Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

a car. He asked if you’d seen a little girl running around, told you that his sister had dropped off her brat and she’d run off. You told him that if you saw her, you’d bring her back.’ He’d closed his eyes. ‘You do remember, don’t you?’
    For a long time he didn’t speak. When he did, his voice was hoarse. ‘I remember.’
    ‘What do you remember?’ Daphne asked, forcing her voice to remain gentle.
    He looked up at her. ‘What did you say your name was?’
    ‘Daphne Montgomery. In 1985, I was Daphne Sinclair.’
    ‘It was you.’ His throat worked as he tried to swallow. ‘You were in my truck, weren’t you? That’s how you got away. You hid under my tarp.’
    Surprise had her eyes narrowing. ‘You knew I was there?’
    ‘Not that day.’
    ‘When, then? When did you know I’d been there?’
    ‘Not until a few days after the newspaper headline said you’d been found. I found a little girl’s hair bow in the bed of my truck, under the tarp. Then I remembered a guy asking me if I’d seen a little girl. I wondered if it might be you.’
    ‘But you didn’t tell anyone?’ The question stuck in her throat. I’m a damn hypocrite .
    ‘I didn’t know for sure. I told myself that one of my own daughters had probably dropped it in the bed, although it had been a year since I’d seen my girls. Because their mother took them away from me.’ He swallowed hard. ‘Because I was a drunk. I was drunk the day you climbed into the back of my truck.’
    ‘Did you hear about my cousin?’
    ‘Yeah, I did. I worried about it, worried that I should tell the cops what I’d seen. I even went back to the cabin when the man wasn’t home. I snuck in to see if he was holding anyone. He wasn’t, so I figured I’d got it wrong.’
    ‘I see.’
    ‘And then I saw the family interviewed on the news and there was the man from the cabin, cozy with you. I figured maybe the whole thing was a mistake. That you hadn’t really been kidnapped. That you really had run away from that man at the cabin and that your family had . . . handled it in their own way.’
    ‘Hm.’ Handled it in their own way? Really? ‘I see.’
    ‘And then a few weeks later the papers said you’d identified your own daddy as the kidnapper. I figured the guy at the cabin was telling the truth after all.’
    It was Daphne’s turn to pale. Oh God . This nightmare keeps going on .
    She felt Joseph’s hands on her shoulders a moment before he spoke. ‘I can see how you might have thought that,’ he said, no recrimination in his voice. ‘There was a lot of confusion in the case back then. But today we got new information that the man you talked to at the cabin was the kidnapper. It’s important that we find that cabin. Do you remember where it was?’
    ‘I’m not sure. It’s been almost thirty years. Even if the place still exists, the roads are going to look different. I just don’t know.’
    ‘Will you try to help us find it?’ Joseph asked.
    ‘Now?’ O’Hurley asked, dismayed.
    ‘It’s important,’ Joseph said again. ‘Please.’
    O’Hurley shrugged. ‘I’ll try. I can’t promise anything, but I’ll try.’
    Thursday, December 5, 12.15 P.M.
    The police scanner woke Mitch up. A glance at the alarm clock had his eyes bugging out. He’d overslept, seriously so. But all those nights with no sleep and all that driving had finally caught up to him. He’d slept like the dead.
    Mitch turned the scanner up. The locals were rousing the troops. EMTs, uniforms, even a helicopter. Good to know . Dispatch was putting all personnel on alert. The location was the wildlife management area. Exact coordinates would follow.
    Sounded like they’d finally found the cabin. Took them long enough. He wondered if they’d followed Beckett back to it or if the dogs had finally picked up Ford’s scent and tracked him backward. I have to see this for myself .
    He checked the phone he used with Cole and cursed. He’d missed a call from the school attendance office. The voicemail confirmed his fear that Cole was absent. Again . Mitch called the house, but no one answered. Big shock .
    I am going to kill that kid . Then he forced himself to chill. Annoyed people made mistakes and this was too damn important a day. He’d deal with Cole tomorrow.
    The phone he used with Mutt was loaded with messages. All from Mutt’s daddy’s phone. Mitch smiled. Fifteen messages. Running scared, old man? Good . Remembering his desperate phone calls