Deadly Image (4 page)

Ready?

To tell the truth?

His chest tightened, and he realized how much he wanted her to be innocent. A ridiculous notion considering he really didn’t know her, but still…

“Agent Valdez?” Lexi’s soft voice slid over him like black velvet. “You had some questions?”

Ace swallowed hard. Get it together, Valdez. Just because she seemed genuinely concerned for her daughter doesn’t mean she’s not guilty. Maybe there really had been an accident and maybe she was ready to come clean. Isn’t this what he was here for? To find out what had really happened to Anna. So why did he feel as if he’d been hit in the gut with a sledgehammer?

“Agent Valdez?” Lexi’s blonde brows knit together.

“Call me Ace.” Ace shook off the disappointment. He had a job to do.

“Ace … then.” Lexi offered him a tight smile. “That’s an unusual name.”

For a poor spic you mean.

“It’s a nickname actually. My first name is Miguel, but everyone calls me Ace. Please, come into the den. We’d like to ask you a couple more questions.” He stood aside while she gracefully crossed the plush blue carpet and entered the other room.

Ace nodded toward a chair at the table. “Please, have a seat.” He settled into a chair opposite her at the mahogany dining room table where various pieces of surveillance equipment had been set up.    

Lexi sat down, clasped her hands in her lap and looked from Ace to Sheriff Dawson. She lifted her chin. “What would you like to know?”

Ace cleared his throat. “Before we get started, is there anything you would like to tell us? Anything that might help us find your daughter?”

Lexi’s blue eyes caught his and held his gaze. “I’ve told you everything I know.”

“There’s nothing you want to share with us?” Sheriff Dawson, seated next to Ace, pushed his glasses up on his nose.

“I just want you to find my daughter.” Lexi’s eyes never left Ace’s. “Bring my baby home.”

Ace pulled a pen from his suit’s inner pocket and reached for his notepad on the table. He must have been wrong. Maybe she didn’t have anything to hide after all.

“We’ve put a tracer on your phone in case the kidnapper makes contact. You’ll need to keep them on the phone as long as possible in order for us to trace the call.”

Lexi nodded.

“One of us will be here twenty-four/seven for the next few days. Either myself or my partner, Zach Cartwright.”

“I will be in and out regularly, as well,” Sheriff Dawson interjected, his gaze daring her to object. Then he nodded to the deputy beside him. “So will Deputy Rob Owens. He’s new to our department and is still considered a rookie, but I’m sure he’ll be an asset to the case too. I hope that won’t be problem.”

No. No problem.” Lexi broke Sheriff Dawson’s hard gaze and offered a tight smile to Deputy Owens.

Ace noticed the deputy didn’t return her smile. Apparently the whole GBPD thought she was guilty.

Ace frowned. Based on what?

The fact the daycare owner claimed Lexi was the one who picked up her daughter? Or the fact Lexi was on anxiety medicine and prone to panic attacks?

Both reasons seemed a bit thin to him. He needed more than that to have reasonable doubt. Then again, Gator Bayou probably didn’t have much crime, so the GBPD wasn’t as seasoned in abductions as he was.

“I have plenty of room,” Lexi added.

That was an understatement. The sprawling two-story home could almost house a small army. From the plushly carpeted rooms to the small country blue flowers bordering white-washed walls, Lexi’s home looked like it should be on the cover of a magazine instead of the command center for the FBI.

Money obviously wasn’t a problem for Lexi or her family, and
if
someone had really taken Anna, a ransom seemed the likely motive.

Money was, after all, the root of all evil. Correction. The
love
of money was the root of all evil. Greed accounted for more crimes than Ace could put a number to. Not to mention the way money seemed to make some people think they were entitled. As if they were better than the poor and deserved more.

Ace clenched his jaw. He hadn’t cared for the way Lexi’s mother seemed to look down her nose at him. The same way people had looked at him all his life. And even though he’d spent the last ten years making something of himself, he still couldn’t shake the memories of his childhood when he’d felt worthless and inferior.

Ace shoved the feeling aside. He wouldn’t let Victoria’s obvious distaste for him get in the way of finding this little girl. He was not a poor spic from the Bronx anymore. He was a special agent and a little girl’s life depended on him to find her.

“An AMBER Alert has been issued and all surrounding parishes are on high alert. But I have to warn you –” Ace hesitated. With those clear blue eyes watching him expectantly, he really didn’t want to give her bad news, but he needed to level with her. Just in case. “–There’s also the slight possibility the kidnapper may have crossed state lines by now.”

Fear shadowed her features. “Can we still find her?”

“It will make it more difficult, but it’s not impossible. The AMBER Alert will give other law enforcement agencies a heads up. We’ve had children recovered several states away from the original abduction site in the past.” No need to tell her most of those cases involved a parental abduction, which wasn’t nearly as hard to track. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case with Anna, and the chance of finding a child in a stranger abduction case was slim at best.

“Should I circulate flyers or something?”

“It couldn’t hurt. The press picked up the story a couple of days ago, so there is general awareness among the townsfolk, but the more we get Anna’s picture out there, the better chance we have of finding her.” Ace tapped his pen on the table. “Have you noticed anyone who may have taken an unusual interest in Anna?”

“No, not that I know of.”

“Does she frequent any special places where someone may have noticed her? A specific restaurant? A park?”

Lexi twisted her thumbs together. “I take her to the park once in a while. I haven’t noticed anyone in particular. Usually other parents are there with their children too.”

“Lexi?” Victoria Carlisle tapped on the doorframe of the den. “There’s a young man here. Says he’s the landscaper.”

“Oh, yes … Luke. I forgot. Can you bring me my purse, Mom?” Lexi turned to Ace. “Please excuse me for a moment. It’s Wednesday. I need to pay Luke.”

Ace’s jaw tightened. Another stark reminder how the rich could buy anything. Including a perfectly landscaped yard.

“How often does he come by to work?”

“A couple of times a week, but I pay him on Wednesdays.”

Victoria stepped back into the den with Lexi’s purse. “Here, hon.”

“How long has he been working for you?” Ace jotted the information on his notepad. “We’ll need to question him as well.”

Lexi furrowed her brow as she pulled out her checkbook. “About three or four months now, I believe.” She tore a check from her checkbook, filled it out, then handed it to her mom. “Please tell Luke I’ll call him when I need him to come tend to the yard again. This isn’t a good time right now with so many people in and out of my home.” Her voice caught. “And with Anna missing.”

“I’ll let him know.” Victoria shot the detectives a suspicious look. “You sure I don’t need to call our attorney.”

“No, Mom. Everything is fine.”

“Alright then.” Victoria left with the check.

Ace added a reminder in his notepad to question the lawn care guy. Maybe he’d heard or seen something that could be helpful. “What is Luke’s last name?”

“Clements.”

Ace nodded. “We’ll question him later. Now, you said you took Anna to the park quite often. Any particular days?”

“Not during the week. We just went when we could since I usually work until five every day at the insurance company, but I did take her on Saturday evenings fairly regular.”

“What time?”

“Around six when it was cooler.”

Sheriff Dawson leaned back in his chair, skepticism lacing his voice. “Would you say you take her every Saturday? Every other Saturday? Once a month?”

Lexi shifted her attention to the silver-haired officer. “Pretty much every Saturday, though we have missed a few if something else came up.”

“Are there any parents who bring their children on a regular basis the same time you brought Anna?” Ace’s pen paused on the notepad.

Lexi bit the inside of her lip and furrowed her brow. “Gina Hawkins brings her son almost every Saturday evening. So does Mandy Whitman. She brings her twins around six-thirty. Anna loves to play with them in the sandbox.”

Ace jotted their names down. “Good. I’ll talk to them. Maybe they’ve noticed someone hanging around the park who looked suspicious.” He looked up from his notes. “Anyone else?”

Lexi shook her head. “I don’t think so. There are other parents who bring their children, but not on a regular basis.”

Ace closed his notepad. “This is a start.”

Lexi reached across the table and gripped his arm. Her blue eyes, clear and bright, held a note of hope. “Do you really think you can find my baby?”

A tingle heated his arm where her perfectly manicured hand rested on his sleeve. He ignored it. “I’m going to do everything in my power to bring Anna home.”

“Thank you. That’s all I can ask. Shouldn’t … I mean if the kidnapper was going to call for a ransom…” Lexi swallowed hard, her voice quivering, “wouldn’t they have already called by now?”      

Ace’s heart split. She looked hopeful and worried at the same time. Was this the reaction of a mother who had harmed her daughter? Intuition told him she was innocent, but the facts weren’t quite so clear. There was still the matter of Mrs. Jenkins’ testimony.

Ace shrugged. “Not necessarily. Sometimes it’s days before they make contact.” That, however, wasn’t true. Usually contact was made within the first day or so, but Lexi didn’t need to know that. She had enough on her plate right now as it was. Besides,  there had been cases where the kidnapper didn’t make contact for a week or more. It might be unusual, but it wasn’t unheard of.

Lexi sighed and released her grip on his arm. “Then there’s still a chance they’ll call.”

“There’s always a chance, Lexi.” Ace wished he could give her more reassurance, yet he didn’t want to offer her false hope.

The fact the kidnapper hadn’t already made contact wasn’t a good sign. The crucial twenty-four hours were already up. He knew from experience after that small window of opportunity closed there was very little hope of finding an abducted child.

Especially finding the child alive.

“Would you be willing to take a lie detector test, Ms. Yates?” Sheriff Dawson arched a gray brow.

Ace frowned. It was obvious the sheriff still believed Lexi was guilty. Whether she was or not wasn’t the point. It was too dangerous to make such an assumption this early in the investigation. Every clue needed to be thoroughly investigated, and clues could be overlooked if assumptions were made this early on. The sheriff should know better.

“No, she most definitely would not.” Victoria stepped into the den. “This interrogation is over. Lexi will not be answering any more questions without her attorney.” Ice glittered in the older woman’s eyes. “Now, if you two are through accusing my daughter, I will kindly thank you to get off your laurels and go out there and find out who really took my granddaughter.”

       CHAPTER THREE

Ace pulled the SUV up to the curb next to the row of small white-framed houses. Live oaks dripping with Spanish moss dotted the yards along the road. He switched off the engine, reached in his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

125 Cypress Street.

He slipped off his shades, dropped them in his jacket pocket and squinted toward the homes. Yep. He was on the right street. Now, which house was Mandy Whitman’s?

He squinted again.

There. Two houses down with the broken shutter.

Ace opened the door and slid out. The small town feel of Gator Bayou was a far cry from the hustle and bustle of the city. Thankfully, this time his case was only a short forty-five minute drive south from his home office in New Orleans instead of several states away. Not that he was thrilled to have a child abducted practically in his backyard, but he was glad Gator Bayou was within driving distance from his home-base. Flying from state to state could get tedious at times.