Trumped Up Charges

“I don’t see how you tell them apart.”

“Some people can’t, but it’s easy for me. There are lots of subtle differences. Lila’s hair is curlier and her cheeks are fuller. And she carries that wiry-headed doll everywhere she goes. Lacy has a scar just below her right ear where she fell on a rock while chasing a squirrel when she was first learning to walk. She’s the daring one. And her eyes are the most remarkable shade of blue-green I’ve ever seen.”

“Like yours. Both girls definitely take after you.”

“That’s what everyone says.”

And yet she saw their father whenever she looked at them. In any other situation she would have never let Adam back into her life. But the thought of being in this house alone when the detective left was unbearable.

Even with Adam beside her, just being in this room was difficult. Her insides were in such upheaval, she could barely function. Adam, on the other hand, seemed totally focused. As soon as she’d started the coffee, he’d asked to see this room.

He’d examined the window from top to bottom first and then stared at each bed as if he thought it would cough up images of what had occurred here last night.

He returned the picture to the shelf and stooped to get a closer look at a stain on the carpet.

“Was this here before?”

“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “Why?”

“I noticed a similar one on the hall carpet. Seems kind of odd since the rest of the carpet is spotless.”

“Mother is fastidious. She usually has the carpet cleaned professionally as soon as we leave. Not that she doesn’t love having us here, dirt and all.”

Adam continued to study the stain. “This doesn’t look like dirt.”

“What do you think it is?”

“Could be oil that someone smeared in an attempt for a fast cleanup.”

“That looks too dark to be oil and I know no one’s been cooking in here.”

“Haven’t been working on cars, either, I’d guess, though this looks like the kind of stain you’d find on a garage floor.”

“Do you think the stain was left by the abductor?”

“Could be.”

“Hard to believe he was brazen enough to stick around long enough to clean up a stain from his shoes.”

“Only if he thought it would incriminate him,” Adam agreed.

“More likely the cops or CSI guys checking for fingerprints tracked it in,” Hadley said.

“Hopefully they found lots of usable prints,” Adam said, changing the subject. “If they did, they could have the kidnapper in custody and the girls safely in hand before the sun goes down.”

Hadley didn’t know if Adam actually believed that or was only trying to calm her. She believed it. She had to. It was all she had to hold on to.

“I’m sure the coffee is ready,” she said.

“Go ahead and get yours. I’ll join you in a few minutes. I’d like to look around outside first.”

Hadley led the way. As it turned out there was not one, but two more stains similar to the one in the bedroom. They didn’t look like fresh stains to Hadley, but as Adam pointed out, that could be the result of someone trying to hastily remove them and failing at the task. She’d talk to Detective Lane and ask if he’d tested the stains.

The kitchen door opened onto a covered deck. When they reached it, Hadley turned the dead bolt and then the key.

Adam took a second look at the dead bolt. “Is there any way the girls could have unlocked the door themselves and wandered outside?”

“No, though they’re smart and adventurous enough to try it, especially Lacy. When they’re here we keep the doors locked and the keys out of reach. We keep this key in the salt keeper.” Hadley pointed to the antique container resting on an open display shelf near the door.

“Good plan. And the key was still there this morning when the girls went missing?”

“All the keys were out of reach and all the doors were still locked, as were all the windows. That’s why I was so certain they must be hiding in the house.”

“How many doors are there?”

“Three. One opens to the garage through the laundry room. The abductor definitely didn’t come in that way. I know I would have woken had the garage door opened.”

“Did the house show signs of being burglarized?”

“No. Nothing was out of place, not even in the room where the Lacy and Lila were sleeping. But I should have heard something.”

“Unless he drugged them while they were sleeping so that they wouldn’t wake up?” Adam said.

Her precious daughters drugged and stolen away from her. She shuddered as icy fingers tightened around her heart.

Adam put a hand on her shoulder.

His touch was no doubt meant to calm her, but it had the opposite effect. She blinked hard, trying to stop the tears that burned in the corners of her eyes from escaping and starting an avalanche she wouldn’t be able to stop.

She lingered near the back door as Adam stepped onto the spacious, covered deck. For the first time since he’d arrived, she took a good look at him.

He’d changed in three years. He was leaner than before with an edge of hardness to the angles and planes of his face that made him look every one of his thirty-one years. That took nothing away from his rugged good looks.

But he was far more than outward appearance. He was his own man, a hero who’d won medals for his courage under fire. He never walked away from danger or risk.

But he was only a man. She turned and walked away, before she started expecting too much.

She filled a mug with strong, black coffee and rummaged the drawer next to the sink for a pad and pencil. Dropping them onto the island, she slid onto a kitchen barstool.

After a few sips of coffee, she jotted down a title for her list.

People Who Had Keys to the House.

Hadley couldn’t make a definitive list before her mother recovered from the anesthetics and could think clearly, but she could have some prospects ready that might jar her mother’s memory.

The first name she wrote was Matilda Bastion. She had a key, but she would never do anything to hurt Lila or Lacy.

Neighbors made the number-two spot. Hadley couldn’t possibly list all of them by name, but her very social mother knew everyone on the block and might have given any one of them a key to check on the house when she was away.