What Burns Within

by Sandra Ruttan

  Craig noted the manager seemed to have grown about an inch taller, and his motions lacked the fluidity of ease, but he kept his eyes riveted to Craig’s face, as though afraid to look at Ashlyn. As though afraid to betray his thoughts.

  It wasn’t until they got up to leave that the manager chanced a glance at her, his eyes not even taking in her warm smile, but moving straight down to her body, his skin glistening.

  Craig made a point of shaking his hand, confirming his hunch. The manager was sweating, despite the air-conditioning.

  Once they’d returned to his house and started unloading their purchases he said, “You know, I didn’t think you had it in you.”

  “What? To be a first-class flirt?”

  “Not exactly your style, but I have to hand it to you. You got yourself noticed.”

  “For all the good it did.”

  “What are you talking about? That guy at the telephone place, you made him break into a cold sweat.”

  “So you didn’t see the other guy?”

  Craig felt his forehead pinch. “Evidently not.”

  “When the employee went back to get the person to help us, he called someone else out. The guy we talked to, he was sent over to handle the account and told to present himself as the regular manager for it. The other manager was lurking in the hallway, watching the whole thing.”

  Craig glanced at her as he put the groceries away. “Is that why you wanted the outer chair?”

  “That, and it kept my legs visible.”

  He looked at her. Ashlyn’s lips had twisted into a sour look. “Feeling the need to take a shower?”

  “Hey, I’ve encountered my share of creeps, and I usually don’t try to encourage them. The thing is, a lot of times rapists go undetected because they don’t appear unusual. The guy who was helping you with the pager could have been flustered by my presence, or he could have just been agitated by the fact that his boss was watching him handle this, like it was a test.”

  “What about the boss? Catch his gaze wandering from his employees?”

  “He noticed me, for what it’s worth. Whether or not he was interested…I can’t really check these guys out, anyway, unless I can come up with a home address.”

  “So as far as the case goes, we’re no further ahead.” He poured a glass of juice and passed it to her.

  Her eyes narrowed. “And beyond the case?” she asked.

  “Just think of how good it’s been for your ego.”

  She glared at him, took her juice and walked away.

  The silver Corvette meandered down the road, seemingly oblivious to the honks of the vehicles behind it.

  Finally, the driver pulled partially off the road, letting an agitated motorist pass, waving his middle finger and shouting curses at the same time.

  He paid no attention to the stream of cars that whizzed by, intent on his task. He’d nudged his car in beside a small Sprint that was pulled right up against the curb, but he couldn’t stay here.

  Once the road was clear, he pulled back out and continued moving along the block, looking for a place to stop. Nothing. It was wall to wall cars without any obvious spot he could take advantage of.

  From the far end of the street he could see the girls, walking along, talking, tossing their hair over their shoulders, waving coyly at a group of boys who were trying to look more interested in skateboards than the smiling creatures in halter tops and shorts, indulging in Slurpees and giggling as they strolled toward the house he was just passing.

  Damn! His hand struck the steering wheel, and then he prayed for forgiveness.

  If you were meant to watch her today, there’d be a space, he told himself.

  He watched in the rearview mirror as the girl and her friends walked up to the house and sat on the ledge of the porch, bare legs dangling, still sneaking glances at the boys on the corner between their whispers and giggles.

  “That’s not exactly light reading,” Craig said as he crawled into bed beside her.

  “No, it isn’t.”

  “Anything jump out at you, something we might have missed?”

  Ashlyn set the file down on the nightstand and lay down. “Nothing so far. I would agree with your assertion that this isn’t someone new. Whoever’s doing this, he’s raped before.”

  “Just nowhere that we’ve been able to find a record from.”

  “That’s the problem with these cases.” She sat up, punched her pillow up and lay back down on her side, this time facing him. “Rape victims are understandably reluctant to report their attack, and in the meantime, the guy goes out and attacks other women. By the time a pattern emerges, there are multiple victims in his wake, especially if he’s this good.”

  “The department needs to look at better ways to handle these cases so that women aren’t afraid to come forward.”

  “It isn’t just the department, Craig. It’s society. Some people still have the attitude that it isn’t the worst thing that can happen to a person, or that if a woman gets raped she must have asked for it, or she might have consented and then cried rape. We have women complicating the issue by using rape as a cover or a ploy for sympathy, and we have some segments of our population looking at women who’ve been raped as ‘damaged goods.’”

  “What’s the solution then?”

  She shrugged. “Society’s attitude about sex needs to change. You have to go to the root source, and with politicians being caught paying for hookers or with their pants down in the office and then trying to lie their way out of it…well, we’re just reinforcing the idea that most men don’t respect women. It’s more subtle than it used to be, but it’s still there.”

  “It isn’t just men who pay for sex.”

  “Not anymore, but the overwhelming majority paying for it are men.”

  “I suppose it sounds weak to say it’s better to pay than take it by force.”

  “I think it’s best if two consenting adults have a relationship based on some degree of respect, instead of negotiating a price per per for mance.”

  Craig smiled. “In an ideal world, Ashlyn, love would be based on giving instead of getting and we’d put the needs of others first, and not just the sexual needs.”

  “Women would be seen as valued partners instead of burdens.”

  He arched an eyebrow. “I thought you weren’t bothered by all the harassment you got last year.”

  “I expect it. And that’s part of the problem. I work in a field where women are still outnumbered. I’m young. What am I supposed to do, gain twenty pounds so guys won’t bug me?”

  They lay there, looking at each other. There was a hint of color in her cheeks that he wasn’t used to seeing, her mouth drawn in a hard line for just the briefest moment. Then she lifted her hand to rub the shoulder that had been sore earlier.

  “Still giving you trouble?”

  “Maybe I pulled the muscle by lying on my arm last night.”

  “You don’t usually sleep on that side?”

  “I usually sleep on my stomach.”

  “Roll over.”

  She opened her mouth but then closed it and turned around.

  He kneaded his fingers over her shoulders, massaging around the tense areas and then gradually working into the knots, feeling the stiffness in her ebb away.

  SATURDAY

  Ashlyn’s mouth twisted while she considered whether to start with the suspected pedophile or the rapes. She absently picked up dishes from the table, took them to the kitchen, rinsed them and then looked at the dishwasher.

  I should talk to Adrian about that repair guy, she thought, turning to the fridge for the juice.

  Neither option seemed likely to get her any closer to their abductor, but she had to start somewhere. She walked up the stairs, went into the spare room that was doubling as her office, and started her computer. Then she started doing searches of child porn sites.

  The doorbell rang and she went downstairs to let Tain in.

  “Hungry?” he asked, holding up a
bag of muffins.

  Her whole face wrinkled. “No, and you won’t be either when you see what I’m looking at.”

  He followed her upstairs. “Jesus,” Tain said when he sat down at the computer. “Is this all local?”

  “Evidently there are regionalized groups for photo swapping.”

  “And God knows what else.” Tain turned away from the desk to where she sat on an extra chair she’d brought upstairs. “There must be an easier way to try to track this?”

  “If there is, I’m open to suggestions.”

  “I know someone who was working in the morality crimes division. Still is, I think. I’ll ask him if he’s got any tips.”

  “I thought they dealt with physical-abuse cases.”

  “That’s one thing about broad, general definitions. You can be assigned anything.”

  “Did you make any progress yesterday?”

  “Well, Marvin came to see me.”

  Ashlyn’s eyes widened at that. “Oh?”

  “Not much useful there. He didn’t remember seeing any specific vehicles around, but he also admitted he’d never been to Lindsay’s house and they go to a different school. And he remembered Lindsay being bumped, but they were too distracted to notice anything else, and they weren’t paying attention to Luke at all.”

  She nodded, her mouth twisting wryly. “Not surprising.”

  “I also talked to the Eckert kids. They also remember seeing a silver Corvette, but couldn’t be more specific. It was recent, before Lindsay disappeared.”

  “So we could be looking for someone who drives a silver Chevy Corvette. Any idea what year?”

  “I’d guess the ’78, which was their silver-anniversary edition. There are loads of them around.”

  “Something else for me to check on, then.” She frowned as she looked at Tain. “What about that support staff list Eric and Zoe were supposed to go over?”

  “I’m meeting with them later.”

  She smirked. “Lucky you.”

  “We could always move the meeting here.”

  “And keep me from all the domestic chores I’ve got? That’s okay. You can handle them.”

  Tain’s smile faded. “You learn anything useful?”

  “On the rape cases?” She shrugged. “A list of names to check out.”

  “But nobody leaping to the front of the suspect list.”

  “Not yet. Craig’s on day shift today and tomorrow, and then he’s on nights. Hopefully, by then we can screen most of the people he comes in contact with and see if there are any flags.”

  He nodded.

  She sighed as she leaned back, resting against her arms. “Tain, what about that other potential lead for Taylor’s abduction? Have you chased it down?”

  “Yeah. I don’t think there’s anything to it.” He gave her an overview of the situation, and John-John’s reaction.

  “Make sure you tell Daly.”

  “Your concern is touching.”

  “I’m serious. Daly will back you up.”

  Tain nodded, got up and started walking out of the room. “I plan to talk to him later. You let me know if you need anything.”

  “Let me know if you learn anything,” she told him as she followed him down the stairs.

  “You’ll be here all day?” He pulled his shoes on, reaching for the front door.

  “Pretty much. I have to go back to the store and pick up some extra boots for Craig. They didn’t have enough in his size and had to have them sent over from Maple Ridge.”

  He nodded and winked at her. “I’ll give you a call after the meeting, let you know how much Rob Quinlan misses you.”

  She groaned and shut the door behind him.

  Craig had his back to the group of firefighters, so he didn’t see which one spoke. “Not bad, rookie. Maybe once you get a handle on polishing the truck up properly, we’ll let you take it for a drive.”

  “I fail to see what cleaning a vehicle has to do with your ability to handle it on the road,” Craig said.

  The men sitting around watching him work all laughed. “Oh, that’s right. From the person who’s driving a ’91 Isuzu Rodeo.”

  “That runs like a charm.”

  “Way we see it, anyone who spends hours polishing this baby isn’t going to want to get it stuck under a low bridge or scrape the side of a semi that’s hugging your lane.”

  Craig bit back his response to that and rinsed out the dirty water. “What’s next?” he asked after he’d finished cleaning up.

  They looked at each other and grinned.

  “New boy’s eager to show us his stuff,” one said.

  “I don’t know. Maybe we should go easy on him. I’m not sure he’s up to it,” another said.

  “Yeah, but they’re coming ’round to take the calendar photos tomorrow. What are they calling it this year? Light My Fire?”

  There were snickers at that. “Yeah, and they say men are pigs. All these women wanting to see us with our shirts off.”

  “If having my picture taken is the worst you can throw at me, maybe I should be helping you boys get into shape. You don’t want to look like you’ve been sitting around on your oversized backsides watching others work, do you?”

  Jeers and whistles were the response, as well as a steely grin from the one in the front, who’d had the most to criticize about Craig’s cleaning abilities so far.

  He stood up and pointed at Craig. “Right, pretty boy. I’ll see you in the gym.”

  Craig followed him upstairs, ignoring the comments from the men walking behind him.

  Tain sprinted up the sidewalk and didn’t even knock on the partially open door.

  “All right, that’s enough, break it up.” He glared at Nick Brennen, “I said, break it up. Back off.”

  Nick turned and put his fist through the wall.

  “You’re going to pay for that.” Connie Brennen screeched the words.

  “Fuck, since I met you, all I’ve been doing is paying.” Nick raised his hand, his breaths shallow and rapid as he glared past Tain, pointing behind him. “And if you think that piece of trash is going to take my kid away, you can go to hell.”

  Tain turned to see who’d walked in behind him.

  “She’s my kid,” John-John said.

  “I thought you told me there was no way you were Taylor’s dad,” Tain said.

  John-John shrugged. “Some things came back to me after you left.”

  Tain exhaled. “You know, I don’t think Mr. Brennen is an idiot, John-John. I think he knows Taylor wasn’t the product of a virgin birth. You don’t know anything until you’ve had a DNA comparison done. Meanwhile, Nick Brennen is her legal father. He’s named on her birth certificate, he’s raised her, and she shares the same last name. And as far as I’m concerned, he’s the only person here who really gives a damn about her. Nick.” He turned to face him. “Go home. Stay away from your ex and stay away from this piece of garbage. Don’t do anything that’s going to jeopardize you getting full custody of your kids.”

  “But what if he…what if she? I mean, what will happen?”

  Tain put a hand on his shoulder and steered him toward the door.

  “You’re her legal father, even if you aren’t her biological parent. The courts aren’t going to take her away from you to give her to some drug-dealing pimp with a second set of rooms on East Hastings.”

  “But Connie—”

  “Nick, right now, we just want to find Taylor and bring her home. It isn’t helping you or her or me, for that matter, if this gets in the way. And Nicky is her brother. The courts aren’t going to tear apart two children to put one with an incompetent parent.”

  “But sometimes, it’s happened. I know good men who lose their kids, even when the mom is a useless sa—”

  “I’ll do a report for you for the court. I’ll do what ever I can. Let’s just hope we get to the point where you have to worry about that. Now, are you going to go home and be with your son so that I can get back to finding you
r daughter?”

  Nick Brennen swallowed and nodded. Tain watched until he got into his car and drove away. His cell phone rang. Tain pulled it out and looked at the time and swore under his breath.