by Barb Han
Clara nodded. “As did the DeSanchos when they realized she wasn’t in her room the morning they were supposed to come home.”
“I’ve already heard Ashlyn was good in school and her family life was unraveling. What changes had there been in her behavior lately?” he asked.
“Now you sound like the authorities.” Clara issued a sharp sigh.
“I’m just trying to get a clear picture. Rule out the obvious possibilities,” he defended.
“You’re not the right person for the job,” Jaden interjected. “I’m sorry I brought you here. I thought it might—”
“Fix me? Too late for that.”
Clara’s brow arched.
Tension sat thick across the granite island. Another standoff.
Clara cleared her throat and took a sip of coffee, her rivers of blue fixed on him.
“I’m not committing to anything. Maybe I can offer another perspective before I leave,” Daniel said.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Clara’s jaw clench and release.
He shifted his gaze to Jaden. “So why don’t you fill me in.”
“Why don’t you just leave?”
“You don’t have time to talk to anyone else. I might know someone who can help. Keep pissing me off and I’ll do what you want and go.” It was an idle threat and Jaden seemed to know it. His friend was just acting on frustration—frustration that was Daniel’s fault.
“I spoke to her father.” Jaden drummed his fingers on the granite. “Yes, she was a good student. Straight As. You already know that. Dad says she’s been rebellious lately. Typical teenage antics.”
“How so?”
“Her being glued to her phone has been causing issues between her and her mother,” Jaden said and Clara shifted in her seat. “She always wanted to be out of the house and he was questioning some of the new friendships she’d made.”
“Wouldn’t you act out if your parents had divorced and your mother had almost instantly remarried a man you couldn’t stand?” Clara interjected hotly. “Not to mention the fact that it’s perfectly normal to test the boundaries at her age.”
“Right. The stepdad. He’s a class act jerk from what I hear,” Daniel stated.
Jaden rocked his head. “Ashlyn and stepdad aren’t the best of buds. Mom is overly optimistic that it’s only a matter of time before they click.”
“Is there any chance he could’ve been involved in her disappearance?” Daniel couldn’t help but think about the threats of divorce Naomi had made. The thought of another man stepping in as Ruthie’s stepdad had lit all kinds of angry fires inside him. He’d convinced his wife that he could change.
“I’m not willing to rule anything out at this point,” Jaden stated.
Clara’s focus on her mug intensified.
“What about the best friend?” he asked.
“The families go way back. Met in church when the girls were little, moms figured out that they lived on the same block. There’d been some friction between Ashlyn and Makayla recently. The moms had noticed and chalked it up to hormones. The two were best friends one minute and couldn’t stand to be in the same room the next,” Jaden announced, thumping the file. “It’s all in there.”
“Why would your sister agree to send Ashlyn on vacation with the family if that was the situation? I would’ve kept the girls apart as much as possible,” Daniel said, his voice laced with judgment.
“My sister thought it would be a good idea. The girls had been best friends since preschool. Both were full-on pre-teen hormonal and Stella thought it would do them both good to be forced to spend time together.” Daniel picked up on the judgment in her voice too.
“Are you and your sister close?” he asked.
“That’s not relevant,” she fired back.
“I’m an only child. I don’t know how this sibling rivalry thing works.” He threw his hands in the air in the surrender position.
“We used to be. Timothy seems to be getting inside her head and making her question everyone’s motives. But that doesn’t mean we always used to agree. We’re very different people,” Clara admitted.
“Does your sister tell you everything?” he asked. He remembered how close his wife and daughter had been. The two seemed to share a special language that he’d never understand. The bond between females was different than what he was used to with his brothers in arms. If men disagreed they pretty much battled it out on a basketball court. Women talked until they felt better. He knew something was really wrong if chocolate was involved. Even his five-year-old seemed to make the connection that had eluded him. If he’d realized the association sooner he would’ve brought home chocolate by the armful after every deployment.
“Pretty much. I think. I mean, we’re close. We were a lot closer before her marriage started falling apart and she met Timothy,” she admitted.
“When was that?”
“Last year, so,” she paused and counted on her fingers, “they’ve been married ten months now.”
“They knew each other all of two months before they married?” Now the judgment was on his part.
“That’s right.” Clara made a face. Everything in her expression said she didn’t approve.
“I’m guessing stepdad didn’t appreciate having a kid hang around from Stella’s previous marriage. And especially not one with an attitude,” Daniel surmised.
“Ashlyn’s occasional outbursts don’t make her categorically difficult to deal with. She had a sweet side that never went away. She just developed a sharp edge sometimes,” Clara defended, her shoulders strung tight. She rolled her head as though trying to loosen stress’s grip. The taut lines of her face said she was losing the battle.
Daniel sat there contemplating the situation for a long moment. How many stories had he read about involving teens who went missing while on vacation? It was a small number, which most likely made the cases even more shocking. International law was complicated. Clara was biased, which he expected from her aunt. He needed to talk to three people: Stella, Timothy and Ashlyn’s father.
“Where does your sister live?” he asked.
“A suburb north of Dallas.”
Daniel pushed off the island and got to his feet.
“Thanks for coming by,” Jaden said. “You think of anything that can help, I’d appreciate hearing from you. And even if you don’t, I’d appreciate hearing from you.”
Daniel nodded, grateful for his friend’s words. He should feel bad for not returning Jaden’s attempts to reach out to him over the past two years. The only thing he could feel was the gut-twisting pain of Naomi and Ruthie dying alone and the hell that came with knowing it had been his fault.
“You’re leaving?” Clara’s eyes shot open wide. “Just like that?”
He picked up the picture from the island and studied it. The girl in the photo was smiling, unaware of the dangers lurking. “When was this picture taken?”
“Last month,” Clara said.
His heart fisted. Children were innocent, dammit. Someone should protect them. An annoying voice in the back of his head said it should be him.
“If we’re going to make progress on this case we need to be in Dallas by sunrise,” he said before turning to Jaden. “You got a quiet place where I can grab a few minutes of shut-eye?”
Clara had showered, brushed her teeth and changed into a new outfit of dress pants and a blouse. She’d fixed her face and hair after drinking from what seemed like a bottomless cup of coffee.
Caffeine gave her something to do. She didn’t need it to stay awake or alert. Thinking about Ashlyn out there, scared and alone, had driven Clara for the past fourteen days.
She joined the others in the kitchen.
“You’re awake,” she said to Lauren, who was standing at the island and rubbing her belly. Clara’s gaze lingered on the bump and a pang of pain nailed her. “Boy or girl?”
“Boy,” Lauren said. Her voice radiated warmth but Clara couldn’t tear her gaze away from t
he almost perfectly round shape.
“Are you feeling better?” Clara asked.
“Much. Thanks for the information last night about Braxton-Hicks. I spoke to my doctor this morning and she confirmed everything you said,” Lauren said.
“I remember my sister going through it. First time labors can drag on,” Clara said, feeling the tears gather in her eyes. She’d gone weeks without crying. The dam holding back the floodgates was chipping. “My sister was in labor twenty-three-and-a-half hours and pushing for a solid four of those.”
When silence filled the space, Clara looked up into shocked-looking eyes.
“Sorry. I’m not trying to scare you. They give you medicine so you don’t feel a thing if you don’t want to,” she quickly added. “Stella said it was weird not being able to feel her legs for a couple of hours but amazing that the labor pains weren’t bothersome.”
Lauren blew out a breath. “I made a Birthing Plan that says using meds are a last resort. I’m starting to rethink that decision after last night.”
“I’m sure it seemed worse than it was. You did great last night dealing with everything. You might surprise yourself in the delivery room,” Clara reassured. She remembered hearing all those stories from mothers who made labor and delivery sound worse than cracking someone’s chest open without the use of anesthesia and deliveries that had lasted half their lives. “And at the end of it you get to hold your baby. What could be better than that? You’ll forget all the pain when you look at his face.”
Those last words relaxed the taut lines across Lauren’s forehead. The warm smile returned.
There was an open quality to Lauren that Clara envied. She was certain it came with having someone so in love that he’d always be there for her.
Clara had never known that kind of feeling.
“I’m out of line here but I went through a rough patch a couple of years ago involving my brother.” Lauren’s sympathetic gaze chipped away more of the concrete wall in Clara’s chest. “I can see that you’re a strong person. Your niece is lucky to have you on her side.”
Another crack in the armor.
“Thank you,” Clara managed to say before clearing her throat and turning her attention toward the others.
“Coffee?” Daniel asked, holding out a fresh cup.
“Yes. Thank you.” She didn’t make eye contact as she took the offering. Her finger touched his hand by accident and electricity caused a tingling sensation at the tip. The vibration skittered across the skin of her hand, trailing up her arm. Tiny volts energized her nerve endings, causing a fizz-like effect.
She set the coffee cup down and stared at it like it was a bomb about to detonate. If one touch could send this much frisson racing through her she wasn’t sure it was such a good idea to be alone with this man and especially with the way she’d melted under his touch. Those lips. That kiss. She’d thought about it more times than she should allow in the past few hours. There was something honest and broken about him that was magnetic.
Focusing on Ashlyn was the equivalent to throwing a bucket of water on the out-of-control impulses—impulses that weren’t warranted or appreciated.
“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked, his dark gaze piercing through her.
“Thinking about the big day ahead, about seeing my sister,” she said. That much was true. She had no intention of owning up to the rest.
“Bottoms up,” he said, lifting his own coffee mug toward her. “We should get on the road after breakfast.”
Daniel seemed content to let it go even though his lingering gaze told her he saw past the half-truth. He moved around the kitchen with athletic grace, gathering contents from the fridge. He tossed eggs and a handful of spinach into a bowl and stirred before turning toward the five-burner stove and pouring out the contents onto a griddle pan. The ingredients sizzled as the makings of an omelet bubbled on the hot surface.
Jaden walked inside the room and to his wife. He kissed Lauren tenderly and then put a hand on her belly. Clara couldn’t hear what he said, his voice was too low, but whatever it was caused Lauren to beam up at him.
Her heart twisted at the sweetness of the gesture and the exchange between husband and wife. The moment of tenderness between them shouldn’t make tears spill on her cheeks.
Clara mumbled an apology and excused herself to go to the restroom. So much of her carefully tucked away past threatened to push through the surface, using the chinks in her armor to break free. She hated that an event from so long ago could surface without warning. All it ever took was a second-too-long glance at tenderness between a man and wife. So much of her single life now in downtown Dallas had been scripted based on that horrendous event. It was the reason she’d kept everyone at arm’s length. It was why she’d studied hard in order to get her college degree and counsel others. No one should go through that kind of pain alone.
It was also what kept her from getting too close to anyone.
After splashing cold water on her face she wrestled her hair into a high ponytail. She examined the stress cracks on her forehead before applying concealer to cover.
Inhaling a deep breath intended to fortify her, she moved into the next room to join the others.
She prayed her actions didn’t invite questions she had no authority to answer.
Chapter 8
Clara had been quiet all morning. Tension radiated from her in waves. Daniel had witnessed her turn ghost-white in the kitchen before excusing herself. Now, the two of them were stuck in rush hour traffic on a highway leading into Dallas.
GPS said they’d arrive at their destination in forty minutes. Traffic crawled. At this rate they’d reach the Durango house in hours not minutes.
Daniel had wanted to catch Timothy Durango before he left for work. He was one of the head honchos at a medium-sized computer virus protection company in Plano and his work day started at nine o’clock.
A quick time check said they’d be an hour too late.
Clara shifted in her seat, a move she’d repeated more times than he could count. It was probably asking too much to want to settle Clara’s nerves.
For now, he would settle for polite conversation.
“What did your sister say when you called?” he asked. She’d gone outside to phone Stella and he figured she’d needed a break after seeing the way she’d stared at Lauren’s bump. Memories of her sister being pregnant with Ashlyn must’ve brought on the emotions that seemed ready to tip over and spill out. He couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to the story with Clara. Something from her past?
Clara was a beautiful woman, even behind the red puffy eyes and overwrought emotions it was easy to see her looks. She was intelligent too. A potent combination.
Having a loved one turn up missing with no answers was the only hell that could be worse than death.
It was obvious that Clara cared deeply about the kid in the picture with the ready smile. She’d shown him others from her phone, that same smile beaming in most of them. Other times Ashlyn made faces, twisting her lips in mock surprise or making a big show of frowning.
The kid was animated, which quelled any thought she might have been depressed despite her crummy circumstances.
Daniel didn’t want to care about the kid because the obvious outcome in this case was that they’d be looking for a body.
The girl had personality and even if she wasn’t coming back alive, her loved ones deserved to know the truth about what had happened to her.
“There wasn’t much news coverage on the case,” Daniel stated.
“A celebrity accidently shows a body part during a major sporting event and it hits every major news outlet for weeks. A little girl goes missing in the Caribbean and we hit below the fold one time,” she said.
“Shame,” he agreed.
“When did you look?” She seemed to catch on.
“While you were getting ready. Jaden showed me an article. Said he couldn’t find much more,” he admitted. “I checked my phone a
nd couldn’t disagree.”
“Do you have kids?” she asked.
Answering honestly would only invite more questions. Daniel hated questions and whether or not he had a family had no bearing on this mission. He figured it was time to turn the tables on her. “What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a psychologist,” she said.
He barked out a laugh.
“What’s funny about that?”
They were in standstill traffic so he glanced at her. She tried to hide being offended and failed miserably. Her initial reactions gave her away, that split-second response told him everything he needed to know. He’d been trained well by the U.S. government. Daniel was one of the best at lie detecting. He didn’t need that training now.
“How much did Jaden tell you about my background?”
“Very little. You’re an ex-soldier, special operations. The two of you served a couple of tours together. He went onto work for a private security firm, a Blackwater-type organization, and you worked for the same company, different division. He was a supervisor and left after being betrayed by someone on the inside. The organization went through a dark time and folded. He decided that he could do a better job on his own, working for real people rather than governments. He lost track of you when the old agency went sideways a couple of years ago. Said the two of you used to be close in the military but you haven’t been much for polite conversation since.”
He gripped the steering wheel a little harder and eased forward a few feet along with the slow traffic.
“You don’t like to talk about your past,” she stated.
“No, I don’t.” A small piece of him wanted to talk to Clara, not because of her line of work. He couldn’t help but admire her strength, her intelligent. He crushed that little piece as fast as he could. He didn’t deserve to unburden himself, to find a way to live with the past and…what?...move on?
“Why is that?” Clara asked.
“It’s not anyone else’s business.” He could feel her eyes on him this time and he didn’t enjoy being examined like she was sizing up one of her patients. “You don’t need to psych me, okay? Believe me, there’s nothing to see here. And even if there was my life has no relevance to this case.”