Dance Away with Me(101)

Slowly, the pieces came together. Tess remembered how many times Artie had arrived at the Broken Chimney only to have Courtney appear, too.

“We were going to get back together. We always got back together. Then you started coming on to him.”

“That’s right,” Tess retorted. “I’m married to the sexiest man in Tempest, Tennessee, but secretly lusting after Artie Thompson.”

“You’re always talking to him!”

“I talk to everybody. If you and Artie broke up, it doesn’t have anything to do with me, and you know it.”

“We always got back together. Right until you and your fat ass—”

Tess shoved Courtney and her pristine white jacket against the lipstick-smeared rear window. “That was one ‘fat ass’ too many.”

All of Courtney’s exercising was no match for Tess’s anger, and she fended her off well enough to dive into Courtney’s pocket, pull out her phone, and hold it up to her overly made-up face to unlock it. “Smile.”

Courtney lunged at her, but not before Tess snapped a photo.

“Give me that!”

“Not yet!” With a sharp jab of her elbow, Tess sent Courtney back against the car. Tess examined the photo. It couldn’t have been better. Shadows from the security light had turned the Instagram Queen’s eye sockets into sulfurous holes and formed wrinkles where there were none. “Not your best shot.”

And then she texted it to herself.

With a cry, Courtney once again grabbed for her phone. This time, Tess let her have it. “Just so you know, that’s going straight to the cloud, where it’ll stay. Unless . . .”

Courtney whimpered.

“Unless you piss me off again.” Tess retrieved her own phone from the car. As she shut the door, she pointed to the rear window. “Clean up that mess. And don’t even think about coming back to the Broken Chimney until you can act like a decent human being.”

*

The canvas squares from four nights ago were dry now. Ian studied the multicolored images he’d transferred from Tess’s body. Maybe he’d hoped they’d somehow unlock the secret of what he needed to do next. Something spectacular. Something important. But nothing came to him. The ideas that used to tumble through his head so quickly he could barely catch them were nowhere to be found. He’d lost his identity, and so he did nothing.

He carried a sketchbook over to the window and flipped through it. Page after page of fine-line drawings as detailed as a Dürer engraving: Wren’s eyes, Tess’s mouth; Wren’s curled hands, Tess’s bare foot; Tess’s bristly hairbrush, Wren’s silky one; a sneaker, a bootie. He tossed the sketchbook aside. He should slam a stencil against the biggest building he could find and create something that made sense to him. A monster cat with all the world’s people falling like mice from its gaping mouth. A tree crawling with twisted animals groping for the world’s last food resources.

But those images were nothing but regurgitated crap.

The front door banged open downstairs, and a woman cried out, “Ian! Ian, are you here?”

He hurried from the studio.

A frantic Kelly Winchester stood at the bottom of the stairs. “It’s Wren! She’s gone!”





Chapter Twenty-Two




Ian burst into the cabin, his heart battering his ribs. Wren’s sleeping nest sat empty except for her pink blanket. He broke out in a cold sweat.

Kelly rushed through the door behind him. “I only went upstairs for a few minutes! She was asleep!”

He snatched up the baby monitor. “Did you take this with you when you went upstairs? Did you hear anything?”

“No!” she cried. “No, I didn’t even think of it. Why didn’t I think of it?”

“What about a car? Did you hear a car outside?”

“No. Nothing.”

He checked the front door. “This is locked. What about the back door? Was it locked?”

“I don’t know. I can’t remember. I—” She pressed the heels of her hands to her temples. “I— No. When I ran out to get you, it wasn’t locked. I didn’t lock it after Tess left. I should have done that!”

“How long were you upstairs?”

“I don’t— Maybe five minutes? Ten? I shouldn’t have left her!”

“Did you hear anything unusual? See anything?”

“No, nothing. Ava and Tess were here today, but nobody else. Tess got a bottle ready for me before she left. I gave it to Wren, and she fell asleep. I held her for a while.” Kelly started to cry. “She was so sweet. Lying in my arms. Those little fingers . . . I put her down so I could unpack.”

He thought of all the scrapes he’d been in as a kid. Ducking his father’s fists. Running from the police. Even Bianca’s death. None of it had given him this mind-numbing fear. “Call Freddy Davis and the county sheriff. You stay here.” He set his teeth. “I’m going after your husband.”

“No!” Kelly grabbed his arm. “No, Ian. Brad would never do anything like this. Never!”

“Like hell. He’s had Tess in his crosshairs from the beginning.”

“That’s his ego.” She swiped at her runny nose with her sleeve. “You have to trust me. Brad can be an ass, but he wouldn’t kidnap a child. If you waste time with him, whoever did this will only get farther away.” She shoved her keys at him. “Take my car. I’ll call Freddy and the sheriff. Go!”