A Necessary Evil(4)

Kurt had been assigned the cases after the third girl, Rachel Billups, had not shown up for her night shift at a twenty-four-hour grocery store, and though he’d exhausted every resource at his disposal, there hadn’t been a shred of evidence uncovered. It was the toughest assignment he’d ever been given, and not only had he lost hours of fitful sleep, but he’d also lost fifteen pounds. Endless questions plagued his mind every day, and the faces of the missing girls haunted him every night. He hated to assume the worst about Frankie’s granddaughter, but her disappearance fit the pattern.

“When was the last time anyone heard from her?” he asked as he pulled a small, spiral-bound notebook and pen out of his shirt pocket.

“Right around ten thirty. She texted her mother as soon as she clocked out from work at the mall. Kitty responded and asked her to pick up some milk on the way in, but Mollie never replied.”

“I see.” Kurt scribbled down everything Frankie said. “Which store?”

Frankie looked at him with confusion. He clearly had the weight of the world on his shoulders. “Hm?”

“Which store in the mall?”

“Macy’s. She works at one of the makeup counters. Kurt…you don’t think…”

Kurt looked at his old friend and was taken back to that awful day in 1983. The look on Frankie’s face back then had been permanently etched in Kurt’s memory, and now here he was, the same look of dejection and sorrow playing plainly across his typically stoic countenance.

Kurt pulled out a chair and winced when it screeched across the tile floor. “Frankie, just have a seat. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Take everything one step at a time.”

Frankie sat heavily in the metal framed chair, leaned forward, and rubbed his face with his trembling hands. Kurt sat in a chair on the opposite side and flopped his notepad down on the table. “Let’s start at the beginning. Now, tell me about Mollie.”

Frankie shook his head slowly and sighed. “She’s a great kid, Kurt. Beautiful, smart, ambitious.” He looked up at him with sadness, and some other emotion Kurt couldn’t place. “She reminds me so much of Addie.”

Kurt felt a tightening in his chest at the mention of Addie’s name. A name he hadn’t heard for thirty years. A name he thought he’d never hear escape the lips of Franklin Cartwright ever again.





Chapter 3




Frankie



The two men had barely spoken in years, especially not about her. In fact, one of the last things Kurt had ever said to Frankie was that he never wanted to hear Addie’s name come across his lips again. Kurt had always been hyper-protective of his twin sister, so when he’d found out Frankie and Addie were in love, he’d nearly blown a gasket. Frankie never blamed Kurt for his reaction and tried to give his best friend as much space to digest the news as possible. Eventually, Kurt had come around, and though he never really accepted their courtship, he agreed to at least tolerate it, with the strong admonition that he would break Frankie’s legs if he ever hurt Addie in any way whatsoever.

“I’m sorry,” Frankie said. And he meant it. He hadn’t meant to upset Kurt, especially not when he so desperately needed his help finding Mollie. His granddaughter really did remind him of Addie, but the statement had just tumbled out of his mouth.

At first, Kurt looked like he might come across the table and choke Frankie with his bare hands, but after staring at him in silence for a few seconds, the detective let out a long-held-in breath and changed the subject. Apparently, Kurt still wasn’t ready to talk about what had happened to his sister.

“Tell me about her friends. Does she have a best friend? A boyfriend?”

Frankie shook his head. “No boyfriend. Not since Dalton. He died when they were seniors in high school. Suicide. Very tragic. Now she’s in her sophomore year at the University of Kentucky, studying creative writing. Wants to be a novelist. Can you believe that? When she’s not working or studying, she’s busy writing in her journals. But she does spend time with her best friend, Laurel Bridges. They’ve been close friends since they were toddlers.”

“Has Kitty spoken with Laurel?”

“It was the first call she made when Mollie didn’t come home. She assumed Mollie went to Laurel’s apartment. But Laurel hadn’t spoken to Mollie since early yesterday.”

Frankie watched as Kurt jotted down notes on his little spiral notebook. He hadn’t exactly been thrilled about the idea of coming down to the station and asking Kurt, of all people, for help. After all, Franklin Cartwright and the Lexington Police Department rarely saw eye to eye when it came to…well, anything. He was the first to admit he lived outside the restrictions of the law and had long ago made the decision to handle situations the way he saw fit, even if his methods weren’t legal, in the strictest sense of the word.

Kurt looked up from his notes. “What about enemies? Does Mollie have any enemies at school or at work? Anyone she’s had words with recently?”

“Mollie? Hell, no, man. Anyone who meets Mollie falls in love with her. Like I said, she’s beautiful, smart, talented.” Then a thought came to Frankie that he hadn’t even considered until now. He silently cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner.

The detective must have noticed his silent pause. “What are you thinking?”