Little Girl Found

At least he’d gotten his morning routine worked out. He’d set up the kitchen to require the fewest steps necessary. Coffee, filters, the machine, all next to the sink. After he finished pouring and counting, he checked his watch. Seven-thirty. He’d call family services at eight.

He heard a shuffle and looked in the living room. The girl stood by the hallway, staring at him. “Where’s my daddy?” she asked again.

He didn’t know what to say. How to say it. The kid was so young.

She blinked a few times, as if she was trying to get him into focus. “I want Hailey,” she said.

Hailey. Who the hell was—“You mean that woman down the hall? The blond lady?”

The girl nodded. “Hailey. She’s my baby-sitter.”

“Hailey,” he repeated, thinking about where he’d seen her. In the laundry room, that was it. A couple of months ago. With the kid. She’d helped him carry his clothes upstairs. “Let’s go see Hailey, okay?”

The kid nodded. “Is my daddy there?”

“We’ll see,” he said, chickening out. He started toward her, and she went to the door. She put her doll on the floor and grasped the doorknob. It took her a few tries, but she got the door open, and then she picked up her doll again. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t look scared. She waited patiently for him to reach her side and then closed the door behind them.

Something wasn’t right. He didn’t know much about kids, but even he knew she ought to be scared out of her wits.

She led him down the walkway, past the five doors that separated his place from Hailey’s. Then she stopped. Shifted her doll under her arm and put her thumb in her mouth.

Jack knocked on Hailey’s door. Checked the kid, then knocked again, praying the woman was home. Then he heard the dead bolt slip and the door swung open.

She was still in her bathrobe. She looked at him with a question in her eyes, then she saw the girl. “Megan!”

“Is my daddy here?”

Hailey’s gaze moved back to Jack. “What’s going on?”

“Can we talk?”

Her brow furrowed with concern, but she didn’t press him. She picked Megan up, then held the door open for him. The second he walked inside, he knew he’d done the right thing. The kid would feel safe here. Hell, he felt safe here. And he hadn’t felt safe in about a hundred years.

Chapter Two

Hailey Bishop closed the door and turned to her guest. She recognized him, although she didn’t remember his name. John or Jack or something like that. She also knew he was a police officer, although she’d never seen him in a uniform.

He stood in the middle of her living room, leaning on his cane, favoring his left leg. She wondered if he’d been hurt on the job, but then Megan tightened her grip on her throat and Hailey forgot about the policeman’s problems. “What happened?” she asked him as she rubbed Megan’s back to calm her down.

He shook his head, and she realized he didn’t want to speak in front of the child. She didn’t like this. Her stomach clenched and the hairs on the back of her neck bristled. Even so, she smiled as she walked near the television and lowered Megan to the floor. Gently she took the girl’s quilt out of her hand and spread it on the carpet. “What kind of juice do you want?”

Megan thought a moment. “Apple.”

“Apple it is.” Hailey turned on the television, changing the channel until she found cartoons. Then she went to the kitchen and got one of the juice boxes she kept on hand. By the time she got back, the little girl was sitting cross-legged, her doll tucked safely into her lap. When Hailey handed her the juice, the girl smiled, then went back to watching Tom and Jerry.

Hailey turned to the policeman. He really didn’t look good. Aside from his obvious discomfort, his cheeks seemed hollow and his skin pale. He hadn’t shaved for a while and his dark stubble made him look gruff and hard. But his eyes told her something different. His gaze was on Megan, and the way he looked at her said worlds about the man. The little one was in some kind of trouble and he knew it. More than that, he was concerned about her.

As she signaled him to join her in the kitchen, she looked beyond the stubble and the brooding eyes. She’d thought he was handsome the first time she’d seen him, and that hadn’t changed. She wanted to know what had happened to him, whether someone was taking care of him. But that was for later.

He made it to her dining room and sat down heavily in the first chair he came to. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Standing must hurt.

“Coffee?” she asked.

He nodded. “That would be great.”

“How do you like it?”

“Black,” he said, watching her keenly as she went into the kitchen. “I’m Jack McCabe,” he said. “I’ve seen you around.”

“Yes, I recognized you, too. I didn’t know you knew Roy and Megan.”

“I don’t. I mean, I’ve seen him a few times, said hello, but that’s all.”

She poured the coffee into two mugs and brought them to the table. He took his with a grateful but worried smile. “So what happened?” she asked.

“Did you hear the sirens this morning?”

She nodded. “I didn’t realize they were at the complex. I’m so used to hearing them these days.”

“They were here, all right. Roy,” he said, lowering his voice to a whisper, “was killed this morning.”

Hailey almost dropped her mug. She put it down on the table as she fought for breath. “Killed? Are you sure?”

Jack nodded. “I’m sure.”

“How?” she asked too loudly. Moving closer to Jack, she asked again, “How?”

“He was shot.”

“What? Were you there? Was Megan there?”

He shook his head. “Megan was safe. She didn’t see a thing. It wasn’t a random shooting. Whoever killed him did it on purpose.”

“Oh, my God,” Hailey said, more to herself than to Jack. She couldn’t quite wrap her head around this horrific piece of news. Roy, dead? It was too absurd to be true. “How did you get Megan?”

“I didn’t have much choice. Roy came to my door this morning. He shoved her at me, then ran off. He said he had to go to the hospital. That his wife was sick.”

“Wife? He’s not married. His wife died several years ago.”

Jack looked over at Megan, sitting so quietly. Somehow he wasn’t surprised that Roy had lied. “Does she have any other family?”

“I think so. But not here in Houston. There might be an aunt in Florida. What did the police say?”

“Not much. But I’m gonna go to the station this morning and find out all I can.”

“You want me to watch her?”

He nodded. “Until I can get social services out here.”