Distant Echoes (31 page)

“I’ll need more food.” The dog lifted its head and growled at Jesse. Kaia snatched her hand back as the dog lunged. “He doesn’t like you. You’d better get out of here.”

He left her there and hurried to the SUV for more cat food. He grabbed four cans and ran along the fence row to the far back corner. “Get to the front,” he called to Bane and Mano. “Kaia is there with the other dog. I’ll distract these two.” He raised his voice louder and called to the dogs. “Hey, pooches, look what I have for you.” He began to bang on the iron fence, and the dogs raced toward him. He pulled off the tops of two cans and dug out the insides with nervous fingers. Tossing it to the dogs, he watched Kaia’s brothers hurry over the rooftop.

He fed the dogs the food as slowly as he could until he heard Mano call to him from the front yard. Wiping his messy fingers on his jeans, he tossed the cans over the fence and raced back to join the rest.

Kaia was running to meet him. “We’ve got to get to town! They’re after Heidi!”

Twenty-five

F
aye woke with a start, drenched in perspiration and shaking with regret. In her dream, her children were swimming. Their laughter changed to shrieks of fear as sharks’ dorsal fins sliced through the blue water from every direction. Kaia began to scream her mother’s name, but Faye had turned and walked away, left her, just like she’d done in real life.

She pressed her fingers into her eye sockets. Her head felt heavy and lethargic. She reached out to touch Curtis but found only cold, empty sheets. The green glow of the clock said it was nearly eleven thirty. Where could he be?

She slipped out of the bed and padded to the door. Stepping into the hallway, she peered downstairs, but there were no lights on. She moved into the hall and nearly fell over a figure lying at her feet.

“Curtis?” She dropped to the floor and touched him. He groaned as she rolled him to his back, and his eyes fluttered. A trickle of blood ran from a cut on his forehead. Just then, she heard a child’s voice from downstairs.

“Let go of me! I want my mommy. Mommy!” Heidi’s wail ended with a sob as a man’s voice answered her roughly. It didn’t sound like Jesse.

The
keiki’
s wail had been in her dream. Faye shot to her feet. She glanced down at Curtis, her hand to her mouth. He needed her, but so did Heidi. Fear held her immobile. She’d never in her life been able to face down danger.

She shrank back against the wall then sank to the soft carpet. Crawling toward her bedroom, she thought she could hide in the closet.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and a sound mind.
The words thundered in her head. She stopped and looked down the stairway. Tears leaked from her eyes. She was such a coward. Heidi could be in real danger.

She tried to tell herself it was Jesse who’d come for his niece, but she knew the truth. Someone bad had taken the
keiki
, and only Faye could stop him. She rose on trembling legs and prayed for God to help her. Then she turned and hurtled down the stairs.

At the bottom of the steps, she stopped and listened. Heidi’s sobs seemed to be coming from the kitchen. Faye heard the back door open. On bare feet, she ran toward the sound. When she entered the kitchen, she saw a tall, blond man carrying Heidi. The little girl was pummeling him with her small fists.

“Let me go. I want my mommy!” Heidi howled again.

Faye acted on instinct. She grabbed up the bowl of fruit on the table and brought it down on the man’s head. It bounced off his skull and rained apples, bananas, and mangoes onto the floor. The man paused and turned his head to look at her. She quailed at the fierce glare and hesitated. Then Heidi screamed again, and Faye was galvanized into action. She snatched at Heidi and must have caught the man off guard, because she managed to pull the
keiki
from his hands.

Heidi burrowed into Faye’s arms. Her wet face soaked the neck of Faye’s nightgown. “I’ve got you,” Faye crooned.

The man grabbed Faye’s arm. “Fine, you can come along too,” he growled. He propelled her out the door.

She backpedaled, trying to shake loose his grip. Opening her mouth, she gathered her breath to scream, but he clamped a hand that smelled of—was it cabbage? She bit him.

He swore and clamped his hand around her throat. “Do that again and you and the kid are dead. Got it?”

Her eyes wide, she nodded. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t swal- low. The pressure on her throat eased, and she gulped in the sweet night air. He thrust her toward a dark-colored sedan. Reaching the car, he opened the back door and pushed her and Heidi inside.

A grate separated them from the front seat. The door shut then locked. Faye couldn’t find a way to release the lock. She tugged on the handle but the door refused to open. There was no way to roll the window down either. This was all her fault. She should have put Heidi down and told her to run.

And her husband was bleeding in the upstairs hallway. She could only pray he would be all right. He must have surprised the man taking Heidi. They never should have gone to bed, but Curtis had been sure things would be fine. He’d activated the security system and taken his pistol into the bedroom with them. All those precautions hadn’t been enough.

Faye’s mouth was dry, and she cuddled Heidi close. She had to protect her somehow, even though she’d failed at all those things with her own children. All her life she’d run from problems. Tonight that would stop. She was going to have to reach deep inside and find what small, tattered courage she possessed to stand up to whoever was behind this.

Heidi stirred and lifted her damp face. “I want to go home,” she whispered. “Where’s Uncle Jesse? And the man hit Mr. Curtis. You need to help him.”

“I know. I saw.” Faye smoothed the hair back from Heidi’s face. “Mr. Curtis was moving around when I saw him. He’ll be all right.” She said the words as much to reassure herself as the
keiki
.

The car shifted as the man got in. Faye stared at the back of his head where a small swirl of hair crested the top of his skull. “What do you want with us?” she asked.

The man didn’t answer as he rolled the window down a crack to let in some air. His dark eyes met Faye’s in the rearview mirror, and she shuddered at the implacable expression in them. She began to shake deep inside, though she tried to hide her fear from Heidi.

Heidi crawled into her lap, and Faye rocked and crooned to her as if she were only three instead of eight. Heidi buried her face against Faye. Faye strained to see through the darkness, hoping for someone walking a dog or jogging along the street so she could pound on the window and scream for help, but there was no one around. Though nightlife wasn’t totally unknown on this side of the island, it wasn’t common either. The golden glow from streetlights revealed a sleeping town, then the car left the city limits and headed into the dark night.

J
esse wrenched the steering wheel, and the tires screamed around a tight curve. He knew he was driving too fast, but he kept his foot glued to the accelerator.

“No answer at the house,” Kaia said, clicking off the cell phone.

“They’ve had plenty of time to snatch the
keiki
,” Bane said.

“Do you think they hurt Curtis and—and Faye?” It would have been typical of Faye to fail to protect Heidi. He should have known better than to take his niece to a woman who would desert her own children.

“What did the police say?” Mano asked.

“They’re sending over a patrol car.” Kaia’s voice was strained. “They should get there about the same time as we do.”

The Jeep careened around another curve then went airborne when it hit a bump. The tires slammed onto the pavement, and Jesse fought to keep the SUV on the road. The lights of town were just ahead. He jammed his foot
into the floorboard and sped to the outskirts of town where he slammed on the brakes and barreled around the corner.

The Latchet house was at the end of the lane. A police car, its motor running, sat at the curb, and two uniformed officers stood at the front door. Jesse parked behind the squad car and jumped out of his Jeep. The officers turned as Jesse got to the porch. Kaia was right behind him.

“We called you,” Kaia said. “Jesse’s niece was threatened by a man who forced me into his car.”

“There’s no answer from inside,” the youngest officer said.

“Did you try the door?” Jesse twisted the doorknob, but it was locked.

“Let me call in and get permission to force the door.” The older, portly policeman started toward the patrol car.

“I’ll go around back,” Jesse said. He jogged around the side of the house with Kaia on his heels.

The back door stood open. Kaia took hold of his arm, and her nails bit into his arm. “Oh no,” she whispered.

“Go get the officers,” he said softly.

Kaia nodded. “Wait until they get here.” She ran to the corner of the house and disappeared around the side.

Jesse approached the back steps and examined the frame. The door didn’t look like it had been broken, but it stood wide open. Jesse stepped into the kitchen. Fruit lay scattered on the floor, and his sneakers crunched broken pieces of pottery underfoot; he nearly slipped on mashed chunks of fruit. The aroma of mango filled the air.

He wiped his feet on the rug by the door and flipped on the light. “Faye? Curtis?” He went through the door to the living room and down the hall to the front door. He unlocked the door and swung it open as the officer with Kaia started around the end of the house.

They turned and ran to join Jesse. “You should have waited for me, sir,” the officer said.

Jesse pointed to the stairs. “The bedrooms are up there.”

With his hand on the rail, the older policeman started up the stairs. “I’ll check out the downstairs,” the younger patrolman said.

Jesse went up the stairs. He knew his niece wasn’t down here. At the top of the stairs, he found the policeman bending over a figure on the carpet in the hall.

Curtis was moving about, and his eyes were fluttering as he struggled to gain consciousness. A pool of blood stained the tan carpet by his head. Jesse looked past him into the bedroom. The soft green comforter had been carefully folded and lay across a stand. Every accessory had been coordinated and placed just so. It seemed an attempt to create a perfect haven. This had to be the master bedroom.

Unfortunately, it was empty.

He let the officer take care of Curtis and stepped past them to race down the hall to the guest room. Heidi’s stuffed bear, Boo, lay in the doorway. Jesse caught his breath as his lungs constricted with an awful knowledge. “Heidi?” he croaked. He flipped on the light and looked frantically around the bedroom.

The covers had been thrown back, but the bed was empty, though there was still an indentation in the pillow where Heidi’s head had been. Jesse picked up Boo and clutched the bear to his chest. He sagged against the doorjamb.

He felt a touch and turned. Kaia’s dark eyes were soft and troubled. “She and Faye are both gone?”

He couldn’t have spoken if he tried. Nodding, he gestured toward the bed.

Kaia’s gaze swept the room. “Her suitcase is still here.”

Jesse hadn’t noticed. He’d failed Heidi and Jillian. Failed to protect his precious niece from harm. Some guardian he was. Kaia touched his arm, and he opened his eyes. He knew he needed to do something, find them somehow, but his muscles felt frozen in place. Where did he even start to look?

She put her palms on his cheeks. “We’ll find them, Jesse.”

“How?” he croaked, his tight throat finally allowing a word through.

“God will help us.”

Jesse knew God as an exacting Father. Maybe this was Jesse’s punishment for all the failures in his life. He’d failed to protect his wife and child, and now Faye and Heidi were in danger because of him. He never should have left them.

Kaia leaned up and brushed his lips with hers. The action warmed his cold limbs as nothing else could. He clutched her to his chest and buried his face in her fragrant hair. “You smell like plumeria,” he murmured.

A soft laugh escaped her, and she pulled away. He let her go slowly, wishing he could hold this moment a little longer. Maybe the police would know where to look next. He didn’t have a clue. He followed Kaia down the hall to where the officers crouched over Curtis.

Curtis was sitting up now with his head leaning against the wall. His eyes were closed, and an ugly bruise darkened his forehead. The cut was crusted with dried blood, and Curtis touched it then winced.

“How is he?” Jesse asked the older officer.

“He’ll be all right. The paramedics are on their way.”

Jesse tucked Boo inside his shirt then knelt by Curtis. “What happened?”

Curtis opened his eyes. “I’m not sure. I heard a noise and got up. My gun was on the nightstand, so I took it with me. When I opened the door and stepped into the hall, someone hit me on the head. That’s all I remember.”

Not much help there. “Did you see the attacker at all?” Jesse asked.

“No, not a glimpse.” Curtis looked up, his face contorting with pain at the movement. “I’m sorry, Jesse.” He looked around. “Where’s Faye?”

“Where did you see her last?” an officer asked.

“She was still in bed when I got up. I don’t think she heard whatever it was that I did.” Curtis groaned and leaned forward, holding his head.

“She’s nowhere in the house, sir,” the other patrolman said.

Curtis looked up. “What’s that mean? What about Heidi?”

“Gone as well,” Jesse said. “The back door was standing open when we got here.”

“I shouldn’t have gone to bed,” Curtis said. “Faye wanted me to stay up and stand guard, but I told her we’d be fine. I have state-of- the-art security here. I have no idea how the guy got in.”

“You think there was only one man?” Jesse asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything.” Curtis’s head fell back against the wall.

Twenty-six

A
s Jesse drove along the coastal road, Kaia rolled the Jeep window down and inhaled the scent of the sea, hoping it would soothe the razor-sharp edge of her fear. Her brothers had gone to retrieve her truck and drop it at the dock for her. They wanted to tell their grandfather about his daughter’s abduction, and Kaia had promised to keep them informed of the investigation.