Her Second Death (Bree Taggert #0.5) (9)

He gave the street where they’d found the Ford and James’s body. “Near the warehouse.”

Romano rolled a wrap it up hand in the air.

“We were supposed to meet at one. I saw his car. The window was down.” His mouth flattened. “But when I went up to the window, James was dead.”

“You’re sure he was dead?” Bree asked.

Dillon paled. “His brain was splattered inside of the car.”

“And you’re sure there was no kid inside?” Romano pressed.

“I’m sure.” He nodded.

Romano put him in the back of the car. Bree grabbed an evidence bag and picked up the knife.

“Hey, I thought you were going to let me go if I told you everything.” He sounded indignant.

“I never said we’d let you go.”

“And we’re not so sure you told us the truth.” Romano closed the car door, put her back to the vehicle, and asked Bree, “You think he’s lying?”

“I wish I did.” But Bree hadn’t gotten any lying cues from Dillon.

They slid into the vehicle.

“Shit.” Romano punched the steering wheel. “Me either.”

“Let’s get a warrant to search the building supply company property, just in case he stashed her there.”

“I didn’t take any kid!” Dillon shouted from the back seat.

They ignored him.

Romano put the vehicle in reverse and backed out of the alley. “Maybe next time, we could coordinate? I hate it when my partner gets stabbed, and I don’t even know where they are.”

Heat burned Bree’s cold cheeks as she filled out the evidence bag label.

Romano continued. “If you get yourself stabbed, I am not doing that paperwork.”

“Sorry.”

Romano shook her head. “I will say that you’re a lot faster than my old partner. He was a great detective, but the only thing he could run was his mouth.”

They went back to Brown’s Building Supply. Two patrol cars were parked in front of the office. They transferred Dillon to one of the uniforms. Mr. Brown agreed to let them search the premises without a warrant. Normally, they’d prefer to wait for the paperwork, but with a child missing, they took advantage of his offer.

More uniforms arrived and searched the buildings. The city was turning out every available body to find Lena.

But they didn’t find her.

“Now what?” Frustration tasted bitter in Bree’s throat as she climbed back into the Crown Vic. Only about an hour of daylight remained.

“Now we go back to Kelly, ask her more questions, and give her an update.”

An update on how her daughter was still missing.





CHAPTER FOUR


Bree’s heart ached as Kelly broke down sobbing.

“Where is she? Where is Lena?” Kelly hunched on the sofa, her shoulders caved in, her eyes red-rimmed and swollen. “Please tell me you’re still looking for her.”

“Yes,” Romano assured her. “We have alerts out to every officer on duty in the city and surrounding counties.”

James’s father, Marty, came through the door. A few hours of searching the neighborhood around the crime scene had left his cheeks and nose red from the cold. “What can I do?”

Kelly cried harder.

Romano started asking pointed questions. “When did James go back to using?”

“He wasn’t using. Well, maybe he smoked a little pot,” Marty conceded. “But he wasn’t doing anything hard.”

“You don’t know that,” Kelly cried.

Romano gestured to Marty. “Can I talk to you outside?”

“Sure.” Marty followed her out onto the little concrete patio that constituted the backyard.

Bree picked up one of the snapshots of Lena, the one with her holding her stuffed elephant at the zoo.

Romano’s voice sounded muffled through the back door. “Did James have anyone he might have trusted with Lena? Maybe a new girlfriend?”

“I don’t know.” Marty didn’t deny the possibility that James had been seeing someone.

Bree carried the framed picture into the little girl’s bedroom. Kelly had cleaned up. She’d probably wanted something to keep her occupied. Nervous energy didn’t like to be contained.

Standing in the center of the small space, Bree let her eyes drift. They fell on the stuffed elephant, now in the middle of the nearly made bed. Instead of seeing Lena’s room, Bree was transported back to the run-down farm in upstate New York where she’d spent the first eight years of her life. She rarely returned to her hometown. The memories were too painful, but today’s mental trip was unavoidable.

There were too many similarities.

A sad little girl with a stuffed animal friend, a friend she’d taken everywhere to help her cope.

A sound in the doorway caught her attention. Kelly leaned on the jamb.

“I just want my little girl back.” Kelly sniffed.

Bree turned back to the room. Something didn’t feel right, but she couldn’t identify the source of her unease. “Does Lena have any special friends? A neighbor, maybe. Someone she might go to if she were scared.”

“No. She isn’t good at making friends.”