For His Daughter

by Dani Sinclair

  She dropped her napkin onto her plate. “Forget it. I said more than I meant to say.”

  “You’re lucky I don’t have time to argue. Come on. We can talk in the car.”

  Kayla looked surprised. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Okay. Give me directions to your brother’s place.”

  “Not a chance.”

  Her jaw set in a stubborn line. Lee could see she wasn’t going to budge on this issue. “Fine. Then point me in another direction. I’ll catch up with Alex later.”

  “I don’t have any idea where else to send you.”

  “You said the Ruckles were at the restaurant last night along with your brother and the doctor. I think you also mentioned the mayor. Who else was there that might have seen me leave?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

  “Try.”

  “Lee, I don’t know,” she protested. “Half the town was there. Jake Collins opened the restaurant last week. Everyone’s been dying of curiosity. That was the old Perry mansion, you know. The restaurant has been crowded every single night, and last night was Father’s Day. Lots of people were eating out.”

  “Okay. We’ll start with the doctor.”

  “She’s visiting family today and tomorrow.”

  “And the mayor?”

  “Will be at city hall about now. Want to go talk to her there?”

  Lee muttered. “That’s probably the only place the cops won’t be looking for me at this point.”

  Going back to the motel was out for now, which meant he’d have to wait to talk with the Ruckles. Checking out the park where they’d been shot at this morning would be risky, as well, and he’d do better going back to the restaurant tonight when the same people were apt to be on duty. The quiet man calling himself Jake Collins hadn’t recognized Lee in the parking lot, which meant he wasn’t a source of information. That left the kid, Matt, and Alex.

  “Come on,” he said, getting to his feet.

  “I told you, I’m not going anywhere.”

  There was something in her expression that stopped him. She wouldn’t meet his eyes. “What are you planning to do, Kayla?” She flushed guiltily. Lee suddenly realized she planned to call the police station as soon as he left. He battled a swell of anger.

  “You really think I killed her, don’t you?”

  “You said yourself you don’t remember.”

  Lee leaned forward and planted his hands on the table. “Your brother said the room was set up for Fay to meet her lover.” Bitterness sat like a weight in his gut. “Do you really think I would have touched her that way ever again?”

  Kayla shivered at the emotion behind his words. She swallowed past the trepidation that rose inside her. She didn’t want to believe he had killed her but she couldn’t help wondering. “You might have if you thought it would get you Meredith,” she said carefully.

  Lee didn’t even blink. He stared at her with eyes of gray chipped stone.

  “You’re right. I would do absolutely anything for my daughter, but the last thing...the very last thing Fay wanted from me was sex. I haven’t touched her since the night Meredith was conceived. And that wasn’t a pleasant memory for either one of us.”

  Absolute certainty mingled with his anger.

  Kayla didn’t doubt for a moment that Lee was capable of murder. Everyone was if the conditions were right. And Fay had certainly stacked the conditions last night. Lee definitely hated her enough to have killed her. So why did Kayla have this niggling doubt?

  With an expletive, Lee strode from the room. Shaken, she sat there letting her heart continue to pound chaotically against her chest. In the front room, she heard him begin to curse. The undercurrent of raw pain sent her hurrying after him. Lee stood near the living room window, his features a mask of helpless rage.

  “Lee?”

  He didn’t even glance her way. She followed his stare to find a Montgomery County police car parked in front of the Strongmore residence. A dark sedan she’d never seen before sat in the driveway and a tall brunette in a white pant suit carried a violently struggling Meredith to the car. Meredith was screaming “no” and calling for her daddy loud enough to be heard clearly where Kayla stood.

  “Who is that woman? What is she doing with Meredith?”

  Mary Lou Strongmore watched helplessly from her front porch ignoring the uniformed policeman who stood talking to her.

  Meredith continued to scream for her daddy.

  “Lee? Do something! Stop that woman!”

  The expression of helpless grief on his face was unbearable. Kayla started for the front door. Lee grabbed her arm to stop her.

  “She’s from social services,” he growled, letting her go when she came to a stop to turn back toward the scene outside. “Your police chief didn’t waste any time.”

  “He can’t do that! Meredith doesn’t know those people! She doesn’t understand!”

  The child’s frantic struggles and pathetic cries for her father were tearing Kayla apart. “They can’t just take her away like this. It isn’t right!”

  Lee drove his fist into his palm over and over again. His jaw was tightly clenched and there were tears in his eyes. He closed them against the sight and swallowed hard while a muscle worked in his jaw.

  Kayla couldn’t stand to see his pain. “Wait here, Lee. I’ll go over there and make them give her to me. I’ll keep her with me until this is settled.”

  “That’s not how it works, Kayla,” he said, so softly and with such bitterness it held her motionless. “They’ll only turn her over to a relative at this point.”

  “But—”

  She watched him striving to push the pain to some recess in his mind.

  “My folks live in Florida. My sister is in Texas, but I’ll call one of them.”

  “But—”

  He fixed her with an empty stare. The transition was complete. He’d buried the loving father beneath a layer of cold, hard anger.

  “You’re coming with me,” Lee stated. The dark sedan backed down the driveway. They could still hear Meredith screaming. Kayla thought the sound would haunt her for the rest of her life. The policeman left the porch, heading for his car.

  “I need to buy some time,” Lee continued in an inflexible monotone that raised the hairs on the back of her neck. “So we’re going to go outside, get in your car and drive.”

  “Or else what?”

  “There is no ‘or else.’”

  Kayla knew she should be afraid. Part of her was afraid. But mostly she was as angry as Lee. The police had just taken a frightened little girl away from the only security she knew and handed her over to complete strangers. Kayla felt every bit of Lee’s helpless pain. In this, they were firmly united.

  No one knew better than she did that you couldn’t trust the police. Maybe Lee had killed Fay, but he was Meredith’s father. He deserved a chance to prove his innocence. He deserved a better chance than Kayla’s own father had been given.

  Kayla stared as the police car pulled away.

  Meredith’s screams echoed in her mind. They had pierced her soul.

  “We can go now,” she said.

  Lee’s surprise quickly vanished beneath a hard mask. “We’ll go out the back and along the side of the house.”

  She trailed behind his longer strides, only pausing on her way through the kitchen to grab her purse. Outside, she tried to hand him her car keys, but he shook his head. “You’re driving.”

  “Where?” She would help him, but not at her brother’s expense. She would not take him to Alex.

  “Let’s see if they’ve started going through Fay’s house yet,”

  Relieved, she nodded. “I have a set of keys.”

  “Good. We won’t have to break a window to get inside.”

  He slipped into the passenger seat and slumped below the dashboard, out of sight. Kayla backed out of the driveway. Mary Lou burst onto her porch and began to wave her cane at them, but Kayla ignored her neighbor
with a silent apology and a promise to return and explain later.

  “Should I park in Fay’s driveway when I get there?”

  “No. Drive past the house slowly. First we’ll see if anyone’s there. If not, drive past a few houses before you pull over. We’ll walk back.”

  “What do we do if the police catch us inside?”

  “We act surprised and tell them we came to get something of Meredith’s.”

  “A change of clothing?”

  He slanted her a look. “Perfect.”

  The driveway was empty. To Kayla, there was no sign that anyone had been near the house, but Lee looked more troubled than ever. He stared intently at the empty driveway and the muscle in his jaw jumped.

  “Something wrong?”

  He gave her a droll look. Kayla didn’t push for an explanation. She parked near the end of the street by Jones Lane and got out, hurrying to keep up as Lee started back toward Fay’s.

  “Why did we come here?”

  “Because you didn’t want me to talk to your brother.” He studied the quiet neighborhood with suspicious eyes.

  “What do you expect to find?”

  “Something that will tell us who she was meeting last night. We won’t have much time, either. I’m surprised no one’s here yet.”

  “Fay always wrote her doctor’s appointments on the calendar in the kitchen, but she didn’t keep an appointment calendar per se.”

  “I remember. She also didn’t write down her assignations. At least, not on the kitchen calendar when we were together. I think we’ll start in her bedroom. You take her dresser, I’ll do the nightstands.”

  Kayla produced the key and they entered boldly through the front door. The house was overly warm and smelled musty. Dust motes danced in the air when the door was opened.

  “Lock it behind us,” Lee ordered. He was already halfway up the stairs. He headed for the master bedroom, stopping a second at his daughter’s room for a quick glance inside.

  “Kayla, does Fay have any gloves in the house? It would be better if my prints aren’t found in here.”

  “I think there’s a pair of those rubber things in the kitchen. Do you want them?”

  “Anything.”

  She found several packages and took an extra second to glance at the calendar. The only notation was dinner with the Ruckles. In the bedroom she found Lee holding the small address book Fay usually kept in her purse. He had used a tissue to open the nightstand drawer.

  “What did you find?” she asked, worried that Alex’s address might be inside Fay’s book.

  “Nothing but a list of phone numbers. She didn’t bother writing down addresses to go with them, unfortunately. Did you find some gloves.”

  “Here. They’ll probably be a tight fit on your hands.”

  “I’ll manage.” She watched him struggle with the latex and wondered if those were the hands of a killer. Somehow, Kayla didn’t think so. Maybe she just didn’t want to think of Lee like that. Somewhere in the course of this afternoon, Lee had stopped being Fay’s ex-husband the cop and become Meredith’s father, a man she wanted to believe in.

  Not liking the direction of those thoughts, Kayla put on a pair of gloves herself and opened the top dresser drawer.

  “Kayla?” Lee asked after a minute. “Who’s Barney?”

  “He’s a purple dinosaur that...” She stopped when she realized he was holding a fashion magazine and a folded sheet of paper. “What’s that?”

  “A love note from someone called Barney.”

  “What? Let me see that!”

  “Look, but don’t touch. I don’t want to disturb any prints that might be on this.” She started to read the printed words over his shoulder and quickly stopped. “That’s not a love note. That...that’s pornography.”

  Lee’s smile lacked humor. “All in the eyes of the beholder.”

  “In anyone’s eyes!”

  “I admit, I never would have thought of Fay’s breasts as—”

  “Don’t you dare say that out loud. It’s sick!”

  “Yeah, well, this doesn’t get any better. There’re several more of these in the bottom of the drawer. Look at the signature.” .

  “I may throw up.” But her gaze fell on the closing lines. “Your humble serpent?”

  “I think he meant servant. On the other hand...” Lee shrugged, carefully refolding the note and tucking it back inside the magazine where he’d found it. “So, who do you know named Barney?”

  “Barney Trowbridge, but it can’t be him.”

  Lee cocked his head, waiting for an explanation.

  “He’s...I guess you’d call him the assistant manager and resident handyman at the Bide Awhile. Fay would never have anything to do with someone like him.”

  “For someone who claims to be her best friend, you sure don’t seem to know my ex very well. This one is printed on the motel’s stationery.”

  Kayla shivered in disgust. “I’ve never claimed to be Fay’s best friend. You’re the one who keeps saying that.”

  “Sorry. I guess I should I have said her only friend?”

  Anger pricked her into a retort. “Fay had lots of friends.”

  “I meant of the female persuasion.”

  “You can be a real jerk, you know that?”

  Lee waved her anger aside with a flick of a yellow-gloved hand. “Tell me about Trowbridge.”

  “What’s to tell? He’s big, he’s not very intelligent, and he keeps to himself.”

  “You have a way with description, you know that. What do you mean by big? Tall, fat—?”

  “He’s taller than you, and he must weigh close to two hundred seventy pounds, but not much of it is fat. He lifts weights. He has—”

  “Dark hair in need of a trim? Baggy jeans? Hairy arms and an eyebrow that spans his forehead?” .

  Kayla choked on an unexpected laugh. “You’ve met?”

  “He checked me in last night and was cleaning the pool out behind Fay’s unit this morning. You’re right, he’s not a talkative sort.”

  “No,” she agreed. “Do you think he killed her?”

  “I don’t know, but I really, really like this.”

  “Lee, as much as I’d like you to be right...well, if you’ve seen him, then you know Fay was not having an affair with the man. He’s got an extremely low IQ.”

  “Fay wasn’t interested in his brains, Kayla.”

  “Don’t be crude.”

  “I’m being honest.”

  “She would not have had an affair with Barney.”

  “The notes say otherwise.” He replaced the magazine in the nightstand.

  “They do not!”

  “She kept them, Kayla.”

  “She probably didn’t want to get him in trouble.”

  “You didn’t read the whole thing.”

  “So what?”

  “It described her birthmark.” Kayla closed her mouth on the rest of her protest. Fay’s birthmark was on her inner thigh, so high up that she had to be naked with her legs spread for it to show. Kayla closed her eyes against a wave of disgust..

  “I see you know the mark I mean.”

  “She showed it to me once when we were swimming. I didn’t believe her when she said she had a purple birthmark that looked like a...” She refused to go any further with this. The whole thing made her sick.

  “A phallus,” he supplied blandly.

  Kayla turned back to the dresser so Lee wouldn’t see her hot cheeks. She opened Fay’s jewelry box, feeling like a thief. On top of the jumbled jewelry sat an expensive silver locket looking as if it had been dropped there in a hurry.

  “Still a pack rat, I see,” Lee continued. She heard him opening the drawer on the other side of the bed.

  Kayla opened the locket. Her heart stuttered to a stop and resumed beating at full speed. Her brother’s picture stared back at her from inside the locket. Kayla snapped it shut.

  “Did you find anything?” she asked frantically.

  �
�Nothing. I’ll try her closet next. What have you got?”

  She closed her hand tightly over the locket, trying to deny the evidence of her own eyes. “Nothing.”

  “Yeah? Let me see what sort of nothing would turn you that particular shade of white.”

  “It’s nothing. Just a—”

  His hand clamped over her mouth without warning. His head was cocked to one side as if he was straining to listen to something. Over the pounding of her heart, she heard a noise that sounded as though it came from below them.

  “Someone just broke a window,” he whispered so softly she could barely hear his words. He took his hand away.

  “The police?” she mouthed in fear.

  Lee moved silently to the window and looked out.

  His shoulders lifted and fell in an “I don’t know” gesture. Kayla knew there was no way out of the house from up here unless they tied the bedsheets together and dropped out the second-story window.

  They were trapped.

  Chapter Five

  “Hey, you! What are you doing over there?” The woman’s voice carried plainly through the closed window. Her question ended on a scream. Gunshots followed, one slamming through the roof right beneath the window where Lee stood.

  “Was that—?” Lee whirled and pinned Kayla against the far wall, covering her with his body before she could finish the question. When no more shots rang out, he moved. “Stay there! And stay down!”

  He raced downstairs, slowing only to approach the kitchen area cautiously. Since cops don’t generally shoot inquisitive neighbors, he assumed the shooter had been breaking into Fay’s house and probably wouldn’t stick around.

  He was right. Someone had punched through a pane of glass on Fay’s back door. Only the security chain had prevented immediate entrance. The chain now dangled from an extra long screw still anchored in the splintered door frame. Another shove would have put the person inside.

  Lee spotted a running figure disappearing through the trees behind the house. Time to go.

  “Kayla! Let’s—” As he spun around, he slammed right into her. Lee swore. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide.

  “Don’t you ever do what you’re told?” he asked, exasperated.