Gone (Deadly Secrets #2)(33)
Lifting his brows in a you can thank me later move, Alec waited for Raegan to step in front of him, then closed the door at his back. She had to hand it to him. He had a way with women. He’d charmed their way into this house when Barbie Willig was ready to toss Raegan out simply based on her looks. For a moment, she wondered if that’s what she’d witnessed last night—Alec charming that waitress so she’d give them an isolated table in the back of the coffee shop away from the bar—rather than the blatant flirting she thought she’d seen.
The dark hallway opened to a living room filled with scuffed furniture, a flickering TV, and toys strewn over the coffee table and floor. Three small children in underwear and T-shirts lay on the floor on their stomachs, eyes wide and glued to the screen.
Barbara stepped in front of them and flipped the TV off. All three sat up, whining and complaining. She shushed them and pointed toward a doorway on the far side of the room. “Go play in the other room. I got someone to talk to. You can watch TV when I’m done.”
The children grumbled under their breaths but shuffled out of the room. Barbara shook her head and motioned toward the couch. “Have a seat.”
Raegan sat next to Alec on the couch, pulling a small notebook from her purse. “Thanks for meeting with us, Ms. Willig. I know you talked to the police and several reporters last year when your son went missing, but we’re doing a follow-up piece and wanted to ask you a few questions.”
Barbara sank into a recliner on Alec’s side, looking cautiously between them. “Are you trying to catch the guy who took my son?”
“We’re looking into similar cases, seeing if there’s a connection,” he answered. “Sometimes stories like this spark viewers’ attention. We can’t guarantee we’re going to find anything, but keeping your son’s name in the press can’t hurt, right?”
She nodded, but a frustrated look pulled at her brows. “No one much seemed to care about my Billy disappearing. Oh, there were reporters hanging around when it first happened, but then after a few days . . . nothin’. You’re the first people who’ve come to follow up since just after it happened.”
Raegan wasn’t sure why that would be, but before she could ask, shuffling sounded at her back, and she turned to see a young girl with curly dark hair walk out of the kitchen, her gaze locked on a smartphone in her hand.
“Ginny, what are you doing?” Barbie pushed out of her chair and swiped the phone from the girl’s hands. “I told you your time was up.”
The girl didn’t answer. Just dropped her hands and stared up at the woman.
Barbara waved a hand toward the hallway the other children had disappeared through. “Go do your homework.”
The girl’s expression dropped, and she turned away, heading for the hall with a huff.
Barbara sighed as she sat back in her recliner and set the girl’s phone on the table beside her. “That girl thinks I’m the Wicked Witch of the West, when all I’m trying to do is make her smarter than me.”
“Are all of these your children?” Raegan asked.
She shook her head. “Just Ginny. The other three are kids I take care of durin’ the day. Not as good money as, say, being a reporter, but I get to work from home.”
“Yes, that is a nice perk,” Raegan said.
Barbie reached for the soda can at her side and tipped it back for a sip. “Sometimes I think homeschooling that kid was a bad idea. She doesn’t appreciate it none.” She glanced at Alec and Raegan with a scowl. “You’ll have to excuse her bad manners. She’s mad at me right now ’cause I wouldn’t let her run up to the elementary school to play with some of the older kids in the neighborhood.”
“Do you not like those older kids?” Raegan asked.
“Oh, those kids are fine. It’s the school I don’ want Ginny near. That’s where my Billy was taken.”
Raegan sensed the woman didn’t let her daughter out of her sight very often, and for that reason she felt for the girl. But could she blame Barbara Willig? If she’d had other children, Raegan probably would have been the same way after Emma’s disappearance.
“Your son went missing at the elementary school?” Alec asked.
Barbara nodded. “Last year. I wasn’t doin’ day care then. I was . . .” She frowned. “Well, I was a dancer. It was good money, but my old man—Bob—he didn’t want me doin’ it anymore. He used to get wicked jealous. So I quit, and I’d just gotten a job as a cashier down at the Save and Go. When I was dancing I used to work nights, and I’d take care of the kids during the day, but the new job had me working days, so Bob had to take care of them on the weekend when he was home. It was a Saturday. Bob was working on his truck in the driveway. I guess Billy wouldn’t stop bugging him about going to the playground. Billy, he was a sweet little boy, but so full of energy.” She shook her head. “He could run circles around you and leave you wondering what the hell happened. Used to run up to my legs and say, ‘Go walk. Go walk!’ and wouldn’t let up ’til I took him outside.”
A far-off look filled Barbara’s dull brown eyes, and for a moment, Raegan pictured her as she must have looked before Billy’s abduction—young, full of life, with a light in her eyes that wasn’t there now. Raegan knew how stress could age a person. She guessed Barbara Willig had aged ten years in only a few short months.