by Liz Talley
“He’s on his way to the airport,” the detective said as she ended that call.
“Maddie just about had a meltdown when we strayed from Lynn’s list of instructions just to let me read Kara a bedtime story when she asked. There’s no way that woman would take Kara without following protocol.” He was speaking to the room at large. Everyone, except Lynn, who was on the phone in the corner, stopped talking to look at him.
“And if she tried, my brother would tell her that they had to ask permission first. I know they think they’re in love and that they give each other courage to do things they might not normally do, but the one thing we can count on with both of them is that they don’t break rules.”
He didn’t mean to hold the floor. But after seventeen years of living and breathing Darin, he knew his brother.
“If we waste time assuming they’re fine and together, we’re letting the danger they’re in escalate.”
He did agree with one point: Darin and Kara were most likely together. The thought didn’t relieve him at all.
Darin wouldn’t have just wandered off with Kara. Which meant that something had happened...
Lynn dropped her cell phone back into her pocket and walked up to stand beside Grant. She leaned into him and said, “I spoke with Maddie and her parents. I spoke to her mother and father individually so they didn’t repeat to each other what was going on in front of Maddie. They are definitely together. At the strip mall on Mountain View. They’re bringing her back immediately. They aren’t telling Maddie that either Darin or Kara are missing. Her mother, Martha, did say that Kara was upset when Maddie left her at class. She wanted to go shopping, too. Maddie started to get upset at leaving her that way, so her parents each put an arm around her and rushed her out.”
She looked at Grant. “Maddie’s dance teacher said that she saw Kara walking behind Maddie and thought they were together.”
“Kara never walks behind Maddie,” Lila blurted out before Grant could.
“Maddie either holds her hand, or lets Kara run in front of her where she can see her,” he added. Though now that he thought about it... “Ever since Kara almost fell into a service hole I had opened, Maddie has clung to the little girl’s hand anytime they’re outside.”
An image of Darin walking beside Maddie on the sidewalk outside, his head held high, took his voice away.
He recalled his older brother’s laugh when Maddie had belched loudly at the dinner table the other night.
Grant swallowed back tears.
They’d find him. And he’d keep him under lock and key after they did. No more relaxing, leaving Darin to walk by himself anywhere. No more...
“Wait.” Lynn’s weight against him grew a little heavier. Standing with her, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, he gladly withstood whatever she had to give him. “They weren’t outside yet,” she was saying, her gaze darting around from one of the serious expressions in the room to another. “Kara was walking behind Maddie inside the day care. The dance teacher is new. She thought Kara was going with Maddie. She didn’t seem to know that every child has to be physically signed out before any of the children are released.”
“She knew,” Lila said. “I’ll take care of that. But could this mean that Kara did walk out of the day care behind Maddie?” she said aloud what Grant was thinking.
“It sounds like it,” Smith said. “We need to know how Maddie and her parents exited the premises.”
Lynn already knew. And told them.
Did this mean that Darin wasn’t with Kara? That the little girl was out in the world somewhere, wandering the streets by herself?
“Maybe she followed them and when they took off in their car without her, she couldn’t get back inside the locked facility.”
“She could still be out there...” Lynn said, and the detectives dispatched a flurry of officers to comb the area.
Lila followed them to the door. “I’m going to go talk to the women and children gathering in the rec hall. We don’t want panic to ensue.”
The managing director left, her expression calm but solemn. Grant wondered how these women did what they did day after day. Week after week.
The constant dangers and emotional and physical traumas would drive him over the edge.
Hell, he couldn’t even keep him and Darin together.
* * *
SHE WAS GOING to fly out of her skin and burst into a million pieces that would never be able to be put back together.
Lynn knew the thought was crazy. And she couldn’t stop it. Leaning against Grant, she listened while the detectives dispersed to perform their various duties, all revolving around finding Kara. It had been less than half an hour since she’d discovered her missing.
She was grateful for the tremendous response. Still...
Her phone rang. Grabbing it from her pocket with shaking fingers, she had to push three times to engage the answer button.
“Lynnie? Oh, my God, Lynnie. I just had to talk to you. Please tell me what’s going on.”
She laced her fingers through Grant’s and talked to her ex-husband, keeping an eye and ear on the detectives in the room, as well. Brandon was booked on a flight to Santa Raquel but wouldn’t be arriving for another three hours.
He was distressed, pacing the airport, he said, but determined that they would find Kara and she would be fine.
Lynn agreed. And after she hung up, she laid her head on Grant’s shoulder. It was either that or fall apart, and a mother lying supine on the floor was not going to help her toddler at all.
“We should be out there,” she told him softly as those in charge made decisions and gave orders around them.
“They want us here for now.”
She knew that. She just didn’t agree with the decision to keep her and Grant in Lila’s office, the current search headquarters, so that they could be available to anyone involved in the search at any time.
To identify a body? She tried not to think so. And was scared to death for the sweet man who’d been injured trying to save his wife’s life, as well as for her precious little curly-haired angel.
“I pray they’re together,” she said.
“If they are, Darin will keep her safe.” Grant spoke softly, and this time, he looked her in the eye.
She knew that if Darin was with Kara he would do all he could to help her. There were just too many ifs.
* * *
BEFORE MADDIE EVEN made it back, the phone rang again. Smith’s phone.
“It’s Detective Martinez,” he said to the room at large, as if the name meant something.
Grant had no idea who Martinez was but hoped he was part of the search team. And was calling with good news.
The helplessness, as he stood there with Lynn, moving from one part of the room to another, shaking his head right along with her every time Smith suggested they sit down, was diminishing what bit of control he had thus far managed to maintain.
Smith had told them it could be a long night.
The man had no idea.
Smith still had his disconnected cell phone in his hand as he approached Lynn and Grant. Her scrubs were purple today. The color of lilacs.
It was an inane thought that kept his feet on the ground.
“Martinez is in our forensics lab. She’s going over the security tapes.”
His heart was pounding. Lynn’s chin held high.
“She identified Kara on them, wearing the denim overalls and red shirt you described. She sees her running out after Maddie. Sees her stop when Maddie’s parents drive away. And she sees Dan Cleveland approach her....”
Oh, God, no. Lynn’s sharp intake of breath, her only reaction as she continued to give the detective her hard, focused stare, resonated all the way through him. Cold seeped into the room.
“He grabbed her, pulling her out of the camera’s range.”
“You talked to him, right?” Lynn asked. “Ask him where she is.”
Grant did some calculations. “He couldn’t have had her long,” he said. Based on the time stamp reported on the tape and when the man was arrested.
“He was still in the area when he was arrested,” Lynn said.
Smith nodded. “They’re talking to him now. We’ll get a call as soon as they know anything. I just wanted you two to know where we’re at.”
“Is there any sign of Darin on the tapes?” Lynn asked the question.
“We don’t know yet. Not to that point there wasn’t. Martinez stopped viewing them as soon as she saw Kara.”
“But they’re resuming looking at the footage now, right?” Grant asked.
“They’ve got a team on them at this point. If your brother is there, we’ll know soon.”
He needed to get out of the room. Get outside. Breathe air. And comb the streets for the one person he couldn’t live without.
Except that he couldn’t leave Lynn standing there all alone. She was leaning on him. And he couldn’t let her fall.
* * *
MARIA CLEVELAND’S HUSBAND buckled as soon as he was told he was caught on tape trying to snatch Kara.
“He did try,” Detective Smith told Lynn and Grant quietly fifteen minutes later. Maddie and her parents had arrived and were in another corner of the room with Sara and a couple of other police officers.
Sara had given a whispered message to Lynn as she’d come in. Maria had agreed to press charges. And was filing for divorce.
“He said he figured if he couldn’t get to his wife’s kids to use them for leverage, someone else’s kid would do just as well. He figured the women who were keeping his wife hostage from him would release her to get one of their own kids back.”
Lynn’s stomach cramped. She didn’t have time to be sick but was afraid she might be anyway.
“You said he tried.” Grant’s voice was firm beside her. Strong where she felt weak. “Not that he succeeded.”
“That’s right. He said there was no way he was going down for kidnapping when he didn’t do it. He said he saw Kara come out, tried to grab her, but some big guy came out of another door from the locked area, hit him once, hard, grabbed the kid and ran.”
“Darin?” Grant asked. “What other man would have been in the locked area?” She could feel his renewed tension as he stiffened. They were sitting on a leather couch, having finally given in to Smith’s persuasions to do so, holding hands.
“Yes,” the detective said. “As soon as we knew that your brother exited via another gate, we had the team switch cameras and they saw him. It was just as Cleveland said. He seemingly comes out of nowhere, hits Cleveland, snatches Kara all with one hand and runs off camera.”
“Darin saved her life!” Lynn jumped up. “They’re together and he saved her life!”
Grant was beside her and she grabbed his hand again in both of hers. “They’re together, Grant.”
“And we have no idea where they are,” he reminded her. “Kara’s three and Darin’s got limited abilities,” he reminded her.
“I know.” She did, too. And she could see that Grant was heavy with the weight of responsibility for his handicapped brother. If Darin failed Kara, Grant would never forgive himself.
Which was crazy. No matter what happened, Darin had saved Kara’s life. It was on tape.
Her little girl was going to be all right.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
ONCE GRANT KNEW for certain that Darin was outside The Lemonade Stand complex, he couldn’t wait any longer.
The fact that he had Kara Duncan in his care, a child caring for a child, nothing was going to stop him from going out to find them.
He wasn’t all that surprised when Lynn backed up his idea, saying that she was going to accompany him.
Smith didn’t like the idea.
“We’re free citizens,” Grant stated in no uncertain terms. “If Darin sees cops looking around, calling his name, he’s just as likely to hide as to come out,” he said, thinking clearly for the first time in more than two hours.
The fog had lifted. He had to help his brother.
“Lynn and I know all of the places he’s been in the area,” he continued. “And if Darin hears us call, he’ll respond, even if he’s hiding.”
“He lacks problem-solving skills,” Lynn said, as though she was Darin’s nurse, not a friend. “And has emotional lapses, as well. We stand a much better chance of finding them before dark if we’re out there looking for them.”
They’d waited for official word. It was time to act.
* * *
THEY CHECKED BOTH restaurants they’d been to on their dates, including bathrooms and alcoves. They’d shown Darin’s and Kara’s pictures around and were told officers had already been there looking for the pair.
Grant found corners and crevices, potential hiding places, everywhere.
“You really think he’d cram himself and Kara into a corner and just wait?” she asked him.
“I know he would if he felt threatened,” Grant said as they climbed back into his truck. A vehicle Darin would recognize if he saw it and be willing to approach. “He got scared one time when I told him to stand outside the grocery store while I wheeled the cart back inside the door. When I came out he was standing between a pillar and a trash receptacle. Once, on a job, I had him wait outside while I delivered a bill to a woman and when I turned around he was under a stairwell.”
He sounded ashamed. Like it was his fault that Darin had felt unsafe enough to hide. Lynn’s heart went out to him so completely in that moment when all aspects of normal daily life were stripped away.
If she focused on Darin and Grant, she could still breathe. Could push forward and find Darin and Kara.
As Lynn kept her gaze peeled out the window, Grant drove slowly, ignoring the honks he was getting. If he heard them he didn’t seem to notice. He stopped a couple more times. Jumped out of the truck to look behind a bin and under a stoop.
Lynn’s phone rang while he was bent over, peering beneath cement on a quiet street a mile or so from the Stand.
It was Maddie’s number.
“They told me I could call you, Lynn,” the woman said, her slow speech even more garbled than usual. The poor woman’s lip was probably bleeding from chewing on it from nerves. And would need salve for the next several days.
“Of course you can call me,” she said with a heavy ache in her heart. Why couldn’t this be a normal day? With Maddie and Kara at home waiting for her?
Why couldn’t life ever just be what you thought?
“I told them I had to call you because I think I know where Darin and Kara are,” the woman continued as though Lynn hadn’t spoken. “I know because I did a bad thing and you’re going to be mad at me, but I have to tell you now because you have to find Darin and Kara and...”
She sniffed, and Lynn, impatient and frantic, said, “Maddie, just tell me where they are.”
The other woman started to cry. “I...I...”
She took a deep breath. And glanced at Grant as he climbed back into the truck. Maddie. She mouthed the word. And tried to tell him with her eyes that she was about to fly out the window. To ask him to hold her in place and breathe life into her lungs so she could get through this.
She needed the peace that he brought her.
“It’s okay, sweetie. I’m not mad, I swear to you, Maddie. And you know I never lie to you, right? That’s our deal.”
“But you yelled....”
“I didn’t yell, sweetie. I’m worried about Kara and Darin and we need to find them in a hurry. That’s all. I’m in a hurry.”
She knew how to h
elp Maddie express herself. It was up to her to stay calm. Her panic would incite Maddie’s.
“Please, sweetie, we’re family, right? We’ve talked about that. And right now Darin and Kara need you to be strong for them. To not worry about someone getting mad at you. For Darin and Kara. You understand?”
She hoped Sara was on the other end of the line with Maddie, listening in. Doing what she could to keep the woman’s panic at bay so she could think clearly.
“Now, tell me where they are.”
“At the beach.” Maddie’s voice was firm. A tone unfamiliar to Lynn. Something she’d ponder later.
“At the beach?”
“Building a sand castle,” Maddie said, and Lynn’s hopes dashed to the ground again.
“That’s what you and Darin did,” she said now. “Not what Darin and Kara are doing.”
“No, Lynn, Darin and I went to a different place on the beach without you and Grant, and I know that’s where they are and I told the lady police officer when she told me that I could save them, but they don’t know exactly where and you do so you could go get them.”
“I know where they are? But it’s not the same place you and Darin built your sand castle?”
She put the phone on speaker and whispered to Grant, “Head toward the beach.”
He had the truck in traffic immediately, his face lined with tension.
“Yes, Lynn. Darin and I... A couple of weeks ago Grant dropped Darin off early in the morning a long time before his therapy and he was going to pick weeds, but he didn’t. He came to my house and we snuck out the back door that Darin snuck out today. He knew where to find it because of going through it with his brother, Grant.”
“You two have left campus before?”
A heavy sigh on the line had her taking another deep breath. “Yes, and I knew that you would be mad. We’re in big trouble.”
“You aren’t in trouble,” Lynn assured the woman. “You are being a big help, Maddie. Now tell me the rest.”