Lucky Like Us

chapter Twenty-Two

* * *
Saturday, 3:00 P.M.

DETECTIVE SANDERS WAS going out of his mind. Two dozen case files cluttered his desk, all demanding his attention, and the most pressing one was Dianne Wales. The poor girl had been missing several weeks, not a single lead indicating who might have taken her, if someone had taken her, or where she might be. Her parents were, understandably, frantic and left him message upon message, hour after hour. He hated telling them each and every time he had no new leads, or even an idea about what had happened to the seventeen-year-old girl.

By all accounts she was a good student, well liked by her classmates. She held a part time job and had never been late. The parents appeared to have a strong marriage, no signs of trouble at home. It didn’t appear she was a rebellious teenager, or there had been some kind of sudden trouble. Her grades were consistently good, and she kept to a regular school and work routine.

Unhappy the FBI was coming in today, Saturday of all days, to help with the case, his frustration grew. If he couldn’t find any evidence or leads, he didn’t know how some hotshot FBI agent could make any headway either.

“Detective Sanders. I’m Special Agent Reed with the FBI. I’m here about the Dianne Wales case. I have some questions and possibly a lead.”

“Agent Reed.”

Detective Sanders shook the agent’s hand and gave him a cursory once over. The guy was big. Tall and broad, his dark hair and darker eyes made him look mean, even with his neutral expression.

He thought he must appear the exact opposite of the agent. Oh, he had dark hair, more gray than brown these days, and brown eyes as well, but he was anything but tall, handsome, or strong. He’d gone the way of the doughnut many years ago. He was still sharp of mind though, and that’s what mattered when you were a detective.

“I’m all ears. I don’t have anything new in the case. It’s as if Miss Wales simply disappeared.”

“Did she have a boyfriend?”

“Her parents said she dated in the past, but no one recently.”

Tyler opened his copy of the file and took out the picture of Dianne at the school dance. “Did you ask the parents if she went to this dance with a date?”

“No, not specifically. They provided several photos to post on the Internet, make up flyers, give to reporters and such. I can call them and ask if she went with a date. Why? Do you think it’s important?”

“I don’t know yet. According to all reports, she was a model student and person. She stuck to pretty much the same schedule, but all of a sudden one day she up and vanishes after school. No one claims to have seen her once she got off the bus. Let’s start with the dance and work forward.”

Tyler didn’t want to tell the detective about his message from Morgan. He could tell the story only so many times before someone thought he was crazy for listening to a woman he’d only met once and spoken to for less than a minute. Even he was starting to think he was crazy. Then again, she’d proven herself right every time she gave him a lead. And since a young girl’s life was on the line, he’d give Morgan the benefit of the doubt.

“Let me get them on the line.”

Detective Sanders dialed and waited for the connection to go through. “Mrs. Wales, this is Detective Sanders. No, ma’am, I don’t have any news. I’m here with Agent Reed from the FBI, and we have a few questions. Do you remember the photo you gave me of your daughter at the school dance? The picture was taken a couple weeks before she disappeared, you say. Did she go to the dance with a date? Chris Hillman. Did they date regularly?” He put the call on speaker for Tyler to listen.

“They spent time together before the dance, but never went on any other dates. After the dance, they stopped seeing each other. Dianne didn’t say why.”

“Mrs. Wales, this is Agent Reed. I’m sorry about your daughter. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

“No. I’ll do anything to find her,” Mrs. Wales said anxiously. “What do you want to know?”

“Do you know if she and Chris were crowned king and queen of the prom?”

“No, they weren’t. That went to one of her friends.”

“After she stopped seeing Chris, was she upset or emotional about the breakup?”

“I don’t think so. School and work kept her very busy, so her father and I didn’t get a lot of time to talk to her. We didn’t have any reason to be concerned. We gave her the freedom she’d earned. Everything seemed fine. I’ve spoken to all her friends and none of them have any idea what happened. She should have gone straight from school to her job. She never showed up. Something happened to my girl. You have to find her,” Mrs. Wales begged, crying in torrents.

Tyler hated to make her cry. “We’re trying. Thank you for answering my questions. We’ll contact you if there is any news.”

“Okay. I’m so glad you’re still looking for her, that she hasn’t been forgotten.”

“No, ma’am. We’re doing everything possible to find her,” Tyler assured her.

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, Mrs. Wales.

“Have you interviewed this Chris Hillman?” Tyler asked the detective.

“We questioned a lot of her friends, but most were her girlfriends.” He grabbed the list off the pile of papers on his desk and scanned it. “He’s not here. Do you really think this kid has something to do with Dianne’s disappearance?”

“I’m not sure, but I think it’s worth asking some questions. Who was Dianne’s best friend?”

Detective Sanders checked his notes. “Leslie Monroe.”

“Great. Do you have an address?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s pay her a visit and see what she knows about Dianne and Chris. Maybe we can figure out what was going on between the two of them before we interview Chris.”

They arrived at the best friend’s home and tried to get Leslie to open up about Dianne. Not so easy with her mother sitting next to her, making sure they didn’t push too hard for answers.

“I don’t want to get Dianne into trouble with her parents, or with Chris,” Leslie said for the fifth time.

Tyler tried to hold on to his patience. “Dianne is missing. We need to know about her life. You’re her best friend. If you know something, you need to tell us.”

In the end, Leslie finally relented. “Dianne was completely in love with Chris. They’d been secretly seeing each other for a few weeks before the dance. The night of the dance they snuck away early and . . . they had sex.” She lowered her head and avoided her mother’s gaze. “It was the first time for both of them,” she added softly, her cheeks flaming pink.

“Were they still seeing each other when she disappeared?”

“No. Once Chris got what he wanted, he broke things off with her and started seeing another girl at school, then stopped seeing her about a week later, and started seeing another girl after that. Who can keep track at this point?” she said, disgusted.

“How did Dianne take the breakup?” This could be the break they needed. Dianne might have run away to avoid Chris, or she might have harmed herself if she’d taken things badly. Either way, they needed to find Dianne.

“Dianne didn’t take the breakup well, or the fact Chris was chasing after every easy girl at school. He used to be a really nice guy,” she said softly. Then she added scathingly, “Now, he’s a complete dog. At least, that’s the general consensus. He used Dianne, and he made sure everyone knew they’d slept together. Chris is lower than pond scum.”

“Do you think Dianne ran away because of what Chris did?”

“No, she wouldn’t run away. I mean, she was upset, but she really loved him, even though he is a dog. I talked to her a lot. She never said anything about running away. There’s no reason why she would. He isn’t worth it,” Leslie said, summing up her opinion of Chris.

Tyler and Detective Sanders left, thanking Leslie for the information. “Do you think she ran away because Chris decided to sow his wild oats instead of stick with her?” It was a reasonable explanation. “Her first experience with a boy, the rejection could have been too much for her to deal with at such a young age.”

Tyler didn’t think Dianne was the runaway type. “I don’t think it’s that simple. She’d keep in contact with her parents and friends if she were just upset over a boy dumping her. It’s got to be something more. I don’t think we’ll find this girl alive,” Tyler said sadly, knowing more often than not that was the case.

“I’ve had that same feeling for a long time now,” Detective Sanders admitted. “She’s been gone too long. She wasn’t a troubled teen or into drugs. We’re missing something. Maybe Chris can fill us in on what that is.”

They found Chris in his driveway with a blonde pressed up against a pickup truck. With his hands on her hips, he locked lips with her, not realizing Tyler and Sanders stood behind him. Tyler took a moment to assess the young Casanova. About five-ten with too long brown hair, well below his T-shirt collar. He wore baggy jeans, several sizes too big, falling down his ass, showing off plaid boxers. Barefoot, he had probably just rolled out of bed with the blonde.

The girl was pretty and fresh looking, her long hair tousled, her sundress wrinkled and well above her knees.

Tyler cleared his throat, loudly, to get their attention. The girl’s head flew up, eyes wide at the sight of Tyler and Sanders. Pushing Chris away, she straightened her wrinkled dress, bit her lower lip, her eyes falling to the ground.

“What do you want?” Chris asked, unhappy about the interruption.

“Chris Hillman, right?”

“Yeah, who wants to know?”

Tyler remembered being a cocky teenager. He probably deserved a good pop in the mouth a few times for giving people attitude for no good reason. “I’m Special Agent Reed with the FBI. This is Detective Sanders. We want to ask you some questions about Dianne Wales.” He looked pointedly at the girl. “Do you have a way to get home, Miss?”

“Yes, sir. Um, I’ll see you later, Chris. Call me, okay,” she said with a seductively sweet smile that absolutely caught Chris’s eye.

“I’ll catch you later.” She walked away, and Chris followed the sway of her hips.

Tyler hoped the sir was because he was an FBI agent, and she wanted to be respectful. Only thirty-one, he hoped he wasn’t already a sir to young ladies.

Focused on Chris, he asked, “We understand you took Dianne to the dance at school last month.”

“Yeah. So.”

“So, what happened that night?”

“We went to the dance, partied, and I took her home. She had a good time.”

“I’m sure she did. I heard you guys left early that night. Where did you go?” Most teenage boys wanted to brag about their conquests. Tyler hoped Chris was stupid enough to spill his guts.

“We parked out by Monroe Park and did a little backseat dancing. After, I took her home. She didn’t even miss curfew.”

“You guys had sex?”

“Yeah. What of it?” Chris stood, crossing his arms over his thin chest to appear tough, but looking defensive instead.

“Did she give her consent?”

“Hell yes. I don’t need to force anyone. Just ask Ashley, there.” He pointed to the young girl driving away from the curb in an old yellow Beetle.

“I think we’ll spare her the embarrassment. Your relationship with her is quite obvious,” Tyler said with a frown. He must be getting old if he thought it inappropriate for teenagers to give in to their raging hormones. He’d been young and dumb once, letting his smaller head think for his big one.

“Relationship, shit. I’m tapping that well until it runs dry. I’m not getting myself tied down. Dianne thought just because we’d done it together we were in some romantic relationship, together forever. Hell, I told her I’d pretty much gotten what I wanted. She wasn’t even that good. I didn’t want her clinging to me. I’m leaving this fall for college anyway.”

Tyler hoped he was never this callous with the girls he knew in high school. “When was the last time you saw her?”

“All the time before she disappeared. She constantly followed me around school, asking to talk to me. The day she went missing, she came here.”

Tyler was surprised by Chris’ easy admission. “How did she get here? She didn’t have a car. Did someone bring her?”

“She walked, I guess. The school bus lets out pretty close. It’s about halfway between here and her house. I talked to her for a few minute before I took off in my truck. Last I saw her, she was standing in the driveway. The next day, her picture’s all over the news.”

“Why didn’t you call the police, or tell her parents you’d seen her that day?”

“I didn’t think anyone would care.” He shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. “She was fine when I left. I figured she’d walk home and finish crying there.”

“Why was she crying?” Tyler hoped to get the details of what really happened to Dianne, or at least a good lead he could chase.

“She wanted to get back together with me. I told her I didn’t believe her lies, and I certainly didn’t want to marry her. She couldn’t take a hint.”

“What did she lie about?”

“Said she was pregnant,” Chris said reluctantly. Putting his hands out to his sides, he let them fall and slap his thighs. Maybe he had some concern for her well-being. Tyler wasn’t so sure Chris was involved in her disappearance directly.

“She used it as an excuse for us to get back together. We’d only had sex once. She couldn’t have gotten pregnant. It was her first time.”

Chris really wanted to believe that. Being a teenager, denial was the best course of action when faced with something so life altering.

“Did you use a condom?” Tyler asked.

“No, but we only did it once. It didn’t even last that long,” he said, embarrassed by the admission. A car drove up, causing Chris to turn an even deeper shade of red.

“What’s going on here, Chris? You do something wrong?”

“No, Dad. They’re asking about Dianne. She’s still missing.”

Mr. Hillman approached and stood beside his son. “Well, my boy doesn’t know anything. These young people today think they can do whatever they want. She probably took off with some friends.”

Tyler ignored Mr. Hillman’s statement and concentrated on the man’s manner and stance. He was hiding something, or nervous about them being there. Maybe Chris didn’t know anything about Dianne’s disappearance, but Mr. Hillman did. Tyler thought his choice of words was interesting at least.

“Mr. Hillman, I’m Special Agent Turner with the FBI and this is Detective Sanders. Did you know your son saw Dianne the day she disappeared?”

“I did. She tried to cause some trouble. She’s a young girl trying to hold on to her first love. Chris didn’t feel the same for her. I told her it was just a crush, and she’d get over it.”

“When did you tell her this?” Tyler never took his gaze from Mr. Hillman, who swiped his fingers over his mouth, startled. He hadn’t meant to give up that information, and Tyler was chomping at the bit to get him to reveal even more.

“I came home after Chris left Dianne in the driveway.”

So Chris wasn’t the last person to see Dianne.

“I asked her what was wrong. She was upset Chris didn’t return her feelings. He’s attending college this fall, has a scholarship lined up. Nothing’ll stop him from going to school. Not if I have anything to say about it. Isn’t that right, Chris?”

“Yeah,” Chris grudgingly agreed.

“What happened when you told her she’d get over it, Mr. Hillman?” Tyler thought it insensitive to say to a young woman in love for the first time with the man’s son.

“She got even more upset, and I told her to leave. My son doesn’t need an anchor like her around his neck, dragging him down.”

“Did she leave after you told her to go?”

“I guess. I went back to my shop, since Chris wasn’t home. I figured I’d get some work done and pick up dinner on the way back,” Mr. Hillman rambled.

“Did you see her leave?”

“Not really. She walked down the driveway when I left. I don’t know where she went after that.”

Tyler looked to Detective Sanders to see if he had any other questions. This was the best lead they had so far. Looking around the front yard, Tyler noted the ugly pea soup-green house with brown trim. It needed a paint job, and not because of the hideous color. The garage door was closed. The front yard was bare, but the lawn had been cut recently. No trees, just some scraggly bushes. If Dianne was beneath the grand oak, it sure wasn’t here at the Hillman house.

“Is Mrs. Hillman home? Perhaps she saw where Dianne went after you left?”

“Mrs. Hillman left years ago. We divorced. Chris was seven, so I guess it’s been about ten years.”

“Dad’s more the love ’em and leave ’em kind. Isn’t that right, Dad?” Chris’s voice dripped with scorn.

Obviously, there’d been a number of women in and out of Mr. Hillman’s life. From the way Chris spoke, he didn’t approve. Tyler wondered if Chris realized he was doing the same thing his father had been doing for years.

Maybe only a few years older than him, Mr. Hillman was young to be the father of a teen. A teenage father, Tyler guessed.

The thing about history, it had a way of repeating itself. Dianne had told Chris she was pregnant. What if she’d also told his father?

“Mr. Hillman, what type of shop do you run?”

“I own a furniture business. We make and sell custom furniture.”

“What’s the name of the shop?”

“The Oak Warehouse.”

Tyler gulped down hard. Everything in Morgan’s message was coming together. He could feel it. “You’re sure you don’t know what happened to Dianne?”

A trickle of sweat slid down the side of Mr. Hillman’s face before he answered. “No. Listen, I need to get a few things done around the house before Chris and I have dinner. If you have any more questions for my son, you’ll have to ask them later. Chris, let’s go in now.”

Father and son headed for the front door. Tyler took a good look at Mr. Hillman’s car. A red Mustang, maybe a ’94 or ’95. He took a look at the license plate; he’d use it to run a check on Mr. Hillman. The vanity plate surprised him. His whole system felt electrified when he read the letters: KNGHRTS.

“Mr. Hillman. That’s quite a license plate. King of Hearts. Is that some kind of nickname from the ladies?”

“Something like that. It’s a leftover nickname from my youth. It goes with the tat.”

“I’m sorry. The what?” Tyler knew he meant a tattoo. He hoped he’d get a look at it to connect to the message from Morgan. God, she was creepy.

“My tattoo. See.” Mr. Hillman pulled the collar of his button-down shirt aside and revealed the red heart with a gold crown surrounding it. “I got it when I was eighteen. I thought I was real hot shit back then. My wife got me the license plates when I bought the Mustang. She left me a month later when she found out I was having an affair. Said I was the King of A*sholes.” He shrugged and followed Chris into the house.

Tyler let him go. He didn’t have any evidence that pointed to Mr. Hillman, or that he’d done anything to Dianne. All he had was the tattoo matching the message from Morgan and a hunch Mr. Hillman knew exactly what happened to Dianne after Chris left.

“Sanders, what do you think?”

“He knows more than he’s saying. I don’t think Dianne Wales left this property of her own free will. Did you notice how adamant he was that Dianne not drag Chris down? He appeared overly concerned Chris take that scholarship and go to college. I wonder if Dianne mentioned to Chris’s father she was pregnant, and he decided to make her disappear, so Chris wouldn’t give up school.”

“That’s my line of thinking as well. Now we need some evidence to back it up, so we can get a search warrant. I’d like to get into the house, the car, and the store. I think he took her to his shop. Let’s get a few officers to canvas the neighborhood, see if any of the neighbors remember seeing Dianne here that day, and whether or not she left with Mr. Hillman. Maybe you can hit the shop and find out if any of Mr. Hillman’s staff can verify he came back that day, or if anything has been off with him since Dianne disappeared. See if you can get a judge to issue warrants on the basis Mr. Hillman was the last to see Dianne. It’s thin, but maybe we’ll get lucky. Make sure you put a man on him until we finish investigating. I don’t want him to disappear on us too.”

“You got it. I have to say, you really took nothing and made it into something. Not one person I talked to ever mentioned Chris, including her best friend, Leslie. I guess all her friends believed they weren’t seeing each other anymore, so it wasn’t important enough to mention. Looks like I blew this one.”

“You didn’t blow anything,” Tyler assured the detective. “I read the file. You did a top-notch investigation. I got lucky. That’s all. Let’s follow up on this and see if we can’t find out what really happened. Unfortunately, I don’t think this case will end well.”