by Sara Davison
He lifted his glass with trembling fingers and sipped. He studied the clear liquid for a moment, then set the glass on the table and reached for her again. His hand felt like ice as she wrapped her fingers around his. “This black cloud was swirling around me, but I opened my eyes for a few seconds and my dad was going after Holden. He was choking him, Nic, killing him, right before my eyes. I couldn’t let him do that. I had to do something.”
He turned his hand over in hers. “We’d had a jackknife in the closet. Holden and I had used it to cut ourselves, to become blood brothers.”
She gently traced the small white scar in his palm with her thumb.
His eyes met hers again. Horror swirled in them. “I saw it on the floor near Holden. I knew if I could crawl over there somehow, get hold of that knife …”
Oh God, no. He killed him. He killed his own father. Gage shook violently now. It’s too much. Don’t make him say the words. Nicole cupped his face in her hands. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “That’s enough. For tonight, that’s enough.”
His shoulders slumped, and he nodded and rested his forehead against hers.
Nicole rubbed her hand in circles around his back. That was enough for now.
But someday, for his sake, he’d have to tell her the rest.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Daniel stared at the computer screen like he’d been doing for hours, his mind racing. He picked up a pen and twirled it around in his fingers. Who would want to save these kids badly enough to risk going to prison for years—or worse? Every time they went into a home in the night they risked waking up a potentially violent person who likely wouldn’t hesitate to use whatever means necessary to keep them from taking their kids. Even if they did beat up on those kids themselves regularly.
Since he and Sharleen had started going through the lists on Friday, he hadn’t found anything promising, and he was already almost halfway through. Maybe this was going to be a dead end after all, and they’d have to start in on the cops. He tightened his grip on the pen. After going through a couple more names without success, Daniel massaged the back of his neck with one hand and rose to his feet with a groan. Grabbing his mug from the desk, he started down the hall, stopping outside Sharleen’s door. “Any luck?”
“Nothing yet.” She shifted in her chair until she faced him.
“Me neither. Keep looking, okay?”
Sharleen turned back to the computer. “I’ll let you know if anything looks promising.”
“Thanks.” Daniel walked to the end of the hall and grabbed the pot from under the coffeemaker. His mind raced as he filled up the mug and replaced the pot.
After sinking onto his desk chair, he took a sip and made a face. Definitely not Starbucks. He set the mug down and pulled up the list again. A quick Google search of the next few names, Lewis, Lyman, Kane, revealed nothing. Holden Kelly was next. After meeting him, Daniel doubted he was their man, although he hadn’t sounded as emphatic as Daniel would have expected him to be when Daniel made the comment about there being no way to get around the law. Hmm. His finger hovered over the name. Better not to discount anyone at this point.
What about Nicole? Daniel dropped his hand down on the desk. If she was seeing Holden’s brother, and Holden turned out to be the kidnapper, she would no doubt be devastated. Could he do that to her?
Daniel closed his eyes and rubbed them with his thumb and finger. Could he do that to her? Where had that come from? Nicole whose last name he didn’t even know was nothing to him. He certainly wasn’t about to let one moment of insanity in that diner interfere with a criminal investigation. Get a grip, Grey. Opening his eyes, he typed Holden’s name into the police files search bar and perused the screen. His eyes widened. Leaning forward in his chair, he read the entire file again, slowly this time. Could it be? It was uncanny, how often one or the other of the Kelly brothers had crossed his path lately. Is that some kind of sign?
Daniel pushed to his feet and walked across the hall. “Shar, you have to come see this.”
“Did you find something?”
“Maybe. Come and tell me what you think.”
She followed him to his office and pulled the chair up to the desk. His fingers shook as he pulled up the file, adrenaline pumping through his system.
Sharleen read everything on the screen as he drummed his fingers on the desk. When she finished, she raised troubled eyes to meet his.
“What do you think?”
“It does seem to fit. We still have a lot of names to check out though. Why don’t I keep going through my list while you see if you can get any more information on this guy?”
Daniel nodded. “Good idea. I’ll let you know what I find out, and you tell me if you come across anyone else that sounds like a possibility.”
Before she had left his office, he was typing away again. Over the next hour, he managed to find quite a lot of information. Everything he found increased his level of excitement, although he tried to stem the rising tide. The last thing he wanted was to let emotion cloud his judgment, to try and force someone to fit the theory he’d come up with, and end up accusing the wrong person. He’d have to proceed with extreme caution. Especially since Gage was a lawyer for the Crown Attorney’s office and could also have access to confidential information. Either of them—or both—could be involved. Daniel thumped his hands on the desk as if he were playing a drum, releasing some of the excess energy flowing through him as he considered the possibilities. Should I see if he has a file with CAS?
Daniel glanced around his cubicle as though someone might have overheard the thought. Using Holden Kelly’s secret password, which he didn’t have permission to do, was bad enough, but using it against the man himself was extremely unethical at best. Doing so without a warrant was borderline illegal. Unless this constituted a time-sensitive emergency. Daniel pursed his lips. Could he make a case for that, if needed? After a moment, he nodded, slammed the front legs of his plastic chair onto the floor, and began typing again.
In thirty seconds he had the files of both Holden and Gage Kelly on his computer. Daniel turned the laptop so no one coming through the doorway could see the screen before starting to read. He winced as he perused the files. Between the two Kelly brothers, there had been eleven trips to the hospital in three years. None after 1993 though, when the oldest was ten. Daniel pursed his lips. Why was that? They were too young for Children’s Aid to write them off. He scanned the file. Each hospital visit was followed by a notation laying out the mother’s explanation of their injuries. According to her, they’d fallen out of a tree, or down the stairs, or hurt themselves while wrestling with each other. Daniel’s jaw clenched. How could a mother lie to the authorities and allow her own children to continue to be beaten? He shook his head in disgust. And why were there no notes after 1993?
He scrolled to the next page. Different forms this time. His eyes narrowed. It looked like the boys had been taken into care at that point. He pursed his lips as he read on. Both parents deceased, November 11th, 1993. He sucked in a quick breath. Deceased? Both of them? How had that happened?
Dropping his hands to the keyboard again, he opened up the police department files and entered his own password. Typing in the boys’ names, he held his breath as a report showed up on the screen. He read it over quickly, his stomach churning. The end of the report contained the results of an investigation into a double domestic homicide. The boys’ father and mother had both been killed on the same night. A chill shivered through him as he read the details.
Daniel slumped against the back of his desk chair, completely drained. He clicked back on the Children’s Aid file, and photographs of the two boys filled the screen. The deep brown eyes that stared back at him were empty and old way beyond their years. His mouth opened and he whispered one word, completely void of the triumph he thought he would feel at this moment.
“Gotcha.”
“Sir?” Daniel knocked softly on the door and drew in a deep breath before sticking
his head tentatively around the partially open door of his boss’s office. “Do you have a minute?”
Detective Sergeant Lector didn’t look up from the pile of papers he was signing, but he did wave a hand in the direction of the empty chairs in front of his desk.
Daniel stepped back and gestured for Sharleen to go in ahead of him. She shot him a dark look but complied. The two of them had decided the best recourse was to let the DS know what they had come up with so far, and request that a surveillance team be sent out to monitor the activities of both Holden and Gage Kelly, beginning as soon as possible.
Daniel slipped into the room and shut the door quietly behind them. For several minutes he sat on the hard leather chair, shifting periodically in a vain effort to get comfortable. His partner appeared equally uncomfortable beside him. Their uneasiness stemmed less from the hard seats than the presence of their superior. Even buried in paperwork, the tough, no-nonsense aura the man was famous for radiated out from him in cold, discomfiting waves. Like most of his colleagues, Daniel had never entered this room without being summoned. It had taken every ounce of nerve and several strong cups of coffee to propel him, with Sharleen trudging along behind, down the hallway and into the inner sanctum of the station that morning. Unfortunately for Daniel, both his nerve and the caffeine were dissipating rapidly.
Finally, the detective sergeant scribbled across the last page on his desk, lifted the paper, and smacked it down on the pile. Yanking open his top drawer, he capped the pen, tossed it in, and slammed the drawer shut. Daniel jumped. The grim smile that flitted briefly across the DS’s lips did nothing to lower his blood pressure.
“Well?” His boss leaned back in his chair and crossed both arms over his thick chest. The man could easily have been a marine in his younger days. Still probably could be, as far as that went. The muscles in both arms clenched. The effect was knee-weakening, as it was no doubt calculated to be. “What is it, Grey, Roberts?”
For a few, terrible seconds, Daniel couldn’t remember what they were doing there. Then Sharleen nudged him in the arm with her elbow. Daniel cleared his throat. “We wanted to bring you up to date on the child abduction investigation, sir.”
Thick eyebrows rose above emotionless eyes. “Good. What have you got for me?”
“We’ve been following up on a few leads and think we may have come across a person of interest. Possibly two.”
“Ah.” The eyebrows lowered. “Who are they?” He turned his glare on Sharleen.
She cleared her throat. “Two brothers, Holden and Gage Kelly. Holden is a children’s aid worker and Gage a crown attorney. We got to thinking that, since whoever is taking these kids appears to be targeting those who have a file with CAS, it makes sense that the abductor would be someone with access to those files so he would know who was in need of …”
The detective sergeant glowered at her. “In need of what?”
Daniel leaned forward. His partner had been about to say rescue, he knew, which did not seem like the right word to use in front of the DS. “In need of someone to watch out for them, sir. Without that, those kids make easy targets for a kidnapper.”
“Ah.” The DS uncrossed his arms. “Do you have enough to bring either of them in for questioning?”
“No sir. It’s basically a hunch at this point, although everything seems to fit.”
“A hunch.”
“That’s right. We’re hoping to get surveillance on them, catch them in the act.”
The DS tented his fingers in front of him and tapped them on his chin, studying Daniel. “Let me get this straight. You want me to commit money and personnel to stake out a couple of men who may or may not be remotely involved in this case because the two of you have a hunch.”
It did sound ridiculous, when he put it that way. Heat crept up Daniel’s neck. “Yes, sir.”
The detective sergeant pursed his lips. “Sorry, detectives. I can’t do it.”
If anyone had ever apologized with less remorse in his voice, Daniel hadn’t heard it.
“Look, it’s been months since the first kid was taken and, hunches aside, we’re no closer to figuring out who’s behind the latest disappearance, especially now that this Stiller has slipped through our fingers. The public is in an uproar over this, and of course that means politicians and media.” The detective sergeant grimaced as he said the words, as though they left a sour taste on his tongue. “They’re watching us too closely. We can’t afford to take any missteps. And wasting money and resources is a major misstep. Having said that, if you can get me something more on either of these guys, solidify your case a little, I will re-think that decision.” He gestured toward the door and swung his gaze to his computer. They’d been dismissed.
Without a word, they both rose and headed for the door, then froze at their boss’s parting words. “I want this case wrapped up yesterday, if not before. Do not let me down.”
Neither of them spoke as they headed down the hall. Sharleen grabbed Daniel’s elbow when they reached his cubicle. “Well? What do we do now?”
Daniel exhaled loudly. There was no way around it that he could see. “How do you feel about heading out on a solo stakeout?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Daniel tipped back his head to swig the last of the now-cold coffee. Grimacing, he crumpled up the paper cup and tossed it onto the floor in the backseat, where it joined the three others he’d already shot back there. Four cups of coffee were no substitute for sleep, but they’d have to do for tonight.
He blinked to clear his vision and bring the door of Gage Kelly’s apartment building back into focus. Three straight nights of surveillance, followed by a couple of hours of sleep before reporting into the station, were starting to take a toll on him. He pressed the button to light up the screen on his phone. 2 a.m. Already later than any of the abductions had taken place, and there was no activity around the building. Or anywhere in the quiet neighborhood, for that matter.
Daniel ran a hand over his face. This was getting ridiculous. His partner hadn’t spotted anything unusual over at Holden’s place either. How many nights were the two of them going to have to spend out here? Sharleen should be home with her husband and kids. Tom was pretty patient, but his patience had to be wearing thin, especially since this wasn’t technically official police business.
His phone vibrated and he glanced down. A text from Sharleen. Nothing here. I’m calling it.
He punched in his reply. Go for it. I’m heading home too. Talk to you in the morning. Daniel sent the text and then tossed his phone onto the passenger seat. There was one other thing he could try. Pulling his seatbelt down over his chest, he locked it in place. Then he started the engine and headed downtown.
“I take it you didn’t see anything either?”
Daniel swung his chair around. Sharleen stood in the door of the cubicle, a steaming cup in her hand. She preferred tea to coffee. Herbal tea. How on earth did she manage to look so perky when she’d been keeping the same lousy schedule as he had without the bolstering effects of caffeine to keep her going?
“Not at Gage’s place, no.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Did you go somewhere else?”
“Actually yes. After you told me you were going home, I drove past the diner downtown where Gage Kelly’s girlfriend works. Obviously she wasn’t there, but I wanted to remember where the place was exactly so I could go back there today.”
She planted her free hand on her hip. “How on earth do you know where his girlfriend works? Or even that he has a girlfriend?”
“I saw them there together a few weeks ago, when Lou and I went for breakfast at the diner. Well, he had breakfast anyway.”
“And you didn’t?”
This conversation was heading into dangerous territory fast. Daniel shifted in his chair. “No. Lou offered to take me out, but when we got there I realized I was more tired than hungry, and I ended up leaving.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Did something else happ
en?”
“I was only there for five minutes.”
“Which doesn’t answer my question.”
Daniel worked to keep his face composed under Sharleen’s intense scrutiny. Having a partner who knew him so well was a big advantage on the street, but it was a definite liability when he was trying to keep something from her.
“Are you planning to start watching her now too?”
Daniel moved the mouse around on his desk, not meeting her gaze. “I thought I might go talk to her, actually. See if I can speed things up a bit.”
“Do you think she’ll tell you anything that might get her boyfriend or his brother in trouble?”
“Maybe, if I can convince her they could be in danger, which, if we catch them abducting another child, they definitely would be.”
Sharleen managed to take a sip of tea without looking away from him. “Do you want me to come with you to see this woman?”
“No, that’s okay.” He injected as much casual as possible into his voice. “I can handle this. I don’t want you being away from home any more than you already are.” Would taking an altruistic tact work with her?
Sharleen glanced down the hallway before coming into his office and dropping down onto the black plastic chair beside him. Apparently not. Daniel’s heart sank.
“You know her, don’t you?”
“Who?”
“Don’t mess with me Grey. You know who. Gage Kelly’s girlfriend.”
“I wouldn’t say I know her. I did see her there that day, but that’s it.”
“And then you left without eating. That’s a major red flag. I’ve never known you to put sleep ahead of food. Did something happen between the two of you?”
“What could have happened in five minutes?”
