The Tempted Page 11

  “But she’s so strong,” Tess said in surprise.

  “She’s strong because she’s had to be,” Abby said grimly. “I don’t know if you know this or not, but Sadie wasn’t the only child Naomi lost.”

  Tess felt a welling of compassion inside her chest. “She had another child?”

  Abby tucked a strand of dark hair behind one ear. “Do you remember the double tornadoes that ripped through here fifteen years ago? Homes, businesses, schools—all destroyed in the space of a heartbeat. Twenty-three people were killed, and I don’t know how many more were injured or lost their homes. Jefferson County was declared a disaster area.”

  “I remember,” Tess said. “Mama woke me up, and we went over to our neighbor’s storm cellar. The roof of their house was torn off, just peeled back like the lid on a tin can, but our house right next door was hardly touched.”

  “Funny how it happens that way sometimes,” Abby mused. “Anyway, my mother and I were gone that night. I was in a basketball tournament down in Jackson, and we got stranded because of the bad weather. Naomi was home alone, and she went into labor. The power and telephone lines were all down, so she had to drive herself to the hospital. The roads were a mess, like a war zone, she said. She had to stop times to clear debris out of the road before she could even get through. By the time she got to the hospital, she was hemorrhaging pretty badly, but they were so short-staffed with all the emergencies, she didn’t get treatment right away. She almost died. Her babies—”

  Tess caught her breath. “Babies?”

  “Sadie was a twin, Tess. The other child, another little girl, died that night.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  Abby shrugged. “Not many people do. With everything that happened that night, a stillborn baby got lost in all the other tragedies. After a while, hardly anyone remembered, and Naomi has never been able to talk about it.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Tess said again.

  Abby nodded. “I know you are. And I’m not telling you this to try and diminish your loss. I guess what I’m trying to say is that people survive some pretty terrible things. Somehow they find the strength to get through it, and you will, too.”

  Tess took a tissue out of her pocket and wiped her eyes. “I’m not sure I want to get through it.”

  “Just give yourself some time,” Abby advised. She paused then said apologetically, “Look, I know you’ve been over this already with Lieutenant Conyers, but he’s asked me to talk to you again. You feel up to going over it one more time? You may remember something else?”

  Tess nodded numbly. “Where do you want me to start?”

  “At the beginning, when you first got home. You mentioned that you already felt uneasy before you went inside. Think back, Tess. Was there some reason why you felt that way? Something out of the ordinary that you maybe noticed just in passing? A car parked down the road? A window left open in your house? Anything?”

  Tess shook her head. “No, there wasn’t anything like that. I would have noticed a strange car. My house is the only one on this road. And as for windows—” She shrugged. “I didn’t leave any open. And I’m sure my doors were locked. I’m pretty careful about that sort of thing. I don’t know how someone got inside.”

  “There’s no sign of a forced entry. Who all has a key to your house?”

  “Just my mother and my friend, Melanie Kent.”

  “Melanie Kent works at Fairhaven, doesn’t she?”

  Tess nodded. “She’s the librarian.”

  “You two have been friends for a long time, I take it.”

  “Since we were kids.”

  Abby paused almost imperceptibly. “According to the statement she gave, Melanie was one of the last people to talk to Emily before she disappeared.”

  “I guess that’s true. She talked to Emily every afternoon. The two of them are very close.” Uneasiness prickled at Tess’s nerve endings. “Why do you want to know about Melanie?”

  Abby met her gaze in the darkness. “I noticed a wheelchair ramp out back. Does she come out here often?”

  Anger flared inside Tess. “Melanie loves Emily as if she were her own daughter. If you’re insinuating—”

  Abby put up a hand. “Take it easy, Tess. I’m not insinuating anything. These questions are purely routine. You know that.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s just—”

  “Hard.”

  Tess nodded miserably. “Every facet of my life has been poked and prodded, and we still don’t have a clue who took her. We still don’t know where my daughter is.”

  “Just hang with me a little longer, okay? I know it’s difficult, but these questions are important. Now, I want you to think back to when you first went inside the house. Try to picture it in your mind and tell me everything that happened. Just walk me through it.”

  Tess closed her eyes and did as Abby told her. She recounted in painstaking detail how she’d gone into Emily’s bedroom, how she’d heard the noise, found the ribbon, then rushed outside to investigate.

  “That’s it,” she said with a helpless shrug. “That’s all I remember.”

  “You’re sure you didn’t get a look at the suspect? Even just a glance. Think hard, Tess. Did you get any kind of impression at all?”

  “No,” Tess said, clenching her hands into fists. “I wish I had. You don’t know how badly I wish I could give you a physical description or something else to go on, but it was too dark in the garage. I didn’t see anything.”

  “You couldn’t tell if the suspect was male or female?”

  “It could have been anyone.” Even someone she knew, Tess thought with a shudder. “All I saw was a shadow at the end of the metal rack.”

  “All right, just think about that for a minute. Picture the shadow in your mind. Was it tall, short, thin, heavy-set?”

  “I couldn’t tell. It wasn’t like a…a silhouette or an outline or anything specific. It was just a shadow, a…darkness. I didn’t even know it was a person until I saw movement.”

  “How did it move?” Abby stressed. “Fast? Slow? Toward you? Away from you?”

  Tess shook her head helplessly.

  “Did the suspect say anything? You didn’t hear a voice? What about a smell? Think now. Cologne? Hair spray? Anything like that?”

  “No…”

  “You don’t sound so sure,” Abby said sharply. “Did you remember something?”

  Tess closed her eyes, conjuring the shadow, that indistinct shape she’d glimpsed seconds before the shelf had tumbled toward her. There had been something else right after she’d fallen. An impression she couldn’t quite put her finger on. A sound? A scent? Or was that fleeting memory only her imagination, induced by the blow to her head?

  “Tell me,” Abby coaxed.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Tess, it’s very important that you not hold anything back.”

  “I’m not. I just can’t remember…”

  “Please try.”

  “I am!” She dropped her head in her hands in frustration. “I know I should have paid more attention, but it all happened so fast, and all I could think about was finding Emily. I don’t know if the shadow was tall. I don’t know if it was a man or woman. I don’t know if there was a scent. The only thing I remember sensing clearly was…fear.”

  “Your fear?”

  Tess shook her head slowly. “The kidnapper’s fear. I wanted to kill him, and I think he knew it. I took a hammer down from the wall, and I was prepared to do whatever I had to do to make him tell me where Emily was.”

  “I believe you,” Abby said in a strangely subdued voice. “Nothing is missing from the house besides Emily’s teddy bear?”

  Tess frowned. “I can’t be sure, but I searched through the house when I first heard the noise, and I didn’t see anything out of place except for the ribbon. It must have fallen off Emily’s bear, and the kidnapper didn’t notice.”

  “That’s one possibility.”

  Tess turned h
er head, meeting Abby’s gaze. “What do you mean?”

  Abby hesitated, as if she wanted to say something more but didn’t think she should. She gave a brief nod toward the house. “Let’s just wait and see if they find anything.”

  As if on cue, Dave Conyers stuck his head out the front door. “Abby? Can I see you inside?”

  Tess started to rise, too, but Abby put a hand on her shoulder. “You stay put. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Uneasiness gnawed at Tess as she watched the two detectives disappear inside the house. They’d found something. Something bad. Tess was certain of it. That’s why Abby hadn’t wanted her to follow them inside.

  Shivering uncontrollably, Tess got up and walked over to the door. It was slightly ajar and she pushed it open, until she could hear the muted voices of the detectives inside.

  “I thought the note was probably a hoax, but now I’m not so sure,” Conyers was saying.

  “Maybe the kidnapper is sending messages to let her know that Emily is okay,” Abby said doubtfully.

  Conyers snorted. “Kidnappers aren’t usually so considerate. I’ll tell you what I think. The son of a bitch is playing head games with her, is what I think. Getting his kicks out of watching her suffer. The kid was probably dead after the first twenty-four hours—”

  Tess felt herself go almost completely still except for a buzzing inside her head. “No!”

  Both detectives spun toward her, and she saw in a flash the severity of their features, the pity in their eyes. The reality of what they knew on their faces.

  Dizziness weakened her legs, and Tess clutched frantically at the door frame. A crushing weight pressed down on her, and she felt as if she were being suffocated. As if she were trapped in some horrible nightmare where she could neither speak nor move. She was paralyzed to help herself or her daughter. All she could think, all she could do was utter the same inane prayer over and over inside her head. No. Please, no.

  Abby was beside her in seconds. She took Tess’s arm, trying to lead her inside. “Just take it easy,” she murmured. “Let’s get you over to the couch.”

  Tess mustered the strength to shrug her off. “I don’t want to sit. I’m all right.” She put a hand to her neck, as if she could somehow claw away the vise that had gripped her by the throat. Emily! Oh, my baby!

  “Then let’s step outside and let you get some air,” Abby said.

  Tess resisted even that. Her gaze locked with Lieutenant Conyers. “She’s not dead. I would know it if she were.”

  He shuffled uncomfortably under the force of her stare. “Look, we’re just exploring every possibility here,” he said defensively. “It’s our job. We have to face facts—”

  “You’ve thought that all along, haven’t you?” Tess demanded. “You never believed you’d find her alive. That’s why the search has been scaled down so quickly. That’s why the volunteer center is being shut down. You gave up on her right from the first.”

  “That’s not true,” Abby said firmly. She took Tess’s arms. “Listen to me, Tess. Until we know differently, Emily is alive to us. She will remain alive. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “I understand what you’re saying,” Tess said numbly. “But I wonder if you really believe it.”

  Without another word, she turned and walked back outside. She couldn’t listen to them any longer. Couldn’t bear to hear the defeat in their voices, to see the pity in their eyes. They thought Emily was dead. They’d thought that all along, but Tess knew better. If Emily was gone, she would know it. She would feel it. Emily wasn’t lost to her forever. She couldn’t be.

  “Dear God,” she whispered. “Don’t let it be true.”

  Holding back sobs, she stumbled across the front yard toward her truck. As she reached the driveway, a car pulled in behind her Explorer, and headlights caught her in the face. For a moment, she stood frozen, stunned, not able to move for fear she would collapse if she did.

  Someone got out of the car. She heard the door slam, and then, as if from a great distance, someone called her name.

  But Tess couldn’t answer. There was a terrible roaring in her ears, a tightness in her chest that stole her breath. The ground swayed, and as if in slow motion, her legs crumpled beneath her.

  JARED CAUGHT HER before she hit the ground. He eased her back carefully on the grass, kneeling beside her. Even in the darkness, he could see the paleness of her face, the fragile look of her features. It was a hot night, but her skin felt cold. Too cold. He wondered if she’d gone into shock.

  What on earth had happened to her tonight? He glanced at the police cars parked out front, the lights blazing inside the house. Fear gripped his heart as he stared down at her in the moonlight. “Tess? Tess! Can you hear me?”

  Her eyes were closed, but a single tear slipped from the corner of her lashes.

  “Tess, talk to me. What’s wrong?”

  Her head moved back and forth, as if she was in the throes of some terrible nightmare. “It’s not true,” she whispered. “It can’t be true.”

  Dread seeped over Jared like a cold, dank fog. “What can’t be true? What happened? Is it Emily?” Please, no, he silently prayed.

  Tess opened her eyes and gazed up at him. For a moment, she seemed unable to focus, then she grabbed his hand, squeezing it hard between her own. “They think she’s dead, but she’s not. She’s not dead, Jared. I would know if she were. Do you understand? I would know.”

  “Tess—” He was helpless to know what to say to her, how to comfort her. The loss of a child was something he couldn’t begin to comprehend, and yet the moment he’d spotted the police cars in front of her house, a terrible anguish had seized him. He didn’t know the child. She was a stranger to him, but she was Tess’s daughter. And there was a time when she might have been his.

  Tess struggled to sit up, but Jared tried to ease her back down. “Take it easy, honey.”

  “I have to find her.” Her movements frantic, she clutched at his hands to pull herself up. “I have to go look for her.”

  They both rose to their feet, and Jared put his hands on her arms to steady her. “Maybe we should go inside—”

  “No. No!” She glanced up into his face. “You said you’d help me. You said you’d do anything—”

  “I will, but Tess—”

  “Then help me find her. Help me look for her.”

  The desperation in her voice tore at Jared’s resolve. He knew that he should back away, let her go, get out of her life. But he could no more ignore her grief and pain than he could have stopped the beating of his heart. Without thinking, he pulled her to him, holding her close. “Tess, Tess.”

  She cried silently, her tears soaking into his shirt. She was rigid in his arms, unyielding, but she didn’t move away. He buried his hand in her hair, holding her against him, trying to offer some comfort. No matter what had happened between them in the past, he couldn’t remain immune to her pain, to any mother’s pain, at the news that a missing child might never be coming back.

  But this wasn’t just any mother. This was Tess.

  “Please help me find her,” she whispered.

  “I will.” At that moment, Jared didn’t think there was anything he wouldn’t do for her, but she might be asking the impossible. He closed his eyes, stroking her hair. “I’ll help you, Tess. Whatever you want.”

  She drew back, wiping her face with her hand, and he offered her his handkerchief. She accepted it gratefully, dabbing at her eyes. “She’s not dead. Do you believe me?”

  “Yes.” Then why did he suddenly feel as if his heart had been ripped in two? He swept her hair from her face. “I believe you, but you have to tell me what happened here tonight. I need to know…what to do.”

  She turned and glanced over her shoulder at the house. “Someone was here.”

  Her voice was calm now and steady, which chilled him as much as her tears had. “What do you mean, someone was here?”

  She turned back to him, her hazel eyes
shadowed with…not fear, he thought. Something worse than fear. “Someone was in the house when I got home. He took Emily’s teddy bear.”

  “He? You saw him?”

  She shook her head. “He. She. It. The kidnapper.”

  The hair at the back of Jared’s neck stood on end. “Are you saying the kidnapper was here? In your house?”

  “He took Emily’s teddy bear,” she said again. “It’s her favorite toy. She can’t sleep without it. The police think he took it because he’s playing mind games with me. They think he did it to torment me because…because Emily’s already dead.”

  The implication hit Jared with the force of a freight train. Someone was deliberately tormenting Tess. Playing mind games, she said. If that was the case, then Emily wasn’t the only one in danger.

  “Let me see what I can find out,” he said grimly. “Will you come back up to the house with me?”

  She pulled away from him. “No. I can’t go back in there. I can’t face them. I don’t want to see…what’s in their eyes.”

  “All right,” Jared said, reluctant to leave her alone. “Just stand on the front porch and wait for me. Will you do that?” When she hesitated, he tightened his grip on her arms. “Please. Just wait for me. Then I’ll go with you. We’ll go look for Emily together. Wherever you want to go.”

  “You’re only doing it to humor me,” she said softly. “But I don’t care. I don’t want to be alone. Not tonight.”

  Jared wanted nothing more than to put his arms around her again, to tell her she never had to be alone. But that might be yet another promise he couldn’t keep.

  SERGEANT CROSS WAS with a group of cops huddled in the living room, but Jared didn’t wait to be noticed. He strode over to where she stood and took her arm. “Sergeant Cross? May I have a word with you?”

  Her startled glance went from his face to his hand on her arm and then slowly back up to his face. Very deliberately she removed her arm from his grasp. “Mr. Spencer, isn’t it? The governor’s friend?”

  One of the cops snickered, but Jared ignored him. “I need to talk to you.”

  “Hey, Abby, new boyfriend?” one of the deputies jeered.