Through His Heart (Mind's Eye Book 3)

by Deborah Camp

  “I wasn’t here.” She shrugged one slim shoulder. “I used to babysit her all the time and then Mom married John and they hired a woman to watch her.” She glanced to the left and then to the right, suddenly unable to look at him. “I miss her and . . . you know, worry about her.” She gave a little sniff and then her gaze slammed into him. “Did he hit you?”

  He felt his chin retreat in a defensive reaction to the sharp pivot of the conversation. He studied her expression minutely, looking for trauma, guilt, shame. “No. Does he hit you or your sister?”

  “Nope. I just thought maybe he beat on you and that’s why you stay away from him.”

  He released a long breath that fogged the air in front of his face. The relief he felt was curious; almost custodial.

  “I’ve watched you on television,” she said, trying for nonchalance as she stared past him at the swings creaking back and forth in the breeze.

  “Oh, yeah? He let you do that?”

  A smile teased the corners of her mouth. “He doesn’t know about it. He’d pop an artery if he knew.”

  He chuckled. He couldn’t help it. She grinned at him. She was a pretty girl. He knew quite a lot about pretty girls and he knew that this one was crushing on him. Caution slithered through his veins. Teenage girls with crushes had to be handled with extreme care. “You home for the holidays?”

  “Yeah. Sort of. I came home mainly because Rachel went missing. Mom doesn’t want me to go back to boarding school until she’s found.” Tears glistened in her dark eyes and she blinked hard, wetting her long lashes with them.

  “You like boarding school?” he asked, staring at his boots because it was too uncomfortable for him to witness her sadness and pain over her missing sister.

  She sighed. “I suppose. I didn’t want to go at first, but it’s been okay. I don’t have to be around him, which is good.”

  “You don’t like him? We’re talking about your stepfather, right? Just to be clear.”

  “Yeah. John.” She said his name with bored exaggeration and swiped a hand across her eyes. “I don’t hate him or anything. He’s just hard to take. He’s all into Mom and it’s like me and Rach are Mom’s pet dogs and he’s allergic to us, so he doesn’t want us around.”

  Levi squinted at her, wondering if she was for real or playing him. Why was she telling him this? He’d just met her and she was spilling out feelings that he knew she didn’t reveal to many others. Certainly not to strangers like him. Maybe, because she’d seen him on TV, she felt like she knew him. People often waylaid him in airports, restaurants, and other public places and chatted him up as if they were close acquaintances.

  She lifted one foot and kicked the toe of his black, leather boot. “Nice footwear.”

  “Thanks. I like yours, too.”

  “Yeah? They’re red.”

  “They certainly are.”

  She giggled. “What are you doing hanging out here?”

  “Waiting for Trudy.”

  “Oh.” She looked toward the building and a frown puckered her forehead. “So, is she like your girlfriend?”

  “Yes. She’s like my girlfriend.”

  “Your only one? I read that you’re a player.” She shrugged and hummed under breath, then sang a bit of a popular song’s verse. “ʻPlayer’s gotta play, play, play.’”

  “She’s the only one,” he said, smiling at her antics.

  She stared at him hard again, not blinking and not backing down. “You think she can find Rachel?”

  “If anyone can, she can.”

  “What about you? Can you find her?”

  “No. This is Trudy’s territory.” The screech of tires seized his attention.

  Two black sedans pulled to a stop in front of the building across the street and four men in black got out. They buttoned their black coats and strode purposefully into Comfort Ministry. Levi straightened slowly from the bench as every hair on his body lifted and tingled. “Excuse me,” he murmured to Hannah, already moving away from her.

  “Who are those guys?” she asked, falling into step beside him as they crossed the street.

  “FBI.” He paused at the bottom of the steps just as the men came back out, this time with Trudy. Her green eyes widened when she spotted him and then fluttered closed in a moment of obvious relief. His heart shoved against his ribcage.

  “Levi,” she said, moving down the steps to him. “The FBI read my report and they want to talk to me.”

  He captured one of her hands. It was ice cold. He gave it a quick squeeze. “Where?” he asked the senior agent, a guy named Eric Wannamaker. He’d already met all four of the men when he had rounded up information on the kidnapping for Trudy.

  “The sheriff’s office on Liberty Street,” Wannamaker answered him.

  “I’m going with her.”

  Wannamaker shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He indicated the backseat of one of the sedans.

  Levi kept Trudy’s hand in his as she slid onto the seat and then he joined her. As the car pulled away, he saw Hannah standing on the sidewalk. A middle-aged woman came trotting up to her, red-faced and wagging her finger. Hannah didn’t even bother to look at her. Instead, she locked gazes with Levi and lifted her hand in a perfunctory, somewhat resigned wave that pricked his conscience, bringing back harsh childhood feelings of helplessness.

  ###

  Three hours later Trudy sat across from Levi in a booth at Minnie’s Café. The waitress served them their deluxe cheeseburger platters and soft drinks, checked to make sure they had everything they needed, and went to see to her other customers.

  “I guess this is what my brother calls lupper,” Trudy said, adding lettuce and tomato to her burger. “Too late for lunch and too early for supper.”

  Levi added pepper and salt to the beef patty. “Whatever it is, it’s going to be devoured. I’m starved.” He squirted catsup all over his fries. “Looks like the FBI is taking you more seriously now that you’ve confirmed what they’ve been suspecting.”

  “Yeah.” Her green gaze touched his blue one. “There’s more than one person involved in Rachel’s kidnapping.”

  “There was nothing in the earlier report I saw of theirs to indicate that they were leaning that way. I got the feeling that it was a new development for them.”

  “Me, too. I’m glad you were there. Law enforcement still intimidates me.”

  “You need to get over that, Tru. Let their disbelief and scorn roll off your back. Eventually, they come around and it’s so satisfying to watch them eat crow.”

  She took a big bite of the burger and conversation ceased for several minutes. At one point, she shared eye-roll swoons with him over the delectable greasy spoon meal.

  “The FBI sure didn’t give me anything. That’s how it works, I guess. They want to know what I know, but they’re not into sharing.”

  “Exactly.” Levi bobbed his eyebrows. “But you don’t need their stinkin’ help.”

  She laughed under her breath at his bravado. In a way, he was right. Law enforcement officers and agents hadn’t assisted her much on the cases she’d worked on. “What were you doing outside the ministry building anyway?”

  “Waiting for you,” he replied between bites of fries. “I was going to give you a ride to the café.”

  “You weren’t coming inside?”

  “No.” He pinched some paper napkins out of the metal holder and wiped his lips and chin. “I had an interesting talk with Hannah Rudd.”

  “Hannah? Really?”

  “Have you met her?”

  She recalled Hannah’s hasty exit after delivering the tea tray to AmyLynn’s office. “She didn’t have much to say to me. In fact, she acted as if she couldn’t get away fast enough.”

  “She approached me while I was sitting in the park. She mainly talked about her stepfather and how she doesn’t like him and he doesn’t have much use for her either.”

  Astonished, Trudy lowered her half-eaten burger to the plate. “She told you that? Just b
lurted it out or did you ask her?”

  “It spilled out of her. I was as shocked as you. It was almost as if she’d been waiting to get me alone and talk to me.” A smile tipped up one side of his mouth. “She has a little crush on me, I think. She said she’s watched me on television.”

  “Ah, well, that sort of explains her eagerness to bond with you.” Females wanting to get up close and personal with Levi were fairly commonplace and something with which she’d been trying to come to terms. Fawning and gawking females around Levi were as inevitable as the phases of the moon. “I know when I watch you on television I want to climb in there and hump you.”

  He was taking a sip of cola and almost did a spit take. Eyes watering, he grabbed the paper napkins and held them to his mouth until he could swallow. Trudy laughed at his reaction. He could be so freaking adorable.

  “What? You’re surprised that I want to climb on you like a monkey?” she asked, lowering her voice to an almost-whisper. “You think I don’t watch you while you’re sleeping and force myself not to love-bite my way down your chest and stomach to your . . .” She leaned forward and mouthed cock . . . “and give it a good, long lick?”

  “Christ, Trudy!” Levi hissed, his gaze darting around to the other diners even as his grin grew to an all-out teeth-displaying smile. “Why do you always talk like that when I can’t do anything about it?”

  “Do I do that?” she asked, pseudo-innocently. She sat back in the booth, dabbed a fry into the pool of catsup on her plate and resumed her meal, just managing to pretend she couldn’t feel his heated, sexually-charged gaze on her. “What were we talking about before my impromptu confession? Oh, yes. Hannah. Did she say anything about Rachel?”

  He shook his head, his eyes still sparkling with hot intensity. Looking away from her, he seemed to gather his thoughts, making himself think back to his talk with Hannah. “She’s putting on a brave face, but it’s clear that it’s an act. I think the sisters are very close and banded together even more tightly when their mother married again.”

  Like a fishhook, something sharp lodged in her mind and tugged. Trudy held her breath for a few seconds and waited. She was mindful that Levi was still talking, but she stopped listening as she waited . . . waited for the hook to set and pull her all the way in . . .

  . . . pretty, little thing . . . bet her skin feels like floured silk. She’s young, so she’s smooth all over. Old enough to enjoy it, though. She’d be a tight fit. God . . . so tight my johnson would have to go real slow and push those honey walls open wider and wider . . . No! Can’t think like this. Can’t do another one. Can’t . . . sin . . . no . . .more . . .

  “What? What’s going on?” Levi’s voice seemed far, far away.

  Trudy opened her eyes and was shocked to find that Levi was sitting across from her. She glanced around and remembered where she was – the diner. But she’d been standing by a chain-link fence, looking at children.

  “He’s at the elementary school,” she said as anxiety pushed up through her, making her scramble from the booth before she was aware of moving.

  “Who? What? What’s happening?”

  The questions came at her like bullets and she winced. Her anxiety grew, expanded, made her breath whistle in and out of her windpipe. She needed to leave . . . needed to run . . . the school . . . he was at the school.

  “We have to go!”

  “Okay, okay!” Levi stepped in front of her, blocking her exit. He yanked a couple of bills from his wallet and threw them on the table. “Calm down.” Bending his knees a little, he gripped her upper arms and arrested her gaze. “You saw him . . . at the elementary school?”

  “I think so.” She wiggled, trying to wrench away from him. “We need to go. He’s looking at little girls.”

  Levi tucked her to his side and moved with her toward the door. “Careful, Trudy. You’re making a scene.”

  She felt the eyes on her then and her skin heated uncomfortably. Great. People already thought she was strange and now she’d elevated that to “crazy lady.” The town gossips would be in clover over her babbling and ranting.

  “Just breathe,” Levi whispered, opening the door and letting her escape even as he held out her coat to her.

  She shoved her arms into the sleeves and jerked it around her torso. “Why does this happen to me? Why? And why can’t I decide when it’s going to happen? I have no control over anything!”

  “Shhh.” He stroked a hand over her hair, then pulled her green and gray wool hat over it. “The school is only a few blocks away.”

  “Everything is only a few blocks away in Cotton,” she grumbled before sliding into the passenger seat of Levi’s Audi.

  Levi fastened his seatbelt, glanced over to make sure she’d done the same, and then steered the car away from the curb. “So, it was him?”

  “Yes.” The man’s words swept through her mind again as she stared sightlessly out the car window. “He sounded a little different this time. Maybe because he’s turned on watching the little girls at the school.”

  “Could be. How did he sound different?”

  “I don’t know . . . it’s just the way it came across to me. It’s hard to explain. He was whispering in his mind, so his voice sounded odd.” She drew in a quick breath. “But he must be planning to kidnap another child. I hope that doesn’t mean he’s done something to Rachel.”

  “No thoughts of Rachel?”

  “No. Nothing about her. He was focusing on another little girl.”

  “Here we are. Damn it! School has let out and it’s a madhouse up there.” He scowled, leaning forward to peer ahead as if his displeasure would make the other motorists get the hell out of his way.

  “It’s okay. We need to go slow. Let me look . . . maybe I’ll feel something if I see him or maybe I’ll catch his thoughts again.”

  She focused every scintilla of her attention on the faces of the few men who milled about or were sitting in cars and trucks, waiting for their children. When a space opened up along the curb, Levi parked the car in it, but kept the motor running. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.

  “Anything?”

  Trudy shook her head, but kept looking and hoping for a spark of recognition or a snippet of thought that wasn’t hers. Minutes passed and the street emptied. A school bus rumbled past them. A few women, holding the hands of their children, walked along the snowy sidewalks, slowly making their ways back home. Finally, when there were no more men in sight, Trudy slumped into the car seat and sighed in defeat.

  “Zero. A big, fat zero. That’s what I’ve come up with. I don’t even know if Rachel is still alive.” Dejection grabbed her heart and tried to yank it down, down, down, crushing it, mangling it. She pressed a fist between her breasts against the ache. “All I know is that there’s a man around here who is planning to molest and possibly kill a child.”

  “Molest? Now he’s thinking about that? And murder?”

  Jerking out from her pool of self-pity, Trudy held her breath for a second as realization burst through her. “Yes! That’s what was different this time. Before, he never thought about molesting her. This time, that’s all he thought about. And he knew it was wrong. He was fighting those feelings.” She picked through his thoughts again. “He didn’t actually think about killing the child, but I wouldn’t rule it out, either.”

  Levi leaned his forehead against his hands on the steering wheel, deep in thought. “If he’s molested before, he has an arrest record. Could have already served a prison sentence.”

  “There aren’t any registered sex offenders in Cotton. I already checked on that.”

  “He could live in a nearby town or city and come to Cotton to prey on the children here. He might be the other person involved in Rachel’s abduction.”

  “He didn’t have any thoughts of Rachel, though.” Fatigue seeped into her bones and she leaned her head back against the rest and closed her burning eyes. “I might be too late for Rachel. Can we just go?” She felt the car
ease forward and listened to the sound of cars passing, the slush of tires in snow, the beep of a horn, a dog barking. When Levi’s hand closed over hers, which were clutched tightly in her lap, she jerked all over.

  “Easy, Tru,” he said, his voice a husky, warm blanket of comfort. “We’re back at the RV. AmyLynn is here.”

  AmyLynn stood beside the RV and Hannah was behind her, leaning a shoulder against the side of it. AmyLynn smiled, but worry emanated from her. Hannah eyes lit up when Levi slowly unfolded himself from the sports car.

  “Rad car,” Hannah said.

  “It’s a rental,” Levi said as he rounded the Audi to open Trudy’s door. He held out his hand, waiting for her to slide hers into his. When their palms kissed, he gave a little squeeze of assurance.

  “Hi, AmyLynn. Is something wrong?” Trudy asked.

  “I was worried after the FBI took you away that something bad had happened.” AmyLynn’s gaze wandered to Levi and her smile became shy. “Hello. We haven’t formally met.” She held out her hand to Levi.

  He stared at her long sugary pink fingernails that had white crosses on them before he finally shook her hand. “Hello.” He sent Hannah a brief smile before turning to Trudy. “I’m going inside.”

  She nodded, feeling his discomfort and seeing the tension evident on his face and the set of his broad shoulders. He strode past the visitors and wasted no time disappearing into the RV. She heard him hush Mouse when the dog yapped at him.

  “Nothing’s wrong,” Trudy said. “The FBI wanted to question me further about my last report. It seems that they’ve suspected that the kidnapper might not be acting alone, too. They haven’t told you that?” Trudy asked when AmyLynn’s mouth fell open.

  “No. Maybe they mentioned it to John.” She frowned. “I’ll ask him. I don’t like being left out of anything that has to do with finding Rachel.”

  Trudy caught her lower lip between her teeth as she wrestled with her own bit of news. Should she tell AmyLynn about the man oogling a little girl at the school? How would that help? It could have nothing to do with Rachel. The dark circles under AmyLynn’s eyes and the sadness and worry apparent in her flustered, nervous gestures closed Trudy’s throat.