Gone without a Trace

by Patricia Bradley

  She paused with her pen in the air. “How did you know?”

  “I think Johnny B is calling you.” He pointed toward the end of the counter, where Johnny sat.

  “I didn’t hear him. I’ll be right back.” She hurried to where Johnny waited at the cash register he’d taken over after the diner had become so busy. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t realize you called me.”

  He laid a bundle of credit card receipts in his money box and slid it under the counter before he answered. “Nothing important. Callie found this note on a table you helped her with. Table twelve, I think she said.” He handed her a small white envelope with “Sharon” neatly printed on the outside.

  Her fingers shook as she took the envelope by the edges. Even though the handwriting didn’t look like the writing that had been on the note she’d received before, Ben might want to try to get fingerprints from it.

  “Here, I’ll open it for you.” Johnny B took the note and slid his knife under the edge and sliced it open.

  “Thanks.” She didn’t remember him being so impatient. She removed the folded piece of paper, and a fifty-dollar bill fell out. Her mouth dropped open. “Fifty dollars?”

  “You made an impression on somebody.”

  Robyn didn’t think she’d ever gotten a fifty-dollar tip before. She read the note. You did a great job. Looking forward to seeing you again. It wasn’t signed. She turned and scanned the room. “I don’t remember where table twelve is.”

  “It’s in the corner.”

  A shiver ran down her back. “But . . .” She shook her head. “I didn’t wait on that table.”

  “Well, you certainly knocked somebody’s socks off.”

  Was it possible she had already made contact with her abductor? Or was it just a lonely truck driver trying to be nice? She slid the envelope into her apron pocket where she kept straws. “I better get back to work.”

  Robyn returned to Timothy’s table and took his order, which indeed turned out to be a burger and fries, and as soon as she entered it into the computer, she walked to the kitchen in search of Alex. He had hamburgers going on the grill, a basket of French fries in his hand, and an overwhelmed look on his face. “Where’s the main cook?”

  “Taking a break.” He dumped the fries into a warming tray, and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “I hope he comes back real soon.”

  “I need to talk to you when you get a chance.”

  “Sharon, you have customers,” Callie called from the dining room.

  “See you later.” She hurried from the kitchen, passing the cook on the way. The restaurant was filling up with the supper crowd. She had forgotten how popular this place was with families on Saturday evening. Poor Alex. But at least he had help now.

  “Customers at table nine asked for you to wait on them,” Callie said as she poured water in glasses.

  Robyn glanced at table nine, and her heart sank. Her mom and dad with Chase and Abby. And Livy, not looking too happy. She grabbed silverware and took it to their table. “Evening, folks. Are you getting the night off, Kate?”

  Kate smiled at her. “Absolutely. But I didn’t realize you had a job here.”

  “It just happened today.”

  Abby looked up from the paper she was coloring, and her eyes widened. “Aunt Livy, it’s that Susan we met at the park.”

  Robyn’s stomach churned. There would not have been a good time to run into Abby, but this was absolutely the worst.

  Chase stared at her. “I thought you said your name was Sharon.”

  “No, Daddy. Her name is Susan.”

  “Oh no, honey,” Livy said quickly. “You must have misunderstood. This is Sharon and she’s staying with your nana.”

  Four pairs of eyes stared at her while Livy avoided her gaze.

  “Well,” Chase said. “Which is it?”

  “Order, Sharon!” Alex’s voice boomed from the kitchen.

  “Ah, let me catch that while you decide what you want to drink.” Robyn collected herself while she picked up Timothy’s hamburger and fries. Maybe Abby would drop the issue. But it had drawn attention to her, something she did not want, especially from Chase. She set Timothy’s plate in front of him and then hooked a strand of hair behind her ear before she thought. Livy’s warning rang in her head, and she almost reached to undo her action.

  “Thank you, Sharon.” Timothy unfolded his napkin. “How has your first day been?”

  “Busy. Would you like more tea? Or dessert?”

  “No, take care of your other customers. But maybe later.”

  She chewed the inside of her cheek as she walked to table nine. “Have you decided on your drinks?” As they gave her their drink order, Robyn sneaked a glance at Abby and caught her daughter staring at her. Before Abby could say anything, she hurried to her workstation for their drinks.

  “I thought you said you were getting a job in Memphis,” Abby said as Robyn set a glass of Sprite in front of her.

  She should have known her daughter would remember. “It didn’t work out. Have you all decided what you’d like?” After she wrote down their orders, she collected the menus. “Thank you.”

  As she walked to the computer, once again she had the sense someone was watching her. Once she finished entering the orders, she scanned the room. Everyone seemed preoccupied with their food rather than paying attention to her. But she couldn’t shake the feeling. Most of her customers were people she’d waited on two and a half years ago. All of them normal people. Not one looked like some crazy maniac who went around kidnapping women and beating them half to death.

  Had she been the crazy one to come back?

  14

  Alex poured frozen potatoes into the deep fry basket and lowered it into the hot oil. He’d lost his mind, agreeing to be a short-order cook at Johnny B’s. He hadn’t worked this hard in years. But it probably would only be for one day. With Ben’s news that Samantha Jo’s wallet had been found in Nashville, he’d be flying up there in the morning. Alex was pretty sure Ben would be closing the case in Logan Point. Maybe Samantha Jo had left on her own. Still, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to talk to the detective who handled the case of the waitress who was abducted.

  “Hey, Alex.”

  He lifted the other basket of fries out of the oil and set them to drain before he looked up to see what the kitchen manager wanted. “Yeah?”

  “Have you had a break?” Eddie said.

  He shook his head. “There hasn’t been time.”

  “Well, things have slowed, so take twenty.”

  He didn’t have to be told twice. He untied his apron and hung it on a peg. Robyn looked as though she wanted to talk earlier. Maybe she could take a break as well. He poured a cup of coffee and pushed through the swinging door to the main dining room. There weren’t many empty tables, maybe five out of twenty-five in the main dining area, and he chose the one closest to him. As busy as this place was, he didn’t understand why Johnny B didn’t expand. He had the room. He waved at Robyn, and when she finished refilling a customer’s cup, she walked toward him.

  “Callie, would you watch my tables a minute? I’m going to take a short break,” she said. She grabbed a cup and filled it before she joined him at his table. “You look tired.”

  “In Texas we say, I’m plumb tuckered out.” He ran his gaze over her. She seemed frazzled. “You okay?”

  Robyn used a napkin to take an envelope from her apron. “Someone left me an unsigned note with a fifty-dollar tip in it. I came back to talk to you about it, but you were swamped. I thought Ben might want to check it for fingerprints. I didn’t even wait on whoever left this.”

  He took it, making sure he touched only the napkin. The lettering was nothing like the writing on Samantha Jo’s note. “It may be nothing more than someone wanting to make an impression on you.”

  “Wouldn’t they have signed it?”

  “You’d think. Anything else out of the ordinary?”

  She picked at a hangnail on her t
humb. “I have the strangest sense someone is watching me.”

  “Have you seen . . . ?”

  “No. It’s only an eerie, creepy feeling.”

  “Maybe it’s your imagination.”

  “I thought about that, being here again, and that could be it. And it could be the note and tip. Then Abby remembered that I said I was Susan.” She braced her elbow on the table and rubbed a spot just over her left eyebrow.

  “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Do you want to call it off?” He hoped not. She was the only lead he had to finding Samantha Jo.

  She slid her hand around to massage her neck. Finally, she looked up. “It’s too late to quit now. I want my family, my life back. Besides, this is just the first night. Maybe tomorrow night will be better.”

  “I hope so.” He caught a glimpse of Livy out of the corner of his eye, and his heart skipped a beat. He shifted so he could see her full on. High heels? And not just high heels, but outrageous high heels. How did she walk in them? His gaze traveled up, noting her shapely calves and the way her red dress showed off her curves. He wouldn’t normally describe Livy as smokin’ hot, but tonight the description fit.

  She stopped at their table but didn’t sit down. “Anything happening tonight?”

  Alex filled her in on the tip and Robyn’s sense that she was being watched.

  “I’ve tried to watch and see if anyone paid more attention to Robyn than normal, but Abby has kept me busy with questions.”

  “I had hoped she wouldn’t remember that I called myself Susan that day in the park.”

  “I think I can fix that. She’s coming home with Kate and me to spend the night, and I’m going to tell her you’re working undercover with Alex.”

  “Do you think that’s a good idea?” Alex said. He’d hate to see this case unravel because of a ten-year-old girl’s questions. “What if she talks about it at school and it gets back to whoever is abducting these women?”

  “I won’t tell her what case you’re working on.”

  “That might work,” Robyn said. “Is Chase riding with you?”

  “He came in his car, said he had some shopping to do.” Livy squeezed Alex’s arm. “You look tired. Do you think you can handle this job?”

  “Ha-ha. It’s hard work—you ought to try it sometime.”

  “Nah, I think I’ll leave that to you, Mr. Private Investigator. Whenever I went undercover, it was always with vice.” She winked at him and clicked away on her high heels.

  “Livy,” he called after her, and she turned around. “You clean up good.”

  Her face flushed, and she waved him off.

  Robyn punched his arm when Livy was out of hearing range. “What’s going on with you two?”

  “What do you mean? We’re just working this case together.”

  “I don’t buy that.” She leaned toward him. “There is an obvious attraction between you, and I don’t want Livy to get hurt.”

  “Wait, we’re just kidding around.”

  She shook her head. “What I’ve seen isn’t kidding around. Livy is falling for you, and if you’re not interested, then you need to back off. She’s been hurt before, and this thing with the boy who was shot before Christmas and now Mac has made her vulnerable.”

  He didn’t shy away from her gaze. “I’ll never hurt her.”

  “Good. Because if you do, you’ll have me to answer to.”

  “I’ll get the check.” Chase picked up the bill for their meal. While coming to Johnny B’s hadn’t been his idea, he wanted to do something special for his mother-in-law.

  “This was going to be my treat,” Kate said.

  “You treat us three or four times a week. I’m going to have a cup of coffee and a piece of that strawberry cake that keeps calling my name. Anyone else want a piece?”

  “Oh, Daddy, cake doesn’t call your name.”

  “Yeah, it does, pumpkin. Listen.” He cupped his hand to his ear, and under his breath whispered, “Chaaaase . . .”

  Abby laughed, and that made him happy. She had come so far from the broken little girl who kept looking for her mommy. He simply didn’t understand why Robyn had left them. And now he’d pretty much promised Livy to wait a month before filing for divorce. He glanced at the table where she stood talking to Alex and the woman he’d met last night at Kate’s. Something was going on with those three, and he was curious as to what it was. Curious enough to stick around after Abby and Kate left with Livy so he could talk with Sharon. Maybe Alex too, if he wasn’t busy. He would ask Livy, except it would do no good to try to get anything out of her.

  Livy waved good-bye and walked toward their table. She had been on edge lately. Kate had said something yesterday about Livy taking a leave of absence from her job with the Memphis Police Department, and he figured it had to do with the shooting she’d been involved in. But tonight she looked different. Right now her face was flushed and her eyes bright. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she was attracted to the private investigator.

  “Everyone ready?” Livy asked.

  “I’m having dessert. You want any?” he asked.

  Livy rubbed her stomach. “I couldn’t eat another bite.”

  “Me either, Daddy.”

  “Or me,” Kate added. “And I need to get home and get a few things done so I can attend church in the morning.”

  “See you all at church tomorrow, then,” he said. After they left, he looked around for Sharon to order the coffee and cake. She was at the cash register, and something about the way she stood seemed so familiar. She wrote on a ticket, then stuck the tip of the pencil in her mouth, wetting the lead, and then wrote something else. With a start, he realized Robyn used to do that. Sharon looked around and caught him staring, and he held her gaze briefly before lifting his cup. She grabbed the coffeepot and walked his way.

  “Coffee?”

  “Please. And a piece of that strawberry cake.”

  When she returned with the cake, he cocked his head to the side. “What brought you to Logan Point?”

  She hesitated. “I was going to Memphis for a job interview, but when I stopped here, I liked the town.”

  “And my daughter somehow thought your name was Susan.”

  Her lips tightened. “Yes. Not sure why.”

  “How do you know Livy?”

  “Facebook.”

  The answer had come quick. Quick enough to make him wonder if it was true.

  “I better get back to work.”

  “The restaurant isn’t busy. Can you sit down for a bit? I’d like to get to know you a little better. After all, you’re staying with my mother-in-law, and you’ll probably be around my daughter quite a bit.”

  Her shoulders stiffened, but she sat in a chair across from him. “Is that the reason for the third degree?”

  “I guess I’m just surprised that you’ve made friends with Livy and Alex so quickly. Or did you know him before you came here?”

  “Look, I admire that you want to protect your daughter, but you don’t have anything to be afraid of as far as I’m concerned. I’d never hurt your child. I’m just trying to get on my feet and start over.”

  “Starting over is an admirable goal, and I didn’t mean to grill you.” He smiled. “Kate said you were from Bristol. Is your family there still?”

  “No. I lived at a shelter for abused women while I finished my degree.”

  A shelter? Somehow he couldn’t put this confident woman together with an abusive husband, but it would explain her unease around him. And why she didn’t want to talk about her past. “I’m sorry. I can be rude sometimes.”

  The barest of color tinged her face, but she gave him a slight nod.

  “Can we start over?”

  “And do what?”

  He scratched the side of his head. “Well, we’ll probably be running into each other. I know tomorrow I’ll be eating Sunday dinner with Kate and Charlie, and I’m assuming you’ll be there. I’m in and out of their house all the time, and I’
d rather it not be awkward, especially if Abby is around.”

  She sighed. “Sure.”

  Abruptly, she held out her hand. “Hello, I’m Sharon Arnold. You must be Chase Martin. Pleased to meet you.”

  He didn’t quite have that in mind, but he’d have to admit, it was a little funny. He took her hand and was surprised at how soft it was. “And I’m pleased to meet you, Ms.—” He glanced at her left hand. No ring. “Should it be Miss Arnold?”

  “Ms. is fine. Or just Sharon.”

  She smiled, and his heart caught. He hadn’t noticed just how beautiful Sharon Arnold was until now. She had the most unusual hazel eyes, and her silky blonde hair curved delicately under her chin. So different from Robyn’s wild red curls. Robyn. Maybe it really was time to move on.

  She couldn’t believe she was flirting with her own husband or how easy it was to talk to him. And that he was flirting back. It had been so long since he’d shown interest in her. Not that she could blame him—she’d pushed him away for years, believing he only married her because of Abby. When this was all over, could they possibly put their marriage back together? It was too much to hope for. She stood. “It’s been nice chatting, but I do need to get back to work.”

  “What time do you get off?”

  “Eleven.” She checked her watch. “Three hours.” It had been a long day.

  “I didn’t see a car at Kate’s. Do you have a way home?”

  “Alex gets off the same time I do.”

  “What’s with that? He’s not a short-order cook. What kind of case is he working on?”

  She had no idea how to answer him. “You’ll have to ask him. But I wouldn’t do it here.”

  “You’re probably right.”

  He stood, towering over her. “Any time you need a ride, let me know.”

  “Why, thank you, Mr. Martin.” She busied herself clearing the table and then took the dirty dishes to the kitchen. When she came out, he waved and walked out the door. She tried to swallow but couldn’t get past the lump in her throat. It wasn’t fair. She grabbed a broom and started sweeping. How did her life get in such a mess?