Christmas Cover-Up

by Lynette Eason

  Katie noticed Danny Jackson staring at Frank. When he saw her watching, he shook his head. “I didn’t know, I promise.”

  Katie stepped up to the gurney and looked down at the man who’d ripped her family apart. “Why?”

  He opened his eyes and glared. “It doesn’t matter now, does it?”

  “Of course it matters!” Her fist balled and she was ready to slug him. “Where is she? Is she alive?” The question ripped from her. Frank looked away and Katie grabbed his good shoulder and shook it. He gasped. “Is she alive!”

  He met her gaze. “No. She’s not.”

  Her knees buckled, and she felt Jordan’s hands catch her on her way to the concrete. “No. No, no, no. Please…”

  Jordan helped her back to her feet and away from Frank. She couldn’t stop the sobs that choked her. Jordan held her, then shook her. Why wouldn’t he just let her give in and have a moment of grief?

  “Katie! Listen to me!”

  She hiccupped and shuddered. “What!”

  “I don’t think she’s dead.”

  Katie drew in a ragged breath and stared. “Why?”

  “Because of what we found at his house.”

  “You searched his house?”

  “Yeah. And now that we got him on all kinds of charges including attempted murder, we won’t have any trouble getting a search warrant.”

  Katie wiped her eyes and sniffed. “What’d you find?” She watched the ambulance pull away from the parking lot.

  “Evidence that he took Lucy.” He gripped her hands. “His niece died a few months before Lucy was snatched. Danny talked about how inconsolable the family was and how Frank nearly fell apart, but that the job was the only thing that kept him going.”

  “So he took Lucy as an attempt to replace his niece?”

  “That’s what we think.”

  “So where is she?”

  “I’m going to take a wild guess and say he took her and gave her to his sister.”

  “Where do they live? Let’s go.”

  Jordan checked his phone. “I’ve got her address right here.” He placed a hand on her arm to stop her from heading to the car. “Let me call and see if she’s home.” He looked around. “Plus, you’re not done here.”

  Katie took another breath and closed her eyes. She had to get herself together. Hope flared like a spotlight, bright and piercing. Lucy might be alive. If she was, she’d just celebrated her twenty-first birthday two weeks ago. And she might even be somewhere close by. Her fingers itched to pick up the phone and call her parents, but she couldn’t do that until she knew for sure. She wouldn’t dare take a chance on raising their hopes only to have them dashed.

  It seemed to take forever, but Katie managed to get through the wrap of the crime scene, giving her statement and chugging a bottle of water.

  Impatience zipped through her. She looked at Jordan. “Are you ready?”

  “She apparently still lives with her par—” He shot her a look. “The family that she—” He held his hands up.

  Katie bit her lip. “I guess they’re her parents now, aren’t they?”

  Jordan nodded. “I’m sorry. I know this is a hard one, but she’s lived with them for fourteen years. If they raised her as their own, then yes, she probably thinks of them as her parents.”

  “Okay. I know you’re right. I’ll just have to remember that.” She paused. “In fact, we probably should talk to her parents first and ask them the best way to approach telling Lucy the truth about her past.”

  Jordan pressed the phone to his ear. “She’s not answering her phone.”

  “Then I’ll sit outside her house until someone comes home.”

  The four-hour drive to Raleigh, North Carolina, passed mostly in silence broken by Katie’s phone calls to the Banks residence every thirty minutes.

  Katie was glad for Jordan’s company. He drove to the address he’d gotten from his buddy at Quantico. Bill and Lindsay Banks lived in an older middle-class neighborhood with a lot of ranch-style houses on one-acre lots. The Banks’ still hadn’t answered when Jordan pulled to the curb of the house.

  Katie’s phone rang, and she glanced at the ID, then at him. “It’s my parents’ number.”

  “Go ahead and answer it. We’re just going to be doing a waiting game for the next little while. I’ll step out of the car and give you some privacy if you want.”

  Katie shook her head and clicked the phone off. “No. I don’t want to talk to them yet. I want to be able to tell them I found Lucy and when they can see her.”

  “You think finding Lucy is going to make your mother love you again?” He asked the question softly and she winced. He grimaced. “Never mind. I’m sorry.”

  “No,” she said, her voice low. “It’s a valid question. The answer is—I don’t know.”

  “But you keep trying.”

  She gave a sad smile. “I don’t know how to stop at this point.” She took a deep breath. “However, I do think I’m going to have to come to terms with the fact that my mother may never change, and I’m going to have to figure out a way to accept that.”

  “And forgive yourself for Lucy’s kidnapping?”

  Another wince. “Yes.” She shot him a look. “Just like you need to forgive yourself for the death of that little girl.”

  Jordan’s fingers flexed on the steering wheel. “I know it wasn’t my fault. In my head I know that.”

  “I understand. I’ve finally come to see that Lucy’s kidnapping wasn’t my fault. I didn’t cause it. Someone else chose to do that and blaming myself is exactly the wrong thing to do. God doesn’t blame me. My mother may blame me, but God doesn’t, and that’s what I have to get through to my heart.”

  “You’ve been doing a lot of thinking.”

  “I have.” She gripped his hand. “Jordan, that little girl’s death wasn’t your fault. God doesn’t blame you.”

  His throat worked and he nodded. “I’m starting to see that.” He glanced at her. “Thanks to you.”

  Her phone rang and she jerked. “My dad again.”

  “Answer him, Katie. Talk to him.”

  With a deep sigh, Katie pressed the button. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Katie, I hope this is a good time.” Her mother’s voice echoed in her head. For a moment, shock held Katie speechless. Her mother had called her.

  She cleared her throat. “Hi, Mom. I have time. What can I do for you?”

  After a slight hesitation, her mother said, “I wanted to know if you’d like to come to lunch on Sunday.”

  Katie felt tears spring to her eyes. “I would love to, but—” She bit her lip. No sense in pushing things too soon. She’d ask her father about her mother’s out-of-character behavior later.

  “But why am I calling?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m just glad you did.” She swallowed hard against another rush of tears.

  “It does matter and maybe this isn’t the time or the way to handle it, but to put it bluntly, I’m tired of being afraid.”

  “What?”

  Her mother cleared her throat. “Your father told me what happened with you. How someone threatened to hurt you if you didn’t stop looking for Lucy.” A sob and then a shaky breath filtered through. “And it was like a slap in the face. Since the day you decided to become a cop, I’ve been preparing myself to lose you, too. When your father told me what you were going through, with the fire, then the car wreck, it was a wake-up call. I’ve been consumed by fear and I refuse to live that way any longer. And I needed to tell you.”

  Katie sat stunned, unable to think, breathe, move. She finally let out a small gasp.

  “I owe you an apology, Katie, and I didn’t want to tell you this over the phone, but I didn’t want to wait another minute, either. I love you
and I’m so sorry for not being the mother you needed.”

  Tears rolled down Katie’s cheeks. How long had she waited to hear those words? A car pulled into the Banks’ driveway and Katie sucked in a deep breath.

  “I love you, too, Mom. Thank you for calling and telling me. I needed to hear it.”

  They hung up with promises to get together soon. Katie looked at Jordan, still in shock. “Did that just happen?”

  “Sounds like it.”

  “Could you hear?”

  A light flush highlighted his cheeks. “Sorry, but yes. Every word.”

  “She loves me,” Katie whispered. “I did all I could to earn her love, but she didn’t care about all that stuff.”

  “You can’t earn love, Katie. And I think that’s a hard lesson for all of us to learn sometimes. Love is a gift and you can’t earn a gift.”

  “Ephesians two, verse eight,” she whispered.

  “What does it say?”

  “‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.’” Katie lifted her eyes to his. “She just offered me the gift of her love, a love I was trying so hard to earn, and I’m about to explode.”

  Jordan reached out and placed a hand under her chin. Her eyes met his very intense and direct gaze. “What’s not to love?” he asked softly.

  Katie wondered if she’d ever be able to draw a deep breath again. Her heart felt too full. Like it had grown several sizes and was squeezing her lungs. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying…we have a lot to talk about. After you figure out if your sister is here.”

  Katie almost started laughing at the timing of everything. Instead, she gave a hiccupping sniff and took the tissue Jordan handed to her. “Let me get myself cleaned up and then we can go in.” She mopped and scrubbed, then inspected the damage in the visor mirror. “It’s a good thing I don’t normally wear makeup,” she muttered.

  Jordan smiled and opened his door. “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  She climbed out of the car and walked toward the house.

  * * *

  Jordan took a deep breath as he stood beside Katie and watched her rap on the front door. This was it. They had no idea if Lucy was here or not. But someone was home.

  Footsteps sounded and then they were face-to-face with a woman in her late forties. Jordan thought about the profile Seth had sent him. One he’d had to skim fast. But he recognized Lindsay Banks.

  Katie smiled. A quick twitch of her lips. “I’m Katie Randall. I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time.”

  “What’s this about?”

  “It’s about your daughter.”

  “Lucy?”

  “Um…yes, ma’am. Lucy.” Jordan heard her choke on the name, but she forced it out.

  “Is she all right?” Stark terror stood out in the woman’s eyes.

  Jordan said, “She’s just fine as far as we know, but we have some information we need to share with you. Is she here?”

  “No. She’s at work.”

  Jordan could tell they were scaring the poor woman to death. Katie apparently sensed it, too. “Mrs. Banks, could we just come in and sit down?”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t let strangers in my house.”

  Katie sighed and flicked a look at Jordan. She pulled out her badge and showed it to the woman. Mrs. Banks sucked in a deep breath and pressed a hand to her lips. “Do I need to call my husband?”

  “If you’d like to. He needs to hear this, too.” It might be better to have both of them there. Were they in on the kidnapping? Did they know what Frank had been up to? Her gut said no, Frank acted on his own, but Katie wanted to know that for sure.

  Mrs. Banks stepped back and opened the door. Jordan followed Katie and the woman into a formal living area. She gestured to the couch, but didn’t sit. Katie took one end of the sofa and Jordan slid into one of the straight-backed wooden chairs. He figured Mrs. Banks would feel better without him looming over her.

  She crossed her arms and let her gaze swing back and forth between them. “Now, what’s this all about? Is Lucy in trouble?”

  “Not at all,” Jordan said. “Are you going to call your husband?”

  She hesitated. “Tell me what this is about first.”

  Katie ran a hand through her hair and sent up a silent prayer for the right words. “Mrs. Banks, we know you lost a daughter when she was seven years old.”

  The woman’s eyes went wide and she sank into the nearest chair. “Yes. That’s right.”

  “And we know soon after that you took in a young girl about the same age.”

  “Yes. Lucy. Her parents were killed in a fire and there were no other living relatives.” She gave a small laugh and rubbed her head. “It’s just amazing how it all happened, really. I was grieving for Jenny.” Her eyes teared up. “I still do, but—” a tremulous smile curved her lips “—my brother, Frank, is a detective in Spartanburg. Frank appeared on my doorstep with little Lucy, saying she needed a home. When I saw her, I couldn’t say no.” She sighed. “She saved my life.” She twisted her fingers. “You see, I couldn’t have any more children after Jenny, so…she was my world and when she died…”

  Katie reached over and patted the woman’s hand. “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Banks. I can’t imagine how awful that was for you and Mr. Banks.”

  Katie had a sneaking suspicion that the Banks’ had no idea that Frank had kidnapped Lucy. “Did you not see news reports on Lucy? I know she made CNN and other major news networks.”

  Mrs. Banks grimaced. “We don’t watch the news. Too depressing.”

  A fact Frank would have known.

  Mrs. Banks closed her eyes. “I don’t talk about Jenny’s death very much, simply because it was a horrible time.” When she opened her eyes, her grief faded and she smiled. “But Lucy was—” She paused. “Lucy was our gift straight from God.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Katie cleared her throat, but the knot that had developed refused to budge. She talked around it. “Mrs. Banks, we have reason to believe that your Lucy is really Lucy Randall.”

  The woman’s forehead creased. “Who’s that?”

  “A young girl who was taken from her home fourteen years ago.”

  “Taken.” Mrs. Banks gaped. “And you think—”

  “Ma’am, I know this is hard to process, but we have evidence that Frank Miller kidnapped Lucy Randall and gave her to you.”

  Jordan’s soft words filled the room.

  “Evidence?” she whispered. “No. Oh, no, please…”

  “Would you like to call your husband? There’s more.”

  With a shaky hand, Mrs. Banks pulled a cell phone from her jeans pocket and dialed a number. “Bill, there’s a bit of an emergency at home. I need you to come.” She listened. “No. I’m not hurt. Just come and drive carefully. You don’t need to speed.” She hung up and looked at Katie, then Jordan. “What’s this evidence?”

  Katie exchanged a glance with Jordan and decided to just be honest. “Frank’s been arrested for murder and attempted murder. We have someone who puts his unmarked car at the scene of the kidnapping, and he basically admitted to taking her.”

  The woman’s face went a pale gray. Katie had to contain herself from demanding Mrs. Banks get on the phone and call Lucy and tell her to come home. First she had to help these people deal with this shock. Then she could see Lucy.

  “Frank? Arrested?” She sounded dazed.

  Katie bit her lip. The news was too much. She should have had Mrs. Banks call her husband right away. She slid over and took the woman’s hand. “We’ll wait for your husband to get here to finish this.”

  She nodded and for the next twenty minutes, they sat. Just when Katie th
ought she couldn’t bear the silence a minute longer, the front door opened and Mr. Banks bolted into the house. “Linds? Where are you?”

  “Here, Bill.” Mrs. Banks stood and her husband whirled. His salt-and-pepper hair was askew, as though he’d run his hands through it repeatedly on the drive home. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “They think Lucy is—” She couldn’t say another word as sobs overtook her.

  Bill Banks looked at Katie and Jordan. Katie introduced herself and began the story once more.

  When she finished, the couple simply stared at her in shock.

  “So you’re saying my birth family is still alive?” A soft voice from the dining room grabbed their attention. Katie jumped to her feet.

  Mrs. Banks cried out. “How much did you hear?”

  “All of it. Daddy called and said there was something wrong at home and he wasn’t sure what, but it sounded serious. I came right here. I heard you talking and didn’t want to interrupt and—” she spread her hands “—I heard everything.”

  Katie stared at the young woman. A stranger and yet…familiar, too. “Lucy,” she whispered.

  Lucy looked at her. “So I was kidnapped?” She stared at her parents. “You told me they were dead. That they all died.” She wrinkled her brow. “I remember them, you know. In snatches and bits and pieces, but I remember them.”

  Mrs. Banks sobbed against her husband’s shoulder.

  Katie sucked in a deep breath. “Lucy, what do you remember about that day?”

  “He took me from the yard. He was very nice, but very firm. He was a police officer and told me I had to go with him. So I did.” She swiped a hand through her hair. “He became my uncle. Uncle Frank. I remember being sad and missing my family. My sister. Katie.” She whispered the name, and Katie bit back a sob.

  “That’s me. I’m Katie,” she said softly.

  Lucy’s brow rose and her eyes narrowed as horror entered them. “You’re my sister?”

  “Yes.”

  “I was kidnapped.”

  Katie nodded. “And I’ve been looking for you ever since.”

  Lucy’s gaze flew from Katie to Jordan to her parents and back to Katie. “I need to sit down.”