CHASING SUNSHINE: GODS OF CHAOS MC (BOOK THIRTEEN)

by Honey Palomino

  It was a picture of Mom on the beach in Hawaii on her fortieth birthday, the pink Kauai sun setting over the horizon behind her. She had a white lily in her hair, her huge smile lighting up her face. Tears welled up in my eyes and I swallowed hard.

  “What’s her usual routine?” the tall cop asked.

  I looked over at Maddy to answer. I’d been away for several years. There was so much about them both that I didn’t really know anymore.

  “She takes me to school. She goes to work,” Maddy shrugged. “Today she was off work, but I don’t know why. I didn’t ask.”

  “Where does she work?”

  “At a law firm.”

  “What does she usually do on her days off?” the husky cop asked.

  “Um,” Maddy hesitated. “She just stays home. Shops, maybe? She doesn’t really have a lot of hobbies.”

  “Is there any place she may have gone? Someone she may have gone to visit? Was she dating anyone?”

  “I called her friends and nobody has heard from her. And, no, she hasn’t dated anyone in a long time.”

  “Maybe she went to work after all?”

  “Maybe,” Maddy said. “But they’re closed tonight. I called, just in case, but it just goes to voice mail. I can call again in the morning.”

  “Did you check with the neighbors?”

  “Yes,” I said. “Finn lives in the house next door. He saw her leave at nine-fifteen and she said she had to run some errands, but nothing specific. He was just here, actually. He offered to drive around town to see if he could spot her car.”

  They asked a bunch more questions, requesting the name of the law firm she worked at, and the make and model of her vehicle, and they wrote it all down inside tiny little notebooks that they shoved back into their pockets.

  Five minutes later, we were done with the questions and they asked if they could search the house.

  Maddy and I watched from the kitchen as they looked through Mom’s desk, the kitchen cabinets, and then they asked if they could go into her bedroom. I hesitated, knowing Mom would hate the thought of strangers going through her intimate things, but how could I say no?

  “Sure,” I nodded, following them into her room. They looked through her nightstands and her closet and bathroom cabinets, and after a few minutes, they were done and headed towards the front door.

  “If we hear anything, we’ll let you know.”

  “Wait, that’s it?” I asked.

  “Ma’am, unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do. There’s no evidence of foul play or forced entry, she clearly left of her own accord, since her phone and car and purse are gone. You said the neighbor saw her leave on her own. We’ll go ahead and file a missing persons report and put an APB out on her car. But that’s all we can do at this point. Let us know what her job says in the morning. Maybe they sent her on a work trip and she forget to tell you.”

  “She would never do that!” Maddy insisted.

  “Well, then maybe she told you and you forgot,” the husky cop barked. His voice was deep and cold and stern. I put a protective arm around Maddy and pulled her close.

  “She would have remembered,” I said. “Can’t you check her phone records? Her bank records?”

  “Maybe tomorrow, if she hasn’t been heard from by then,” he said. “It’s late, though. She’s probably just out letting off some steam and will be back by morning. I’d suggest you both get some rest.”

  They each handed me their cards, with a case number written on one of them.

  “Call us in the morning,” the husky one said, who’s name I now saw was MacGregor Murphy.

  “Okay,” I said, “thank you for coming, Officers.”

  “Sure thing, ma’am,” he said, as they walked back to their car. Slowly, I closed the door behind them, my heart sinking.

  “Now what?” Maddy said. “They were no help at all!”

  “I know, babe,” I whispered, pulling her close. I kissed the top of her head. “Listen, maybe they’re right. Maybe she’ll come home tonight. Or maybe work sent her away and she just forgot to mention it.”

  “Then why isn’t she answering her phone? Even if she was on a flight, she would have landed and answered by now. And she never goes out of town for work. None of this makes sense!”

  “I know, babe.” I replied. “But why don’t you try to get some rest? I’m going to go drive around myself, just see where my intuition takes me. I’m just a phone call away, okay?”

  “I want to come with you.”

  “No, you need to sleep,” I said. “And you need to stay here in case Mom comes home, so you can let me know, okay?”

  “Okay,” she answered, reluctantly, heading to her room.

  I threw on my coat and headed to my car. Finn pulled up just as I opened the door.

  “Any luck?” I asked him as he exited his car.

  “Not at all,” he said, shaking his head. “Did the cops come?”

  “They did,” I nodded. “They weren’t much help, though. Said there wasn’t much they could do since she left on her own.”

  “Damn,” he said, running a hand through his brown hair. “I was afraid of that.”

  “I’m going to go drive around myself now,” I said. “Maddy’s staying here in case she shows up.”

  “Should I go check on her?”

  “No,” I replied. “She’s going to try to go to bed. I won’t be too long. I should give you my phone number, though, in case you think of anything else or need to contact me.”

  We traded numbers and I jumped in my car and headed towards town, my heart sinking with fear.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  MADDY

  Once Sage left, I grabbed my phone and threw myself on my bed. From my window, I could see Finn arrive and Sage leave and by the shake of his head and the disappointed look on Sage’s face, I knew he hadn’t found Mom or her car.

  With a sigh, I checked my text messages and saw that Ethan had written me back. Tonight was the night I was going to sneak out and meet him.

  ‘What do you mean, she’s missing?’ he’d texted.

  “Maddy? Are you okay?” He’d also texted once I hadn’t written him back right away.

  “She just wasn’t home when I got home from school. Still no word. We called the police, but now, we’re just waiting.”

  “That’s terrible, I’m so sorry. What can I do?”

  He’s so sweet, I thought.

  “Thank you. Nothing right now. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Here to talk, if you want. Call anytime.”

  “Thanks.”

  I didn’t know what to say to him. I didn’t even know how to feel. All I could do was hope she came home soon. Now that Sage wasn’t here, and I was all alone again, the house had never felt so empty. I walked around the house and turned on the television almost as loud as it would go, and then turned all the lights on.

  Being alone had never been so unnerving.

  I wandered into Mom’s room, straightening up the mess the cops had left. They’d gone through everything, even her underwear drawer. I pushed everything back in and closed the drawers. I laid down in her bed, pulling her pillow over my face and inhaling deeply.

  She had to come back, she just had to.

  She couldn’t just leave me forever, could she?

  CHAPTER SIX

  SUNNY

  With each step down the basement stairs, Mother’s china teacup, perched in it’s matching rose-trimmed saucer, slightly rattled on the tray. Sitting on the bamboo tray that Mother had bought in Bali as a young woman, lay a scrumptious grilled cheese sandwich on rye and a steaming bowl of tomato soup.

  My hands trembled with excitement.

  A surge of joy thundered through my soul, a beaming smile stretched tightly across my face. I sat the tray down on a small table next to the door at the bottom of the stairs and pulled the key from my pocket.

  The loud scrap of metal on metal as I turned the lock was the only sound in the room. I blinked r
apidly to adjust my eyes to the darkness as I opened the heavy wooden door.

  “Good evening, Sunshine!” I called out as I held the door open with my boot and grabbed the tray from the table. The door closed behind me and I smiled over at Frannie.

  She stared back at me with wide, swollen eyes.

  “You’ve been crying,” I said. She lifted her chin defiantly and I smiled down at her, as I sat the tray on the nightstand next to the bed she was lying on. She sat up, silently watching me.

  “I brought you dinner. You’ll feel better after you eat.”

  Only a small lamp in the corner lit the windowless room, but it was enough to allow me to see the anger in her eyes. She was flinging daggers at me through those pretty green eyes.

  “I know you’re angry. You have every right to be.”

  I grabbed the tea pot and poured her a cup, keeping one eye on her as I did. So far, she hadn’t fought back, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t. She was unpredictable, I knew that much. I needed to be ready for anything.

  I sat the tea pot back down and stood back up, towering over her as she looked up at me.

  “Frannie, I know you’re probably filled with questions. And well, I just have one answer for you and that’s that this is the way things need to be right now. There’s no use in trying to escape or whatever may be going on in your head. If you try anything, you’re only going to be hurting yourself. Remember that. Believe that, okay?”

  Her shoulders sagged slightly and it pleased me to know that the message was getting through. Most likely, she was in shock at the moment. That would pass, though, and she needed to understand that I was telling her the truth.

  “I made you some soup. It’s my Mom’s recipe. I think you’ll like it. Make sure you eat all this, you’ll need your strength.”

  Reaching down, I pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

  “Why are you doing this?” She whispered, finally, her voice low, but strong.

  “I have to,” I said. “You’ll understand someday.”

  “Are you going to kill me?” She asked.

  “I hope I don’t have to,” I said, trailing a finger down to lift her chin up. I peered into her pretty grass green eyes. “It would be a shame to kill someone so pretty.”

  Her eyes widened in fear.

  I smiled, a tiny thrill running down my spine as I turned away from her and walked back to the door, before turning around to face her again.

  “Oh, please be careful with the china, would you? It’s Mother’s,” I said. “I’ll be back for the dishes in a little while, darling.”

  I closed the door, ignoring the plea in her eyes, as I locked her back up.

  I took a deep breath, leaning against the door, another surge of happiness washing over me.

  With a smile, I sang my way back up the stairs.

  “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey…”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  SAGE

  “We found your mom’s car,” the voice on the other end of the phone said. I shook my head, desperately trying to clear the fog of sleep from my brain. The shrill ringtone had woken me from a deep sleep that I’d finally fallen into due to sheer exhaustion, after a turbulent few hours of tossing and turning in Mom’s bed.

  “What?” I said. “Who is this?”

  “This is Officer Murphy, ma’am.” Oh, right, the husky bald cop.

  “Wait, what? You found her car? Where?”

  “It was in the parking garage at the Portland airport.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “We’re checking all the passenger lists now for her name, but it appears she simply left town. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Ma’am?”

  “I told you yesterday, she wouldn’t have just left without telling us. What condition was the car in?”

  “Nothing we saw indicated foul play, ma’am, but we did have the car towed to forensics.”

  “Oh,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Okay, that’s good.”

  “I just wanted to update you, ma’am. I’ll contact you if we find anything out of the ordinary.”

  “Okay, thank you.”

  He hung up and I sat up in bed, a knot forming in the bottom of my stomach. Something wasn’t right.

  I could feel it.

  I pushed back Mom’s lavender floral comforter that I’d burrowed under all night, relishing in her scent. She practically bathed daily in her rose-scented lotion and her bed smelled just like her.

  Once I made it out to the hallway, the smell of bacon hit me. I rounded the corner and saw Maddy standing at the stove, a spatula in her hand.

  “Hey,” she said, her voice laced with sadness.

  “You made breakfast,” I said.

  “I thought I’d try, at least,” she said.

  “Smells great,” I said.

  “Thanks,” she replied. “I can’t believe she isn’t home yet. I think part of me thought I’d wake up and this would all be a bad dream.”

  “Maddy, I need to tell you something,” I said. “I just got a call…”

  “What?” she asked, her voice full of alarm. “Oh, god, is she okay?”

  “We still don’t know, but…well, they found her car.”

  “They did? Who? The cops?”

  “Yeah. At the Portland airport.”

  “Huh?” she said, her brow wrinkling in confusion. “The airport?”

  “I know,” I shrugged. “They said nothing looked amiss. They towed the car to their forensics department to check for…well, I don’t know…”

  “So, she just up and left without telling us anything?” she said, her voice raised in anger and alarm.

  “We don’t know that,” I said. “And to be honest, this just doesn’t feel right to me. Something’s wrong.”

  “Yeah, our Mom bailed on us, that’s what’s wrong!” she said, tears stinging her big green eyes. “I told you, Sage! I told you I pissed her off!”

  “Stop that!” I replied. “I really don’t think that’s true. And right now, if we believe that, and we just stop looking for her, then we’re betraying her. We can’t just believe that and give up.”

  She paused for a moment, and then nodded, “Okay, you’re right.”

  “You know how much Mom loves you, Maddy,” I reminded her. “She would never just abandon you.”

  “Us,” she said.

  “Right, us,” I replied.

  “So, what do we do now?”

  “I’m not sure,” I said, sighing. “Maybe after we eat breakfast, we can figure that out together. Don’t you have school today?”

  “I’m not going to school, Sage,” she said. “No way.”

  I stared at her for a moment, trying to decide if I should let her miss classes. Maybe the distraction of school was what she needed, but for today, I was willing to let her stay home. To be honest, I didn’t want to be alone myself.

  “Okay, but just for today, okay?”

  “I don’t know, Sage, I can’t focus on school till Mom gets home,” she agreed, turning back to the stove.

  “Well, I don’t know how this is going to last, so you can’t just miss school indefinitely. How about we just take it one day at a time?”

  “Sounds good,” she nodded.

  We spent the next few minutes making eggs and eating in silence, both of us lost in our thoughts.

  I kept thinking about the officer’s voice on the phone. He was so flippant and dismissive and I couldn’t help but think that he wasn’t taking this seriously at all.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  MAC

  I hung up the phone and pushed my chair back, the scraping sound of metal on concrete echoing through the empty precinct. In a few moments, the offices would be filled with grumpy detectives and the smell of fresh coffee, but for now, it was fairly quiet.

  I liked to arrive a few minutes early to enjoy the rel
ative peace and quiet before the chaos of the day began. As usual, it was just myself and my chief in the office. My partner, Geoff, would arrive later.

  I stood up and walked into his office, the glass door flung open.

  “Hey Chief.”

  “‘Morning, Mac,” he said, without looking up from his computer.

  “How’s Becky doing?” I asked. His wife had been sick with the flu over the last week.

  “She’s on the mend,” he replied. “What’s your caseload look like today? Any news on the missing mom?”

  “Found her car at the airport,” I shrugged. “Looks like she just took off.”

  “You gonna look into that a little deeper?”

  “Had the car towed to forensics,” I shrugged, again. “I requested the passenger lists from the major airlines. I’m sure she’ll be on it. Probably just another crappy mother who snapped under the pressure of PTA meetings and yoga classes.”

  He chuckled and nodded. “Probably right.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’m going to head out to a dentist’s appointment this morning and I’ll be back in a few hours, if that’s alright with you?”

  “Sure thing,” he nodded. “See ya later today.”

  “See ya, Chief.”

  I grabbed my coat and keys and walked out to my police cruiser. Once I sat behind the wheel, I pulled out my phone and pulled up my text messages.

  Message after message from Frannie flashed before my eyes, and a slow smile spread across my face. I thought about the way her skin felt under my fingertips, the sweet taste of her lips and the sound of her soft voice moaning my name as I slammed into her over and over.

  “Damn it, Frannie,” I said, shaking my head, as I deleted message after message. When I was done, I pulled up my pictures and deleted dozens of pictures from my photo gallery.

  I couldn’t leave behind any evidence.

  I took a deep breath and held the phone to my ear, listening to it ring.

  “Hey, baby,” my wife, Angie, answered.

  “Hello, love,” I said. “Just thought I’d check in on you and the boys.”