Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

know.’
    ‘I think it would hurt more to think someone loved you and find out they didn’t. Did you see him?’
    ‘No,’ she said and his hopes faded. ‘But I heard her on the phone, talking to him. She told him that she found a job for them to do.’ Her face scrunched as she tried to remember. ‘She said he needed a GC something. Then she made kissy noises.’
    ‘Are you sure she wasn’t talking to Ford?’
    ‘Positive. Ford came driving up to get her and she said, “Gotta go, he’s here.” That’s when I knew she had another boyfriend. That’s wrong, Joseph.’
    ‘You’re very right. When was this?’
    ‘About a month ago. It was before Thanksgiving.’
    ‘Excellent. Did she see you?’
    ‘Yeah, but she ignored me. Most people do,’ she added ruefully and his heart broke a little.
    ‘Then they’re fools,’ he said and kissed her forehead. ‘I want you to go to sleep now. Sweet dreams.’
    She grinned mischievously. ‘Of Dillon.’
    He winced. ‘Just no dreaming of him on the sofa down here, okay?’
    ‘Okay. Joseph?’
    ‘Yeah, baby?’
    ‘I love you.’
    He wrapped her in a hug and spun her in a circle. ‘I love you, too, Holly-bear. Do I have to stop calling you Holly-bear when you get married?’
    Her smile was huge. ‘You said “when”.’
    ‘I guess I did. You go to sleep now.’ He watched her pad back up the stairs.
    GC . What is a GC?
    He caught a whiff of something cooking in the kitchen. He’d worry about it after he ate. And maybe slept. He wondered if Daphne was sleeping.
    He wondered what it would be like to watch her sleep, to watch her wake. For the rest of his life. Find her son . Then you can find out .
    West Virginia, Wednesday, December 4, 12.15 A.M.
    The kid had almost made it. Another few miles and he would have reached help, although not the help Mitch had originally intended. If Ford had taken the straight route through the wildlife management area, he should have stumbled right into the next town. Instead he’d ended up on a lonely stretch of road with an occasional farmhouse set way back out of view.
    The snow was heavy and part of the time Mitch hadn’t been able to see five feet in front of him. Ford must have gotten lost, unable to use the sky for navigation.
    Switching off all the van’s lights, Mitch moved the van forward until the back bumper was three feet ahead of Ford’s unconscious body. He lowered the lift to the ground and rolled Ford in, huffing a little at the effort. Kid was a goddamn bruiser.
    Sometimes genetics just weren’t fair.
    He raised the lift and shoved Ford into the back of the van. It was a tight fit. The hydraulic cart took up more than half of the width of the van.
    Closing the back doors, he returned the lift to its upright position and considered the next step. He’d have to ditch the kid and drive away quickly. Ford was wedged in so tight that he’d have trouble getting him out at all, much less in a rush.
    He opened the side slider, grabbed hold of Ford’s jacket, braced his feet against the running board, and pulled for all he was worth. After a few heaves his back was killing him, but he had Ford exactly where he wanted him – close to the door, folded into a fetal position.
    That’ll do . He closed the side door and climbed behind the wheel, sweating. Give myself pneumonia, sweating in weather like this . He rested his head against the seat for a moment, breathing deeply, focusing on the muscle in his back that was starting to spasm. When the burning began to subside, he popped a few pain relievers and put the van in drive.
    He used to be able to bench press a respectable weight for a guy his size. Moving boxes? No problem. Until he turned his back on Jimmy Cooley in the prison shower. The man had tried to make Mitch his bitch. Jimmy Cooley had ended up dead. My shiv in his back . But Mitch had hurt his back in the fight. He’d never been the same.
    For that reason alone, his stepfather deserved to die.
    Whoa . Driving without lights, he’d nearly passed by the first house he came to. It was a small place, fairly close to the road compared to its neighbors. Close enough for Ford to crawl to the front door once the ket wore off and he came to.
    Mitch slowed to a stop, opened the sliding door, pulled Ford into the snow, and drove away. He planned to circle around and head back to Beckett’s truck, still parked on the side of the road where Ford had run out of gas. Right about where I figured he would . He