Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16
Sunday Morning. Early
“OK, so this is what we’re gonna do,” Sara whispered. “But keep washing and drying.”
The other three girls standing at the sink nodded but continued their work. Why “Cook” insisted they wash the dishes before the cooking started was just crazy. Mrs. M., Sara knew, would call it a waste of water.
“OK”, Sara said again, her gaze flickering toward the door. “That produce truck comes tomorrow because it’s Monday.”
“Produce?” Alice Peters asked. She and Elsa Jones had arrived a couple of weeks before Sara and Robin and were as close as Sara and Robin were now.
“She means the vegetable and fruit truck,” Robin explained, and Alice nodded her understanding.
“We’re gonna volunteer to come in early to help Cook,” Sara continued. “That will show Miss Arthur and Sir that we’re being cooperative and compliant. That means we’ll do what they say without arguing. Adults love that.”
“My mom sure does,” Robin sighed.
“So, we’ll be here in the kitchen when the truck comes,” Sara continued as she scrubbed a large skillet and gave it to Robin to rinse. “Cook is sweet on the driver. When he finishes emptying those big black bins, he and Cook always go to her office or sometimes the pantry and close the door. I don’t know what they’re doing in there, but they sure laugh a lot. Sometimes it sounds like they’re singing ‘cause I hear their voices going up and down.”
“But what will we do then?” Elsa frowned.
“We’re gonna get into the bins,” Robin explained. “He’ll drive back to a town and when he makes his next stop, we’ll get out of the bins and go find help.”
“But what about Cook?” Elsa’s lips trembled. “What if she sees us?”
“Cook always tells us to go back to the dorm when we’re done,” Sara explained. She’s so crazy stupid about that driver she won’t know something’s wrong until he’s gone.”
“But won’t they start looking for us?” Elsa asked. “Sir doesn’t like us to be late for those training classes he makes us take. I don’t want to train to be someone’s wife. I want to train to be a doctor.”
“And how do you know the driver’s next stop?” Alice asked. “What if it’s far away?”
Sara grinned. “He came last Thursday,” she said. “So, while he and Cook were doing whatever they were doing in the pantry, I put some cookies in a bag and snuck out to the truck and put them on his seat. He left his clipboard there and saw where he goes after he leaves here. It’s at a restaurant near The Main Place in Knoxville. I told him and Cook what I’d done, and said I was so grateful for the food he brought us so I left him the cookies. It made them happy.”
“You’re sneaky,” Sara,” Elsa giggled.
Adult voices grew closer, and Sara hissed, “Remember. We don’t take anything with us. Elsa, bring your drawings but put them in your pocket. OK, here they come.”
And as one group, the girls turned and curtseyed–Sara hated this stupid ankle long dress they were made to wear–and sang out, “Good morning, Cook. Good morning, Sir.”
Later that morning. The Safehouse
“We got ‘em!”
Danni stared at Grant Miller’s triumphant expression on the office’s wide screen from her place on the sofa. “Got who?”
“She who erased The Larson case file,” Miller exulted. “Thanks to our amazing IT crew, they tracked her to a local Internet café using digital footprints and website use and stuff way over my head. We’ve sent a cruiser to pick her sweet ass up and she will be in the hot seat with Captain Haggerty and yours truly within the hour. The captain will have her squawking and talking by second breakfast.”
“That’s great!” Patrick praised, snuggling closer to Danni. “Can you at least tell us her name?”
“I can do that,” Miller agreed. “Suzy Templeton who’s a file clerk in our records department. That it was someone who works there really stinks, but I have a feeling she was put there for nefarious reasons.
“Do you think she might work for The Cadre?” Danni asked, half wondering if Miller had noticed she and Patrick were wearing their bathrobes.
“Anything is possible at this stage of the game,” Miller declared. “Not to worry though. She’s ours and we ain’t cutting her loose no matter how fast she lawyers up, especially if we tell her she’s under arrest for conspiracy to kill a police officer. That can carry the death penalty, you know. And if this has anything to do with Sara Turner being snatched, we can hit her with the threat of conspiracy to help kidnap a minor child.”
Patrick laughed. “I think you’re really enjoying this, Miller.”
“You bet I am.” Grim satisfaction settled over Miller’s features. “Thank Kristopher for that file he sent. I’m going to look at it while I wait for the arrival of our little chart-erasing hussy. Holler at you later.”
The screen went blank, and Danni released a sigh of satisfaction. “Finally, I feel like we’re getting somewhere.”
“You’ve had an amazing seven days.” Patrick’s tone was reflective. “And still here.”
“Thanks to you.” She slipped her arm through his. “And you were amazing last night.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Do you want to talk about last night?”
“Not especially,” she murmured. “Well, one question. Do you have anyone waiting in the wings, so to speak?”
“Nope. Do you?”
“Nope,” and his slow smile warmed her heart. “Where’s Kristopher?”
“He left me a text to say he was running errands and would be back by noon at the earliest.”
“So,” she cooed, moving her hand inside his robe to run her fingers through the fine, soft hair covering his chest. “We have the whole place to ourselves?”
“Why do I have a feeling,” he whispered, “that you’re about to have your oh-so-feminine way with me?”
“I knew you were a smart man from the moment I first saw you,” she whispered. “And that you were really, really cute.”
He frowned. “Just cute?”
“I did say, ‘really, really.’”
“Oh, then that’s okay.” He reached for her, but Danni’s phone buzzed and seeing it was Miller, withheld her sigh of impatience. “Hey, Sergeant Miller. Is Miss Suzy there with you yet?”
“No, but someone who wants to talk with you about The Larsen Case is,” Miller said. “Lieutenant Aubrey Caudwell, who just got back into town last night. He says it’s urgent and he wants to do it face-to face.”
“I don’t want Danni leaving The Safehouse today,” Patrick argued. “Not even with a twenty car police escort.”
“If you’ll let me, I’ll personally bring him to The Safehouse. You’re only a few minutes from here and when Suzy gets here, we can let her stew in a cell for a bit. Good with you?”
“Sure,” Danni said. “Come on over.” She ended the call and looked at Patrick. “I knew a lot of the police force growing up, but don’t remember an Aubrey Caudwell.”
“Well, we’re about to find out,” Patrick said. “Do you want me with you when you talk to him?”
“Yeah, I want.” Danni lifted his hand to her lips to kiss it. “We’re a team, right?”
“Right.” And that one word from him was all Danni needed.
“Twenty-five years ago, your dad was with Special Crimes working on The Larsen Case. “So was Leo Anderson.”
“But he was with Vice!” Danni protested. She stared at the tall, lanky figure of Aubrey Caudwell. “He was always with Vice. I remember–”
“You would have been too young to remember,” Caudwell interrupted. “They’d been on the Larsen Case for a couple of months when out-of-the-blue, they switched.”
“And The Larsen Case?” Patrick asked
Caudwell sighed and added more cream to his coffee. “Coming upon twenty-five years ago, a ten-year-old girl here in Knoxville named Nancy Larsen vanished. She’d been playing at a friend’s house one street over and walked home. She and the friend had done that for a year or two without any problems. Then that day, boom. According to her parents, Nancy never came home late. They were strict about her being home on time for dinner and she respected that because they trusted her, and she loved that. It was maybe a seven-minute walk from house to house at the most. Your dad and Leo worked their asses off, trying to find that little girl, exploring every lead, talking to God knows how many people and came up with a big fat nothing.”
“I still don’t understand,” Danni said, her thoughts reeling at this revelation about her dad and Leo. Did they switch because they couldn’t find Nancy?”
Something flickered in Caudwell’s eyes, as if he was trying to come to some kind of decision. Finally, he sighed, and said, “OK. I ran this by Haggerty–who wasn’t here back then, and she agreed that after everything that’s happened to you this week, you needed to know.”
Danni dug her heels into the floor. “Know what?”
“The reason your dad and Leo both left the case after three months was because they got death threats against their families. Meaning you and your mom, and Leo’s wife who was pregnant at the time.”
Horror turned Danni’s skin to ice. “Death threats against me? Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” Caudwell sighed. “They had messages left on their cars saying if they didn’t back off and leave the case alone, they’d be coming to their own families’ funerals. The department quietly assigned the case to other detectives who didn’t have families and your dad and Leo switched departments. He never told you, did he?”
Danni’s voice was a hollow whisper. “No. Who were the Larsens?”
“A well-to-do family here in Knoxville. They never received a ransom note or any kind of demand and with their money, they could have paid one. Nancy was just gone. No one ever found a trace of her. Her parents divorced six months later, and the mom moved away. I think the dad is still here.”
Banishing her anxiety back, Danni forced her brain into reporting mode and asked, “What did Nancy’s parents do for a living? You said they were wealthy enough to pay a ransom if necessary.”
“I seem to remember the father worked for World Wide Traders. Or maybe it was the grandfather?”
“But Dad and Leo scared someone with their questions and investigations,” Danni said. “Enough to receive threats against me and my mother. My long absent mother. Is that why you left, Mom?
“I think,” Caudwell said, “that after you wrote that first article, Leo remembered The Larsen Case and started thinking about what he and your dad might have missed. Not that they didn’t work their asses off, but like I said, they were so spooked by the death threats, they transferred to other departments and let someone else handle it. But after those other kidnappings this year, I think Leo started digging just to satisfy his curiosity.”
“And then Sara vanished.” Danni drummed her fingers on the table. “World Wide Traders, she mused. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of them.”
“That’s because about that time they became La Belle Monde,” Caudwell replied. He peered at her and said, “That means something to you?”
“Maybe.” Excitement tore through Danni, her thoughts ricocheting like mad. “Anything else you can share with me?”
Caudwell squirmed in his seat, but his gaze never wavered from Danni’s face. “Haggerty told me the Larsen case file was erased?”
“Yes,” Danni said cautiously. “Why?”
“Because I have the original case notes. His and your father’s.”
“I’m glad I’m sitting down,” Danni said. “Otherwise, I’d be on the floor. You have them?”
“This is more than odd, Lieutenant Caudwell,” Patrick interjected. “Can you explain that?”
“When I got home last night, there was a big package waiting for me,” Caudwell said slowly. “My wife was dying of curiosity. The address was in Leo’s printing–his handwriting was always terrible. Inside was a letter along with the files to the Larsen case. Captain Haggerty told me Leo was murdered last Monday. The posting date on the package was the Wednesday before that. There were copies of both his and your dad’s notes from The Larsen file inside. I guess the originals were destroyed when the cases were digitized, but I don’t know.”
“Holy crap.” Patrick’s tone was reverent.
“He wrote me a letter too.” Caudwell reached for his jacket pocket and took out an envelope addressed in Leo’s unmistakable scrawl. “Go ahead and read it.”
With hands barely steady, Danni took the letter from the opened envelope. Patrick moved his chair closer to hers and peered over her shoulder at the typed document.
Dear Aubrey,
I hope when you get this that I’m not dead, but if I am, you need to give these to Danni Blake, Sam Blake’s daughter. I think Sara Turner’s disappearance goes back to the Larsen Case, or someone thinks it does. KDP won’t be able to do anything to me about copying the files if I’m dead. Take care of Danni and give her any help she needs.
Thanks, buddy.
Leo Anderson.
“Is this going to help you solve Leo’s murder and find that little girl?” Caudwell asked. “Sara Turner?”
“Sergeant Miller is going to love this,” Danni told him. “Where are the copies of the records?”
“Gave them to Haggerty,” Caudwell said, and his features relaxed. “Anything else?”
“No,” Danni said, heart still thumping like crazy at what she learned about her dad and Leo. “Did my dad ever say anything to you about my mother.”
“Ah, Danni. That’s water under the bridge,” Caudwell chided. “Why bring up old stuff now?”
“Did she leave because of this case?” Danni persisted.
“Yes,” Caudwell sighed. “That and her drinking. It got really bad, and she told your dad if he didn’t stop being a cop, she’d take you and leave. Her drinking was so bad at that time, it never would have happened, and your dad told her so. So, she left anyway. I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Danni said, and the old sorrow racked her heart. “I just wish Dad had told me the truth about that.”
“He was always so damn proud of you,” Caudwell said.
“Well, thank you for telling me,” Danni said. “Especially on a Sunday.”
“Not a problem.” Caudwell stood. “Call me if you need me.”
Patrick led him to the door but was back in seconds. “What do you want to do now?” he asked.
“I need to let my brain rest,” Danni said. “My thoughts are too jumbled to be of much use.”
“Then let’s go have a nap,” Patrick suggested.
“You think I can sleep after that?” she demanded as he pulled her up from her chair.
“Who said anything about sleeping?” Silver lights danced in his dark eyes. “I know just the thing for anxiety, but it does involve lying down.”