Chapter 43
Wednesday morning
JP found Victor Hayes in the visitors’ room at Donovan looking older than his rough years should have made him. The man still had broad shoulders, but prison had hollowed everything else. His eyes were tired in a way JP had seen in other prisoners.
Victor sat across from him, looking bored. “Are you back to save my soul?”
“Nope.” JP settled into the chair. “Just here for the part you left out.”
Victor gave a humorless smile. “That narrows it none.”
JP got right into it. “You picked up Hannah, then you made a liquor store stop. You went inside and left the five-year-old girl in the car.”
Victor’s jaw twitched.
“You’ve always denied picking her up, but you did.”
“I told them I didn’t hurt her.”
“That ain’t what I said.” JP leaned forward. “I said you left her in the car.”
Victor stared at his hands.
JP kept his voice flat. “A witness remembers seeing you driving drunk with Hannah in the car. He remembers another car pulling off about the same time.”
That got Hayes’ attention.
“You were drunk,” JP continued. “You were careless. And when you came back, she was gone.”
Victor’s breathing changed.
JP let silence do the work.
Finally, Victor whispered, “I looked everywhere. I thought she was hiding.” The man swallowed hard. “Kids do that. They think it’s a game.”
“She was how old?”
Victor shut his eyes. “I called for her behind the building. In the alley. I checked the bathrooms.” His voice shook now. “Then I saw people watching me. I knew how it looked.”
“So, you drove off.”
“I panicked.”
JP’s expression never changed.
Victor’s eyes opened, wet now. “I was drunk. If I’d admitted I picked her up, nobody was going to believe anything after that.”
“They didn’t.”
“I went back later that night.” Victor’s voice cracked. “And the next day. Then again. After a while, I convinced myself that I hadn’t picked her up, that I was too drunk to remember.”
“Did you see who took her?”
Victor shook his head. “No.”
“Did anyone follow you?”
“I thought maybe I was being followed when I left the bar, but then the car was gone.” Another swallow. “It could’ve been nothing.”
“What kind of vehicle?”
“I don’t know. Light colored, maybe. I wasn’t paying attention.”
JP waited a long moment. “You understand that you may not have taken her life, but you handed it away.”
Victor folded inward like the words had weight.
JP stood.
~~~
JP stopped by Sabre’s office on the way back. Again, the only person left in the building besides Sabre was the receptionist. Sabre’s office door was open, and she was at her desk, dressed in court attire, reading something with the concentration of a woman who would outwork gravity if challenged.
She looked up. “You look cheerful.”
“I just visited sunshine and joy at Donovan.”
“That bad?”
“That honest.”
JP closed the door and sat. “Hayes admitted to picking Hannah up, then losing track of her at the liquor store.” JP told her everything else Hayes had said.
“So, someone else took her,” Sabre said.
“It looks that way.”
“Or someone she knew came for her.”
“Could be, or he’s lying again. But he has nothing to gain with this lie.” JP gestured. “Your turn.”
Sabre gave a half smile. “Bay cracked a little, but she still wouldn’t share where she was living. She insisted that no one could know too much, and gave me one useful line: He wasn’t supposed to know about her.”
JP sat forward. “The other girl.”
“Yes.”
“Hannah.”
“Maybe.”
“No,” JP said quietly. “Not maybe.”
A knock sounded at the door.
They both looked up. Elaine, the receptionist, stood there holding a padded envelope. “This came messenger delivery. No return name.”
Sabre took it, and Elaine left.
JP stood. “Were you expecting presents?”
“No.”
She opened it carefully. Inside was a small jewelry box wrapped in tissue. Sabre’s hands slowed as she lifted the lid.
A child’s silver charm bracelet lay inside. It was old and tarnished with seven attachment loops, but only six charms.
Sabre’s breath caught.
JP stepped closer. “Do you know it?”
Her fingers hovered above the bracelet but didn’t touch it. “It belonged to Hannah.” Then she pointed to the empty ring. “I gave her that one when she went home, the day they reunified her.”
Her voice was thinner now, far away. “It was a ladybug.”
JP looked back at the bracelet. There was no note and no threat.
“Ladybugs always find their way home,” Sabre whispered.
JP turned sharply. “What’d you say?”
Sabre was staring at the missing space where the charm used to be. “That’s what I told Hannah when I gave her the charm. And that was the last thing Bay said to me today.”