Severed Trust: The Men of the Texas Rangers | Book 4

by Margaret Daley

  “With all that’s happening at Greenbrier, no. Bye.” Ethan disconnected and put his cell phone in the cup holder then pulled onto the street and headed toward Mary Lou’s.

  Sitting at a stoplight, Ethan tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. He couldn’t let go of the fact everything tied to prescription drugs. First Jared, then Lexie. Even what Steven told Sadie last night about some eighth graders selling drugs at the middle school. No doubt, the same was going on at the high school although he didn’t have concrete proof. Kelly’s behavior had been out of character lately, another indication of drug use and possibly fears. Was there a single supplier or a less coordinated network with multiple dealers?

  When the light changed to green, he pressed the accelerator and five minutes later parked in front of Mary Lou’s two-story home in a subdivision that had begun to decline. Walking up to the porch, he panned the house and yard. Unkempt came instantly to mind. The beds were overgrown with weeds and grass, choking out the flowers and scrubs. Patches of peeling paint and a couple of torn screens finished off the picture.

  When Mary Lou opened the door to let him in, he got the same impression from her tangled hair, bloodshot eyes with dark circles around them, and sweats with stains on them. In high school, Mary Lou had been one of the best-dressed and made-up girls in their class. Then Bradley Montgomery broke up with her, and something happened to her. She changed.

  “Cord just got here. We’re in the living room.” Mary Lou led the way, hugging herself and scratching her arms. She sat in a chair across from him and Cord. “I don’t know what happened to Kelly. I’ve called everyone I know, and no one has seen her. Do you think she ran away? I can’t blame her with all that’s been going on. She really cared about Jared. His death devastated her.”

  Cord cut into Mary Lou’s ramblings. “What’s been going on lately with Kelly? Since we saw her on Saturday at the police station?”

  Her long fingernails continued their trek up and down her arms, leaving red marks on her skin. “You know. Her and Lexie. It’s hard losing your best friend because she lied.”

  Ethan sat forward. “I heard from Lexie she and Kelly made up.”

  Mary Lou shook her head for a good half a minute. “No. That has to be a lie, too. Kelly couldn’t believe how much Lexie had changed since Kelly started dating someone so popular like Jared.”

  Was Mary Lou losing touch with reality? Did she even know what was going on in her daughter’s life? Ethan suspected both, especially since she hadn’t known she was missing until a day and a half to two days later. “Mary Lou,” he waited until her gaze darted to him, “are you all right?”

  She jumped to her feet and began prowling. “No. My daughter is gone.” Her voice grew louder with each word. “I know you aren’t a parent, but how could you ask such a question? Kelly is hurting and is out there somewhere. She could be in trouble. She is in trouble. I can feel it.” Hysteria inched into her tone.

  Cord rose and went to Mary Lou. “Is there anyone I can call to come over and be with you while we look for Kelly?”

  Wide-eyed, Mary Lou turned toward him. For a long moment, she didn’t say anything and then when she did, tears flowed down her face. “No. I have no family. No . . .”

  “Who’s your doctor?” Ethan stood, pulling out his cell phone.

  “Why?”

  “I think you need help.”

  “I’m fine. I’m fine.” Tears continued to flood her eyes and run down her cheeks.

  Cord guided her back to her chair. “Still, I think we need to call your doctor and let him help you.”

  She nodded again and again. “Yes. Yes, you’re right. Dr. Wells. I feel like I’m falling apart. My poor baby. Please find her. She could be in trouble.”

  Ethan called information then Dr. Wells’s office. The doctor was leaving for the day and agreed to come by and see Mary Lou. Then he punched in Beth’s number and asked her to stop by and be with Mary Lou. Beth and Mary Lou had been friends because of Kelly and Lexie. Only lately, that had been strained. But Beth was a nurse and might be the best person here to help Mary Lou.

  With Mary Lou’s permission, Ethan went upstairs to check Kelly’s room, while Cord sat with her.. When she had said Kelly could be in trouble, Ethan had a strong feeling she was right. When he first entered, his impression was how similar Kelly’s bedroom was to Lexie’s—messy. With all that was going on, he decided to call Sadie and ask a favor of her.

  “Hello. What are you doing?” she answered.

  The sound of her voice brought a smile to Ethan. “I’m over at Kelly’s house. She’s been missing a couple of days. Mary Lou is distraught. Her doctor is coming to see her, but I asked Beth to be here with her since they know each other because of the their daughters. But that leaves Lexie home alone. Can she come over and stay with you?”

  “Sure. I’m heading home. I’ll swing by and pick her up. She can stay as long as you all need her to.”

  “I knew I could count on you. In case you haven’t heard, Luke was killed in a car wreck a couple of hours ago.”

  “No! Not another one of my students. What happened?”

  “I don’t know all the particulars. Cord is here with me at Mary Lou’s. He came from the scene. It’s still being processed, but the timing of it meant he left school probably after your class fifth-hour.”

  “This is going to rock the student body, especially if Kelly can’t be found. I hope nothing is wrong with her, too.”

  “You think there could be?” he asked her, even though he had already come to that conclusion.

  “Don’t you? In less than two weeks, something has happened to four teens—all connected to each other in one way or another.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I think. I’ll stop by later. I need to talk with Lexie. Right now, I’m going through Kelly’s room. Bye.”

  Next, he placed a call to his niece. “I need you to go stay with Ms. Thompson for a while. Your mom is coming over to be with Mary Lou. Kelly is missing.”

  Lexie didn’t say anything.

  “Lexie?”

  “When did she go missing?” The roughened sound of her voice conveyed her struggle to keep her emotions together.

  “Mary Lou isn’t sure. Probably a day or two ago.”

  “Her mom wasn’t aware of much that went on with Kelly. Do you think she ran away or . . .?”

  “Or? What are you thinking?” His gaze flitted from one mess to another.

  “She told Missy and Carrie she didn’t want to have anything to do with them. She had a fight with them sometime Saturday.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Kelly told me. I talked with her Sunday morning before going to church but couldn’t get in touch with her after that.”

  “How did Kelly usually keep her room?”

  “Sometimes neat, sometimes she would let things go.”

  “Right now, I’m standing in the middle of a very messy room. Is that normal?”

  “She was trying to keep things in order, but with all that has been happening she might have let her room go.”

  “Later, I’ll have you go through the room with me. See what you think.” He was beginning to feel Lexie knew Kelly better than Mary Lou. He wanted to get both of their takes on how the bedroom appeared to them. “Ms. Thompson is coming by to pick you up. I’ll tell your mom where you are. See you later.”

  After sticking his phone back in his pocket, Ethan started at the right side of the door and searched the perimeter before working his way toward the center of the room. When nothing popped out at him, he went to her desk, sat, and turned on her computer. It was wiped clean. That, and the fact her closet was still full of clothes reinforced his feeling Kelly was in trouble. Did Kelly dump her information from the computer or someone else?

  Ethan took another tour around the room, looking again for the girl’s cell phone. It was gone. He paused at her window and checked to see if it was locked. It wasn’t, and outside, the roof of the back porch s
lanted slightly up toward the room. A huge elm had several big limbs hanging over the roof. Big enough to support a person’s weight and elm trees were great for climbing. Someone could have sneaked in here. As clueless as Mary Lou seemed to be, she probably would never know if someone did.

  Ethan returned downstairs and found Dr. Wells checking Mary Lou. As Ethan entered the living room, the doctor gave Mary Lou a shot.

  “I’ll call in a prescription for a tranquilizer to help you calm down.” Dr. Wells glanced toward Cord. “Is there anyone going to be here with her?”

  “Yes, Beth Alexander is coming.”

  Mary Lou lifted her head. “She is? Why? I’m fine by myself.”

  Dr. Wells patted her shoulder. “You shouldn’t be alone right now. I gave you a sedative that will help you sleep. Since Beth is a nurse, that is even better. You need to rest and let the police look for Kelly. I’m sure they’ll find her.”

  “How long before it takes effect?” Ethan approached Dr. Wells.

  “Fifteen minutes or so.”

  “Mary Lou, I’ll help you upstairs to your bedroom. Before you go to sleep, do you think you could take a look around Kelly’s room to see if anything is gone?”

  “You think she’s run away?”

  “I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. I’m considering all options.”

  What little color she had in her face vanished. “Anything to help my little girl come home safely.”

  Ethan assisted Mary Lou to her feet, and she leaned into him. Putting his arm around her, he crossed to the foyer and the staircase while Cord answered the doorbell. Mary Lou didn’t even look around to see Beth enter, followed by two police officers. Mary Lou clung tighter to him the nearer they came to Kelly’s room. Her body trembled, and Ethan wasn’t even sure she would make it the fifteen minutes.

  Inside the doorway, Ethan asked, “Is this the way her room was the last time she was in here?”

  Mary Lou blinked. “I guess so. I remember it was messy with some clothes on the floor.”

  Ethan swept his arm wide. “This many. It looks like half her closet is in piles.”

  “I’m not sure.” She massaged her fingertips into her temple.

  “Does she keep her phone somewhere when she is home?”

  “By her. She’s always on it—texting or talking.”

  “What’s the number? If she has it with her, we can use the GPS to track her.”

  Right after Mary Lou recited Kelly’s phone number, she twisted out of his embrace. “I need to lie down.” But when she took a step, she wobbled and began to sink to the floor.

  Ethan grabbed her and held her up for a few seconds before he swung her up into his arms and headed into the hallway.

  Mary Lou laid her head on his shoulder and barely pointed toward a closed door at the end of the corridor. When he laid her on her unmade bed, he covered her then hastened down the stairs. He needed to bring Lexie to see Kelly’s room. Whether it was from the medication Dr. Wells had given Mary Lou or the fact she didn’t often go into her daughter’s bedroom, he’d gotten very little helpful information from her.

  Beth stood at the front door with Dr. Wells, saying good-bye to him. When she turned back into the foyer, her gaze latched onto Ethan. “Cord said Mary Lou was beside herself.”

  “Yeah. I couldn’t get much out of her. The medication must have kicked in faster than Dr. Wells thought. She’s in bed and will probably sleep a long time.”

  “I called our pastor. He’s organizing some ladies at the church to take shifts to be here for Mary Lou since she doesn’t have any family. Also, tomorrow I can check with some of the people she works with at Greenbrier.”

  “Maybe we’ll get lucky and find Kelly by then.”

  Beth frowned. “Do you think that?”

  “Honestly? No. I don’t have a good feeling about this. I hope I’m wrong.”

  “So do I. Lexie was so happy when she and Kelly made up on Saturday. That had given me hope things would work out in the long run. Now, I don’t know.”

  “Speaking of Lexie, Sadie picked her up and took Lexie to her house. I didn’t want her to be alone, especially in light of the fact someone drugged her. I need her, though, to help me check Kelly’s room, so I’m going to bring her here.”

  “Until someone relieves me, I’d rather her not stay here. It’ll just upset her. It will be bad enough her going through Kelly’s possessions to see if anything is gone. Do you think Kelly ran away?”

  “No. If she did, she couldn’t have taken many clothes with her. They are all over the floor upstairs, and her computer has been wiped.”

  Cord joined them in the foyer, putting his hand at the small of Beth’s back. “Thanks for taking care of Dr. Wells. I wanted to have my men search the house. Kelly’s car is in the garage so I guess she walked or someone picked her up. I heard you’re bringing Lexie over. While you do that, I’m paying a few kids a visit. Get their reaction to the fact Kelly is missing.”

  Ethan leaned in and kissed his sister’s cheek. “Thanks for doing this. Mary Lou is going to need some friends. I know you two were once.”

  “If my daughter can forgive Kelly’s lies, then I can forgive Mary Lou’s behavior.”

  Cord took Beth’s hands and squeezed it. “I’ll be back later to check on Mary Lou.”

  Ethan opened the front door and strode out of the house first. He glanced back and spied his best friend kissing his sister—and not on her cheek. They both needed someone. He hoped it worked out for them. As he continued toward his SUV, he pictured the woman whose home he was going to. Sadie. A smile flirted with his mouth, and there was a bounce to his walk.

  Lexie lifted up Kelly’s mattress and pulled a journal from beneath it. “She used to write in this every day. We both started keeping one when we started middle school. It helps us when we get upset about something.” She flipped through the pages. “But Kelly was acting so weird lately, I don’t know if she kept this up.” When she turned to the page where the entries ended, she noted the date of the last one: Monday after Jared died.

  “Did she?” Ethan moved to her side.

  “Her last entry reads: He’s dead. I can’t believe it. I loved him so much. We should never have gone to the party Saturday night, but Jared wanted to. His friends had accepted me into their group, and he wanted me to get to know them better. That was the biggest mistake of my life.” Blotches of ink covered the page as if Kelly had been crying as she wrote the words. Lexie glanced at her uncle. “Kelly never said anything to me about this.”

  Ethan took the journal and continued reading. “They aren’t anything like I thought they would be. Missy and Carrie are mean and would just as soon push me off a cliff as accept me. They made it clear I’d better not say a thing to anyone about the party or else. What would they do? We’re all to blame that Jared is dead.”

  Lexie gasped.

  “I just wish Saturday had never happened. I want Jared back.” Ethan finished and closed the book. “This is what I need to get these kids to talk. I’ll start by bringing in Missy and Carrie.” He strode to the laptop on Kelly’s desk and gathered it up. “I’m taking this as well. Someone may have erased what was on the computer, but there are ways to recover it. I’ll have the tech guys see what they can find.”

  Listening to Uncle Ethan map out his plan, Lexie sank onto the bed. We’re all to blame that Jared is dead. She couldn’t rid her mind of those words. How? Why? Not Kelly. She loved him. Sadie could remember how Kelly went on and on about what a wonderful boyfriend he was. About how lucky she was and . . .

  “Lexie, are you okay?”

  Her uncle’s question drew her back to the present. “No, my best friend just said Jared is dead because of them. I think about what she has been going through, and my problems are nothing compared to hers. You’ve got to find her.”

  “We’re doing all we can. Do you see anything missing in the room? Like something she would take if she ran away.”


  Lexie circled the room, opening and closing drawers and standing in the closet, searching for all of Kelly’s favorite outfits, shoes, accessories. When she emerged from it, her gaze zeroed in on a picture of Kelly and Jared taken a few weeks ago. “No. Everything I think she would have taken with her if she had run away is still here. The duffel and backpack she would have used is here. She doesn’t have luggage.”

  As she stated all the items that made it clear to Lexie that Kelly didn’t leave on her own accord, her heart began beating faster and faster. Her chest hurt, which reminded her of the last face-to-face conversation she’d had with Kelly. “Saturday when we talked, she described how the pills she’d taken at the party made her feel. She was still having some effects from them—racing heartbeat, feeling like she wanted to crawl out of her skin. Whatever was in that bowl they put the pills into was potent. When I saw the bowl, it was empty. What happened to all those pills? Did they take all of the drugs? If so, that’s a lot to take in an evening. If not, which partygoer emptied the bowl of the remaining pills?” She shivered, recalling the scene at the warehouse—the remnants of a party that had gone wrong.

  “Your questions about the pills are important ones. I want you to sit down and think back to that Sunday morning when you picked up Kelly. Any impression you had, anything you saw, heard. Maybe something else will come to mind that you’ve forgotten. Nothing is too small.”

  “I’ll try, but I was so focused on getting Kelly out of there I don’t know if I’ll remember much more than that.”

  Uncle Ethan slung his arm over her shoulder. “That’s all I can ask. To try. Let’s go see what your mom wants to do with you.”

  When Lexie went into the living room with her uncle, her mother sat on the couch, drinking a cup of tea and listening to the news. She switched the TV off when she spied Lexie, but not before she glimpsed Luke’s wrecked car, the front smashed into a huge oak tree to the point the car looked like a partially collapsed accordion. The sight of the crash hit Lexie with the fact she had lost another classmate. What if Kelly was dead, too? What if someone tried to finish her off?

  “I’m through here for the time being. Has Mary Lou rallied any?” Ethan withdrew his car keys and jiggled them.