Текст книги "Thread of Betrayal"

Автор книги: Jeff Shelby

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TWELVE

“You aren’t speaking with my daughter,” Lawrence Thompkins said, standing just outside of his home.

After a mountain of paperwork and a few more questions, I was finally set free at the airport. We’d gone back to Castle Rock to try to speak with Morgan Thompkins again, but her father had apparently gotten wind of our earlier visit and was throwing up a roadblock.

He was tall and skinny, dressed in gray slacks and a white button down with a tie loosened at his neck. His hair, more salt than pepper, was thinning and he had the same green eyes as his daughter.

“I have no idea who you are,” he said. He stood in the doorway, blocking our view of the inside of the house. “And I’ve told Morgan to remain inside,” he said. “She informed me of your earlier visit.”

“Then you know we’re looking for our daughter,” Lauren said.

“I don’t know anything,” he said, his eyes narrowed. “The only thing I know is that two strangers showed up unannounced at my house and interrogated my kid.”

“We didn’t interrogate her,” I said.

Lauren shot me a look. She’d instructed me to keep my mouth shut under all circumstances.

She should’ve known better.

“Call it what you want, but you aren’t talking to her again.” He crossed his arms and glared at me. “She’s a minor. You didn’t have my permission to speak to her and you won’t receive it now.”

“She’s a friend of our daughter’s,” Lauren said. “She saw her this morning and loaned her money.”

“I don’t care,” Thompkins said. “I’m asking you to leave now.”

“You have no interest in helping us find our daughter?” Lauren asked.

“I don’t know anything about you or your daughter,” he replied. “The only thing I have an interest in is having you leave.”

“Would you prefer I call the police and ask them to come over so I can let them know your daughter assisted our missing child? Who, by the way, is also a minor?” Lauren said.

“I don’t care who you call,” he said, not budging. “But you aren’t talking to my daughter and I’m asking you to leave. Now.”

Lauren looked about ready to explode.

A flurry of movement behind Thompkins caught my eye. A curtain in the front window.

Morgan.

I watched her for a moment, then nodded.

Neither Lawrence Thompkins nor Lauren saw her, too intent on staring each other down.

I touched her elbow. “Come on.”

She jerked her arm away from me, stared at Thompkins for a long moment, then turned and headed for the car.

He stood in the doorway, still watching us as we got in the car.

“What an asshole,” Lauren barked, glaring at him through the window.

I shoved the key in the ignition and turned over the engine. “And I thought I was the one who lost my temper.”

She made a hissing sound. “Whatever.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry about it?” she said, whipping her head in my direction. “Don’t worry about it? Seriously? He won’t let us talk to the one person who we know can communicate with our daughter.”

“We don’t need him to communicate with her,” I said, pulling away from the curb.

Thompkins stood there and watched us go. He was still in my rearview mirror as I turned the corner and headed out of the neighborhood.

“What do you mean we don’t need him?” Lauren asked.

“We don’t need him.”

“What are you talking about, Joe?” Her voice was impatient.

“Morgan’s going to call us,” I said.

“She’s what?”

“She’s going to call us,” I repeated. “She was in the window while you were baring your teeth at her father. She’s going to call us in half an hour.”

THIRTEEN

We were headed west on I-70, just up into the foothills, outside of a city called Genessee. Lauren was getting impatient.

She checked her phone. “It’s been thirty minutes.”

“She’ll call.”

“Maybe her father took her phone away.”

“She said she’d call,” I repeated.

Lauren was doubtful. “Maybe you misunderstood.”

I hadn’t misunderstood. She’d held the phone up in the window. Pointed at it, then at me. Then held up three fingers and a fist. Then disappeared.

I hadn’t misunderstood.

“She’ll call,” I said.

She made a dismissive sound and shifted in the seat.

“What did you talk about with her after I left?” I asked.

Lauren shrugged. “Nothing special. She told me a little about her time with Elizabeth in Minnesota. But she was guarded. She didn’t give up too much.”

“Anything else about L.A.?”

“Just that Elizabeth is supposed to call her at some point when she gets there,” she said. “To let her know she’s okay.”

“Did you get the phone number? Of the cell she has?”

Lauren nodded. “Yeah, but Morgan was adamant that Elizabeth wouldn’t answer. She didn’t discourage me from calling but she was certain that Elizabeth would only answer if the number was Morgan’s.”

The highway twisted as we climbed higher, jagged rock formations jutting out over the highway before giving way to narrow valleys of massive pine trees.

“You should call the rental company,” I said. “Let them know we’re keeping the car for longer and that it will be dropped elsewhere.”

“I’m not getting on this phone until that kid calls us,” Lauren said.

“You don’t have call waiting on your cell?”

“I don’t want to miss the call,” she said. “It can wait.” She gestured at the windshield. “Not like we aren’t going to be driving for the next two days since we can’t even look at an airport.”

“You could’ve flown,” I said. “I’m the one that can’t.”

She rolled her eyes and leaned against the door. “Right. Sure. Just let you drive all the way to California by yourself.”

“I’ve driven further.”

“Oh, yes,” she snapped. “All of your mysterious travels. I’m sure you’ve like driven across the Sahara or something, right? To save some kid in peril? Or was it in Siberia?”

I didn’t say anything, just focused on the road.

After ten minutes, Lauren said, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. Long day.”

She reached out, touching her hand to my forearm. “You didn’t deserve that. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“I just want to find her, Joe,” she said. “I just want to hug her and say hi and tell her I missed her.” Her voice caught and I knew she was fighting back tears.

“Me, too.”

“I feel like I’m riding your coattails,” she said.

“What does that mean?”

She stretched her legs out in front of her. “All this time, you’ve been chasing. Devoted your life to finding her. I grieved, then basically gave up.” She paused. “Maybe not gave up, but I let it go. I didn’t chase. You did. In some ways, I feel like I don’t deserve to be here with you.”

“Stop.” She was being ridiculous. “You’re her mother.”

“But I gave up,” she said. “I let her go. Let you go. You were the one who pursued, the one who actually thought we’d get to this moment.” She shook her head. “I didn’t. I just didn’t.”

I wasn’t sure what she wanted me to say. We’d long ago come to terms that we’d needed to handle Elizabeth’s disappearance in different ways. It had broken our marriage, but we had made peace with the idea that we needed to deal with it differently. But I didn’t begrudge Lauren that at all. And I certainly didn’t begrudge the fact that she was with me. I was glad. I’d been alone for a long time.

I needed her.

Before I could say anything, Lauren’s phone chimed and she answered it before the chime finished playing. “Morgan. I’m putting you on speaker.” She touched the screen and then held it between us. “Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, I can hear you,” Morgan said. “I don’t have much time, though.”

“Why not?” Lauren asked.

“My dad’s in the shower,” she said. “He won’t be long and he hasn’t let me out of his sight. I’m sorry about how he acted earlier. He’s just like that.”

I didn’t care what her father was like. “Have you heard from Elizabeth?”

“No,” she said. “That’s why I’m late calling. I was hoping I’d hear from her. But she hasn’t called. I’ve tried her a couple of times, but she hasn’t answered.”

I shifted lanes to let a fast-moving semi-truck pass.

“She should’ve been down awhile ago if the flight left at one thirty,” she said, concerned. “I made her promise to call me. She always keeps her promises.”

Lauren glanced at me, her eyebrows furrowed with worry.

“Okay,” I said. “We’re in the car and we’ll be driving for awhile.”

“Why aren’t you flying to California?”

“Long story,” I said. “But we’re going to be driving. Lauren said she gave you both of our numbers. You have them both, yes?”

“Uh huh.”

“Call us as soon as you hear from her,” I said. “If we need to call you, Lauren will text you first. If you can’t call back right away, that’s okay. But let us know. Text her back.”

“Alright. My dad goes to bed early so nighttime won’t be a problem.”

“And we don’t want to get you in trouble, Morgan,” I said. “We really don’t. But we appreciate your help.”

The line buzzed for a moment.

“She’d do the same for me,” Morgan finally said. “She’s always been a good friend to me. She’d help me if I needed help.” She paused. “Is she gonna be okay?”

“She’ll be okay,” I said. She had to be. We were so close. “Just call us when you hear from her.”

She said goodbye and hung up.

We drove for a few minutes, the snow packs growing heavier on the mountainsides as we entered ski country. The sun had shifted low in the western sky, its intensity muted by a thin blanket of clouds.

“What happens if she doesn’t call Morgan?” Lauren asked.

I didn’t answer because I wasn’t sure.

FOURTEEN

We were in Utah and my eyes were getting heavy. The taillights of the cars in front of us glowed a blurry red.

“Lauren,” I said. “Hey.”

She started in the passenger seat and jerked herself up. “What?”

“I gotta pull over and rest for a bit,” I said. “It’s after midnight and I’m tired.”

“I can drive,” she said, trying to straighten herself in her seat.

“You’ve been out cold for an hour,” I said. “We’re both wiped. I’m gonna find a motel. We both need to rest.”

She started to protest but I stopped her. “Just for a little bit. Then we’ll jump back in the car.”

She didn’t argue, just nodded, yawning. “Phone didn’t ring?” she asked, grabbing it from the middle console.

I shook my head. “I texted Morgan half an hour ago. She still hadn’t heard anything.”

My gut tightened even as I said the words. I could come up with several plausible excuses as to why she hadn’t called—lost her phone, delayed flight, just forgot—but none of them felt right. Judging by Lauren’s silence, I wasn’t alone in my thinking that something was wrong.

“Should be something here in just a minute,” I said, scanning the road in front of us. “I just need a couple hours. And so do you.”

She nodded silently.

The next exit lit up the darkness like a Christmas tree, several hotels, gas stations and fast-food restaurants rising up out of the night. I pulled into the first chain motel, parked the car and ten minutes later we were in a small but clean motel room.

I dropped on to the bed closest to the window, flat on my back. Lauren went to the bathroom and I could hear the water running. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to sleep because I was worried that we hadn’t heard anything, but I knew I needed the rest. Neither of us would be any good if we were exhausted, and we still had a lot of driving in front of us.

The water shut off and the bathroom door opened. Lauren’s hair was pulled back and her face freshly washed. She shed her coat and sat down on the edge of the other bed. She folded her hands in her lap and looked around the room.

“What?” I asked.

“What what?” she said.

“What’s wrong?”

She rubbed her eyes. “Just worried.”

“Me, too. But nothing we can do. We need sleep and then we’ll get back on the road.”

She nodded, staring at her hands. Then she turned to me. “I don’t wanna sleep by myself.”

I scooted over on the bed and motioned for her to come over. She sank down on the bed and curled up against me, my arm beneath her and her head on my shoulder. It wasn’t strange or awkward or uncomfortable.

It was familiar.

She put her hand on my chest. “I hope she’s okay.”

I pulled her tighter to me. “Me, too.”

“I don’t think I can lose her again, Joe.”

I reached up and flipped off the light switch, the darkness drifting over us like a blanket.

I knew she wanted to hear something comforting from me, something that would put her mind at ease, something that would assure her that Elizabeth was, indeed, okay. She wanted to be able to close her eyes and know that she could wake up with the knowledge that our daughter was safe, wherever she was.

But I didn’t have that to offer. It wasn’t a promise I could make. There wasn’t anything I could say.

So instead, we laid there quietly, until we both drifted off to sleep.

FIFTEEN

“Joe,” a voice said. “Joe. Wake up.”

I forced my eyes open. The room was still dark, but dim streaks of daylight fought their way into the room around the curtains at the window.

“You need to see this,” Lauren said.

Her hair was brushed and it looked like she’d been awake for a little bit. She sat on the edge of the bed, her eyes glued to the TV.

I pushed myself up on my elbows. “Huh?”

She pointed the remote at the TV. “Listen.”

It was a cable newscast.

“…the retired Minneapolis detective worked countless missing persons cases during his time with the department and even now, he’s still having some success,” the reporter said.

A picture of Rodney flashed on the screen.

And then he was talking.

He rambled for a moment about his years in law enforcement and then said, “The itch to find, to help, doesn’t go away. Two days ago, I learned that a girl I’ve been interested in for years was right here in Minnesota. Elizabeth Tyler. Her father Joe was here looking for her and it looks like he may have located her.”

I sat up straighter as the reporter cut to some old film showing Rodney at a desk, telling viewers about his career. The reporter read off several accolades that Rodney had accumulated over the years, then cut back to him in the present again.

“You can’t give up hope on anyone,” he said. “I never gave up on Elizabeth Tyler and neither did her father. She’s out there somewhere and if he hasn’t located her yet, hopefully someone might see this and help us out.”

The reporter than read off a few standard facts related to Elizabeth’s disappearance. The date. The place. The ensuing search. The lack of hope.

And then a picture of Elizabeth from right around the time she was abducted. Her third grade picture. Smiling. Happy.

That had to have been taken from her case file.

“Shit,” I said. “Shit.”

Lauren looked at me. “What? Isn’t this good? Maybe someone will see her. It’s cable. It’s national. I don’t know how he got this on TV, but…”

I sprang from the bed. I’d fallen asleep fully clothed. “We need to go. Now.”

“Okay,” she said, frowning at me. “But why is this bad? How can this not help?”

I grabbed the car keys from the top of the dresser. “That picture is from her case file,” I said. “We gave it to them during the initial investigation.”

“I know,” Lauren said. “I remember.”

“Which means they talked to Coronado PD,” I said. “Probably Bazer and probably Mike.”

Recognition flashed through her eyes.

“So if I’m right about someone there having something to do with her abduction,” I said, then stopped and took a deep breath. “If I’m right, they now know I’m close to finding her. And they won’t want that.”

Lauren stared at the TV, processing what I’d said. She shut it off with the remote. “Why would he go talk to a reporter then?”

“He doesn’t know about that connection,” I said. “Probably thinks he’s helping by getting the word out about her, by getting her name and picture out there.”

I shoved my wallet back in my pocket and pulled on my jacket. “But all he really did was just put a bullseye on all of us.”

SIXTEEN

We hit the highway with no food, no coffee and a whole lot of anxiety.

The red sand of the Utah desert was nearly pink in the early morning sunlight. With few other cars on the road at that early hour, I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt more alone and isolated amidst the rocky outcroppings and wide stretches of desert as we drove.

I replayed my last conversation with Rodney over in my head, getting the details right. I’d definitely told him about the Corzines, the family that had adopted Elizabeth. I’d told him about her running away. But I hadn’t told him where we were headed because we hadn’t known at that point. We hadn’t gotten the information about Denver until after I’d left his hospital room. So he wouldn’t have known where we’d headed off to or where Elizabeth actually was.

But I’d given him the Corzines name and the fact that she was on the run.

That would be a pretty huge first step for anyone that wanted to find her.

Or me.

Interview the Corzines. Get the boyfriend’s name. Talk to his family. Maybe talk to him if he was already back in Minnesota. Learn about Denver.

It was a fairly easy trail to follow.

And not one that would take much time if someone was serious about following it.

“You’re flying,” Lauren said, snapping me out of my reverie. “Limit is seventy-five. You’re doing almost ninety.”

I eased my foot off the pedal. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “Just didn’t want to get stopped.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re worried,” she said.

I nodded.

“Do I want to ask why?”

I shook my head.

“Great.”

“Nothing we can control at this point,” I said. “We can only do what we can do.”

“That’s encouraging.”

“Well, it’s the truth,” I said. “Yeah, I’m worried. But I don’t know if it’s legitimate or not. The only thing we can do right this second is keep driving until we get to California.”

“And then?”

“And then I’m not sure.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she said, sarcasm flavoring her voice.

“It’s not. But it’s all we have.”

She opened her mouth to say something else, but her phone rang and she grabbed it from the console. “It’s Morgan.” She tapped the screen twice. “Hi, Morgan.”

“Hi,” her voice said from the speaker. “She called.”

My fingers wrapped tighter around the wheel.

“When?” Lauren said.

“Like twenty minutes ago.”

“Why not yesterday?” I asked. “Like she promised.”

Morgan didn’t answer right away. “Uh, well. It went kinda bad.”

I took a deep breath, trying to prepare myself. “Bad how?”

“When she got off the plane in L.A., she went to use the bathroom,” Morgan said, her voice low. “And her purse was stolen.”

Lauren’s shoulders sagged.

“She hung it on the stall door. Someone reached over and grabbed it. By the time she got out of the stall, the bathroom was empty and when she went outside, she didn’t see anyone with it. No one running or anything.”

“Everything was in there?” I asked.

“She has a backpack with clothes,” Morgan said. “But her wallet, her money and her phone were in the purse.”

My foot was pressing hard again on the accelerator and I forced myself to lift my foot. “How is she?”

“Scared to death,” Morgan answered. “She spent the night in the airport. She never left the gate area, so that was at least good. She knew she was screwed, but she knew she could at least spend the night in the airport.”

“Is she still there?” I asked.

The line buzzed. “No.”

“Why not? Where the hell did she go?”

“I just wired her money,” Morgan said. “So she can eat, get another phone and find a place to stay.”

“Call her back and tell her to stay put,” I said. “We can get someone to her.”

The line buzzed again. “I tried that. But it freaked her out.”

“What freaked her out?” Lauren asked, her head in her hands.

“You guys,” she said.

Lauren and I exchanged looks. She knew. Elizabeth knew about us.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I told her that you were here,” she said. “That you were looking for her. And that you were probably right now on your way to L.A. to try and find her.”

“Why did that freak her out?”

The line buzzed, crackling and popping from the poor connection. “I don’t know that it should be me that tells you guys this stuff, okay?”

“Hey, Morgan,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. “You’re the only connection we have to her right now. We need you. And in order to help her, we need to know exactly what’s going on with her.”

“I get that. But I just feel like it’s all between you guys and it’s not my place to tell you everything.”

“But we can’t talk to her right now,” I pointed out. “You’re all we’ve got and if she’s in trouble or whatever, we need to know. Why is she freaked out about us?”

The line was quiet for a long time.

“Morgan. You still there?”

“It’s just like I told you,” she finally said. “She only remembers bits and pieces from before. And she was mad about finding out she was adopted. She feels like everyone lied to her.”

“I think that’s normal,” I said. I glanced at Lauren for confirmation but her head was still in her hands and I couldn’t see her expression.

“And she doesn’t know you,” Morgan continued. “And right now she’s totally freaked about meeting you.”

I think it was the word meet that stung me the most. As if I’d never known her. It wasn’t her fault that she felt that way. But it hurt nearly as bad as anything else I’d ever experienced.

I shoved the feeling aside. “But she needs help,” I said. “She’s in a bad spot and it was a bad idea to go out there.”

“I know that,” Morgan said. “But she’s there. And she didn’t even want me to call you. But I’m worried about her.”

“Thank you,” I said. “It was the right decision. I promise you we just want to help her.”

“She’s just scared. I would be, too.”

And that made sense. Elizabeth felt alone. On all fronts. Yes, she’d made a rash decision to run away from her home. It wasn’t the smartest thing to do. But she was a teenager. And she was hurting. She felt like she had nowhere to turn.

And that made everything worse.

“So what’s the plan with her?” I said. “You said you wired her money.”

“Yeah,” Morgan said. “And I just saw the email on my screen. She picked it up at the airport.”

“She didn’t say where she was going?”

“No. I think she was worried that I’d tell you.”

Lauren sat back in her seat, her eyes red, shaking her head.

I swallowed a sigh. “Okay. What about calling you?”

“That’s the one thing I got from her,” she said. “I made her promise to call me as soon as she got another phone. I’m not sure if she’ll tell me where she is, but I do think she’ll call me.”

“Good,” I said. “Make sure you get the number. If she calls from a blocked line or whatever, make sure you get the number from her.”

“I’ll try.”

“You can do it,” I said. “Just be her friend. More than anything, that’s what she needs right now.”

“What do I tell her about you?” Morgan asked.

I looked at Lauren. She was turned away from me, staring out the window.

“Don’t tell her you talked to us,” I said. “That’s what she wanted, right?”

“Right.”

“So just leave it alone. Don’t tell her we spoke.”

“Are you still going?” Morgan asked. “To California?”

I hesitated. “I don’t know.”

Lauren’s head whipped around, her eyes wide.

I put a finger to my lips.

“Okay,” Morgan said. “I’m not sure what she’d do if you showed up out there. You know? I think she just needs to think about it for awhile.”

“Right,” I said. “We don’t want to scare her. So just tell her you haven’t spoken to us and when you hear from her, call us and let us know. And make sure to get the number.”

“I will.”

“And Morgan?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you,” I said. “Very much.”

“I just want her to be okay,” she said and hung up.