by Ali Vali
“Excuse me. Get away from her. This is nothing to do with you.” Carol gathered her things and stood so they could go.
“Ma’am, I’m going to take her behind the counter and clean her face. Please wait here.”
“You can’t do that.” Carol reached for Hannah, but she’d wrapped herself around the girl. Prying her off would make a scene. “She’s my granddaughter. You have no right.”
“Please don’t make me go,” Hannah screamed through the worsening tears.
“I’m calling 911,” the woman at the next table said, and Carol turned quickly toward her, cursing herself for not just locking them away in her hotel room. Hannah could have cried herself to sleep then and after a few days would come to realize this was the way it had to be.
“Give me my granddaughter,” she said, pulling on Hannah’s arm, and the motion made Hannah howl as if in excruciating pain. “Hannah, come on. We have to leave now.”
“Look,” the girl said, glancing at the woman on the phone. “If you really are her grandmother and this is just a tantrum, I’ll apologize, but I can’t let you take her.”
Carol was through being nice. Her whole life she’d been nice, and all it had gotten her was a weak husband and a perverted daughter. She pulled her arm back and slapped the young woman as hard as she could muster to force her to release Hannah. She also caught the side of Hannah’s face with the force of her blow.
That move spurred the young man behind the counter to come running toward them, so she had no choice but to leave and find Elton. He owed her so he’d have to smooth this over. Outside she heard the sirens, so she hurried out of the shop and turned at the first corner she came to. She glanced back. The woman who’d called the police was standing on the sidewalk, watching her as if noting every step she took.
She ran as best she could out of sight, down the side street, mumbling angrily. “You’ll have to accept that I’m what’s best for you, Hannah. I’m the only one who cares. When you’re a young woman with a strong connection to God, you’ll thank me.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Cain, you have to find her, and promise me you won’t do anything to my mother…yet,” Emma said as Cain sped to the police station with Hayden. “I swear if she told her anything that causes Hannah nightmares or hurts her, I’ll ask to borrow a gun and kill her myself.”
“I’ll keep you updated, but we’re here so I have to go now, lass. Make sure your father or someone stays with you.” Before she could get out of the car, Sept came running over. “What?” She really hadn’t meant to scream, but if something had happened to Hannah, she’d never be able to face Emma again.
“I think we found her. Do you mind if I ride with you?”
Lou got them to the ice cream shop in record time, and Cain jumped out first. She slowed when she saw Hannah sitting on the lap of a young woman wearing a striped red outfit. Her daughter was crying and the girl was trying to comfort her, so Cain took a deep breath before going in. She didn’t want to add to Hannah’s trauma.
“Hey, Hannah girl,” she said as she squatted down close to them. She wanted to join Hannah in her tears when the little girl ran to her and hugged her neck so hard she could barely breathe. “It’s okay, sweetheart, it’s okay. Hayden and I came to get you. Let’s go home to your mama and little brother.” Cain had to bite her lip when she saw the red mark with a mean-looking scratch on Hannah’s face. “Do you want to tell Hayden hello? He’s been worried about you.”
Hayden took her and kissed the scratch on her face, and Hannah began to calm.
“Thank you.” She held her hand out to the girl. “If it was you who called the police, I owe you whatever you want. You have no idea what you prevented.”
“Your daughter didn’t act right from the moment she got here, and that woman with her seemed a bit off. I tried to help, but that lady was the one who called the police.” She pointed to a woman standing nearby.
“What happened to your face?” Cain saw the red mark that matched Hannah’s.
“That bitch slapped me,” the girl said, then shook her head. “Sorry about the language.”
“Trust me, she is a bitch, so no worries.”
“Do you mind coming with us and giving the police a statement? You too,” Sept said to the woman after introducing herself.
To make things easier on everyone, Sept took them all back to the Caseys’ house so Emma could see her daughter. There was more crying when mother and daughter were reunited, so they went upstairs while Sept interviewed the two witnesses who’d gotten Hannah away from Carol. Before they left the house, Muriel handed each woman an envelope that held a token of Cain’s appreciation for taking a chance and getting involved. The checks for ten thousand dollars each would give them good reason to continue as Good Samaritans for the rest of their lives.
“We’ll find her, I promise,” Sept said, hugging Cain before leaving the Caseys to recover from the traumatic experience. “I might not work the case, but I promise my dad will get it done.”
“If you want to arrest me, go ahead, but I hope for Carol’s sake that he finds her before I do.”
Sept didn’t say anything as she nodded, though their years of friendship were enough for Cain’s old friend to know she wasn’t kidding. But right now her focus was her family. Hannah was still crying a little when she stepped into the master bedroom, and Cain was glad to see Hayden still there as well. Emma was sitting on the bed holding and rocking her daughter and wiping her own face, so Cain picked Hannah up and held her.
“She said you didn’t want me no more since you had Hayden and the new baby, so I’d have to go live with her.” The tears picked up again, and Cain stared up at the ceiling to hold back the devil clamoring to go after the twisted bitch. “I don’t want to go. Please don’t make me.”
Her child needed reassurance. The devil could get her due later.
“Hannah,” she said, sitting with her daughter in her lap so she could see Hannah’s face. “You know what the three happiest days of my life were?”
“No.” Hannah sniffed. The strange question stopped her hysterical crying.
“They were the day Hayden was born, the day you were born, and yesterday when Billy was born. All of you are our children, and we love you all the same. There’s no way, no how, that I’d let you go, any of you. Your grandmother Carol lied to you.”
“But she’s an adult.”
“That’s true, but not all adults are good. From now on, I don’t care who tells you something like ‘come with me,’ even if they’re an adult. If you know it’s not what you want to do, then I want you to call me or your mama.”
“Even if it’s because I don’t want to eat something?”
She laughed and was relieved when Hannah joined in. “If it’s your mama, then that deal won’t work, but if it’s someone like Grandmother Carol, then it’s okay to say no.” She kissed Hannah’s forehead, holding back her own tears as she cuddled her daughter. “You owe your friend Lucy a new toy for telling me who’d taken you. She really likes you.”
“Really?” Hannah brightened at the idea.
“Come on, Hannah. Let’s go get some cake downstairs.” Hayden turned to offer his sister a ride, and Hannah gladly climbed on his back. “I think that’ll make us both feel better.”
When the door closed, Emma reached for Cain’s hand and brought it to her mouth. “I’m sorry, baby,” Emma said.
“For what? It’s me who should be apologizing. I want to wrap them in cotton to keep them safe, and then shit like this happens.”
“This wasn’t your fault. My mother is deranged, but now at least she’ll be out of our lives. It’s the only good thing I can come up with to be happy about in this whole mess.”
Cain stretched out on the bed next to Emma, feeling as if she’d run a marathon. She’d gone from a nap to finding out Hannah had been kidnapped. If she’d needed a heart checkup this year, she could cancel it. She figured surviving this afternoon without a major heart p
roblem was a good sign she was healthy.
“Carol told Hannah we didn’t want her?”
“It should shock me, but it doesn’t. My mother has a strange sense of the world and how things should be, but I guess because she’s my mother, I can’t ask you to kill her.” Cain knew Emma was dead serious. “I can ask that Muriel do anything she can to legally keep her away from us and the children. I never want to see her again.”
“There’s death, and then there’s pain. Your mother will soon find out the difference and wish I’d picked one over the other.”
*
Fiona had a hard time picking her feet up as she walked into NOPD’s main offices after Sebastian had once again summoned her. She’d called her mother, Judice, and told her what had happened. They hadn’t had much contact after Judice had gone back home to California, and until Fiona found herself in trouble again, she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed her mother’s counsel. She’d been so focused on Cain she’d severely neglected the one person in her life who would always be on her side.
If whatever this was meant the end of her career in New Orleans, she was looking forward to finding out the rest of what her mother had yet to tell her. There was still a huge secret between them, and nothing she’d threatened—not even her putting distance between them—had made her mom break. Up to now all she could guess was it had to do with the two mob leaders her mother worked for but never acknowledged in any conversation. Colin Meade and Salvatore Maggio were both killers very much in the vein of Cain Casey, and both men ran a criminal enterprise in California no police investigation had been able to crack. That her mother had served them well through the years was something that plagued her, but no amount of coaxing had ever made her mother say why she’d chosen that life.
“Do you want your union rep here?” Sebastian asked when she sat where he’d directed.
“Do I need my rep? I did what you asked and stayed clear of Casey and everyone you mentioned.” No matter what he said, she concentrated on keeping her hands and body loose. She wouldn’t let her body language hang her.
“Did you meet with Elton Newsome and Carol Verde to discuss any action against Cain Casey or her family?” Sebastian wasn’t being overly aggressive, but he was trying to set her up for something. His line of questioning was like a bat to the knees in the clue department that she’d be blamed for something.
She should’ve checked to see if anything was going on or if something had happened before coming in to face him. The way she’d left things with Elton probably meant the asshole was the one trying to set her up. “I met with him about a taskforce he was putting together, but when I got there, he’d exaggerated what he’d said on the phone. So I left. As I was leaving, he did introduce me to Carol Verde. He was under the impression she’d help him bring Cain down.”
“And you waited to inform any of your superiors about this until now because why?”
“Detective Newsome has much more seniority than I do, so I figured he’d cleared everything he was doing, but I wanted no part of it. I talked to Shelby Phillips from the FBI, and she agreed I shouldn’t get involved.” She had to straighten her fingers when her hands had, without her attention on them, curled into fists. “Did he say something to you, or did something happen?”
“Carol Verde kidnapped Hannah Casey today and vanished.”
She leaned forward, her body suddenly heating as if she were sitting under an oven. No matter how she felt about Cain because of what had happened to Shelby’s parents, she’d never wanted her family harmed. “Do you have any leads?”
“The little girl was found, but now I’m having a hard time locating Newsome and this Verde woman. Get on the phone and find out if any court in Wisconsin granted her visitation rights.” Sebastian put his hand up when she jumped to her feet. “I don’t need to mention what course of action you should take if Newsome contacts you, right?”
“No, sir. I’ll call you directly if he does. Are you sure you don’t want someone else on this, considering everything we’ve talked about before?”
“You can think whatever you want about me and Sept, but we’ve known Cain and her family for years. She’s far from perfect, but her children and family are off limits in my book, and you should learn not to believe absolutely everything you hear about her. My contacts at the federal building tell me she had nothing to do with the death of your rabbi on the force. You need to let that go, so think of this as your way of redeeming yourself.”
Fiona wanted to go and do whatever was necessary to help with this situation. Her mother might’ve worked for dangerous men, but Sebastian was right. Even their code of honor prevented them from going after children. “I’m sorry I didn’t come to you with this, sir, but I really thought he’d cleared it with whoever needed to give him the go-ahead.”
“Get moving and report back to me anything you find on those court papers. I’m holding that teacher for now, but I don’t want any ready-made mistake on our part to turn into a get-out-of-jail-free card for some defense attorney later on.”
Fiona drove to her office and found Sept there. The first murder Sept and Nathan had started investigating had turned into quite a few, but a whole team was working those cases to get a lead on a suspect. Still, Sept seemed to be waiting on her. She’d blamed Sept from the time she got here of being suspiciously close to Cain. Now it all seemed like one misstep too many, and she’d lost the opportunity to get to know Sept well.
“How’d it go?” Sept asked, sitting in the chair crammed up against Fiona’s desk.
“He wasn’t happy, but I didn’t have anything to do with Newsome or Verde. I got a reprieve, I guess, since he has me running down some information for him.” She touched the mouse on her computer, and Sept seemed to take it as a sign to leave.
“Look,” Fiona said, stopping her. Sept sat down again. “I fucked up when I got here, and I’ve done nothing to improve on that.”
“Fiona, you need to learn one thing if you want to stay and succeed here. Cain Casey isn’t some evil bitch, but she isn’t white as the driven snow either. We grew up together, and despite our families and what we stand for, we became friends. I respect Cain because she’s my friend, but if I find out something that proves she’s broken the law, I’ll take her in. Despite your experience here and with the feds, people like Cain don’t buy and sell all of us.”
“I know. Your dad said the same thing. I need some help with what your father needs, though. Any suggestions?”
“I’ll put someone with you, but don’t blow the opportunity to mend some fences. You keep treating everyone here like they’re suspects, and you’ll be alone on the street. In a place like New Orleans, that’s a dangerous proposition at times.”
“Thanks, and if it matters any, I don’t think what happened today was right. Hannah seems like a sweet kid, so I won’t drop the ball on this.”
“Let’s hope that’s true. Teddie,” Sept said loudly, getting the brunette by the copy machine to whip her head up. “Can you come here a minute, please?”
“What’s up?” Detective Teddie Anderbrock walked toward them with a pronounced limp.
“You heard about the Casey thing today?”
“Yeah. They found that woman yet?” Teddie glanced at Fiona.
“Fiona’s working on it. Would you mind giving her a hand?” Sept asked. “She’s running down leads for the old man.”
“Yeah, sure, if you don’t mind I’m not one hundred percent?” Teddie watched Fiona as if to gauge her reaction. “Got an infection in my leg from debris in the storm, and it’s not healing right.”
“Sure, if you don’t mind working with the new fuckup?” Her comeback drew a laugh from both Sept and Teddie. “Let’s see if I can make any contact in Wisconsin, and then we’ll take a ride to look for Newsome.”
“Does Casey know about him?” Teddie asked.
Sept nodded. “Since she does, I imagine it’ll make it that much harder to find him. If he’s got any brains left,
he should stay nice and quiet in whatever hole he’s found to hide in,” she said. “While you’re poking around, see if there’s any old or recent skeletons in his closet.”
“Will do, and thanks, Sept.”
“Hey, even fuckups deserve a second chance every so often. Don’t make me sorry.”
“I’m thinking the only two sorry people here are going to be Newsome and Carol,” Fiona said.
“Especially if Cain finds them first,” Teddie added.
They all nodded. True that.
Chapter Nineteen
“So she’s okay?” Remi asked Cain as they finished their meeting in Cain’s home office.
“Emma’s mother did a number on her, but for the most part she’s fine. Sept did me the favor of coming by and photographing the scratch on her face and taking Hannah’s statement, so we shouldn’t have a problem once they find Carol.” Cain had spent most of the afternoon upstairs with Emma and the kids to give Hannah back the sense of safety Carol had stripped away. She doubted it was over, but nightmares only faded with the passage of time and with her and Emma being there to make them go away.
“Do you want me to send out some people to look?”
“If we were trying to find anyone else, I’d say yes. But it’s Emma’s mother. In my opinion, she needs killing. But she’s Emma’s mother. I won’t have that on my head, and I wouldn’t do that to Emma.” She sighed and tried hard not to yawn. After the last couple of days and all that had happened, she was tired. “She might want that kind of closure, but eventually Emma would come to regret that decision.”
“We’re here to help, you know that. My father is in love with Hannah, so he’ll probably call you tomorrow to say the same thing.”
“I appreciate both of you, but I’m leaving this one to Sept and Sebastian. Once all this settles, we’ll have to take a trip out to Biloxi and get the casino up and running again, but I hope it’s okay that’s it’s not a priority right now. Moving the structure inland saved us from a total loss, and the little damage we did have should be repaired by then.”