House Without Lies (Lily’s House Book 1)

by Rachel Branton

  I missed Elsie, and worry about her was slowly eating at my composure. I was sure the blocked call had been from her. Why didn’t she call back? Had he caught her calling and forbidden it?

  It was almost dinner time when Ruth asked the question on my mind, “Do you think Elsie’s okay?”

  No, I didn’t think she was. I grabbed my purse from the counter. “Look, I’m going out for a drive.”

  Zoey looked up from the stack of magazines she’d found discarded near our apartment Dumpster. “Where?”

  “Can I come?” Ruth asked. “I’m bored.”

  Saffron tore her gaze from her phone. She was off work and apparently didn’t have a date tonight because her boyfriend was working. “I’m in. Where we going?”

  “We could get some videos,” Halla said hopefully.

  “No. I’m going to see Elsie’s mother’s cousin. Again. She knows something about Elsie’s mother—I feel it.”

  “I’m definitely going,” Zoey said, accompanied by a chorus of agreement from the others.

  I texted Jameson about my plan, and he shot back, Almost there. Wait for me?

  Felicia opened the door only about a foot, but she didn’t seem surprised to see us again, despite our increased numbers. “These are our foster girls,” I said. “May we come in?”

  Felicia kept her hold on the door. “I don’t think so. I’m about to leave.” Her long hair did look freshly styled, but she still wore no wedding ring.

  “Have you heard from Michelle?” I asked.

  “No. I told you I’d call. Why, did something happen?”

  “They gave Elsie back to her father on Sunday night. There’s been no word from her. I think she might have called me on Monday, but she hung up before she said anything. Or someone made her hang up.”

  Felicia’s upper teeth worried her lower lip. “I didn’t think they’d give her back to him.”

  “What do you mean?” I was glad Jameson was holding my hand or I might be tempted to smack her. “We told you they would.”

  “You know where Michelle is,” Jameson said, “don’t you?”

  Felicia let out a long breath. “You don’t understand. She’s so fragile. This could set her back. She’s barely off the drugs, and she’s afraid she’ll have to go back to him. She can’t survive that.”

  “She’s an adult. No one can force her to go back to him. Not like they can Elsie. She has no one to protect her. Michelle doesn’t even have to see him. Or Elsie, for that matter. We just need someone to verify Elsie’s story. Even if there’s no proof, it’ll be enough to help. Please. She’s just a little girl. I’m not asking Michelle to take care of Elsie or be responsible for her—or for you to take her—I just want her safe.”

  Felicia started to shake her head, but the door was suddenly pulled from her hands, opening all the way to reveal a painfully thin woman I barely recognized from Felicia’s photograph as Michelle. I searched her for signs of similarity to Elsie, but there was none. Michelle had blond hair, a sallow complexion, and her green eyes were far too large in her thin face. Elsie definitely took after her father.

  “There is proof,” she said. “I have some notes he wrote, pictures of me—what he did. It was to save her when I could. I thought it would only be a few months, but I’ve been . . . not right in my . . .” She touched her head. “He’d kill me if he could. Maybe he still will.”

  Felicia grabbed her arm. “He’s not going to find you. I know a place you can stay.”

  “I called him a few months ago,” Michelle continued, as if her cousin hadn’t spoken. “I asked him if he’d let me see her.” She wiped tears as they fell from her eyes. “He said he’d kill us both if I called again. I recorded that too.”

  “Will you come with us to DCS?” I asked Michelle. “They need to hear this.” I didn’t mention the police because I was fighting for Elsie, and it might scare Michelle off, but I’d make sure they were there as well.

  Michelle nodded, and Felicia said, “We’ll both come.”

  For the second time, Bea Lundberg met us outside of regular hours at the DCS office. With her was a police officer, but to my surprise, Michelle didn’t balk. They listened as she told her story, and I breathed a sigh of relief when she turned over a small packet of notes and pictures.

  Bea grinned at us. “This is enough for a full inquiry, and to remove Elsie from the home as an emergency measure. I’m sure once the police question him and the psychologists are allowed to talk to Elsie, they’ll get what we need. Reynolds wouldn’t agree to it before. Now he has no choice.”

  I stood up. “Great. When can we get her back?”

  “Not until tomorrow, I’m afraid. We’ll need to get our attorney involved and a signed order by a judge. And a police officer to go with the social worker to pick her up.”

  Tomorrow? It seemed forever away, especially if Elsie was hurt and desperate.

  “You’ll let me know?”

  Bea nodded and went back to talking with the officer about the evidence.

  “Come on,” Jameson said. “Let them do their jobs. The girls are still waiting out in the hall.”

  Before we reached the door, Michelle arose from her chair and touched my sleeve, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “Please understand. Leaving her was the only way I could leave at all. I always planned to go back for her.”

  I hadn’t lived her life. I didn’t know what the drugs and desperation had done to her perception. Was there a point when despair made you think only of yourself? I hoped I’d never know.

  “You did a good thing here today,” I told her. Better than Halla’s mother, or Ruth’s and Saffron’s. “When you’re ready, I know she’ll want to see you again.” It was true, no matter how I disliked the idea.

  The tears welled over and fell unchecked down her face. “Thank you for taking care of her. I hope you will still take care of her until . . . for a while.”

  “Of course.” I blinked back my own tears.

  We took the girls home and put in a video, but I couldn’t watch it. Instead, I paced the small kitchen until Jameson put his arms around me. “I can’t stand this,” I whispered.

  “Then let’s go see her. It’s barely eight, and I have his address.”

  “Really?”

  “At least you’ll be able to tell her it’s going to be okay.”

  Outside the sun had set, but its light still sent red and gold cascading through the clouds across the horizon. It was beautiful, but it was painful too, as I recalled the times Elsie and I had watched a similar sky from the rooftop.

  Twenty minutes to Tempe and then I’d know she was okay. “Man, does this get worse with your own kids?” I mumbled. “Because this is awful. Maybe I shouldn’t have kids.”

  “No, because our kids are never going to have to worry about their parents hurting them.”

  “Our kids?” I asked, my heart doing a little skip in my chest.

  “Yeah, yours and mine . . . uh, not necessarily together . . . uh, I just meant . . .” Was he blushing? It was hard to tell with the red reflection of the sky. But I let his comments pass. Now was not the time for a discussion about our future.

  The closer we got to Tempe, the more worried I was. “What if he won’t let us see her? We can’t say anything about Michelle. It might set him off.”

  Jameson glanced over at me, worried. “You think he might wig out anyway?”

  “Maybe.” I flopped my head back on the seat. “Oh, this is a bad idea. But I still feel we should go.”

  “Me too.”

  There it was. We were admitting it now. It was a feeling, a dread I’d experienced even before I’d decided to go to Felicia’s.

  The Reynolds lived in an ordinary single-floor house with red stucco, desert landscaping, and a tiny bush near the house. No flowers or anything that hinted of femininity. The ordinariness of the house took me by surprise. How could it not stand out in some way? It should be sinister or unkempt, or at the very least have a No Trespassing sig
n.

  “Well?” Jameson asked.

  Lights glowed from the main areas of the house, but none came from the other room facing the front. “She’s probably in bed.”

  “At eight-thirty in the summer?”

  “Let’s go ask.” We walked up the steps, moving faster now that we’d actually made the decision. I knocked on the door. Footsteps echoed inside the house and seemed to take forever to reach the door. Then suddenly it opened, and there was Mr. Reynolds, with his dark curling hair and those liquid eyes that most women would drool over.

  “Can I help you?” he began. “Wait, I know you. You’re that woman who lied about having my daughter.”

  “That was a mix-up,” I insisted. “You said she’d been gone two weeks, and Elsie had been with me for seven and a half. Please, could I just see her for a few minutes? I brought some things she left at my apartment.” That had been Jameson’s idea. Basically, we’d thrown a couple of candy bars, knickknacks, and a shirt into a bag to pretend to give to her.

  “No.” Reynolds started to shut the door.

  “Please, I just want to give her a hug.”

  “I said no.” His flushed face indicated that he was getting angry.

  “Then you give it to her.” I thrust the bag at him. At least she’d know I’d been here.

  He opened the bag, glanced inside, and tossed it back to me. “Junk. She doesn’t need it. Now get off my property.” He punctuated his demand with a curse.

  As he’d tossed the bag, I’d caught sight of a couple of taped moving boxes in the house behind him, with more folded boxes next to them. Was he going someplace? Bea had mentioned that the one way he might slip away from DCS supervision was to move.

  Oh, no. Would Bea’s judge give us what we needed before he disappeared? “Please,” I begged. “Just for a moment.”

  Another string of curses. “For the last time, she can’t see you. She’s asleep.”

  I glanced at Jameson, feeling a sense of déjà vu. “At eight-thirty?” Something really wasn’t right here. You’d think if he was trying to get DCS off his case, he’d be willing to let us talk to her for a few seconds.

  Unless he’d hurt her.

  Jameson had apparently come to the same conclusion. Or maybe he’d also seen the boxes. “We’re not leaving until we see her,” he said. “Call the police if you want. We need to make sure she’s okay.”

  Mr. Reynolds eyes widened. “She’s my daughter.” Spittle flew from his mouth with the force of the words. “You have no rights here. Now leave or I’ll make you leave.” When we didn’t move, he threw open his door and dived at us.

  Jameson jumped in front of me, hands up to block. Reynolds’s fists pummeled into him, catching him in the stomach and face. Jameson stumbled down the two steps and fell into the grass. Reynolds pounced on him. I heard a scream, and I glanced toward the house before I realized it was my own.

  More punches as I stood there, frozen with fear. Move! I told myself.

  Then I was free, pushing my feet down the porch stairs toward them, raising the bag in my hand. The knickknacks might stop him for a moment. But with a grunt, Jameson bucked Reynolds off, blocking and punching back. The two rolled over the cement and into the rock flowerbed until finally Jameson pinned Reynolds under him.

  “Go find her,” Jameson told me.

  “She’s not here!” Reynolds spat at him in triumph.

  Horror spread through me. “What did you do?”

  “Me?” He gave a sharp laugh. “Nothing. That ungrateful brat stole my phone on Monday and took off, but I canceled the service yesterday morning. When I get my hands on her, I’ll teach her a lesson.”

  Not believing him, I shouted into the house, and then finally went inside, calling her name. Moving boxes were everywhere, most of them already sealed. He’d been at this a lot longer than a few days.

  I found a child’s room, where the bed was neatly made and all the clothes still in the closet. No Elsie. No backpack or stuffed wolf, either, I thought. Reynolds might be telling the truth. To make sure, I checked in all the other closets and unsealed more than a few of his packing boxes.

  “I’ll sue you for trespassing!” Reynolds shouted when I emerged from the house. His voice definitely carried to the two neighbors heading in our direction.

  “She’s not here,” I told Jameson.

  Jameson jumped up from Reynolds as the neighbors arrived. “What’s going on here?” asked a big guy who looked like a football player. “You okay?” he added—to Jameson, not Reynolds.

  Reynolds climbed to his feet, wiping the blood from his lip. “He assaulted me!”

  Jameson held up his hands and backed away. “It wasn’t like that.”

  “We just wanted to talk to his daughter,” I added, “and give her the stuff she left at my house.” I lifted the bag to show them. “She’s been staying with me. Then he went crazy.”

  The shorter man snorted. “That, I believe.”

  “Shut your stupid mouth!” Reynolds said with a sneer. He lunged at the short neighbor, but the football player held out his arm to prevent him from landing a punch.

  Reynolds wasn’t loved by his neighbors, apparently.

  “You’d better go,” said the shorter neighbor. “I’m sure it was all a misunderstanding like you say. Brad is the king of misunderstanding.”

  Jameson and I didn’t need a second invitation, but I had to ask. “Have you two seen his daughter?” They shook their heads. We hurried back to Jameson’s car. He was limping slightly and his eye was darkening, but nothing appeared broken.

  “Want me to drive?”

  “And wound my manhood? No.” He opened the door for me and went around to the driver’s side.

  “So where is she then?” I asked.

  “No idea. But that call you received on Monday was probably her. Something must have happened right then, or the phone lost service, if Reynolds is telling the truth about when he disconnected it. If she left on her own, is there any place she’d go?”

  I started to shake my head, but suddenly I did know. “Yes! The park where we found Zoey and Bianca. That’s our meeting place if anything goes wrong. Elsie wouldn’t go back to the apartment because he’d find her, but she might go there.”

  “That’s twenty minutes by car.”

  “Elsie’s resourceful, and she had his phone, right? It worked for a time.”

  “She’s had two days to get there.” Jameson pushed on the gas. “I bet she made it. If she hasn’t, we need to call the police.”

  Jameson might have broken a few speed limits getting us back to Phoenix. Even so, night had fallen completely by the time we arrived at the park. I couldn’t get out of the Mustang fast enough, forgetting about Jameson’s ruined eye and his hurt leg.

  “Elsie!” I shouted when I was still too far away to see if anyone was near our bench. But before I reached it, there she was, coming from another direction, carrying a stuffed backpack and two other large shoulder bags. She dropped them all as she ran to meet me.

  “Finally!” she said.

  “Sorry it took me so long.” I hugged her tightly, and she winced. “Are you hurt?”

  She nodded and drew up her shirt in the back. Even with only the dim illumination from the nearby streetlight I could see the deep bruising.

  “I couldn’t stay,” she said. “After he did it, he said we were going to move, that the social workers would never leave us alone, so we had to get away. I knew if I didn’t run, it would be too late.”

  I hugged her again, more gently. “It’s all over. We found a way. You’re not going back there again.”

  “I knew you would. I just didn’t know if you could do it in time.”

  “You did great.”

  She buried her face in my chest and held on while I smoothed her hair that was once again back to its wild state. Soon I would have to tell her about her mother, but not now. This moment was for us.

  Jameson finally caught up to us, and Elsie looked at him
, puzzled. “What happened to you?”

  “I’ll tell you later.”

  But she wasn’t letting it go. “Did my father do that? Did you go see him?”

  “Yeah, but I’m okay and so is he.”

  “I hope you hit him hard.”

  Jameson grinned. “I did. Come on. Let’s get you home.”

  Back at our apartment, while the girls surrounded Elsie, we called Bea, and she came with a police officer to take down our statements and get pictures of Elsie’s bruises. Elsie waited until they were present to fill us all in about how she’d made it to the park.

  “That first night I barely made it close to Phoenix,” she said, snuggling against me on the couch. “That was when I gave up and called you. But I’d used all the battery with the GPS, and it died. So I slept in someone’s backyard—I brought a blanket this time. I woke up really late the next day, and I got a little mixed up without the map on the phone, so I didn’t get to the park until late last night. But I eventually found it.” Pride seeped into her voice. “Then I waited there. I was going to borrow someone else’s phone to call you, but I had food, and I decided it wasn’t too bad living there for a while. I thought it might give you time to find my mom.”

  I leaned my head against hers. “You should have come home.” I couldn’t believe she’d been so close all this time. “Something might have happened to you.”

  “I didn’t come back here because I knew that’s the first place he’d go.”

  “But he didn’t,” Saffron said. “And he probably wouldn’t while you have those bruises.”

  Anger ran through me just thinking about him touching her. “Anyway, I’d have never let him take you after hurting you again.”

  Elsie looked down at her hands. “Yeah, but I didn’t want him to hit you. I was just going to ask if you’d help me get away until you found my mom.”

  “Ah, honey,” Jameson said. “We’re not afraid of him. He punches like a girl.” That made the girls laugh.

  “Well, you still got a black eye,” Saffron pointed out.

  Jameson shrugged. “Even girls get lucky.”

  “You ain’t going nowhere but with us,” Ruth said to Elsie. “We already found your mom, and she’s going to testify.”