Deadly Image

by Tamelia Tumlin

  The fact they may have both already lost Anna draped in the air between them. The momentary silence magnified the reality of the situation before Lexi finally managed a small, “You’re not going to lose me.”

  “I certainly hope not.” Victoria gave her a tight smile. “Speaking of which, you are still taking your meds, aren’t you?”

  “Of course.”

  “Good girl.” Victoria stood. “It’s getting late. Let’s go see about fixing these boys something to eat. They’ve been here all day and I don’t think that sandwich they had at lunch will suffice much longer. Besides, I probably need to make amends for snapping at them earlier this week. I know they were only doing their job, but I didn’t care for the way they were grilling you.”

  “I suppose they have to rule me out before they can find Anna’s abductor.”

  “Well, I could have saved them the trouble. You would never hurt a hair on that baby’s head.” Victoria harrumphed indignantly. “And the sooner they realize it, the better.”

  * * *

  Ace pulled into Lexi’s drive at a quarter to seven and killed the engine.

  Finally. Some good news for a change, or at least some bittersweet news.

  Bertha had corroborated James’ story about Lexi being at the hardware store the day Anna disappeared. Now, at least, they had another eyewitness that could put Lexi somewhere besides the burger joint with Anna. Not that it explained how she was also caught on Bill’s surveillance video at nearly the same time, but it did make him feel better about Lexi’s possible innocence.

  However, it seemed there were only two plausible explanations about Lexi’s involvement and neither one thrilled Ace. Either Bertha was lying to cover for Lexi – and he really hoped she wasn’t – or else someone was setting Lexi up. If the latter, then Anna could be in grave danger – if she weren’t already dead.

  Ace opened the car door only a moment before his heart slammed to a halt in his chest as a third chilling possibility hit him. What if Lexi was guilty and she wasn’t working alone? What if someone had used a disguise in Bill’s Best Burgers to throw them off while Lexi was at the hardware store with an airtight alibi? Ace gripped the door handle. This would explain why the surveillance video seemed a bit odd. Maybe it wasn’t Lexi with Anna after all, but Lexi’s accomplice in disguise instead. An accomplice who had a limp.

  The theory, though a bit of a stretch, was possible. It was an angle they hadn’t worked yet and one he hoped didn’t pan out.

  Ace stepped out of the car with a frown. For now, he’d keep those speculations to himself. At least until he could investigate further. But there was one still one very important detail missing from his theory.

  Motive.

  What possible reason would Lexi have to pretend her daughter had been kidnapped?

  Money? Not likely, since she appeared well-off. And who would pay the ransom? Her parents?

  Freedom? Maybe. The responsibility of being a single mom could be overwhelming her. He’d seen it happen before.

  Ace slammed the car door and headed toward the house. He’d investigate, but unlike Sheriff Dawson, he wasn’t quite ready to jump to conclusions and assume Lexi was guilty. Yet, by the same token, he also wasn’t ready to completely acquit her. There were too many pieces of the puzzle missing for him to make assumptions in either direction.

  “Where’s Sheriff Dawson?” Lexi looked behind Ace expectantly as soon as he entered the foyer.

  “He stopped by Faith Community Church to see how the volunteer search was going. I’m sure he’ll come back by here shortly.” Ace flashed a smile. “You will be happy to know Bertha verified your story of being in the hardware store the day Anna disappeared.”

  “Thank goodness.” Relief washed over her features. “Now, I’m glad I ran out of wall border and had to make that trip into town. Otherwise, no one would have seen me.”

  “I always say things happen for a reason. Maybe it was intended for you to be seen.” Or maybe it was your intention to be seen to give yourself an alibi.

  “Maybe so.”

  Ace trailed Lexi into the living room. “Bertha wanted me to remind you about the candlelight vigil being held for Anna tomorrow night at the church.”

  Lexi froze in mid-step. “I–I’ll try to make it.”

  Ace stopped behind her, placed his hands on her shoulders. Her skin beneath the tank top felt warm and soft beneath his hands. He’d meant the gesture to be a comfort, so he was little surprised by the thrilling tingle darting through his body from the slightest touch of her skin. Ace swallowed hard. He had broken his number one rule. Getting personally involved with a case. He had also broken his number two rule. Letting a woman affect him the way Lexi did. He’d thought his mother walking out on them years ago had jaded him toward women. Yet, here he was, feeling like an adolescent on a first date. Not exactly one of his proudest moments. Especially since the woman involved was a possible suspect.

  And even if she weren’t a suspect, she was way out of his league. Even with his modest income, he could never afford to provide Lexi with the luxuries she was used to. No more than his father could afford the things his mother wanted. In the end, Lexi would leave him just like his mother had left his father.

  Ace cleared his throat. “You should go to the vigil. This is a very trying time for you and your family. You need a church family to help you through this, and so far everybody I’ve met from Faith Community Church seem to be fine upstanding Christians willing to give you a hand if you’ll take it.” He leaned down and whispered, “You need to take it.”

  Lexi tilted her head to look at him, her lips slightly parted and only inches from his. Ace’s pulse raced. “Do you think they still believe I did something to Anna?”

  The soft question mingled with a desperate need for reassurance nearly took his breath away. With those china blue eyes pleading for someone – anyone – to believe her, she almost had him convinced she couldn’t have possibly committed such a crime. When had he let her get under his skin? The situation was becoming dangerously personal. Not one of his smartest moves if he didn’t want to compromise the investigation.

  Ace took a step back, hoping a little extra distance between them would clear his head. It didn’t. Instead, a strange sense of loss washed over him. He shook it off. The woman was definitely getting to him and he didn’t like it one bit. “I think you’ll find most everyone at Faith Community is on your side.”

  “Alright. I’ll go.”

  * * *

  Lexi opened the blind in Anna’s second story bedroom. The full moon, high above the trees, cast an eerie glow on the bayou below winding around the back edge of her land. Lexi shivered and hugged Anna’s over-sized, yellow, stuffed duck to her chest. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes. Would she ever hold Anna again? Smell her freshly shampooed hair? Or hear her adorable tinkling laugh and kiss those sweet cherub cheeks?

  Lexi choked back a sob. She missed Anna so much her heart felt as if it had literally been shattered into a million pieces. It wasn’t fair! Why had God allowed this to happen? Especially after losing Carl too. Granted, her faith wasn’t as strong as it should be, but she wasn’t a bad person. She tried to live right and treat people the way she wanted to be treated. What could she have possibly done to deserve this kind of punishment from God?

  Something in the yard caught her attention. A small light bounced between the parked cars in her driveway. Lexi froze. She leaned closer to the window to get a better look.

  The porch lights were out, but the full moon illuminated the two black FBI SUV’s, her parent’s silver Lexus and her own white Corolla parked in the circle drive.

  There it was again. A small beam of light bouncing between the vehicles. A chill skirted over her. Was someone out there?

  Lexi froze, then peered out the window. One minute. Two minutes. Nothing. No light. No shadowy forms. Nothing.

  Had she imagined it?

  Lexi waited a few more minutes, straining to see into
the dark Louisiana night. Nothing. After five minutes, she decided stress and lack of sleep must be the root of her overly active imagination because she seemed to see evil at every turn these days.

  No need to wake up the rest of the house over her out-of-control heebie jeebies. Probably just a moonbeam and the wind anyway. The whole horrific situation was getting the best of her.

  She closed the blind and curled up on the on the new toddler bed – the bed her little girl had never had a chance to sleep in. Was Anna sleeping in a bed somewhere now too? Or was she locked in a cold dark room with nothing to lie on but the floor? Or worse, was she already dead….

  No!

  She would not allow herself to think this way. She was already at the breaking point as it was. This line of thinking would send her over the edge for sure. She had to stay strong.

  The tears flowed freely, spilling down her cheeks like a broken dam. She didn’t know how much longer she could hold on to the tiny sliver of hope that her daughter would be found safe and sound. She’d given the FBI five days to find Anna while she stayed close to the phone hoping for a ransom call that never came. She’d cooperated with the detectives even as they accused her of doing something horrible to her own child. She’d done everything they’d ask of her, but it hadn’t made a difference. Anna was still missing and they weren’t any closer to finding her than they’d been when she first disappeared.

  Lexi buried her face in the pillow. No more. No more waiting. Tomorrow she would go out to look for her daughter no matter what the FBI thought. Somebody somewhere knew what really happened to Anna. She just had to find out who.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “The boys didn’t find anything on the hard drive,” Zach informed Ace the next morning when he entered Lexi’s den. His partner looked up from computer screen long enough to motion toward the table. Ace picked up the report as Zach added, “Carl Yates must have been a genuine minister. A true man of God. There wasn’t anything in the computer to indicate impure vices or shady deals. Everything seems to be on the up and up.”

  “No threatening emails, then?” Ace scanned the report.

  “No. Just the usual stuff. Prayer requests. Well wishes. Letters from friends and family. Several hundred condolences. A few exchanged pictures…” Zach paused and pinned Ace with an odd look. “Though there was one picture that seemed a bit unusual.”

  “Which one?”

  “The one with the house. It didn’t have a message or a name. Just an email with the attached picture. Seemed a bit strange. Nothing particularly threatening about it. Just seemed out of place.”

  Ace flipped through the printed pictures in the file. Most were of Lexi with Anna. At the zoo. At the beach. Christmas. The usual family snapshots. His heart galloped at the joy in Lexi’s face. She was truly a beautiful woman, especially when she smiled. He hadn’t been privy to that smile under the circumstances, and a sudden desire to shield her from any more pain surged through him. Instinct told him Lexi could never have harmed her child. But he couldn’t make a case on his gut feeling. He needed evidence to prove her innocence, and he needed evidence to find the little girl. Something they were sorely lacking at the moment.

  Ace flipped through the rest of the pictures. There were a couple of Carl at the pulpit and a few of him with Anna and Lexi. He paused when he got to the one with the house. Upon closer inspection he could see it was an older two-story home that had been burned. Quite badly too.

  “Did the boys check to see who sent it?”

  “Yeah. It came from a computer in an internet cafe in Dallas. Since it’s a public computer anyone could have sent it. The email address it originated from was a fake. Someone probably used a flash drive to load and send the picture. Nothing traceable.” Zack refilled the paper in the fax machine then sat down at the table. “It’s probably nothing. Could have just been someone who needed prayer after their home burned or something. It did go to the church’s email account. Not their personal one.”

  “Could have been then.” Ace nodded, but he agreed with Zach. It did seem strange; then again everything about the case seemed strange. “When was it sent?”

  “A few years ago, I think.”

  Ace squinted to read the small print above the picture. Yep. It was sent a couple of months before Carl’s death. Zack was probably right. It sounded more like someone who just needed a prayer request rather than a clue. Figures. He had hoped something in the Yates’ computer would be helpful. Looked like another dead end.

  Ace set the folder back on the table. “Are there any other leads?”

  “No. Not looking promising for a ransom call either.” Zach clicked his tongue and shook his head. “We just can’t seem to catch a break in this case. I’m not sure we will find this little girl.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.” Ace pulled a caramel from his shirt pocket. Today he needed something stronger than the caramel, but since he’d given up his unsavory smoking habit when he gave his life to Jesus several years ago, the sweet candy would have to do.

  * * *

  “The walls are closing in on me.” Lexi appeared in the doorway of the den a half-hour later. “I have to join the search for my daughter.”

  Ace looked up from the report he was filling out to find determined twin blue eyes daring him to challenge her decision.

  “Lexi, I think it would be best–”

  “I’m not asking for your opinion, Ace. Or your permission. I’m simply informing you that I’m leaving to go look for my child.” She firmed her chin. “I’ve done everything you’ve ask me to do, but we aren’t getting anywhere. I have to do something besides sit around here waiting.”

  “I see.” Ace wasn’t put off by the sharpness in her tone. He knew she’d had all she could take of the excruciating wait on a ransom call. And quite frankly, he’d lost hope himself of getting one. There really wasn’t anything she could do at this point that wasn’t already being done by the FBI, but he did understand her need to feel like she was doing something to help find her daughter. “I’ll come with you.”

  “You still think I’m a flight risk?” Lexi knitted her brow, hurt creeping into her voice.

  “No. I just think you’d be safer with one of us around until we know who took Anna and why.” He shoved up from the table. “Until we know more, I don’t want to take the chance of you being the next target.”

  “Oh, I didn’t think about that.” A shiver slid over her. Could she really be a target too? The thought hadn’t crossed her mind, but it was a legitimate notion considering the kidnapping didn’t appear to be monetarily motivated. A chilling thought, but she would have gladly exchanged places with her daughter any day. She wished they’d have taken her instead of Anna. Lexi shifted her purse strap on her shoulder. “I’ll let my parents know I’m leaving, then meet you outside. I’m sure Mom will stay here just in case that ransom call comes in.”

  Ten minutes later, they were buckled into Ace’s SUV since he’d insisted on driving – a man thing she supposed – and headed toward town.

  “Is there anywhere in particular you want to look?”

  “Not really. I’m sure every inch of Gator Bayou has been combed by now. I just need to look for her myself. Anything to try to find my baby.” Suddenly, Lexi gasped and paled.

  “What’s wrong?” Ace slowed the vehicle down to turn left onto the main road leading into town.

  “What about the bayous? What if the kidnapper...” Lexi choked hoarsely. “What if someone killed Anna and put her little body in the bayou? No one would ever find her then.”

  Ace’s heart constricted at her anguish. The poor woman had been through so much in the last few days. Even though he didn’t have children of his own, he’d worked enough child abduction cases to know how grueling it was on the parents. And on him. He’d always tried to maintain a level of professionalism when working a case, but he wouldn’t be human if he didn’t empathize with the families. However, in this particular case he felt a little more tha
n empathy. He just wasn’t quite sure what that more was.

  “Lexi, you need to stay positive. We don’t have any reason to suspect Anna has been murdered or that she’s in the bayou.”

  “That’s just it. We don’t know anything. She could be anywhere by now. She may not even still be in the country for all we know.” She gripped the purse in her lap with trembling hands. “I truly may never know what happened to my baby. I don’t think I can live with that. Not knowing.”

  Ace pulled up to a traffic light and stopped. “I know it’s hard to believe right now, but we are doing everything we can to find her. They’ve been dragging the surrounding bayous for the last couple of days, but so far nothing has turned up. That’s good news. It means there’s a very good chance Anna is not in there. We’ll just have to keep looking and, hopefully, we’ll get a break in the case and find her.”

  “I just don’t understand why this is happening to me. First Carl. Now Anna. Why is God doing this to me? What did I do that was so horrible to deserve this?”

  Ace inhaled sharply. “Lexi, Anna’s kidnapping is not a punishment from God.” The traffic light turned green and he drove through, then pulled into the parking lot of Bernard’s Creole Café. He killed the engine and shifted in his seat to look at her. “God is not punishing you.”

  “How can you be so sure? I mean He could have stopped it if He wanted to. He took Carl and now He’s taken Anna.”

  “We don’t always know why bad things happen. And I certainly won’t presume to speak for God, but I do know that He loves you and He hasn’t forsaken you. Hold on to your faith and believe that no matter what happens God will see you through it.”

  “That’s the problem. I don’t have the kind of faith you do. Or that Carl did. I never have had that kind of faith.” She laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “I was a pastor’s wife, for Pete’s sake, but I just couldn’t believe as strongly as Carl did no matter how hard I tried.” She turned to him. “How do you do it? Have this unshakable faith? Especially with the job you do. Surely there are times when you have to wonder where God is in the midst of all the tragedy you deal with day after day.”