Fatal Intent (Desert Heat Book 3) (10 page)

SIXTEEN

Dylan had just seen Wanda after they moved her from the ER to a room when Alex came in. She looked at her dad with an angry expression and then turned to Dylan, worry in her eyes.

“How is she?” she asked.

He had only a few seconds to wonder about the look she’d thrown her dad, before his attention turned to her question. “The docs think she had a mild heart attack,” he reported, including Paul in his glance. “They’re going to keep her overnight for observation, and talk to her primary care doc about what more to do for her tomorrow. She may need bypass surgery.”

“But she’ll be all right?” Alex asked. “That was so scary, watching her turn blue. Was it what we were talking about that brought it on?”

Dylan frowned slightly. “I don’t know. What were you talking about? But no, it was a blockage, they said.”

Alex seemed to ignore his question, but sighed heavily, which Dylan took as a sign of relief.

“They can fix that, can’t they?” Alex asked. “She can have a stent or something, right?”

“Or something. I don’t know if they’ve decided what the best course of action is. Alex, what were you talking about?” Dylan didn’t want to think that any conversation they’d had could be so stressful it would cause a heart attack, even if it wasn’t what caused this one.

Alex looked at her dad again before turning back to Dylan. “Nothing.”

He’d seen it again. Whatever the ‘nothing’ was, it had upset her and it had to do with her dad. Therefore, not his business. Unless she opened up to him. Maybe she would once she settled it. To his horror, Alex left his side and walked over to her dad with purpose.

“What do you know that you’ve been hiding from me all these years?” she asked.

The question didn’t sound at all friendly. Dylan cringed. Now he was getting along so well with Paul, he hated to have anything upset the apple cart. What was she talking about?

From Paul’s reaction, Dylan guessed he didn’t have any idea what she meant, either. Paul soon confirmed that.

“What are you talking about?” he asked. His voice was mild, as usual, but with an edge Dylan didn’t understand.

“Just before she passed out, Wanda said something reminded her of my mother. When I asked what she meant, she said, ‘Ask your dad.’ I want to know what she meant,” Alex said. It was a challenge, the way she’d tilted her head up and the hard look she was giving her dad left no doubt about that.

“Come on, Baby Girl, you’ve got to give me more than that. What had you been talking about? Could be anything.”

“You know very well it was about Mom leaving,” Alex said. “And don’t call me Baby Girl. I’m not a baby, and I deserve to know what happened to my mother. All these years, you’ve pretended not to know, and now I find out you did! I’m seriously pissed at you, Dad, and if you don’t tell me what you know this instant, I’m out of here, and this time I’m not coming back!”

Dylan stood up straighter.

What? Out of here! What about me?

Alex was in her dad’s space, almost toe to toe, with her fists clenched at her sides. Dylan took a step toward her, but Paul quelled him with a glance and a shake of his head. Whatever this was, it was none of his business, but it affected him. He stepped back and crossed his arms, ready to intervene if Alex needed him.

Paul had also stepped back from Alex, just far enough to establish a personal boundary. “What do you think I know, Alex?”

“I
know
you know what happened, Dad. I’m asking you to stop lying to me and tell me. I’m old enough to take the truth now.”

“I never lied, Baby… kiddo. I don’t know what happened to her.”

“Bullshit.”

“Language…” Paul began, but Alex cut him off.

“Does Nana know?”

Paul sighed. “Alex, this isn’t the time or the place. Please, can we drop this, at least until we leave the hospital? Come home with me and we’ll talk. There’s no need to air our dirty laundry in front of everyone.”

Considering Dylan was the only other person in the area, he felt as if he’d been cut out of the conversation. Hurt flooded him as he realized this was something he couldn’t fix for Alex or protect her from. She’d have to go through it on her dad’s terms or not at all, and all Dylan could do was pick up the pieces, if she’d let him. He waited for her answer along with her dad.

“All right. Dylan, am I correct that Wanda can’t have visitors for the rest of the evening?”

“Yeah, as far as I know. I told her you were taking care of the boys. She understood. Said she’d see you tomorrow.”

“Thank you. I’m going to Dad’s to have this discussion. If it’s late, I’ll go ahead and stay there, so I won’t wake you coming in.”

“No, Alex, come home. It will be fine,” Dylan said. He didn’t know if what she would learn tonight about her mother would change things, but he wanted a chance to hold Alex, comfort her if necessary, and assure her that whatever choices her mother had made, it had nothing to do with her.

“I’ll see you when I see you.” She allowed him to give her a peck on the cheek, but was too rigid for him to take into his arms. He assumed she was holding herself together with an effort of will.

Paul left, and Alex followed, with Dylan staring after her.

~~~

Alex pulled her car into the driveway and went into the house. Paul was waiting in the living room, a bottle of beer in his hands.

“Can I have one of those?” Alex asked, doing her best to keep her voice even. She didn’t drink much, partly because she didn’t much care for the taste and partly because Dylan didn’t drink much either. If what she suspected was true, though, she might need something to blunt the anger she was feeling toward her dad.

“You’re…”

“I’m twenty, Dad, and it isn’t as if I’ve never had a beer before. Just one.”

“All right. Help yourself.” He sat in his chair.

Alex stared at him for a moment and then went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. Selecting a cold Tecate, she returned to the living room and sat in her usual place. Her dad stayed silent until it was clear she’d have to start.

“We were talking about a girl who was involved with Dawn Redbird and her organization. It turned out she was the person my housemates rented to before me. She cleared out her things and disappeared. I asked Wanda if she knew the girl, Sarah. She said no, and I guess that’s when she started to have the heart attack, because things got weird. She said maybe Sarah didn’t want to be found. That was when she said it reminded her of my mother and to ask you. What does that sound like to you, Dad?”

“It sounds like you’re making a big deal out of something Wanda said during a heart attack. You can’t take that literally.”

“Quit talking to me like I’m a fucking child, Dad! You know how much I’ve always needed to know Mom didn’t just leave me. How could you keep this from me?” Alex dashed the angry tears from her cheeks and glared at her dad. If he said one word about her language, she’d… She didn’t know what she’d do, but it wouldn’t be pretty.

Her dad’s head was down, and she couldn’t see his eyes. Had he heard her? Would he finally stop stonewalling her and answer her question?

After a few minutes of silence fraught with tension, her dad looked up. “All right, that’s fair enough. But I can’t give you all the answers, Alex, because I don’t know them all.”

Alex opened her mouth to call bullshit, but her dad held up his hand. “Let me just tell it, and then I’ll try to answer your questions. Okay, Alex? This isn’t easy for me.”

She closed her mouth again and stared at him, waiting.

“Okay. After you were born, your mom didn’t have an easy time of it, emotionally. She had what they called baby blues back then. Now, I think they call it postpartum depression. It didn’t have anything to do with you, or not wanting you, Alex. Elizabeth loved you very much. Depression is an illness brought on by brain chemical imbalance. We know that now. Back then, it wasn’t understood as well. Your mom, she’d have bouts when she was afraid she’d hurt you. She’d take you to Wanda and go off for a few days to try to get her balance back.”

“Why didn’t she go to a doctor for it?” Alex asked, unable to wait for her dad to finish, as he’d asked.

“Like I said, it wasn’t understood. Going to a psychiatrist or psychologist was considered a weakness. It was a different time, Alex. Please try to understand.”

She sat back, silent again, so her dad could go on.

His voice got shaky as he continued. “I… didn’t know what to do for her, and I wasn’t very understanding, either. A lot of what must have happened is my fault. She stayed away longer each time, and it’s probably because I’d be angry when she came home. Things were rough between us, Alex. I loved her, and I thought I was losing her. And then I did.” He stopped as tears choked his voice.

Shocked, Alex didn’t know what to say. After several minutes while her dad seemed to fight to regain his composure, he began speaking again.

“She met someone, in Casa Grande. She never went far, just to Tucson or CG, sometimes Phoenix. I guess she went to bars. I don’t want you to think badly of her, Alex. She was confused, depressed. Anyway, she came home one time and told me she was pregnant. It couldn’t have been mine. We hadn’t, uh. It couldn’t have been mine. She said she was going to stay away from Dodge until the baby was born, and then she’d be back. I assumed she meant she’d give it up for adoption, but then she never… I don’t know what happened after that.”

He said the last part fast, and it sounded like the rush of wind in a thunderstorm to Alex. Her ears were buzzing. Her mom…pregnant by another man? Unfaithful to her dad? She had a
sibling
?

“Wha… what do you mean, she never? Dad, what do you mean?” Alex was too shocked for tears, too confused for diplomacy. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have sworn the earth had just been knocked off its axis.

“Just what I said, Baby Girl. She went off to have the baby, and never came back. I looked for her. I checked hospitals for weeks. She just…disappeared. I’ve always assumed she couldn’t give the baby up, or something. I don’t know.”

When he said that, Alex’s confusion turned to rage. “She couldn’t give up the illegitimate baby, but she could give
me
up? You said she loved me! What a load of fucking crap! Why didn’t you tell me the truth from the beginning? It’s just like I always thought…she didn’t love me enough to come back. I fucking hate her!”

Alex jumped from her seat and began striding around the room, gesticulating wildly. She stopped next to the hideous chair her dad would never get rid of and picked up an ornament from the side table. Whirling, she threw it with all her might at the wall, where it shattered.

“Alex! Stop it. This is why I never told you. I didn’t want you to have bad memories of your mother.” He, too, had stood, but couldn’t approach her because of her wild movements.

“I have
no
memories of my mother! All this mystery, all these years. Why haven’t you divorced her? What the fuck is wrong with you, Dad?”

“Baby Girl, please. Could you stop using that word?”

“Really? That’s all you have to say to me? I don’t fucking believe it. You tear my world out from under me and you’re worried about my language? I don’t know you anymore, Dad. I’m not even sure I want to. Goodbye.”

Alex ran out the front door with her dad calling after her. Let him call. Maybe he’d give a little more effort to finding her than he had to finding her mother, and maybe he wouldn’t, but she couldn’t stay in the same town with him, not one more night. She got into her car and headed for Casa Grande. Maybe Lisa and Natalie would take her in.

SEVENTEEN

Dylan waited for Alex to come home until midnight, and then wished he’d called her dad earlier. He went to bed assuming she was staying over at her dad’s house, but had difficulty falling asleep. He should be with her, helping her absorb whatever Paul had to tell her. If it was taking this long, it couldn’t be good. Eventually, he fell into a fitful sleep with anxiety-ridden dreams that didn’t allow him any rest.

In the morning, the boys woke him early as usual, and he gave them cereal for breakfast over their protests that it was pancake day.

“You had pancakes yesterday,” he said. “Remember? Alex made them.”

“Oh yeah,” Juan said. “Where is Alex?”

“I guess she stayed with her dad last night. I’ll call in a while and see if she’s coming over, okay?” That seemed to satisfy them for the moment, and Dylan went about his morning routine, drinking a second cup of coffee because of his short night. Then he called the hospital and spoke to Wanda, who seemed anxious to get home. He promised to bring the boys to see her as soon as he’d located Alex.

By ten, when she still hadn’t called, he was worried enough to call her first, even though he had a feeling she wouldn’t appreciate it. Sure enough, there was no answer. He left a tender message telling her he’d missed her and asking her to call. Then he called Paul.

“Is Alex okay?” he asked.

“I guess. I mean, she was pretty upset last night. How does she look this morning?” Paul answered.

After a moment of confusion when they established that she hadn’t spent the night at either house, Dylan asked Paul what had happened. Reluctantly, Paul summarized the conversation and Alex’s reaction. Dylan had no words about the revelations concerning Alex’s mother, but he had plenty to say about Alex being missing. He didn’t leave much room for misinterpretation when he told Paul it would be his fault if anything happened to Alex. When Dylan hung up, he was as angry as he’d ever been in his life, but he knew he had to calm down if he was going to get anywhere.

His next and final call went to Ange.

“Ange, I’ve got a situation on my hands, and I need help with the boys. Can you come?”

“For how long? I’ve got plans with Bill this afternoon,” she answered.

“I don’t know, but it’s important.”

“Dyl, are you okay?”

“No.”

“I’ll be right there.”

True to her word, Ange was there in minutes. He gave her a brief explanation without the details of what Paul had told Alex, and Ange agreed to stay until he found his woman. He’d be back today, of course, whether he found her or not. First, he needed to see Wanda, and he prayed he could do so without alarming her too much. A shock was all she needed, after her heart attack.

He caught a break at the hospital. When he got there, Wanda had remembered the conversation she and Alex had. She was calm but concerned, and when she asked, Dylan had no choice but to tell her what happened, though he soft-pedaled it as much as he could. Wanda took it better than he would have thought.

“I’ll lay odds she went to those girls she was living with,” Wanda said. “Where else would she go, with me in here? Either that, or to her Nana. But my money’s on those girls.”

“I’ll have Paul call his mom. Thanks for the tip, Wanda.”

“You’re welcome. Now go get our girl. She’ll come around, Dylan. Just give her some time to grieve and get over being mad at her dad. I have to say, I warned him this would happen. Stubborn fool wouldn’t listen to me.”

“You knew?” Dylan asked, shocked.

“Of course I knew. I’m the one she’d bring Alex to, when she couldn’t cope. She told me she was in trouble before she told Paul. Frankly, I always expected her to come and get Alex before she disappeared for good, though. Go on, now, I’m fine. Go find Alex.”

Dylan leaned over and gave Wanda as big a hug as he could without tangling the telemetry leads. “I’ll bring her home. Don’t worry,” he said.

“I’m not worried.”

As soon as he was out of the hospital and in his car, he tried Alex’s phone again. To his relief, this time she answered.

“Alex, you had me worried!” he exclaimed.

“I’m sorry. I had to get out of town, Dylan, I’m sorry. I can’t come back right now.”

“What do you mean, you can’t come back? Why not? What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to find my mother, and my brother or sister or whatever. Get Dad to tell you what I mean. I love you. I’ll call you when my head’s in a better place.”

Dylan found himself holding a phone with no connection. She’d hung up on him! He stared at the phone, disbelieving what he’d heard. How would she find her mother after so many years? What kind of mess might she find herself in, if she started stirring up old shit in a town the size of Casa Grande? His stomach did a flip realizing she’d left him no hope that she’d come home any time soon.

Dylan had no choice but to pull himself together. He needed to keep things normal for the boys, and he had an important interview coming up in less than two weeks. Remembering that he’d made plans with Alex around his trip to Scottsdale, he contented himself with hoping she’d follow through, and he gave her the space she clearly wanted. That meant they didn’t talk for over a week, during which time she did text him once a day to say she loved him. It wasn’t what he wanted, but it was better than nothing. Encouraging, really.

On the Monday after her abrupt departure, Dylan sent Alex a text reminding her of their date on Friday. She didn’t answer right away. He waited all day for her answer, and began to worry by late that night. He sent a quick text saying he loved her, and forced himself to say no more. Maybe that would take the pressure off. The next day, he got a cryptic message saying she was onto something, and she may not be able to make Friday’s trip. Hoped he understood.

No. He didn’t understand, but he tried.

Friday, he still hadn’t heard from her. Without her, he couldn’t take the boys, so once again he called on Ange for help, believing it was too soon for Wanda to handle them. In spite of his worry and pique over Alex’s behavior, the interview went well.

He had a feeling he’d be getting a call the following week, and he did, but it wasn’t from Alex. Sooner than he expected, on Monday he got the call from the Forest Service. He’d been selected, and they expected him there within the month.

Now he really needed to get Alex’s attention for their plans. He wanted her input on the house he’d rent, or buy. He missed her. He needed her. And he was beginning to get angry.

~~~

Alex had thrown herself on the mercy of Lisa and Natalie. She told them everything and asked if she could stay there until she got to the bottom of some things. She had less than three thousand dollars left from her prize, but she didn’t want to tie herself down to a job. She needed all the time she had before school started to investigate the mysteries surrounding the disappearances of both her mom and Sarah Davis. Lisa and Natalie looked at each other for a moment, evidently communicating through mental telepathy.

Then they both said, “You’re welcome to stay.”

Natalie added, “You don’t need to pay rent, but you’ll have to feed yourself.”

Alex hugged them both. It would get her by. She had seven weeks, tops. Less, if she was going to keep Dylan happy. But this wasn’t about Dylan, it was about her and what she had to do. She hoped he’d understand, because she
had
to do it.

Since Sarah’s disappearance was more recent, she started there. She badgered Lisa into figuring out the exact day they’d returned to find Sarah missing, and determined to haunt every hospital within two hundred miles, looking for a Jane Doe accident from that weekend. Once she eliminated that theory, she’d start on hotels, but that would be a massive task.

Surprisingly, she found a sympathetic ear at the first hospital she called, right in Casa Grande. The woman couldn’t give her a name, due to confidentiality. However, she did confirm that a young woman was brought to the ER with severe injuries that weekend, and had been sent by helicopter to Tucson.

Alex couldn’t believe this wouldn’t have turned up with the most casual of investigations into Sarah’s disappearance. Why hadn’t it? Or, was she following the wrong lead? There was only one way to find out. After a call to the hospital in Tucson went nowhere, Alex set out for a face-to-face visit. Once there, she put forth her most professional demeanor as she stated she was an investigative reporter following up on a disappearance. It got her only so far, but when she got a grasp on hospital protocol, she had an idea how to get the rest of the information.

Alex located the right area for Medical Records and loitered until a girl of about her own age came out of the secured door. She fell into step with the girl and said, “Hi.”

The girl, whose nametag said ‘Lucy’ gave her a shy smile and returned her greeting. This was Alex’s best chance, and she took it. Speaking quickly, she said, “I wonder if you can help me. They won’t tell me anything about my sister, but I’ve tracked her here. My parents are back east, and they’re worried sick.”

“What do you mean?” Lucy asked.

“Well, my sister went missing four months ago. I can tell you the date. We think she was taken to the Casa Grande ER, but they didn’t know her name. They sent her here by helicopter. Please, I have to know if… if she made it. Even if she has amnesia! My parents aren’t well, and it would mean so much.”

Lucy stopped. “You’re asking me to get confidential medical records on a Jane Doe, in case it’s your sister?”

Alex hesitated. She couldn’t read Lucy, but she went ahead anyway. “Well, put that way it sounds bad, I know. But, I really need help!” She put all her frustration into it, and the emotion must have convinced the other girl.

“Okay, give me the date and some physical description. I’ll see what I can do,” she said. “But if you tell anyone, I could lose my job.”

“I won’t,” promised Alex. Actually, she intended to write a story if she could get any facts, but she didn’t have to put Lucy’s name in it.

“Meet me here at five, when I get off work. I’ll tell you if I find any candidates,” said Lucy.

Alex couldn’t wait.

As she killed time between her encounter with Lucy and their assignation, it occurred to her that she’d have to enlist someone else if she ended up back here trying to locate where her mother might have given birth. That story wouldn’t fly twice. But if she could find Sarah, it would give her a confidence boost for the harder task.

At five, she presented herself in the hallway near Medical Records. Lucy came out the door, glanced at her and made a subtle gesture with her head to go down the hall. They met at the elevators, and Lucy said in a low voice, “Meet me at the coffee shop two blocks east.”

Alex almost giggled at the cloak and dagger nature of the meeting, but managed to straighten her face as the elevator stopped to pick up more passengers. When they emerged in the foyer on the first floor, she left the elevator without a backward glance at Lucy, and went to her car. A couple of minutes later, she found the coffee shop and went in, to see Lucy in a corner booth. Alex slipped into the booth across from her.

“Who are you, really?” Lucy asked, her eyes and voice both cold. “Are you hospital security?”

“No!” Alex exclaimed. “What would make you think that?”

“That file you were looking for? It’s flagged. I’m not sure I didn’t trigger something that will come back to haunt me when I opened it.” Lucy looked on the verge of tears, and Alex felt terrible.

“I’m so sorry, Lucy. Look, you’re right. I’m not that girl’s sister, but I am trying to find out what happened to her. If it’s even the same girl. Here, this is her picture.” Alex opened her phone’s photo application and pulled up the picture she’d had Dawn send her. It showed Sarah shouting something, probably in the middle of one of the protest marches.

Lucy said, “I can’t tell. Here’s a photocopy…it’s the best I could do.” The paper she handed over was hard to look at, even in the low-resolution copy. The girl in it looked to be dead, beaten severely, her face swollen beyond recognition.

Alex put her hand to her mouth. “Oh, my God!”

Lucy nodded. “It’s worse. You can’t see it in the picture, but her hands and feet were missing, and a lot of her teeth. The state took custody of her remains, since there was no way to identify her.”

Alex couldn’t help the tears that rolled unchecked down her face. “Who would do such a thing?” she whispered.

“It happens more often than you want to know,” Lucy said. “What
I
want to know, is why was the file flagged? What can of worms have I opened?”

“I don’t know,” Alex said. “But I intend to find out. I have an idea. When I check it out, I’ll let you know if you’re in danger.”

The girls exchanged phone numbers, and Lucy left. Alex sat there a while longer. So Sarah, if this was her, was one of the unidentified remains recorded in her blog’s database. Her next task was to confirm it was indeed Sarah. This wasn’t going to be easy for her or for Sarah’s parents, but better to know than to think she’d abandoned them. Alex knew that for sure.

Lucy had given her a record number. All she needed to do was search the database for the same number. Maybe the circumstances of how she was found, clearly closer to dead than alive, would give her a clue.