All His Pretty Girls Page 10

‘Yes, sir?’

  ‘Make it fast.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ she repeated and tossed her phone onto the dash before leaning forward and resting her head on the steering wheel. ‘I’m trying to like the man, Cord, I swear. But, does he actually understand how an investigation works? He didn’t even let me tell him why I called.’

  ‘Why don’t we discuss it over green-chile–smothered enchiladas and chips and salsa?’ Cord said.

  Alyssa sat up, a smile on her face. ‘And margaritas?’

  ‘Later. I promise.’

  She started the car and backed out. ‘I’m holding you to that.’

  ‘I have no doubt,’ Cord retorted.

  Ten minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot of her favorite Mexican restaurant, and fifteen minutes after that, their food was delivered. No sooner had she taken a huge bite, than her phone rang. She swallowed, green chile and cheese hanging off her chin. ‘If that’s Hammond, I’ll scream,’ she said. She glanced at the screen.

  ‘Captain?’ Cord asked.

  ‘Not a number I recognize.’ She took a drink of water to ease the sting of hot cheese burning her throat, and then answered. ‘Detective Wyatt.’

  ‘Detective Wyatt, this is Officer Cutler from El Paso. Is this a good time?’

  El Paso? ‘Sure.’

  ‘We got a stolen car down here we think you may be interested in. It’s a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee, registered to a Rafe and Callie McCormick there in Albuquerque. I called your precinct, and someone named Ruby gave me your number.’

  Alyssa sat up straighter. ‘You found Callie McCormick’s car?’ she asked, getting Cord’s full attention. She scribbled invisible lines in the air and then put one finger in her ear to block out the noise from the lunch crowd, nodding as her partner yanked a pen from his pocket before searching for something to write on. He settled on a napkin, thrusting both in front of her.

  ‘We did,’ said Officer Cutler. ‘We caught a young buck trying to cross the border into Mexico with it. He was acting squirrely so border patrol ran the plates and came back with a hit. We’re holding the kid until he makes bail. It looks like that might be a while.’

  ‘What’s this kid’s name?’

  ‘License says Manuel Gomez. Ring any bells for you?’

  ‘Manuel Gomez.’ Alyssa repeated, eyebrows arched at Cord to see if the name meant anything to him. It didn’t. ‘No, but like Texas, that’s a fairly common name here in New Mexico. Did he say how he came to be in possession of McCormick’s vehicle?’

  ‘Swore his uncle gave it to him a few months back. He kept changing the wheres, whens, and whys, but when we informed him he was driving a stolen vehicle, his story changed. Instead of his uncle, he said he’d gotten a call from a pal who’d told him where he could find a free and clear car, keys already in it. All he had to do, the guy said, was move the vehicle out of the States.’

  ‘Don’t suppose he shared his pal’s name?’ Alyssa asked as she scribbled down notes.

  ‘Clammed up right quick when we asked. But he did say his pal heard about it from another party. Insisted he didn’t know names, just that his pal claimed it was an anonymous call.’

  ‘Of course. Anything else you can tell me?’

  ‘Yeah, one more thing. We’ve had a sudden surge of violence down here, so our technicians are a little backed up at the moment. It could be weeks or even months before our guys can go over it, and since the vehicle’s stolen from there, it might be faster if we transfer it back to Albuquerque so your techs can run a fine-tooth comb over it.’

  ‘Okay, thanks. I appreciate the call. As soon as I get the okay, my partner and I will head down. Mind if we ask for you when we get there?’ She glanced at the time. ‘It’s eleven forty-five now, so it’ll be around four thirty, five when we get there, depending on how quick we can get the travel approval.’

  ‘Yep, you’ve got my number. Just let me know when you get here.’ Cutler rattled off the address of his precinct, and then hung up.

  Before Alyssa ended the call, Cord was already on the phone with the captain filling him in and clearing the cost, so Alyssa flagged down the waiter to request the bill. Still on the phone, Cord whipped out his credit card and thrust it into the waiter’s hand before the man could walk away.

  Two minutes later, they were out the door. She fished her phone back out, and as soon as Liz answered, she said, ‘We’re on our way to El Paso. Details later. Can you follow up on a new lead that’s probably not a lead at all?’ she asked.

  ‘Yep. Give it to me,’ Liz answered.

  ‘Mrs. Josephine Graffe left a message this morning telling us she was certain she’d witnessed Callie McCormick heading into Colorado. According to the caller, Callie was alone, her hair framed into a bob, and appeared happy,’ she said.

  ‘Right. Address? Phone number?’ Liz asked. After Alyssa rattled off the information, she said, ‘Okay, I’ll let you know what I find out.’

  ‘Thanks, Liz. I appreciate it.’ Next, she called Brock. ‘You’re on speaker,’ she said when he answered.

  He laughed. ‘Thanks for the warning. I’ll refrain from spilling any state or personal secrets. What’s going on?’

  She filled him in. ‘Needless to say, I’ll be late getting home tonight. Tell the kids I love them,’ she said before hanging up.

  A long drive and countless hours of questioning later, it was evident Manuel Gomez had nothing to do with Callie McCormick’s disappearance. Furthermore, Alyssa’s gut told her he was telling the truth about how he came to be in possession of Callie’s vehicle. In other words, they had her car, but nothing else. They were no better off than they were before they’d left this afternoon.

  Exhausted and discouraged, she spoke with Cutler before heading back, making arrangements for the Jeep to be returned to Albuquerque so their own technicians could go over it.

  Due in part to breaking a few speed limit laws along the way, Alyssa walked in her door close to midnight and peeked in on Isaac and then Holly before heading to her own room and climbing into bed next to Brock.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Thursday, March 28

  The next morning, the house quiet except for the faint sounds of the shower running in the master bathroom, Alyssa grabbed her favorite coffee mug – a Mother’s Day gift featuring a photo collage of Holly and Isaac in various goofy poses – and poured her first cup of the day. She was walking to the table when she heard Holly’s alarm go off. A quick peek up the stairs showed a light glow beneath her daughter’s bedroom door. She must have an assignment she needs to finish. Proud of her work ethic – she’d needed it to get her internship at the Labs, as well as getting accepted into Cornell – Alyssa couldn’t help but worry Holly was working too hard. ‘You’re only young once,’ she frequently told her daughter.

  Upstairs, she heard the water shut off, followed by the rustling sounds of Brock getting ready for work. Ten minutes later, her husband, hair still wet, joined her in the kitchen with his own cup of coffee. ‘What’s Holly doing up so early?’ he asked.

  As if summoned, they heard their daughter’s door open, and the clap of her feet as she bounced down the stairs, seeming to hit every creaky step along the way and sounding far too loud in the stillness of the morning. ‘Guess we’re about to find out.’

  As soon as she walked into the room, Holly smiled. ‘Good morning. I set my alarm early so I could talk to both of you before you left for work.’

  Brock and Alyssa exchanged glances, and when he simply shrugged, she asked, ‘What’s up, sweetie?’

  Her daughter tipped up on her toes then fell back onto the balls of her feet before repeating the movement. She was nervous about something. Again, Alyssa caught her husband’s eyes, a question in her own. Again, he shrugged.

  Finally, Holly settled, and blurted out, ‘I was just wondering if you and Dad had decided anything yet. You know, about the Europe trip. Grandma called last night,’ she said by way of explanation.

  Damn Mabel, Alys
sa thought, her good mood evaporating. What had started out as a pleasant surprise at seeing her daughter before she headed to the precinct, she was afraid, was about to turn into a rather unpleasant discussion.

  Careful not to let her irritation at her mother-in-law show, she said, ‘I’ve already told you Dad and I haven’t decided. We’re both very busy. Your father’s working on getting the construction bid for the new hospital wing downtown, and I’m a bit embroiled in a missing person’s case at the moment.’ She tried to control her words, but it was too early for this. She already knew this conversation wasn’t likely to end well.

  She was right.

  Holly made a show of checking the time on the microwave. ‘You have twenty minutes right now, before you go to work. And like Grandma said, I’ll need time to get ready.’

  Teeth clenched more in frustration with Grandma than her daughter, Alyssa said, ‘Yes, but it is the end of March, and the trip will be the first week of June – if you go.’

  ‘You’re also forgetting, Holly, that Grandma purchased vouchers, not tickets. So, the date is irrelevant at this point,’ Brock added.

  And then Holly did it – she pulled the age card and threw it down like a gauntlet. ‘I’m eighteen. Legally, I can do anything I want, and you guys can’t stop me. So, really, getting permission to go to Europe is just a courtesy.’

  Though she’d been expecting it, Alyssa narrowed her eyes and carefully set her cup on the table. ‘Be careful, Holly, before you draw that line in the sand. Yes, you’re eighteen, though right now you’re acting more like a thirteen-year-old who’s been told she can’t attend an adults-only party. But, even though you’re legally an adult, you are still living in this house.’

  Holly matched her mother’s narrowed gaze. ‘I could always go live with Grandma,’ she snapped back.

  A thunderous clap reverberated through the room as Brock’s hand slapped down on the counter. ‘Enough! We are tabling this discussion before one of us says something else we will regret.’ To Holly, he pointed upstairs. ‘Go. Because I can tell you, right now, with your attitude, I’m not feeling too charitable about anything, much less allowing you to go. And yes, I did say, allow.’

  The urge to argue brewing in her eyes, Holly abruptly snapped her mouth shut, turned around, and stormed up the stairs, which was how they knew their raised voices had woken Isaac. His ‘oomph’ as his sister shoved past him filtered all the way into the kitchen.

  ‘I probably shouldn’t have told her she was acting like a thirteen-year-old,’ Alyssa said, both hands cradling her head. ‘But she blindsided me. Us,’ she corrected.

  ‘That she did. I’ll call Mom today when I get a chance,’ he said through gritted teeth.

  At the mention of her mother-in-law, Alyssa gulped down the last of her coffee, pushed back from the table, and saw her son standing hesitantly in the doorway. She waited for him to say something, but when he stayed quiet, she walked over and pecked him on his cheek. ‘Morning.’ No sense in saying ‘good’ when it obviously wasn’t. Then, holstering her gun, she kissed her husband, and said, ‘Guess I’ll head into the precinct early.’

  * * *

  An hour later, Alyssa sat at her desk, one hand absently rubbing circles around her right temple, as she stared blankly at the open file in front of her. With her free hand, she grabbed her coffee, raising it halfway to her lips before realizing it was empty and set it back down. She tapped the paper on her desk. ‘I don’t think seven is too early to call Mr. McCormick, do you?”

  ‘Not if we want to inform him about his wife’s car before the media gets wind of it,’ Cord answered. He studied her for a minute. ‘Still thinking about your argument with Holly, huh?’

  Eyes closed, she mumbled, ‘That obvious, huh?’ To each other’s surprise, they’d both pulled into the parking lot within a minute of each other, and one look at her face, and an ‘uh-oh’ from him was all it took before she admitted what had brought her in before six a.m.

  ‘Kind of, yeah.’

  ‘Well, hopefully,’ she touched the screen on her phone to check the time, ‘in twenty-one minutes and forty-seven seconds, this damn headache will be gone, and I’ll be able to focus.’

  But, twenty-five minutes later, her blood still pulsed rudely in her temples as she called Rafe McCormick.

  When he didn’t immediately answer, Alyssa didn’t know whether to hope he would or wouldn’t. She was mentally preparing a message to leave when he finally picked up.

  ‘Hello.’ The voice on the other end of the line was hoarse, desperate, and hopeful all rolled into one confusing breath.

  ‘Mr. McCormick, this is Detective Wyatt. I’m calling –’

  ‘Did you find Callie?’ This time there was no mistaking the optimism in his words.

  Alyssa’s head tipped back as she stared at the ceiling, noticing the dirty tiles that were probably dropping all kinds of bacteria into the room. Could this day get any worse? And it was only seven a.m. ‘I’m sorry to say we haven’t, but –’

  ‘Then what happened? Why are you calling?’ Rafe demanded.

  I’m trying to tell you if you’d let me complete a sentence, she thought before immediately feeling guilty. The man’s wife was missing. He had every reason to be on edge. ‘We’ve located your wife’s car. It was down in El Paso, and the ELPD have agreed to transport it to Albuquerque so our technicians can look it over. It should be here sometime this morning.’ She decided not to mention that the likelihood of the techs going over the car today was slim to none. No need to frustrate him more than he already was.

  Quiet filled the air for so long that if it hadn’t been for the simple fact she could hear Rafe breathing into the phone line, she would’ve thought he’d ended the call.

  ‘El Paso? As in Texas?’ He sounded confused. Then: ‘What about Ca-Callie?’ he asked, this time, fear coating his words.

  Alyssa inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. ‘We’re still looking.’ She closed her eyes against the increasing pressure in her head, answering the best way she could. ‘I assure you, Mr. McCormick, we’re doing everything we can to locate your wife. We’re following every lead that comes in.’ Including alien abductions and investigating ‘suspected’ shady financial deals with the mob. ‘These things take time.’ As soon as it came out of her mouth, she regretted it, knowing she’d made a mistake but unable to take it back.

  After explicitly reminding her that ‘the police worked for him’ and that ‘his taxes paid their salaries,’ and to ‘do what they were effing paid to do,’ Rafe ended the call.

  Alyssa set her phone aside. ‘Well, that went swimmingly,’ she muttered. ‘Tell me the day can only go up from here,’ she begged.

  ‘I would, but I don’t want to lie to my best partner,’ Cord said. ‘Come on. I’ll buy you another cup of poison before we attack more of these.’ The ever-growing pile of ‘leads’ had been nicknamed ‘Nemesis’ and had been sorted into piles of good, maybe, and no way before being divvied up between the team members. Alyssa could’ve hugged Hal when he volunteered to contact the no ways in an effort to cut down on time they considered wasted.

  * * *

  That evening, still battling a headache now accompanied by a stomachache, Alyssa finished drying off the counter and folded the dish towel. Tired, frustrated, and just plain angry at life in general, she stared out the window. She’d arrived home at six thirty to a chilly reception from Holly, who immediately returned to her room after dinner. Brock was still working, massaging the numbers for his latest construction bid, and Isaac and his best friend, Trevor, were busy playing some complicated computer game she didn’t understand.

  Adding to her discomfort regarding her family’s sudden chilliness was her inability to get anywhere with the McCormick case. Their technicians now had Callie’s Jeep, but they had told her it could take several days before it worked its way up their very lengthy line. No amount of begging or whining budged the boys in the garage. She may have understood, but she didn’t have to
like it.

  A bottle of red wine sat on the counter beckoning her, and she decided to indulge herself. But just as she reached for a glass, her phone rang. She cursed. Couldn’t one thing go her way today?

  Answering without checking the caller ID, she tried but failed to keep the snip out of her voice. ‘Hello?’

  ‘You’d better get back here quick,’ Cord said. ‘Some hikers came across a partially buried, barely alive female in the Jemez. I think it might be our girl.’

  ‘How did you find out?’ Alyssa asked, already moving to the gun safe where she’d automatically stored her weapon when she got home.

  ‘Sara got caught up at the hospital with that wreck up on Nine Mile Hill, so I decided to go back and grab the McCormick file to see if I could figure out what we’re not seeing. Call came in as soon I got there. Ruby passed it on to me.’

  ‘On my way.’

  She grabbed her keys and went into the living room where Isaac and Trevor were each sprawled across opposite ends of the couch, feet up on the coffee table. She didn’t have time to be aggravated. ‘I’ve got to head out again.’ A distracted wave indicated her son had heard. ‘Let your sister know if she ever comes out of her room.’ This earned a thumbs-up, and then she was out the door, calling Brock as soon as she was in the car to let him know she wasn’t sure when she’d be home.

  Hope replaced irritation as she ignored the posted speed limits, squealing into the parking lot of the precinct in record time.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Thursday, March 28, 7:00p.m.

  People jumped when the door slammed open, announcing Alyssa’s arrival. Cord, interrupting the officer speaking to him met her partway across the room. ‘I’ll fill you in on the way. I’m driving.’

  For once, Alyssa didn’t argue about being the passenger. ‘Where are we headed?’

  ‘Rust Presbyterian Hospital.’ Outside, he grabbed her arm. ‘I’m this way.’ When they reached the car, Alyssa had barely climbed in and buckled up before Cord hit the gas so hard, they both jerked forward, making her issue a silent prayer of thanks for seatbelts.