Somebody's Daughter

by David Bell

“Getting back to this conversation Erica had with your ex-husband,” Twitchell said. “What did she say next?”

  “Well, it’s weird,” Randi said. “Basically, she kind of offered Felicity to Todd. To us, I guess.”

  The room grew quiet. Twitchell shifted his weight, and the couch cushions rustled against one another. The music played in the hallway, far in the background.

  “How do you mean that?” Griffin asked. “‘Offered’ her to you?”

  “It wasn’t a sexual thing,” Randi said. “Not a dirty thing. Erica couldn’t have known about Todd’s past. No one here did. She meant it for both of us. For us to take Felicity and keep her for a while, to give Erica a break from being a single mom.” Randi shook her head as though trying to wipe the thought and the memory out of her brain. “It sounds a little crazy, I know. Todd thought it was weird. He thought she might be joking, but he said Erica was truly distraught, on the verge of tears as she talked about it.”

  “What did he say or do?” Griffin asked.

  “He talked to her more, and she calmed down. He even said that Felicity could stay with us some night if she ever needed a babysitter. Todd’s an oddball, but he can be sensitive with other people when he needs to be. And he and Erica were friends, so he listened to her.” She shook her head again but with less force. “I made the same offer to Erica the next time I saw her. See, I knew her mother had died, and I guess the mom watched Felicity a lot when Erica worked or had to do other things. I think her mom’s death hit her hard on several fronts. The emotional, of course, but also the practical.”

  “You mean she didn’t have the help and support she was used to?” Griffin asked.

  “Exactly. But when I talked to her about all of this, Erica said she was feeling better, that she was having a bad night when she talked to Todd. She said she’d managed to get some help from Felicity’s grandmother. To help with child care and doctor’s bills and things. Felicity had some health problems, something with her stomach. Or maybe her pancreas. Not long after that, I stopped working at the credit union, and I lost touch with Erica. We weren’t the greatest of friends to begin with.”

  “Did you tell anyone about Erica’s state of mind when it came up?” Griffin asked.

  “You mean like child protective services or something? No, I didn’t. It seemed odd . . . but not so odd that I’d report it. Like I said, she seemed to be doing better after that.”

  “But you called us today . . . because why?” Twitchell asked.

  “I saw that Felicity disappeared. And there seemed to be some suspicion falling on Erica. No one saw Felicity in the park? No one’s sure where Erica is? Right?”

  She looked at both of the cops, but neither one offered an answer.

  Randi went on. “I just thought of Todd. Maybe he did have something to do with it. Maybe things had gotten worse for Erica, and Todd did something about it. Maybe that’s why no one saw the girl in the park. And now he’s acting crazy, not coming out of the house. He seems to be up to something.”

  Twitchell stood up. He pointed at Randi. “Do you think he’ll listen to you? Are you on good terms with him?”

  “Not really. We’re divorced.”

  “It’s worth a try,” he said. “Grab whatever you need. We’re going over there.”

  chapter

  fifty-one

  2:47 A.M.

  Angela smacked her hand against the top of the table. She felt like an overly dramatic judge getting ready to make a grand pronouncement in a courtroom.

  “That proves it,” Angela said. “The kid isn’t Michael’s. If she was, Erica would submit to the paternity test. It wouldn’t take long. I’m guessing you offered to pay for it?”

  Gail nodded. “I would have. Sure. I even called a company that does them. It’s just a cheek swab, and you mail it in. You don’t have to compare the sample to the father. It’s more accurate that way, but you can compare it to another relative. A parent. Or a sibling of the father.”

  Angela looked at Jake as though he were her jury. “See? The kid isn’t his. Why else refuse the test?”

  Jake spread his arms wide. “I’m on your side in this. I don’t think the kid is your husband’s, but she does. Or maybe she’s trying to convince herself he’s the father. I suspected she’d be coming here because he has money and is connected, and we all know those things make the world go round.” Jake shrugged. He looked helpless for a moment. “Maybe she thought they’d get closer again. Maybe she thought coming here and looking for Felicity would bring them back together.”

  “You don’t really believe that, do you?” Angela asked.

  “I’m not really sure what Erica has been thinking lately,” he said. “Maybe she never got over your husband entirely. She talked about him sometimes when we were together. I figured first love and all that, but maybe it was more.”

  “That’s bizarre.” Angela felt a flush rising on her face, and she bit against the inside of her cheek to try to keep her temper in check. “Wait. I heard on the news that no one actually saw Felicity in the park this morning when she was supposed to have disappeared. Are you saying Erica might . . . ?”

  “I’m not going that far,” Jake said. But he didn’t sound fully convinced.

  Angela felt sick. She slumped against the back of the chair with a thud. For a moment, she ignored the two people sitting at the table with her—her mother-in-law and a complete stranger. Had Erica done something to her own child as a ploy to get Michael back? Was she married to someone who was possibly in the process of being victimized by a crazy person?

  She looked at Gail. “Is that really the last you heard from her? When you asked for the paternity test?”

  “That was it,” Gail said. “I even called her back a couple of times to see if maybe she had changed her mind, but she never answered or returned my calls.” Gail leaned forward. She reached out with her hand and placed it on top of Angela’s, giving it a little squeeze. “I thought maybe she really had left town with her child. For good.”

  Despite the puzzlement she currently felt with respect to her mother-in-law who had managed to keep all of this a secret from all of them, the touch felt good. Reassuring. Angela’s parents lived in Florida, and she saw them infrequently. Gail was the closest thing she had to a mother on a day-to-day basis.

  “But you did more than that,” Jake said.

  Angela looked at him and then over at Gail. Her mother-in-law seemed resigned, unable to hold anything else back.

  “Okay,” she said, “I did do more than talk on the phone with her and send money. Do you think I was just going to write checks?”

  “So what did you do?” Angela asked. Then she understood. “You saw the kid?”

  Gail nodded. “A couple of times. I told Erica she could have the money if I met the girl. Once we met in a park up there. I don’t remember the name of it. Maybe it’s the one she disappeared from—I don’t know. Another time we went to lunch. This was about six months ago, and I again insisted on the test. Things grew heated, so we parted on somewhat unpleasant terms.”

  “And?” Angela asked. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but she asked anyway. “What’s the kid like?”

  Gail nodded. “She’s a sweet girl. Darling really. A little shy, I guess, but then I was a complete stranger she had no context for. And, yes, she bore a resemblance to my girls when they were that age. I felt that, like a piece of glass in my heart.”

  “You wanted a kid to make up for your dead child,” Jake said. “Erica knew all about that.”

  Gail looked around the room, her eyes seemingly in search of something else to focus on. Emotion seemed to have ahold of her for a moment, but then she turned back and looked at Angela. “I would have liked to spend more time with Felicity. And I know maybe I played into Erica’s hands. Once you see the kid, it’s harder to deny her something. That makes sense, doesn’t i
t?”

  “It does,” Angela said.

  “Understand where I was coming from. The possibility existed that this girl was my granddaughter. And Michael’s daughter. If it was true, I wanted to know. But I wasn’t going to drag you and Michael into something when I didn’t have all the facts. That would be like rolling a hand grenade into your marriage, especially when you were struggling to have a child of your own. Angela, did you need to hear that Michael’s ex-wife was saying she was raising Michael’s child? What if it wasn’t true, and I caused all that uproar in your lives for nothing? Should I have done that?” She squeezed Angela’s hand again. “I believe you’re right when you say Erica told us all we need to know when she didn’t get back in touch with me. Felicity likely isn’t Michael’s child. Erica wanted my financial help for a while, and she got it. That was that. Maybe she took advantage of me because of James’s death. Maybe she took advantage of my desire to finally have a grandchild. I get it.”

  “And Michael didn’t know?” Angela asked.

  “He didn’t know. Not from me, anyway. If Erica told him anything . . . well, he would have told you if he’d heard from her.”

  Angela bit the inside of her cheek again. The changed passwords, the lack of access to his Facebook page. How on earth did she or anyone else know whether Michael had been in touch with Erica?

  And then she looked over at Jake.

  “Wait a minute,” she said. “Did Erica tell Michael any of this? Do you know if they’ve been in touch?”

  The corner of Jake’s mouth rose a little, and he shook his head. “You think she’s going to tell me? We’ve been on the outs for quite a while.”

  “So you don’t know?” Angela asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think she was talking to him when we first dated, back when Felicity was little. She was pissed at him for leaving, raising Felicity on her own and moving up in her job as a way to prove she was an adult. We broke up when Felicity was about four, and I moved away for a while, got involved with someone else.”

  “And you never got a paternity test when Felicity was little?” Angela asked. “You said you were like a father to her. You could have had the test and known for sure.”

  Jake was shaking his head before Angela finished speaking. He reached up, ran his hand through his thick hair. “I wasn’t thinking that way. I was her father then. That was it. To be honest, maybe I didn’t want the bubble burst by learning differently.”

  “What did Erica tell you about it?”

  “She was vague. But she told some friends Michael was her father. I know that.”

  “You got involved with a woman with a baby,” Angela said. “Not many men would do that.”

  “I loved her. I did. And then Felicity came along, and I loved her too. I wanted a family, always did. We don’t get to choose the things that happen to us.”

  “Erica sure managed to track Michael down tonight when she needed to,” Angela said. “She knew some things about him.”

  “It’s not hard to find people,” Jake said. “I found you.”

  Angela understood that. She’d been able to track Erica down when she wanted to. But she also wondered how much Erica knew about their lives. Had she been watching them? Following them? Was anything they’d done private?

  “Who do you think Felicity’s father is?” Angela asked Jake. “You know Erica. You must know some of the people she knows. Or you at least know stuff about her life. Who do you think it is?”

  Angela should have seen the answer coming as soon as she asked the question. Before even. As Jake opened his mouth, she knew what he was going to say.

  Jake pointed to his own chest. “Hell, it’s me.”

  “So you’re really not looking for Erica so much as—”

  “I want to know what happened to my daughter,” he said. He sounded more thoughtful, a little wistful and even sad. “I know Felicity. When Erica and I were together, I spent time with the girl. Even a little after we broke up the second time. I’m the closest thing she’s ever had to a dad, and I know it goes deeper than that. I am her dad. I know the truth.” He tapped his chest. “In here.”

  Angela rolled all of it around in her head. The more she learned, the more questions she had. “So you and Erica met and got together right after she and Michael split up? When she was newly pregnant?”

  Jake took a long time answering the question. “Not exactly,” he finally said. “She and I, Erica, we started things while she was still married to your husband. Now, I’m not proud of that, but their marriage was on the downward slide. That’s what Erica told me. And they did split up soon after.”

  Angela felt . . . what exactly on Michael’s behalf? Anger? Betrayal?

  Did it even make sense for her to feel a protective anger over something that happened to her husband before she knew him?

  Yes, she decided. It did.

  Somewhere in the past Erica had betrayed Michael. And she’d shown up on their doorstep that night, furthering that betrayal in some way. Either by lying to him about being Felicity’s father or by lying to him about the child even being missing at all.

  She’d grown tired of sitting and doing nothing, so she pushed herself up from the table.

  “What are you doing now?” Gail asked.

  Jake looked up at her. “Yeah, what’s going on?”

  Angela hesitated, then said, “I have somewhere to go. Something to do.”

  Jake stood up as well. He was about three inches taller than she was but broader. His shoulders seemed to fill the space. “You’re going to look for your husband, right?” he said. “That’s the only thing that makes sense.” He pointed at Gail. “She’s here to watch the house in case your husband shows up again.”

  Angela felt boxed in. Trapped. She didn’t want this man in her house anymore. She wanted him gone, and she wanted to be on the road herself the way she’d planned.

  “You said you were looking for Erica,” Angela said. “Well, she’s not here, as you can see. So—”

  “Where did they say they were going?” Jake asked.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Where?” He took another step forward.

  Angela looked at Gail who watched her expectantly. The air-conditioning came on with a soft whoosh, blowing cold air on the back of Angela’s neck from the vent above. But the hairs there were already on end, the follicles jangling with nervous energy. “They said they were going to talk to someone who might know something about the case. Erica told Michael there was a guy, a teacher at her school, who might know something.”

  Jake was nodding, his gestures acquiring the frantic nature they had on the porch. “Yes, yes. I know who she’s talking about. And where he lives.”

  “How do you know that?” Gail asked.

  “I told you I’ve stayed in touch with Erica somewhat. I see Felicity and talk to her when I can. I know who this music teacher is. She loves music. He’s been teaching her for more than a year.”

  “Then you can tell me where he lives.”

  “We can go together,” he said. “We will go together. I know the places Erica likes to go and might want to look. I know where her house is. You know how to track down your husband, to stay in touch with him. It’s the only choice.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “Look,” Jake said, leaning a little closer, his voice growing louder. “You want me to leave. I know. You don’t want me in the house at all. That’s fine. I’ll go. But I’m not going alone. I’ve been getting jerked around here all day. By the cops who wanted to come after me. And now you two. I think I’m the only one who really cares about this kid. That’s my agenda. I’m not getting any younger, and I don’t have any other kids.” He looked around the room, appraising it. “So you’re going with me, and we’ll find them. Or Felicity. And then I won’t ever have to come back.”

 
Angela’s mouth went dry. She’d wandered far out on the ledge and worried she wouldn’t be able to come back in without falling. But she knew her primary concern, her most important goal. Find Michael and bring him home. Safe.

  Angela tried to work up saliva in her mouth, then swallowed. She wondered how on earth her day had gone so sideways. “Okay, okay,” she said. “Follow me. My car’s in the driveway.”

  “Follow you?” Jake’s face looked incredulous. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? I’m tired of being jerked around. Erica’s carelessness, the cops, all of this.” He pointed to his own chest again. “I’m driving. My car. With you in it.” He turned and looked at Gail. “Maybe you should go too. That way no one can call the police after I go.”

  “That’s not necessary,” Angela said. “Leave her out of it.”

  “I’ll go with him,” Gail said. “You stay here in case Michael comes back.”

  “No,” Angela said. She felt protective toward her mother-in-law and didn’t want to put her in a situation where she might be in danger. “You stay. If Michael comes back or the police or anything, you can handle it.”

  “But—”

  “It’s okay, Gail. I’ll be back.”

  Angela spoke with confidence she really didn’t feel. She wasn’t certain what she was stepping into by agreeing to get into a car with Jake Little, but she had to do something. And if she could go and find Michael and keep Gail out of any harm, then she intended to do it. Jake’s nervousness made Angela uneasy. It meant he wasn’t sure of himself, which could make him either more dangerous or else more malleable. Or both.

  She hoped the malleable side of him won out.

  “It’s okay,” Angela said. She looked over at Jake who stared back, his face expectant. “We’re going to go together. And we’ll find them. You just stay here.”

  “I don’t—”

  “It’s okay, Gail. I’ve got it.” She pointed toward the front of the house and the door. “You ready?”

  Jake stepped back and let Angela walk ahead of him. But before they left the dining room, he turned and looked at Gail. “I’m leaving your phone here, and you’re not going to call the police,” he said. “Because I’ll be taking real good care of her.”