Way Down There (An Allie Down Mystery Thriller Book 1)

by PJ Fernor

  This was what Lo was used to doing. And I forgot about it. Or I wasn’t used to it.

  I put my hand to my mouth and closed my eyes, still wanting to hide the tears. I couldn’t cry even in front of myself.

  I opened my eyes a few seconds later and reached for my phone.

  The urge to call Ben…

  For what?

  What was Ben going to do?

  I left my phone on the counter, next to Lo’s.

  I killed time by cleaning and organizing the apartment. Unpacking a few more of the boxes I had stuffed into the pantry, knowing it was mostly dumb knickknacks. Nothing important.

  A part of me didn’t want to settle at all.

  I was just waiting for Lo to want to go back to her house.

  That could be a while. Everything could be a while.

  When I finished unpacking two boxes I sat at the table with an empty glass and a small bottle of scotch Peg had given me on my last day back in the city. She ran the office like a dictator, didn’t have a badge, studied criminal justice for fun, and if you didn’t listen to Peg, she would kick your butt.

  I poured myself a small glass and sipped it, swallowing the scotch, some tears, more emotion, and quickly forced myself to open my bag and look at a map of the town.

  I was taking the missing cat thing way too serious but I needed the distraction until something else came across my desk.

  At six-oh-one Lo walked through the door.

  I stood up and wanted to hug her.

  She looked at me and waved her history book. “I’m alive. And home.”

  “Lo…”

  “I’m going to go into my room and listen to music and fall asleep.”

  “What about dinner?”

  “I ate at Dani’s.”

  “Okay. I… I looked at the calendar for tomorrow already.”

  Lo walked to her room and slammed the door.

  I wandered into the kitchen and opened the first drawer which had a few takeout menus. Some of my favorite places were closed down or turned into other businesses.

  I ordered a turkey club, extra mayo, and extra fries. At the last second I threw a pizza on the order, just in case Lo did get hungry again.

  Or in case I can’t sleep, since there’s no more chocolate cake.

  I studied Mike (the cat) on the flyer while I waited for the food to show up.

  I sipped more scotch.

  I thought about Ben.

  I thought about Alex.

  I forced my focus back to Mike.

  My next swallow was going to be for a better tomorrow.

  If not…

  Meow.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I didn’t sleep great, but I never did. I went to bed after too many hours of studying the picture of Mike (the missing cat) and the map of Sandemor and surrounding areas. All that did was kick up memories that I thought for sure were long gone.

  Then came the parts when I’d check on Lo.

  At least five times I snuck into her room to make sure she was still in bed.

  She was.

  She wasn’t the type to get up in the middle of the night and leave.

  Even if I did screw up royally.

  I probably scared her more than she scared me.

  That thought hit me hardest until my alarm went off on my phone just before six.

  My eyes were already open and I went to the kitchen to make coffee and breakfast.

  More waffles in the toaster.

  I wished Lo a good morning and kept my distance as she got ready for another day of school. The same routine as the day before. Running a path from the bedroom to the bathroom and back again. She was going to wear out the carpet in a month.

  There goes the deposit.

  When she finally settled on her clothes, hair, and had her bag thrown over her shoulder, I sat at the dining room table with my fourth cup of coffee and smiled at her.

  “You look pretty.”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “Do you have your phone?” I asked.

  Lo gave me a nasty look (the same look Alex used to give me… yikes) and she waved her phone at me.

  “Getting a ride?” I asked.

  “Yup.”

  “Dani Bitch?”

  Lo’s face turned red. “Please don’t go through my phone ever again.”

  That’s when I stood up. “Lo… look. I didn’t go through your phone. I was worried. I’m going to be worried. A lot. And… if I ever have to go through your phone, I will.”

  “Great,” she said. “Thanks for the trust. Guess I’ll just put a password on it then.”

  “Lo…”

  “I have to go,” she said. “I’m going to be late. Good luck finding the cat. We should have just stayed in the city. You’re looking for cats now? And afraid I’ve gone missing?”

  “Logan,” I snapped.

  She hurried to the door and left.

  I chased after her and ripped open the door but she had already gone through the door to the steps.

  “Good morning!” I heard next to me.

  I turned my head and saw Miss Kesslier.

  “Morning,” I said.

  “How are you?”

  “Late,” I said. “Big case I’m working on.”

  “Really?” Miss Kesslier asked, eyes wide. “Let me ask you something… when there’s a murder, is it always as busy as they show on TV? Caution tape, news reporters, people lurking around? Then the vans and stuff show up to take pictures and get fingerprints, right?”

  “Yes,” I said. “Depending on the… yes.” I smiled. “Everything you see on TV is true.”

  I hurried back into the apartment and had to get dressed myself.

  I was out the door five minutes later, with my bag full of pictures of Mike… again, the cat.

  I couldn’t believe on the drive to the station I was looking around for the cat. And on top of that I came up with a search plan for the cat.

  My entire career had now boiled down to a missing cat.

  Who was probably either gone for good or quite honestly, dead. There were mountain lions, bears, and other hungry animals in the woods. Even a hawk looking for a snack could have easily swept down and grabbed poor Mike.

  I told myself to think positive.

  I walked into the station with my bag over my shoulder and the first thing I did was look for Ben.

  Before I could get anywhere near our offices, I heard yelling.

  “… you did this! You forgot her!”

  “Me?! Who the hell do you think you are?! You’re going to burn in hell for what you did to her!”

  I followed the noise and at the front of the station there was a man and woman.

  Each holding something in their left hand. The man much taller than the woman but the woman on her toes, looking like a cobra poised for a deadly strike.

  I started to move faster, tossing my bag to the front desk, letting out a quick whistle to get their attention on me and not attacking each other.

  “What’s going on here?” I asked.

  “Our daughter is missing,” the man said.

  “He forgot to pick her up,” the woman said.

  “You rotten…,” the man growled.

  “Hey!” I snapped. “Stop. You said your daughter is missing?”

  “Right here,” the woman said, showing me a picture. “Jessie. Our little girl. Our only girl.”

  I swiped the picture from her hand.

  It was a school picture. A beautiful little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, a few teeth missing in that adorable ugly way that makes being a kid so much fun. With her hair pulled back, wearing a pink, unicorn shirt, the backdrop that of a classroom with an American flag and a window showing off nothing but green outside.

  “When did she go missing?” I asked. “Have you-”

  “You need to find her,” the man said, jumping at me. “I have a more recent picture than her mother does.”

  “Oh, you son of a…,” the woma
n said. “Of course you do. You kicked me out of the house! Remember?! You kept everything of hers. But not her!”

  I grabbed the picture from the man’s hand.

  My eyes watched the way he looked at the woman.

  Not violent… but hateful. A lot of hate.

  “You’re her parents?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” the woman said. “We’re divorced.”

  “Thank god,” the man said.

  “Screw you, Connor,” she spat.

  “Never again,” he said.

  “The two of you,” I said. “Pick a corner. Separate. Now!”

  The final yell had Connor showing me his hands. He stepped away, running a hand through his hair.

  I looked at the woman. “Your name?”

  “Catherine,” she said. “Cat.”

  Another cat in my life, huh?

  “Okay, Cat. And Connor. I’m Detective Allie Down. Let me get some info…”

  “We already talked to someone,” Connor said.

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Me,” a voice said.

  Ben came rushing up next to me.

  “I told you two to give me one second,” Ben said. “You can’t keep quiet for that long?”

  “He started it,” Cat said. “Blaming me for this!”

  “You didn’t get her!” Connor fumed.

  “It was your turn!” Cat screamed back.

  Ben lunged for Connor. He grabbed Connor’s shirt and walked him back toward a wall. “Yell again. I dare you.”

  I looked back and forth between the divorced couple.

  Then down at the pictures of their daughter.

  “Jessie, you said?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Cat said. “Jessie. Jessica. Jess. But we always call her Jessie. She’s my Jessie Girl. She’s short. Skinny for her age. She was a premie. But a fighter. She’s got… I mean, there’s nothing wrong with her.”

  “Wrong?” I asked.

  “Jesus Christ,” Connor said. “She means there’s no scars or marks or freckles or anything like that.”

  “She was wearing dance clothes,” Cat said.

  “Because you never picked her up,” Connor said again.

  Cat turned and looked ready to spit fire.

  I got in front of Cat and held up the pictures. “How long has Jessie been missing?”

  “Not sure,” Cat said, swallowing hard.

  I whipped my head around to Connor.

  He looked deflated.

  “Go ahead and tell her,” Ben said. “Might as well.”

  “Not last night,” Connor said. “The night before… she had dance…”

  “And you just realized it now?” I asked.

  Both parents fell silent.

  Jessie was a little girl stuck between her parents nasty divorce.

  And she went missing, what, over thirty-six hours ago?

  My heart sank.

  What kind of parents are these?

  Chapter Fourteen

  How does a child go missing for this long without anyone noticing…

  “When did you realize she was gone?” I asked Cat.

  Ben was still in a face-off with Connor.

  The situation was fluid and sensitive. Any parent with their child missing would fight and kill to bring that child back unharmed.

  At least most would…

  I told myself not to pass any true judgment just yet on these two parents.

  Who knew what they were really going through in life.

  And now this.

  “Well, I called last night…” Cat said as her eyes drifted to the floor.

  “Last night?” I asked.

  I looked at Ben.

  Then Connor chimed in. “I told her to. We both ended up texting each other, upset the other didn’t have Jessie say goodnight… the night before…”

  “Wait a second,” I said.

  “Allie, not now,” Ben said. “We have a team together-”

  “You got the call last night?” I asked.

  “I called,” Cat said. “Why is that a problem?”

  Ben eyed me.

  Are you kidding me?

  I kept my composure.

  “Are these the most recent pictures of Jessie?” I asked Cat.

  “For me, yeah,” Cat said. “He took all of our stuff.”

  “You left it!” Connor yelled.

  “You kicked me out!” Cat yelled back.

  “That’s enough,” Ben barked. “I’m not doing this again. It doesn’t matter about you two anymore. You want to hate each other? Fine. Hate each other when your daughter is back and safe. And alive.”

  “Alive,” Cat said. She covered her mouth.

  It was as though the notion that her daughter may not be alive just hit her. She stepped back and sat down in a chair.

  My mind raced.

  Jessie went missing on Wednesday night? Which meant these two spent all of Thursday (yesterday) upset with one another, thinking they were each using Jessie as some kind of emotional weapon in their divorce. All the while their daughter was missing. And that meant last night - Thursday night - the call was placed that Jessie was missing.

  I looked at Ben again.

  That meant you got the call and never called me…

  “Connor, take a seat,” Ben said. “Let me bring Detective Down up to speed.”

  Connor looked at me. “And what are you going to do?”

  “Bring your daughter back to you,” I said without hesitation. “Alive. Safe.”

  “Detective Down is from the city,” Ben said. “Show some respect right now, big guy.”

  Connor finally sat down.

  He put his elbows to his knees and buried his face into his hands.

  I looked at Ben, ready to pounce.

  He moved to the glass door and opened it, nodding to me.

  I raced through and turned back to maybe hit him.

  He put his hands to my back and moved fast, almost pushing me down the hallway. He opened an interrogation room and shut the door behind him.

  He folded his arms.

  I spun around to face him. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Let me have it,” he said.

  “Let you have it? Who the hell do you think you are? I should go to Laura about this.”

  “I was going to talk to you today,” Ben said. “Right now. I didn’t expect the happy couple to come in so early.”

  “Making jokes? A little girl is missing. You know what, Ben? You’re ignorant.”

  “I’ll accept it,” he said. “Now take a seat so I can talk.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Ben pointed to the table. “Sit, Allie.”

  “I’m not a dog.”

  “Please sit down, Allie Down,” he said.

  I walked to the table and kicked it.

  The table didn’t move. It wasn’t supposed to move.

  I looked around the room.

  It was a decent sized interrogation room. A little camera’s face poking from the one corner. The fake mirror that was a see through window to the next room.

  Ben walked to the table and put his hands flat against it.

  “Are you going to sit?” he asked.

  “No,” I said.

  “Fine. You had your hands full last night.”

  “Don’t do that to me,” I said. “You’ve known me for a day.”

  “I’ve known you for years, Allie.”

  “Time changes people,” I said. “I’m not the girl who left this town.”

  “Yes, you are,” Ben said. “And I know everything you went through in the city.”

  “What?”

  Ben stretched his jaw and rubbed it. “I always kept up on you. It’s going to sound borderline creepy…”

  “Borderline?”

  “Fine. It’s creepy. I was always amazed by you, Allie Down. You went from the girl in the middle of the cheerleaders, ra-ra-ra-kiss-my-you-know-what to this strong and brave woman. And when everything happened with Tommy… the
n you were gone. I got wind that you ended up going to the academy and were a cop. It was amazing to hear that. And I know about the case that earned you your shield.”

  My heart sank.

  There were two girls!

  “What’s your point, Ben?”

  “I’m not sure,” he said. “Logic told me something different last night.”

  “Meaning?”

  “It was your first day on the job,” he said. “Sure, you took the case of the missing cat, but I thought about Lo. I figured she would want you home and safe after your first day.”

  You have no idea what I was up against last night, Ben. I thought Lo was missing. I panicked. She left her phone in her room. What teenager ever does that? I had myself in tears… ready to call you…

  “The call came in around seven,” Ben said. “Muldavey went to check it out and called me. He said Cat was freaking out pretty bad. And Connor was blowing up her phone with text messages. Nasty things too. So I went to visit Connor. I had to get the story somewhat straight. When I realized they were telling the truth, I gave Laura a call. We patrolled overnight while I looked into all of Jessie’s friends. Her favorite places. My logic told me maybe she took off. To catch a breath from…”

  Ben nodded his head toward the door.

  “And you didn’t think to call me?” I asked. “The one who’s worked on these types of cases before?”

  “I was hoping for a quick end to it,” Ben said. “I didn’t want you rushing out of the apartment, leaving Lo behind. Alone. Scared. After all she’s been through…”

  I smacked the table and pointed at Ben. “I don’t need someone to tell me how to live my life. I certainly don’t need you. Or a man. Understand?”

  “I saw what Lo was going through with your sister,” Ben said. “All I wanted to do…” He shook his head. “You’re right, Allie. I messed this one up. Big time.”

  “You wasted time,” I said. “I was sitting at the table last night looking at maps of the town. Reminiscing, looking at the changes, and wondering where the hell that stupid cat could have been.”

  “I promise you we did everything by the book last night,” Ben said. “All night. I finally convinced Cat and Connor to rest. I’m sure they didn’t. I’ve been working with Laura and we’re coordinating search parties… I mean, you know how this goes. I don’t need to tell you.”

  “You did need to tell me,” I said. “Last night. Because if what they’re saying is true…”