The Ransom (3 page)

* * *

Lane caught sight of Ellie Munro, seated near the change rooms of the children’s department and moved quickly toward her. She turned and spied him approaching and leaped to her feet. Racing to his side, she grabbed his sleeve.

“Oh, thank God! Lane, you have to help me. Someone’s taken my baby. Someone’s taken Olivia!”

Despite her years of police training and more than her fair share of horrifying experiences, Ellie was ashen. Black rivulets of mascara ran down her cheeks. Her breath came fast. Panic clouded her eyes.

Lane fought back the urge to hold her. Though she was the wife of his friend, right now, she was a witness and he was the lead investigator. As gently as he could, he removed his arm from her grasp and led her back to the chair she’d vacated. A young female store clerk stood nearby, wringing her hands.

Jett came up beside him and murmured, “The paramedics have already taken Brittany Dowton to Royal North Shore Hospital. We’ll have to speak with her there.”

Lane frowned. “They didn’t waste time. Is she all right?”

“Yeah, apparently she’s conscious but she has a nasty graze on her forehead. They’re taking her in for observation. Given who she is—”

“Of course. They’d rather play it safe. I guess that’s understandable.” Lane indicated Ellie with his chin. “That’s Ellie Munro, Olivia’s mother. See if you can round up any staff members that were in the vicinity at the time the girl disappeared. You never know who might have seen something. I’d start with that young girl over there.”

He looked toward the young store clerk who had remained standing near Ellie’s chair. “And get someone to locate the security vision.”

“Sure thing.” Jett moved away and tugged a notebook out of his jacket pocket. Lane drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, steeling himself for what was to come. He walked back to Ellie and kneeled beside her. Taking her hands in his, he gave them a reassuring squeeze.

“Ellie, you need to take some deep breaths and listen to me. Have you called Clayton?” Her gaze lowered and she nodded.

“I take it he’s on his way?”

“Yes, yes of course. He’s been at home with the boys. I-I was supposed to be taking Olivia shopping.”

Her voice caught on the last word. Lane felt for her, but right now he had a job to do.

“Ellie, I need to know everything. Everything you saw. Everything you heard. Can you tell me?”

She stared down at her hands where they were clenched in her lap, and finally nodded.

“Get out of my way! Where the hell are they?”

Ellie’s head snapped up and her eyes widened in distress. Clayton Munro stormed toward them, his eyes dark with barely concealed panic.

Ellie slowly came to her feet. Lane stepped forward and held out his hand in somber greeting. Clayton shook Lane’s hand, his expression grim. “Lane. Thank Christ you’re here.”

Lane nodded in acknowledgement and looked from him to Ellie. She’d moved a short distance away and now had her arms folded across her chest, her gaze pinned to the floor. Nervous tension radiated from her in waves.

Glancing back at Clayton, Lane cleared his throat and directed his first question to Ellie. “I have to ask you what happened. I need you to tell me every detail you remember.”

He moved closer to her and tugged out his notebook. Without warning, Clayton turned on her.

“See, this is what I don’t get. How can you lose a child on a
shopping
trip? For Christ sake, how does that
happen
?”

Ellie shook her head and pushed her fist against her mouth. Lane gaped in surprise. Tom had hinted the two of them were having difficulties, but the confronting anger in Clayton’s eyes came as a shock. Fear made people react in extraordinary ways, but Clayton was a trained police officer, with years of experience. He ought to know better than to let his emotions take control. Lane cleared his throat, a little nervous at the thought of what he was going to have to do.

“Ellie, I’d like you to have a seat and take some time to think about what you saw. It’s very important you think about everything you remember, no matter how insignificant. I’m going to give you a few moments alone while I talk to Clayton. Is that all right?”

Ellie nodded, her eyes wide and uncertain. The instinctive urge to offer her comfort rose up inside him again, but he resolutely pushed it away and focused on what had to be done. He led Clayton a short distance away and took advantage of a wide rack of clothing to muffle their conversation.

“Talk to me, Clayton. What’s going on?”

Clayton paced the short confines of the aisle beside them, anger apparent in every line of his body. Running a hand through his disheveled, blond hair, he groaned aloud his frustration.

“It’s Ellie. She and Olivia haven’t been getting along. They’ve been arguing about the stupidest things every minute of the day. Every time I turn around, they’re at each other. I had no idea it had gotten to this; that Ellie couldn’t even be bothered to watch out for her.”

Lane frowned. “That seems a bit harsh, mate. You can’t possibly believe Ellie has anything to do with her disappearance? Besides, the last few times I saw Olivia, she wasn’t making things easy.”

Clayton cursed savagely. “She’s ten years old, Lane. You can hardly expect her to act with the maturity of an adult. That’s Ellie’s job.”

“From what I saw last week when you were over at Tom’s, it was Olivia who was the one pushing away. All she talked to me about was her dead mother.”

Clayton closed his eyes. His lips thinned.

“Does Olivia know Lisa committed suicide?”

Clayton turned on him, his eyes blazing. “Of course not! How the fuck could I tell her something like that? She idolizes her mother!”

Lane forced himself to remain calm. “Her mother’s dead.”

“So?”

“One day, she’ll find out how it happened.”

“Not from me.”

Drawing in a deep breath, Lane exhaled slowly and opened his notebook to a fresh page. “When Ellie called you, did she say anything about what happened?”

Clayton shook his head abruptly. “Just that they were in the swimwear department and she’d argued with Olivia about what kind of swimsuit she could have. Olivia went to the change rooms with her friend, Brittany Dowton.”

“Brittany’s been taken to the hospital.” He held up his hand to ward off the questions he saw in Clayton’s eyes. “She’s fine. A knock to the head. They’ve taken her in as a precautionary measure.”

“Thank God for that. David Dowton would have my balls if anything happened to his daughter.”

“I’ll talk to her as soon as I can and find out what she knows. Let’s keep going. What else did Ellie tell you?”

Clayton turned away and resumed his pacing. “Ellie says she waited outside the change rooms. The first time she knew something was wrong was when she went in to check on the girls and found Brittany unconscious on the floor. There was no sign of Olivia.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah, that’s it. I called the neighbors and asked them to watch the boys for me and then I hightailed it over here.”

Lane glanced across the top of the clothing rack to where Ellie sat hunched over the chair. Her face was drawn and pale, her eyes red and swollen. Turning back to Clayton, he noticed the tension in his friend’s jaw and the anger that still lingered in his eyes.

Lane’s gut tightened. He hated to see them so at odds with each other. He’d known Clayton’s older brother, Tom, for years. The two of them were stationed in neighboring Local Area Commands in Sydney. He’d spent many a night on the couch at Tom and his wife Lily’s, recovering after a big night out.

It was through Tom that Lane had met some of Tom’s brothers, including Clayton. As one of the country’s top criminal profilers, Clayton was often seconded to assist some of the most difficult State investigations and had usually stayed with Tom during his visits to Sydney.

Although Clayton’s first wife had died before Lane met her, he still recalled how shattered his friend’s brother had been and how concerned the Munro family had been for Clayton’s welfare.

He’d also been privy to Clayton’s relationship with Ellie Cooper. Tom had shared the news of his brother’s marriage to the New South Wales detective with unbridled joy. At last, his brother had come out from under the black cloud that had followed him since his first wife’s death and had learned to love again.

It was something straight out of the movies and far too sappy for Lane to get excited about, but it had made his friend happy and had put a smile back on Clayton’s face and for that, he was grateful to the woman who’d made it happen.

The obvious strain between them was so different from their usual happy family unit—tensions with Olivia aside. He was used to watching Clayton and Ellie interact with each other and had felt envious over their closeness, their ability to sense the other’s needs without a word spoken.

He’d thought that kind of thing existed in the realm of fantasy, to be found only between the covers of sappy romance books, but he’d witnessed it himself and had come to the conclusion that it not only existed, but was worth waiting for.

But now wasn’t the time to be wasting thoughts on things like that. A little girl was missing. Every hour she stayed away, lessened their chances of finding her alive. He cleared his throat and spoke again.

“I’m going to talk to Ellie. I’d prefer it if you stayed here, out of the way. I need her to remember everything she can think of. With you standing over her, glowering and ready to bite her head off any minute, she’s likely to forget. You don’t want us to miss something important.”

Anger flared again in Clayton’s eyes and his fists clenched. He opened his mouth as if to protest. Lane stared at him, hard. Clayton’s mouth closed and he turned away. Spinning on his heel, Lane made his way back to Ellie’s side. Kneeling again, he flipped over to a fresh page in his notebook.

“Okay, Ellie, let’s start again. What time did you arrive at the mall?”

“A-about nine-thirty.”

“And you came straight here?”

“Yes.”

“Did you notice anything unusual when you walked into the shop?”

She shook her head and shrugged. “No, not that I recall.”

“What about any men?”

“No one that stood out. We were in the children’s clothing department. It’s mostly filled with moms and their kids. I think I would have noticed a man.”

Ellie had once been a well-respected detective with the New South Wales Police Service. It may have been a few years since she’d been on the job, but Lane had no doubt her observation skills were still sharp.

“You were shopping for swimsuits, is that right?”

“Yes.” Ellie’s lip trembled and tears flooded her eyes. “It’s all my fault,” she cried. “Olivia’s missing and it’s
my
fault!”

Lane stilled, wanting to offer her comfort, but at the same time, needing to know what had happened. “Why do you say that?” he asked, striving to keep his voice neutral.

“I was supposed to be looking
after
her! She was my responsibility!” Her voice cracked, but she sucked in a breath and continued.

“We had a stupid argument over a bikini. I let my anger get the better of me. Olivia stormed off with Brittany to the change rooms and I…I moved away. I had to put some space between us.”

A sob escaped and tears coursed down her cheeks. She brushed them away and stood, turning away from Lane. Rubbing her hands up and down her thighs, she paced the length of the change rooms and then spun around to face him.

“I’m thirty-three years old! I should have had more self-control. When I calmed down, I was across the other side, over in the bedding department. By the time I got back to the change rooms, Olivia was gone.”

Lane puffed out his breath on a sigh, his head reeling. “You haven’t told Clay this?”

Ellie shook her head vehemently. “He already blames me for not taking proper care of her. If he knew I’d—” A sound of agony was wrenched from her throat. Her shoulders shook.

Lane got to his feet, unable to sit by another second and watch her fall apart. He gave her a hard hug then stepped away. Still, he continued to hold her gaze, silently urging her to overcome the emotion that tore her up inside.

“Ellie, listen to me,” he said quietly. “I may not be speaking from experience, but anyone who’s ever done it knows how difficult it is to raise someone else’s child. From what Clayton’s told me, things have been a little tense between you and Olivia for a while. It’s not your fault, Ellie. You need to stop thinking like that and focus your efforts on trying to remember something,
anything
that might help us find her.”

Ellie drew in a ragged breath and scrubbed her fingers through her short cap of dark hair. “Ever since it happened, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think, rewinding the scene in my mind over and over again.”

“Do you remember what Olivia was wearing?”

“White shorts and a pink Katy Perry T-shirt.

“What kind of shoes was she wearing?”

“A pair of Havaianas.”

Lane frowned. “Havaianas?”

“Yes. An upscale flip flop. They’re silver and have some sparkly faux jewels glued along the straps,” she added.