Angel's Dance (20 page)

Once she realized that he had a grip
on himself, she turned on Tony. The kid looked more than terrified.
She figured Grant was a pretty big guy and seeing him lose control
would be intimidating. She walked over to the kid. “Listen to me
and listen to me well. You see that bag over there?” He nodded in
absolute terror. “That bag belongs to a minor who went missing in
Chicago. We believe that she has been kidnapped and this cop is her
father. He will do anything to get her back. Whoever did it is here
in this dance company.”

Tony was shaking his head. “It wasn’t
me. I didn’t do it!” he insisted dumbly.

Clear rolled her eyes.
“Well, obviously! But it doesn’t change the fact that if you say
one word about this, then that lunatic will kill this man’s
daughter to keep from getting caught. You cannot, I repeat,
you
absolutely
cannot tell anyone what we found here today. NO
ONE.”

She noticed the cross on his neck and
tapped it. “If you do, that girl’s blood will be on your hands too.
You will kill her if you say anything.” She waited a second as he
processed what she was saying. “Do you understand me?” she asked.
He nodded. She could feel that he meant it, at least for now. He
wouldn’t talk. “Now, you two stay right here and calm down. I need
to go make a phone call.” She put her hand out for Grant’s phone.
He handed it to her numbly.

“
Who… who are you
calling?” Tony whispered.

“
Back up.” Clear
announced, looking pointedly at Grant. “Bryce.”

Chapter 12

Grant wasn’t sure what Clear had said
to Bryce, but the ball was rolling. He wondered if it was anything
like the talk she had with the sheriff back home. Home. Strange
that he now thought of Montana as home. He was surrounded by the
local police, looking for his daughter in Illinois. He couldn’t
help but think that if she had been living with him in Montana this
never would have happened. Then again, look at how he met Clear in
the first place. Evil was everywhere, you just had to wait long
enough.

He felt more than a little out of the
loop. The world was hopping mad all around him, but he was a still,
silent observer in all the chaos. Bryce had gotten here within the
hour, but had called the local authorities before and they had
mobilized within twenty minutes. Grant was a little impressed. It
had been awhile since he had to sit back and watch the police at
work. It was frustrating not knowing exactly what was going on,
though. The locals felt no need or compunction to talk to him about
what they were doing. As far as they were concerned Bryce was bad
enough, coming from Chicago and nosing in their business. They had
no interest in a cop from Montana who had absolutely no
jurisdiction in their case.

Clear was off with Bryce, questioning
Ms. Chofsky further. Tony was talking to another police officer.
There was a CSI team in taking samples from the damaged floor and
bagging everything from the rack that they had found Kat’s bag on.
He was dying to talk to Clear and find out what else she knew. He
knew there was more, but without knowing what she had said to Bryce
he didn’t dare ask.

Feeling helpless and useless and a
little in the way, Grant walked outside of the studio to call his
ex. He didn’t really want to talk to her, but at least he could
fill her in. After that he would call and check in with Mrs. Trevor
and the kids. He felt a momentary pang of guilt that he had not
been in touch with them before now. He knew that they must be ok,
or Mrs. Trevor would have called.

Laura answered on the second ring.
“Have you found her?” she gasped.

“
Uh… no. But we found her
bag.” Grant answered, feeling stupid even as he said it.

“
I already know
that
!” Laura snapped.
“What else have you found?”

“
Well, I don’t know. I
mean…” He was completely flummoxed.

“
Don’t bother calling me
unless you have something,” Laura snapped viciously.

“
How was I supposed to
know that you already knew about finding her bag?” Grant growled
back, trying to push his temper down.

He could hear the sneer and the venom
in her voice. “Some people think about me a little more quickly,”
was her only reply. Bryce, of course. He had already called her. He
might have done more than call her. The thought twisted Grant’s
stomach and he had to remind himself that they were over, had been
over for a long time. It was none of his business what kind of
relationship she had with Bryce. That only caused his stomach to
sour.

“
Obviously you have your
own connections, so I won’t bother to call you again until we
actually find Kat. Happy?”

“
Don’t be such an ass!”
Laura harped. “You shouldn’t have waited so long to call me in the
first place! And how can you not know anything else? I mean, how
did you find her bag? Where did you find her bag? Why is it so far
away?” She began to sound a bit hysterical, so Grant cut her
off.

“
We are working on the
answers to those questions. Did you know anything about her hanging
out with a girl named Belladonna Johnson? She frequently went by
Bella, or even Donna?”

“
No.”

“
She was also a dancer.
She went missing in Chicago a few weeks ago, but she is from
Peoria.”

“
And?” Laura
snapped.

“
Did Kat go to any shows
lately?”

“
I don’t know.”

“
What do you mean, you
don’t know?” Grant growled. Was she just trying to be
obtuse?

“
Look, you aren’t here,
you don’t know how hard it is! I have been working a lot of extra
hours to be able to afford everything. My job has become very
demanding… I have a career too!”

Grant cut her off. “So you haven’t
been around? You haven’t even asked her about it?”

“
What about you!” she
hissed. “Have you been keeping tabs on her? I am sick and tired of
always being the bad guy! I hate you for leaving us! I hate you for
putting me in this situation! If you had been here, I would have
been here and this NEVER would have happened!!” She was gasping for
breath by the end of her tirade.

Grant wanted to scream back, but he
knew it wouldn’t do any good. He couldn’t believe that her sense of
reality was so skewed. She was the one who had kicked him out. She
was the one who wanted to follow her dreams and get back in the
work force. She was blaming him for all of this because that is
what she always did. He took a deep breath. “I don’t blame you for
what happened, and neither should you. I’ve gotta go.” He cut her
tirade off before she could get going again. “I’ll let Bryce be our
gatekeeper from now on. You can clearly be more rational with him.”
He didn’t even wait for her to say anything, he simply hung up. It
hurt, but he knew that he was better for it.

Once again, feeling useless, he
wondered what Clear was learning. He hoped she would be able to
fill him in tonight. He dialed to check in on the kids.

Clear was impressed with how
professional Detective Bryce could be. She would not have expected
this, considering all his emotional turmoil on their previous
meetings. His emotional climate was much more placid than last time
as well. Wondering if this was because of the windfall she had
gotten him, or because of the little contact he had had with Grant,
Clear willed herself to focus back on the conversation with Ms.
Chofsky. Bryce had been prodding her about the blood on the dance
floor.

“
Come on, Ms. Chofsky. You
know something about that stain.”

“
I told you and her and
the other man! I do not work in this room.” Her panic was rising
with every second. Her eyes whirled around the room as if she were
hunting out an escape.

“
Yes, you said that. But
your voice said that although you don’t work in this room, you know
at least
something
about what happened and that something… that something has
you running scared.” Bryce was speaking in a very calm and soothing
voice. “I understand that you are here on a teaching visa.” He
suddenly changed tactics and his voice became more business-like
and less gentle. “You aren’t protecting someone who might effect
that visa are you?”

“
No! I tell you, I do not
know what happened in this room! All I know is that when Mr. Lando
found his studio this way, he was very angry! He stormed and raged
about it for days….”

Clear felt something… something like
suspicion in the woman’s silence. “Then what?” Clear interrupted.
It was the first time she had interrupted Bryce and she wasn’t sure
how it would be received.

“
Then… he got over it. I
guess he accepted that whoever had done it was not going to… admit
it.” She had almost said confess and Clear knew it. She followed
the lead before Bryce could interrupt her.

“
Mr. Lando seems like the
kind of person who doesn’t really let things go.” she commented.
“His behavior… bothers you. Tell me, what does it make you think
happened?”

The shock on both the woman’s face and
on Bryce’s face was classic. If things weren’t so serious, Clear
might have laughed. Instead she leaned on the woman.

“
You do know that by not
telling us, you are only getting yourself in trouble. We could have
your visa revoked. You could be packing your bags this very
afternoon to return home,” Clear pressed.

“
I tell you…” The woman
murmured in a very small voice. “I don’t
know
anything.”

Her stress on the word ‘know’ made
Clear adapt. “But you have some thoughts on it. You have been
teaching here for a very long time. You are tapped into this place.
You know how things work. Your suspicions are probably more correct
than you think. Share them with us.”

Clear patted her shoulder and got a
very distinct thought. ‘Louis’. She waited patiently. The woman
seemed to be thinking very hard. She sighed. “If I tell you what I
think… it will not get back to anyone?” She looked to Bryce. He
nodded. She looked at the ground, her face screwed up very tight.
“I assumed… that it had something to do with… his wife.” Clear
instantly knew that she was lying. But she let Bryce continue on
this line. She knew that Ms. Chofsky had substituted wife for the
only thing close enough that Mr. Lando might be willing to forgive
and forget for… his son.

She wanted to leave, to follow this
lead. It seemed that it would be rude to do so, so Clear sat
quietly through the rest of the interview, trying to piece together
the bits and clues in her mind.

Grant came back into the lobby and ran
into Tony walking out. He immediately turned to follow the young
man out. “Tony!” Grant called as the young man was climbing into a
jeep. The boy ducked his head in acknowledgement, but kept going.
Grant jogged up to the door as the boy was starting the
engine.

“
Tony.”

“
What?” there was
agitation and something more in his voice. Fear? Grant ducked his
head down. “You really did care about Bella, didn’t
you?”

“
Yeah…” the boy’s eyes
were very sad.

“
You thought she ran away.
Thought she ran away from you. You were more surprised and hurt
than anyone else. You two were close. Your feelings weren’t lying
to you and neither was she.” Grant didn’t know how much of what he
was saying was true, but he could see the effect it was having on
the boy. He was discounting a lot of the barriers the boy had been
building. “Tony, I absolutely believe that Bella did not leave on
her own. I have good reason and plenty of evidence that suggests
that she was kidnapped. I also have reason to believe that her life
is in danger. Immediate danger. If there is anything you can tell
me that might help her… I would be grateful.”