Yesterday's Gone (Two Daughters Book 1) (18 page)

“No,” she whispered. “It’s not. You’re the first...”
Breathe
. “The only...” Oh, God. What was she admitting to?

His face softened. “That’s the way it happens sometimes, whether we’re ready for it or not.”

Did that mean...
he
hadn’t been ready, either? Wasn’t sure he wanted whatever was happening between them?

Oh, good.
That
freaked her out, too. The truth was, everything happening to her right now was unfamiliar. She didn’t know how to feel about any of it. About any of
them
. Kirk. Karen.
My father and mother.
Eve. Most of all, Seth.

Weight on his elbows, he watched every shifting expression on her face, and she had the disquieting feeling he knew what each and every one meant. Which was especially unsettling considering
she
didn’t understand all the conflicting emotions that crowded her chest until it ached.

“You know,” he murmured, “practice makes perfect. We should reinforce tonight’s lessons, don’t you think?” His lips were soft as they skimmed hers. He tickled the corner of her mouth with his tongue, then rubbed a scratchy cheek against hers. The contrast in textures—soft lips, bristly jaw—was unexpectedly erotic.

She lifted her hands, splaying them on his chest and rubbing gently. His big body shuddered, and she reveled in the power he handed her with his open response to her touch.

“I think that’s an excellent idea.” She found his small, flat nipples with her fingertips and watched his eyes dilate. “Although you might want to ditch that condom before it gets hard to take off,” she teased.

“Pun intended?” One side of his mouth lifted in a very sexy smile. “Unfortunately, you’re right. Don’t go anywhere, okay?”

She giggled, suddenly feeling buoyantly happy. “I wouldn’t think of it.”

* * *

E
VE
BARELY
TURNED
her head to glance at Seth Chandler’s house when she drove by it.

It was chance she knew where he lived. He’d certainly never invited her home with him, she thought with a trace of bitterness she knew wasn’t justified.

As it happened, she had an appointment first thing this morning at a foster home not far from his house. She’d never had one of her kids in this particular home before. Yesterday, she’d looked at the address and realized with dismay where it was. If he saw her passing his house, he’d decide she was some kind of pathetic stalker.

But an alternate route would take an extra ten minutes of her day, and with her ridiculous caseload she was already running morning to night.

So Hope was staying here with him. Big surprise. Eve had seen the way he looked at Hope and tried to hide how that made her feel. He’d never once looked at her that way. He wouldn’t have fallen madly in love with her even if Hope— Bailey—had never appeared.

So live with it.

In her more honest moments, she suspected her pride was hurt more than her heart. She’d liked him better than he liked her, which wasn’t good for a girl’s ego. And then having him topple at first sight for the adoptive sister she’d already envied for years...
Of course
that stung.

So she just wouldn’t look when she went by his house.

Only there was movement just as she came abreast of it, and without her volition, her gaze flicked to see what it was.

What she saw was the front door opening and Seth coming out, dressed for work. But he turned back, as if he’d forgotten something. Eve’s gaze went to her rearview mirror as she continued down the block.

What Seth had turned back for was one last kiss. And even after he broke away, Hope stayed in the open doorway, smiling as she watched him stride to his SUV in the driveway.

Eve felt as if she’d been kicked in the stomach. Far enough away she wouldn’t be noticed, she pulled to the side of the road and sat there, gripping the steering wheel until her knuckles ached. She was aware of nothing but the hateful, hurtful emotions that filled her until she didn’t know how to contain them.

It was a long time before they ebbed enough that her body sagged and her head fell back.

She already felt as if she was losing her parents. They hadn’t guessed how their joy and the fact that they couldn’t talk about anything but Hope, Hope, Hope had wounded her. But she was going to lose them entirely if she couldn’t get past this—or at least learn to fake it better.

Even the thought of having no one again terrified the little girl inside her who knew all too well what that was like.

She’ll go back to California. I’ll only have to endure her for occasional holidays.

Unless she ended up staying because of Seth. Putting Eve firmly and forever in second place.

Second place was better than not placing at all.

Or was it?

Maybe she was the one who should start job hunting, who should move instead of hanging on in her hometown because of that scared little girl who’d been so awed because now
she
had a family and home, like other kids did.

She made a ragged sound that was almost a laugh. She might not be a stalker, but pathetic? Oh, yeah.

* * *

“L
ET
’
S
BRING
M
S
. S
WANN
in for another talk,” Ben said. “Shake her up a little. She might lose some of that composure when she’s not on her home turf.”

“You know she’ll get a lawyer.”

“Maybe. She’s cold enough she might not think she needs one.”

Yeah. Seth could see that. Jordan and Darrell were quite a pair—the one as volatile as TNT, the other as chilly and self-possessed as an iceberg.

Ben shrugged. “If she lawyers up, that’s because she’s getting nervous.”

“She’ll be at work by now.”

Ben’s smile was feral. “All the better.”

Seth, too, liked the idea of visiting her place of work, which happened to be an insurance office. Lee Kroeger, her employer, currently had a seat on the city council. Conservative as hell, he’d look askance at a receptionist under investigation for murder of the married man with whom she’d been having an affair.

Seth’s mobile phone rang just as he was pushing back from his desk. He took a look—unfamiliar number and area code. He held a finger up to Ben and answered.

“Detective Chandler, this is Sergeant Martin Riser with the Redding Police Department. Northern California,” the man elaborated. “I’m calling because I saw a segment on television about Hope Lawson. I understand you’re the investigator who launched the search for her.”

Seth’s skin prickled. “That’s correct. What can I do for you?”

“Well, here’s the thing. I’m with the Major Crimes Unit now, but I spent some time with Sexual Assault.”

“Did you have an abduction or attempted abduction of a girl who reminds you of Hope?”

“No,” the sergeant told him. “Actually, it’s the other way around. A few years back, a girl was abandoned in a crummy motel on the outskirts of town. Said her name was Anna. She seemed confused when we asked for a last name. She finally said her ‘daddy’ was Mr. Hawley, so she went into our system as Anna Hawley. We never found a trace of the father or any clue where she came from. She didn’t remember her mother or any other family. No question she’d been sexually molested,” he said grimly. “Battered, too. X-rays showed multiple broken bones from past injuries, some that hadn’t healed quite right. She was skinny and dirty, too, but a real pretty little girl. Blonde and blue eyed.”

“Just beginning to develop physically?”

“Yep. We guessed maybe eleven or twelve. She had no idea how old she was. When I saw the story about Hope, I couldn’t help remembering. A lot of similarities. And Hawley and Hamby? Kinda similar names, too.”

“Yes. How long ago was it that this girl was abandoned in Redding, Sergeant?”

“I had to look it up. It’s been almost four years. Week before Thanksgiving.”

Riding a surge of adrenaline, Seth asked, “Is Anna still in a foster home in Redding?”

“Yes, she is. Occurred to me you might like to talk to her.”

“I would.” Another witness. Damn, if he could have his way, he’d drive straight to the airport. “Will she be willing?”

“I haven’t asked her or her foster mom. She was so traumatized then, it wasn’t easy getting any sense out of her. I didn’t want to set her to worrying if you didn’t think it was worth a trip down here.”

“It’s worth a trip. Will you spell that last name?”

“H-A-W-L-E-Y. Couldn’t get a first name out of her then.”

“This could be a real break.” Seth told him what he’d learned so far about Les Hamby’s travels and the effort the FBI was making, too. “I’m thinking your Anna is on this list I’ve been poring over.”

“Finding her family.” Riser cleared his throat. “Wouldn’t that be something.”

“I know I’ll never forget the expression on Hope’s mother’s face when she saw her.” He glanced up to see Ben waiting. “Why don’t I call you as soon as I have travel plans nailed down?”

“That’ll do fine,” the sergeant agreed. “I’ll look forward to meeting you.”

Seth ended the call, feeling dazed.

“A break?” Ben asked.

“A big one. I’m going to see if I can get clearance to fly down to California in the next day or two.”

Ben clapped him on the back. “Then what say we try to make an arrest today?”

Seth suspected his own smile was as savage as Ben’s had been earlier. “Let’s do it.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

T
HE
TWIN
TURBOPROP
plane touched down, bounced and with a thump the wheels made contact with the runway again. Seth heard a tiny whimper from beside him. It wasn’t a surprise. Bailey had been clutching his hand in a painful grip ever since they took off from San Francisco.

She’d done fine on the Boeing 767 they’d taken from Seattle to San Francisco, although she was quiet during most of the flight. Once she said, “You know, I haven’t flown very often.”

When he asked, she said she’d flown once to Cabo in Mexico with some friends for a week’s vacation and then from LA to Seattle. That was it.

Now as the plane braked and they were thrust forward against their seat belts, she gusted out a breath he guessed she’d been holding for some time. “I’m not sure I like to fly,” she confessed.

“Takes getting used to.” He wasn’t crazy about it, either. He didn’t so much mind heights as he disliked being at the mercy of someone else’s competence. Then there was the fact that he was too large a man to be comfortable in an economy airline seat.

“We’re here.”

She made a face. “We still have to get...back.”

If he wasn’t mistaken, she’d almost said
home
, but corrected herself. He took that as encouragement. “One thing at a time.”

After convincing the department to pay for this jaunt, he’d gotten the idea of bringing Bailey. He thought it would be good for her, and that she might be good for Anna Hawley. He’d offered to pay her airfare, but when the Lawsons heard the plan, they insisted on picking up the cost.

“Do you know what it would mean to us if we can help some other family find their daughter?” Karen had said, fiercely enough to startle him.

Seeing her expression, Seth had only been able to nod.

The plane rolled to a stop by the small terminal and he took down their carry-ons so he and Bailey could join the line exiting the plane. Heat slammed them when they stepped out.
Guess we’re not in Seattle anymore
, he thought ruefully.

Sergeant Riser had offered to meet them, but Seth had decided to rent a car. He’d reserved a midsize sedan, and cranked the air-conditioning high the minute he got behind the wheel.

“Let’s stop by the police station first,” he suggested, “then find a hotel and lunch.” They’d ended up putting the trip off for two days to arrive on a Saturday when Anna wouldn’t have school.

Bailey nodded. “Okay.” Her tension was visible—left over from the flight, or in anticipation of meeting a girl who’d bring back her own nightmares? Who knew? She’d noticeably clammed up since hearing about Anna.

Sergeant Riser was middle-aged, tall and lanky with steel-gray hair cut short. He greeted Seth cordially, but his gaze remained riveted on Bailey from first sight.

“Damn,” he said in a private moment while she was in the ladies’ room. “She looks even more like that drawing in real life than she did on TV.”

“I did some gaping the first time I saw her,” Seth admitted. And more than a few times since, but for different reasons now. Not that he’d tell anybody else that.

Riser offered suggestions for hotel and restaurants, and gave Seth a map with an X marked on the foster home. “They’re expecting you at two. Gives you time for lunch.”

Seth held out his hand. “Thank you. You know you’re welcome to come with us.”

He shook his head. “Don’t want to overwhelm Anna. Plus...” He hesitated. “Her memories of me might not be the best.” His shrug was awkward. “She got to me. You know how it is sometimes. I’ve kept in touch with her caseworker to make sure she was all right, but that’s all.”

“She stuck with you well enough you were able to make the connection when you heard about Hope.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed you learn enough to make it worth the trip down here.”

Bailey came out of the restroom, her gaze going straight to him. She never looked away as she crossed the short distance, not until they were saying their goodbyes and she shook the sergeant’s hand, too. Seth’s heart squeezed every time she looked at him like that. It was as if he was anchoring her.

They checked into a hotel that looked decent—one room, king bed—and found a sandwich shop. He’d already noticed that Bailey didn’t eat when she was nervous. It took some nagging to get her to finish half her sandwich. Finally he checked his watch.

“Should be about right if you’re ready.”

For a fleeting moment, he saw a fragility in her eyes that he knew would stay with him. His admiration for her only increased when she gave a sturdy nod and stood.

“We don’t want to be late.”

“No,” he said gently, and took her hand as they walked out into the heat.

* * *

B
AILEY
GAZED
OUT
the window at the small white clapboard house with one dormer centered above the front door. The lawn was dried brown; the leaves hung limply from the branches of the single tree in the narrow front yard. The Buick in the driveway had a bumper that sagged on one side and a large spot of rust on the fender. No spring chicken, that car.

Seth was watching her, not the house. He’d kept an eye on her all day and let her crush his hand during the last leg of their flight. Stupid to have nerves jumping in her stomach now.

She straightened and opened her door. “Looks like they’re here,” she said, sounding stupidly cheerful.
What fun this will be!
her voice suggested.

His gaze cut her way, but all he said was, “Should be. It’s two o’clock, on the nose.” A minute later, he joined her on the sidewalk, a folder in one hand. She heard the car door locks snick before he gestured her to go ahead of him up the walk.

Bailey surreptitiously pressed a hand to her stomach. God, what if they were no sooner invited in than she had to race for the bathroom to puke?
What do I have to be afraid of?

But she knew. The prop plane had been a time machine, carrying her back to see herself at fourteen or fifteen. The Neales hadn’t taken her in yet. Before them, she’d lived with... Weirdly, she couldn’t pull up the names. She could see the faces of the foster parents who had preceded the Neales, the house, her bedroom shared with two other girls, but summoning a name was beyond her.

On the porch, Seth reached past her to knock, then stepped back and rested a hand on Bailey’s back. It felt so good, warm and strong. She gave herself permission to accept the unspoken support, even lean a little.

The door opened to reveal a motherly, friendly looking woman with gray-streaked dark hair cut short. She wore Birkenstock sandals, faded jeans and a tie-dyed T-shirt with colors that swirled over her ample bosom. Smiling, she stepped back.

“I’m Betty Wade. You must be Detective Chandler and Hope. I’m so glad you made it.” She studied Bailey with shrewd hazel eyes. “I read about you in
People
magazine. To think you might have a connection with Anna!”

Seth scanned the shabby but neat living room in a way that would have looked casual to anyone who didn’t know he was a cop. “Anna knows we’re coming?”

Her smile dimmed slightly. “Oh, yes. I don’t think she’s decided how she feels about it.”

Bailey totally understood that.

The house felt like someplace she’d been before. Not been,
lived in
before, she corrected herself. People who took in foster kids were rarely well-to-do. Some probably fostered partly for the money, although not all. She thought maybe Betty Wade was one of those who wasn’t much interested in the stipend.

“Come on back to the kitchen,” the woman said, leading the way past a narrow, steep staircase and a couple of closed doors.

The kitchen was at the back of the house. Beyond a general impression of yellow painted cabinets and aging appliances, Bailey saw only the teenage girl who jumped up from a chair at a table by a sliding door that looked out at a backyard as sun-browned as the front.

Long, blond hair hung in a braid that flopped over her shoulder. Clear blue eyes fixed right on Bailey, guarded but unwillingly fascinated, too, Bailey thought. Her face was thin, her chin arrowing to a point, her forehead high. She was skinny, long-legged and taller already than Bailey. She wore a shirt large enough to disguise her body, and the way she hunched her shoulders made Bailey suspect she might have breasts big enough to make her self-conscious.
God, I remember that age.

She didn’t really look like Bailey, and yet...
I know her
, Bailey thought with sudden clarity. What they had in common was so immense, it made their differences unimportant.

Betty was talking, but the words flew right past Bailey and she didn’t think Anna was listening, either. They only stared at each other.

In an instant, her nerves and stomach settled. “Anna,” she said softly. “I’m Hope Lawson, although I go by Bailey now. I really wanted to meet you.”

“They said...” She cast a nervous glance at Seth. “Um, that my father might have been yours, too?”

“That’s partly what we came to talk to you about. He...made me call him Daddy. But he wasn’t really my father, and if he’s the same man, he wasn’t yours, either.”

The hope in this girl’s eyes was painful to see. “You mean, I might not be related to him at all?”

Bailey felt the prickle of tears, but she also smiled. “I think the chances are really good you aren’t.”

“But...we look like we might be sisters.”

“That’s because he liked blonde, blue-eyed little girls.” Or maybe she shouldn’t have used the past tense.
Likes.
No, nothing she could say to this girl. She bit her lip. “Can we sit down, Anna?”

Betty took over, pouring everyone glasses of lemonade and offering slices of cake neither Seth nor Bailey felt they could refuse. Bailey introduced Seth to Anna. They chatted for a few minutes, Bailey and Anna assessing each other the whole while. Seth asked if she’d lived with Mrs. Wade long, and she nodded, looking down at the table. “Ever since...you know.”

Then she’d been lucky, Bailey couldn’t help thinking. At this age, she had already been wearing too-tight clothes and too much makeup. She’d needed the boys to be mesmerized by her, because otherwise she hardly existed. She’d been moved from the two foster homes before the Neales because of that overt sexuality. Nobody knew how to deal with it.

Anna looked like a child still, despite the figure. Maybe, thanks to her foster mother, she didn’t feel the need to use her body to garner attention.

Finally Seth showed her the two pictures he’d brought: Hope’s only school photo, and then the age-progressed drawing. Betty studied them, too, shaking her head and murmuring her amazement.

“Do you go online?” he asked Anna.

She tore her gaze from the pictures to look up. “I have a Facebook page,” she said shyly.

He smiled at her. “Well, I did my best to get these pictures out on Facebook and Twitter and everywhere else I could think of. Eventually, somebody recognized Bailey.”

Anna scrutinized the pictures again, then Bailey’s face. She nodded.

Bailey said, “We think the man who abducted me might be the same one who took you, even though he called himself Les Hamby when I was with him.”

Her expression changed. It was as if she’d just seen a ghost. “Les,” she whispered.

“Was that his name?” Seth asked in the gentle voice that Bailey found so soothing.

After a moment, she gave a jerky nod.

“Do you remember anything from before you were with him?”

She was shaking her head frantically before he finished. “No!”

Bailey reached across the table and took her hand. “I didn’t, either,” she said quietly. “He...hurt me when I did. After a while, you’re so afraid of being hurt, you just...don’t. Even now, my stomach ties itself in knots when I have even the faintest whiff of a memory.”

Anna stared at her with huge, haunted eyes. “But...you know your real parents now,” she whispered. “Don’t you remember them?”

“Things are starting to come back to me,” Bailey admitted. “It’s slow. I guess I’m still scared.” She took a deep breath. “If we can find your family, I think it might be easier for you. It hasn’t been as many years since you’ve seen them. He took me away from mine twenty-three years ago. That’s a long time.”

“Did he leave you, like he did me?” she asked timidly.

Bailey managed a sort of smile. “Yes. I kept thinking he’d come back, but he didn’t.”

“Sometimes I still think I see him,” Anna said, a tension in her voice. “A car will go by and I think it’s him. Or...or I see someone at the mall.”

Seth was watching her unblinkingly. Was he wondering if Les Hamby really was watching Anna?

Sneaking a look at them, Anna continued, “Betty doesn’t make me wait for the school bus, because I’m the only kid on this block and I don’t like to be alone. You know. In case he does come back for me.”

Bailey nodded, tears stinging her eyes. “I do know.”

“Did you ever see him again?”

Bailey shook her head. “No. At first, I kept thinking I did, too, but I knew it wasn’t really him.” She hesitated. Anna had never been willing to provide a description of her “daddy.” Sergeant Riser had said she didn’t talk at all in the early days, then wouldn’t talk about the man at all. But maybe now... “Anna.” She squeezed the girl’s hand. “Can you tell us what he looked like? So we can be sure it’s the same man?”

“I don’t really remember that well,” she said, voice almost inaudible.

Seth stirred. Bailey shook her head at him.

None of them moved after that. If the room hadn’t been so silent, they might not have heard her at all.

“He wasn’t that tall. I was almost as tall as him when...” She chewed her bottom lip. She looked up fleetingly, her eyes catching Bailey’s with a kind of desperation. “I wanted to grow so much. I thought if I got bigger than him I’d be so strong I could yell ‘Don’t touch me’ and he wouldn’t.”

“Yes,” Bailey whispered, too.

Anna frowned a little. “His hair was brown.”

“Was he turning gray?”

“Uh-uh.” Her forehead creased. “He had kind of awful teeth.”

Bailey’s breath caught. Sometimes her stomach would heave when he ground his mouth on hers. Her shudder was involuntary. “And bad breath.”