Murder in the City: Blue Lights

by Tatum, Clare

  “What’s next? Many people are asking themselves that question. Back to you Andrea,” he threw back to the news anchor.

  Kaufman’s wife turned to him, seemingly focused on his reaction. But he gave none.

  Instead, he gestured for Brice and Lainey to precede him back down the hall to the formal living room.

  Feeling she had no choice, Lainey turned and left the homey back area.

  “It was nice meeting you,” Mrs. Kaufman called weakly after them.

  Lainey felt if she could only get alone with her, that she could find out a lot. She seemed like she would be much more forthcoming than Mr. Kaufman.

  In the living room, Kaufman stuck out his hand to shake theirs as if nothing had happened in the family room.

  Lainey shook his hand, nodded and turned, heading for the door. Brice swiveled his head, watching her go. But he didn’t follow her.

  She went to the car and got in, her mind racing.

  After a bit, Brice came out and slid into the driver’s seat. He looked over at her.

  Lainey knew exactly what he was thinking. He was thinking like a cop, assessing her strength, gauging if she were going to be any help to him in the investigation.

  Everyone and everything was now a part of his plan to recover Julie. That was perfect, because that was her only objective, her laser focused goal. But, how were they going to do that?

  “What does he want from me?” Lainey blurted out.

  Brice leaned closer. “The banker?”

  She shook her head. “The kidnapper. He’s taken three little girls. One parent had power, one had money. The kidnapper wanted something from each of them. What do I have to provide to get my little girl back?”

  “We don’t know that the guy who kidnapped Julie and Tiana is the same guy who kidnapped the Kaufman girl.” Even his expression wasn’t convincing but the false note in his voice sealed the impression.

  “Don’t we?”

  A fiery burning sensation ran through her body as if someone had pumped acid into her veins.

  Not Julie. A wailing moan reverberated deep inside her, aching to be let out.

  She leaned forward, rocking, feeling like a giant hand gripped her insides, squeezing and twisting, the pain so raw.

  Not Julie. Not Julie. Not Julie.

  Brice wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into an embrace that tightened as she rocked. But, she couldn’t stop.

  She’d known Julie since she was fifteen minutes old. The special birthing room at the hospital had allowed Lainey inside very shortly after Julie had been born.

  Julie had lain there under a light to fight jaundice, naked and squalling.

  “That’s your little sister,” her dad had said softly, emotion filling his voice.

  Love had welled up in her. She’d put a finger in Julie’s grasping little hand and the baby girl had clutched around her finger, latching onto Lainey’s heart for life.

  “She’s my baby,” Lainey had said, with the simplicity of vision that only a fourteen year old can have.

  Her dad had laughed. “We’re definitely counting on you helping.”

  “She’s my baby,” she’d repeated.

  Only eight years later, her words had been actualized in the worse way imaginable. Julie’s care had entirely fallen to her. She’d always done whatever she could to keep her little sister safe and happy.

  And she wouldn’t let her down now.

  “Buck up,” Brice said.

  Buck up? Did he just say, Buck up?

  She pulled away from Brice’s arms, sitting back against the seat. “What did you just say?”

  “You heard me.”

  She laughed harshly and nodded. He’d said it to get a reaction, perhaps to inspire anger that would chase away the despair. He was exactly right. It was time to fight.

  “We’re gonna find her,” she said, the words hard and tight, coming from her gut.

  She would not let her baby sister down.

  Brice nodded and started the engine.

  “Who is this guy?” she thought out loud. “Who would take three little girls, then release two of them in exchange for demands?”

  “Big demands,” Brice added, pulling away from the curb.

  “He made that banker provide the money needed to stop the police furloughs,” she said. “As if he thinks that makes it all right, his kidnapping the girls.”

  Brice’s squinted, an ironic smile playing across his lips. “He’s a regular do-gooder, working for the public good.”

  She banged the side of the car with her closed fist then grimaced because her little finger had hit the door handle. “I want to kill him. He has no right terrorizing these girls, not to mention their families this way. It’s twisted. Even if he doesn’t physically injure them, what does this do to their minds?”

  Brice nodded, turning left quickly under a yellow light. “From his viewpoint, he’s done something good.”

  “If it’s not your little sister being held.” There was no assurance that the kidnapper would release Julie unharmed, like he’d done the other two. She wanted to kill him for the terror he was inflicting on Julie.

  “Maybe he just likes manipulating people, doesn’t even really care about the outcome.” She turned to get Brice’s reaction.

  Brice nodded. “You mean, is he acting for a set purpose or is it random, enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame, enjoying mayors and bankers dancing to the strings he pulls?”

  She nodded. “What type of a person does this?”

  Brice turned the wheel to the left under another light just before it turned red, then accelerated quickly. “The type of guy who is so certain that what he wants is right, who doesn’t question himself at all. He thinks that whatever he does is justifiable.”

  “Even if that means killing a little girl?” An aching hole opened inside her, yawning with a grief and fear that threatened to suck her inside the churning maw where she’d be no use to Julie.

  She pulled in a deep breath, refusing to give in to panic. Brice glanced at her, and nodded as if acknowledging her battle. “Let’s go to your house and talk to the lady who was watching Julie.”

  Lainey nodded. “It’s on Rose Drive.”

  “I know,” he said.

  She didn’t comment. Had he already known or checked it out during the investigation?

  He didn’t say.

  “John Canton’s news report about the evidence room was something, huh?” Brice said.

  The Sean Moseman murder investigation was a long way from her mind.

  When she got her little sister back, then she’d think about investigating Moseman and his involvement in the latest murders in Atlanta.

  But the banker and his wife had been very interested in that piece of information.

  Why was that?

  Chapter Twelve

  Brice looked around Lainey’s living room. It wasn’t fancy but it was homey. The type of house he’d grown up in, with so many kids jumping all over the furniture that it would have been useless for his parents to replace it anyway.

  Pet paw marks and kid dirt grimed it soon after their parents cleaned it. Their mother hadn’t exactly given up—she’d just refused to get upset over a house filled with a bunch of kids and the natural results of that.

  “I had kids to enjoy them,” she’d often said. “Not to fret over a little dirt. You kids go play.”

  Now, sitting in Lainey’s house, he had the same feeling. It was all about the little girl who lived here. Her books were strewn about the coffee table.

  Lainey walked to the armchair, picking up some girlie hair things that had been left lying on a side table and setting them into a nearby ceramic dish.

  A sudden flash of sadness for the life he’d lost swept through him. Maddie, just about Julie’s age, and his wife, Jennifer.

  “Where are your parents?” he asked Lainey, trying to divert his thoughts from his own past.

  A quick flash of pain swept across Lainey’s face and h
e was instantly sorry he’d asked.

  “They’re dead.” The stoic face she wore spoke of a long time of pushing back her grief. For the sake of her little sister?

  He just nodded, not wanting to elicit more grief when she was dealing with the fear about her sister’s situation.

  But as if she needed to tell him, she tilted her head and spoke. “They were killed by a drunk driver.”

  Grief molded her face and he wanted to take her into his arms. He knew about losing ones you loved.

  The whole time he and Lainey had worked together on Moseman’s case, she’d been strong, getting angry, but never seeming to succumb to the horror and emotional upset that took many prosecutors out of the business.

  It made sense now. Every case she took on was as if she were seeking justice for her parents.

  She was driven because of what had happened to them.

  “It’s good when you can take something bad and make good come of it,” he offered.

  Tears came to her eyes for just an instant, then she blinked them back.

  A tiny knock smattered on the front door. Instantly, Brice was up, his gun drawn.

  He stuck out his other hand to Lainey, motioning her to stay back.

  She half laughed, the dark sound barely resembling anything having to do with humor. “It’s just Mrs. Maxey.”

  Brice still sidestepped to the window to look out at the front porch. Sure enough, a tiny little woman stood on the front steps.

  Her curled, gray hair capped a head that peered anxiously toward the door. Brice turned to Lainey and nodded. “It’s her.”

  “Of course it is. I recognize her knock. It’s the same one she uses in the middle of the night when she comes over to watch Julie when I go to a crime scene.” She shrugged. “I guess it got to be a habit, that quiet knocking.”

  Lainey opened the door. It was immediately apparent that Mrs. Maxey had been crying, her eyes red and swollen. She pursed her mouth as if afraid a sob would burst forth. Lainey hugged her tightly, the older woman only coming up to Lainey’s collarbone.

  “Mrs. Maxey, this is not your fault. Or mine.”

  “Oh, I know,” the little grey haired woman tittered. “Still, I can’t help but wonder if I had been more careful, walked closer to the car.” She shrugged weakly. “You know, done something, maybe this could have been avoided.”

  Lainey shook her head fiercely. “Don’t let this beast who kidnapped Julie make you second guess yourself. You did nothing wrong, did everything right.”

  Lainey took her by the shoulders. “He is the monster, not you, not me.”

  God, he hoped Lainey took that message to heart. It wasn’t Mrs. Maxey’s fault, and it wasn’t Lainey’s fault.

  They were just normal people living their normal lives until this force of evil came into their orbit.

  Mrs. Maxey nodded, a bit of color returning to her face. “Thank you, dear. I’m blaming myself but, I was afraid you would blame me too.”

  Her mouth quivered and she straightened it into a tight line.

  “We’re not even gonna go there, are we?” Lainey smiled strongly at the older woman. Good.

  They all had to be strong in the face of this evil, fight it and not let it turn them against themselves.

  “It was just that when the mayor called me and asked if Julie could join Tiana on their ride to school, I never thought anything bad could happen.”

  Lainey’s head jerked around to meet Brice’s gaze. Instinctively, he knew she was asking herself the same questions as popped into his mind.

  The mayor had called? When had she called? Before or after she knew the kidnapper had Tiana? Had the mayor sacrificed Julie to save her own little girl?

  Why would the kidnapper want Julie?

  * * *

  Mrs. Maxey had left in tears after giving them all the information that she could. Grief and guilt ate at her and she wanted to help.

  They hadn’t told her that she’d given them a vital piece of information. They’d kept that in their back pocket.

  She’d said that Julie had been excited to see her best friend and surprised she hadn’t heard about the pep rally before school. Of course Julie hadn’t heard about the pep rally because there wasn’t one.

  Lainey’s cell phone rattled on the coffee table and both Lainey and Brice jumped.

  Lainey leaped forward to check it. “It’s a text message from Julie.”

  Lainey’s hand shook as she pressed the buttons to open up the message. “1656 Green Street,” she read.

  Then, the phone rang. Lainey almost dropped it. “It’s her,” she said in a voice that rose unnaturally high.

  She punched the button to connect, and raised the phone to her ear with a shaky hand. “Julie,” her voice quivered with emotion. “Are you okay?”

  Brice stepped close to her, placing his ear beside the cell phone so that he could hear Julie’s voice.

  “I’m okay.”

  Her little girl voice broke his heart. She seemed determined to be strong for Lainey’s sake. They’d probably learned early on that the other was vulnerable to their emotions and were each strong for the other sister.

  Lainey’s hand shook so much that he was afraid she would drop the phone and they’d lose the connection. He placed his hand over Lainey’s to steady her.

  Julie’s end of the call seemed to be on speakerphone, echoing, so that whoever held Julie could hear both sides of the conversation.

  “Has he said when he’s going to let you go, Julie?”

  Julie paused as if listening to someone. Brice couldn’t hear anything. Someone could have placed their hand over the speaker or put it on mute.

  Then, sound returned to the phone.

  “He says he wants something.”

  Anger pulsed through Brice. He wanted to yell into the phone. But that might only anger this egotistical monster, excite his male urges to punish.

  “He said Sean Moseman needs killing.”

  Lainey’s face blanched pale. “Let me speak to him, Julie.”

  After a moment, Julie replied, “He says you don’t need to talk. You just need to listen.”

  “Okay.”

  “He wants you to bring Sean Moseman to him so that he can kill him, since you seem unable to do it.”

  Lainey didn’t say anything, her face pale, a jaw muscle working, as if trying to hold back words.

  The phone went silent again then Julie’s little voice bleated, “He says you have to do what he says. That you’re not capable of making the right decision so you have to be told the right thing to do.”

  Lainey’s mouth quivered, then she tightened her lips. “Julie, I will do whatever it takes to get you back. You will be okay, do you hear me?”

  Silence hung on the line for a long moment before the little girl answered, her voice sounding much younger than the twelve years old that Brice knew her to be.

  “I know you’ll take care of me, Lainey. You always have.”

  A muffled voice said something, then Julie said, “He says you have to go and get Moseman.”

  Then, the phone went dead and as if released from a death grip, Lainey crumpled onto the couch. He was afraid to touch her, afraid that if he did, she would collapse totally into an emotional wreck.

  She put her head into her hands for just a second, then jerked her head upright. “That text message just before the phone call. It was an address.”

  “Let me see.” He sat down beside her and she punched it up again. Mere seconds before she’d called, Julie had somehow managed to fire off a text message. Unless that was from the abductor. There was no way to know.

  Either way, they had to act.

  He pulled out his cell phone and began dialing. Lainey grabbed the phone from his hands, her expression fierce. “What are you doing?”

  “Calling in the SWAT team. We need backup.”

  She looked at him like she’d caught him torturing kittens. “Are you crazy?” She grabbed his cell phone and threw it acr
oss the room. “Do you want to be certain that my sister ends up dead?” She jumped up and grabbed her purse, fumbling inside and producing a set of keys.

  Then, with them in her hand, she headed toward the door.

  “You left your car at the overnight murder scene,” he said.

  She glanced back at him, then sagged against the wall for a second before straightening again, looking him directly in the eye. “You can’t call in the SWAT team. Julie will end up dead.” She met his gaze with an intense craziness that he’d seen before from families of missing people.

  They got a kind of crazy that other people couldn’t begin to understand, with a ferocious animal-like quality, a primal driving need to rescue their loved one from danger.

  He got where she was coming from because he’d seen it too many times. But, he still knew what he had to do.

  “Lainey, we have to call the SWAT team. This man is holding all the cards.”

  He walked closer to her. “Except one. Julie gave us this one chance to save her. She knew that if this man had total control that she was done for. This little girl gets that we have to come for her. And we have to come with everything that we’ve got.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lainey looked away.

  “Lainey, this guy is a control freak. But if he’s surrounded, then he’ll have to give up.”

  “Unless he kills Julie just before the house is stormed. Unless he’s one of those guys who would rather die than go to prison, committing suicide by cop, taking my little sister with him.”

  A ferocious viciousness filled her eyes. “I won’t let you gamble with your cop logic when my little sister’s life is in the balance.”

  She punched his chest with her finger. “I won’t let you get Julie killed. I won’t.” Her voice was so high that he was surprised she could still breathe.

  “Lainey, we have to do it the cop way. There’s no other way.”

  She nodded her head with a deadly determination. “Yes, there is. I find Sean Moseman and turn him over to this guy.”

  She couldn’t be serious but the deadly intent in her eyes said she was.

  “And then what? He kills him and you go to jail?”