His eyes sharpened. “What thing?”
Rummaging in her purse, she pulled out the yearbook page. “This.”
He took it from her and his brows shot up as he studied it. “And it was taped to your door?”
She nodded. “I was up pacing and praying and just… I couldn’t sleep. Mom and Dad were upstairs sleeping and I didn’t want to disturb them so I went downstairs. I heard something at the door and thought it was Bethany. When I opened it, that was there.”
“This is a picture of us.”
“Along with twenty other students who were involved in building the homecoming float.”
“Still, you’re right. It’s kind of weird that someone would tape this to your door. I wish you hadn’t touched it. I doubt we’d be able to get any prints off of it now. We’ll take it in and see what the lab can find—after we convince someone to do some serious investigating.” He left for a minute and came back with the page in a brown paper bag.
“Might as well protect it as much as possible from here on out. They’ll need to take your prints to rule them out.”
“Fine. Whatever it takes. I just want to do something, have somebody doing something. Now.”
Mason studied her and sighed. “All right. I can see why you’re concerned, but I still want to know why you’ve come to me. Why ask me for help now after all these years with no contact?” He held up his hands, and for the first time since entering his house she thought she saw pain in his light blue eyes.
She had to tell him.
“Because, not only are you in that picture that was left on my door, Mason, you’re the man I promised Bethany she could meet. You’re her father.”
CHAPTER TWO
Mason’s knees nearly gave out. He fumbled for the chair behind him and sank onto it. Staring, he searched his mind for a response and came up blank.
A daughter? Him?
When she’d said she had a fifteen-year-old daughter, he’d immediately assumed his best friend from high school, Daniel Ackerman, was the father. But to hear her say that he was the father was almost more than he could process. In fact, the ringing in his ears made him wonder if he’d heard her right.
The expression on her face said he had.
“She’s my…” He couldn’t say the word.
Lacey blinked against the tears, but he noticed they just kept coming. He couldn’t even think to offer her another tissue. “Yeah, Mason. She’s your daughter.”
“And you’re just telling me this now?” he whispered. Did he even believe her? Searching her face, he could find no hint of deception or guile. Just desperation. And shame.
Then those emotions disappeared and anger made her voice hard as she ground out, “I tried to tell you sixteen years ago, but you wouldn’t listen to a word I had to say, remember?”
Mason clenched his fists as he remembered their final confrontation. Her tears, Daniel’s guilty flush. Mason’s unwillingness to look at her, much less listen to anything she had to say. Because she’d done what he’d expected all along. Betrayed him. Just like his mother had betrayed his father and her entire family.
“All right, look.” His brain struggled to adjust to all the information it had just been bombarded with. Life-changing information. “You said Bethany is missing. Let’s put the past aside and focus on her.”
A daughter, his mind echoed. He had a daughter.
Maybe.
If she was really his.
But what if she was?
He couldn’t help wondering what she looked like. What did she think about him? Why would Lacey tell him he was the father, if he wasn’t? Then again, this was the girl he’d caught in his best friend’s arms and she’d denied what was before his very eyes. He didn’t know what to believe, but if the possibility that their one-time intimate prom night encounter resulted in a child…
He had to know.
“I agree,” she said, interrupting the endless questions he suddenly had. Relief written clearly on her strained features, she also looked grateful. “Please.”
“But this issue is far from resolved.”
“I know,” she whispered and looked away.
Mason stood, rotated his healing shoulder, wincing at the pinch and slight stiffness, then realized his resolve to do whatever it took to get it back into tip-top shape before he returned to work just fell to second place on his priority list.
Finding his daughter had just careened its way to the top spot.
Running a hand through the hair he’d just washed before finding Lacey on his doorstep, he said, “All right, first things first. We need find out who saw her last. And if you think her disappearance has something to do with the car accident, then we need to revisit that, too.”
Lacey rubbed her nose. “I’m sure Georgia knows something. I’ve called her several times and she swears she doesn’t know where Bethany is, but I think she’s hiding something.” She clenched a fist and smacked her thigh. “I just can’t get her to tell me anything. And the police refuse—” She broke off again and Mason could tell she was having a hard time keeping it together. She was obviously exhausted.
He had a feeling a few sleepless nights were in his immediate future, too. “Grab your stuff. Let’s go talk to Georgia.”
Gathering her bag and the picture, she stood. “She’s probably in school.”
“Then let’s get her out of class.”
“What do we do after that?”
“Visit the police station and see what we can find out about the wreck.”
*
Stepping outside his home, headed for the car, Lacey did her best to shove the hurt down. Old memories threatened to overwhelm her. The fear of finding out she was pregnant. Mason’s rejection…
As Mason circled the car to open the passenger door, he paused.
The sudden tense set of his shoulders set off her internal alarms. “What is it?”
His arm reached across the windshield to pull something out from under the wiper blade. “This.” He held it by the very edge of one corner.
Stepping around him to look at the object in his hand, she gasped. “Another picture? Of us? That’s from the yearbook, too! What’s going on? How did someone know I’d be coming here?”
“Get in the car.”
Eyes peeled behind him for any movement or suspicious person, he opened the door and practically shoved her in. Then he bolted around to the driver’s side. He set the picture on the dash and got on the phone as he pulled out of the driveway.
Lacey listened to him bark orders and ask questions of an unidentified person as she watched the familiar scenery whiz by, but her brain didn’t process it. She was too busy begging God for her daughter’s life. And thanking Him that Mason had agreed to help her.
And he’d agreed before he’d found the picture on his car. Who was doing this? Was the person following them even now?
She looked in the side mirror, but saw no cars behind them. The fact didn’t comfort her. She had a feeling things had just gotten started with Bethany’s disappearance and whoever had left the pictures. The thought made her stomach roll.
He hung up and looked at her. “I’ve called Detective Catelyn Santino. She’s a homicide detective…” At her gasp, he broke off then rushed to reassure her. “No, it’s okay. She also investigates other stuff, too, depending on her caseload. She said she could help out with this one.”
He made another phone call and Lacey heard him trying to arrange with his boss to be officially on the case. Finding fugitives was only one part of a marshal’s duties. Would the powers that be let him search for a missing teen who hadn’t done anything wrong and had possibly been kidnapped? Would they let him search for the person who’d left the pictures?
He hung up.
“Well?” The word popped from her mouth. She noticed he didn’t tell his boss it was his own child he wanted to look for. Interesting. He was probably still in shock.
Frustration chiseled his features into a block of stone.
“My boss won’t officially assign me the case, although he can’t dictate what I do with my time off the clock. Technically, I’m not cleared to go back to work for another couple of weeks, but that doesn’t matter. Bethany will have my full attention until we get her home. And in spite of the fact that you didn’t think the cops took you seriously, they did their job and filed her as a missing person.”
“They did?” Tears clogged her throat and she cleared it. “I really didn’t think they’d do anything. I thought they probably just stuck her information on a desk somewhere and figured she was a runaway who’d come home later.”
A grim smile crossed his lips. “They may have thought about it, but they’re taking it a little more seriously now. Especially when I explained about the two pictures. We’ll turn them over to the investigating detectives as soon as we get there.”
“How did you get them to do that? To listen to you?”
He slanted her a glance. “I’m a marshal, Lacey, I do have some pull in law enforcement, you know.” He sighed.
“Catelyn’s going to ask to be assigned to Bethany’s disappearance and doesn’t think it’ll be a problem. Her husband, Joseph, is FBI and an expert in finding missing people. She’s contacting him, too. Before we go to the high school, she wants to talk to you.”
He paused and Lacey looked at him suspiciously. “That’s great. Finally, we’re getting some attention. So, what’s wrong?”
His fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “Catelyn has a new partner.”
At the brooding look on his face, she knew. Swallowing the sudden surge of nausea, she asked, “Daniel Ackerman?”
“Yes,” he clipped out, then blurted, “Is Bethany why you left town?”
She froze. Did she want to get into this now?
“Lacey?”
His tight tone warned her this wasn’t going to be easy. She sighed and looked at him. At his strong hands curled around the steering wheel. What was easy was remembering how much she’d loved him.
How it felt to have those fingers curled around hers, pulling her along behind him down by the lake where they used to sneak off to trade sweet kisses.
How cherished she felt when he cupped her chin to bring her lips to his….
She blinked against the rush of tears. “Yes. Mostly.” But also because she’d been forced into it by parents who were ashamed their only child had gotten pregnant, that she had become a statistic her father preached against with alarming regularity.
So, yes, she’d left because of Bethany and Daniel and what Mason had believed her capable of. She’d also been devastated, crushed.
And so lonely, she’d wanted to die. She’d missed him so much, especially in the first few years of Bethany’s life. But the fact that he’d dismissed her love so easily, had believed lies about her so readily, had nearly destroyed her.
She clamped her lips together and looked out the window. Since being back in town, she’d managed to avoid running into Daniel. She’d had a couple of close calls, but each time had spotted him before he’d spotted her and she’d escaped undetected.
Now, none of that mattered. None of it. Bethany was all that mattered and finding her was where she’d keep her focus.
He simply grunted and much to her relief said nothing more.
The drive to the station ended a tense silence. Lacey looked up at the building and prayed the people inside had the ability to find Bethany…alive.
As she walked into the building, Lacey felt hope tremble inside her. Please, God, she silently prayed. Please use these people to lead us to Bethany.
The air-conditioning was a blessed relief from the June heat, and she relished the coolness blowing across her skin.
Then she felt guilty. Was Bethany hot? Sweating and dreaming of a glass of water? Was she in pain? Did she need a doctor?
Was she even alive?
Once again tears sprang to the surface and she quickly shoved those thoughts aside.
“Come in here. It’s an interrogation room, but we can use it,” Mason said as he motioned her in. “Catelyn said she and Joseph would meet us here.”
“So they’re officially investigating everything, right?”
“Yes. And so is Daniel, of course.”
“Of course,” she murmured. She prayed she could keep her cool when Daniel appeared in front of her. Prayed she wouldn’t say anything she shouldn’t.
Mason pulled out the chair for her and she slid into it. The spicy scent of his aftershave tugged at her. Just breathing it in brought back memories that caused both joy and pain.
A light tingling at the nape of her neck caused her to turn and look up at him. The flush on his cheeks gave him away. He’d reverted to an old gesture he’d had when they were dating. Pulling her hair up from her collar, brushing his fingers against her neck.
Her breathing hitched and she almost couldn’t look away from him. Then he broke eye contact as the door opened and Catelyn stepped into the room.
She smiled at Mason. “Glad to see you’ve recovered.”
“For all intents and purposes.” He gestured to Lacey. “This is Lacey Gibson.”
Catelyn smiled a sympathetic welcome and shook Lacey’s hand. “Joseph and Daniel will be here soon.” She sat opposite Mason and Lacey.
No sooner had she taken a seat when the door opened again and the man she assumed to be Joseph entered. Dark hair and dark eyes set off his Italian features. Lacey thought she could understand why Catelyn had fallen for the good-looking FBI agent and married him.
Then they were asking her for her story once again. She repeated exactly what she’d told Mason, leaving nothing out and then added the information about the note that had appeared on his car.
Mason took over from there. “I want to be in on this.”
Joseph studied him then nodded. “Sure. How much time do you have before you have to be back at work?”
“Long enough to help y’all find Bethany.”
Lacey wondered why he hadn’t told them Bethany was his daughter. Should she mention it?
Immediately, she decided not to say anything. That would be Mason’s call.
Catelyn leaned forward. “Daniel Ackerman is my partner now and he’ll be helping, too. He got called away right before you arrived so I’ll fill him in later. Do you have a recent picture?”
Lacey nodded and reached into her purse. She’d hoped she wouldn’t need the five-by-seven print. The one she’d chosen just in case she needed to have flyers printed up. Chilled, she shivered. Never in a million years would she have imagined she’d be in this situation.
Just looking at the photo choked her throat and brought an overwhelming longing to wrap her arms around her girl.
Catelyn took the picture out and she felt Mason shift so he could see it. His gasp sent her heart thudding.
CHAPTER THREE
Mason felt the breath leave him.
He no longer wondered if Bethany was his. A feminine version of himself smiled back at him. A full-body shot, the picture showed a girl who was tall and lanky, with reddish-blond hair and vivid blue eyes. She was beautiful. He could see some of her mother in her, too, like the light dusting of freckles across her nose and the shape of her face, but there was no doubt she was his.
Somehow having that confirmed made it all the more real.
He had a daughter. He wondered if she liked the same things as he did. What kind of talents did she have? What were her hobbies? What…
“Do I need to get flyers printed?” Lacey’s shaky voice dropped him into the present with a thud.
Joseph nodded. “It would probably be best. You’re new in town—or at least Bethany is—so it would help to have her face plastered on as many surfaces as possible.”
Mason saw Lacey swallow hard. Her hand trembled as she took the picture back. Her eyes lingered on the photo before returning it to her purse.
“All right,” Catelyn said. “Here’s the game plan. Lacey, you said the last person to see Bethany was pr
obably Georgia Boyles. She’s who we need to start with.”
Mason glanced at the wall clock. “Summer school’s almost over. If we get over there within the next thirty minutes, we can catch her.” He looked at Lacey. “Does she walk, drive or ride the bus?”
“She drives. A blue Mustang, I think.”
Joseph blew out a breath. “All right. I’ll work on things from this end.” He looked at Mason. “You and Catelyn can work the field if you’re willing.”
“Oh, I’m willing.” He was more than willing. In fact, no one had better try to stop him.
And if the look on Lacey’s face was any indication, she wasn’t going to be left behind, either. Her arguments with Catelyn proved him right. “I’m going.” Her jaw jutted and she narrowed her eyes. “I’ll just follow you, if you won’t let me go.”
Catelyn sighed. “I could have you arrested for obstruction.”
At this, Lacey’s throat bobbed. “Then I’ll post bail and keep going.” She sighed. “Look, I promise I won’t be in the way. I just have to do this.”
“Don’t you have a job?”
“Yes, but I’ve already called and requested some time off. Finding Bethany is all that matters. I have my cell phone. If she calls, she’ll call that.”
Catelyn finally gave in, albeit grudgingly, and the three of them headed for their cars. Mason didn’t want to leave his vehicle behind so Catelyn drove separately. Lacey rode with him. Interesting—he’d have thought she’d have taken the opportunity to put some space between them and climbed in with Catelyn.
Then again, she had come to him for help. To find her daughter. His daughter. He was having a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact, but the picture cinched it for him. Bethany was his.
Mason followed Catelyn to the high school. As it came into view, memories he thought he’d buried hit him. Hard.
He pulled into the office parking lot and turned off the engine. Lacey bolted from the vehicle as though she couldn’t get out fast enough. She must have been flooded with the same memories.
Then she paused, her eyes locked on something in the distance.
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