by JB Lynn
“I need to talk to Emily alone for a little while, Laurie.”
All too eager to escape, the teenager bolted from the room. Mark followed more sedately.
“I know this is going to be difficult for you, Emily.” Chase spoke quietly as though he was afraid of spooking her.
Calm, cool and collected. Calm, cool and collected. “Whatever it takes to help find Anna.” She sounded a lot more convincing than she felt.
His gaze slid over Emily’s shoulder. He nodded a greeting to whoever stood behind her in the doorway.
Twisting in her seat she found Bailey sticking his head in. Just the sight of him sent her heartbeat into overdrive. Tension coiled in her gut the moment he smiled at her. After all, it was the first time she’d seen him since he’d stolen out of her bed like a thief in the night. Calm, cool and collected. Calm, cool and collected.
“Can I interrupt for a minute?” He looked to Emily for permission.
“Come in.” Despite the fact she was royally pissed at Bailey for his little love-’em-and-leave-’em act, any distraction from her conversation with the FBI agent would be a relief.
“Can I talk to you for a sec, Em?” Bailey asked.
Before she could answer, Chase was getting to his feet. “I’ve got to move around and stretch this hip of mine.” He limped toward the door. “I’m going to head outside and get some fresh air.”
The pressure in Emily’s chest increased as she realized she was about to be alone with Bailey. She hadn’t truly acknowledged how much his middle-of-the-night desertion had hurt until now.
He waited until Chase was out of sight before saying, “Are you alright?”
She didn’t even think about it. She just lashed out. “Gee, Deputy, are you asking me as someone involved in a crime you’re investigating, or as the easy lay you couldn’t bother to have the Morning After talk with?”
Bailey jerked his head back as though he’d been slapped. “That’s not fair.”
She shrugged. Life wasn’t fair.
“Em.” The hurt in his voice grated on her raw nerves.
She flinched, as he closed the distance between them with a few steps, not because she was afraid he’d hurt her, but because she was afraid he’d get too close.
“You were sleeping so soundly—”
“You didn’t even leave a note!” Shoving at his chest, she whirled away, not trusting herself to look him in the eye and not lose her mind. “And you left us defenseless. My door wasn’t locked. You turned off the alarm.”
Grabbing her shoulders, he shook her lightly. “You really think I’d do that?”
She leaned forward to pull free of his grasp. “Let me go.”
“Not until you listen to some sense. I was going to leave you a note. I left the room to look for paper, but then I ran into Laurie. I’m guessing she forgot to mention that little detail.”
She stopped trying to pull away.
“I made sure that she armed the alarm as I left. I didn’t leave you vulnerable, Em. I would never do that.”
“I thought…”
“You thought what? That you’re just an easy lay?”
It was her turn to recoil as her words boomeranged back at her.
Tugging gently he pulled her so that her head flopped back against his chest. “Last night meant everything to me, Em. You mean everything.”
Closing her eyes, she let his words drift over her like healing balm.
“Always jumping to crazy conclusions.” His voice rumbled deep in his chest, the vibration traveling through her back.
“It sorta made sense.” Even to her, the defense sounded weak.
“Only because you tend to believe the worst about people.” His breath ruffled the top of her head, sending shivers of pleasure down her spine. “Lucky for you, I’m the forgiving sort.”
“Lucky for me.”
Funny, she hadn’t felt lucky these past few days. Even now she wasn’t feeling particularly fortunate. It would be a hell of a lot easier to leave Lakeside Acres believing that Bailey O’Neil was an inconsiderate ass. Now she knew last night hadn’t been a tawdry one-night stand. It had been special.
“I’ve got to go. I’ve got work to do.” Gently he spun her around, and cupped her face in his hands. Leaning forward he brushed his lips against hers in a chaste kiss. He nuzzled his way up her cheek to her ear. “You were amazing last night.”
“Made you some lunch, Bail—” Mark Castle stopped short as he caught the two of them in the intimate pose.
They sprang apart like guilty teenagers. Emily’s cheeks burned.
“Whoops, sorry!” Mark didn’t look contrite. His wide smile indicated he was pleased as punch. “Anyway, I know you’re busy, running around like crazy, but you’ve got to keep up your strength. Here you go.” He offered a paper bag.
“Thanks, Mark.” Taking the meal sack, Bailey glanced back at Emily. “I’ll be back to check on you later. Stay out of trouble.”
She watched him leave, wishing he didn’t have to.
“You’re nothing like her.”
She swung her attention to Ginny’s dad. “Excuse me?”
“You look so much like your mother that I assumed you were just like her, but you’re not. You are so much stronger and braver. Willing to take risks…”
Emily felt a pang of sympathy for the man she’d always loved like a father.
He shook his head as though to rid himself of his what-could-have-been thoughts. “I am so proud of you, Emily.”
The simple words of praise, a sentiment her own father had never expressed, squeezed her heart. A painful lump rose in her chest and she was helpless to stop the waterworks. Tears streaming down her face, she threw herself at Mark.
“Shh…” he soothed, hugging her tightly. “Shh…you’ll scare Laurie.”
Recognizing the wisdom in his words, her breath caught on a hiccupping sob. “S-sorry.”
Keeping one arm wrapped around her shoulders as support, he used his other hand to stroke her hair. “No need to apologize, sweetheart. Any other time I’d tell you to let it all out, but I don’t think I could handle a pair of weeping sisters.”
“Why didn’t she leave him?” Why hadn’t her mother just divorced her father and made a happy life with this man who’d loved her so?
She felt Mark tense, and she worried she’d overstepped her bounds. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that.”
She pulled away, out of the safe cocoon of his embrace. Looking up, she was surprised to find that his face was as wet as her own. Simultaneously they both moved to dash away their tears.
“No, you have the right to know. I asked your mother to leave him. I begged her, but she refused.”
“Why?”
“He had too much leverage against her.”
“What kind of leverage?”
His smile, while sad, was kind. “You.”
She blinked. “Me?”
“He threatened to take you from her. Said he had all kinds of professional friends who’d testify at the drop of a hat that she was an unfit mother.”
“But—” But what? It sounded exactly like the kind of manipulative power play her father would engage in. “I’m sorry.”
Mark shook his head. Using his thumbs, he wiped away her tears in a gesture so tender, she started to cry again. “You were the light of your mother’s life.”
“It didn’t feel that way,” she whispered, ashamed to voice the petty sentiment.
“I know. As much as your mother loved you, she had a hard time showing it. I think it was because she was so afraid he’d steal you from her at any moment.”
Emily nodded. It made a certain, twisted kind of sense. She didn’t agree with the choices her mother had made, but hadn’t she done the same thing with her sister? Hadn’t she been guilty of failing to establish a close relationship with Laurie because she was afraid of what Donald Wright would do? “Then why did she have another kid? Why have Laurie and be tied to him all over again for
another eighteen or more years?”
Mark opened his mouth to answer her, but suddenly turned away. He walked over to the bisque doll sitting on the shelf, as though it held the answer. Reaching out with a shaking hand, he straightened her, despite the fact she wasn’t crooked.
Standing behind him, fists clenched at her sides, Emily glared at his back, fed up with being left out of the loop. She clenched her hands tighter and tighter, her fingernails digging into her palms. She barely recognized her own voice when she ground out, “What aren’t you telling me?”
“It’s complicated.” He didn’t turn around.
“She’s dead. She took a handful of pills and ended her misery. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let myself become a fearful, empty shell of a person like her.”
Mark Castle whirled around. For the first time in her life, he yelled at her. “Don’t you dare talk about her like that!”
His angry words echoed off the walls, stunning her. Overcoming her shock, she hoarsely forced through her tightened throat, “Don’t you dare keep her secrets.”
Laurie came running into the room. “Is everything okay? I heard yelling.”
Sam piled in right behind her armed with a kitchen knife.
The expression of utter adoration as Mark looked at her younger sibling shed light on what he was hiding. Emily read it on his face as clearly as though it had been tattooed across his forehead. Mark Castle was Laurie’s father.
The revelation knocked her off her feet. She plunked herself down in the nearest chair, looking to him for confirmation of her suspicion. He nodded, his eyes once again filling with tears.
She closed her own, as her world threatened to topple off its axis. Every truth about her family had just been shattered. Everything she’d believed was a lie. The knowledge left her reeling.
“Em? Em, are you okay?” Laurie’s voice, pitched high with alarm, pierced the cloud of confusion Emily was lost in.
Snapping her eyes open, she offered her sister a smile that was meant to be reassuring. “I’m starving. Would you and Sam mind getting me something to eat?”
“Of course,” niece and uncle said simultaneously.
They practically tripped over each other in their race to get to the kitchen.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Emily patted the seat beside her. “She’s your daughter?” The phrase sounded right as it slipped off her tongue.
Sinking into the chair beside her, Mark buried his face in his hands.
Reaching over, she looped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. “I’m not mad.” She kissed his cheek to emphasize her point.
“You’re choking me,” he teased.
She kissed him once again for good measure before releasing him. “She is, right?” She needed him to say the words aloud.
Mark shrugged. “I didn’t even suspect for the longest time…forgive me?”
“For making my mother happy? For loving her despite all the…complications? Never.”
“She never told me…not while she was alive. What you said about her taking those pills on purpose? I think you’re right. I got a letter from her about a week after the funeral. She’d mailed it to some nonexistent address in California, putting mine as the return address, so when the postal service sent it back, it came here.”
“You’ll show it to me sometime?” Emily asked, hoping it might provide insight into her mother’s actions and decisions
“Of course. If I’d known about Laurie earlier, things would have been different…maybe.”
“Maybe we could have been one big happy family?”
He nodded miserably.
“Maybe we still can,” Emily murmured.
Chapter 24
“All I see are cows and fields and more cows and fields,” Sebastian complained, staring glumly out the car window.
“There are woods over there,” Bailey pointed out. What he didn’t tell Sebastian was that on the other side of the copse of trees was where Emily and Evan, covered with blood and dirt, had stumbled out in front of him fifteen years earlier.
“How much longer? Sebastian asked.
“We’re almost there,” Bailey told him as they rounded a bend in the road.
Leaving Chase to interview Emily at The Garden Gate had been a tough decision for him. Part of him wanted to stay and protect her from the probing questions that would no doubt pain the woman he loved, but part of him knew that her answers could be vital if they were going to find Anna or Mandy alive.
It had been Sebastian who’d urged him to join him on a drive out to the spot where Emily had been held captive so long ago. There was a small chance the kidnapper might have returned to the scene of his original crime.
Chase hadn’t seemed too enthused about the idea of the two former competitors undertaking the mission together, but the lack of manpower made it necessary. “Play nice, you two,” he’d warned.
Bailey gripped the steering wheel tighter as a dilapidated house sitting in the middle of a field came into view. This may have been ground zero for The Baby Doll Strangler. The site where he’d claimed his first victim, Emily Wright. The place he’d tortured her. A chill snaked down Bailey’s spine as he imagined the horrors that had taken place on this cursed ground. “He kept her in the basement.”
“It’s a good choice from the subject’s point of view. Quiet. Remote. No nosy neighbors to get curious,” Sebastian said, as Bailey parked the car.
Climbing out, the men surveyed the exterior of the house and the surrounding area. Under different circumstances, the pastoral scene could be considered idyllic. Bailey wondered if that’s why the location had been chosen. Had the kidnapper picked a peaceful landscape in direct contrast to the chaos going on in his mind?
Glancing over at Black he noticed that his face was scrunched up as though he’d bitten into the world’s most sour pickle. “What?”
“It smells like shit.”
“It’s a cow field. You should watch your step. We wouldn’t want you to ruin those Italian loafers you’re so fond of.”
Sebastian bristled defensively at the mention of his expensive shoes. “I hate the country.”
“I hadn’t noticed.”
Moving in tandem, they approached the house. The place had obviously been well built. The paint was faded and peeling, and some of the windows had been broken, but the stairs were still sturdy. Bailey reached for the doorknob, and was relieved when it opened easily. He’d been dreading the idea of shimmying in through a broken window.
Dust particles danced in the air where shafts of sunlight entered the house, but the rest of the place was shrouded in shadows. Squinting through the darkness, it appeared that the rooms were empty. All traces of the home’s former inhabitants long-ago removed.
They’d no sooner stepped inside when they heard a noise emanating from the depths of the derelict house. Freezing in their tracks, they both cocked their heads, listening. Another couple of distinctive thumps confirmed they weren’t alone. Immediately they drew their service weapons.
They didn’t speak, but Bailey knew exactly what was going through his temporary partner’s mind. Worst Case Scenario: There was a chance that what they heard was a wild animal rummaging around in the abandoned building. Best Case: The Baby Doll Strangler might have returned to the scene of an old crime to relive his former glory, or better yet, the missing girls could be here.
Nervous excitement and dread co-mingled with the adrenaline now pumping through his body, sharpening his senses. This could be it.
Sebastian signaled that he’d go first as they moved toward the sounds.
Bailey whispered, “We need him alive.”
Sebastian nodded his understanding. Moving with deadly stealth, he raced across the darkened room. Bailey followed, his heart pounding.
Reaching a doorway to a hall, Sebastian paused. The muted beam of a flashlight bounced off the walls of what Bailey guessed was the kitchen. It was no animal.
Heartbeat hammering, he
and Sebastian inched down the hallway toward the light. Pressing their backs against the walls to avoid being detected, they waited for their moment. Bailey tightened his grip on his gun. He was so nervous that his palms were sweating.
When the ray of light swung to the opposite side of the room, they made their move.
“FBI freeze!” Sebastian shouted as he barreled through the doorway, gun at the ready.
Startled, the shadowy figure of a man jumped.
Bailey followed, right on his heels. “Hands in the air! Hands in the air!”
Raising his hands overhead in surrender, the man pleaded, “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”
Still holding his gun on the suspect, Sebastian pulled a penlight from his pocket. “Keep the flashlight pointing at the ceiling, and slowly turn around. Any sudden moves and I will shoot you.”
With agonizing care, the man slowly turned to face them. Sebastian directed the beam from the penlight onto his face. He blinked but made no move to shield his eyes.
Bailey recognized him immediately. “Evan? What the hell are you doing here?”
“Evan who?” Sebastian asked.
“Evan Swann.” Bailey stared at the man he’d called his friend not twenty-four hours before.
“Okay, Mr. Swann. We’re going to take this outside. Keep your hands over your head, and take it slow and easy.” Sebastian lowered the blinding light, but kept a bead on Swann.
Shuffling along, the three of them walked out of the house. As soon as they were outside, Bailey ordered, “Turn around.”
The fear on Evan’s face was clearly visible when he faced them.
“What are you doing here?” Sebastian demanded.
“I…I thought that maybe…” He trailed off. “It was a stupid idea. I thought that I rescued Emily, so maybe, if I came back here, I could find Anna. Rescue her too.”
“Lower your hands,” Sebastian ordered. “Then drop the flashlight.”
Swann obeyed. “Look I know I was trespassing, but don’t you think this is a bit much? There’s no law against a man looking for his daughter, is there?”
