The Last Time She Saw Him (10 page)

“Take a message,” I answer curtly.

“That doesn’t seem very nice.”

“Just do it,” I answer, already knowing my sharp tone not intended for my friend will hurt her feelings anyway.

I pause a beat and wait for Kim’s footsteps to retreat down the wooden hallway floor and pray Logan will have somehow not picked up on Kim’s mention of an aunt he’s never heard of before. But he’s way too smart for that.

“Who’s Sarah? Logan asks.

“Someone I used to know a long time ago.”

“Aunty Kim said she’s your sister.”

“This is important. I need to tell you something before you hear it from someone else first.”

Logan drops his silver dollar he is studying intently with his magnifying glass and a look of worry settles on his face.

“I was going to tell you about this when you got a little older, but sometimes things don’t happen like you plan. So here goes. When I was little, I had an older brother. His name was Ben.”

“You told me you didn’t have any family besides Aunt Carol. Did you lie to me?”

My heart starts to break a little and I try again.

“It wasn’t that I was trying to keep anything from you. I love you. I was just waiting for the right time to tell you.”

“You’re scaring me again,” Logan says.

“You don’t need to be scared. Give me your hand, sweetheart,” I say and Logan timidly reaches out and slips his small hand into mine. “Here’s the story. I moved in with my Aunt Carol when I was seven, just a little younger than you are now. When I was growing up, my family was different than ours. My parents didn’t do the right thing most of the time, and I had a choice to either move in with Aunt Carol or go live with strangers who I didn’t think would care for me. I had an older sister. . . .”

“Sarah?”

“Yes, Sarah is her name, but we were never close. When we got older, Sarah got involved in some bad things, and I needed to distance myself from her for my own protection and later for yours and Will’s.”

“Is Sarah a bad person?”

“You ask tough questions. I haven’t seen her in a long time, so I don’t know. But the one good thing I had growing up was my brother, Ben, and I loved him more than anything in the whole world when I was a little girl.”

“Ben is my middle name. Did you name me after him?”

“Yes. I know he would’ve loved you very much. You look a lot like him, you know.”

“What happened to your brother? Did he die?”

I am not sure how to answer his question. So I simply tell him the truth:

“I don’t know what happened to my brother. Sometimes you just have mysteries you have to solve.”

“Have you been trying to solve your brother’s mystery for a long time?”

“Yes, I have.”

Logan pats my hand like a parent trying to comfort a hurt child. I wrap my arms around his thin frame and hug him as hard as I can.

“I’m going to help you find your brother, right after I help you find Will though. Okay?”

“That’s a deal.”

“Do you think your brother put the candy in my treasure box for me?” Logan asks and retrieves the yellow and red striped wrapper so he can inspect it with his magnifying glass.

“That’s a really nice thought, but I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

“You don’t believe in magic?”

“No, I don’t. If you can’t prove something with facts, then it’s not real.”

Our conversation on magic’s existence ends as Kim begins to rap on the door again, but she doesn’t need to tell me what she wants. I can already smell Anita Burton’s perfume wafting down the hallway like a pungent calling card. I kiss Logan on the head and hurry down the hall to fend her off, but Burton is already standing in my kitchen, wearing a skirt about two sizes too small and chatting up David in a very friendly tone.

“Where’s Navarro? I surely didn’t agree to this.”

“Hi, Julia. I’m Anita Burton. Ray asked me to help out in your son’s missing persons case,” Burton answers, extending her hand. “I’m so sorry about what happened to your boy. I’m not sure if Ray told you about me. I’ve worked with him on numerous high-profile cases. I’m a paranormal investigator.”

Paranormal investigator my ass
, I think as I consider strong-arming Burton out of my house.

“I know exactly who you are,” I answer instead and move past Burton’s extended hand to the front door, which I bang open wide for her exit. “I do not need, nor do I want, your help. It’s a waste of time, and time is one thing I don’t have right now. So if you’ll do me a favor . . .”

“Thanks for holding the door for me,” Navarro says as he breezes inside the house. I detect just a hint of newly applied cologne as he passes by.

“I need to talk to you. In private,” I tell Navarro. I grab his arm and drag him outside in the direction of the backyard patio, where I know we will be out of earshot.

“Julia . . .” Navarro starts, but I cut him off.

“Are you kidding me? You bring your tarty little girlfriend over here right now? This is the laziest example of policing I’ve ever seen. If I weren’t preoccupied with trying to find my missing son, I’d write a story about how the police turned to a psychic less than a day after a child goes missing because they weren’t capable of solving the crime themselves.”

“Hold on.”

“My son was kidnapped last night and this is all you’ve got? I expected way better from you, but men always lead with their dicks, don’t they?”

Navarro shakes a few fallen leaves from Will’s red baby swing, and his jaw settles in a tight line.

“Are you done?” he asks.

“Not even close.”

“You’re such a pain in my ass sometimes,” Navarro grumbles and gives the swing a push. “Before you crucify me, I got your phone message about Cahill’s letters. We’ve already picked them up from the prison, and a forensic scientist is doing a handwriting analysis as we speak. Not to mention the fact that my guys have been busting their asses all morning, talking to every registered sex offender within three hundred miles of your place. We also checked out the list of defendants David gave us who might have been seeking payback from him. Everyone checked out. Three of them are living out of state and have alibis for their whereabouts last night, and the Matthews guy who killed his girlfriend is still serving time over in Carson City.”

“What about the people I mentioned from my crime beat?”

“Rojas was murdered a year ago, right after he got out. We’re still trying to track down Kate Bramwood, but I got a pretty good lead that she’s living in a trailer down on Delmar Street. Russell is going to pay her a visit this morning.”

“What about the connection to my brother’s case? Did you speak with Detective Leidy?”

“I’ve bugged the hell out of the detective who investigated your brother’s disappearance with fifteen calls back and forth already this morning. And the FBI is now involved. For the first time in my career, I actually asked for their help. We’ve got at least three days before we get the DNA results on the evidence we found in your house last night, and that’s pushing it. Anita Burton may be unorthodox, but I need to use every resource to find your boy in the shortest time possible.”

I hold Navarro’s stare for a minute and then finally look away.

“What do you have against Burton anyway?” Navarro asks.

“Despite the fact that she slept with a good portion of the police department and a few firemen, I don’t trust her. Journalists base their stories on facts, not fictional accounts from beyond. Burton is a publicity hound who capitalizes on desperate people searching for loved ones, longing for reassurance a dead relative is indeed in a better place. She takes advantage of people and makes a buck from their misery.”

“Could you just trust me on this one?”

“I don’t put my faith in paranormal hacks. Or sluts either.”

Navarro takes a step back and cocks his head to the side as though something has finally clicked.

“Holy shit. You’re jealous. That’s really what this is all about. It’s not that Anita Burton is a psychic. You’re pissed because we went on a couple of dates.”

“You’re totally off base here. I’m not jealous and I could care less who you date, so go check your ego. Someone stole my son and we have zero time to piss away and Anita Burton is a colossal waste of time.”

Navarro stuffs his hands in his pockets and tries to suppress a smile that begins to curl around his lips. “Remember, Gooden, you were the one who called it off, not me. You wanted the normal life with the nice guy who didn’t drink. That’s what you wanted, right? No more cops, no more drama.”

When Navarro and I first got together, I thought it would be easy to date a police officer. I knew the dangers from my beat. But after Navarro nearly died in a shootout during a drug sting in an abandoned building on Gratiot Avenue, the reality of his work came crashing down on me and a steady ache of worry stayed with me constantly when he was on the job. With David, everything was safe and routine, especially when he moved into private practice. David’s white-collar clients didn’t come packing to trial or wait in the parking garage with their guns drawn, ready to cap David if he lost their case.

“Right. That’s exactly what I have now. A normal life. My son is missing. So, if you’ll shut up, I’ll go inside and talk to your little psychic friend. But she’s got fifteen minutes. That’s it.”

I brush past Navarro and I feel his hand graze my elbow as he tries to pull me back, but I keep on going to the house without turning around.

“Wait a second. I wasn’t trying to piss you off,” he calls out from behind.

I ignore Navarro and make a beeline inside the house without offering him another word. David stands in the living room with Burton and breaks away from her as he notices my expression.

“Is everything all right?” David asks as he walks over to my side.

Before I can respond, Navarro puts out his hand for David to shake.

“Haven’t seen you in the courthouse for a while. I’m sorry about your son, but my guys are working hard to bring him home safely.”

David disregards Navarro’s attempt at a greeting and handshake. Instead, David puts his arm around my shoulder and pulls me close. “If Julia isn’t comfortable with this, then we aren’t going through with it. I’m willing to keep all options open, but this seems like a long shot and I don’t want my wife to be any more upset than she already is.”

I look back at David and feel startled over his comment. I realize we are putting up a united front for Will, but David’s protective reaction is a surprise and something he hasn’t done in years.

“Julia is tough. I already talked to her. She agreed to go through with this,” Navarro answers. “And for the record, no one is trying to make her upset, especially me.”

I glance between David and Navarro. On the surface, the two men couldn’t be more different. David is an Ivy League–trained lawyer whose dad, a retired heart surgeon, lives in a multimillion-dollar home, where David grew up. And Navarro is the only child of immigrant parents whose father is now serving a life sentence in Marquette Branch Prison for first-degree murder. To me, David was the solid-all-around-boy with the most stable future, something I desperately wanted to attain but never thought I could. Navarro was the handsome, passionate guy from the bad part of town whose grandma told him growing up to be proud and ignore the whispers he heard when he walked by. Navarro overcame his childhood to become a good man, although deep down, I believe it’s still a struggle for him to accept that. A person’s self-imposed sins from the past never really go away. They hang on like an indelible, dirty stain.

A flash of red begins to spike up David’s neck, so I intervene before he can open his mouth again and begin to wonder whether his act is genuine or he’s merely puffing out his chest over the perceived competition from his wife’s former flame.

“It’s fine. I agreed to go through with this. I want to keep Logan away though. Can you take him outside to play until Anita Burton is done?” I ask David.

“No. Kim and her aunt can watch Logan. If a psychic is going through my house with the police, I plan to be here.”

“Logan is uncomfortable and scared right now and needs one of us with him. I was here last night when the intruders broke in and took Will, and I may be able to offer something. Please, do this for me.”

David nods reluctantly and then gives Navarro a thinly veiled glare of hostility.

“Thanks,” I tell David and then turn my sights on Navarro. “Fifteen minutes. That’s all she’s got.”

I wait for David and Logan to get outside and away from the upcoming show. When they are out of sight, Navarro begins to lead his psychic friend on a tour, and I tail them just steps behind.

Navarro traces the route he thinks the suspects may have followed, starting with the garage and then down the upstairs hallway to the boys’ bedrooms.

“Whoever took Will most likely had been here before,” Navarro says. “They knew the layout of the house and the home security code. The suspects disabled the alarm and then pried the garage door window open.”

“So, there are two suspects?” Burton asks as her rear end swishes back and forth like a slow-moving pendulum.

“Aren’t you supposed to tell us that?” I ask.

“Yes, Julia heard two distinct sets of footsteps running down the hallway toward her kids’ rooms,” Navarro answers. “The kidnappers went into Logan’s room first, but he was hiding under the bed. We aren’t sure at this point if they were looking to take both boys or just one. Either way, when they didn’t see Logan, whoever was in his room left quickly and headed straight to the baby’s room.”

“Ray, can you lead me to Will’s room?” Burton asks.

I haven’t been able to venture back in there since last night. Navarro and Burton disappear inside Will’s bedroom ahead of me, but I pause at the door, wondering for a second if I have the courage to actually enter.