A Phoenix Is Forever

by Ashlyn Chase

  He sat up and unfastened his seat belt. Joe either didn’t notice or care. Then he saw them—two cars at the top of the hill, facing the same direction. “Hold it!” Luca called out. The cars’ engines revved. “These assholes are getting ready to race.”

  Joe pulled over. Luca hit the roof’s lightbar and jumped out of the vehicle. He saw the kid on the bike, and one of the cars screeched as it took off. The other one may have seen the flashing blue lights and decided it wasn’t worth it. Good decision.

  Luca kicked up his speed as the car zoomed forward. Apparently, the driver was an idiot and wanted to win by default. Luca leapt to the sidewalk and grabbed the kid off the bike a split second before the speeding car whizzed by.

  When the car reached the bottom of the hill and turned the corner, Joe hit the siren and made a U-turn, following the drag racer.

  “Are you okay, kid?” Luca asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s dark. Do your parents know you’re out riding your bike?”

  The boy shrugged. “They don’t care.”

  Luca was tempted to take the kid by the shirtsleeve up to the house and ring the bell. But something told him not to. The resigned look on the kid’s face maybe.

  “Look. It’s not safe to ride your bike after dark. Promise you won’t do it again, and I won’t tell your parents.”

  The boy’s eyes widened, like he was being given a surprise gift. “Yeah. Okay. I promise.”

  “Good. This is my area, and I’ll hold you to that.”

  The boy smiled for the first time. “Thanks, Officer.”

  Luca wondered if it might be the first time anyone had cared what happened to this kid. It certainly seemed like it. He would keep an eye out for him in the future. This was what being a cop was about. He wanted to make a difference in as many lives as he could. And thanks to a cute, spiky-haired, tattooed young woman, he’d been able to save a kid’s life.

  * * *

  Nurse Patricia Richardson was looking forward to the next few days. She’d just finished a grueling week of night shifts at the hospital and had four glorious days off before going back. She scooped her little girl from the Sunshine Day Care Center and was ready to hit the road. Her husband, Jack, had dropped off their daughter, Mandy, on his way to work so Patricia could grab a few hours of sleep before picking her up and heading out to her mom’s in Rockland for a long weekend. Jack was planning on seeing the Patriots with his buddies, so they were both happy to have their weekend plans all set. Patricia learned early on from her mom that men needed their “bro” time. And while her wonderful mom took care of Mandy, she could scoot over to the day spa and enjoy a couple of hours of R&R herself.

  “We’re going to Grandma’s house, pumpkin.”

  The four-year-old girl clapped and giggled as Patricia nuzzled her neck and inhaled her soft-sweet scent. Snapping her into the car seat, Patricia kissed her on the nose, making her giggle.

  No sooner had they gotten on the highway than Patricia realized she’d forgotten to get some lactose-free milk. Sometimes her mom had some on hand but usually not. Rather than have her make a special trip, Patricia would just pick some up on her way.

  “Honey, Mama has to stop off at a store to get some milk, okay?”

  “Can I have a treat too?”

  “Hmm…what kind of treat?” Patricia knew what Mandy was going to say.

  “Gummies!”

  “We’ll see.” Her daughter had been obsessed with gummy bears ever since their neighbor’s daughter had come over and shared some with her. Patricia didn’t like the amount of sugar and had been trying to wean her daughter off sweets ever since.

  She got off the highway and promptly hit a detour. Before she knew it, she was turned around.

  Driving along Dorset Avenue, Patricia spied a convenience store on the corner. Keene Street Convenience. She wasn’t very familiar with the area and knew it was the rough part of town, but she didn’t want to backtrack, since the drive would take two hours, and her mom would have dinner waiting on them.

  Street parking was nowhere to be found, so she doubled back and drove down a side street where she found a spot at the end of an alley behind the store. She wasn’t thrilled about the neighborhood, but it was two in the afternoon, and there was plenty of traffic whizzing by on the main road. She tucked her Ford Fusion in behind an old red pickup and noticed a white van blocking the truck. Hoisting her daughter on her hip, she made her way down the street and around the corner to the convenience store. Luckily, the store didn’t carry gummy bears, but she managed to put a smile on Mandy’s face with a small box of animal crackers.

  “Hooray!” Patricia sang to her daughter on the way back to the car. “We’ve got some yummy jungle animals to munch on.”

  “Mommy, I like the lion the best.”

  “I’m sure there’s at least one lion in there.”

  Reaching the Ford Fusion once more, Patricia strapped Mandy back into the car seat and then filled a sippy cup with milk. After handing it to her daughter, Patricia opened the box of animal crackers and fished around for the lion.

  “You said we’d get the payment tonight!”

  Patricia, who was standing on the passenger side with the back door open, looked over and spied three pairs of feet on the other side of the van.

  “You’ll get it next week,” a gruff voice replied.

  “If we don’t get the money, you know what’s gonna happen.”

  “You can’t threaten me.”

  “Oh yeah, Sergeant? I’m sure your fellow cops would love to know all the arrangements you’ve made for us.”

  “I told you not to call me that. Use my code name, Blue Wolf.”

  “You better take care of that pretty daughter of yours,” growled a second voice. “You wouldn’t want that red Corvette she drives to get into an accident.”

  “Yeah, nice car. I’m wonderin’ how the brass never got wind that you’re a dirty cop when your little girl drives around in a new red Corvette.”

  “You better shut your fucking mouth, or I’ll make sure you end up in Walpole with a bunkmate named Rage.” Three men rounded the van.

  Patricia froze. The box slipped from her hands. She glanced down and watched the animal cookies topple to the ground as though in slow motion.

  “Mummy! My lion!”

  She looked at her daughter. Her beautiful baby girl. She had to get them out of there fast. She knew the voice. She knew who that was.

  “I’ll get you more later, honey.”

  She jumped into the front seat—no time to fasten her seat belt—and hightailed it out of there.

  “Get her!” the man she knew yelled.

  In the rearview mirror, she could see the man now standing on the street, staring at her vehicle. The other two were jumping into the pick-up truck.

  “Oh God!”

  She had to get out of town, and fast.

  Chapter 3

  The squad room was solemn.

  A woman had been found dead, and her little girl had apparently gone missing.

  Everyone on the incoming day and departing night shift had gathered in the briefing room. Luca and Joe slipped in quietly while the captain was speaking.

  “We typically see the estranged father kidnapping his own kid in cases like this. We’re ruling it out since the father was at work at the time of the incident and was not estranged from his wife. He’s here, cooperating and crying his eyes out.

  “He told us he dropped his daughter off at the Sunshine Day Care yesterday morning at eight. His wife, a nurse, finished her shift at seven a.m. and went home to sleep for a few hours, then she picked up her daughter at one in the afternoon with the intention of driving to her mother’s place in Rockland for a few days.

  “She checked in with her husband at the day care, and then told him she would check i
n when they arrived in Rockland. But they never got there.” The captain paused and cleared her throat as she regarded her notes. “Her vehicle hit a utility pole on Stilvan Street. The woman wasn’t wearing a seat belt and went clear through the windshield. Because the power went out, we can pinpoint the exact time of death to 2:05 p.m., and that means the father’s alibi holds up.

  “We believe the girl had been strapped into the back seat but was not found in the vehicle. She is now presumed missing. We have reason to believe the woman had been chased down and lost control of the vehicle because of tire marks on the side of the road. At this point, we do not know if the child is alive, injured, or deceased.”

  Luca dug into his pocket and retrieved the business card Dawn had given him yesterday. Maybe she could help. Maybe she could sense something like she did about the boy on the bike?

  On the large screen TV, a picture of a four-year-old girl with blonde pigtails smiled back at them. Luca’s heart seemed to block his throat. These were the kinds of cases that everyone dreaded.

  His eyes met Sergeant Craig Butts’, standing ramrod tall beside the captain, his arms crossed over his chest. Lisa’s father. If looks could kill, Luca would be a pile of ashes right now. Luca had a feeling Sergeant Butts had it in for him, and the only reason he could think of was that he had somehow found out about his relationship with Lisa. Had she told him? Was that the reason she’d broken up with him so abruptly? Damn! How in the hell was he going to function on the force if his own sergeant hated his guts?

  “We’ll be sending this picture to the news outlets,” the captain continued. “I don’t need to tell you the first seventy-two hours are critical. Keep your eyes open. If you get any leads, you know what to do: call me or Sergeant Butts immediately.”

  While the force had elite detectives who would do their utmost to find the girl, Luca had a special weapon in his arsenal. He could shift into his phoenix form and fly above the city, searching for her.

  As soon as the squad was turned loose, he hopped in his car and drove to an old train station that looked more like a train graveyard. There, he could stash his uniform and shape-shift without being seen. Thankfully, his parents didn’t bug him about what time he got home anymore, so he didn’t have to check in with them.

  He left his car in the parking area and jogged behind a rusting caboose. There was plenty of grime to cover his red and orange tail feathers and plenty of abandoned train cars in which to stash his uniform. About thirty seconds later, he simply looked like a gray and brown bird that flew out of the caboose’s broken back window.

  An hour of flying over the city streets hadn’t turned up anything—except he’d spotted Dawn Forest walking toward the T station. She glanced around nervously and then upward. Could she sense him watching her? He landed on a high branch of an oak tree as she waited on the platform.

  She carried a large baton with her keys, like she was ready to do battle if she had to. He wondered if she had already found out about the little girl. Did she sense something?

  He decided to follow her. She got on a train marked “Prudential Center.” She must be going to work. He flew above the train and hovered at each stop. Finally, she got off. She was definitely heading to work, since ScholarTech was just a couple of blocks away in the Prudential Building.

  Realizing it would take him forever to search every street in the city, he flew back to the train graveyard, shifted, dressed, and hopped into his car. He didn’t want to spook her by just jumping out naked. He would phone her and set up a meeting. Dawn had predicted the drag racing and the accident with the boy on the bike. Because Luca was ready for it, he had managed to get the kid out of the way before disaster struck. Luckily, Joe had caught up with the reckless driver and issued a citation and hefty fine. No one was hurt, thanks to Dawn.

  She might just be their only hope of finding this missing girl. Luca knew enough not to say anything to Joe or anyone else about Dawn. He knew what it was like to be different and how that affected every part of your life.

  After two years of being with Lisa, he’d never told her about his shape-shifting ability. Maybe on some level, he had known he couldn’t trust her with that part of himself. That still didn’t make her rejection hurt any less than it already did. He would have to reach out to her soon and talk about what was really behind it. Her breakup phone call had been a sucker punch to his gut, but he didn’t have time to wallow in his romantic feelings nor know how he was going to diffuse his sergeant’s hate-on for him. He had to find that little girl, and he needed Dawn’s help.

  * * *

  Dawn glanced around her as she stepped off the subway and walked up the stairs. She wouldn’t have been quite so paranoid if it wasn’t for the weird dream she had had last night. Like she was being watched from above. Had the gang bought a drone? If so, that might be a good thing, at least for her. She was sick of giving them a heads-up when the cops were around.

  She replayed the dream in her mind as she hustled down the street toward her office building. She looked up at the sky. Bright and blue. So why did she feel like a heavy black cloud was hovering over her? When she got to her building, she took one more peek over her shoulder as she scooted into the lobby and slipped into the elevator just as the doors were closing. Deep breath. She punched the tenth-floor button and, like everyone else on the elevator, she watched the numbers of each floor light up and ping as the elevator made its stops.

  She got off the elevator and then walked briskly to Suite 1005, ScholarTech, a company that created educational software for academia. The suite took up one entire side of the building, with large windows and an open concept space with sleek Swedish workstations. One or two coworkers were already at their desks, heads down, either checking email or getting a leg up on the day. Good. She didn’t feel like making chitchat this morning. She was still feeling weird about her dream.

  Arriving at her cubicle, Dawn dropped her backpack on the floor and kicked it under her desk.

  “I guess that’s not a Birkin bag by the way you just treated it.” Nancy, the office assistant manager and her immediate boss, stood with one hand on the front wall that defined Dawn’s workstation. Dawn worked the phones at the help desk, and the wall was supposed to give her a sense of privacy.

  She didn’t like engaging in the everyday office chitchat and gossip that floated around her, but she did enjoy her job. She liked helping people; most of her calls were from frantic students who were having issues with the software and were desperate to get their term papers or theses in. Dawn had a photographic memory, so she was always able to walk them through whatever glitch they had. She felt good about that. It was just one more positive change in her crazy, mixed-up life. Well, formerly mixed-up life.

  Dawn gave Nancy a smile. “Yeah, I don’t go for expensive designer things. I’d just wreck whatever it is eventually.” That and she couldn’t afford them. She bought most of her clothes at thrift stores and had her own unique style. Today, she’d paired a long red retro sweater from the ’80s with black leggings and ballet flats. She got a lot of compliments on her outfits, which boggled her mind. Most of the women who worked in her office spent a ton of money on clothes, and Dawn couldn’t wrap her head around why. Saving money was her top priority. She was determined to make enough to buy a little place for her and her grandmother. The Arizona desert was cheaper and warm. That was her dream. No more Boston winters. No more crazy gang members chasing her down and using her psychic abilities for their nefarious purposes. No way would she give up her dream for a Birkin bag or a Chanel outfit.

  The older woman nodded. She was dressed in a smart navy-blue jacket and matching pencil skirt, a bright coral shirt adding a splash of color. It almost matched the color of her bright asymmetrical bob. Inwardly, Dawn rolled her eyes. What was it with middle-aged women and that hair cut? It screamed: I’m a professional woman but I’m also a fashionista. Ready for anything.

 
“Can you get that list of office supply orders to me by tomorrow morning?”

  “Sure thing,” Dawn replied, booting up her computer. It was her job to check the supply closet and order what they needed for the week. Ironically, the march of technology hadn’t seemed to stop the demand for Sharpies and paper clips.

  Nancy gave her a little wave and marched off to her office. It was still quiet, and many of her coworkers hadn’t arrived yet. This was the best part of her day. Dawn slipped into the break room and filled her travel mug with freshly brewed coffee, adding a healthy dose of cream and two sugars. She liked her coffee strong, sweet, and creamy. She poked around the various open boxes on the counter to see what baked goodies were on the menu. Score! A strawberry cheese Danish. Dawn plucked it out of the box and laid it on a small plate, then scrambled back to her desk like a jewel thief who’d made off with a big heist. Taking a bite of the pastry, she gave a little moan of delight and began scrolling through her email.

  A half hour later she’d answered a few emails and helped one frantic PhD student who’d been up all night finishing her dissertation and was panicking when she lost one of her graphs. She was on her second cup of coffee when the phone rang.

  “ScholarTech help desk.”

  “Ah, yeah. Is this Dawn?” a baritone male asked.

  She didn’t recognize the voice, but she hadn’t been here long enough to have met everyone yet. “Yes. May I help you?”

  “This is Luca Fierro. The cop you talked to the other day.”

  Wow! She’d never thought she’d hear from him. From the way he’d looked at her after she’d warned him, she could have sworn he thought she was a nutcase. And she couldn’t blame him. What normal person walks up to a complete stranger and warns him about a terrible thing that might happen? “I remember. Is everything okay?”