A Hero in Her Eyes

by Marie Ferrarella

  That could be why there had been that sense of urgency that kept recurring, Eliza thought. Bonnie was afraid of Wallace, with apparent good reason.

  “Do you know where Wallace and his family are now?” she asked, trying not to betray her growing excitement.

  Realizing he had the attention of everyone—even Trevor who had temporarily stopped exercising him—Garvey drew out the moment and savored it before shaking his head.

  “The three of them lit out a while back when it looked like I was going to lose the farm because I couldn’t make no more payments on it. Wallace said something about losing his job at some run-down garage he was working at, but I figured it was because he was afraid I’d ask him for money.” The disgust in his small, dark eyes was not easy to miss. “He gimme an address where he’d be staying until he got settled, but I never tried it so I dunno if it’s any good or not.”

  She wasn’t conscious of reaching for Walker’s hand, but Walker was. It was as if they had formed some sort of silent bond. Looking for Bonnie had somehow sealed them forever.

  “Would you give it to us?” Eliza asked Garvey.

  “Depends.” Garvey looked at her craftily. “What-cha got to trade?”

  Walker started to reach for his wallet, but the prospect of money didn’t appear to interest the old man. He waved dismissively. The crafty look intensified as he glanced at the physical therapist, then looked up at Eliza.

  “You haven’t got any chocolate on you, do you?” Garvey asked her eagerly. “They won’t let me have chocolate here.”

  “Mr. Garvey,” Trevor began, a kind warning in his voice.

  Kind or not, Garvey wasn’t about to listen. “See what I mean?”

  Eliza remembered having thrown a chocolate bar into her purse for energy. It wasn’t like her, and she’d wondered about it at the time, but something had made her do it and she’d learned not to question her own spur-of-the-moment actions too closely. There was usually some sort of reason behind them that would come to light by and by. Like now.

  Eliza produced the chocolate bar from her purse. “Will this do?”

  His expression showed his disappointment. He’d wanted more. “It’ll have to, won’t it? Give it here.” He reached for it with a scrawny hand.

  Eliza held the chocolate bar just out of reach. She was trusting, but she wasn’t a fool. “First the address, Mr. Garvey.”

  He sighed dramatically, then looked at Walker. “You got yourself a sharp one here, boy. Not a bad looker, neither. If I was fifteen years younger and had two good hips, I’d give you a run for your money. Got yourself a paper?” he asked Eliza.

  She already had her pad out. “Right here.”

  “Okay, let’s make this fast, before one of those old biddies comes in and wants to share the chocolate with me. Last address I had for that no-account and his family, they were stayin’ in Laughlin.” Garvey rattled off the name of a third-class motel; then, like a child confronted with forbidden fruit, he snatched the chocolate bar from her and eagerly peeled the wrapper back before sinking his teeth, what was left of them, into the candy bar.

  The expression on his face was pure ecstasy.

  The look on Walker’s face, Eliza noted, was hopeful.

  Chapter 12

  Walker strode quickly through the single aisle of cars in the parking lot behind the convalescent home, eager to get going. Eager to find his daughter and hold her in his arms. The thought that she might not recognize him, might not know him, slipped vaguely through his mind, but he dismissed it. Two years was a long time for a child, but in his heart, he knew she would know who he was.

  And if not, he would teach her. He had the rest of his life to teach her. All they had to do was find her. All.

  The word mocked him as he approached his car and unlocked the driver’s side, flipping the lock to allow Eliza to get in on her side. He glanced in Eliza’s direction as he got behind the wheel. He doubted that he had ever relied on anyone in his adult life as heavily as he was relying on her now, this small woman with the huge gift.

  Eliza slipped her seat belt into place. “Drop me off at my house,” she told him, as they left the parking lot. “I need to throw a few things into an overnight bag. I suggest you do the same. I’ll meet you at my office in about an hour. We should be able to get a commuter flight to Laughlin.”

  “That won’t be necessary, I have a private plane.” It was one of the perks of his position. When the company’s stock had split, doubling everyone’s portfolio, the board had bought a Learjet to be kept at his disposal. It had barely made an impression. Things no longer mattered to him the way they once had. When there had been someone to share them with.

  Eliza laughed softly as they turned onto a main thoroughfare. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

  He made his way around a slow-moving Mercedes. “Probably because you already knew.”

  The comment unearthed a host of memories. Memories she really didn’t want to be reminded of. “No,” she said quietly, “I didn’t.”

  There was something in her voice that made him look. Her profile was almost rigid. Walker damned himself for the thoughtless remark. He hadn’t meant anything by it.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled, “didn’t mean to strike a nerve. I just assumed that in one way or another, you knew everything.” It sounded lame, but it was true. He just thought, somehow, she could intuit everything and that it was just a sort of strange modesty that kept her from admitting it.

  Eliza let out a long breath. She was being too sensitive. “That’s all right, you’re not the only one who thinks that way.”

  Funny, though she was a strikingly beautiful woman, he just hadn’t thought of her as being involved with anyone. Maybe it was because of all those long hours they had spent together. It just made him think she was single and that she always had been.

  “Someone else?”

  “Yes.”

  She wondered how Morgan would have reacted to being thought of as “someone else.” Morgan had always considered himself the center of everything, not a peripheral character standing on the sidelines. Maybe that was why he’d left. He couldn’t deal with the fact that he wasn’t the center of her world the way he wanted to be.

  Walker had no idea what was prodding at him, making him curious. If it didn’t have to do with micro-data, curiosity didn’t normally enter into his world. Yet he heard himself asking, “Someone important?”

  “At the time,” she admitted. She heard Walker’s silent urging to continue. Again she was struck by how in-tune she’d gotten to this quiet man. Despite her gift, it didn’t usually happen like this for her. “Except that when he realized that I wasn’t putting him on, that I really did have dreams that turned out to be true, that I could at times see what was going to happen, he couldn’t handle it.”

  It was sadness, not bitterness that welled up within her. Sadness because no matter how hard she’d tried, she’d always been the one on the outside, looking in. Even when she was needed, she was like a consultant, welcomed for the moment, then forgotten.

  And it was going to be that way with Walker, she thought.

  The sadness threatened to overwhelm her.

  “Called me a freak and backed out of my life totally,” she finally added. Eliza tried to make light of it. “You’d think with all the things I’ve been able to intuit, I would at least have seen that coming.” Her smile was rueful. “But I didn’t.”

  Without thinking, Walker slipped a hand over hers in silent comfort. “Maybe he wasn’t really worth it.”

  “Maybe,” she agreed. “But he seemed worth it at the time.”

  His hand was back on the wheel. “Anyone serious since then?” Walker realized he was making an effort to sound only vaguely interested instead of as interested as he actually was.

  “Nope. I got too busy.” She turned her thoughts to the present. “Watch it, you’re about to miss the turnoff—” She pointed to the off-ramp that was quickly approaching.

  Che
cking his right, Walker veered into the next lane, managing to get off just in time.

  It was better for both of them if he changed the subject, he thought. “Why do you need to stop for a change of clothes?”

  “This might take some time,” she warned. She saw resistance in his eyes. “I really think you should pack a suitcase, too.”

  He shook his head. If he did, it would be like implying they had all the time in the world—when they didn’t.

  The thought gave him pause. He didn’t used to be superstitious. But then, up until a short while ago, he hadn’t believed something like clairvoyance was remotely possible.

  “Whatever I need, I can buy.”

  “Must be nice,” Eliza murmured, offering no other protest.

  “Yes, I suppose it is. I always thought that money was really important, an end unto itself. I guess when you’re poor, you feel that way.” He brought the car to a stop at a red light. “But since I’ve gotten to this level, I really haven’t had the time to enjoy the comforts that money brings.”

  “Maybe you should.”

  Walker looked at her and his eyes held hers for a moment. “Maybe I should.”

  The car directly behind them honked, dissolving the moment that shimmered between them.

  Walker put his foot on the accelerator and drove.

  Eliza swept into the reception area forty minutes later, nearly walking into Ben Underwood. Chad Andreini was close behind him. Both men were on their way out, and stopped when they saw Eliza.

  Ben glanced at the overnight bag Eliza held in her hand. “Going somewhere?” His easy smile was enhanced with a touch of interest.

  She shifted the bag to her other hand. “Laughlin.”

  Chad and Ben exchanged looks. In the short time she had been with the agency, no one had known her to take a day off. She could be found in the field or at her desk, seven days a week.

  “Business or pleasure?” Chad asked.

  The question made her think of Walker. Think of him in a way she knew he wouldn’t appreciate, even though he’d been the one to kiss her, not the other way around. But she had kissed back. And felt something.

  “Business,” she answered crisply. “The pleasure comes in if I turn out to be right.” She looked from one man to the other, glad she had run into them. They were essentially the reason she’d returned to the office. That, and to pick up a few of the electronic gadgets Megan loved so well. “You two still have connections with the police department?”

  “Bedford’s?” Chad guessed.

  “Actually, I was hoping one of you knew someone who knew someone on the Laughlin police force.”

  Ben grinned, slipping a friendly arm around her. To a person, they all felt very protective of Eliza at the agency. Though she was only slightly smaller than Megan, there was a vulnerability about her that Megan never displayed. Megan, they were all certain, could take care of herself no matter what. They weren’t that sure about Eliza.

  “Not directly,” Ben told her. “But I’ve got a few friends who might know someone who knows someone.”

  He was teasing her, but she didn’t mind. She welcomed it. “When you get to the end of the daisy chain, tell them that there’s a possible kidnapping suspect in the Laughlin area—as well as his victim. If the facts check out, we’re going to need backup.”

  “We?” Chad asked.

  “Walker Banacek is coming with me. It’s his daughter.”

  Ben nodded. They were all up on each other’s case. “Leave it to me,” he promised.

  “Look out for yourself,” Chad called after her as she began to walk into her office.

  She looked over her shoulder quizzically. Chad was usually reserved. It had taken his wife, Veronica, to bring him around a little, but this was unlike even the new Chad. “What do you mean?”

  Everyone had noticed a change in Eliza since she’d begun working on the Banacek case. A glow that hadn’t been there before, despite all her natural gentle warmth.

  He purposely left it vague. “Women aren’t the only ones with intuition.”

  A kind of defensiveness rose within her, but she shrugged it away. Chad meant well. “They also aren’t the only ones who can be wrong,” she told him with an enigmatic smile. “I’ll call in after we land to see if either of you came up with any names I can drop or use,” she said with a wink.

  Her smile faded a little as she closed her door behind her. Eliza leaned against it for a second. Her own reflection in the window caught her eye. What was it that Chad had seen that she wasn’t seeing? Peering closer, she still didn’t see it.

  With a shrug, she dismissed Chad’s comment as just so much talk.

  Eliza had just enough time to tell Carrie and Savannah where she was going, leaving Carrie to fill Cade in. After packing a small combination fax, scanner and printer into her suitcase, she snapped the lid closed just as Walker came into her office, anxious to get started.

  He picked up the suitcase from her desk for her, and a beat later the weight registered. Walker looked at it in surprise. “What have you got in here?”

  “It’s the suitcase of the millennium,” she joked. Walking out, she led the way to the main door. “One change of clothes and enough hardware to set up my own office, no matter where I am.”

  Holding the door open for her, Walker thought of the farmhouse. “As long as there’s electricity.”

  Amusement tugged on her mouth as she popped open her purse and displayed enough batteries to last a full night. “Prepared.”

  “Yes, it seems that you are.” Reaching the elevator bank, he pressed the down button. His arm brushed against hers. “For anything.”

  She stole a side glance at him as a current rippled through her. That she wasn’t sure about.

  She could sense there was something wrong the moment they got into the elevator together. There was no one else there to distract her, and she could feel the discord flowing from him. She waited until they had left the building and were on their way to his car. Hers Carrie had promised to drive to her place. Savannah was going to drive her back to the lot so she could get her own VW.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked quietly, as he put her suitcase in the trunk. “Other than the obvious,” she added.

  Walker closed the trunk firmly. The word nothing hovered on his lips as he rounded the rear of the car and got in behind the wheel. But Eliza was too close to this, too close to his thoughts, to lie to. And maybe, just this once, talking would help him deal with what was going on inside. Not talking about it had never managed to help him any. It had just allowed the pain to fester.

  The pain that was now coming to the forefront.

  “She was only a few miles away. All this time, packing her things away, burying her in my heart, she was only a few miles away. If—”

  The word echoed in his head, looming large. Frustration chewed away at him. Walker looked at the woman he was putting all his faith into, faith he hadn’t realized he had.

  “That’s the irony of it, isn’t it? If. A tiny word that could change the course of history. My history. Bonnie’s history. Rachel’s,” he added quietly. “If. If only I had stayed home the day Bonnie was kidnapped, maybe Rachel wouldn’t have gone to the store, or, at least, not taken Bonnie with her. If I had just done a few things differently… And once she was kidnapped, if only I had thought to…”

  At that moment, she knew exactly what he was thinking. And it didn’t do him any good to berate himself this way. “To what?” she challenged. “To conduct a house-to-house search all through Bedford? You know that’s not possible.”

  “No, but I could have done something.”

  “There wasn’t anything to do,” she insisted. “Don’t you see? You did everything you could. The FBI did everything they could.”

  He didn’t believe that, not anymore. Perhaps not even then. How could she? “You found her, or, at least, where she’d been.”

  “Only after she’d reached out to me,” she reminded him.
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br />   He forgot what he was going to say an instant after it came to him. Instead, he was struck by the miracle of the woman who had come to him. A miracle in so many ways. “You really do see things, don’t you?”

  He wasn’t challenging her, he was just talking out loud, she thought. There was a difference. She began to relax again. “Yes.”

  “What’s it like? Really,” he asked, wanting to know, to understand. He had no frame of reference. “I can’t begin to imagine that kind of power.”

  “It’s not a power—at least, not for me.” Sometimes it was more of a curse, certainly a burden. And it cost her. Isolating her from everything normal. “I’m just a transmitter, nothing more.”

  “You’re a hell of a lot more and you know it. At least, you are to me. If you hadn’t pushed—hadn’t kept after me to believe you—none of this would be happening. Don’t you see how special that makes you?” Walker said.

  “It doesn’t make me special,” she countered. “It makes it my job. That’s what I’m supposed to do as ‘the messenger’ or whatever you want to call my function in all this. I’m supposed to shake people up and make them listen. But my dreams, or the things I ‘see’ aren’t always so easy to interpret as the one involving Bonnie turned out to be.” She only wished they were. That part of life might at least be less difficult for her.

  Looking at Walker, Eliza could see that he really didn’t understand. She decided to give him an example. “I met Savannah because I had a dream about a child I thought was her little girl. I saw the little girl drowning in what I took to be a lake. I got in touch with her, and Savannah went through hell as the police dragged the lake, looking for her daughter. It turned out that the dream I had was about the daughter of the woman who had actually kidnapped Aimee. That was the little girl who drowned—and she’d drowned in a pool, not a lake. It all turned out to be connected, but not in a straightforward manner.”

  He didn’t know about her other cases and he didn’t care, not right now. What concerned him was the case she was on now. His case. Bonnie’s case.