The Perfect Couple (28 page)

"I know, but you like to fix people, and she's probably pretty broken right now. Remember that abused woman you took in who ultimately went 182

back to the man who'd been abusing her?"

He rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the reminder, but Maria thought reuniting her family was best for her son."

"I don't care why she did it. Find someone who's whole and healthy, who has something to offer you," she said.

As frustrated by the stalled traffic as he was with Jasmine telling him what he'd already learned--the hard way--he crept forward. "Enough advice."

"Fine. I've done my duty as your pseudo-big sister. So...do you want to send me an article of clothing or a cherished item that belonged to Samantha Duncan?"

This was why he'd been trying to reach her in the first place, what he'd secretly been hoping for all along. He hadn't mentioned Jasmine's special abilities to Zoe. He knew she'd think he was crazy if he admitted that he was planning to turn to a forensic profiler who was also a psychic. But he'd seen Jasmine work, witnessed how many of her predictions came to pass.

He prayed she'd be able to help Samantha. "Would you mind?"

"Not at all. But don't get your hopes too high. You know how it is.

Sometimes I get impressions, other times I get nothing at all. And half the time I don't know how to interpret what comes, or even whether to trust it.

I'm not sure I'll be much help."

"I know you don't have a crystal ball. Whatever you can give me...it's worth the chance. I'm hitting one dead end after another."

"I'll do what I can," she promised.

After ending the conversation, Jonathan rolled down his window so he could lean out. There was a cop allowing one car to go through at a time, but several lanes fed into that drip system.

Surely Zoe would be gone by now. Despite that, he called her again--

to see if he could swing by her motel to pick up an article of Sam's clothing.

Hello, this is Zoe. I'm currently unavailable. Please leave your name and number and I'll get back to you as soon as I can....

With a curse, he sent her a text instead. Call me. I need to talk to you.

Sam was tired. She wasn't sure if it was because she hadn't gotten all the drug out of her system or because of the mono, which made her tired all the time, or the anxiety of the evening, but she was having difficulty fighting the drowsiness. She wanted to close her eyes and drift away, but she knew nothing would change if she did--at least nothing would change for the better. She had to remain alert so she could make out a slam, a voice, a thud.

Anything distinctive enough to tell her what was going on. But everything felt so hopeless. It'd been forever and she hadn't heard much of anything yet.

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Had Tiffany's company even arrived?

She was afraid her plan wouldn't work, but desperation kept her fighting. Lying with her ear pressed tightly to the floor, she could hear a sound now and then. Or she thought she did. Maybe she was imagining it because she wanted to hear something so badly.

So when should she act? Was it only Tiffany and Colin moving around the house? Had whatever they'd planned been canceled? Or had their visitors come and gone without her knowledge? Had she missed her opportunity?

Her prison was so quiet, so isolated. It was as if they'd locked her into a different universe.

Finally giving up, she curled into herself, and the crudely made marks on the baseboard near the mattress began to blur as her eyes filled with tears.

She couldn't survive sixty-six days like this; she couldn't survive another week.

"Mommy, where are you?" she whispered. She wasn't sure how long it'd been since she'd called her mother Mommy, but she felt so young and frightened. "I want you," she said, pleading with the silence.

And then she heard something that came to her as more of a vibration.

At first she couldn't tell what that vibration signified, but when she pressed her ear to the floor again, she could tell that someone was shouting.

"Colin! Hey! Your cars are in the driveway, so where the hell are ya?

Tiff?"

"Dad? Stay downstairs! Tiff's not dressed," came the equally loud response and, a moment later, footsteps pounded down the stairs.

"Whatever happened to knocking, for God's sake?" she heard Colin snap before his voice dropped too low for her to make out the words.

Shoving herself into a sitting position, Sam began to shiver. Someone besides Colin and Tiffany was definitely in the house. It was time to draw the attention of their guest.

But if Colin's dad came to see what was going on, would he take her side--or his?

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Colin couldn't believe it. What was his father doing stopping by unannounced? Paddy knew Colin and Tiffany valued their privacy. Almost every visit occurred at Paddy's smallish tract house in Antelope, and that was how Colin liked it. That was the only way the relationship could work.

At Easter, Paddy's new wife, Sheryl, had said it'd be nice if Colin and Tiffany would host dinner at their place for a change, but Paddy had immediately responded by telling her to shut up and get them all a beer. He'd seen how easily Colin had cut Tina, his real mother, out of his life. He wasn't about to push Colin. He was too busy trying to make up for allowing Tina to get away with what she did when Colin was little. At least he and Colin were still on speaking terms. Colin's sister had sided with their mother and, after the divorce, refused to communicate with him or Paddy.

Colin didn't like his stepmother much more than he liked his own mother. But she was a decent cook and, because she didn't enjoy serving them, he gained some satisfaction in making her do it practically every holiday. Being on friendly terms with his father enabled him to use his father's vacation cabin, too, which had proved to be a great perk. Some of his fondest memories involved torturing his second pet at the cabin. Her remains were even buried up there.

"What're you doing here?" he asked as soon as he reached the living room.

His father stood in front of the fireplace, staring up at the photograph that'd been taken for their wedding announcements. He turned and watched as Colin finished pulling on his shirt. Colin had Zoe tied up, the video camera positioned just right, and had barely removed his clothes when he'd heard his father's voice. Being interrupted at a moment like that was beyond enraging. But at least he'd heard Paddy before the old man surprised him in the bedroom.

His father didn't seem to care that he'd dropped by at an inconvenient time. He shoved a shaking hand through his short gray hair, which was still thick despite his age, and met Colin's impatient eyes. "I need to talk to you."

Colin couldn't help glancing toward the stairs. He had all his toys ready, was eager to see how long Zoe could survive what he had in store for her, how she'd react to the pain and degradation--and now this. "Can't it wait?" he said.

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"No."

Son of a bitch! Something was obviously wrong, but Colin didn't want to hear about it right now. It probably had to do with his little sister. Paddy had been trying to reconcile with Courtney for the past two years. He wanted to apologize and make up, but she either avoided his calls or changed her number.

Paddy was getting so damn soft in his old age, Colin thought. Where was the man who used to let Tina beat on him at the drop of a hat? There were times he'd even held Colin down for her. A man like that deserved to reap what he'd sown, didn't he? He couldn't start whining at this late date; it wasn't fair.

"Okay, what's up? Spit it out," he said.

"I'm sorry. I--you'll have to apologize to Tiffany for me. I'm not even sure I should've come here, but..."

Colin realized he'd pulled his shirt on wrong side out and corrected it.

"But what?"

"I just saw something on television that has me...concerned," he admitted.

He'd seen something on TV? Who gave a rat's ass about that? "If this is about politics--"

"No. It's about you, Colin."

"What does anything on TV have to do with me?"

"I hope nothing."

Colin slouched on the sofa. "You're being really cryptic, you know that?"

His father waved toward the stairs. "Could you get Tiffany to come down for a minute? I think she should be in on this."

"Tiffany's not interested, Dad. She's waiting for me in bed, okay?

She's not coming down just because you saw something you didn't like on TV. Now, explain what's going on or get the hell out of here, because you just interrupted some of the best sex of my life."

Paddy's chest lifted as he drew breath. "A boy was found wandering in the woods."

Colin hadn't expected his father to connect him to Rover. In his obsession with Zoe and his irritation over being interrupted before he could even touch her, he'd almost forgotten his last pet.

Fear suddenly offset his irritation, but he wasn't stupid enough to show it. "I saw that myself, a couple nights ago. Poor kid. Has he come out of his coma?"

"No. They're not sure he ever will."

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"That's tragic. But..." Colin gestured as if Paddy had him at a loss. "I don't understand. You came all the way over here to tell me some sad story about a teenage boy?"

"They showed a map, pinpointing where the boy was found."

"And?"

"It was right by Mike's cabin."

Colin's erection had long since disappeared. He adjusted himself, acting as though he wasn't worried, but he was. He had reason to be. "Who's Mike?"

"My friend from work, remember? He took over management of the lawn-mower shop when your useless stepbrother got mad and walked out on me."

"Oh, right. Mike."

"I set it up for you and Tiffany to rent his cabin a couple years ago because I already had Sheryl's family staying in mine. You wanted to go camping for a week."

Colin maintained a carefully neutral expression. "Wow! The kid was found by Mike's cabin? What a small world. I hadn't realized. But then, they didn't get specific in the segment I saw."

"They're appealing to the public for help."

"Good idea."

Paddy peered at him more closely. "That doesn't mean anything to you?"

"Why would it?"

"The boy insisted the person who hurt him lived in Rocklin."

Colin shrugged. "Maybe he does."

His father lowered his voice. "Colin, I'm here because I'm afraid you had something to do with the disappearance of that boy."

The adrenaline pumping through him allowed Colin to react with the proper amount of indignation. "You think I'd beat up a child?"

He'd expected Paddy to get defensive in return. As much as his father had changed over the years, he still had a temper when sufficiently provoked. But he didn't react with anger. His voice had a pleading quality to it. "I don't want to think that," he said. "To be honest, I can't imagine a worse scenario, but the man who hurt him insisted on being called Master. As soon as I heard that, I felt like I'd been shot."

"Are you serious? God, will you give me a break?" Colin managed a laugh. "Maybe I made Courtney call me Master when we were young, but I was just playing around. That doesn't make me the son of a bitch who hurt this kid."

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"Playing around? She didn't think it was any fun."

"It was normal brother-sister stuff."

His father didn't comment.

"Come on!" Colin said. "I'm not the only one who's ever used the word. What about domination freaks? It could be anyone. How would I even have come into contact with this boy?"

He knew before he'd finished speaking that he'd said too much. The answer was obvious, and his father spit it out immediately.

"He went missing from my neighborhood."

The regret in his father's body language made Colin's knees go weak.

On some level, Paddy knew. He didn't want to face it, probably because he didn't want to shoulder any responsibility for what his son had become. He'd been so proud of Colin, especially since Colin had graduated from law school.

But, in his heart of hearts, Paddy knew. And the truth made him sick.

Colin jutted out his chin. "I didn't do it."

"You have a connection to where he was taken and where he was found. And..."

"And what?" Colin snapped, going on the attack. "You believe Mom, don't you! You believe I have a cruel streak."

"I'm not sure what to believe."

"Even if I wanted to kidnap somebody's kid, how would I do it with Tiffany around? Whoever it was kept that kid for what, two months?"

A tear caught in Paddy's eyelashes. Colin had never seen his father cry before. He didn't know what to do, what more he could say, but he couldn't let the encounter end like this or his father would go to the police.

"What?" he snapped.

"They didn't say how long Master had the kid," Paddy replied.

Shit! He'd done another line of coke after Tiffany had left and wasn't thinking clearly, wasn't handling this well. His father was growing more convinced of the truth. How was he going to get out of this?

Sweat soaked the underarms of Colin's T-shirt, made the cotton stick to his back. "They did in the segment I saw."

He'd forced enough calm into his voice and manner that a flicker of hope returned to his father's eyes. "They did?"

"Yes! How would I know that otherwise?"

"But what about the girl who's gone missing? They showed her mother. She looked exactly like your neighbor."

Son of a bitch! How had he recognized Zoe? Paddy and Sheryl hardly ever came over. But Colin and Tiffany had lived next door to Lucassi and 188

Zoe for nine months. It was certainly conceivable that they'd bumped into each other at some point.

Should he say the person on TV wasn't his neighbor? That was what he wanted to say. But it would be far too easy to disprove. And then he'd be in the untenable position of being caught in a lie.

Raking his fingers through his hair, he clicked his tongue. "Right.

That happened earlier this week. Can you believe it? Someone snagged the kid from her own backyard. Zoe was just here, by the way, helping me organize a big search for tomorrow. The other lawyers at the firm and some of the support staff are going out with us."