Stranger in Town

CHAPTER 4





Flattened on the table in front of me was a piece of paper. A princess resembling Sleeping Beauty frolicked in the middle of a field of flowers, all of them pink. In fact, the entire page was pink. I lifted the piece of paper up and examined it. There was no writing of any kind, just outside-of-the-line scribbling done with a waxy Crayola.

“What is this?” I said. “I mean, I can see it’s a torn page from a child’s coloring book, but where’d you get it?”

“In the mail.”

His tone of voice had changed so much one would have thought I was holding a newly discovered artifact.

“When?” I said.

“Three days ago.”

“If you’re showing this to me, obviously it means something to you,” I said.

“I believe it was colored by my daughter.”

I stared at the picture, not knowing what to think. Could it be possible?

He grabbed the paper, waving it back and forth in front of me. “Don’t you see what this means? She’s alive!”

Or someone had a twisted way of turning a wayward parent into a believer.

“Why haven’t you shown this to the police?”

He leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms. He had a smug grin on his face like my astute observation had impressed him.

“What makes you think I haven’t?”

“It’s still in your possession,” I said. “If you would have handed it over to Detective McCoy, it wouldn’t be.”

“You’re right. He would have taken it from me and said something about how it needed to be ‘entered into evidence.’ I’d never get it back. You have no idea what this means to me—to my wife. It’s—helping her cope.”

I understood the attachment he’d formed and why, but he wasn’t doing himself any favors by hanging onto it.

“You don’t know what they’ll do until you show it to them,” I said.

“Olivia Hathaway’s parents got one too. They handed it over, and once the investigators all looked at it, her mother asked if she could have it back. What do you think they said?”

Now I understood why he’d taken the time to mention the other kidnapping: if both parents received the same type of correspondence, the kidnappings could be connected.

“When did Olivia’s parents receive their coloring page?”

He leaned in. “Last week. And do you want to know what the cops did with it? They published it in the local paper. Why the hell would they do that?”

“It’s a new lead. Olivia has been missing for two years. Maybe they’re trying to generate some interest.”

“I always thought the kidnappings were connected,” he said. “McCoy looked into it, but he never found any evidence to support my theory, other than the fact both girls were taken from the same part of Wyoming. When I received the coloring page in the mail, I found out where Olivia’s parents lived and paid them a visit. Imagine how good it felt to know they’d received one too. I’ve been right all along.”

“I don’t mean to sound callous Mr. Tate, but how do you know this isn’t someone’s idea of a sick joke?”

“Mrs. Hathaway said Olivia’s favorite color was green. The page they received was full of stars, all of them colored green.”

“What’s the significance of the star?”

“Apparently Olivia had some kind of glow-in-the-dark solar system on the ceiling of her bedroom, and green was her favorite color.”

“And I’m guessing Savannah’s room is pink and princess-themed?”

He nodded.

“It must have been checked for fingerprints,” I said.

“Olivia’s parents said when the prints were processed the only ones they found besides theirs were Olivia’s. They checked the envelope it was sent in too. There were no prints that couldn’t be accounted for.”

I held the page in front of me. “Mr. Tate, you have to turn this over to the investigators working on your case. You can’t keep it.”

He slapped his hand against the side of the table. “I will not!”

“This coloring page is the one thing connecting both abductions to each other. Can’t you understand why the police need to be informed? It will give them the first solid lead they’ve had in months.”

He shook his head. “You don’t get it. I don’t care about Olivia’s case. I mean, of course I feel sorry for what her parents are going through, but my only concern right now is finding my daughter.”

I pressed my pointer fingernail into the pink wax on the page. “I’m sure you can’t see it right now, but you’re hurting your chances of finding Savannah by hanging on to this. I understand what it means to your wife, but you need to listen to me.”

He threw both of his hands into the air. “I thought if I paid you to do a job, you’d have to do things my way. I’m the client. You work for me.”

I pushed my chair back and stood up. “I work for myself. And I don’t appreciate you treating me like I’m some factory worker you can order around just because you’re waving a wad of cash in front of my face.”

“Now, hold on a minute. Listen—”

Breathe, Sloane, breathe.

“No, you listen. If I agree to take your case, and by ‘agree,’ I mean, I make the decision—not you—I’ll stick with it until it’s solved or I’m certain there’s nothing else I can do. You can take it or leave it, but I’ll tell you one thing—you’ll never find another PI with the same kind of devotion that I have.”

The way his face twisted up while I talked told me he hadn’t been spoken to that way by a woman very often, if ever.

“Wow, you sure think a lot of yourself, don’t you?”

“Here’s how it works with me,” I said. “If I decide to take your case, you’ll comply by doing exactly what I want you to do when I want you to do it. You have the right to refuse, giving me the right to walk away. I will never ask you to do anything that isn’t in your best interest. And if you want my help finding out what happened to your daughter, I suggest you accept my offer.”

He shook his head. “This isn’t how I thought our conversation would go at all. I’m not sure…”

“You thought money would allow you to call the shots,” I said. “Making money is great, but I choose cases based on what interests me. Perhaps we both should take some time to think about what we’re getting ourselves into.”

Although I meant every word of it, my insides burned. I had every intention of looking into the case of both missing girls, whether he decided to be my client or not. Mr. Tate remained silent. I assumed he was second guessing our arrangement. I took the money out of my bag and chucked it across the table. It landed half on his lap—and half on the seat he was sitting in.

He snatched the envelope and stood up. “Wait just a minute. Don’t go—please.”

“If I’m not the right fit for you, Mr. Tate, I understand,” I said.

His shaking hand rubbed his watery eye. “Ms. Monroe, can you imagine what it’s like to lose the one you love, and just when you’ve given up, something happens that gives you renewed hope? I wish you could understand what it feels like.”

I thought of my sister, Gabby, and the emotions I’d experienced when I learned she’d been captured and murdered by a serial killer who had no regard for human life. A serial killer who later ended up dead when he learned what happened when you messed around with the wrong girl’s sister.

“You do know what it’s like,” he said. “I can see it in your eyes. You lost someone too, didn’t you?”

“My sister.”

“How then can you ask me to hand over a part of my daughter? This paper is the only connection to her existence that I have left.”

I sighed. I didn’t want to empathize, but I couldn’t help it. But he’d still have to let go of the paper sooner or later if he expected to ever see his daughter again. Connecting the two murders would reignite the flame in both cases.

“I’ll make you a deal,” I said. “I’ll accept you as a client. But, if I find any new evidence, you agree to hand the page over without question.”

He let it sink in for a moment before responding and then said, “You have my word.”

“Good. I need to go home and get my things together. I’ll be in touch.”

He walked over, throwing his arms around me unexpectedly. “Thank you. Thank you so much. I didn’t mean to be so hard on you. These last few months have been rough. Losing my daughter is hard enough, but lately it feels like I’m losing my wife too.”

I leaned back, breaking from his embrace. “You have every right to be on edge right now. But I need you to remember, I’m not the enemy. I’m here to help you, and that’s what I intend to do.”

He nodded. I pushed the front door of the restaurant open, and we both walked out.

“Oh, one more thing,” I said. “Who referred you to me?”

“Some guy I met in a bar.”

“Do you remember his name?”

He scratched the side of his head. “Called himself Calhoun.”