“Okay, you two, the fighting is probably good for your sex life, but it’s not what we need right now,” Brian said, flipping his eggs on top of his hash browns. “I know you don’t mean to jump all over each other – or maybe you do, who knows – but we need to work together as a team.”
“I’m sorry,” Jack said, holding his hands up as he locked gazes with Ivy. “I didn’t mean to give you the impression that I was going to go into that room and attack her. I just want to approach her from a professional position so she knows how serious this is.”
Ivy sighed and ran a hand through her long hair. “I know you don’t want to hurt her, Jack,” she said. “I just … I’m afraid if we take the wrong step she’s never going to recover.”
“I get that,” Jack said, tentatively moving his arm to Ivy’s back as she sat on the arm of his chair. “Will you forgive yourself if there’s a child out there who dies because we don’t ask Jessica the hard questions?”
Ivy balked. “I … never really thought about it that way.”
“I don’t want to hurt Jessica for anything,” Jack said. “She’s been through more than any one person should ever have to deal with. That child, no matter how it was conceived, is not to blame for this, though.”
“If we press her and she tells us the kid died we’ll let it be,” Brian added. “We can’t leave a child in jeopardy. You have to know that, Ivy.”
“I do.” Ivy dejectedly hung her head as Jack pressed his hand against the small of her back. “I’m just really worried about Jessica’s state of mind. She’s already showing signs of disassociating from her ordeal. This might push her over the edge.”
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Brian said. “The girl is struggling. Her parents being around helps. While she’s not as comfortable with her father as she is her mother, she’s clearly happy to see him and much more relaxed around him than any other man.”
“That’s a good thing, right?” Ivy asked.
“It is,” Brian confirmed. “She still woke up screaming in the middle of the night. She had a nightmare.”
“I think that’s to be expected,” Jack said. “I don’t think Jessica is the only one who had a nightmare last night.”
Ivy shot him a pointed scowl. “Did you have to bring that up?”
Jack shrugged. “Nightmares are normal things when you have a good heart,” he said. “Jessica is going to have a lot more nightmares before they go away. Heck, they may never go away.”
“Yeah, this one just took everyone by surprise,” Brian said. “Her mother held her until she fell back asleep.”
“Did she say what it was about?” Ivy asked.
“You.”
Ivy stilled. “I’m sorry, but … what?”
“She said she was back in the room she was held in and you were there trying to protect her,” Brian replied. “Then Jack showed up and took you away and left her alone to deal with … some bad stuff.”
Ivy’s mouth dropped open as she shifted her eyes to Jack. “What time did she have the dream?”
Jack’s heart sank. Could Jessica really have drawn Ivy – and later him – into her nightmare?
Brian shrugged, seemingly missing the furtive glances Jack and Ivy exchanged. “I don’t know. I think it was a little before two or so.”
Jack sighed. That was about the same time he found Ivy in the dreamscape. “Well, hopefully her nightmares will force her to tell us what’s going on,” he said. “Right now we have to focus on the baby.”
“I think we should all go in together,” Brian said. “Her parents are in there to make her feel safe. She already likes Ivy. Now is the time to do this.”
“I agree,” Jack said. “Finish your breakfast. I have a feeling things are about to get … intense.”
JESSICA glanced up as the three new faces moved into her small room. She shrank when Jack looked to be heading for her bedside, and he wisely hung back with Brian so they were closer to the door as Ivy stepped forward.
“Hi, Jessica,” Ivy said. “How are you feeling? You look as if you’ve got some color back in your cheeks, which is a good thing.”
“She ate eggs and toast this morning,” Courtney said, smiling. “The doctor said it’s a good thing because it will take some time to build up healthy eating habits.”
“I haven’t had eggs in years,” Jessica admitted. “I forgot how good they tasted.”
“Oh, yeah? What have you been eating for breakfast?” Ivy asked, sitting in the open chair next to Mitchell. By tacit agreement, Brian and Jack opted to allow Ivy to ask questions first and only intervene if they felt it necessary.
“Mostly nothing,” Jessica replied matter-of-factly. “Occasionally I got one of those breakfast bar things. That was like only once a month, though.”
“I see.” Ivy’s heart rolled. Pressuring this poor girl after everything she’d been through felt unnatural. “Well, now you can have whatever you want for breakfast. I’m sure your parents will enjoy introducing you to new things.”
“I can’t wait to make her favorite blueberry pancakes again,” Courtney said, smoothing Jessica’s hair down. “In fact, I was hoping to talk to the doctor and see if we can take Jessica home today.”
Ivy scanned Jessica’s face to see how the girl felt about the suggestion, but it was unreadable. “I think the doctor wants her to stay at least one more night,” she hedged. “Her feet need looking after and Dr. Nesbitt mentioned wanting to keep IVs going because they’re pumping her body full of nutrients and vitamins.”
“I know,” Courtney said, wrinkling her nose. “It’s just … Jessica really wants to see her room.”
“And we really want to get her home,” Mitchell added. “It’s been a long time since she’s been there.”
Jack cleared his throat, tossing a friendly smile at Jessica as he remained standing near the door. “I understand Jessica wanting to go home, but when that happens we’re going to want to make sure we have a police officer present at all times,” he said. “I know you want to put this ordeal behind you as soon as possible, but there’s still a bad man out there and until we find him … .”
Realization washed over Courtney. “You’re afraid he’ll come after her again, aren’t you?”
“I’m afraid that someone might be desperate to make sure Jessica never gets a chance to tell her story,” Jack clarified. “The sooner she does that … well … the better off everyone will be.”
“I don’t know who he is,” Jessica said, her expression earnest. “I never knew his name. It’s not like he introduced himself.”
“Okay, then try and give us some hints about him,” Brian suggested. “What do you remember about the day you were taken? Witnesses said you were seen riding your bike close to the downtown area shortly after three that afternoon. You disappeared. No one ever found your bicycle. You essentially vanished.”
Jessica licked her chapped lips and darted a concerned look in her father’s direction. “Um … that seems like a long time ago. I remember riding my bike … and I was worried I was going to get in trouble because I stopped at the store to buy some licorice. I wasn’t supposed to eat candy before dinner.”
“That’s okay,” Mitchell said, not missing a beat. “You can have as much candy as you want now. It’s a father’s prerogative to change his mind.”
Ivy smiled. It reminded her of something her father would’ve said – and probably did say at some point over the years.
“I heard a car door shut when I was eating the licorice,” Jessica said. “I was on that bridge over the little river. I was only a few minutes from home, but I wanted to finish the candy first.”
“And then what happened?” Ivy prodded.
“I felt a hand go around my mouth,” Jessica replied, pressing her eyes shut. “I didn’t see him right away. I thought … I thought it was my dad at first. I thought he was angry about the candy.”
Mitchell made a strangled sound in the back of his throat but otherwise remained quie
t.
“He carried me to his truck,” Jessica said. “He threw me in the back and tossed my bike in there, too. I … don’t remember how long we drove. I tried to get out, but the window things were locked.”
“Window things?” Jack asked. “You said he threw you in a truck. Did it happen to be a truck with a cab over it?”
“I … don’t know what that means,” Jessica said.
“Did the back of the truck have a top?” Ivy asked using her hands for emphasis.
“Oh, yeah,” Jessica replied. “It was an old truck.”
“What color?” Brian asked.
“I think it was supposed to be gray, but it had a lot of rust on it,” Jessica replied. “I tried to break out the windows. I thought I would be in trouble because my parents always warned me about talking to strangers. I promise I didn’t talk to him. He just … grabbed me. I didn’t see him coming.”
“It’s okay,” Courtney said, gripping her daughter’s hand.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Mitchell said. “I shouldn’t have been so hard on you about the candy.”
“What happened when he got you to his house?” Jack asked.
“I don’t want to talk about that.” Jessica pressed her lips together and stared at the ceiling.
“Don’t ask her about that,” Mitchell hissed.
“I think Jack wants to know where the man put Jessica,” Ivy interjected smoothly. “He wasn’t asking about the bad things. If we want to find this man, we need to know a little about the property so we can search land deeds.”
“Oh,” Mitchell said, instantly contrite. “I’m sorry for what I said.”
Jack held his hand up. “It’s fine. I understand.”
“I never went in the house,” Jessica explained. “He pulled me out of the back of the truck and dragged me around the side of the house. It was kind of a cabin thing more than a house. He pulled my hair really hard. There was a hole in the ground on the side of the house. It had doors and he threw me in there and closed the doors. I lived like that for years. It was dark … and quiet. I could never hear anything but the sound of the doors opening.”
Ivy tilted her head to the side. That didn’t sound like the room from Jessica’s dream. “Was there ever a door that didn’t open from above?”
Jessica nodded. “He kept me in the room with the overhead doors for a long time,” she said. “I lost track of time, in fact. Then one day he pulled me out. I thought he was going to kill me.
“He walked me to a barn thing on his property,” she continued. “I thought it was the end and he was going to bury me in all of the trees. Instead he took me in the barn and there was a set of steps. He had a bunch of stuff stored in a long hallway and he forced me to a room at the end of the hallway. I lived there after that.”
“What kind of stuff did he have stored?” Ivy asked.
“It looked like food … gasoline … batteries. That type of stuff. There was a lot of it in there, though. I have no idea why he would need so much at one time.”
“He sounds like a prepper,” Ivy mused, talking to herself more than anyone else.
“Did she just explain something?” Jack asked, confused.
“Oh, no, Ivy is right,” Brian said, his eyes lighting up. “The barn and the way Jessica describes it, I think that’s a bunker. It sounds as if she was in a root cellar at one point, which means the house itself is probably really old.”
“What’s a prepper, though?”
“It’s someone who thinks the world is going to end and stocks up food and other supplies so they can live out their days as the world around them dies,” Mitchell supplied. “It’s been in the news some lately.”
Ivy nodded. “There are specific stores dedicated to buying food items that last a long time.”
“That’s a good lead,” Brian said.
Jack was still trying to wrap his head around the “prepper” notion. “So they think there’s going to be a nuclear apocalypse … or zombie infestation?”
“Kind of,” Ivy hedged. “It’s more like they’re planning for the electrical grid to go down or a natural disaster. It’s a real thing.”
“That’s a great lead, though, Jessica,” Brian encouraged. “Between the truck, the prepper stuff, and the land deeds for older homes, we should be able to start looking hard at some people.”
Mitchell looked relieved to hear the news. “Then she can come home with us, right?”
“Not yet,” Brian clarified. “She has to stay here tonight. We’ll talk about letting her go home with you tomorrow.”
“We can live with that,” Courtney said, grabbing Jessica’s hand. “We want her as healthy as possible when she leaves here.”
“We do have one other thing to discuss,” Brian said, locking gazes with Jessica. “We need you to tell us about the baby.”
Ivy was surprised by Brian’s fortitude and when she scanned Jessica’s face she found absolutely no sign of embarrassment or worry.
“What baby?” Jessica asked.
Brian glanced at Ivy, unsure how to proceed.
“When you were brought here the doctor examined you,” Ivy said. “He said you gave birth at some point. We need to know what happened to the baby. If it is still out there … .”
“I never had a baby,” Jessica said, knitting her eyebrows together. “I didn’t.”
“But … Dr. Nesbitt says you did,” Brian pressed.
“Well, he’s wrong.”
“But … .”
“He’s wrong,” Jessica snapped, her voice taking on an edge that Ivy had yet to hear from her. “I didn’t have a baby. There was no baby. Stop talking about a baby that never existed.”
“Jessica … .”
“That’s enough,” Mitchell said, cutting Brian off. “She says she didn’t have a baby and I believe her. Stop going after her. She already answered your questions.”
“We know there was a baby,” Brian argued. “We need to know what happened to it.”
“I can’t help you,” Jessica said. “Someone must’ve made a mistake. I never had a baby.”
Eight
“So, what are we looking for?” Jack asked an hour later, sitting at his desk and regarding Brian with a dubious look. “I’m not sure what to think about this prepper angle.”
After the baby question fell flat Jessica completely shut down and Mitchell asked everyone to leave so he could take care of his family. Jack and Brian wanted to press her on the issue, but Ivy wisely read the signs in the room and forced them out.
Jack was still irritated by the situation.
“A lot of people are preppers in this area,” Ivy explained. She’d taken over one of the other officer’s desks so she could look through land deeds. “It’s a big thing these days. A lot of survivalists move to sparsely populated areas like this because they think they’ll have a better chance of survival if the big one hits a populated area.”
“Why are you here?” Jack turned to Brian. “Seriously, why is she here? She’s not a police officer.”
“Don’t get your panties in a wad,” Brian said, smirking when he saw a dark look descend on Ivy’s pleasing features. “She knows the entire story. She knows the people in this community. She’s fully capable of searching land deeds.”
“He’s just mad because I helped Mitchell kick you guys out of Jessica’s room,” Ivy said. “He’ll get over it.”
“I could still have you thrown off this case,” Jack threatened. He had no idea why he was so agitated with Ivy. He knew taking out his anger with Jessica’s refusal to admit to having a baby on his girlfriend was a mistake, but he couldn’t seem to tamp down his anger and she was an appealing target because she was going out of her way to be irritating.
“Go ahead,” Ivy shot back. “If that’s what you want … then fine. I’ll stop helping with the land deeds and go door-to-door by myself.”
Jack’s heart flopped at the suggestion. “No, you won’t.”
“Yes, I will.”
“Do you have any idea how dangerous that would be?” Jack exploded. “I’m sure the majority of people in this town know that you’ve been spending time with Jessica. The gossip is already spreading. Someone would gladly take you to find out what Jessica has told us.”
“I’ll take my chances,” Ivy replied, her tone icy. “If you don’t want my help, I’ll solve this on my own.”
“I will lock you up if I have to,” Jack warned, extending a finger. “Don’t even joke about that.”
“Are you two finished?” Brian asked.
Ivy was in the mood to be petulant. “No.”
“Not even close,” Jack added.
“Ivy is staying,” Brian said, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing when she shot a triumphant look at Jack. “She’s not staying because of what she just said, though. You should take Jack’s feelings into consideration, Ivy. He doesn’t want you hurt. That’s a good thing.”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t,” Ivy sniffed.
“We need Ivy’s eyes on the land deeds,” Brian said. “She knows the area. She also knows who lives in what house. She can find the right kind of house and also be able to tell us if the person who lives there is worth looking at.”
“She’s not a detective,” Jack argued.
“No, she’s not,” Brian agreed. “However … .” He reached over and grabbed the notebook from Ivy’s desk. “She has a possibility here with Stuart Denton. He lives alone and has a root cellar and a lot of land. She also marked down that he got a big order from Max about two years ago.”
Max owned a lumberyard on the outskirts of town and Ivy often knew about his business orders because he liked to complain about all the work he had to finish on a regular basis.
“How does that help us?” Jack asked.
“Because Stuart never filed plans with the township board,” Brian replied. “He built something on his property and never filed the appropriate building permits. Perhaps he built a bunker.”
Wicked Warning (An Ivy Morgan Mystery Book 5) Page 6