Dangerous Attraction Romantic Suspense Boxed Set (191 page)

“Who was that?” Ryan asked.

“A friend from Los Angeles. She wants to get together when I get back.” Kate put her phone in her pocket and scooted out of the booth.

“Where are you going?”

“I have to use the ladies room. Why don’t you order the Mahi Mahi for me?”

“All right,” he replied, going back to studying the menu. “I can’t make up my mind.”

As Kate walked toward the ladies room, she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, switched it to vibrate and stuck it in her bra. Then, she veered off from her path to the restroom and headed in the direction of the kitchen.

She was terrified going out into the back alley alone, certain she was walking into a trap, but she was willing to do whatever she had to do to save her sister’s life. If she didn’t comply with Ethan’s instructions, she knew he would kill Whitney—if he hadn’t already.

By hiding her phone in her bra, she hoped Ethan wouldn’t find it, and someone else might be smart enough to think to track her by the cell phone’s signal. All she had was that hope. Without it, she feared they would never find her or her sister. She had to take that chance.

Kate paused before the heavy, metal door, summoning the courage to face what she feared was on the other side. She pushed the weighty door open and walked out into the dark alley. It automatically swung shut as soon as she was clear of it.

Someone stepped out from behind the door. She noticed a shadow move as she heard a couple of quick footsteps. Before she could turn, she felt the pain of something hard crack against the back of her head. Kate fell forward on the gritty wet pavement and everything went black.

Chapter Sixteen

Ryan burst into the police station, frantic and out of breath. He caught sight of Raj heading into the conference room. “Raj!”

Patel turned to the sound of his name being called. “Ryan?”

“I need your help.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Kate’s missing!” he said between gasps of air.

“What?”

“We were at Yellowfin’s Seafood Grille having dinner. Then, Kate got a phone call. She said it was a friend in Los Angeles. After that, she excused herself to go to the restroom, but she never came back.”

“How long has she been gone?”

“About thirty-five minutes,” he said, looking at his watch. “I tried calling but they said you were unavailable, so I rushed over.”

“What happened?”

“She’d been gone more than fifteen minutes, so I got worried and went looking for her. I had the hostess check in the ladies room, then we checked the kitchen. Some of the kitchen staff said they saw her walk through and go out the back door.” Ryan was growing frantic, his mind thinking the worst.

“Did you check outside the back door?”

“Yes, we looked around but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Raj, I’m so worried. Why would she leave without saying anything?”

“I don’t know. Maybe that wasn’t really a friend on the phone.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“We’re about to question the foster mother. I think we may have caught a break.”

“What about Kate?”

“I’ll have a forensic team go over to the alley and investigate.”

Just then, an officer ushered a middle-aged woman toward the interrogation room. Porter came out to greet her. He waved Raj over. “Patel.”

“Listen, Ryan, I gotta go. Can you sit tight while we conduct this interview?”

“Is that her? The foster mother? Can I sit in?”

“Ryan—”

“I know what you’re going to say. But technically, I’m not just any civilian.”

Raj didn’t look like he was going to budge.

“You got five bucks?” Ryan asked.

“Huh?” Raj appeared even more confused now, but Ryan stuck his hand out and nodded at him to come up with the five dollars. The detective reached into his pocket, pulled out the cash, and handed it to over.

Ryan shoved it in his pocket. “Okay, you just hired me as a consultant. Former cops do that all the time, right?”

“Well…”

“Patel!” Porter urged from the interrogation room door.

“Fine,” Raj gave in, “but keep your mouth shut. Got it?”

Ryan nodded his head and followed his friend into the room.

Porter raised his eyebrows when Ryan entered, but Raj shrugged. “All right then.” He seemed to understand Ryan’s desperation. “Let’s go sit down, shall we?”

“Ma’am,” Detective Porter gestured to the short, round Italian woman to a chair at one end of the table.

She politely complied and took a seat. Patel followed suit, then Ryan. Once they were all seated around the table, Raj leaned in and whispered something to his partner. Ryan figured he was telling him about Kate. Porter whispered something back and then made the introductions.

When he got to Ryan, he seemed unsure what to say, so Patel jumped in, “Mr. Wilson is…a special consultant on the case, Ma’am.”

That answer seemed to work. Porter nodded his agreement, then set down the case file, folding his hands on top of it.

“Thank you for coming in, Mrs. DiMarco,” Porter started. Then he turned to Raj. “Detective Patel will be right back. He has to go arrange for a CSI team.”

Raj got up and excused himself.

Porter turned back to Mrs. DiMarco. “Now, where were we?”

“I hope I’m not too late. Oh, that poor missing girl.” She glanced down briefly at her hands clasped in her lap and shook her head. The pudgy, middle-aged woman looked like she’d had a hard life, with her wrinkled face, unruly curly black hair, and her ill-fitting clothes. Her concern for both Suki and Whitney sounded genuine.

“What did you want to tell us?” Porter asked.

“I don’t know if you know the whole story,” she began, looking at Ryan and Detective Porter.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning and tell us everything you know about Suzanne.”

“All right, from the beginning,” the woman said. “When Suki was fourteen, which is what we called her, her mother was tragically killed in an auto accident—poor thing. After that, her father had started drinking heavily. I guess he had a really hard time with his wife’s death. Because he drank so much, he ended up losing his job. Then there was her brother, Ethan, who was in college at the time. With his mom gone and his dad being fired, he had to drop out of school and come home. Eventually, according to what Suki had told me, they lost their big house and moved into a crummy little apartment. It was such a sad thing.”

“Go on,” Detective Porter said, just as Patel re-entered the room, nodding at his partner.

“Things just went from bad to worse,” she said. “I guess the dad couldn’t take it anymore, and he ended up killing himself. His son found him shot in the head in his bedroom—the dad’s bedroom, that is. That’s when Suki came to live with us as a foster child. Ethan was old enough to be on his own, but Suki was only fifteen.”

“Have Suki and Ethan stayed in contact all these years?” Patel asked.

“Off and on. While Suki was with us, they did. He got into drugs and alcohol pretty bad. He would call or stop by occasionally at first, but if he was high, my husband would run him off. After awhile he quit coming around, and I don’t know what happened after Suki turned eighteen and left us. That was the last we saw of her.”

“I understand what you’re saying, Mrs. DiMarco, that the family fell apart and the kids’ lives were turned upside down, but can you tell us why you think Suki and Ethan would kidnap Whitney?” Porter asked.

“Because they blamed her sister, Kate, for their mother’s death, of course.”

Ryan leaned in closer when she said that.
Kate was right. Please be okay, Kate, please.
As much as this information was confirmation, he felt he should be out looking for Kate, not cooped up in this little room. But since he had promised Raj he wouldn’t say anything, he sat back again.

“What do you mean?” Patel asked.

“Well, I overheard them a number of times talking about how all their troubles were Kate’s fault. As you can imagine, the accident started everything going downhill. Losing their mom is what caused all the other horrible things that happened to that poor family.”

“I don’t understand, though, if they blamed Kate, why wouldn’t they have kidnapped her instead of her sister?” Detective Porter questioned.

“I don’t know. I just thought it had to be too big of a coincidence that Kate’s sister was missing and you were questioning Suki. That’s why I called you.”

“Was Kate responsible for Mrs. Henderson’s death?” Patel asked.

“I wasn’t around them when it happened. I only heard Suki and Ethan going on and on about Kate McAllister and how it was all her fault. So, yes, I thought so, at first,” Mrs. DiMarco explained.

“At first?” asked Patel. “What do you mean,
at first?
”

“I mean because that’s all I heard. But later, after Ethan stopped coming around, I got something in the mail from the police department. It was a copy of Mr. Henderson’s suicide note and a letter from a police investigator explaining they’d found the note in the police files and thought his children should have it.”

“What did it say?” Porter asked.

“I have it right here.” Mrs. DiMarco pulled the letter out of her purse, unfolded it on the table, and read it out loud. “Ethan and Suzanne, I can’t stand the guilt and pain anymore. I have to put an end to it. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I had an affair and Mom found out the afternoon she died. She had been drinking when I came home and she confronted me. We had a huge fight and she ran out the door and drove off. I’m sorry I didn’t stop her.
She
ran that stop sign when she was hit by the SUV and died. It was all my fault. Please forgive me. Dad.”

“And you never gave this to Suki or Ethan?” Porter asked.

“No. At the time it came, Suki was starting to do better in school and make a few friends. Her brother had stopped coming around—I think he’d gotten himself arrested for drugs or something. I didn’t want to stir things up again, so I just stuck it in a drawer and forgot about it. That is, until I saw Suki on the news today and heard them mention the name McAllister.”

“This explains a lot,” Porter said. “You’ve been a big help, Mrs. DiMarco.”

“Thank you, Detective. I hoped I could be.”

Ryan tried to process what this all meant. It seemed that Suki and Ethan had been plotting revenge, and it wasn’t even Kate’s fault.
We have to tell them.
They need to know…before something happens to Kate!

Then just before Ryan opened his mouth to say something, Porter said it for him. “Would you mind telling Suki what you just told us?” Porter asked. “I think she’ll be more likely to believe it coming from you.”

“Sure, if you think it would help.”

“I do,” he replied.

Porter stood up to leave. “Mrs. DiMarco, if you’ll just wait here, I’ll be right back with Suki.”

She nodded her head in agreement and sat fidgeting with the note while Patel jotted down something in the case file.

Ryan sat in silence, trying to appear calm on the surface but inside he was struggling with doing nothing to find Kate. He reminded himself that if they could convince Suki she had been wrong then maybe she could reach Ethan—before he did something drastic.

Just then, Porter pushed the door open and ushered Suki in. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Mrs. DiMarco.

“Have a seat over there,” Porter directed Suki, motioning toward the chair across the table from her foster mother. Suki did as she was told and sat down.

“Why’s she here?” Suki asked Detective Porter, staring at her former foster mother with suspicion written all over her face.

“She has something she wants to tell you. So, we’re going to leave you two to talk.”

Suki turned quickly and shot Porter a questioning glance. “Where’s my lawyer? I asked for a lawyer. I’m not saying anything without my lawyer!”

“Mrs. DiMarco isn’t here to ask you any questions,” Porter replied. “She wants to tell you something—something important. So sit still and listen.”

He motioned to the door, and then Ryan and his partner followed him out. They stepped into the observation room next door, and they watched as Mrs. DiMarco explained the letter, handing it to Suki.

Then Porter turned to Ryan. “Raj tells me that Kate is missing. What happened?”

“We were at a restaurant and she got a call, then she told me she was going to the ladies room—but she never came back.”

“Let’s hope Suki spills her guts once she knows Kate is not responsible for her mother’s death, and we can solve this case.” Porter sounded exasperated.

Ryan looked toward the two women in the other room. “I hope she can tell us something.”

“Well, let’s go see what Suki has to say about Kate’s disappearance,” Porter said. They left the darkened room and burst into the conference room. Both women looked up as the men entered.

“Did you tell her yet?” Patel asked Mrs. DiMarco.

“Tell me what?” Suki questioned.

“Did you tell her Kate was not responsible for her mother’s death?”

“I was just getting to that, Detective. You busted in here before she could finish reading the letter.” The woman sounded irritated that they hadn’t given her more time to talk to Suki.

“I’m sorry, but time is running out,” Patel responded.

Suki looked from Ryan and the detectives to her foster mother. “What do you mean Kate’s not responsible? Of course, she’s responsible. She hit my mom’s little compact with her big fat SUV when she ran the stop sign.”

“No, honey. It was your mom that ran the stop sign. She’d been drinking and she’d had a fight with your dad. Read it,” Mrs. DiMarco said, “it’s all there in your dad’s note.”

They all sat in restrained silence as Suki finished reading the suicide note, anxious for her to be done. When she was through, she buried her face in her hands and began to weep, her red curls falling forward. She seemed to realize that all the hate and bitterness that she and her brother had harbored against Kate, all the revenge they had planned, was based on a misunderstanding.

Detective Porter’s gaze moved from Mrs. DiMarco to Ryan and Patel. “Suki, please, where is Whitney?” he pleaded in a calm, even voice.

Mrs. DiMarco handed Suki a tissue from her purse, and the young woman wiped her eyes.