Chapter 4
FOUR
After getting Jalen to bed, Linc searched the apartment for clues on where Bri had gone and found nothing. It only took him a few attempts to guess her passcode on her laptop, but no emails provided clues.
He called her number, and it went straight to voicemail—again. Trying not to sound pissed, he left her a message that he was in Fayetteville and had Jalen. None of this made sense, and despite his growing unease, he didn’t want to alarm Jalen.
With his mind still coming up empty, he crashed in Bri’s bed. If Regina showed up and found him there, he’d vacate—after giving her an earful.
He woke to his alarm and no Regina at dawn. Still no texts from Bri either.
He mixed up pancake batter before he woke Jalen.
“Is Mommy home?”
“Not yet.” He didn’t even know when she was supposed to be home.
“Where’s Grams?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll find out,” Linc promised. He’d already made a plan and action steps to start once he dropped Jalen off at school. He scrambled eggs to go with the pancakes and added extra chocolate chips to make a smiley face on the top one for Jalen.
While he’d only taken his nephew to daycare a handful of times, he knew the routine and drop-off time. Getting there early should give him an opportunity to talk with Jalen’s teacher. Then he’d go by the police station, take a damn drug test, and jump through whatever hoops he had to for Jalen’s sake.
Kendra took a breath before exiting her office to greet Linc. She hadn’t heard back from the messages she’d left both Bri and Regina last night or the ones this morning. At least Linc was here and stepping in for Jalen, even if he wasn’t her biggest fan. Just as well. Seeing him in uniform last night was the reminder she needed to avoid military men.
This morning, he wore well-fitted, faded black jeans and a simple black V-neck tee that clung to his body like it wanted to show off all the muscles it hugged. “Any updates?” she asked, trying to project a dispassionate professionalism.
“Jalen’s teacher said Bri mentioned going to Mexico with a friend. But she didn’t know what city or who the friend was. And Mexico? I don’t know how she’d pay for that. If we can contact her grandmother, Mrs. Feldman, she should know more. I called the local hospitals, but they didn’t list her as a patient. Before coming here, I went by the police department and filed a missing person report.”
“Best not to wait. Did they put out a silver alert?”
“No. They said they’d put the word out to their patrol officers. They should be able to access records to get the make and model of her car and plate number, but if she drove off and got lost or forgot she was here to watch Jalen . . .”
“Does she have dementia?” That could explain things.
“Not that I know of.”
Last night, Linc clarified that Regina wasn’t his grandmother. This morning, Kendra dug through Bri’s file. Somehow, she’d missed the note that her paternal grandmother took custody of her after her parents were killed in a car accident. However, Linc had been placed in foster care. She didn’t need to ask Linc about his relationship with Regina—they didn’t have one.
What kind of woman was Regina that she would split them up? Linc wasn’t her biological grandchild, but he and Bri were half-siblings. Even without meeting Regina, Kendra guessed that it had to do with Linc being bi-racial, while Bri was Caucasian. And if that was the case, did it play into Regina not showing up to get Jalen?
Being mixed-race, Kendra had experienced similar prejudices over the years, though not as much as her parents had growing up when being bi-racial was less common. Doing the work she did, Kendra had seen attitudes shift. Most people had become more accepting, but prejudices didn’t die overnight.
“My in-law is a detective. I’ll call Clara and see if she can escalate the search,” Kendra said.
“Appreciate it. I’m going by the dealership to see if any of Bri’s co-workers know where she was going and with who. She had to have talked to someone.”
“Do you know her friends here?”
Linc ran a hand over the back of his head. His impressive bicep flexed as he shook his head. “No. Between work, her Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and Jalen, she hasn’t had time to connect with a lot of people or get out. I told her when I’m not deployed, I’d watch Jalen one night a week so she could take a class or find an activity to make friends, but we had a difference of opinion on that.”
“What do you mean?”
“She wanted to take a painting class, and I suggested she take a continuing education class to increase her job marketability. She accused me of being a controlling dictator.”
“You military types can come across as controlling.”
“I was just trying to help. She’s got an independent streak.”
Kendra flexed her toes and kept her mouth closed rather than point out Linc was a typical male with his I’ll-tell-you-how-to-solve-your-problems manner when Bri hadn’t asked for him to run her life. “I’m sure she appreciates the help with Jalen. Being a single parent is hard, but she’s working hard, making good choices, and being a great mom. She’ll be devastated to know her Mrs. Feldman failed to pick Jalen up, and I was notified to get him. It’s good you were coming back in time to intervene.”
Linc diverted his gaze, and his mouth pursed.
In her line of work, she’d learned to read body language. “What are you not telling me?” After several seconds, he met her gaze.
“She left me a voicemail two days ago that she’d done something stupid. Before she could give details, someone came in, and she ended the call.”
“Why didn’t you say this last night?” This changed everything.
“I wasn’t going to say anything in front of Jalen when I have no idea whether she’d had a car accident, forgotten to pay rent, or—” he sighed. “Or relapsed. When I couldn’t reach her, I took emergency leave. That’s why I’m here.”
“If you’d told me?—”
“It’s not her fault her grandmother’s gone MIA. The woman was hardly the best parent. Her son not only used but dealt drugs, and she let Bri go down the same damn path after she took her in. If I told you, you might put Jalen in foster care. And that is not happening.”
He had a point about Regina, but Kendra didn’t divulge the confidences that Bri had shared, which explained her self-destructive behavior. Trauma therapy had helped get her on the right path to recovery, but addiction wasn’t an easy fix even when kids were around as motivation to stay clean. “How long is your leave?”
“As long as I need to be here for him.”
“Are you on her account to track her phone?”
“No. She’s still on the government assistance plan.”
“I think it’s best to let Clara know about the call. Maybe they can locate where Bri called from or trace her phone and find a way to contact her to let her know about Regina. Or do you think Regina went to help Bri and . . .?”
“I don’t know what to think. I’m hoping like hell that they aren’t connected and that Bri isn’t in Mexico. Regina wouldn’t have left Jalen to go to Mexico.”
“I hope not.” Kendra had been to Cancun with her ex-boyfriend, Marcus, two years ago. She’d felt safe at the beautiful resort. However, she was well aware of the problems with drug trafficking and stories of tourists being kidnapped for ransom. She didn’t want to think of anything like that happening to Bri. “Here’s the form for the drug test with instructions for them to send me the results.”
He took the paper from her with a slight grumble. “I’ll go get this knocked out and let you know if I learn anything at the dealership.”