Detection Mission

TWO

The panic that invaded Heidi’s voice made Lee wonder if she knew more than she was letting on. “You don’t want us to look for your family and friends? Don’t you want to know who you are?”

She dropped her head, staring at her lap. “Yes, of course, but...”

“But what?”

When she lifted her gaze to his, her beautiful brown eyes shimmered with tears. “Why was I running through the woods? How did I get hurt?” She touched her forehead. “How did I get this gash?”

“You think someone is after you?”

“I don’t know.” With a deep sigh, she settled back against the raised bed.

“So you don’t want us to put your picture out and see if anyone knows you?”

She kneaded her fingertips into her temples. “Not right now. I’d like to try and remember who I am first. I just can’t get past...” Nibbling on her bottom lip, she averted her eyes.

“Why you were running as if someone were after you?”

She nodded. “Earlier today, I had a dream—no, nightmare. Someone was chasing me and it looked like I was in a wooded area. He caught up with me and—” she connected with his gaze “—and he was trying to kill me. What if that’s true? What if that’s why I was running when you saw me?”

“The only two men we know were in the woods were these two I showed you.” He pointed to the redheaded man. “This guy is dead.” Then he tapped the photo of the guy with the bushy eyebrows. “Don Frist is in jail. If they were after you, you’re safe.”

But why would they have been after her in the first place? All the police’s quiet inquiries around town about her identity had hit a dead end. No one knew her and there wasn’t anyone fitting her description missing in Sagebrush. But could there have been a third man in the woods that day? They’d thought there might have been. Would she be able to tell them if she remembered?

“Give me a chance to recall first. The doctor said my memory could come back at any time.”

He didn’t want to tell her he’d already told his captain he was going to do some checking in the surrounding towns. He could still do that quietly, go through the police in those towns, and check their missing-person’s reports. For some reason he felt responsible for her. He’d captured her in the first place, when she tripped and fell while he chased her. She’d hit the ground hard. He’d always wondered if that was what had caused her to lose consciousness. “Have you talked to the doctor today?”

“Not yet, but last night he told me he wants to make sure the swelling has gone down. If so, he thought I could leave here in a day or so.”

“Where are you going to go?”

Her light brown eyes widened. “I don’t know. Did I have a purse with me?”

“No, but you had some money stuffed in your jean pocket.”

“How much?”

“Four hundred in twenties.”

Surprise flitted across her lovely features again. “Where did that money come from?”

“Good question. I don’t suppose you remember?”

She shook her head slowly.

“As far as the police are concerned, it’s your money and will be returned to you. I can bring it to you tomorrow.”

She met his eyes. “Will you wait until I leave here? I don’t want to keep that much money here.”

“Fine. In fact, Heidi, I’ll take you where you want to stay. Unless you have somewhere else to go, we would like you to stay in Sagebrush at least until you remember. In case you recall something about the men in the woods that day.” He paused. “Don Frist will stand trial, and if you could testify to his presence or that you saw him with the young boy, that would be great.”

Her forehead creased. “What if I don’t remember?”

“Don’t worry about that. I don’t like taking on extra worrying because it’s a waste of time. I figure I’ll leave the future in God’s hands. He’s very capable of taking care of it.”

“Any suggestions about where to stay?” she asked.

“I’ll check around and see what I can come up with.”

“I appreciate it, but I don’t want to cause you a lot of extra work...”

Her vulnerability poured off her and ensnared him. “It’s not. I know a few people who know a few others. We’ll find somewhere for you to stay.”

Her smile reached deep into her eyes and lit them. “I don’t know why you’re doing this, but thank you. I don’t know where to turn.”

“My pleasure, Heidi. Now I’d better leave you to get some rest. I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon to see when you’ll be released from the hospital.”

He strode from her room and headed for his SUV in the parking lot, his dog poking his head out the window. The second Lee opened his door, Kip barked, peeking his head over the front seat and licking him on the cheek.

“Glad to see me? I wasn’t gone long.” He started the engine and rolled up the window. “Lie down. We’ve got a mission. To find Heidi a place to stay.”

* * *

The next day Lee paused in the doorway of Molly’s kitchen at his boarding house, a large Victorian home near downtown, a block off Sagebrush Boulevard. He took in a deep whiff of her coffee, the best in town. Two things that appealed to him about the place besides its quaint atmosphere were its owner, Molly Givens, like a second mother to him, and a large fenced backyard for Kip.

At the sink rinsing some dishes, his landlady glanced over her shoulder. “Did you bring your mug?”

“Yep. Wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to have some of your coffee. It sure beats what I make myself.”

“It smelled like you were brewing burned rubber. Here, pour yourself a big cup. I certainly don’t need to drink any more. Doctor’s orders. Watching my caffeine intake.”

Lee filled his travel mug, relishing the aroma wafting from the glass carafe. “I seem to remember you talking a few weeks ago about fixing up those couple of rooms on the third floor and taking in another boarder. Are you still interested in doing that?”

The kindhearted older woman dried her hands and faced him. “What are you up to?”

“I know someone who needs a place to stay while she recovers.”

“Recovers from what?”

“She was injured. A head trauma. She has amnesia. She can’t even remember her name.”

Molly quirked a brow. “That lady you found out in the Lost Woods?”

“Yes, but it’s not common knowledge. How’d you find out about her being here?” He should have realized if anyone knew what was going on in Sagebrush, it would be Molly. She didn’t have to work, but she’d been lonely after her husband died five years ago, and she’d opened her second floor for two tenants. She was a people person and couldn’t see living in a huge Victorian house by herself. He’d been glad he’d snatched up the first apartment, and shortly after that another coworker had taken the second one available. Mark Moore, a fellow police officer who worked the graveyard shift, lived across the hall from him.

“Lorna Danfield spilled the beans. We’re good friends. From church.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot. Lorna was the one who reminded me of your empty third floor. I should have remembered you two take care of the flowers for church.” Lorna was the secretary at work and was always looking out for the officers and dogs that were in the K-9 Unit.

“I’ve been talking of doing something. Now is as good a time as any. When will your lady friend be getting out of the hospital?”

Lady friend? That made what he was doing sound like more than someone helping another. And that was all this was. After his breakup with his fiancée, Alexa, eight months ago, he certainly wasn’t ready to jump into a relationship beyond casual. “I’ll find out today, but I think in the next day or so.”

Molly blew out a deep breath. “There’s a lot of work to do in a short time.”

“I think I can get some of the guys from the unit to help. We could work on it in the evenings.”

“And if she gets out before that, I have a spare bed in my apartment.”

“If she stays for a while, I don’t know how far her money will stretch to cover expenses.” Lee dumped two spoonfuls of sugar into his coffee.

“That’s okay. She’s in need.”

“Thanks—I knew I could count on you. She feels alone.”

“I can imagine.” Molly set her hand on her hip. “Well, maybe not really. I’m who I am because of my memories. It would be awful not to remember anything.”

“Some people might like a clean slate.”

“A do over? As far as the Lord is concerned, every day is a new beginning in His eyes. He forgives and forgets.”

Lee shifted under the intensity of Molly’s gaze.

“Let what Alexa did go, Lee.”

“She wasn’t who she appeared to be. I’m a cop. I’m trained to read people. She had me totally fooled.”

“The only one you’re hurting is yourself.”

“How am I supposed to just forgive and forget?” he ground out. “She slept with another man and is having his baby. We were talking about getting married the whole time she was seeing this guy—a fellow cop.”

“At least Dan works on a different shift.”

“Yeah, but we still run into each other.” Lee glanced at the clock over the stove. “I’ve got to go. Work calls.”

“You might have a hard time pulling Kip away from Eliza this morning. They’ve been playing and chasing each other around the backyard.”

“I think Kip has his eye on the Malinois. They both like to herd and try to with each other.”

When he stepped outside, he spied the two dogs lying together under a maple tree. Kip saw him, jumped up and hurried toward him. Eliza, Mark’s dog, raced toward him, too. She looked similar to a small-size German shepherd with tan fur and a black muzzle. He greeted Kip in his usual manner, then patted Eliza.

“Gotta leave your girlfriend, Kip. We’ve got a job. We’re heading for the Lost Woods. Captain wants us to start a grid search of it, see if we can find any more bodies. Several people are missing.”

Kip rubbed up against Eliza, yelped once then loped toward the gate. With one last glance at Eliza, her head tilted, her ears perked forward, Kip barked again as though to tell him to get moving. There were times he felt the dogs they worked with understood every word they said to them. As they were all highly trained and intelligent, he wouldn’t be surprised if they did.

“Sorry, girl, gotta take him to work,” Lee said before jogging toward his dog.

In the driveway he opened the back of his SUV for Kip. “We have to make a quick stop at headquarters, then to work.”

Kip lay down, putting his head between his two stretched out legs, his tail wagging.

“I figured you’d go for that. See all your buddies.”

Ten minutes later, Lee snapped a leash on Kip and they entered through the back of the one-story red brick police station where the K-9 Unit was housed. Lorna Danfield, the secretary for the K-9 Unit, sat at her desk near Captain Slade McNeal’s office.

When Lee covered the distance to her, Kip planted himself right next to her chair and waited for her to acknowledge him. She finished a call then turned to lavish attention on Kip. He loved it and always liked spending time with her.

“Is the captain in his office?” Lee asked while his partner enjoyed Lorna’s pampering.

“Yes, he’s expecting you. I’ll take care of Kip while you go inside.”

He started to leave, rotated back and said, “Thanks for the suggestion about renovating Molly’s third floor for our Jane Doe. I mean for Heidi.”

“She remembered her name?”

“No, but she has a locket with that name in it so that’s what she’s decided to call herself.”

“That poor dear. I’ll have to pay her a visit once she settles in at Molly’s.”

“I haven’t asked her to move in yet. I will today after work. She may have other plans.”

“Where’s the young lady going to go? She doesn’t know who she is or know anyone.” Kip bumped Lorna’s hand, and she scratched behind his ears.

“True, but she might not appreciate a stranger coming in and planning her life.”

“Or she’ll appreciate it because she doesn’t know what her options are right now.” The secretary nodded at Lee. Go see the captain. I hear you’re gonna have a busy couple of days.”

“Yeah, a thousand-acre wooded area will take some time to cover properly. With the discovery of Ned Adams’s body, Captain thinks there could be others out there. With all that has happened lately connected to the Lost Woods, it could very likely be a burial ground for those others like Pauly Keevers and a couple of low-level criminals like Adams.”

“If any dog can find a dead body, it’ll be Kip.”

He winked. “You’re just partial, but I agree with you.”

Lee knocked on his captain’s door then stuck his head into the office. “You wanted to see me?”

“Yes, I know you heard Pauly Keevers is missing. No one has seen him in the last three days. Normally with someone like Keevers I wouldn’t be overly concerned. He’s been known to go off drinking and disappear for days. I hope that’s the case here.”

“But you don’t think it is?”

Slade shook his head. “I wanted to emphasize how important it is we find Pauly. The chatter in the criminal community is that he was killed for talking to the police. Now no one is talking. With Adams’s body found in the Lost Woods, people are wondering who else is out there. Adams wasn’t a snitch but he worked for Charles Ritter.”

“The lawyer who was arrested for being involved in the murder of Eva Billows’s parents?”

“That very one. I’m sending Austin and Justice with you to search the woods. Austin has something of Pauly’s that he’ll give Justice to track him while you look for any other buried bodies. Austin has already checked Pauly’s hangouts in town yesterday afternoon. As I said, no one has seen the man in several days. Justice had his scent leaving Pauly’s apartment but lost it at the street.”

“Maybe he got into a car.”

“Pauly doesn’t own one so it was someone else’s. Where did they go? We owe Pauly. He gave us our first big lead about what’s going on with Rio’s kidnapping and my dad’s beating.”

“Just so you know, I’m asking our Jane Doe—who will be going by Heidi—to stay at Molly’s boarding house. That way I can keep an eye on her and maybe help her remember what happened to her.” He exhaled slowly. “It could be connected to this case. She was there that day Brady was found. What did she see? We still think there’s another guy out there involved in the kidnapping.”

“Good thinking. Let me know if she agrees.” The captain picked up his pen and scribbled something on the paper in front of him.

“I’m asking a couple of guys from the unit to help me fix up Molly’s third floor for Heidi over the next few nights. You’re invited. Six tonight. I’ll supply the pizzas.”

“I’ll be there. Give me something else to think about other than this case, my missing dog and my dad still in a coma. At least Heidi came out of hers. Maybe that means Dad will soon.”

When he left the captain’s office, he peered at Kip and knew how he’d feel if anything happened to his dog. They were partners. He’d feel the loss. At least Slade had Rio’s sire to fill in the gap. But that still wasn’t the same.

* * *

Using the grid pattern, Lee followed Kip, on a long leash, in the Lost Woods. So far, nothing. Austin and his bloodhound Justice hadn’t found anything, either. He paused for a few seconds to get his bearings and scanned the tall trees that shaded the forest floor as if it were late afternoon. Up ahead a ray of sunlight streamed through the foliage as though pinpointing one spot.

His cell rang. He pulled it off his belt and answered, “Calloway here.”

“I found a wrecked car on the outskirts of the woods on the north side by the highway,” Austin said, then gave him the coordinates.

“I’m not far. I’ll be right there.” Lee hung up and noted his position on his GPS, then set out in a jog toward the area.

Ten minutes later, he arrived at the dark green Buick sedan, which was partially covered by branches and greenery. The front end was smashed. One tire was shredded as though there had been a blowout. The air bag in the driver’s seat had gone off, lying limp now, a fine white powder all over the place. From the small ditch it was halfway lodged in, the car sat at a thirty-degree angle.

“Someone tried to hide it.” Detective Austin Black came around from the other side.

“That’s what it looks like to me. Have you called in the license number?”

“Yeah. It’s registered to a William Peterson from San Antonio. Where is he? Was it a stolen car? Captain is sending out a couple of crime-scene techs to process it, maybe they’ll be able to pull some fingerprints. Then we can tow it to the police impound.” Austin hesitated. “He wants us to continue our search. Do you think this was one of the kidnappers’s cars? That this Peterson is involved in the crime syndicate?”

Or was this how Heidi ended up in the woods that day? “Maybe, but if so, why would he leave it here in light of what went down in the woods a couple of weeks ago? It could have just been abandoned by Peterson. It looks pretty damaged, and it’s an old car. He might have decided to walk away from it.” As he said that to Austin, Lee kept picturing Heidi pushing open the driver’s door that was still ajar, then stumbling out. Disoriented. Hurting from the wreck. That would explain her injuries. “Maybe our mystery woman is connected to this car.” But why would she attempt to hide it?

“That thought already occurred to me, and the captain is looking into it.”

“If she’s tied to this car and Peterson, I’d love to be able to tell Heidi some good news,” Lee said. “At least give her a name and some facts about her life. Maybe be able to contact family and friends.”

“She’s going by Heidi?”

Lee nodded at his teammate. “Yeah, she didn’t want to use Jane Doe.”

“I don’t blame her. So she hasn’t remembered anything?”

“No. Do you see any evidence in the car?” Lee approached the vehicle, careful not to disturb any footprints. But with the dense leafage on the ground, he didn’t see any.

“Not from the passenger’s side.”

Lee peered inside from the open driver’s door and spied a cloth stuffed between the seats. After donning gloves, he reached in and pulled out a bloodied cloth. “Whose blood?”

“Maybe William Peterson?”

Or Heidi? Did a car wreck cause her injuries? It fit. Lee took out an evidence bag and dropped the cloth in it, then pulled out his cell and called the captain to report the development.

Will the name William Peterson mean anything to Heidi?

“You staying until the crime-scene techs show up?” Lee asked Austin.

“Yeah. No use both of us standing around waiting. But I thought it might be a good idea to have Kip check this area in light of the car being found. Something might have gone down here.”

“I agree. We’ll work our way out from here, then resume our search where we left off when you called.”

An hour later, Lee determined the area surrounding the car was clear of any dead bodies and trekked deeper into the woods to the last place Kip and he had searched. He gave his dog a long lead on his leash and Kip went to work, nose to ground. As the border collie went back and forth through the forest, Lee kept thinking about the car Austin had found and couldn’t help wondering if it was connected to Heidi. As soon as possible, he would delve into William Peterson’s life and see if Heidi and Peterson knew each other, because even if she didn’t remember who he was, there could be a link between the two.

* * *

As the door to her hospital room opened, Heidi tensed, scrunching the sheet up in her hands. Nurse Gail entered with her medicine she needed to take. Heidi drew in a composing breath, causing pain to stab through her chest. One of her ribs had been cracked and was healing, but it still hurt her when she inhaled too deeply. The list of her injuries from minor to major only confirmed something bad had gone down right before the police found her.

“Hi, how are you this afternoon? The earlier shift told me the doctor is releasing you if your lab work comes back okay.” Gail gave her the little cup with her pills in it, then poured her some water and handed that to her.

“Yes, that’s what he said to me, but...” What am I going to do? Where am I going?

“But? Are you concerned about not being well enough to leave?”

“No.” She’d examined the dark recesses of her mind until she had a headache. “I’m not sure what to do next.”

“I can understand that, but officer Calloway called earlier when you were down in X-ray to see if you were going to be discharged today.”

“He did?”

“Sorry I didn’t get the message to you sooner. This has been a busy afternoon. He’s coming right after work. He has a place for you to stay, at least temporarily.”

In the darkness that surrounded her, there was a ray of light. “He mentioned he would ask around.”

“When Lee says he’s going to do something, he does.”

Maybe they were in a relationship. Gail was an attractive redhead about Lee’s age. “You’ve known him long?”

“We went to school together. He’s a good friend of my husband, Harry. He’s a trainer at the K-9 Training Center next to the police headquarters. Harry got Lee interested in becoming a K-9 officer. He was a natural. Lee is like Harry. They’re big animal lovers.”

Did she have a pet in her other life? Was it left alone because she wasn’t there to take care of it? “I remember hearing barking in the woods.”

“You do? That’s good. It was probably the K-9 Unit searching for Brady. By the time Lee found you, the kid had been rescued.” Gail lifted the tray of medication she had. “I need to make my rounds.”

Heidi scanned the almost-bare hospital room with no flowers or cards. It hammered home how alone she truly was. Even sitting in bed, she had little to think about other than trying to remember and meeting a dark screen. It would be good to get out of here and try to build some kind of life for herself while she waited for her memory to return. If it returned.

The least she could do was try to make herself presentable to one of the few people she knew. Maybe she should dress. She went to the closet and checked its contents. A set of clothes was hanging up. They must be hers, but she didn’t remember them—buying them or wearing them.

Inside the bathroom, she quickly donned the jeans, which fit her perfectly, and the gray fleece sweatshirt. The small amount of energy she expended dressing herself tired her out. Apparently she wasn’t going to bounce back as fast as she wished.

When she came out of the bathroom, she glimpsed a movement out of the corner of her eye right before a beefy hand covered her mouth and nose.

“The third time is the charm. Good thing I’m a patient man.”