What Burns Within (38 page)

But he’d need more than a look of practiced condemnation used for hellfire lectures to put Tain off.

Lindsay’s mother looked about to faint, clutching the top of her blouse tightly, and Mr. Eckert started to stand until Tain motioned for him to sit back down.

“I don’t have any news. I’m sorry,” Tain said. There was silence for a moment before the high-pitched voice of Lynn Eckert cut in.

“Why are you here then? We know she isn’t here. You should be out there, looking for my daughter.”

She crumpled into a ball, her back shaking with the sobs.

“There, there, Lynn. Come on, come lie down.” Father Benjamin cooed as he rubbed her back, coaxed her to her feet and led her from the room.

As far as Tain could tell, Ted Eckert seemed to find nothing unusual in the priest’s behavior. He stared blankly out the window as though his wife wasn’t coming apart at the seams, his daughter wasn’t missing and his world wasn’t spinning out of control.

“Mr. Eckert, I spoke to Lindsay’s friend Marvin. He was very helpful, and I do have a few leads to follow.” Tain drew a breath, waiting for some reaction from Lindsay’s father. When there wasn’t one, he went ahead. “Would you mind if I talked to Lindsay’s brother and sister?”

Ted Eckert’s head snapped around to stare at Tain then, his previously pale cheeks filling with red. “Why?”

“Mr. Eckert, it’s possible the person who took Lindsay was watching her. I’d like to ask Danielle and Caleb if they saw anyone around.”

After a moment, Ted Eckert nodded and walked down the hall, back toward the door. He climbed the stairs at a snail’s pace, as though his feet were weighed down with cement blocks that made it hard for him to move his stocky frame upward at any respectable pace.

“Dan…” he tried, his voice getting stuck in his throat. He coughed and then tried again. “Kids.”

Within seconds, two doors opened, one revealing an older version of Lindsay, the long, silky hair pulled back in a ponytail. The other door revealed a young boy about Nicky Brennen’s age, with straight blond hair and rosy cheeks, which didn’t really fit with the generally colorless tone of the rest of the family.

Mr. Eckert turned on his heel and started clunking back down the stairs.

Tain held up his ID and, for what felt like the hundredth time that day, cursed Ashlyn’s absence.

“My name is Tain,” he said.

“Huh. Lame.” The girl rolled her eyes, her arms folded across her chest, her hip parked against the door frame.

“I need to ask you some questions,” he said, trying to resist the urge to scowl at her.

“About my sister?” the boy asked.

“That’s right.” Tain looked down at him. “Did you see anybody around your house who seemed to be…to want to talk to her?”

“Like her friends?”

“He means, like strangers,” the girl said, rolling her eyes at Tain again and taking her brother back into his room, sitting down with him on the edge of his bed. “People who shouldn’t have been here.”

Caleb’s cheeks puffed out, and he shook his head. Tain looked at the girl, who shrugged and shook her head.

“What about any cars outside that aren’t usually there?”

“Plenty of those now,” Danielle said.

“But before. Any around like this?” He extracted an envelope of pictures from his pocket, pulling out the first one, passing it to Danielle.

“Seriously? These things are all over.”

“So, no new ones hanging around your street, say, the week before Lindsay went missing?” He reached out and took the photo from her, sticking the picture of the red Civic back in the envelope. Tain passed her another photo. “What about that one?”

Her face lengthened, and then her nose wrinkled. “I think so.”

“I’ve seen that car,” Caleb said, looking up at Tain. His eyes looked as big as a puppy’s, and he almost smiled.

“Really? Where have you seen a car like that?”

“Outside when I came home from school.”

“School? That must have been quite a few weeks ago.”

Danielle shook her head. “No, we all go to a year-round school. Not much since…” She shrugged. “You know. It’s holidays next week anyway.”

“You saw this car outside your house? When you last went to school?”

Caleb nodded.

“And you last went to school…?”

“The Friday before Lindsay disappeared.”

“Thanks. That’s really helpful,” Tain said, backing toward the door hesitantly.

“Go play,” Danielle told her brother, crossing the room as he went to his table to color a picture.

She shut the door and looked up at Tain as she stepped into the hallway. “You cops, you haven’t got a clue, do you?”

Danielle walked past him into her room and slammed the door.

Ashlyn had deliberately managed to spill half the water that hadn’t already sloshed over the sides when she kicked it. “Oh, geesh, I’m so sorry! I’m so clumsy. Here.” She grabbed the bucket. “Let me help.”

“Tha-that’s okay. I can do it,” he said. He bent down, grabbed the handle of the bucket, his gaze instantly going to her legs, which were bare below the knee-length skirt she was wearing, the cut from a few days before barely noticeable. He fumbled with the bucket as he moved it a safe distance from her, and managed to force himself upright, but only glanced at her face quickly before he resumed mopping, his eyes focused in her general direction, about a foot off the floor.

“Gee, I’m really sorry. I’m uh, looking for a pay phone. My cell phone died.” She did her best to offer a wide-eyed smile.

“We…uh…there—there’s a phone down by—by the doors. Th-that way,” he said moving toward the main hallway, out of the secondary hall he was standing in. “They, uh…there…”

“There you are. I wondered where you got to.”

Her head spun around, and she plastered on an instant smile. “All finished?” she asked, moving forward and ignoring Craig’s hand. She wrapped her arm around his waist instead, and glanced back at the man with the fish pin on his collar.

“Thanks.” She gave him what she hoped was a flirtatious smile and then leaned against Craig. “Did you have fun?”

He looked down at her. “Did you?”

“Unless your doctor is a viable suspect, that’s the only one in the building I caught looking at me.”

Ashlyn felt his hand on the small of her back as he opened the door and ushered her into his vehicle. “You’re supposed to be creating a suspect list, not chatting them up.”

“I wasn’t close enough to see his name tag. ‘Unidentified cleaning person’ wasn’t going to be very helpful.”

He frowned at her and shook his head as he shut the door.

Craig felt his chest tighten as he felt Ashlyn’s head brush against his arm. She smelled of…

He realized he didn’t have a clue, but what ever it was, it was nice. Not too heavy and demanding, but still appealing.

Was it just him, or was she finding this tough?

A clerk finally came over to offer assistance. Without even looking at Ashlyn, Craig felt the slight nudge against his arm as she turned, pretending to inspect the pagers on display, all the while scrutinizing employees while he explained his business.

“One of our managers handles that. It’s a special account. I’ll go get him.”

“What’s wrong?” Craig asked, watching Ashlyn rub her shoulder.

“I must have slept funny.”

Craig’s fingers were automatically starting to work on the knot that seemed to be causing her tension when someone said, “Can I help you?”

He turned to look at the man, apparently one of the managers, and explained he was there to get a pager issued by the fire department.

“Do you have your employment letter?”

Craig held up the piece of paper in his opposite hand.

“Everyone on the department comes to me. I want to make sure you’ve got the most reliable equipment possible….”

He gestured for them to follow him behind the counter to a desk in the back. Craig felt Ashlyn tense again, but she didn’t show it in her face, maintaining a steady smile.

She stood back, letting Craig take the far chair, then sat down and crossed her legs. Her skirt inched a bit higher. While Craig discussed the pager and how it worked with the manager, Ashlyn leaned back and managed to look bored with the whole process.

Craig noted the manager seemed to have grown about an inch taller, and his motions lacked the fluidity of ease, but he kept his eyes riveted to Craig’s face, as though afraid to look at Ashlyn. As though afraid to betray his thoughts.

It wasn’t until they got up to leave that the manager chanced a glance at her, his eyes not even taking in her warm smile, but moving straight down to her body, his skin glistening.

Craig made a point of shaking his hand, confirming his hunch. The manager was sweating, despite the air-conditioning.

Once they’d returned to his house and started unloading their purchases he said, “You know, I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“What? To be a first-class flirt?”

“Not exactly your style, but I have to hand it to you. You got yourself noticed.”

“For all the good it did.”

“What are you talking about? That guy at the telephone place, you made him break into a cold sweat.”

“So you didn’t see the other guy?”

Craig felt his forehead pinch. “Evidently not.”

“When the employee went back to get the person to help us, he called someone else out. The guy we talked to, he was sent over to handle the account and told to present himself as the regular manager for it. The other manager was lurking in the hallway, watching the whole thing.”

Craig glanced at her as he put the groceries away. “Is that why you wanted the outer chair?”

“That, and it kept my legs visible.”

He looked at her. Ashlyn’s lips had twisted into a sour look. “Feeling the need to take a shower?”

“Hey, I’ve encountered my share of creeps, and I usually don’t try to encourage them. The thing is, a lot of times rapists go undetected because they don’t appear unusual. The guy who was helping you with the pager could have been flustered by my presence, or he could have just been agitated by the fact that his boss was watching him handle this, like it was a test.”

“What about the boss? Catch his gaze wandering from his employees?”

“He noticed me, for what it’s worth. Whether or not he was interested…I can’t really check these guys out, anyway, unless I can come up with a home address.”

“So as far as the case goes, we’re no further ahead.” He poured a glass of juice and passed it to her.

Her eyes narrowed. “And beyond the case?” she asked.