by Dana R. Lynn
“That’s good. The woman behind the table is dead.” Jackson’s voice was calm, but Ryan knew him well enough to see the rage brewing in his eyes. He hated when they arrived too late to protect someone in danger. They both did. “Looks like she was hit with the bat over against the wall. Are the paramedics here yet?”
As if summoned by his words, the paramedics walked through the door. Ryan and Jackson backed up, letting them do their job. The two officers started to leave the room, intending to search the rest of the house. Ryan let Jackson go ahead of him. He felt bad for his colleague, had seen the tight set of his eyes. He was taking this case personally.
Ryan wondered if Jackson had ever flirted with the young dispatcher. It wouldn’t have surprised him to find out that he had. Oh, not that he suspected there was anything serious between them. There never was. For all his flirting and charm, Jackson didn’t date. Ryan had a suspicion that he’d been burned badly before, but it wasn’t his place to ask. If his friend wanted to talk about it, he would. When he was ready.
What was he doing, wasting time? He shook his head, dismayed at his lack of focus. He should be recording the scene. He had turned on his body camera before entering the house. The department had only received the cameras in the past month, so he was still getting used to using them. Finished in his current room, he carefully backed out of the scene. There were other rooms to check out, and he was only in the paramedics’ way in here. He had started toward the stairs when a sudden thrashing made him halt. The woman cried out.
Ryan hurried back to where Elise was struggling against the paramedics.
“Ma’am, you need to calm down...”
She paid them no heed. In fact, her struggling increased. Ryan could see the wild panic in her smoky hazel eyes. He insinuated himself next to the first paramedic, Seth Travis. He had no plan, no idea of how he could help, but he had to try.
Those beautiful eyes fastened on him. She lurched forward slightly, grabbing his hand in both of hers and holding on to it tightly. Even injured, her grip was strong. Glancing down at their joined hands, he noted hers were scratched up, no doubt from the glass on the floor. Returning his gaze to Elise, he noted that some of the panic seemed to leach from her as she focused on him.
“Please.” Her voice was husky, strained. “You need to find them. She has Mikey, but they’re not safe. He won’t stop looking for them. My nephew’s missing. Babysitter’s dead. You need to find my baby.”
Them? Who else was missing? Her words weren’t making sense. Farther into the room, he was aware of the coroner arriving. The crime scene was now officially a contaminated mess, but that couldn’t be helped. Not when there was an injured woman on the premises and a child missing. And possibly someone else.
Before he could ask her about it, her gaze flashed to the wall. He tracked it. “Oh, no!”
A dark wooden picture frame was placed centrally on the wall, clearly in a place of honor. Unlike all the other picture frames in the room, this one was undamaged. It was also empty. Whatever picture had been inside it was gone.
“He’s got Mikey’s picture. He’ll know what he looks like. She needs to hide,” Elise murmured. Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped, her hands relaxing and sliding off his. Just in time to miss the coroner and the paramedics hefting the covered stretcher and removing the other woman’s body from the crime scene. As much as he hated having Elise fall unconscious, that was a sight he wouldn’t want anyone to witness.
Within moments, the paramedics reentered the room and moved to his side to start loading Elise on a stretcher to transport her to the hospital. He saw both of them shooting him worried glances. He knew what they were thinking because his thoughts were there, too.
Oh, man. Did they have a kidnapping on their hands? Or was there an injured child on the premises? And what did her last statement mean?
“Jackson!” he shouted over his shoulder. Almost immediately, running footsteps answered him.
“Parker, got something?” Jackson halted in the doorway, his eyes sweeping around the room, looking for whatever had prompted the shout.
Ryan looked back at the woman on the stretcher. She was still out.
“She said something about needing to find her nephew. And maybe there was another person—female, I think—who needed to hide and who might have the child.”
Jackson’s eyes narrowed. “Sounds like she knew the person who attacked her.”
“Yeah. That’s my gut feeling, too. Whatever the case, we have at least one, maybe two, people at risk here, including a child.”
Jackson was already turning. “On it.”
“Seth,” Ryan addressed the paramedic next to him. “I’m going to help search for the kid.”
“Right.” Seth kept his focus on the unconscious woman. “We’re going to load her up in the ambulance. We’ll hang out for a few minutes while you see if there’s a child we need to transport.”
Ryan acknowledged the comment with a wave, then he took off on his search of the house. He walked from room to room, keeping his service weapon out just in case he ran into their mysterious intruder. Jackson met him at the stairs.
“No baby up here, Parker. Toddler bed in the room at the end. Looks as if it’s been searched, but nothing appears damaged. Toys and clothes suggest a child of about two or three. But there’s no sign of him here.”
Ryan frowned. “I don’t know, Jackson. This whole scenario is just plain weird. It definitely wasn’t a simple robbery. Plus, Elise seems to know something about the intruder. I won’t know what until she regains consciousness and we can question her.”
Jackson dipped his chin, acknowledging the truth of the statement. “Better let her get to the hospital first. Get checked out. I want to see if I can find a purse, something that can identity the dead woman. If that fails, I will check the scanner to see if we can find out who she is.”
The marvels of technology. The LaMar Pond Police Department had also been equipped recently with automatic license plate–recognition scanners. The system alerted them if they passed a car with a flag on it. But they could also scan a car in emergency situations like this to get the information they needed on the registered owner. While it was handy, Ryan hated knowing he and Jackson would soon be notifying someone that their loved one had been murdered. That was one part of his job that he despised. His father would say it was one more reason to quit and do what he was meant to do. He and his dad didn’t see eye to eye on many issues. His chosen career was one of them. But he had his reasons for why he had walked away from his family’s ambitions for him. Reasons that would eat at him forever if betrayed his calling to make peace with his dad.
“Where’s that breeze coming from?” Ryan pivoted on his heel and followed the cool draft that had teased the back of his neck. The room at the end of the hall was dim, but he could make out the sheer curtains blowing inward. Cautiously, weapon drawn, he edged the door open and turned on the light. The room was empty.
“Looks like someone climbed out the window.”
Ryan nodded. “That’s my take on it, too.”
Stepping up to the window, he peered out. Someone had clearly jumped out the first-story window. He could see the boot prints in the mud along the side of the house. Small feet. Smaller than he’d expect from a man. Certainly not a man big enough to take Elise down so easily. She had to be five foot nine, if he had to guess, and while she was slender, she looked far from fragile. No, he was confident that those footprints had been made by someone other than their perp.
Jackson whistled.
Ryan jerked his head in his friend’s direction. “What?”
He followed Jackson’s finger as it pointed. A piece of gray cloth was hanging on a nail just outside the window. It was wet from the rain, but other than that it was clean and didn’t look weathered, so it couldn’t have been there long.
“O
kay. Someone obviously went out this window.” Urgency trickled through him. Decision time. “The kid’s not here. Worst-case scenario, whoever attacked Elise and killed the other woman had an accomplice who got the child and fled out this window.” He recalled Elise’s words. “But Elise said she had Mikey and that he won’t stop looking. That makes it sound like the woman and man weren’t working together. So maybe it was someone else in the house who took the kid and ran with him? Let’s give Seth the go-ahead to transfer Elise to the hospital. Then we’ll finish here. We have to notify the chief, too. Let him know we have a possible abduction.”
“Sounds like a plan. How about I continue here, and you go release the ambulance?”
Ryan gave him a thumbs-up, then strode out to where Seth and his partner were waiting. The rain had stopped while they were inside. As soon as he gave them the all clear, Seth swung up into the cab.
“I’ll come to check up on her later,” Ryan said. “Hopefully she’ll be conscious and able to answer some questions for me.”
The ambulance started back down the long driveway, swaying as it moved along the uneven surface. Ryan watched it turn onto the road and disappear, then he went out to the cruiser and pulled up the information on the car sitting next to the garage. When the driver’s license of Diana Mosher, age forty-two, popped up, he knew he’d found the identity of the babysitter. With a sigh, he snatched up his cell phone and put a call into Chief Kennedy. It was picked up on the second ring.
“Chief Kennedy here,” said the voice on the other end, a hint of a drawl present.
“Parker, sir.” Ryan watched as Jackson moved outside to check the perimeter. “Jackson and I are at the house of Elise St. Clair, the dispatcher. We got a call a little before four this afternoon that there had been a possible break-in here. A Ms. Diana Mosher, her babysitter, was found dead at the scene. Elise herself was unconscious. She’s been roughed up and just left in the ambulance. She has a child, age approximately two or three—we still don’t have specifics. He’s missing, and there’s evidence that someone escaped out a first-floor window. Possibly an accomplice, although I suspect from Elise’s remarks before she passed out that there might have been someone here when the house was broken into who ran with the child to hide him. If that’s the case, then that woman would be in danger, as well.”
A soft sigh of regret came through the phone. “A shame about Diana. She was an art teacher at the elementary school last year. I’ll go talk to the medical examiner and notify her next of kin. What’s Elise St. Clair’s condition?”
“Unsure, sir. She was out when the ambulance left. Jackson and I are finishing here at the scene. We have to finish checking the rest of the house and the garage. Then we’ll proceed to the hospital. We need to talk to her as soon as she wakes up.”
“Understood.”
Ryan hung up the phone and replaced it in his pocket. He couldn’t quite stem the feeling that Elise was not out of danger. He let his eyes follow the trail of destruction in the room where they’d found her. Not a thing had been touched except for the dozens of pictures that had lined the mantel and hung on the walls. Even the couple of pictures sitting on top of the bookcase in the corner had been shattered. No, this was not some random attack by a stranger. This was personal. A deliberate attack against the pretty young woman that no one seemed to know much about.
That needed to change. He needed to get to her and find out everything he could about the elusive dispatcher. Her life—and possibly the lives of two others, including a small child—depended on it.
TWO
Twenty minutes later, a second cruiser arrived. Two officers emerged from it.
“Hey, Parker,” the young officer said, toting a large camera. “We’re here to assist.”
When the officers had everything under control, he grabbed Jackson. He needed to talk with Elise and get whatever information she could provide.
Ryan dropped Jackson off at the police station to get a head start on the paperwork before continuing to the hospital. He parked his cruiser in the visitor lot, leaving the spaces nearest the building free for those who were patients or family members. It was still light out, but just barely. A few fat droplets hit his windshield, signaling the start of a new rain shower. Light and wet. He grimaced. He left his vehicle and ducked his head to keep the water out of his face as he strode to the awning-covered entrance. The sliding-glass doors hissed as they opened.
The nurse at the ER desk directed him to the room where Elise had been moved to for observation. Relief flooded him. Her injuries had not been severe enough to require surgery. After thanking the woman politely, he headed down the hall to the room she’d indicated.
The door opened as he approached. A nurse walked out. He flashed his badge, even though his uniform clearly identified him as a police officer. She pursed her lips.
“I know you have to question her, but please remember she’s been injured and traumatized. She needs rest.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He stood in the doorway for a moment, watching Elise as she lay there, her eyes closed. He was reluctant to disturb her even while knowing that he would. Her golden-brown hair flowed back from a small widow’s peak, moving into a rambling mass of corkscrew curls. Hair that would have been the envy of his sisters, who had used any number of curlers and curling irons through the years to style their naturally stick-straight hair. Her skin was bruised and cut in various places. The rest of her skin had a faint golden tan. The freckles he’d noticed earlier stood out against the bridge of her nose.
She stirred.
Ryan stepped fully into the room, clearing his throat gently.
Her eyes flared open, alarm flashing in their dusky hazel depths.
“Hey, hey! It’s okay.” He laid a calming hand on her shoulder, praying she wouldn’t tear out the IV in her panic. When she calmed, he removed his hand. “I’m Sergeant Ryan Parker. Remember me? I found you at your house today.”
“Parker...” she breathed. Her voice had a gentle rasp to it. She stopped struggling but didn’t relax. He could see her trying to put the pieces together in her mind. “Yes, I remember you. We’ve met a few times.” Her eyes closed briefly. A tear slipped out from beneath her lashes. “I came home. He was there. Mikey—”
Her breathing hitched. He touched her shoulder again.
“Easy, Elise. I need to know what happened, but I want you to stay as calm as possible while you tell me. Start at the beginning. I know it’s hard, but you have to give me everything you can.” He kept his voice soft, using what his youngest sister always called his “comfort voice.”
“I know. I know. I’m just so scared.” Elise’s voice cracked. Another tear slipped out the corner of her eye and slid into her hair. She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, shuddering. “I can do this.”
Ryan stepped back from the bed and lowered himself into the chair at her side. Before he could start his questions, the door opened and a nurse entered. The woman frowned slightly when she saw Ryan, but she didn’t make a fuss as she checked Elise’s readings. He waited, beginning only after she had left.
“Who’s Mikey?”
“Mikey is my nephew. I have raised him since my sister was murdered. He’s three.”
He could see her emotions were rising to the surface again. And no wonder. A sister murdered and now her nephew missing. Sympathy filled him. He couldn’t imagine what she was going through, but right now he needed to know what had transpired.
“Tell me what happened this afternoon. Dispatch said there was a break-in.”
She was silent a moment. Her eyes were closed as she pulled herself together, but he knew she wasn’t sleeping. Her breath hitched as she struggled to control her emotions. “I was at work when I got a call at the 911 center. It was from my babysitter’s phone, but it wasn’t Diana. It was the girl who cleans my house. She was screaming. I couldn�
�t understand everything she said. She’s Amish and was talking in Pennsylvania Dutch at the beginning. Then she switched to English and said she thought that my babysitter was dead. Then she got quiet and said she thought she heard someone still in the house. I rushed out, told my coworker to notify the police and send an ambulance and then I headed home. When I got there, she was gone and so was my nephew.”
“Your cleaning girl?” He sat up. The image of the small footsteps flashed through his brain. It would make sense.
She nodded, her brow wrinkling as if she were in pain. “Leah Byler. She comes every week. I think she has Mikey. Please. We have to find them.”
Byler. Amish. He remembered the gray material stuck on the nail. Things were beginning to make sense. “I will make finding her and your nephew top priority, I promise. Right now, though, I need you to finish walking me through the events, okay?”
The sigh she released was impatient, but she nodded.
“So someone broke into your house—”
“No. Not someone. Him. My murdering brother-in-law.”
He blinked. That was some pretty unequivocal language. “When you say ‘murdering,’ are you saying that literally?”
Elise tried to sit up, grimaced, then managed to pull herself higher up on her pillows. “Yes, literally. Two and a half years ago, I was staying with my sister. She’d recently kicked her husband out after a fight between them.” She sighed. “Things had been bad between them for a while. He was controlling, aggressive. He yelled at her all the time. She said he didn’t hit her...but I didn’t believe her. My sister wasn’t clumsy, and yet she always seemed to have bruises. Especially on her neck. He always went for the neck.” Elise’s eyes filled with tears again, and she angrily brushed them away.
