Gone without a Trace

by Patricia Bradley

  As they gathered around the island, Alex pulled out her stool. He seemed to be a nice man. And certainly smitten with Livy. Not that she figured her cousin knew. For such a good detective, Livy had never been too observant when it came to men who were interested in her. She glanced at Ben. His engagement announcement had been in the online edition of the Logan Point Gazette, and she almost blurted her congratulations out. That was what Livy and Alex had cautioned her about—being too familiar. She sat back and let the other two lay out the plan.

  “Rob—ah, Sharon here received one of those letters like Samantha Jo.” Alex’s face flushed. “She didn’t quit her job, and a few weeks later, the sender abducted her.”

  She flinched under Ben’s scrutiny. “And he let you go?”

  “Whatever he gave me wore off, and I escaped.”

  “So you know what he looks like?” Excitement crept into the sheriff’s voice.

  Thunder rumbled overhead, and she took a deep breath. “No. I have very little memory of that night.”

  Livy set a cup of coffee in front of Robyn. “But she does remember some things. Like, she was in a semi.”

  “And he had a tattoo,” Robyn added. If she could just remember where it was on his body. “It was a hawk, or now that I think about it, it could be a falcon. Whatever it was, it had its talons extended, like this.” She formed her fingers into claws.

  Ben took the cup of coffee Livy offered. “I still don’t know what your plan is,” he said.

  Livy poured another cup of coffee and handed it to Alex. “We believe whoever kidnapped her also abducted Samantha Jo.”

  “And those other waitresses,” Alex said. “We think he either lives around here or comes through here on a regular basis. I plotted the other locations where a waitress had been kidnapped, and Logan Point is on a direct route to each one of them.”

  “We decided I would get a job at Johnny B’s. Two people who worked there have been kidnapped—he’s probably a regular.” Robyn took a sip of the hot coffee. “And maybe something will trigger a memory, his cologne or his voice. I’m hoping I’ll remember his face.”

  “But he’ll recognize you. And either run or abduct you again.”

  “No, I doubt he’ll know me.”

  He searched her face, and again no recognition showed in his expression. “Your name isn’t Sharon, is it?”

  “No.”

  “I’m assuming your appearance has been altered since he kidnapped you. How long ago did it happen?”

  “Thirty months.” She didn’t waver under his gaze.

  “Thirty months . . . that’s when . . .” He stared at her. “Are you telling me you’re Robyn Martin? But . . . you look so different. Your hair . . . you’re so thin. And Robyn had blue eyes. I know. I looked at the description enough.”

  “Contacts. Flat iron. Plastic surgery after he beat me senseless. That tends to make a person lose weight.” Tears burned her eyes. Coming home stirred up emotions she’d long buried.

  Ben grabbed her up in a bear hug. “Abby and Chase and your mom and dad will be so happy.”

  She stepped back and threw Livy a plea for help.

  “We can’t tell them just yet.”

  Ben turned to Livy. “What? Why not?” Then he slapped his head. “Of course we can’t for the very reasons I mentioned.”

  Alex said, “The more people who know, the more likely the kidnapper will find out.”

  “Can you do it?” Ben’s brows lowered as he stared at her. “Be around your family and not give yourself away?”

  “I hope it won’t be for long. Alex and Livy seem to think it’ll only be a couple of weeks at the most.”

  Ben scratched his temple. “I hope they’re right. What do you remember about the night he kidnapped you?”

  “Not a lot.”

  “Did you finish your shift at Johnny B’s?”

  She nodded. “But before I left, I remember setting my canned drink down to help one of the waitresses with her order. That’s when he must have put the drug in.”

  Ben made notes on a tablet. He looked up. “Do you remember any of the customers who were there?”

  Robyn closed her eyes. She’d turned that night over and over in her mind for over two years. “Bobby Cook, Timothy Nolan . . . Johnny B was there. Tommy, the short-order cook. The tall skinny guy that wears all the leather—”

  “Jason Fremont,” Livy said.

  Ben leaned forward. “Anyone else?”

  She searched her memory bank. “One of the game wardens was there . . . Sully Anderson. He was mad about losing his job because of budget cuts. There were others, I know, but right now I can’t think of anyone else.”

  “If you do, jot their name down.”

  “I just hope being at Johnny B’s will trigger more memories the way riding in that eighteen-wheeler made me remember being in the cab of a semi.” Robyn twisted the wedding band on her finger. “Of course, the first thing I have to do is get a job at Johnny B’s.”

  Ben laughed. “That won’t be a problem. Saw him in town today. He’s looking for a waitress. But . . .” He held up his finger. “You need someone with you for protection. I can’t put a deputy there all the time. It would look suspicious.” He turned to Alex. “Ever work as a short-order cook? Johnny B mentioned he needed one.”

  Alex grinned. “I’m way ahead of you. He offered me the job yesterday.”

  Livy bumped him with her shoulder. “Think you can handle it?”

  “I’ll have you know that when I was in college, I worked at a local Burger King, flipping burgers. Sure, I can handle it.”

  Knowing Alex would be there bolstered Robyn’s courage.

  “Since I’m not working, I can hang around Johnny B’s some too,” Livy said.

  “How come you’re not working?” Ben asked.

  She hesitated. “Captain Reed and Mac thought I needed a little vacation. Which reminds me, I have to call Mac. Can I use your land line?”

  Ben nodded. “It’s on the wall.”

  Robyn had the impression Livy’s vacation wasn’t a surprise to him, and as soon as things got settled, Livy was coming clean with her.

  “Okay, we need to figure out where Robyn is going to stay.”

  “How about the apartment building where Samantha Jo lived? Didn’t look to me like it was fully rented,” Alex said. “I thought we might get side-by-side apartments.”

  “How about furniture? Do you have any?”

  Alex winced, and Robyn’s hopes sank. She hadn’t thought about furniture, and evidently, neither had Alex.

  “I’d offer to let you stay with my mom and dad, but that would arouse suspicion.” Ben drummed his fingers on the granite counter. “How about the hotel at Johnny B’s?”

  “No! I . . . I can’t stay there. It’s going to be hard enough working at the diner, but to be that close to where he took me twenty-four hours a day. I can’t do it.”

  “How about if she stays with us—at the bed and breakfast?” Livy shifted her gaze to Robyn.

  Her muscles tensed. Deep within her, Robyn realized it was what she wanted, but could she be that close to Abby, or the others for that matter? What if she did something to give herself away? What if the man discovered who she was and came after her . . . and Abby was hurt? Her fingers shook, and she pressed her hands together. You can do this. She had to. She couldn’t live the way she’d been living, fearing her own shadow, living apart from her family. She fingered her wedding band again.

  “Are you okay, Robyn?” Concern laced Livy’s voice. “We can call this off if you want to.”

  This was her chance. To what? Live in fear for the rest of her life? She lifted her chin. “No, I’m fine. It’s the only choice we have. Let’s do it.”

  12

  The rain had dwindled to a mist by the time they left Ben. Livy pulled up to the security gate, and the gate opened. “You don’t mind riding with Alex to the house, do you? Mac wants me to meet him at Molly’s Diner for a cup of coffee. He sa
id it was important.”

  Robyn hugged her body with her arms. “Don’t worry about me. I can do this on my own.”

  She didn’t sound as though she could.

  “Would it bother you if we tagged along, sat at different booths?” Alex said from the backseat. “I’m starving and imagine Robyn is too. We’ll grab a late lunch.”

  Robyn relaxed visibly in the seat beside her. Livy should have thought of that option, but after her conversation with Mac, her mind had created all sorts of scenarios. They all ended with him saying he’d made a mistake and wanted her back as his partner.

  She shot Alex a thank-you look in the rearview mirror. “That’s a great idea. Then afterward I can drop you off at the airport to pick up your car and we can all go to Kate’s together.”

  “We’re a team.” Alex reached over the seat. “Give me a high five.”

  She slapped his hand all the while shaking her head. “You’re crazy.”

  “I think he’s nice,” Robyn said and high-fived him as well. “A full stomach will help me do what I have to do tonight. Do you . . .”

  Livy glanced at her cousin. “Do I what?”

  Robyn’s throat tightened, and she swallowed. “Do you think Abby will be there? Or Chase?”

  Her stomach took a dive. She hadn’t thought about that, but of course Robyn had. “I don’t know. I haven’t spent enough time at Kate’s to know the routine.” She touched Robyn’s hand. “Let’s just take this one minute at a time.” A memory of something Abby had said hit her. “Oh, and you need to find a different perfume.”

  Alex winced. “I’d forgotten that.”

  “Perfume? I don’t wear perfume. What are you two talking about?”

  Alex leaned toward the front seat again. “That’s one of the things that got us started investigating who you were. In the car after Livy and Abby met you in the park, Abby remarked that you smelled like her mom.”

  Robyn covered her mouth with her hand. “I can’t believe she remembered. But it’s not perfume, it’s Amazing Grace lotion. I’ll get a new kind.”

  Livy tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. How many other small things like that were there to trip them up? Anxiety struck like lightning. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. She brushed the thought away. Somehow, she had to stick to Robyn like a shadow—if she’d let her.

  Alex tapped her on the shoulder. “Let me out before you get to Molly’s. That way no one will see us all get out of the same car.”

  “Good idea.” As Livy turned onto the town square, she saw that Mac’s ’64 Mustang was sitting in front of Molly’s Diner, and she pulled in beside it. He’d been restoring that car ever since she’d known him.

  She paused inside the door as Robyn took a table in the back. Mac sat by the window and lifted his glass of tea. She walked toward him and he stood, making her do a double take. “What was that for?” she asked when they were both seated. She glanced up as Alex came in.

  He lifted one shoulder. “My mama always taught me to stand in the presence of a lady.”

  “And what was I when we were working?”

  “My partner and that doesn’t count. I didn’t look at you as a lady then.” He shook his head. “Wait, that didn’t sound right. But you know what I mean.”

  “Gee, thanks.” Things seemed almost normal with Mac, and a weight lifted from her heart. For the first time since she came through the door, she took a good look at him. He had color in his face again, and it was good to see a twinkle in his gray eyes. But he seemed a little nervous. “What was so important that you had to see me today?”

  “Do you want a drink? Coffee? Tea? Soda?”

  “I think I’ll get a sandwich and tea, but I’m paying.” No way was she letting him get the ticket. She motioned to the waitress who had just left Robyn’s table and gave her an order for a chicken salad sandwich and tea. Then she turned back to Mac.

  He stirred his drink with the straw. “Where were you today?”

  Her hopes crumbled. Mac was evading the subject, so Livy knew she wasn’t going to like whatever he wanted to discuss. “Flew in from Bristol, Tennessee, with a friend and—” She caught herself before she said Robyn’s name. “Sharon.”

  He stared at her. “You flew in an airplane? Big or little?”

  She sat a little straighter. “A Bonanza. I think I’m going to take lessons as soon as we wrap up the case.” Maybe then she’d have something to talk with her dad about.

  “You’re working on a case? Does Reed know about this?”

  “I’m just helping Ben out—it’s not my case. I’m on a leave of absence, remember?”

  “Livy, the whole purpose of the leave is for you to rest and get your perspective back. That’s not going to happen if you throw yourself into another case. Have you made an appointment with Keith Robinson?”

  “I’m not seeing the department shrink.” She fell silent as their waitress brought her plate. He definitely wasn’t here to ask her to return to work. “Thank you,” she said. “Now, did you come here to tell me something or to get on my case?”

  “I’m just worried about you.”

  Livy took her time cutting the sandwich into four triangles. He wasn’t being forthright, and she was tired of playing his game. When she finished, she picked up a triangle and bit into it. Although Molly’s chicken salad was always tasty, today it filled her mouth like sawdust. She guzzled the tea.

  “I’m resigning from the force.”

  Livy stilled her body. Surely she hadn’t heard him right. She looked up into his gray eyes. Yeah, she’d heard him right. Her stomach churned. He couldn’t resign. Mac was the only partner she’d had since becoming a detective. “Why? You love being a detective.”

  He dropped his gaze to the table, and she wanted to make him look at her and say it wasn’t true. “Tell me you don’t love it.”

  Mac lifted his eyes. “I love Julie more.”

  “But how do you just stop being a detective?”

  He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “You’re not making this easy.”

  “I’m just trying to understand.”

  She waited, and a minute passed as Mac stared out the window. “After that bullet hit me Monday, things changed. Lying in that hospital bed with my heart beating like a ping-pong ball on crack, it came to me. Is this all there is? Get up every morning, go to the CJC, catch the bad guys, send them to jail, and they come out the back door—or maybe even the front door—before I can get in my car.” His voice was low and intense as he raked his hand through his hair. “Yeah, I love being a detective, but I want a life. A wife, kids, house, ball games—all of it. And I want it with Julie. You know as well as I do I can’t have both.”

  Livy’s heart thumped against her chest. What would it be like to love someone like that? Would Mac wake up one day and regret the choice he made? She studied his face. Even as uncomfortable as he was telling her he was resigning, peace radiated from him. “What will you do?”

  “I’ve accepted a job as a security consultant for a company in Atlanta.”

  “Atlanta? You’re moving too?”

  “Julie thought . . . no, we both thought it would be for the best. Cut the ties. No looking back.”

  Livy stared down at the napkin she’d twisted into a long spiral. “It won’t be the same.”

  He patted her hand. “Life isn’t static. It’s always changing, and we have to learn to change with it. You’re a good cop, and you’ll do fine with a new partner.”

  No, she wouldn’t. Mac was the only partner she wanted. What was she going to do without him?

  “Livy, I’d like your blessing.”

  She jerked her head up. That wasn’t fair. But he was her partner, and she couldn’t hold him back from what he wanted to do. She squared her shoulders and looked into his eyes. “I’d be lying if I said I was happy about you leaving, but if that’s what you want, I wish you well.” She almost choked on the words.

  He held her gaze.
“Thanks. Now, tell me about this case you’re working on.”

  Robyn rode with Livy to the house they both grew up in. “This will be the first big test—getting by Mom.”

  Livy laughed. “Yeah, she can smell a lie a hundred miles away.”

  “Don’t I know it.” Robyn wasn’t too worried about her dad. But then there was Chase. Her heart beat faster, just thinking about him. How would he react when the truth came out? Before she’d been kidnapped, their marriage had disintegrated into silence and sleeping in separate beds. She’d actually considered divorce, even thought Chase might have already gotten one while she was missing. That he hadn’t gave Robyn hope.

  She stared out the window, the landscape a blur. The last two and a half years had given her time to step back and take a hard look at their marriage. Their problems hadn’t been all Chase’s fault. She hadn’t tried to make it work, believing he only married her because she was pregnant with Abby. That, in turn, had left her filled with guilt—she’d known it was wrong to sleep with him, and while he hadn’t accused her of trapping him into marriage, she was certain he thought it.

  Sometimes she wondered if subconsciously she had trapped him, because she definitely wasn’t his type. Chase was handsome and outgoing, and he would not have picked a plain Jane introvert like her.

  “Are you okay?”

  Livy’s words drew her back to the present problem. “As good as I can be until we get the man who kidnapped me.” Robyn smoothed a wrinkle from her pants. “How about you? You’ve been quiet since your meeting. Is everything okay with Mac?”

  Livy’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “He’s leaving Memphis.”

  “What? He’s quitting the police department?”

  “And getting back with his ex-wife.”

  “Did you and Mac—”

  “No.”

  Livy’s answer came a little too quickly.

  “We didn’t have that kind of relationship. In some ways, it was even closer. He was my partner.” She grunted. “It does feel a little like a divorce, though.”

  Robyn had waited for Livy to tell her why she’d taken a leave of absence, but so far she hadn’t opened up. It wasn’t good to bottle up emotions, and that was what her cousin seemed to be doing. “I read online about the shooting before Christmas. How are you handling that?”