Her Detective's Secret Intent

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  She’d never made it to the pizza place. And she wasn’t answering her phone.

  He got the High Risk Team alert almost immediately after his call with Chantel. Was back out to his car and on the road immediately. She’d asked him to start from where he’d last seen Marie, to check around the ballpark, see if anyone remembered anything. And then to drive all the streets between the park and the pizza place.

  Officers were going to be talking to neighbors along the route. And expanding the search farther out.

  He reminded himself that they’d thought she’d gone missing once before, that she’d failed to answer her phone then, too, and that she’d eventually returned home, safe and sound.

  He told Miranda the same thing when she called a few minutes later to let him know that she and Ethan were out looking for Marie’s car and would call the police if they thought they saw any sign of it.

  “Don’t approach, no matter what,” he told her, instantly alert. They needed eyes on the road. He just didn’t want Miranda or Ethan out there.

  But he couldn’t stop her. And probably shouldn’t. As long as she kept her distance, she was in no real danger. Devon would have no idea that a woman out driving with her son would be any threat to him. It wasn’t like he’d be shooting at every car he passed as he drove wherever he might be taking them. That would be the quickest way to get himself arrested.

  If he even had them.

  Marie had been told, after the last incident, to let someone know if she was going to change her schedule, told to call before she took off again. She’d apologized for the time everyone had spent looking for, and worrying about, her.

  “Maybe Danny changed his mind about which pizza place,” he said now, conscious of the fact that Ethan was in the car with Miranda, making it difficult for her to speak freely.

  He’d caught the “looking for Marie’s car” remark. Took it to mean that Ethan didn’t know Danny and Marie had been in it or were in any danger.

  And maybe she was right to keep the news from her son. Earlier, Tad had figured Ethan would be better prepared in the event of danger in his own life if he knew. He’d since changed his mind about that. She was raising a happy, healthy, well-adjusted child.

  “Could be they went to Charlie’s.” A pizza place with gaming rooms. He’d driven by it but never been inside. “She might not have heard her phone ring, or isn’t getting cell service in there,” he finished.

  He was at the ball field. Had to get going. Talk to some people. He didn’t tell Miranda that, though. He just asked her to please keep in touch, assuring her he’d do the same.

  “And be careful,” he told her. “No risks.”

  “You, too,” she said, and he wondered if she was thinking about the time he’d gone rogue. If she was worried he’d get hurt. He had a gun on him, not that she knew that. He never took it into her home, leaving it locked in the glove box of his SUV. But he was licensed to carry and always did.

  Telling himself that Ethan was his assurance that Miranda wouldn’t take risks, he exited his vehicle and headed into the park.

  * * *

  “There’s a red car.”

  “But see how it only has two doors? We need a car that’s bigger, like ours,” Miranda told Ethan as they drove slowly through the streets of Santa Raquel. She’d tried Marie’s phone, just in case the woman would pick up a call from her, but it went straight to voice mail.

  As she drove, trying to see every single car within sight, she prayed that Marie and Danny were okay.

  And that Tad would be, too. Knowing that he was out there, also looking, was a comfort to her. Strange how in her most frightening situations, thoughts of Tad were what brought her back to a sense of being okay.

  The sexual attraction she got. The other, the comfort part, not so much. Maybe she just didn’t want to get it. Knew that she couldn’t take it any further, so she didn’t want to think about it.

  “There’s one!” Ethan said, pointing at a car that was the same size and basic shape as Marie’s, but a different make and model. She’d shown her son a picture of the vehicle before they’d left their driveway, having checked it out on the internet on her phone.

  “That’s almost it, but remember that symbol on the back of the car I showed you? That’s what we’re looking for.”

  They’d been at it for half an hour, up one street and down another, just driving and watching, when Ethan saw a car that looked exactly like Marie’s parked in a driveway. Devon was staying with a friend in the area, which was why she’d chosen to search there, but she didn’t know which house.

  Picking up her phone, she dialed Chantel, gave her the address and prayed again.

  * * *

  It took too much precious time for Tad to make it all the way around that park. Parents and kids were filling all three diamond areas as different T-ball and Little League teams held practices and scrimmage games. He talked to at least fifty people, showing them Devon Williams’s picture, but no one had seen him.

  Anxious to get back on the road, to get to the part where he was out there doing all he could to find the guy, he nonetheless stayed his course. Chantel had asked him to cover the park. He was going to do that.

  Others were out on the roads, cops and volunteers like Miranda. He didn’t always have to be on the front line.

  His call with the chief still plagued him a little as he walked from the second to the third diamond area, completely on the other side of the park from where Danny had practiced. Why had O’Connor led him to believe he was tending to an important business matter if he was on vacation?

  Could Gail’s source have made a mistake?

  The possibility was highly unlikely. Gail checked and double-checked everything, just like Tad did. Needing to know firsthand. It was one of the shared traits that had made them such good working partners.

  Approaching a woman who was sitting alone on a bleacher, watching a group of little boys gathered around a man on the field, Tad said, “Excuse me. I’m looking for my brother. You didn’t happen to see him around here, did you?” He showed the picture of Devon.

  “He’s not from around here, recently had surgery, and needs his medication...” He’d invented so many stories over the years, he always had one handy.

  Expecting to hear the same “no, sorry,” that he’d been hearing for the past half hour, he was surprised when the woman took a second glance.

  “Yeah, actually, I did,” she said, looking up at him. Her eyes were squinting against the sun, but she appeared to be about Miranda’s age, late twenties. She was dressed like almost everyone else, in jeans and a T-shirt, had short brown hair, and wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.

  Something about her expression had Tad paying close attention.

  “It was kind of sad,” she said, “the way he missed his son’s practice.”

  “You spoke to him.” Careful now, he’s your missing brother needing medication at the moment. Not a potential suspect who might be hurting his wife and son. He softened his features.

  “No.” She shook her head. “I just heard him talking to the coach, right before practice started. He seemed to think his little boy would be practicing at noon. He acted somewhat...off, though.”

  “He needs his medication.”

  “He was really mad, like he thought the coach was hiding his son from him.”

  An angry Devon. Things didn’t look good for Marie.

  “Did you see which way he went?”

  “Yeah.” She tilted her head to her left. “He got in a blue full-size pickup right over there. I’m sorry...he obviously shouldn’t be driving, but no one knew.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Tad said, hurrying away. She’d understand his urgency and even if she didn’t, he couldn’t worry about it. Pulling out his cell phone as he ran, he got Chantel on the line.

  * * *

&nb
sp; The car Ethan had pointed out didn’t belong to Marie. He and Miranda didn’t find her car. The police did. Abandoned on the side of the coastal road leading out of town. There’d been signs of a struggle. Of another car coming off the road right behind her, possibly back-ending her to get her to stop.

  An all-points bulletin was put out for Devon’s truck, and a text went out to let volunteers know they were no longer needed. Finding Devon was up to the police now.

  “Why are we stopping, Mom? Did they find the car?” Ethan asked as she pulled into the drive-through lane of his favorite fast-food place.

  “Yes, they did,” she told him, trying her best to sound upbeat about that. “Isn’t that lucky?”

  “I guess.” He didn’t sound all that glad. “I was hoping it would be me who’d see it first and then I could tell Tad.”

  She hadn’t told Ethan that Tad was involved in the search, but he might have assumed it.

  “Can we go in? Please?” Even though he was too big, Ethan still liked to play in the jungle gym set up for kids inside the restaurant.

  She wasn’t getting out of her car until it was safely parked in her garage. “Nope. We’ve got cleaning to finish,” she told him, which, of course, brought another groan.

  She bought him a chocolate shake to go with his lunch to compensate for being a mom.

  * * *

  Tad wasn’t on the scene when they found the Williams family. Chantel was, though, and called him personally to ask him to join them.

  Devon was holding Marie hostage inside an abandoned shack. Whether it was one he’d known was there or one he’d just seen driving by was yet to be determined. He’d sent Danny out, unharmed, when the police arrived and now Danny was asking for Tad.

  He made it to the scene, fifteen minutes outside town, in ten. It had taken another hour for negotiators to get Devon to let his wife go. But he didn’t do it without first punishing Marie for making him miss his son’s first T-ball practice. He’d roughed her up so badly her face was barely recognizable. And from the way she was holding her arm, Tad figured it was broken.

  Tad wished he could wipe the vision from his mind. He was glad Marie was safe. Thankful that her husband was in custody. But all he kept seeing was Miranda in a similar state. Imagining her face behind Marie’s bloody swollen bruises.

  He called her as soon as he left the scene. Needing to say so much, to promise her she’d never suffer like that again, but unable to let any of it out.

  “You’re sure she’s okay?” Miranda asked softly. “You saw her for yourself?”

  “She was talking when they put her in the ambulance,” he said. “Asking about Danny.”

  He’d let her know from the outset that the boy wasn’t hurt. Physically. That he was with his aunt and uncle.

  “Danny told me he was the one who called his father about the practice,” Tad said. “He was afraid if he told the police he’d done that, they’d take him to jail, too.”

  “You assured him he’s not in trouble, right?”

  “Of course. He said he was scared to play without telling his dad because when he found out later he’d be in trouble. So he got hold of Marie’s cell phone and called him. Somehow he messed up the time, or Devon would’ve been there this morning, I’d have seen him, and all of this could have been avoided.”

  “Poor little guy. No way he should be going through this.”

  She sounded angry.

  And kind of frightened, too. He figured she was probably experiencing some of Marie’s pain, her fear, vicariously. How could she not be? He remembered how frightened she’d been the last time Marie had gone missing.

  She’d never ask for help, but...

  “You mind if I stop by? A little Zoo Attack with Ethan sounds pretty good right now.”

  “Of course,” she told him. “I’ll thaw some hamburgers and we can have sloppy joes for dinner.”

  A community had come together and saved a life that day. And, for the moment, he had a place in Miranda’s and Ethan’s lives.

  He started to feel a bit better.

  Chapter 23

  Someone was following her. There was no doubt in Miranda’s mind as she drove from the big-box store to Jimmy’s house on Sunday afternoon. She’d told Ethan he could invite his friend to the beach with them, thinking it would be good for Ethan not to have Tad all to himself. It would be a chance to repay Jimmy’s family’s hospitality, as well, without having the boy running around their home.

  She wasn’t ready for that yet. There was nothing for him to find there that would alert anyone to the fact that she wasn’t who they thought she was. But the idea of him going home to tell his parents about her house, or their private lives, or anything he found different from his... Nope, she just wasn’t ready.

  Turning two blocks before Jimmy’s street, she noticed the black sedan doing the same. She couldn’t be positive it was the same car she’d seen in the clinic’s parking lot on Friday. Couldn’t tell, from surreptitious glances in the rearview mirror, if the driver was male or female.

  Didn’t see a gray baseball cap.

  But she was definitely being followed.

  Watched.

  It wasn’t her first time. Or even her tenth. She had no way of knowing when it had started. But she’d first been aware of it when she was only sixteen, and out after dark for the first time. Scared, but unwilling to admit that to her father, she’d been paying extreme attention to everything around her and had noticed the car turning whenever she turned.

  Not knowing what to do, she’d hurried home, found her father there waiting for her. Sober for once, and in a good mood. She’d never told him that someone had been watching her.

  She’d been afraid it was him. That he’d hired someone. And hadn’t dared bring down his wrath by saying anything.

  And now, heart pounding, she went over her car in her mind. Told herself to stay calm. Hyperventilating could get them killed. The roll of bills under the spare tire would last for at least a week. If she was careful. A duffel bag holding clothes and food rations was in the back, beneath the duffel that held her jumper cables and medical kit. She had an extra phone charger in her purse, and in the console, too, not that she’d use her phone if she ran. Too easy to trace.

  “You know what? I’m not feeling very well,” she told Ethan, turning again. And again, ending up on a main thoroughfare. A couple of seconds later, she saw the black sedan turn, too, far enough away that she couldn’t make out a license plate. “I think I’m going to have to cancel today, sweetie. I’m sorry,” she told Ethan.

  “You sure?” His brow was creased. “Maybe you just have to go poop and then you’ll feel better.”

  Because in his world, life was usually that simple. Thank God.

  “Maybe, but we can’t take that chance, not with other people involved.” She glanced in the mirror again, not seeing the car. “Will you get my phone out of my purse and dial Jimmy for me?” she asked him. The car’s Bluetooth system picked up when he’d done as she asked, and she spoke to Jimmy’s mom, asking if they could do the beach trip another day.

  The car was there, several vehicles back, when she got off the phone.

  * * *

  Heading slowly back to his place from the gym on Sunday, Tad tried to relax, still coming down from the weekend’s events. But he couldn’t lose the sense of unease that had been slowly building where Miranda and her dad were concerned.

  He was falling in love with her. He saw that now. Didn’t like it. But knew there was no way he could stop it, either.

  And chances were good that when she heard he’d been on her father’s payroll all along, she’d want nothing to do with him.

  He’d still have it that way, though, if it meant she was happy and able to live free from fear.

  He’d just pulled into his complex when his phone rang. Putting the SUV in Par
k, he grabbed it by the second ring.

  “Would it be okay with you if we just stayed home tonight? I can cook the steaks under the broiler...”

  “Of course.” His standard answer with her these days. “Or you two could come here. We’ve got community grills at every building...”

  She hesitated, and he thought she might accept the invitation, but in the end, she said, “It’s probably better if we do it here,” she said, sounding disappointed enough that he smiled. She’d wanted to come to his place. That was satisfactory for now. “Ethan’s got all his things here, and that gives us time for adult conversation.”

  Even knowing that with her son at home, she just meant conversation, Tad was still wearing a full-on smile as he climbed the steps to his place. He was obviously growing on her as much as she was growing on him.

  And that boded well for the possibility of a future.

  Even after he dumped the big secret...

  * * *

  Her secrets were going to show. Miranda had debated canceling dinner with Tad altogether, but she’d needed the peace of mind being with him brought her, needed it too much to deny herself.

  If she was being followed, she’d have to leave. To start over. Again. Lose not only her home, her life, but her career, too. She had enough saved to get her through school a third time. Maybe. But she wasn’t sure she could do it. Just the thought of not having a solid way to support her and Ethan, the thought of losing her solid income, panicked her.

  She needed to calm down. To think practically. Tad’s presence helped her do that. And yet, when she jumped, hearing his car door in her driveway, she knew she was taking a huge chance seeing him when she was like this. The man was a good detective. Astute. He was going to notice if she was jittery.

  He’d come at the time they’d originally designated for the beach, which meant they had an hour, at least, before dinner.

  “You want to play Zoo Attack again?” Ethan asked before Tad was even fully in the door.