Damn, he was afraid he really might be falling for this woman.
Just under two hours later, he was jarred awake by Sam thundering down the stairs. Gabe came awake fast, just in time to see the young man pulling a clean shirt over his tousled hair. As he did, Gabe glimpsed a lopsided birthmark on the boy’s lean belly. Teardrop shaped, liver colored—and identical to the mark on Gabe’s own skin. His hand went automatically to his abdomen, touching the spot just to the right below his navel.
Was there really any question now that Sam was his son? And the boy had been born at the right time; Carrie had confirmed that.
Even as he thought of her, Carrie sat up sleepily, stared at him and then frowned. “Gabe? Are you okay?”
He blinked the emotional storm of stunned revelation from his face and hoped the moisture in his eyes didn’t show. “Yeah, just trying to wake up.”
“I can’t believe you guys fell asleep,” Sam said. “Hell, I can’t believe I did.”
“We were all exhausted.” Carrie sat up straighter, and smoothed her hair. “Besides, there was nothing we could do.” She glanced at the grandfather clock that stood in the corner of the living room. “But maybe now there is. They’ll probably start organizing searchers at the firehouse this morning. We should get ready and head down there.”
Sam lowered his head. “A lot of good that did Kyle.”
“I know, hon, but—”
“We can’t do it that way, Mom. It doesn’t make any sense to do it the same way again and expect different results, does it?”
Carrie got to her feet, and went to her son. She put her hands on his shoulders. “The results won’t be the same. They won’t, Sam, and I’ll tell you why.”
He looked her in the eyes, and Gabe could see the kid almost begging her to convince him that what she was saying was true. “Why?”
“Because Sadie is not Kyle.” It wasn’t enough. Carrie knew that and rushed on. “I loved Kyle. You know that, right? And I wouldn’t say this to anyone else, but we both know he was no Einstein. And not only that, but he was kind of a…”
“A wuss,” Sam filled in.
She smiled slightly, lowering her head just a little. “I’m glad you said that and not me. But that’s where I was going, yes. Now, contrast that with Sadie.”
Sam’s gaze turned inward as he nodded slowly. “Sadie’s tougher than nails. She’s had to be.”
“Right about now, maybe that’s a good thing,” Carrie said. “You know how Gabe says things tend to happen for a reason?”
“That’s true. I do say that. And I’m thinking your mom’s right,” Gabe said. “Maybe this is the reason Sadie’s had the life she’s had. So she’d be tough enough to get through this.”
Sam nodded. “Maybe.”
“She’s smart, too,” Gabe added, getting up from his seat then.
Sam nodded harder. “She is. She’s smarter than just about anyone else I know.”
“Seems to me you found yourself a girl a lot like your mom, pal.”
“Don’t think I don’t know it,” Sam said. “Why do you think Mom likes her so much?”
Carrie made a face at him but gentled it with a soft smile.
Nodding, Sam drew a long, slow breath. “Okay, so we go and we search. But the thing is, if we find her body in the woods…”
“Kyle survived for six days,” Gabe reminded him. “We’re gonna find her before then. But you’ve got to believe it. Believe it like you believe in gravity, Sam.”
Sam met Gabe’s eyes. He looked so much like a man right then, and so much like Gabe himself, twenty-some-odd years ago, that Gabe’s chest swelled with pride. Even though he’d no hand in raising him to be the amazing person he was, he was damn proud of him.
“I believe it.” Sam said it with conviction.
“Good man.” Gabe clapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s get some food into us and head down to the firehouse. And while we’re at it, let’s keep our minds working on ideas for other things we can do.”
“Let’s get food on the way,” Sam said. “It’ll be faster.”
A half hour later, they sat in a booth at the Cascade Diner, which was filled to near capacity. “Tourist season must be in full swing,” Gabe said as the waitress refilled his cup.
“Not even close to the numbers we used to get,” the waitress said. “The past two years, business has been way down.”
Carrie nodded and sighed. “I was hoping this year would be better, but with the kind of publicity we’ve been getting lately, the only people we’ll be overrun with will be the press. Again.” She rolled her eyes.
“I hear that,” the waitress said. “But I guess they have to eat, too, and their tips are as good as anybody’s.”
“They don’t need food. They feed on misery,” Carrie muttered.
The waitress gave her a serious nod, refilling her cup, too. “I just hope we can quit providing their meals. Damn shame about the Becker boy. And now that poor Sadie Gray… I don’t know what’s happening around here.”
She walked on to the next table, taking her coffee carafe with her.
“So these aren’t tourists?” Gabe asked, looking around the diner with a fresh eye. He spotted Nathan Kelly, counting out change to pay for an oversize take-out bag. He guessed times were tough as he gave the man a friendly nod and the old fellow nodded back.
“A few are tourists,” Carrie said. “Most are locals.”
“All probably heading to the same place we are.”
The door swung open, and Chief Mac stuck his white-haired head inside. “Anyone here to help out with the search needs to be at the firehouse in ten minutes,” he said.
“Any new clues, Chief?” someone called.
The chief met Carrie’s eyes, and Gabe knew, from talking to Bryan by phone on the way to the diner, that he was working on the theory that whoever was taking these kids was after that missing baby and the reward that would come with finding it. But he wasn’t about to divulge that bit of information to the general public.
Breaking eye contact, Chief Mac shook his head sadly. “No. But we have a judge’s signature on a warrant allowing us to search any vacant buildings whose owner we can’t reach.”
“What about any whose owners say no?” Carrie asked.
“We need individual warrants for those. But we’ll get ’em.”
She lowered her head, muttering that it would take too long.
“It’s a start, Mom,” Sam told her. “It’s a step forward, and that’s better than we’ve had so far.”
She smiled a little. “I think Gabe’s positive attitude is rubbing off on you.”
Then she pulled some bills from her wallet and laid them on the table. “You ready?”
Gabe took a last gulp of coffee and got to his feet. “Thanks for breakfast.”
“You can get the next one,” she told him.
“It’s a date.” He put a hand on her shoulder as they wove through the now-growing crowd of people hustling to pay their tabs and get out the door. The handful of tourists watched the activity, some looking worried, others puzzled. He was sure the waitress would fill in the blanks for anyone who didn’t know what was going on.
They headed to the firehouse, where, as he had done before, Chief Mac took to the soapbox and gave his usual spiel. He repeated the news he’d told the crowd in the diner, and as the backpacks with maps, whistles and, sadly, copies of a brand-new poster with Sadie’s smiling face on it, were handed out, Bryan sidled up to Carrie and nodded hello to Gabe.
“Anything new?” she asked softly.
“Besides what he just said?” he asked with a nod toward the chief. “Yeah. But keep it to yourself. We tried to find out who was behind that reward offer, and met a brick wall. Attorneys protecting his or her identity. Chief’s working on a court order now.”
“To make the lawyers tell you who it is?” Carrie asked.
“Either that or force them to pull the reward offer altogether. But frankly, I’d like to kn
ow who’s behind it, anyway. Just in case.”
“Anything else?” she asked.
“Just what you already know. We’re searching buildings now, with a strong focus on the ones that aren’t open for the season yet. Based on Kyle’s clean clothes, we figure he must have been held indoors somewhere.”
“We should have done that before.”
“We thought we were dealing with a runaway before,” he reminded her.
“I never thought that,” Sam said. “No one who really knew Kyle did. You guys should’ve listened.”
“Sam.”
“No, Carrie, he’s right,” Bryan said. “Sam, for the record, I’m sorry. I’m more sorry than I can ever tell you. And so is everyone on the force. But just so you know, we really were looking just as hard for him as we would have been if we’d known he’d been taken. Searching private property, though, that takes a warrant. And you can’t get one of those without evidence.”
“That doesn’t make it suck any less.”
“I know. I know.”
Bryan nodded goodbye and went to the front of the room, where the other cops were beginning to discuss who was going to lead which group. They were going to begin, the chief told them, in the area where Kyle had been found, then move in an ever-widening circle, with each group taking a pie-shaped wedge and working outward.
Gabe was afraid the killer wouldn’t be stupid enough to have left Kyle’s body near where he’d been holding him, though. He was antsy, as impatient with the process as Sam was, but without the excuse of youth.
“This is just awful, isn’t it?”
Ambrose Peck had wormed his way through the crowd to latch onto them. “Good to see you again, Carrie,” he said. “Though obviously I wish it were under any circumstances but these.” He nodded to the others. “Sam, Gabe.”
“Hi, Ambrose,” Gabe said.
“Do you mind if I stick with you again today?” Ambrose asked.
“Of course we don’t mind,” Carrie said, with a look at Gabe that he read as See? I’m being nice to him. “Don’t tell me you still haven’t met anyone else in town, though.”
“Oh, no. I have, actually—your boarder, as a matter of fact.”
“You met Rose? Is she here?” Carrie looked around.
“She was, but only long enough to leave a stack of these.” He handed her a flyer. “I believe the firemen were putting one into each backpack.”
Carrie opened the trifold sheet, and Gabe leaned in to read it over her shoulder. “She’s organizing a candlelight vigil for Sadie,” Carrie whispered. “‘Please bring your own candles.’” She sighed, shaking her head slowly as she handed the paper back to Ambrose. “She wanted to help, and searching the woods is a little beyond her physical ability. This is really sweet of her.”
“Awfully sweet,” Gabe agreed.
Sam lowered his head and, turning, walked away from them to stand in a relatively lonely spot amid the crowd.
“Oh, my. Did I say the wrong thing?” Ambrose asked.
“I think he’s touched by Rose’s gesture,” Carrie told him. “And I don’t think there’s any right thing to say to him just now.”
“No, I don’t imagine there is.” Ambrose shook his head slowly. “Such a nice girl, that Sadie. She was nothing but polite to me.”
The buses were pulling to a stop in front. Gabe saw Carrie’s troubled expression as she looked from the vehicles, to her son and back again. He moved a little nearer and kept his voice low. “Are you sure he’s up for this?”
“He has to do something, Gabe, or he’ll lose it. I just wish there were something more productive.”
Gabe agreed, frustrated that they were basically going through the motions, while a young girl was fighting for her life. But maybe they would come up with a better idea while traipsing through the woods today. They had just reached the buses, catching Sam in their current along the way, when there was the sound of someone’s beeper going off, followed by another. The chief and Bryan were both grabbing their pagers, Gabe realized with a quick sweeping glance. Something was up. Moments later the two of them headed over to a black-and-white SUV, trying not to look too obvious about it, but clearly in a hurry. As they pulled away, another pager went off.
Gabe slid his eyes toward the source and realized the beeping was coming from Carrie herself. She grasped her son’s shoulder as she picked up her pager and read the screen. Then she went white. Before she could realize what was happening, Sam had snatched the tiny device from her hand and was staring at the message there.
When he looked up again, there was no life in his eyes. “No,” he whispered. “No, no, no.” Sam dropped the beeper, and it clattered to his feet on the pavement as he turned away, his head in his hands, muttering the same word over and over again.
Gabe bent to retrieve it, while Carrie lunged after her son. The text message on the screen, which had come from Bryan read, Body Found. Call ASAP.
12
“Get him into my bus,” Gabe said. “Come on.”
Carrie, who had a death grip on her trembling son, looked up at Gabe and felt a huge rush of gratitude that he was there. She’d never seen Sam look the way he looked right then. She didn’t know how to help him, or even whether she could. Whether anyone could.
People milled closer, curious, while others just looked sympathetic as Gabe and Carrie managed to get Sam to the VW Bus. He moved like a puppet, like a life-size mannequin, just letting them manipulate his limbs in whatever way they needed. Carrie had no idea, until she closed the door on Sam and turned, that Ambrose was tagging along as if he were a part of the family. He was standing close behind her, his face taut with concern.
Nearby, Gabe met her eyes and provided comfort without even trying.
She felt better having him there and wondered why it felt so much as if Gabe had become what Ambrose seemed to wish he could be. Part of the family. It seemed obvious that Gabe would stay with her and Sam as they faced what might be their most dire crisis yet. By contrast, it seemed mildly intrusive that Ambrose would consider it okay to do the same.
Ambrose circled around to the driver’s side even as Gabe climbed into the back beside Sam, closing the door.
“Is he all right?” Ambrose asked. “Is there anything I can do?”
Carrie wanted to shove him away, because he was in her space, standing way too close—so close she could feel his breath as he asked his eager questions. Then again, there was a lot of noise and commotion around them, and he really did seem to want to help. But he didn’t know about the chilling text message, and she was certain that the news of another body being found shouldn’t be burning through the town grapevine just yet. “Sadie’s his first serious girlfriend,” she said. “I should have known this would be too much for him today.” She gripped the car door.
“I thought perhaps it was whatever that message was. The one on your beeper, just before he—”
“I’m a doctor, Ambrose. I can’t even take a shower without getting beeped. It’s normal.” She opened the car door.
“So it was just a coincidence that the chief was paged at the same time, then?”
She turned her head, looked him in the eye this time and knew her lie was probably obvious. He so wanted to be included, to help, that it seemed mean to lie to him. “I don’t know what that was about, but if the chief didn’t tell anyone, there’s probably a reason for that, don’t you think?” He frowned, but nodded. “Ambrose, I really need to get my son home now and go check on the case I was just paged about. All right?”
“Oh. Of course, yes.” He backed off a couple of steps, giving her room to get into the driver’s seat. She did, then had to blow the horn a few times to get the crowd to clear as she inched through the parking lot. The VW had a manual transmission. She wasn’t used to that, so there was a bit of grinding as she shifted from first gear into Second. As she drove, she kept glancing back at Sam. Gabe sat beside him, talking to him, but Sam looked almost catatonic. Of course he was. He’d s
een the message. Body found. He had to assume it was Sadie. But God, it couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be.
As Carrie drove, she pulled out her cell phone and called Bryan. As soon as he picked up, she said, “I got your page. Tell me, is—”
“They found a body,” he told her.
“That much I got, and so did my son, unfortunately. Is it—”
“Jeez, Carrie, I’m sorry. No, no, it’s not Sadie. It’s male—”
“The body they found is male,” she said loudly. “Do you hear me, Sam? It’s not Sadie. It’s a man’s body.”
Sam blinked twice and looked over at her.
“It’s not Sadie,” she said again, and finally it seemed to get through. Sam closed his eyes and sank back in his seat, lowering his head.
Relief washed through Carrie, as well. “All right, Bry, can you fill me in? Or do you want to do that when you meet me at the hospital morgue?”
“I’m gonna need to meet you in Burlington. At the scene.”
“The scene?” Her brows drew together. “Where, exactly, is the scene?”
“Bloodworks,” he said. “We haven’t got a positive ID yet, but we think it may be Marcus Kenyon. I’m sorry, Carrie. I know you guys were friends. The Burlington cops knew from my visit there last night that the break-in looked to be connected to Kyle’s death, so they figured we’d want to be here. And I knew you should be here, too.”
She swallowed hard. “It’s Marcus,” she whispered, looking quickly at Gabe in the rearview mirror. “They think it’s Marcus Kenyon.”
He held her eyes and whispered, “Ah, hell.”
Returning her attention to Bryan, Carrie said, “I can’t believe this. I…I just talked to him last night.”
“I know. Chief Mac is going to want details about that. No more holding anything back, Carrie. Not now.”
“No, of course not.” She looked at her watch. “I can be there in an hour. I’ve got to drop Sam off at home. So—”
“I’d rather go to Gabe’s,” Sam said softly. “If that’s okay.”
She covered the phone and looked in the rearview mirror at him. Then she glanced at Gabe, who nodded to let her know it was fine with him. “All right. Take me to get my car, and then you two can head over there.”
Kiss Me, Kill Me Page 17
