Kitabı oku: «Familiar Escape»
“The person who killed my sister is still out there and my niece is still missing. If we find the real killer, he’ll be able to tell us where her baby is.”
Thomas put his hand on Molly’s arm. Molly felt a warm flush move through her body as she stared into his hazel eyes. How long had it been since she’d been moved by a touch? She didn’t even want to think about it.
“I’m going to make you a promise, Molly Harper,” Thomas said, his voice warm but steely. “We’re going to find Kate and bring her home to you. No matter what we have to do to find her.”
“Meow!” Familiar jumped on Molly’s lap and put his paw on top of Thomas’s hand.
Familiar Escape
Caroline Burnes
MILLS & BOON
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Fifteen years ago a young black kitten was left
in a carrier at my door. I named him E. A. Poe,
and his intelligence and personality figured
prominently in the creation of Familiar,
the black cat detective. Poe died this year,
leaving a huge hole in my life. This book is
for him. E. A. Poe, 1990-2005. To steal a line
from Owen Meany, “Into paradise
may the angels lead you.”
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter One
This is one sad-looking group of felons. Since I’m being paid for my assessment of Thomas Lakeman, I need to use all my powers of observation. Is Thomas a murderer and a kidnapper? That’s what I shall try to ascertain.
Though I prefer to focus my attention on the fairer sex, especially the babes with long legs and curves in all the right places like my current employer, I’m going to check out Thomas and see what my sixth feline sense tells me about him.
Thomas is charged with murdering his friend and neighbor, Anna Harper Goodman, and then abducting a nine-month-old baby girl, Kate. Anna’s body was found in Thomas’s home, but there was no sign of the baby girl.
That was five days ago, and no one had found even a good clue to the whereabouts of the baby until yesterday. That’s when I got the call that put me on a flight out to Jefferson, Texas, to help Molly Harper hunt for her missing niece.
Molly opened her mail to find a typewritten note claiming that baby Kate is alive. After four days of believing that both Anna and Kate were dead, Molly suddenly has hope that her infant niece can be found.
My professional opinion of the note is that it’s real, but there’s also the possibility that it’s some kind of cruel hoax. If Thomas Lakeman, the quiet man sitting on the end of the bench there is the killer, Molly and I hope to be able to convince him to tell us what he did with the baby.
Ah, Thomas sees me. His pale hazel eyes hold curiosity and intelligence, and a hint of…kindness? Not exactly the qualities I’d ascribe to a killer. At any rate, he’s very aware that I’m interested in him, and I have to hand it to him, he’s not stupid enough to call to me. Anyone with two brain cells knows cats never come when called. Thomas must be experienced with the superior species of felines, or he could simply be intellectually superior to most humanoids. Whichever it is, he’s a cool customer. He’s merely staring at me and waiting for me to make the first move.
From my vantage point inside the jail, I can see Thomas and Molly. Even worried and frustrated, Molly is a beautiful woman. She has the look of an artist with her straight, dark hair and serious gray eyes. From what I heard, Anna looked a lot like her, just a few years older. A few years older and light-years different, from what Molly has told me about her sister.
I believe exploring those differences will help us find the baby, if little Kate is still alive.
I’m walking over to Thomas. It’s a test. The other men sitting on the bench waiting to be returned to their cells either ignore me or leer at me in a way that says they want to hurt me. For some reason, cats excite the blood lust of lower animal forms like them. I’m careful to stay out of their reach. I also have to keep an eye out for the jailers. I’m not exactly an invited guest here at the county lockup.
Thomas maintains eye contact as he reaches down to me. He’s stroking my back, not attempting to pick me up. He’s rubbing my head. The man has a way with cats! His hands are leathery from outdoor work, but his touch is gentle. Not at all what I expected.
Uh-oh, here comes the deputy. I’d better scoot out of sight and listen in.
MOLLY HARPER CLUTCHED the slip of paper in her hand and paced. Ten steps forward, reverse, then back. She’d been waiting over an hour, now, to speak with a deputy. As far as she could tell, the welfare of her infant niece wasn’t a high priority on anyone’s list.
Texas justice, that legendary commodity associated with the Texas Rangers, didn’t seem to apply to state residents who weighed only twenty pounds! She fumed as she paced, the heels of her leather boots tapping along the cement floor of the county lockup.
She caught a glimpse of Familiar, as the black cat detective she’d hired to help her darted past the doorway to the jail. The cat had come highly recommended to her.
Just as the cat disappeared, she heard the jangle of keys.
“Miss Harper?”
She turned to face a slender deputy. “I’d like to speak to Thomas Lakeman.”
The deputy frowned. “You should wait until the trial.”
Her anger spiked. “I don’t have time to wait! My niece may be dying as we stand here discussing this. I want to talk to him and I want to talk to him now.”
The deputy’s face had grown stony. “He doesn’t have to speak with you. Even though his lawyer has agreed for you to talk to him, Lakeman doesn’t have to say a word to you.”
“Can you at least ask him?”
“It could take a while.”
“Listen, Officer, if I find out that this delay has caused harm to my niece, I’ll make sure the newspapers know your name.”
The deputy turned and walked away. Molly paced the room again, hoping that Familiar was having better luck than she.
“Miss Harper?”
She turned to find the same deputy standing in the doorway. “Yes?”
“Mr. Lakeman has agreed to see you. Please follow me.”
Molly was shocked that Thomas Lakeman had agreed to talk to her, but she didn’t hesitate as she followed the deputy to a small room with a table and two chairs facing each other across it.
“Thank you,” she said as she took a seat and waited for the man accused of killing her sister to be brought to her.
NOT EVEN the institutional green of the walls could sallow the woman’s complexion. Thomas followed the deputy into the room, aware that Molly Harper was one of the loveliest women he’d ever encountered. She looked a lot like her sister, Anna, but there was something more to Molly. Her skin glowed and her hair was lustrous. She had the same coloring as her sister, but Molly seemed luminous, as if some inner light gave her a unique glow. There was also a fire in her eyes that scalded him.
He felt the anger and hatred as he sat across from her. He dropped his gaze to the scarred surface of the table and wondered if his lawyer, Bradley Alain, had been on target when he recommended that Thomas talk with her. Bradley felt that if he cooperated with Molly, she might help Thomas as a character witness at his trial. With all the evidence against him, he didn’t know if he’d be able to convince her that he was innocent of killing her sister. The only role he’d ever played in Anna’s life was that of friend and co-worker. It had been his home that Anna came to whenever she was afraid of her husband’s rages, his fists.
The deputy locked Thomas’s handcuffs to a chain that came up from the floor. “This is Molly Harper,” the deputy said. “Don’t do anything foolish.” He stepped back to a corner of the room to allow them as much privacy as he could.
“Where is Kate?” Molly asked.
The question was spoken with such controlled fury that he looked up. “I don’t know.” It was the truth and the only thing he could say. If he had any inkling where the baby had been taken, he’d tell. The sheriff was convinced that Kate was dead. So convinced, in fact, that no law enforcement agency was even hunting for the baby.
“I have some savings.” She spoke in a way that told him she’d rehearsed this. “I’m willing to give you everything I have. You can hire a celebrity lawyer or do whatever you want with the money. Just give me back my niece.”
Though her anger was daunting, her pain was even more difficult to bear. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know where Kate is. I had nothing to do with any of this.”
“My sister’s body was found at your house. How can you claim to be innocent?”
Across the table from him she was trembling so that her bracelet tapped against the table. “I was camping that night. I wasn’t home. I had no idea your sister was at my house.”
“How did she get inside?”
He’d told this story to the deputies, but no one believed him. Still, he had to try again. “Anna had a key to my house. There were times she needed a place to go.” He hesitated. How much should he tell this angry woman about the abuse her sister suffered?
“She told me she had a friend, a safe place to go.” Molly had gained control of her shaking. “She never said a name, only that the person was a friend.”
“Then you knew she had difficulty in her marriage.”
Molly started to rise, but when the deputy came over, she sat back down. “Darwin hit her. I know that. I begged her to leave him. I sent her money to get out, but Anna wouldn’t leave. She used the money for a down payment on a house.”
Thomas nodded. “I know. She told me about the money you sent and how generous you were. She named you as beneficiary. She knew you’d take care of Kate. Anna was convinced she could change Darwin, but just in case, she took legal precautions to protect herself and your investment.”
“She believed that somehow it was her fault, that she brought the beatings on,” Molly said, turning her face away. “I never cared about the money. I should have come over here and taken her and the baby no matter what she said.”
“Anna was a grown woman. She had a right to make her own choices, even if they were wrong.” He wanted to comfort this woman. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty, Miss Harper. Understand there was nothing you could have done. Believe me, I tried.”
She turned to look at him, this time her pain un-shielded by her anger. “You tried to convince her to leave, didn’t you?”
“More than once. She wouldn’t hear of it. While she was pregnant with Kate, he didn’t hit her. She thought the baby would change him, would make him love her. I gave her a key to my place so that she’d have somewhere safe to go if it got bad again. That’s how she got into my house. What happened after that, I don’t know.”
“If you were camping, surely the police could prove it?”
He thought about what she was asking. For the first time there was a glimmer of hope that she might be willing to at least listen to his side of the story. “They did prove I had set up camp. They found my gear and things where I said they were, but the witnesses who knew I was at my camp all night have disappeared. The police say I established the campsite as an alibi and then drove back to town to kill Anna.”
“She was shot with your gun.”
It was an accusation. “I know. The gun was in a bedside table. I kept it there for protection.”
“I would have thought you’d take it with you camping.”
“The things I’m afraid of aren’t in the wilderness.” The look she gave him was more curious than angry, encouraging him to continue. “I told Anna about the gun. I wanted her to know where it was in case she ever needed to defend herself, or Kate. I always left it there. For her.”
“And the motive? The police are saying you loved Anna and when she wouldn’t leave Darwin, you killed her.”
He shook his head. “I did love Anna, but not in the romantic sense. I loved her as a friend. We were close. She was…fragile. We worked together, and somehow I became something akin to an older brother, yet not family.” He knew this would hurt, but he had to say it. “She was so ashamed of what her life had become. She didn’t want her real family to know how bad it was, how much she endured. But she could talk to me. I didn’t judge her. I listened, and when I could, I helped her.”
He wasn’t certain how Molly Harper was reacting to his words. She was listening, though, and that was further than he’d gotten with anyone else. “She talked about you a lot.” He wanted to reach out and touch her hand, to offer comfort, but he didn’t. “She admired you so much, even though you were the younger sister. She told me all about you. How brave you were, and strong. She felt she lacked those qualities.”
Molly’s tears slipped down her cheeks. She made no effort to wipe them away. “Anna never saw herself the way I did. To me she was my big sister. She taught me to dance and to fix my hair. She helped me pick out the dress for my high school prom. She always had time for me.”
“She had time for everyone. That was her gift,” Thomas said. “That’s what made her special.”
“Who would kill her?”
“I don’t have an answer for you. Not yet.” This was a question he’d thought about since his arrest five days ago. The first suspect was Anna’s husband, Darwin Goodman. But the police had interrogated and released him. Darwin had an alibi for the time of the murder. That didn’t clear him in Thomas’s book—and at his arraignment Thomas had made a big scene accusing Darwin of killing Anna—but why would even a wife-beater like Darwin abduct and hide his own child if Kate was alive? He would have had legal custody of Kate. He didn’t have to steal her.
“Did she ever mention anyone else who might want to hurt her?”
He’d given this a lot of thought also. “No. Anna made friends easily, though she didn’t let many people close. She did her job and went home to her family. Kate was in day care during the day, and Anna sometimes stopped by my place with the baby after she’d picked her up. She was always headed home to make dinner. Everything seemed routine, up until the evening before she was killed.”
“What happened?”
“She and Darwin had another fight. She showed up on my doorstep with Kate. Darwin hadn’t hit her, but he’d threatened her. It was the first time she even talked about leaving him.”
“But she went back home.”
He nodded.
“The police have cleared Darwin.”
“I know, but that doesn’t make it a fact. They’ve accused me and I didn’t do it.”
“Do you have any other suspects?”
He hesitated before he answered. In some ways, it would be easier for her to believe he’d done it and was going to be punished than to think that her sister’s murderer was still at large. “I wish I could tell you who did it. I can only tell you that it wasn’t me.”
Molly rose. “A jury will determine your guilt or innocence, Mr. Lakeman.”
“To be honest, Miss Harper, I’m not nearly as worried about my guilt as I am about that little baby girl. The police never found her body. They’re basing their conclusions on evidence that led them to the river. But I don’t find the evidence conclusive. Kate could be alive.”
That stopped her. Her fists clenched and she leaned toward him.
“If you know something, tell me now.”
“I was camping that night. There was another couple there, John and Judy. I don’t remember their last names. But they were there. We played cards for a while, they drank a few beers and I had coffee. I got a headache and went to bed. When I woke up at five-thirty, they were gone.”
“What does that have to do with Kate?”
He could hear the frustration in her voice, and he knew if he didn’t make her understand, she would leave.
“If you can find those campers who’ll verify my alibi, then you can clear me. I’ll help you hunt for Kate.” He leaned closer. “If you think there’s a prayer your niece is alive, let me help you find her.”
She stepped back from the table. “I can’t split my time trying to clear your name. I have to focus on finding Kate.”
“She is alive, isn’t she?” Thomas asked. He could read the truth on her face. Molly Harper wasn’t used to lying or even faking the truth. “How do you know she’s alive?”
She shook her head. “You can’t, or won’t, help me.” Molly moved to the door of the room. “Deputy, I’m finished here.”
She was almost out the door when he called out to her. “Go to the campsite. Carrillo Pass Park. There’s a lake. I was on the west side of the lake beside a stand of oaks. John and Judy were camped twenty yards to the right of my tent. Check it out.”
Then she was gone, passing the deputy who would unhook him from the chair and lead him back to the cell where he’d remain until his trial began.
MOLLY ENTERED the corridor and was startled by the black cat. He’d obviously been sitting beside the door, listening to the entire conversation. He followed behind her as she left the jail and went to the parking lot for her Jeep. She was trying hard not to cry. Against all odds, she’d pinned her hopes on the fact that Thomas Lakeman would tell her what had happened to Kate.
She got in the Jeep and leaned against the steering wheel, gathering her ragged courage and any scrap of hope she could muster. She had to keep believing the baby was okay. She had to keep hunting. She couldn’t give up.
She pulled the note from her pocket. “The baby is alive. Don’t stop hunting, but don’t go to the police.”
“Meow!” The cat tapped the glove box.
In the few hours she’d been with Familiar, she’d learned to respond to several of his commands. She opened the glove box and watched as he ruffled through some papers. What tumbled out were several maps. He found the one he wanted and presented it to her with a few teeth marks in it.
“It’s the local map,” she said, opening it up. “What?”
Familiar seemed to study the map before he put his black paw on Carrillo Pass Park.
“Meow!” It was more of a command than a request.
“You’ve got to be kidding.” She looked at him. “You want to follow up Thomas Lakeman’s cockamamie idea that I validate his alibi?”
Familiar’s green eyes blinked twice.
“It’s a waste of our time.”
He put his paw on the map and extended his claws. When he removed his paw there were several holes surrounding the state park. He batted the keys dangling in the ignition.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” she said as she started the engine and aimed the car toward the highway that would take them to Carrillo Pass.
It wasn’t as if she had any other leads to follow. She’d give the cat an hour to satisfy his curiosity, and then she’d do what she should have done in the first place—turn the note over to the authorities.
Chapter Two
The only good thing about being back in his cell was that they removed the handcuffs. Thomas sat on the thin bunk mattress and tried not to hear the sounds of the other incarcerated men or to think about the future. For just one second, he’d thought he might have connected with Molly Harper. That had given him hope—and hope was the only thing he couldn’t afford.
Someone had framed him, and done a professional job of it. Someone who knew of his friendship with Anna Goodman. Someone who knew she had a key to his home and access to his gun.
Since the terrible morning when the deputies had come to the park and arrested him, Thomas’s life had become a nightmare. He’d gleaned enough details about Anna’s murder to be able to imagine what had occurred. He could only hope that his imagination was worse than the reality.
In his mind he saw Anna running across his lawn, using her key to unlock his door. She had Kate in her arms, and they were both crying. Anna kept looking back over her shoulder, terrified that someone had followed her. Her fingers fumbled the key as she tried to open the door.
Thomas stopped his thoughts. He couldn’t bear to see Anna so afraid, and the one person she was most afraid of was her husband, Darwin. He paced the small cell. The worst curse in the world would be to love the person you feared the most. Anna’s relationship with Darwin had been pure hell. Yet she had acted as if she were powerless to change it.
Unless on the night of her murder, she’d intended to take the baby and leave.
He saw her again, putting Kate on his bed as she got the gun from the drawer. She turned and faced the doorway, determined to defend herself against whoever was after her. The bedroom door flew open and—
Thomas grasped the bars and bit back the curse that wanted to escape. Someone had hurt Anna while he was sitting around a campfire drinking coffee and playing cards. And then that someone had framed him.
Now he was helpless to hunt for Kate or even try to clear his own name. He’d been jailed with bail set so high he could never make it—not even if every friend he had chipped in. The only way he was going to get out of the cell he was in would be a transfer to the state prison in Huntsville. He flopped back on his bed in defeat.
In a moment he sat up. Instead of moping around, he needed to call his lawyer and arrange for the sale of his home—that was the only way he’d generate enough funds to make bail. Thank goodness Bradley Alain, the topmost criminal lawyer in east Texas, had volunteered to defend him. Otherwise he’d have to sell his house for legal fees alone.
If Molly Harper had done nothing else, she’d inspired him to quit wallowing around and imagining the awfulness of Anna’s last moments and do something to help himself. She’d walked into the jail and brought his hopes back to life. “Damn,” he muttered.
The man in the cell next to him spoke. “Hey, Lakeman, I hear you’re going to get the chair.”
“Shut up,” Thomas said.
“My lawyer tells me that Texas executes more people than any other state.”
“Shut up!” Thomas grasped the bars as if he intended to pull them apart. “Just shut up!” But now he was speaking to himself, to the part of him that, once again, had begun to imagine Anna’s last moments.
IT WAS MIDDAY, the February sun warm as Molly stepped out of the Jeep in the midst of huge trees and the chirping of birds. Spring was still several weeks away, but the forest was waking up from the sleep of winter.
Familiar hopped out of the vehicle and started immediately to the abandoned tent that remained at the campsite where Thomas had spent Saturday night. Molly approached slowly, taking in the evidence that told of a hurried departure.
There were the cold embers of a fire and a camp coffeepot sitting beside it. She touched the pot with her toe. Coffee sloshed in it. About ten yards away, Familiar was entering the tent.
Beside the fire she found a Coleman lantern and a tin cup. Closer to the tent was a flashlight lying on a bed of pine needles and beside that a battered ice chest. The police hadn’t bothered to pick up any of Thomas’s gear. She lifted the lid of the chest and found three unopened beers, water, coffee, some apples and bologna. It certainly looked as if Thomas had been camping in earnest.
So far, everything he’d said had checked out, but if he’d set up the campsite as an alibi, of course it would. She was reluctant to enter the tent, and that emotion surprised her. For some reason she felt as if she were invading Thomas’s privacy. Even though he’d requested as much.
“Familiar!” She went to the tent flap. The cat had found plenty to explore. He’d been inside the tent for more than fifteen minutes. “Kitty, kitty.”
The cat sauntered outside with what looked to be part of a newspaper. She knelt to take it and the cat used his paw to point out the date. February 17. It was the Saturday evening that Anna had been killed.
“This doesn’t prove anything.” She folded the paper and put it in her pocket. “Thomas Lakeman could have planted that newspaper. He could have bought it and left it just to attempt to show he was here.” The newspaper didn’t prove a thing, but it was good to have.
The cat gave one cry and began to walk the area. Molly watched him in awe as he created a spiral and worked his way from the inside out, examining the ground, sniffing the grass. She’d never seen a detective, much less a cat, conduct such an intense investigation.
When he paused about twenty yards away, she went to see what he’d found. “A clue?”
Familiar pointed to a hole in the ground. “Snake?” she asked, remembering that her father had always told her that snakes lived in holes. Though she enjoyed the woods, she was wary of the wild creatures, particularly snakes. The motto in Texas was that everything was bigger, and that certainly applied to the rattlers. A timber rattler could grow up to six feet long and as big around as a man’s muscular arm.
The cat left his find and walked to another place. He stared at her until she followed him. Another hole. She frowned, realizing the cat was showing her a pattern.
There were four holes on each side of the square and two larger ones in between. She understood. “A tent. So Thomas wasn’t lying about that. Someone else was camping here.” Why was the cat trying so hard to convince her of Thomas’s innocence? The answer was obvious—because he believed Thomas wasn’t guilty.
“Why would someone kill my sister, steal her baby and set Thomas Lakeman up to take the fall? Why him? If he’s telling the truth, he was just my sister’s friend.”
The cat didn’t have an answer, or if he did he wasn’t saying. But the question throbbed in Molly’s brain. Ever since she’d heard the awful news, she’d asked herself who would hurt her sweet sister. The name that always came up was Darwin Goodman. She didn’t say it, but in her opinion he was awful enough to sell his own child. And if a lot of money were involved, he’d even kill.
“We have to get back to the jail,” she said. “I have another question for Thomas.”
MY PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION supports everything Thomas said at the jail. There is a second campsite where two people slept. And whoever they were, they left in a big hurry. At night. I found some of their gear scattered at the edge of the clearing, which leads me to believe they left before first light. That makes me wonder if they had a reason to be gone. Sure, I have a suspicious mind, but that’s why I’m such a good detective. I don’t let a motive sneak up on me— I like to see it coming.
Call me a trained observer, but I detect a bit of chemistry between Molly and Thomas. She doesn’t trust him, not by a long shot, but she felt something for him. If she hadn’t, she’d never have gone to check out his campsite. One thing I’ve learned as a private dick is to always suspect the worst of human nature. Thomas, though, strikes me as a good man. Molly asked the right question—if Thomas is innocent, why was he set up? I think that’s how we’re going to have to approach this. Thomas is the key.
With that in mind, I hope Miss Molly Marvel doesn’t blow a gasket when she realizes what I have planned.
We’re back at the county lockup. It isn’t the most sophisticated jail I’ve ever seen. In fact, it’s pretty minimum security. They’re treating Thomas like he’s some kind of hardcore felon, but I suspect they leave him pretty much to himself once he’s back in his cell.
It’s a simple lock and key system and I didn’t notice any security monitors. Should be a piece of cake. I just hope Molly can handle it.
“MR. LAKEMAN, why would someone frame you?” Molly asked him.
Thomas found himself sitting in the interview room yet again, with the beautiful brunette seated across from him. A week ago he would have been planning a way to ask her for a date. Now he was hoping not to frighten her so badly she wouldn’t listen to what he had to say.
“I think I was convenient. Anna always turned to me when she was in trouble. There were a few times when she spent the night at my house with Kate. Darwin was drunk and she didn’t want to go home.”
He could see what she was thinking and he shook his head. “Nothing like that happened. Anna and I were friends. Nothing more. You don’t know me at all, but you should know your sister took her marriage vows seriously.”
“And how do you know that?” Molly’s question sounded angry.
“She could have left Darwin and started a new life, but she wouldn’t. She never gave up on her marriage. She was committed to it.” He watched her expression change. Something he’d said wounded her, but he couldn’t figure out what.
“It’s too bad she couldn’t commit to a man who didn’t slap her around.” Molly’s voice was hard.
Thomas swallowed and looked down at his hands. He knew for a fact that Darwin had beaten—not just slapped— Anna. But it would only hurt Molly to think of her sister’s abuse. Better to keep the ugly details to himself.
“So you believe you were just a convenient scapegoat?” Molly asked him.
“What else can I believe? I don’t have a lot of money. I write software for computers. That isn’t the most controversial career.” He saw her look at his hands, the rough callused palms. His face, too, had seen sun and weather. Even though he’d been working indoors for the past two years, he knew he still carried the look of the open range in his features. “Before I got this job I worked as a cowboy on one of the large spreads.” That was as much as he intended to tell her.
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