KnockOut ft-13

by Catherine Coulter

  He turned to the group. “Thank you very much for all your hard work today. Whoever can make it, we’ll begin the search again tomorrow morning.”

  “Coffee’s here and free,” Mrs. Daily called out, saw her tightfisted brother start to shake his head, and stared him down.

  Ethan turned to walk to the stairs, then said over his shoulder, “We’ll find her.”

  He heard Cork Thomas, owner of the Bountiful Wine Shop, say, “To answer your question, Dolly, I haven’t seen Autumn in three, four years. She was just a toddler the last time she visited Tollie, cute as a button. Tollie carted her around everywhere right on his shoulders. She’s gotten big, and so bright she is. Those eyes of hers look right into your soul. She’s smart. Surely she wouldn’t have climbed into Nome stranger’s car. Damnation, where the blazes is she?”

  “What a shame Tollie’s out of town until next Tuesday,” said Tuber Willis, owner of the local nursery and a tulip fanatic.

  “It wouldn’t have happened if Tollie’d been here, that’s for sure,” Pete Elders said.

  Ethan stood stock-still. He couldn’t believe this. Everyone knew Mrs. Backman and her daughter except him? What was Tollie Tolbert to her? Why hadn’t anyone said anything? Well, duh, maybe for the simple reason they assumed you already knew everything they did, being you were born and raised here. They forgot you’ve been back for only a little more than three years. And gone for a whole lot longer before that, back for only short visits. Fact was, though—and he frowned— Mrs. Backman had given him the distinct impression this was her first time in Titusville. Had she out-and-out lied or simply tiptoed to the line? And why?

  He heard low-voiced conversations pick up as he climbed the wooden stairs with its center strip of Berber carpeting.

  Her door opened before he got to it. Joanna Backman looked pale as a quarter moon that had finally cleared the mountains, her eyes bruised-looking and swollen from crying, as if she was waiting to hear the worst. Her gaze held not a flicker of hope. Her hands were fists at her sides.

  “Mrs. Backman,” he said, walking up to her. “We haven’t found Autumn yet, but we will, you’ve got to believe that. Do you hear me?”

  “I hear you,” she said, her voice a dead monotone, and took a step back into her room. She continued to walk backward, away from him. When her knees hit the bed, she sat down, her head lowered. He walked over to her, looked down at the top of her head. Her hair was a dull, dark brown with a thick hank hanging along the side of her cheek, the rest pulled back in a straggly ponytail. She wore old jeans and a wrinkled white shirt, and her long, narrow feet were bare. She was tall and looked thin. Well, no wonder.

  He said, “Listen to me, you’ve got to keep optimistic. I will find her. Now, I know you’ve given this a lot of thought today.” He paused a moment, considered his words. “What more can you tell me that would help us find your daughter, Mrs. Backman?”

  “Nothing, Sheriff, nothing. I’ve told you everything I know.”

  His cop antennae blasted red at the crackling lie, but he’d been well trained and kept his voice calm. “I see. I guess we’ll just have to shirt at the beginning, then. Talk to me, Mrs. Backman.”

  Her head whipped up. “Just what do you think I haven’t told you about Autumn?”

  He pulled the big paisley wing chair toward the bed and sat down. He said patiently, “You told me Autumn is ill, that she had to have one pill a day for a week. That leaves today and tomorrow. What will happen if she doesn’t get the full dosage?”

  “The ear infection won’t be completely knocked out, I suppose, but in terms of symptoms, maybe she’d have headaches again, ear-aches, and a high fever.” She shrugged. “I really don’t know. It’s never been an issue before.”

  She looked over at him, met his eyes a moment. He saw despair and something more, something buried deep, something that scared the crap out of her.

  “I’m told you’re always with Autumn. Think. Did you see anyone who perhaps looked too interested in her?”

  “No.”

  “Everyone says she’s very outgoing, friendly, really cute.”

  “Yes, that’s true,” she said, and began twisting her hands together.

  Ethan left his chair, came down on his knee in front of her. “Look at me.”

  Slowly she raised her head, and he looked into eyes bluer than the sky in the middle of summer. “I can think of one very big thing you neglected to tell me.”

  She became Lot’s wife, didn’t move a single muscle, didn’t blink.

  “It appears that everyone but me knows you and knows Autumn. Why did you imply to me that this was your first time visiting Titusville?”

  She had the gall to shrug. He wanted to jerk her up and shake her. “I didn’t tell you because it wouldn’t have helped. Besides, it’s none of your business.”

  To keep himself from grabbing her, he jumped to his feet, took a step back. “None of my business? Are you nuts? Think, woman. Someone took your child and you’re telling me it’s not important that people here in Titusville know her? That they could come up to her and say, ‘I remember you, you’re Autumn, right? Long time no see. Hey now, aren’t you a big girl now?’ That didn’t occur to you?”

  “No. That’s not what happened.”

  He wanted to strangle her. “Why are you playing games with me? This is your daughter’s life in the balance here.”

  She leaped to her feet, her fist headed for his jaw. He grabbed her wrist. “Not smart to hit the law, ma’am. We don’t take kindly to it. I strongly suggest you tell me some of the truth now. For your daughter. I want to find her, Mrs. Backman. I want to find her alive.”

  She jerked away from him, crossed her arms over her chest, and rubbed her hands up and down her arms, as if she was freezing. She probably was, from the inside out.

  “Talk to me, Mrs. Backman.”

  5

  SHE OPENED HER MOUTH, then she slowly shook her head. She still wouldn’t look at him square in the face.

  He realized she was afraid, not only for her child—there was something else too. Worse, the fear had frozen her. He knew from a good deal of experience that she wasn’t going to tell him anything, probably couldn’t get her brain together enough to figure out her options, at least not tonight.

  Ethan pulled a card out of his shirt pocket, wrote his cell number on the back, and handed it to her. She didn’t want to take it, but he was patient, simply stood there with the card held out. She took it. He said, “You know, as unlikely as it seems to you right now, you can trust me,” and he turned and left her room without another word. As he closed the door behind him, he heard her deep, harsh breathing.

  He paused a moment in the hallway, praying she’d come running out of the room to catch him, but she didn’t.

  He gave a little wave to the dozen people still in the reception area and nodded to Mrs. Daily, who was standing next to the now empty cookie platter.

  He was home in seven minutes. When he walked through the front door, Lula and Mackie raced to him, meowing their heads off, Lula trying to climb his leg. He knelt down and let Big Louie lick him to his heart’s content, then went to the kitchen and fetched treats for all of them.

  “Big Louie, here’s a bone for you. Think of it as your dental floss.” He started tossing kibble, a game they played every night. The cats ran their paws off to grab the treats out of the air, like kibble Frisbee. He tossed the kibble farther and farther, and watched Lula rip across the wood floor, skid, and bat at the treats, then eat them off her paws. Mackie liked to leap into the air to catch his. “Why won’t the woman talk to me, guys? I’m the law. She’s supposed to trust me. Well, I know why, now don’t I? She’s scared out of her wits. I just wish I knew what her problem was.” He sighed, threw out more treats, listened to Louie gnaw and grind down on his bone. He threw the last treat to Lula, high, six feet behind where she was crouched, and she flew to grab it out of the air. “Enough, guys,” he said, dusted his hands on his jeans, and stood
up. “Do you know what? I’m going to find Autumn despite her.”

  He heard something, a slight shuffling sound that wasn’t just a house noise in the night. Ethan didn’t move a muscle, then slowly drew his Beretta and fanned it around him, eyes and ears on full alert.

  Nothing.

  He said, his voice soft and calm, “Is anyone here?”

  Nothing for a moment, then a soft, “It’s only me. I was watching you and the cats. They’re wonderful and so fast. Can I play with them?”

  He spun around to see Autumn Backman standing in the doorway, her long brown hair straggling out of a ponytail, her jeans and T-shirt crumpled. She wore orange sneakers on her small feet. In twenty years, he thought, she’d be the picture of her mom.

  “Are you all right?”

  She nodded.

  “How long have you been here?”

  She looked at him, her big blue eyes unblinking. She was afraid of him too? “If you don’t talk to me, how will I find out anything?”

  She stared down at her sneakers, frowned. He saw that one of the laces was coming undone. But she didn’t move. She said, “You’re the sheriff.”

  “Yes, I am, and I’ve been out with about fifty other people looking for you for hours and hours. I’ve been scared for you. Did someone try to take you and you got away?”

  Slowly she shook her head. She still wouldn’t look at him. Just like her mother. But at least the daughter trusted him enough to come to his house to hide out. From whom? From what?

  Ethan walked slowly to the little girl, aware that Big Louie, Mackie, and Lula were hanging back, watching. They’d known she was here and yet they hadn’t been hiding as they usually did from strangers, Big Louie included, all three under his bed, three twitching tails never quite all the way under. He came down on his knees in front of her, as careful as could be not to frighten her.

  “Why did you come here, Autumn, really?”

  “Since Uncle Tollie isn’t here, I decided to come here so you can protect me.”

  But if someone came inside while I was out looking for you, I wouldn’t be here to protect you. No, no, keep it simple. “Who would I protect you from?”

  That was too much; he saw that immediately. She shrank back, wrapped her arms around herself. She looked ready to fold in on herself. Lula meowed. The little girl looked up. Mackie meowed, Big Louie barked, all three now a line behind him.

  “They’re nice,” she said.

  “They’re varmints,” Ethan said, but with a smile and a laugh, and was pleased to see her arms drop back to her sides. “Lula is a calico. See all the black and gold splotches on white? She’s so independent, I have to make an appointment with her before she’ll give me the time of day. Now, as for Mackie, he’s the big orange-and-white tabby, so big you’d think he could go bring down his own dinner, but he’s also a wuss, lives to eat and sleep and have me rub his ears and tell him how handsome he is. As for Big Louie, he’s a black Labrador, tough and so sweet you want to hug him all the time. He and the cats get along—what a surprise, but it’s true.”

  She said, “Lula? Mackie?” Ethan watched them stop their slinking and bound toward her. Independent Lula, to his surprise, began to rub herself against Autumn’s legs. As for Mackie, he had no shame. He stretched out his full length against her, his paws on her chest. She laughed and picked him up, then staggered before Ethan could steady her.

  He said, “Why don’t you call me Ethan?”

  She shook her head. “Mama said I was to stay away from you. Far away.”

  Now that wasn’t much of a surprise. “Did she tell you why?”

  The little girl whispered, “She said no way would you believe us.”

  “But you came here anyway.”

  “Yes,” she whispered, and he saw a small white hand stretch out toward Big Louie. “He’s bigger than me.”

  “Yeah, he is, but you know, he wouldn’t hurt you unless you tried to steal his dog bone. Then it’d be close. Would you like me to call your mother, Autumn?”

  “If you do, she’ll come out here and he’ll come and she’ll try to stop him and it could be really bad.”

  She was rubbing Lula’s back as she arched against her hand, purring with lots of horsepower. Mackie swatted at Lula. Lula whipped around and hissed at him.

  Ethan said, “Come on, you guys, don’t be rude around Autumn. That’s a pretty name—Autumn.”

  “My daddy wanted to name me that. He’s dead.”

  “I’m sorry. Was he ill?”

  She shook her head. “It was bad, real bad.” Slowly she held out her hand to Mackie, who turned slinky now, twisting and turning around her, teasing her. Big Louie nudged her shoulder. Ethan said, “Listen, you guys, how can I get to know Autumn if you’re all trying to take over?”

  She laughed, a very small laugh but still a laugh, and he found himself smiling in return. “Are you hungry? This trio sure was. You watched me play kibble Frisbee with them?”

  She nodded. “They’re good.”

  She fell silent, looked profoundly worried.

  He wanted to ask her why she hadn’t come out then, but he knew why. She’d been too scared. He said, “I can make hot chocolate. I think I’ve got some Fig Newtons.”

  She licked her lips. He had her. He held out his hand. And waited. It seemed like a year, but at last she put her hand in his. He rose. She walked beside him into the kitchen. “Why don’t you sit down and play with the varmints while I work. Are you hungry?”

  She nodded.

  Ethan thought about her mother. Another five minutes, he thought, get the little girl to tell him what was going on first. And he knew to his boot heels that whatever was going on with her mother, it wasn’t good. “You know, I’m hungry too. Why don’t I see what’s in the fridge?”

  There was leftover pepperoni pizza, four big slices. The best kid food in the land. “Look what I found.”

  “I was afraid to eat it,” she said. “I didn’t want to make you mad.”

  What to say to that? “I’m glad you didn’t eat it cold. The cheese would stick to your teeth. Let’s warm it up.”

  He turned the oven on high and laid the slices on a cookie tray that was so old he imagined the first cookie was baked on it during Prohibition.

  He made hot chocolate from an old can of cocoa in the cupboard. As he stirred it into the milk on the stovetop, he said, “How did you get into my house?”

  He didn’t think she was going to answer him, then in a near whisper, she said, “Your bedroom window was up a little bit. Big Louie was barking his head off. I got stuck, and he grabbed my shirt sleeve and pulled me into your bedroom.”

  “You’re some watchdog, aren’t you, Big Louie?”

  Big Louie wagged his tail. Ethan watched him nuzzle his face into the little girl’s hands as she sat all straight and proper on a kitchen chair.

  He poured the hot chocolate into a mug. “Here, give this a try. It’s not too hot, I stuck my finger in it.”

  He watched her sip, then she smiled. A beautiful smile, he thought, no fear in it, at least for the moment. “Are you a worrier, Autumn?”

  She cocked her head to one side and stared at him. She nodded. “I have to.”

  “Why?”

  She buried her face in the hot chocolate. Mackie meowed and jumped lightly onto her lap. Mackie was sixteen pounds of muscle covered with gold-and-white fur. If he sprawled out over her legs, his paws might have reached the floor on either side of her.

  Back off, back off. “I need to call your mama. She’s scared, Autumn. You want her to know you’re okay, don’t you?”

  The little face sported a chocolate mustache. She looked pale and frightened. “I don’t want her to die.”

  ♥ Scanned by Coral ♥

  6

  HIS HEART SKIPPED a beat, but he spoke easily, not a bit of uncertainty in his voice. “She won’t die. That’s why you came to me, you knew I’d take care of you, and I’ll take care of your mom, okay? Do you believe me
?”

  “You don’t know,” she said, her fingers stroking through Mackie’s thick fur. His purr went up a notch. Lula sprawled against Big Louie, who was lying on the floor on his side, tail thumping on the tile, both sets of eyes fastened on the little girl with Mackie in her lap.

  “Then you’ll have to tell me, won’t you?”

  She shook her head, rubbed Mackie harder, then buried her face in his fur.

  “Okay,” Ethan said. He rose and pulled the pizza out of the oven. “It’s perfect. Let’s eat.”

  After he watched her take a huge bite, Ethan said, “Do you like Titusville?”

  She took another bite, chewed slowly. Mackie, now on the floor, meowed up at her.

  “Take a hike, Mackie, no pizza,” Ethan said. Mackie meowed several more times, his patented “I’m starving” meow, and walked to sprawl down beside Lula, who was still leaning into Big Louie.

  “Mama said she brought me to Titusville once, but I don’t remember it. She said I was just a little kid.” She chewed. “She said she took me to three caves she’d explored, and I thought if I really tried I could remember them and find them, but I couldn’t.”

  “So you came here instead. How did you know where I live, Autumn?”

  “I heard a tourist talking to Mrs. Daily about this charming cottage he and his wife had seen. He described it real good and asked if it was for rent. Mrs. Daily told him the sheriff lived there, it had been in your family since way back before the Big War. She said your mother lived there before she went to Florida, and your older sister lived in Baltimore.”

  He nodded, gave her another slice of pizza, then took another big bite of his own, suddenly aware that he was as hungry as she was. Maggie, his twice-a-week housekeeper, had brought the pizza and forgotten to take it home with her when she left, thank the good Lord. Or maybe she’d left it for him. With Maggie, he never knew. “What about your folks, Autumn?”

  “My mama’s mother died last year because of the big C. I don’t know what that is, but it’s bad.”

  “I’m sorry.” He cleared his throat. “I’m going to call your mama now. I don’t think it’s fair for her to keep on worrying about you, do you? And here you are, stuffing my excellent pizza down your gullet.”