A Dark Horse

by Cooper, Blayne

  Rose’s hard swallow was audible. “If we went we’d need two tickets. We can’t afford—” the older woman’s voice hitched.

  “Stop.” Natalie released a long breath and held up her hand to forestall any more discussion. She set her cup in the drainboard and moved around to the table to stand in front of her mother. On one hand she recognized deep in her gut that she was being manipulated, but on the other, something still had to be done. “Just…stop.” It’s for Josh, her mind chanted. “I’ll go, Mom.”

  “Lord…Thank you!” Rose jumped to her feet and threw plump arms around her oldest child. “You’re such a good girl. So smart and beautiful and responsible. I knew I could count on you.”

  Natalie ignored the compliments that were given freely when Rose got her way.

  Worry bubbled up inside Natalie and despite the shouting match that had just played out, she held her mother a little tighter and rested her chin atop a pile of gray curls that had once been the same shade of deep chestnut brown as her own. “I won’t just find him,” she reassured softly. “I’ll bring him home.”

  * * *

  Tired of fanning herself with her hands, Natalie blew a forceful stream of air upward onto her face in a hopeless attempt to cool herself off. The scorching heat and relentless humidity clung to her like a second skin, even as she sat impatiently inside a weakly air-conditioned waiting room of the New Orleans Police Department. It had been forever and her blouse was just now starting to unstick itself from the perspiring skin on her lower back and chest. She adjusted herself in her seat, more than a little uncomfortable and frustrated.

  She’d spent more than two days looking for Josh and her worry was mounting with each passing hour. She was in an unfamiliar city, armed only with an address that had unexpectedly led her nowhere. After looking every obvious place she thought her brother might be, then every place else, she realized she had no idea what to do next. He could be anywhere.

  The waiting room was dank, musty and noisy, filled with a cacophony of grumbling people, running and fighting children, and crying babies. Natalie’s head was starting to pound.

  She glanced at the clock on her cell phone. Another five minutes and she was going to go hassle that enormous uniformed officer at the reception desk. Again. She hadn’t eaten yet today and she realized that she’d just missed lunch. At this rate, she’d miss dinner as well.

  “You get used to it, you know.”

  A woman’s voice, soft and lilting with a local accent, caused Natalie’s attention to snap to her.

  “The heat, that is.” The woman smiled, showing off perfect white teeth. “At least that’s what I hear. But I’m local, so I guess I wouldn’t really know.”

  Natalie sprang to her feet, barely catching her purse as it threatened to tumble off her lap and onto a tired-looking linoleum floor.

  The other woman’s light, caramel-colored gaze traveled upward to a dusty vent and she stretched onto her tiptoes to give it a good rap with her knuckles. The movement caused her snug, designer T-shirt to slip out from inside low-slung slacks, exposing an immodest amount of pale skin. “Look out,” she warned and darted sideways, unselfconsciously stuffing her shirt back into the back of her pants as she went.

  With a small gasp, Natalie mirrored the movement and just missed being hit by the light shower of dirt and general gunk that rained down between them. Sunlight poured in from a nearby window, causing the tiny floating dust particles to take on an ethereal glow.

  “It would help if they cleaned this place—” the woman narrowed her eyes at the offending vent one last time before refocusing on Natalie—“ever.” Then a good-natured smile stretched across her face and lit up delicate features.

  “I’m Detective Adele Lejeune.” She pronounced her last name “La-Zshoon,” giving it a slightly exotic sound to Natalie’s ears.

  Natalie couldn’t help but think that the gun and gold badge worn on the detective’s hip didn’t fit with the rest of the friendly, girlish picture. It made her feel foolish, but Natalie realized she hadn’t been expecting to see a woman or someone her own age.

  Adele looked around at the semi-controlled chaos and winced as they shook hands. Today was a particularly loud day. “I hope you’re still sane after waiting out here in the snake pit.”

  Natalie suppressed a tiny chuckle. Grasping the detective’s hand, she noted the contrast between the soft skin over slender fingers and the confident, solid grip and shake.

  “Natalie Abbott.” She slung her purse over her shoulder and wiped moist palms off on the thighs of her jeans. “Thank you for seeing me without an appointment. The woman at the desk told me I’d probably have to come back tomorrow.”

  Detective Lejeune shrugged. “It’s no problem. You caught me at the perfect time. My partner is out with the flu this week, and I was just catching up on some paperwork, which is not my favorite task. I try to spend as little time in the office as possible.”

  Natalie forced herself not to wrinkle her nose. She couldn’t blame her.

  “Anyway, I’m with NOPD’s Criminal Investigation Division, Juvenile Section.”

  With a tilt of her head, Detective Lejeune asked Natalie to follow her. They quickly passed through a heavy set of security doors, and began the trek down a narrow, long hallway lined with scratched, mint-green file cabinets that looked like something out of the 1950s.

  “My unit specializes in missing children and parental kidnappings. Though I tend to deal more with the former.” Adele pointed straight ahead. “There’s a private office we can use back here to talk.”

  The detective turned sideways in the hall to let a cocoa-skinned uniformed officer, who sported a wicked-looking tattoo, pass. “Hey Al.” Adele softly smacked his muscular shoulder with the back of her hand as she strode by. “You owe me twenty bucks. I haven’t forgotten.” She waggled a finger over her shoulder in his direction.

  “Hey, Little Mama,” the young cop answered happily, the faint scent of musky cologne and sweat trailing after him. “I haven’t forgotten either. Don’t you worry.”

  Natalie’s focus was wholly transfixed on the fit woman in front of her as she took in the assured, rolling gait that bordered on a swagger. The detective had dirty blond hair styled in a longish pixie haircut that suited her heart-shaped face and slender neck. She was an inch, or maybe an inch-and-a-half, taller than her own five-and-a-half-feet and far more put together-looking than any policewoman Natalie had seen on television.

  “It’s a bit cooler here than where you just were. But not much,” Adele drawled conversationally, not bothering to look back over her shoulder as they walked.

  They passed a large room filled with old wooden desks covered with paper files and computers. Inside the room, clusters of men with guns and badges, but in plainclothes, huddled around the desks talking. More than one curious gaze swung their way as they walked.

  Glad to be distracted from the reason for her visit, even for a few seconds, Natalie idly noted that it must be difficult for Detective Lejeune to look the way she did in her line of work. Pretty and so delightfully…unexpected. But then all thoughts of anything but Josh were whisked away as soon as they entered the nondescript, gray-walled office.

  “Please, have a seat.” Adele grabbed a notepad and pen from a cardboard box on the floor near the back of the room. She gestured toward a metal chair on one side of a small square table.

  Natalie sat and swallowed nervously. She’d never been inside a police station before. It was not only disconcerting, it was so…official. Josh had never been in any real trouble, and rationally, she knew he was probably fine. But his address…maybe her mother had written it down wrong.

  “Lorraine at the front desk said that you’re here about your stepbrother, who is missing. Will you tell me about him and what happened?” Detective Lejeune crossed her legs and allowed her top foot to bounce up and down a few times, her eyes sweeping over Natalie and clearly drinking in every detail.

  Natalie wondered if
the detective always had this much restless energy at the start of a case. “Yes,” she began, profoundly relieved to finally be doing something productive. “Joshua Phillips. But you can leave the ‘step’ out of the equation. He’s just my brother. He and his girlfriend, Misty Kazik, left home and came here seven weeks ago. Josh is very close to our parents, especially our mom. His birth mother died when he was a baby and my mother has raised him since he was in diapers.

  “He and my mom spoke almost every day when he first arrived in New Orleans, and then nothing. He hasn’t answered his phone or contacted the family for five weeks now. We think…well, something must have happened. My mom has left him about a hundred voice mails.”

  When Josh turned thirteen, Natalie added him to her calling plan and purchased him a cell phone so he wouldn’t be the only kid in his class without one. She knew what it was like to grow up poor, always peering in hopefully from the outside, wishing for what others simply took for granted.

  While she didn’t think teenagers needed every little thing their hearts desired, it hurt Natalie to think of Josh doing without. She’d recently gifted him the newest iPhone. “Misty never had a phone. She just uses Josh’s.” She didn’t add that Misty’s drunken mother couldn’t care less where Misty was now.

  Adele nodded thoughtfully as she tapped her chin lightly with the pen. “He came here? Not ran away?”

  The power of Detective Lejeune’s piercing gaze was palpable, and Natalie rubbed one of her temples with her fingertips, willing her headache away.

  “He ran away. He told me about his crazy plan to move here at the end of the school year. We all told him no, but he left anyway. My parents sent him money to help him, then stopped hearing from him.”

  “Ms. Abbott, how old is Josh?”

  “He’s sixteen and will be for a couple more months. Misty is seventeen.”

  “And you’re just now coming to the police?”

  There was no judgment in Detective Lejeune’s voice, just curiosity. But Natalie felt the censure all the same. “I just found out,” she said flatly. “I’ve…my parents. I just found out,” she repeated in an uneven breath.

  Adele nodded and scribbled something on the paper in front of her. “And you’re from a northern city, I presume?” She cocked her head to the side. “You, um, look a bit more wilted than our average citizen,” she said tactfully.

  Natalie rolled her eyes at her undoubtedly bedraggled appearance. “Madison, Wisconsin.”

  Adele’s eyes twinkled. “Home of…cheese?”

  Despite her uneasiness, Natalie released a small smile. “Something like that.”

  “This is a long way from home then.”

  “Mmm.” Natalie dug in her purse for the photo of Josh she’d just had printed at a local drugstore. “Josh plays the clarinet. He’s talented and wants to be a musician. Despite testing very well academically, he’s never been interested in school.”

  Natalie clutched at the purse in her lap while she continued to hunt. “When he told me he wanted to drop out and get a GED I was shocked. But he loves jazz and is convinced he doesn’t need to understand algebra or chemistry to play his music. He’s been dying to come here ever since I can remember.” The color rose in her cheeks. “Even Hurricane Katrina didn’t deter him. Though that should have kept anyone with any sense away.”

  “Believe it or not, Ms. Abbott, there are some of us who love living here.” Her voice hardened and she kept her eyes on her notes as she spoke. “And even with the weather, a few of us manage some semblance of sense.”

  Natalie’s eyes widened and her heart beat faster when she realized what she’d said. And how rude it was. “Oh, my God. I didn’t mean…I didn’t. I don’t doubt that.” She winced, knowing she’d offended the detective. “I’m so sorry. It’s just that it looked so terrible on television, and my family has been concerned about how dangerous it might be to live here after everything. I know there’s been so much progress cleaning things up and repairing the city.”

  When the detective appeared unmoved, the words seemed to pour out of Natalie. “And, I’m scared. And I’m missing work, and I haven’t slept well and—”

  Adele held up a hand and squared her shoulders. “It’s okay. I…I’m a bit touchy to comments from outsiders. It’s…” she expelled a slow breath and kicked her legs out in front of her, crossing them at the ankle. “Well, it was a lot to deal with. Still is.”

  “Of course.” Natalie’s pale blue gaze conveyed honest regret and Adele breathed a bit easier. “Even with all the rebuilding that’s necessary, it’s still a beautiful place. I can see that after being here for only two-and-a-half days. I shouldn’t have made it sound otherwise.”

  Adele managed a weak smile and cleared her throat. “Has Josh ever been arrested?”

  The transition was jarring, and it took Natalie’s brain a few seconds to adjust. “No.”

  “Trouble in school?”

  “No.”

  “Did he ever run away from home when he was younger?”

  “No.”

  “Fights?”

  She shook her head and frowned. Her mother would have mentioned… “He’s a good kid.”

  Adele blinked, then frowned. “Never?”

  “Are you saying that if he’d been in a school fight in the second grade that you wouldn’t look for him now? He’s missing.”

  Adele ignored the question. “What about gang involvement?”

  “No. My family doesn’t come from money.” She glanced at Adele’s expensive watch and left the words like you do unspoken. “But that doesn’t mean we’re part of the Hell’s Angels.”

  One of Adele’s eyebrows twitched and she locked eyes with Natalie. “What about sexual or physical abuse in the home or elsewhere?”

  The way she said it was so matter-of-fact. Like she expected the answer to be yes. Like it was somehow perfectly okay if the answer was yes.

  A hot rush of anger caused Natalie’s chest to flush. “Of course not! Do you think I would traipse halfway across the country to bring someone I love back into an abusive situation?” Rationally, she knew these questions were necessary, but that didn’t stop their sting.

  Adele looked as though she wanted to explain herself, but held back. “Drug or alcohol use?”

  When Natalie didn’t answer right away Adele pinned her with an even more serious look. “Ms. Abbott?”

  “Call me Natalie, please.”

  “Natalie,” Adele amended softly. Her voice took on a sympathetic but firm tone. “You need to be honest with me or I can’t help your brother.”

  “Alcohol, yes. My stepdad let him have beer at home and he abused that privilege more than once. But, it was always just normal teenage stuff, you know?”

  “Actually, I don’t.” Then Adele remained quiet, her expression steady and open, asking Natalie to continue.

  Natalie sighed. “Marijuana…probably. I smelled it on him a few times last semester. I confronted him about it. He said he was just around some kids who were smoking it and that it wasn’t his. He never got into any trouble, so I let it go.”

  “Nothing besides pot?”

  Natalie didn’t see Josh every week or even every month anymore. During her years of study she’d lived out of state and the siblings had drifted apart. Then even when she’d come back to Madison to start her career, they’d stayed that way. Loving, but distant. With a pang, Natalie realized how selfish she’d been. She hated that she could no longer answer such an important, simple question absolutely. “I-I don’t think so.”

  “But you’re not sure?” Adele prodded. She shifted once again so that both her feet were firmly planted on the floor and she fully faced Natalie, leaning toward her.

  This pose was slightly more aggressive and though it was subtle, Natalie’s reaction was immediate. One of her hands shaped a tight fist while her jaw worked. “No,” she snapped, but the anger she was feeling was directed more toward herself than the detective. “Clearly, I’m not certain of
anything at all.”

  Natalie realized she was still holding Josh’s photo in her other hand. She slid it across the table. Grabbing hold of her emotions, Natalie forced the corner of her mouth to quirk upward, but she couldn’t stop her eyes from glistening. “Are you sure you aren’t a lawyer? A prosecutor maybe?”

  Adele’s demeanor melted into something that looked a lot like remorse or pity. “It doesn’t sound like you deserve to be prosecuted.”

  Natalie refused to allow the words to make her feel better.

  “Did Josh mention a job? Or new friends?”

  Natalie searched her mind for everything her mother had told her about their calls. “Not really. He mentioned looking for a job.”

  Adele leaned back in her chair and tossed the pen on the tabletop. It sounded unnaturally loud in the mostly empty room and they both flinched. “Okay. Let’s try something different. Think about the last conversation you had.”

  “I didn’t even know he was in New Orleans at the time. Everything seemed just the same.”

  Adele chewed the inside of her cheek. “Okay, think of what time of day it was when you spoke. What you had to eat that day. What was on TV. The weather. Everything. The smells. The sounds. Put yourself back in the moment.” She waited nearly a full minute before speaking again, until Natalie nodded that she was ready, obviously having done her best to mentally rewind time.

  “The phone rings and you greet each other. Josh is…?”

  Natalie’s forehead creased. “He’s…happy.”

  Adele smiled. “Okay, he’s happy he’s in New Orleans. Even though you didn’t know he was here.”

  The detective’s voice reminded her of a hypnotist’s, calm and reassuring, and although the way Adele pronounced New Aww-lens tugged at Natalie’s attention, she refocused herself quickly. “Yes.” She thought for a moment. “He talked about getting a new case for his clarinet.”

  “Good,” Adele murmured. “So he’s happy because he’s someplace he’s always wanted to be. He’s enjoying the music scene and dreaming of someday playing his horn in some smoky club. Wishing for a better case.”