Soul Walk (A Lacey Fitzpatrick and Sam Firecloud Mystery Book 7) Page 8

  “Me, too,” he nodded. “And you think this guy at the sheriff’s office will be able to find the little girl?”

  “Yes,” she said. “If there’s any record at all, he’ll find it. And there has to be one, right? Little girls don’t just disappear.”

  Sam stared down at the floor, his brow creased. Lacey saw the shadow of last night pass over his face. She stepped up to him, put her hand light on his arm.

  “Can you talk to me about it?” she asked softly.

  He raised his head, erasing all evidence of concern from his face. She was afraid she’d get that wooden look, that strong, stoic denial. Instead he stared deeply into her eyes.

  “Not yet,” he said finally.

  Not yet. That meant someday… maybe. She decided to take it as a good sign. “All right,” she said gently. She squeezed his hand and moved away.

  “Do I have time to shower?” he asked, waving the water bottle toward the oven.

  “Plenty of time,” she said.

  “Great.” He put the water back in the fridge and ambled toward the bedroom.

  Over dinner, Lacey related Diana’s news about the filming so far and the upcoming review.

  “It’ll be interesting to see how they edit it, how they cut and splice it together,” she said.

  “Yes, it will,” he agreed. He arched an eyebrow at her. “They can’t, like, PhotoShop me on film, can they? Make my eyes roll?”

  She laughed. “I don’t think so. But you never know. You’ve seen those commercials where dogs and cats talk and their eyes get real big. Maybe they could do that with you.” She tilted her head at him as if imagining the results.

  “Terrific,” he snorted.

  She patted his arm. “Don’t worry; you’ve got final approval, remember.”

  “We do,” he corrected.

  “Yeah,” she said. “We do.”

  After dinner, once they’d cleaned up the kitchen, they retired to the couch in the living room. “What do you want to do? Watch a movie?” he asked.

  “We could,” she said.

  “You wanna do something else? It’s Friday night. Wanna go out?”

  She considered that. “Not especially.” She wormed her way into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder and breathing in the clean, fresh smell of his skin and hair.

  His arms tightened around her. “We’re already like an old married couple,” he said in mock complaint.

  She smiled. “Yeah.” No complaint there from her. But then she remembered that other thing last night. Abruptly she sat up and punched his arm. “I’m mad at you,” she said.

  His brow creased with confusion. “Why? What’d I do?”

  She flounced on the couch, crossing her arms over her chest. “Last night you thought I was patronizing you. You thought I was throwing you a bone about looking for a bigger place. But I wasn’t. I meant every word.”

  He watched her carefully, his features devoid of any expression. “Are you sure?”

  She huffed out a breath. “Yes, I’m sure. Have I ever just given in to you before without meaning it?”

  His eyebrows inched upward. “How about the last time I mentioned it? You said yes, then, too, but you had that deer-in-the-headlights look in your eyes.”

  She remembered that, and let her gaze slide away from his as her cheeks flamed. “Well,” she said, “okay, once. But I meant it last night.” She locked eyes with him again, defiant. “So what do you think? Are we going to do this or not?”

  He met the challenge with silence, but gradually his mouth curved upward in a slow smile. “Yeah,” he said. “We are.”

  “Cool,” she said. She jumped up and retrieved her laptop, brought it back and sat close to Sam. “Let’s see what’s out there.”

  ~~~

  FIFTEEN

  Saturday they even got the kids involved. When Sam told them they were going to be looking for a bigger place, the kids immediately chimed in with requests.

  “A place with a pool!” Daniel said.

  “A playground!” Kenzie added.

  “My own room,” Daniel said under his breath.

  “That,” Sam said, pinning his son with a look, “is exactly why we’re doing this. You guys both need your own rooms, just like at Mom’s. Now, you wanna help us look?”

  The night before, Sam and Lacey had earmarked three apartment complexes that looked promising and weren’t too far from the kids’ schools and Sam’s job. By an unspoken agreement, they skipped Lacey’s old complex, even though it might have made the cut. They were both looking for a fresh start, all their own.

  So after a quick lunch, they all piled into Lacey’s car and went apartment-hunting.

  The first place looked shabbier in person than it did online. The apartment they sampled had evidence of dry rot around the shower, and the laundry facilities were grimy. Lacey nixed that one in a hurry.

  The second one was small, but clean. It had a pool, but no exercise room. Few frills, but… possible. Lacey marked her notes with a maybe.

  The third definitely had promise. It was on the high end of their budget, but had all amenities: pool, exercise room, large clean units, laundry hook-ups in all apartments. The kids were happy with the park right across the street. Lacey starred her note for that one.

  Back at home, it was impossible not to compare the niceties of the last place to the cramped, crowded quarters they had now. Definitely time, Lacey thought, glad she’d come to terms with her doubts. As Kenzie helped her prepare tacos for dinner, she reveled in the homey feeling of family.

  That evening, they played board games, something Lacey hadn’t done in years.

  On Sunday, she set up in the kitchen to get a little work done—background checks—while Sam and the kids watched football. She wasn’t that big a fan, and she figured she might as well knock out a little bit of income. She was surprised by Daniel coming to stand behind her, vitamin water in hand.

  “Hey, kiddo,” she said in greeting.

  “Whatcha doing?” he asked.

  “Background checks. You know, people apply for jobs and the bosses want to check them out, make sure they don’t have a criminal record or anything like that.” She glanced back at him. “You wanna help?”

  He did. Lacey had him read names to her while she conducted her searches, and she showed him the results.

  “See this guy?” she said. “He’s got two DUIs and a misdemeanor assault charge. You know what that means?”

  “What?” Daniel asked.

  “Well, it means he drinks and either thinks he can handle it—and he’s obviously wrong—or else he thinks the laws about driving drunk don’t apply to him. He’s unreliable and might have issues with authority figures, like bosses. The assault could have been just a fight that got out of hand, or he could have anger issues. What do you think?”

  “I think I’d hire someone else,” he said.

  Lacey grinned at him. “Me, too. But we’ll let the boss decide. Next?”

  At one point, Lacey got up to get a water for herself, and peeked into the living room. Kenzie was playing quietly with her plastic ponies on the floor. Sam was watching the game. No, she realized, he wasn’t. He was watching his daughter. His dark eyes were soft, cherishing the quiet moment. The love she saw there made her heart melt. She knew he would do anything for his kids. She sighed.

  Suddenly Sam looked up. Caught, he flashed her a quick smile that disappeared as rapidly as it came. He stared at Lacey thoughtfully.

  Embarrassed, she hooked a thumb over her shoulder and turned back to her work. Let the man enjoy this innocent time with his daughter. The kids grew up so fast.

  That evening they took the kids home to Christine and Ed. Lacey walked with them to the door and ruffled Daniel’s hair.

  “Thanks for the help today,” she said.

  “Sure,” he said. “If you need more next weekend…”

  “I’ll call you,” she said with a wink. Then she knelt down to Kenzie and the girl went willing
ly into her arms. “Bye, honey. See you next weekend.”

  “Bye, Lacey. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, honey.”

  Kenzie had a hug for her dad, too. “I love you, Dad.”

  Sam kissed her cheek. “I love you, too, baby. See you next week.”

  “Okay.” Satisfied, Kenzie skipped into the apartment.

  Sam and Lacey walked back to the car hand in hand.

  “They are such good kids,” Lacey said.

  “Yeah. They are. I don’t know how. After all the crap Christine and I went through, all the fights and stuff, I’m amazed they’re both so level-headed.”

  Lacey shrugged. “You and Christine were young, still trying to figure things out. I think that happens to a lot of people; they get married and have kids before they’re completely mature, and they end up changing away from each other. Heck, by the time we all knew what we were doing, we’d be too old to have kids.”

  “I think you’re right,” he said.

  He was quiet on the way home. Lacey let him be. It had been a nice weekend after the chaos of filming and Sam’s reaction to his walk. A break they both needed.

  Back home, she wondered if she really wanted to tackle the last few boxes before bedtime.

  “Hey,” Sam said, taking her hand. “Come here.” He pulled her to the couch and sank down with her beside him. She decided he was right; there was no reason to let go of the relaxed mood and delve back into work. She settled against him.

  “I need to tell you something,” he said in a low voice.

  She raised her head. “Okay.”

  He hesitated and Lacey could see he wasn’t comfortable with whatever it was. She laid her head on his shoulder and let him have all the time he needed.

  “When Christine and I finally decided it wasn’t going to work for us, I moved out. I got a place just a mile or so away. The kids were upset, of course, but I spent as much time with them as I could squeeze in.”

  He absently rubbed her arm with his large, warm hand.

  “One day, I got a call from Christine at work. She said Kenzie had disappeared.”

  Lacey sat up in alarm.

  Sam didn’t try to allay her fears.

  “Apparently she’d slipped out the front door when Christine was folding laundry. She knew which direction I went whenever I drove away from the house, and she just wanted to find me, be with me. So she started walking.”

  Lacey pulled her feet up under her and waited, her eyes on Sam’s face, expressionless as always. Except she could see the pain in his eyes as he remembered, the tight set of his jaw.

  “We called the cops and searched everywhere. I drove all the streets while Christine walked from house to house. That was two hours of the worst hell I could imagine.”

  He drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly.

  “The cops found her. There was a park not quite a block away. Apparently she saw the park and got sidetracked, went to the swing set and forgot about me. They found her there, on the swing, hidden from the street by a maintenance building.”

  Lacey released the breath she’d been holding.

  Sam turned toward her and met her eyes directly. “She was five, Lacey. Five years old.”

  “Oh,” Lacey breathed. “The same age…”

  “Yes. The same age as the little girl at the hotel. I got my daughter back, but someone else didn’t. My daughter is still alive, but the other girl… suffered a horrible death. I can’t save her—it’s already over and done, decades ago—but I can set her free. Let her move on so she can forget that time, escape those emotions that are holding her prisoner. I need to do that.”

  Lacey sank back against the cushions and rested her cheek on Sam’s arm. “I see,” she said. “I—I’d never seen a case affect you like this one. Now I understand why.” She laid her hand on his chest, felt the rise and fall as he breathed. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I can only imagine how awful that was for you to lose Kenzie, even for two hours. I’m sorry this case is bringing it back.”

  Sam covered her hand with his. “It’s a good thing, actually,” he said. She tipped her head up at him. “I get to do something; I get to pay it back, right a wrong. Maybe not totally, but partly.”

  “But Kenzie’s disappearance wasn’t your fault,” she said. “No one could blame you for that—”

  “She went looking for me,” he said. A note of hardness had crept into his voice.

  “Yeah, but…” Lacey saw the same hardness in his eyes. She sighed. “Okay, I get it.” She nestled against him. “And, yeah, you’re right. We need to finish this. We need to free the little girl and Mayhill. And we will.”

  ~~~

  SIXTEEN

  Monday Lacey had nothing to do but wait. Wait for Paul to report back, wait for Diana to schedule a meeting. She prowled the apartment, completely frustrated by the forced inactivity.

  She racked her brain to see if there was any avenue of research she was forgetting that could lead to the identity of the little girl, but nothing came to mind.

  She decided to call the girl Pinky.

  She might have taken a walk outside, but it was raining. Not hard, not storming, just the usual LA drizzle. She worked on background checks. Unpacked the last box and rearranged all her drawers in the dresser. Made a list of the few things she’d realized she needed from her old apartment. Stared into the refrigerator, and finally started a grocery list.

  She was just starting to think about what to fix for dinner when her phone rang.

  Sheriff’s department.

  “Lacey,” Paul said. “I think I found her.”

  “You did? Fabulous!” Lacey sank into a chair at the table and pulled her notebook to her. “I’m listening.”

  “October 2, 1929, a five-year-old girl named Trudy Raines disappeared. Last seen playing in her front yard about four-thirty p.m. When her mother called her in for dinner, she was gone. Nothing in the yard except her doll. She was missing for four days. Her body was found in the dunes above Zuma Beach. She’d been sexually assaulted and died of strangulation.”

  “Oh, my God,” Lacey breathed, certain now this was the one. “Anything about what she was wearing?”

  “Last seen in a pink dress, white socks, black shoes.”

  “That’s her,” Lacey said. “It has to be. Who was the perp?”

  Paul hesitated. “Never caught. This was a cold case.”

  Lacey sagged in her chair. “Ugh. So whoever he was, he got away with it. That’s a crock.”

  “I know,” Paul said. “I was thinking, though, this was less than a month before Black Friday, the stock market crash. It’s no excuse, obviously, but…”

  “The start of the Depression. Most people had bigger fish to fry. Yeah, I see that. How sad.”

  “For sure,” Paul agreed.

  “Well,” Lacey said, “we can work with this. At the least, now we can release her. Is there a request for information form online, or can you email it to me? I’ll fill it out right away and then you can send me the file?”

  “Emailing now,” he said. “As soon as I have the form back from you, I’ll send you everything I have.”

  “Paul, you are a true friend and scholar. Now start thinking about where you want to go for your steak dinner.”

  He laughed. “You got it, Lace.”

  She was still perusing the file when Sam got home.

  “Guess what?” she called to him from the kitchen. “We found her.”

  Sam ambled in and put down his lunch box, then joined her at the table. He gave her a quick kiss. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Trudy Raines disappeared early October, 1929. Her body was found four days later at Zuma Beach.” Lacey sighed. “Her killer was never caught.”

  Sam read over her shoulder. “That’s too bad.”

  “I know.” She looked up at him. “Did you get a feel for him? Name, description?”

  Sam shook his head. “She didn’t know him. And she was too scared to think about tryin
g to identify him. I mean, she was five, you know?”

  “Yeah.” Lacey nodded. “And back then things were all still very innocent, very naïve. I doubt if the term ‘stranger danger’ even existed.”

  “I’m going to hop in the shower,” he said. He stood and stretched. “I’ve got time, right?”

  “Oh, jeez,” Lacey said, coming to her feet. “I totally forgot about dinner. I got so wrapped up in that report…”

  Sam chuckled. “No prob. We can call out for a pizza if you want.”

  She shook her head. “No. I’ll rustle up something easy. Soup and sandwiches?”

  “Works for me,” he said.

  Over cream of broccoli soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, Lacey gave Sam more details about Trudy.

  “She was their only child. There were complications at her birth, so they were unable to have any more children. How sad.”

  Sam nodded. He didn’t say anything, but Lacey knew he could relate to some of their anguish.

  “It’s frustrating to read through an old case like this,” she said. “Nowadays, we’d get DNA from the body and most likely have the guy on a database. Predators like this don’t just strike once.” She looked up at Sam. “There’s no telling how many victims might have died at his hand.”

  “The only good thing we can say is that he’s dead by now. Dead, or a hundred and twenty years old.”

  It was small comfort. While Sam’s focus was releasing tortured souls from the painful circumstances of their deaths, Lacey’s had always been justice—bringing the bad guys in and making them pay. There’d be no such balancing the scales on this one.

  “Well,” she sighed, “at least now we know we can release both Trudy and Gerald. I’ll call Diana tomorrow.” She grinned at Sam. “Guess the Offendahls are going to have to rename their B&B, because it won’t be haunted anymore.”

  ~~~

  SEVENTEEN

  The next morning, Diana called Lacey first.

  “Can you come in Thursday to preview the walk footage? We’re editing it now, and it’s coming together really well.”