The Way to Yesterday (12 page)

'Oh, Daniel..."

'Hang in there, honey. Hope's safe and we're going to make sure she stays
that way."

*

Howard Lee took the two bowls of macaroni and cheese from the microwave and put
them on a tray, then added two plastic spoons and two snack-size fruit juices
in disposable packs. He stared at the tray for a moment and then moved to the
sideboard, took a couple of bananas from a bowl and added them to the tray.

'There now… a perfectly good lunch for growing girls."

He picked up the tray and headed down the hall, then into his own bedroom.
Nudging the door closed with the toe of his shoe, he set the tray down on the
bed, then shoved aside a small area rug, revealing the metal door on the floor.
He lifted it, letting it rest against the side of the bed as he turned for the
tray and started down the stairs.

Ignoring the fact that he'd yelled at them earlier, his voice was full of
overdone delight. "Hello, hello, hello," he said, as he began to
descend. "I brought you some yummy lunch. Are my two little angels
hungry?"

Amy Anne Fountain had once been a happy, smiling little girl, but there was
little left of the child that she'd been. Even though her clothes were spotless
and her long brown hair had been brushed and clipped away from her face with a
bright red bow, the bruises on her arms and the cut on her lip were impossible
to miss. She was sitting on the side of the bed, her stare blank, a spittle of
drool barely visible at the edge of her lower lip.

Justine
Marchand
had been an impish, outgoing
child who'd never met a stranger. Then she'd met Howard Lee Martin, and the
name "stranger" had taken on a whole different meaning. She'd been
putty in his hands from the very first and had never seen the danger coming.
He'd used the "puppy on a leash" trick, waited until he'd seen her
coming, then dropped the leash, knowing full well that the puppy would bolt.
Justine had seen the puppy coming at her, seen the funny man running after the
puppy as hard as he could go, and thought she was doing a good deed. Only four
blocks from her home she'd gotten down on her knees and caught the puppy in her
arms. She was smiling as she'd handed him to the big man, and felt no danger
when he'd patted her on the back and thanked her for being so kind. When he'd
offered to let her hold the puppy's leash as they walked toward her home, she'd
been distracted by the unexpected treat and had done the unforgivable. She'd
walked away with a stranger. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her
mommy and daddy. She'd quit crying for them at night now and even though Amy
Anne didn't talk to her, Justine slept curled around her as if she were a
lifeline to sanity.

She heard the door open above them and then the man's voice calling down.
She stood abruptly, unwilling to be on the bed. He played games on the bed that
she didn't like. Her fingers curled around her friend's wrist as she whispered
in desperation.

'Get up, Amy Anne... you have to get up."

But Amy Anne didn't move, and Justine wasn't strong enough to lift her.
Helpless to do anything but take care of herself, she ran to the other side of
the room.

*

Mary had started toward Hope's school almost an hour before school was due
to be dismissed. Part of it had been fear that she wouldn't know where to go,
but more importantly, she never wanted Hope to be anxious again about being
picked up. Even though she hadn't known exactly where to go, she'd driven
straight to the school without missing a turn. She was starting to accept the
fact that something extraordinary had happened to her life. She parked on the
street and then leaned back against the seat, willing her pounding heart to
ease.

As she waited, she glanced up in the rearview mirror and saw a tall,
blond-haired man dressed in jogging clothes coming down the sidewalk. He was
walking casually, once stopping to tie his shoe. When he straightened up, he
glanced around as if looking to see if he'd been observed.

Mary's fingers curled around the steering wheel. He had blond hair. What if
it was the man who'd talked to Hope? She reached for her purse and took out her
phone. If he would only come a little closer, she would be able to see his face
better. As she waited, her finger poised to call 9-1-1, a yellow school bus came
up behind her, passed where she was waiting, and pulled into line at the curb.
At that point, she could no longer see the jogger. Seconds later, a second bus
pulled to the curb, then a third and a fourth until the curb was lined with
buses waiting to load and her view of the sidewalk was completely blocked.

A couple of drivers got out. One of them lit up a cigarette and started to
smoke while another circled his bus, kicking at the tires and checking the back
door to make sure it was securely fastened.

Mary got out of her car and moved toward the sidewalk in front of the
school, still looking for the man in the jogging suit, but he was nowhere in
sight. Then she noticed a uniformed policeman just inside the front gate and
began to relax.

At that moment, she heard a loud, strident bell from within the building
behind her. Seconds later, the front doors opened and children came spilling
out of the schoolhouse and down the steps. Frustration set in as the teachers
and the children came toward her. She tried not to panic, but she had
absolutely no idea what her own daughter's teacher looked like. "Hi, Mrs.
O'Rourke! Are you looking for Hope?" Mary turned around, then looked down.
A small, blond-haired girl with chubby cheeks was looking up at her, smiling in
obvious recognition.

'Yes, I am," she said. "Who are you?" The little girl laughed
out loud, as if Mary had just told her a funny joke.

'It's me, Molly."

Molly. Hope's best friend. "Why, so it is," Mary said, and
pretended to rub sleep from her eyes. Molly laughed again and then pointed
behind her. "There they come now. The last rows had to wait in the hall
because Frances Sheffield threw up."

'Oh, my," Mary said.

'Mommy! Mommy!" 

Mary turned, saw Hope waving at her from the front of the line, and breathed
a huge sigh of relief.

'Hi, honey," she called.

'Mary ... good afternoon."

Mary took a calculated guess at the identity of the woman and jumped into
the conversation with both feet.

'Hello, Mrs. Kristy. I hear someone had a little accident in the hall."

Lena Kristy rolled her eyes. "Five more seconds and we would have been
out of the building, too." Mary smiled sympathetically as Hope slipped her
hand in her mother's palm.

'Mommy, can we go home now?"

Mary looked down at her daughter, her heart filling with a love she would
have been hard-pressed to describe.

'Yes, darling... we can go home." She glanced at Mrs. Kristy.
"Okay?"

'Very okay," Mrs. Kristy said, then she began loading her children,
making sure they got on the proper buses while the other parents who picked up
their children still waited in their cars.

Hope was talking nonstop, skipping as she walked, secure that all was right
with her world. Mary listened absently, answering only when necessary as they
moved toward the car. She kept looking at everyone they passed, as well as the
people who waited in cars. Some waved at her. She waved back, assuming she
should know who they were. "Mommy, I'm hungry. Can we stop on the way home
for a
Slushee
?"

Mary thought of the detective who was due soon at their house. "Not
today, Hope. We need to hurry home."

'Why?"

She hesitated. Daniel had told her not to let Hope know Detective Arnaud was
coming to talk to her.

'Because... because I think Daddy is coming home early and we don't want to
miss him."

'Yea!" Hope cried. "Maybe he'll play ball with me."

Mary smiled. "Maybe ...but we'll have to wait and see, okay?"

'Okay."

*

Howard Lee glared at the presence of the policeman while watching the buses
loading from across the street. When the cop looked his way, he picked up the
clippers that were lying by the hedge where he was standing and began clipping
at the bushes as if he lived there. He'd seen the woman get out of the car and
thought nothing of it. There were hundreds of children in that school. What
were the odds that she would be there for his angel?

He cut at the shrubbery in short, angry jerks, telling himself it didn't
matter-that he still had plenty of time to make the plan work.

He watched the buses pull away and then stepped back into the shade of a
magnolia tree as the first of the cars began to depart. He saw her then, in her
pretty blue car, all smiling and happy, and his anger spiked. It wasn't fair.
This was his little girl. He'd picked her out special. That woman couldn't
possibly know how to make a little girl happy. Not like he did. Amy Anne and
Justine needed that new sister and he wasn't going to disappoint them. He threw
the clippers down with a curse and then started jogging toward home.

Reese Arnaud pulled up in front of the O'Rourke house and then reached over
in the back seat and got the little pink jacket that Hope had left at his
house.

He eyed the sketch artist, giving him one last reminder.

'Okay, Kelly, remember we take this slow. If we frighten her, it's
over."

'Yes, sir," the officer said, and gathered up his briefcase as he got
out of the car.

Reese's focus was on high as he rang the doorbell. Please God, let this be
the break we've been waiting for. Moments later, the door opened and Mary let
them inside. Reese hugged her briefly, wanting to allay the fear he saw on her
face.

'Hello, Mary. Sorry that this is happening." "No more than we
are," she said. "Hope is in her room. I'll call her."

'We need to make this real informal. How about we set up in the kitchen?
Maybe with cookies and milk?"

Mary smiled. "It will be her second round. Some thing tells me she
won't object."

Reese chuckled. "Yeah, she's hell on chocolate chip cookies, isn't
she?"

Mary nodded, but her thoughts were somewhere else. Chocolate chip cookies
were her favorites? Another thing I hadn't known. "Please see yourselves
to the kitchen. We'll be right there."

As she started up the stairs, it occurred to her that Reese Arnaud probably
knew more about her daughter's likes and dislikes than she did. The thought was
not only daunting but made her feel lacking as the mother she wanted to be. She
headed down the hall and then pushed the door open to Hope's room.

'Hi, Mommy! Is Daddy home yet?"

'No, but you have a visitor."

"Who? Is it Molly?"

'Close, but not Molly."

Abandoning the puzzle she'd been working, Hope jumped up from her little
chair and ran out of her room and down the hall.

'Don't run down the stairs," Mary cautioned, then groaned beneath her
breath as Hope bounded down the stairs anyway.

Mary hurried down behind her and followed Hope into the kitchen, just in
time to hear her cry. "Uncle Reese... it's you! Did you bring Molly to
play with me?"

Reese Arnaud scooped the little girl up into his arms and gave her a quick
hug.

'No, but I brought your pink jacket."

'Oh, goody. Is that where it was?"

He grinned. "Yep. I wanted to wear it, but pink's not my color."

Hope giggled. "Uncle Reese, you're so silly. You can't wear my jacket.
You're too big."

'Maybe you're right," he said, then pointed to the officer he'd brought
with him. "This is my friend, Kelly. We're having cookies and milk. Want
to have some with us?"

Hope looked to Mary for permission. When Mary nodded, she wiggled out of
Reese's arms and headed for the fridge.

'I'll get my own milk," she said, and dragged a nearly full gallon of
milk from the shelf.

'Maybe I'd better help," Mary said, and grabbed the gallon carton from
Hope's hands before the milk hit the floor. "Why don't you sit down by
Uncle

Reese while I get your snack?"

Before Hope could settle, they heard the front door open.

'Daddy's home!" Hope cried. "Daddy! We're in here!" she
yelled, and then snagged a cookie from the plate before anyone changed their
minds about letting her have a second snack.

Mary nodded at the two officers then went to meet Daniel.

'Sorry I'm late. Got a late phone call I couldn't ignore. Have they started
yet?" Daniel asked.

'No, they just got here."

'Good. Give me a second and I'll join you." He set his briefcase on the
floor beside the hall table and then took off his suit coat and hung it on the
newel post as they passed the staircase.

As they entered the kitchen, Daniel's gaze met and then slid past Reese
Arnaud to the little girl sitting across the table from him.

'Hey,
punkin
... did you save me any cookies?"
Hope giggled and took another big bite. "Nope."

"You little pig ... then I'm going to eat yours."

Daniel teased, and grabbed at his daughter's wrist, pretending to eat her
cookie.

Reese's nerves were on edge as he waited for the hilarity to cease. He
couldn't help thinking about the two missing children-wondering if they were
even alive-knowing if they were, they might never laugh again.

Finally, the silliness stopped as Daniel sat at the table and then took Hope
on his lap. At his nod, the sketch artist took a pad and charcoal pencil from
his briefcase and started to draw. Immediately, Hope's interest shifted.

'What are you doing?" she asked.

Reese leaned forward, his gaze fixed on Hope's face.

'He's going to draw me a picture."

'What kind of a picture?" Hope asked. "Oh, I don't know, do you
have a suggestion?" Hope grinned. "A horse! Draw a picture of a
horse!"

Mary slid into the seat beside Daniel and Hope. She didn't touch them, but
she needed to be close. What happened during the next few minutes might be
vital to finding the missing children as well as keeping her own daughter safe.