Cry in the Night (17 page)

Olivia was asleep in the bassinet, and Bree hated to awaken her, but she couldn’t sit here and expect the answers to drop into her lap. The baby’s head lolled as Bree lifted her and slipped her into the carrier.

“Are you going somewhere?” Jenna stood in the doorway.

Bree was so ready to get the woman out of her house. It was clear Jenna found Kade attractive. Normally Bree would have found it comical, but her emotional state was too fragile right now.

She zipped up the carrier cover around the infant. “I’m going out to check on what Victor’s puzzles might mean.”

“I’ve wracked my brain and I can’t imagine what that number is,” Jenna said. “A Social Security number?”

“Mason ran it through the system,” Bree said. “A dead woman came up. She’s been deceased for ten years.”

“Any connection to Florence at all?” Jenna asked.

“Not that Mason could tell. She had spina bifida and lived her entire life in a nursing home. She wasn’t related to Florence.”

Jenna watched her bundle the baby. “You can leave Olivia here. I’ll watch her.”

Nice of her to offer. Bree hesitated. It would be much easier if she could just scoot in and out of the places she needed to stop. She should be ashamed of her antipathy to Jenna too. Pure jealousy, that’s all it was. But no matter how she tried to talk herself into it, she couldn’t bring herself to leave the baby.

“I’ll just take her, but thanks for asking.”
Invite her to come.
Bree wanted to ignore the inner prompting but she forced herself to smile. “You want to come with us?”

“It’s so cold.” Jenna shuddered, an exaggerated movement. “My new boots are already ruined from all the snow.”

Didn’t she care about clearing her brother? Bree tried not to judge her, but the woman made it hard. She was such a city girl, and Bree had nothing in common with her. “Suit yourself.”

“Want me to get Davy from school for you?” Jenna asked.

Bree barely kept the frown from her face. If the woman didn’t want to go out, why would she offer to get Davy? Did she hope to run into Kade? “Kade is picking him up.”

“Oh. Well, maybe I’ll come with you after all. There’s nothing to do here.”

Bree nearly rolled her eyes at Jenna’s petulant tone. She wanted to tell her to get a life and not be so self-centered. “Fine. I’m leaving now so grab your coat and boots.”

Samson rose and stretched, then padded after her when she snapped her fingers. Bree clicked her Jeep’s automatic starter, which Kade had bought her, and waited. She didn’t want to subject the baby to the brutal cold. Ten minutes later they were on the road.

“Where to first?” Jenna asked.

“The courthouse,” Bree said. “One possible nine-digit number is a juror number. Also a license number, though Mason has already run it for that and found nothing. It could be a prisoner number too though.”

She drove downtown and parked in front of the courthouse. When she turned the Jeep off, Jenna reached over and tried to grab the keys from her hand. Bree reacted by jerking her hand away. “What are you doing?”

“I’ll wait here with the Jeep running. It’s better than taking Olivia out in the cold.”

Though the young woman had a point, Bree disliked the highhanded behavior. “I’m going to check in with CPS while I’m here. They’ll want to see her.” Tucking the keys into her pocket, she slid out and retrieved the baby and Samson. “But you’re welcome to wait.”

Jenna sighed and got out. What were they—two children having a spat? Bree hurried inside as fast as she dared on the icy sidewalk. Ten minutes later she was able to rule out the possibilities she’d hoped to find there. After stopping at the CPS office and letting them ooh and ah over Olivia and Samson, she headed toward the exit.

“Oh Bree, what is that little bundle you’ve got?” Tina Watson’s rotund figure blocked her path. She had a silk rose tucked into the hat that covered her gray curls, a sign of her passion for roses. The color in her cheeks matched the pink in the flower.

Bree pulled back the cover. “I’m calling her Olivia.” She told the older woman about finding the baby in the woods. “You haven’t heard about any missing babies, have you?”

Tina’s smile vanished, and she glanced from Jenna to Bree. “This has to be tied to Florence’s death.”

Bree’s pulse rocketed. “Did Florence tell you something about Olivia?”

Tina pressed her lips together. “Florence and I were hardly friends, God rest her soul. We had an argument at the fair this past summer over the prize for Best Rose. I normally wouldn’t mention it, but we, ah, raised our voices, and the deputies came. Mason could tell you. I was sure the committee that looked into it would realize she’d stolen a cutting of my rose.” Tears flooded her faded blue eyes. “They found in her favor. I went to her house to reason with her, to ask her to withdraw her entry. I saw that young man Victor walking toward her car with a baby carrier.”

Bree frowned. “That would have been late last summer. We just found Olivia.”

“I know. But there was something fishy going on. When I asked Florence about it, she told me to mind my own business.” Tina’s voice rose with indignation.

Tina’s reputation as a busybody was known all over town. Bree couldn’t decide whether to believe her or not. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to tell Mason, so she hurried across the street to the jail.

The sun shone from a pale blue sky. The bitter wind swept through Bree’s jeans. She hurried to get the baby out of the gale.

Jenna barely kept up.

The deputy at the desk smiled and buzzed them back to Mason’s office. Mason still wore his coat but shucked it and tossed it over the back of his chair as they entered his office.

“Sorry to bother you,” Bree said. She set the carrier down and unsnapped the cover so the warm air could get to Olivia. The baby still slept.

“You’re never a bother,” Mason said, dropping into his chair. He pointed to the seats on the other side of the desk. “Sit.” Samson went around to Mason, and the sheriff rubbed the dog’s head.

Bree and Jenna sat down and Bree took off her gloves. “I heard a rumor about Florence and an argument she had with Tina Watson. I guess it’s more than a rumor since Tina told me herself. Have you heard about it?” The more she thought about what Tina said, the more skeptical she became.

“The roses caper?” Mason grinned and leaned back in his chair. “Come on, Bree, you have to admit it would take a crazy person to murder over roses.”

“Stranger things have happened.” Bree leaned forward. “Did you talk to Tina?”

“Sure. She claims she and Florence made up two weeks before the death.”

“Any evidence that it’s true?” Bree asked. She glanced over to see Jenna examining her nails.

“I need a manicure,” Jenna muttered.

Mason leaned forward, ignoring Jenna’s self-absorption. “No one overheard them talking, if that’s what you mean. Watson claims Florence called her up and apologized for stealing a rose clipping. Said she was going to give an interview to the paper and confess.” His voice held amusement.

“Did she? Call the paper, I mean?”

“I talked to the editor and he said he had no story like that in the pipeline. But maybe Florence hadn’t gotten around to it yet.”

It sounded fishy to Bree. She told Mason what Tina said about seeing Victor with a baby. “I wondered if she was trying to smear Florence’s name.”

Mason’s mouth went tight. “There’s more to it than you know, Bree. I checked some local and out-of-town stores. Victor had been buying bottles and diapers. For at least a year.”

Jenna gasped. “What are you accusing him of?”

“We don’t know yet.”

Aware her mouth dangled open, Bree gulped and closed it. “The description Ellie’s mother gave us sounded like Victor. You think he’s been involved all along in the adoption thing?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

Olivia began to fuss. Bree lifted her from the carrier and jostled the baby on her knee.

Bree leaned forward. “Could I see Victor?”

“Not with the baby. It’s not safe.”

“I’ll keep her,” Jenna said. “I just saw him yesterday. You go on back and I’ll wait here with Olivia and Samson.”

Bree raised a questioning gaze to Mason, and he nodded. “I’ll take you to an examination room and go get him,” he said, rising from his chair.

Mason led her to a room at the end of the hall. Bree dug out the sudokus Victor had done and spread them out on the table. They didn’t tell her anything, but she hoped when he saw them, he might react. She didn’t have to wait long before she heard steps and the key at the door of the room.

Victor shuffled in. There was a stubby pencil behind his ear. Mason glanced at his watch. “Ten minutes?”

“That should be fine,” Bree said. “Hey, Vic, sit down a minute. I thought maybe we could do some puzzles together, just like old times. You game?” She watched for a reaction, but he simply shuffled to the other chair and sat in it with his head down.

Bree studied him: lank blondish hair that needed a trim, a spotty complexion that the garish color of the jumpsuit only emphasized, and downcast blue eyes. In the past she’d seen him animated and talkative, waving his hands as he spoke. This young man seemed to have had the life drained out of him. It hurt her to see him this way.

She slid a puzzle across the table to him. “Buddy, did you create this?”

He didn’t nod or shake his head. His hands clasped in his lap, he stared at the sudoku.

“Do you have any new ones?”

Slowly his hand went to his chest, and he reached into his jumpsuit and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it and smoothed in down on the table.

Bree leaned forward. The page was blank, but Victor took out a pencil and began to draw lines that soon became boxes. His long fingers moved quickly and the grids appeared. He began filling in some of the boxes but left most of them empty, so Bree knew he was creating a puzzle for her to do. He put the pencil behind his ear again, then slid the paper across the table to her.

She studied it and realized the top row would form that same number again. “What do the top numbers mean, Vic? I don’t understand.”

He stood and shuffled to the door, where he laid his head against the door. Bree went to join him. She touched his arm. “Vic? Please explain. Jenna and I want to get you out of here.”

He began to bang his head against the wall. “Don’t do that!” she said. She tried to pull him from the door, but he thumped his head even harder. “Mason,” she called.

The key scraped in the lock, and the sheriff peered inside. “Ready to go back to your cell, Victor?” he asked.

Victor hung his head, and she knew this puzzle was the only clue she was going to get.

Lights shone in a welcoming halo from the windows of the lighthouse. The day had seemed unending to Bree. She hurried with Olivia up the path to the house. Samson followed. It was like walking through a snow tunnel with the high piles of shoveled snow on either side. If they had another storm, Kade wouldn’t be able to heft the snow high enough. Her gaze swept the yard. No new footprints.

Since she’d found the pipe, she’d watched for another sign.

The baby was wailing when she reached the living room where Kade sat on the floor playing Uno with Davy. “There, there,” Bree crooned, smoothing the fuzz on the infant’s head. “Don’t cry, Olivia.”

Davy jumped up and ran to the baby. “Hey, Olivia,” he crooned. “You just missed me, didn’t you?”

Surprisingly, the baby quieted at Davy’s voice. Bree smiled. “I think she did miss you.”

Kade glanced up. “She probably has another name. You have to be careful not to get too attached, Bree.” His voice was stern.

She pressed her lips together, unsure how to convince him the baby needed them. The tension in the room escalated. Bree didn’t want to admit, even to herself, that she would have to give up this tiny girl. She snuggled the infant and inhaled the sweet aroma of baby powder. She’d been quick to buy her favorite— Baby Magic. The scent brought back many happy memories of when Davy was born.

Samson shook the snow from his fur and came to lie down at Bree’s feet.

Davy took the baby’s hand, and her fingers curled around his thumb. “Hi, Olivia,” he crooned. He looked up at his mother. “Did you find her mom and dad today?”

Bree shook her head. “I’m still working on it.” She watched her son turn back to make faces at the baby. Was Olivia’s mother somewhere mourning her loss the way Bree had mourned that year for Davy?

Davy tickled the baby under the chin. “Do you like living here, Olivia?” He glanced up at his mother. “We’ll try to make it nice until we find your mom.”

Her urgency to find Olivia’s parents flared again. Though she’d investigated today, she secretly hoped to find nothing. Davy’s reminder that someone might be searching for the baby kicked up her anxiety.

Kade went down on one knee by Davy. The seven-year-old looped his arm around his father’s neck and leaned against him. One day soon the adoption would be final.

The doorbell rang, and Kade sprang up. “I’ll get it.”

Moments later, she recognized Mason’s deep tones. He had said nothing about stopping by. He must have news.