Abduction (25 page)

“Calm down.”

“Maybe he’s
still okay. Maybe the kidnappers just want more money. Maybe they’ll contact
me.”

Benson looked
skeptical as he glanced over at her. “Maybe. We’ll see.”

Karen leaned against the seat as he shut her door.
His skepticism was palpable. Definite. There would be no ransom. He believed
Ted was dead. She just wasn’t ready to accept that. Her whole life had
collapsed in two weeks. Two weeks ago today, Jessica was taken. Fourteen days
later her husband was also missing and the police thought she was guilty of
murder.

“God, what
have you done to me?” she whispered.

Benson opened his door and climbed in. “Did you
say something?”

Karen shook
her head and turned to stare out the window, fighting back the tears.

#

Business was
slow at her mother’s boutique and Zoe was bored. She wandered around the store,
straightening the same racks over and over, mindlessly fingering the silks and
cashmeres.

She had
promised her mother to open the store for a few hours every day, and it had
seemed like a small concession at the time. Now she wished she’d convinced her
mother to close for a few days.

Zoe glanced at her watch. One forty-five. She’d
sold $225 worth of clothes. Barely enough to cover payroll, taxes, rent, and
electricity.

Hanging the closed
sign, she locked the door, grabbed her purse, and set the alarm before slipping
out the back exit.

When she got
home, Zoe put a load of wash in the machine, straightened the kitchen, swept
the deck, and stretched out on a deck lounge to read. Minutes later, she was
fast asleep.

#

Zoe clawed at
the weight pressing down on her face, suffocating her. She tried to move. Tried
to fight. Panic ripped through her. She struggled to open her eyes. To see
death. To face it.

He’d managed
to get to her. But how? She hadn’t suspected he’d come during the day. Darkness
swirled in her like dancers in a macabre death march.

Forcing her
mind to slow down, she lurched forward.

Gasping for
air, Zoe stared at the long shadows stretching across the deck. Whirling
around, she searched for her attacker.

Her book lay
on the deck, its pages fluttering. The wind chimes stirred softly, tinkling as
the soft scent of roses drifted on the breeze. Somewhere in the yard, a bird
whistled to its mate.

A dream. It
had only been a dream. Sweat ran down her face and neck. Her shirt was
drenched. Burying her face in her hands, she concentrated on breathing. On
letting her lungs fill and empty without fear. No one was suffocating her. She
wasn’t going to die. She wasn’t. . .

Pictures
flickered through her mind like a slide show gone crazy. She closed her eyes
and took a deep breath, trying to capture one of the images and hold it. Stone
wall.
Hold it.
Ivy.
Hold it.
Emily.
Where are you, Emily?
Her mind and thoughts reached out like a hand, stretching out to touch, to
hold. The images slipped through her fingers like water, flowing out and away.

But it was
enough. Zoe jumped up and ran inside, grabbing the phone off the wall. Quickly
she dialed. Then waited.

“Detective. .
.”

“I need
Johnson,” she sputtered, cutting the woman off. “This is Zoe Shefford. I need
to talk to Detective Johnson right away.”

“Hold on.”

Zoe’s knees
rocked beneath her as she waited impatiently to hear his familiar voice.

“Detective
John—”

“This is Zoe.
I know where Emily is!”

“I’ll be right
there.”

Zoe slammed down the phone and scrambled into the
bed
room. She rushed to change into jeans and sneakers, exchanging her
sweat-drenched shirt for a pullover. Grabbing her hair, she tied it
back quickly with a scrunchie and rushed to the
front door. JJ was
n’t there yet.

She began to
pace. Another five minutes passed. She grabbed her purse and stepped outside,
locking the door behind her. She paced up and down her driveway. She had made
one full trip up and back when JJ whipped his Cherokee into the driveway and
screeched to a halt.

Zoe ran over
and jumped in. “The park near the college.”

JJ nodded and
backed out of the driveway. Zoe took a deep breath, letting her head drop back
against the headrest. “Where’s your regular car?”

“This is mine. The department car is in for
maintenance. I did
n’t feel like taking time to check out a loaner.”

She nodded as
she noted the CDs scattered on the floor at her feet. Reaching down, she picked
them up. Garth Brooks, Mark Chestnut, Reba, Tim McGraw. “You’re into country
music.”

“Yeah.”

Zoe noticed it
then, the cool distance, the icy remoteness. “Is something wrong?”

“I’m a cop.
Something is always wrong.”

“I see.” Zoe
turned and stared out the window.

“I doubt it,”
he muttered softly.

Zoe whirled her
head and stared hard at him. “What’s going on? This isn’t just about you and me
this time, is it?”

“Let’s just do
this. We can talk later.”

“You have
something specific you want to talk to me about?”

Ignoring her,
he slowed down and made a sharp right into the park. “Now where?”

Zoe closed her
eyes. “Go left. All the way around to the backside of the park. Where it meets
the college property. There’s a stone wall there.”

“I know the
place.”

When they
reached the stone wall, JJ pulled up on the grass and parked. Zoe climbed out,
dreading what she knew was coming. With reluctance, she began to walk along the
wall, her eyes barely noting how the ivy draped or the way birds sprung up from
the grass, disturbed that she was interrupting their dinner.

She stopped
midway along the length of the wall and walked over to it. She placed her hands
on top of the wall. Then she pushed up and scrambled over it.

“Where are
you. . .”

Zoe tossed a
hand up in the air, silencing him as she closed her eyes again. She waited a few
seconds and then opened her eyes and began to move again. A few feet to the
left.
Stop.
Close her eyes. Another few feet.
Stop again.
Another
few feet.

She turned and
looked at JJ who had climbed over the wall and was following her quietly.
“She’s here.”

JJ nodded and pulled the radio off his belt. “This
is two-four-seven. Code Two. I have a 10-55. Going to need CSI and backup at. .
.”

Zoe tuned him
out, kneeling down and running her hands over the rough ivy ground cover. A few
minutes of digging and she uncovered the hand of a little girl. Bowing her
head, she let the tears flow for a little girl who would never cry again.

#

Karen stumbled
blindly into the house, dropping her keys on the small cherry table near the
door. Her nose picked up the scent of savory beef and something else a little
subtler. Bread?

“Ray?”

“In the
kitchen.”

She walked into the room and stopped short in the
doorway.
Counters gleamed, the floor
sparkled. A pot on the stove bubbled softly, filling the room with aromas that
made her think of her mother.
But
what surprised her even more was the sight of her brother sprawled in a kitchen
chair. His stocking feet were propped up on
the table and crossed at the
ankle. He wore a kitchen apron around his waist, and his fingers were busily snapping
beans. He grinned up at her as he tossed bean ends into the trash can.

“Ray?”

“What?”

“You cooked?”

“Sure. You
have enough on your mind. It’s the least I could do to help out.”

“You cooked,”
she repeated softly as she pulled out a chair and dropped into it, slipping out
of her shoes.

“Don’t look so
shocked. I know how to cook.” He pitched a snip of green bean at her.

She ducked,
smiling. “Obviously. I just. . . Thanks, Ray. I really appreciate it. It smells
divine.” And it was turning her stomach in knots. No, her stomach was already
in knots and had been for days. The smell of food was just making it worse.

“How did it
go?”

The smile fled quickly as she sighed heavily,
every trace of delight that someone had done something for her vanishing like
the steam rising from the stew. “The police are convinced I killed him, but
they don’t have enough evidence to arrest me.
Yet.
My attorney thinks
Ted took the money and ran to avoid the police, which would imply that he knew
what happened to Jess, and I can’t believe that.”

“Wouldn’t
surprise me,” Ray muttered darkly. “Now you understand why I couldn’t let Ted
control your trust fund.”

“Don’t, Ray.”
Her stomach twisted tighter. “We don’t know what happened. Maybe Jessica’s
kidnappers
did
call Friday and he took them the money.”

Ray swung his feet off the table, his feet hitting
the floor with a thud as he stood up. He snatched the bowl of green beans.
“Right.”

S
he watched him cross over to the sink, frustration
shimmering around him. “Ted is a good husband, Ray. Why can’t you see that?”

He spun
around, his face tight. “Good husband? Are you nuts? The man talked to you like
you were a dog! He spoke and you jumped. He put you down, he ridiculed you, he
ignored you. You call that a good husband?”

The knot in
her stomach jumped from uncomfortable to pain
ful.
“I have a good life, Ray. Can’t you see that? He gives me a nice home;
he takes good care of me.”

“And there
were men who took good care of their slaves, so what’s your point?”

Karen twisted her hands in her lap. Why did
everything always have to end in a fight? Why couldn’t the men in her life get
along with each other? “Ray, you don’t know him. You never gave him a chance.”

“That’s where
you’re wrong, my dear sister. I did know him and give him a chance. Before you
married him. He and I had a nice long chat, and I got his number real quick.”
Ray turned his back to her, rinsing the beans with quick, jerking movements.

“He’s my
husband, Ray.”

Ray turned
around slowly, the fierce expression on his face in direct contrast with the
frilly apron around his waist and the dishtowel he tossed over his shoulder.
“And where is your beloved husband, Karen? Where is he?”

#

JJ moved
closer, the radio in his hand. “You gonna pass out now?”

“I don’t think
so,” she replied with a sniffle.

Reaching into
his pocket, JJ pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her. “It should be
clean.”

“Thanks.” She
sniffed back another rush of tears. “You never fail to surprise me.”

“Oh, I bet I
could,” he whispered cryptically.

She stared
hard at him, trying to get some feel for his mood. It eluded her as deftly as
peace of mind always had. “You going to tell me what’s on your mind?”

“I have a lot
on my mind, Miss Shefford, not the least of which is finding the sicko who is
hurting these little girls. And when I get my hands on him, he’s going to wish
his mother had been sterile.”

The harshness
in his tone slapped at her. She’d never seen him speak so emotionally. React so
harshly. “What happened, JJ? Is another girl missing?”

“No,” he said
abruptly. “I’m sure you’d tell me if one was.”

His terse
answer confused her. He was making no sense at all. “I’ve never seen you act
like this.”

“You don’t
know me.”

“True.” Zoe
climbed to her feet and handed JJ his handkerchief. Enough was enough. If the
man wanted to be a jerk again, let him.
Heaven knows he’s had enough
practice at it.

#

When backup
arrived, JJ walked Zoe over to his Cherokee and gave her the keys. “Stay here.
As soon as we get some extra help out here, I’ll have someone drive you home.”

Zoe nodded.

Turning, JJ tried to push the image of her big
green eyes, full of tears, out of his mind. He had a job to do, and this was no
time to be getting tangled up with a woman who mourned a child she didn’t even
know. And who didn’t run at death threats.
Or perhaps didn’t have any reason
to take them seriously.

The cop in him
knew that Keyes Shefford wasn’t a suspect. But the man in him dearly wanted
Keyes to be guilty so that he could justify all that Zoe had seen and done. It
couldn’t be supernatural. He longed for an explanation that suited him.

The simple
fact was that Zoe Shefford was getting to him and he didn’t like it. Worse, he
resented it. He didn’t need someone to complicate his already complicated life.
JJ walked over to a patrolman stretching the bright orange crime scene tape.
“Do me a favor. Drive Miss Shefford home, will you? And then get back here
fast.”

#

Karen clasped
her hands in her lap. She hated fighting with Ray. They hadn’t fought often as
children. Ray had taken on the role of protector.

Big brother
Ray hadn’t liked it when Ted took away his baby sister. Ted knew it. “I don’t
blame him, sweetheart,” he’d said. “He’s been looking out for you for a long
time, but it’s my turn now. Don’t worry about Ray. I’m not taking his attitude
personally. I’d probably be the same way if I had a little sister as sweet as
you.”

She hadn’t taken Ray’s objections seriously,
figuring Ted was
right and her
brother would come around eventually. But he had
n’t. If anything, things only grew worse after Ray was designated executor
of their grandparents’ estate and Ray refused to hand over her inheritance. Ted
was furious, and the relationship between Ted and Ray had nosedived, fueled by
Walter’s outrage that he’d been overlooked in his own mother’s will. When faced
with both his father and his sister’s husband anxious to do battle, Ray had
retreated to his home in Richmond. Karen had lost all hope that the two would
ever become friends.