Restoring Hope (33 page)

This was his fuckin fault, he should have insisted he drive her to and from work until this bastard had been apprehended, Nic thought as he dialed 911. But, just as he figured they would say, when he got through to a detective, he told Nic she had to be gone forty-eight hours for the police to deem her missing.

Nic ended the call in frustration and tried to come up with a plan as he stared at the vase of white irises Hope had bought from a florist the day before. The fragile flowers reminded him of her, delicate on the top yet a thick stalk that could hold the weight of the petals or whatever life through at it. He closed his eyes seeing their first time in the garden surrounded by the flowers. Hope’s wet hair matted to her face, the curve of her breast, and the look in her eyes when he’d entered her for the first time, binding her to him. Staring at those symbols of their love, of Hope, his fear for her life turned into hate. If that sonofabitch had her, he would hunt him to the ends of the earth until he found her or kill him with his bare hands for harming her. In a moment of unadulterated rage, Nic swiped his arm across the table sending everything crashing to the floor including the vase of irises. Breathing hard, Nic stared at the flowers and picked one up, breathing in deep the flowers fragrance as he pictured Hope’s face.

He knew he couldn’t just stand there and wait for the police to decide she was missing, so he pulled out his phone, and found the number to Detective King of the Reno Police Department and hit send.

“You have reached Detective King, I am unable to take your call at this time, please leave a number and I’ll get back with you as soon as possible.”

“King, this is Nic Beuve, call me immediately, Hope’s missing and I need you to light a fire under the New Orleans Police,” Nic growled as he headed for his door and his car. He’d search the city himself until her found her.

As he descended his steps, a patrol car pulled in front of his condo, and he froze mid-step as an officer peeled out of his car and looked towards his building.

Nic took the rest of the stairs two at a time and met the officer at his gate.

“This the home of Nicholas Beuve?”

“Yeah, I’m Nic Beuve, are you here about Hope?”

“Sir, we found a white Jeep that seemed abandoned uptown and investigated. We found a purse in the vehicle belonging to one Jessica Cummings, and the vehicle is registered to you.”

Feeling his world move off kilter at this news Nic responded with “I’ll kill him,” as he tried to get through the gate.

Hearing Nic’s tone and his threat, the officer narrowed his eyes and demanded, “Kill who?” as he stopped Nic in his tracks with his hand to Nic’s arm.

“John Cummings, Hope’s brother-in-law, she handed over evidence that will send him to prison, and he wants her dead,” Nic gritted out.
How the fuck had he let this happen?

Twice he’d been unable to save someone he loved, and he wanted to rip something to shreds.

“Maybe we should go inside and discuss this,” the officer calmly advised as he kept a close eye on Nic.

“I don’t have time to discuss this, I need to find her, you need to find her before he kills her,” Nic roared.

“I can understand your concern, sir,” the officer placated as he took a step back, his hand on his service revolver, “But I’m gonna need you to calm down so we can discuss this. Now, let’s go inside your home, and I’ll make a call to the station and we’ll see what we can do.”

The officer’s tone was grating on Nic. He didn’t have time for this shit, and he ignored the request.

“Call Detective King with the Reno Police Department, he’ll tell you all you need to know. I’m heading out to look for her.”

“I’m afraid I can’t let you leave until I have all the facts, sir.”

“I don’t have time for this shit. You want to help, take me to her Jeep so I can see it for myself.”

“Is Mrs. Cummings your girlfriend?”

“No, she’s my future wife,” Nic bit out knowing right then he would marry her as soon as he could. “Now take me to her fucking car,” Nic repeated and watched the officer read him, decided he wasn’t a threat at that moment and then removed his hand from his weapon and stepped back. Nic moved through the gate, and when he moved towards his car, the officer said, “I’ll drive you; I can get more information from you and move the investigation along.”

Nic nodded and moved to the passenger door as the officer unlocked the doors and they both climbed in. When they arrived at an office building in uptown New Orleans, he saw Hope’s Jeep and his gut tightened as they pulled beside it. When he got out, the officer ordered him not to touch anything in case of foul play, and the look Nic gave him told the officer he knew it was.

Inside were her purse, her keys and her cell phone, as if she’d tossed them in before entering the vehicle, but didn’t make it. Nic looked up at the officer and caught him watching Nic’s reaction. Statistics showed that when foul play was involved, it’s usually the significant other who perpetrates the crime. He didn’t have time for the police to suspect him he needed them focusing on Cummings.

“I’m not responsible; you need to call Detective King.”

“I’ve given the information to the detectives in charge and they are trying to track him down as we speak.”

Nic looked away praying to God that they were looking for King, and not just sitting around waiting for Nic to trip up, thinking they already had their man. He looked around the parking lot and building wondered why she was here in the first damn place, he’d told her to stay at home until it was time for work, so what was so damn important she left the safety of the condo?

“What businesses are inside the building?”

“Doctors, lawyers, a few small businesses.”

“Do they have security cameras?”

“Yeah, and we asked them to review it for anything suspicious and they found nothing.”

Nic’s raised his brows, finding it hard to believe they had nothing on the tape. “You’re telling me a woman disappears from the parking lot and the camera’s caught nothing?”

“That the security could see.”

“Then let me look, I know what I’m looking for.”

“Can’t, they volunteered to look, we need a court order to view the tapes and until we can determine foul play is involved, we can’t get one.”

Nic turned, leveled his anger on the police officer and ground out, “She didn’t show for work, her purse and phone are in the car how much more do you need to prove she’s missing?”

The officer didn’t answer him, and the words
they need a body
entered his head. It would have dropped him to his knees if it hadn’t angered him so fucking much.

Drilling his eyes into the officer, he dared him to say it. Fortunately, for him, the officer was smart enough to look away from Nic, but not quick enough. He was done with this shit, he needed them to look for Cummings and he needed it now, so he pulled out his phone, searched his contacts for Judge Thompson, a sitting judge he’d done a renovation for and hit send.

“Fred, Nic Beuve. I need a favor . . .”

Two hours later, security footage in the hands of New Orleans detectives, Nic entered the police department, and he, Detective Stevens, and Burns sat down at a computer and pulled up the security video from the parking garage. It showed Hope leaving the building, but as she got further into the parking lot, she disappeared from view. Whatever had happened to her had taken place out of view of the cameras, and it took everything he had not to throw that fucking computer across the room. By his estimation, she’s been missing four hours now. The time stamp on the video said 3:30 and it was now 7:30. Nic sat there and stared at the screen. He didn’t have a fucking clue what to do next but search for her. He hit replay on the video and instead of watching the surroundings, he watched Hope. She was smiling, happy, and it occurred to him this could be the last time he’d ever see her.
Dieu,
on a fuckin’ thirteen-inch screen with her blonde hair blowing in the wind, as she made her way to that bright white Jeep she loved and gave girlie name. Nic felt his lip twitch when he thought about her naming the car snowflake. He’d asked her once why she’d wanted white and not a sleek color like black. Her answer, “Because it reminds me of innocence or purity.” He didn’t get it then, but watching her now, he got it. She’d been through so much shit in her life she wanted to be surrounded by innocence, by purity to help restore her own—to restore Hope.

Nic wanted this last image of her, he opened the disk drive and pulled out the CD, handed it to the detectives, and asked, “Can I have a copy of this?” Both detectives looked at him, then Burns, breaking the rules, made a copy of the security footage and handed it to Nic.

Nic searched the streets, looking in every dark corner as he headed back to the condo to check one more time for clues and any messages on his answering machine. When he arrived, he found Rose and Big Daddy waiting out front, and he said nothing to them as they all made their way up his stairs and into his condo. Nic just shook his head when Rose opened her mouth to ask if the tape showed anything. He walked over to his laptop, dropped the cd in and walked away to change clothes as they viewed the footage.

His phone rang as he was changing clothes, and he grabbed it quickly. The screen said “Detective King” and he answered it on a barked “Took you fuckin’ long enough.”

“Nic, I got your message to call but I was tied up. If Hope’s missing it’s not John Cummings, as of five o’clock Nevada time, John Cummings was behind bars.”

“Say that again?” Nic replied confused.

“We took him into custody at five our time; he was caught trying to cross the border into Mexico this morning. I just got back with him an hour ago.”

Nic hung up on the detective without saying goodbye and ran into the living where his computer was and moved Rose aside. Something on the tape had caught his eye when they’d watched it and tugged at his memory. He found the part where Hope had moved out of the line of sight, and then watched as the corner of a black car drove past, the right bumper smashed in. Nic ran to his desk, dug through paperwork he had and found the insurance report for damages to one of his vehicles. Katherine Beuve’s Mercedes had damage to the right front bumper.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Time stands still when you think you’re going to die and one of the side effects of this; the ability to pull events from the past as clearly as if they occurred the day before. Hope remembered watching football with her father, making brownies with her mother, even fighting over toys with her brother. They were all pushed to the surface as Hope watched Kat pace. Had she known when she got up that morning today might be the last day of her life, she would’ve kissed Nic a little sweeter, told Rose that she loved her, maybe even stopped at that French bakery and had a beignet. She’d finally had the life she’d always dreamed of, but as she watched Kat mumbling as she paced in front of her, Hope had a bad feeling all that was going the change.