LITMIR.BIZ

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truth of the statement. “Better let her get to the hospital first. Get checked out. I want to see if I can find a purse, something that can identity the dead woman. If that fails, I will check the scanner to see if we can find out who she is.”

      The marvels of technology. The LaMar Pond Police Department had also been equipped recently with automatic license plate–recognition scanners. The system alerted them if they passed a car with a flag on it. But they could also scan a car in emergency situations like this to get the information they needed on the registered owner. While it was handy, Ryan hated knowing he and Jackson would soon be notifying someone that their loved one had been murdered. That was one part of his job that he despised. His father would say it was one more reason to quit and do what he was meant to do. He and his dad didn’t see eye to eye on many issues. His chosen career was one of them. But he had his reasons for why he had walked away from his family’s ambitions for him. Reasons that would eat at him forever if betrayed his calling to make peace with his dad.

      “Where’s that breeze coming from?” Ryan pivoted on his heel and followed the cool draft that had teased the back of his neck. The room at the end of the hall was dim, but he could make out the sheer curtains blowing inward. Cautiously, weapon drawn, he edged the door open and turned on the light. The room was empty.

      “Looks like someone climbed out the window.”

      Ryan nodded. “That’s my take on it, too.”

      Stepping up to the window, he peered out. Someone had clearly jumped out the first-story window. He could see the boot prints in the mud along the side of the house. Small feet. Smaller than he’d expect from a man. Certainly not a man big enough to take Elise down so easily. She had to be five foot nine, if he had to guess, and while she was slender, she looked far from fragile. No, he was confident that those footprints had been made by someone other than their perp.

      Jackson whistled.

      Ryan jerked his head in his friend’s direction. “What?”

      He followed Jackson’s finger as it pointed. A piece of gray cloth was hanging on a nail just outside the window. It was wet from the rain, but other than that it was clean and didn’t look weathered, so it couldn’t have been there long.

      “Okay. Someone obviously went out this window.” Urgency trickled through him. Decision time. “The kid’s not here. Worst-case scenario, whoever attacked Elise and killed the other woman had an accomplice who got the child and fled out this window.” He recalled Elise’s words. “But Elise said she had Mikey and that he won’t stop looking. That makes it sound like the woman and man weren’t working together. So maybe it was someone else in the house who took the kid and ran with him? Let’s give Seth the go-ahead to transfer Elise to the hospital. Then we’ll finish here. We have to notify the chief, too. Let him know we have a possible abduction.”

      “Sounds like a plan. How about I continue here, and you go release the ambulance?”

      Ryan gave him a thumbs-up, then strode out to where Seth and his partner were waiting. The rain had stopped while they were inside. As soon as he gave them the all clear, Seth swung up into the cab.

      “I’ll come to check up on her later,” Ryan said. “Hopefully she’ll be conscious and able to answer some questions for me.”

      The ambulance started back down the long driveway, swaying as it moved along the uneven surface. Ryan watched it turn onto the road and disappear, then he went out to the cruiser and pulled up the information on the car sitting next to the garage. When the driver’s license of Diana Mosher, age forty-two, popped up, he knew he’d found the identity of the babysitter. With a sigh, he snatched up his cell phone and put a call into Chief Kennedy. It was picked up on the second ring.

      “Chief Kennedy here,” said the voice on the other end, a hint of a drawl present.

      “Parker, sir.” Ryan watched as Jackson moved outside to check the perimeter. “Jackson and I are at the house of Elise St. Clair, the dispatcher. We got a call a little before four this afternoon that there had been a possible break-in here. A Ms. Diana Mosher, her babysitter, was found dead at the scene. Elise herself was unconscious. She’s been roughed up and just left in the ambulance. She has a child, age approximately two or three—we still don’t have specifics. He’s missing, and there’s evidence that someone escaped out a first-floor window. Possibly an accomplice, although I suspect from Elise’s remarks before she passed out that there might have been someone here when the house was broken into who ran with the child to hide him. If that’s the case, then that woman would be in danger, as well.”

      A soft sigh of regret came through the phone. “A shame about Diana. She was an art teacher at the elementary school last year. I’ll go talk to the medical examiner and notify her next of kin. What’s Elise St. Clair’s condition?”

      “Unsure, sir. She was out when the ambulance left. Jackson and I are finishing here at the scene. We have to finish checking the rest of the house and the garage. Then we’ll proceed to the hospital. We need to talk to her as soon as she wakes up.”

      “Understood.”

      Ryan hung up the phone and replaced it in his pocket. He couldn’t quite stem the feeling that Elise was not out of danger. He let his eyes follow the trail of destruction in the room where they’d found her. Not a thing had been touched except for the dozens of pictures that had lined the mantel and hung on the walls. Even the couple of pictures sitting on top of the bookcase in the corner had been shattered. No, this was not some random attack by a stranger. This was personal. A deliberate attack against the pretty young woman that no one seemed to know much about.

      That needed to change. He needed to get to her and find out everything he could about the elusive dispatcher. Her life—and possibly the lives of two others, including a small child—depended on it.

       TWO

      Twenty minutes later, a second cruiser arrived. Two officers emerged from it.

      “Hey, Parker,” the young officer said, toting a large camera. “We’re here to assist.”

      When the officers had everything under control, he grabbed Jackson. He needed to talk with Elise and get whatever information she could provide.

      Ryan dropped Jackson off at the police station to get a head start on the paperwork before continuing to the hospital. He parked his cruiser in the visitor lot, leaving the spaces nearest the building free for those who were patients or family members. It was still light out, but just barely. A few fat droplets hit his windshield, signaling the start of a new rain shower. Light and wet. He grimaced. He left his vehicle and ducked his head to keep the water out of his face as he strode to the awning-covered entrance. The sliding-glass doors hissed as they opened.

      The nurse at the ER desk directed him to the room where Elise had been moved to for observation. Relief flooded him. Her injuries had not been severe enough to require surgery. After thanking the woman politely, he headed down the hall to the room she’d indicated.

      The door opened as he approached. A nurse walked out. He flashed his badge, even though his uniform clearly identified him as a police officer. She pursed her lips.

      “I know you have to question her, but please remember she’s been injured and traumatized. She needs rest.”

      “Yes, ma’am.”

      He stood in the doorway for a moment, watching Elise as she lay there, her eyes closed. He was reluctant to disturb her even while knowing that he would. Her golden-brown hair flowed back from a small widow’s peak, moving into a rambling mass of corkscrew curls. Hair that would have been the envy of his sisters, who had used any number of curlers and curling irons through the years to style their naturally stick-straight hair. Her skin was bruised and cut in various places. The rest of her skin had a faint golden tan. The freckles he’d noticed earlier stood out against the bridge of her nose.

      She stirred.

      Ryan

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