Her Detective's Secret Intent

She’d needed to see Danny before she could write such a letter, and told Marie to head straight to the office, and either she or Dr. Bennet would see Danny as quickly as possible. When an hour passed and she hadn’t shown up, Max Bennet called the police, who’d already been contacted by Ruby, Marie’s sister.

Tad was pulled into the loop when Detective Chantel Fairbanks called to find out if he’d seen Danny that morning. He’d already been by the school twice, but hadn’t seen the boy—not all that unusual, since Danny would’ve been in class. He also hadn’t seen anyone lurking nearby, which was what he was there to watch for.

Miranda called him a few minutes later, while he was still driving around the area, filling him in on the situation as she currently knew it. Apparently a friend of Devon’s had seen Marie at a gas station where she’d been gassing up her car before taking Danny to school and then going on to work. The friend begged her to call to keep Danny out of school, so no red flags would be raised. And then to go home and call him. The friend just wanted to FaceTime with Danny, and would be at a restaurant, where Devon could look on from another booth and see his son.

Danny, overhearing the request, begged Marie to agree. She couldn’t tell whether that was because he loved his dad and missed him, in spite of his rages, or because he was afraid of what his father would do if his mother didn’t comply. Maybe they were both intimidated by Devon’s friend, which was Tad’s personal opinion, and he further suspected that Devon had intended them to be.

Regardless of the reason, Marie had agreed to wait half an hour and then do as the friend asked. She called her sister, who was already at work, to tell her she was taking Danny home to make the call. And then she’d called Miranda to get a doctor clearance to keep Danny out of school. Neither of them had been seen since, and Marie wasn’t answering her phone. They were running a location trace, but so far had nothing. She could have turned her cell off.

Ruby had gone home immediately, hoping to talk her sister out of going along with wishes that had clearly come from Devon, and found the house empty. She’d called the police immediately.

No one had been able to locate Devon, either, but he wasn’t due at work until later that afternoon, so it wasn’t as if they could be certain he was involved in foul play.

“I’m finished with my morning patients,” Miranda told Tad, “and I’m just sitting here, worried sick about her. I wish there was something I could do.” He could hear the fear in her voice.

“Have you tried calling her? Maybe if she saw your number, she’d take your call.”

“Twice,” Miranda said. “It went straight to voice mail.” She was sounding less and less like herself. Like the Miranda he knew.

And more like a woman who feared forces that were stronger than she was. Could be she was putting herself in Marie’s shoes. Could be she was firmly planted in her own and living with the demons her ex had left her with.

He had to help her.

And to pretend he didn’t know how much she’d suffered...and why.

“You want to go to lunch? We can wait together.”

Expecting a refusal, he was surprised when she agreed immediately, asking him if he’d like to meet someplace or pick her up at the office. She mentioned a diner not far from the clinic and he headed that way, telling her he’d pick her up.

The fact that she’d even asked was a “tell” to him.

She was waiting for him at the door of the clinic and came out when he pulled into the lot. “I’ve got an hour,” she told him, settling her purse on the floor. In her cartoon character scrubs, with tennis shoes and her hair tied back, she looked as she did every Tuesday when she came from work to attend meetings, but there was something different about her, too.

A tightness in her face, lines near her mouth. She was definitely tense. Her hand was shaking as she buckled her seat belt. Or was he looking too hard? He didn’t think so.

He wanted to reach over to take her hand in his, much as she’d done for him a few days before on the beach. She gave and gave and gave.

He wanted to give back.

Wanted her to know how great it felt to receive.

He asked her directions to the restaurant; she gave them and then said, “I just feel we should be doing something. At least be out there searching for her...”

As a detective, he’d been out searching more times than he could count. “Do you have any idea where she might go? Where Danny likes to go? Anyplace she might hide?”

He didn’t think Marie was hiding. She’d have ca

lled for help.

Unless she’d been prevented from doing so.

“Danny likes to climb that little mountain on the south side. Out by the new housing development. Seer’s Point? He told me that’s when he’d know his leg was better. When he could get to the top again. Apparently Devon had been taking him there before he was old enough to walk. It seemed like a good memory for him.”

And something for them to do that felt more useful than sitting in a booth at a diner. “How about we go to a drive-through for some take-out food and head over that way?”

Gratitude filled her eyes, and she nodded.

Tad put the car in gear.