“What about the boy’s father?” Elias asked.
“He doesn’t want Ian,” Hannah said dully from behind Colburn, who turned sharply. Apparently Elias wasn’t alone in not having seen her coming.
He opened his mouth but thought better of what he’d been going to say. He didn’t want to be the one to point out that her ex-husband likely wasn’t thrilled about having to pay child support for the next thirteen years, followed by a share of college expenses, for a son he didn’t want.
Colburn pulled out the chair beside Elias for her. She sank into it and reached for his hand, even as he was reaching for hers. He wasn’t sure the act was even conscious for her, but the grip seemed to steady her.
Colburn said, “Hannah, you know the man and I don’t. Has he been angry about lack of access to Ian, with you living here on the coast? Or does he resent paying child support?”
“He hasn’t said anything like that. He’s just…not interested. I think…” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
Elias squeezed her hand. “Anything could matter, Hannah. What were you thinking?”
She gave him a desperate look. None of the puffiness had subsided, and her face was blotchy besides. “Ian looks like me,” she said after a minute. “I guess…red hair and freckles must be kind of dominant genetically. Grady never exactly said it, but I could tell he was bothered not to see himself in his own son. And now he has a new family.”
Could anybody be that shallow? Elias took after his mother, the way Ian did his, but as an adult he could look back and know, without a shadow of a doubt, that his father had loved him wholeheartedly.
“Can you tell me where he works?” Colburn asks.
“I have his number in my phone, if you want to call him,” Hannah said, her voice still dull. She wasn’t thinking with her usual discernment.
“No, I want to confirm he’s at work.”
“Oh.” She blinked. “Oh!” She gave the name of a financial firm in Portland.
Daniel walked away to make his call, Sean Holbeck going with him. Emily was on the other side, pouring coffee, but Sophie remained at the table. Quiet, but there if Hannah needed her.
Hannah stared into space, but her grip on Elias’s hand stayed strong. He asked quietly if she wanted coffee or tea, but she shook her head.
A couple minutes later, the two cops returned to the table. “He’s there,” Colburn said. “Hannah, I think you’d better let him know what’s going on.”
She turned that stricken gaze on him, then finally nodded and looked at the phone lying on the table in front of her. Elias couldn’t tell if she was girding herself or trying to form the words she’d have to say. But finally she picked it up and made the call.
He was close enough to hear some of what her ex-husband said. Starting with, “Hannah, my boss just got a call from a cop wanting to verify my whereabouts. You have anything to do with that?”
“Ian has been abducted, Grady. He was…lured to the alley behind my business and pushed into a car. We…we don’t know why. The police chief just needed to…to make sure this wasn’t a custody dispute or something. I told him, but…” She trailed off.
He asked urgent questions. She answered, but never said oh, by the way, suspect number one is sitting here beside me, holding my hand.
Elias was still stunned. She had turned to him with no hesitation. She wanted him here. Whatever the damning camera footage showed, she didn’t believe he would do anything to hurt her or her son.
The first time ugly accusations had been made about him, from a still unknown source, the woman he’d been seeing hadn’t even asked whether any of it was true. She’d left a message breaking off their relationship, quit her job and moved away.
“Yes,” Hannah said. “I’ll call as soon as I know anything.” Pause. “Uh huh. Goodbye, Grady.” She set the phone down.
Elias put an arm around her and she sagged against him.
A rap on the glass door had them all turning.
“Jack-Jack?” Hannah said, sounding disbelieving.
Of all people, it was the Realtor, Patrick Fletcher, who stood just outside holding a brown-and-white puppy in his arms. The sight was incongruous, because Fletch dressed well. Today’s suit fit his lean build as if custom made. He’d have a few dog hairs on that suit now.
Colburn let him in. Jack-Jack squirmed and yipped.
“Fletch?” Hannah half-rose to her feet. “Where did you find him?”
His gaze flicked to Elias and back to Hannah. “I saw him damn near get hit by a car over on Spruce. I’d have taken him back to your house and put him in the yard, but considering I wasn’t sure how he got out in the first place…” He shrugged, showing confusion as he looked around. “Why are you closed? Is something wrong?”
“Ian…” She swallowed. “Somebody kidnapped Ian.”
“Hannah… My God.” Concern creased a face handsome enough for a man in a profession where likeability was an issue. “Are you… No, I won’t even ask. Of course, you aren’t all right.” He took a tentative step toward her, then seemingly remembered he still held the wriggling puppy. “Ah…” He lowered Jack-Jack to the floor. Barking in excitement, the puppy launched himself at Hannah, who lifted him to her lap and let the eager tongue lap away new tears. “Thank you. I’m so glad he wasn’t hit. I’d never be able to tell Ian—”
Hearing her distress, Elias gathered her and the puppy against him. Squished between them, Jack-Jack still managed to get in a lick and nip on Elias’s chin. He’d have smiled if he hadn’t felt Hannah’s agony. She was right; when Ian came home, his puppy had to be there.
Elias was hardly aware of Fletch’s awkward goodbye or his departure. “Sweetheart,” he murmured, as she cried.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Elias had known Fletcher Realty was the dominant player in home sales in Cape Trouble if not the entire county, but never thought much about it. Having parked Hannah’s aging Highlander in her driveway, he found himself eyeing a red and white Fletcher Realty sign in front of a house across the street from hers but a few doors down.
Still looking at the house for sale and wondering if it was vacant, he circled to open Hannah’s door. She hadn’t moved, and not, he felt sure, because she was waiting for him to be chivalrous. Instead, she stared at her small house with such pain, he suspected she was finding unthinkable the idea of going home without Ian.
Jack-Jack scrambled from her lap and leaped past Elias, who reached over her to unfasten the seatbelt, then said quietly, “Let’s go in, Hannah.”
He’d suggested to Colburn that she might be better off at home. The plate-glass windows fronting the bookstore and sweets shop allowed passersby to gape at anyone inside. Hannah didn’t need to be stared at right now. He hoped to talk her into lying down, but knew she wouldn’t sleep.
Surely, God, there’d be a break soon, he thought with sudden violence. How could she keep going if day after day passed, with no news? Or the worst kind of news?
But people did. Hannah would, because she was a strong woman.
She let herself lean on Elias as they crossed the yard, however, for which he was profoundly grateful.
He heard the slap of a screen door closing and saw the neighbor, Edna, descend her porch steps and hurry toward them. Jack-Jack raced to meet her, and he saw tears in her eyes when she bent to pet the puppy.
“Any news?” she asked as she neared them.
Elias shook his head. “Except, as you can see, Jack-Jack was found loose on a busy street. Fortunately, a regular customer of Hannah’s recognized him and brought him to the store.”
“Ian loves him so. Oh, my dear.” Edna held out her arms, and Elias released her to go into them. A head taller, Hannah had to bend to press her wet cheek to the old lady’s, but the closeness, the sight of the two united in fear and grief, was powerful.
Once Ian was safe, Elias thought, he might have to paint this scene. Edna, he suspected, was Ian’s grandmother in every way that mattered.
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“He’ll come home,” she was saying softly. “You must have faith. Chief Colburn will find him. Ian will be home before you know it.”
Hannah sniffed, thanked her, and straightened again, her head turning immediately as if she had to reassure herself that Elias was still there. The pain and vulnerability in her big brown eyes wrenched something in his chest.
Edna patted her a few more times and promised to bring over some homemade soup in a few hours. “I know you’re not hungry, but you have to eat, and there’s nothing like a good, nourishing soup to keep you strong.”
Hannah smiled despite her tears and kissed Edna’s wrinkled cheek. “Thank you.”
“Would you like me to take Jack-Jack?” she offered.
But Hannah shook her head. “I think…seeing him might help me believe…” She couldn’t finish, but nobody expected her to.
Elias laid a hand on her back and gently propelled her in. The front door stood unlocked, as a young Cape Trouble officer had been let in earlier to wait for a phone call. He jumped up from the kitchen table as soon as they entered, looking startled at the puppy who yapped fiercely at the intruder.
Once Jack-Jack had been calmed, he said, “Not a single call.” Young and cursed with a baby face, he added awkwardly, “I’m real sorry, Ms. Moss. Ah – I’m Officer Kreiger. Aaron Kreiger. Chief Colburn said I should stay in case…” He didn’t want to look at Elias. “Well, someone calls.”
Elias gritted his teeth. This twenty-something kid was here to keep an eye on him, and that enraged him even as he grudgingly understood Colburn’s caution. Apparently, suspicion was the price he now paid for his habit of solitude.
At his suggestion, Hannah collected a change of clothes and went to take a bath or shower. Jack-Jack sniffed at the crack beneath the bathroom door, then abandoned her in favor of flopping down at Elias’s feet. Elias knew he couldn’t – shouldn’t follow her, but he wanted to. He didn’t like the idea of her alone with fear so huge. More, he didn’t like not having her where he could see her, touch her.
It was the shower he heard moments later; he imagined her using the rush of water to ensure no one heard her crying. He closed his eyes and sat in silence, waiting for the ringing of a telephone. News might come to any of their phones.
*****
Daniel stood just outside a strip of yellow crime scene tape and watched the evidence technicians from the Oregon State Crime Analysis Unit comb the alley for anything useful. He’d had reason to be grateful before for the services the state police offered local jurisdictions in Oregon. The Burris County Sheriff’s Department was sizeable enough to have their own, modest crime scene unit, but the Cape Trouble P.D. wasn’t. Having one officer trained in fingerprinting had been the best Daniel could do with the existing budget. He had a good relationship with people at the sheriff’s department – he considered the sheriff himself, Alex Mackay, to be a friend, as was Sean Holbeck. They wouldn’t have hesitated to send their investigators. But, as dirty as an alley tended to be, this was a difficult scene. Daniel didn’t want to take the slightest chance anything would be overlooked.
Garbed in white, wearing booties, latex gloves and hair coverings, a woman and a man were crouched, studying something invisible from this distance. A little farther away, a camera flashed, the lens aimed at the scrape on the dumpster.
Daniel had watched that damn video so many times, he could re-run it in his head. That swerve had been deliberate. The driver had wanted to transfer paint between dumpster and Land Rover. Just as he’d parked as if he had calculated the perfect angle to be sure the camera took in the license plate.
Daniel did not like being played. His job demanded impartiality, which meant he still had to take seriously the possibility that Elias Burton was the secret admirer and had abducted Hannah’s little boy. But instinct and reason both said Elias had been set up, most likely because the artist had interfered in the secret admirer’s romantic plans. But the effort it had taken to steal Elias’s Land Rover and impersonate him had Daniel wondering whether this guy had something against Elias himself. The kidnapper had magnified the risk of getting caught many times over by adding in the steps of first stealing the Land Rover, then returning it. Too much risk, too much trouble, unless Elias was a big part of the end goal.
Daniel frowned. Abbot Grissom hadn’t wanted to share whatever it was he’d heard to Elias’s detriment, but he might be more willing now. In fact… Daniel reached for his cell phone.
It rang before he could dial. Sean Holbeck.
“One of my deputies found someone who remembers seeing Burton this morning, but it’s not much help. The guy was walking his dog. He says he didn’t get more than a few hundred yards past Burton before he decided he’d gone far enough and turned back. Says it was about nine – when he got back to his car, he noticed the time on the dashboard clock. Nine thirty-two.”
“The Land Rover?”
“Right where Burton parked it. Says it and his Tahoe were the only two vehicles there.” Restraint in Sean’s voice told Daniel what he was thinking – Elias would have had plenty of time after being seen to jog back to his car, snatch Ian and stow him somewhere, then return to the old resort. A stranger might have stowed the boy in the old lodge, long-abandoned and marked No Trespassing. Any local knew the resort’s history, however. In fact, the minute Sean told him the Land Rover was parked there, Daniel had driven over himself long enough to search the lodge top to bottom and check out the remains of the cabins, falling down from long neglect and the unending winter rain.
“Okay,” he said. “Keep everyone on it.”
“Will do.”
Daniel called Grissom, who was just leaving the Surfside, an old-style “resort” that had only a distant resemblance to the fancy inn Randall Bresler had built on the other side of the point separating Cape Trouble from the neighboring cove and community, Jasper Beach.
“Let me grab some fast food and I’ll come by Sweet Ideas,” Grissom agreed. “If you’re still there?”
Fifteen minutes later, Daniel let him in the front door and locked again immediately. He was currently alone here, except for the CSI out in the alley. Once Elias took Hannah away, Sophie and Emily went home. Too bad, in a way; despite the grim circumstances, Daniel had liked having his wife close. Just exchanging glances, touching her shoulder in passing, studying the curve of her belly, kept him centered.
Grissom took a seat at one of the small café tables on the sweets side, probably uncomfortable with having greasy food anywhere near the books. Unwrapping his cheeseburger, he said, “Sorry, I’m starved.”
Daniel brought him up to date. “Given Burton’s potential involvement, I’m hoping you’ll tell me why you didn’t like the idea of him with Hannah.”
“What I heard…it was just rumor.” He didn’t appear happy. “That’s why I don’t like to say anything.”
“People talk to you.”
Appearing approachable was probably Abbot Grissom’s greatest gift. That, coupled with the fact that the old-timers trusted him because he was one of them.
Grissom chewed, swallowed and nodded. “Stuff has been floating around for years. The first time I heard about it, the woman he’d been linked with up and moved right away, which tended to substantiate what was being said. Even so, I wouldn’t have taken the rumors as seriously if they’d died out. But two or three years later, people started talking again.”
Trying to hide his impatience, Daniel said, “And what were they saying?” Grissom liked to meander to his point.
“That he has a temper,” he said, finally blunt. “Hits the women he’s involved with. What I heard was, he got really rough with a high school girlfriend. The father wanted to bring him up on charges, the girl begged him not to but broke up with Burton. This supposedly happened right before they graduated.”
“Was the girl taken to the hospital? A doctor?”
“Don’t know. There was never a criminal complaint. I had no reason to follow up on it.
“What’s your gut say?”
His officer chomped down a French fry as if needing a moment to think. “The guy has a checkered past with women, anyone can tell you that,” he said, in his slow way, brow knit. “I know of several women he’s dated who moved away. Another one died, got herself trapped when the tide came in.” Doubt came through, even if Grissom didn’t know it. “Least, that’s what they assumed,” he added with a shrug. “Her body had been battered on the rocks.”
“Where?”
“The rocks leading out from Cape Trouble Point.”
Daniel frowned. A buoy warned boats to stay away from the point. When the tide was in, the rocks were submerged, but the rough surf warned off anyone with brains. “Was she a local?” he asked.
People who’d grown up on the Oregon coast knew better than to be careless when it came to tides. Visitors were warned, given tide tables before they ventured to the beach. County residents all knew how treacherous that point was. Daniel had only been in Cape Trouble for two years, and he’d been part of a couple rescues over there as well as one body recovery.
“Don’t think so.” Grissom sounded as if he was making a concession. “I didn’t know her, but heard she was an artist who’d recently moved over here to paint.”
“Holbeck says when he found Elias this morning, he was damn close to being knocked over by incoming waves. He had an easel set up so he could draw tidepools on those rocks leading out to the Needle. Apparently he was determined to finish whatever he was working on.” The Needle was a stack, one of many along the coast, but an unusually skinny one. Undoubtedly once more sizeable, it had been eroded by thousands of years of pounding waves down to a core of harder rock. Could be next winter, could be fifty years from now, but a winter storm would eventually topple it.
“Guess artists can block out a lot when they’re working,” Grissom agreed. “I wasn’t meaning to suggest the woman’s death was anything but an accident, although you know how it is.”
People talked. A good thing for law enforcement, but the speed news and rumors flew in a town this size still disturbed Daniel. Some of it was well-meant, but plenty of the gossip fell somewhere between sour-tempered and malicious. He’d come to appreciate Grissom’s unwillingness to pass on anything he couldn’t be sure was accurate.
Whisper of Revenge (A Cape Trouble Novel Book 4) Page 10
