Hide the Child

by Janice Kay Johnson

  Chloe swung around, scrambled off the stool and raced to Trina. She threw her arms around Trina’s legs and hugged, hard. That she’d regressed to being nonverbal felt like yet another deep bruise in the region of Trina’s chest.

  “I’m glad to see you, too, pumpkin.” Trina found a smile for the little girl, who tipped back her head to look up at her. “Why don’t you start on your cheeseburger while I go back upstairs and, um, at least brush my hair?” And pee. She really needed that bathroom.

  “Did you see your duffel at the foot of the bed?” Gabe asked.

  “No, I suddenly panicked—” She broke off. “You know how confusing it is to wake in a strange place.”

  His expression of mild surprise said he didn’t know. As often as he—and her brother—woke in strange and dangerous places, they probably knew where they were and why instantly, before they opened their eyes. They probably held on to the where and why while they slept.

  “Never mind,” she mumbled, and took herself back upstairs to start over again. The woman she saw in the mirror horrified her. Her face was filthy, her eyes bloodshot and her hair a tangled mess. Lovely.

  Washing her face helped only a little. She dug the bottle of pills out of the duffel and took one, hoping that would be enough to dull the pain without knocking her out again. Then she tackled her hair as well as she could when raising her arms stretched the skin on her shoulders and back. Her left shoulder ached fiercely, too, as did her left hip. No, those two pillows hadn’t softened her landing on the hard ground much, if at all. The doctor had warned her to expect swelling and colorful bruises.

  A ponytail proved to be beyond her. Changing clothes...not yet, she decided. She craved a shower but shuddered at the idea of hot water on her back. Spot-cleaning was as good as it would get.

  And once she had something to eat, she’d have to break it to the Army Ranger downstairs that he now had medic duties as well as KP.

  He studied her again when she reappeared, small lines appearing on his forehead. Apparently, she hadn’t accomplished miracles.

  “Cheese?” he asked.

  “Please.”

  She leaned against a sort of breakfast bar rather than trying to sit on a stool. She studied Chloe, who had made surprising inroads on her burger, which from experience Trina knew was completely plain. She wouldn’t have touched the sliced tomatoes, onions or lettuce Gabe had set out, or the ketchup or mustard, either. What surprised Trina was that the three-year-old didn’t seem wary of Gabe. She shied from most people, especially men, yet was happily eating food he’d put in front of her, her bare feet swinging.

  “Did you nap?” Trina asked.

  Chloe nodded.

  “She was up for a couple of hours in the middle of the day,” Gabe said, “napped again and got up about an hour ago.”

  Intrigued, Trina wondered how he’d entertained Chloe for those two hours. The little girl appeared surprisingly comfortable with him. “How long did I sleep?”

  He glanced at the microwave. “Nine hours.”

  “Really?” She’d have had to be deeply asleep for Chloe to have slipped out of bed without her noticing. “I never conk out like that.”

  “I don’t suppose you had a very good night’s sleep,” he said dryly.

  “Well, no, but...” Her stomach growled and she pressed a hand against it. “I’m starved. I haven’t had anything to eat since last night.”

  “I guessed. Here.” He handed her a plate with baked beans, corn and a cheeseburger on a fat bun. “Chloe declined the beans.”

  The little girl wrinkled her nose.

  Trina kissed the top of her head. “She’s at an age to be picky.”

  “Figured.” He produced silverware, then brought his own plate over to the bar and sat on Chloe’s other side, hooking the heels of his boots on a rung as if it were a fence rail.

  After gobbling half her meal, Trina said, “It’s been peaceful?”

  He glanced at her sidelong. “Yep. We made a clean getaway.”

  “Yes, but... I can’t be completely out of touch.”

  “We’ll talk about it later.”

  Something about his tone made her wonder how two-way he intended that talk to be. Did he really think Joseph’s sister would be meek and docile? Dealing with him would be easier if she could read him better, but he was so guarded she wondered what it would take to shatter his control. Something told her pain hadn’t done it. In fact, he might have shored up his walls during his lengthy recuperation.

  Chloe dropped her cheeseburger without finishing it. She immediately crawled over onto Trina’s lap. Trina held her with her left arm and kept eating.

  “I don’t suppose you have any toys around?” she asked after a minute.

  Gabe snorted.

  “Didn’t think so.”

  “Actually... Well, I’ll look around. I said it was okay for Boyd to loan this place out to a friend of his. Ski vacation. He had a family. Don’t know how old the kids were. They might have left something behind.”

  Chloe’s head came up. She’d been following the conversation.

  Unable to quite clean her plate, Trina finished eating first. “Do you have a satellite dish?”

  “Yeah. Hey. Channel three has the lineup.”

  She’d seen the living room but not taken it in. She couldn’t describe it as homey, exactly; Gabe had furnished it with the basics but not bothered with artwork or homey touches like table runners or rugs. The sofa and a big recliner were brown leather that made her think of saddles. The clean lines of the oak coffee table and single end table might be Mission style. Built-in bookcases lined one wall and held an impressive stereo system as well as quite a library. A big-screen TV hung above a cabinet that had drawers. Trina went to investigate those.

  Among a good-size collection of movies for grown-ups, she found three DVDs aimed at kids: Finding Nemo, A Bug’s Life and Arthur’s Perfect Christmas. Chloe decided on Arthur’s Perfect Christmas. Trina succeeded in getting it started and Chloe climbed onto the sofa and settled happily to watch.

  Returning to the kitchen, Trina reported, “Your renters apparently went home without a few of their movies.”

  He was loading the dishwasher and glanced up. “Ones she’ll watch?”

  How a man could look so sexy doing such a mundane task, she didn’t know, but he succeeded.

  “Yep.”

  “Then this is probably a good time for us to talk.”

  “Yes, except...” She nibbled on her lower lip. “I have a problem.” Actually, she had so many problems they’d add up to a lengthy list, but one thing at a time, Trina decided. “I’m afraid I have to ask you to change the dressings on my back and apply more ointment. Unless you have a mother or girlfriend nearby who could be persuaded to volunteer.”

  “Neither.”

  * * *

  WELL, HELL. SHE was going to half strip so he could stroke ointment over her skin with his bare hands? Might as well ask him to run his hand along a strand of barbed wire. Dangerous. He wasn’t the only one conscious of the risks, either; the pink in her cheeks was from a different kind of heat.

  Think of this as a medical problem, he told himself. “How badly are you burned?”

  “Not that terrible. According to the doctor, mostly first-degree, spots of second-degree. No worse than a really bad sunburn. The fire didn’t touch me, but while I was lowering Chloe out the window and waiting until I could follow her, flames burst through the door behind me and—” She visibly shied from the memory. “I was just...too close to it.”

  “Okay.” He tried to sound gentle, which had the effect of roughening his voice. “How often do we do it?”

  “Twice a day until it’s obviously healing. Which shouldn’t be more than two or three days.”

  Gabe thought it over. “I don’t want to leave Chloe downstairs by h
erself. If you’ll pause the movie—”

  “Why don’t we wait until she’s gone to bed?”

  Yeah, sure. Then they’d be alone, house quiet and dark around them. Her stretched out on his bed, since Chloe would be in hers.

  He cleared his throat. “If you don’t need it done sooner.”

  “It can wait.”

  “All right.” Needing a distraction, he lifted the carafe from the fancy coffee maker that had been one of his first purchases after he’d had the cabin built. “Would you like a cup?”

  “That would be great.”

  “You okay on the stool, or would a chair be more comfortable?”

  “Chair.”

  “Hey, hold on.” He left the room, returning after a minute with a heavy-duty parka. “This should give you a little padding.”

  He doubled it over, and watched as she sat down gingerly. Looking surprised, she said, “That helps. Thank you. And speaking of... I don’t think I’ve thanked you for rushing to our rescue.”

  Admit to his initial reluctance? Or that, on second thought, he’d been glad to have the chance to do something really meaningful? Probably not. Gabe settled for an acknowledging nod.

  “I should at least call my insurance agent tomorrow.”

  “It’ll have to wait. What phone number would you give him if he has questions?”

  “But...”

  “A few days is nothing, given the time it’ll take to rebuild.”

  She finally nodded.

  “I need you to tell me what’s happened so far.”

  Looking startled, she began, “Didn’t Joseph—”

  Gabe cut her off. “I want as much detail as you can give me.” The cops had one goal; he had another.

  She glanced toward the doorway, as if to be sure the little girl hadn’t wandered into earshot. “Did you read about the murders?”

  Having a whole family killed, and wealthy people at that, didn’t happen in these parts. The news had likely riveted just about everyone. “Yes,” he agreed, “but I had the impression the cops were holding back.”

  “They did tell me something two days ago they hadn’t admitted up until then, but my impression is that they’re stymied.”

  Gabe waited.

  Trina began to talk, starting with the request from a Lieutenant Matson, who oversaw detectives, that she work with a three-year-old girl who was the only survivor after her family had been killed. “Either she’d climbed into one of the lower kitchen cupboards herself, or one of her parents put her there. When the police arrived, the cupboard door was open a crack, and her father’s body was right in front of her.”

  “Once she heard the intruder leave, she might have pushed it open herself to peek out,” he suggested.

  “Yes, but they didn’t think so. She was...frozen, almost catatonic. Stiff, staring, squeezed into the smallest ball she could manage.”

  He played the devil’s advocate. “Seeing her father...”

  “The detective said he’d been shot in his back and lay facing her. She couldn’t have seen the blood or...damage.”

  “Unless she crept out, then went back to her hidey-hole.”

  “I guess that’s conceivable, but I think it’s likelier that she never moved.” Her expression shifted. “You sound like another detective. Were you an MP, or...?”

  “No, we do some of the same kind of thing when we’ve been inserted into a foreign country and discover our intel isn’t accurate. It’s time you and I start thinking like investigators.” He’d realized as much immediately. “If you trust the police, you’d be letting them protect you and Chloe. They offered protection, didn’t they?”

  “Round the clock.”

  “But you called your brother instead. Why?”

  She made a face. “Two reasons. One is that they’re desperate for Chloe to tell them what she saw and heard. They called constantly, dropped by at the office. They were impatient, skeptical. Why wasn’t she talking yet? I overheard one of the detectives saying I was being too soft, that they could ‘crack her open.’ His words. All I could picture was a nutcracker smashing a walnut open.”

  Gabe winced, sympathizing with her obvious anger. He could empathize with the cops’ frustration, too, but nothing justified traumatizing that cute kid any more than she’d already been.

  “They didn’t like it that I wouldn’t tell them where I ‘stashed’ her during the day, while I worked,” Trina continued, with unabated indignation.

  “Where did you?” he asked, curious.

  “Some of the professionals and staff in the building went in together, rented a small vacant office and started their own preschool, right down the hall from my office. This way, they can have lunch with their kids, pop in when there’s a slow moment, be there if something happens.” She smiled. “Needless to say, it’s not advertised. They were happy to include Chloe.”

  “Smart.” He mulled that over. “Okay, you wanted to keep her away from the cops. What’s the other reason you don’t trust them?”

  “Chloe had been talking for about a week—but timidly, and she’d clam up and stay quiet for hours if I said anything that scared her. Since she was progressing well, though, on Tuesday I called Detective Risvold to let him know we were getting somewhere.”

  “And Wednesday night, your house was set on fire with you and Chloe inside it, asleep on the second floor,” he said slowly. Rage kindled in his chest.

  “I thought the timing was suggestive.” Anxiety filled her hazel eyes, and her hand resting on the table tightened into a fist. Her fingernails must be biting into her palm. “Do you think I’m being paranoid?”

  “No.” He started to reach for her hand but checked himself. He wasn’t much for casual touching, and didn’t even know where the impulse had come from. “You have an enemy. Under the circumstances, it’s just common sense to be paranoid.”

  Her relief was obvious, her hand loosening. “Thank you for saying that. There’s a fine line. Until the fire, I figured the detectives were insensitive. Maybe neither of them has children. But thinking they’re part of this...”

  Gabe pondered that, considering it safer than focusing on his desire to scoop her up in his arms and hold her close. That wasn’t like him, either. Yeah, and she wouldn’t enjoy close contact right now anyway.

  “Odds are against the investigators being culpable,” he said after a moment. “Trouble is, unless our guy got lucky and overheard two cops gossiping in a coffee shop, that suggests a killer who has connections in the department.”

  “Detective Risvold wasn’t happy with me when I told him his department must have a leak.”

  “He was defensive?”

  “Maybe?” Her uncertainty came through. “Or worried because the thought had already occurred to him? I couldn’t tell.”

  “I’d like to have a talk with him, except I don’t see how I can without giving him an idea where you are.”

  “Where you stashed me, you mean?”

  He gave a grunt of amusement. “Okay, tomorrow, I need to grocery-shop. I’ll drive to Bend so nobody I’ve met is surprised by what I’m buying. I can stop at Target or Walmart and pick up some toys or movies for Chloe and anything else you need.”

  “Wouldn’t it be better if I came? I could definitely use clothes and toiletries.”

  “No. We can’t risk you being recognized.” He held up a hand when she opened her mouth to argue. “You can’t tell me you don’t have clients who live in Deschutes County. You could be recognized.”

  “The odds of someone I know happening to be in the same store at the right time isn’t—”

  “Give me sizes.” He sounded inflexible for good reason; this wasn’t negotiable. He could tell she was irritated, but he couldn’t let that bother him. “You hurt besides,” he pointed out. “Do you really want to try on jeans?”

&nb
sp; She grimaced.

  “I’ll have Boyd come over while I’m gone.”

  Her forehead crinkled. “Joseph didn’t sound as if he completely trusted this Boyd. He thought he might have gotten soft.”

  Gabe came close to laughing. “That hasn’t happened.” Just for fun, he’d tell Boyd what her brother said.

  Her eyes searched his. “He won’t tell anyone we’re here?”

  “He already knows. I needed to be sure he was ready to act if I called.”

  When Trina turned her head, he, too, realized the background voices and music from the TV had stopped in the living room. Before either of them could rise, the kid appeared. So much for everything else they needed to discuss. But maybe one day at a time was good enough, Gabe thought. The last twenty-four hours had upended Trina’s life, and Chloe’s for a second time.

  “Movie over?” Trina asked, holding out her hand.

  Nodding, the kid reached Trina and climbed into her lap. The lack of hesitation spoke of her trust.

  That got him wondering how Chloe had come to be living with the psychologist who’d been working with her. That had to be unusual. He’d never had the slightest interest in building personal ties with any of the social workers and therapists who’d made him think of mosquitoes, persistent as hell, whining nonstop, determined to suck his memories as if they were blood.

  And maybe that was fitting, because his memories were of blood, so much he sometimes dreamed he was drowning in it.

  Dr. Marr hadn’t yet tried to crack him open, but give her time.

  “Let’s go run you a bath,” she said to the little girl in her lap. “We’ll dig in that bag and see if Vicky sent any pajamas along.”

  Chloe’s eyes widened.

  Trina chuckled. “We’ll find something. If nothing else, you can sleep in this top and your panties.” She nudged Chloe off her lap and rose stiffly to her feet. Looking at him, she said, “I need a mug or something I can use to rinse her hair.”

  “Sure.” He poked in the cupboard until he found a good-size plastic measuring cup with a handle.

  “Perfect,” she said, taking it from him. She’d reverted to looking a little shy. “Let’s march, Chloe-o.”