Chasing Second Chances (2 page)

Chapter Three

Something was wrong, Kate thought as soon as she opened the front door.

When Kate had called earlier—the first thing she had done after stepping out of their plane from Florida—and no one had answered, she had the feeling that something wrong, but she tried not to jump to the worst conclusions. Now, she was sure of it, the heavy silence and the smell of stale milk clear indications.

“It seems like everyone’s asleep,” Bryan said, shattering the silence.

Kate ignored him, the voice of her maternal instinct speaking louder. Following it, she rushed to the living room where the television was on but no one was watching.

“Charlene?”

She took a few steps, stopping when her shoe hit something hard.

A smashed phone.

Holding her breath, she leaned over to pick it up, which was when she noticed a dark red drop on the living room rug, along with another and another…

Blood.

She straightened herself up and stepped back, her hand covering her mouth just as her lips parted to let out a gasp.

“Kate, is everything all right?”

Again, she ignored him, rushing up the stairs as soon as she could move again.

“Lena! Jack!”

At the landing, she stopped, tears forming at the corners of her eyes as she picked up Miss Sophie.

“Lena…”

She ran up the rest of the stairs, throwing Jack’s bedroom door open as soon as she reached it. Finding it empty just as she had feared, she ran down the hall to open Lena’s, tears trickling down her cheeks, and finding it empty as well, she collapsed on her shaking knees on the carpet, both hands clasping over her mouth to suppress a scream as she realized what was going on.

Every mother’s worst nightmare.

“Wake up, Nick!”

Lt. Nicholas Paulson opened his eyes as he sat up with a jolt, the realization that he had fallen asleep on his desk just as surprising as his subordinate, Sgt. Lisa Manning, waking him up. He had never fallen asleep on his shift before. Then again, he had never had to take care of a baby who was less than a week old before while his wife caught up on the sleep she was deprived of the previous night.

He opened his mouth to mumble an apology but upon seeing the worry in Lisa’s wide brown eyes, he was reminded that he had more important tasks at hand.

“What’s the matter, Lisa?”

“There’s a missing persons case at 21 Pine Street.”

“21 Pine Street? That’s a rich neighborhood, isn’t it? Kidnapping?”

“Possibly,” Lisa answered. “The owner of the house, Kate Evans, said she returned from vacation and the house was empty.”

Nick leaned forward on his desk and reached for his pen and began to twirl it between his fingers—a habit he had never been able to get rid of, not that he ever seriously tried. “Her child is missing?”

“Two children, Lena Evans and Jack Evans, aged seven and a half and four,” Lisa said, her eyes on the slip of paper in her hand. “And the babysitter, Charlene Morrow, 19.”

The pen fell. “Shit.”

* * * *

Bryan muttered another curse as he slipped into the driver’s seat of his black SUV, slamming the door shut before gripping fistfuls of his hair in frustration.

He had never felt so helpless in his life.

He had only been trying to help Kate, to comfort her somehow, but she had pushed him away, telling him to leave her alone and when he didn’t, she lashed out at him, telling him that everything was his fault.

That had hurt, especially since he knew she was right, and for a moment, he felt a tinge of regret, but shoved it aside.

He was not going to give up.

For now, he was going to back down, to give Kate the time and space she was asking for, not only because she had asked but because she could not stand the sight of her in this disarray, in despair, which reminded him sorely of someone else.

Someone he didn’t want to remember.

He would be back, though, and when he did, perhaps she would have calmed down enough to need him, to trust him, to let him love her just as she had before.

He needed her to keep trusting him or everything would be in vain.

Chapter Four

It was in vain, Nick thought as he watched Kate pull another sheet of tissue from the box beside her to dab at her leaking eyes from the chair across her. No matter how hard he tried to restrain the discomfort he felt at the sight of the woman crying in front of him, he could not help but be bothered. He didn’t like seeing women cry—a fact which his wife, Jody, sometimes used against him.

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant. I just can’t…”

“It’s all right, ma’am.” Nick told Kate as he twirled his pen and shifted in his seat. “Please take your time. I have a kid, too, so I can imagine the horror you’re going through right now.”

“You do?” Kate crumpled the used tissue and added it to the heap on the coffee table.

Nick nodded, grinning. “She’s only five days old but she’s my kid all right. She seems to know it, too.”

The corners of Kate’s lips curved up into a smile. “Just you wait until she can crawl and put things in her mouth, then you’ll wish that she was still in her crib sleeping more than sixteen hours a day.”

Nick chuckled. “It would be great if she slept sixteen hours straight.”

“That would be great, all right. I remember the first day I brought Lena home from the hospital. She was…” Kate stopped, her smile vanishing and another tear rolling down her cheek. She buried her face in her hands. “Oh, I hope they’re all right. If they’re not, I don’t think I can ever live with myself, or that I can live at all.”

Nick frowned. He wished he could say her children were all right, but he did not want to get her hopes up, not when he knew from nearly seven years of experience as a cop that most missing children were never brought home, at least not alive.

“Tell me everything you can about what happened, then we can do our best to help you get your children back,” he promised instead.

Kate nodded, pulling out another sheet of tissue from the box. She wiped her tears and blew her nose, then, straightened her shoulders. “I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Nick stopped twirling his pen so he could prepare to write in his notebook. “Let’s start with when you found out your children were missing.”

“Around eight-thirty,” Kate answered. “That was when we arrived. I knew at once that something was wrong and as soon as I found out the children were missing, I called the police.”

“When was the last time you spoke to them?”

“Saturday. I called them before we boarded the cruise ship.”

Nick tried to suppress another frown as he scribbled. It had already been six days since the children had been confirmed alive and usually, that was not a good sign.

“You left the two children with Charlene Morrow?”

Kate nodded. “I don’t have any relatives who live near here.”

“And friends?”

“I asked a friend to check on them every day, but her mother got sick so she had to leave town last Monday.”

“What’s her name?”

“Anne. Anne Turner. She’s a pediatric nurse.”

“When did you last speak with her?”

Kate paused. “Friday. She only left a message on my phone. I haven’t tried to call her.”

“Can you give me her address and phone number?”

“Here’s her phone number.” Kate showed him her phone. “I’m not sure I have her mother’s address. All I know is that she’s in Atlanta.”

Nick copied the number. “How long have you known Charlene?”

“She only watched the kids for me once before,” Kate confessed with a guilty expression. “But she was highly recommended by Mrs. Duncan, the woman across the street, and I know her mother. She teaches at Lena’s school.”

“And your impression of her?”

“She looked responsible enough to me,” Kate said. “I mean I’m sure she has issues like every other girl her age but I thought she was smart and she had a way with kids. She’s studying to become a kindergarten teacher.”

“I see.”

Kate’s hands tightened into fists on her lap. “Look, Lieutenant, I know I was wrong to have left the kids with…”

“I’m not accusing you of anything, Ms. Evans, nor am I judging you.”

She unclenched her fists. “Right. I’m sorry.”

Nick paused for a moment before resuming his interrogation. “Have you noticed if there’s anything missing in the house?”

“I haven’t really looked around, but all the appliances are still here and the safe doesn’t seem to have been tampered with.”

“And was the door locked when you came home? The windows shut?”

Kate nodded.

“And only you and Charlene have keys?”

“I had the house keys duplicated for Charlene. My boyfriend, Bryan Knowles, who was on the trip with me, has keys, too and so does my ex-husband, but he’s in Los Angeles.”

“Is there any reason to believe that the kids may have run away?”

“That’s impossible,” Kate said. “Lena is smart. She would never leave the house and drag Jack along with her, knowing I’d be coming back. And she would never try to hurt Charlene.”

Nick felt inclined to believe her and so he decided not to pursue that line of questioning further. “Have you received any calls asking for ransom?”

“No,” Kate told him. “I would be relieved if I did. At least, that would mean the kids are still alive for sure.”

Nick said nothing to that, simply scribbling some more. “Do you know anyone who might want to kidnap the children? Like a relative? Someone who has a grudge against you?”

Kate shook her head. “I can’t think of anyone who would want to take those kids away from me. I mean, why would they?”

Nick wanted to tell her that kidnappers had plenty of reasons, none of which justified their actions, or that some kidnappers did not need a reason at all, but instead, he kept silent. Just as he wasn’t going to make her any promises to make her feel better, he wasn’t going to say anything to make her feel worse than she already did.

Deciding he had no further questions for the time being, he stopped twirling his pen, tucking it in his pocket, closed his notebook and stood up. “Thank you for your time, Ms. Evans. If there’s anything else that comes to your mind, anything at all about this case, or if you receive any suspicious calls, you can call the police station or drop by and ask for me.”

“I will,” Kate assured him. “And if there’s anything you find out…”

“We’ll let you know at once,” Nick assured her in turn. At least, that was one promise he could make.

“Whether it’s good news…or bad?” She looked up at him, her lower lip trembling at the last part of the question.

Nick swallowed the lump in his throat before nodding slowly. “Yes, Ms. Evans. You have my word.”

She let out a deep breath, her shoulders rising then slumping in exhaustion. “Thank you, Lt. Paulson.”

* * * *

Kate watched the police officer walk to the waiting patrol car from the living room window, the paper bag containing Lena and Jack’s combs and toothbrushes and their most recent photographs in one of his hands. He was a good man, she thought, not having tried to comfort her by making her promises he wasn’t sure he could keep and doing his best not to show her any pity even though she could see in his eyes that he felt her pain. She only hoped he was a good enough cop to be able to bring back her children.

At the renewed thought of Jack and Lena gone, she felt tears once more prick the corners of her eyes and she moved away from the window, sitting on the couch before her knees failed her.

Instead of reaching for the box of tissue, she reached for Miss Sophie who was on the armchair, hugging the toy to her chest as she allowed the tears to fall.

Lena.

She hoped that wherever Lena was, she was all right without Miss Sophie. Once, Lena had accidentally spilled chocolate milk on Miss Sophie and so she had to be brought to the dry cleaners. Lena hadn’t been able to sleep, whining for hours that she wanted Miss Sophie and it was only after Kate lay down beside her, assuring her over and over that Miss Sophie would be just fine and singing songs to her, that she finally did.

“I hope she’s doing fine, Miss Sophie,” she whispered to the stuffed bunny.

And Jack, oh, she hoped Jack was all right without his favorite race car under his pillow and that whoever was watching over him had not turned off the lights so that he wouldn’t be scared of the dark.

“Oh, my babies…”

She hugged Miss Sophie tighter against her chest, which now heaved as her tears spilled over. Oh, she would do anything, anything just to have them back safe, to see their crooked smiles again, to hear them calling her ‘Mommy’ in their high-pitched voices, to have them in her arms. If…no, when that happened, she vowed that she would be a better mother.

No, she would be the perfect mother.

She would never again go anywhere without them, never again tell them she was too tired to play hide-and-seek or watch cartoons with them, never raise her voice at them again…anything, anything just to get them back.

For a while, she just cried, crying over every memory she had of her kids which, no matter how happy, were tainted by the fear that she would never see her kids again. She tried not to think of that, though, tried not to imagine the worse scenarios for fear they would come true or that she would lose her sanity just thinking of them.

When the tears had run out, she put Miss Sophie down, the stuffed toy now stained with tears, and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. After drinking it, she pulled out a chair from the dining table and sat down to rest, her glance falling on the cordless phone that was on the table where she had set it down after calling the police.

She thought about calling someone, thinking that now that she had calmed down a little, she didn’t want to be facing the nightmare she was in alone. She wanted someone to talk to.

But who?

Both her parents were living out their retirement in luxury at a villa in Hawaii, while her older sister was in Switzerland trying to make the world a better place and her younger sister was in Las Vegas with a bunch of problems of her own. As for friends, the closest friend she had, Anne, was out of town, and all the rest were simply not close enough for her to dump her current problem on. Friendship was one of the things she lost after becoming a mother.

She considered calling Bryan, thinking that she owed him an apology. She decided against it, though, since apologizing was not exactly what she wanted to do at the moment.

True, she wanted someone to comfort her, but she also wanted someone to really understand what she was going through, someone who could not only ease her pain but share it and tell her not only the things she wanted to hear, but also the things she needed to know.

There was only one person who came to mind.