Wherever She Goes(57)

She gives me this look, her eyes narrowing, and then she says carefully, “No, I haven’t.”

I wonder why I’m getting that look. Then it hits. She knows I’m not the custodial parent.

“There’s a problem,” I say. “Paul’s in court. I’m just wondering if you’ve seen her.”

She says no, but I can’t tell if she’s still suspicious. I hop back in my car. I have the Muellers’ address from the phone listing. It’s a half dozen doors down from Paul’s place. I pull into the drive and race to the front door.

I ring the bell. Then I knock. There’s no response to either. I call, and I hear the phone ringing inside.

The car is in the drive, and they aren’t at the park. Where—?

A child’s laugh echoes from the backyard. I heave a sigh of relief and race to the gate. It’s a chain-link fence, and I can see Mrs. Mueller through it. The dog—Pete—races at the heels of a little girl who is not my daughter. There’s no sign of Charlotte.

He’s taken her. Whoever sent those photos took her.

How could I have let a stranger care for Charlotte today? Anyone could walk up and say Paul sent them to fetch Charlotte.

Mrs. Mueller sees me running to her fence, and she looks over in alarm with a called “Hello?”

I resist the urge to leap into her yard. “I’m Aubrey Finch,” I call back. “I’m Charlotte’s mom. Where is she?”

There’s a long pause, as my heart hammers. I know what’s coming. She sees my face. She realizes there’s a problem, realizes she shouldn’t have trusted that person who said he’d come for Charlotte.

Then she walks to the fence, and I see the same look I got from the neighbor at the park. Suspicion.

“I’m afraid I don’t know your custody arrangement—” she begins.

“I just need to know where she is. Someone sent me a threatening video. I called. I left a message. Please, just tell me what happened.”

“Charlie’s napping.”

I exhale and take a few deep breaths. “Okay. Thank you. Paul’s in court, and I can’t get hold of him. I raced over from work.”

She nods. A slow nod, still wary.

“Can you wake Charlie up, please?” I say. “I’m sorry. She just . . . She shouldn’t be alone. I don’t know how much Paul told you about the situation . . .”

“Only that she couldn’t go to care today, and to let no one except him pick her up. He said there was a situation. I thought it was custody-related.”

“What? No.” Another deep breath. “Not at all, but I didn’t come to take her. I totally respect your concern, and I thank you for being careful. The problem is that I’ve found myself caught up in a police investigation, and there had been threats. Not against Charlotte, but Paul and I were still cautious. I just received a video that clearly targets her.” I hold out my phone. “It’s one of you with her in the park.”

She takes the phone, brows knitted. She presses Play and her eyes widen.

“Mommy?” The little girl runs over, dog tumbling along behind. Mrs. Mueller motions for her to come closer and says, “We’re going to get Charlie up. I think she’s napped long enough.” She opens the gate. “Come and sit on the deck. We’ll be back in a moment.”

“Thank you.”



Charlotte is awake, and Paul is on his way. His admin assistant got the message to him as soon as court ended. He called, and I said everything was fine, but he wanted to come get us.

I sit outside with Mrs. Mueller for a very awkward hour before Paul arrives. The first thing he does is apologize to her. He shouldn’t have put her in this position, and he wouldn’t have if he’d had any idea this might happen. He’s also quick to say I warned him. I appreciate that, so it doesn’t sound as if I’m the one who underplayed the danger.

We drive to his house. I check the locks before we go in, but there’s no sign anyone tampered with them. He tells Charlotte to go brush her teeth, and we’ll all go for ice cream.

“You’re telling her to brush her teeth before ice cream?” I say as she races off.

He screws up his face. “Okay, that makes no sense. I’m not thinking straight.”

He looks exhausted, as if he ran all the way from Chicago. I resist the urge to give him a hug, and I offer a smile instead, saying, “I’m teasing. You know that.”

He nods. “I do. I’m just . . .” He looks at me. “I’m sorry, Bree. You were worried about that guy, and I blew you off.”

“You didn’t blow—”

“Some thug came at you with a gun last night. Obviously, he was serious. I just thought . . .” He throws up his hands. “I don’t know what I thought. Men like that often have guns, and he didn’t pull it, so I presumed he was just trying to intimidate you.”

“If I thought Charlie was in actual danger, I’d have said so. Sending her to a sitter made sense.”

Charlotte races in, saying, “Ice cream! Ice cream!”

Paul looks at me. “I thought we’d go to Elsa’s Castle. She can play while we talk. Is that all right or do you need to get back to work?”

I had called Ingrid as soon as I got off the phone with Paul. I said Charlotte was fine, and I was just staying with her until he arrived. She coldly informed me that there was no need to come in today. Nor any need to come in tomorrow.