“When something goes wrong.”
“Are you worried I’ll do a better job than you?”
JB cackled. “Of course he is.”
“Fine. We’ll see about that.” Deck looked her dead in the eyes, his glinting in the sunlight like he couldn’t decide whether to chastise her or kiss her senseless. “You’ve got five minutes. Then let the professionals take over.”
Graham already looked defeated. Instead of helping with the search, he’d taken a seat on the concrete step outside the front door of the Hickory Pit. Olivia joined him there, deciding to take the soft approach she’d use with an inmate patient in denial. Just to get him talking.
“I’m sorry about last night.” She offered him a sympathetic look. “I didn’t mean to—”
“No. You meant it. And I deserved it. I was way out of line. I just thought you knew me better than that. I realize I’ve got a temper, especially when I’ve been drinking. But to kill someone? C’mon, Liv.”
She nodded, noncommittal. Under the wrong circumstances, anyone could be capable of murder. Surely Graham knew that.
“Did Decker put you up to this? To see if you can Jedi mind-trick me into confessing to something I didn’t do?”
She wished she had a few mind tricks up her sleeve, but working with inmates had taught her there was no truth serum. “What is it with you two? He’s not your enemy.”
“That’s news to me. He thinks he’s so smart, so by-the-book. Just because he worked homicide at SFPD doesn’t make him any better than the rest of us. He’s all about the job, Liv.”
“So am I.” But his words discomfited, nagging at her like a pebble in her shoe.
“He’ll let you down. Maybe not now, but eventually. Cops aren’t good at relationships as a general rule. Ask Heather.”
“The breakup rumors are true then?”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “I’m back on the market.”
She laughed, despite the heaviness of the question stuck inside her throat. Now seemed as good a time as any to ask it. “Why did you lie about your alibi?”
His smile flattened in an instant, face hard as chiseled granite. This was the Graham from the truck. Icicle eyes; the rest of him, pure heat. “Excuse me?”
“You weren’t home watching National Treasure like you said. It had already aired. Where were you really at, Graham?”
“Okay, so maybe it was a different movie. The sequel, or something. I wasn’t taking notes. Besides, they show that film all the time. They probably replayed it.”
Olivia let her silence speak for her. If she called him a liar the way Deck would, he’d shut down. But she’d double-checked the television schedule last night. National Treasure had run only once on the Fourth, from 9:30 a.m. to noon.
“You told Decker, didn’t you? That I don’t have an alibi.” Graham cut his eyes across the lot to JB and Deck. Thankfully, they’d busied themselves talking to the patrol officers who had arrived to aid in the search for Thomas. With only a few hours of daylight left and the forest filled with hiding places, they needed all the help they could get.
“Thomas’s aunt said he was looking up at the bar, watching you arm-wrestle, when he freaked out and ran.”
Graham cursed under his breath.
“Is it possible he recognized you?”
“I’m sure he saw me that afternoon at the beach getting into it with his dad. He could’ve easily seen me at the station too.”
“Maybe Thomas is confused about what he saw, thinking it was a cop who killed his mom and brother and sister. You’re the only one who can clear this up. I know you’re not a bad guy, but when you hide things you look like it. There’s a little boy missing.”
“Yeah. He got scared and ran away. Obviously I had nothing to do with it.”
“Obviously.” Olivia hoisted herself to her feet, disgusted and disappointed. Mostly in herself for thinking she could wrangle the truth from Graham. Like squeezing blood from a turnip, her father used to say.
“Wait.”
She wondered if she’d misheard him, but when she glanced back he jerked his head at the Hickory Pit, motioning her inside.
Most of the crowd had cleared out to help with the search for Thomas or to return to the safety of their homes to hold their own children a little tighter. The band had packed up too, leaving the place strangely quiet.
Olivia gasped when Graham gripped her by the wrist and tugged her into the shadowy corner near the restrooms.
“You okay?” Jane looked up at her from the bar—a perfunctory glance—as she wiped down the counter and collected the dirty glasses. She knew Olivia could handle herself, even with a part-time asshole like Graham.
“Fine.” But Olivia jerked her arm away from him anyway just to prove a point. “Get off me. What’re we doing in here?”
“I don’t want Decker listening in. I need to be discreet. I’ve got a career to think about. My uncle told me to get a lawyer.”
“A lawyer?” Don’t push. Don’t push. But she couldn’t help it. “Discreet about what?”
His face in his hands, Graham groaned. “I can’t believe I’m telling you this.”
“Better me than Deck. He’s going to get nervous if we don’t come out soon.” Olivia couldn’t see the door but she half expected him to burst through it at any moment.
“Okay. You’re right. I need to get this off my chest. I erased the texts between me and Peter Fox, because I called the cell phone company and they told me that deleted texts can’t be retrieved after forty-eight hours. I lied about the movie. I have a shit alibi. The truth is, I went to Ocean’s Song that night. Maybe around nine fifteen.”
And just like that, she imagined Graham on the front porch, still drunk and angry. The Fox family, minus Peter, tucked inside, kids piled on the sofa, watching television, while their mother, Hannah, buttered a bowl of hot popcorn and tried to distract herself from her disintegrating marriage. Graham’s gun, heavy as a hot stone in his hand, when he raised it to her head and pulled the trigger. Olivia closed her eyes, and the dark images scattered like crows.
“Fox had texted me, saying he’d filed a report against me. That my days on the force were numbered. I went there to give him a piece of my mind. Yeah, I put on the uniform. I brought my gun. Banged on the door. I thought I’d scare him a little. Get him to back off. Sometimes, seeing the badge puts it all in perspective. Makes the big talkers think twice.”
“Did anyone answer?”
She’d seen that look before on her inmate patients. A mixture of shame and resignation. Knowing what’s done is done. “Thomas.”
Thirty-Eight
Through the small crack in the back window of the Hickory Pit, Graham’s pitiful voice travelled to Will’s ear. “But I swear to God I didn’t hurt them. I heard yelling from behind him that sounded like Fox and his wife arguing and then, a loud crash. A bowl broke and popcorn went flying. Thomas freaked, so I shut the door in his face and I got the hell out of there. I drove around for a while, asking myself what the hell I was thinking, and that’s when dispatch came on the radio about the fire.”
Will had heard about enough. Giving JB a nod, they rushed around to the front entrance and pushed through the double doors.
“You were saying…?” Will couldn’t resist being an asshole. After all his unconvincing denials, Graham had just put himself at the scene of a triple murder and had admitted to destroying evidence. He’d also confirmed Will’s suspicions that Peter had returned home after the incident at the Sand Dunes, only to leave again. “What happened, Bauer? Cat got your tongue?”
Dumbfounded, Graham shot daggers at Olivia, his eyes darting from her to the window and back again. “You set me up.”
“Like hell I did. You pulled me back here. I had no idea the window was open.” Olivia directed her venom at Graham, but Will felt the sting. He figured she’d be pissed at him. But he’d listened in for good reason, and her indignation was a small price to pay for the pleasure of cuffing Graham Baue
r.
Will strode toward Graham on a mission. “You’re under arrest for obstruction.”
“Don’t forget tampering with evidence,” JB added gleefully.
“Who knows?” Will piled on. “By the end of tonight, you might be on the hook for first-degree murder. Four counts.”
No response. Only the blue of Graham’s eyes, clear and flat as washed glass. Will had finally shocked him into silence.
He motioned for Graham to turn around, already trying to fit this piece of the puzzle. Would Graham have had enough time to murder the Foxes, set the place on fire, and show up back at the first crime scene without a hair out of place?
Maybe.
Graham nodded, as if he’d read Will’s mind. He took a single step, then reared back. It had been a long time since Will had taken a shot to the face. A hard right that juddered his skull, rattled his teeth like marbles in a jar.
JB moved in fast, securing Graham’s hands behind his back and steering him away from Will.
Will put a hand to his nose. Still intact. But he could taste the blood in the back of his throat, and his fingers came back stained with it. He wiped them on his slacks.
“Looks like you’re gonna have to add resisting to that, Decker.” Graham had found his voice again. His smirk too. Tossing both over his shoulder as JB pushed him out the front door. “Totally worth it.”
“Are you okay?” Olivia asked.
Will’s eyes watered, and he tilted his head back, squeezing the bridge of his nose. “Been better.”
Jane appeared beside him, shaking her head and offering an ice-filled rag from the bar. Wincing, he pressed it to his face.
“Why didn’t you tell me you planned on eavesdropping?” Olivia asked, sounding more amused than irritated. Maybe she’d go easy on him now that he’d paid for his subterfuge with a fist to his nose bridge.
“I didn’t plan on it. I saw an opportunity. That window’s been busted for a while. With the place all but empty, I figured we might get lucky.”
She grimaced at the bloody fingerprints on his pants leg. “If that’s what you want to call it.”
“Are you mocking my pain?”
“Never.” She moved in closer to examine his face. Her gentle hand on his temple made Will feel a lot better about the shiner he’d have tomorrow. “But how does a guy with a heavy bag in his garage get sucker-punched?”
“I guess I forgot to bob and weave.”
Once JB had secured Graham in the back of a patrol car and sent him on his way to booking, Will motioned his partner over to the staging area, where the officers had begun handing out orange reflective vests. The stress of the afternoon had already settled onto JB’s haggard face, worrying Will a little. He hoped JB hadn’t come back to work too early, wasn’t pushing too hard. “You should go home and get some rest. I’ll get a lift back to the station with patrol.”
JB twisted his mouth at Will like he tasted something rotten. “You’re benching me already? I just got back in the game, City Boy. I feel fine. At least let me get Bauer’s full statement.”
Will tried to shake his head but it already hurt like hell. A dull pain throbbed from his eye socket. “I think we should let him marinate overnight. We need to get a better handle on this before we start asking any more questions. We only get one shot at him.”
It was a bill of goods, and Will knew it. As soon as Graham stepped foot in Del Norte County Jail, he’d be lawyered up and posting bail. But right now, finding Thomas was more important.
“Fair enough.” JB sighed and shuffled toward the Crown Vic, his shoulders drooping. Will had never seen him give up so easily.
“There is one thing you can do for me,” Will called after him.
“If you ask me to feed that damn cat of yours, or write up an incident report, you may as well just take my badge and put me out to pasture. I don’t need you to load me with busy work because you feel sorry for me.”
“C’mon, man. Cy loves you.” Will chuckled as JB slumped back toward him. “Keep looking through Fox’s old client files. I can’t help but get the feeling we missed something.”
“What am I looking for exactly?”
Will shrugged, donning one of the orange vests. No matter what he’d told Nora, he had to assume the worst. That Thomas had been taken. But with Jonah and Pedro in jail, Elvis at the hospital, and Graham in plain sight at the bar, his suspect list had dwindled. It didn’t sit right with him. “You’re Detective of the Year. You figure it out.”
“Now I know you feel sorry for me.” But JB’s eyes looked brighter. “Alright, alright. I’ll feed the cat too.”
“Well, you’re not getting rid of me so easily, Detective.” Olivia appeared beside him. She’d swapped her blouse for a Hickory Pit T-shirt and her feet were now clad in running shoes. “Good thing I had a spare pair in the trunk. Don’t even try to convince me otherwise.”
“Us either. C’mon, Nick.” Emily tugged at the hand of the guy Olivia had declared much too old for her. Still sensing tension, Will wondered what he’d missed. A fight between sisters, clearly. With Nick stuck in the unenviable middle of it.
As Will tossed out three vests, Emily frowned at him. “What happened to your face?”
He shrugged. “I ran into Graham’s fist.”
With Olivia and her sister leading the way, Will trekked into the grassy field adjacent to the Hickory Pit parking lot, where the search volunteers had scattered like ants. Fifty yards or so out, the field turned to forest. One of its boundaries apparently cleared years ago for construction on a gas station that never came. The rest seemed to go on forever, leaving Will with a sinking feeling. How far could a little boy go on his own? Where would he hide?
“Do you really think he ran away?” Olivia’s haunted eyes met his, and he worried for her too. He didn’t need a PhD to recognize this whole case had gotten under her skin and unearthed memories best left buried. What she’d witnessed as a kid. What happened to her father, then and now. Thomas and his family had brought it all back. The corpse of her past staggering to life and lumbering behind her. Will knew all too well there was no escaping it.
“He’s a little boy. They do that kind of thing. It sounds like Thomas had a knack for it.”
She stopped walking, letting Emily and Nick walk on ahead. “I should have never left him in the first place. Or sent Wade out to get him instead. He would’ve pushed through the crowd and made it out faster. He would’ve seen where Thomas ran.”
Will didn’t try to argue, just put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Let’s keep looking.”
“Hey, Liv! Deck! Over here!” Emily waved to them excitedly from the far corner of the field, where the grass met the road. A group of searchers had surrounded the bone-dry culvert. Nick crouched down, peering inside.
Olivia took off, moving faster than he’d expected. He caught up to her just as they reached the road.
“It’s him.” Her relief was palpable and contagious.
When Will spotted Thomas near the center of the tunnel, huddled with a handful of rocks, he took a long, deep breath. “Come on out, buddy. Everybody’s looking for you.”
Olivia beckoned to him too, dropping to her hands and knees. “What’re you doing in there?”
Thomas shook his head, put a finger to his lips. His small voice carried down the culvert like the whisper of a ghost. “Hiding from the bad man.”
Thirty-Nine
Thomas’s right hand was sticky with dirt and sweat but Olivia dared not let go. It had taken twenty minutes to coax him from the tunnel big enough for a boy but too small for a man. Finally, after his aunt Nora had produced Ranger Rob, Thomas had reluctantly scooted to the edge of the culvert and allowed her to pluck him out. His clothes were a little worse for wear and he had a few bramble scratches on his arms, but he was otherwise unscathed.
Now, Nora walked on the other side of him, her hand latched tightly onto his left wrist like he might take flight again without a moment’s notice.
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As they traipsed back across the field toward the Hickory Pit parking lot, Thomas looked up at Olivia. “Do you think Ranger Rob can help me find Woofie?”
“Woofie is probably off having a great adventure. He’ll turn up when you least expect him.”
Thomas’s lower lip protruded.
“Doctor Rockwell is right,” Nora said, her voice strained. “When Woofie does turn up, he’ll be very disappointed if we can’t find you.” To Deck, she added, “You didn’t happen to find his stuffed toy at the station, did you?”
“No, I’m sorry. I meant to call you. I’ll keep checking the lost and found.”
Thomas stopped walking, grinding them all to a halt in the grass. “What if the bad man has Woofie?”
Olivia gave Deck a worried look. At some point, when Thomas felt a little braver, he’d have to take a look at Graham’s photo. At least for right now, all but one of Deck’s suspects sat in a jail cell. Still, Olivia didn’t feel reassured.
“You let me worry about the bad man, okay?” Deck motioned for Thomas to keep moving. And he did, his little legs skipping now, the bad man momentarily forgotten.
When they finally reached the lot, the small group of remaining searchers, including Emily and Nick, let out a whooping cheer. Jane brought Thomas a glass of orange juice from the bar.
“Am I famous?” he asked, gulping down his drink.
“All these people were worried about you.” Olivia swept her hand across the parking lot, noticing the old Buick, parked exactly where she’d left it a lifetime ago. When the main thing on her mind had been spying on her sister. Though only an hour had passed, the strange episode stretched out between then and now like the ocean at high tide, leaving her standing disoriented on the other side. “Aunt Nora is right. You can’t go running off every time you get scared. Find a grownup next time, alright?”
“But the bad man is a grownup. Just like you and Aunt Nora. Mommy let him inside.”
Olivia nodded at Thomas sympathetically. She remembered that feeling. Her safe place to fall ripped out from beneath her.
One Child Alive: An absolutely gripping crime thriller packed with nail-biting suspense (Rockwell and Decker Book 3) Page 16