In Hope's Shadow

by Janice Kay Johnson

  “Not this time.” He cupped her face in a hand, rubbing the pad of his thumb over her lips. “I insulted you. Went right for the jugular.”

  “I thought—” She shook her head, her hair tickling his chest and neck. “Never mind.”

  “Tell me.”

  She lifted one shoulder. “I sort of figured you were letting me down not-so-gently. I mean, there’s you and Rachel, and there’s me.”

  Anger fired in his belly and he jackknifed to a sitting position, lifting her as he rose. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

  She shook her head.

  “What’s that supposed to mean? Me and Rachel, and then you?”

  “Just...what you said. That I have a lot in common with Joel. Outsider. Anyone looking would know I didn’t belong.”

  Ben spat out a word he rarely used, one that had her eyes widening.

  “Didn’t belong? Did I say that?”

  “Um... I can’t remember your exact words.”

  “You translated what I said about an echo of your family to believe I was telling you there was no way you’d ever look like you belonged with me.”

  “Do you blame me?” she fired back.

  “Yes!” He couldn’t remember being so pissed. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life. I have trouble believing you’re interested in me. What, you have this idea couples have to be bookends? What would make you think anything like that?”

  The turbulence inside her darkened her eyes to bitter chocolate and killed his case of mad. She actually believed shit like that.

  “I...wouldn’t have said I did,” she said in a soft voice. “I thought—I actually believed—I was a reasonably stable human being.” Her laugh had nothing in common with the giggle that lightened his heart. “But lately, all this stuff has been stirred up. I guess it had settled at the bottom, so I didn’t know it was there anymore.” Her forehead crinkled, and suddenly she was looking deep into his eyes. “Did you mean that? About me being the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen?”

  “Yeah.” He had to clear the gruffness from his voice. “You’re so...dainty, and so fiery.” He touched her face. “You move like a gypsy dancing, graceful and spirited. You have these huge brown eyes that give away how much you feel. You’re strong and determined and passionate in defense of your kids. You’d never give up on one of them, would you?”

  Her smile shook. “The legal system sometimes doesn’t give me any choice.”

  He nodded. “I have that problem, too.” No, he wouldn’t let himself get diverted. “Eve, how can you not know that men all turn and gape when you go by?”

  “Because they don’t?” A dimple quivered in her cheek. “Maybe there’s something wrong with your eyesight.” Her voice became husky. “I’m glad.”

  “You know how sold on you Rachel is, don’t you?”

  The naked hope on her face squeezed his heart, and hard. “I really like her. We’ve had fun.”

  “Yeah.” He touched his forehead to hers. “We have. We will. In fact, if it isn’t pouring, I thought Saturday we’d go look at daffodils. Tulips, too, if they’re out.”

  She looked as stunned as if he’d just gone down on bended knee. “You’re planning to take on the Tulip Festival traffic? Are you serious?”

  He grinned, his mood taking a hot air balloon ride. “I thought Rachel would like it. And why buy you a bouquet when I can take you for a stroll through acres of the prettiest ones that can be found?”

  She blinked and sniffed. “Damn it, you’re going to make me cry again.”

  “Again?”

  “You listened to me. You did something about it. That made me cry.”

  “Okay. I don’t have to buy you flowers or chocolates, huh?” he joked, trying to lighten her mood. “All I have to do is listen?”

  “Worth truckloads of flowers,” she assured him. Her forehead crinkled. “This is your weekend with Rachel?”

  “Our weekend with Rachel,” he said. “As much as you’re willing to tolerate.”

  Her eyes filled with tears again.

  He swore and pulled her close, laying his cheek against the top of her head until she sniffed and drew back.

  “Really, I was just going to ask if you think Rachel will enjoy driving around to look at flowers.”

  Ben couldn’t dismiss the glow, because she was thinking first and foremost about his daughter. But he grinned and said, “You haven’t noticed she’s a girly girl? Flowers? Girl? I don’t plan to drive miles through the fields. I thought we’d walk through the RoozenGaarde display garden, then take a little bit of a hike. And I’m not above using the flashers to clear the road, you know.”

  Eve’s giggle was everything he remembered—and loved.

  * * *

  TRYING TO KEEP a cap on his frustration, Ben strode toward the doors that would let him out of the high school near the separate gymnasium building. School had let out for the day; the halls were empty, although he knew the baseball team was out on the field for practice and he’d passed one open classroom door where some club or maybe the school paper or yearbook crew had a meeting. There might be other stuff like that going on in different wings.

  Day two of trying to find a witness who’d seen the bat placed in Joel Kekoa’s locker had been another failure. Ben was beginning to fear that nobody had seen. Originally, he wouldn’t have believed the little creep could pull it off, but take now. The hall was empty. He hadn’t heard the clang of a locker closing for a while.

  Alternative said he was an adult—worse, a figure of authority—and any potential witness was a teenager. Natural enemies, from their point of view. He’d been leaning on the truth that Joel was one of them, too, but seeing nothing but blank expressions.

  He shoved open the door and blinked momentarily in the bright sunlight. Maybe that was why he heard the voice before he actually saw anyone.

  “Mister? I mean, Detective?”

  Not liking to be taken by surprise, he stopped, to see a girl rising from where she’d been sitting on the top step, a bulging daypack beside her. She was slight, pale, with light brown hair. Wispy, he thought, about the hair and the girl.

  “You know who I am?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Were you waiting for me?” He aimed for calm and friendly.

  “Yes, sir. Well, kind of. I’m waiting for my mom, too.” She glanced toward the street. “She picks me up here, but she’s usually late because of when she gets off work.”

  He nodded. No car approaching on this side street, which was good. His anticipation had risen.

  “Detective Kemper,” he said, holding out his hand. “Ben Kemper.”

  She shook shyly. “My name is Kylie Burke.”

  “Nice to meet you, Kylie.” He paused. “You’ve heard the questions I’ve been asking?”

  She bit her lip and nodded. “I should have talked to you yesterday, but...well, Mom was earlier than sometimes, and I guess I had to think about it. Because—” she drew a deep, visible breath “—I’m kind of scared of this boy. The one I saw putting something in Joel’s locker.”

  A savage triumph filling him, it took everything Ben had to keep his manner mild. “This boy?”

  “Oh! His name is Gavin. Gavin Shaffer.”

  “I see.” He smiled at her. “Why don’t we sit down?”

  “Okay.” She perched back where she’d been, her feet on the step below so her knees were all but pressed to her chest. She kept her arms in tight, too.

  He put a few feet between them and stretched his legs out. “Okay, Kylie. First, you know I’m interested in a particular locker.”

  Her head bobbed. “Joel’s. Everyone knows he was arrested. And I don’t believe he would kill someone.” She sounded as if she were talking about little gree
n men landing on the football field. “He’s nice. I mean, to everyone. He doesn’t make fun of people, and...and if you, like, bump into him, he’s good with it. You know?”

  “I know.”

  “So, my brother’s locker is only three away from Joel’s.”

  “He doesn’t hitch a ride with your mom?”

  She shook her head. “He drives now, and he has a job right after school. Plus a girlfriend.” Her nose wrinkled. “So he drives her home.”

  Ben hid a grin at her disgust.

  “Mom doesn’t really like me getting home before her, so mostly instead of taking the bus I wait here for her. Sometimes when it’s raining, I have to wait inside.

  “It was kind of, like, drizzling that day. The one before Joel got arrested. But, I don’t know, I came outside anyway, but I was sort of huddling in the corner there, ’cuz it’s under the eaves.”

  Ben saw where she indicated. She’d have almost been pressed up against the glass, but also partially shielded from being seen from inside by the start of the wall. And, yes, it had drizzled that day, off and on.

  “I was bored. You know. And watching for anything happening out here, and in there, too. There are, um, some cool guys on the JV team.” Pink touched her cheeks, but she forged on. “So I paid attention when I saw this guy coming down the hall. I knew who it was right away.” She sounded matter-of-fact. “A lot of the girls think he’s the best-looking guy in the school. But one day I saw him when he was leaving the school. He has his own car.”

  Ben nodded encouragement.

  “He was pulling out into the street, and this old, fat, little dog that lived in that house—” she pointed “—was waddling out into the street. He hit it. I think he did it on purpose. Then when he saw Mr. Witter standing there—Mr. Witter is a science teacher,” she explained. “Anyway, Gavin jumped out and acted really sorry, but I know what I saw.” Her chin jutted defiantly.

  “I believe you,” Ben said.

  The chin came down. “Plus I’ve seen him be mean to kids. Mostly people don’t notice me.”

  She sounded surprisingly okay with that, but he wondered. All he said was, “All right. You saw him in the hall.”

  Kylie nodded. “He kept looking around. I thought it was strange he was still here, because he isn’t doing any sports right now and the parking lot was practically empty. Mom was really late that day. Anyway, he opened his locker, so I thought he came back because he forgot something, but he took out this black plastic bag, and I could tell it had something long and not very wide in it.” She demonstrated with her hands. “He walked really fast to Joel’s locker, and he opened it and put the bag in it.”

  “Into Joel’s locker,” Ben repeated. “How did you know it was Joel’s from here?”

  “Because after Gavin left back the way he’d come, I went in. I wasn’t absolutely positive, but it was one of, I don’t know, three or four lockers along there. And I know it wasn’t in James’s. That’s my brother,” she added.

  “Did you hear what we found in Joel’s locker?”

  She shook her head. “Only that it was something bad. People said it had blood on it.”

  “It did.”

  “I think he had something on his hands, too. I only caught a glimpse, but later, I figured out he didn’t want his fingerprints on the bag.”

  Five-year-olds knew not to leave fingerprints these days.

  “Something? Like gloves?”

  But she shook her head. “Uh-uh. I think it might have been, like, sandwich bags. He stuffed something in his pockets as he walked away.”

  Sandwich bags, goddamn it. That would work. Wouldn’t matter if he dropped one, because this was a school. Who’d think twice?”

  “I should have said something after I heard about Joel,” Kylie said, shamefaced. “But I wasn’t sure, and you must have had other reasons to arrest him or you wouldn’t have been looking in his locker, so...” She trailed off. “I was scared,” she said again. “I know he could get to me.”

  She had good reason to be scared. Ben didn’t want to say that, but he wanted her to stay safe.

  “You’re smart to be cautious,” he said finally. “This is a murder we’re investigating. What I want you to do is tell no one about what you saw.”

  “Even my mom?”

  “Will she keep it to herself?”

  Kylie hesitated. “She’s a hair stylist. In a salon. They talk a lot.”

  “Can you wait to tell her? Give me a couple of days?”

  After a moment, she nodded.

  “In the meantime, I’d like you not to be alone.”

  He saw incomprehension, then she looked around. “Like after school, you mean.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I can walk to the library with friends. I’ll tell Mom I have to research something and she’ll pick me up there.”

  The public library was only eight blocks or so away, and filled to the max every day after school with kids from the high school and middle school. Ben made a practice of avoiding it then.

  “Excellent.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small blue car turn the corner. “That your mother?”

  “Uh-huh.” She jumped up, swung her pack over her shoulder and started down the steps.

  “Oh, Kylie?” he called after her.

  She paused halfway down and looked at him.

  “If necessary, will you testify as to what you saw?”

  She gave a sturdy nod.

  “Your phone number?”

  She called it to him as she bounded down the rest of the steps and hurried to the curb, where her mother had stopped.

  Ben ambled after her, but turned toward the parking lot.

  Damn, he did love getting the break he needed in a successful investigation. He was already plotting his next step before he’d unlocked the car.

  * * *

  MOSTLY BY CHANCE, Ben hadn’t seen much of Seth the past couple days. Having the man he considered a friend question his motives for looking harder at Gavin had stung a little. But keeping each other on track was what partners did.

  Hell, even if Seth had been downright offensive, he might have had cause. Ben winced at the recollection of a few things he’d said when he thought Seth was spending time he couldn’t afford on the pursuit of the scum who’d abducted Hope. Or had he said “wasting” time? Truthfully, Ben hadn’t believed Seth would actually be able to track down the guy. After twenty-three years? How could that be possible? But the thing was, Les Hamby had kept snatching girls, all pretty, blue-eyed blondes like Hope, and Seth had hunted him relentlessly, finding patterns. The FBI jumped in, and damned if the guy wasn’t sitting now in jail in Arizona. Early on, he’d fought extradition to Washington, but according to Seth had recently given up, mostly because the girl he’d had with him when he was arrested had finally been identified and returned to her parents—who lived in Arizona. So he now faced charges in three different states for the kidnap of the three of his victims who had been identified, starting with Hope.

  What Seth had done was extraordinary.

  No matter what, when Ben, steaming, stalked into the squad room, he didn’t give a damn that Seth was at his desk or that his eyebrows rose.

  Ben flung himself into his chair and scowled into space. Grab the files you need and get out of here, he told himself. Thank God it was the end of the day. Why was he sitting down at all? Much as he wished he was seeing Eve again tonight, it was probably just as well he wasn’t, given his shitty mood.

  “Can’t get a date for prom?” Seth asked.

  Ben had no problem transferring the scowl to his sometime-partner. “What, now you think I go for underage girls?”

  Seth held up both hands. “Hey, it was a joke. Because you’ve been hanging around at the high school.”

/>   “You mean, interviewing potential witnesses,” he said tautly. “Who are sometimes students there.”

  His friend contemplated him. “I take it you struck out.”

  “No, I found my witness.” He got more satisfaction than he should have at saying that. “Girl saw Gavin Shaffer, looking around and obviously thinking he was alone in the hall, take a long, narrow item in a black plastic bag out of his locker and put it in Joel’s or one on either side of it.”

  A smile broke out on Seth’s face. “Then you’ve got the little son of a bitch.” The smile faded. “Eve’s instincts were right on.”

  “Why does that surprise you?”

  “It shouldn’t,” Seth admitted. He shook his head, apparently trying to clear his thoughts. “So what’s wrong?”

  “I just had a meeting with Cavender.” Don Cavender was with the DA’s office. “He says the girl’s testimony isn’t enough to get a warrant. She could have a grudge. She can’t absolutely swear the object she saw—assuming she really saw it at all and didn’t describe it the way she did because she heard through the grapevine what we found in Joel’s locker—was actually put in his locker, versus one on either side.” He said a very obscene word then. “Despite the fact the unlikelihood of something that resembled a baseball bat wrapped in black plastic was placed in a locker near Joel’s but not in Joel’s by a boy who lives next door to the murder victim.” He was snarling by the end.

  “Cavender never likes the testimony of kids,” Seth said sympathetically. “Bad draw, getting him.”

  “Especially considering the currently accused is also a kid.”

  “Especially.”

  “You could go over his head.”

  Ben grunted. “I will if I can’t find some supporting evidence or another witness.” But they both knew how touchy that would be.

  “Good. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.” Seth pushed back his chair and stood, gathering his phone and a couple of files from his desk. “I’m sorry about Eve. I don’t know if I said that.”