Wanting (6 page)

“
When was this?” Carrie
drew the boy’s attention her way. She’d walked up behind the boy
without being seen from where she’d been talking to a trio of
working girls younger than she. “How many days back?”

The kid let out a whistle
designed to draw attention. “Baby, why you hangin’ with grandpa
here? You and me can go have a party.” He accompanied his words by
grabbing his crotch and leering up the foot or so that separated
his height from Carrie’s.

“
Come on, focus. And
gramps here knows exactly what to do to make her happy. How many
days back?” Sebastian fought the urge to smirk at the kid. He had
to give the boy points for having the balls to hit on Carrie right
in front of him. But really, could he blame the kid for
trying?

He smiled and winked at
Carrie again; Sebastian suppressed a laugh. “Three. Kid was lookin’
kind of rough, ya know what I mean?” The boy shook his head and
shrugged. Sebastian fought the urge to step back as the scent of
unwashed body wafted his way.

“
Rough? How? Drugs?
Alcohol?” Carrie, at least, seemed immune to the boy’s obvious
odor.

“
That kid? Hell, no.
Completely sugar cookie material. Bait, that one. Real spooked.
Somethin’ was on his tail.”

“
So how rough?” Sebastian
pulled a card from his pocket. It had just his name and cell
number. The kid had made them for cops, but Sebastian hadn’t told
him what scale. And he wouldn’t, but he strongly suspected the kid
would share the news of their occupations with anyone he
could.

“
Scared, man. Jumpy. Needs
to learn to hide that shit out here.” The kid took the card and
shoved it in his pocket. “Dangerous.”

“
Thanks, man.” Sebastian
pulled a twenty from his jeans and handed it to the boy. The kid
took it with a look of mingled gratitude and resentment in his
eyes. “For your trouble. Buy some food that’s not so shitty. And if
you see anything, call that number.”

“
Whatever. Baby, it’s your
loss if you prefer the geezer to me.” The street kid took off,
disappearing seconds after leaving them.

Sebastian turned to his
partner. “You hungry, baby?”

Carrie nodded. “Let’s go
see if the homeless shelter’s food is as bad as he said,
gramps...”

***

Sebastian slipped a fifty
into the shelter’s donation box, before he and Carrie took their
place in the line.

“
Do you see her?” Carrie
asked over the growing sound of yet another approaching
storm.

“
No.” Sebastian took the
tray the volunteer handed him. The middle-aged woman eyed him and
Carrie with clear doubt and suspicion on her face. Sebastian gave
her a nod. He would make a point of speaking with her later. She’d
probably seen every single person who’d went through the food line.
“Pick a seat. Likely candidates to talk about a teenage
runaway.”

“
Table near the back.
Family of four. They’ll probably be willing to help a lost kid.”
Carrie’s tone was low, sad. Sebastian followed her gaze,
understanding what bothered her about the sight. Two young people
and two young children, all dressed shabbily but neat. They
shouldn’t have needed the shelter, but they did. No one in the room
should have needed the shelter. But they did. Sebastian was
grateful that he and Carrie were just visiting, and thankful for
what he had.

Neither spoke as they
crossed the dining area.

Carrie was the first to
reach the target table. “May we sit here?”

The mother looked up, eyes
widening with nerves. Sebastian knew what she saw—he and Carrie
didn’t belong. And in this type of place, if someone didn’t belong
they were probably authorities of some sort.

The father tensed, probably
fearing they were social services. The children, early
elementary-aged, just stared out of weary eyes.

“
We don’t mean any harm. We
just want to eat. We’re also looking for a friend,” Carrie said,
placing her tray beside the little girl’s. She smiled at the child,
a sweet expression meant to comfort.

“
We haven’t seen anyone,”
the father said as Sebastian sat his tray down.

“
We have a photograph.”
Carrie pulled the snapshot from her pocket. “She’s only fourteen
and ran away a week ago. Someone said they’d seen her here. We are
hoping so—we thought she was in St. Louis. We really want to find
her before something happens to her. Her name is Ashleigh. She
likes dogs and purple nail polish. Her favorite subject in school
is English because she likes to read,” Carrie continued talking.
Sebastian knew what she was trying to do—appeal to the woman’s
motherly instincts. And it was working, that was evident in the way
the mother’s face was softening.

“
She looks so young...are
you sure she’s fourteen?” The woman picked up the photo before
looking at her own blue-eyed blonde children. Her daughter
especially. “Why on earth did she run? Her parents must be sick
with worry over her.”

“
We don’t know why she
ran. She’s a really good kid; I’ve known her since she was six.
She’s so naïve, too. Ashleigh is not equipped to be out here on her
own. Have you seen her?” Sebastian drew the woman’s attention to
him.

“
We’ve only been coming
here a week. My husband lost his job and we heard there were more
available here than in Detroit. I think I remember her. She may
have been here yesterday, I think. I can’t say for sure. I’m
sorry.”

“
Did she maybe come in with
someone? Sit with anyone in particular? Speak with anyone?” Carrie
gave her apple to the little girl next to her as she
spoke.

“
He—she—came in alone, but
I think Irene may have spoken with her.”

“
Irene?” Sebastian
asked.

“
The woman at the head of
the food line. She runs the shelter and the kitchen.” The father
nodded in the direction of the food line. “Hope you find that
kid.”

Carrie smiled at the man.
“Thank you. And best of luck to you all.”

It took them fifteen
minutes to get Irene to open up to them. The middle-aged woman
who’d first noticed them had turned out to be Irene. They’d joined
her as she supervised a small cleanup crew. She’d easily made them
for cops. “Scared kid. I knew she wasn’t no boy. I’ve been doing
this job long enough to know some of the tricks of this world.
Despite the hair and clothes this was no boy. Too feminine and
refined for that. I asked her if she had a place to stay and if she
needed help. Could tell she’d not been out here that
long.”

Sebastian had quickly
explained their purpose, and asked several questions about the
shelter. Enough to make the woman comfortable enough to know they
weren’t there to pry information or hassle the shelter’s residents
or the kitchen’s daily visitors. “What was her
response?”

“
Evasive. But so, so
scared. I wanted to press the issue, but I was afraid, too. Didn’t
want her to get too scared and not come back. I haven’t seen her
since. That was two or three days ago. I hope you can find her, but
I’m not sure I can be much help.”

“
Was there anything that
stood out? Would help pinpoint where she was camping?” Carrie
asked.

Irene shook her head.
“Nothing that stands out. She did have a McDonalds cup with her
last time I saw her. She filled it with water before she
left.”

***

Ten minutes later they were
back at the SUV. Carrie placed her laptop on the hood and isolated
all the McDonalds restaurants within easy walking distance of the
New Hope Shelter.

“
What are the chances the
cup was one she found and reused?”

“
Not high.” Carrie focused
on the screen, trying to put herself in Ashleigh’s shoes once
again. She would have wanted to stay close to her home base—less of
a chance of getting lost or running into trouble. “Those cups only
last so long. And most people don’t empty them before tossing them.
They are good if you are really thirsty and don’t have access to a
readily available water supply. People are wasteful. The cups would
have liquid in them—usually soda—that eats at the material of the
cups. The soda is acidic, so the cups don’t last too long. She
probably bought it, drank it, and rinsed the cup out—”

Sebastian held up a hand,
cutting her off. “I get it. She bought it. So we’ll start with the
restaurant closest to the shelter and work from there.”

Chapter 11

*****

They’d taken it better than
Kevin had expected, but he knew his girls didn’t fully understand.
How could they? He barely understood it himself.

He’d always taught his
girls to face their mistakes, to take responsibility for their
actions. The fact that he hadn’t known about Caroline until she was
nine hadn’t helped his case.

It had only partially
mollified the girls when he’d explained how Caroline’s mother had
run off with a known criminal after he and his partner questioned
her about her involvement in a case he was working. He’d explained
how he’d told his wife immediately the night he’d met Caroline ten
years later and suspected she was his. Told the girls how he and
Susan had went to child services the next day to see about getting
Caroline to live with them. But somehow Caroline had disappeared
into the system and no amount of searching had been able to trace
exactly where the little girl had been taken.

Kevin had never understood
that. How could a child under the watch of social services just
disappear? Someone on the inside had to have been corrupt, but he’d
never been able to isolate just who. Or why his little girl would
have been of interest.

Her mother had been a petty
criminal, her step-father, as well. He’d never been able to solve
the murder of Caroline’s mother, but he’d tried.

Every cop had that one case
he just couldn’t solve. His just happened to be the murder of his
child’s mother.

The man who was paroled
four days ago. Seventeen years later, and Kevin knew he may finally
have a shot at finding his daughter.

He wasn’t stopping until he
did.

Chapter 12

*****

“
That kid? Comes in every
day or so, and has for the last four. I think she’s homeless, but
she doesn’t cause any trouble and always buys something—even if
it’s just an order of fries.”

“
Are you sure it’s this
girl?”

“
Yeah. The blue eyes are
pretty distinctive. And I always work the early shift—except today
‘cause we had somebody call in sick—and I see her every day. It
took a few days to realize she was a girl, though.” The restaurant
manager was extremely helpful. They’d approached her during an
obvious lull in the business crowd. Once they’d explained their
purpose she’d been doubly willing to help. She’d mentioned she had
children of her own Ashleigh’s age.

“
We’re not from here. Do
you know where the runaways tend to hang out? Near
here?”

“
Try the intersection four
blocks from here. There seems to be a big group of them down there.
I saw her down by the river once. It’s about a mile from here.
There’s a bunch of construction going on. That jacket she wears,
the blue one with the orange stripe down the middle? It’s pretty
recognizable. You might try there.”

***

The area nearest the river
was dirty and filled with the sights of construction. Sebastian
estimated they’d spend hours searching each site—the ones that
weren’t fenced. That was only if the rains let off enough for them
to be able to see ten feet in front of them. Was Ashleigh being
drawn to construction sites? Her father’s, perhaps? A subconscious
way of seeking his protection and safety? It sickened him to think
of that little girl out there frightened and alone. How must her
own father feel?

“
So how do you want to do
this?” Carrie appeared unfazed by the rain, but he’d noticed
earlier that the sound of distant thunder had her tensing. “Search
each building site together or you take one side of the street and
I take the other?”

“
We stay together. Period.
I’m not explaining to Hellbrook that I lost you in the river.”
Sebastian felt her shoulder bump his as they started around the
first site. “If it starts storming, we’ll call it for the
day.”

“
I’m good to go on, if we
need to.”

“
Well, I won’t be. It’s
stupid to be outside in a Midwestern thunderstorm. We won’t do
anyone any good that way. We’ll head back to the hotel and go over
the details.”

“
Should we announce our
presence? Call for her? Or are you wanting to catch her
unaware?”

“
Unaware. Chances are good
she’ll recognize me. If the reason she ran has something to do with
her mother, she’ll probably run from me as well. If we can corner
her, we may be able to find out what happened without her getting
away. I’m not stopping until I find her and help her. If that means
taking her somewhere other than to one of her parents, that’s what
I’ll do.”

“
Do you think it has
something to do with her parents?”

“
Nine times out of ten,
doesn’t it? Or a potential love interest.”