Читать книгу Hidden in the Everglades - Margaret Daley - Страница 10

“Let’s just hope we find Laurie at home and she can lead us to Amy.” Slowly over the course of the past few hours, the muscles in Kyra’s shoulders and neck had knotted until now pain streaked down her back. She didn’t have a good feeling about this but didn’t want to worry Michael any more than he already was. “Tell me about Amy. The last time I saw her she was a little girl. When my dad died and I came home for the funeral, she’d been at church camp.”

“I don’t think she has stepped foot in a church in the past year, which distressed Ginny to no end.”

“But not you?”

His hands about the steering wheel tightened, his knuckles white. “Let’s just say I have my own issues with the Lord.” He inhaled a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “In a few weeks she’ll start her senior year at Flamingo High School.”

“How are her grades this past year?”

“Good. Mostly Bs with a few As.”

“So, no problems at school?”

“Ginny told me there were a couple of girls harassing her at the beginning of her junior year, but by the time I’d arrived here in April, everything seemed to be taken care of.”

“How about her friends? Do you approve of them?”

“That’s been the main problem. Preston’s reputation isn’t—wasn’t good. He was wild, always partying. He graduated this year and has been picking up odds jobs this summer. He lived with his older brother—actually not far from where Laurie’s house is.”

“Has Preston lived here all his life?”

“No, he moved here from Miami at the beginning of the school year. I was trying to give Amy room to see what kind of person he was. I remember when Mom told Ginny she couldn’t date that guy in high school.”

So did Kyra. She’d helped Ginny sneak out of the house to go out with Danny. Ginny had been determined to date him in spite of what her mother had said. She was seventeen and should be able to pick her own boyfriends. “You knew about her seeing Danny?”

“Yeah. I saw her one night climbing back into the house.”

“And you didn’t say anything to your parents?”

“I’d grown out of my tattle-telling stage. I didn’t want Amy to sneak out against my wishes and look what has happened.” He turned onto Sunshine Avenue. “Preston’s is the third house on the left. Laurie lives several down from there.”

As they passed Preston’s home and the police cruiser parked out front, Kyra studied the plain, white place with a yard that was mostly dirt and dead plants. One eight-foot crepe myrtle with dark pink blooms draped all over it stood sentinel at the side by the driveway, the only color in an otherwise drab setting. A Harley Davidson motorcycle sat close to the sidewalk near the porch.

As Michael came to a stop at the end of the block, he closed his eyes for a few seconds, his hands opening and closing around the steering wheel. “The past few months haven’t been easy for me or Amy. Getting to know each other. Learning to live together. She hasn’t wanted to accept my authority as her guardian. I had no experience at parenting when I arrived. I feel I have even less now. Amy has blocked my attempts every step of the way.”

“That can be typical. Challenging authority isn’t uncommon. According to Ginny, you did your fair share as a teenager. I seem to remember you going with some friends to Tampa against your mother’s wishes.”

“Yeah, I was grounded for a month when she found out.” Climbing from his car, he peered at her over the top of the gray Saturn. “It’s disconcerting to have someone know all about my childhood pranks.”

“Just wanting to get you to remember how it was.” Although Michael had his share of childhood antics, he’d become a doctor who’d changed his plans to help Ginny when she was given an opportunity to fulfill a lifetime dream of serving as a missionary overseas for two years. So far she liked what she’d seen of Ginny’s kid brother.

“So when I find Amy, I won’t ground her for the rest of her life?”

Kyra laughed. “Something like that.”

When Michael reached the porch, he rang the doorbell while Kyra assessed the surroundings. Laurie’s house needed a coat of blue paint, but otherwise the place was kept up, the lawn mowed and the weeds pulled. Several minutes passed, and Michael pressed the bell again.

A white Chevy parked in the driveway made Kyra suspicious. The hairs on her nape prickled. She swiveled her attention toward the front picture window and glimpsed a curtain fall back into place.

“I guess no one’s home.” Michael swung around and frowned at the white car. “That’s Cherie Carson’s car,” he said in a low voice. “So where is she? At a neighbor’s?”

Kyra opened the screen and banged on the door. “Someone is home.”

Thirty seconds later, a petite woman with medium-length brown hair peeked out from a crack of no more than a couple of inches and said, “Yes?”

“Mrs. Carson, we’re here to talk to your daughter. Is she home?” The overpowering scent of roses assailed Kyra’s nostrils.

The lady’s mouth pinched together, her eyebrows slashing downward. “Who are you?”

Before Kyra could show the woman her identification, Michael stepped forward, his shoulder brushing up against Kyra’s. “Hi, Cherie. It’s important that we have a word with Laurie. Amy is missing.”

Cherie Carson’s eyes grew round. “Laurie isn’t here.”

“Where is she?” Kyra asked after a few seconds’ silence.

The woman clutched the edge of the door, still only open a few inches. “She’s at her aunt’s in Tampa and won’t be back until the weekend.”

“We need to talk to her.” Michael grasped Kyra’s hand and held it. His tension conveyed his tone.

“I can call Laurie later and let her know. But I don’t know when I’ll be able to get hold of her. My sister and her were going to do some shopping today. I’ll have her call you, Michael.” Cherie started to close the door.

He reached out to stop her from doing it. “Please. This is important. I think Amy is in trouble, and if Laurie knows anything—”

“I’m so sorry to hear about Amy, but Laurie has been gone. Knowing your sister, she’ll show up soon with some wild story. Goodness me, she certainly has dragged Laurie into enough escapades. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a splitting headache and was lying down.” The woman’s grip on the door tightened so much her fingertips reddened.

Michael took a half step forward. “Laurie may know where she would have gone.”

Pain blinked in and out of the woman’s expression. “Check with her other friends. Laurie doesn’t know.” She moved back quickly and slammed the door shut, the lock clicking into place.

Michael squeezed Kyra’s hand, transmitting his tension, before releasing his hold. “She’s never been very friendly but this is …” His words grounded to a halt.

“It doesn’t look like we’ll get anywhere. Maybe Gabe can.”

He let the screen bang closed. His glare drilled into the wire mesh.

Kyra descended the porch stairs. “Is she that way with everyone?”

Michael pivoted and accompanied her toward the car. “Amy assured me after my first run-in with the woman she was that way with all men and not to take it personally. It seems her husband left her a few years back. Didn’t come home from work but called her the next day to tell her it was over.”

What was it with married couples? First her mother walked out on her dad when she was ten. Her father had been devastated. She had been too, but she’d spent the next year consoling her dad. He was never the same after her mother left. “Something like that happened to my older sister who lives in Boston now. Except thankfully she didn’t have any children to worry about.” And that was why she wouldn’t marry. She had seen too many broken marriages to want one for herself. Her job was her life and that was the way she wanted it.

After Michael settled in the front seat and started his car, he pulled away from the curb. “Why didn’t you ever marry?”

“Who said I didn’t?”

“I assumed since Ginny never said anything about it to me that you hadn’t.”

“Do you two make it a habit of talking about me a lot?” The fact Ginny and Michael might have made Kyra feel strange. When his attention zeroed in on her face, she grinned. “Don’t you know it’s not good to gossip?”

A smile touched his blue eyes, sparkling them. “We never gossiped about you. I inquired about how you were doing from time to time. That’s all.”

She wouldn’t tell him that she’d asked about him once. After his older sister kidded her about robbing the cradle, she’d never asked again. Ginny was right. There was five years’ difference between them. Kyra fastened her gaze on his strong jawline, wanting to know about this man. Did he feel like she did about marriage? Was his job his whole life? “I didn’t want to marry. Being a cop would have been hard on a marriage. How about you? Did you ever marry?”

For a few seconds a shadow flittered in and out of his eyes. “You mean Ginny never told you about me? I’m crushed.”

Didn’t Ginny mention that Michael was getting serious with a woman in Chicago, even thinking about marriage? What had happened? Her curiosity spiked. Did he marry the lady? Were they divorced?

He turned onto Pelican Lane, and all evidence of a smile vanished as he stared at the house at the end of the road.

She noticed Gabe’s police cruiser was still at the Pattersons’. She’d thought he would have left by now. “You okay?”

“What am I supposed to do? Go back to the house and twiddle my thumbs?”

“Do people do that anymore?”

“Okay. Wear a path in my floor pacing.”

“What do you want to do?”

He parked in his driveway. “Go looking for Amy. If the police are covering the town, then I’d like to go into the swamp. I know a couple of places where Amy has mentioned she’s gone. I’d like to check those out. I’ll have enough time before dark.”

“No, we’ll have enough time. I’m coming with you.”

“Are you sure? Aren’t you the lady who doesn’t like swamps?”

“Swamps are fine. It’s the snakes that inhabit them that I don’t like.”

“Alligators are all right, then?”

“Sure. They’re big, and I can see them coming.”

“Not always. They can hide under the water and surprise their prey.”

“Are you trying to scare me away?”

“No, but I don’t want to be responsible for anything happening to you.”

Weariness infused each of his words and something else that Kyra couldn’t quite grasp. Possibly regret? Guilt? As a police officer she’d had to deal with both those emotions quite a bit. “Oh, nothing’s going to. I’m very capable of taking care of myself. I’m taking my gun.”

“You carry a gun all the time?”

“When I think it’s necessary, and it might be necessary in this case.” She began to stroll toward her house. “I’ll just be a sec.”

Kyra ran up the stairs to the front porch and let herself into the house. Rock-and-roll music blasted from the speakers in the great room, pulsating the air. Kyra smelled the faint odor of something burning. Aunt Ellen was cooking again. She did that when she was upset. With all the patrol cars on the street today, she couldn’t blame her aunt for being agitated.

She hurried and washed her feet then grabbed a clean pair of shoes and popped into the kitchen to tell her aunt where she was going.

“Oh, dear, I’ve burned the cookies again. I was so looking forward to them.” Her aunt donned her hot-pink mittens to take the baking sheet out of the oven. When she opened the door on the stove, dark gray smoke poured into the room.

“Aunt Ellen,” Kyra called out over the noise of the music. “I’m going with Michael Hunt into the swamp.” Her gaze glued to the charred pieces of cookies, she added, “Don’t wait dinner for me.”

Aunt Ellen opened the window above the sink and turned on the vent over the stove. “He’s such a nice young man. I just hate what he’s going through right now. I was going to make a second batch for him.”

“Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to go to the trouble.”

“Oh, no. I am.” Aunt Ellen pitched the burned cookies into the sink and ran water over them, then reached for the mixing bowl. “It’s no trouble. Keeps my mind off what’s been happening on our street. In the very house next door to us.”

She crossed the kitchen and hugged her aunt. “Are you worried something will happen to you?”

“No, dearie. At the last Founder’s Day shooting contest, I bested Gabe, and everyone knows he’s the best shot in the area.” She grinned. “Well, until that day.” She slipped her hand into the large pocket on her hot-pink-and-white apron and pulled out a pistol. “I’ll be all right. You go help Michael.” She patted Kyra on the arm, then twisted around and began measuring flour. “You know, Michael is single. It’s about time you got married.”

Not in this lifetime, Kyra thought and hurried from the house. Her partner in the Dallas Police Department had struggled with his marriage for years. When his wife had asked for a divorce, he’d nearly lost his job over it because he’d started drinking heavily. She never wanted to be that emotionally connected to another person that her happiness depended on him. Her father had taught her to stand on her own two feet and protect her heart at all costs.

As she hurried toward Michael’s house, he emerged from the front entrance. Anger shot out of his eyes. His gaze zeroed in on her and beneath the fury lurked fear.

“What’s wrong?”

“Someone has been in Amy’s bedroom while we were gone.”

“Amy?”

“I don’t know.” He reentered his house and strode down the hall toward his sister’s bedroom. “The window wasn’t open like that when we left.” Michael gestured toward the one across the room. “She has a key. Why would she come through the window? It’s not like I was here and she would have to sneak in.” His eyes stinging from lack of sleep, he rubbed his hands down his face. Not knowing what to think was putting it mildly. His head pounded with each attempt to make sense out of what was happening.