“She’s with her mother.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
MARK’S KNEES WEAKENED and it took everything he had to remain standing.
“What did she say?” he asked Evelyn.
“She’s with her mother. Your wife?”
“Ex-wife.”
“Where does your wife live, sir?” one of the two police officers asked.
“I have no idea. I haven’t seen or heard from her since the divorce was final three years ago. I thought she’d left town long ago.”
“She came to school right after Christmas,” Josie said with a sniffle. “Me and Kelse were walking home from school and this woman hissed at us from the bushes. I wanted to run and so did Kelsey, but then she stopped and got all funny and started to cry. Her mom had come to find her.”
“Since January?” Mark yelped. He was waiting to wake up from this nightmare, already vowing never to sleep again.
Josie nodded, looking only at Meredith as she spoke. “She said she’s been trying to get back to Kelsey ever since she left. That she’s missed her as much as Kelsey missed her mom. She’s got a lawyer and everything and told Kelsey that she’s going to have joint custody soon.”
Mark absolutely could not believe anything he was hearing.
“So you think her mother kidnapped her?” the second police officer asked.
“No,” Josie said, her gaze locked on Meredith. “Her mom came to school today and told
Kelsey she had to come over tonight so she could take something special to Kenny. There’s drugs,” she whispered.
Mark couldn’t just stand there anymore. Kneeling down next to Meredith, he touched his shoulder to hers, looking for strength. Joining with her.
“What kind of drugs?” he asked, working with the child, something he did instinctively. This wasn’t about him. It was about the children. He wasn’t going to let Kelsey down.
“I dunno,” Josie said. “But they made it there in the garage and Kelsey had to take it to a boy at the junior high. His name’s Kenny.”
Mark almost vomited on the spot. His sweet baby girl delivering drugs? If he ever found Barbie he was going to kill her with his bare hands.
“My ex-wife had a drug problem,” he said to the cops behind him. “She was addicted to methamphetamine.”
“Do you know where Kelsey’s mother lives?” Cop number one asked.
Josie looked at Mark. “I don’t know the exact house, Mr. Shepherd, but it’s on that street out by the old milk farm, you know with the gas station on the corner that has all the green lights in the window? Kelsey went to the bathroom there once when she had to go really bad. She wouldn’t ever go at that house. She doesn’t like Don, the guy who lives there with her mother.”
Mark’s head swam. He was seeing stars. And Meredith’s hand as she touched his face.
“Let’s go,” she said.
“I know the neighborhood,” he heard cop number two say. “There are only eight houses on the block.” And then to Evelyn, “Follow us, ma’am, we’ll lead you in. But once we get there—” he turned to Mark and Meredith “—you’ll need to wait outside in the car. We have no idea what we’re in for.”
“Kelsey will want her father,” Meredith said.
“It’s okay.” Mark put an arm around her, leaning on her as much as guiding her. “I’m not leaving my daughter’s life to amateurs. There’s no telling what Barbie would do if she saw me. Or Kelsey, either for that matter.”
He’d wait in the car. But it would be the hardest thing he’d ever done.
MEREDITH CRIED most of the way across town, and then had to fight unconsciousness. “She’s getting worse,” she moaned, putting her head on Mark’s shoulder. “She needs to lie down.”
“Goddammit, hurry,” Mark bit out beneath his breath.