“Who’s a private investigator?” I heard my dad holler. I was pretty sure that he and most of his buddies had probably never worked with PIs before. There wasn’t much of a need out here. In fact, before Riley’s kidnapping, the last sensational case that had required out-of-state police had taken place over 60 years prior. For the first time, I found myself worrying if everyone would mesh well. It’s a well-known fact among law enforcement that cops don’t like fancy PIs coming in, taking over their cases. If James and Mika had been called for their expertise personally by the local PD, that would have been a different story.
“Pop, I’d like you to meet James and Mika,” I said nervously as we rounded the corner. My father sat around the rickety ’70s kitchen table, along with my brother, John, and my sister-in-law, Rachel. A large plate of sad, blackened bacon sat almost untouched in the middle of the table. A few breadcrumbs were left on a serving platter that had obviously contained toast at some point — the one thing that my mother never seemed to screw up. There were also four coffee mugs in various stages of fullness. “They are both private investigators in Milwaukee and good friends of mine. They’ve offered to help us find Riley and I don’t think we’re in a position to be turning down help.”
Rachel, a beautiful blond-haired, green-eyed woman with milky white skin, gawked at my suitors. After a few seconds, she snapped her jaw shut and dropped her chin, toying with the food that still sat on her plate. Both men seemed to give women that reaction. My poor brother looked like he hadn’t showered in days. His floppy auburn hair flipped over his small hazel eyes, while he glumly propped up his chin in his hand. The bags under his eyes were dark and protruding. A smattering of freckles spilled across his hands and arms, eventually disappearing under his t-shirt, which was olive green and covered in old stains.
My father, in whom you could still find handsomeness, stared at us suspiciously from his kitchen chair. He still had a full head of hair, though it had gone gray over the years. He was a larger man, still slightly brown from a summer spent outside doing yard work in the short shorts and cutoff shirt he always insisted on wearing to avoid the dreaded farmers tan. “I recognize you,” he said, squinting at Mika and shaking his head as though it would help him clear the cobwebs and recall. “We’ve met before.”
Mika looked like he was thinking hard for a few moments, but shook his head. “I don’t think we have, sir. I’m-”
“Naked!” My father cried suddenly, pushing back his chair. He stood and began to wag his finger towards Mika. “You! You were naked! In my daughter’s magazine last month. I saw it! I saw the issue at the Penny Post!”
“Oh, no,” I muttered under my breath. The Penny Post was a local grocery store. Mika had not, in fact, been totally naked. My subjects never are. However, my father never seemed to see it that way. Shirtless was naked. Shoeless was naked. Underwear only was especially naked. This coming from a reformed hippie.
Rachel’s interest in the handsome strangers seemed to have returned with my dad’s words. She and my brother had married just out of high school. While they seemed wildly in love, I couldn’t blame her for being curious. I would have been.
“I was doing some undercover work-” Mika began.
My father cut him off. “I’ll tell you what covers you can’t be under! My daughter’s!” my father roared.
Mika took a small step backwards. “I only meant-”
“Can we focus?” I cut in sharply, staring down my father. “He has gotten nowhere near my covers.”
“Not from lack of trying, probably,” James muttered.
Mika’s face grew dark and, for a moment, I thought he was going to punch James in the face. I’ll admit that the idea of this wasn’t as entirely perplexing as it should have been.
“Okay!” Addison said brightly. “Let’s all just take a minute, shall we? Take some deep breaths? Talk it out. Marian and I will be right back.” Taking me by the elbow, she led me down the hall to my old bedroom and shut the door behind us. I crossed to my window and peeked through the blinds, bewildered by the amount of activity outside. I heard Addison take a deep breath behind me, before she set into one of her Lamaze episodes. In addition to her ease of panic, Addie has a wicked temper. A while back, her therapist suggested some deep breathing exercises. Addie had taken the advice to the extreme. However crazy she sounded when she did it, I had to say, it was working for her. I hadn’t been privy to an explosion in over a month. The episode that had just gone down in the kitchen was usually enough to set her off. Old Addison would have leapt into the fray in an effort to protect me. New Addison helped me escape.
A few seconds later, once her heavy breaths had ceased, Addison strode across the floor and joined me at my window. She peeked out at all the activity, as well. “You sure you can handle all of this?” she asked me. “Your dad? James? Mika?”
I shrugged. “What choice do I have? It’s family.”
She nodded and we stood in silence for a moment, not knowing what to say to one another. Finally, Addison giggled. “Your dad really is a trip.”
I rolled my eyes. “Tell me about it. Let’s get this show on the road.”
We emerged from my room and headed back towards the kitchen, where Dad was filling James and Mika in on the details of my niece’s disappearance. “$62,300,” he was saying.
“What about $62,300?” Addison asked him. “Is that the ransom?” I could see the wheels in her head turn as she began drafting the first round of her human interest piece. The ransom amount. The desperation a small, poor, factory town felt over the imposed timeline of coming up with the cash. Addison would have the whole state cheering for Riley’s return in no time.
“Yes,” my dad responded, gravely. “No due date. No exchange location. Just a number and instructions that we should wait for more instructions. What kind of an idiot operation is that?”
Quiet descended as everyone contemplated that for a second. “Weird number,” Mika finally commented. On that, at least, we could all agree.
As it turned out, about 800 people from the town were split into three shifts, searching for Riley. People were scanning every field, farmhouse and playground. Thus far, there was nothing to go on. There were no signs of forced entry into John and Rachel’s small ranch-style home, but just about everyone around here slept with their doors and windows unlocked. It was just what you did in a town this size. Riley’s room hadn’t revealed any suspicious fingerprints, from what the police were able to tell. Crime scene investigators had come all the way from Green Bay as a favor to Frank and my dad. My niece hadn’t been missing long enough for a missing person’s report to be filed, but by being on the force, my dad had a few tricks up his sleeve. “We’re going to keep looking until we find her,” my father assured all of us. “I won’t leave a single stone unturned.”
My family had been awake since they first discovered that Riley was missing. Fueled by nothing more than coffee and adrenaline, their bodies were beginning to wear out around lunch time. I shooed my parents off to bed, promising to wake them if there was any news. My brother and Rachel slunk down to his old bedroom, just across the hall from mine, in order to catch a little sleep. They couldn’t bring themselves to return home just yet. Riley’s smiling face would gleam at them from nearly every photo that hung on their walls. She was their light. Their life. Their only child.
Once they were all safely to bed, Addison, James, Mika and I gathered around the kitchen table. I collected coffee mugs while Addison picked up plates. Even as we rinsed things out in the sink, we were trying to piece together the strange case that was my niece’s disappearance. “I don’t think she ran away like you suggested when Ma first called,” I confessed to Addie, scrubbing at the grease that clung tightly to a plate. “She just wouldn’t do it.”
“She runs over here a lot,” Addison supplied.
“Yes, but that’s different,” I told her. “She’s always done that. Completely disappearing? A ransom note? That’s way too elaborate for a
12 year old.”
“Is it? She’s in middle school,” Addison answered. “Junior high kids can be sneaky.”
“Yeah, but- just- not like this,” I sputtered, turning off the water faucet angrily. “She’d never do this to us. Whose side are you on?”
Addison eyed me hard. “Yours,” she answered. “But I can’t have you thinking like an aunt. I need you thinking like you’re photographing a crime scene. I need you to see things that others don’t see. If you can’t, you’re no good to this investigation and you need to step off and let the rest of us handle it.” She paused and her gaze softened. “Do you think we can get into her bedroom? Or will it be secured?”
“There are ways,” James said from the kitchen table. I jumped and turned, having forgotten that he and Mika were there.
Mika was chewing his lip, gazing off into nothing. After a moment, he said, “I’m still bothered by the ransom. That really is a weird amount of money. Why not $60,000? Why not $65,000? Hell, why not $100,000?”
“Think there’s a connection?” James asked him.
Mika shrugged. “Not sure, but worth looking into financial records and seeing what we can find.”
“Wait, what?” I asked, drying my hands on a dish rag. “Whose financial records? Why are you looking into them?”
“We need to see if your brother and sister-in-law have any debts,” James told me. “If there are any amounts owed that are similar to the amount being asked for ransom, we may have a lead.”
I shook my head. “John and Rachel have always had plenty of money.”
“What do they do for a living?” Mika asked.
“She’s a waitress and he works over at the post office.” Mika and James eyed one another. I placed my hands on my hips and felt my nostrils flaring in defiance. “Look at where they live,” I hissed quietly, gesturing around. “This isn’t exactly SoHo. It’s not like they need to run a company to make ends meet.” When both men continued to look unsure, I added, “Plus, I’m pretty sure they can still ask my parents for help if they need it that badly.”
“What if they didn’t want to ask for help?”
I snorted and looked to Addison for backup. My brother owned a house, worked hard for a living, had a few nice things and took good care of his family. However, my parents had never fully cut him off. I assume it’s because he and Rachel had Riley when they were still teenagers. My parents still viewed both of them as kids, forever locked in a teenage time warp. This despite the fact that Riley herself was almost a teenager. They wanted for nothing. They always would. Addison knew this. She’d never defend such a preposterous idea.
Addison looked at me and shrugged. “Maybe not a terrible idea to just look. Just in case.”
“Fine,” I muttered. I hated the idea of anyone thinking that my brother had secrets to hide. While he and I hadn’t been super close growing up, we’d come to love and respect one another over the last few years. He was a good man. An honest one. Surely he would have mentioned troubles of any kind to someone by now if it meant his daughter’s life. Right?
Once we’d agreed on an immediate plan of action, James went out to speak with the police that were gathered on the front lawn. Were I being truthful, I didn’t want to believe that my brother or his wife were capable of getting into trouble to the point that my beloved niece would become a target. John was so good-natured, trusting and a wonderful provider for his girls. Rachel wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box, but she was beautiful and sweet and loved her little family dearly. Surely neither would jeopardize things.
Addison and I carried our things down to my old bedroom. After adding a few more layers to our fairly light, comfortable driving attire, we went outside to join the fray. No sooner had I stepped off my porch than my phone began to ring. Checking the caller ID, I answered quickly. “Land safely?”
“Yup,” Janet answered. “I’m headed over to pick up my rental. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
I rattled off the address one last time and hung up, feeling slightly more relaxed. Janet was about five years older than me with a motherly quality I’d always coveted. She propped me up in life in a way that no one else could simply by being herself. Janet was one of those amazing full-of-life individuals that you only came across once, maybe twice in your lifetime. She and I met at a holiday party for the department several years ago. I’d forced myself to go to the soiree, having nothing better to do on a Friday night. I’d been standing in a corner, awkwardly drinking my alcohol-free punch when she convinced me to join her in the middle of the room. I’m not sure how she did it, but she did. As soon as the music began to quiet and before the DJ could pick a new tune, Janet had simultaneously started a holiday choir and “the wave” among several officers that were known for being a surly lot, choosing me as her partner in crime. We’d been friends ever since.
I find it incredibly disappointing that she and her husband have opted not to have children — I think she’d be an amazing mom. Still, she makes one hell of a cop and I was honored that she’d be joining our ragtag group of misfits as both a sounding board and an additional brain.
The cold had begun to nip at my cheeks. Graying, slushy snow was everywhere and the wind was increasingly brutal. James walked over to Addison and I, as Mika continued speaking with Frank. “I think we’re going to need to hack John’s financials,” he sighed, tucking a small notebook into his coat pocket.
“Hack them?” I asked, confused. “Why? Like on a computer? Can you do that?”
James smiled quickly. “I can do just about anything, Kitten.”
I felt a blush immediately rise to my cheeks. I adored that nickname he’d given me. We’d been at the pet store, buying Fred more food, when I’d paused to look through the adoptable animals. One particular brown and white tabby has caught my attention and James had teased me about it all the way home. Willing my bright red cheeks to go away, I suddenly became rather interested in my shoes.
“How can we help?” Addison piped up, tightening the scarf around her nose and mouth. She fumbled slightly — her mittens were thick and fashionable, though not functional in the slightest. I watched her struggle for a few seconds, bemused. James eventually pulled off his own gloves and assisted. “Thanks,” she muttered quietly.
“Welcome,” he answered. Then, to both of us, “I think that the two of you should help with the search efforts for a while. Get a feel for how they’re searching for Riley and if there seem to be any holes in how the search is being handled. Mika and I are going to set up camp in the kitchen. We’re more useful trying to figure this mess out by using our brains instead of our braun.”
“We have brains, too,” I joked. He nodded but didn’t crack a smile, so I rushed ahead. “That all makes sense. I’ll just go get assignments from Frank.”
“Marian, wait,” James said, grabbing my arm. When I turned, I could see his beautiful, green eyes filled with something I’d never seen before. I swallowed, knowing that I wouldn’t like what he was about to say. “I just need you to know that no matter what we find or how we use the information- it isn’t meant to hurt you or your family.”
We stared at one another for a long moment. Finally, I nodded. Pulling away, I began trekking towards Frank. In other words, James was saying that he and Mika would be treating suspects in this case no differently than a run-of-the-mill average Joe they’d cracked down on hundreds of times. If my brother or his beautiful wife had anything to do with Riley’s disappearance, they were screwed.
Thirty minutes later, Addison and I had driven to the far west end of town. Looping our borrowed orange security vests over layers of sweatshirts and coats, we jumped out and ran to join the other able-bodied folks. Some were searching a drainage ditch, while others were pushing through the snow-blown field with large sticks. “They’re searching for a body,” Addison whispered. I shuddered, thinking of my poor niece getting kidnapped, injured and then dumped, freezing to death in an empty cornfield. Shaking my head, I cleared the image
from my mind. I couldn’t think like that. I wouldn’t.
Just like everyone else that was nearby, Addison and I took turns wading through the snow and thawing out in our truck. Wisconsin winters, especially northern Wisconsin winters, were punishing on the human body. It didn’t help that the year was seeing record breaking low temperatures.
Hours later, when both the long drainage ditch and the wide open field were dubbed “clean,” the group of us that had searched them headed back for home base. “Janet should be here by now,” I told Addison through chattering teeth, as I glanced at the clock. Pulling out my phone, I checked for missed calls or messages. There were none. “Hopefully she’s here and has made herself at home.”
Once near the house, we realized we’d need to park a few blocks away again. My parents’ place was still hopping with activity. I checked the clock on the dash. 2:47pm. Riley hadn’t yet been missing 24 hours. Time was, fortunately, on our side for now. The unspoken rule was that you had about two days to hatch a lead before a case was in danger of running cold. I shuddered. I’d been as cold on this case as I cared to be.
Looping around the back side of the house, Addie nudged me as we passed a small silver sports car with Kansas plates. “That’s got to be her,” she told me. Sport Utility Vehicles rentals were hard to come by in snow country in the winter. I nodded as I nudged the Suburban into a parallel parking space. Glancing at one another, we took a deep breath, burrowed deeply into our winter wear and opened our car doors at the same time. A heavy wind blasted our faces as we scurried up the sidewalk and around the front of the house. We waved quickly to Frank, who was standing with a pile of volunteers in the garage. They were gathered amid several space heaters, which appeared to be running full blast. Tucking through the front door, we closed it behind us and immediately started removing our gear, soaked through with snow and mud from the fields.
Allison Janda - Marian Moyer 02 - Seduction, Deceit & a Slice of Apple Pie Page 4