Trumped Up Charges (6 page)

She was frightened for herself as well as the girls. Keys to Janice O’Sullivan’s house had gone missing from her key ring sometime since Monday morning. That was the last time she remembered using a key to Janice’s house. When Janice was home, Matilda always rang the bell and Janice would let her in.

She hadn’t realized they were missing until the morning the girls had gone missing. If they turned up in the hands of the kidnapper, she could be in real trouble. Officer Grummet had made it clear from his questioning that he already thought she might be involved in the crime.

And now Janice had left a message asking about Quinton. Matilda had no choice but to tell her the truth. That would cost Matilda her job. That was no one’s fault but her own. Lying always led to more lies. The end result was never good.

Matilda should have never let Quinton back into her life. He’d talked a great story of redemption when he’d called last week and begged her to see him. He’d convinced her he’d finally found religion and turned his life around.

She probably hadn’t been that hard to convince. She’d prayed for it for so long. He was her only brother. She loved him. And she owed him. He’d saved her life more than once when their daddy had staggered home drunk and had come at her.

But if Quinton was behind this abduction, if he hurt those precious little girls, she’d turn him in to the cops herself without blinking an eye.

Quinton hadn’t stayed long when he’d dropped by Monday afternoon. They’d sipped iced tea at the kitchen table and he’d asked about Sam and Alana who were both out at the time. When he’d asked about her job, she’d told him about Janice’s upcoming operation.

Another major mistake. He might have gotten the idea right then and there to rob her house while she was in the hospital. Then when he’d discovered that Hadley and the girls were staying there, he’d decided to go for real money.

Those were only assumptions, but they would explain everything.

Admittedly, Quinton hadn’t had much of a chance to steal the keys to Janice’s house. The only time he’d been alone was the few minutes it had taken her to go to the bathroom and then to the bedroom to get the hundred dollars she’d lent him.

But the keys were in plain sight, on the hook in the kitchen where she always kept them. He could have tried the keys on her doors in a matter of seconds and known which ones didn’t fit. By the process of simple elimination he’d have realized the other two house keys were to the O’Sullivan home.

It pained her to think that Quinton could commit such a depraved and heartless act. But if he hadn’t taken the keys, where were they?

She whirled around at the sound of footsteps behind her. “Johnny. What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you. I figured you’d be at mass praying for the O’Sullivan girls.”

“You know me well.”

Far better than most mechanics knew their customers. Quinton had worked for Johnny Rouse years ago, before Johnny had fired him for stealing from the cash register. But she had kept taking her cars to Johnny for repairs. They’d started dating a couple of years ago after his wife left him.

“Do the police have any leads?” Johnny asked.

“None that I’ve been told about.”

“Hadley’s gotta be really upset. Her mother, too.”

“They are. We all are.”

“Hopefully they’ll find them today.”

“And find them alive and safe,” Matilda added.

She started walking again. Johnny kept pace.

“I heard you came by the shop yesterday looking for me,” he said.

“I did.”

“My workers said you were acting crazy. Said you insisted they waste an hour looking for some stupid keys.”

“I thought I might have lost them when I brought my car in for an oil change Tuesday afternoon.”

“You had to have your keys when you left, Matilda, or you couldn’t have driven your car home.”

“I lost house keys, not car keys.”

“Well, I didn’t see no loose keys of any kind lying about the shop after you left. I s’pect they’ll show up around your house in a day or two.”

“I s’pect so,” she agreed. “But keep an eye out for them, will you? If you find them, please call me.”

“Sure.”

In spite of Johnny’s prediction, there was an extremely slim chance they’d show up at her house. There wasn’t a square inch of space she hadn’t already searched.

But they could be at Janice’s house. The problem was she couldn’t get into the house unless Hadley was there. And she couldn’t very well turn the house upside down searching for the keys if Hadley was there without admitting she’d lost them.

She would admit it, if it came to that. She hoped it wouldn’t. She couldn’t afford a lawyer. And what would Alana and Sam do if she went to jail and couldn’t work and pay the bills?

“I guess you know Sam stopped in yesterday after you left.”

“He didn’t mention it to me.”

“Yeah, he asked me about a job.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I didn’t. By the time I finished what I was doing and had time to talk to him about it, he’d gone.”

“He’s not very motivated. Having to go to summer school when he thought he’d be graduated by now has really bummed him out.”

“Kids. Say, you wanna grab a bite to eat and catch a movie Saturday night? There’s a new James Bond flick out.”

“Another time, Johnny. I’m not really up to watching a movie.”

“You might be if those girls are safe and sound. I’ll keep in touch.”

“Okay.”

He took her hand and squeezed it. “You take care, Matilda.”

“I will.”

Johnny was a good guy. He liked her a lot but it was clear he wanted more than friendship. He wasn’t a bad catch. He owned his own mechanic shop. He didn’t curse much and when they went out he never drank more than a few beers.

Only problem was she’d had true love before with her husband. She knew how great it could be. She didn’t love Johnny.

Her cell phone rang. It was Janice again. She couldn’t dodge her forever, but she didn’t want to explain her lies over the phone, especially not when Janice was recovering from surgery and in such horrifying angst about her granddaughters.

She wanted to talk to Janice face-to-face. It was the Christian thing to do.

Officer Grummet she could do without.

* * *

A
DAM
COULDN
’
T
WAIT
to sit down with Fred Casey and come up with a plan of action for dealing with the kidnapper. He’d had a fairly lengthy conversation with him while Fred was waiting at the Dulles Airport and Adam’s clothes tumbled in the dryer. The man’s knowledge and expertise were impressive.

He’d shared with Fred the latest information Hadley had received from Detective Lane. There had been several reported sightings of Lacy and Lila. They were all being checked out, but Lane wasn’t convinced that any of them were credible at this point.

The police had not, as yet, located Quinton Larson, but they had reason to believe he was in the North Texas area.

Lacy’s and Lila’s pictures had gone out to every police agency in the country. Local police were currently making house calls on every child sex offender in the city. Apparently there were many.

Adam considered all the information as he dressed in jeans and a shirt still warm from the dryer. He had one shoe on when he heard the screech of brakes in front of the house.

He hobbled to the door. Hadley beat him to it. She opened it and an instant attack of flashbulbs left them both blinking and squinting.

When he could see again, he noted that the van in the driveway was unmarked, evidence they weren’t from one of the major local TV channels. They’d no doubt be next.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Hadley demanded.

“We’re from a national magazine and we’d like to help you get out the facts about your daughters’ kidnapping.”

“Ms. O’Sullivan is not doing any interviews,” Adam announced.

“Just a few questions,” a perky blonde with a microphone insisted. “Where is the father of your missing daughters?”

Adam would have liked to hear the answer to that himself. Instead he stepped in front of Hadley, sheltering her from the push of the reporter and cameramen. “Ms. O’Sullivan has no comment except that her daughters, Lacy and Lila, are missing and her only concern is their safe return.”

“Who are you?”

None of their damn business. “A longtime friend.” He forced the door shut.

“I wasn’t prepared for that,” Hadley admitted. “I felt like I was about to be mauled by a pack of wolves.”

“It will likely get a lot worse.”

“Then perhaps I should have answered their questions so they’d go away and not come back.”

“They’ll only be replaced by a new wolf pack.”

“So I’m forced to deal with vultures every time I open my door.”

Adam had a thousand reservations about what he was about to suggest. He couldn’t imagine how the idea had popped into his head. “I know a place that would make it a lot more difficult for the media wolf pack to get in your face.”

“Jail?”

“A little more comfortable than that.”

“What’s to keep them back?”

“Barbed wire. Possibly a few riled bulls. Fear of getting shot by a cantankerous old man.”

“And where would I find all of this?”

“At the Dry Gulch Ranch, home of the worst father I never had.”

Chapter Six

Hadley’s world was in a tailspin. Adam was an apparition who’d moved into the nightmare and taken control. She wasn’t complaining. She wasn’t sure how she’d get through this without him. As it was, she was holding on to sanity by a thread.

With the girls missing, the reasons she’d had for avoiding all contact with him had become meaningless. Every priority in her life had shifted or disappeared altogether.

Every priority except Lila and Lacy. Her life had centered on them from the moment she’d first held them in her arms. She’d give her life to keep them safe.

Only now it was others she had to depend on to do that for her. Detective Shelton Lane, whom she didn’t fully trust and who didn’t fully trust her. A hostage negotiator she’d never met. Adam Dalton, the man she’d vowed never to rely on again.

And now the father Adam had never mentioned before and whom he admittedly had no emotional attachment to had been added to the list.

Hadley tossed some underwear into an overnight bag. “Tell me more about R.J. What’s his story and claim to fame?”

“Which version do you want?”

“How many versions are there?”

“There’s my mother’s. She says he’s a gambling, heavy-drinking womanizer with no redeeming qualities. She divorced him when I was four.”

“Smart woman.” Hadley added two pairs of shorts to the suitcase. “Do you remember him at all from when you were a kid?”

“Very little. I remember riding with him on a gigantic horse, but then I suspect all horses are gigantic when you’re that young. R.J. is still into horses and owns several thoroughbreds. Which reminds me, you may want to take a pair of jeans and some boots with you. This is a working ranch of sorts.”

“I don’t plan to be there long enough to rope and brand.”

“Just saying, it’s a rustic environment.”

She took a pair of jeans from her closet. “Any other memories of R.J.?”

“I have a vague recollection of his holding me as we swung by a rope and dropped into the water.”

“Was that a frightening memory?”

“Evidently not. I still love grabbing hold of a gnarly rope, swinging out over an old Texas swimming hole and dropping into a pool of splashing water.”

“When I met you, you never even mentioned your biological father. When did the two of you reconnect?”

“We haven’t.”

“Don’t tell me we’re just going to drop in on a gambling drunk you haven’t seen since you were four?”

“I’ve seen him once. We didn’t work on bridging the disconnect.”

“When was that?”

“Yesterday. In fact, I was there for the reading of his will when I heard about the kidnapping.”

She added a pair of red cowboy boots and then zipped her bag while she tried to make sense of that last statement.

“Okay, Adam. Simplify. Is R.J. dead or alive?”

“He’s alive—for now—and reportedly ready to get reacquainted with his offspring. He’s about to get that chance with me.”

Adam picked up her luggage and started toward the door.

“At least call and tell him we’re coming.”

“Why? If he didn’t like surprises, he wouldn’t have shown up for the reading of his own ridiculous will.”

The sound of engines and skidding tires gave warning that the next round of media shots were about to fire.

“Let’s get out of here while we still can,” Adam said. “I’ll explain what little else I know about R.J. on the way to the hospital.”

“If we can get out,” she said, fearing they were blocked in.

“We’ll get out,” Adam assured her.

He proved it with some forceful maneuvering to push through reporters and cameramen from a local TV station. Once in the truck, he started the engine and lay on the horn, sending the wolf pack scattering.

One of the vans didn’t move. Adam went around them, taking out one of her mother’s prized flower beds and leaving deep ruts in the lawn.

Hadley didn’t notice the sign until they were backing past it.

CHILD KILLER

Printed in what looked like dripping blood. Her insides recoiled violently.

“They’re
not
dead. Lacy and Lila are alive. Why would anyone say such a thing?”

Adam reached over and gave her hand a quick squeeze as he gunned the engine and left the hideous sign behind. “Pay no attention. It was put there by a couple of women with a twisted sense of justice.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I ran them off at daybreak. Should have known they’d come back.”

“Child killer, but they’re not talking about the kidnapper, are they?” The sick truth knotted in the pit of her stomach. “They mean me. They don’t even know me. How could they be so cruel?”

“Takes all kinds. Some are gullible enough to believe everything they read in the paper or on the internet.”

They wouldn’t be the only ones to come to that conclusion. “Why do you believe me, Adam? No one else seems to.”

“I know you?”

“That’s not much of an answer.”

“But it is the truth. No one could fake the fear and torment you’re going through now. Besides, you talked of having kids the first time we made love. You said you wanted a large family and couldn’t wait to get married and have a baby.”

Only then she’d pictured Adam in that family.

Never had she pictured a situation like this.

* * *

H
ADLEY
SENSED
THE
tension the second she stepped into the hospital room. Her mother looked upset and more sickly than she had yesterday. She was pale though her cheeks and eyes held a feverish cast.

Matilda was standing near the bed. Her eyes were red and moist with tears.

“Her brother Quinton is alive,” Janice announced. “Matilda lied when she said he was dead. Detective Lane is the one who finally set that record straight.”

Hadley shuddered as old images rushed her mind. The pervert who’d tried to molest her fifteen years ago was now a seasoned criminal and Lila and Lacy could be at his mercy.

They had to find him. Matilda had to help them. Hadley had to handle this in a way that assured she would.

“It’s good to have the truth out in the open,” Hadley said. “I’m sure Matilda feels the same.”

Matilda nodded and mumbled a greeting.

“Is there any news?” Janice asked.

“Nothing since we talked last night.” Hadley walked over to her mother’s bed and took her hand. “How are you feeling this morning?”

“My granddaughters are missing and I’m stuck in this noisy quagmire of a hospital. I feel exactly the way you’d expect me to feel.”

“I meant physically, from the surgery.”

“I’m fine. Get me out of here. I can’t do anything to help you from this bed.”

“You’re getting well. That helps.” Hadley lifted her hand to her mother’s forehead. “You may have a little fever.”

“I have a minor infection. It’s nothing to worry about. The doctor will explain it to you. The nurse is supposed to call him when you get here.”

“Where is the nurse?”

“Having breakfast in the hospital cafeteria. Matilda and I needed a little privacy.”

“I told her the total truth,” Matilda blurted. “I’ve apologized. I’ll pay the money back she gave me for Quinton’s funeral. I did wrong and I’ll pay back every penny.”

“It’s not the money that matters right now,” Hadley said. “It’s not even that you lied about Quinton being dead.”

“I explained that to your mother,” Matilda said, her voice breaking as if she was on the verge of tears again. “He threatened to kidnap Alana and take her out of the country, said he’d sell her as a sex slave if I didn’t give him five thousand dollars to bail him out of trouble.”

A threatened kidnapping had worked for Quinton before. Had that emboldened him to do more than threaten this time?

“Listen carefully, Matilda.” She waited until Matilda made eye contact. “We can’t change the past, but it is imperative that you tell the truth now. Do you know where we can find Quinton?”

“I don’t. I swear I don’t. I would tell if I did.”

“When was the last time you talked to him?” Adam asked.

“Monday afternoon.”

“Where was he?”

“In my kitchen, but I swear this was the first time I’ve seen him since I claimed he was dead and paid him off. I wouldn’t have let him come to the house then except he called and promised me he’d turned his life around. He sounded sincere.”

“How did the visit go?” Adam asked, his voice steady and his tone more civil than Hadley could have managed.

“Okay. He was only there about a half hour. I didn’t want Sam or Alana to come home and find him there.”

“Do they think he’s dead?”

“Yes. I told them he’d died in car wreck in Vegas and that his girlfriend hadn’t let me know until after the funeral. They didn’t like her, so they believed me. I wanted him out of their lives for good, out of all our lives. Sam was young and impressionable. I couldn’t chance Quinton leading him astray.”

“Quinton is in Dallas,” Hadley said, thinking out loud. “I need to inform Detective Lane of that.”

“You won’t have to wait long to do that,” Janice said. “I’ve already called him. He’s on his way to the hospital right now to question Matilda.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Matilda insisted. “I’d never do anything to hurt any child, especially not Lila or Lacy.”

“I believe you,” Hadley said truthfully.

“But the police won’t,” Matilda said. “They’ll arrest me and take me to jail. It will be in the newspaper and Alana will be embarrassed. She’ll feel ashamed to have her mother mentioned as a suspect. So will Sam.”

“Cooperate with the detective, Matilda. If you do, they won’t arrest you.” Hadley actually felt sorry for her, but if Quinton had Lila and Lacy, Matilda could well be the key to getting them back.

The nurse returned and looked distressed to find them all in the room. “Is there news about the girls?”

“No, but we cleared up a few things about who might have kidnapped them,” Janice said.

“That’s good news,” the nurse said as she checked Janice’s temperature, pulse and blood pressure.

Janice dropped her head back to the pillow.

“Has Dr. Gates been by this morning?” Hadley asked.

“Very early this morning, before his first surgery. He asked that I let him know when you got here. Shall I let him know now?”

“Please do.” Hopefully there wasn’t a problem, but he’d said Janice needed to stay calm and that wasn’t happening.

The nurse made the call. “He wants you to meet him in the third-floor surgery waiting room in thirty minutes.”

“Perfect. In the meantime, I’ll buy Matilda a cup of coffee while she waits for Detective Lane.” And to make sure she didn’t cut and run.

“And I need to make a few phone calls,” Adam said.

“Not so fast, Adam Dalton,” Janice ordered. “I’d like to have a word alone with you.”

* * *

J
ANICE
SENT
THE
NURSE
out of the room before she started in on Adam.

“Do you have no decency?”

Her tone was sharp. She was gearing up to take all this out on him. He could take it, but getting riled up wasn’t what the doctor had ordered for her.

“I’m not a saint,” he said, striving to keep this low-key. “But, yeah, most folks think I’m an all-right kind of guy.”

“I disagree. You’re taking advantage of a horrifying situation to insinuate yourself back into Hadley’s life.”

“I offered my help. Hadley accepted it. That’s all that’s going on here.”

No way was he going into his and Hadley’s past relationship with her mother. He couldn’t have explained it if he wanted to.

“I knew when I met you that you were trouble.”

Maybe he was more like R.J. than he thought. Not that Janice was an authority on Adam. The only time they’d been together was the night of the traditional meet-the-parent dinner.

It had been a week into their whirlwind courtship, only two nights after he’d asked Hadley to marry him. Janice had made it plain then that she didn’t think a marine about to ship out to Afghanistan was any bargain as a son-in-law.

“I don’t want Hadley hurt by the likes of you again, Adam. You broke her heart. And now you just show up when she’s frantic and vulnerable and pretend to be some kind of hero.”

If that was true, it had been the fastest recovery of a broken heart on record.

“I’m not pretending anything, Janice. I only want to help if I can. You’re in the hospital. The girls’ father isn’t around. I’d think you’d be glad Hadley has someone to lean on.”

Janice’s eyes narrowed. “What did Hadley tell you about Lacy and Lila’s father?”

“Nothing. Is there something I should know about him, like why he’s not as desperate as Hadley is to find their daughters?”

Adam didn’t understand why the big secret. He was certain Detective Lane had asked about the girls’ father and he wouldn’t have settled for the brush-off Adam had gotten.

“The twins’ father is none of your business. When this is over and the girls are safely home again, walk away from Hadley, Adam. Do it even if she feels indebted and asks you to stay. She deserves better than you.”

He couldn’t argue that. But he deserved a straight answer about why Lacy and Lila’s father wasn’t even concerned enough to be here. He’d ask again before they met with Fred Casey.

This time he’d demand the truth.

* * *

S
HELTON
L
ANE
FIGURED
IT
was his lucky day when he saw both Matilda Bastion and Hadley standing in the hall outside Mrs. O’Sullivan’s hospital room. This case seemed less like an abduction and more like a sick murder case with every new piece of information he uncovered.

Not that he was ready to make book on that fact yet, but Hadley O’Sullivan had definitely not leveled with him. He couldn’t think of one good reason why a mother who was desperate to find her daughters would lie to the police when asked what should have been a simple question.

If his theory was right, Hadley O’Sullivan might just be the coolest liar and the best actress on the planet. And Adam Dalton was either in it with her or he was as gullible where she was concerned as everyone else around her seemed to be.