Gone (Deadly Secrets #2)(27)
“For what?”
“I don’t know. But I bet if we get a map and plot where each of these kids lived, we might see other similarities.”
Raegan looked back down at her paper, confusion wrinkling her brow. “They all came from urban addresses, I see that, but these are all over the Northwest.”
“Right. A couple of these kids went missing in Seattle, a few right here in Portland. There are two from Spokane. They’re all metropolitan areas, like you noticed, but look at the Portland addresses.” Raegan’s gaze followed his finger to an address listed on the paper. “You know where that is, don’t you?”
Yeah, she did. One of the worst neighborhoods in the city.
Alec leaned back in his seat. “Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think race is the link here. I don’t even think it’s age so much as it is the parents. How they lived, what kinds of neighborhoods they lived in. I bet if we search deeper we’ll find that each of these kids came from low-income families. Maybe noneducated or drug-addict parents. People who don’t have the resources or connections to support a lengthy search for a missing child.”
Like the resources they’d had when they’d searched for Emma.
Raegan swallowed hard as she stared at the papers. The police would have looked into the possible links between these cases. They would have checked race and age and location. Would they have seen what Alec saw, though? That it wasn’t just the location but type of location that could link these kids together?
Alec reached across the table and pulled three papers from the stack still in her hands. “These are the ones I say we start with. All three kids went missing here in the Portland area. They’re local. Should be easy enough to check out. Neighborhood alone isn’t going to tell us anything. We should interview the parents to see if our hunch is correct and if there are any other similarities between the kids we’re missing. After that we can widen our search and look into the others.”
“And what about the other two. The kids who were found yesterday? The girl in the hospital and that little boy found in a car on the side of the highway?”
“They may or may not be connected. We can find out pretty quickly, though. Remember my friend Hunt?”
Hunter O’Donnell. Of course she remembered him. Hunt and Alec had gone to college together. “Yes.”
“I’ll give him a call and see if he can look into those two for us. He has a way of digging up things even the press can’t.”
Hunt was a former-military man who now ran his own PI and securities firm somewhere in Portland. Raegan had never approved of some of his questionable methods of obtaining information, but she’d been willing to look the other way when Emma had disappeared, and she was willing to look away now. “Okay.”
Alec finished the rest of his coffee. “Why don’t you pick which one you want to start with tomorrow and we’ll set up a meeting with the parents.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and checked the screen. “I have a conference call about an upcoming assignment in the morning, but I could meet you around one o’clock if that works for you.”
“Yeah, I think I can do that.” Jeremy had given her free reign to investigate these cases. He’d told Raegan when they’d met today that he knew she needed closure and was hoping looking into these cases would do that for her. She wasn’t stupid, though. She knew what he really wanted was a story, which was the real reason he hadn’t been the least bit upset when she’d called things off between them. A story—and the ratings it could provide—was always more important to Jeremy than anything else.
“Okay, then.” Alec pushed back from the table and reached for his coat. “It’s late. I need to get going.”
“Yeah, me too.” Raegan rose as Alec pulled a twenty from his wallet and dropped it on the table. A generous tip for two black coffees, even with all the flirting from Molly the wonder server.
“You want to take that to go?” He nodded at her untouched mug.
The last thing she wanted to do was take any memory of that waitress with her. She shoved the papers back into her bag and shook her head. “I’m fine.”
Alec shrugged and turned toward the door.
With nothing else to do, Raegan tugged on her coat and followed. The air was chilly as they stepped out onto the sidewalk, the bell on the door jangling after them. A few dirty piles of snow from last night’s storm still lingered against the edge of the building, but as the temperature had warmed up into the forties during the day, they were almost gone.
Alec tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans and looked toward her. “Did you drive or take a cab?”
“Drove.”
“Where’d you park?”
She angled her chin ahead. “Just around the corner.”
He tipped his head the other direction. “I’m this way. You okay getting to your car alone?”
Something in her chest pinched tight. “Yes, Alec. I’ve managed to get to my car just fine the past few years alone.”
He nodded again but looked away, and she sensed the flex in his shoulders had nothing to do with the temperature and everything to do with this awkward situation between them.
What was between them? History. A little of the same old chemistry they’d always shared, judging from the way he’d looked at her last night in his kitchen. And guilt. Not a whole lot more, though. As much as she wanted the old Alec back in her life, she had to accept the fact that he never would be. And even though that truth hurt her heart, at least she had this—whatever it was they were doing together—to tide her over, and hopefully help her move on.