Family Matters (DiCarlo Brides book 4) (The DiCarlo Brides) (28 page)

Rosemary wanted to rush straight to Joel’s office and demand answers, but she knew he would let her know when he had any information. That left her antsy and irritable as she worked the morning rush. She kept her mouth closed as much as possible to avoid snapping at people and focused on what had to be done. When Sage showed up at the kitchen door mid-morning, Rosemary didn’t pause to ask what she wanted, she just turned the work over to someone else and headed out the door. Joel seemed to like having her there as a buffer when he dealt with difficult issues for the sisters. “Joel heard back?” Rosemary asked.

“Yes. He asked me to bring you to his office. Harrison will join us there.” Sage didn’t say anything more.

Rosemary wasn’t sure how she felt about Harrison being automatically added to the discussion, as if he belonged. His declaration of love at lunch the other day had nearly knocked her off her feet. Hearing it again the previous night hadn’t been much better. She liked having him around, and was learning to trust him, but she wasn’t ready to completely ignore everything she’d learned through the years about men and relationships. Watching her sisters with their husbands proved not all relationships were like her mother’s, but she still didn’t trust she could maintain a healthy relationship for the long haul—even if Harrison
did
think he loved her.

Still, she’d never had someone show her tenderness the way he had the previous night. He told her he loved her and then he’d shown her with every action. Would he suddenly open his eyes one day and realize he’d made a mistake? That she wasn’t the person he thought he saw?

Sage filled the few minutes it took to reach Joel’s office with chatter about something that had happened in the spa that morning and Rosemary made sounds of interest as she tried to anticipate what Joel had to say.

Harrison was already there when they arrived. He looked up when they came in and smiled at Rosemary, though it was a tighter smile than the one he’d said goodbye with that morning. Did he already know?

“Tell me they learned something,” Rosemary said in lieu of a greeting.

“I have a picture,” Joel said and pulled a page off the printer. He passed it to Rosemary.

It didn’t matter that the picture was grainy and out of focus, Rosemary recognized the man in it immediately—she sat in a nearby chair, her legs feeling weak. “It’s Mike. Don’s brother. He thought he should have had custody of Cleo. He told her about me being her birth mother and tried to stir up trouble at the reading of the will.” She tried to figure out why Mike would come after her. “Cleo said he told her he wanted to take care of her, but he talked down to her like she was a stupid kid. She didn’t want to live with him and wondered why he wanted her to live with him when he didn’t like her very much.” She was stumped. “Why would he come after
me
?”

“That’s a good question. Why would he want to raise Cleo if he didn’t like kids much and you were taking care of her?” Joel asked, but the words sounded like he was trying to make her think, as if he already had an idea or two.

Harrison walked over and took the seat next to Rosemary. “Did the Markhams leave anything major to Cleo?”

Rosemary thought about it. “There are some papers the lawyer sent me dealing with the estate, but they still owed money on the house, and the car was brand new, so it was probably a bigger liability than asset. Don made a decent living, but he didn’t get paid that much and she was a stay-at-home mom.”

“Wait,” Harrison said, holding out a hand. “Didn’t Cleo say they were all in an accident the week before the bombing? Some kind of engine malfunction when they were coming home from visiting Mike?”

“Yeah, but—”

He cut her off. “And didn’t you say the lawyer keeps sending papers and talking about the estate? And that Mike said you were looking for a payoff?”

Rosemary stopped breathing for a second. “Yeah. But there can’t be that much. I haven’t really looked at the amounts but there just can’t be.”

“What if there is?” Joel asked.

She stared at him. Why had she just pushed the papers to the side and figured she’d get around to them later? “I guess there could be.”

“How would Mike get his hands on it?” Joel asked.

“By taking over as Cleo’s guardian—”

“Which you won’t allow as long as you’re alive,” Harrison interjected.

“And there’s very little money for the guardian anyway—or to kill her so he and Cecelia’s brother become the only people left to inherit.” That made a little sense, anyway. Rosemary yanked her phone out of her pocket and scrolled through the contacts list to the estate attorney, then hit send.

It took several minutes to navigate through the receptionist and get into the attorney—Rosemary considered herself lucky that she didn’t get stuck waiting for a call back. It only took a few minutes for the attorney to give her the bottom line for the estate’s value. She was still in shock when she ended the call. “They have investments of nearly a million, and each had half a million in life insurance. Then there’s the equity in the house. We’re talking serious money here.”

“So he does have a reason to want Cleo dead. That much cash is nothing to sneeze at,” Joel said, picking up the phone. “I’m calling Detective Carlson and I’ll have him check into the car accident as well. We’ll see if they thought it could be sabotage.”

Rosemary’s heart clenched with worry. “I have to call the school, let them know someone might try to hurt Cleo and they have to keep a closer eye on her. Maybe we should bring her home for a few days, until they can catch Mike.” Her hands shook as she searched for the school’s number in her phone’s contact list and Harrison had to take the phone from her and find the number himself. “He wouldn’t have come if he didn’t want to get rid of me or Cleo, would he? He would have asked to see her if he actually cared, wouldn’t he?” Could she be jumping to conclusions? But it didn’t feel like it. It finally felt like everything was clicking into place, and that scared her even worse.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Harrison said. “We’ll just ask for them to check with her teacher to make sure she’s doing okay, and then we’ll tell them to keep her inside until you pick her up.” When he passed the phone back to Rosemary, she could hear the school’s phone starting to ring.

“Juniper Ridge Elementary. How can I help you?” a woman’s voice greeted her.

“Hello, this is Rosemary Keogh. My,” she had to stop herself when she nearly said daughter, “I’m the guardian for Cleo Markham, who’s in Mrs. Shepherd’s class.”

“Yes, I remember when you registered her.”

That made Rosemary feel a little better. “Well, apparently someone might be trying to hurt her. It’s her uncle, Mike Markham. Can you check with the teacher and make sure she’s okay? Then keep her inside until I get there to pick her up?”

“I’d be happy to, Ms. Keogh, but, um, she didn’t come in to school today. I thought you were calling to excuse her.”

“What?” Rosemary felt all of the blood drain from her head and thought she might pass out. “I dropped her in front of the school this morning. She should be there.”

“I’ll double-check with her teacher, but I looked at the absentee list about fifteen minutes ago, and she was on it. Just a moment.”

Rosemary leaned on Harrison’s shoulder, unable to blink or think of anything but her little girl and wondering if she was going to turn up dead somewhere. She forced that thought away as quickly as she could—they were going to find Cleo, and she was going to be perfectly fine. Thinking otherwise would just be borrowing trouble—and drive her crazy.

The receptionist came back on the line. “Ms. Keogh, I spoke with Mrs. Shepherd. She said she hasn’t seen Cleo at all today. I’m sorry. We’ll check the school grounds and see if she’s hiding out somewhere. I’ll let you know if we find her.”

“Thank you.” Rosemary hung up and thought for a moment that she would pass out. “Cleo didn’t make it to class today. She’s gone. What if Mike has her?” She looked into Harrison’s eyes and saw her worry echoed back to her.

Harrison was glad Joel picked up the phone and called the cops the second Rosemary mentioned Cleo was missing because Harrison had his hands full making sure she didn’t pass out on the floor. “Hey, honey, stay with me. Cleo was mad when she got out of the car. Maybe she decided to go for a walk and then went back home instead of into school.” He was trying to think of what he would have done at that age; sneaking back home would have been high on his agenda—if his mom hadn’t lived on the land where she worked. She would have caught him for sure.

“Or maybe she went to a friend’s house,” Sage suggested. “I’ll drive home and check for her there.” She grabbed a pad of paper and a pen from Joel’s desk and placed them in Harrison’s hands. “You two think of everyone she knows, all of the places she’s liked best or asked to visit since she got here and we’ll have the police search them, talk to her friends, that kind of thing.”

“Right, of course.” Rosemary seemed to snap out of her shock a little, taking the paper from Harrison, then started scribbling furiously.

“Do we have a recent photo of Cleo?” Sage asked.

“I think Jeremy took some pictures when he did that wedding the other day—we were in the hall.” Harrison thought for a moment. “The girls probably have some too. I think Jonquil snapped a few on her phone while we were out making snowmen.” He had to swallow back the surge of panic rising inside him at the thought of that sweet little girl in the hands of a killer. He pulled out his phone and called Jonquil first. When she said she thought she had a good one, he asked her to send it to his phone. He started a list of what Cleo had been wearing that morning, as close as he could remember. Rosemary added to the list and Harrison smiled when he pulled up Jonquil’s picture of Cleo, hair sticking out of her cap, her bright eyes shining as she held a snowball like she was getting ready to launch it at the camera.

Harrison wondered if they would really need all of this for the deputy, but decided if not, Joel and Sage were being smart to keep them busy. He was slightly less freaked when he was doing something reasonably productive.

Deputy Oliver came in and had Harrison send the picture of Cleo to an email address to be disbursed to the rest of the department. He sent the description of the clothes she’d been wearing that morning and then grilled them for anything more they could add to the list of friends and locations that Rosemary could come up with. He also said they’d run an Amber Alert with Cleo’s and Mike’s descriptions.

“What else can I do?” Rosemary asked when the deputy folded away the paper.

“Keep your cell phones turned on and handy and we’ll call if we come up with anything else. It’s possible she’ll try to contact you, too,” he said. “You should probably go home and wait for her.”

Rosemary’s phone rang then and she fumbled a little with it before hitting send. “Hello? Oh, you’re sure? Okay. Can you wait for her? Thanks.” She looked disappointed when she hung up. “That was Sage, she said she’s been all through the house and Cleo’s not hiding out there. She said she’d stay in case Cleo goes back.”

 “Okay, we’ll work on this list and see what we come up with.” Deputy Oliver stood and moved to the door. “Don’t worry, we’ll do our best to find your daughter.”

It was only then that Harrison realized they had been referring to her as Rosemary’s daughter, even though they hadn’t announced that to the world—Cleo hadn’t made that decision yet. He stood and followed the deputy out the door. “I’m sorry, just a second, if you don’t mind?”

“What?” He looked impatient.

“Sorry, I know we need you out there but I just realized—Cleo found out a few weeks ago that Rosemary is her birth mother. She hasn’t told anyone yet, as far as we know. Can you refer to her to the others as the guardian for now? If it turns out she is hiding in someone’s basement or something, I don’t want her to be upset that we told the secret when we told her it was her decision.”

The deputy nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Thanks.” Harrison watched him walk away, then stood and let the worry and fear rush over him for a moment. He loved that little girl as much as he loved Rosemary and while he’d been trying to keep it together since the attack the previous night, he only managed it by pure determination. He took another deep breath and returned to Joel’s office. Rosemary was in there and she was going to need his support—so he needed to be able to give it.