Madison's Quest (17 page)

Madison’s mouth went completely dry.

Tyler asked, “What was the friend’s name?”

“Tanya something. Give me a minute and it’ll come.”

“What apartment did we live in?”

He looked down and to the left. “Twenty-one, beneath mine
and over two.”

Had Bio-dad found Bio-mom and paid her off? Is that what she
was supposed to learn here? Part two of the big revelation?

“Did you actually see her move out?” Shane asked.

“No. About that time I went into the hospital, had surgery
on my gallbladder.”

Madison asked, “Do you know if she worked anywhere?”

The old man shook his head. “Don’t know for sure but don’t
think so. She was usually hauling you whenever she left, and most of the time
she was getting in someone else’s car. Didn’t seem like she was heading off to
work. The other girl that came around was Tanya Meadows. That was her name.
Knew it’d come to me.”

“Any idea where we could find Tanya?” Shane asked.

“No.”

He followed up with, “What’d she look like?”

The old man’s eyebrows lifted. “Way back then? Green hair
one day. Pink the next. Black the following week. Red. No way of knowing what
color it really was, and didn’t care. She was a scrawny thing, though. If she
turned sideways she nearly disappeared.”

“Is there anyone that still lives here who might know more?”
Shane asked.

“Can’t think of a soul. This place sees a lot of turn-over.”

“Who lives in the apartment now?” Madison asked.

“Another young girl with a baby. A Mexican.”

Shane handed the old man one of his cards. She said, “I
should have asked your name.”

“Ryan Bergdorf.” His frown turned into a smile. “Can’t be
sure, but I think Mary is what she used to call you.”

“It was probably Maddie. I go by Madison now.”

His gaze softened. “Good luck. I don’t know whether to hope
you find her or not.”

“One last question,” Shane asked. “Who manages these
apartments?”

“Tullis and Sons. They’re in the phone book. I mail my
checks to an address on Orangevale.”

Madison reached out, touched the old man’s arm. “Thanks for
your help. Please call if you think of anything else.”

He nodded and disappeared into his apartment.

In the Jeep, she said, “What do you guys think?”

Shane snagged her hand.

Tyler leaned forward from the backseat and cupped her
shoulder, his hand warm against her skin. “Chances are good he paid her off to
put you up for adoption. Pull out the clue.”

She did, putting it on the console between her seat and
Shane’s.

Tyler’s thumb rubbed her shoulder. “
Discoveries made as the
past unfolds into the future.
I think he’s talking about you here. Maybe he
didn’t actually know you existed until this point in his life. It doesn’t
really matter. But I’m guessing he’s clean and this is where he’s making amends
to the people he’s wronged.”

“Or cleaning up his mess,” Shane said, immediately grimacing
and squeezing her hand. “Sorry.”

She squeezed back. “No offense taken. Either way, it fits
with
a turning point fully embraced so unwanted destiny becomes welcome
yoke, the first true steps toward it taken among cantaloupe fields that
stretched for twenty-one miles.
Pretty much all along we’ve thought he had
to know where I was, or how to find me. If you look at it from his point of
view, sending me on a quest, with guilt money offered up along the way, is a
lot easier than telling me this in person.”

“Makes me wonder if at the end he’ll give you the choice of
whether to meet him or not,” Tyler said.

“Nah,” Shane said. “He’s gone to too much trouble. I can’t
see him leaving it up to Madison.”

Shane’s gaze went to apartment twenty-one. His fingers
twitched against hers.

Madison smiled. “You are not breaking and entering.”

He grinned, totally unrepentant. “It’s not like I haven’t
done it before.”

Tyler muttered, “Many times.”

“We’re assuming he left something for me there.”

It was a pretty safe bet.

“But it’s also possible he doesn’t know where Bio-mom is and
wants us to find her. Maybe that’s why he arranged for Crime Tells to be involved.”

More likely, this was her rationalizing, using Bio-dad as an
excuse to dig a little deeper.

The look both guys sent her said that’s what
they
thought.

“Maddie,” Tyler said, soft voice trailing off, the use of
the nickname along with the
help me out here, I don’t want her hurt
look
he sent Shane, turned her heart into mush.

“I want to dig a little deeper,” she said, owning it. “We’re
sitting here. We may be sitting here for hours if we’re going to wait for the
girl in twenty-one to come home. I’m going to Google Bio-mom.”

Shane pulled his hand from hers. “I’ll take the friend.”

Tyler sighed. “That leaves me to work my magic on Tullis and
Sons.”

He had an answer a few minutes later.

“Without a warrant, they’re not going to cooperate.”

Madison stopped scrolling through the links generated by the
name Desiree Owens. “Most of what I’m finding leads to sites that require
payment.”

Shane lowered his phone. “You’re better off waiting until we
have more to go on than a name and a very short-term address where she lived
twenty-one years ago.”

“Either of you have contacts in the Modesto police
department? Maybe Tanya did file a missing persons report. That could give us a
little more information.”

“Easy enough to check that out in person,” Shane said.

“Applying the same kind of charm you used at Oakhurst Prep?”

“It worked, didn’t it?”

His grin carried her thoughts to the library and his attempt
to get into her pants.

“Maybe we’ll let Tyler apply his charm this time. Or me.”

Shane shook his head. “You know you’re bad for my ego,
right?”

Tyler snorted. “As if anything could actually dent it.”

Shane half-turned, slapping a hand to his own chest. “
Et
tu
, Brute?”

Madison snickered. “And that’s probably the only thing the
big head retains from high school.”

“Ah man, ganging up on me. No fair.”

“Didn’t someone tell me,
all’s fair
?”

He grinned. “I have vague recollections.”

She reached over, tweaked the nipple ring.

“Stronger recollections,” he said, heat in his eyes and
voice.

He used his cell to find the location of the nearest police
station. “Head there?”

Tyler glanced at apartment twenty-one. “Might as well. If
Bio-dad left something, we’ll get a call. And the longer we sit here, the more
you’re going to be tempted to break-in.”

Shane wriggled his fingers. “True.”

He started the Jeep.

Madison watched Cantaloupe Springs Apartments disappear in
the side view mirror. But what she saw was the picture of Bio-mom holding her,
both of them smiling, their cheeks rosy, their blonde hair windswept. What she
heard was Mr. Bergdorf saying,
So she gave you up for adoption. Probably
shouldn’t be surprised but I am
.

At the police station a thin cop with a heavily freckled
face referred them to an Officer Grimes.

She turned out to be a tall woman with steel-gray hair and a
take-no-bullshit expression.

Shane gave her the sanitized version of looking for Bio-mom,
one spun to imply that Crime Tells was working for Madison, and with no mention
of the forged birth certificate.

Officer Grimes typed in the name Desiree Owens, shook her
head. “Sorry, nothing. As far as I can tell, there was no missing persons
report filed.”

“Is it possible that it didn’t make it into the computer
system back then?” Madison asked. “Or was lost in an upgrade?”

Officer Grimes gave a small sigh, signaling she wished they’d
accept there was nothing more to be gained by taking up her time, but she said,
“Let me check one other place.”

She disappeared through a doorway. Tyler captured Madison’s
hand, his fingers entwining with hers so it felt as if comfort pulsed into her
with every heartbeat.

Shane pulled out his phone and took a picture of the
photograph lying on the counter. “I’m going to check something. No point in
being related to cops if you can’t use it to your advantage.”

Madison heard the sound of a text message going out. Then a
few minutes later, as Officer Grimes returned, the ping of a message coming in.

Madison’s hand tightened on Tyler’s with Officer Grimes’
sympathetic glance.

“I did find a sealed juvenile record under the name Desiree
Owens. It’s possible your biological mother gave you up for adoption and went
back to hanging out with a bad crowd. Look, based on what I’ve seen when it
comes to these types of searches, you’d most likely be better off not finding
her.”

Shane checked his message. “According to DMV records,
Desiree Owens was issued a driver’s license in Modesto when she was eighteen
but didn’t renew it.”

The cop’s mouth firmed, then relaxed. “Is there some reason
you believe a report was filed? Do you suspect someone in particular of having
filed it?”

“No,” Shane said, and Madison resisted the urge to look at
him.

Officer Grimes gave another small, this-is-a-waste-of-time
sigh. “She could have moved out of state. Or not. There could be a hundred
other explanations. But leave me your phone numbers and I’ll at least ask
Officer Merrick when he comes on duty. He might have been working Missing
Persons back then. I seriously doubt that he’ll remember a specific case or
give me cause to think files have disappeared, but I’ll ask.”

Shane and Tyler handed her their Crime Tells cards.

Officer Grimes flipped Shane’s over and wrote Madison’s cell
number on the back.

Madison held off saying anything until they were in the Jeep
and she was once again in the front passenger seat. “Any reason you didn’t want
to give her Tanya’s name?”

Shane shrugged. “No advantage in sharing the intel.”

Tyler leaned forward. “Probably another long shot, but I
assume you got the address that was on Bio-mom’s driver’s license.”

“Yeah. We can check it out.”

“What about a lead on Tanya Meadows?” Tyler asked.

“That’s going to take a little more digging. I’m thinking we
check out the address on the driver’s license then swing by Cantaloupe Springs
Apartments, just in case. But if your card is still in the door, and you two
are still vetoing me using my mad skills to get inside, then we head to your
place rather than do a stake-out.”

“Still vetoing,” Tyler said. “Madison?”

“Veto still in effect.”

Shane sighed. “You two are cramping my style.”

“No pain, no gain,” Madison said. “A little suffering is
good for you.”

“Besides,” Tyler said, “the girls are probably wondering
when I’m going to show up and feed them dinner.”

Shane laughed. “And you miss them.”

“What can I say? They’re not manly man kind of dogs, but I
love them.”

Warmth flooded Madison’s heart. “It’s not like you actually
need a manly man kind of dog as a symbol of your masculinity.”

Shane shook his head. “How come he gets the ego stroke?”

“Poor baby,” she said, placing her hand on his tight abs.

Shane’s breath caught. He shuddered beneath her palm and
there was no stopping herself from tipping forward and touching her lips to
his.

He moaned and speared his fingers through her hair. Plunged
his tongue into her mouth.

Her nipples beaded. Heat blasted through her stomach and
slid into her sex.

She was acutely aware of Tyler, still leaning forward,
close, but not nearly close enough.

The kiss she’d initiated merged into another, and another,
as if both she and Shane were hoping that if they kept doing it, Tyler’s mouth
and tongue would seek out theirs.

He retreated instead, arms along the backseat, his body in a
relaxed slouch, though she didn’t miss the slight flush across his cheeks
before he turned his head to look out the window and his hair shielded his
face.

It made her imagine tugging an old-fashioned slot machine
handle and having the spinning wheels come up cherry-cherry-cherry. Whether
Tyler or Shane knew it or not, they were getting closer to coming out.

She moved her hand lower on Shane’s stomach, felt his hips
lift as if to speed her palm to the bulge at the front of his jeans. She
couldn’t help herself, “You were saying something about wanting your ego
stroked?”

A black-and-white patrol unit turned onto the street and
headed their way.

Shane’s laugh was mostly frustrated moan. “I think I’ll pass
on getting cited for public indecency.”

“Probably a good thing since we’ve got places to go and
things to do.”

She returned fully to her seat, taking her hand with her and
biting down on her bottom lip to prevent herself from smiling as a plan started
to form on how to deal with these two men who were rapidly becoming her
personal addiction.

Shane used his cell to locate the street that’d been listed
on Bio-mom’s driver’s license.

When they reached the stand-alone house with a pink Big
Wheel in the front yard, Madison said, “I probably lived here with her right
before she moved to Cantaloupe Springs Apartments.”

Shane cut the Jeep’s engine. “Pretty sure bet. She looked
sixteen in the first picture, holding you as a baby. Plus two years and she’s
eighteen. Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be. Which I seem to be saying a lot.”

He laughed, took her hand, swinging it wildly on the walk to
the front door and making both her, and Tyler at her other side, smile.

Shane’s stab to the doorbell brought a Hispanic guy with a
black spider web inked across the front of his neck. He heard them out, shook
his head. “Bank foreclosed on this place maybe fifteen years ago. It was empty
when my uncle bought it.”