Vanished (17 page)

J.T. chuckled. “I guess we'd better get moving.”

After gathering Neil and stopping at the house for a basket full of food and the fishing gear, J.T. pulled into the parking lot next to the entrance of the lakeside park. At first Madison thought they were going to the same one where Ashley had been found a few days before, but this park was on the other side of Crystal Springs. She noticed a beach where people could swim and a pier near the sandy shore.

The temperature hovered in the high seventies. The breeze blew off the lake, causing a few whitecaps. Several speedboats passed them. One person waved. For a moment Madison thought about the evening of the botched ransom drop. For some reason she felt the object of the ransom demand hadn't necessarily been money.

Why had Max been killed? They finally discovered where he had worked before coming to Central City. He had been a cook at Goldie's Grill in southern Illinois, a few hours away. She still felt Max was the best lead they had so far.

“Hey, quit thinking about the case.” J.T., carrying the food basket, stopped next to her. “Remember we're gonna have some fun for a change.”

“How did you know?”

He touched the area right above her eyes. “Your face scrunches up right there when you are in deep thought.”

Neil took Ashley's hand and headed for the pier with the fishing gear. Kim hung back by the beach.

When all his children were out of earshot, Madison looked at him. “We should talk about what we found out today. We haven't had a chance to brief each other.”

“Later. Ashley needs this. I need this.”

He was fully being a parent, and she was glad. Dur
ing the abduction she worried that he couldn't let go of being the sheriff. “Surely if you can do it, I can.”

“It isn't easy, but Colin stressed to me how important it was for us to spend some special time as a family to help replace Ashley's bad memories with good ones. Actually it's not only Ashley's bad memories. We've all had a hard time lately.”

She settled her hand on his arm. “You aren't alone.”

“I know.” He faced the lake, watching Neil bait Ashley's hook. “You don't know how important your presence is to me. When I saw you that first night, I felt the cavalry had arrived.”

She laughed. “I've never been referred to as the cavalry.”

“It was a compliment.”

“I know.” She slid a smile toward him as Kim ambled out onto the pier and sat next to her younger sister while Ashley fished. “Where do you want to set up the picnic?”

J.T. gestured to a table under a large maple tree near the water. “Have you ever gone fishing?”

“Nope and I'll leave it to you and your family.”

“Where's your sense of adventure?”

“I'm with Kim. Fish smell and they are slimy.”

While Madison spread the tablecloth over the flat stone top, J.T. opened the basket and began taking out the food. “I can't get over how generous everyone has been. I had to put some of the dishes in the freezer. There is no way we could eat it all before some of it went bad.”

“You're lucky to have such good friends.” She hadn't lived in any one place for that long since she left the neighborhood she grew up in.

He swept his gaze toward Ashley and for a second thunder entered his expression. “If you're right, one of those friends could be my daughter's kidnapper.”

The pain in his features was fleeting but piercing. She hurriedly said, “J. T. Logan, I thought you were the one who said the case was off-limits, at least for a few hours.”

He held up his hands, palms outward. “You got me there.”

The crestfallen look that passed over his face produced her laugh. “We have it bad.”

“What do you mean?” He finished placing the last item, a chocolate pie, out on the stone table.

“Our work consumes us.”

“I think it's part of what makes us good officers. It's not a nine-to-five job.”

“Working for the FBI was something I wanted to do for a long time. What part of the job do you like the best?”

J.T. eased down on the bench so he could watch his children. “That's easy. Helping others.”

“I like that, too, but I also like solving puzzles. I used to do crossword puzzles as a teen. I loved finishing the one in the
New York Times
every Sunday.”

“In ink?”

She spun toward him. “You, too?”

He nodded while Ashley's giggle floated to them. His smile grew to encompass his whole face. “That's a beautiful sound.”

“None better.” She sat next to him, so close their sides touched.

His nearness seeped deep into her heart as they both stared at his three children on the pier, Neil standing up
and fishing while Kim was seated next to Ashley, who had her pole in the water. Over the edge of the pier Kim swung her legs back and forth lazily, her head bent toward her younger sister while she listened to Ashley tell her something.

“That's a Kodak moment. Where is my camera when I need it?”

The humor in J.T.'s voice added to the intimacy of the moment. For a few minutes Madison could imagine them as a family, on an outing, as if nothing was wrong, as if no one was after him and his children. What would it be like to be a mother? At the age of thirty-two time was flying by her.

“I gave up taking pictures years ago when all I did was put the photos into a drawer never to look at them again.”

The light breeze scattered J.T.'s chuckle. “I have a few drawers stuffed with photos, too. Maybe I can convince Kim that scrapbooking is the best hobby she could take up.”

“Go for it. It might work.”

“I doubt it.”

“Daddy,” Ashley yelled, scrambling to her feet, “I've got a bite.”

J.T. rose and hurried toward his daughter. “I need that camera!”

Madison followed at a more sedate pace and arrived to see Ashley pulling in a foot-long, silvery fish. Her smile split her face, her eyes lit with pleasure.

“This is a fine crappie, pumpkin.” J.T. took it off the hook and put it into the bucket of lake water next to Neil. “We can have it tomorrow night for dinner.”

“Yuck. You all can. I'm not.” Kim wrinkled her nose.

“That's okay. I'll eat it all.” Ashley put her pole down on the pier. “I'm hungry, Daddy. Can we eat?”

“Sure.” J.T. put his hand on his youngest child's shoulder and walked toward the picnic table.

Neil picked up the fishing gear. “I doubt we'll do much more.” He glanced toward the western sky. “It'll get dark soon. Get the bucket, Kim.”

Kim eyed the bucket, said, “You get it,” and stalked off the pier.

Neil sent Madison an exasperated look. “She's up one moment and down the next.”

“It's called hormones. Well, and the yuck factor. But I'll get it for you.”

“Thanks.”

Madison slowed her pace to keep the water from sloshing out. As she neared the end of the wooden planks, she stopped and adjusted her grip to get a better one. Before stepping off the pier, she surveyed the park. Although the sun, low in the sky, still warmed the air, she shivered. Again she scanned the area, imagining someone behind each tree watching them. She couldn't shake the sensation as she covered the space between her and J.T.

He gave her a smile, saw something in her expression, even though she tried to conceal her concern, and looked around. Anxiety leaked into his gaze.

He pushed his worry away as he faced his children, handing each one a ham sandwich. “Eat up. We'll have the pie back at the house. When I brought it, I didn't think about how messy it would be.”

Madison slipped in beside him on the bench, the hairs on her neck standing straight up. “Well, in that case, let's hurry. That chocolate pie looks delicious.” She forced a cheerful tone so she wouldn't scare the kids, all she wanted to do was pull her gun and search the park.

Day eight, 9:00 p.m.: Ashley found eighty-five hours ago

“We've got church tomorrow so I don't want you watching TV too long. I'll be in the kitchen helping Madison clean up.” J.T. boxed up the board game they had been playing, put it on the shelf and headed toward the den door.

He paused and peered back at his family. Kim and Ashley settled on the couch and began watching a movie while Neil sat at the desk and made a call. The incident at the park earlier in the evening only reaffirmed the urgency in finding who was behind Ashley's abduction. There would be nothing normal about their lives until that happened. Whether the kidnapper had been watching him and his family wasn't really the point. In his mind it was as if they were being held captive by the unknown threat.

Entering the kitchen, J.T. found Madison standing by the sink, wiping it down. “Did I time it right?”

She swung around, her eyes twinkling with humor. “If you mean am I through cleaning up, then yes, you timed it just right. What are the kids doing?”

“They wanted to watch a movie.”

“Which gives us some time to talk about earlier.”

He nodded and moved toward the kitchen table. He
pulled the blinds by it and sat. “You think he followed us to the park?”

“Maybe. I don't know. It felt like someone was watching us. I know your deputies we called didn't find anyone when they searched, but still…”

She laid the washcloth over the middle hump in the sink. “I could have been overreacting to a shift in the wind or something.”

“No, I felt it, too. Someone was out there. Which means my children aren't safe. I can't take any chances. I'm keeping Ashley out of school this last week. It's only a few days until the end. She'll stay at the station with me and I'll have a deputy go with Neil and Kim. Neil only has one more day. The seniors get out of school earlier than the others. He can help down at the station, too.”

Madison eased herself into the chair next to J.T. “That would probably be wise. We need to meet with Paul tomorrow and review all the evidence we've discovered so far. There's got to be something we're not seeing. Paul has some leads to finish up this evening so maybe he'll know more by then.”

“Yeah, I have Rachel working on some information on the women in each of the felon's lives. We had to go back to the original list, but she should have it completed by then.”

Madison leaned against the table, her arms on its top. “Maybe I'll stop by the station on the way to the motel. See if Paul needs any help. He was waiting on a couple of faxes.”

J.T. covered her hand with his. “We needed this
evening. This case has consumed us 24–7 for the past week. As I remember someone telling me not too long ago, we have to take some time for ourselves if we're going to be worth anything in this investigation. Come to church with us tomorrow morning, then I'll see if Kirk can stay with my children while we have the powwow with Paul in my office.”

“That would be nice. I love spending time with your family.” She dropped her gaze to their linked hands.

“Just my family?”

“Spending time with a certain sheriff isn't bad, either.”

Her words produced a burst of elation in the midst of the horror of the past week.
Lord, what is happening to me?
After his failed marriage with Lindsay, he'd never imagined having a second chance at love, but the feelings developing with Madison certainly resembled love.

All the reasons why this wasn't a good time to fall in love engulfed him. He slipped his hand away from Madison's, and disappointment glinted in her eyes before she masked it.

She rose, an emotional barrier now firmly in place. “I'd better be going.”

“To the station?”

She gathered her purse from the counter. “I won't stay long. I just want to check and see if those faxes came in. Truthfully I'm so tired I probably wouldn't be able to make any sense out of them anyway.” She started for the front of the house.

J.T. pursued her, finally catching up with her on the porch. He grasped her arm to still her flight. “Madison?”

She peered back at him, her gaze lowering to his
hand on her. “I know this isn't a good time for us. There probably isn't a good time for us. I live in Chicago with a job I really enjoy. You live here. Crystal Springs is perfect for you and your family.”

“But not you?” No matter how much he rationalized, he couldn't seem to stay away from her.

She sighed. “I don't know. I'm not sure I understand what is happening between us.”

J.T. stepped close, invading her personal space, his hands framing her face. “I care about you, more than I should at the moment. My energy and focus must be on protecting my family.”

“Of course. And so should mine. I don't want anything to happen to your children. They've come to mean a lot to me.”