by Geonn Cannon
"I don't know what her name was, but I know she wasn't at the bus stop on time this morning. I heard the bus go by when I was getting my coffee, and I looked out and I saw her walking. It must have gone right past her, and she was still just trudging on." He looked at the street again. "She was about there."
Ari looked where he was pointing. Even with the curve in the road, she would have been visible from the bus stop. How long would it take her to run that distance, thirty seconds? What kind of bus driver wouldn't wait for a kid who was that close?
"And she kept walking even though the bus left without her?"
The guy shrugged. "She didn't seem too bothered. She just kept walking."
"Where?"
"Lady, I don't know. I just happened to look out the window and saw her going along. What do you care anyway?"
Ari couldn't resist puncturing the guy's superiority complex. "She's missing. Right now you're the last person to have seen her."
The blood drained from his face. "Oh. Hey, look, I didn't... I didn't know. How could I have known?"
"Thanks for your help." She turned and walked away with him still sputtering on the porch. She breathed the air again and caught a hint of Jenna's scent coming from the west. She had kept walking past the bus stop. But why? If she missed the bus why not just go home and have her mother drive her to school? If Madeline didn't have time, she could have driven her to one of the other stops on the route and let her wait there.
But Jenna had kept walking. Why?
The road curved sharply to the south and then became 32nd Avenue. Without the confines of the hills, the curve of the road, and the trees that acted as windbreaks, the scent dissipated almost immediately. There was a large parking lot to her left and, across the street from that, a city bus stop.
Would Jenna think of that? A part of her wondered if there was any chance Jenna had decided to trade one bus for the other and, if she had, the possibility that she and Milo had been on the bus at the same time as the girl she was now searching for. She crossed the street when the traffic allowed and approached the glass cubicle. Posters of Melody Scott were hanging on the side facing Ari, and she knew there were more on the other side.
The only person on the bench was an older woman in a flowered dress with shopping bags tucked tight against either hip like levees. When she saw Ari, she began to move her bags.
"Hello. No, you're fine. I'm not waiting for the bus. I was just wondering how far this particular route went. Do you know if it goes past Dearborn Elementary?"
The woman looked up and down the street and then touched her chin. "Hm. I'm fairly sure it does. It certainly goes in that direction."
So even if the city bus didn't take her directly to the front doors, it would at least cut down on how far she would have to walk. "Thank you very much."
"Of course, dear."
Ari jogged back to the Morris house. The front door was open and Madeline was standing just inside watching for her. She perked up when Ari stepped onto the porch. It was obvious she wanted to ask if she'd found anything, if she had picked up any clues about where her daughter had gone, but she was pragmatic enough not to voice her hope.
"I talked to someone who saw Jenna after the bus went by. Would she have expected you to drive her to school if she'd missed the bus?"
Madeline frowned and shook her head. "No. I leave for work right after she leaves most mornings." Her voice trailed off and she hugged herself. "She just kept walking? It's more than a mile and a half to her school..."
Ari guided Madeline back into the house. The living room was small but tidy, and the curtains had been pulled back to let the meager natural light in. Madeline sat on the couch out of habit, lowering herself to the overstuffed cushions without even seeming to notice it was there. Ari sat next to her, elbows on her knees and hands clasped in front of her.
"She could have ridden the city bus most of the way. Does that sound like something she might have done?"
"No! My gosh. She's never been on a city bus in her life."
Ari considered that. "Do you mind if I take a look in her room? She might have left something that will point us to where she is. If there's something going on that you don't know about, she might have left a clue in a diary."
Madeline frowned. "Something going on... like what? Drugs? A boy? She's seven years old, Ms. Willow."
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Morris, but wherever your daughter is--"
"No. You're right. Of course you can look in her room. It's right down the hallway. The first door without coats hanging on the front of it."
Ari nodded her thanks and stood up. Jenna's bedroom door was painted white with pink accents. She rested her hand on the knob and braced herself for a flood of girliness, a too-precious environment that would make her heart ache if the case ended less than perfectly. She took a steadying breath and pushed the door open.
The four-poster bed had white muslin curtains protecting the plush mattress. The bed wasn't made, and a pair of stuffed animals - a penguin and a lemur - slumped against each other near the pillow. There was a desk under the twin windows and Ari walked over to it. She found notebooks and pens, some books suitable for a few years above Jenna's grade-level, and a few picture books meant for younger kids that showed animals in their natural habitats. She picked it up and flipped through it before deciding it wasn't a clue.
She had turned to examine the framed pictures on the wall - Madeline and Jenna whale watching, then in the snow, at some school function - when Madeline rushed into the room. She held her phone out at Ari like it was a gun, trembling as her fingers gripped the phone hard enough to leave imprints on her skin. Ari stared and Madeline jabbed the phone at her. After a moment, Ari took it. She only heard a faint hiss on the other end of the line.
"Hello?"
A near-frantic man snapped, "Who the hell is this?"
Ari frowned at Madeline, who had covered her mouth with her hand. Tears were filling her eyes. Ari put her arm across her stomach and rested her other elbow against her hand. "Why don't we start with you, pal? Got a name?"
Another long, hiss-filled silence. Then finally, "I have your daughter. If you want her back, you're going to play by our rules. No cops. You call the cops, she... the girl is dead. If you want her back, start getting the money together. You know how much you need. You know how much she's worth. We'll be in touch tomorrow."
"Hold on. I didn't answer your question."
Another pause. "What?"
"You asked who I was."
"You..."
"My name is Ariadne Willow. I'm a private investigator that Madeline Morris hired to find her daughter." Madison's face trembled and she turned her back to Ari. "I'm not a cop, so she's not breaking your rule. You can consider me a private employee of Madeline Morris. Do you know what that means? It means I don't care about you. I don't need to bring you to justice on principle. My job is making sure my client is happy, and getting her daughter back is her only concern. It's all I'm after. You want money. I want Jenna Morris safe and sound when this is all over. I'm willing to cooperate to make that happen. Are you?"
More silence. Ari waited and then spoke again.
"What's your favorite color?"
"Huh?" Exasperated now, almost panicked.
"Never mind. You said you would be in touch. Mrs. Morris needs time to get the money together. Call me back on this cell phone in twenty-four hours with an update." She gave him the number. "During those twenty-four hours, Jenna is going to be treated like a princess. She's going to have a nice bed, she's going to watch all the TV she can stand." She glanced at the desk. "She likes nature shows, but let her pick. Get her whatever she wants for dinner. As long as we're both happy, this can be a win-win situation. Twenty-four hours. I'll be waiting for your call."
She hung up before he could reply. Madeline spun around and snatched the phone out of her hand.
"What the hell are you doing? How can you talk to them like that? They have my baby!"
&nbs
p; "That guy wasn't in charge. He was reading from a script."
Madeline blinked. "How do you know?"
"He got more flustered when I didn't do what he expected. I asked him what his favorite color was and he nearly wet his pants. They want money. They don't care if they get it the easy way or the hard way, they just want it. I'm going to play along with them so that you can rest assured that Jenna is safe."
"You're just going to let them get away with this?"
"Oh, hell no. They took a little girl. I'm going to make them pay. Right now I'm practicing diplomacy. I'm just saying 'nice doggie' until I can pick up a rock."
Chapter Four
Dale hated being stuck at the office while Ari was busy on a case. She finished filing the dog-fighting case and manned the phones for an hour before she took the check to the bank and deposited it. When she got back, a woman was leaning against the wall across from the front door of the office. After the Gavin case hit the news it wasn't unusual for them to get two walk-in clients in a single day, but something about the woman's demeanor told Dale she wasn't there to hire them. She wore a slightly rumpled white shirt under a black blazer, the cuffs of her jeans rolled up to reveal a good length of brown leather boots. She glanced up, a hopeful look on her face as she waited for Dale to confirm her identity.
Dale smiled, took off her cap, and nodded at the front door. "Hi, can I help you? I work here. Dale Frye."
The woman's face lit up. "Ah, yes, Ariadne told me all about you. She suggested I could stop by, show my appreciation for what she did this morning. Milo Duncan."
Dale smiled. Ari hadn't said her new friend was British. "Oh, she mentioned you, too. Sorry, she's on a case right now."
"So she really is a private eye?"
"Well, we prefer private investigator. Or detective if you want." She unlocked the door and gestured for Milo to follow you in. "Seems like you two really hit it off."
Milo nodded. "Yeah, she really saved my life last night. Or I guess you get the credit for that, with those stashes. Brilliant idea."
"It was actually Ari's mother who taught her that." Dale put her keys down and filed the bank deposit slip in the proper place. "I just streamlined and maintain it. You know, office manager, receptionist, sidekick, werewolf handler."
Milo laughed. "I should have someone like you for myself. Where'd she find you, Craigslist?"
Dale leaned against the desk. "We actually just kind of stumbled over each other. I was walking home with my dinner and saw what I thought was a stray dog being harassed by some kids. So I ran them off and took the poor thing home where it would be safe." She smiled at the memory. "Ari apparently changed in her sleep, got confused, and crawled into bed with me."
Milo raised an eyebrow. "That's one way to meet your girlfriend. Was she still naked at the time?"
"Oh, yeah."
Milo whistled.
"We actually didn't... get together... then. I needed a job and she obviously needed help here, so she hired me. We kept it strictly professional for almost four years before we finally, um." She shrugged. "Before we gave in to the undeniable."
"Aw, that's sweet." Milo chuckled softly. "Strictly professional, huh?"
Dale blushed. "Okay, maybe not a hundred percent. But we behaved for the most part."
Milo had been eyeing the waiting room while they talked. "This is a brilliant idea, by the way. Wolf detective. Skulking around in the bushes and peeping in windows, no one would suspect the pup. There aren't a lot of jobs out there that combine both sides so fluidly. May I?" She gestured at the closed office door.
"Uh. I guess. It's not really anything special." Dale opened the door and stepped inside. The couch to the right was where Ari occasionally napped after long nights as the wolf, and it was where Dale had given dozens if not hundreds of massages even before they were a couple. The file cabinets were across from the door, and a huge clock hung on the wall above them. Dale had been working for Ari five years and shared a bed with her for one of them, and she still didn't know the story behind the clock.
"Ari said you offered to buy us dinner tonight."
"It's the least I can do after the kindness she showed me."
"We might have to postpone that. She took a case this morning that could end up being time sensitive. A little girl is missing."
Milo nodded. "Oh, right, I've seen the posters. Missing Melody."
"Actually no. A second little girl is missing, and her mother is afraid the police won't take resources away from the Missing Melody case to look for her, so she hired Ari to make sure someone was giving her daughter top priority."
"That's so noble. And it's disappointing I can't repay you both tonight, but I understand. I actually only stopped by to give Ariadne my information in case there was a problem." She took a card from her shirt pocket. Dale took it and gave the information a cursory look before she slipped it into her own pocket. "And let me know if you need any help with the case. A little girl in a city like this, well... just let me know if you need help."
"Will do. And we're definitely going to take advantage of your dinner offer. Girls and wolves all have to eat, right?" She winked.
"Indeed we do," Milo chuckled. "I'll get out of your hair in case she needs you for some private detecting work. It was really nice to meet you, Dale. I look forward to getting to know you better."
Something in her tone hit Dale the wrong way and she smiled. "Me and Ari, you mean."
"Of course." She held out her hand. "I'll see you around, Dale."
Dale shook her hand and led her back to the door. "I'll let you know if Ari is able to get free for dinner tonight. Otherwise we'll just work something out. Oh, and if you happen across any other stashes, I'm sure Ari won't mind you using them. Just let me know so I can refresh them."
"I will. And I think I'll just follow your lead and set up some of my own once I know the city a little better."
Dale shrugged. "I could help you with that. I know some good places that I haven't used yet. I'd be happy to donate them to a wolf in need."
"Fantastic. I might owe you two dinners for that."
Dale laughed. "You're becoming our meal ticket."
Milo stopped at the door. "I look forward to evening things out between us."
Again Dale felt a touch awkward, but she put it off to being unfamiliar with Milo's British wit. She said goodbye and shut the door behind Milo, scratching the back of her head as she walked back to the desk and took a seat. If she became friends with any other sexy canidae she was going to have to register the office as a kennel.
#
"They'll kill her."
"They won't." They were back in the living room, where Madeline was hugging herself on the couch. "Right now they have one goal. They just want money. Jenna is their way to get it, and they have to keep her healthy if they expect us to pay. We learned a lot with that phone call. Whoever took Jenna didn't do it on a whim. Someone took her for a reason. Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt you?"
"Hurt me? I work for CenturyLink. I'm an account representative. I suppose if they wanted access to someone's telephone records they could..." She squeezed her eyes closed and shook her head. "No. There have to be a hundred other people who have more access than I do. It would be ridiculous to take Jenna to get me to do something."
Ari said, "What about Jenna's father?"
Madeline shook her head and looked toward the window. "No. He's been out of the picture for years. He left when Jenna was two."
"Is there a chance that he could have come back?"
She pressed her hands flat together and closed her eyes. "Ms. Willow, if my husband came back, he wouldn't have taken Jenna and I wouldn't be alive to hire you."
Ari winced. In that case, there was still a chance he'd taken Jenna as a way to hurt her, but Ari decided to let that trail go for the moment.
"All right. We'll go for a different angle. Let's look at what the guy said."
"You said he was reading from a scri
pt."
Ari nodded. "But that can still be helpful. It was a ransom demand, but they didn't give an amount. They just said you'd know how much you need."
"Right. What the hell does that mean?"
"I assume it means you'll pay as much as you can to get your daughter back. If they ask for a hundred grand when you could pay a million, they're short-changed. If they ask for a million and you don't have it, they have to give up a little of their power and drop their asking price. So they left it up to you. They know you'd pay as much as you possibly can to get Jenna back safe. How much would that be, just so we can give them a number if we have to stall?"
Madeline shook her head. "Everything. I would..." She sighed heavily and leaned back, rubbing her cheek with the back of her hand. "With the savings and her college fund and... if I put the house up for sale--"
"Don't count stuff like that. You don't have time to sell anything. Just count the funds you could gather in the next two or three days."
She chewed her lip as she thought. "I could get a hundred and fifty thousand by the weekend. But that would be every dime I have."
"Okay. When they call back we'll tell them a hundred. It's a nice round number and I think it's big enough that they'll be satisfied. Don't worry, we're not actually going to pay anyone anything. We're just using it as bait."
Madeline rubbed her hands together and looked down at her thumbs. When she spoke, her voice was quiet. "Ms. Willow, if we just paid them... wouldn't it be easier? And safer?"
"Probably. But then they could turn around and do this to someone else." She put her hand on Madeline's shoulder. "Right now, Jenna is safe. They're doing what I asked because they think I'm on the level. But these assholes took a little girl away from her mother. I'm going to make sure they're punished for that." She paused. "If you really want to just pay them and end this, then we can do that, too. I think in the long run it would be a bad plan. Maybe not for you, but for the next family."
"I just want her back."
"I know. I understand. You have my word that I'm going to do everything I can to get her home as quickly as possible."