Mermaid Moon

by Colleen Coble

  “Of course. I was just waiting to take him home, but now that you’re here, I see I can go.”

  “I’m sure he’d want to see you.”

  “Not likely.” He rose and brushed past her so closely that she nearly lost her balance.

  He took only a couple of steps before he wheeled around and skewered her with a glance so filled with dislike that she took a step back. For a moment she almost thought he would hit her.

  “Why don’t you just crawl back into whatever hole you came from and leave my son alone?” His voice was a hiss filled with venom. “We don’t want you here.”

  Her throat closed, and she fumbled for something to say. How did she even combat that kind of hatred? “You don’t really know me, Mr. O’Connor. You were always working when we were in high school, and I only saw you a handful of times. How can you even profess to know what I’m like or label me?”

  “All I have to do is look at your actions. You ruined Kevin’s life. If not for you he would have been a doctor by now. Now he’s stuck in this same podunk place as me without hope of ever having a better life. You tried to trap him.”

  “He’s happy, Mr. O’Connor. He didn’t want to be a doctor. Being outdoors and making a difference for Maine wildlife is what he wanted to do all along. You should take that as a compliment. He saw what you did and envied it.”

  The older man’s lip curled and he snorted. “Ridiculous. Tell me, were you ever really pregnant, or did you just say that so he would drop out of school to marry you?”

  The strength went out of her at his accusation. “If that was all I’d wanted, wouldn’t I have kept up the lie until we were married? Instead, I lost the baby and told Kevin. He still wanted to marry me, b-but Mom died right after that.”

  None of her words made an impact. He had his own view of the events, and nothing she said would change his opinion of her. She turned and rushed for the women’s room, and once the door swished shut behind her, she went to splash cold water in her face.

  She didn’t belong here. Not anymore. She glanced at her watch. Now she was going to be late getting Haylie from swim practice.

  Julia parked down the street from the indoor pool in Summer Harbor. Dusk was on the horizon, and the sky glimmered with color. Today was the day she’d snatch the kid. She’d watched enough to know the girl often sneaked away from the other kids after practice. She was always alone, so it was a great time to grab her as long as her mother didn’t arrive early. Julia had dyed her hair black, and she used darker makeup to disguise herself. It should be good enough in the dark that the kid wouldn’t be able to identify her later.

  The kids left one by one, and Julia watched the clock. Mallory could get here anytime. She had to get the kid as quickly as possible. She’d already left the note on the steps back at the game warden’s house.

  Finally Haylie came out and walked off down the street a bit. Julia jumped out of the car, popped the trunk, then walked toward the girl. “Hello, have you seen a puppy come this way? He’s a Yorkie, about so big.” Julia used her hands to measure out the size of a small puppy. “I need to find him before dark. The owls will be out and he’ll be dinner.”

  The kid possessed a worried expression. “No, I haven’t. I love Yorkies. Where have you looked?”

  “Up and down the road. He ran off when I opened the door, and I couldn’t grab him. Little rascal. His name is Chance. How about you go that way and call him, and I’ll go this way?” She pointed toward the car.

  “Okay. I’ll have to get back in a few minutes though. My mom will be here.” Haylie went down the street. “Here, puppy. Come here, Chance.”

  Julia took a quick look around. No one seemed to have heard her. Circling around on the other side of the road, Julia crept along the tree line, then darted across the street to crouch by the open trunk. She took out the strips of duct tape she’d prepared and waited, her pulse throbbing in her throat.

  “Here, puppy.” Haylie’s coaxing voice was near.

  Julia saw the white flash of Haylie’s sneakers, and she reached out and grabbed her, slapping a strip of duct tape over her mouth before she could scream. She quickly trussed up her wrists with duct tape, then tipped the struggling girl into the trunk.

  Haylie tried to kick her, but Julia grabbed her legs and duct taped them together. She slammed the trunk lid down, then hurried to slide under the wheel and get away before anyone noticed. Luckily, no neighbors were around.

  The girl’s terrified eyes bothered her, but Julia put what she’d done out of her mind and drove the speed limit out to the remote cabin she’d found. Brush scraped along the side of her car, but it was a good sign that no one had been out here since she’d discovered this abandoned place on a walk. She hoped not to have to use it for long. Surely Mallory would walk into the trap when she read the note Julia had left on the front porch.

  She let the car roll to a stop outside the cabin. It was a big place, but no one had lived in it for a long time. Tonight in the dark it appeared positively forbidding, and she wished she’d thought this through a little more.

  Julia got out and left her door ajar so the light would spill out. She’d left a full kerosene lamp on the big porch along with matches, and she lit it. Ignoring the thump of Haylie’s feet hitting the trunk’s lid, Julia carried the lamp inside and looked around. No one here. She’d cleaned the place up as best as she could, but it was far from the comfort of a Hyatt.

  It would have to do. Holding the light high, she went back outside and popped the trunk. Haylie’s terrified eyes haunted Julia again, and she looked away. She set the lantern in the trunk and undid the duct tape from the girl’s ankles, then jerked her out of the trunk.

  Haylie wobbled a little, then found her balance. Tears trailed down her cheeks, and a muffled cry came from behind the duct tape, though she’d worked on loosening it during the ride.

  “I’m going to take the tape off your mouth, but no one can hear you scream so don’t even bother, okay?” Julia waited for the girl to nod, then took hold of one edge of the tape and jerked it off.

  Fresh tears ran down Haylie’s face, and she gasped at the pain. “Please, let me go,” she whimpered.

  Julia hardened her heart at the kid’s terror. Sometimes you had to hurt other people to get what you wanted.

  THIRTY-FIVE

  Where was she? Mallory’s heart pounded as she pulled to a stop in front of the pool. Darkness shrouded the tree-lined street, and the steps were empty. “Do you see her?”

  Kevin looked around, then shook his head. “We’re a few minutes late. Maybe she stepped inside.”

  “Or maybe Carol picked her up and forgot to tell me. She knew I’d gone to the hospital. I’ll call.” She punched in the number, and Carol answered on the second ring. “Did you get Haylie?”

  “Haylie? No. I thought you would on your way home. By the time I could have gotten across the water to Summer Harbor, it would have been seven. Isn’t she there?” Panic simmered in Carol’s voice.

  “I’ll go inside. I’m sure it’s fine.” But dread tightened Mallory’s gut as she ended the call.

  “I’ll go with you.” Kevin opened the door and got out. They both went up the steps to the door. He pulled on it, but it didn’t budge. “It’s locked. Could she have caught a ride with someone?”

  “Not without calling me first.” Her mouth went dry, and she cupped her hands to her mouth. “Haylie!” No answer.

  Her cell phone rang and she grabbed it, exhaling with relief when she saw Carol’s name on the screen. “You found her?”

  “Mallory, someone has her! I found a note on the steps outside.” Carol’s voice was shaking. “Let me read it to you. ‘If you want to see your daughter again, go to your house at Bangor and wait for my call. Don’t tell the police or anyone else.’ ”

  Her knees went weak and her vision blurred. “Kevin is with me. We’ll find her. We have to find her.” She grabbed his arm and he steadied her. “Someone has Haylie! How can that be? P
eople were right here.” She heard the edge of hysteria in her voice and struggled to dampen it as she told him about Carol’s call. She needed every bit of wisdom she possessed to figure out what to do.

  “I’ll call 911, then look around. Stay calm.” He pulled out his phone.

  She grabbed his hand. “What if he kills her because we called the police? He said not to call them.”

  “I’ll at least talk to the sheriff. We can’t do this alone. Stay here.”

  “I’m coming with you!” Without waiting for more of an argument, she rushed down the steps, calling for her daughter. Maybe it was a practical joke meant to scare her. She’d surely find Haylie sitting somewhere waiting for her.

  Staring into the shadows on either side, she rushed down the street. Kevin called to her, but she just picked up speed. She wasn’t going inside. Haylie was out here somewhere, needing her. About a hundred feet from the pool building, she caught sight of something gleaming in the moonlight.

  Mallory sank to her knees in the gravel beside it. The pieces of stone bit into her knees through the jeans she wore, but she welcomed the pain.

  “He has her,” she said as Kevin knelt beside her. “That’s her bracelet. She wears it nearly every day.” She couldn’t summon the courage to pick it up.

  “I’ve seen it.” Kevin pulled out his cell phone. “Don’t touch it. I’m calling Danny. He’ll want to run it for prints.”

  Of course. As Kevin explained what had happened to the sheriff, she stared at the silver bracelet winking back at her from the wash of moonlight. She’d made it for Haylie after Brian died, and her daughter only took it off long enough to shower.

  He hung up and slipped his arm around her. “Danny will be here in about half an hour.”

  “Where could he have taken her? You know every inch of this countryside.”

  He gestured out at the darkness. “There’s a lot of area up here to cover. I can’t even count the many places he could have her stashed. Unless we have some kind of lead, it’ll be hard to find him. I think we have to see what he says when he calls.” He cupped her face in his hands. “We’ll get her back, Mal. Hold on to your faith.”

  Her eyes burned, and she forced a swallow past the constriction in her throat. “I’ll try.”

  Kevin’s house swarmed with sheriff’s deputies inside and out. Floodlights turned the night into day as men and women searched for clues about Haylie’s captor. The voices of the searchers carried on the cold wind of night. Kevin stood with the sheriff on the porch as he finished telling Danny what he knew about the abduction, which wasn’t much.

  Danny popped a mint, then put the Altoids tin back in his shirt pocket. “This has to be related to her father’s death and the arson at the house. We still don’t know what the kidnapper wants.”

  Kevin watched a deputy with a metal detector sweep the front yard. He told the sheriff about Len Nevin. “I think the boat is the key. How did Edmund get that kind of money?”

  “I’ll make finding out a priority.” He clamped his big hand on Kevin’s shoulder. “Going to go check on progress.” He was so tall Danny had to duck a bit to avoid the porch ceiling light as he went toward the steps.

  The boat, always the boat. Kevin thought again of Mallory’s suspicion that Edmund had gotten the money from her biological father. Where had that money come from?

  Kevin rubbed his head and turned toward the door as it opened. Mallory looked out over the hectic scene and stopped. “Did they find anything?”

  He stepped aside. “I don’t know yet. They’re bagging anything of interest, but the forensic lab will have to go through it all to see if there’s anything that might direct us. How are you doing?”

  “How do you think?” Her voice wobbled. “I want to be out there in the thick of things looking for her.”

  Carol twisted her hands together. “I’m a little worried about going back to Bangor. Someone broke into her house looking for her. How do I keep her safe?”

  “Take her to your house, not hers. The sheriff will call the Bangor police and ask them to stake out the house for protection. If they won’t, I’ll figure out something. The main thing is for the perp to see you leaving, that she’s obeying orders.”

  Mallory looked up at him, her dark eyes haunted. “He will release her, won’t he? If I do everything he says?”

  What did he say to that? There were no assurances. “I think he will.”

  She turned and clutched his shirt with both hands. “What if he doesn’t? I have to get her back, Kevin. I have to!”

  He gently settled both hands on her shoulders and pulled her against his chest. Her body trembled like a frightened rabbit. “We’ll find her, Mal. Stay strong.”

  “I’m trying,” she said in a choked whisper. “But what if . . .?”

  “Don’t think about the what-ifs.”

  “Maybe I should let Richard Blake know. He might be able to call in some detectives. Maybe the FBI. He has connections.”

  “That’s not a bad idea. Want me to do it?” He pressed a kiss against the top of her head.

  “I’ll do it on the way to Bangor. I just want to find her, Kevin.”

  “There’s an Amber Alert out, and the entire state is looking for her. We’ll find her.” He held her tightly against his chest and prayed his comforting words were the truth.

  THIRTY-SIX

  The clock on the mantel chimed three times, and Carol felt a rising sense of panic as she paced Kevin’s living room. They had to find Haylie, they just had to. Everyone wanted to rush Mallory to Bangor as ordered, but it was wrong to leave now. Carol just knew it.

  Sheriff Colton stepped closer to her. “How you doing, Miss Carol?”

  “How could someone snatch her like this? And without a trace!”

  The sheriff hiked up his belt a bit, then sighed. “These guys have to be professionals. The man waited for the right opportunity, then darted in and grabbed her.”

  “But why Haylie? She’s just a kid. She’s not a danger.” Carol’s voice wobbled, and she fought hard to hold her composure.

  “That’s the million-dollar question.”

  Carol thought through everything she knew. Karen had been shot fifteen years ago, and Edmund had been murdered recently. The house had been torched to destroy evidence, but only one kind of evidence tied everything together. It was knowledge she’d been trying to push away for a month, but she had to face up to it now and admit the truth.

  She looked into the living room where Mallory sat with Kevin. The pallor on her dear face tore at Carol’s heart. “I need to talk to Mallory.”

  The blood roared in her ears as she went to kneel in front of Mallory and Kevin. How did she even begin? Mallory would think it a betrayal, and maybe it was. Carol hadn’t thought it through when she first embarked on this plan, though she’d often thought of this moment. “I think I know what it might be all about.” The constriction in her throat grew, and she swallowed it down. “I think it might be related to your adoption, Mallory.”

  Mallory’s lips trembled. “My adoption? I don’t understand. Why take Haylie?”

  Carol’s eyes burned, and try as she might, she couldn’t keep the tears from falling down her face. “There are things I . . . I have to tell you. Important things that might help us find her.”

  Mallory tucked a long strand of hair behind one ear. “What could you know about this, Carol?”

  “More than you imagine. I’m your mother, Mallory.”

  Her daughter’s mouth went slack, and those beautiful brown eyes widened. She went even whiter than she’d been as she gave her head a slight shake. Her hands came up as if to ward off an attack. “You’re Olivia Nelson?”

  Carol nodded. “I started using my middle name after I got out of prison.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Mallory’s voice was hoarse.

  Kevin’s arm curved around Mallory’s shoulders, and he pulled her into a protective embrace. “This is a crazy time to admit it, Carol.”


  Carol ignored him. This was between her and her daughter. “I tracked you down several years ago, then moved to Bangor to keep an eye on you, get to know you. I knew I didn’t deserve to be part of your life, not after everything I’ve done. But I thought maybe I could make it up to you a little without you even knowing.”

  Mallory continued to stare at her as if she expected her to morph into someone else any moment. “You should have told me.”

  Carol lowered her eyes. “Yes, yes, I suppose I should have.”

  “What do you know about all this? Do you know who has Haylie?”

  “Who got Thad’s money? I think that’s where you need to start looking.” Carol could see the lightbulb go off in Kevin when his jaw dropped, and she nodded. “Someone is afraid Mallory has a claim to more of his estate than she thinks she’s getting. That person wants to make sure she never collects. That Haylie doesn’t collect either. With both of them out of the way, the money is safe.”

  Hope dawned in Kevin’s face. “Richard Blake, his attorney.”

  “Maybe. Richard is a nice guy though and has always been devoted to Thad. Did a lot of the money go to him on Thad’s death?”

  “He never said. He’s campaigning in Bangor though. A little convenient, don’t you think?” Kevin looked at the sheriff. “Can you go with me to pay Richard a visit?”

  The sheriff rose. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

  “Should I go with you? He’ll recognize me and know the truth is out.”

  “That might be helpful,” the sheriff said. “You are Mallory’s mother so you have the right to be there too.”

  Carol looked back at her daughter, who still hadn’t moved. “Mallory?”

  She leaned forward to embrace her, but Mallory drew back and shook her head. “I . . . I have to process this, Carol. Just go with the sheriff. I don’t know how to feel about this. Not yet.”

  Not exactly the warmth Carol had hoped and prayed for when she’d thought about this moment. But then, what right did she have to expect anything but loathing?