Chained Guilt (Hidden Guilt (Detective Series) Book 1) (25 page)

47

“Girls, come on down. We’re running late!” I yelled up the stairs. I had to get to work, and I still needed to drop the girls off at school.

“You know, Dad, we were never late when Mom was here,” Hilary said.

“Well, I’m doing my best, and as you can see, I’m definitely
not
Mom.”

While a part of me was pleased the girls had become more comfortable talking about their mother in the past tense, I felt a great sadness that they were able to do so. It was necessary, yes, and I was glad they were beginning to heal, but it also symbolized their moving on, starting over. More than ever, I was determined to say nothing about the new development in Miranda’s case until I had definitive proof. The three of us sat at the table scarfing down bowls of Frosted Flakes and Captain Crunch. I figured this was as good a time as any to see what the girls thought of Stacy after a full weekend with her. She had left earlier that morning.

“Now that Stacy is gone, you guys tell me how you really feel about her moving in and being a part of our lives on a full-time basis. She spent the whole weekend here, even in the midst of your grandparents. I thought it went pretty well, considering.”

“Maybe with her here we would get to school on time,” Karen said.

“Very funny.” I feigned a frown. “I’m serious. I don’t want to commit to this, for me or for us, unless you guys are one hundred percent on board with it. Come on now, help me out here.”

“Well, it seems like it’d be okay,” Hilary said. “But we’d all have to be on the same page with house rules and all that. I mean, that whole park thing . . .” She sighed and put down her spoon. “I don’t want her coming in and changing things.  I don’t want us to change who we are. Either she’s gotta be okay with that, or I’m not sure it would work.”

”Okay,” I said. “Well, thanks for telling me how you really feel.”

“Dad, you asked,” Hilary said. “And I’d rather tell you exactly how I feel than hold it in. Trust me, it’d be much worse that way.” 

              “And little one?” I said, looking down at Karen. “Your thoughts?”

“I think Coach Stacy will fit into our family just fine,” she said without looking up from her cereal. “I’ve wanted a new mommy for a long time.” She paused, plucking a piece of cereal from the side of her bowl and popping it into her mouth. “Coach Stacy said she’s always wanted a family.”

“Thanks, princess.” I pushed away from the table. “Stacy and I have a date tonight. We’ll talk about it and take it from there.”

We downed the last of our cereal and stacked the dishes in the sink. As I waited for the girls to grab their backpacks, I stared at my reflection in the hallway mirror.

I still wasn’t sure I’d waited long enough. Stacy seemed like a great girl, but I knew you don’t really know someone until you’d lived with them.  And I wasn’t certain if lust and lust alone was making decisions for me.

48

“Hello?” Miranda called out. She heard someone coming. She had never asked for anything the entire time she’d been in captivity, but she hadn’t eaten in at least three days, and the hunger had grown unbearable. She didn’t have much room to move, seeing as her captor had placed a manacle around her left wrist and chained her to the wall. She sat on a soiled mattress—another improvement over being restrained in a chair. She had also been given a covered diaper pail to use when she needed to take care of her business. She liked it much better than the old way they’d been doing things. Before, the bitch had given her a bell to ring when she needed to go. But if her captor didn’t come, she had no choice but to do what she had to do. It gave her some satisfaction to watch the bitch clean it up. Sometimes, though, the woman would just let her sit in it for days. Miranda was relieved when the bitch finally tired of the cleanup and put an adult diaper on her. She figured nowadays the bitch was too busy to tend to her, thus the diaper pail.

Stacy appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Miranda swallowed her pride, prepared to voice her request.

“Hello, dear,” Stacy cooed. “Are you hungry? Oh, I bet you are. It’s been a few days now, hasn’t it? I bought you some new dog food. I think you’ll like this more than the last brand I bought. This is supposed to have more flavor and vitamins, too. Gotta keep you alive.”

Dog food, cat food . . . at this point it really didn’t matter. Miranda swallowed, her throat parched from lack of water.

“I don’t understand what I did for you to be so cruel to me.”

“Aww, you sound so sweet and innocent,” Stacy said. “Well, shit happens, Miranda! I didn’t deserve what happened to me either, but hey, that’s life. Right? Moving on. It’s all about moving on. I’ll be moving in real soon now. Maybe I’ll come down one day and we can talk about baby names. Think you could help me pick one out? I hope we have a little boy, and then David will really forget all about you.”

Miranda reminded herself to remain in pure survival mode. Eventually, the bitch would make a mistake, and she had to be ready to jump on it. Whatever it took. She just had to think of a way to set herself free.

“Sure,” Miranda said. “I’ll help you pick out a baby name. I know which ones David prefers. I hope you have a boy, too, and a healthy one.”

Stacy frowned. “You yanking my chain?” she asked. “You feeling okay? Need more sunlight down here or something?” She laughed. “That was not the answer I was expecting, but I may just take you up on it.”

She turned around to pour dog kibble into a bowl and then placed it on the mattress within Miranda’s reach. “Can I get you anything else while I’m here, seeing as how we’re being so nice to each other?”

Miranda looked away. As quickly as Stacy had come, she headed back up the stairs, leaving Miranda alone in the cold, dimly lit basement with only her thoughts to keep her company.

49

De Luca sat in the ladies’ locker room, contemplating what she would say to Porter when they rode together today. At this point, she knew she had to say something to him. She didn’t trust Stacy. Something just didn’t seem right about her. She didn’t want to come across as jealous, but with her obvious dislike for Stacy, she wasn’t really sure that was possible.

She had even taken one more look at the last bits of evidence to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.

He’s late
, De Luca thought as she waited at the front of the station for him. Five minutes later, he pulled in and slowly eased his truck to a stop in front of her. She opened the door and climbed in.

“You’re late, sir,” she said as she fastened her seat belt. “Girlfriend trouble, Porter?”

“No, and good morning to you too.”  He glanced at her. “I had to drop the girls off at school. We got a late start, that’s all.”

She sighed. “Porter—”

“David.”

She nodded. “David, I’m not sure what’s going on between me and Stacy. I have no clue what I did to make her dislike me, aside from having breasts, but she clearly doesn’t. Which is okay by me, because I really don’t care. But beyond that, something just doesn’t seem right with her.”

She glanced at him. He looked out the windshield, features bland. “Don’t get me wrong; I’m not trying to hook up with you or anything.” That brought a smile. “But the cop in me says she’s got issues. To be honest, I think she’s trying too hard to seem perfect.”

“Well, thank you, Detective De Luca, for that rousing, in-depth, fact-based report on my girlfriend,” he said, finally glancing her way. “It seems everyone except Karen has a problem with her.”

She shrugged. “Maybe you should listen to them. Everyone can’t be wrong, can they?”

“Yeah, well, I think I’m going to take my chances. Thanks anyway.”

De Luca hadn’t wanted to piss him off, but it appeared she had. She thought about apologizing, but that just wasn’t her style. She’d said what she felt about the matter, and the truth was always best. Right? It was going to be a fun day.

50

Stacy looked out the window and saw David pulling into the driveway. She had forgotten to turn the basement speakers on and hurried down to do so. She heard the distant thud as David got out of his truck and closed the door. He’d be at her front door any second.

“Don’t mind me, Miranda,” she announced. “Just taking care of some administrative details. You just lay there and listen.”

Stacy quickly returned upstairs, closing the basement door just as the front doorbell rang.

“Hey there,” she said as she opened the door.

“Hey,” David said, looking at her. “You okay? You sound winded.”

She waved a hand. “No, no, I’m okay. I just left a pan on the stove and had to turn it off.”

“You cooking? I thought we were going out to eat.”

Again she waved him off. “Yeah, we are. I’d made some tea earlier and realized I’d forgotten to turn the burner off. You’re early.”

“It’s 7:00. I’m right on time. If you want to sit down and have that tea, we can.”

“No . . . we have reservations, so we should get going.”

“You look amazing, as usual,” David said as he leaned forward to give her a kiss.

“Thank you, sir. You’re pretty dapper yourself.”

“I clean up well, or so I’ve been told.” He gestured toward the door. “You ready to go?”

“You bet.”

Stacy grabbed a sweater from the hall closet and shrugged into it as she followed David out to the truck. She thought he seemed oddly subdued, but didn’t question him about it. She turned to the window and smirked. After all, the man had a lot on his mind lately.

They pulled up to the restaurant and left the car with the valet. They walked inside, arm in arm.

“What name for the reservation, sir?” the host asked.

“Porter,” Stacy said before David could reply. “Table for two.”

“Already using my name, huh?” David teased.

“Just practicing, babe. Hopefully one day . . .”

They were seated promptly. Stacy pretended to study the menu, though only one thing was on her mind.

“So what did the girls have to say about my weekend stay?”

David shrugged, his gaze still riveted on the menu. “Well, we talked about it, and we’d like you to move in with us.”

He glanced up at her, and she struggled to contain her amusement. She nodded instead, as she could tell he had more to say.

“I think it would be good for all of us. Hilary was a little afraid you’d want to change all the household rules, but I don’t see that happening, personally. If anything, she may need someone to be a little harder on her than I have been at times.”

Stacy pretended to be overcome with emotion and dabbed at her eyes with her cloth napkin. She even managed a tear. He fell for it.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, placing his menu on the table, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. “What did I do?”

“Nothing.” She sniffled. “This is just all . . . too perfect. I’ve wanted a family of my own forever. That’s why, from the beginning, I was so upfront with you about what I wanted. And now it looks like it’s finally happening.” She flashed him a dazzling smile. “I couldn’t be happier, David.”

He reached out for her hand. “I hope you won’t change your mind once you move in and become immersed in Porter family life twenty-four hours a day.”

“No, never,” she said. “And I’ll be careful with Hilary. I was a teenage girl once. I know things can be kinda crazy at that age. I want this to work in the worst way. You have no idea.”