His Adam’s apple bobbed as if it stung to be reminded of his training with the K-9 unit that Westley had also told her was on hold while he was under suspicion.
“I don’t know how to begin to thank you,” he admitted. “Everything I can think of to say seems so inadequate considering what you did for us.”
“How about giving me a straight and truthful answer? Did you have anything at all to do with the death of my father?”
He blinked as if something about her bluntness surprised him. But then he looked down at her again, his gaze strong and unflinching. “No, ma’am.”
“Then how did my father’s cross end up in your home?”
“I have no idea.”
Her gut said he was telling the truth, but her brain was a whole different matter. She’d placed a lot of faith in the team investigating the Red Rose Killer in the past few months. The only thing that allowed her to sleep at night was the knowledge that some of the very best people she’d ever known were working around the clock to find Boyd and put him back behind bars where he belonged. But if Chase was innocent, then was her faith in the team misplaced? Or was she wrong to believe the man now standing in front of her?
Neither option was a comforting one.
“Did you ever have anything to do with Boyd Sullivan?” she pressed. Instinctively, her hand reached for his arm. She didn’t know why. But somehow she found her fingers brushing the fabric of his uniform, as if trying to hold him in place. “Anything at all? Anything that could explain why the police think you would be helping him or hiding him in your home?”
Chase shook his head. Then he looked down at her hand like it had been a really long time since he’d seen a woman’s fingers on his arm. His hand slid over hers, as if he was about to lead her into a party on his arm, or he was double-checking she was really there. The warmth of his touch spread through her skin. Then his clear and flawless eyes met hers again.
They were the same shade of green as a deep cool pond on a hot Texas summer day.
“No, ma’am,” he said. “I give you my word. I would never put Allie in danger like that. She is my entire world.”
She believed that, right? That no matter what else she knew or didn’t know, Chase loved his little girl too much to sneak a man like Boyd Sullivan around the base and into their lives?
A chorus of panicked shouts erupted from the playground. Queenie barked and her students screamed. Maisy pushed through the door and pelted through the classroom and toward the back door, feeling Chase just one step behind her.
What was happening?
Then one child’s voice rose above them all—“No! Stop! You’re hurting me!”—and Maisy knew in an instant which student the voice belonged to.
It was Allie.
FOUR
Chase ran past her. She watched as his long legs sprinted through the classroom’s maze of cushions, books and toys. He reached the door to the playground and yanked hard. His big hands struggled with the child safety lock.
“Wait, let me get it!” Maisy slid her slender body under the crook of his arm and in between him and the door. Her small hand brushed his large one out of the way. For a moment, his chest brushed against her back and her own fingers seemed to fumble with the same latch she’d done more times than she could count. Then it slid back and she slipped to the side as Chase yanked the door open and burst through.
“Allie? Allie!” His eyes scanned the fenced-in playground. Plastic toys, balls and trikes littered the ground. Bella was calling her students to line up against the wall for a head count. Bella’s classroom assistant, Vance, was nowhere to be seen. Some of Maisy’s students huddled around Esther. Others ran for Maisy, as she instinctively opened her arms to comfort them.
“Help me, Lord,” Chase prayed aloud. “Help me find her!”
Maisy turned to Bella. “What happened?”
“I was getting my class to line up to come back inside when some kids started screaming about a stranger at the fence.” Bella’s dark eyes met Maisy’s. The other teacher’s face was pale. “I sent Vance to alert Imogene to initiate a lockdown and call police. Thankfully, all my students are accounted for.”
But what about hers?
Maisy turned to Esther. “We have to get our class lined up and inside. Is anybody missing?”
“I don’t know!” Esther’s hand rose to her lips, suddenly looking years younger than twenty-three. She was breathing so fast she was almost hyperventilating. “It all happened so fast. Everyone was screaming. Kids were pointing at the fence. It was chaos.” It still was. Esther gulped a breath. “I saw him. He was tall with a black hoodie and baseball cap. He had a bandanna over his face.”
Like the figure she’d seen outside Chase and Allie’s home. “Where?”
“I don’t know. He ran, but I didn’t see which direction.” Esther’s eyes grew wide. “Maisy, I think it was Boyd Sullivan.”
It couldn’t be! Could it? The world swam. A prayer for help moved through her. Bella’s classroom assistant and the preschool director burst out the preschool back door and started helping a stunned Esther get students inside.
“Chase!” Maisy called. “There was someone at the fence! In a hoodie, hat and bandanna. Esther thinks it was Boyd Sullivan.”
“Allie’s gone.” Chase spun toward her. Allie’s bright pink bow was clutched in his hand. His eyes met hers, and it was like she could see through them to the pain piercing his chest. “I can’t see her anywhere.”
“We’ll find her,” she said, but he’d already run for the fence. His strong voice shouted his daughter’s name.
She watched as Imogene helped Esther usher the last of her students through the door.
“Police have been called,” Imogene told her. The gray-haired preschool director’s face was grim. “Every teacher has their class on lockdown. All students were accounted for but one. Allie.”
Maisy’s gaze rose desperately to the fence that had given her such a false sense of security. Oh, Lord, how can this be happening? How can a child disappear from my preschool in broad daylight? Had she been snatched over the fence?
Maisy nodded numbly. She heard the sound of Bella locking her classroom door, the muffled children’s cries from within the preschool and Chase’s desperate calls for his daughter. Then one noise rose above it all—Queenie was howling.
“Let me go help Chase look for his daughter, Imogene, please,” Maisy begged the preschool director. “I think I have an idea of how to find Allie.”
Her boss paused. Maisy prayed the older woman would trust her on this. School policy was all hands on deck during a lockdown. But if Maisy could help Allie before it was too late...
“Okay,” Imogene said. “I’ll get someone to help Esther watch your class. When you come back, go to the front door and buzz in.”
“Thank you.”
The preschool director closed the classroom door and locked it behind her. Maisy ran for Chase.
“Chase, can Queenie track Allie?” Maisy asked. “I know that’s not her K-9 specialty. But my grandmother used to say her beagle could find every one of her eight kids by just hearing their name. She said that breed had the best nose of any dog for finding her pack. And Allie’s part of Queenie’s pack. Right?”
Doubt flickered in Chase’s gaze. He dropped to one knee. The tiny dog ran to him instantly. Her ears perked. Her unwavering brown eyes fixed on his face. He held out the pink bow.
“Queenie. Where’s Allie?” His stern voice hid any hint of the doubt she’d seen on his face. “Go search. Go find Allie.”
Queenie barked. Then the tiny dog pelted in a blur of brown, black and white fur toward the farthest corner of the fence. Chase matched her pace, scooping the dog up into his arms just steps before she reached the perimeter and held her to his chest as his long legs leaped over the fence. Then he set the dog down and they k
ept running over the grassy lot behind the preschool. Maisy cast one glance behind her at the closed door and then ran after Chase and the small dog.
Then she heard it, a faint voice sending hope surging through her veins. “Daddy! Help!”
“Allie!” Chase shouted his daughter’s name and fresh strength seemed to course through him. “Hold on! Daddy’s coming.”
Maisy reached the top of the small hill and paused. The grass spread down to a parking lot below her. A slender figure, tall and shrouded in an oversize hoodie far too warm for the blazing sun was half carrying and half dragging a tiny squirming bundle of rage and fight toward the trunk of a car. Allie thrashed. Chase pelted toward his child, the dog howling at his heels. “Let. My. Daughter. Go!”
The black clad figure stopped, as if startled, turned back. Questions clashed hard and sudden, all within a fraction of a second, inside Maisy’s frightened mind. If the person she’d seen had been trying to abduct Allie, why weren’t they still struggling to get her into the car? Had everything happened more quickly than Maisy had realized? Had they hesitated? Or been unprepared and underestimated how hard it would be to make an upset toddler do anything they didn’t want to?
“Daddy!” Allied wrenched her body from the kidnapper’s grasp. She hit the pavement. Chase and Maisy kept running toward them. The figure fled, leaping into their vehicle and peeling off, without even stopping to close the trunk. Chase reached his daughter and scooped her up into his arms. He cradled her to his chest and kissed the top of her tiny blond head with such tenderness and fierce protection that Maisy felt tears rush to her eyes.
A fatherly love that deep had to be real, right? A man who loved his daughter that deeply just wouldn’t invite a serial killer into his home. Would he?
Allie was babbling, something about a bad person and a picture, but her words seemed to run together in a stream of sounds. Then Allie’s small tear-filled eyes met hers. “Maisy need hug too, Daddy.”
Chase’s eyes met hers in a split-second glance that seemed to last a lifetime. Then he nodded and slowly opened his arms for Maisy to take Allie. She reached out her arms and felt Chase slide the most precious thing in his world into her hands, just moments after coming within a hairbreadth of losing her.
“Thank you, Allie.” She hugged the little girl close as her voice barely rose above a whisper. “You’re right. I would really like a hug right now.”
Chase closed his eyes and she watched as silent prayers poured from his lips.
“I get down now, Maisy,” Allie said.
Maisy chuckled. She dropped to her knees on the soft ground.
“Are you okay?” She searched the toddler’s tear-stained face. “Are you hurt?”
“No.” The little girl shook her head. Her gaze dropped to the ground. “I bit, Maisy. I bit. I...I did bad...”
Tears filled her voice. Oh, precious girl! Maisy cuddled her closely.
“You’re a good girl, you hear me?” Maisy said fiercely. “You did very good to bite the bad person trying to hurt you. You’re right that we don’t hurt or bite friends. But bad people aren’t friends. You are important, Allie. Do you know what important means? It means you’re special and I don’t want to lose you. So if somebody bad hurts you, I want you to fight back and do whatever it takes to be safe, okay?”
Allie’s eyes grew wide and Maisy’s heart hurt having to tell her that.
“Because I’m im-por-tant,” Allie said solemnly.
“Yes.” Maisy hugged her. “Because you’re important.”
Allie took Maisy’s face in her hands and made sure she was looking her in the eyes.
“Bad man hurt man, Maisy,” Allie said.
Maisy rocked back on her heels and looked up at Chase. He looked as puzzled as she was. “Was the person who hurt you a bad man?”
Considering the slender build, Maisy had suspected it could be a woman.
Sirens rose in the air. Police were on their way. Within seconds, Security Forces would be surrounding her tiny preschool, followed almost immediately by parents and others as the news of what had happened would spread like wildfire through the base—especially if Esther stuck to her guns that the figure she’d seen was Boyd Sullivan.
“Bad man!” Allie said. Her voice rose with a tinge of panic. “Bad man hurt man!”
“She’s been calling that out in her sleep,” Chase said. He bent down and reached for Allie. “Come on, let’s go.”
The little girl’s chin rose. “I wanna walk.”
“Would it be okay if Daddy carried you?” Chase asked.
Allie shook her head stubbornly, sending her curls flying. Chase paused and Maisy could tell for a moment that he wanted to argue. She could only imagine how badly her father would’ve reacted if she’d insisted on walking instead of being carried at Allie’s age after what had just happened. Allie’s stubborn lip jutted out farther and quivered slightly.
“I wanna walk.” Allie’s voice shook. Her tiny hand grabbed Queenie’s harness and squeezed it tightly. “Please, I walk with Queenie. Please, Daddy.”
Maisy watched Chase’s face, waiting and half expecting him to sweep her up into his arms and carry the squirming toddler back over his shoulder as her father would’ve. Instead, he nodded. “Okay, Allie. If it’s important to you, you can walk with Queenie. Maisy and I will walk right behind you.”
Allie nodded. “Thank you.”
Maisy felt an odd longing for something she’d never had move through her heart as father and daughter shared a look. Then Allie turned and led Queenie back toward Sunny Seeds. Chase and Maisy followed, walking side by side, two steps behind her. She watched as his long legs and large feet took tiny little steps to keep from catching up with his daughter.
“That was very kind of you,” she said softly, “to let her take the lead like that.”
“It seemed to matter to her and what matters to me is that she feels safe.”
“Esther thought the man at the fence was Boyd Sullivan,” she said. “But he seemed too slender to me. I would’ve guessed it was a woman, if Allie hadn’t kept saying ‘bad man.’ Do you think it was the same person who was outside your house this morning?”
His back stiffened, as if every molecule suddenly drew itself to attention. “Who informed you of that?”
“Nobody informed me. I saw someone in the bushes outside your home in the early hours of the morning—”
“You what?” He stopped walking and turned toward her. His hand reached out, his fingertips coming within just an inch of brushing her shoulder. “When was this? What did you see? Why am I just hearing about this now?”
She stopped too and turned to face him. “This morning I was jogging near your home and saw a figure in the bushes.” His mouth opened like he wanted to say something, but she didn’t pause. “They were slender with a black hoodie, bandanna and baseball hat. I couldn’t see their face and I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. I’m guessing they were about five foot eight or nine. Not that I’m the best at judging heights, but definitely taller than me and shorter than you. They drew a knife, I challenged them and they ran away. I then found some dried pink and purple pasta that I thought might’ve belonged to Allie’s picture frame and turned it over to Captain Blackwood. I also made a full report.”
His head shook. “Why didn’t he tell me?”
“You’ll have to ask him that yourself,” she said. Allie was about five feet ahead of them now. Maisy started walking again. She was surprised and impressed that Queenie had the discipline to walk that slowly. “But I trust Justin and I know that whatever decisions he’s making about this investigation he’s doing it for the right reasons.”
He matched her pace. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because we haven’t exactly had much time to talk!” At the sound of her raised voice, Allie glanced back. Maisy smiled reassuringly
. Allie smiled, turned back and continued walking. “We hardly had time to talk when you were being arrested, and I didn’t want to say anything in front of Allie when she was already very upset. And then we’d barely been talking five minutes at Sunny Seeds before someone tried to abduct her.”
His jaw clenched and she could see his facial muscles tighten under the skin. “I still don’t understand how that could’ve happened. How could someone just show up at the back fence and kidnap a kid?”
It was a fair question, but it burned harsh in her ears. Did he have any idea how sick her stomach felt and how long the knowledge of how she’d failed one of her students so catastrophically would burn in her brain?
“I don’t know,” she said. “There were three teachers outside. The area was fenced. The Texas Education Agency and the Department of Family and Protective Services recommended a student-teacher ratio of eleven to one—”
“I don’t care what the guidelines are,” he said tersely. “There is no excuse. It shouldn’t have happened.”
His voice was sharp, like she was a subordinate who’d messed up, or an airman whose mistake could’ve gotten people killed. Or like he was her father telling her yet again how disappointed he was in her.
“You’re right,” she said. “It shouldn’t have happened.”
He nodded curtly and turned to face the horizon. She watched as his spine straightened and a look filled his face, so determined and fierce that it made her breath catch. It was the kind of look that would have been as attractive and compelling as the sun itself in the eyes of a man who was her protector and defender. And downright terrifying in the face of an adversary.
Was it possible this man was as innocent as he’d seemed just minutes ago when he held his daughter in his arms? If so, why would anyone try to kidnap his daughter? Or be lurking outside his house? Or have planted her father’s cross at his home, as he claimed?
The memory of her father’s cross sitting in Justin’s gloved hand filled her mind, unbidden.
Lord, am I foolish to believe he had nothing to do with my father’s death? My father always said I wanted to bring home every stray dog and wild animal I spotted, not realizing my big old naive heart wouldn’t stop them from hurting me. Is that what’s happening here? Am I foolish for believing Chase’s love for his daughter is so strong he’d never let the Red Rose Killer near her?
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