by Dana Mentink
Giving up the attempt at sleep, she got up in search of a drink of water and caught a sentence of the conversation going on near the doors.
“She’s practically a stranger,” a familiar voice growled.
“No, she’s not,” Catherine Elias hissed. “That redheaded wacko is stalking me.”
Dr. Elias reached for his wife’s hand, but she jerked it away, nearly upsetting the lantern. “She lost her husband. I treated her some time later. She attached herself to me and Peter.”
“Peter Finnigan? You never mentioned that.”
Peter Finnigan? Mia’s heart beat faster at the name from Cora’s email. She wanted to ask, to step forward into the lamplight, but she decided to retreat from the private conversation instead. As she did so, she heard Dr. Elias continue.
“I didn’t want to upset you, honey.”
“What’s her fixation with me?”
He sighed. “She wants to be with me, ever since I treated her all those years back. I’ve tried to keep her away because she’s...unhinged.”
Unhinged. Mia crept back toward her cot, but not until she heard Mrs. Elias’s reply.
“She’s dangerous.”
Dangerous. They had to be talking about Susan, the woman from the fire, who’d showed up at Dallas’s trailer.
She was in such a state of confusion, at first she thought she’d gone to the wrong cot. “Gracie?” she called softy, turning in a quick circle.
Gracie’s blanket lay on the floor, but the girl was nowhere to be found. She’d gone to the bathroom. That was it.
Mia made her way quickly to the ladies’ room. Empty. Jogging now back out into the main gym, she raced through the rows of cots, peering intently to see if Gracie had mistakenly crawled into the wrong bed.
There she was—at the end of the row, curled into a ball under the blanket. Mia felt the weight of the world rise off her shoulders and she heaved out a gusty sigh.
“You scared me, Gracie,” she whispered, laying a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “You’re in the wrong bed.”
The child sat up, blinking dark eyes. The woman on the cot reached out a protective hand. “This is my daughter, Evelyn. Can I help you?”
Shock rippled through Mia. Gracie was gone.
NINE
Gracie’s here somewhere. She’s not gone. Mia began to run now, around the perimeter of the gym to the men’s area, in case her daughter had gotten confused. She rechecked Gracie’s cot, snatching up the blue blanket to prove to her hands what her eyes could not accept.
Gracie was not there.
“Gracie?” What started out as a whisper, grew in volume until people began to sit up on their cots.
Dr. Elias and his wife materialized, lantern in hand. “What’s wrong?” the doctor asked.
“Gracie’s gone.”
Catherine scanned the room. “I’m sure she’s here somewhere.”
Fear clawed at Mia’s insides, prickling her in cold waves of goose bumps. “What if she wandered outside?” Down the hill, to the edge of the bluff where there was six feet of floodwater to fall into?
“We’ll look right now,” Dr. Elias said, heading for the door. “Catherine, keep searching inside.” He put a hand on Mia’s shoulder. “We’ll find her.”
At the moment, all her anger at the doctor dissipated in a cloud of hope.
We’ll find her.
They ran outside, sprinting along the path to the edge of the bluff, looking down into the swirling, moonlit water. Mia’s stomach was twisted into a knot. Would she see her little girl floating there, facedown in the merciless waves? Shaking all over she forced herself to look.
“No sign of her. I’ll look downstream,” Dr. Elias said, handing her a flashlight. “Would she have gone to the woods back up by the gym?”
“I don’t know,” Mia answered. “I’ll check there.” She turned toward the patch of trees, dark silhouettes against the sky. Why would she head out of the gym on her own? Gracie was not afraid of the dark, but she did sleepwalk sometimes. Mia looked for signs that Gracie had passed by, but the ground was littered with bushels of fallen leaves and downed branches. The darkness wasn’t helping, either.
“Gracie?” Mia called, her voice tremulous.
She walked under the dripping canopy. Droplets landed on her face like tears. “Gracie?” she called again. There was no answer but the rustle of pine needles, the movement caught by her flashlight the result of debris blowing along the ground. Gracie wasn’t here, Mia could feel it.
She had to be inside the gym, she’d fallen asleep somewhere or gone to look for a snack. Mia was beaming the flashlight ahead to find her way out, when a man grabbed her from behind. A hand, smelling of nicotine, covered her mouth, as a strong pair of arms held her in a tight clinch.
“Mrs. Sandoval, listen carefully because I’m not the patient type and I want to go back to Florida. We know Hector has sent you a stash of money and it belongs to my boss. He wants it back. I’ve already searched your home and followed you around like a tracking dog, and I’m sick of it so I decided we should have a little meeting. Now, I’m going to move my hand so you can tell me what I want to know. If you scream, I’ll hurt you. Understand?”
Blood rushing in her ears, she managed a nod. He peeled away his fingers and she turned to face him. It was the same man who had tried to trap them in her garage. She didn’t care. There was only one thing her mind screamed out to know.
“Did you take my daughter?”
Archie’s expression was hard to read. “I asked you a question. Answer.”
“I don’t have any money from Hector, and I don’t know where it is.”
“Mr. Garza thinks otherwise.”
Garza. Powerful. Ruthless. A man who ran the Miami drug trade. “I don’t have it. If I did, would I be renting a house here? Driving a secondhand car?”
Archie shrugged. “Not my job to figure you out, just to return the money. Got a tip that you’ve hidden it somewhere.”
“A tip from whom?”
He didn’t answer.
“Please,” she whispered. “Did you do something to Gracie?”
Flashlights played over the grass outside the gym. Archie stepped back into the shadows. “Think about what’s important and what you will lose if you don’t give me what I want.”
He melted away into the wet trees.
She ran blindly, branches slapping at her face, back toward the gym.
Gracie, Gracie, her heart chanted as she sprinted straight into Dallas, rocking back off his hard chest.
“Gracie’s gone. Archie got hold of me.”
His fingers dug into her shoulders. “Did he hurt you?”
“No.”
His eyes dropped to her hands. “Is it hers?”
“What?” She realized through her fog that she was still holding the blue blanket. “This? Yes, it’s Gracie’s.”
He called Juno and held out the blanket to the dog. “Find.”
Juno bounded over the grass, startling those doing the flashlight search.
“Can he smell her?” she whispered.
“He’s air scenting, following her smell.” They watched the dog jog up to the gym entrance, scratching to be let in.
Dallas eased the doors open and Juno disappeared inside. Mia and Dallas followed her in. The dog followed the scent to the girl’s bathroom, but stopped before he made it to the threshold. Juno circled a few times and stood, nose twitching.
Mia pressed shaking fingers to her mouth. “He doesn’t know where she is.”
“Give him a minute. There are a lot of scents in here. He’s an older dog, so he’s better at thinking it out and taking his time.”
“Are you sure?”
“Trust the dog.”
; Trust a dog? With her baby’s life? She wanted to yell, to scream at the top of her lungs as she watched Juno make a slow perusal of the room. Most of the occupants were awake now, helping look under cots and in corners, while others stood on the sides of the gym, giving Mia looks of abject pity.
She felt Dallas’s hand take her hand and he squeezed hard. She clung to that touch as if it were the only thing that could keep her alive. Maybe it was. If Juno didn’t find Gracie... She could not breathe, her ears rang.
She felt the room spinning, and Dallas forced her into a chair. “Deep breaths.”
Waves of nausea and panic alternated through her body as she struggled not to black out.
Juno scratched at a darkened door in the back of the gym that Mia had not noticed.
“Stay here,” Dallas said. “I’ll check it out.”
No way. Mia struggled to her feet, shoving down the dizziness by sheer willpower and staggered after him.
The exit opened onto a chilly hallway with metal doors at even intervals. Juno charged into the inky darkness.
Dr. Elias trotted behind them. “All the doors along this corridor are locked except the far exit door, for safety’s sake. I saw to it myself.”
“And the exit door? Where does it open?”
“Onto the parking lot,” Elias said.
Mia ran to the end, ignoring the men. She was about to plunge through.
“Wait,” Dallas said. He nodded at Juno who was pacing the corridor in regular arcs, nose quivering.
“You stay with your dog. I’m going to find my kid,” Mia snapped.
“We might be wasting time,” Dallas said. “Let the dog work, just for a minute longer.”
“I don’t have a minute,” she shrieked. “Gracie might be out there in the water.”
“This is why we train rescue dogs, Mia,” Dallas barked. “They save time and effort and find a victim faster than a person ever could. You’ve got to trust the dog. Trust me.”
For a long moment she stared at him. Seconds passed into excruciating minutes. Trust. She could not give it to him, not now, not with Gracie’s life at stake. She pressed on the panic bar, just as Juno scratched furiously at one of the doors. Dallas opened it.
“So much for locked. It’s a door to the stairwell.” He held it for Juno who raced away. In a matter of moments, the dog returned, sat rigidly at Dallas’s feet and barked exactly two times.
“It leads to the roof, I think,” Dr. Elias said, voice low and hushed. “How did she unlock the door? Could a little girl climb three stories all by herself in a darkened stairwell?”
Gracie could. Hope and fear clawed together in her throat and she pushed forward, but Dallas had already plunged through the door, long legs churning up the stairs leaving Mia racing to catch up.
* * *
Dallas reminded himself as he ran that Mia did not know Juno like he did. Trust a dog? With his life. If Juno alerted, he’d found Gracie all right. The question was, in what condition? He knew she hadn’t unlocked the door that led to the stairwell by herself. Dallas did not allow himself to dwell further on the thought. Three flights at top speed, following the sound of Juno’s nails clicking on the concrete until he got too far ahead for them to hear. When they reached the door to the roof, Juno was sitting, nose shoved to the gap under the threshold, tail wagging for all he was worth.
I know, buddy. You found her.
With adrenaline surging his gut, he threw open the door and half fell onto the rooftop, Mia and Elias right behind him.
“Gracie,” Mia screamed. “Where are you?”
Juno had already disappeared around a utility enclosure. When they rounded the corner, he was licking the tears off Gracie’s face. The girl was sitting in a little ball, sobbing and hiccupping all at the same time.
His own sigh of relief was drowned out by the wail that came from Mia as she threw herself on her daughter, adding her tears to the mix.
Dallas called Juno and gave him a thorough pet and scratch. “Good boy, Juno.”
“That’s an excellent dog,” Dr. Elias said with a winded laugh.
“Yes, he’s the best air scenter I’ve ever worked with.”
“And to think he does it all for kibble.” Dr. Elias stared at Gracie and Mia.
Dallas caught something in the doctor’s tone. “He does it for the joy of the find.”
“How do you know he’ll come back to you?”
“He’s trained that way.”
Dr. Elias nodded thoughtfully. “Good investment. You make a nice wage for that kind of work?”
Dallas tried to keep the disgust out of his voice. “We’re all volunteer.”
He nodded as if he’d just figured out why Dallas wore beat-up jeans and drove a ten-year-old truck. “My son, Jake, always wanted a dog, but we never caved in to that desire. We bought him lacrosse gear instead. Now he’s the best on his team.”
Dallas figured a lacrosse stick was a pretty poor substitute for a dog, but he refrained from saying so. He waited for a few more moments while Mia held Gracie so tight the girl squirmed for breath.
“Why did you come up here?” Mia said, at last pulling Gracie to arm’s length. “You could have fallen. Why did you do such a dangerous thing?”
“It was dark and I was going to find the bathroom. A man told me they were closed and I had to go upstairs. He opened the door for me with a funny stick thing that he stuck in the lock.”
“What man?” Dallas said.
Gracie shrugged. “I don’t know. It was dark and he had a hat on.”
Mia let out an exasperated sigh. “Why didn’t you come back to ask me to go to the bathroom with you?”
“You weren’t there.”
Mia’s face whirled through a storm of emotions before she settled on grabbing Gracie again and hugging her close. Over Gracie’s shoulder she shot Dallas a look.
Dr. Elias reached for his phone. “I’m glad that’s over.”
“It’s not over,” Dallas snapped. “Someone sent Gracie up to the roof on purpose.”
“For what purpose? To steal something while we were all busy searching? Mia and Gracie have nothing worth stealing.” He looked thoughtfully at Mia. “Do you?”
Mia tightened her grip on Gracie. “No, we don’t.”
“I don’t suppose it’s...” He shot a look at Gracie and lowered his voice. “Someone who is reaching out from prison, for some reason?”
“Why would it be?” Dallas said.
The doctor shrugged. “True, I guess that’s letting the past color the present. The door must not have been latched properly. Probably her imagination about the man.” He chuckled. “My son was convinced for months that there was a bear living in our attic.” He looked at Gracie, bending to look her in the eye. “I’m very happy that you are okay, Miss Gracie. I would be quite sad if anything happened to you.” Dr. Elias dialed his cell phone to report that Gracie had been found. “I’ll head downstairs and get everyone settled again.”
He wiggled his fingers at Gracie and departed.
Dallas knelt next to the child, while Juno rolled over so Gracie could scratch the dog’s belly. “Gracie, the man who told you to come up here. Do you think it could have been Dr. Elias?”
“No.” She babbled to Juno. “You’re a good doggie for finding me. I’m going to get you some Goldfish and we can share my blanket.”
“How do you know?” Dallas continued. “How do you know it wasn’t Dr. Elias?”
“’Cuz Dr. Elias smells nice.”
“And the man who sent you up here didn’t?”
“Nope,” Gracie said. “He smelled like cigarettes.”
Horror filtered past Mia’s eyes as she squeezed her daughter closer. “Oh, Gracie.”
“I told him cigarettes are
bad.” Gracie patted her mother’s back. “He said to tell you something.”
Mia tried to speak, but no sound emerged.
“What did he say?” Dallas used the calm tone he employed whenever Juno located a traumatized victim, the “everything is going to be absolutely fine now” tone.
“He said he was going to see us again real soon,” she said.
TEN
Mia would not stay another second. Heedless of anything but the need to get Gracie out of that awful gym, she waved away the well-meaning urgings from Dr. Elias and Catherine to stay until morning.
“It’s dark and the roads are treacherous,” Dr. Elias said.
“Not as treacherous as staying here,” she snapped.
“Someone phoned the police. They’re sending someone, but it’s not high on their list since Gracie’s been located,” Dallas said, grabbing the stuffed animal someone had given Gracie as Mia plopped her on the nearest empty cot to wrap her in a jacket.
“They can come find me if and when they send anyone.” She pulled up the zipper. “We’re not staying here.”
Dallas did not ask where she was going. Honestly, she didn’t have the foggiest notion, but Archie would not touch Gracie ever again and if he showed up, he’d wish he hadn’t. Fury had replaced the fear. Anger was good, much better than helplessness.
Dr. Elias started to follow her as she led Gracie out the gym doors, but his wife stopped him with a whispered comment and a hand on his arm.
“Do you have my number at least?” the doctor said. “In case you decide you can’t go it alone?”
Mia whirled to face him. “Thank you for everything, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Dallas followed her out. She hoisted Gracie on her hip and charged toward the makeshift parking lot, stopping short when she peered into the sodden interior of her damaged car. The rain had sheeted through the broken window and the seats were now sopping, bits of glass she had not seen before sparkling on the tattered vinyl.
One more thing. Another small obstacle, but it felt like the last tiny nudge toward complete desperation. She tried to keep her breathing steady as Gracie launched into a round of sleepy questions, rubbing her eyes with a fist. “Where will we sleep? I’m tired.”
