Stranger in Town (3 page)

Now I understood why he’d taken the time to mention the other kidnapping: if both parents received the same type of correspondence, the kidnappings could be connected. 

“When did Olivia’s parents receive their coloring page?”

He leaned in.  “Last week.  And do you want to know what the cops did with it?  They published it in the local paper.  Why the hell would they do that?”

“It’s a new lead.  Olivia has been missing for two years.  Maybe they’re trying to generate some interest.”

“I always thought the kidnappings were connected,” he said.  “McCoy looked into it, but he never found any evidence to support my theory, other than the fact both girls were taken from the same part of Wyoming.  When I received the coloring page in the mail, I found out where Olivia’s parents lived and paid them a visit.  Imagine how good it felt to know they’d received one too.  I’ve been right all along.”

“I don’t mean to sound callous Mr. Tate, but how do you know this isn’t someone’s idea of a sick joke?”

“Mrs. Hathaway said Olivia’s favorite color was green.  The page they received was full of stars, all of them colored green.”

“What’s the significance of the star?”

“Apparently Olivia had some kind of glow-in-the-dark solar system on the ceiling of her bedroom, and green was her favorite color.”

“And I’m guessing Savannah’s room is pink and princess-themed?”

He nodded. 

“It must have been checked for fingerprints,” I said.

“Olivia’s parents said when the prints were processed the only ones they found besides theirs were Olivia’s.  They checked the envelope it was sent in too.  There were no prints that couldn’t be accounted for.”

I held the page in front of me.  “Mr. Tate, you have to turn this over to the investigators working on your case.  You can’t keep it.”  

He slapped his hand against the side of the table.  “I will not!”

“This coloring page is the one thing connecting both abductions to each other.  Can’t you understand why the police need to be informed?  It will give them the first solid lead they’ve had in months.”

He shook his head.  “You don’t get it.  I don’t care about Olivia’s case.  I mean, of course I feel sorry for what her parents are going through, but my only concern right now is finding my daughter.”

I pressed my pointer fingernail into the pink wax on the page.  “I’m sure you can’t see it right now, but you’re hurting your chances of finding Savannah by hanging on to this.  I understand what it means to your wife, but you need to listen to me.”  

He threw both of his hands into the air.  “I thought if I paid you to do a job, you’d have to do things my way.  I’m the client.  You work for me.”

I pushed my chair back and stood up.  “I work for myself.  And I don’t appreciate you treating me like I’m some factory worker you can order around just because you’re waving a wad of cash in front of my face.”

“Now, hold on a minute.  Listen—”

Breathe, Sloane, breathe.

“No, you listen.  If I agree to take your case, and by ‘agree,’ I mean, I make the decision—not you—I’ll stick with it until it’s solved or I’m certain there’s nothing else I can do.  You can take it or leave it, but I’ll tell you one thing—you’ll never find another PI with the same kind of devotion that I have.”

The way his face twisted up while I talked told me he hadn’t been spoken to that way by a woman very often, if ever. 

“Wow, you sure think a lot of yourself, don’t you?”

“Here’s how it works with me,” I said.  “If I decide to take your case, you’ll comply by doing exactly what I want you to do when I want you to do it.  You have the right to refuse, giving me the right to walk away.  I will never ask you to do anything that isn’t in your best interest.  And if you want my help finding out what happened to your daughter, I suggest you accept my offer.”

He shook his head.  “This isn’t how I thought our conversation would go at all.  I’m not sure…”

“You thought money would allow you to call the shots,” I said.  “Making money is great, but I choose cases based on what interests me.  Perhaps we both should take some time to think about what we’re getting ourselves into.”

Although I meant every word of it, my insides burned.  I had every intention of looking into the case of both missing girls, whether he decided to be my client or not.  Mr. Tate remained silent.  I assumed he was second guessing our arrangement.  I took the money out of my bag and chucked it across the table.  It landed half on his lap—and half on the seat he was sitting in. 

He snatched the envelope and stood up.  “Wait just a minute.  Don’t go—please.”

“If I’m not the right fit for you, Mr. Tate, I understand,” I said.  

His shaking hand rubbed his watery eye.  “Ms. Monroe, can you imagine what it’s like to lose the one you love, and just when you’ve given up, something happens that gives you renewed hope?  I wish you could understand what it feels like.”

I thought of my sister, Gabby, and the emotions I’d experienced when I learned she’d been captured and murdered by a serial killer who had no regard for human life.  A serial killer who later ended up dead when he learned what happened when you messed around with the wrong girl’s sister.

“You do know what it’s like,” he said.  “I can see it in your eyes. You lost someone too, didn’t you?”

“My sister.”

“How then can you ask me to hand over a part of my daughter?  This paper is the only connection to her existence that I have left.”

I sighed.  I didn’t want to empathize, but I couldn’t help it.  But he’d still have to let go of the paper sooner or later if he expected to ever see his daughter again.  Connecting the two murders would reignite the flame in both cases.  

“I’ll make you a deal,” I said.  “I’ll accept you as a client.  But, if I find any new evidence, you agree to hand the page over without question.”

He let it sink in for a moment before responding and then said, “You have my word.”

“Good.  I need to go home and get my things together.  I’ll be in touch.”

He walked over, throwing his arms around me unexpectedly.  “Thank you.  Thank you so much.  I didn’t mean to be so hard on you.  These last few months have been rough.  Losing my daughter is hard enough, but lately it feels like I’m losing my wife too.”

I leaned back, breaking from his embrace.  “You have every right to be on edge right now.  But I need you to remember, I’m not the enemy.  I’m here to help you, and that’s what I intend to do.” 

He nodded.  I pushed the front door of the restaurant open, and we both walked out.

“Oh, one more thing,” I said.  “Who referred you to me?”

“Some guy I met in a bar.”

“Do you remember his name?”

He scratched the side of his head.  “Called himself Calhoun.” 

CHAPTER 5

Nick Calhoun.  The man was, in a word, pushy.  The mention of his name, or in this case, half of it, caused my anxiety to spike on several levels.  I sat down in the driver’s seat but didn’t start the car.  Instead, I opened the glove box, removing a bottle of prescription medication.  I didn’t take it often, but reserved it for moments of high intensity like this one. 

I hadn’t seen or heard from Nick in months.  Not since we’d broken up over his control issues.  A three-year relationship wasted—all because he couldn’t meet me halfway.  I even moved in with the guy when I wasn’t ready, but it still wasn’t enough.  Nothing ever was with him.  Nick had never approved of me being a private investigator, so the fact he’d mentioned me to someone else was startling. 

I picked my cell phone out of my pants pocket, scanning the contact list until I spotted his name.  And then I sat there, staring at Nick’s number, trying to make a decision.  It was time for me to experience an important rite of passage every girl endured at some point: the ‘should I’ or ‘shouldn’t I’ of past relationships.  I’d never met a woman who hadn’t reached out to at least one of their exes, but I’d never done it.  I preferred to remember why things ended and how reestablishing contact usually led to the guy getting the wrong idea about why the girl called him in the first place.  Women had several different reasons for reconnecting, of course, but the main one?  Closure.  And I already had mine.  So when I dialed his number and the phone started ringing in my ear, I was anything but prepared.   

“You still with the suit?” he said.

“Hello to you too,” I said.

“I didn’t know how long our conversation would be, so I thought I’d get the important part out of the way at the beginning.”

“You expected my call then?”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“I’d rather not talk about him,” I said.  “He’s not the reason why I called.”

Nick laughed. 

“So you
are
still with him?  Afraid of what he’ll do to you if you call it quits?”

I sighed.  “Can we talk about something else?”

“Like what—the fact you refuse to speak to me?”

“The last time we spoke on the phone, you hung up,” I said.  “Remember?”

“There wasn’t anything left to say.”

“Exactly,” I said.  

“And now?”

Regret.  And the strong urge to rewind the moment and make the decision
not
to call him at all.  And an even stronger urge to purchase and consume an entire bottle of wine once I arrived back home.  Or maybe two bottles. 

Does every woman feel like this? 

“Rusty, you still there?” he said.

“Rusty” had been Elvis’s pet name for actress Ann-Margret Olsson, who supposedly considered Elvis to be the love of her life.  Since Nick had felt the same way about me once upon a time, in his mind, the name applied.  I never liked it.  He didn’t care. 

“Please don’t call me that,” I said.

“Why not?  You used to love it.”

I sighed.

“Can we get back to the reason I’m calling?”

“It’s still all business with you, isn’t it?  It was always hard trying to get you to unwind.”

“What do you know, Nick?”

“Do you even think about me anymore?”

“I haven’t thought about us for months.”

“Why?  Because you’re too busy with the suit?”

“Please Nick—just stop.  All I care about right now is how you know Mr. Tate.”

“Fine.  I was traveling through Jackson Hole last week.  I was driving straight through, but I was tired, so I decided to stay the night.  I went to some local bar and sat next to your guy.”

“Noah Tate?”

“Obviously.”

“Go on,” I said.  

“This Tate guy said his four-year-old daughter had been kidnapped several months earlier.  He’d come to the realization he would never see her again and had decided to kill himself and his wife.”

“Wow,” I said.  “He left that part out of the conversation.  At least he didn’t do it.”

“Don’t get too relieved, he almost did.  He said he was loading the gun when his wife came in with an envelope addressed to the two of them.  He opened it and found some paper inside he claims is from his missing daughter.”

“And?”

“At first I thought he was crazy.  I didn’t care if he was drunk or sober.  I couldn’t understand why he’d tell that kind of thing to someone he’d just met.”

“So you thought the guy was a lunatic, and yet you gave him my card?” I said.

“I told him I’d left something in my truck and snuck away so I could check out his story.  Turned out, it was true.  I did a search on my phone.  There were photos all over the Internet of Tate, his wife, and their missing daughter.  I gave him your card because from what Tate led me to believe, he doesn’t trust the police.”

“Yeah, I got that impression too,” I said.  

“I’ve dealt with guys like him before—they all have the same glossed-over look in their eyes.  This one’s teetering on the edge.  He’s unpredictable, and I thought if anyone could help him, it’s you.”

“I don’t get it,” I said.  “You always hated what I did for a living.”

“Still do.  But no matter what I think, you’ll keep doing it anyway.”

“So you thought why not throw me a bone?” I said.

“Look, I genuinely question Tate’s sanity.  But I thought if you looked into the kidnapping, it might give him something to live for—buy the guy and his wife some time before it’s too late.”     

CHAPTER 6

Maddie sat on the couch with my very tired westie, Lord Berkeley, a.k.a. Boo, asleep in her lap.  “Still no answer?”

“I’ve been calling him for three days now.  The phone goes straight to voicemail every time.”

Maddie squinted.

“You ever have this problem with Giovanni before?”

“Never.  We’ve been dating for several months now, and this is the longest we’ve gone without talking to each other.”

“Hmm.  When was the last time you heard from him?”

“He called me a few days ago, saying he had some kind of urgent business to attend to in New York City.  But ever since he left, I haven’t heard a word—no text, no phone call, nothing.  That’s not a relationship.  Not to me.”

“Maybe he’s in trouble,” Maddie said.

I shook my head.  “Giovanni is the type of person who starts trouble and then later ends it.”

Maddie smacked me on the shoulder.  “You’re still hung up on the whole ‘mafia’ thing, aren’t you?”

“It’s not a ‘thing,’ Maddie, it’s real.  Just because he refuses to talk to me about it doesn’t make it any different.”

“But you’ve never actually seen him involved in any mafia activity, so how do you know exactly what the guy does?”

“Of course I have,” I said.  “He just thinks I have no idea what anyone is talking about.”

I stared at the lake outside my bedroom window, wishing I could climb onto my inflatable raft and fall asleep under the watchful eye of the afternoon sun.

“I’m leaving for a few days,” I said.

“What—when?”

“Tomorrow morning.  I took a new case yesterday.”

Maddie pushed her elbows into the comforter on my bed, propping her hands onto her cheeks.  Boo slid off of her and onto one of my pillows.  “Where are you off to?”

“Wyoming,” I said.

She laughed.