Kipp took a labored breath but had no time to dwell on the pain. The voices behind them were getting close enough for him to make out a word or two.
Libby and Rebecca tromped out of the thicket and rushed to his side. He scooped the child from Libby and barreled down the path. Within minutes they entered the clearing.
Libby and Rebecca hurried into the backseat, and he transferred the girl into Libby's arms. He searched his pocket for the keys. The voices coming from the woods were now loud and distinct. He remembered he had given the keys to Libby. When he got in the driver's seat, she thrust them into his hand.
He gunned the engine, and the Jeep lurched forward just as flashlight beams shot through the trees. In the rearview mirror Kipp saw bouncing lights coming toward them. To maneuver around a truck parked in their path, he had to swerve off the dirt into the tall grass. The Jeep swayed from side to side. He leaned on the gas pedal and turned the wheel onto the highway, spraying gravel and squealing the tires.
His heart shook in his chest. He drove as fast as possible, praying the long arm of the law didn't extend beyond Grand. Capturing his daughter from the people who stole her was his first and foremost priority. Their punishment would have to come later.
There was no time to tend to his little girl, even though he craved to hold her. He had to be satisfied with listening to Libby and Rebecca soothing her in the backseat.
By the time they got to Grace's house, the child had fallen asleep. Kipp walked Rebecca to the door and had a short talk with Grace. She agreed to testify on his behalf if the authorities questioned her about his daughter's rescue. She had plenty to say about that religious cult, and she welcomed any help from outside the area.
"If I were you, I'd take off tonight," Grace said. "Get your daughter as far away from here as you can. They won't go to the police outside the area because that would draw too much attention, but they may try to track you down themselves."
Kipp agreed and thanked Grace for her help. He gave Rebecca a hug and told her what a brave person she was and that he would be forever in her debt. He said he would contact them when he got home and promised to help them any way he could. For now his thoughts were on his daughter and getting her out of harm's way.
* * *
CHAPTER 26
On the way back to the motel, Kipp told Libby his plans to drive straight home--a trip that normally would take a day and a half. He questioned whether or not it would be too hard on the child, but Libby assured him she would care for her, and like Grace, she felt leaving would be a wise idea.
Kipp retrieved their luggage. He stopped at a gas station to fill up and bought two coffees while Libby waited in the car. The child was still asleep with her head on Libby's lap. Kipp brought a blanket from the back and laid it over the girl.
Once they were on the interstate going west, Kipp's body relaxed for the first time in days, but he would not let his guard down until they were safely home. He had a good thirteen-hour drive ahead of him, and he needed to stay alert.
He glanced in the rearview mirror. His daughter was out of his view, and he couldn't touch her, even though he yearned to, but having someone like Libby in the backseat to comfort her reassured him. "She calmed so easily after I gave her to you. How do you do it?"
"She's responding to the energy that runs through my hands. It's warm and comforting."
"You're amazing," he said. "I don't understand what you do, but you're amazing."
"Are you going to be okay, doing all this driving?"
"I can do anything if it means getting her back home."
"Maybe if you talk to me, it will be easier."
"Don't you want to close your eyes and rest?"
"The caffeine wired me," she said. "Besides, this will give me a chance to know more about the details of Kelly's abduction. I didn't want to bring it up before. It was so painful for you."
"Talking about it now that I have Kelly won't be so hard. Where shall I start?"
"From the beginning. Where were you when you found out?"
"On my way home from Washington, D.C.," he said. "I had driven there to do an interview for an article I was writing. I'd stayed overnight. Mrs. Crowley agreed to stay at the house with Kelly. I got a call from the police on my cell phone."
"What a horrible way to find out."
"I didn't even remember the rest of the drive home. I was in a daze. The police were there. Mrs. Crowley got hysterical when she saw me."
"When did she realize Kelly was gone?"
"After she put Kelly down for a nap," he said, "she lay down on the couch and fell asleep. She'd been taking some new pain medication for her arthritis, and it made her drowsy. She slept longer than she intended. When she woke, she went upstairs to check on Kelly, but she wasn't in her bed. Mrs. Crowley searched everywhere for her. You filled in the rest of the story. As you told me in the reading, Kelly slipped outside by way of an unlocked screen door, and they took her from the backyard."
Kipp took a breath. "I think they had it planned because they left no evidence, not even a gum wrapper. They must have known my habits. I usually traveled on Thursdays or Fridays if I had to. Those two are the scum of the earth. I plan to unleash the FBI on them as soon as I get home."
"Where was Tanya when this happened?"
"She was on an assignment in California. She flew in on the first flight she could get."
"How did she react?"
"She seemed devastated. She went through all the right emotions, the crying, the questioning."
"I'm sure she felt something, Kipp. A mother would."
Kipp released a cynical laugh. "She never cared for her daughter. Kelly was always in the way of everything she had planned. They never bonded like mother and child. Tanya was out on assignment as soon as she got her figure back, which wasn't long at all. She practically starved them both while she was pregnant. She hardly gained any weight. I'd harp at her about eating, but it didn't do any good. She spent most of the pregnancy depressed about it. It's a wonder Kelly came out as healthy as she did. But sure, Tanya was upset, too."
A rest area sign loomed in the distance, and Kipp asked if Libby wanted to stop. She told him to keep going.
"So, what happened after Tanya got to the house?"
"The police searched the area. They combed the woods behind the house. They talked to all the neighbors. Finally, the FBI was called in, and the media got involved."
"I don't remember hearing anything about it."
"It was a strange time back then," Kipp said. "The country was still reeling from the terrorist attack. The media was too focused on that and the political climate at that time to give Kelly's story much publicity."
"I would have thought they'd pounce on a story like yours with Tanya being a top model and you being on TV."
"Tanya pretty much kept motherhood out of the picture. As for me, by that time I hadn't been on TV for four years. I was a has-been in media terms."
"So, they didn't find anything in their investigation?"
"Not a trace."
"You must have been torn in two."
"An understatement," he said. "It wasn't enough dealing with our own grief, but we were dragged through the dirt by the authorities, too."
"They accused you?"
"You've been on missing persons cases, you know how it works."
"I know they have to rule out the family members before they can move on with their investigation, but I didn't know if that was the case with you."
"Well, that's what they did," he said, "especially Tanya since she was the parent who didn't have custody. They thought she might have kidnapped Kelly out of revenge because she didn't get custody after the divorce. We both took lie detector tests. The whole procedure was demeaning and gut-wrenching."
"I can imagine." Libby, careful not to disturb the child, leaned forward a little and squeezed and massaged his shoulders.
"Boy does that feel good. You've got great hands."
"Do you need
to stop and stretch?"
"The next rest area." He glanced back a second to check on the child, who'd made a moaning sound. "Is she all right?"
"She's fine. Don't worry."
Kipp drove through the darkness on long stretches of desolate highway, a handful of cars passing by, their headlights blasting his tired, burning eyes.
Libby had not said anything for a while, and he assumed she'd dozed off. Left alone with his thoughts, he wondered how he would ever make it up to her. She had given him back his life.
Once, he caught his chin sinking downward. He squeezed the steering wheel several times, exercising his arms, pumping life into the veins. He lifted and lowered his shoulders.
By the time the sky began to lighten, he was yawning and having difficulty keeping his eyes open. He pulled into a gas station to fill up and to stretch his extremities.
Libby rolled down the window a crack. "I'm sorry I fell asleep. I hope it wasn't too hard for you to stay awake."
"Just the last few miles. I'm going to get coffee and something for us to eat."
The child rubbed her eyes and pushed herself up to a sitting position. She looked up at Libby. "I'm thirsty. I want to go home."
Back in the driver's seat, Kipp turned and reached for her, but she recoiled. He snapped his arm back as if he'd touched fire.
"Give her time," Libby said.
She took the girl to the restroom and gave her a muffin and juice in the car. She answered the girl's questions about who Libby was and where they were going, but the girl never once asked about Kipp.
Back on the freeway, the child snuggled close to Libby and fell asleep again. Hurt, Kipp wanted to know why Libby thought it would take time for his daughter to warm up to him.
"I think it has to do with the way that community functions," Libby said. "The men are the authority figures, and the women probably take care of the small children all the time. She relates to women better."
"But I thought she'd know me."
"Be patient, Kipp. She's just been through something traumatic. You broke in there like a wild man, instead of waiting like you were supposed to."
"I know."
"She needs time to adjust. Besides, do you look the same as when she saw you last?"
"God, no. I didn't think of that. I had a mustache and my hair was shorter. But I thought she'd instinctively know her own daddy."
"For such a young child, she's been through so much change. Try not to take it to heart. She'll come around."
"It'll kill me if she doesn't."
"She will. I guarantee it."
For the moment Libby's reassurance calmed his fears. He drove on, lost in his own thoughts. Libby fell into silence, and he presumed she was asleep.
They were well into Washington now. The drive to Utah seemed a flash in the night compared to the trip home. It was as if the roads had stretched twice as long as they were in reality. He kept on and fought to stay awake.
On the final leg home Kipp stopped at a rest area, waking Libby. The child woke, too, and began to whine about wanting to go home. Libby took her to the restroom, and once she was settled back in the cocoon of Libby's arms, she quieted and slept. Kipp motored on, driving as fast as he dared.
"I'll try to stay awake this time," Libby said.
"Sleep if you need to."
"No, let's talk. Tell me what happened to you and Tanya after the kidnapping? I guess it didn't bring you together?"
"At first it did," he said. "We tried to comfort each other and do what we could to find our daughter. We hired a private investigator, but there were no new leads. I wouldn't go out of the house for weeks in case she somehow showed up. After a while Tanya got restless and wanted to go back to work. We began sniping at each other. She blamed me for leaving Kelly with an old woman. I blamed myself. I lived with that every day. I still do."
"You had no way of knowing."
"Then the anger set in," he said. "We were angry at the kidnapper, then we turned that anger on each other. I remember the yelling and the accusations and the blaming. She finally numbed out and returned to New York to her glamorous lifestyle. She left me to sit and wait for answers."
He shifted around to relieve the ache in his thighs. "I read everything I could about missing children. I read all the statistics. The police said a two-hour window gives anyone the opportunity to be out of the area, and they had at least a three-hour lead by the time Mrs. Crowley woke and searched the neighborhood on her own. Nothing was found in the first twenty-four hours, and they say that's critical. I read the chances of finding her alive after more than thirty days is two percent. All of these things added up to the fact I'd never see her again."
"How could you even function?"
"The worst part was not knowing. I'd go from hope to despair. After months had gone by with no word or clue, it just felt hopeless."
"Did you have anyone to help you through the grief, like your family or a counselor?"
"I thought I could handle it myself," he said. "And you know the old saying. If you don't have enough problems, you can always count on your family." He chuckled. "Well, my parents supported me by blaming me for divorcing Tanya in the first place. I guess that's how they coped with it."
"Why didn't you want to stay in Connecticut? I'd think you'd want to stay where you felt her presence."
"After a year I began to accept the fact she was never coming home. Every day I'd wake up paralyzed by fear, waiting for the police to knock on the door and tell me the news I couldn't bear to hear. God knows how many times I had to go to the morgue to make sure it wasn't her."
"Oh, Kipp."
"That's when I left town," he said. "I had it in my head that if I left, the police couldn't find me to give me the bad news. I guess moving helped me accept the fact she wasn't coming home. It forced me to work again, to fill the void, to get on with my life. Then I met you. You stirred up all those feelings and emotions I thought I'd buried. You made me relive everything."
"I'm sorry I brought you so much hurt."
"Don't be." He glanced over his shoulder. "Look at her. Having her with me again is worth every bit of agony I had to go through. I'll never be able to repay you."
"Just having you reunited with your daughter is enough for me."
"You know, Tanya tried to discourage me from using your services. She said you'd rip me off."
"As you know, I don't charge a fortune, only for my time and expenses, same as my other work. I do the best I can, but psychic work is not 100 percent accurate. There can be many misleads. There are so many variables."
"Well, why were you so accurate this time? I'm so in awe of how you got us to the right places."
"I'm sort of in awe myself."
"You? You always seem so sure of yourself."
"You don't know me that well, do you?"
He glanced at her in the rearview mirror. "No, but I'd like to."
After a long pause Libby said, "There was a special connection between us, something that made everything fall into place to make this happen."
"You mean, like it was pre-ordained?"
"Maybe."
"Before I met you, I would have debated you on that one."
"And now?"
"I'm beginning to come around." He hesitated, then made the decision to test the waters. "Do you think we were meant to come together for something besides Kelly?"
"That, I don't know."
"Why not? You're the psychic."
"I'm not good at seeing my own future."
"What if I could see it for you?"
"I think you should concentrate on finding my driveway. We're almost here."
She had a way of skirting personal issues, and Kipp vowed to get an answer to his question one day soon.
The sun was straight up in the sky, and the gray house with the aqua trim, partially shaded most hours of the day, was bathed in light. Kipp got out of the Jeep and stretched his arms and legs.
The child had woken and was sti
ll pinned to Libby's side. Libby made an attempt to slide out, but the girl gripped Libby's arm and pulled her back. Kipp tried to assure her everything was going to be all right, but she stared up at him with terror in her eyes. Libby spoke softly to the girl, thereby coaxing her out of the car.
Kipp went on ahead and stood next to Ellen, who waved to Libby from the porch. He watched his daughter come up the sidewalk holding Libby's hand. His heart burst with pride for bringing her home, but her detachment made the journey bittersweet.
"We have a little girl who's very hungry," Libby said.
"Hi. I'm Ellen. Why don't you come in, and we'll make you a toasted cheese sandwich. How's that?" The girl took Ellen's outstretched hand, and Ellen glanced from Kipp to Libby. "You two look like you could use a week's sleep. I'm so anxious to hear about everything."
"We'll talk later," Libby said. "I got some sleep, but Kipp has been driving for hours."
"Well, you've got to eat," Ellen said. "Let me fix you something."
During lunch Kipp sat across from his daughter and studied her face and every movement she made. She was chewing around the edges of the sandwich just like she used to do. Once, he caught her looking at him in a quizzical fashion. He took that as an encouraging sign.
After they finished eating, Ellen took the girl into the bedroom to pick out one of Libby's stuffed animals, so Kipp and Libby could talk.
Kipp watched her trail after Ellen. "You were right, Libby. She does respond to women better. She took to Ellen right away. But did you see her looking at me? I think she's beginning to recognize me."
"She'll come around. She just needs time to get adjusted." Libby grinned. "Did you look at yourself in a mirror lately? You look bad enough to scare anyone, let alone a child."
"Thanks a lot."
"You need sleep."
"I need to go home and get clean clothes," he said. "I need to get in touch with the authorities and Tanya. But I don't know what I should do. Kelly doesn't know me yet, and I don't want to upset her."
Visions of Hope Page 19
