Chapter 6
“You shouldn’t have brought her here,” Rossi said. “She didn’t need to see that.”
“It was her choice, and she said she needed to see it. She’s stronger than you seem to think.”
“She cried. I don’t call that strong.”
“That’s our daughter on that video. I almost cried myself.
Crying when your heart is being ripped out of your chest has no bearing on how strong a person is.
” Cooper backed the video up to where Amanda and Livie were coming out of the store.
“Have you had any reports of a stolen van?” he asked when he finished watching the video for a second time.
“We have a BOLO out. It’s unfortunate the camera didn’t pick up the license plate, but there was a dent above the rear tire and the left taillight was broken, so that’s helpful.”
“I noticed that.” He tapped the screen. “I’m betting this is the man who talked to Olivia in the grocery store, so you need to get that video from them. We might be able to get a better description of him.” Amanda had said he wore glasses, but he didn’t have any on when he took Livie.
“How do you know that?”
“Amanda Eckerd told me.”
“She didn’t tell me that.”
“You didn’t ask the right questions.” He wasn’t trying to antagonize the detective, but he was losing patience with the man. If Kendall hadn’t called him, she would be dealing with this alone, and he didn’t even want to think how much harder this would have been for her.
“She should have told me about the man.”
Maybe so, but Amanda hadn’t realized the encounter might be important. “It would be too traumatizing for Ms. Eckerd to watch this video, but let’s make a photo of the man to show her. See if it triggers anything else she can remember about him.”
“We can do that. I’ll run by her house this afternoon.”
It was encouraging that the detective no longer resented Cooper’s involvement. “You contact the FBI?”
“I plan to do that. I held off, hoping we’d find Olivia by now.”
Cooper was glad he hadn’t brought them in yet.
If they didn’t find Livie in the next two days, he would personally call Sean Danvers, an FBI friend to The Phoenix Three.
Until then, he preferred not to have the interference of another law agency.
He wasn’t bound by rules, and unlike the police and FBI, he’d break every damn one if necessary to find his daughter.
“Don’t contact them yet. The assistant FBI director is a friend. I’ll call him if we don’t find her today.” He stood. “Call me when you get the video from inside the store.”
He found Kendall sitting at a table in the break room, staring at her phone.
Her cheeks were wet with tears, and he glanced at the phone’s screen, his breath catching at seeing the photo of Livie wearing a Braves shirt and ball cap.
She stood in front of the Braves’ stadium with a big smile on her face and holding hands with an older man.
“Who is that she’s with?”
“My father. He’s a huge Braves fan, has season tickets and takes her with him to the weekend games. She’s loves baseball and the Braves.”
He dropped into the chair next to Kendall.
“I played baseball all through high school. My coach said I was good enough to go pro one day. My dream was to play for the Braves.” That his daughter was a baseball fan and loved the team he’d dreamed of playing for was…
just wow. They had something in common they could bond over.
“Maybe she inherited her love of baseball from you. Livie says she’s going to be a catcher for the Braves when she grows up.”
He chuckled at that. “She likes to catch balls?” He loved the idea that he might have passed on something he loved to his daughter.
“Yes. She even has a little glove. She loves hitting them, too. Says she’s going to hit a home run in every game when she plays for the Braves.” She swiped to the next photo, then held the screen up to him.
“That’s about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.” It was a picture of Livie wearing her Braves shirt and ball cap, a glove on her hand, ready to catch a ball.
“I was sick one weekend last year, and Dad had already planned to go to a game. He decided to take Livie with him so I could rest.” She smiled.
“When she got back home, all she could talk about for days was baseball, corn dogs and ice cream cones. It’s the only time she gets to eat junk like that, so I think she fell in love with the food first, then the game. ”
“A girl after my own heart.” She really was. Baseball and food. Two of the most important things in life. He’d grown up never having enough to eat, and because of that, as an adult, he made sure his refrigerator and pantry were well stocked. “I need to learn how to make corn dogs.”
She laughed. “Livie’s going to like you, Cooper.”
God, he hoped so. “You ready to get out of here?”
“Yes.”
Detective Rossi stopped them in the hallway. “The van was found early this morning by a patrol officer, and it was stolen. It was towed to the police lot and the crime lab is going over it now.”
“Where was it found?”
Rossi sighed. “Why don’t the two of you go home. I’ll call you when we know something.”
And here he’d thought they’d turned a corner.
Guess not. “Detective, I feel like we’ve already had this conversation, but I’m going to say it again.
I’m either working with you or without you, but I’m not going home and sitting on my ass while my daughter is missing.
Just not happening. I’m not an amateur investigator, and if I were you, I’d want all the help available to me.
So, I ask again, where was the van found? ”
“Not far from here.” Rossi gave him the location.
“Thank you,” he said as he put the address in his phone’s GPS. “I’ll be sure to let you know immediately if I find anything useful and would appreciate the same from you.” He put his hand on Kendall’s back. “Let’s go.”
“Thank you,” she said as soon as they were out of the building.
“For?”
“Not letting him push us aside. I’m not feeling very hopeful right now that Livie’s a priority with the police.”
“Livie isn’t his only case, so she won’t get a hundred percent of his attention. I’m sure he’s doing the best he can.” He wasn’t really sure of that, but she didn’t need more to worry about.
“I just feel so much better with you here. You give me hope that we’ll find her.”
He opened the passenger door for her. “We are going to find her, Kendall.” He’d found children no one thought could be found, children whom he wanted the best for but who weren’t his child. Now that it was his child who was missing… He would go to hell and back to find her.
Kendall didn’t seem to want to talk, so the drive to the location where the van was found was in silence. He stole a glance at her. Damn, she was pretty with those blue eyes and her ink black hair.
He’d gone into The Tipsy Turtle after making arrangements for his father’s cremation.
Emmie hadn’t wanted any part of the process.
She’d said, “Good riddance. He made our life hell, and he can rot in hell. That’s all I have to say about the man.
” Truer words had never been spoken, but someone had to see to the old man’s farewell to this life, and that someone had been him.
That night, his last on leave, after returning to his hotel room, he’d sat on the edge of the bed as memories of life as Rex Devlin’s son haunted his mind.
Ghost memories that refused to be banished.
The beatings he took to protect Emmie, the nights trying to fall asleep when hunger felt like it was eating his stomach inside out, the bullying at school because he was considered white trash simply because of his clothes.
There was never money to buy clothes since his father considered jobs he could actually get beneath him.
So what if his children were hungry and wore rags.
What money he could scrounge up went for beer and cigarettes.
Baseball had saved him. If not for falling in love with the game, being damn good at it and the coaches who’d mentored him, Cooper figured he’d probably be dead or in prison.
His kidnapping and meeting Grayson and Liam had changed the direction of his life, though.
Where he’d thought baseball would be his salvation, turned out it had been those two men and the Army.
He’d kept in touch with Grayson and Liam after they were rescued, and one night in their text messages, the idea to make their life’s work saving children had sprouted.
From that idea, The Phoenix Three had been born.
They’d each joined a different branch of the military to get the skills they’d need to make the dream of rescuing children a success.
He’d put distance between him and his father as soon as he turned eighteen.
Before leaving for the Army, he’d arranged for Emmie to live with a teacher who’d always been nice to the two of them.
Then, he’d dared his father to go near Emmie.
That scene had been ugly, but Cooper had grown and was bigger than his father.
He’d thrown every threat he could think of at his father if he didn’t forget he had a daughter.
The old man must have believed him, because he had left her alone.
Unable to sit on that bed in that room with the ghost of his father and his cruel words, he’d gone out, walking into the first bar he’d come to.
That turned out to be The Tipsy Turtle, where he’d met a beautiful woman who’d silenced his father’s voice.
They’d also made a baby, and with that came major changes he was willingly going to embrace.
He fully intended to be a part of his little girl’s life.
“You look deep in thought,” Kendall said.
“I guess I was.” He wasn’t going to get into a conversation about his father, but he’d admit to the only good part of this thoughts. “I was remembering the night I met you.”
“Yeah?”