Cry in the Night (21 page)

“Your green eyes are throwing sparks,” he said, his voice teasing. “She’s just a kid.”

“She’s only a few years younger than me.”

“Well, she acts like a kid. I’ve just been trying to make her feel at home.”

“She’s quite enough at home,” she muttered. “I want her to leave.” She should be ashamed of herself, but there was enough going on without the constant annoyance of Jenna.

“We can’t just kick her out,” he said, his smile fading.

She rubbed her head. “I know. I keep thinking she’ll get tired of small-town life and leave, but she does seem to love her brother. I’m not sure she’ll go anywhere until Victor is released.”

“You look at the sudokus any more?”

“I’ve been checking on all nine-digit numbers I can find for any connection to Pia or Florence. I’m about halfway through the list. There are so many. How about your search for the mountain lion?”

His smile vanished. “I’ll check my camera tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have some shots.”

“Why are you so uptight about all this? I’ve never seen you so desperate.”

His lips flattened. “Lots of stuff going on at work. Finding the cougar will . . . will help.”

“Help what?”

He shrugged, and she knew he wasn’t going to answer that. The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it.” She rose and went to the door, where she found Lauri on the steps with the snow swirling around her. She pulled her inside, then noticed the younger girl’s pallor. “What’s wrong?”

“Where’s my brother? I need to talk to him. Alone.”

“In the living room.” Bree stood aside as Lauri brushed past. Her sister-in-law could be almost snippy at times, and Bree didn’t understand what set her off. Lauri wasn’t telling either.

Bree went to check on her son. He was sleeping with Samson on the foot of the bed. The dog didn’t move as she stood watching in the doorway, but if she’d been an intruder, he would have been a mass of bristly hair and teeth. She backed out of the room and stopped by the master bedroom, where she peeked in on Olivia. The baby didn’t stir, but she’d be awake in another hour for a feeding.

Bree went down the hall to the office and turned on the computer. She called up the browser and began to search for missing children again. A news article from Minnesota caught her eye. “Adoptive Parents Blow Whistle,” it read. She clicked the link and began to skim the article. They’d requested a blue-eyed boy and paid a premium of a hundred thousand dollars. After a diagnosis of autism, they tried to find out more about their son and eventually discovered he’d been stolen from a Native American single mother. The father was Caucasian. The police was investigating the possibility of a baby ring.

All the incidences of missing babies in this area were connected to single moms like Ellie Bristol, Bree realized. And maybe of mixed race. Was someone taking them and selling them? Maybe whoever it was justified their actions based on some self-righteous morality or even bigotry.

She’d have to talk to Mason about it. Rising from the computer, she went down the steps. No voices emerged from the living room, and she found Kade alone. “Lauri gone already?”

“Yeah.”

“What did she want?”

He rubbed the top of his head. “She said she overheard some guy threatening her boss. It had to do with blackmail and murder evidently. She wanted to know what to do and I told her to talk to Mason. She wasn’t ready to do that yet.” He made a face. “I love the girl, but it’s always something with her.” He pulled Bree down on his lap and nuzzled her neck.

Bree tried to snuggle against him, but a stray thought nearly had her bolting from his embrace. If Rob was alive, what would that mean to her marriage?

Quinn paced until Rosen’s knock came on the cabin door. He threw it open. “Took you long enough.”

“What’re you so riled about?” Rosen asked. He walked to the living room, where he dropped into a chair.

“I’m tired of this whole thing. I can’t trust either of you, and I want it to be over so I can get out of this backwater.” He’d finally gotten hold of his partner but the conversation met the usual impasses over Florence’s death. At this point, he knew the partnership wouldn’t survive much longer, so he didn’t spare any regrets over it.

“We’ve got several, um, problems to wrap up. You were supposed to get rid of the boy days ago. Is that something I’m going to have to do for you?”

“He’s a nonissue. So’s Victor. Neither one of them is talking.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Jenna is inside the Matthews house. She hears everything. The kid doesn’t know what he saw. And Victor won’t even talk to her.”

Rosen’s lips thinned. “If one of them fingers me, we’re all on the hook. I’m not walking away and worrying when the cops are going to knock on my door. If you don’t handle this, I will.”

“You’ll do what you’re told!” Even as Quinn issued the order, he saw the veiled contempt in the other man’s eyes. Rosen thought him too weak to do what had to be done.

“The boss has other plans,” Rosen said.

“We’re partners. I have just as much control over this situation as he does.” But Quinn didn’t, and they both knew it.

Quinn tamped down the growing panic in his chest. He couldn’t be sure Rosen wouldn’t move on his own. The danger surrounding Davy was growing.

Friday morning Lauri stood in an alley doorway out of the wind and stamped her feet to keep them warm. Her car had refused to start this morning, and Wes should be along any minute to run her to work.

She spied his old pickup careening around the corner. Moving out of the shielded cubbyhole, she nearly staggered when the wind struck her back. She hurried toward his vehicle and was about to slide inside when a white Mercedes slid to a stop at the curb. The window ran down without a sound, and Mr. Jones looked her over with an expressionless face.

“Get in,” he said.

She heard a click and the door locks sprang up. She stood glancing from Wes’s front passenger seat to the back door of the other car. Wes shut off the engine of his truck and leaped out. He joined her beside the Mercedes.

“You okay, Lauri?” he asked.

“It’s him,” she whispered. “Mr. Jones.” She took a step away from the truck. “What do you want?”

“I want to talk to you. Not him, just you.” He indicated with a jerk of his thumb that he wanted her in the passenger seat.

Wes put his hands on his hips. “She doesn’t go without me.” He climbed into the backseat before the man could say anything.

Lauri stood wringing her hands. Getting in that car would be stupid. She didn’t trust him.

Her gaze rocketed around the neighborhood, but she saw no one she could call to for help.

“Get in,” he said again. “I’m not going to hurt you. I have a business proposition.”

His mild tone calmed her fears only a little. She reluctantly opened the passenger door and slid inside. The car’s warmth soaked into her chilled skin. She dared a glance at the man and found him studying her. She let him look and infused her own stare with defiance.

“You’re younger than I thought,” he said, his high voice abrupt.

“I’m nearly twenty,” she said with an edge to her tone.

Mr. Jones waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “Look kid, I know you heard stuff that was none of your business. I followed you when you went running to your brother. What did you tell him?”

“I didn’t hear anything,” she said, desperate to keep her brother out of it. “I just stopped by to say hello.”

“Don’t play games, little girl.”

Wes leaned forward from the back. “We know everything,” he said, tipping up his chin. “How you murdered someone and how you’re blackmailing the Saunders family.”

Lauri nearly groaned. She so didn’t want to be here. This was going to get them in trouble. She just knew it.

The man glanced at her. “You going to let this guy speak for you?”

She shrugged and attempted a smile.

He studied her face, then shrugged. “I’ll give you ten grand, and you keep your mouth shut about anything you’ve heard. None of it’s your business.”

Wes cleared his throat. “We want twenty thousand.”

The guy rolled his eyes. “Go right for the jugular, huh? Fifteen.”

“I don’t think you want to end up behind bars,” Wes said. “We’re not taking less than twenty. This is huge.”

Lauri wanted to tell Mr. Jones she didn’t want his money, but Wes could really use the cash. It might be just what they needed to break free of his family. She choked back the fear bubbling up. The guy studied her face, and she bit her lip but managed to hold his gaze. She kept her expression defiant. At least she hoped that’s what he took away from it. A serious threat. When he jerked his chin down in an abrupt nod, she nearly sagged in the seat.

He reached into the back and pulled a black snakeskin briefcase into the front with him. Fiddling with the combination, he cursed until the levers flipped up. He pulled out stacks of twenties, which he began tossing into her lap.

Terror filled her. She swallowed hard. She was so going to regret this.

His lips twisted. “Don’t go getting any bright ideas. That’s all. No more, it’s done. If I find out you’ve told anyone what you heard, you’re dead.”

Dead? Lauri gulped and studied the hard glint in his eyes. She stuffed the money into her bag. “I won’t say anything to anyone. My brother doesn’t know anything.” Neither did she, not really. Not even his real name.

“Our lips are sealed,” Wes said, his voice full of suppressed excitement. A grin tugged at his lips.

“You’d better not, either one of you.” He stared at them. “Though there is one more requirement to the deal.”

“Requirement?”

“I want to make sure you have incentive not to talk.”

Looking into his glittering eyes, she had plenty of incentive.

“What do you want?”

“It’s about your brother,” he said.

“Don’t drag my brother into this.”

“He’s got a son. A young boy.”

Lauri sank against the seat back. “Yes.”

“I’d like to have a chat with him.”

Lauri shook her head. “He’s just a little kid. Why would you want to talk to him?”

“That’s my business,” he said. “All you have to do is bring the kid to the Raccoon Lake picnic grounds and leave me alone with him for thirty minutes.”

“I don’t want him hurt,” she said.

“I’m not going to hurt him. This could all be over for you. Everyone will be happy. Once it’s done, I’ll know I can trust you because you won’t want anyone to know what you did either.”

Lauri wasn’t sure she believed his smooth voice. Even as an inner voice urged her to do whatever it took to get out of this mess, she envisioned Davy’s earnest green eyes and the smattering of freckles across his nose. It would kill her if this guy hurt him.

She summoned her courage. “I can’t do that.”

He shrugged. “Deliver the kid or pay the consequences.”

“He’s just a little boy!” Her throat closed, and her eyes grew hot. “What do you want with him?”

“I need some leverage,” he said.

Leverage? “Leave him alone.”

“Look, kid, I’m not going to hurt a little boy. I’m just going to talk to him. Talk.”

Now that he was being persuasive rather than threatening, she was even more afraid. There was something very big at stake, and she didn’t have the foggiest idea what it might be.

She wet her lips. “No, I can’t do it.”

He glanced at Wes. “I think you will. Eventually. I’ll be in touch.” His tone dismissed her.

She fumbled for the door handle, but it didn’t open and she realized it was locked. She flipped the lock and shoved open the door. Her knees trembled as she leaped from his car to Wes’s truck. She locked her door and sat shaking in the passenger seat.

Wes exited the backseat of the Mercedes and flung himself under the steering wheel of his truck. “What a rush!” He jammed the key into the ignition switch.

The engine ground. “Come on, come on,” she whispered. “Get us out of here.” She wanted never to see that guy again.

The engine caught, and the tires spun on the ice as Wes pulled away from the curb. He grabbed her bag with one hand and opened it. “Twenty grand! We can start a new life, Lauri. You’ll see.”

“He’s going to kill Davy, Wes.” The words came out between sobs. She loved her little nephew. What had she done?