by Liz Lee
“Yeah. Hey, you hear anything about Nancy?”
His voice sounded muffled, odd, like he was standing across the building instead of next to her.
She shook her head, forced herself to focus. Lied to him because she had to. Because he suddenly looked far more sinister than simply a jerk the kids called creepy counselor. “No. Nothing.”
He frowned. “You okay Lil? You look….”
“Tired. I’m just tired.”
Stan looked like he didn’t quite believe her, but she must’ve been convincing enough because he said goodbye.
The door swished closed and she watched him leave before she grabbed the bear, looked at it closely. One ear was missing, the other tattered. Some of its fur was gone. But other than that, it was the same. This was Rafe’s teddy bear. It had to be.
But it couldn’t be.
Ryan promised.
She called David first, but he didn’t answer so she left a message. Said “call me now” and hung up.
She wasn’t about to call Ryan.
Who could she talk to? Who?
Ortiz. He knew anyway. She’d tell him everything.Tell him she’d found the school connection. That it had to be Stan.
She walked out of her room, past Mr. Pipes in the hall. Found the first police officer she could and told him she needed Ortiz.
No hope there either. He was at the station. Probably talking to David.
“Are you okay, Ma’am? Would you like me to call him?”
The officer had kind eyes. But then so did Ryan. And he’d lied to her.
She shook her head. “Just tell him I’d like to speak to him when he gets a chance.”
The officer whipped a little notebook out of his shirt pocket. “Palmer, right?”
Who could she talk to? Who? “What?”
He was looking at her strangely and she figured that made sense. She was walking around looking shell-shocked with a bedraggled teddy bear in her hands.
“Miss Palmer. English. Right?”
Oh. “Yes.”
He took her number and told her he was sure Detective Ortiz would be in touch with her soon.
Lil hoped he was right.
If Degas had Rafe, it meant Ryan was involved with Degas.
And that meant David was in danger. Just like she was in danger.
She walked back to her room, tried David again on the phone. Nothing. She squeezed the bear as she left the message again then looked around her room.
What could she do? Who could she talk to?
No one. There was no one. Stan had to know something. Maybe she should go talk to the officer. Tell him she suspected…she looked down at the bear on her desk and thought about what she could possibly say, but there were no answers. And the police worked with Degas. Could she guarantee the one she’d spoken to didn’t?
Why had she refused to carry David’s gun? He could have taught her to use it. If she had it now, she wouldn’t be in this mess. She could just shoot Stan if he tried to hurt her.
She started to call David again, but her door opened and Mr. Miller stuck his head in. At that moment she realized she’d found her answer. She needed help. He was someone she trusted. David might not like him, but too bad. If nothing else, he could get Ortiz on the phone faster.
The bear on her desk grabbed his attention, but he simply smiled. She could only imagine what he was thinking. “When you get a chance, stop by the office.”
When she got a chance.
This might be the last chance she got.
“I’ve got some time now. Is everything okay?” She’d tell him once they were in the safety of his office. Where she could explain things logically.
He looked a little distracted, but she totally understood that.
“Everything’s hectic. Attendance was down today.”
She almost laughed at his words. Attendance. Strange concern when people were disappearing right and left.
They passed the police officer who’d taken her name, then Mr. Pipes. Other than that the halls were strangely empty.
“The students are afraid,” she said.
“Unfortunately, the state won’t care about that when they figure out our funding,” he said, and she understood his distress. These days attendance counted as much as testing scores.
He shook his head sadly. “I have several missing students and a missing teacher and I’m worried about funding. This job is killing me.”
Okay. So he was normal after all. “You’ve been under a lot of stress too,” she said feeling sorry for him. It couldn’t be easy to be in the midst of this mess. In a few seconds it was going to get a lot more difficult. But maybe he’d take comfort in knowing at least part of the case was solved.
They reached the office and Lil was surprised to see everyone gone. But really it was better this way.
He must’ve seen the surprise on her face because he explained without her ever saying a word. “The police had us cancel after school activities for today, so I sent everyone home.”
That made sense. She wished she could go home. She wanted to feel David’s arms around her. He would make it all go away. At least for a few minutes she’d feel normal. She’d feel loved.
And wasn’t that a joke? Like he loved her.
God, she was such an idiot. Both of their lives could very well be in grave danger and she was worried about love. What was wrong with her?
Stress. Fear. If Ryan was involved…. She shook the thought away and followed Miller into his office. He was her only hope right now. “Mr. Miller. I think you might want to call Detective Ortiz about Stan An….”
She stopped in surprise. Someone was sitting at his desk. The red leather chair was turned to the window, but she could see dark hair, could sense a presence, an authority.
Ortiz? No. The hair was too wavy, like David’s, but it wasn’t….
The chair turned slowly and she came face to face with a scar, the smile, the evil brown eyes.
Degas.
Exactly as Rafe had described him.
“Miss Palmer.”
For a moment Lil’s mind blanked. She looked from Degas to Mr. Miller and back. Miller looked uncomfortable, guilty, sad.
“You…”
She didn’t finish. What could she say?
“I see you know who I am. How nice for everyone. Introductions aren’t necessary.”
Her eyes moved from the principal to Degas and back.
She looked for a way out, but there was none. Okay. She stepped back. Thought. The school was surrounded by police. No way were they hurting her.
She opened her mouth to yell, but Degas stopped her with a raised finger. A dark blue sapphire sparkled in the setting sun. “Look out the window, Miss Palmer.”
She did as he asked, followed the line of his finger, past the ring, straight out to a white school van.
And Anna.
“No.” She stepped forward involuntarily.
Degas smiled half-heartedly, as if they were talking about a pep rally gone bad or cheerleading uniform scandals or maybe a student who’d been caught skipping. As if this were no big deal. A slight problem, easily fixed.
“If you do anything other than exactly what I say, I’ll signal the man sitting next to your little friend and she’ll die.”
That explained the smile. It was easily fixed. “You can’t do this.” She looked at them both.
Degas laughed. “But I can Miss Palmer. I can do anything.”
She turned to the principal. “Mr. Miller. You’re not a bad man. Don’t let this happen.”
“Oh, Mr. Miller. How sweet,” Degas chuckled as he spoke. “She wants a champion.” He looked at his watch. “We have three minutes to spare. Tell her the story.”
“Lil, I’m sorry.” Mr. Miller looked lost and sad and she didn’t care.
Degas laughed. “Sorry. You’re not sorry. Tell her the truth. How you sold out years ago. How to keep your daughters safe, you’ll do anything I ask. Tell her all about it.”
“Mr. Miller, please.” But it was pointless. She could tell he wasn’t going to do anything. Still, she had to try. “You’re not a bad man.” She latched on to what Degas had revealed. “Everything you’ve done is to keep your daughters safe. But it’s over now. The police are everywhere.”
“Jonathan, she believes in you. How touching.”
“Shut up, Degas. Just do what you’ve got to do.” The principal sounded resigned, but he didn’t really look disturbed. He looked…put out. Like she’d somehow disrupted his day.
Degas looked at his watch again. “Two minutes, Jonathan. I can’t do anything for two minutes, but you can tell Miss Palmer here all about how honorable you are.”
He turned to her and smiled again, and Lil realized she was in the presence of real evil.
“Tell her how much money you’ve made over the last five years. How you use your daughters’ safety to make yourself feel better about the payments you take for every name you give me. Every address. Every connection. No, Miss Palmer, your Mr. Miller is no champion. Tell her how poor Miguel confided in you. How you promised to help.”
Lil looked out the window again, saw the sheer terror in Anna’s face. Thought about the trust Miguel had given. About how afraid he must’ve been that night.
That fear enraged her. She turned to Degas. “So now you’re going to do what? Make two more people disappear? Right in front of the police?”
“Miss Palmer, I’ve been doing exactly what I want in front of the police for years. People see what they want to see.” He looked at his watch again, then at Mr. Miller. “Our three minutes are up. You know what to do.”
Outside Lil watched as the police shift changed. Mr. Miller walked away and she wondered what exactly it was he had to do. Would he sound an alarm? Pretend grief.
David had been right all along. “You’re a coward,” she called as he walked out the door.
And then she was alone with the man known as the monster.
“You won’t win this time.”
“Winning isn’t everything, Miss Palmer.” He opened the door to the parking lot and pushed her forward. “If you do anything to bring attention to us, Anna Martinez will die.”
Somehow her legs worked. Even though they felt like jelly. Anna needed her now. This had to be about David’s sister. About Miguel and Nancy and the other missing.
The van’s door slid open and she climbed inside along with Degas, taking care not to touch him. His well-manicured hands and black business suit seemed at odds with his true evil nature. But then, this was all simply business to him.
Once the door closed, Anna collapsed on her arm, crying, and Lil held her tight, tried to soothe her any way she could. She turned burning eyes toward Degas. “What do you gain by our deaths?”
Outside the van, police watched them leave. Lil wondered if they were on Degas’s payroll or if they simply didn’t know what was going on.
Degas stroked his chin with manicured fingers. “Miss Palmer, we don’t kill women like you and your young friend unless we have no choice. No. There are other ways to make you disappear. Besides, your family is wealthy. They’ll do as we ask.”
“You want me to believe you’re holding us for ransom? That when my family pays you’ll just let us go? Sure. Now that I know your secret.”
“Secret? No. That was a business relationship that ran its course. Miller will be dead within hours.”
Anna sobbed harder. Lil wanted to join her, but she had to be strong.
“Where are you taking us?”
“All in due time, all in due time,” he said.
“Where is Miguel? What have you done with him?”
Degas shook his head. “Miguel, Miguel. Everyone looking for such a boy. Worried about him. Silly child. Who cares about him?”
He spoke the words as if they were nothing, but the glint of anger in his hard dark eyes said Miguel and his disappearance was much more than business as usual.
“This has gone too far, Degas. Federal investigators are here.” She wouldn’t tell him about the maps. About Solidad’s papers.
“I just took you and the cheerleader from a school surrounded by police. Federal Investigators mean nothing. We kill them if they get in our way. We don’t worry about law. We believe in supply and demand and that’s all. We are our own law.”
Simple business. The van stopped and everyone scrambled out. She almost didn’t, but the lethal looking gun in the driver’s hand changed her mind. They climbed in two separate cars. Dark blue US military vehicles with yellow license plates.
She slid into the back seat with Anna, thankful Degas was no longer next to them. But the military vehicles worried her. How did he have them? It seemed he was right. He could do anything he wanted.
But she refused to believe that. He might be his own law, but Detective Ortiz and David were on her side.
She started to speak again, but Degas waved off her question. “Just remember, Miss Palmer, right now you are more use to me alive than dead. That could change at any moment.”
Chapter Nine
David sat in the folding chair at the sparse table in what he assumed was an interview room and wondered why exactly Ortiz was making him wait.
He was already late picking up Lil. Today was sure to have been hell on her. No way did he want to be late.
But Ortiz had his questions and he’d ask them on his schedule.
When the detective walked in carrying a cup of coffee and the soda he’d offered David earlier, he groaned. Obviously Ortiz planned on a long question and answer session.
“So this isn’t going to be fast.” He didn’t ask and Ortiz knew it wasn’t really a question.
“You were the last person we know who had contact with Nancy Valdez. Since then, we have a verified sighting of her. I’m interested in what you thought when you spoke with her.”
David didn’t have time for this. “She looked like she had a cold. She looked preoccupied. I don’t know.” He ran a hand through his hair and flipped out his phone. He was getting crappy reception in the police station and Lil was going to kill him for being this late.
“Look, I’m supposed to be picking Lil up from school. Maybe we could do this later.”
Ortiz sipped his coffee and then frowned. “Interesting you mention Ms. Palmer.”
Why the hell was that interesting? “She’s not involved.”
“We both know that’s not exactly true.”
Back to this. “Lil has nothing to do with the disappearance of Nancy Valdez.”
The detective sat forward. “Now that, I believe. Why don’t you tell me why Lil Palmer has turned up everywhere in this investigation?”
David checked his watch. Ortiz wasn’t going to let this go. He’d figured something out and he was looking for confirmation. David couldn’t give him what he wanted. “Look Ortiz, I know what you’re hinting at, but if there was anything going on you needed to know, you’d know.”
“Ah,” Ortiz smiled as he sat back in his chair, making it readily apparent he was in this for the long haul. “Maybe you should look at this a little more closely, David. Whether you want to admit it or not, we both know Lil’s involved in this somehow. You can tell me how or not, I don’t care. But in the last week Degas has suddenly started making mistakes, started letting us get close. He doesn’t do that, David. Ask yourself why he would change a pattern years in the making.”
David had asked himself that more than once over the last few days. And then he’d blown the questions off because he enjoyed the time with Lil. It was easier to accept that they were close to catching Degas than to see he was playing them all in some deadly game.
“I’m not much for coincidences,” Ortiz said. “And Lil’s name cropping up all over the place tells me something’s going on. Maybe now you want to tell me what that something is.”
Maybe he should. Ryan was so damn focused on bringing Degas down he’d put Lil in danger in a heartbeat. Maybe Ortiz did need to know.
Ortiz continued, “Something smells off to me about this whole thing. Something forced. Degas doesn’t operate like that. Unless he’s been pushed. I can’t help but wonder how Lil fits in there.
As Detective Ortiz spoke, David knew, he had to tell. Ryan was going to kill him. “She’s working with me.”
“You?” Ortiz didn’t exactly look surprised.
He was dead. “I work with Federal Agent Ryan Jamison. I’ve spent the last few years looking for the Degas-high school connection with the missing girls.”
“You’ve been working with the Feds.”
“Yep. Five years. On the side. On my own.”
“Like an independent contractor.” Ortiz’s voice was a combination of fury and incredulity.
“I think the proper term is lone wolf. But yeah.” Damn.
“And you brought Lil Palmer into this?”
“Not exactly.”
Ortiz was done with questions and answers. “Maybe you better tell me exactly what’s going on here Martinez.”
So David did. He told Ortiz about Rafe, about Ryan, about Lil refusing to leave.
When he was done, Ortiz was shaking his head. “I can’t believe this. I can’t freaking believe this.”
His beeper sounded and he looked down, frowned. “I’ve got to take this. You go get Lil. Bring her here. I’ve got to talk to the people who saw Nancy Valdez last night, but then I’m going to want to talk to both of you.”
David watched him leave and knew he was totally screwed. The Feds were going to shut him down. But worse than that, it was over. Lil was out of it. Their time together finished. And that hurt more than anything.
He stood, saw the message on his phone and knew it was from Lil. Yep. He frowned when he heard her voice.
The next message had him more worried.
He started out of the interview room at the same time Ortiz burst back in.
“You better come with me now.”
David’s heart dropped, his stomach rolled. The look on the detective’s face could only mean one thing.
Lil.
“What’s going on Ortiz?”
Ortiz confirmed it with his words. “Lil Palmer had an urgent call in to me. She reported to an officer on duty at the school. She’s not there now.”
