Only we know, our minds so synchronized we hardly need to speak, our delight in each other complete.
Yet into that joy had come needle pricks of desire to run without Lucy holding her back, to fling out her arms and fly solo. Shame dizzied her. Lucy had needed her then and needed her now. “It won’t be long. I’ve found the one I needed.”
“Oh, Lizzie,” Lucy breathed. “Who is it?”
Liz clutched the lifeless pups.
“A friend of Tia’s. She’s perfect.”
“He said yes!” Piper shrilled, one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the cell phone. “At least, he said put together an offer and we’ll see where it goes.”
Miles said, “It will go.”
His confidence boosted her already buoyant mood. “I sure hope you were serious.”
“Have I ever not been?”
“Umm, yes.” She laughed. “I went by the hospital to make sure Tia didn’t mind if we took over her shop, but she’s happy too.”
“That’s good.”
“Anyway, I know we said your house tonight, but I forgot to water the plants. For, like, two weeks. Tia just reminded me.”
“That’s okay.”
“Can you come over? We can still try out some recipes.”
“I could make dinner.”
“Really?”
“I do know how to cook.”
She used her signal to pass someone on the highway. “I should think so with that gourmet kitchen. Or we could go out.”
“I don’t eat out if I haven’t seen the kitchen.”
“So that’s why you scoped out my pantry?”
“I’d rather not remember that.”
“It’s one of my treasured Miles moments.” She slowed as she entered the city limits. “I’ll be home in about five minutes.”
“I’ll shower and see you there.”
“Okay.” He could have come straight over, but who cared if he liked getting clean? A lot.
She parked beside the house and got out. She might not be living here for long, but if their plan worked—
She felt the sting and thought the monster of all wasps had stung moments before her limbs got spongy and her head rushed.
Thirty-Two
When our two lives grew like two buds that kiss
At lightest thrill from the bee’s swinging chime,
Because the one so near the other is.
—GEORGE ELIOT
In the waning western light, Jonah reflected her surprise. “Let me get this straight. Piper, Sarge, and Miles?”
Tia nodded. While the nurse had changed his bandages, she had slipped into the hall to hear Piper’s news. “It sounds like Sarge is excited. He told Piper to make him proud.”
“And Miles.”
“Piper thinks he’s something special. All the boys in town buzzing around her like bees.” She smiled.
“How does that even work? With no touching?”
Incomprehensible to Jonah Westfall—thank God. “They’ll have to overcome the barriers.” She sat on the side of the bed where they’d lowered the rail, frustrated by their own barriers. “His affection for Piper and hers for him should be powerful incentive.”
“I’m experiencing powerful incentive.” He clasped her knee.
“Because you thought about touching.”
“Come here.” He caught her face and kissed her, causing a buzz that she realized belatedly was the phone in her pocket. His lips moved against hers, “Ignore it.”
“It could be the Hopeline.” She drew back and checked, then curious, answered, “Hello, Miles.”
Her heart thumped when he said, “Piper’s missing.”
“What do you mean?” She’d just seen her, just sent her off, beaming with her good news.
“She said to meet at her house, but she’s not here.”
Tia checked her watch. More than enough time for Piper to get home, but that didn’t mean trouble—except maybe in this man’s precise world. “Maybe she didn’t hear you at the door.”
“I tried all the doors.”
“I guess she’s late.”
“She isn’t just late. She’s in trouble.”
Trouble? “Hold on a minute.” She pressed a button. “You’re on speaker with Chief Westfall, Miles. Tell us what’s wrong.”
“Bob Betters threatened her. Outside the bakery. He said she caused him trouble and he wouldn’t forget that.”
To Jonah, “Is Bob out?”
“He made bail that first night.”
She rolled her eyes.
Miles again: “He threatened her, and she said I should come to her house and she’s not here.”
“Don’t panic, Miles. There are a lot of possibilities.”
Jonah said, “I’ll call in, have them check Bob out.”
The jerk. He would deserve the hassle for the threat alone. But her chest squeezed. “She was driving home from the hospital. Can the highway patrol—”
“I’ll get that too.”
“Miles, I’ll come over and check the house, but she might have stopped for something. Maybe you beat her there.”
“She said five minutes. She had to water the plants. I took a shower. And I picked flowers.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” If it proved to be nothing, she could at least calm him. But it didn’t feel like nothing.
She hung up, and Jonah caught her wrist. “What are the chances he’ll freak out?”
“Miles is the least of my worries. She told him five minutes. That’s specific.”
“Things happen.”
“Jonah, Bob drugged her once, intending sexual assault.”
“I’ll send someone to the house.”
“Exactly how many officers do you have with no broken legs or bullet holes who aren’t suspended?”
His hand tightened. “Don’t go inside until an officer arrives.”
“Are you kidding me?” She punched the callback on her phone. “Miles, there’s a key in the birdhouse. If Bob has Piper inside—”
Jonah spoke over her. “Use only what force is necessary to subdue him. Do you hear me, Miles? Tia?”
But she had shut the phone off and run for the door.
Jonah put the calls through to dispatch, but something didn’t sit right. Bob was a sleaze, but he was also a sneak and a coward. He might make a threat, but would he—
“How are you doing, Chief?” Nurse Nancy raised his arm to apply the cuff and take his blood pressure.
“I’m good to go.”
“Where would you place your pain, one to ten?”
He answered her questions. The pain had lessened. No excessive bleeding, swelling, burning. His sluggish body functions were what they were. Breathing better. Eyes still stung from the toxic smoke. “But listen. I should be out of here. I have a job to do.” And precious few others available to do it.
“I’ll pass the word to Dr. Vargas.”
The doctor with the stone ear. “I tried him.”
“I’m sure you did.”
He returned to the ruminations that had not ceased the entire time. Bob Betters had snuck Piper a roofie and might have assaulted her if he hadn’t been caught. But he probably could have gotten away with that. This was different. Acting on a threat made in daylight with witnesses?
He shook his head. An accident on the highway was more likely. The state patrol would check that out. He took a sip through the bent straw, the water almost room temperature. Tia had surely tried Piper’s cell phone, but he called it himself and got no answer. If she hadn’t stopped somewhere, then what? Miles? What did any of them know about the guy?
He reached for the laptop Moser had brought him, set a search for Miles Forsythe. Rubbing his burning eyes, he read one and then another article, searched an impressive Web site, then the law-enforcement database and found no complaints or arrests, not even a citation.
The highway patrol called with an all clear on accidents along the stretch of road between the hospi
tal and Redford. She had not crashed or broken down. He called Beatty again. The rookie officer on duty—and overtime as Tia had pointed out—had been code six on a domestic disturbance. He came on now.
“Go ahead, Chief.”
“Have you located Robert Betters?”
“On my way now.”
“Anyone on shift with you?”
“Negative.” With only Beatty, Moser, and McCarthy, they’d been pulling what backup they could from the sheriff’s department that still had crew out with flu.
“I’m redirecting you to Sprague Street, house number 18. We’re looking for a white female, approximate height five-nine, blond hair, age twenty-one, eye color blue.”
“Would that be Piper, Chief?”
“It is.” He shouldn’t be surprised the officer knew her name and address. It suddenly struck him they hadn’t checked for her car. If she’d made it to the house and wasn’t there, he’d be concerned.
“Check that location for a vehicle. If it’s there and she’s not, put out an APB. Be advised of an incident of harassment around 3 p.m. today.”
“Copy, Chief. Would that be Robert Betters?”
“Affirmative. Beatty, I want you to scope the location for any sign of struggle. What’s your ETA?”
“Leaving a domestic on Marburry. ETA ten minutes.”
“You’ve got two people possible on the scene—” if Tia had arrived by the time Beatty did. “Miles Forsythe witnessed the earlier threat, also the last person to speak to her.”
“Okay.”
Receiving a call back, Jonah asked the deputy sheriff to help locate Bob Betters, gave her the background on the previous arrest and the current harassment. If Bob was unaccounted for, they’d focus there—when they got there—if they got there. He clenched his hands in frustration and reminded himself this could be nothing. Nowhere near enough time to consider her missing.
However, he still asked himself who else would have cause to bother her. He’d seen her with a group her age and sometimes, as on the night Sarge fired her, with one or another in particular. No indication of animosity. He had a hard time picturing it.
The only time he’d seen her worked up or heard a bad word toward anyone was when she defended Tia from … Liz.
Pulling up to the house beside Piper’s car, Tia heaved a sigh of relief. But then Miles came around from the back, shaking his head.
Tia frowned. “She’s not in the house?”
“I checked everywhere. And the plants aren’t watered.”
“But … her car’s here.” She moved around to the driver’s side and froze. Keys lay in the dirt and, just behind the tire, a beaded leather sandal. Tia pressed her hands to her mouth, dread descending.
“Something’s wrong. Something’s really wrong.” Miles bent and searched around and under the car, but she was already running for the door. If Miles had looked or even called out, he still could have missed her. She might be too scared to answer him.
Yanking open the door, she called, “Piper, it’s Tia. Are you here?”
No response.
Where would she hide? She pulled open all the doors on the ground level, the kitchen, the mud room. A terrible foreboding sank in as she climbed the stairs with Miles just behind. Please God, don’t let them find her dead.
Miles seemed to sense it and emitted a high-pitched hum.
“Miles. What were your plans?”
“We were going to discuss the bistro. I was making dinner. Everything I brought is on the porch. She didn’t answer the door. She would have answered the door.”
Quaking, Tia went into Piper’s room. The bed was neat, the springs high enough she could see the wooden floor and nothing else beneath. Holding her breath, she opened the closet. Nothing but clothes.
“I looked there. I looked everywhere.”
She pressed a hand to the tear that streaked down her cheek. “I’m not doubting you, Miles. I just have to see for myself.” They searched the other rooms, including the attic accessed by a pull-down ladder. No Piper.
She jumped when the doorbell rang.
They shared a look, then Miles preceded her into the hall and down the stairs. Seeing a uniform through the glass, he froze. Had they found her on the highway?
She swallowed her fear, then remembered. “Jonah sent him.” She reached around Miles and opened the door to a fresh-faced officer maybe no more than Piper’s age.
“I’m Officer Beatty, ma’am. The chief requested I search the premises.”
“We already did. She’s not here. But there’s something you need to see.” She took him around the side and showed him the keys and sandal.
“Did you touch anything?”
She shook her head, waiting while he photographed the items where they lay.
“Did you see anything else out of place or missing, besides … Piper?”
Tia jolted. “You know her?”
The officer nodded. “From Java Cava.” He looked up, squinting in the shafting light. “You’re Miles?”
Miles looked troubled.
“She’s mentioned you.”
His hands squeezed and unsqueezed. “I was supposed to meet her here. She said five minutes, and she had to water the plants.” He had fallen into the speech pattern of a high-stress episode. This qualified.
“Mrs., um, Westfall?”
She turned. “Tia, please.”
“I do need to look inside.”
“Of course.”
“If you’ll wait here.”
She nodded, knowing he was following orders but chafing at the delay. Piper was not in the house. She looked at the bag of groceries Miles had brought to make their meal. Piper would have enjoyed that.
After searching, at length, Officer Beatty came back outside. “Would she have walked somewhere?”
“Not without her sandal.” Tia’s voice broke. “Please. Is someone looking for Bob Betters?”
“Let me check with the station.” He went down the walk and into his squad car. A good kid, no doubt.
She closed her eyes, wishing, wishing Jonah were not incapacitated in a hospital bed. How many times had she resented his supercompetence, his overprotectiveness? She needed him now. Piper needed him. Miles shifted from foot to foot, needing Jonah too.
Officer Beatty stepped out of the car, “Deputy Faulk questioned Robert Betters. He’s been at the dealership since three with witnesses.”
Tia pressed a hand to her heart, relieved and frustrated.
A voice came over the radio. “Unit two, come in.”
The officer grabbed his radio. “Unit two, go ahead.”
“We have a B and E in progress. 217 Brockhurst. Code three.”
“Responding code three.” Officer Beatty looked over the roof of his cruiser. “I put out an all-points bulletin for Piper. You two could canvass the neighborhood, see if she’s at a different house. And don’t worry, we’ll find her.” He swung into his car and hit the lights and siren.
Tia stared after him. Don’t worry? Piper wasn’t his only concern. The depleted force was stretched so thin, how could they hope to find her? If Piper had run to the neighbors, she would answer her cell phone. She would have called for help. Or called Miles. Or her. Tia paced.
Think. If not Bob, then who?
Please God. Why would someone take Piper? Unless it wasn’t about Piper but the people who loved her. Without thinking, she gripped Miles by the arm. “Quick. Come with me.”
With the laptop burning his thighs, Jonah searched Liz/Elizabeth Rainer. In the search he’d run of the criminal database when he first suspected her of the animal mutilations, he had found no arrests or warrants, no juvie record sealed or unsealed. Now it occurred to him there could be something else, an accident or incident that had caused her injury and the emotional instability he’d seen that night looking into her eyes. The chance it had made the news was slim, but he followed his instincts—and found it.
Conjoined twins Lizzie and Lucy Rainer—Controversial
separation surgery. He stared at the photo of blond pigtailed girls, one resting her chin on the other’s shoulder.
A stone sank down inside him.
He read under his breath, “From birth, eight-year-old conjoined twins Lizzie and Lucy Rainer have been inseparable. However, Lucy’s failing health has driven the controversial decision to separate the twins, even though the girls have expressed no desire to live apart. Doctors say the complicated and risky separation surgery would give Lizzie a strong chance of survival.”
Only Lizzie?
“The twins, who were featured on Good Morning America, are literally joined at the hip, at which point their spines diverge. Lizzie has all major organs while Lucy’s incomplete complement are underdeveloped. Her poor health has weakened both twins, and survival of either is unlikely without separation.
“Controversy has spiked over the decision to forfeit one twin to save the other. Dr. Marcus Verigo admits Lucy’s chances of surviving separation are remote. ‘Lizzie controls her two arms and two of their three legs. Her pulmonary and digestive systems have predominately supported both girls, but her ability to maintain that has reached a critical point. Without the surgery both twins will die,’ says Dr. Verigo. Representatives of the family say they will deeply mourn the loss of their daughter Lucy if the surgery proves fatal.”
This had to be behind the animal experiments. Understanding what happened? Finding a way to help other conjoined twins? He read the brief follow-up article.
Conjoined twin Lucy Rainer dies in surgery. Proponents on both sides launch debate on the moral and ethical repercussion … He skimmed down to the final sentence. The family asks to be allowed to grieve privately.
Jonah looked at the second photograph, how playful and innocent they were. His first impressions of Liz were that she was strong and confident and compassionate. He imagined her literally carrying her sister, being strong for both of them—but ultimately not strong enough.
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