Hidden in the Everglades

“Fine, I understand.” Kyra slipped into his car as he did. “Is it just Laurie and her mother?”

“Yes, Laurie lives with only her mother. If Laurie is anything like Amy in the summer, she’s sleeping in. Usually Amy isn’t up until ten or eleven.” He started the Saturn’s engine. Before backing out, he twisted toward Kyra. “Should I call Laurie first? See if she’s there. It could be a wasted trip, like Officer Connors’s.”

“No. If she’s home, I’d like to see her reaction when she finds out about Amy going missing. I might be able to tell if she knows anything and isn’t saying.”

FOUR

“Let’s just hope we find Laurie at home and she can lead us to Amy.” Slowly over the course of the past few hours, the muscles in Kyra’s shoulders and neck had knotted until now pain streaked down her back. She didn’t have a good feeling about this but didn’t want to worry Michael any more than he already was. “Tell me about Amy. The last time I saw her she was a little girl. When my dad died and I came home for the funeral, she’d been at church camp.”

“I don’t think she has stepped foot in a church in the past year, which distressed Ginny to no end.”

“But not you?”

His hands about the steering wheel tightened, his knuckles white. “Let’s just say I have my own issues with the Lord.” He inhaled a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “In a few weeks she’ll start her senior year at Flamingo High School.”

“How are her grades this past year?”

“Good. Mostly Bs with a few As.”

“So, no problems at school?”

“Ginny told me there were a couple of girls harassing her at the beginning of her junior year, but by the time I’d arrived here in April, everything seemed to be taken care of.”

“How about her friends? Do you approve of them?”

“That’s been the main problem. Preston’s reputation isn’t—wasn’t good. He was wild, always partying. He graduated this year and has been picking up odds jobs this summer. He lived with his older brother—actually not far from where Laurie’s house is.”

“Has Preston lived here all his life?”

“No, he moved here from Miami at the beginning of the school year. I was trying to give Amy room to see what kind of person he was. I remember when Mom told Ginny she couldn’t date that guy in high school.”

So did Kyra. She’d helped Ginny sneak out of the house to go out with Danny. Ginny had been determined to date him in spite of what her mother had said. She was seventeen and should be able to pick her own boyfriends. “You knew about her seeing Danny?”

“Yeah. I saw her one night climbing back into the house.”

“And you didn’t say anything to your parents?”

“I’d grown out of my tattle-telling stage. I didn’t want Amy to sneak out against my wishes and look what has happened.” He turned onto Sunshine Avenue. “Preston’s is the third house on the left. Laurie lives several down from there.”

As they passed Preston’s home and the police cruiser parked out front, Kyra studied the plain, white place with a yard that was mostly dirt and dead plants. One eight-foot crepe myrtle with dark pink blooms draped all over it stood sentinel at the side by the driveway, the only color in an otherwise drab setting. A Harley Davidson motorcycle sat close to the sidewalk near the porch.

As Michael came to a stop at the end of the block, he closed his eyes for a few seconds, his hands opening and closing around the steering wheel. “The past few months haven’t been easy for me or Amy. Getting to know each other. Learning to live together. She hasn’t wanted to accept my authority as her guardian. I had no experience at parenting when I arrived. I feel I have even less now. Amy has blocked my attempts every step of the way.”

“That can be typical. Challenging authority isn’t uncommon. According to Ginny, you did your fair share as a teenager. I seem to remember you going with some friends to Tampa against your mother’s wishes.”

“Yeah, I was grounded for a month when she found out.” Climbing from his car, he peered at her over the top of the gray Saturn. “It’s disconcerting to have someone know all about my childhood pranks.”

“Just wanting to get you to remember how it was.” Although Michael had his share of childhood antics, he’d become a doctor who’d changed his plans to help Ginny when she was given an opportunity to fulfill a lifetime dream of serving as a missionary overseas for two years. So far she liked what she’d seen of Ginny’s kid brother.

“So when I find Amy, I won’t ground her for the rest of her life?”

Kyra laughed. “Something like that.”

When Michael reached the porch, he rang the doorbell while Kyra assessed the surroundings. Laurie’s house needed a coat of blue paint, but otherwise the place was kept up, the lawn mowed and the weeds pulled. Several minutes passed, and Michael pressed the bell again.

A white Chevy parked in the driveway made Kyra suspicious. The hairs on her nape prickled. She swiveled her attention toward the front picture window and glimpsed a curtain fall back into place.

“I guess no one’s home.” Michael swung around and frowned at the white car. “That’s Cherie Carson’s car,” he said in a low voice. “So where is she? At a neighbor’s?”

Kyra opened the screen and banged on the door. “Someone is home.”

Thirty seconds later, a petite woman with medium-length brown hair peeked out from a crack of no more than a couple of inches and said, “Yes?”

“Mrs. Carson, we’re here to talk to your daughter. Is she home?” The overpowering scent of roses assailed Kyra’s nostrils.

The lady’s mouth pinched together, her eyebrows slashing downward. “Who are you?”

Before Kyra could show the woman her identification, Michael stepped forward, his shoulder brushing up against Kyra’s. “Hi, Cherie. It’s important that we have a word with Laurie. Amy is missing.”

Cherie Carson’s eyes grew round. “Laurie isn’t here.”

“Where is she?” Kyra asked after a few seconds’ silence.

The woman clutched the edge of the door, still only open a few inches. “She’s at her aunt’s in Tampa and won’t be back until the weekend.”

“We need to talk to her.” Michael grasped Kyra’s hand and held it. His tension conveyed his tone.

“I can call Laurie later and let her know. But I don’t know when I’ll be able to get hold of her. My sister and her were going to do some shopping today. I’ll have her call you, Michael.” Cherie started to close the door.

He reached out to stop her from doing it. “Please. This is important. I think Amy is in trouble, and if Laurie knows anything—”

“I’m so sorry to hear about Amy, but Laurie has been gone. Knowing your sister, she’ll show up soon with some wild story. Goodness me, she certainly has dragged Laurie into enough escapades. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a splitting headache and was lying down.” The woman’s grip on the door tightened so much her fingertips reddened.

Michael took a half step forward. “Laurie may know where she would have gone.”

Pain blinked in and out of the woman’s expression. “Check with her other friends. Laurie doesn’t know.” She moved back quickly and slammed the door shut, the lock clicking into place.

Michael squeezed Kyra’s hand, transmitting his tension, before releasing his hold. “She’s never been very friendly but this is …” His words grounded to a halt.

“It doesn’t look like we’ll get anywhere. Maybe Gabe can.”

He let the screen bang closed. His glare drilled into the wire mesh.

Kyra descended the porch stairs. “Is she that way with everyone?”

Michael pivoted and accompanied her toward the car. “Amy assured me after my first run-in with the woman she was that way with all men and not to take it personally. It seems her husband left her a few years back. Didn’t come home from work but called her the next day to tell her it was over.”

What was it with married couples? First her mother walked out on her dad when she was ten. Her father had been devastated. She had been too, but she’d spent the next year consoling her dad. He was never the same after her mother left. “Something like that happened to my older sister who lives in Boston now. Except thankfully she didn’t have any children to worry about.” And that was why she wouldn’t marry. She had seen too many broken marriages to want one for herself. Her job was her life and that was the way she wanted it.