Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

Clay, as a dad yourself, I know you have some sense for what I’m going through. I pray you never have to feel what I’m feeling. This is the worst hell I’ve ever endured. I know you didn’t mean for this to happen. It doesn’t change that it has and we’re both going to have to live with it, no matter how things turn out. Please know that I still need your help and value your expertise. I’ve enclosed my file for the Millhouse case. I hope inside is something you can use to help me find my son. I count you ever my friend. Yours, Daphne.’
    I count you ever my friend . It was far more than he deserved and in her place, far more than he would have given. Clay folded the note and slipped it in his pocket.
    ‘Alyssa, I need you to drop me off at the university. The two of you go back to the office and start going over these papers. I’ll take a cab back to the crime scene when I’m done to pick up my car.’
    ‘What’s in those papers?’ Alec asked.
    ‘Daphne’s file on the Millhouses. She told me at one point they were checking all their financials. I want to know how they paid the guy last night. It probably won’t be in this file because these financials were taken weeks ago, but you can get bank account numbers. Do whatever you need to do to see their bank transactions.’
    ‘So we look for a money trail,’ Alyssa said. ‘What do we do when we find it?’
    ‘Send it to me. I’ll get it to Carter in a way that doesn’t implicate either one of you.’ Clay tilted his hips, fishing deep in the pocket of his jeans and drawing out a handful of the AFID tags from the crime scene. ‘Also, I need to find out where these came from.’
    Alyssa glanced over with a frown. ‘What are they?’
    ‘AFID tags,’ Alec said, impressing Clay that he knew. ‘Came from a taser. Give them to me. I’ll trace them for you.’
    ‘Thanks, kid.’ Clay’s phone buzzed. It was Paige. ‘Hey.’
    ‘Hey yourself. How did you find those cinnamon rolls? Tasty?’
    ‘Yeah. Tell Daphne thank you.’
    ‘You bet. Not the reason I’m calling though. Grayson just let us know that Stevie’s out of surgery. They’ve got her in ICU until she’s stabilized, but the doctor told her folks that the surgery went well.’
    ‘Oh God,’ Clay breathed. ‘Thank you.’
    ‘The surgeon also told them that whoever administered first aid on the scene probably saved her life. Her parents want to meet you.’
    Clay’s head was still spinning from the relief. ‘Not sure Stevie would want that.’
    ‘I don’t think they were asking Stevie,’ Paige said softly. ‘I’ve met them, Clay. They’re really nice people. They want to thank the man who saved their daughter’s life.’
    ‘You’d go?’
    ‘Considering how long you’ve mooned over Stevie unrequitedly? Hell yes. You and Joseph, I swear to God. Peas in a damn pod. Now I gotta go. I’m conferencing with brother Joseph in . . . crap, two minutes ago. I’m late. Bye. And good luck.’
    She hung up, leaving Clay to stare at his phone. Until he was thrown into the door when Alyssa cut through three lanes of traffic to get to the exit. ‘What the hell?’
    ‘Hospital exit,’ Alyssa said. ‘I assumed that’s where you’d want to go first.’
    He frowned at her. ‘You could hear Paige’s end of the call?’
    ‘No. You said “Thank you” like a prayer and didn’t immediately tell us Ford was found. The mention of Stevie was also a clue. Plus you’re blushing. It’s cute.’
    ‘I’m not blushing,’ Clay growled. Except his face felt like it was on fire so he probably was.
    ‘You used to blush like that when I’d catch you kissing Lou,’ Alyssa said teasingly. ‘My sister,’ she added as an aside to Alec. ‘She and Clay were engaged for a while.’
    ‘Hey, wait,’ Alec said. ‘You mean Sheriff Lou Moore, out at Wight’s Landing?’
    ‘Yeah. You know my sister?’
    ‘I met her once,’ Alec said. ‘I haven’t seen her since . . . well, that summer.’
    The summer six years ago when Alec had been kidnapped. Shit . ‘I’d forgotten about that,’ Clay confessed. ‘Crazy, considering I’m the one who found you.’ Twelve years old, tied, gagged, drugged out of his mind, Alec had been shoved under a bed in a dirty hotel room by an evil, deranged woman. ‘I just don’t think of you as that little kidnapped kid anymore.’
    ‘That’s good to hear,’ Alec said. ‘I don’t think of myself that way either.’
    ‘Are you okay with all