Colton's Secret Son

by Carla Cassidy

  “I called Thorne and Mac to come over and help with a search. Maybe you could make a pot of coffee?”

  “Of course,” she replied, grateful for something, for anything to do besides fall completely apart. She went into the kitchen and prepared the coffee. As she waited for it to brew, she stared out the window.

  It wouldn’t be long before dusk would fall and after that the darkness of night. Surely he’d be home before his bedtime. Surely she’d get to tuck him in tonight as she had so many times before. When night came, he needed to be in his bed with the stars on his ceiling shining down on him. She had to believe that.

  She closed her eyes as she remembered the sweet kiss on the cheek Cody had given her that morning before he’d left for the bus stop and how they’d laughed at her silly-looking pancakes. She’d give anything she possessed to hear his laughter once again, to feel his kiss once again.

  If he had made a mistake and gone to play and lost track of the time, she wouldn’t be angry with him as long as he came home.

  The coffee had just finished making when Sheriff Jeffries arrived once again. The fact that he didn’t have Cody in tow increased the despair inside Allison.

  “Unfortunately I haven’t been able to locate Chad,” he said. “He’s not at his home and he isn’t in any of the bars. The bartender at the Whiskey Sour said he was in earlier and left about three thirty. I’ve instructed my men to stop him if they see him.”

  “What about the Billings brothers?” she asked. “Have you spoken with them?”

  Bud frowned. “Why would I talk to them?”

  “You know they’ve been vandalizing my jobs,” Allison replied, her voice slightly raised.

  “I know no such thing,” Bud replied. “I know you’ve had some vandalism and that you suspect them, but we haven’t found any proof that they’re responsible. Besides, Brad and Bob aren’t the kind of men who would take a kid.”

  “But Brad is the kind of man who would threaten a woman in her office,” Knox replied. She could feel the tension that rolled off him.

  “Yeah, Brad told me about his knucklehead move to talk to Allison in her office,” Bud replied with a wry grin. “I told him not to pull something like that again.”

  “So maybe he decided to take Cody instead,” Allison replied. “Sheriff Jeffries, you have to take this seriously.”

  “I am taking it seriously,” he replied and puffed up his chest. “I’ve told all the men on the streets to look for the boy.”

  “Cody. His name is Cody,” Knox replied evenly. “We’re planning on getting together a search party with friends and relatives. Do you want to coordinate it?”

  “I’m overseeing the search by my own men and attempting to find Chad. I can’t be at ten places at one time,” Bud replied defensively.

  Lazy, Allison thought bitterly. Even now, with a child missing from his home, Bud didn’t want to commit himself to working too hard. There had been many in town who had been complaining about Bud’s indolence.

  “Wouldn’t it help your men to have a picture of Cody?” Knox asked, his voice the deceptive calm that she knew hid a wealth of anger.

  Bud rocked back on his heels. “I was just about to ask for one.”

  “Allison, do you have an up-to-date photo of Cody?” Knox asked gently.

  The request suddenly made this even more horrifyingly real. When was the last time she’d taken a picture of her son? She couldn’t remember. God, she hadn’t taken enough pictures of him. She should have been taking one of him every single day.

  “The latest one is his school picture,” she finally replied. “I have some in the kitchen desk drawer.” She went into the kitchen, sat down at the desk and pulled open the drawer that held the envelope of her son’s school pictures.

  Her fingers trembled as she withdrew a sheet of four five-by-seven prints. One was missing. She’d cut it off and framed it the day he’d brought them home. It was on the stand next to her bed where she could gaze at it first thing in the morning and right before she went to sleep.

  She stared at Cody’s image. He’d insisted he wear his favorite blue plaid shirt, which made his bright blue eyes appear even bluer. His wide smile invited everyone around him to smile, as well.

  A lump formed in the back of her throat. Don’t cry, she commanded herself. To cry meant she had abandoned hope, and that was all she had right now. A warm hand fell on her shoulder. She looked up to see Knox, his gaze riveted to the pictures.

  “Do you have any wallet-sized?” he asked.

  “Is that what Sheriff Jeffries wants?”

  “That’s what I want. I want to carry a picture of my son in my wallet.” A wealth of hunger, of love was in his voice.

  If she focused on his emotion, she would have a complete and total breakdown. She pulled out a pair of scissors and cut a wallet-sized photo for him and the bigger one for the sheriff.

  “You’ll keep us posted as to what you find out?” Knox asked Bud as he handed him the photo.

  “Of course, and you let me know if the b...Cody shows up here. I’m assigning Deputy Kincaid and Deputy Baker to sit here with you. They’ll be back here in a little while.” With that Bud left.

  For a long moment Allison and Knox stared at each other, and in that moment his eyes were completely unguarded and the pain that shone there mirrored her own. She wanted desperately to fall into his arms, but that wouldn’t make Cody magically appear.

  “Do you really think he’s been kidnapped?” she asked softly. Her brain flashed on the fact that Livia Colton was someplace running free. Was she behind this? Oh God, she couldn’t even think such a terrible thing right now.

  He released a deep sigh and jammed his hands in his pockets. “To be honest, I don’t know what to think.” His eyes were shadowed but the vulnerability that had been there moments before was gone. “But we have to consider that it’s definitely a real possibility.”

  “He said the bartender told him Chad left the bar at around three thirty. He would have had time to take Cody,” she said.

  At that moment a knock fell on the door. Knox answered to allow in Mac and Thorne. “Thanks for coming,” Knox said. “I’m not sure exactly what the sheriff is doing, but I figured we needed to get some people out searching.”

  Mac frowned. “If I know Bud Jeffries, he’s doing as little as possible.”

  Allison listened as Knox filled them in on finding the backpack in the next block over. She assumed Knox had told Mac and Thorne about Cody being his son in the last week.

  Everyone froze as the house phone rang. Let it be Cody, Allison prayed as she hurried to pick it up. Knox’s hand crashed down on hers just before she answered.

  “Put it on speaker,” he said urgently.

  She realized he thought it might be a ransom call. A surge of nausea rose up inside her as she picked up the receiver. “Hello?” Her voice was a mere whisper.

  “Allison, it’s Lauren Patten from the school. I was just wondering if Cody ever got home okay.”

  Allison expelled a shuddery sigh, unsure if she was disappointed that it wasn’t a call from a kidnapper or relieved that it was the school receptionist. “No, Lauren, he hasn’t come home yet. We’ve gotten the police involved but we’d appreciate anyone who wants to join a search party for him.”

  “I’ll see who I can round up,” Lauren replied.

  “We’ve got about an hour and a half or so left of daylight,” Knox said when Allison hung up the phone.

  “We’ll head out,” Thorne said and then left the house with Mac.

  Once again Allison and Knox were alone with their despair, a living, breathing third person. “What do we do now?” she finally asked bleakly.

  “We wait.”

  The two words thundered in Allison’s head. How long before they had an answer? How
long before she could clutch her precious boy to her chest and feel his heartbeat against her own? How long before Cody was home where he belonged?

  Chapter 8

  By seven thirty, the house was filled with well-meaning people and Deputy Wendall Kincaid, who sat at a chair in the kitchen and fielded calls from fellow officers and tried to coordinate the neighbors and friends who had shown up to search.

  Allison was in the kitchen, making sandwiches and more coffee for those who had come to help. She appeared efficient and in control, unless Knox looked into her eyes, which held her intense, screaming despair.

  Knox was just grateful she had something to do to keep her busy and a couple of friends to chat with her and offer support. He paced the floor, waiting for something to happen, and finally climbed the stairs to Cody’s bedroom.

  He stood in the threshold and stared at the top bunk. He’d tucked Cody into bed with a pat on the shoulder and Cody had placed his hand on Knox’s cheek.

  I’m glad you want to spend time with me, Knox, he’d said. I really like being with you. Knox had tucked the sheet around his neck and wished him happy dreams. He wanted to do it again. He wanted to tuck his son into bed tonight and tell him how much he loved him, how happy he was that Cody was his son.

  The room held the scent of little boy and big dreams. Knox’s gaze shifted to the miniature horses on the shelves. His heart swelled in his chest, making it difficult to draw a breath. The glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling would soon be shining, but Cody wasn’t here to see them.

  Where are you, son? How can I find you and bring you home where you belong? There was no way he believed Cody had run away. Cody loved his home and his mother, and Knox hoped he had started to love him.

  Before a wealth of emotion could grab him by the throat, he left the bedroom and headed back down the stairs. As darkness began to fall, a frantic restlessness filled him.

  He was a Texas Ranger, not accustomed to sitting around and waiting for answers. He was usually out pounding the pavement and turning over rocks to find answers.

  Finally he couldn’t stand it any longer. He needed to get outside and do his own search before night fell with its deep darkness and secrets.

  He strode into the kitchen to talk to Allison. She stood at the sink with her hands immersed in soapy water as she washed several coffee cups.

  “I can’t just hang out here anymore. I need to go out and look for him,” he said.

  He hated how white, how strained her features were. “I should come with you,” she said as she grabbed a towel to dry her hands.

  He shook his head. “You need to stay here in case we get a phone call.”

  “It’s important that you be here, Allison,” Wendall said from his seat at the table. “If Cody comes home, he’ll need his mother.”

  “Yes, of course. You’re both right. I should stay here,” she quickly agreed. She twisted the towel so tight her fingers were white. “You’ll call if you find him?”

  Knox shot the deputy a grateful look and then gazed at Allison once again. “Of course I will. I’ll be back later,” he said.

  He left, torn between the need to be in the house and be an emotional support for her and his own need to do something...anything, to find his son. At least she had some friends here, he reminded himself as he walked out the front door.

  Rather than take his car, he took off on foot to retrace the route that Cody would have taken from the bus stop. Although he knew the deputies and some of the other searchers would have come this way, he walked slowly, methodically checking not only the sidewalk but in the yards he passed, as well.

  Was it possible Cody had chased a stray dog and had somehow fallen into a ditch or a hole and couldn’t get help? Had he seen something of interest and left the sidewalk and gotten tangled up in a vine or a bush?

  When he reached the place where he’d found the backpack, he stopped. This was the spot where something unpredictable had happened. Had a car pulled up? Had somebody jumped out of that car and grabbed Cody? Had he dropped his backpack as some sort of clue or had it been torn off him in some kind of a struggle? The very idea caused a rising nausea inside him.

  The asphalt of the street didn’t show a clue, nor did the yards he had passed. It was as if Cody had taken off his backpack and then had simply disappeared into thin air.

  Kidnapped. There was no question in Knox’s mind that somebody had taken his son. But who? Had it been Chad or one of the Billings brothers? Or was it his mother?

  The thought thundered in his brain. Was it possible that Livia wasn’t in Mexico anymore but rather right here in Shadow Creek? Why would she take Cody? It certainly wouldn’t be because of a grandmother’s love and desire to see her grandson. Livia didn’t do anything out of love.

  Knox crossed the street and headed back to the house, once again checking yards for any clue that would lead him to his son.

  When he reached the house, he frowned as he saw the local news channel van parked in front. That was the last damn thing they needed right now. That would only complicate things with throngs of people showing up just to watch whatever might be happening. But news reports might also unearth some witnesses, he reminded himself.

  He pulled his keys from his pocket and got into his car. Very soon it would be too dark for any kind of a successful search.

  He’d gotten Chad Watkins’s address from a reluctant Wendall earlier in the evening and it was there he headed. Jeffries hadn’t called to let them know whether or not he’d found and questioned the man.

  He drove the streets slowly and attempted to shove away the black thoughts that attempted to choke him. The idea of somebody intentionally keeping his son from him, from Allison, shot an icy chill through him.

  At least there were now dozens of people helping to search. And at least nobody had found Cody’s body. He gripped the steering wheel tightly as that thought filled his mind. He couldn’t go there...he just couldn’t believe that Cody might be dead.

  Chad lived on the western outskirts of town. He saw the patrol car parked at the curb and an old Chevy in the driveway as he got to Chad’s address. Apparently Bud Jeffries was sitting on the house.

  He pulled up behind the patrol car and parked. The house was small with a lawn full of weeds and overgrown grass. It screamed of a need for maintenance, the gray paint peeling and one of the gutters hanging off the roof. There were no lights on inside.

  He got out of his car and approached the driver side of the patrol vehicle. Bud rolled down the window. Instantly the scent of onions and French fries drifted out.

  “I’ve been here since I talked to you,” Bud said. His seat was reclined and he had a wrapper in his lap holding a half-eaten hamburger and a handful of French fries. The sight of the man enjoying a meal while his son was missing enraged Knox, but he carefully kept his temper in check.

  “He’ll eventually wind up back here,” Bud said. “His car is here so he can’t have gone far.”

  “Have you checked inside the house?”

  “I knocked on the front door...knocked hard enough to wake the dead, or a drunk, but nobody answered.”

  “Maybe you should go inside,” Knox replied.

  “Can’t do that. I don’t have a search warrant and no real evidence to get one. I walked around the place and didn’t hear anything from inside. He’s probably passed out under a tree or in a bush. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

  Then why are you just sitting here feeding your fat face? “Do you plan to stay here all night?”

  “I don’t know what plans I have from minute to minute.” Bud picked up a large plastic soda cup and took a drink. “I had a couple of my men check out Brad and Bob. They were both at their homes and were shocked that Allison would even think they could be capable of taking the boy. There’s no reason to believe they had a
nything to do with it.”

  Knox looked at Chad’s house and then back at Bud. “Does Chad own any other property around town?”

  Bud laughed. “That boy hardly owns this property. His parents lived here for years but they were killed in a car accident several years ago and Chad moved in. He owes back taxes and is barely hanging on here.”

  “You’ll call us as soon as you speak with Chad?”

  “I will.” Bud took another drink of his soda.

  Knox wanted to reach through the window and pull the man out of the car by his ears. Why didn’t the sheriff feel a sense of bigger responsibility? A little boy was missing and night had fallen.

  Without saying another word Knox got back into his car. The fact that he needed to turn on his headlights tortured him. Cody was someplace in the dark...scared and without his parents. How had this happened, and who was responsible?

  He hated to go back to Allison’s without bringing Cody home. He didn’t want to see the fear, the utter misery in her eyes. He also wasn’t ready to mention the possibility that his mother might be behind it. Right now he couldn’t figure out a motive for her and Chad was a far more likely suspect.

  Once again he drove slowly, looking at each of the houses he passed, wondering if Cody was in one of them. Could he trust Bud that the Billings brothers didn’t have a hand in this? Was it possible Chad was holed up someplace with Cody?

  He finally got back to Allison’s house. Most of the cars that had been there earlier were now gone, and the news van was just pulling away. People had to get back to their own lives, tuck their children into bed with extra hugs and the gratefulness that it wasn’t one of their own missing.

  Wendall Kincaid’s patrol car was still parked in front of the house, along with another one, and Thorne’s truck also remained.

  He walked into the house to the scent of fresh coffee and voices coming from the kitchen. Wendall had been joined again by Deputy Jim Baker. Allison’s home phone sat in the center of the table with what looked like an ancient recording machine hooked up to it. The two deputies were chatting with Thorne and Mac, who both leaned with their backs against the counter.