Find Her (Detective D.D. Warren #8)(89)

I can feel the girl watching me in the dark. I know she can’t see my movements, but must surely hear something. Or maybe simply sense the wonder of this small improvement in our circumstance.

“Would you like your hands free?” I ask.

“Wh-wh-what?”

“Would you like your cuffs removed? I can take them off.”

“What do I have to do?”

“Crawl over here.”

“That’s . . . that’s . . . it?”

“Just move toward the sound of my voice. I’ll help you.”

She hesitates. She fears me. With good reason? I don’t know. I can’t make sense out of all this. There are things I don’t get. How did I go from my apartment to here? Was there really an intruder in my doorway? And how did I end up trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, putting up no resistance, no fight, not even awareness, as someone opened the door to this room and delivered not one but two pine coffins?

How did someone as smart as me become that stupid?

The girl moves toward me in the dark. I can hear her, slow and shuffling. I catch her sharp hiss of breath as she moves wrong, aggravating her injury. The one I gave to her.

Then she arrives, so close to me I can feel her breath. I reach out, take her hands, feel the line of her metal cuffs with my thumbs.

“Just hold still,” I tell her. I adjust her wrists over the hooked coil and, closing my eyes for concentration, work on guiding my makeshift lock pick into the tiny holes on each metal cuff.

It’s not smooth or simple or brilliant. But eventually, I get the job done.

The handcuffs fall away. I can feel her lifting her hands, twisting her arms this way and that.

It’s true, what I’d suspected. You don’t need eyes to experience wonder. You can feel it, even in the dark.

“Why?” she asks, her favorite question of the day.

I tell her the truth. “Because we’re getting out of here.”





Chapter 34


I’M GOING TO VISIT TONIC this afternoon. Samuel said I should tell you.”

“Excuse me?” Sitting at her desk, D.D. adjusted the phone against her ear, certain she’d heard wrong.

Rosa Dane continued: “That’s the last place my daughter went. I would like to see it.”

“Did you find something in her apartment? Some lead we missed involving her search for Stacey Summers?”

“No. But I spoke to Colin this morning. He admitted Flora had taken a personal interest in his daughter’s case. Given that . . . There has to be a reason Flora went to Tonic on Friday night. My daughter wouldn’t have just gone out to a bar.”

D.D. took a deep breath, forced herself to process. She didn’t disagree with Rosa Dane; Tonic was definitely a place of interest, as just discussed by the task force. Having said that, cops didn’t like civilians meddling in their investigations. Especially not a case as red-hot as this one, and with so many moving parts. D.D. had returned from the lunch meeting to find a report from the lab on her desk. The stain in Devon Goulding’s garage had tested positive for human blood. Furthermore, it matched Kristy Kilker’s blood type.

Conclusive, no. That would take DNA testing. But getting more and more interesting. Goulding almost certainly had something to do with at least one woman’s, if not two women’s, disappearance. Given that Flora was actively looking for Stacey Summers, how coincidental could it be that she’d ended up in his garage herself?

Which brought D.D. back to why civilians shouldn’t be involved in police investigations: Flora’s actions Friday night had led to Goulding’s death, eliminating the police’s best source of answers. Detectives knew better than to burn a person of interest alive. Apparently, vigilantes didn’t.

“Tonic is a nightclub, I doubt it’s even open this afternoon,” D.D. hedged, while she tried to decide if Rosa’s proposed visit was the best or worst idea she’d ever heard.

“I spoke to the manager. She’s agreed to meet me there at four.”

Rosa had called the bar’s manager. But of course. “And you reviewed this plan with Dr. Keynes?”

“I asked him to come with me. He has insight into my daughter that I value.”

Sure, insight into the daughter, D.D. thought cynically. Except the moment she thought that, she found herself uncomfortable again. Keynes had feelings for Rosa, D.D. was positive. Spoken, unspoken, returned, unreturned, who knew. But did that alone explain his level of involvement?

“Samuel recommended that I contact you as well,” Rosa was saying over the phone. “Something about how territorial local detectives can be. How you might not view my actions as helpful but threatening. He advised me to be respectful. I’m going with honest.”

“Apparently.”

D.D. frowned, glanced again at the lab report on her desk. “Fine,” she said abruptly. Rosa wanted to visit Tonic. Well, so did D.D. So why not kill two birds with one stone? Visit the nightclub Flora had been investigating while also spending more time with the girl’s mother.

“I’ll meet you there at four. Bring Dr. Keynes as well. He can offer more of his professional insights.”

Rosa didn’t say good-bye or thank you. She simply hung up. As she’d said, not ready for respectful but at least being honest.