She's Not There - Madison Marla (читаем книги онлайн TXT) 📗

TJ looked down at her. “Wonder how Eric feels about kids?”

Eric, who’d just come in from Texas a few minutes earlier, sat at the island when TJ and Jeff walked in carrying the sleeping child. He looked up from his coffee, eyebrows raised in question.

TJ looked at Eric. “It’s a girl.”

His expression giving away nothing, he got up and studied the girl in Jeff’s arms. “About five years old. Neglected, right?”

“Someone left her alone in an unlocked apartment with no food. We found her there when we went to what we thought was going to be our appointment. Someone must have given us a phony address.”

“Put her in your room, TJ. The sofa opens into a bed and the linens are in the chest. I’ll look her over and you can get her settled. Then we’ll talk.”

Eric had a bottle of brandy on the counter when they came back into the kitchen. His expression looked grim. “All right. I’m a doctor if the kid needs medical attention and we have plenty of room here. If we’re able to help out a neglected kid, that feels like good news compared to everything else going on.”

TJ smiled, relieved. “Right, taking care of a kid will be good for us.”

He looked doubtful, his eyes dark. “Have you talked to Lisa about this?”

“Nah. Jeff wanted to, but I knew what she’d say. The kid would have been put in a group home, maybe even in detention temporarily until the system could find a foster.”

He raised the bottle and poured himself a generous drink, offering it to TJ and Jeff when he’d finished. “Technically, you’re kidnappers.” He wiped his face with his hands. “And the rest of us are aiding and abetting.”

An hour later when Lisa came downstairs to make tea, Eric was sitting on the couch, staring into a crackling fire. “You’re back.”

He acknowledged her presence with a weak smile.

She put water on to boil, then sat next to him. “Eric, we’re all so sorry about Danielle. We feel like we’re the ones who put her in harm’s way.”

“If I’d been honest with her from the start, she’d still be alive.”

“Eric, no one could have foreseen this. No one is to blame but the person who did this to her. We can’t forget that.”

He turned to her. “You know he meant it to be you. I can’t keep you safe anymore.”

“Keeping us safe isn’t your responsibility. You brought us to your home to protect us. It’s possible Danielle’s murder had nothing to do with us. Someone could have been after her—a stalker, maybe.”

He rubbed his eyes. “You’re right. Maybe the cops will get some answers for us.”

“You should try to get some sleep.”

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

42             

Sunday morning, unhappy with how TJ and Jeff had handled the situation with the child, Lisa grudgingly acquiesced to let TJ take the problem to Conlin. She wasn’t sure he could smooth it over for them, but it made sense to ask for his help since they’d found the girl in Milwaukee.

Lisa worried Jeff felt too responsible for the child. She knew he hoped that the Milwaukee Department of Health and Human Services would keep him informed of their progress in finding a good home for the girl even though she’d warned him it would be unlikely.

Eric announced, “I’m going to the Waukesha Police Department to be interviewed, then I’ll go to an office supply place to pick up a couple whiteboards. We’ll be ready to categorize the women’s habits.”

Lisa poured pancake batter onto a large griddle. “Don’t you think that should wait until they find out more about Eddie Wysecki?”

“He ain’t our guy,” yelled TJ from across the room, where she sat reading the Sunday paper. “If he was, there’d have been a lot more bodies in that cellar. He’s just a dumbass West Allis barkeep. Where’s he gonna stash all those bodies?”

Jeff pointed quietly to the girl, motioning for TJ to watch her language.

“Sure she’s heard worse,” TJ grumbled.

“I agree with TJ,” said Lisa. “I don’t think he’s our killer either. From what we’ve heard about him, I’m not sure he would have the wherewithal to ferret out abused women, especially such attractive ones.”

“You’re right. The women on our short list are all hot. Wouldn’t have had nothin’ to do with a loser like him,” TJ added.

The child turned out to be a needed distraction. And Danielle’s murder was having the opposite effect Lisa thought it would; it had made everyone even more determined to finish what they’d started. She’d have to try again to find someone who knew the woman who had led them to Raoul’s apartment. That someone may know where the child belonged.

After they’d eaten, Eric said, “I know all of you hoped to be back home for Thanksgiving, but I think we need to stay here.

The room went silent. “I’ll pick up a big turkey today. Lisa, you can give me a grocery list and I’ll bring home anything you need. And TJ, please invite your sister and her kids. They can stay the night if they want. I’m going to put on a second guard for the weekend. But you’d still have to warn your sister about the risks—even with the beefed up security, they’d have to stay inside.”

Lisa wasn’t sure about the wisdom of bringing anyone into their midst. With Tyler out of her life, and Paige not coming home, celebrating the holiday at Eric’s would be better than being alone. To hell with fear.

TJ drove to Richard’s apartment early in the morning, hoping a visit would pacify him. As long as their names stayed out of the Ventura woman’s murder story, there’d be no need to tell him anything—yet. She wanted her moment, the big moment when she could drop the evidence in his lap–evidence of a crime that both Richard and that prick Wilson refused to acknowledge.

When she arrived, she found him sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper. He stood when he saw her and took her in his arms, his kiss warm and tentative, almost questioning.

It had been too long since they’d been together. TJ wanted to go to the bedroom and have hot sex immediately, with the ulterior motive of delaying any unwanted discussion. Breaking from the kiss, Richard picked her up and carried her from the room.

Too late, she remembered her knife wound. She should have had Eric take the frickin’ stitches out, then it wouldn’t have stood out so much. As TJ took off her top, Richard’s eyes went from her breasts right to where she’d been knifed. His eyebrows lifted. “What happened to you?”

TJ thought fast. “Oh, got caught on a nail. I was helpin’ Janeen move some old boards out of her garage. It’s nothing.’”

“That many stitches, it must have been some nail. I’ll try to be gentle,” he said as he helped her out of her panties. She was saved from further discussion by the passion that quickly overcame them.

Their lovemaking had an intensity brought on by weeks of abstinence. TJ gasped as he entered her, all the fervor they’d enjoyed in the past adding to the pleasure of the moment. His thrusts were slow, then urgent with built-up passion. TJ felt her tension dissipate, wondering why it had been so long since they’d enjoyed each other like this—but the return of reality interrupted her bliss when she remembered her purpose in maintaining her distance.

Hours later, wearing bathrobes and reading the paper, they decided to stay in for the night.

TJ felt Richard watching her. “What?”

“Nothing, just looking. How’s your sister doing?”

Here it comes. “She’s fine.”

“Are you going back there tomorrow night?”

TJ remembered her cover story had been staying at Janeen’s. “Not sure yet.” Where is he going with this?

“I thought since you usually spend Thanksgiving with her, you might stay there this week.”

He’s fishing. She’d play it cool. “Yeah, probably. But we got invited to one of her friends for Thanksgiving. We won’t hafta cook. How about you, goin’ to your folks’ place?”