The Devaney Brothers: Daniel

Daniel frowned, sensing the unspoken hesitation. “But you’re not going to do that, are you?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Gut instinct. Good kids—smart kids—don’t take off from perfect parents just for the thrill of it. I want to know what’s going on. It’s got to be about more than them not letting her wear lipstick or go out on a date with some boy they disapprove of.”

“The department could have your badge for not acting on this sooner.”

“It’s not my case. And I haven’t actually seen Kendra Morrow close enough to ID her beyond a reasonable doubt,” Joe said. “Have you?”

“No,” Daniel admitted. “But we both know it’s her.”

“Do we really?” Joe pressed.

“Come on, Joe, we’re breaking every rule in the book by not reuniting that kid with her family. You know that. Have you even spoken to the investigating officer and told him you think you’ve located her?”

“I’ve told him. He’s willing to let me do some more digging.” Joe leaned forward, his expression intense. “What’s the goal here? Yours and mine? It’s to keep the kid safe, right? She’s not on the streets. She’s with Molly. She’s safe. We don’t know that she would be if we sent her home. I want to know that, in my gut, before I shake things up over in Widow’s Cove. I’m going to see the parents, see what my gut tells me about them. You keep trying to get close to the kid. Go around or through Molly, if you have to. Just see her.”

Daniel chuckled. “You must not know Molly all that well if you think anybody goes ‘around’ or ‘through’ her. That doesn’t happen unless she wants it to.”

“Want to switch roles? You can go talk to the parents, and I’ll work on Molly.”

“No way,” Daniel said quickly. Too quickly.

Joe gave him a knowing grin. “Didn’t think so. Guess that history’s not so ancient, after all.”

“Go to hell.”

“If I’m wrong about this and everything’s peachy keen with the Morrows, I probably will,” Joe said. “But every time I think I might be wrong, I take another look at that picture. That is one unhappy kid. Could be nothing more than hormones and teen angst, but I won’t rest until I know for sure.”

Daniel trusted Joe’s instincts almost as much as he trusted his own. “Then let’s get to work,” he said, rising to his feet, his own half of the tuna sandwich still untouched. He could always eat at Jess’s.

Joe grabbed the sandwich as they headed for the door. “No need to let this go to waste,” he explained.

“You’re gonna owe me lunch when this case is over,” Daniel said.

“Chowder at Jess’s?” Joe suggested slyly.

Daniel shook his head. “I’m thinking a good steak at the fanciest restaurant here in town.”

“Boy, you do have it bad for Molly, don’t you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m never wrong about these things,” Joe insisted.

“You’re a forty-year-old bachelor, for heaven’s sake.”

Joe laughed. “How do you think I’ve stayed that way? Great instincts.”

“Well, you’re wrong about this,” Daniel said defensively. “There’s nothing between Molly and me. Not anymore.”

“Never said there was. I said you had it bad. I’d have to spend a little time around the two of you together to say how she feels.”

“Trust me, she’s not interested in rekindling an old flame.”

And much as he hated himself for giving a damn, the truth of that still stuck in Daniel’s craw.

* * *

Daniel was about to drive Molly right over the edge. He’d been appearing at the bar more regularly than customers who’d been coming in for years. Midmorning, lunchtime, dinnertime...she never knew when she was going to look up and see him sauntering through the door with that grim, determined expression on his handsome face.

He’d been at it for a solid week now, and she was about to scream from the effort of being polite when what she actually wanted to do was throw a mug of beer in his smug face. At this very moment, he was sitting at the bar toying with the same soda he’d been pretending to drink for the past hour. He wouldn’t even touch a real drink.

Molly braced herself and walked behind the bar. “Are you planning to move in? Given the amount of time you’re spending in here, I should charge you rent, since the cost of that soda hardly compensates for the space you’re occupying.”

He leveled a look straight into her eyes. “You could get rid of me easily enough.”

“Oh?”

“All you have to do is produce Kendra Morrow and let me talk to her.”

“Give it a rest, Daniel,” she said, grateful that she’d sent Kendra off for the day with Retta’s daughter. Leslie Sue had taken a liking to the girl, and Kendra enjoyed spending time helping her out baby-sitting several neighborhood children, especially since it meant avoiding Daniel’s impromptu visits to the bar.

“I can’t give it a rest,” he told her.

“Why not?” Molly asked plaintively. Lying to him was beginning to get to her. Honesty and trust were big issues to her, and Daniel knew it. She was violating her own sense of decency, and it didn’t matter that Daniel didn’t deserve any better from her.

“Because she’s thirteen years old, Molly. She has a family.”

“How much of a family could they be if she felt the need to run away from them?” She very nearly blurted what Kendra had told her, that her parents intended to send her away. Molly hadn’t been able to get the girl to say any more than that, but it was just the kind of thing that might make Daniel leap to Kendra’s defense. After all, who knew more about the anguish of kids being sent away by their parents?

He met her gaze evenly. “Kids make some stupid decisions in the heat of the moment. This one could wind up with her getting hurt.”

“That won’t happen,” Molly said, eyes blazing.

“Because she has you to protect her?” he asked quietly.

Too late, she saw the trap. So far she’d managed to avoid admitting that she’d ever seen Kendra, much less that she’d provided her with a safe haven. She’d kept their conversations about Kendra purely hypothetical, or at least she thought she had. All the lying was getting to be more and more complicated.

She tried to dance around any admission. “Because she’s obviously a smart kid.”

“How do you know that?” he pressed.

“She must be, if she’s eluded you and Joe Sutton for all this time.”

He gave her a wry look. “She’s had help doing that, though, hasn’t she?”