Wanting (PAVAD)

by Calle J. Brookes

  “We’re not from here. Do you know where the runaways tend to hang out? Near here?”

  “Try the intersection four blocks from here. There seems to be a big group of them down there. I saw her down by the river once. It’s about a mile from here. There’s a bunch of construction going on. That jacket she wears, the blue one with the orange stripe down the middle? It’s pretty recognizable. You might try there.”

  ***

  The area nearest the river was dirty and filled with the sights of construction. Sebastian estimated they’d spend hours searching each site—the ones that weren’t fenced. That was only if the rains let off enough for them to be able to see ten feet in front of them. Was Ashleigh being drawn to construction sites? Her father’s, perhaps? A subconscious way of seeking his protection and safety? It sickened him to think of that little girl out there frightened and alone. How must her own father feel?

  “So how do you want to do this?” Carrie appeared unfazed by the rain, but he’d noticed earlier that the sound of distant thunder had her tensing. “Search each building site together or you take one side of the street and I take the other?”

  “We stay together. Period. I’m not explaining to Hellbrook that I lost you in the river.” Sebastian felt her shoulder bump his as they started around the first site. “If it starts storming, we’ll call it for the day.”

  “I’m good to go on, if we need to.”

  “Well, I won’t be. It’s stupid to be outside in a Midwestern thunderstorm. We won’t do anyone any good that way. We’ll head back to the hotel and go over the details.”

  “Should we announce our presence? Call for her? Or are you wanting to catch her unaware?”

  “Unaware. Chances are good she’ll recognize me. If the reason she ran has something to do with her mother, she’ll probably run from me as well. If we can corner her, we may be able to find out what happened without her getting away. I’m not stopping until I find her and help her. If that means taking her somewhere other than to one of her parents, that’s what I’ll do.”

  “Do you think it has something to do with her parents?”

  “Nine times out of ten, doesn’t it? Or a potential love interest.”

  “For the majority, yes. The main reason kids runaway is abuse, followed by arguments with parents, friends, and finally romantic interest. Very rarely is it something else.” Carrie stepped over a small pile of lumber that blocked the muddy path to the back of the site. “So do you have any theories?”

  “I’m not sure if Sherry has been completely upfront with me.”

  “We’ll need to talk to her again. Find out—” The sound of running feet cut off the rest of what Carrie had to say. “Sebastian! There!”

  “I see her! Go around!” Sebastian took off after the runner. He couldn’t tell the exact color but the jacket the runner wore was dark, with a stripe running around its middle. The height was right, too. “Ashleigh? Ashleigh! Wait!”

  He followed the runner around the back of the building, but the kid knew the place better. He—she—darted beneath a half-hung sheet of metal fencing, using the mud beneath to increase speed. Sebastian had to stop, his frame much too large to follow. He’d have to climb the fence to get through.

  The runner disappeared into the next construction site before Sebastian had cleared the fence. He cursed. If Carrie didn’t catch the kid, they had lost the chance.

  But Sebastian still followed.

  The runner was nowhere to be found, and the construction site was deserted. That left the old building across the street. He could just make out the outline of a person on the fire escape, near the top story. The street lamp highlighted red hair.

  He jogged toward it and started up after her.

  “Carrie? Are you up here?”

  “Sebastian…”

  Carrie’s voice was soft and Sebastian barely heard it.

  He crossed the roof, his feet falling silently on the rooftop. It took him a moment but he spotted her.

  She knelt in front of a sobbing girl who appeared no more than thirteen. Fourteen at the most. The mocha skin told him it wasn’t the teenager they were looking for.

  “Does she need medical care?” He kept his voice as low as possible, not wanting to startle the girl. To scare her.

  “I think so. She is thin, probably very hungry. Shhh. We didn’t mean to scare you. It’s ok. We’re not social services. I promise. We just need some help.” Carrie’s words were equally low. “Can I have your jacket? She’s so cold. That’s what the worst part is, the cold...”

  Sebastian shrugged off the thin jacket and slipped it into Carrie’s hand. She wrapped it around the girl. Sebastian placed a hand on Carrie’s back as she attempted to pull the child to her feet. “Let’s get her downstairs. I think the hospital is three blocks north of here. Can she walk?”

  “Maybe. Stay close in case we need to carry her.” Carrie looked at him, and he had no trouble seeing the misery and tears in her eyes. She turned back to the girl. “Can you tell me your name? I’m Carrie and this is Sebastian.”

  “Sophie...” the little girl said. “My name is Sophie.”

  Chapter 13

  *****

  Lorcan stood by his partner’s side while they waited in the hospital waiting room. Carrie didn’t like hospitals; it was evident in the tension running through her shoulders, in the abnormal paleness of her skin. He’d also heard about how she’d protested going for treatment after Stephenson’s attack. He’d put it together; she feared hospitals. He wrapped a hand around her arm before he thought. She tensed, then forced herself to relax. “You ok?”

  “I’m fine. I have a problem with hospitals.” Carrie’s words were low, her eyes bleak when she looked up at him from the computer screen she’d been staring at for almost forty minutes. “She was so thin. She’s been out there a long time.”

  “Did she tell you much?” Carrie had accompanied the girl to the exam room and waited until a social worker had been called. The girl had claimed to be seventeen; Sebastian wondered what her story was.

  “She just...left home. She lived with her grandmother, her mother disappeared years ago. She’s been out here two years, and I think she’s sick. I think she’s probably hooked on something—meth or homemade chemicals. She has the burns around her nose and mouth for household cleaner abuse, though lord knows where she gets the money to buy it. I have my suspicions. She’s refused a SART exam.”

  A Sexual Assault Rape Trauma exam would tell whether the girl was a victim. It didn’t surprise Sebastian she’d refused. She’d probably survived by selling—herself, drugs, stolen goods. It was a hell of a life for such a young girl. What had Carrie and Paige done to survive? He wasn’t sure he ever wanted to ask that question of them. “Did she say anything else about Ashleigh?”

  “Just what we already know.” Carrie slid the laptop closed. “Said that Ashleigh and she shared a camp spot two days ago. Ashleigh never revealed she was a female. Said Ashleigh insisted she take the jacket. And food. Ashleigh said she could get more. And that Ashleigh asked her how to get a bus ticket without going through the proper channels.”

  “So we need to see if she got on somewhere here in the city.”

  Chapter 14

  *****

  Kevin had the address written on the back of the private investigator’s file. It wasn’t in the Houston area like he’d expected; his baby lived in the Midwest. He’d been to St. Louis a time or two. He and his wife had brought the girls on vacation once. The other time was back in his college days. He’d driven a buddy back after the guy’s dad had died. That hadn’t been a fun trip.

  His daughter’s building was in the old downtown district. The red brick shouted age, but from what the investigator had found, the building was now in decent repair. The entire area was being revitalized. Kevin could see that from where his car was parked, despite the heavy rain. He studied the three-story apartment building illuminated by plenty of street lights. His daughter owned it. Had h
er adoptive parents helped her? Had they taken care of her? He’d found no record of their names, but he was still searching.

  His daughter Brynna had a good hand with computers—made her living at them—and was searching for that information. The girls had jumped in to help him find their sister.

  He and his wife had raised a good group of girls. Any father would be proud to call them his. And Kevin was.

  The sign on the door said there were vacancies. Should he call the number? Pretend to be a prospective tenant? Meet his daughter on somewhat neutral ground?

  Though he’d only met her once, fatherly pride filled him. His kid had come out on her feet. Kevin opened his car door. Surely the apartment building—which housed nine units—would have an office with a super or some type of information.

  Chapter 15

  *****

  “We had an incident yesterday.” The manager of the bus station led Carrie and Sebastian into the small closet that served as her office around eleven the next morning.

  “What type of incident?” Sebastian has shown Ashleigh’s picture to the different clerks who’d worked the day before. Two had remembered possibly seeing a child matching Ashleigh’s description. A third had directed them to his manager, a look of apprehension on his face.

  “We had four school field trips depart from here, going in different directions. One hundred sixty-six children around the ages of twelve to fifteen. Seems one bus had an extra passenger at boarding but at the final destination, the extra had disappeared.”

  “Disappeared? How?” Carrie asked.

  “We’re not entirely sure.” The manager had a completely perplexed expression on her face. “In all my years of working here I’ve not seen anything like it.”

  Carrie exited the restroom behind a trio of thirtyish women, her red hair making her instantly identifiable despite her being half hidden behind the older women. Sebastian straightened and wrapped a hand around her arm to pull her in his direction as she approached. This time she stiffened even less. He took it as a good sign. She was getting used to him touching her.

  “We can’t be sure it’s even her. So what do you think we should do?” Carrie adjusted the straps of her backpack over her shoulders.

  “We need to determine where the extra passenger disembarked, then go from there.”

  “The bus was headed to St. Louis. We need to check with the bus line to see if security videos show her.” Carrie walked at his side, her shoulder bumping his. She was the perfect height for a woman; with him being close to six-four, she was only a head shorter. He liked that; it meant he didn’t have to bend down to speak to her. And she could keep up with him, her legs nearly as long as his. She had awesome legs. Legs he’d dreamed about in excruciating detail the night before.

  “Back to the manager’s office?” Sebastian nodded in the correct direction.

  “Yes. But first, I want to call the hospital and check on Sophie.”

  “This girl really got to you, didn’t she?” Her compassion surprised him. Agents were typically trained to not let the people they encountered in the course of the job weigh on their minds. They had to remain objective, or the job would eventually consume them.

  “She was forgotten. And has no one else to help her. Shouldn’t we?” Carrie looked at him, her expression serious and a little sad.

  Sebastian dropped a hand to her elbow and squeezed it in comfort. “How can we? Get her into programs with housing? Reconnect her with the grandparent who apparently didn’t bother looking for her? There’s only so much we can do.”

  “I have some people back in St. Louis. I’ve worked with them before. They’ll provide a bed and food. Work with her on her education. Get her clean. It’s not a halfway house, more of an assisted living facility for these kids. I work there a few days each month. They could take her, if someone provided some funds. I can swing it, I think. If she even wants to go. Many of these kids are resistant to any kind of change.” She leaned closer to him as she spoke.

  “You surprise me.” He wanted to slip an arm around her back, but refrained. She wasn’t ready for that kind of casual touching yet. He knew it, and didn’t want to risk upsetting her even more.

  “Ok. Is that a good or bad thing?” She pulled away slightly, confusion in her eyes.

  “Definitely good. I like puzzles and surprises. You’re both.” One that he wouldn’t mind figuring out. That had him pausing in his thinking. Was that what he wanted? A chance to figure out just exactly how he felt about Carrie Sparks? Maybe. He didn’t know yet.

  “I don’t try to be.”

  It confused her, his words. That was clear for him to see. Sebastian squeezed her arm before releasing her. “Well, you are. And I like it.”

  ***

  They couldn’t be one hundred percent certain the kid disappearing off the bus was even Ashleigh. Security videos of the kid entering the vehicle were grainy, poor quality at best. It looked like an average middle school kid wearing tee shirt, jeans, carrying a hoodie, and wearing a ball cap. Even the facial features were hard to determine. But odds were good that it was, which meant they were headed back to the St. Louis area. They’d eat first, visit with Sophie, and then head home.

  “Do you want to go in with me?” Carrie looked at the man beside her. He’d not protested when she’d explained that Sophie was important to her, had actually looked at her with admiration in his strange green eyes.

  “Yes.”

  “Let’s go then. When we’re finished we can keep looking for Ashleigh.”

  Chapter 16

  *****

  She hadn’t wanted to do it, but she’d seen that man. The one her mom had had a crush on for so long. He’d been looking for someone, and Ashleigh knew it was her. Had her mom called him? Wasn’t he a cop? An FBI or Secret Service guy?

  If he found her, it was all over.

  She huddled in the vinyl bus seat, praying the rest of the people on the bus wouldn’t realize she wasn’t one of them.

  How would she explain that she’d locked some kid in the restroom? Told him some jerk was going to kick her ass if she didn’t run right now. She’d slid her favorite MP3 player under the door to make up for what she’d done; she’d told him she was sorry. That would have to be enough.

  She pulled her zip-up hoodie, thinner than the one she’d given to that girl Sophie, up around her face and laid her head against the cool glass of the window. She kept her hood up, hoping she wouldn’t stand out. With forty other kids on the bus, surely she’d be overlooked?

  Once she got away from the city, she’d think about what to do next. Right now, she was just so tired, all she wanted to do was sleep.

  But she couldn’t. Not if it meant she might get caught and sent back to him.

  She watched the people around her, waiting for one to notice she didn’t belong.

  Chapter 17

  *****

  Kevin knew it was Rush. That distinctive walk, that shuffle-step-shuffle-step was the result of a childhood accident that Kevin had witnessed involving a rope and a swimming hole at the local quarry. Rush had broken his leg in twenty-two places, but had regained much of the functionality of the limb. Only the vaguest limp remained and Kevin had shortened his own stride hundreds of times in the past to accommodate his partner. The limp hadn’t affected Rush on the job at all He hadn’t let it.

  Why was he poking around Caroline’s apartment building?

  Kevin hadn’t found anyone at home in the office, something that surprised him. Buildings of this caliber always had someone accessible.

  The rest of the building had been quiet as well and he’d been unable to ask about the vacant apartment or about the owner.

  He’d settled into his car and debated on what to do next. He was checking his email from Brynna when a man had passed around the front hood of his car.

  Kevin watched the man, trying to figure out why something nagged at him when it hit him. It was Minton Rush, but about fifty pounds lighter than the last time K
evin had seen him.

  That had been two days before Caroline’s mother was murdered.

  Kevin watched the man for a moment, growing even more certain with each step the man took that is was the man he suspected of killing Caroline’s mother and step-father.

  He opened the door and stepped from his vehicle.

  One thing was certain, Minton Rush wasn’t getting anywhere near his daughter again.

  Chapter 18

  *****

  Sebastian slipped his fingers through hers as they entered the hospital. He didn’t know why he’d made the gesture, but it felt right, at that moment. He left his hand where it was. She didn’t pull away, and that more than anything told him how upset she was.

  The nurse’s station was deserted except for one black woman in her late thirties. She had a kind face but it was obvious she was overworked and stressed.

  She looked up when they entered, eyes landing on Sebastian. “Can I help you?”

  “We’re here to speak with a girl we brought in earlier. Her name is Sophie Roberts.” Sebastian flashed his badge at the woman. Her eyes narrowed and she held out a hand. He gave her the badge and she studied it. She sighed.

  “I’m sorry, she’s heavily sedated. And we’re probably going to keep her that way for a while.” Sadness was clear in the woman’s eyes.

  “Why?” Carrie asked.

  “Have you spoken with her doctor? He’s Dr. Clark.”

  “Not yet.” Sebastian read the woman’s hesitation easily. “Why?”

  “Federal law prevents me from divulging the information.”

  “We are the feds. And we are responsible for Sophie since she was discovered during the course of our investigation.” Sebastian twisted the truth a bit—they weren’t on an official investigation, but for intents and purposes he and Carrie were responsible for the child. Morally, if nothing else. “And our main concern right now is that child.”