Breaking Shadows (Darkness Falls Book 2) Read online

  “Other things?”

  “Anything important. Anything at all.” Quinn couldn’t lead the girl in any way, or she might start to recall things that might not have happened, but she needed to know if Becky had been groomed at all or if she had been taken off the street with no prior contact with the people who took her. Kidnapping a girl from a higher-income family in broad daylight was risky business. Much riskier than grooming a child and convincing them to come with you of their own accord. Which would turn them into a runaway in the eyes of the authorities.

  If she was groomed, they might have a starting point. If she wasn’t, then whatever she had to say probably wouldn’t net any results. Unless she had a very detailed description of the person or persons who’d taken her.

  “I guess I don’t know what you mean? There wasn’t anything suspicious leading up to my being taken. At least, I don’t think so.”

  Quinn had to tread lightly, but she could still ask questions. She just needed to formulate them a certain way; the main objective was how to do it without leading the young girl. Even with this many years under her belt, it was still hard to come up with the right questions. The ones that would trigger a memory.

  “Did you make any new friends in the days leading up to the kidnapping?” That was a fairly ambiguous question.

  Becky scrunched her face up, clearly trying hard to think back that long ago.

  “No…no, I don’t think so. My parents are on the strict side. I go—I mean, I went to a private school. I had a core group of friends. I have always been a very routine person.”

  “Meaning?”

  “You know, same routine day after day. No variance. I have a lot of extracurricular activities that I’m involved in. To find time for my current friends is difficult. To make a new friend would be even harder because they aren’t as understanding about my demanding schedule.”

  Which meant what? She didn’t have contact with the person who took her in the days, weeks, or months leading up to her kidnapping? That appeared to be the case, or at the very least, Becky didn’t seem to know if she had been in contact with the main players in her abduction. There was a while where they had thought the girl was abducted for money, but when no ransom request came, it was apparent that something else was going on. Quinn didn’t think the girl would lie about anything leading up to that day. Not even out of fear. Did that mean it was one hundred percent random? Quinn didn’t think so. If she had to guess, she would guess that Becky had been worked on for some time and had no idea that it had been happening. The problem was finding out by whom. If that was even possible.

  “So, until that day, nothing stands out. Nothing out of your normal routine?”

  “No. Nothing. Except…” Again, she scrunched her face while she was thinking something through.

  “Except what?” When the silence became too long, Quinn couldn’t help but ask the question.

  “Well, the day I was taken, I was in a neighborhood I never would have gone. Or I never had gone to before.”

  “What made you go there?” she asked carefully.

  “It’s kind of foggy; that was a long time ago.” She hedged.

  Quinn instantly saw red flags pop up all over the place from that one statement. There was definitely something that the girl didn’t want to share. Was it because her parents were in the room? Whatever it was, it might be something that could help point them in the right direction, but for some reason, the girl didn’t want to fess up. Surely, she knew that there was nothing that she could confide that would get her in trouble. Didn’t she? There was no doubt in Quinn’s mind that Becky was a smart girl. In fact, she knew she was. From the news articles Quinn read, she had discerned that Becky was a high honor student. Which didn’t mean she couldn’t get herself in trouble. Quinn suspected that she was protecting someone other than herself.

  “Becky, I think that we need to set something straight here. I’m your advocate. Not the people that took you. Not the media. Not the police. Not even your parents. I’m here for you and only you. I’m a licensed clinical therapist. Anything personal that you tell me won’t leave this room without your permission. If there is something you need to tell me that you need Detective Vanderbilt to not hear, I can ask him to leave, and it stays strictly between us. Even if it’s something that is pertinent to the case.” Becky’s eyes darted to Ethan and back to Quinn. “Detective Vanderbilt is here now because you allow him to be. You can ask him to leave at any point. He knows this and is on board with everything I just said. We are your advocates. However, I implore you, if there’s anything you know that can help this case, help us to stop these criminals from hurting another child. Please, please help us.”

  “It’s not that…it’s just, well, I promised her I wouldn’t tell anyone.”

  Now they were getting somewhere.

  “Promised who that you wouldn’t say anything?”

  “My friend, Haley Matthews.” She paused, her frail fingers gripped the blanket that was tucked around her.

  “I don’t remember the name. And I reviewed your file last night.” Ethan quietly spoke from the foot of the bed.

  “Well, she isn’t a friend my mom and dad would necessarily approve of my spending time with.” She looked at her parents guiltily, and then as if she suddenly realized something, she glanced at Ethan, “You mean she didn’t come forward when I went missing?” Becky’s lower lip began to tremble, and for the first time since Quinn had seen her in Black’s arms, she saw the girl on the verge of a meltdown.

  “All I can say is that she wasn’t interviewed,” Ethan said soothingly. “That doesn’t mean she didn’t come forward. It might just mean the officer interviewing might not have found anything she said important.” That was a lie because even if it wasn’t important, if the officer did their job right, there would be notes regarding speaking with Haley Matthews. But Ethan was smooth, and Becky didn’t notice it for what it was.

  “What are you protecting her from?”

  “Nothing really. I mean, nothing she can get in trouble for. It’s just, well, she has or had, I don’t know if they are still together, but back then she had an older boyfriend. One who lived in that neighborhood, and she was scared to go to his place alone. So, I would walk with her there to meet him. It wasn’t a big deal, and I was just being a good friend.”

  “Did you ever meet the boy that she was seeing?” Quinn asked carefully.

  “Yes. I always talked to him when I went there with her. They would go in another room for a while, and then Haley would come out, and we would walk home.”

  “Where does Haley live?”

  “Um, well, I don’t know.” Becky began to fidget and looked distraught. Her pulse started to increase on the monitors, and her blood pressure was slightly elevated. It really was cheating to have the machines there to indicate her agitation. It was like they were betraying her to Ethan and Quinn.

  “You never went to her home?”

  “No. Um, I got the impression she was embarrassed by where she lived. She always walked until a block before my house and then we parted ways. I didn’t want my parents to see her. Like I said, they wouldn’t necessarily approve.” She glanced over at the two of them apologetically.

  “Why?”

  “She is a scholarship student, and she dresses as wild as she can get away with. She kind of gets in trouble a lot because she skips classes.”

  “Did you ever ask to go to her house?”

  “Once.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She just said that her mom didn’t like her having people over and that she was always drunk.”

  Something was still not being shared. Quinn’s instincts were telling her to push the girl a little more. The worst that could happen would be that she would lose the trust of the girl or that the parents would decide to stop the conversation. Quinn hoped that she could get the girl to talk without breaking the bond she had established with her.

  “But?”

&nbs
p; “There is no but. I never asked again.”

  “Becky. I need you to cut the bull.” Quinn paused for a second when she heard the small intake of breath from Ethan. She hoped he trusted her because even if it was risky, she thought that the little push would pay off.

  “What do you mean? I’m not lying.”

  “I know that you aren’t lying. But you are omitting something. Something that might be very important. It would really mean a lot if you could trust me to be that advocate you need.”

  “It’s nothing, really. It’s just…I waited one day and watched which direction she went. She went back the way we had come, and I thought that it was kind of strange at first.” Becky paused, swallowed, and then continued. “The closer we got back to her boyfriend’s neighborhood, the more I was confused. At first, I thought she lived in the same neighborhood and didn’t want me to know. I mean, it’s a pretty bad part of town, but it didn’t make sense. I mean, she asked me to walk her there because she was scared. And then she went right back to his house and went inside. I waited for a while, and she didn’t come back out at first. Then when she did, she was dressed differently.”

  “She changed out of her school uniform?” Why would she have a change of clothes at his house? Unless it was more than a place she visited on occasion.

  “Yeah.”

  “How was she dressed?”

  “Um, she was kind of dressed like a hooker.”

  Bingo! There was the connection she was hoping to find; they had just found a missing piece of the puzzle. Haley had befriended Becky and introduced her to her boyfriend. The two were clearly a team and trying to groom Becky. Only it had been taking too long, and they must have gotten impatient.

  7

  After the revelation that Haley was most likely trying to groom Becky, coupled with the fact that both Quinn and Ethan knew that she had no idea what had been going on and that she had gotten extremely tired, they decided that was enough for now. They managed to get an address from her just as Nurse Schabow came in and told them they had to leave—that her patient needed to get some rest. While they agreed, part of Ethan wanted—no, needed—to stay. To get more answers that might help blow the roof off this case. But he knew that they needed to have a coherent witness, not one exhausted and unable to hold their own eyelids up. He also knew that she didn’t know anything else. So, grudgingly, they left the room, promising to return later.

  “She has no idea she was being worked on by that girl, does she?” Quinn asked as soon as they were out of the room.

  “I doubt it. Though she might suspect it now. And I doubt that the girl’s real name is Haley Matthews.”

  “But she would have had to be enrolled in the school.”

  “I’m sure she was, but I think that we’ll discover that the name is phony. Most likely this girl was groomed a while ago herself, and they moved her here to help them get more girls.”

  “Seriously, Ethan, what kind of world do we live in that someone pretends to be your friend in order to turn them into a sex slave.” It wasn’t phrased as a question. After all, she wasn’t expecting an answer he couldn’t possibly provide.

  “For every bad deed, there is a good deed. You proved that. She trusted the wrong person, but you rescued her. If there wasn’t the good with the bad, there would be no purpose in life.”

  “I had some help in getting her out of there.”

  “But you risked your life to get her to the hospital. Your good act outweighs the bad act.”

  “Maybe. But it isn’t enough. Not nearly enough.”

  “It has to be. For now, it has to be. Those good deeds, no matter how small, are what gets me through the day. You have to promise me that you will not do something like this again without asking me to help you out. If anything had happened…” He stopped talking abruptly and swallowed, having revealed too much. Even though she had already confirmed in the parking lot that she saw through his charade, it was still too much, and he swiftly changed the subject. “Kara wanted me to remind you that you have lunch plans with her.”

  Quinn looked at the smart watch on her wrist and seemed startled at the time.

  “Guess I don’t have much time, then, so I better get a move on.”

  “I’ll walk you out. Don’t argue with me. I know you’re about to. I realize you can take care of yourself. I realize you’ve been doing that for a long time. However, just humor me and let me be the testosterone-filled Neanderthal for a few minutes, and I’ll escort you to your car. It would make me feel better, and I don’t care if I just lost my man card by admitting that.”

  His comments startled a laugh out of her, and suddenly, the most brilliant smile he had ever seen cross her face sucker punched him. There was no doubt in his mind that he was falling hard for the hardheaded, petite, blonde woman who had just lit up the room and his world with one smile. But he hadn’t been joking with her about escorting her to her car. Not really. Sure, he wanted to make her laugh. But he was concerned for her safety. Even with all of her training in martial arts, not to mention her record on the shooting range, and the girl was a better shot than Kara, which said something. Even though she was short in stature, if someone got the drop on her, she could hold her own. Kara had killed two psychos when they got the drop on the officers taking them down. In the end, Ethan would put his money on Quinn. He just didn’t want to risk it or her.

  Quinn had looked at him so long that the smile started to slip a bit, but then he smiled back, and her lips turned into a full-on grin. Her eyes twinkled and her cheeks got a little red and he was utterly smitten by the whole package. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for this little firecracker. He just needed to convince her of that fact.

  “All right, studly man, you can walk me to my car if you so choose. But just remember, I could take you in a fair fight.” She smirked and sashayed around him toward the elevators.

  There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that the spitfire in front of him could take him or just about any other person down. He shook his head, smiling from ear to ear at the thought of rolling around on a mat with her. Immediately he was swallowing hard and trying to think of things that didn’t have his body responding to the lush curves in front of him. Except, one whiff of her perfume when the doors closed in the elevator, and he was once again in trouble. Distraction—he needed a distraction.

  “How are things going at the center?” Swift. That didn’t sound lame at all.

  “Actually, really good. We have plenty of people donating time, money, and supplies. All of which are appreciated and needed to keep the center running at the level we expect. The level I expect, the level I owe it to Kara to maintain.” Her smile had become serious, and her eyes were downcast.

  On some level, he hated that look as if she didn’t want to disappoint Kara. In the end, though, that look meant that Quinn respected her work so much that she didn’t want to fail. Ethan could respect that. It was what he had come to expect from Quinn, who was so much like his sister, yet also very different. It really was no secret that Ethan idolized his sister, and if one looked really closely, they would see he also idolized Quinn. The two most amazing women he had ever had the privilege of knowing.

  “You know, Kara thinks you’re doing an amazing job, and you should ease up on yourself. She has no complaints about you whatsoever.”

  “That may be, but I still have my own standards.”

  “We all know that, and that’s why we will never say you don’t care about the center. Just give yourself a little leeway to live a little. There’s more out there than the center.”

  “Really? And what might that more be?”

  Holy crap! If he wasn’t mistaken, Quinn Sanders was flirting with him. No way. He had never seen her even give a man a sideways interested glance, much less flirt with one. All of his dreams had just come true; well, maybe not all of them. He had a lot of dreams built up over the last months, ever since that night that Quinn had sat and held his hand while his world was falling apart. That
day had done something to him, and he no longer had any interest in playing the field. He hadn’t dated anyone since then. At first, he had no clue why he had lost interest in not just women, but sex as well. The fact that the only time the notion even popped into his head was when he was around her set him straight in a hurry. His little man was only interested in one woman, and it just took the big man a little longer to figure it out.

  “I guess I meant dating. I mean, I’ve never heard you talk of a boyfriend. That doesn’t mean there isn’t one out there, does it?” Smooth, real smooth. Could he sound more like a buffoon?

  To her credit, she didn’t laugh at him. Actually, she blushed a bright red. Suddenly, Ethan was worried that he had embarrassed her. He shouldn’t have pried into her personal life. What the hell had he been thinking asking if she had a boyfriend? Maybe she preferred to keep it private, or maybe she was humiliated because she wasn’t dating someone. A selfish part of him liked the latter option better. Ethan was still considered a player, even though that wasn’t the case, and she probably thought he was hitting on her so he could have another notch in his belt. When, really, he was just trying to find out if she was available for him to hit on. Man, he was ridiculous.

  “Nope. Not seeing anyone. I mean, I don’t date. Too busy at the center to take the time out of my schedule to find someone worth spending time with. I guess I sound kind of picky. But the men I come across usually aren’t worth my time.”

  “That’s because you spend all your time at the center and rarely see any men that aren’t abusers.”

  “I see plenty of decent men at the center, but I don’t mix work and pleasure. I know it sounds boring.”

  “Actually, I was thinking it sounds lonely,” he said quietly.

  They had made their way to her car and were standing, somewhat awkwardly. He had done that, he had created that awkward feeling, and he was furious with himself. After all the careful planning and patience, he had blown his shot in one fell swoop.