Cool in Tucson (19 page)

Sarah took a deep breath, glancing quickly at Artie Mendoza and Ed Merlin, who sat on either side of her watching the two of them, ready to cut this off if it turned into a family fight.  They were stretching their prerogatives as a professional courtesy to her but their patience was not going to last much longer. 
And Denny’s out there—
  “Are you quite sure you parked where you showed us, in the handicapped zone?”

“I never even noticed those stupid little stripes on the ground, Sarah, they should mark those things a lot better than they do.”

“Never mind that now.  Just tell me if you’re sure you were right there under the store sign, by the stacks of chairs.”

Janine lifted her arms out from her sides, spread the fingers of both hands in a gesture of supreme exasperation, and said, “Yes!”  The three faces in front of her closed up and went bland. Sarah got up, nodded to the two uniformed patrolmen and they all moved to the door.  Janine said, “What—?”

            Sarah turned, holding the door open, and said, “Just wait right there a minute.”  She closed the door and the three of them stood in the aisle by the deli counter with their heads together. 

“Okay, she lied, but I’m not seeing any malice here,” Mendoza said.  He looked at his backup. 

“No,” Merlin said, “but there might be an issue about driving under the influence.  I’ve got a kit in the car—”

“We’re not going to prove a whole lot now,” Mendoza said, “I think it’s more important to find the kid.” 

“I don’t see this as an intentional kidnapping, do you?”  Sarah watched his face.  She was asking, without saying it aloud, if they could keep the FBI out of it for now.  “Doesn’t it feel like if we find the car we’ll find Denny?”   

“Sure looks that way to me,” Merlin said, “but I guess we ought to see what they say about it downtown.”

“Well, but best chance to find her is in the next couple hours,” Mendoza said.  “Rather than bog down in bureaucracy, why don’t we just ask everybody that’s got a minute to start driving a grid around this area?”

“We can try that,” Merlin said, “for a while.”

“Good.  Here’s my cell number.” Sarah handed out cards.  “Can you keep me in the loop?”

“Count on it,” Artie Mendoza said.  They had done domestics and a burglary watch together, broken up bar fights and talked a crack addict down off a roof.  They were tight.  Sarah knew he would help her in any way he could, within his limited options.  Merlin had more reservations, she could see, about the slight bending of rules they had already allowed, but he trusted Mendoza so he was going along.  Mendoza punched her shoulder lightly and she held up a thumb to each of them. 

They went back in the manager’s office where Janine waited.  Mendoza, as first responder, explained that his incident report was going to have to include the lie she had told about two armed men.   But he and his partner would be searching for her car and her child, and they would enlist as much help as they could.  “Let’s see, I already have your address and phone number, and this description of Denny, we can put that out right away.  We need to count on you to stay home so we can find you, okay?”  He was quiet and polite, but not sympathetic.  Janine watched him anxiously, uncertain how to deal with a man who seemed impervious to her charms.

“I’ll take Janine home,” Sarah said, as they walked out of the store. 

In the car Janine said, in a small voice, “Will you stay with me tonight?”

“No,” Sarah said.  “I’m going to drive around, look for Denny.”

“Let me go with you!  Please?”

“You heard Artie, you have to stay home.”

“Listen, I don’t have to do anything just because
he
says it.”

“Janine, weren’t you listening to him? They need to know where you’ll be if they find Denny!”

“I heard him, I heard him.”  She pouted.  “I hate being preached at.”  

“He was just telling you how things are.  You know yourself, it’s possible Denny might just come home.”  

“Oh, Sarah, do you think she might?  Get away from those two goons—”

“Janine,” Sarah said, “there aren’t any two goons, remember?  You made them up.”

Janine waved off the lie.  “However many rotten guys took my car, I bet my Denny can get away from them.  She’s such a bright kid, isn’t she, Sarah?” 

“Uh-huh.”

When they turned into Lurline street, Janine began peering ahead toward her house, muttering. Sarah said, “What?” 

“I said I hope he’s gone.”

“Who?”

“Uh…Buster.”  They reached her block and she said, “Good, his car’s gone, he must be gone.”  Sarah stopped the car.  Janine turned with sudden urgency and begged,  “Will you come in with me?  Please?  Just till I get in the house.”

“Are you afraid of the man you left here?  The one you bought the beer for?” 

“Kind of.  Maybe.  I’m not sure.”  She looked around.  “Where’s the groceries?”

“In the trunk.  Why would he be mad at you?”

“Well…he gave me some money.  And then I never got back with his smokes.”

“I see.”  Sarah got out of the car, looked around.  The street was empty.  All the lights were on in Janine’s house.  Hard to tell.  She unsnapped the cover on her holster and folded it back.  “Okay, let’s go in.”  She popped the trunk open.  “Can you carry both of those?”

“Yes.  Oh, God, my house key’s on the ring with the car keys, though.  What if he locked—” But Sarah was already turning the knob, and the door swung open.  The kitchen and living room shared the cluttered space at the front of the house.  It smelled like marijuana, Marlboros and beer.  Through the open door of Janine’s bedroom, Sarah could see her trashed bed, sheets and blankets trailing on the floor. 

They stepped inside.  On the kitchen table, among the empty beer cans, someone had written with a red flare pen, “FUCK YOU BITCH.” 

Janine set the grocery bags down on top of the message, and began to cry.

Denny’s door was closed.  Sarah put her right hand on her weapon, stood by the door hearing nothing, turned the knob and pushed.  The door would only open halfway.  She stepped in quickly, looked behind it, and found Denny’s little armchair there.  Odd.  The desk light was on, shining on Denny’s books and papers.  The rest of the room was neat and empty.  She opened the closet door.  Empty.

She checked Janine’s room and the bathroom quickly.  “Okay, all clear,” she said.  Janine was still standing by the kitchen table, sniffling into a tissue.  “Let’s be sure the back door and the windows are all locked, okay?  Then you lock the front door after me and you’ll be fine.” 

Janine lifted her woebegone face out of a mound of wet tissue and wailed, “You’re going to leave me here all alone?”

“Janine,” Sarah locked the back door and tested it, “do you think this man is dangerous?” 

“Oh,
I
don’t know.  I just met him.” 

“So you took him right home to bed, huh?” 

“What, you always wait until the banns are read?”

Janine had her head up now, glaring, and Sarah’s anger flared. 
Not too helpless to scratch your sister. 
“Fine.  Sleep with thugs, destroy yourself, I won’t say another word.” All three windows were locked.  Not that they’d keep anybody out if he really wanted to get in. 

Going out the front door, she said, “Come and lock this while I’m still here.”  Janine, looking defiant, stamped over, but then, typically, folded at the door and clutched Sarah’s arm, beseeching, “Promise you’ll call me right away if you hear anything.”

“Of course.  Try to sleep, it will make the time pass.”  She stood outside till she heard the bolt turn. 

She was two blocks away, still steaming, before she thought,
Damn, I shouldn’t have left her with
the beer
.  But she couldn’t persuade herself to go back.

As she drove out of the dark, narrow street onto Kolb Road, hot and noisy with streaming traffic, she put her sister out of her mind and focused on probabilities.  Which way was he likely to go, this kidnapper/car thief? 

Where’s my Denny?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

When she woke up and felt the car moving, Denny thought Mom must have forgotten to put the brake on.  Afraid she was rolling around the parking lot, she sat up fast. 

            The car had a driver, but it wasn’t Mom. 
Oh, swell, another boyfriend. 
 What was he doing out in the street though, and why were all the horns blowing?

“What happened?” she said.  “Where’s Mom?”  The guy stammered something about Mom telling him to move the car.  That made no sense at all, was he high?  She got ready to start screaming.  She’d heard once if you felt uneasy with strange grown-ups, the thing to do was yell till some other grown-up came and helped.  The logic of such a move felt a little shaky to her─how could you be sure the second grown-up would be any better than the first?  But it was the only idea that came to her so she decided to try it at the next red light. 

In the meantime, though, because you might as well try everything, she told the new boyfriend she needed her Mom because she was hungry.  And right away, instead of telling her to wait, he asked her what she wanted to eat.  Now what was
that
all about?  Anybody knew boyfriends thought hungry kids were one of the biggest drags on earth.  

But Denny was so hungry by then that just talking about food made her stomach growl, so she pretended to believe he meant it, and asked for two things Aunt Sarah wouldn’t allow and Mom usually couldn’t afford.  And this strange man, maybe he really was from another planet because he didn’t even argue, just drove right up to the window and ordered everything she said, even the fries she thought of at the last minute.  Then he ordered a second set of everything for himself.  Mom had really latched onto something here—but he was way too young for her, what was she thinking?  

An even bigger surprise was how he paid for the food, reaching into that grocery sack on the floor to fish out a bill.  Denny had seen plenty of flaky boyfriends but this was the first one that carried his money in a Trader Joe’s bag.  He didn’t bother her while she ate, though, give him that much.  He finished his own food first and said he had to go somewhere, and she went along without any objections because the food tasted so good she couldn’t even think of leaving it.

He made a phone call while he drove and got mad at the person on the other end.  She heard him say his name, too, Hector.  As if she cared what his name was, but why was he whispering it?  Then he dialed another number but didn’t send the call, she could tell by the sound.  He sat there like a dork, driving the car and talking into a dead phone, and pretty soon she realized he was pretending to talk to her mother.  Mom did have her cell phone in the store, the only phone she had and she carried it everywhere.  But what was up with this guy?  Even the boys on the school bus didn’t act
that
crazy. 

She began to be really concerned about being out in the car with anybody so off the wall.  It was one thing after another, as soon as he quit pretending to talk to Mom he started talking about the movies.  She had to decide fast if she should try to get this nut case to take her home, or go to his old movie.  She didn’t really want to go anywhere with him, but compared to that creepy slimeball Mom had left in the bedroom at home, whispering Hector looked like a better choice.  At least he bought burgers and fries, and so far his worst fault was pretending to talk into a dead phone.  Dweeby but probably harmless, she decided.  Besides, she could finish the essay questions on the way to school in the morning, but who knew if she’d ever get another chance to see
Master and
Commander?