Tainted Love Page 17

  “Since this is where he arrested you.”

  Mason’s nostrils flared. “Just drink your coffee. We’re leaving in a minute.”

  Ava picked up the cup and sniffed it as she brought it to her mouth. Just smelled like a mocha. At least once they left the coffee shop, it would be easier to get away. Now that she knew Hanna was okay, she could make her move.

  She sipped the warm, chocolatey drink and smiled as Mason drank the coffee meant for her.

  Lucky for her, he was an idiot.

  He set the cup down. “You know, I’ve been dreaming of this day for a long time. More and more since I’ve been on my way here. The wait has been worth it, Aves. You—”

  “Don’t use that nickname!” She set her cup down. “That’s what my mom calls me. You don’t get to use it, understand?”

  Was it her imagination or was her tongue not quite working right? A few of her words sounded a little off.

  Mason shrugged. “Fine by me. I’ll come up with something that’s special. Just between you and me. Something no one else uses.”

  A strange feeling swept through her, massaged her. For a moment, it seemed like water waved between them.

  Ava swore. She hadn’t meant to do that out loud.

  Mason leaned forward. “Feeling a little funny?”

  She tried to pull some hair behind her ear, but missed and poked her eye. “What’d you do?”

  He smirked. “I put something in my drink, Aves dear.”

  His drink.

  “I knew you wouldn’t drink from the one I handed you. See how well I know you? It’s a shame you don’t trust me.” He rose and helped her up. “Let’s get you out of here before you really start to get tipsy.”

  She tried to object. The words didn’t reach her mouth.

  Discovery

  Alex’s vision grew bleary. He sat back and rubbed his eyes. He’d been studying pictures on the mommy blogger’s blog for hours, spending as much time as he could on each individual one. He’d zoomed them in as much as possible, taking in every tiny detail hoping to find a clue previously missed.

  So far, nothing.

  “You’re not dressed?”

  Alex looked up at Zoey then at the time. “I’m going to be late!” He scurried out of the chair and raced over to the closet, donning his uniform as fast as possible.

  “Do you need me to do anything?” she asked.

  His mind raced. “Can you throw together something for me to eat?”

  “Sure thing.” Zoey hurried out of the room.

  He ran around, getting ready, and nearly bumped into Zoey as he opened the door.

  “Sorry.” She smiled and handed him a sack lunch.

  He gave her a quick kiss. “You’re a lifesaver! Thank you.”

  “Need anything else?”

  “Just tell the kids goodnight for me and that I love them.”

  “Will do.” She fixed his hair and kissed him. “Have a good night at work.”

  “I’ll try.” He bolted for the door.

  “Alex!”

  He spun around. “I’m going to be late.”

  She disappeared then reappeared holding a travel coffee mug. “I know it’s not a peppermint mocha, but at least it’s coffee.”

  His insides melted. “You made me coffee?”

  “With mint creamer. Love you.” She handed it to him then gave him one last kiss.

  “You make it hard to leave for work.”

  Her eyes twinkled. “Maybe we can have some fun tomorrow.”

  His pulse raised. “I could always call in sick.”

  She batted her eyelashes. “I’ll be here when you get back.”

  Alex forced himself to open the door before he convinced himself to stay home. He wouldn’t be able to hide the truth from his boss if he did call in. Not when the captain was his best friend.

  He sipped the minty coffee as he rushed toward his car and pulled away as soon as the engine turned on. Maybe he needed to set an alarm so he wouldn’t lose track of time like that again. Anything to avoid a rush out the door like that. At least he had Zoey, or he’d probably still be staring at the screen.

  Everything was quiet at the station. Hardly anyone was there. Alex went back to the reception desk. “Everyone out on a call?”

  “You didn’t hear?” Mary’s eyes filled with concern.

  “Did I miss something that was all over the news?”

  She shook her head, her mouth curving down. “The captain’s daughter is missing.”

  “What?” Alex exclaimed. “Mason posted bail! It has to be him.”

  Her frown deepened. “Most everyone is out looking for them. The captain included.”

  Alex’s pulse drummed in his ears. “Are there any clues?”

  She shook her head. “Not that I’m aware of.”

  He scrambled back to his desk, calling Nick.

  “You on duty now?” Nick asked.

  “Yeah. Mary just told me what happened. Why didn’t you let me know? I’d have come in early. You know I would’ve. I’m on my way out now.”

  “Actually, I have something for you to do there.”

  “You don’t want me on this?” Disappointment washed through Alex.

  “We just discovered Mason has a relative in the area.”

  “Yeah. Your kids.”

  “Other than the obvious. No, a distant cousin. We think he might be helping Mason. I need you to look into him.”

  “Whatever you need.”

  “I’ll send you what I know.” Nick ended the call.

  Alex raced to his desk and turned on his laptop. The message came in and Alex got to work. It was no wonder he wanted Alex on this job. He’d gotten really good at finding information online, and even more so with the resources of the station.

  It took him almost no time to discover where Mason’s third cousin lived and that he had a cabin not far away. Why was it always a cabin in the woods?

  Alex sent Nick everything he found, then he closed the tab. His screen showed a post from the mommy blogger he’d been looking at before. He was about to close that, too, when something in a picture made him stop cold.

  He zoomed in on the picture. It had a car in the background, the license plate visible but blurry.

  Could that be her car? The clue he’d been searching for all along? His heart pounded like a jackhammer as he used a software program to focus in on the plate. Even with the expensive, advanced program Alex was only able to make out some of the numbers.

  But it was more than he had before. Between that and the make and model of the car, he could narrow it down significantly. Maybe even find the exact car in the database before he finished his coffee.

  Maybe they could capture Mason and the mommy blogger in one night. It was a lot to ask, but at this point, it wasn’t out of the question.

  Alex couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the results. There weren’t any matches for the plate and car type and color. Nothing.

  He ran it again. Extending out the area.

  Still nothing. Not one match.

  He turned back to the picture and made some guesses as to what the unidentifiable numbers and letters could be. Then he ran those through the system.

  After coming up blank again, he tried without the make, model, and color of the car.

  Bingo.

  Four possible matches. One plate belonged to an elderly man in a nursing home. That left three more.

  Alex’s fingers shook as he looked into the remaining ones. The next belonged to a thirty-something woman in Portland.

  That was promising.

  Except that she was in Africa on a missionary trip building orphanages, and had been for the last year and a half.

  Two more.

  A basketball coach in Spokane. The plate belonged to a brand new pickup truck.

  Alex drew in a de
ep breath and held it. Would the last one be a dead end, or exactly what he was looking for?

  The plate belonged to a twenty-eight-year-old woman named Elizabeth Jessica McAdams. She was single and had no kids.

  Alex’s heart sunk. Another dead end. The woman had no kids. No address, either. Not only that, but the car matching the plate had been demolished after a collision several years before. Couldn’t be the same plate.

  Or could it?

  It was possible, but without being able to clearly see the entire string of numbers and letters, there was no way to tell for certain.

  That would have to wait. Alex needed to get back to looking into Mason. That was what he’d been doing before he accidentally saw the car.

  Alex called Nick to find out if he needed any help.

  “Chang and I are heading over to the cabin,” Nick said. “Sanchez and Mackey are checking out the primary residence. Be ready to provide back-up for whoever finds something.”

  “So, you just want me to sit and wait?”

  “Basically. Be ready to head over here if I call.”

  “I was born ready. Oh, and Nick?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Ava will be fine. She’s tough.”

  “Thanks. We’ve got to put Mason away for good. Between him and his dad, they’ve caused her three lifetimes worth of trauma.”

  “He’s going down. No doubt about it.”

  They ended the call and Alex took his cup to the coffee machine and poured himself some more. As much as he wanted to be out there helping to find Ava, at least it gave him more time to look into the blogger.

  Someone needed to find out what really happened to Connor. The kid needed an advocate, or at least justice—depending on if he was still alive.

  Back at his desk, Alex looked into Elizabeth. There was nothing of interest beyond the fact that she’d gone off the grid. She did have an ex-husband, but they’d had no kids. There was nothing to link her to Connor.

  He nursed his coffee and went back to the blog. The answers were there, they were just hidden. It was only a matter of finding them.

  Alex scrolled, studied pictures, scrolled some more, and checked his phone for updates from Nick.

  He was just about to take a break and stretch his legs when he saw something that made him freeze. It was a picture of the blogger’s youngest son as a baby. Something about the tiny face was familiar. And not because he’d spent enough time looking at the posts to make himself go cross-eyed.

  He’d seen that face somewhere else, not on her blog.

  But where?

  Alex tapped his desk and strained to recall where he’d seen that face.

  Then he remembered.

  He nearly knocked his cup over as he scrambled to pull up his blog. Then he went back to the beginning and scanned the posts in the order he’d published them.

  Then he came to a post from about a year and a half earlier. The details were fuzzy at first, but as he read his own words, it all came crashing back.

  The baby’s mom had contacted him in a frenzy. A woman had run off from a park with her son when she’d gotten distracted with her other two kids.

  Alex’s mouth dried as he compared the pictures from his blog and the mommy blogger’s. The mommy blogger had announced her child’s birth just two days after the baby had been taken from the park. She didn’t post any pictures of Sammy’s face for nearly six months.

  Probably to keep anyone from recognizing the baby. He’d changed a lot in that time, as babies do. But it was the same boy. Of that, Alex was certain.

  To double-check if his memory served correctly, he went through other old posts on the mommy blog. Sure enough, the woman didn’t post any baby faces until about six months after announcing the arrivals.

  She’d kidnapped all four of them.

  And one was missing without a viable explanation. The custody change story was even more suspicious now.

  Alex stared at the screen as his mind filled in all the blanks. Everything made sense with this new knowledge. The lack of pictures at hospitals and doctor visits. No pictures of her face. The lack of baby pictures for the first six months.

  The only question still remaining was what had happened to Connor. Had she moved from child abduction to murder?

  Then a sickening thought hit him.

  She was posting about pregnancy. Claiming to be close to birth.

  Another baby was going to be kidnapped soon.

  He needed to stop her.

  Alex reached for his laptop. Just as he did, Nick called for Alex’s help.

  The blogger would have to wait.

  Consequences

  Jess slunk onto the couch and emptied the full wine glass. It had taken everything in her to hide her frustration from the kids. They were bummed about not having the baby home yet, but had been easily distracted when she streamed a new movie for them.

  Three babies, and she didn’t manage to get any of them. Three!

  Was she losing her touch? Picking the wrong people? Or were moms wising up?

  She needed to come up with a better plan. Something where she controlled more of the variables. There had been too many people around for her to try and snatch the second one. And the third lady hadn’t been where she’d posted she was going to be.

  Days like this were the worst.

  And she was exhausted and stressed out. The last thing she wanted to do was cook up a new plan. All she wanted to do was climb into bed and have a good cry. Life would’ve been so much easier if she could just have kids naturally. Or if she hadn’t been disqualified for adoption.

  It hadn’t been her fault. She’d been babysitting when her boyfriend at the time had come over. Everything had been going fine until he’d given his peanut butter granola bar to one of the kids when Jess hadn’t been looking. The kid had a peanut allergy and the house had been nut-free. He hadn’t known, and she didn’t know he’d had the bar with him.

  Once the girl’s face swelled and changed colors, he ran. Didn’t even tell Jess what had happened. By the time she’d found the girl, it had been too late. The whole thing had been a nightmare. Jess had never wanted anything to happen to the girl and her boyfriend denied ever being at the house.

  Luckily for her, the attorney had been able to prove he was there. Even got Jess out of serving any jail time. But part of the condition was that she could never work with kids again. Child endangerment was on her permanent record. It had broken her heart then. For as long as she could remember, she’d wanted to have kids and work with them. They were her life and part of every dream she ever had for herself.

  Tears blurred her vision. Guilt still tore at her for the little girl’s death. It was her fault. She should’ve told her boyfriend about the allergy as soon as he stepped inside. But she hadn’t, and an innocent child had paid the price. A family lived with the heartache.

  And she was certain that was why she no longer had Connor. It was a cosmic payback. Karma alive and well. She’d avoided jail, but not the consequences of what she’d done. Now she lived with the same pain she had caused another mom.

  Jess wiped her eyes then went into Connor’s room. Her original plan had been for Sammy to share the room with Connor, but with him gone, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to move Sammy. She wouldn’t even let the other kids in there.

  It was all she had left of Connor. Except for the small grave out back. The kids had asked about the disturbed dirt, and she’d told them she’d found a dead coyote and buried it. They’d believed her.

  She sat on Connor’s bed and hugged Willy, his favorite teddy bear. Hot tears stung her eyes. She sobbed, shaking, soaking the stuffed animal. “I’m sorry, Connor. I never meant for it to happen.”

  His sweet smile appeared in her mind. She could almost feel his arms around her. What she wouldn’t give to actually feel them. To hold him one more time. To feel his silky ha
ir against her face and to hear his contagious giggles.

  Connor’s smile melted away to the scene that haunted her nightmares. Waking to find him lying on the kitchen floor. Unmoving. Eerily pale. His little hands resting on his neck.

  He’d been going through a growth spurt and was always asking for food. The only thing that made sense was that he’d gotten up for a midnight snack and choked. Hadn’t come to her for help. Probably afraid he’d get in trouble for sneaking food.

  If only he’d known she wouldn’t have cared! She only wanted him alive.

  Even though she knew it was too late, she’d tried to remove the food. Lifted him up and pushed up under his diaphragm. The half-chewed donut flew across the room, not that it did any good.

  Sobbing, she took him outside and dug the tiny hole, covering him before the other kids had a chance to see him. She couldn’t let them know what had happened to him. They were too young for such heartache.

  By the time they woke up, Jess had concocted a story about him going on a trip. Said she didn’t know when he’d be back. Figured they’d eventually stop asking.

  They hadn’t, but they asked a lot less these days.

  She wiped her tears away, then headed for her computer. It was time to focus on the future, not the past. Time to find her next baby.

  And her next attempt would be successful.

  Trapped

  Something poked Ava, waking her. She rolled over, pushing aside her blankets. No, not hers. She’d never seen them before, and they reeked of musk. Unlike the air, which smelled like burning candles and air freshener. Soft music played somewhere.

  “Ava,” the male voice whispered.

  At first, she thought it was Parker.

  “Ava…”

  Wrong brother.

  She bolted up.

  Mason brushed some hair away from her eyes. “Did you sleep well, sweet angel?”

  “Shut up.” She shoved him. “Where are we?”

  “Far, far away from the rest of the world. It’s just the two of us.”

  “Where did you bring me?” Ava demanded.