“Probably not,” I agreed. “I can’t help but think you were worried the dog was going to laugh extra hard because you were naked.”
“That’s not even remotely funny,” Eliot said, wagging a finger in front of my nose. “That dog would’ve stood up and applauded.”
“Fine. I was wrong.”
“Laughed. He would’ve laughed at those stupid Star Wars panties you insist on wearing. He wouldn’t have laughed at me.” Eliot rarely pouts, but when he does it’s almost always hilarious.
“I hate to put a downer on our Monday morning, but I have something to discuss with you,” I said, leaning back in the passenger seat and sliding a glance in Eliot’s direction.
“Are you going to say something worse than the laughing dog joke?” Eliot asked. “If so, I have to say that we’re going to put a moratorium on talking Monday mornings when we move in together.”
“I don’t have anything mean to say,” I said. “I do have something mean to do, though.”
“What?”
“You have to be the one to tell my mother we’re moving in together,” I announced, averting my gaze and focusing on the house.
Eliot was so quiet I worried he accidentally died of fright, so I risked a glance in his direction. He stared at me with unreadable eyes.
“Have you slipped into a coma?” I asked.
“Why do I have to tell your mother we’re moving in together?” Eliot asked, ignoring my attempt at jocularity. “Shouldn’t that be your job?”
“I’m going to tell my grandfather,” I replied. “He’s going to give me a lot of guff about cows and free milk, but I’m willing to take one for the team. That leaves you to deal with my mother, who is going to give the cow speech and then add to it with who knows what.”
I love my mother. I really do. She’s going to blow a gasket when she finds out I’m moving in with Eliot instead of marrying him, though.
“No way,” Eliot said, vigorously shaking his head. “She’ll kill me.”
“She’ll only kill you if you’re lucky,” I countered. “She’s more likely to castrate you. She thinks all men are sex fiends. She’s been straddling a line with you because she thinks you’re her last shot at unloading me in holy matrimony. This will push her over the edge.”
“I still don’t understand why I have to be the one to tell her.”
“Because she’ll kill me,” I said. “You’re supposed to love and protect me. You can’t fall down on the job before we even move in together. That would be undignified.”
“I know what you’re doing,” Eliot argued. “You’re afraid of your mother. She’s the only person in this world you’re afraid of. You’re sacrificing me to save yourself.”
He wasn’t wrong. “Eliot, you’re reading too much into this,” I said, changing tactics. “I know that you’re charming and suave when you want to be. You can convince my mother you’re not a sex fiend with a simple smile.
“You can tell her something romantic about me and smooth everything over,” I continued. “I have complete and total faith in you because you’re just that amazing.”
“You’re so full of crap I need a shovel to dig my way out of this truck,” Eliot said. “Get a grip. I’m not an idiot. You don’t want to tell your mother because she’ll think you’re easy.”
“That memo made the rounds when I was in high school,” I shot back. “She already knows I’m easy. Why do you think her left eye still twitches whenever she sees Jake?”
“Don’t bring that up,” Eliot ordered. “I don’t like hearing about your past sex life with Jake. It weirds me out.”
“Did you think I was a virgin when we got together?”
“Of course not,” Eliot said, “but I always pictured you with nerds in Star Wars shirts and guys who locked themselves in basements to play Dungeons & Dragons every weekend.”
“That’s so stereotypical!”
“I can live with that,” Eliot sniffed, refusing to glance in my direction and instead staring out the windshield.
“How would you feel if I said that I pictured you with big-breasted and vapid women?” I challenged. “I’ll bet you had a different one every weekend. That’s stereotypical, too. How does that feel?”
“Honey, what you just said is every man’s dream,” Eliot pointed out.
Crap on toast. He was right. “If that’s every guy’s dream, what are you doing with me?”
Eliot’s eyes filled with molten delight. “You’re my new dream,” he said. “I wasn’t smart enough to know I wanted you until I got you.”
“Oh, man! Now I can’t even be angry with you because you said something that sweet.”
“I know,” Eliot said, grabbing my chin and planting a lingering kiss on me. I sank into it, momentarily forgetting where we were and what we were doing. I was wrenched out of the exchange when someone knocked on the window.
“Uh-oh.” My cheeks burned as I turned, a strange man stared at us from the sidewalk.
“I’ll handle this,” Eliot said, sucking in a breath. “Just for the record, if I tell him you’re a prostitute and we had to park here to make out to keep away from the cops, how angry are you going to be?”
“I’ll kill you.”
“That’s pretty angry. Okay. I’ll think of something else.”
IT TURNS out Boyd Newman wasn’t opposed to public displays of affection. He was, however, opposed to strange people parking in front of his house and watching it for movement for no apparent reason.
“So, wait, are you saying you’re with The Monitor?” Boyd scratched the back of his neck as he regarded me.
In an effort to show him I wasn’t a sexual deviant – no matter what my mother would say when she found out Eliot and I were moving in together – I hopped out of Eliot’s truck and joined him on the sidewalk. I figured it would help if he saw I was fully clothed. Eliot was slower to make his way around the truck, but I couldn’t decide whether that was because he was nervous or annoyed at being interrupted.
“I do,” I confirmed. “In fact, I was in the baby store your sister entered the day Sierra went missing.”
“Huh.”
Boyd wasn’t a big talker. I was starting to warm to the notion that he wasn’t a big thinker either. It was fairly annoying. “How well do you know Sierra?”
“I haven’t ever met Sierra,” Boyd answered. “I saw the photos of her on television, but I couldn’t have picked her out of a lineup before then.”
“Why?” I was confused. “Your sister and Daniel have been married for six months. Didn’t you meet the kids at the wedding?”
“I wasn’t invited to the wedding.”
“Seriously?” I was intrigued. If Sandy’s family had issues with her, maybe they could lead me in the right direction to find Sierra. Sure, I knew there was every possibility Sandy had nothing to do with the girl’s disappearance, but I was equally sure she could be behind it.
“Sandy didn’t invite me to the wedding because we haven’t talked in five years,” Boyd explained. “She pretty much cut me out of her life.”
I exchanged a brief look with Eliot, but he appeared content to let me handle the questioning on my own. “Why?”
“Our family has always been … difficult,” Boyd explained. “Do you know how some families are tighter than tight and then someone accidentally says something at a family reunion and everything falls to hell?”
I nodded, practically salivating to hear the dark secret of the Newman family’s downfall.
“That’s not what happened here,” Boyd said, causing my excitement to dwindle. “We were never really close. I’m two years older than Sandy. We went to the same schools together. We had a lot of the same friends. We just never really clicked with one another.”
“Why?” I asked. “I would think that you would be tighter because you were so close in age.”
“Sandy always thought I was beneath her,” Boyd answered. “She didn’t want to be from Warren, which is where we grew up, if
you get what I’m saying?”
I didn’t.
“She wanted to go to a fancy high school in a fancy city,” Boyd said. “She didn’t want to go to a middle class high school and work her way through community college. She always had big dreams, and I just don’t think our family and this area were going to make those dreams come true.”
Huh. “What about your parents?”
Boyd shrugged. “My parents are good folks,” he said. “They go to church every Sunday. My father still works fifty hours a week at the Chrysler plant in Sterling Heights. My mother is a homemaker and likes to hang out with her card club.”
“That doesn’t sound bad to me.”
“It’s not bad,” Boyd said. “It’s just not what Sandy wanted. She wanted a fancy house and nice cars.”
I made a face. That wasn’t the life Sandy lived now. “Did you know Daniel Jackson?”
“I knew him,” Boyd said, wrinkling his nose. “He was a jock who thought he ran the school. He walked all over Sandy. Treated her like garbage. She thought he ruled the school. The only thing he ruled was the bully patrol.”
That sounded about right. “Are you saying Daniel Jackson was a jerk? If you are, I’m not going to lie, I’m right there with you.”
“He was definitely a jerk,” Boyd said. “He dumped Sandy not long after graduation. She was heartbroken. I was secretly happy because I thought she would adjust her dreams and manage to find a happy life that wasn’t beyond her reach.”
While I wasn’t a fan of Sandy, I couldn’t help but dislike the way Boyd talked. It sounded as if he tried to crush her dreams. Even if I didn’t like a person, I believed everyone deserved dreams. “Then what happened?”
Boyd shrugged. “She married a guy she didn’t really like because he got her pregnant,” he said. “She stayed married because she thought that’s what you’re supposed to do when you reach a certain age. She probably would’ve stayed married, but her daughter got pregnant when she was fourteen and the baby was half black. Her husband had a fit and walked out. Sandy had to stay and pick up the pieces.”
“Holy crap! Fourteen?”
Boyd nodded. “It was a scandal,” he said. “My parents wanted my niece to give the baby up for adoption. Sandy said no way. The next thing I knew, everyone hated each other and no one was speaking to each other.”
I did the math in my head. “That would make your niece nineteen now, right?”
“Around there,” Boyd answered. “Maybe twenty. I can’t recall her actual birthday.”
“What happened to your niece and the baby?”
“I honestly have no idea,” Boyd said. “My sister stopped talking to all of us because she said we were judgmental. I have no idea what happened to Kendra and her baby.”
I filed that tidbit away for future research. “Can you think of any reason your sister would want to hurt her stepdaughter?”
Boyd was taken aback. “No. Sandy is many things, including a pain in the rear end, but she would never hurt a child.”
“Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt Daniel’s child? Maybe to get back at Sandy or something?” It was a long shot, but I had to ask the question.
“Listen, I don’t know anything about that girl, and I haven’t seen her father in forever,” Boyd said. “If you’re out here looking for me to talk bad about my sister, you’ve come to the wrong place. My sister isn’t capable of doing what you’re accusing her of doing.”
I wasn’t so sure, but I decided to keep that to myself for the time being. “Are you surprised that Daniel and Sandy found their way back to each other?”
“Not really,” Boyd said.
“True love?”
Boyd snorted. “Daniel is the type of guy who needs to be treated like a king,” he said. “Sandy needs someone to dote on. She always thought Daniel was a catch, and she never let that feeling go. It doesn’t matter how Daniel ended up. She still sees him as the one who got away.
“All she cares about is holding onto him,” he continued. “She wants the life she thinks she missed out on, even if she’s living something pretty far from that original dream.”
“Well, thanks for your time,” I said, handing Boyd a business card. “If you think of anything, please give me a call.”
“Sure,” Boyd said, shoving the card in his wallet. “If you have more questions, don’t hesitate to ask. You don’t need to pretend to make out in front of my house to do it.”
I moved closer to Eliot and watched as Boyd got in his car and drove off, remaining silent until it was just the two of us.
“What do you think?” Eliot asked.
“I think I’m dying to know what happened to Kendra and her kid.”
“I’m on it,” Eliot said. “You know you’re going to owe me another naked game for doing all of these searches, right?”
I smirked. “That’s fine,” I replied. “I’m going to owe you more when you tell my mother we’re moving in together and she threatens to kill you.”
“I’m not telling your mother squat.”
“We shall see,” I said. “Come on. I’ll buy you lunch if you start my search.”
21
“I found the daughter,” Eliot said several hours later, taking me by surprise as he sidled up behind me on the busy Mount Clemens sidewalk.
I was at a news conference downtown, the sheriff’s department asking everyone to congregate in front of the courthouse, so Eliot knowing where I was without me telling him threw me for a loop. “How did you find me?”
Eliot kept his eyes on the crowd and shrugged. “A good detective never reveals his secrets.”
I frowned. “Seriously? How did you find me? You didn’t put a tracker on my phone or something, did you?”
Eliot lifted a dubious eyebrow. “A tracker?”
“I’ve seen them on television, so you can’t convince me they don’t exist,” I said. “They had a whole Dateline about guys who put tracker apps on their girlfriend’s phones.”
“Was this also a Dateline about stalkers?”
“How did you know that?”
“Lucky guess,” Eliot said, smirking. “I didn’t put a tracker on you, and I’m not following you. I saw you through the window.” He pointed toward a spot over his left shoulder. “That’s my store.”
“I know that,” I scoffed. “How did you see me, though? There are twenty people milling around out here.”
“Maybe I’m magic and I sensed you,” Eliot suggested. “Have you ever considered that?”
“I’ve considered the possibility you have the biggest ego ever.”
“Ha, ha,” Eliot muttered, his previously bright expression darkening. “I thought you would be happy to see me.”
“I’m always happy to see you. I just can’t figure out how you knew I was here.”
“I thought you would go weak at the knees and swoon into my arms,” Eliot continued, his tone taking on a breezy element. “Here I am toiling away on searches for you and you’re accusing me of stalking you. Where is the love?”
“You keep asking that and I’m starting to thinking you don’t understand the question,” I said, flicking the end of his nose. “I’m forever thankful for the searches. What did you find?”
Eliot narrowed his eyes and tapped his cheek. “Pay up first.”
I made a disgusted sound in the back of my throat but did as he asked, rolling to the balls of my feet and planting a smacking kiss on his cheek. “Happy?”
“We’ll see in a second,” Eliot said. “The daughter lives in Roseville. She’s actually only about three blocks from where you live.”
“Huh.”
“That’s all you have to say?” Eliot challenged.
“It depends on what else you found for me,” I replied. “I can tell you have more. If you plan to dole it out for kisses why don’t we split the difference and have sex right here in front of everyone?”
“You have a demented mind,” Eliot said. “Sometimes I like it. Sometimes
it worries me.”
“Which is it this time?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Eliot said, returning to business. “So, Kendra Struman goes by her father’s last name. She’s never been married. She has one child, a boy named Oscar. She works as a stripper in Warren.”
I stilled. “Seriously?” For some reason that made me feel sorry for her. I have nothing against strip joints. They don’t bother me. I do feel bad for strippers, though, because I’ve seen the type of men who frequent clubs. Marvin is one of them. Need I say more? “How long has she been doing that?”
“About two years,” Eliot answered. “It’s one of those really seedy places on Dequindre. I’m willing to go in and check her out if you need me to. You know, take one for the team.”
He slipped that last part in probably thinking I wouldn’t notice. “I think that’s a great idea,” I enthused. “Then once you pass your sixty-day delousing period you can touch me again.”
Eliot snorted. “I don’t want to touch anyone but you,” he said, tickling my ribs. “How sad is that?”
“It’s pathetic.”
“What’s pathetic?” Devon took me by surprise when she moved in front of us. She was sneakier than I’d ever given her credit for. I couldn’t help but wonder how long she eavesdropped before approaching.
“Eliot’s addicted to me,” I replied, not missing a beat. “He thinks it’s pathetic.”
“I would have to agree with him,” Devon said, shifting her eyes to the media throng. “Do you know what this is about?”
“Just that the sheriff’s department sent out a news release regarding a subject relevant to the Sierra Jackson case and my editor texted and told me to attend,” I replied. “Have you heard anything?”
“I wouldn’t tell you if I had,” Devon sniffed.
I narrowed my eyes. I didn’t like her. I would probably never like her. That didn’t mean she wasn’t important to Derrick, and his needs propelled me to at least feign interest. Yeah, the desire to protect Derrick despite the cost of talking to Devon surprises me, too. “Why did you miss family dinner on Friday?”
Instead of leaving when the conversation got boring as I thought he would, Eliot crossed his arms and leaned against a nearby streetlight so he could listen.
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