Chapter 70
Thursday morning
Sabre barely slept. Every time she closed her eyes, she heard Daniel Rourke’s voice saying, You will never see Hannah Caldwell again.
Morning light filtered through the kitchen windows while the house slowly woke around her. JP stood near the counter with coffee in one hand and his phone in the other while DuBois talked through speaker.
“We ran the SUV plate first thing this morning,” DuBois said.
JP looked toward Sabre. “And?”
“It’s registered to a mailbox rental at a UPS store in Riverside under the name Darren Roman. We’ve established it belongs to Rourke.”
Sabre sat quietly at the table listening.
“What about Rourke’s phone?” JP asked.
“Same deal. Different number, same mailbox address.”
JP nodded.
“So, he’s been operating under aliases for awhile.”
“Looks that way.”
Sabre wrapped both hands around untouched coffee.
“What about his actual residence?”
“No confirmed hit yet,” DuBois admitted.
“The registered address tied to his PI license is also a mailbox. It reads like an apartment, but it goes to UPS. I spoke to the manager at the store. He said the box owner gets very little mail and only comes in about once or twice a year. They weren’t sure when Rourke was last in.”
DuBois’ voice sharpened. “Listen carefully, both of you. If he contacts Sabre again, we keep him talking and work the phone trace.”
“He’s not using his real number,” JP said.
“I know. But burners still hit towers.”
It wasn’t perfect, but it was something.
“He thinks he’s protecting her,” Sabre added.
JP looked over. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Maybe not legally. But psychologically, it’s important. Men who believe they are righteous are harder to predict.”
DuBois cut back in. “I’ve got people pulling every short-term rental, storage unit, and mailbox connection tied to those aliases.” A pause. “But if Rourke is moving already, we may be behind him. I’ll let you know if I find out anything new.”
Sabre picked up her keys.
“Are you going to court?”
“I’m going to see Bay first.”
JP grabbed his hat.
“What are you doing?”
“That man’s cheese done slid off his cracker. He ain’t gettin’ nowhere near you alone.”
~~~
Sabre sat across from Bay in the familiar interview room at juvenile hall.
The girl looked exhausted. She had dark circles under her eyes. Her hair was pulled back carelessly, and an oversized sweatshirt hung loose on her frame. But the moment Sabre walked in alone, Bay sat upright.
“What happened?”
Sabre sat down. “We know who he is.”
Bay’s face tightened.
“David Rainer, Darren Roman, Daniel Rourke. Take your pick.”
For a second Bay didn’t move at all. Then she sat back in the chair and looked toward the ceiling like something inside her had finally cracked.
“Oh God.”
She didn’t deny it. Sabre waited quietly.
Bay lowered her hands into her lap. “You figured it out.”
“Yes.”
Bay closed her eyes. “No one has ever figured it out before. There were a few close calls, but they were all kind of accidental. She said you were smart.” Her eyes widened. “He’s gonna run if he realizes you know.”
“He already knows we’re onto him.”
Bay’s face drained of color. “How?”
“We followed Rourke after I met him yesterday.”
Bay looked genuinely upset. “No, no… He’ll take her. I’ll never see her again.”
“He gave me an ultimatum. He said if we keep involving police, we’ll never find Hannah.”
“Then you have to stop.”
Sabre reached over and touched her hand. “Bay… if he contacted me instead of disappearing right away, that means something.”
Bay gave a faint, humorless laugh. “Yeah.”
“What?”
“He still wants you to understand him.” The girl shook her head. “He cares what you think.”
“Why?”
“Because Hannah cared what you thought.”
That hit hard enough Sabre almost showed it.
Bay continued softly now. “She talked about you all the time.”
Sabre swallowed. “What did she say?”
“That you were nice to her.” Bay shrugged. “That you listened. That you believed her when nobody else did.”
Sabre’s chest tightened with pain.
Bay looked down at her hands. “She made me memorize your name when we were very little. Hannah said if anything ever went wrong and we got separated, I had to find Attorney Sabre Brown.”
For a moment Sabre couldn’t speak. Hannah had carried her name for eight years.
Bay gave a small shrug. “She really thought you’d save us someday.”
“I plan to do that right now.” The room went quiet. Finally, Sabre asked, “How did you end up with him?”
Bay looked at the cinderblock wall for several long seconds before answering. “My mom met him around the same time Hannah showed up. He came around acting helpful.” Bay shrugged faintly. “He fixed things. He brought groceries sometimes. He even paid bills when my mom blew all her money.”
“Using the name David Rainer?”
Bay shook her head. “He said it was Daniel Rourke. I know because Hannah and I talked about everything we could to help us remember stuff.”
So, he wasn’t in hiding yet. “And Hannah?”
Bay rubbed her hands together nervously. “One night he brought her home. He said she was his niece.”
Sabre felt her stomach tighten. “Was she scared?”
Bay nodded. “Yeah. Quiet too.” Another pause. “But he was really careful with her, like she might break. He told my mom Hannah’s parents were messed up and social workers were trying to take her away from family. He hung that over us for years.” Bay gave a shrug. “My mom believed him.”
“What happened after that?”
“My mom got worse,” Bay explained. “She was using drugs, cheating on Daniel, disappearing with other men. She’d leave for days sometimes.” Bay looked down at the table. “Me and Hannah mostly stayed with him by then anyway.”
Of course she did. A pretty little blonde girl with a frightened expression and a convincing story about bad parents would not seem unusual in the world Bay’s mother lived in.
“And Daniel stuck around?”
“I think he stayed because of us girls. He knew my mom wasn’t taking care of us. But she always took care of her car. She loved that car more than anything.” A frown crossed her face. “We didn’t have money for rent half the time, but she’d still wash that thing in the parking lot.”
“What made the car so special?”
“It was pretty and yellow. My mom loved yellow.”
“Was it a 1966 Mustang?”
“How’d you know?”
Sabre smiled. “Like Hannah said, I’m smart. Did Daniel ever drive it?”
“When his car got wrecked.” Bay shrugged. “For a couple weeks.”
Exactly long enough.
Bay stared down at her hands again. “One day my mom left and never came back.”
Sabre scowled. “She abandoned you?”
Bay suddenly looked older than she was. “She did that before.” A pause. “Just never that long.”
“How long did you wait?”
“A couple weeks maybe.” Bay looked up. “Then Daniel said we had to go.”
“Why?”
“He said people were asking questions.” Her expression tightened. “And he said if social services got involved, they’d separate me and Hannah forever.”
The same tactic, over and over, compliance through isolation and fear of separation from loved ones.
“So, you left with him?”
Bay nodded. “Hannah was so sad because she thought my mom might come back and we wouldn’t be there.” Bay swallowed. “Daniel told her sometimes adults leave and don’t come back. That we had to take care of each other now.”
A cold chill ran up her spine. From that point forward, the little girls lost their families, and Rourke became the center of both their worlds.
Bay looked up again. “He wasn’t evil. He took care of us. He taught us things and made sure we ate. But everything was always about staying hidden and keeping secrets.” Another pause. “Especially after Hannah started remembering things. Hannah believed him more when she was younger.”
“And later?”
“She started questioning things.”
“What kinds of things?”
Bay looked directly at her now. “You.”
Sabre felt her breath catch.
“She remembered enough about you that she couldn’t completely let go of the idea somebody out there actually cared.”
“Why didn’t you tell somebody?”
“Who would I tell? He was better than being alone with my mother. She brought all those men home. They were awful. Besides, I was very young.”
Sabre had so many questions, but most could wait. “What happened after he found out about Todd?”
Bay’s eyes flickered with anxiety. “He changed.” Fear crept back into her voice. “He stopped sleeping. He started watching outside all the time.” She swallowed. “Hannah got scared.”
“I’m so sorry,” Sabre said. “I have a question, Bay. If Hannah sees me, will she come with me?”
“I think she’ll listen to you. And I think a part of her has been waiting for you. Didn’t she already reach out to you?”
“How would she do that?”
“We had a plan. If either of us was ever in real trouble, we would find you somehow. The other would use Uncle’s phone to text you. We had secret messages. If we were in trouble with the law, the message was— “
“Take the case… or the girl dies,” Sabre interrupted her.
“You got the message.”
“I did, but I never thought it was coming from Hannah.” Sabre cleared her throat. “I got a message that said, Just one day left. I got it the day before the hearing that the judge set for the time limit. How would she know that?”
“She wouldn’t. We just had some made up to send along the way. They were meant to put pressure on. We figured it didn’t matter what was going on, it meant time was running out.”
“How long have you been planning this?” Sabre asked.
“Since we moved the first time. But it got more elaborate as time went on. We never thought we’d get to use it.”
Sabre shook her head.
“We got a lot of the ideas from movies. Uncle was big on movies. We watched them most every night.”
“What about the charm bracelet?”
“That was like the final attempt. Hannah was sure you would recognize it. She wore the bracelet all the time, but she gave me the ladybug so if I had to send the messages, I could send the charm.”
“You two are absolutely amazing!”
Bay’s eyes filled with tears. “But it didn’t work, because now I may never see Hannah again.”
“You will if I can help it. I promise you, I will not stop looking until we find her.”