“You want to play strip poker by candlelight?”
She looked at him and tried not to sigh.
“You want to sit in my lap?”
“Excuse me?”
He gave her a sexy, lazy-as-a-river smile. “Stop playing hard to get,” he said. “You wouldn’t have worn those slutty pajamas if you didn’t want me.”
Maggie found comfort in his casual, laid-back demeanor. He didn’t appear worried or afraid. He wore his confidence on his wide, squared shoulders and in his stance and how he held his head.
“Don’t make me beg,” he said. “All I have left is my pride.”
Maggie suddenly realized that the one place she really wanted to be was in Zack Madden’s lap. She rose and walked over to him. He held out his arms, and she sank against him. He felt warm and solid beneath her. Maggie swung her legs over the side of the chair and leaned against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips into her hair.
“You always smell good,” he said. “How come you smell good when you’re allergic to everything that smells good?”
“What you smell is chocolate oozing from my pores.” Maggie tipped her face back to look at him. He took it as an invitation to kiss her. His lips barely grazed hers, light as dandelion fluff. It reached inside and touched her heart.
Zack leaned back, and they simply gazed into each other’s faces in the semidark. Maggie saw the longing. She touched his cheek, explored his face with her fingertips. She leaned forward and touched his lips with hers. His mouth was warm and firm and responsive. Maggie got lost in it. Zack stroked her bare arm, and she wondered how he managed to make her skin feel so good.
Maggie was self-consciously aware of her breathing, ragged and unsteady. Then she realized Zack seemed to be having the same problem. She could feel his heart thumping in time with hers. They kissed and touched until Maggie felt achy all over but in a good way.
She wasn’t sure how they made it upstairs, only that she had forgotten the fifth step creaked. In the quiet house it seemed to cut the air like a siren. They waited. As they headed upstairs once more, Maggie swore she would never again become annoyed with Mel for being a sound sleeper.
“Maggie!”
The roar of her name was so loud it yanked Maggie from her dream the next morning. Her feet hit the floor before her brain became fully awake, before Zack bellowed her name a second time. She skidded into the kitchen. Anger knotted his forehead. “What!” she cried.
“Did you touch this alarm system?”
“No!”
“Well, somebody did. The damn thing is disarmed. Mel, wake up,” he shouted, already making his way down the hall. “Mel, get out here!”
Maggie winced. “Good grief! Would you stop yelling?”
Zack didn’t wait for Mel to open her door. He knocked loudly. “I’m coming in,” he warned. He opened the door and looked inside. “Where the hell is she?”
“What do you mean where is she?” Maggie said, pushing him aside and entering her daughter’s bedroom. No sign of Mel, only a sheet of paper on the bed.
Zack reached it first. “Dammit!” he shouted. “She’s gone! She’s run away from home!”
“What!” Maggie shrieked the word. She yanked the note from him and scanned it as Zack turned and raced down the hall. He flung open the back door and hurried out. Maggie’s heart pounded as she ran behind him.
Outside, Maggie called her daughter’s name as she and Zack searched the property. They found Mel’s bicycle lying on the ground behind the shed, her school back pack nearby. Maggie simply stared in stunned silence as she tried to take it in. She caught Zack’s gaze, followed it, and drew in a sharp breath when she spied a bracelet of beads that Mel often wore, the twine broken so that many of the beads had scattered across the grass. “Oh, my God!” she cried. “He has her!” She reached for the bracelet.
“Don’t touch it,” Zack said.
Maggie yanked her head up, and saw the expression in his eyes that told her they were thinking the same thing. Her world came crashing down around her.
Chapter Fourteen
Lamar Tevis and one of his deputies, disguised in full fishing regalia, including wading boots, stood near the bicycle as Bud from the crime lab, dressed in white, paint-splattered overalls and carrying his crime-scene gear in a large paint bucket, dusted for fingerprints. The two officers assisting him were similarly dressed so they looked like a painting crew. Lamar stared openly at the little goat busily chewing on a garden hose. Fleas was curled beside her.
“Whose goat is that?” Lamar asked.
Zack and Max looked up from the map they were studying.
“Somebody gave it to Maggie,” Zack said.
“Oh, gur-reat,” Lamar said. “Dr. Davenport knows she’s not supposed to have a goat inside the city limits. How do you think I’m going to feel having to ticket her at a time like this?”
“Like a jerk?” Bud replied.
“Chief, do I really have to stand here holding this fishing pole?” the young officer beside him asked. He had recently joined the force, and Lamar had insisted on personally showing him how things were done. “Anybody who sees this fish dangling from my line is going to know it’s a fake. This fish is posing. And my waders won’t stay up.” He’d barely gotten the words out of his mouth before the left one slid down and clumped at his ankle.
“They’re props,” Lamar said, “I told you I want everybody in disguise. Why do you think we’re riding around in a rust bucket pickup truck, pulling a fishing boat that would sink in a bathtub? We don’t know that our kidnapper isn’t watching us right at this very moment.” Lamar raised his binoculars to his eyes and scanned the property once more.
“Why would the kidnapper hang around if he’s got the girl?” the rookie asked.
“ ’Cause some criminals are sick in the head, and they get their kicks watching folks suffer.” Lamar lowered his binoculars. “Hey, Zack, what’s in that building at the back of the property?” he asked.
Zack and Max were combing a map of Beaumont, and Max was marking wooded and isolated areas. Zack looked up. “That’s where Maggie keeps her chickens.”
“Chickens!” Lamar slapped one hand against his forehead. “It’s like a zoo back here.”
“That looks like the same goat that interrupted the parade yesterday,” the young cop said. “Same dog, too. He almost bit me.”
“Oh, good grief,” Lamar said. “I don’t need this right now. I got enough stress, what with the girl missing and all. Now, I got farm animals inside the city limits, and I find out that goat and that dangerous dog obstructed our parade. That’s at least four or five offenses.”
“How can it be an offense to obstruct a parade when it wasn’t even a real parade?” the other cop asked, reaching to pull up one of his waders again.
“Doesn’t matter if it was a fake parade or not,” Lamar said. “That dog is a menace.”
Zack glanced up. “What do you mean by fake parade?”
Lamar threw up his hands. “Just one more piece of nonsense I’ve had to deal with since Stanton’s escape,” he said. “Some phony-baloney practical joker thought it would be real cute to pose as a famous Elvis impersonator just so the town would give him a parade. Said it was all part of the convention, only later we found out the guys running the convention didn’t know a dang thing about it and said this so-called famous impersonator didn’t exist. The whole thing was a big fat hoax.”
Zack was clearly stunned. “So now we know how Carl Lee Stanton got through the road blocks. I’m surprised you didn’t offer him a police escort.”
Lamar started to say something; instead, he closed his mouth and looked at the ground, red-faced. Delores from dispatch spoke from the radio, and he answered. He pulled his small notebook from his pocket. “Can you give me an update on Operation Find Kidnapped Girl and Catch Dangerous Sicko Guy?” he asked, having named the case.
Standing a short distance away, Zack gave an impatient sigh and l
ooked at Max.
“Lamar is retiring soon,” Max said quietly. “I know it doesn’t feel like it, but he’s moving pretty quickly on this. It has only been an hour since Mel was discovered missing.”
“It’s not just Lamar,” Zack said. “I didn’t do my job. I got involved with Maggie and lost my damn head. Now her daughter has been abducted. There’s no excuse for my actions.”
Max put his hands on Zack’s shoulder. “Hey, wait a minute. You’ve given Maggie and Mel around-the-clock protection. You put in a top-notch alarm system. It was installed to stop someone from getting in, not out.”
Zack didn’t respond. He joined Lamar and waited for him to get off his radio. “Where do we stand?”
Lamar glanced down at his notebook containing Zack’s instructions as well as his own notes. “The posters will be ready to hit the street in an hour,” he said. “The local media has alerted the public to the girl’s kidnapping and asked for volunteers to join search parties. They’ve already started streaming into the armory building, and a number of my men are on hand to brief them. None of Dr. Davenport’s neighbors noticed anything out of the ordinary.”
“And the search warrants?” Zack asked.
“We’re working on it. The judge is on standby.”
“What about the search and rescue dogs?” He handed Lamar the map. “We need to get dogs to these areas as soon as we can.”
“We’re, um, working on that, too,” Lamar said, “but we sorta ran into a little snag on account of most of the dogs are in Atlanta where they’re holding some kind of appreciation ceremony for the hard work these dogs and their trainers have done.”
Zack frowned. “Are you saying there are no dogs available to search for Dr. Davenport’s daughter?”
“We have a couple, but one is ready to have puppies, and the other one is lame. I put in a few calls to Charleston, but they’ve got dogs searching for an elderly lady who wandered away from some old folks’ home, and then a couple of teenagers were out hiking and obviously got lost ’cause they didn’t return to camp.”
“I don’t need all the details,” Zack said, obviously growing frustrated by the moment.
“I’m thinking maybe I could send some coon dogs out,” Lamar said.
“Maggie, they are going to find Mel,” Jamie said. “Practically the whole town is searching for her.”
“Yes, but what condition will she be in?” Maggie said. “We already know what Carl Lee is capable of.” She covered her face with both hands. “This is my fault. I ran her off. My own child,” she added, “because I was unreasonable and demanding.” Her voice broke, and tears filled her eyes once again. She dropped her hands to her lap. “And would you like to know what I was doing as my daughter slipped out?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I was upstairs, in bed with Zack!”
Maggie heard a sound, looked up, and found Everest standing in front of her holding a cup, his mouth slightly agape. She was too upset to blush.
“I made fresh coffee for the men, Dr. D.” Everest said, having appointed himself host, “and I set out that box of doughnuts and I sliced the cake and put it on a nice plate and—”
“You cut my chocolate cake!”
He covered his mouth with one hand. “Uh-oh.” It came out muffled. He removed his hand. “Uh-oh.”
“Never mind,” she said miserably. She took the cup and patted his hand. “The way I feel right now I would probably eat the whole thing and blow up like a hot air balloon. Did you check in with Queenie?”
He nodded. “She’s still at the office rescheduling your appointments,” he said. “She phoned Dr. Gray like you said, and he’s going to follow up on the boy in the hospital.”
“Jimmy Sanders,” Maggie said. “That’s good.” Queenie had shown up to see if her black hen had finally laid an egg, only minutes after Maggie and Zack had discovered Mel was missing. That the hen had still not produced the egg Queenie claimed she needed desperately in order to stop Carl Lee only added to her distress. Maggie had sent her to the office to cancel her appointments for the next few days.
Everest looked at Jamie. “Would you like coffee?”
“I don’t drink coffee.”
Maggie looked at her. “Are you, um—?”
“Yes.” Jamie smiled.
“That’s great, Jamie.” Maggie took her hand and squeezed it. “I’m really happy for you and Max.” She forced herself to smile, just as she had forced herself to remain as calm as possible while Zack, Max, and Lamar discussed strategy. She was afraid if she let her guard down she would loose it completely. She knew police and volunteers were sweeping the town looking for her daughter, but it did not stop her from imagining the worst.
Carl Lee followed a tray-laden Lydia up the flight of stairs to the second floor and to the guest bedroom that had looked out over the backyard until Carl Lee had nailed a sheet of plywood over the window. He held his pistol in one hand, a key in the other. He unlocked the door, pushed it open, and Lydia carried the tray inside. She set it on the night table.
Mel was awake. Her wrists and ankles had been bound and joined behind her, her mouth covered with duct tape. Her eyes climbed to Carl Lee’s face, her gaze sharp and assessing and unwavering.
Lydia looked up at Carl Lee and he nodded. She leaned over the bed and very gently peeled the tape from Mel’s mouth. The girl sucked in air. “I’m going to give you something to drink, sweetie,” Lydia said, offering a tremulous smile. She reached for a glass of orange juice in which a bendable straw had been placed. Her hands shook as she helped Mel raise her head, then put the straw to her lips. Mel sucked greedily. “I have a sweet roll for you too,” Lydia said.
“She doesn’t even resemble her mother,” Carl Lee said.
Mel’s green eyes flickered and filled with contempt.
“Oh, I think she does,” Lydia said softly.
“Where’s Ben?” Mel asked.
“He’s in the next room, dear.”
Mel looked at Carl Lee. “I want to be in the same room with Ben. I don’t want to be in this dumb Barbie room.” Lydia looked hurt. “I’m sorry, but I’ve never really been a big Barbie fan,” Mel said.
“Who are those people with your mother?” Carl Lee said. “They’re dressed in fishing clothes.”
Mel gave him her “you’re so dumb” look. “Fishermen?”
“You’ve got a smart-ass mouth, kid, you know that?”
“Why did you grab me last night?” she said.
His smile was more of a smirk. “Because it was so easy. That’s what happens to little girls who sneak out at night.”
“You’re not going to get away with this,” Mel said. “They’ll find you.”
“Tape her mouth shut,” Carl Lee told Lydia.
“She hasn’t eaten.”
“When she gets hungry enough she’ll answer my questions,” Carl Lee said.
Lydia hesitated.
“My mother told me all about you,” Mel said.
Carl Lee looked at her. “Yeah, what did she say?”
“She told me what you did. Why did you shoot those men?”
He shrugged. “Because I could,” he said. “Put the tape back on the kid’s big mouth and let’s go,” he told Lydia once again.
Tears filled Lydia’s eyes as she gently placed the tape over Mel’s mouth. Carl Lee motioned the woman toward the door. He looked at Mel and smiled. “By the way, did your mother ever tell you about the time I played a little joke on her?” he asked and laughed. “I put her in the trunk of my car and locked her in. It was funny as hell.” He laughed again. “But here’s the really funny part. Right after I put her in, I shook this bag over her and all these field mice fell right on top of her. The look on her face was priceless, especially since I’d bound and gagged her, and she couldn’t do anything about it. Funniest damn thing I’d ever seen.”
Jamie had needed something to fill her time once Maggie had gone into her bedroom to be alone for a while, so she had grabbed a cloth and beeswax a
nd begun polishing the antique pieces Maggie had restored and loved so well. Her cell phone rang, and Jamie grabbed it from her purse. She answered and received an enormous sneeze in response.
“Hi, Destiny,” she said. Jamie would recognize that sneeze anywhere.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that in your ear,” Destiny said. “I haven’t slept all night for sneezing—” She paused and sneezed again. “I had this vision last night, and I keep seeing it over and over in my head. A little girl, tied up, with something covering her mouth. I couldn’t see her face or the color of her hair, and I couldn’t tell how old she was, but her wrists and ankles were tied together. I didn’t really see that her ankles were tied together because somebody had covered her in a bedspread with doll faces on it. I just sort of knew in my vision that they were tied, you know?”
Jamie could feel the tension building inside as she considered what Destiny was telling her.
“I didn’t think anything about it until I stopped by the Full Scoop ice-cream parlor,” Destiny said. “Abby Bradley has a little coffee area now. She told me Maggie’s daughter had run away. So I got to thinking maybe there’s a connection or I wouldn’t be sneezing like this. You know I sneeze when my visions are true.”
Maggie lay very still on her bed with a wet cloth over her face. She had suffered through a case of dry heaves that had left her weak and trembling. Her phone rang, and she almost dreaded answering it in case it was another friend or neighbor asking if there had been any word on Mel. But she had refused Jamie’s offer to catch the phone calls in case her daughter called.
Her voice croaked when she spoke into the phone.
“Dr. Davenport, is that you?”
Maggie sat up quickly at the sound of McKelvey’s voice. “Yes, I’m here,” she said, her heart already beating hard.
“He called me.”
Maggie took a deep shaky breath. “And?”
“He was angry. I told him I wanted to help him, and that I had kept my promise about not calling the police. I offered to meet with him. I even gave him my cell phone number so he could reach me at any time.” McKelvey paused. “I’m on my way to Beaumont, Dr. Davenport. I’m calling from the Atlanta airport. I’ll be flying in to Savannah where I’ll rent a car and head your way. I want to help you and your daughter. Please take down my cell phone number in case you need to reach me before I get there.”