Once Lured

by Blake Pierce

  But there was one thing she really had to know.

  “Do you think April’s with him right now?” Riley asked.

  “I don’t know. The truth is, April doesn’t tell me much about what she does with him. She’s gotten a lot more secretive since they got together. That’s part of what I don’t like.”

  Crystal fell quiet. She still looked upset about something, Riley thought. She was concerned about April, of course, but Riley sensed that it was about something else as well. Riley felt a maternal tug of concern. She wondered if maybe she should ask what was bothering her.

  I’m not her mother, she reminded herself.

  “I guess maybe you think I’m overprotective,” Riley said with a small laugh.

  “Oh, not at all!” Crystal said, smiling. “You’re a terrific mom! A lot better than mine …”

  Her voice trailed off rather sadly. Riley wished she’d tell her more about her mother. She knew that Blaine was divorced, and she remembered him mentioning that she drank and was bipolar. But how involved was she in Crystal’s life?

  Crystal managed to smile again.

  “Anyway, April and I are both lucky. We’ve both got one parent who really cares.”

  Crystal got up from her chair.

  “I’d better go on home and get my homework done,” she said. “Please tell April to call me when she gets home.”

  “I’ll do that,” Riley said, showing Crystal to the door.

  Riley stood outside for a moment and watched the girl walk the short distance to the next townhouse. She wondered what their relationship might become in the near future. Was she going to get involved with Blaine? Was she going to wind up Crystal’s stepmother, and was Blaine going to be April’s stepfather?

  Riley sighed. It wasn’t an unpleasant thought. But it was too soon to tell. And maybe a life like that was too much to hope for.

  Meanwhile, she saw that it was after four-thirty, and April wasn’t home yet. It wasn’t shaping up to be a good day. First, she’d been fired from a case. At least she knew that Bill would keep her updated about that. But now it was obvious that something was seriously wrong about April. What was she going to do?

  Riley sighed, wondering if she was any good at anything.

  She took her travel bag upstairs and put it in her bedroom. Then she stepped across the hall to April’s bedroom. It was a mess, of course, but no worse than usual.

  No cause for alarm, she told herself, sitting on the edge of April’s bed.

  She knew that she was easily alarmed when it came to her daughter. Ever since April’s abduction by Peterson, she’d tended to panic whenever she didn’t know where April was. Now was one of those times. Was April in some kind of danger at this very moment because of this new “boyfriend”? Might he even have kidnapped her?

  Riley took a few deep breaths, trying to convince herself that she was being irrational. Somehow that was proving difficult.

  She noticed that April’s laptop computer was lying on her bed. Riley wasn’t surprised. April usually took her tablet computer to school instead. But right now, the laptop began to tempt Riley. She’d always tried to respect April’s privacy.

  I’d better keep it that way, she told herself sternly.

  But the temptation grew stronger. It even seemed justified. April had been lying to her about Joel all along. Surely April had forfeited her right to privacy this time. And for all Riley knew, this really was an emergency.

  With trembling fingers, Riley flipped open the laptop and turned it on. Of course, the first thing it asked for was a password. Riley decided to make a wild guess.

  “JOEL,” she typed.

  The desktop suddenly appeared. It seemed almost too easy and obvious.

  She clicked onto April’s Facebook page. The page and profile looked innocent enough. At a glance, it looked just the same as it did whenever Riley was logged on to Facebook. April’s profile picture was a simple selfie, and her cover photo was a bunch of flowers.

  But Riley knew that the page would be different now. Whenever she was on her own computer, April’s settings blocked her from seeing all kinds of things that she could see right now—for example, a photo of April and a boy sharing a sloppy kiss. The tag showed that the boy was Joel Lambert. Riley clicked on the name, and his page appeared.

  There was another selfie of a dark-haired, square-jawed, rather handsome-looking boy. The cover photo showed him smoking a bong, surrounded by wreaths of smoke.

  Riley tingled all over with alarm. She knew it was time to put a stop to this relationship right now. Riley checked the boy’s personal details. She noticed that Joel had posted both his home phone and address on his page. It seemed a little careless of him. But apparently, Joel didn’t mind putting that information out there for close friends like April.

  She took out her cell phone and started to dial the number. But she changed her mind before she finished. Instead, she walked straight downstairs and headed for the front door.

  “Are you going out, Señora?” Gabriela asked, stepping into the living room.

  “Just for a few minutes,” Riley said. “I’ll be right back.”

  And so will April, she thought as she walked out the door and got in her car.

  *

  Although Joel Lambert didn’t live far from April’s school, the neighborhood wasn’t a good one. As Riley pulled her car in front of his house, it reminded her disturbingly of Dennis Vaughn’s house in Redditch—a rundown little place with peeling paint and a sagging front porch.

  Is April really in there? Riley wondered, getting out of her car.

  She walked up onto the porch and knocked on the door sharply. She waited for a few long seconds before knocking again. She knocked a third time, and then Joel Lambert appeared, wearing jeans and a T-shirt. He looked surprised to see Riley.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  “I’m here looking for my daughter,” Riley said, crossing her arms.

  Joel looked puzzled for a moment.

  “Your daughter?”

  Then he smiled. It was a calculatedly charming smile that barely hid the trace of a chronic sneer.

  “Oh, you’re April’s mom! And you’re FBI, aren’t you? That’s so cool. Can I see your badge?”

  Riley didn’t reach for her badge. She sensed that the kid was trying to stall her. Through the screen, she could see April’s backpack on a beat-up brown couch.

  “I want to see April,” Riley said. “And don’t try to tell me she’s not here.”

  Just then April stopped into view. She forced an extremely awkward smile.

  “Hey, Mom!” she said. “What’re you doing here?”

  Riley simply frowned at April.

  “May I speak with your parents?” Riley asked Joel.

  “Sorry, they’re not here,” Joel said. “They’re both at work.”

  Riley brushed past Joel into the house. It was thoroughly trashed inside. Riley wondered if there were any parents in Joel’s life. This kid might well be on his own. She sniffed, trying to detect if there was a smell of pot. But the air was so thick with other disagreeable odors that she really couldn’t tell.

  “April, go get in the car,” Riley said.

  “But Mom—”

  “Go. I’ll be right there.”

  April sulkily walked past Riley out the door.

  Riley stared daggers at Joel.

  “I want you to stay away from my daughter. Do you understand?”

  Joel responded with a look of exaggerated surprise.

  “Whoa, what’s the matter? We weren’t doing anything illegal. Hey, I really wish you’d show me your badge. I’d love to see it. I’ve never seen a real FBI badge before.”

  Riley stepped toward him, grabbed him by the arm, and forced it behind his back.

  “You are going to stay away from her,” she said firmly.

  “Or what?”

  Riley twisted his arm until he let out a cry of pain. She pushed him face first against the wa
ll.

  “I’ll make your life hell,” she said. “You’ll be damned lucky if all I do is arrest you. Do you understand?”

  “Yeah,” Joel said, sounding scared now.

  Riley let go of Joel and walked out of the house. She got back in the car and started to drive home.

  “What was that all about?” April asked.

  “Maybe that’s what you should tell me,” Riley said, her jaw clenched with anger.

  April tried to sound nonchalant. “Oh, I get it. This is because I told Gabriela I was going to the library. I can explain. Joel’s house is almost on the way to the city bus stop. I ran into him on the way, and we got to talking, and I forgot about the library. And I forgot about the time.”

  “You’re lying,” Riley said sharply. “You’ve lied about a lot of things. That kid isn’t your age. And he’s not in school with you. He isn’t in school at all.”

  “Did I ever say he was? How do you know that, anyway?”

  Riley didn’t reply. Her head was exploding with questions. What was going on here? Were the kids doing drugs, drinking, having sex? Whatever it was, Riley was sure it was nothing good, and possibly illegal and dangerous. The only thing she knew for sure was there was no point in asking any questions right now. April would only keep right on lying.

  “What did you say to Joel when I went to the car?” April asked uneasily.

  Riley fought down the urge to start yelling at April.

  “Never mind what I told him,” she said. “Just remember, you’re grounded.”

  “Yeah, but just for a couple more days, right?”

  “Huh-uh. For the foreseeable future.”

  April’s voice broke into a high-pitched whine.

  “That’s not fair! What if I’ve got to go to the library?”

  Riley shook her head and stifled a sarcastic laugh. She drove in silence for a couple of minutes, then heard April’s phone buzz. After a few moments, April cried out.

  “Mom! I just got a text from Crystal! We’ve got to go there! We’ve got to go to her house!”

  “No way,” Riley said. She figured April was just trying to distract her from current issues.

  “You don’t understand!” April said. “Her mom came over! She’s in real danger!”

  Riley suddenly remembered that Crystal’s mother was bipolar and alcoholic. Maybe that was why Crystal had seemed so uneasy a little while ago. Maybe she knew that her mother might be coming over.

  Which meant her life could be in danger.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

  Riley could hear a woman shouting from inside Blaine’s house. For a moment, she and April stood outside the door, wondering what to do.

  “I shouldn’t be here?” the woman’s voice yelled. “You’ve got a hell of a nerve! I belong here as much as you, you spoiled brat!”

  Then came a loud crash of something breaking.

  Riley grabbed the doorknob and tried to open the door. It didn’t move. It was locked.

  “Open up!” Riley yelled.

  Instead, she heard the woman screaming again.

  “I’m your mother, goddamn it! I’ll show you a thing or two about belonging!”

  April grabbed Riley by the arm.

  “Mom, we’ve got to get in there!” April said.

  “I know. Give me a moment.”

  Riley thought fast. She had a lock-picking kit in her purse, but using it might take too much time. Shooting the lock with her pistol could be dangerous both to the people inside and to her and April. Instead, she grabbed a seldom-used credit card out of her wallet and wedged it between the door and the frame right next to the doorknob.

  As the noise inside raged on, Riley pushed the card against the latch. She wiggled it against the sloping surface of the latch until she felt it move. She hoped that the dead bolt wasn’t also locked. It wasn’t, because when she bent the card away from the doorknob, pushed open easily.

  “Wait here,” Riley told April.

  She stepped into the house. Flowers and pieces of a broken vase were scattered all over the floor. Riley saw a woman wielding a table lamp over Crystal, who was cowering against a wall.

  Without a word, Riley rushed over to the woman, swung her around to face her, then pushed her away from Crystal. The lamp crashed to the floor.

  The woman stared back at Riley.

  “What the hell?” the woman snarled. “You get out of my way!”

  She lunged, trying to get past Riley toward Crystal. Riley side-armed her and pushed her violently backward into an upholstered chair. Crystal’s mother started to rise from the chair, but Riley raised her fist.

  Riley heard Crystal’s voice yell, “Don’t hit her! Please!”

  Still holding her fist high, Riley hastily assessed the situation. The woman was cringing now, ready for the blow. More physical force seemed unnecessary and there was no need to draw her weapon. It would only further traumatize Crystal.

  Besides, Riley could see that Phoebe Hildreth was no longer a threat—at least not to her. But she’d arrived just in time to save Crystal from serious injury.

  Quailing in the chair, Phoebe yelled, “Crystal, call the cops! We’ve got an intruder!”

  Riley pulled out her badge.

  “I am a cop. I’m FBI.”

  Phoebe gave her a drunkenly baffled look.

  “FBI? Who called the FBI?”

  “I live next door,” Riley said, putting her badge away.

  Phoebe looked Riley over with bloodshot eyes.

  “Really?” she said with a sarcastic smirk. “And you have a key? Isn’t that just so neighborly.”

  Riley studied the woman. She remembered that Blaine had said he had married her too young, and for all the wrong reasons.

  He’d said, “I thought Phoebe was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.”

  Riley saw a lot of sad history in her ravaged appearance. There was still just a trace of that youthful beauty there. But years of heavy drinking had taken a terrible toll on her once lovely face, which was now puffy and heavily lined. She was overweight, and she looked years older than she must actually be.

  Riley heard April call from the doorway, “Mom, Crystal’s dad just got here.”

  Riley got out her phone to call 911. At that moment, she heard Blaine’s voice.

  “Riley, don’t. Please. No police.”

  Blaine came inside, followed by April. Sobbing, Crystal threw herself into her father’s arms.

  “I got your text,” Blaine told Crystal comfortingly. “I’m here. Everything’s going to be all right.”

  Now Phoebe simply looked exhausted and weak. Whatever had been fueling her rage just a few moments before had suddenly slipped away, leaving an empty shell. It was hard for Riley to believe that this pathetic, damaged woman had ever been a physical threat.

  April was standing in the doorway, staring at the scene in stunned silence.

  Still holding Crystal tightly, Blaine said, “Riley, call a cab, okay? We’ll send her home.”

  Still in the chair, Phoebe was staring at Blaine and Crystal. Riley could tell that the sight of their devotion to each other was too much for her. Phoebe dissolved into helpless tears, crying like a little girl.

  *

  A short while later, Phoebe was in a cab on her way to her sister’s house, where she lived. April and Crystal had gone upstairs to Crystal’s room. Riley and Blaine sat across the kitchen table from each other.

  “Thank God Crystal texted me,” Blaine said, staring into a hot cup of tea. “Thank God she texted April, too. If you hadn’t gotten here when you did …”

  His voice trailed away, horrified at the thought.

  Riley took a sip from her own tea and said, “Blaine, I’m not sure sending her home like that was the right thing to do. Maybe the police should have picked her up.”

  Blaine shook his head wearily.

  “She’s not usually physically abusive,” he said. “She knows better. That’s why she lost custody rights when we di
vorced. I had no idea she was coming over today. It’s been nearly six months since we’ve even seen her. I’d thought she was doing okay living with her sister.”

  Blaine fell silent for a moment.

  “I’ll have to get a restraining order if anything like that happens again,” he said.

  Riley took Blaine by the hand.

  “I think the time to do that is now,” she said.

  Blaine nodded. His eyes filled up with tears, and he couldn’t seem to speak. But Riley could sense what he was feeling. She remembered something else that he had once told her.

  “I kept thinking I could rescue Phoebe.”

  Riley knew that now Blaine was feeling guilty, toward both Phoebe and his daughter. As far as Riley was concerned, he was in no way to blame for what had just happened, or for the ruin that Phoebe had become. She also knew that she couldn’t talk him out of feeling guilty. She’d felt the same way too often herself.

  April came down the stairs.

  “Crystal’s okay now,” she said.

  Riley squeezed Blaine’s hand tightly.

  “Are you going to be all right now?” she asked him.

  Blaine nodded silently.

  “Just call me if you need anything at all,” Riley said.

  Riley and April left and walked next door to their own townhouse.

  Riley felt tired, but she knew that her own family troubles were not over yet. She had a lot of questions to ask her daughter.

  *

  Gabriela looked glad to see Riley and April when they stepped inside the door. But she obviously picked up on the silent tension between the two. She only asked. “What do you want to do about dinner?”

  “We’ll just get sandwiches for ourselves,” Riley said. “Thanks, Gabriela.”

  Gabriela headed downstairs to her own apartment. Riley and April went into the kitchen, where Riley started pulling things out of the refrigerator to make simple sandwiches. April stood and watched silently for a few moments.

  Then April said quietly, “Thanks for what you did for Crystal.”

  Riley didn’t reply. What had just happened at Blaine’s house wasn’t the issue right now.