Thea sat with Reggie for the rest of the afternoon, waiting for a phone call from Jake that never came. She’d known it might be morning before they heard definitive news, but as twilight fell and the dinner trays came and went, she began to grow jittery, imagining all sorts of life-threatening scenarios at the cave.
“Althea, stop that pacing! You’re getting on my last nerve,” Reggie complained. “Go back to your hotel and get some rest. We’ll know when we know.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay the night?”
“I’m fine. There’s a cop right outside my door if I need anything. Now go. You look as if you’re ready to keel over.”
Thea finally relented. Reggie was safe in the hospital. Might as well go back to her room and try to get some sleep. Besides, a hot shower and some food would go a long way to boosting her morale. She said good-night to Reggie and walked outside to a full moon and a mild breeze. Jake, call me, she implored as she climbed into his SUV. Her phone had been smashed in the confrontation with Derrick Sway, but he knew to reach her at the hospital or her hotel.
As soon as she got back to her room, she checked for messages and then took a shower and ordered dinner. Stretching out on top of the covers, she closed her eyes. Sometime later, a knock on the door startled her awake. She straightened her robe and smoothed back her tangled hair as she got up to glance through the peephole. Not room service, after all. She opened the door and silently stood back for Jake to enter.
“I didn’t expect you to show up in person,” she said anxiously as she followed him into the room. “I thought you’d call if there was news. The divers—”
“Found nothing.”
She closed her eyes. “Then why are you here?”
“I have other news.” He seemed on edge as he turned to face her. “I tried to call you at the hospital. Reggie answered. She recognized my voice when I asked for you. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t hold off. I had to tell her.”
Thea’s heart thumped painfully. “Tell her what?”
“It’s not Maya.”
Thea let out a harsh breath and dropped to the edge of the bed. “You know for certain? I didn’t expect a definitive answer until tomorrow.”
“Yes, we’re certain. The skeletal remains are that of a male Caucasian. We won’t know much more than that until Dr. Forrester and her team can examine the bones in the lab.” He sat on the other bed, facing her.
“What about the etching on the rock and the wind chimes in the tree?” Her hands were trembling so she clasped them together in her lap. “They weren’t placed above the cavern randomly. The stick figures are too much like Maya’s drawing to be a coincidence.”
“Yeah, I’ve been wondering about that myself,” he said. “My only guess is that someone else thought the remains were Maya.”
Thea glanced up. “Or maybe there’s another grave nearby.”
He met her gaze and nodded. “I won’t lie, I thought about that, too.” He paused. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she said numbly. “I’m not even sure how I feel at the moment. We’ve waited so long to know what happened to her. Then when we thought she’d been down in that cave all these years...that someone may have been visiting her grave for God only knows what purpose...” She shuddered. “It’s not an image you want in your head.”
“I’m sorry,” he said again.
“So now we’re back where we started.” She took a moment to gather her thoughts. “Do you have any idea who he was? The man in the grave?”
“Not yet. Chief Bowden is checking the local database for any missing persons in the area that match the general description. The digital records only go back so far and then someone has to comb through the physical files. We’re checking our own databases, of course, but that’s also a process.”
“Is it possible he got lost in the cave?” Thea asked. “Maybe he was homeless or a runaway who crawled inside to get out of the elements.”
“Not likely. Dr. Forrester found several cuts on at least six bones of the rib cage, suggesting our John Doe was stabbed.”
“Brutally, by the sounds of it.” Thea let that sink in. “And then his killer dragged the body into the cave and buried him underneath a mound of rocks and debris.”
Jake looked grim. “More than likely, the victim was lured into the cave. I don’t see a body being dragged through all those narrow tunnels. You don’t remember any other disappearances in the area?”
“Not that I recall, no.”
“I didn’t expect you would. By all indications, the remains have been down there for decades. Maybe longer than you’ve been alive.”
“Do you think the remains could be the reason Derrick Sway has been hanging around in the area?”
Jake shrugged. “Impossible to say since we don’t yet know the victim’s identity.”
Thea grew pensive. “It’s just that Sway said something to me earlier I haven’t been able to get out of my head. He said he was surprised Reggie Lamb had raised a cop because, when he knew her, she wasn’t the law-and-order type. Then he asked if I remembered sleeping in the back seat of his car. When I said no, he said it was a good thing. I might have seen something that was bad for my health.”
“What do you think he meant by that?”
“No idea. He was neck-deep in a lot of criminal activities back then. Maybe he talked Reggie into helping him with something illegal and she brought us along.”
Jake looked skeptical. “She would do that?”
“Not the present-day Reggie, but she was a different person back then. It’s possible she got in over her head with Sway. Maybe Maya woke up in the back of his car and saw something she shouldn’t have. Maybe that’s why she was taken instead of me.”
“That’s one theory. But it’s just a theory.”
“I know.” Thea bit her lip. “I guess I’ve wondered for so long why my sister was taken instead of me that I’m willing to reach for any explanation.”
His gaze softened. “I can understand that.”
“Still, no matter how willing Reggie was to skirt the law, she would never have been party to murder, much less to hurting her own child. I’ll admit, I’ve had my doubts over the years, but I saw her face today when she thought Maya had been found in the cave. If Sway took my sister, he either acted alone or had another accomplice. It wasn’t my mother.”
“Reggie’s neighbor made an interesting observation about her yesterday,” Jake said. “If she knew Sway had done something to Maya, she would have kept silent only if he threatened to hurt you.”
Thea felt a pang in her chest at the possibility. Had she misjudged Reggie all these years? “Maybe that’s why she turned him in years later for a crime unrelated to the kidnapping. She needed to find something that wouldn’t blow back on her or me. But someone talked and Sway decided to retaliate by taking Kylie. Whether he thought she was my child or not, he had to know how deeply her abduction would hurt Reggie.” Thea got up to pace. “We have to find him, Jake.”
“We’re doing everything we can.”
“I know, I know. It’s just...”
“The clock is ticking.”
She jumped when a knock sounded at the door. Jake glanced past her to the entranceway. “Are you expecting someone?”
“Room service.”
He rose. “I’ll get out of your hair and let you have a peaceful dinner.”
“No, stay,” Thea said impulsively. “That is, if you haven’t eaten yet. It’s just a burger and fries, but I don’t mind sharing.”
He looked doubtful. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, stay.” She got up to answer the door. The young man who brought in the food laid everything out on the table by the window. Thea signed for the meal and then closed the door behind him. She sat and motioned for Jake to take the seat across from her. She divided the order and handed him a plate. He sat and dug in.
“This hits the spot,” he said between bites. “I didn’t take time to eat earlier. I cleaned up and came straight here.”
“We can order something else if this isn’t enough.”
“It’ll do for the moment.”
Thea devoured a fry, finding herself likewise ravenous. “The neighbor you mentioned earlier. Would he happen to be Lyle Crowder?”
Jake glanced up. “Yes, why?”
“I talked to him earlier. He was looking in the windows of your Suburban when I came out of Reggie’s house.”
“Why the face?” Jake asked.
“Did I make a face?”
“Subtle, but yeah. You don’t like him?”
“I never had anything against him personally, but he always gave Reggie the creeps. She told me I wasn’t to let him in if he ever came to the door when she wasn’t home.”
“But she had no problem letting someone like Derrick Sway into her house.”
“It does seem a contradiction,” Thea agreed. “But like I said, she changed after Maya’s disappearance.”
“Did she give you a reason for her distrust?”
“She said she didn’t like the way Lyle stared across the street at our house. The funny thing is, he never seemed to be looking at me. I assumed he had a thing for her. A lot of men did. She was an attractive woman back in her day.”
“Your mother is still an attractive woman,” Jake said. “I can see a lot of her in you. Same bone structure and coloring. Same fearlessness.”
Thea had gone silent.
He frowned across the table. “Did I say something wrong?”
“What? No. I was just wondering where Lyle Crowder was the night Kylie disappeared.”
“He was on a fishing trip with his brother. He didn’t return home until Monday afternoon.”
“You’ve checked out his alibi?”
“Of course. Why? What are you thinking?”
“He used to work on offshore oil rigs when I was a kid. He was sometimes gone for months at a time.”
“So he told me.”
“He had an old bluetick coonhound with him when we talked earlier.”
“Okay,” Jake drawled. “I’m a little lost here. What does one have to do with the other?”
Thea felt a tingle of excitement along her backbone. “He’s had that breed for as long as I can remember. He told me he left his dogs with his brother when he was working. But the night Maya went missing, we heard a hound baying in the woods.”
“I doubt Lyle Crowder was the only one around here who had a coon dog.”
“No, of course not, but I’ve had the same feeling as you that we’re missing something hidden in plain sight. Could the clue that solves both cases be something as simple as a dog baying in the woods?”
Jake eyed her across the table. “It seems a stretch.”
“Maybe, but just think about it. He’s been living across the street the whole time, watching from the shadows of his front porch. He would have known about Reggie’s party the night Maya was taken. He could have easily assumed that she and her friends would be so inebriated no one would think to check on Maya and me for hours. Twenty-eight years later, he would have seen Taryn and Reggie leave the house last Sunday morning. He could have walked across the street, removed the key from the flowerpot and let himself in the front door to unlock the bedroom window. Then all he had to do was wait for the lights to go out later that night.”
She expected Jake to shoot down her theory, but instead he sat back in his chair with a contemplative frown. “He told me he used to go exploring in the cave. He even offered to go down with his dog and take a look around if we needed him to.”
Thea leaned forward. “Are you sure his alibi is airtight?”
“Worth taking another look,” Jake said as he rose. “I need to make a couple of calls.”
“Of course. I’ll go freshen up and give you some privacy.”
“I don’t want to chase you out of your own room.”
“You’re not. We both know I have a conflict of interest in this case, and you need to be able to speak candidly.”
“This won’t take long.”
“No worries.” She went into the bathroom and closed the door. As tempting as it was to listen in, she turned on the tap and washed her face, brushed her teeth, and then pulled the hair dryer from under the sink to blow out her damp hair. Then, with nothing else to do, she used the little bottle of lotion on the vanity to moisturize her hands and sat on the edge of the tub to wait. After a good ten minutes, she got up and opened the bathroom door.
“Jake?”
She stepped through the door and glanced around. The bedroom was so silent she thought at first he must have left, but instead he’d stretched out on one of the beds and fallen asleep.
Thea started to wake him up, but then she realized how exhausted he must be to succumb so quickly. Draping a blanket over him, she left him to rest as she took care of the dinner tray and then turned out the lights. Crawling into her own bed, she lay on her back and stared up at the ceiling until the sound of Jake’s breathing lulled her to sleep.
THE ROOM WAS still dark when Thea woke up. For a moment, she had that disquieting sensation of not knowing where she was or how she’d gotten there. Then she shook away the cobwebs and pushed herself up against the pillows. The window was open. She could feel a warm breeze against her skin as she kicked aside the covers.
A shadow moved out on the fire escape. She reached for her weapon as she called softly, “Jake? Is that you?”
He crawled back through the window. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You didn’t. I rarely sleep through the night.” She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Just after midnight. “What were you doing out there?”
“Listening to the wind chimes in the courtyard across the street. You can hear them up here, by the way. You didn’t imagine the sound last night.”
“Good to know.”
He turned back to the window, still listening to the night. “What is it with this town and wooden wind chimes?”
“According to Lyle Crowder, a local woman used to make them. People hung them in their trees for good luck. He said when the wind blew just right, you could hear them all over town.”
“Interesting tradition.”
“He said Reggie used to have them hanging from a tree in her backyard. I’d forgotten until now, but I think that sound is what awakened Maya. She thought someone was outside our room. I told her not to be a fraidy-cat.” Thea sighed. “That was the last thing I ever said to my sister.”
Jake turned and leaned against the window frame. His eyes glinted in the dark. “What happened wasn’t your fault.”
“I know. But if I’d called out to Reggie, maybe she would have come to see about us. Maybe she would have scared the kidnapper away.”
He moved across the room and sat on her bed, draping a casual arm across her legs. “Kylie’s disappearance has stirred up a lot of painful memories for you, hasn’t it?”
“Yes. I can’t help thinking there’s something more I should be doing to find her. Something I should remember that could reveal the kidnapper.”
“If this were another case, you’d tell the family members not to torture themselves. You’d say obsessing over what could or should have been done does no one any good, least of all the missing child.”
“And I would know better than anyone that it’s easier said than done not to dwell.”
“None of this is easy. For the families or for us.”
“But you wouldn’t want to do anything else,” Thea said.
“Would you?” There was a hushed, intimate quality to his voice in the dark.
She shivered. “I don’t think either of us has a choice.”
He thought about that for a moment. “Why did you move to Cold Cases after I left Washington? You were on a fast track. You had a lot of people in your corner, including me. It was only a matter of time before you would have been assigned a team.”
She shrugged. “Somebody has to keep looking for those kids after the CARD team goes home.”
“Even if Cold Cases is the place where careers go to stagnate and die?”
“Yes, even if,” she said with conviction. “None of us do this for the glory.”
He fell silent. Except for the gleam of his eyes, he was little more than a silhouette at the end of her bed. Yet Thea felt so physically attuned to him, she could almost hear the beat of his heart in the darkness.
He straightened. “I should go, let you get some rest.”
“You don’t have to. It’s late. There’s plenty of room here, and besides...” She trailed off. “This isn’t a good night to be alone.”
He didn’t say a word, but instead rose and, ignoring the second bed, went around to lie down beside her. They weren’t touching, but Thea felt closer to Jake than she had to anyone in a very long time.
After a moment he said, “Do you ever wonder what would have happened if you’d come with me to Jacksonville?”
She turned in surprise. “To my career, you mean?”
“To us.”
She closed her eyes. “What’s the point in wondering? You never asked me to come.”
“You never asked me to stay.”
She drew back. “How could I ask that of you? You’d worked so hard for so long. No one deserved that promotion more than you. Besides, when you finally told me you’d accepted the offer, you acted as if you couldn’t leave town fast enough. I thought part of the attraction of the new assignment was getting away from me.”
“You couldn’t possibly have thought that.”
Something in his voice caused her to tremble. “We’d come to a crossroads in our relationship. It was either commit more deeply or break up. Your leaving town made the decision easy for us.”
“It was easy for you?” He turned to stare at her in the dark.
“You know what I mean.” She scowled up at the ceiling and tried not to feel such deep regret. Tried not to think about the cold, empty apartment that waited for her back in DC. “It wasn’t easy, but it was inevitable. We always said the job had to come first.”
“That was a mistake,” he said. “It worked for a while, but what we do can’t be all that we are. It’s too dark. There has to be light at the end of the tunnel.” He paused. “I can’t help wondering if you’ve found that light.”
“Are you asking if there’s someone in my life? No. What about you?”
His slight hesitation caused her heart to sink. “No.”
“You hesitated,” she accused.
“No one serious,” he said. “No one who gets me the way you do.”
She slid her hand down his arm and clasped his hand.
He squeezed her fingers. “I’ve missed this. I’ve missed you.”
“After all this time?”
His voice deepened. “You have no idea how often I think about you.”
Thea didn’t know how to respond to that. She felt overwhelmed and a little unnerved.
“Am I being too honest?” He brought their linked hands to his mouth. Such a soft, sweet kiss and yet Thea felt a shudder go through her as she rolled to her side.
“I’ve missed you, too,” she said. “I just didn’t want to admit it.”
“That stubborn streak.” She heard a smile in his voice a split second before he threaded his fingers through her hair and kissed her deeply, stirring a longing she’d tried to bury since the day he’d left DC.
Nothing stays buried forever. Not secrets. Not longing. Not love.
Yes, love, although maybe she was still too stubborn to take her confession that far.
They kissed for the longest time and broke apart only to undress slowly, without frenzy or desperation. Just two old lovers comfortable in their familiarity. Two injured souls needing to find momentary light at the end of a very dark tunnel. But when their bodies joined, it was shockingly dynamic. Electric. Like the sizzle of two live power lines in a lightning storm. Thea could hardly catch her breath. Everywhere Jake touched turned to fire. Her neck, her breasts, the insides of her thighs. Clutching the covers, she arched into him, matching his rhythm until they collapsed against one another, gasping and quivering. Even then, Jake didn’t let her go. He rolled onto his back and nestled her in the crook of his arm. She fit perfectly. As if she’d never been gone.