was a website for Vicki Trever, Fitness Trainer. He clicked on it. Her picture appeared on the screen and the website listed her location as Los Angeles, California. The last time it had been updated was ten months ago.

  At the bottom of the page, he spotted a list of her qualifications and clients. He read the names, then saw a link that read References. He clicked it.

  There was a number. He grabbed his phone and dialed the number.

  “Price Jacobs,” a man answered.

  “Yes, my name’s Juan Acosta. I found your name on Vicki Trever’s website as a reference.”

  “Oh, yeah. But I haven’t heard from her in months.”

  “So how well do you know her and would you recommend her as a trainer?”

  “You kidding me? She’s the best. I broke my leg and I was going to give up running. She worked with me. Got me in even better shape than I was before. I was one of her first clients when she went into business for herself. She even rented my garage apartment for seven months when she was waiting on her condo to get completed. I’d still be using her, but I got laid off at work last year and had to cut back. Whatever you do, don’t spar with her. She’s little, but that girl can give you a run for your money.”

  Yeah, she can. Juan mentally gathered the information. “How dedicated is she to the job?”

  “Never seen anyone more dedicated. You know she works with movie stars, don’t you? Last I heard, she was working with Bruce Willis. She trains some of the guys with the Lakers and the Chargers. Well, she did before she disappeared. She’s top-notch. As for being dedicated, I’ve seen her work sixteen hours a day.”

  “That’s a lot. So her being a mother didn’t interfere with the work?”

  “A mother? Vicki doesn’t have kids.”

  Shit! It was worse than he thought.

  Price continued, “Well, I guess she could now. That’s a shocker. She just…was always so career focused. Did she marry that Dan guy she was dating? I mean, seriously, she just up and left.”

  “I’m not sure,” Juan said. “We haven’t really talked about personal stuff.”

  “Well, tell her congratulations. And tell her I’m a little pissed that she left without saying goodbye. In fact, can you give me her number?”

  “Yeah, let me text that to you,” he said.

  “What kind of training are you doing?” Price asked.

  “Just getting in shape.” Juan managed to end the conversation.

  Hanging up, he sat there staring at the computer. Bell wasn’t Nikki’s daughter. What the hell was going on?

  Running a hand over his face, he got online and checked her name to see if he found anything on the criminal history database. There were four Vicki Trevers. Only one in the right age bracket.

  He clicked on it.

  He read the screen. “Damn.” LAPD sought Vicki Trever as a person of interest in a missing child case. Don’t approach. Don’t contact. Call Detective Sam Milbourn. It listed the officer’s phone number.

  He stood from the kitchen table and looked outside at Bell. She sat in his lawn chair, tossing the ball to Sweetie.

  Had Nikki kidnapped Bell? He remembered Bell’s scars. If Nikki had taken the girl, she had to have a damn good reason. Right?

  Then something else odd hit. Why wasn’t it called a kidnapping? He went back to his computer and typed in Vicki Trever missing child. More often than not the media coverage gave more details than some of the basic police records. Oddly, there wasn’t anything. Why? Missing children were a favorite media topic due to the emotional response.

  Something didn’t add up. There was only one way to get answers. He had to call this Detective Milbourn.

  Not that he’d show his cards. Not yet.

  Chapter Twenty

  Juan dialed the contact number for Detective Milbourn at the LAPD. It rang four times before someone picked it up. “Detective Carson.”

  “Yes. I was trying to reach Detective Milbourn.”

  “You got his desk. He’s out for a few days. His phone’s been ringing off the hook. What can I do for you?”

  “This is Detective Acosta, from Anniston PD in Texas. I’m working on a case and I found the name Vicki Trever mentioned. When I did a criminal background check on her, I found Milbourn’s information. Can you tell me what that’s about?”

  “Trever?” Carson said as if he wasn’t sure. “It’s not ringing any bells.”

  “It mentioned a missing child.” Juan heard the man typing into a computer.

  “Oh, yes. I got it now. She left the state with a guardianship case ongoing.”

  Well, that explained why it wasn’t listed as a kidnapping. “Isn’t that a civil case? Why is LAPD involved?” Juan asked.

  “The child is the daughter of Milbourn’s old partner, Officer Pablo Valado. He was killed.”

  Juan recalled Nikki’s dislike of police officers. Was Valado Bell’s father?

  “Valado’s sister filed for guardianship,” Detective Carson continued. “And with the case ongoing there’s a restraining order restricting Trever from removing the child from the state.”

  It still sounded more like a civil suit, but maybe the laws were different
in California. Juan jotted down the name Pablo Valado and decided to play stupid. “So she’s the mother?”

  “No. She’s the aunt. The child’s mother passed away. Do you have her in custody?”

  “No.” It was time to pull back. “A witness used the name when interviewed, but she later disappeared. This Vicki Trever was the only one in the age range that would fit. To confirm I got the right person, my Vicki Trever is black, in her forties?”

  “No. This Vicki is white, late twenties.”

  “Well it’s not her, then. Our witness must have used a fake name. We were afraid of that since she didn’t have any ID on her and the address she gave was bogus. Sorry to have bothered you.”

  Juan hung up. So Nikki, or rather Vicki, was running to keep Bell’s other aunt from getting guardianship. Why?

  And why had she lied about Bell’s father being alive? Then another question hit. Who was she afraid of?

  Armed with this latest information, he did another Google search. He typed in the name Pablo Valado.

  * * *

  Juan, holding Bell’s hand, walked into the hospital entrance looking for Mildred. He spotted her sitting across the room, leafing through a magazine. She stood, waved, and smiled extra big at Bell.

  Juan, a headache brewing, guided Bell that way. When he’d called Mildred and asked if she’d spend her lunch hour away from her desk and helping him out by watching a five-year-old at the hospital, he’d had to give a little explanation.

  But only the part about her being his neighbor. He didn’t want to explain Nikki’s brush with the law, not to Mildred or to Mark or Connor. He needed explanations. And the person who needed to explain was Nikki. Only then would he decide if he got his partners involved. He knew not calling in her location immediately could come back to bite him in the ass. He didn’t want them bitten for his mistake.

  “Hi. Mildred, I want you to meet Bell.” The girl’s hold on his hand tightened. “Bell, Mildred’s the lady I told you about. The one I work with who has a granddaughter your age.”

  Bell gazed up at him, fear shining in her big brown eyes. “You said I could see my mama first.”

  “Yes, I did. We’ll visit with her for a bit, and then I need to talk to her and you’ll go to the cafeteria with Mildred. Okay?”