Chapter Thirty-One
“Boss, just got an APB on that truck across the line.”
Detective Grant looked up from his papers at the tall, thin officer.
It was hard for him to look at the boy and see a man.
He’d grown up with the boy’s mother, though she was a few years younger than him.
Detective Grant leaned back in his chair and smiled.
Age had crept up on him. He’d never been married, though he’d longed to be.
He’d never been able to fully extinguish the torch he’d carried for far too many years.
“That’s their problem, son,” he said.
“Yes, sir, I thought so, too. But sir, look whose vehicle it is.” He handed the report to Detective Grant.
Grant was on his feet and giving instructions. “Get on the horn with West Virginia and find out if that’s Greer’s truck.” He grabbed his coat from a hook by the door. “Get me Mimi Stone’s phone number.”
“Sir, where are you going?”
“To find Kara Knight.”
Seven minutes later, Detective Grant knocked on the front door of Mimi Stone’s house. He peered in the window, then knocked again. His cell phone rang.
“Grant.”
“Sir, I have the number—”
“Great. Give ’er to me.” He scribbled down the number, then punched it into his cell. Mimi’s cell phone rang three times. On the fourth ring, a male voice came through the receiver.
“I’m sorry, I must have the wrong number,” Grant said, then hung up.
He checked the number, then dialed Mimi’s number again.
“Hello?”
“This is Detective Grant, Williamsport Police. Is this Mimi Stone’s phone?”
A sigh came through the phone. “It’s Ted.”
Mitchell Grant rolled his eyes. “Ted, is Mimi around?”
“Not at the moment. Is there a problem?” Ted asked.
“No, no problem. She was looking for Kara earlier. Just thought I’d check and see if she’d located her.” There was nothing in particular about Ted that Grant disliked, but the sound of his voice turned his stomach.
Silence.
“Ted?” Grant’s eyes traveled to the ceiling. “Ted!”
“Yeah, can’t you hear me? This darn phone. The reception stinks. Sorry.”
Another gap in the airwaves.
“Mitch?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Good. I heard she’d gone in to report Kara as missing. Sorry about that. Mimi jumped the gun. You know how she is.”
Grant pursed his lips at Ted’s sarcasm. He remembered the hot summer evening when he’d received a panicked phone call from Mimi.
She’d run off a few years earlier to get married to an out-of-towner.
No one had heard from her in years, not even Charlene.
She’d spoken in a rushed, shaky voice, said she’d been living just across the bridge in Clear Springs, and she now had a daughter.
She said the girl had been on a school field trip and had been accosted by a boy.
“Al’s gone,” she’d cried into the phone.
“He said he couldn’t handle the drama anymore.
” Grant remembered how his heartbeat had quickened at the sound of her voice.
She’d needed to have a protection order put into place without involving Kara.
Grant had sought the guidance of Detective Cordon, the most well respected, well connected, and discreet law enforcement official he knew.
Mr. Cordon, currently retired, toothless, and a tad senile, had been the one to connect him with the courts.
He’d worked with his West Virginia contacts, and they’d proceeded in court without Kara present.
That had been easy, as minors weren’t required to be present.
Three years later, it was simply a matter of a few under-the-table promises to have it discreetly reinstated.
He’d continued reinstating the order every three years until his contact in the courts had retired. The PFA had lapsed two years ago.
Mimi had moved back to Williamsport, and he’d been there to comfort her.
While he had hopes of something long term, she’d shied away from his advances.
I can’t. I have to focus on Kara, she’d said.
She’d been dead set on making sure the move didn’t scar the girl for life.
Grant wasn’t so sure she’d succeeded. Kara still had a mistrusting air about her.
After Ted came into the picture, Mimi’s focus had changed.
Why Ted and not him, he’d always wondered.
Detective Grant breathed deeply. “You sure? Nothing out of the ordinary has been going on?” Mitchell hadn’t taken Mimi on her word so many years ago.
He’d done his own research, pulled a few favors.
Her husband had left her, but what he’d learned about Mimi was not at all what he’d expected.
Mimi had never confirmed or denied his findings.
She’d only responded with, “My past no longer exists.”
“I guess Kara found out about Daryl and took off,” Ted said.
“All right, then. If Mimi needs…anything…she knows where to reach me.”
Grant clicked End and drove toward Daryl Stahl’s house.