She blurted the first words, “It’s not where he’s been. It’s where I’ve been.” She took a deep breath and started again, focusing on the fingers that twitched in her lap. “It all happened during the same period. Karen vanished the same day my dad got beat almost to death and my mother found me, wet and beaten, in the garage. The dates in her diary match what I found online. Shortly after that, my dad killed my mom. My name changed legally to Lindsey Presley, but while I was in school, I called myself Lindsey Purvis—the name of my foster family. I wanted nothing to do with the Presleys. I didn’t use that name again until I went to culinary school, then moved down here.”
Jeff let out a sigh of recognition. “So he didn’t know where you were, even if you were still alive.”
Ray snorted. “Bet that was a shock to his system. Wonder how he found out.”
Lindsey continued staring at her lap. She so did not want to go any farther. “No idea.”
But Jeff straightened suddenly. “Yes, you do. Remember? What he said to you at the wreck. ‘You should be dead. Again.’ He’s tried to kill you before. He tried to kill you that day.”
The pain in Lindsey’s stomach began to radiate outward. She couldn’t look at them. “I think so. But I still don’t remember.”
Ray put the pieces together, as well. “He tried to kill you. And he was the one who beat up your father.” He looked at Jeff. “Too bad we can’t talk to Presley.”
Lindsey winced, and silence filled the room. Pain laced through every muscle as Lindsey warred with herself. What she needed to say would be a betrayal of her sisters, but perhaps it was time to stop ignoring the truth.
Ray cleared his throat and stood up. “I’m off to other things. Jeff, let me know what you find out about those car parts.”
When Jeff didn’t respond, Lindsey glanced up to find him watching her intently. His next words were softer, gentler than she had ever heard.
“Whatever it is, it’ll be all right. We’re here for you. We won’t leave you.”
Ray had stopped at the door. Now they both watched her, waiting silently.
She took a deep breath. “You could ask my father.”
THIRTEEN
Ray and Jeff exchanged confused glances. “I thought your father was dead,” Jeff whispered.
Ray returned to sit at the table. “April and June both talk as if he had passed away.”
Lindsey let out a long breath. “They want him to be. To them, he is. They even refer to him as if he were dead. They certainly never plan to see him again.”
“Where is he?”
Lindsey barely got the word out. “Riverbend.”
Ray finished it. “Maximum Security.”
She gave a quick nod. “He got life without parole for killing my mother. Repeat offender status, for previous arrests. I mentioned it once after I got down here, and my sisters both acted like I’d tried to lure a beast from his lair. I didn’t want to say anything, but if you found out...”
Jeff placed a gentle hand on her arm. “Do you think he’d help us?”
She shrugged. “Doubt it. He hated us. Hated being a father. But I also doubt he has any love for Todd Lawson. If he thought he could get revenge...maybe.”
“Worth a try,” Ray said.
“It’ll take a few days to arrange, however.” He hesitated. “Do you want to go?”
Lindsey felt the color drop from her face and the room start spinning. She gripped the table. “I don’t think...I don’t think I could handle it.”
Ray stood. “I’ll call the warden and see what we need to do. Y’all get on to the car parts angle.”
Lindsey smiled. “Y’all? Me, too?”
Ray looked as if she’d stated the obvious. “Of course. I’m tired of spreading my people out all over the county. He has to be here or at home, and I want you here or at Daniel’s. If you’re going to be here, you might as well be useful. It’s not like I want you hanging out watching television all day.” With that, Ray closed the door behind him.
“They are so suited for each other.”
Jeff looked up at her, puzzlement clouding his face. “Who?”
She gestured toward the door. “Ray and June.” She shrugged. “It’s just a thought that’s been in the back of my mind the past couple of days. I haven’t been around him much since I moved here. I was so focused on getting my business up and running. I didn’t mean to ignore people or shut anyone out, but it just felt like...” She reached out and closed her fist in midair, as if trying to catch something. “The dream was that close. Just out of reach. And if I lost focus even for a second, it would just...” She spread her fingers. “Poof. Be gone.” Her voice dropped to a whisper and she flattened her hand on the table, fingers spread. “Everything would be gone. One more time. I’m so tired of starting over.”
Lindsey realized that Jeff was staring intently at her, and she felt her cheeks heat up. “Sorry. I guess that sounds selfish.”
He shook his head. “Not at all. It’s a wondrous thing to be able to pursue a dream. Not everyone gets the chance. We both have.”
“That’s right. You wanted to work with the LAPD.”
“They trained me. Best in the world. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Although I’m not exactly living up to the training right now.” Lindsey started to protest, but Jeff held up a finger to stop her. “What we both need to realize is that sometimes your dreams come true...and sometimes what comes true is the real dream.”
“Mother used to whisper to me, ‘Never underestimate God’s plan for your life.’ When we were cowering from my father, I thought that was a joke.”
“And now?”
“I think she could see a bigger picture. I don’t know what that was. Don’t know if I ever will. But I know she believed in something I couldn’t even dream of.”
“I want you to meet my mother—” Jeff stopped abruptly and Lindsey was surprised to see his face flush. “I don’t mean, like, you know, time to meet the parents—” He stopped again.
Lindsey waited, eyebrows arched, trying hard not to grin. “I’m sure she’s very sweet.”
Jeff blew out a long breath. “You can be a little cruel.”
She laughed. “I just wanted to see where you were going with it.”
He circled his hand in the air. “Dreams. Big picture. My mom has been the queen of the big picture after my dad died, even after her cancer. I think y’all would...” He took a deep breath. “Want to call Troy?”
“I think we’d better,” Lindsey said quickly, grateful for the change of subject.
Jeff dialed the number, and Troy answered with “Well, it’s about time.”
Jeff grinned. “It hasn’t been that long.”
“Eons!” Troy pronounced, falling into his favorite redneck persona. “Rust is eatin’ away at the underbelly, and kudzu has done busted down the doors and took over the engine block. A few more days, you wouldn’t even see it anymore. Maybe a little an-tennie sticking up amongst the greenery.”
“Sorry we kept you waiting.”
“You on the speakerphone?”
“We are.”
“We? That pretty little Yankee there with you?”
“Hi, Troy. You know I’m from Nashville.”
“Yeah, but you done spent more’n six months in Chicago. It’ll take a bit for you to get your South’run back on. Maybe you should indulge in a little poke sallet—”
“Part numbers?” interrupted Jeff.
“You got a pen?”
“Ready and waiting.”
In a clear, businesslike voice, Troy read off a series of parts and serial numbers, which he then made Jeff read back to him. “Need to make sure they’re right,” he explained. “One number off and you’d think they came from Waikiki instead of Wichita.”<
br />
“We’ll be careful.”
“Good. Oh, and Miss Lindsey?”
“Yes, Troy?”
“Don’t you worry none. We’re going to get you through this safe and sound. Gage there is as good as they come.”
Lindsey looked at Jeff and grinned. “I know.”
“Goodbye, Troy,” Jeff said insistently, breaking the connection. He looked at the paper. “Quite a list. That GTO must have been in bad shape.”
“Why don’t we split it?”
“Deal. C’mon, I’ll show you where we do this.” He led her into the bullpen area of the station and offered her the desk of an officer out on patrol. “Kenny won’t be back for a few hours, and I know he locks everything up before he leaves. Good practice.” He logged her into the computer and showed her the sites that they used to search for car parts. “Everything is centralized now, and legitimate vendors report part sales so they can be tracked.”
“So, if I buy an alternator at Pep Boys in Nashville...”
“...a cop in Dallas could look up the serial number and find out that you’d spent your money in Nashville.”
“Sounds like that would be a help with car theft.”
“Exactly the point.”
Lindsey looked up at him. “Is this going to get you guys in trouble, my helping the police?”
Jeff shook his head. “Not with this. You’re just gathering public information the same way you did last night with Aunt Suke. I’ll make the calls to the vendors because I can’t let you represent yourself as an agent of the police.”
Lindsey nodded and set to work. The first four serial numbers on her list turned up as nonexistent. In three cases, there weren’t enough numbers for the part. With the fourth, there were too many. Still, within an hour, they had a list of five vendors, all in the Wichita area, who had sold parts that were now on the 1968 GTO.
“It’s a start,” Jeff said. “If you’ll verify the phone numbers, I’ll start call—”
Ray flung open his office door and pointed at Jeff, then Lindsey. “Let’s go. And grab your forensics kit.”
They didn’t hesitate. “What’s going on?” Lindsey asked.
“We’re going to the hospital. They found RuthAnn.”
They both got into Ray’s cruiser, barely buckling up before he roared out of the parking space, blue lights flashing. Lindsey grabbed the door handle as he swung the heavy car expertly through the small-town streets until he picked up the main highway into Springfield. Then she felt the real power of the car as he increased speed.
“Where did they find her?” Jeff asked.
“The Skyliner.”
Jeff made a derisive noise.
“What’s that?”
Jeff twisted in the front seat to look back at her. “A motel. They rent the rooms in three-hour segments and seldom change the sheets.”
Lindsey understood. “Why was she in a place like that?”
“A lot of turnover means no one pays any attention to anyone else,” Ray said. “We don’t know if she’s been there since she was taken or more recently, and apparently, neither does the management. ‘Walter Mitty’ signed the register two weeks ago and paid for the room a month in advance.”
“Why did they check the room?” Jeff asked.
“Seems the Do Not Disturb sign blew off the doorknob and the maid thought she could clean. Found RuthAnn instead.” He glanced briefly at Lindsey in the rearview. “She was tied to the bed and gagged with duct tape. She’s been worked over pretty hard. Nick said they’re running the regular battery of tests, but he warned me that she’s pretty hysterical.”
“What did that monster do to her?”
He hesitated, then replied, “No idea. She’s asked for a lawyer.”
Lindsey’s emotions cycled from horror to confusion. “Why would she need a lawyer?”
“That’s what I’m hoping she’ll tell you when she comes back to her senses. Jeff, I’ll collect any of the physical evidence Nick and his team may have salvaged. Then I’ll take the kit and go to the crime scene, see what else might turn up. You stay with Lindsey and RuthAnn.”
Lindsey huddled in the backseat, pressing into the corner, her mind swirling with possible explanations. She knew all too well the kind of experiences that could make you want to keep quiet and never mention a word about it ever again. But a lawyer? Lawyers, good ones, protected their clients. But why would RuthAnn need protection from us? Only one answer kept coming to mind, and Lindsey shuddered at the thought.
RuthAnn was somehow involved in all this.
Lindsey shook her head. No, there had to be something else. Suspend judgment. We need to talk to her.
When they entered the E.R., one of the nurses spotted them and waved them over, then escorted them to Nick’s office, a room as distant in mood from the bustling roar of the emergency room as a monastery from a nightclub. Thick carpet, plants and dark wood cast a soothing ambiance over the room. Nick greeted them, then motioned for them to sit. He pointed to a box on the corner of his desk that was sealed and marked with his initials.
“RuthAnn’s personal effects. What there is of them. She was hysterical at first, mostly from fear. When we got her calmed down enough to be lucid, she agreed to the usual tests, including the rape kit. But as we were finishing up, she became paranoid and frightened again. That’s when she asked for the lawyer. One of you will need to sign for the kit,” he told Ray and Jeff.
“I will,” offered Ray.
Nick nodded, then leaned forward. “Look, I don’t know exactly what happened to this woman, but she’s been brutalized. She was mumbling when they brought her in, probably from dehydration. No idea how long she’d been in that room alone. We called Legal Aid, and they’re going to send someone over.”
“Did she say why she wanted a lawyer?” Jeff asked.
Nick shook his head. “She said very little after that.”
Lindsey scooted to the edge of her chair. “Have you called her family?”
“She didn’t have any numbers with her when they brought her in.”
Lindsey nodded. “There should be an address book at her house, and I have her emergency contact information at the restaurant.”
Nick turned to Lindsey. “You need to know that whatever is going on with her, some of it is aimed at you. She kept repeating, ‘Tell Lindsey. Tell Lindsey.’”
“Tell me what?”
Nick shrugged. “She never got that part out. We hoped with you here, she might calm down, give us some idea about what happened.”
A tap on the door was followed by a nurse, who looked pointedly at Nick. He nodded at her and she left.
“I’ve got to get back out on the floor. We admitted RuthAnn. Wait here, and I’ll have one of the orderlies escort you to her room.”
Fifteen minutes later, Ray was on his way to the Skyliner, while Lindsey and Jeff sat in a semidark hospital room, watching a sleeping RuthAnn breathe.
“I was just here,” muttered Jeff.
“Beg pardon?”
“I’ve spent more time in the hospital in the past week than I have since I was a kid.”
“That’s what you get for hanging out with me.”
“Well, I knew being around you was exciting. Never occurred to me it was dangerous, too.”
“Life’s never dull when you’re with a Presley girl.”
“So Ray and Daniel keep telling me.”
“So do you think you’d like it?” Lindsey chewed her lower lip, as surprised by the question as Jeff seemed to be.
He took a long time to answer, and Lindsey wondered if she’d gone too far. It wasn’t as if they’d dated. It was just...the more she was around Jeff, the more she wanted to be.
“Yeah,” he said slowly. “I think I’d like it a lot.
”
RuthAnn moaned and twisted in her bed, and both of them stood, waiting to see if she’d wake up. She didn’t at first. Instead, she continued to twist, mumbling just beneath her breath, as if she were fighting the sedation. Lindsey moved closer, watching the woman she’d worked with, a woman she thought of as a friend. Even in the dim light of the room, many of RuthAnn’s injuries made Lindsey wince in sympathy.
Bruises and cuts covered the left side of RuthAnn’s face. Abrasions and puckered burns ran up and down both arms, and deep, purple ligature marks circled both wrists and her throat.
“What happened to you?” Lindsey whispered. She turned to Jeff behind her. “Do you think Todd Lawson did this?”
He didn’t answer at first, as if he didn’t want to. Then he said simply, “Yes.”
“We have to stop him.”
“We will.”
An hour later, they still sat, observing RuthAnn, when Deb, the nurse who had cared for Jeff the night before, came in to check RuthAnn’s vitals. She did a double take when she saw Jeff.
“Well, you look better than the last time I saw you.”
“Thanks.”
Deb completed her tasks as routinely as usual, then left. Half an hour later, a bedraggled young man in a crumpled suit entered, looking inquisitively at Jeff and Lindsey, then RuthAnn.
“RuthAnn Crenshaw?”
Jeff pointed at the bed.
The man let out a very long, exhausted sigh. “They said she asked for a lawyer.”
“Before they sedated her,” Lindsey explained.
“Great. How long has she been out?”
Jeff checked his watch. “More than ninety minutes.”
“And you are...?”
“Jeffrey Gage. I’m with the Bell County Sheriff’s Department.”
Lindsey also stepped forward and introduced herself. “RuthAnn works for me,” she explained.
The man shook their hands. “Mr. Harper, with Legal Aid.” He gave Jeff a confused look. “You said you’re from Bell County. I was told Ms. Crenshaw was found at the Skyliner. That’s Robertson County.”
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