Give Him the Slip (39 page)

"You hit him!" She started running toward the gate.

"I need help with him, to get him into the car so I can take
him to the vet. He's hurt bad, I think. Can you help me?"

Maddie's heart was in her throat as she sprinted into the front
yard. Her stride faltered and she gasped when she spied Knucklehead lying in
the middle of the road. Completely still.

"No! Oh, no!" Maddie cried. "Luke will go crazy if
something happens to this dog."

"Oh, hell," Austin muttered.

"Hurry!" Maddie ran faster than she'd ever run before,
her gaze locked on the dog's chest, praying to see some sort of movement.

Austin reached Knucklehead first. "He's breathing. He's still
alive. God, I'm so sorry. At least he's still breathing. Maybe he's just passed
out. For now, anyway. Quick, Maddie help me get him into the car."

"Okay. Yes. Okay."

"Let's put him in the backseat." Austin slipped his
hands beneath the limp animal and hefted him into his arms. "I'll take him
to Doc Hander. He's closest."

Maddie climbed into the backseat. "Here, set his head in my
lap. If he wakes up he'll need comforting."

"I don't want him to wake up and bite you."

"He won't.

Austin laid the dog on the seat, then quickly climbed behind the
wheel. "We were playing catch just a little while ago," Maddie
explained. "I saw him digging in the azalea beds. How did he get out? The
gate should have been closed."

"It was open when I saw it," Austin said as he put the
car in gear. "That's why I came around back when nobody answered the
door."

"That doesn't make any sense, either. Branch and both the
Garza sisters are there. Did they not hear the doorbell?"

"I don't know. I even tried the knob, but the door was
locked."

Maddie stroked the dog's fur. "He's not bleeding. That's a
good sign, don't you think, Austin? Maybe you just knocked the wind out of
him."

Austin didn't answer, and Maddie told herself that was because he
was concentrating on his driving. She turned all of her attention to
Knucklehead. "It's okay, boy," she crooned. "You'll be okay.
You're a tough puppy dog. You'll get through this. You'll be up chasing the
tennis ball in no time at all."

She wished he'd make a sound, a whimper, a mewl, anything. This
silence frightened her. "I need to call Luke but I don't have a
phone." She hadn't even paused to put on shoes.

"You can use mine when we get to Doc Hander's. Although,
maybe you should wait to call him until we know something. Don't worry him
yet."

"Okay. That'll work. That's good."
Oh, Knucklehead.
Had
she been the one to leave the gate open? She'd used it this morning when she
went out to cut roses for Maria's favorite kitchen vase, but she'd have sworn
she latched it behind her.

Killing goldfish was bad enough, but if she'd left the gate
open... if it was her fault Knucklehead got loose... and if he didn't make
it... oh, no. Luke would never forgive her. Maddie shut her eyes and tears
overflowed and spilled down her cheeks.

Suddenly, the car swerved wildly. Maddie's eyes flew open as
Austin exclaimed, "Dammit! What did I hit now?"

He steered the car to the side of the road and threw it into park.
"Stay where you are, Maddie. Let me just see..."

He opened the driver's-side door and walked to the back of the
car. Maddie heard him curse. "What is it, Austin?"

"It's okay. I just have to..." He reached inside and
popped the trunk. "This will just take a second."

The seconds ticked by like minutes. Couldn't have been more than
ten of them, but it felt like a hundred times as many.

Knucklehead let out a long shudder.

"Hurry, Austin!"

"Yeah. I'm almost..." He opened her door. She looked up
and saw regret gleaming in his eyes just as the fume-soaked cloth pressed
against her face. "Done," Austin said.

Maddie's world went black.

Luke exited Wagoner Oilfield Supply in downtown Brazos Bend and
checked off another person on the list of blackmail victims his brother had
given him. Of the thirteen people Matt had named, eight of them still lived and
worked in Brazos Bend. So far, Luke had visited four of them and came away with
six new names to investigate. Quite a secret little business Grevas had going
back in high school. "No wonder he grew up to be an accountant."

On Luke's fifth stop of the afternoon, he perused the
heeled-sandal display as he waited for Howard Jackson to finish with his
customer, debating between a pair of slip-ons and one with a strap behind the
heel. Both styles were sinfully sexy, but he leaned toward the ones with the
strap. It'd drive Maddie crazy for him to tug down that strap with his teeth.

"Can I help you, Sin?" Jackson asked.

Luke indicated his choice. "I need that in red in a seven
narrow."

The shoe salesman made a point to eye Luke's feet. "You sure
of that size? You look more like a twelve or thirteen."

"Very funny."

Luke glanced out one of the store's big plate glass windows toward
the Dairy Princess across the street as he waited for Jackson to return with
the shoes. Kathy Hudson was out front dressed in a tie-dyed T-shirt and jeans
washing the windows. When she gave her butt a good old bump and grind, he
grinned and wondered what music she had playing on her jukebox at the moment.

"Here you go."

Luke turned. "Fancy box for a pair of shoes."

"Goes along with the fancy price you're paying."

Luke checked the price tag on the end of the box and his brows
flew up. "They made of gold or something?"

"Italian design doesn't come cheap."

"Hmm." Luke handed Jackson his credit card and waited
until he was in the process of ringing up the sale to casually say,
"Speaking of shoe boxes, I ran across one of interest a few weeks back. It
was in a stack of stuff Maddie Kincaid took from the Grevas house. A shoe box
full of pictures. I do believe there's some of you in the mix."

Howard Jackson snorted. "So photos of my bony bare butt are
still around for posterity, hmm? I know it's not polite to speak ill of the
dead, but Jerry Grevas was a first-class jerk. He blackmailed me with those
pictures back in high school. I should have guessed he kept a copy for
insurance." The electronic register clicked through its calculations.
"I've always wished I'd stood up to him, but hell, I'd have been
humiliated if he'd passed those pictures around the girl's gym class like he'd
threatened. I wasn't built like you and your brothers, Callahan. I put the
'skinny' in skinny-dipping in those days, that's for sure." He handed Luke
the receipt and a pen.

"You think he continued to dabble in extortion after high
school?" Luke asked as he signed his name.

"Who knows?" Jackson shrugged. "He quit carrying
his camera around all the time—I heard your brother had something to do with
that—but I wouldn't have put it past the bastard to peep in windows at
night."

"I have no intention of keeping the pictures," Luke told
him. "What would you like me to do with yours?"

"Doesn't matter. I'd just as soon you toss 'em. I'd rather
not see 'em up on the Internet, though. Not something I'd want my daughters to
run across."

"Not a problem. Consider them history."

"Thanks. And thanks for the purchase, too. Tell Maddie if she
has any trouble with the shoes to give me a holler."

"Will do." The door chimes dinged as he exited the store
and his cell phone rang at the same moment. "Five for five," Luke
murmured as he fished in his pocket. So far, no one on his list had cared that
he'd supposedly found the box or their pictures. Yet, his time wasn't wasted,
because word of his visits was bound to get around.

He flipped the phone open. Matt's number. "What's up?"

"We got trouble, Luke." Matt's tone was all business.
"I'm in Brazos Bend. After I spoke with you this morning, I called
Barrington and told him not to come, that I'd watch your back. I just arrived
at Callahan House. Your Maddie's gone missing."

Luke went icy inside. "What!"

"The dog is gone, too, and the gate's wide open."

Luke's stomach clenched with worry and a heavy feeling of dread.
Wait...
don't panic. Think it through. If the dog was gone...
"She's probably
chasing after Knucklehead. Where the hell is Branch? What does he say? Or the
Garzas?"

"They're clueless. Didn't hear a thing. Didn't know she
wasn't out by the pool any longer."

Luke took off running for his truck. "The neighbors. We need
to ask Mrs. Swan. Nothing gets by her. Hell, maybe Knucklehead chased after her
cat again and Maddie ran after him."

"Could be," his brother agreed. "What bothers me is
the pair of shoes beside the lounge chair. Wherever she is, she appears to have
gone barefoot."

Luke closed his eyes and pictured the area around Callahan House.
The aggregate sidewalks were a bitch to go barefoot on and the asphalt streets
would burn her feet in this heat. Maddie would know that. Even if she'd gone
chasing after the dog, she'd have grabbed her shoes on the way.

His worry morphed into fear.
Goddammit! I screwed up again. I
shouldn't have let her out of my sight. Hell, I
thought she'd be safe in
the backyard in broad daylight.
"I'm on my way, Matt."

Matt hesitated a second before asking, "She's different,
isn't she?"

Luke sucked in a trembling breath. "Yeah. Yeah, Matt. She
is."

"We'll find her, bro," Matt said. Luke seized on the
confidence in his brother's voice as Matt added, "In fact, I'll probably
find her next door sipping sweet tea with Mrs. Swan. I figured you'd want to
know, first."

A picture of Maddie's bare feet flashed through Luke's mind.
"Yeah. Thanks. I'll be there in five."

"I'll call if I find her," Matt replied, then
disconnected.

Luke tossed his package onto the floorboard of his truck and
started the engine. As he wheeled the vehicle around to leave the parking lot,
he caught sight of Kathy once again and changed directions.

With Matt covering the neighborhood, Kathy would be a good place
to start. Maybe Maddie called her. Maybe this was all a big mistake. He'd wring
her neck if it was—then he'd take her in his arms and never let her go.

He pulled into the lot in front of the Dairy Princess and shoved
the gearshift into park. He hopped out, leaving the truck running. "Hey,
Kathy?" he called above the pounding sound of the King singing "Blue
Suede Shoes" blaring from outside speakers. "Have you heard from
Maddie in the last hour or so?"

"No. Why?"

He motioned for her to cut off the music, and while she did so he
debated just how much to tell her. If Maddie were in bigger trouble than dog
chasing, he'd need somebody to help him filter through local personalities and
issues, so he decided to tell the older woman everything. He briefly recapped
the day's events to Kathy, noting her growing pallor. He finished with, "I
hoped I'd get a bead on the arsonist with my questions, maybe even flush him
out. However, I thought he'd come after me, not Maddie."

Kathy's hands trembled as she brought them up to her mouth. Tears
welled in her eyes and she began rocking back and forth. "Oh, no. Not Maddie.
Not my Maddie, too! I knew last night that it had gone too far."

Then she grabbed Luke's shirt. "Now she's disappeared off the
face of the earth, just like my Sparkle. Today's her birthday, you know.
Sparkle's. Oh, no. Not Maddie, too. Please, no."

"It's okay, Kathy." Luke gave her shoulder an awkward,
comforting pat, wishing he'd never stopped. Sparkle's birthday. Damn. Had he
known that, he'd have kept on driving. "I'm sure she's fine. Bet
Knucklehead took off after something and she took off after him."

"The homecoming king needed another queen," Kathy
murmured. "Maddie's the prettiest girl in town. Oh, I can't do this. I
can't go through this again."

She's lost it.
Luke felt bad for having
caused Kathy such trauma. Now that he thought about it, she always went a
little crazy on days special to her daughter. However, Luke didn't have time to
deal with Kathy's grief at the moment. He motioned to the wide-eyed teenager
watching from behind the counter inside.

"I love Maddie," Kathy wailed. "This can't be
happening."

"I know. I love her, too. I'll find her. I'm sure she just
lost track of the time."

"No. Maddie's not like that. Sparkle's not like that, either.
They're responsible girls. Sweet girls. Oh, dear. Oh dear oh dear oh
dear."

Feeling like a heel for having set Kathy off and yet beyond
anxious to leave, Luke handed her over to the bewildered teenager. He'd make it
up to her later, but right now finding Maddie required all his attention.
"I'll have her call you. I promise."

"Sparkle," Kathy sobbed on the boy's shoulder. "So
long. It's been so long. I just need to know."