Second Chances: A PAVAD Duet (5 page)

She didn’t run, didn’t say
anything. Didn’t look back, just took the stairs.

Leaving everyone staring at
her father.

Marianna moved, then,
taking charge in her customary way. “Allison, take care of
Kelly!”

Ally ran.

It took her less than two
minutes to catch up with the girl. Kelly’s hair made it pretty easy
to spot her, even in a crowd. “Kelly! Kelly, wait!”

The girl kept walking, her
head down, her eyes on the sidewalk. Ally grabbed her elbow, not
expecting the quick jerk as the taller Kelly resisted. “She said he
was dead!”

“
Who?” Ally asked, though
she had a good inkling of who the she was. “Kelly, let’s stop and
talk for a minute, ok?”

“
I don’t want to talk.”
Kelly said. “I just want to go home.”

“
You’re walking in the
wrong direction for that.” Ally told her, leading her to what
looked like a small coffee shop. The rich smells of coffee and
pastries filled her nose. “The house is east of the building. Not
west.”

“
Fifteen years.” Kelly let
Ally lead her to a table near the front. Ally ordered two regulars,
heavy on the cream, then hurried the barista away.

“
Fifteen?” Ally didn’t know
what to say to her. Not without knowing the whole story. “Want to
start at the beginning for me?”

“
My dad died when I was
eleven.” Kelly said. “Or...at least, that’s what I believed until
today.”

Shit. That was all Ally
could think, as she felt her eyes widen. “So Dan Reynolds is your
father?”

“
Yes.” Kelly sipped her
coffee slowly. “That’s him.”

“
What exactly did your
mother tell you?” Ally asked slowly. “About your
father?”

“
That he’d gotten shot,
line of duty.” Kelly said. “And that he’d left her nothing, no
money, no way to take care of us, so we were moving that day with
Uncle Joe.”

“
Uncle Joe?”

“
My father’s partner, from
when he was on the police force. And my former step-father. They’d
been friends for years, as well. Mother and Joe. I found out later
they’d been having an affair. The bitch. They married six
months after we moved. Wasn’t sure Gracie was my full
sister.”

“
She is.” Ally said,
thinking of the young redhead. “She looks just like the man I was
trapped in an elevator with.”

“
At least, I think mother
married Joe. I don’t know anything anymore.” Bitterness coated
Kelly’s words, a bitterness Ally had never heard before. “Maybe my
father just said hell with us all, and that’s why she dragged us to
Canada?”

“
Maybe.” Ally certainly
knew some fathers wanted nothing to do with their children. Hadn’t
Jack the Jerk made that abundantly clear when he’d chosen the cat
over their children? “It’s a possibility, I guess.”

“
But why? He was the one
who took care of us. He did everything: doctor’s visits, bath time,
parent-teacher conferences. And then one day she said he was dead,
and we left. Just like that. Now I know why she didn’t take us to
the funeral. There was no funeral.” Kelly fought tears as she to
break a collection of toothpicks into small pieces; her green eyes
were wet, even though her face showed nothing but anger.

“
I don’t know, Kel. But the
only way to find the answers lies with the man back there.” Ally
knew the girl appreciated honesty. “I think the only way to answer
those questions is to ask him.”

“
I don’t think I can.”
Kelly shook her head.

“
Well, if you’re going to
stay here in St. Louis, I think you’re going to have
to.”

Dan closed his eyes
briefly, certain his vision had played tricks on him. It wasn’t
Kelly. Couldn’t have been. Kelly was gone; her mother had taken her
and the younger girls away from him a long time ago.

It wasn’t probable that
she’d just appear in the midst of the field office he’d worked at
for the last twelve years.

“
Reynolds?” Edward Dennis
moved to his side. “You ok?”

Dan looked at him, seeing a
portion of the shock he felt echoed on his contemporary’s face.
“What just happened here?”

Edward Dennis knew the
story, Dan knew that. Hell, almost everyone in his division
probably knew. Dan had made no secret of what he did nearly every
free weekend.

How many hours had he
poured over everything? Every little snippet of where Beth might
have been, who she might have been with. Where the girls might have
been.

His former buddies on the
Kansas City police force had opened a case the week Beth had left.
They’d searched for her, even opened a warrant on her for custodial
interference. They’d not been divorced, but she’d taken his kids
where he couldn’t see them.

“
Are you ok, Dan?” Dennis
asked. His daughter, Georgia, pressed close to Dan’s other side.
They were close, Georgia knew the full story. Dan had told her less
than a month after she’d transferred to the Complex
Crimes.

“
I’m not sure.” Dan said,
“I think I need a minute.”

He left them staring at his
back as he headed in the opposite direction of his daughter. The
roof was a waiting haven.

He watched the little doc
nearly running down the street, watched her catch up to the
purple-haired girl that was his daughter. His daughter!

Dan’s hands tightened on
the rail. He watched as the two women wandered into Coby’s coffee
shop.

He heard footsteps behind
him, and turned to see the elder Dennis shutting the roof access
door.

“
Dennis.”

“
Reynolds.” The slightly
older man nodded, took a spot identical to Dan’s. They watched the
coffee shop below.

A few minutes passed before
either man spoke. Dennis leaned down a bit, the edge of his tie
brushing the rail. “When Georgia was twelve, her mother took
her.”

Dan looked at him. It was
hard not to know of Congresswoman Gloria Dennis. She was very
effective in her post. From what he knew, she spent most of her
time in DC, while her ex-husband stayed in St. Louis, near his only
daughter and her son.

Dennis sighed. “We never
had a good marriage, but that is not what I was saying. You already
know that.”

“
She took
George.”

“
I was out on a case, this
was when we lived in Boston, and she was just a state
representative. I normally did it all, you know? Homework checks,
dance recitals. I could do a pirouette at the age of thirty that
could rival anyone in the Russian ballet. Georgia was my daughter.
She had made that very clear.”

“
So why did she take her
when she was twelve?”

“
Politics. Her advisors had
thought that it looked bad that a child was left behind while her
mother worked the capitol. So one day while I was gone, she came
home, packed a bag for Georgia. And picked her up at the school.
Just like that. No thought to what was best for our child. Georgia
hadn’t seen her mother in eight months until she showed up at the
school that day.”

Dan’s mouth tightened, as
he thought of the dark-haired woman he cared a great deal about.
“And Georgia?”

“
Took me two months to get
her back. Her mother kept putting me off. Or would have security
alert her ahead of my arrivals, so that she’d take Georgia away for
a few days. Two months we played that game. Georgia would call me
at night, begging to come home. Her mother was telling her all
sorts of lies; about how I hadn’t wanted her, that she was bogging
me down. Things designed to drive a wedge. It didn’t
work.”

“
And then what
happened?”

“
I stormed the capitol.
Walked right in during a session, claiming it was a family
emergency involving our daughter. She had to go with me, to save
face if nothing else.” Dennis smiled, though the expression was
grim. “I told her if she ever pulled a stunt like that again, I’d
make it all public. The affairs, the political machinations, how
she treated our daughter, all of it. Told her I had proof, photos,
that sort of thing. Told her Georgia was coming home with me, that
she couldn’t, wouldn’t, stop it. Told her she wasn’t to ever
interfere with my child’s life again. Threatened her. And she knew
I’d carry through if necessary.”

“
And?” Dan asked. “Why are
you telling me this now?”

“
Because it took me months,
maybe even years to get back on the same footing with my daughter
after that. The things her mother had told her had left an
impression. Even though Georgia knew I loved her, her mother had
had two months to work on her. I can only imagine what your little
girl has heard for the last fifteen years.”

Dan swallowed. “I did it
all, too. With Kelly, Emma, even the baby. There was nothing like
being a dad, you know? And then they were just gone. I know how to
parent a ten-year-old. But she’s twenty-six now. And frankly, not
quite what I expected. How do I do this?”

“
I don’t know. One hour at
a time?” Dennis slapped him on the back. “Guess if my daughter had
come home with purple hair I would have freaked. Still, she’s a
remarkably beautiful young woman―even with purple hair. And
Dan―I’ve seen you with Agent Sparks and Agent Daviess―even with
Georgia. Treat your daughter the way you do those three, and I
think you’ll do fine. In the meantime, how do you feel about going
for a walk? Maybe toward a certain coffee shop?”

Dan followed the direction
the older man nodded. Kelly and the little doc were sitting down at
a small table, two cups of coffee and some cookies in front of
them. Dan nodded.

“
Tell you what, I feel like
a good cup of coffee myself. How about I walk with you?” Dennis
asked.

“
I’d appreciate it. Kelly
never did well with confrontation. Always needed time to think
things through. She had a tree house. I’d find her up there, just
staring. She’d be up there for hours when something was bothering
her.”

“
Kind of like coming to the
roof?” Dennis nodded to the distant arches over the city. “She get
that from you?”

“
Probably. I guess she
did.” Dan smiled at the thought. “Guess she did.”

Ally didn’t have a clue
what to say to her friend. Didn’t even know where to
start.

Kelly hadn’t had an easy
home life―one only had to know the girl a week to learn that about
her.

“
Well.” Kelly sat her
coffee down with a thud. Brown liquid sloshed to the table. She
wiped it up slowly. “That’s a real bite in the ass. Hell of a first
day for us, huh? Babies in elevators, long lost fathers―next thing
we know our one true loves will come around that corner and sweep
us off our feet.”

“
You don’t believe in one
true loves, remember? I’m not sure I do anymore, either.” Ally kept
her tone level. She knew how her friend worked, how Kelly’s mind
functioned―especially when something knocked her for a real loop.
And Ally was good at playing the sounding board for the team,
especially for volatile Kel. “So how are you going to deal with
this?”

“
I don’t know.” Kelly
crumbled a cookie into tiny pieces, then another one. Followed by
another one. Ally grabbed a few before they were all gone. Oatmeal
raisin was her favorite. And cookies were always a comfort. “Talk
to her. Find out why she lied.”

“
And him?” Ally covered her
hands, “What about your father?”

“
I don’t know.” Kelly
looked back toward the FBI building. “I’m just so pissed at him I
can’t describe it.”

“
Why?” Ally sipped slowly.
“Break it down for me.”

“
I’m mad at him for not
being dead. How sick is that?” Kelly’s voice rose. “I’m mad at him
for me believing he was dead. Most of all, I’m mad at him for just
forgetting about us!”

“
I never forgot about you,
Kelly-girl.”

Kelly jerked, and Ally
struggled not to choke on her coffee; she raised her eyes to
the two men standing just behind her partner. Neither woman had
heard them approach. The silver-haired man backed away a bit,
leaving Dan Reynolds standing there staring down at Kelly’s purple
hair. Kelly’s mouth hardened and her eyes narrowed. It was
only the sudden nerves in her eyes that gave any inkling to her
true feelings.

Ally waited for what she
was sure would happen next. Kelly always reacted to fear with
anger. It was just her way.

The fury didn’t
come. Ally started to rise, and then hesitated. Should she
leave Kelly alone with this man? Wouldn’t that be abandonment?
Kelly was one of the most alone people Ally knew. And she didn’t
handle confrontation well, especially something of this magnitude.
Hadn’t Kelly knocked the front canine tooth loose from Jack the
Jerk the night he’d put the moves on Kelly?

It had cost quite a bundle
for Ally’s ex-husband to get that tooth fixed, a bundle he hadn’t
had―since his assets had been seized when Ally had filed earlier
that week.

Ally owed Kelly for that,
if nothing else. Kelly hadn’t deserved that. Jack had been striking
out at her actually filing before he could. Kelly had just been a
convenient victim for Jack. Ally would never forget
that.