by Joanna Wayne
“Sometimes,” she admitted. “And the city in general.” Her quiet life in Texas seemed a galaxy away from the life she’d once lived.
Brandon, on the other hand, knew only this life. He didn’t remember his father or his sister. He knew only what Alonsa had shared with him and what he’d seen in the many photographs scattered about the house. His father had died while being a hero. His sister was away.
Occasionally he asked questions about Lucy, but for the most part the simple explanation that she would be home soon satisfied him. At some point she’d have to tell him the truth, but not yet.
He jumped on his battery-operated tractor, turned the key and started bouncing down the blacktop driveway. “Watch me go fast, Mr. Taylor.”
“Don’t get a speeding ticket.”
Brandon laughed and aimed for a bumpy spot in the drive with Carne running in front of him, his yappy bark colliding with the caw of a belligerent crow.
“Don’t go past the curve,” Alonsa called. “Stay where I can see you.”
“Don’t you ever let him outside alone?” Hawk asked.
“In the fenced backyard, where I can watch him from the kitchen window.”
“That’s it?”
“He’s only three, Hawk. And we’re not that far off the highway. Anyone could wander up.”
“It’s half a mile to the cattle gap. Ranching kids get used to wide-open spaces early.”
“It’s not like I have him imprisoned. He has a play set with a slide, swings, a fort and a huge sandbox to play with his construction equipment.”
She walked away, heading to an old tire swing that dangled from the low branch of an oak in the side yard. She didn’t have to explain her child-rearing habits to Hawk Taylor. Besides, Brandon wasn’t a ranching kid. They didn’t have a single cow on the land.
Hawk followed her. He leaned against the trunk of the tree while she stirred the dirt beneath the swing with the toes of her shoes. Squirrels darted among the branches over her head. A light breeze crackled the dried, fallen leaves. Brandon’s tractor rumbled in the background, punctuated by Carne’s excited barks.
Life was going on as usual, only nothing felt usual today. Tension swelled between her and Hawk, not quite anger, not quite attraction, but some weird place in the middle.
He wrapped his fingers around an overhead branch. His muscles flexed and pushed at the cotton fabric of his shirt. “You’re not convinced Lucy’s abduction was random, are you?”
She exhaled slowly. “I told you that Craig Dalliers says all the evidence points to the fact that it was. The FBI has thoroughly checked out and eliminated every possibility that it was related to Todd’s work with the agency.”
“So you’ve said. That wasn’t the question.”
So he’d read the signs, picked up on the fact that if she’d been fully convinced Lucy’s kidnapping was random, she wouldn’t be so squeamish about letting Brandon out of her sight for even a second.
“I haven’t ruled out anything,” she admitted.
“And yet you’ve remained here in Dobbin, where you were living when the abduction took place, instead of losing yourself back in the crowded city you claim to miss so much. Why is that?”
He wasn’t the first to question that, though most people hadn’t put as much thought into the situation as Hawk clearly had. Usually she brushed the question off. She’d never get away with that with Hawk.
“Lucy knew her phone number and her address. If she ever remembers, if she tries to get in touch with us, I want to be here. I know it gets more doubtful that will happen after two years, but that was my reasoning in the beginning.”
“And now?”
“I like my work and the house is paid for.”
Hawk swatted absently at a horsefly that had settled on his arm. “Have you given more thought to setting up a meeting between me and Craig Dalliers?”
“I’ll give him a call later and see what I can work out.”
“What’s wrong with now? Or give me his direct number and I’ll call him.”
“I should talk to him first.”
“So that you can try to justify why I’m getting in on the case?”
“Yes,” she admitted. “I don’t want him to think I doubt his abilities. He’s given the case his all. I don’t want to seem ungrateful.”
“No problem. Handle Craig any way you want,” Hawk said. “As long as you let him know I expect his full cooperation in supplying me with all the facts. Anything less will sabotage my investigation.”
“I’ll make sure he understands.”
“And then I’d like us to take a trip together to the zoo this afternoon. I want to see the exact spot where you were standing when Lucy disappeared.”
Back to the zoo. Back into the depths of the setting where the nightmare had started. A numbness settled in her mind. She got out of the swing. Her legs went weak.
Hawk wrapped his strong hands around her forearms, literally holding her up. “I know this will be hard on you, Alonsa, but it’s important. And I’ll be there with you every second.”
“I don’t see how it can help.”
“I need to see the paths in and away from the area so I’ll get a better understanding of how someone could lure a little girl from her mother in a crowd of people with no one noticing.”
New fears surfaced. “I don’t want to take Brandon there.”
“Don’t you trust me to keep him safe?”
“I don’t trust myself not to break down and I don’t want him there to witness that.”
“I thought you might feel that way. I talked to Linney this morning. She’s agreed to watch him.”
“Do you always think of everything?”
“Part of the SEAL creed.”
“Along with holding women together when they’re falling apart?”
“Only the hot ones. You qualify, but you won’t fall apart. Just hang tough.”
“Tough, that’s me.” She took a deep breath and struggled to will the strength he thought she had into her body and soul. “I guess I should go ahead and call Craig since you’re ready to start working the case.”
“Excellent idea. I’ll keep an eye on the boy for you.”
She heard Brandon calling to him to watch him ride the second she turned to walk away.
She felt as if she’d just signed on for a ride herself and her insides were rattling like the child-size tractor. The difference was the tractor was on familiar turf.
Alonsa was in the hands of a stranger, a cowboy war hero with enough self-assurance to take on the world—or one missing child. The test would be to see if Hawk Taylor was as good as he claimed. And if she could survive the Houston Zoo.
ALONSA MADE THE CALL to Craig. He was unavailable but she’d left a message for him to call at once. He hadn’t as yet.
They arrived at the zoo just after one in the afternoon. Alonsa’s legs felt leaden as they made their way to the saltwater pool at the edge of the main plaza. The facility wasn’t crowded and the attendance appeared to be mostly young mothers and nannies enjoying a day out in the sunshine with their preschoolers. It was probably too soon after Christmas break for an overload of school field trips.
Alonsa spotted a boy about Brandon’s age lolling behind and ignoring his mother’s pleas to keep up with her and the twins she was pushing in a double stroller. She fought the urge to stop and caution the mother about what could happen if she let her son out of her sight.
She’d done that the first year after Lucy’s disappearance, initiated herself in any situation that made her nervous. For the most part people had reacted to the intrusion with indifference or downright hostility. Eventually, she’d stopped monitoring everyone’s parenting skills.
Her heart hammered in her chest as they reached the dreaded exhibit. She stopped, her feet rooted to the earth. Two years fell away and she slid back in time to the day she’d stood here with Lucy squealing in delight at the antics of the fascinating creatures. A shudder ripped t
hrough her.
Hawk reached for her hand. Hers was clammy, but still she held on to his.
“Hang in here with me, Alonsa. This won’t take long. Just give me a recap. Where were you standing? What did you notice?”
“Okay.” Her voice felt as if it were pushing through layers of rough wool. “We were standing near the rail, there next to that sign that describes the animals. I read it to Lucy. Even at four she was starting to read and was interested in all the informational material.”
Highly intelligent. Great swimmers. Could hold their breath for extended periods of time. Bizarrely, the facts, if not the exact words, swam through the fog clouding Alonsa’s mind.
“There was a woman standing near us with her husband and several children. They were on vacation and had driven down from Ohio. We talked.”
“Did you notice anything suspicious about her?” Hawk asked. “Did she ask unusual questions or touch Lucy in a familiar manner?”
“No. They were just nice, friendly people. Craig tracked them down and talked with her during the first days of the investigation. She cooperated fully, but she hadn’t seen Lucy leave the area.”
“Do you remember anyone else in the area before the group of schoolchildren arrived?”
“There were other people around, but no one else registered in my mind. Believe me, I tried to remember everything and I answered hundreds of questions right after Lucy disappeared. There were no suspicious instances or people.”
“Did you talk to anyone else that day or notice the same people standing around at different exhibits?”
“The only person I had a real conversation with was one of the workers. We were near the panda exhibit and she was nice enough to answer all of Lucy’s questions. She was a college student working during her summer break.”
“Do you remember her name?”
“Elle Carrigan. Both Craig and I talked to her after the abduction. She didn’t see Lucy again once we’d walked away from her.”
No one knew anything, and Alonsa was starting to think working with Hawk on this was a big mistake. There would be nothing he could do but cross the same T’s and dot the identical I’s that Craig had already crossed and dotted.
Hawk squeezed her hand as if reading her misgivings. His strength seeped into her. When she looked up she was gripped by the intensity of his stare as he studied the surroundings. He was committed and doing his job. She was the liability here.
“I’ll be fine, Hawk. I’ll stand right here. You do what you need to do. Search every aspect of the area.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
She stood at the railing, watching but not really seeing the sea lions. There were three now. There had been only two when she’d stood here with Lucy. Cali and Kamia, both females. Lucy had said she was going to name one of her dolls Cali. She’d never seen her dolls again.
“Mrs. Salatoya.”
Alonsa turned, startled. She recognized Elle Carrigan immediately. “Elle. I didn’t expect to see you here today.”
“I graduated in December. I’m working at the zoo full-time now.”
“That’s great.”
“I’m glad I ran into you. I’d been thinking about trying to find your phone number so I could call you to see if the photo was any help in the investigation.”
Alonsa failed to make sense of the comment. “What photo?”
“The one I sent to the FBI.”
“I haven’t heard anything about a photo. Was this recently?”
“A few months ago. It was the strangest thing. I was going through some photos that belonged to my sister when I noticed this kid that looked exactly like Lucy. I even recognized the T-shirt she’d worn the day I met her. The one with the silly turtle on it. I commented on it at the time. Remember?”
“I remember. Tell me about the photo.”
“Tonya—that’s my younger sister—was clowning around with her friends near the gate and waiting on me to finish my shift at three o’clock. Anyway, there was a lady and a little girl in the background of one of the pictures they snapped.”
“You’re sure it was Lucy?”
“Almost positive.”
“And she was with a lady?”
“Yes, the lady was turned so that you couldn’t see her face, but she was holding Lucy’s hand and leading her through the exit gate.”
Alonsa’s chest constricted. A woman leaving the zoo with Lucy. This was the first she’d heard of this. “Are you certain the FBI received the photo?”
“I sent it to Craig Dalliers and he called in person to thank me for the lead.”
“Did he say it was Lucy in the photo?”
“I asked, but he said he couldn’t comment on the authenticity.”
Lucy had walked out of the zoo with a woman. They had the suspect’s picture. Yet Craig hadn’t even called her. Did he believe the girl in the photo wasn’t Lucy? Was he following up on the lead?
“I hope they find Lucy soon,” Elle said.
Alonsa only nodded, her ability to converse swallowed up in the sensations coursing through her. She scanned the area for Hawk. When she caught his eye, she waved him over, then turned back to Elle. “There’s someone I want you to meet. He’s conducting a private investigation into Lucy’s disappearance. That’s why I’m here today.”
She’d just finished making the introductions and explaining the photo to Hawk when her cell phone vibrated in her jacket pocket. She checked the caller ID. Craig Dalliers, returning her call. The timing couldn’t have been better.
“I have to take this,” she said, stepping away from Elle and Hawk so that they wouldn’t hear her phone conversation. Her anger toward Craig spiked into jagged peaks. How dare he keep a development like this from her.
Chapter Four
“Why didn’t you tell me about the photo?” The words tumbled out of Alonsa’s mouth in a rush of frustration.
“Which photo?”
“The one of Lucy being led away from the zoo.”
Her question was met with silence. “It was Lucy in the photo, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” Craig admitted. “It was Lucy, but you need to stay calm, Alonsa. I can explain everything.”
“And you darn well will. Why didn’t you call me?”
“I was waiting for an opportune time to talk to you.”
“You got the photo months ago.”
“I didn’t want to get into this with you over the phone. I’d planned to come to Texas as soon as I got a chance and show you the picture in person. Not that it changes anything.”
“How can you say that? It means we know that Lucy was abducted by a woman and not some sick perverted male. That changes a few things for me. I live on hope, Craig. I’ve lived on nothing else for two years. What else have you kept from me?”
“Nothing. How did you find out about the photo?”
“From Elle Carrigan.”
“Tell me you are not still trying to investigate this on your own.”
“No. Not on my own. I’ve hired a private investigator.” Her bitterness over having been kept in the dark about the photo made telling him about Hawk a lot easier. She didn’t have to justify anything.
“That is a ludicrous waste of money and you know it,” Craig sputtered. “No private investigator has the resources the FBI does. No one else is going to give this case the attention I have. I’ve supervised a lot of it myself and assigned some of my top men to assist.”
“And all of you ignored the photograph of Lucy and the abductor.”
“I haven’t ignored it, Alonsa. The photo doesn’t show anything of the abductor but the back of her head. All we know now that we didn’t know before is that a woman was involved.”
“You should have called me,” she insisted. “I have a right to know.”
“I’m checking every lead, Alonsa, including the photo. You know how I feel about you, how I’ve always felt about you. I was right there with you through the worst of this. You
cried in my arms and I cried with you. Do you think some high-priced private investigator is going to stick by you the way I have or care about you and Lucy the way I do?”
Her anger subsided. Craig had been there since the beginning and had put in lots of hours. He’d personally been involved in every aspect those first critical months, staying in Houston for several weeks. Perhaps she had been hasty and grasping at straws in hiring Hawk.
She turned so that Hawk was directly in her line of vision. She studied his profile, his muscular physique, his broad shoulders, the confident stance. The way Elle was hanging on his every word, clearly drawn to him by the pure magnetism of his virility and personality, the way Alonsa had seen every other woman react to him.
“What kind of expertise does this new investigator bring to the table, or has he just sold you a bill of goods?” Craig asked, putting words to her doubts.
Hawk turned toward her as she contemplated the question, his piercing eyes capturing her gaze. An intensity that defied description punctuated their dark depths. It was that intensity she was staking her hopes on, not his good looks.
“I appreciate all you’ve done, Craig, but I’ve made up my mind. Mr. Taylor and I would like to meet with you so that you can fill him in on what’s been done and explain exactly where you are in the search.”
“I can’t release confidential FBI files.”
“This is my daughter we’re talking about. If you have anything that will help me find her, I should have it.”
“You know I’ll do what I can to help, but for the record, I think you’re making a big mistake.”
“You’ve made that clear.”
“I’ll look at my schedule, try to rearrange what I have to do and see if I can get a flight to Houston later in the week.”
“Hold on a second.” She walked over to where Hawk and Elle were standing and covered the phone’s mike with her hand. “I’m talking to Craig. He says he can fly to Houston later in the week. Does that work for you?”
“How about if we fly to New York tomorrow and meet with him?”
“I’ll have to take Brandon or find someone to leave him with.”
“Either way. The sooner I get all the prelim facts, the sooner we can put together a search-and-recovery plan of action.”
