Fatal Intent (Desert Heat Book 3)

by Jeffries, Jamie

  “Alex! Stop it. This is why I never told you. I didn’t want you to have bad memories of your mother.” He, too, had stood, but couldn’t approach her because of her wild movements.

  “I have no memories of my mother! All this mystery, all these years. Why haven’t you divorced her? What the fuck is wrong with you, Dad?”

  “Baby Girl, please. Could you stop using that word?”

  “Really? That’s all you have to say to me? I don’t fucking believe it. You tear my world out from under me and you’re worried about my language? I don’t know you anymore, Dad. I’m not even sure I want to. Goodbye.”

  Alex ran out the front door with her dad calling after her. Let him call. Maybe he’d give a little more effort to finding her than he had to finding her mother, and maybe he wouldn’t, but she couldn’t stay in the same town with him, not one more night. She got into her car and headed for Casa Grande. Maybe Lisa and Natalie would take her in.

  SEVENTEEN

  Dylan waited for Alex to come home until midnight, and then wished he’d called her dad earlier. He went to bed assuming she was staying over at her dad’s house, but had difficulty falling asleep. He should be with her, helping her absorb whatever Paul had to tell her. If it was taking this long, it couldn’t be good. Eventually, he fell into a fitful sleep with anxiety-ridden dreams that didn’t allow him any rest.

  In the morning, the boys woke him early as usual, and he gave them cereal for breakfast over their protests that it was pancake day.

  “You had pancakes yesterday,” he said. “Remember? Alex made them.”

  “Oh yeah,” Juan said. “Where is Alex?”

  “I guess she stayed with her dad last night. I’ll call in a while and see if she’s coming over, okay?” That seemed to satisfy them for the moment, and Dylan went about his morning routine, drinking a second cup of coffee because of his short night. Then he called the hospital and spoke to Wanda, who seemed anxious to get home. He promised to bring the boys to see her as soon as he’d located Alex.

  By ten, when she still hadn’t called, he was worried enough to call her first, even though he had a feeling she wouldn’t appreciate it. Sure enough, there was no answer. He left a tender message telling her he’d missed her and asking her to call. Then he called Paul.

  “Is Alex okay?” he asked.

  “I guess. I mean, she was pretty upset last night. How does she look this morning?” Paul answered.

  After a moment of confusion when they established that she hadn’t spent the night at either house, Dylan asked Paul what had happened. Reluctantly, Paul summarized the conversation and Alex’s reaction. Dylan had no words about the revelations concerning Alex’s mother, but he had plenty to say about Alex being missing. He didn’t leave much room for misinterpretation when he told Paul it would be his fault if anything happened to Alex. When Dylan hung up, he was as angry as he’d ever been in his life, but he knew he had to calm down if he was going to get anywhere.

  His next and final call went to Ange.

  “Ange, I’ve got a situation on my hands, and I need help with the boys. Can you come?”

  “For how long? I’ve got plans with Bill this afternoon,” she answered.

  “I don’t know, but it’s important.”

  “Dyl, are you okay?”

  “No.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  True to her word, Ange was there in minutes. He gave her a brief explanation without the details of what Paul had told Alex, and Ange agreed to stay until he found his woman. He’d be back today, of course, whether he found her or not. First, he needed to see Wanda, and he prayed he could do so without alarming her too much. A shock was all she needed, after her heart attack.

  He caught a break at the hospital. When he got there, Wanda had remembered the conversation she and Alex had. She was calm but concerned, and when she asked, Dylan had no choice but to tell her what happened, though he soft-pedaled it as much as he could. Wanda took it better than he would have thought.

  “I’ll lay odds she went to those girls she was living with,” Wanda said. “Where else would she go, with me in here? Either that, or to her Nana. But my money’s on those girls.”

  “I’ll have Paul call his mom. Thanks for the tip, Wanda.”

  “You’re welcome. Now go get our girl. She’ll come around, Dylan. Just give her some time to grieve and get over being mad at her dad. I have to say, I warned him this would happen. Stubborn fool wouldn’t listen to me.”

  “You knew?” Dylan asked, shocked.

  “Of course I knew. I’m the one she’d bring Alex to, when she couldn’t cope. She told me she was in trouble before she told Paul. Frankly, I always expected her to come and get Alex before she disappeared for good, though. Go on, now, I’m fine. Go find Alex.”

  Dylan leaned over and gave Wanda as big a hug as he could without tangling the telemetry leads. “I’ll bring her home. Don’t worry,” he said.

  “I’m not worried.”

  As soon as he was out of the hospital and in his car, he tried Alex’s phone again. To his relief, this time she answered.

  “Alex, you had me worried!” he exclaimed.

  “I’m sorry. I had to get out of town, Dylan, I’m sorry. I can’t come back right now.”

  “What do you mean, you can’t come back? Why not? What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to find my mother, and my brother or sister or whatever. Get Dad to tell you what I mean. I love you. I’ll call you when my head’s in a better place.”

  Dylan found himself holding a phone with no connection. She’d hung up on him! He stared at the phone, disbelieving what he’d heard. How would she find her mother after so many years? What kind of mess might she find herself in, if she started stirring up old shit in a town the size of Casa Grande? His stomach did a flip realizing she’d left him no hope that she’d come home any time soon.

  Dylan had no choice but to pull himself together. He needed to keep things normal for the boys, and he had an important interview coming up in less than two weeks. Remembering that he’d made plans with Alex around his trip to Scottsdale, he contented himself with hoping she’d follow through, and he gave her the space she clearly wanted. That meant they didn’t talk for over a week, during which time she did text him once a day to say she loved him. It wasn’t what he wanted, but it was better than nothing. Encouraging, really.

  On the Monday after her abrupt departure, Dylan sent Alex a text reminding her of their date on Friday. She didn’t answer right away. He waited all day for her answer, and began to worry by late that night. He sent a quick text saying he loved her, and forced himself to say no more. Maybe that would take the pressure off. The next day, he got a cryptic message saying she was onto something, and she may not be able to make Friday’s trip. Hoped he understood.

  No. He didn’t understand, but he tried.

  Friday, he still hadn’t heard from her. Without her, he couldn’t take the boys, so once again he called on Ange for help, believing it was too soon for Wanda to handle them. In spite of his worry and pique over Alex’s behavior, the interview went well.

  He had a feeling he’d be getting a call the following week, and he did, but it wasn’t from Alex. Sooner than he expected, on Monday he got the call from the Forest Service. He’d been selected, and they expected him there within the month.

  Now he really needed to get Alex’s attention for their plans. He wanted her input on the house he’d rent, or buy. He missed her. He needed her. And he was beginning to get angry.

  ~~~

  Alex had thrown herself on the mercy of Lisa and Natalie. She told them everything and asked if she could stay there until she got to the bottom of some things. She had less than three thousand dollars left from her prize, but she didn’t want to tie herself down to a job. She needed all the time she had before school started to investigate the mysteries surrounding the disappearances of both her mom and Sarah Davis. Lisa and Natalie looked at each other for a m
oment, evidently communicating through mental telepathy.

  Then they both said, “You’re welcome to stay.”

  Natalie added, “You don’t need to pay rent, but you’ll have to feed yourself.”

  Alex hugged them both. It would get her by. She had seven weeks, tops. Less, if she was going to keep Dylan happy. But this wasn’t about Dylan, it was about her and what she had to do. She hoped he’d understand, because she had to do it.

  Since Sarah’s disappearance was more recent, she started there. She badgered Lisa into figuring out the exact day they’d returned to find Sarah missing, and determined to haunt every hospital within two hundred miles, looking for a Jane Doe accident from that weekend. Once she eliminated that theory, she’d start on hotels, but that would be a massive task.

  Surprisingly, she found a sympathetic ear at the first hospital she called, right in Casa Grande. The woman couldn’t give her a name, due to confidentiality. However, she did confirm that a young woman was brought to the ER with severe injuries that weekend, and had been sent by helicopter to Tucson.

  Alex couldn’t believe this wouldn’t have turned up with the most casual of investigations into Sarah’s disappearance. Why hadn’t it? Or, was she following the wrong lead? There was only one way to find out. After a call to the hospital in Tucson went nowhere, Alex set out for a face-to-face visit. Once there, she put forth her most professional demeanor as she stated she was an investigative reporter following up on a disappearance. It got her only so far, but when she got a grasp on hospital protocol, she had an idea how to get the rest of the information.

  Alex located the right area for Medical Records and loitered until a girl of about her own age came out of the secured door. She fell into step with the girl and said, “Hi.”

  The girl, whose nametag said ‘Lucy’ gave her a shy smile and returned her greeting. This was Alex’s best chance, and she took it. Speaking quickly, she said, “I wonder if you can help me. They won’t tell me anything about my sister, but I’ve tracked her here. My parents are back east, and they’re worried sick.”

  “What do you mean?” Lucy asked.

  “Well, my sister went missing four months ago. I can tell you the date. We think she was taken to the Casa Grande ER, but they didn’t know her name. They sent her here by helicopter. Please, I have to know if… if she made it. Even if she has amnesia! My parents aren’t well, and it would mean so much.”

  Lucy stopped. “You’re asking me to get confidential medical records on a Jane Doe, in case it’s your sister?”

  Alex hesitated. She couldn’t read Lucy, but she went ahead anyway. “Well, put that way it sounds bad, I know. But, I really need help!” She put all her frustration into it, and the emotion must have convinced the other girl.

  “Okay, give me the date and some physical description. I’ll see what I can do,” she said. “But if you tell anyone, I could lose my job.”

  “I won’t,” promised Alex. Actually, she intended to write a story if she could get any facts, but she didn’t have to put Lucy’s name in it.

  “Meet me here at five, when I get off work. I’ll tell you if I find any candidates,” said Lucy.

  Alex couldn’t wait.

  As she killed time between her encounter with Lucy and their assignation, it occurred to her that she’d have to enlist someone else if she ended up back here trying to locate where her mother might have given birth. That story wouldn’t fly twice. But if she could find Sarah, it would give her a confidence boost for the harder task.

  At five, she presented herself in the hallway near Medical Records. Lucy came out the door, glanced at her and made a subtle gesture with her head to go down the hall. They met at the elevators, and Lucy said in a low voice, “Meet me at the coffee shop two blocks east.”

  Alex almost giggled at the cloak and dagger nature of the meeting, but managed to straighten her face as the elevator stopped to pick up more passengers. When they emerged in the foyer on the first floor, she left the elevator without a backward glance at Lucy, and went to her car. A couple of minutes later, she found the coffee shop and went in, to see Lucy in a corner booth. Alex slipped into the booth across from her.

  “Who are you, really?” Lucy asked, her eyes and voice both cold. “Are you hospital security?”

  “No!” Alex exclaimed. “What would make you think that?”

  “That file you were looking for? It’s flagged. I’m not sure I didn’t trigger something that will come back to haunt me when I opened it.” Lucy looked on the verge of tears, and Alex felt terrible.

  “I’m so sorry, Lucy. Look, you’re right. I’m not that girl’s sister, but I am trying to find out what happened to her. If it’s even the same girl. Here, this is her picture.” Alex opened her phone’s photo application and pulled up the picture she’d had Dawn send her. It showed Sarah shouting something, probably in the middle of one of the protest marches.

  Lucy said, “I can’t tell. Here’s a photocopy…it’s the best I could do.” The paper she handed over was hard to look at, even in the low-resolution copy. The girl in it looked to be dead, beaten severely, her face swollen beyond recognition.

  Alex put her hand to her mouth. “Oh, my God!”

  Lucy nodded. “It’s worse. You can’t see it in the picture, but her hands and feet were missing, and a lot of her teeth. The state took custody of her remains, since there was no way to identify her.”

  Alex couldn’t help the tears that rolled unchecked down her face. “Who would do such a thing?” she whispered.

  “It happens more often than you want to know,” Lucy said. “What I want to know, is why was the file flagged? What can of worms have I opened?”

  “I don’t know,” Alex said. “But I intend to find out. I have an idea. When I check it out, I’ll let you know if you’re in danger.”

  The girls exchanged phone numbers, and Lucy left. Alex sat there a while longer. So Sarah, if this was her, was one of the unidentified remains recorded in her blog’s database. Her next task was to confirm it was indeed Sarah. This wasn’t going to be easy for her or for Sarah’s parents, but better to know than to think she’d abandoned them. Alex knew that for sure.

  Lucy had given her a record number. All she needed to do was search the database for the same number. Maybe the circumstances of how she was found, clearly closer to dead than alive, would give her a clue.

  EIGHTEEN

  Alex had gotten as far as locating the record and familiarizing herself with the facts as the state had known them when Dylan called to find out if she was going to go to Scottsdale with him. As close as she was to confirming whether she’d found Sarah, she begged off. Dylan seemed disappointed, but she was too absorbed in her work to pay much attention.

  A trucker had found the girl on the highway shoulder about ten miles west of Casa Grande. She had been unconscious, bleeding from fearsome wounds. The trucker had stayed with her after radioing for an ambulance, but investigating officers had cleared him when they checked his back trail at the weigh station at the Nevada border on Highway 8. The pool of vomit near her testified to his state of mind, as well.

  A search on both sides of the highway revealed her struggle to reach it. She’d left a trail of blood for about five hundred yards. Her will to live must have been fierce, to have crawled that far with the injuries she had. But searchers found no identification, nor any clues as to her attackers. She never regained consciousness after the trucker found her. She’d died during the helicopter flight to Tucson, and her remains were still in a vault in the morgue.

  Alex called. Would she be permitted to view the remains? Not unless she thought she could identify them, was the answer. She hated to take the news to the Davises with no more assurance than she had, but the coincidence was too strong to ignore. She gave the coroner’s office the information she had and asked them to call the Davises. She identified herself and asked for a return call when the Davises had seen what there was to see.

  Meanwhile, she d
oodled ideas on a scratch pad for hours, trying to find an approach that would make sense for looking for her mom. She had name, birthdate, vital records. Would her mom have given a false name when she went to give birth? Would she have stayed in Arizona? What Alex needed was professional help, but with no money to pay for it, she was stuck with her own resources, and those were dwindling.

  Two days after her call to the coroner, her return call came back. The Davises had identified Sarah by a birthmark on her hip. Alex had been responsible for finding the identity of one more set of remains. Meanwhile, a hundred more had come in. What needed to happen was something to stem the tide of people dying in the desert unidentified.

  Alex described it as a task like that of Sisyphus, the Greek king who pissed off the gods with his deceit. They punished him for it by making him roll a rock to the top of a hill, where it rolled down again, over and over throughout eternity, symbolizing futility. How ironic that his crime was lying…the thing she hated above all else, and the reason she was still too angry with her dad to talk to him.

  Alex felt no joy in her accomplishment. She wondered if the Davises would rather have believed their daughter alive but lost to them. How would she feel when she finally found her mother and her half-sibling? Would she be prepared to confront her mother and ask why she’d left her behind?

  A call from the Davises put her mind at rest on their behalf. They invited her to the funeral. She still didn’t know how she felt about her mother.

  She was still in this frame of mind when Dylan called on Monday to tell her he’d gotten the job. He was over the moon, or so it sounded. Talked about house hunting. Could she go with him the following weekend? With little enthusiasm, she agreed, but the excitement had gone out of it for her.

  As weary and discouraged as she was by her daunting task, Dylan seemed like part of her past, not part of her future. She agreed to meet him at a hotel in Scottsdale on Friday evening anyway. He’d decided to rent for a while, to make sure they liked the neighborhood they chose before buying.