Calculated Revenge

by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

  “Don’t you think that’s a little odd?”

  She awarded him a steady stare. “Not really. We were trying to put everything about Grand Valley behind us. Avoiding any mention of that place was the only way we could cope with the pain.”

  Noah nodded. “I can understand that.” He turned into the motel parking lot. “I want to check my e-mail, then you can tell me about your former good friends.”

  He booted his computer up in the motel office while Laney got a couple of bottles of juice from a vending machine. She’d said her family was close with the Addisons’, but from the way she talked about the son, it was more the parents who were close than the whole family. It would be interesting to explore the dynamics of that relationship. Depending on what they discovered as the reason behind George Addison’s animosity, he might have to talk to Roland and Loretta about their former neighbors.

  Laney handed him a bottle of juice, and he thanked her. She settled into a guest chair opposite him and pulled out her cell phone. “I haven’t talked to Briana yet today.”

  His e-mail came up. Richard Hodge’s former employers from different communities had responded to his inquiry. Hodge had worked as custodian at a manufacturing plant, then in an office building, then in a nursing home before landing at the school in Cottonwood Grove. The answers from the manufacturing plant and the office building were disappointing—no known physical handicap or problems in his feet. Their responses to his repeated question about reason for leaving employment continued to be vague—relocation.

  Noah frowned. There had to be a reason why a young, healthy guy moved from town to town and job to job. He’d thought about that when he hired the man, but Hodge had the most custodial experience, with well-rounded skills in trouble-shooting electrical and plumbing issues, of any of the applicants. Noah clicked on the third e-mail. It was longer than the others. Maybe there’d be some meat here. He’d barely started reading, when Laney thrust her phone at him.

  “Bree wants to talk to you,” she said.

  He blinked, pulling himself out of investigator mode. “Okay.” He took the cell. “Hi, princess.”

  A giggle answered him. “Mama says she can’t wait to get home and see me. You, too?”

  “My day is always brighter when I can see you.” The words came out with his whole heart in them. This mother and daughter owned him in ways Renee hadn’t even touched. He hadn’t known it was possible to feel this strongly about anyone, but he couldn’t explore those feelings…yet. “What are you up to today?” He kept his tone light.

  “Not much. Grandpa says we’re going to stick around home, but Grandma says that’s okay because she needs help baking cookies.”

  Noah laughed. “Wish I was there to help you eat them.”

  “I’ll save you one for when you bring Mama home.” The little voice oozed confidence. “I been praying, and God promised me something.” Her volume eased down to a whisper. “But I’m not supposed to tell yet.”

  Noah’s stomach tightened. What was the child talking about? Had she remembered something about the day the backpack was left? “If it’s about the bad man, you need to tell.”

  “Nope. Not about him. And I’m not telling.”

  Noah shook his head. Evidently, the sweet little girl shared a stubborn streak with her sweet little mother. If it turned out he had a chance to win Laney’s heart, he’d have to get used to that. He chuckled. “Enjoy your cookies, princess.”

  They closed the call, and he gave the phone back to Laney, who was grinning at him. “She can be a handful when she wants to be.”

  “Normal little girl.” He returned to his e-mail while Laney sipped her juice.

  Noah hissed in a breath. “I think we have a winner here.”

  She straightened. “Hodge has foot problems?”

  “No, he has a learning disability. He’s dyslexic.”

  “Really?” Her eyes bugged. “I never would have guessed.”

  “I have a hunch this may be the key to discovering what motivated him to flood the school.”

  Laney’s brow puckered. “But how could this guy’s struggles with dyslexia relate to Grace’s disappearance?”

  Noah regarded her soberly. “It may not, but we’ll see. This employer has graciously included Richard’s mother’s address. They did a recheck of his file and found it on a slip of paper crumpled up in the fold. Evidently, that’s the address where they sent his final paycheck. I’m going to pass this information on to Hank. Who knows? They may even find the guy holed up at Mommy’s house.”

  She beamed at him. “Now, that’s progress.”

  Noah forwarded the e-mail from Hodge’s former employer to the sheriff, along with a brief update on his and Laney’s activities. Then he shut down his computer.

  He picked up his full juice bottle. “Now we need to make progress on the mystery of George Addison.”

  His investigator sense said that they’d stumbled on to a significant lead, but Laney might hate where the trail took them. Something had gone on between the Thompsons and the Addisons that wasn’t right.

  THIRTEEN

  Laney polished off her juice, then got up and tossed the plastic container in the recycle bin. She’d humor Noah with this line of questioning, but she liked the lead on Richard Hodge much better.

  “Mr. Addison is a building contractor,” she said. “When our families lived next door, he was successful at it. Doesn’t look like he is anymore.”

  “A drinking problem will do that to people.” Noah frowned.

  “I suspect Adelle has left him, or the place wouldn’t have gone to seed like that. She was a fussy woman, always nagging him about one task or another.”

  Noah nodded. “The question is whether the drinking problem drove the wife away, or if the wife leaving brought out the drunk in him. Or maybe it was something else.”

  Laney caught her breath. “Like guilt over killing a little girl?”

  “Maybe.”

  She perked up on a thought. “I know someone who may be able to give us the inside scoop about what happened with the Addisons…if he’s still alive, and if that little body shop and gas station still exists on the far end of town.”

  “Let’s go.” Noah led the way out to the car.

  Laney buckled her seat belt as long-suppressed memories flooded to the surface. “Our families used to have cookouts together at least once a week. Our dads were on the same bowling league, and our moms belonged to the same horticulture society. Plus, we’d go camping together at least once in the summertime over at Forestville State Park not far from here. There’s a great big cave there. A tourist attraction.” She gasped. “Do you think that’s where—”

  “No, too well-trafficked.” Noah shook his head. “Was Watts a good playmate?”

  “At times.” She grimaced. “But more often he’d tease Grace and me when the adults weren’t around. I guess that’s not surprising behavior for a young boy. When we first got to know the Addisons, Watts was at the age where girls had cooties. By the time we moved away, he was fourteen years old and starting to change his tune about the opposite sex. But a gangly ten-year-old and a mentally challenged eight-year-old were nuisances, not attractions.”

  Noah chuckled. “I can relate. I was that age once. No doubt you stood up for yourself just fine, but how did you feel about him teasing Grace?”

  She laughed. “I gave him a black eye once.” She whooshed her fist through the air, remembered exhilaration tingling her flesh.

  Noah hooted. “I would have liked to be a fly on the wall to see that.”

  “It was a sneak shot.” She wrinkled her nose. “He was too much bigger than me for the punch to be anything else.”

  Noah glanced at her, face dark. “Did he hit back?”

  “If I recall correctly, he ran off wailing with his hand over his face. He left Grace and me alone from then on. But he may have told his mother what happened. She never liked me after that. Turn here,” she added quickly, and Noah barely made
the corner at an intersection between two highways. “Sorry about that.” She sent him an apologetic look. “Oh, there it is.”

  Squat and square and painted white, the body shop and gas station looked exactly as she remembered it, as if time had stood still on this little speck of earth. Noah pulled into the parking lot. A pair of pumps sat outside a small office area, and side-by-side garage stalls stood open with vehicles in various stages of body work parked inside. Beside the office door, a wizened figure perched on a stool, nursing a bottle of Pepsi.

  Laney chuckled. “I can hardly believe he’s still here. This guy is a town institution. He doesn’t own the place. He’s not even related to the owner, but he might as well have a lease on that spot he sits every day. Let me introduce you.” She got out of the car, and Noah followed.

  “I can hardly wait for this,” he said with a chuckle.

  The man on the stool regarded their approach with a crinkly faced smile. He’d lost another tooth up front since Laney last saw him. They stopped shy of the single step up to the office entrance.

  “Mr. Bingham, do you remember me?”

  The elderly gentleman rested his bottle on his knee and squinted at her with faded gray eyes. “You’ve got the look of someone…” His lips bunched together and then released in a gap-toothed grin. “It can’t be! Loretta Thompson’s little girl all grown up as pretty as her mother.”

  Her face warmed. “Yes, it’s me, Laney. I’d like to introduce you to my friend, Noah.”

  Noah shook the other man’s hand. “Hello, Mr. Bingham. We’re looking into Grace Thompson’s disappearance. Laney says you’re the man to see about some questions we have.”

  “Call me Bing,” the old gentleman said. “Everybody does. And Laney’s right. There’s not much goes on in this burg that doesn’t reach my ears.” He tugged one lobe. “If I don’t know a thing, it ain’t worth knowin’.”

  They joined Bing in a round of laughter, but Laney couldn’t sustain the merriment. Too much weighed on her heart.

  “We visited Laney’s old neighborhood,” Noah said, “and had a run-in with George Addison.”

  Good humor faded from Bing’s expression. “Sad case.”

  Laney put one foot on the step and leaned toward the old man. “What happened to the Addisons?”

  Bing’s gray gaze went veiled beneath thick lashes any woman would envy. A tremor ran through Laney’s bones. Why did she get the feeling the old man pitied her? He took a slurp from his pop bottle, and glanced up at Noah, who’d gone still as a hunter awaiting his prey. What did he expect to hear? Why did a part of her not want to listen?

  The elderly man returned his attention to Laney. “George and Adelle split up shortly after you folks moved away. Adelle took Watts and left town. Never came back. George went into a tailspin. In and out of jail with DUIs. He’s lost his license several times. Next time, they won’t give it back. Within a few years, his contractor business went down the tubes. Now he barely makes ends meet doing odd jobs. That is, when he can pry himself out of Bucky’s Bar.”

  “Any idea why Adelle Watts divorced her husband?” Noah pressed.

  Bing studied his Pepsi label. “That woman never was content. Rode George something fierce.”

  “So the marriage was unhappy?” Laney burst out. “I had a feeling, even as a kid.”

  The man nodded his head. “Kids see things. They know things.” His gaze spoke volumes Laney didn’t understand.

  Noah stepped forward. “But what was the catalyst that spurred the breakup?”

  “Hard to say. Expect you’d have to ask George about that.” Bing polished off his Pepsi and held out the empty container to Noah. “Spot an old geezer for another one?”

  “Happy to.” Noah grinned and pulled a fist full of change from his pocket. “You’ve been very helpful.”

  Laney shifted her weight from one foot to another. “But—”

  Noah’s warm fingers closed around her elbow, and he drew her toward his car. She shot him a disgusted look. Couldn’t he see Bing was holding back? Noah winked at her, and she subsided in his grasp. Either the man had another plan, or he’d decided the Addisons’ problems had nothing to do with Grace’s disappearance. Either way was fine with her. She didn’t want to know any more about George and Adelle’s dirty laundry.

  “What next?” she asked as she settled into the vehicle.

  “We’re going to grab lunch, and then you’re going to take me to the spot where Grace’s blood was found.”

  Laney’s throat thickened. There’s no way she could choke down a bite with that prospect ahead of her.

  An hour and a half later found them pulling into an approach next to a wooded area along a gravel road about a mile out of town. Noah parked the car and looked over at his passenger. Laney’s face had pulled tight into a white-washed mask.

  He touched her small hand balled in a fist on the seat next to him. “Did you ever come out here after the last trace of your sister was found in the ravine?”

  She shook her head. “This area was a wonderland of adventure for the local kids when I was growing up. After Grace, I tried to come here a couple of times, but got no farther than this before a panic attack would set in, and I had to turn my bike around or pass out. I’ve imagined it plenty in my mind, though, and had nightmares. All the blood…” She bit her lower lip.

  Noah’s heart twisted. He hated doing this to her, but he needed to see the spot. Sometimes looking at a place where a crime occurred sparked ideas about how it might have happened, which could even hint at who did it. And maybe Laney revisiting this place in its natural, pristine state would help her lay ghosts of her imagination to rest.

  Noah took her hand. “You said there were caves in the area, right?”

  She nodded wordlessly, gaze fixed on a faint trail that led between maples, aspens and pines. Noah tugged her with him into the trees. A whip-poor-will called, and a lively breeze set the leaves to whispering. This was a romantic setting, not a scary one…to him maybe. Laney’s hand stayed stiff as a board in his. They passed down and up several hollows. Then a crack in the earth yawned to their left.

  “Here.” Laney stopped. “They found her blood at the bottom of the ravine where it first skirts the trail. I heard the sheriff tell my parents that.”

  Noah peered over the edge. The weed-grown incline was too steep and rocky to navigate at this point, but several yards away the slope gentled. “We’re going down.”

  Laney pulled her hand away and hugged herself. “I’ll stay here and wait for you.”

  Noah shook his head. “I can’t leave you alone. I’m not merely your investigator. I’m your bodyguard. Remember?”

  Her haunted blue eyes begged for a different answer. “My heart is nearly pounding out of my chest.”

  Noah laid his hands on her shoulders. “I’ll be with you every second. You need to see there’s nothing down there.”

  Deep breaths quavered in and out of her lungs. “I know you’re right, but I don’t think I can do it.”

  “I have faith in your courage.”

  He took her hand again and guided the way. Step by careful step they eased downward. Rocks and pebbles disturbed by their feet plinked ahead of them. A creek had once run here, but the water was long dried up, and weeds had grown over the streambed. Weathered stones and boulders protruded from the soil.

  “Are any of the caves down here?”

  “No-o.” Laney’s voice cracked. She cleared her throat. “Those are farther up the trail.”

  They reached the bottom, and Laney stood riveted, staring around with enormous eyes. Noah’s gaze took in the area. The ravine was about twenty feet across at the top and several feet wide at the base. The crack in the earth extended as far as the eye could see in either direction, most of it fairly sheer. Noah looked up the way they’d come. Grace’s abductor would have needed to be nimble and strong to carry her down, especially if she were struggling. Unless—his gaze narrowed on the steep drop into the ravine w
here the child’s blood had been found.

  “There’s nothing here.” Laney’s tone was filled with wonder. The harshness of her breathing had eased. “I mean, I knew we wouldn’t see any trace of Gracie after all this time, but I always thought that if I came here I’d feel her spirit…accusing me.”

  “And you don’t.”

  Her gaze found his. “If anything, I feel peace.”

  Noah smiled and squeezed her hand. He let go and felt her following him as he moved closer to the spot the child must have met her end. The area was strewn with boulders, any one of which could crack a skull like an egg.

  “Maybe she wasn’t carried down here but fell.”

  “A fall here could easily kill anyone.” Laney came up beside him. “It’s a wonder one of us hooligan kids tearing around out here didn’t take a tumble. But how did my sister get out to this area in the first place?”

  “We’re not that far from town. Could she have decided to take a walk? Maybe she got here and someone chased her.”

  “Or she thought someone was chasing her. Gracie could be skittish that way.”

  Noah rubbed his chin. “But someone carted her body away.”

  “Exactly. And another thing, Grace would never, ever have wandered away on her own. That’s why I was so confident she would go straight home after I got her onto our block where she could see our house. Autistics are very much creatures of habit. She wouldn’t have gone exploring by herself.”

  He planted his hands on his hips. “So someone brought her out here. But she could have escaped and ran, then fell into the ravine.”

  “That’s a good theory.”

  “But without proof it’s nothing more. Finding Grace’s body could provide that proof. Let’s go see those caves.”

  Laney led the way up onto the path, confidence restored to her step. Within several hundred yards they came to the end of the ravine. Soon they stepped out of the trees into a vast clearing. Ahead, the horizon was ragged with low cliffs.