Angel's Dance (13 page)

“
I wanted to see if there
were any other points at which these girls lives might have been…
similar.” Clear smiled kindly. “Are you and Belladonna’s father
still together?”

The woman looked at her and her gaze
became flinty. “Why?”

“
The other young woman’s
father and mother were separated. It may be possible that the
person who… was involved in their disappearance was feeding on that
vacancy in their lives,” Clear tried to explain.

Grant looked at her in
surprise.

“
No, we… we only recently
separated… since Donna’s disappearance.”

“
Your daughter went by
Donna?” Clear asked, filing the oddity away for later.

“
Yes,” the woman looked at
her quizzically.

Clear smiled and asked if they could
see Donna’s room.

Chapter Eight

The room was extraordinarily neat,
especially for a teenager. Grant looked around at all the posters
in frames, the awards in frames, the shadow boxes for the figurines
and the books shelves with nothing but books neatly stacked in
alphabetical order.

“
Excuse me, but is this
how your daughter left her room?” He indicated the clothing neatly
folded in the drawers and the laundry hamper that was still half
full of clothing.

Mrs. Johnson nodded. “Donna… well, she
was always a unique child. Very orderly and neat. I.. I don’t know
where she gets it from, honestly!” She plucked at her tank top
under the robe. “I haven’t washed her clothes, because I thought…
they might need them.” She gave a self-deprecating smile. “Truth
is, I don’t want her to be mad at me when she comes home. She was…
so particular.” Mrs. Johnson became silent, staring at the laundry
basket, and tears began to leak from her eyes.

Clear was running her fingers across
the books on the shelves and Grant couldn’t help noticing how she
slowed down and rubbed one particular notebook. He made a mental
note to ask her about that. Grant turned to the woman and patted
her arm. “I understand how difficult this must be for you,” he
murmured. “Why don’t we step out in the hall and talk for a few
minutes.” He took her arm gently and led her out to the
hall.

Clear could sense the organization to
this room and thought how incongruous it was to the seemingly
distant and rebellious young woman in Kat’s memories. The room was
in light pastel colors and there was warmth and happiness in this
room. Happiness with order. As she ran her fingers across the book,
she realized that every one of these books had been carefully read
away from anything that might stain the pages. Not one page had
been bent or marred. The books were in careful order by author and
even Donna’s journal was placed on the shelf in order under
Johnson. As Mrs. Johnson and Grant walked out into the hall, Clear
pulled the journal out and flipped through it, grabbing images off
the pages and reading sections as she went. The thing she noticed
was that each entry was exactly one page long and the date and time
were written at the heading each time. Donna wrote in this journal
every single day! It was completely full. She must have had more.
This journal was for one year. She would ask Mrs. Johnson about
that.

The journal for the past year was once
again full of typical teenage experiences. Some were good, some
were bad, some were really good. Her first kiss happened in October
last year. Some were not as bad as they seemed to her. Her first
kiss dumped her two days later. She thought it was the end of the
world.

What she was getting of Donna was a
very organized, methodical planner. That didn’t match a runaway. It
didn’t make sense. Clear carefully put the journal back and scanned
the rest of the books. They were all cheerful books. Nicholas
Sparks, Seven habits of Highly Effective People, Shoeless Joe,
Mother of Pearl and several books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Pretty
heavy reading for a teenager.

Detective Bryce cleared his throat.
“Any enlightenment, oh wise one?” he smirked. She glowered at him,
wanting to respond in as snotty a fashion, but was aware that Grant
and Mrs. Johnson were in the hall and would hear any further
interaction.

She chose to reply, “You would be
amazed!” Smiling sweetly, she walked out of the room and rejoined
Grant and Mrs. Johnson in the hall. Mrs. Johnson looked at her
expectantly. She waited while Mrs. Johnson finished answering
Grant’s question.

“
Would you say that your
daughter was an over-achiever, Mrs. Johnson?” she asked.

Mrs. Johnson looked from her to Grant.
“Well… uh.. she was very…driven.” She looked a little flustered.
“Why? Is that relevant?”

Clear smiled, feeling very distracted
by Detective Bryce’s renewed presence. “It simply helps me.. to…
understand your daughter better.” She put her hand on Grant’s arm.
“If you’ll please excuse me… I need to step outside for a
moment.”

Mrs. Johnson’s eyes took on a worried
look. “Are you alright?”

“
I’m fine. Just still
adjusting to the area.”

“
You.. you aren’t from
Chicago?” Mrs. Johnson looked even more confused.

“
Please… I really need to
step outside.” Clear tried to keep the urgency out of her voice.
Mrs. Johnson led her to a back patio and Clear sat in a patio
chair. “Thank you.”

“
Why are you here?” Mrs.
Johnson asked.

Clear sighed. She wasn’t sure what she
should tell this woman, but figured that since she was not here
representing the Chicago police force, then confidentiality was not
of her concern. “Honestly? The other officer, Grant, is the father
of the other girl who went missing. He and I have been working
together out west and when he got the call about her missing he
begged me to come and help. I… well… I am able to give him insights
that help him to catch the bad guys.”

“
You look very ill. Let me
get you a glass of water.” She patted Clear on the hand and started
heading back inside. “Thank you for coming,” she whispered through
a choked up throat, then slipped through the door.

Clear felt like she was going to burst
into flames. She put her hand to her forehead and pressed her icy
fingers to her burning eye sockets. She tried to focus on taking
deep cleansing breaths and tried to empty her mind.

“
So did you get any
insights?” Detective Bryce challenged. Clear squeezed her eyes shut
even tighter and bit back the sarcasm dripping from her
tongue.

“
I did indeed. What is
your problem?” she hissed.

“
What makes you think
there is a problem?” he asked, shrugging innocently. But there was
a dark shadow in his eyes. She did not know if he was looking for a
fight, but if he didn’t back off she didn’t know how much longer
she could contain it. She tried to stifle the laugh, but could not
contain the smirk that crossed her lips.

“
What, you think you know
something about me clever little profiler girl? Lay it on!” he
growled.

So that was it. He was challenging her
position. He not only felt threatened by Grant’s presence, but was
also threatened by her presence as well. Hmm… good to
know.

“
I don’t think it is
really appropriate right now,” she hissed, nodding toward the
screen door that was open. She pressed her fingers to her temples
and squeezed, pushing back against the migraine already building.
“Besides, I think we will have plenty of time to deal with your
issues later,” she growled.

Bryce rolled his eyes and turned to go
back inside. Mrs. Johnson bustled out with a cool glass of water
and handed it to Clear, then sat down in a chair next to her and
began plucking subconsciously at her robe again. Clear put the
glass to her head, rubbing the cool surface across her eyes. She
took a careful sip and sighed.

“
Thank you very much,” she
nodded to Mrs. Johnson.

Mrs. Johnson nodded gently. “Thank
you,” she whispered.

“
I haven’t done anything…
yet.” Clear muttered, feeling the woman’s emotions flowing over
her. It hurt, like being stabbed with a million little
needles.

“
Oh, but you have, just by
being here. I… I haven’t been the same… not since Donna…
disappeared.” There was venom in her voice on the last word. “You
know, I dropped out of college when I got pregnant and since then…
well, she was my career. She was my life. Then she was gone and
they were saying that she.. that she left on purpose…” Her voice
broke and tears streamed freely down her face. “I could only think
that… I had failed!! I mean, I didn’t see it coming… I thought we
were really… close… and she was my best friend. To have the person
you love more than anything… but she didn’t. You are saying she
didn’t run away. She didn’t leave me!” She smiled up at Clear and
shook her head. “Her father blamed me. Then when I couldn’t accept
it… he left. But he was wrong. They were all wrong. I was right.
She didn’t run away, right?”

“
I.. I wish I could tell
you for sure, but I don’t think so. I don’t know enough.” Clear
sighed, knowing how much it was going to crush this woman when she
found out her daughter was dead. She had to give her something…
something she could live with. “From what I have seen, Mrs.
Johnson, you were a wonderful, attentive and loving mother. Donna
did not show any of the typical signs of a runaway. She seemed to
truly be happy here. You made your daughter happy.” She patted the
woman’s hand. “I don’t believe she would have run away. I don’t
believe she would have left her best friend and her family.” She
smiled and tried to keep the sadness from her eyes to give this
woman peace.

Mrs. Johnson looked into her eyes and
drank it all in. She nodded “Thank you. Thank you so much!” She
buried her head in her hands and sobbed.

Grant paced the living room watching
Bryce watch Clear. He wasn’t sure why it irked him so much, but he
wanted to get rid of Bryce as quickly as possible. He didn’t like
him looking at Clear. He didn’t like him talking to Clear! He bit
back the anger and hostility, reminding himself that Clear didn’t
belong to him and she had been pretty straightforward that the only
reason she was here was to help him find his daughter. He had
absolutely no claim to her… except that one glorious night. The
images surfaced once again and he had to push them back down. God,
he needed a drink!

“
So… she sure is a piece
of work,” Bryce muttered.

Grant rolled his eyes, not wanting to
talk about Clear with him.

“
Mrs. Johnson seems to
like her. Course she’s telling the batty old woman everything she
wants to hear, based on no evidence. You better hope she is right
because I’m the one who will have to come back here and kill this
woman by telling her the truth.” There was bite in his
words.

“
Trust me, Clear is a
professional,” Grant murmured. “She wouldn’t say it, if she didn’t
have good reason to think it was the truth. Besides, you saw that
room… this house. That girl was not a runaway.”

“
All the evidence says she
ran away. She was driven and impatient to be a professional dancer.
She was headstrong. There was nothing to indicate she didn’t leave
on her own!” Bryce insisted.

“
You don’t see what Clear
sees. I trust her.”

“
You used to trust me
too,” Bryce growled.