Clear Intent

by Diane Benefiel

  “But why Jack? True, he was sent to our house the couple times the neighbors called the police, so I guess Rodrigo could be mad about that. But I’d think he’d be angrier with you, Brad. You’re chief of police and you fought him that night at the Brew Pub when he attacked me.”

  “Jack and Rod were friends when they were in high school, so I think he’s a more important target than I am. I’m not discounting that he’d take a swipe at me if he had half a chance, but Jack picked more than one fight with him over you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Brad raised a brow at Jack. “I better let him explain.” Brad pulled his phone out of his pocket, moving away to make a phone call.

  “When did you fight Rodrigo?”

  “We don’t have time for that right now. I want to get to your house. Adrian could be there. I can’t see that Rod would know where you live, but he may have stayed in contact with people in the area and gotten updates. We don’t want him to find Adrian first.”

  ***

  Dory slumped back in the passenger seat. The hits kept coming. Jack had been attacked. His brother’s house vandalized, and his barn burned. Then Maddy’s café, and Dory’s parents’ house. And riding high above any property damage, her baby was missing.

  Agonizing thoughts buzzed around the brain like angry wasps. What was Adrian doing? Was he scared, hungry? Did he want his mother? She felt like she was stretched so tight she could shatter like thin ice. She’d been through horrible times before, like the night when she’d been seven months pregnant and Rodrigo had beaten her so badly she hadn’t known if she would survive until morning.

  But this felt worse.

  Her phone chimed, and Dory exchanged texts with Rosa, breaking the news about her house. Her nerves were frayed by the time she slid her phone back in her pocket. It was only then that she realized that she’d left her purse in a locked cabinet at the middle school. She was losing her mind.

  They drove through town to her home. Dory tried to take in as much of the landscape as she could, looking for any sign of her little boy. Or his father.

  Jack’s phone signaled. He’d set it in a holder attached to the dash and he tapped to put it on speaker. “Morgan. You’re on speaker, Ross. Dory is here.”

  Logan Ross’s voice filled the car. “Jack, Dory.” The deputy sheriff’s tone was serious. “Thought I’d let you know we got a hit on the license plate of the car Calderon stole.”

  “Let me guess, it doesn’t match the car it’s registered to,” Jack said.

  “Yeah, looks like he switched plates with a Chevy pickup while it was parked in front of the grocery store on North Main. Keep your eyes out for a four-year-old, dark gray Chevy Silverado with a dented rear driver’s-side fender.”

  “Got it. Any other sign of him?”

  “Funny you should ask. I had a hunch, so Declan and I decided to grab lunch at the Brew Pub. You remember that night when Emma and Maddy kicked Rod’s ass after he tried to grab Dory? Seems like he’s working down a list of anyone or anyplace that’s caused him grief.”

  “That was Dory’s thought, too.”

  “Yeah, so I figure the Brew Pub’s on the list. That’s where the fucker was arrested, plus you let him beat the crap out of you there.”

  “Seems like that would be a good memory for him.”

  “Not if he figured out you were playing him.”

  Dory frowned, studying Jack’s profile as he drove.

  “Anyway,” Logan continued, “Deb the bartender said she thinks she might have seen Calderon last night. She clocked out a little after two a.m., walked out with the manager. She was driving out of the parking lot and a guy was standing next to the road in dark clothing. Not doing anything, just watching as she drove by. Spooked her some.”

  “Why didn’t she call it in?”

  “Says she didn’t know at the time Calderon had escaped or she would have. But the guy was the right height and build.”

  “Any damage at the pub?”

  “No, but the sheriff’s department is coordinating with Hangman’s police to heighten patrols around any locations Rod might have on his list.”

  “Okay, keep me posted.”

  “Will do, and Dory? We’ll find Adrian and get Rod back behind bars where he belongs.”

  “Thanks, Logan.”

  Logan signed off as Jack pulled up in front of Dory’s house. She scanned the front of the home she’d built for herself and her son. The flowers blooming in hues of lavender and purple in the planters, the bird feeder that needed filling, the ceramic figurine of a garden gnome Adrian had made in art class. Everything looked the same. The front door and windows were intact, leaving nothing to suggest that an escaped convict had found out where she lived. But neither was there what she was most hoping for: some sign of Adrian.

  Jack grabbed her arm when she would have opened the car door. “Do you have an outside key anywhere?”

  “We’ve got one of those fake rocks to hide a key in.”

  “Adrian know where it is?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you have any firearms?”

  “Geez, no. I told you that I was thinking of getting one. What—”

  “Give me your keys. You’re waiting here.”

  “Jack, if Adrian is in there, he’s bound to be upset. More so if you go in with your gun drawn. Let me go in.”

  “No. Wait for me to signal that we’re clear.” There was no arguing with him.

  And then he was gone. Dory bit back on her impatience and the worry that had her chewing her lip until, finally, Jack came around from the back of the house. Her stomach sank when he shook his head, then waved her over. Adrian wasn’t home. She hadn’t realized how much hope she’d been pinning on the thought that her boy had been upset and simply walked home.

  Her house felt empty with not even Tigger there to greet her. Adrian’s backpack hung from a hook by the door next to his camp hat. The shoes he’d neglected to put in the basket under the bench were on the floor looking like he’d just stepped out of them. The sob was out before she could stop it.

  Jack pulled her into a tight hug. “We’ll find him, Dory. We’ll get him back to you.”

  Her shoulders shook, and Jack’s shirt dampened where it soaked up the tears. “He’s only eight, and he’s out there alone. If Rodrigo finds him, there’s no telling what he would do.” She could barely articulate the words. “I couldn’t go on if something happened to Adrian.”

  “Yes, you could. But we’re doing our best to find him before anything happens to him.”

  Warm lips pressed onto her forehead. She drew in a shuddering breath. Jack was smart and strong, and his shoulders seemed broad enough to carry the weight of the world. She was coming to suspect that his support had always been there, though perhaps not in ways apparent to her. She’d have to think about that later when she wasn’t worried out of her mind about her son.

  Dory stepped back from the refuge of Jack’s arms. Adrian wasn’t at home, which meant he was out there somewhere. She had to press on with the search.

  Jack took the trash that was starting to smell ripe to the cans outside while she grabbed a change of clothes and some toiletries and crammed them in a large tote. She slung the bag over her shoulder and stepped outside to lock the door to her house. The rising wind had brought billowing brown-tinged clouds of smoke into a sky that had looked almost normal only a few hours ago. The hazy sun was already past midday and a sense of urgency gripped her.

  Adrian was missing. The refrain echoed in her mind. And if that wasn’t enough to worry about, his father was on the loose and had already assaulted Jack and caused mayhem throughout Hangman’s Loss.

  The next hours passed in a blur. Jack drove her everywhere she could think Adrian might be, checking and rechecking. They walked around his elementary school, searched the dugouts at the Little League field, then stopped at the houses of friends from school. Traffic was unusually light, most residents having already evacuat
ed.

  With the sky growing increasingly dark with smoke, she talked on the phone with Brad. He wanted ideas of where to look for Rodrigo, so she wracked her mind. “The duplex where we lived in town, plus the resort. Emma let me live there when I finally left him. The Brew Pub. The hardware store, he was fired for mouthing off to the manager. We first met at the high school, and high school was the pinnacle of Rodrigo’s life, so that’s a good choice.”

  “Got it.” Brad signed off.

  “Brad’s got to be pulling his hair out,” Dory said as Jack drove to the park near the lake on the chance that Adrian had gone there.

  “He’s got multiple emergencies going on, but if anyone can deal under pressure, Brad can.”

  They walked through the park, calling Adrian’s name. Jack questioned a couple of older teenagers they found sitting on the park benches. The odor of marijuana hung in the air and the kids looked decidedly nervous.

  “I’m not here to bust you for the weed. We’re looking for a boy, eight years old. Dark hair, dark eyes. This tall.” Jack held out his hand. “Seen anyone?”

  “Dude, weed is legal now.”

  “Not if you’re under twenty-one. Focus, man. You see any kid matching the description?”

  They hadn’t. Weary and discouraged, Dory trudged with Jack back to the car. They drove down Main Street until Jack made the turn into the parking lot for the pizza place.

  “What are we doing here?”

  “Getting food. This is one of the few places in town still open.”

  “But we should be looking for Adrian.”

  “You need fuel, I need fuel. Then we’ll figure out our plan going forward.”

  Twenty minutes later, Dory was sitting across from Jack, a pizza loaded with veggies and sausage on the table between them. At late afternoon, there was only one other table occupied. He poured iced tea from a pitcher into tumblers full of ice as she transferred slices of pizza to plates.

  “Drink, you’re dehydrated.”

  Not sure how he knew that, she drank. He was right, and the headache that she’d yet to acknowledge eased. Jack bit into his pizza with strong teeth, jaw muscles working as he chewed.

  Dory worked her way through her pizza, washing it down with more tea. After two slices, she felt a lot less hollowed out, and a lot more like tackling the next few hours.

  “Feeling better now?”

  Dory nodded. “I’m scared about Adrian, but I feel better to cope with it now.”

  Jack leaned back in his seat, looking comfortable with the authority signified by the uniform he wore. The bruising around his eye and the scrape on his forehead combined with the big tough body gave him the look of a warrior. She knew without doubt that he would do whatever necessary to find Adrian, and would stand as a solid wall between her and whatever danger she might face.

  She’d spent more time with Jack in the past week than she had in her entire life, and it struck her that she was learning more about him every day, things that made her realize she’d misjudged him.

  Jack Morgan was a good, decent man. A man who made her heart beat faster just by looking at her. She’d been guilty of assigning him a two-dimensional personality, and now she wondered whether that had been a defense against an attraction she could no longer deny. She stood, circled the table, and when she reached him, leaned down to press a kiss to his lips. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For being you. For being my rock today.”

  He reached a hand up to cup her face. “You know I would do anything for you.”

  “I’m beginning to realize that. I don’t know if I’m ready for where you’re wanting to go, but I can tell you that you make me feel more deeply than anyone ever has.” She straightened. “I’m going to use the bathroom, then we’ll do what you said and make a plan.”

  Jack was shoving his phone into his pocket when she rejoined him at the table minutes later, his face set in grim lines.

  “What? What’s going on?” Alarm made the words sharp.

  “Nothing about Adrian.” Okay, the serious face wasn’t about her son. “That was Brad. The fire is over the ridge on the western side of the lake. The areas under evacuation orders have been expanded. Trish Gallagher’s place is now under voluntary evacuation status, and Brad says his mom is going to Jenny’s house in Bishop.”

  “Okay, I have to call my parents. I won’t need a place to stay because I’ll keep looking for Adrian, but they will.”

  “Your parents are fine. Brad says they’ve decided to stay at the evacuation shelter.” He paused. “Brad has called an emergency meeting with reps from the sheriff’s office, the police department, the fire department, and whoever else he can think of. They’re coordinating a plan to search for Adrian at the same time they need to deal with Rodrigo on the loose and the fire danger. I need to go to that meeting.”

  “All right. My car is at your house. If you drop me off there, I can keep looking for Adrian.”

  He was shaking his head before she finished. “No. There will be more roadblocks set up to keep people from entering the evacuation zones, and Rodrigo is still out there somewhere, no doubt causing trouble. A police cruiser parked in front of city hall had its tires slashed. I don’t want you out there alone. Let me take you home. You can feed Betty and let her out. I’ll come back for you as soon as we’re done with the meeting, and I’ll have a better idea of how we can maximize resources and cover more ground looking for him.”

  As much as she felt like she was losing daylight, in the end, that’s what they did. “Rest,” Jack said as she walked with him to his front door. “Close your eyes for a few minutes.”

  “I’d never be able to sleep.”

  “I know, but you can try.” He placed his hands on her shoulders. “Look, Dory, they may call off the search overnight.”

  She drew back, startled. “What? How can they do that?”

  “We’ll still have officers out on patrol, and the county sheriff is helping. But you, me, Brad—the people who know Adrian? We’re going to need sleep to keep functioning. Most likely Adrian will find a place to hole up when it gets dark, and we wouldn’t find him anyway. If any of us is going to be effective tomorrow, we’ve got to catch a few hours of sleep tonight.”

  “But the fire is coming this way. Jack, I can’t go to bed when my child is out there somewhere.”

  “That scares me, too. I’ll come back to get you in an hour and we’ll head out again. Let’s hope we find him before sundown.”

  Dory locked the door behind him and headed to the kitchen. Betty trotted after her, quivering in anticipation as Dory scooped kibble into her bowl and refilled her water. Dory wandered the house, restless, not wanting to think about Adrian outside and alone through the night when temperatures dropped into the forties. She collapsed onto Jack’s bed, her head on his pillow, taking comfort from the scent of him on the bedding.

  She pressed her fingers to her eyes to hold back the tears. It was funny, really, how she’d been so terrified when Rodrigo had escaped, fearful he would try to hurt her or Adrian. She was still positive he meant her harm, but now he was almost an afterthought, having dwindled so greatly in significance when compared to the urgency she felt to find Adrian.

  A quiet whine from the floor beside the bed had her leaning over to scoop up the little dog. With Betty curled up beside her, Dory tried to clear her mind of everything but her son. Where would he have gone? She and Jack had checked everywhere she thought he was familiar with to no avail. He was aware “the man” had escaped, so he’d want to be somewhere safe. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Adrian’s disappearance had something to do with his father beyond his reaction to the kids outside the school.

  Adrian liked hiking, so it was possible he’d taken himself into the mountains, but she’d think he’d have a destination in mind. A thought occurred and Dory jerked upright, eyes wide. The miner’s cabin. She and Jack had walked around the day camp Adrian had been attending, checked the bui
ldings and grounds, and not seen any sign of him. But Adrian had been intrigued with the miner’s cabin and had wanted to take her there. He’d mentioned that the trail was near the camp kitchen, and if the kids had hiked there, it couldn’t be that far.

  The camp was on the side of the lake threatened by the fire and under mandatory evacuation orders, so there were likely roadblocks. But roadblocks were meant to stop cars, not kids who didn’t want to be found.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Dory chewed her lip, weighing her options. What if that’s where he’d gone? The camp was maybe a little over two miles from the middle school. Would he have known how to get to there? He was pretty good with directions and had a map of the town tacked to the bulletin board in his room. She bet he could navigate his way there.

  Dory grabbed her phone, texted a quick message to Jack, then grabbed her bag she’d set by the front door. Certainty added urgency to her movements as she changed into the warmer clothes she’d gotten from her house. The more she considered it, the more certain she was that Adrian’s goal was the miner’s cabin.

  Caution clashed with hope, but hope won. It made sense. The entire town had been searched, but if Adrian had decided to hide out in the miner’s cabin, he’d wouldn’t have been found. And if the fire was heading that way, he was in grave danger.

  In the kitchen, Dory pulled open drawers looking for a flashlight. Not finding one, she opened what she thought was a closet but turned out to be a pantry. If Jack had been there, she would have kissed him. Not only was there a heavy-duty Maglite on a neatly organized shelf, but there were refillable water bottles and a day pack hanging from a hook. Perfect. She gathered what she thought she’d need, then began searching the kitchen cupboards.

  Didn’t the man have granola bars? Apparently not, but she did find a bag of Oreos. She filled the water bottles, then back in Jack’s bedroom, she rummaged through his dresser until she found a sweatshirt, stuffed that in the daypack with everything else, and was ready to go.

  She glanced at her phone. Jack hadn’t responded to her text. She sent another text, this time including Brad, Logan, and Declan. With night coming and the fire over the ridge, she wasn’t waiting, but she’d let the guys know where she was going.