“You’re lying. You have some idea of where she might go. Tell me.”
She shrugged. “We had a room downtown at the Motel 6. She didn’t have much money left though so I don’t know that she’ll go there.”
Luke didn’t give her a chance to say anything else. He was out the door and down the hall before she could speak.
TEN
Kate huddled on the floor of the bathroom, her arms wrapped tightly around her middle. She couldn’t breathe again. Her heart was pounding out of control. If only she’d stayed away from the television. God, why had she turned it on? She had been looking for a sign of what happened to Karen, that’s why. Maybe some news as to what they were holding her friend for. Instead of news on Karen, Kate had seen her own face. The unflattering sketch was on all the channels. She was wanted by the law. And she was wanted for attempted kidnapping. They wanted her for trying to steal her own daughter.
She shut her eyes and clenched her teeth as the shakes took over her body. Sobs racked her throat. What would she do now? Luke had seen her. He had to know the truth by now. Yet he was letting the police hunt her down like a criminal. He believed she’d tried to steal Hallie from him. Thinking of that only made her cry harder. Did he really hate her that much?
Her sobs quieted for a moment and she wiped the wetness off her cheeks. Sniffling, she stared at the bathroom wall. She could hear voices coming from outside. The motel was full. She’d barely managed a room herself. She wondered if anyone in the motel had recognized her face from the television. If they had, she wasn’t safe here anymore. She would be hunted now. With no money, she had nowhere else to go.
Her breathing slowed down and she struggled to make herself believe that Luke was on her side—that he still cared about her—that he didn’t hate her. She wanted so much to believe that he wanted her back, no matter what.
A knock on the outer door made her jump. She backed up further into the bathroom, her backside coming into contact with the tub. Please make whoever it is go away, she prayed silently. But the knocking continued.
“This is the police. We have a warrant,” a deep voice said through the closed door.
A renewed sense of panic filled her chest and she did the only thing she could think of to do. She jumped up and headed for the window.
Luke and Nate arrived at the Motel 6, only to find out they weren’t the first ones there. The police had beaten them. They were everywhere, their lights flashing. Crowds had gathered in the parking lot and on the street to see what was going on. It was like a circus.
Luke jumped from Nate’s car and walked across the parking lot toward the police. That was when he saw them. Four or five officers were in front of a unit, one with a bullhorn. They had their weapons drawn. God, they were going to ambush her.
“No!” he yelled, pushing past his brother. They were going to scare her. They were going to scare her and she was going to run again.
“She’s not coming out willingly,” Archer said, stepping up to the scene. “We know she’s in there. Desk clerk rented her the room a few hours ago.”
“Let me talk to her. You’re going to scare her.”
Archer frowned. “Mr. Garrison, I can appreciate your concern at this situation. I believe I have been extremely patient with you today. But I’m warning you now to back up and let us do our jobs. Don’t make me arrest you.”
“She’s not armed,” Luke argued. “She’s not dangerous.”
“Luke, don’t.” Nate pulled his brother back. “This isn’t the way.”
Before Luke could say anything further, two uniformed officers kicked in the door. He watched, helpless, as they stormed the room, guns drawn. For some reason he knew they weren’t going to find her. She wasn’t there. She most likely had been, but she wasn’t now. He shook his head, shaking Nate’s arm off his shoulder. He’d been so close. So close to getting her back. After three years, he’d been probably only a few feet from her and they’d screwed it up. The police had her running scared again.
Turning around, he scanned the parking lot. People were everywhere, staring and gawking. By this time, a television crew had arrived. They were interviewing anyone who would talk to them. None of them cared about Kate. They cared about their story. Seeing red, Luke turned as Archer exited the motel room. The detective looked up and into Luke’s face with reluctance. “Bathroom window’s open. She bailed.”
Before he could stop himself, Luke walked forward and grabbed Archer by the collar. He knew he was probably going to go to jail and at that moment he didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything anymore. He’d just lost his wife all over again.
“Damn it, Luke!” Nate struggled with his brother, finally succeeding in pulling him away from the detective.
Detective Archer glared at Luke as he straightened his jacket. “Don’t screw with me, kid. I feel for you but I have a job to do here.” He turned and walked away.
Luke slammed his foot into the ground and bent over at the waist, his grief getting the better of him. “Fuck!”
Nate watched his little brother unravel yet again. Over the past three years, he’d seen that a lot and every time he did it tore at him.
“She was here,” Luke’s voice said, filled with anguish. “Damn it, she was here and now she’s gone again.”
Ignoring the irate motel manager who was screaming in Korean about his broken door, Luke let his brother lead him across the parking lot and away from the media circus. They walked in silence, Luke unable to speak and Nate not knowing what to say. Sighing, Nate raised his head. He froze, his eyes squinting.
Luke followed his gaze, focusing in quickly on what Nate was looking at. Across the street, standing in the middle of broad daylight, was Kate. She just stood there looking at him, her arms resting limply at her sides.
Luke was walking before he could stop himself, slowly at first, and then speeding up as he neared her. When they were separated by nothing but traffic, he stopped. Was she going to run? The terrified look in her eyes made him wary. She was afraid of him. Clearly, she wasn’t sure whether to trust him or not. He studied her face. There were bruises and a couple of cuts on it. Someone had definitely hurt her. Her face was smudged with dirt. Her jeans were ripped. She had a dirty t-shirt on that had a tear in the sleeve. She wasn’t even wearing a jacket. His eyes roamed over her hair—brown and short, just the way it had been in his dream.
“Luke—” Nate began, catching up with his brother. Luke shoved him away and started across the street, his eyes never leaving hers. Several cars honked and he ignored them. With every step he took, he prayed to God that she wouldn’t run. When he reached the curb, she was still there, now only a few feet from him. Suddenly every dream he’d had in the last three years, came true. Katie Blue was standing before him and she was very much alive.
“It is you.” The words came out softly, nearly on a sob. He hated himself for choking up but he couldn’t stop it.
She didn’t speak, she just stared at him, her hands shaking violently at her sides. She looked over his shoulder and then back up at his face. Her eyes were full of fear. It socked him in the gut with undeniable force. She wasn’t just afraid, she was terrified.
His eyes looked her face over again, now that he was closer. His heart broke for the bruises he saw there. She was a mess. Cuts and scrapes seemed to cover her—even her arms. She was bleeding in several places from her head—her elbow—her knee. What hit him the hardest were her eyes. Even though they were hers and he was sure of that, they looked like the eyes of a stranger. They weren’t warm like coffee anymore. That tore at him and he winced. He took a step toward her. She stepped back, her shoulders starting to shake. He stopped walking and willed himself to speak to her.
“Blue?” He was relieved to hear the word finally leave his lips. “God, Katie?”
Her eyes swarmed with moisture and she backed up against the cement wall behind her. Her arms wrapped around her middle tightly. She opened her mouth, then shut it again.
He didn�
�t know what to say. She looked and acted as though she didn’t know him. Was it possible that she didn’t remember her own husband?
“I wouldn’t have hurt her.” She spoke the words so softly he almost didn’t hear her. “I just wanted to see her. I swear I would never take her from you.” Tears ran down her dirty cheeks as she stared up at him.
His heart cracked down the middle. “God, Katie, I know that. I know you wouldn’t hurt Hallie. No one wants to hurt you, I promise.” His words came out shakily. Taking a deep breath, he stepped toward her again. “You know me, right? You know who I am?”
She nodded her head as more tears overflowed from her eyes. “I thought you were dead. He told me you were dead.”
She’d been to hell and back, he realized. Karen McPherson had been telling the truth. And he didn’t even know the half of it. His fun-loving Katie was gone. Someone had taken her and beaten her down into this poor, pathetic creature in front of him.
He closed the distance between them slowly and when he was only a foot or so from her, he just stood there and let her adjust to the situation. She spent a few moments studying him, her eyes full of wonder as they looked him over cautiously. Then suddenly she looked directly into his face. The impact made him blink several times. Katie was right there in front of him and she was real.
“She looks just like you.” Her voice cracked and she swallowed. “She looks just like you.”
He lifted his hand and slowly let it drift forward. He saw her flinch, watched as her eyes shut in fear when contact was made. Tears squeezed through her eyelids and drifted over her cheeks, eventually landing on his fingers. At that moment, he made a personal promise that Louis Ferndale would pay. He would pay miserably for what he’d done.
“She has your smile,” he said honestly.
Suddenly Kate was sliding down the wall to her knees, her arms so tight around her sides that for the first time he could see just how skinny she was. Bones. She was skin and bones. Her body began to shake with violent sobs. Without even thinking about it, he dropped to his knees and reached for her. When she was in his arms, he was complete again, for the first time in three years. He held onto her as tightly as he could, rocking her back and forth, almost like he did with Hallie when she had a nightmare. His hand brushed over her snarling hair. His lips grazed her head. She was here and she was real. He tightened his grip on her, not even trying to stop the tears that squeezed their way through his eyelids.
ELEVEN
Louis Ferndale stared down the darkened street. The window of his later model Datsun was fogged up and he could hardly see. The damned car had been giving him problems ever since he’d left Canada. Twice he’d been stranded on the side of I5. Twice it had cost him over two hundred dollars to fix the problem. And now he was here, in Seattle, Washington. God, he hated Seattle. All the damned trees and all the water. One side of this state was soggy and the other was dry as cotton. No happy medium here.
Louis hadn’t wanted to come here. He’d known though. He’d had a bad feeling during his last conversation with Karen. She’d been softening. He’d actually noticed the change in her behavior months earlier but he’d told himself he could scare her back into submission. He’d been wrong, he now realized. The little bitch had stabbed him in the back and brought Kate home. And now he would have to clean up her mess.
Lighting up a cigarette, he swore. He should have taken care of Kate years ago. When the husband and daughter hadn’t died in the accident, he should have killed them. Instead, he had worried only about Kate and left them behind. That had been a very fatal mistake.
He would be dealing with Karen when he got the chance. Right now she was in jail. That amused him a little. She’d been there before for prostitution so she was used to being incarcerated from time to time. He’d always bailed her out in the past but this time she was on her own. Eventually she’d be free. She would come to him because she had no one else and she would give him minimal information, figuring her life would be spared if she did. He had to admit he had a soft spot for her. But she’d crossed the line this time.
Staring down the street, he watched as several lights came on. Dusk had set in. Louis looked at the large two-story home with the huge elm tree in front. Luke Garrison was obviously loaded. Hell, he should have held Kate for ransom rather than go after her dumbfuck parents. Garrison probably would have paid a fortune to get his bitch back a long time ago. Louis would be safely out of the country and rich as could be. Oh well. What was done was done. He’d get Kate back. Oh, yes. He’d get her back and then if she didn’t tell him what he wanted to hear, he was going to play hardball this time. He’d seen the little girl at the daycare earlier. Kate’s daughter was a pretty little thing, with her long black curls.
He smiled, his cigarette glowing eerily in the darkness of the car. Maybe he’d just have to get to know the little girl a bit better if her mother refused to cooperate with him.
Luke awoke with a start. He knew the minute he opened his eyes that she wasn’t there beside him. At first he grimaced, that familiar pain of loss gripping him. And then he remembered. It took him a minute to come to the conclusion that the events of the night before had really happened. Kate was alive.
Sitting up abruptly, he scanned the room. His bedroom. He had brought her back here late last night. A doctor at the hospital, who had treated her for a panic attack, had sedated her. This had been brought on when the doctor attempted to examine her. Luke had been in the waiting room, not wanting to interfere with the examination. A nurse had come out and told him it would be a good idea if he came back to the room because they were having a hard time getting her calmed down. That had been an understatement. She’d been hysterical when he’d walked in, only finally calming down when she’d seen his face. The doctors had suggested keeping her overnight but she’d fought that too. So he’d brought her home. And now she was gone again.
Climbing out of bed, still fully dressed, he padded barefoot into the adjoining bathroom. It was empty. Nothing had been touched, as far as he could tell. His shaving cream was still on the counter, his razor nearby. The hand towel he’d tossed down the day before was still resting on the side of the sink. There wasn’t even as much as a fresh drop of water on the counter.
He quickly went through the house, his heart breaking a little more with each empty room he found. God, she’d been right beside him. She’d been sound to sleep. He hadn’t meant to nod off. He’d promised her he’d stay with her. Then sleep had become inevitable after so many nights without it. And now she was gone again.
Panic ate at him as he sprinted up the stairs and back to the bedroom.
Nate. He would have to call his brother—and the police. They would have to search for her too. It was like déjà vu.
He whipped the closet open, reached for his boots—and that’s when he saw her. She was curled up in the fetal position, sound asleep in the corner. She had pulled one of his hunting jackets down and wrapped it around herself for covers. God, she was sleeping in the closet.
He frowned, crouching down and contemplating what to do next. He didn’t want to scare her. She had obviously crawled into the closet out of fear. Fear of what, he didn't know, but he hoped to God that it wasn’t fear of him. He noticed the wetness on her cheeks and his heart broke for her. She’d cried herself to sleep in the closet and he’d been sound to sleep twenty feet away. Guilt ate at him for a moment. Finally, he figured he had one choice. He reached for her, nudging her as gently as he could. Her eyelids flickered and she straightened abruptly, clearly disoriented.
“It’s okay. It’s me. It’s Luke.”
She narrowed her eyes and burrowed deeper into his jacket, as though she were trying to shrink away from him.
“Katie, it’s me. It’s okay.” He let himself sit down on the floor, hoping he wouldn’t seem so ominous now that he wasn’t leaning over her.
She stared at him for a long time, her eyes almost seeming to look through him. And then suddenly, she leaned
toward him a ways. “Is it really you?”
“It’s really me.” He forced a smile. “Baby, you’re in the closet.”
For the first time, she looked around her environment. “I am.” Not a statement, but a realization.
“You are.” He didn’t know what else to say. She was uncertain as it was and he didn’t want to scare her more. The thought of her having another panic attack scared the hell out of him, even though the doctor had warned him that they would just have to ride the next one out. It would get easier to deal with as time went on and hopefully stop all together eventually.
“Where am I?”
“You’re home, Kate. In my house. I brought you here last night. Do you remember?”
She nodded after several seconds of thought.
“Do you think you want to come out now?”
She let his hunting jacket fall from her shoulders and slowly began to crawl toward him. He backed up, giving her some room. God, she was tiny, he realized as she made her way into the bedroom again. The doctor had told him she was malnourished but he hadn’t seen just how bad the problem was until now. She was wearing one of his t-shirts and it was swimming on her.
“It’s dark.”
He heard her voice, the alarm in it, and looked down at her. “It’s night, honey. Actually, early morning.”
“I don’t like the dark.”
So that was what had spooked her. “Okay. We can turn on the lights.” He reached up and flipped the light switch. She flinched and blinked several times at the sudden illumination of bright light. “Better?”
She nodded slowly. Then she crawled away from the closet, her eyes never leaving his face. She was having just as hard a time believing he was there as he was believing she was there, he realized.
“Why didn’t you wake me up?”
“You were sleeping.”
“I know. You should have woke me up. You scared me.”
She looked confused.
“I thought you were gone again.”
Root of All Evil Page 11