Stranger in Town

CHAPTER 26





“I’m very sorry to bother you, Mr. Tate,” I said. “Are you doing okay? How’s Lily?”

Noah Tate stood in the doorway of his house looking like he hadn’t had any sleep since the last time I saw him.

“Lily’s with my sister.”

“Is there anything I can do for you?” I said.

He shook his head.

“What about dinner?” I said. “Have you had anything to eat?”

“I can’t hold anything down. I haven’t been able to since…”

He hung his head, shielding his eyes with his hands.

“I’ve lost my wife, my daughter—there’s nothing left. Nothing.”

“You still have Lily,” I said. “And you have me. I haven’t given up on finding Savannah. No matter what the outcome, I intend to keep looking.”

“I don’t think I can take one more death in my family, Miss Monroe.”

“But we don’t know what’s happened—”

“Please,” he said, placing his weak hand on my shoulder, “I need to be alone for a while.”



I left Mr. Tate’s house and went to the store. He probably wouldn’t eat anything I made anyway, but I’d never been good at sitting around and doing nothing. I bought everything I needed for my mother’s homemade chicken soup. Whether he ate it or not would be up to him, but I was going to offer it either way.

When I got back to the hotel, Cade was waiting in the parking lot.

“What have you got there?” he said.

“I thought I’d make some soup.”

“Okay?”

“It’s for Mr. Tate.”

“Need any help?” he said.

“No, but you can talk to me while I make it.”

He took the bags I was carrying, and we went inside.

“I should have never put you in that position earlier,” he said. “I had no idea he’d—”

“It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last.”

“I’ve never seen him act like that.”

“Everyone is probably feeling a lot of pressure right now. I don’t take it personally.”

He sat down on the barstool. “It wasn’t you though,” he said.

“I appreciate you coming over here, but I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“No, I mean, it really wasn’t you.”

“What do you mean?”

Cade folded one hand over the other, resting them on the ledge of the bar. “Feds are on their way. Since there’s the possibility of one guy taking both kids, they’re looking at both cases.”

The feds coming in town didn’t excuse the chief’s callous behavior toward me.

“But they’ll be working with police departments in both counties, right?”

He shook his head.

“The chief says they want all evidence turned over from both departments, ours and the one in Sublette County. It doesn’t look like they want our help. They just want us to tell them what they need to know and then get out of the way. I’m not sure whether they’ll see if there’s anything they can do and then leave, or whether they’re here indefinitely.”

I thought about calling Giovanni’s brother and using his FBI connections, but then I changed my mind. He was helping track down Daniela, and even if he wasn’t, it was getting complicated enough. I didn’t want either of them to get involved.

“We better work fast then,” I said.

Cade smiled.

“What did you have in mind?”

“I have a question. I know there were no workers outside the day Savannah was abducted from the daycare, but what about the other child? Did she see anything?”

“Savannah was outside with her friend, Sierra Johnson, at the time.”

“How old is she?” I said.

“Five. And it hasn’t been easy getting information out of her. I don’t know if she even knows what she saw.”

I chopped some carrots and threw them into the pot on the stove. In another pot I stirred the chicken. “Did your father interview Sierra?”

“He tried to, and so have I, but she didn’t say much. Nothin’ we could use.”

“What did she say?”

“She told us the man drove a silver car, and she mentioned something about a black watch.”

“Now that we know the kid at Maybelle’s Market saw a silver Dodge Charger, maybe if we show a more specific picture to Sierra, she can identify it.”

“Maybe.”

“What are her parents like?” I said. “Do you think they’d let us talk to her again?”

He shrugged.

“Sierra lives with her mother. They’re divorced. She’s very protective of her daughter.”

“Maybe if I saw her alone,” I said. “The feds will question everyone. They’ll start from the beginning and cover all their bases. We need to get to Sierra before they do. After that, I probably won’t be able to talk to her or anyone else without them knowing it.”

“I don’t like the idea of you seeing her without me.”

“You said you wanted my help with this, and I know you meant together, but I’m good at talking to people, especially women. Whatever I find out, I’ll share it with you.”

It came down to a matter of trust, but I knew it wouldn’t be easy for him to put his confidence in me until I had proven myself. This would give me the opportunity.

I removed the chicken from the stove, shredded it, and added it to the pot of vegetables and broth. “When this is done, I need to run it over to Mr. Tate’s house.”

“I can do it for you.”

“I don’t mind taking it to him,” I said.

“I’ll be on my way home anyway. I can just drop it off.”

“When I stopped by earlier, he wasn’t in the mood for company. He actually asked me to leave him alone for a while.”

“I’ll set it on the doorstep, ring the doorbell, and leave.”

I poured some of the soup into a container, put it in a bag, and handed it to Cade. He leaned in, but instead of taking the soup, he said, “You’ve got an eyelash on your…”

He swept the lash from my eye with his finger but then remained there, gazing at me, our faces inches apart. I tried not to make assumptions. Up until that moment, he’d seemed more like a pain-in-the-butt brother than anything else. Cade remained there for several seconds, as if gauging my reaction. I was too shocked to move. He placed his hand over mine on the bag and held it there.

“I, ahh, guess you should get this to him while it’s still hot,” I said.

He took the bag. “See you tomorrow.”