Where Shadows Meet by Colleen Coble (26)

The storm battered against the house while thunder boomed overhead. Hannah gazed out across the yard at the black clouds. The porch was little protection. The little girl surely shouldn’t be out in this. She wanted to help Matt, to comfort him in some way, but she understood that nothing could bring solace but finding his little girl. Even though she still believed she might have a daughter out there, she also believed the child was with a family that loved her. The picture had shown a happy, smiling child. Hannah had no sense that the girl was in danger, that someone might have taken her.

Matt was looking at her strangely. His gaze held a plea she wasn’t sure how to read. And the twist of his lips almost made her think he was defiant about something. “Is there anything I can do, Matt?” she asked when he just stared without saying anything.

“I have to show you something,” he said. His voice trembled. He dug into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Flipping through the photo section, he stopped and stared at a picture. He tugged it from its sleeve and handed it to Hannah.

“This is Caitlin?” Hannah asked as she took the picture.

“This is my daughter.” He put the emphasis on the word my.

Such a proud and loving father. Hannah glanced at the picture. And froze. The little girl smiling back at her with her arms around Ajax could have been herself at five. Auburn ringlets cascaded down Caitlin’s back, and her golden brown eyes smiled as much as her lips. Hannah’s gaze traced the familiar features, the happy smile as she looked with love at whoever was taking the picture. Probably her father.

“You’ve had her all along,” Hannah whispered. “All this time when I’ve been looking for her. You lied to me.”

It was all clear in an instant. All those times she’d asked him for help. All those times he’d listened to her fears about whether it might be true she had a daughter. He could have set her mind at ease so easily. All he would have had to say was that he had a child who looked like that. Why the lie? Unless he’d adopted her. But then he could have just said he adopted her. But maybe he didn’t know who the mother was. Her thoughts jumbled wildly, nothing making sense.

Matt’s voice was low. “I know, and I’m sorry. It’s torn me up inside. But we’ll have to talk about it later. For now, we have to pull together to find her. I think Reece took her.”

Hannah gasped and put her hand to her mouth. But why, if Caitlin was Matt’s own child? “But why would he take your child? Unless he thought he could convince me she was mine?” The thought of that precious little girl in Reece’s control made tiny beads of perspiration break out on her forehead.

He raked his hand through his hair. “I didn’t want to get into all this, but you have to be on board with me. We’ve got to get everyone looking for Reece.” Matt drew a deep breath. “I think he put her on my doorstep five years ago. My wife and I tried for years to have a baby, but we learned she could never conceive. One night we heard something at the door. Analise opened it and found a baby in a carrier.”

“She’s not yours?” The ramifications began to seep into her consciousness.

Matt was still talking in a monotone. “Caitlin seemed heaven-sent. With my position in the sheriff’s department, we were able to pull some strings and adopt her without turning her over to Child Protective Services. The pediatrician estimated she was only hours old, not more than a day or two.”

A day or two. Hannah couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Could Reece really have taken her baby and just deposited her on a doorstep? Yes, he could. He was capable of anything. “She—she’s mine?” Hannah couldn’t breathe for fear this might be a dream. Joy vied with terror.

“I suspect so. I don’t know for sure.”

“Could she belong to someone else?”

He hunched his shoulders. “Why would she be put on my doorstep? Reece had a connection to me.”

Hannah studied the photo again. “She looks just like the picture Reece sent me.” Her gaze traced the smooth roundness of the child’s cheeks, the gentle curve of her lips. “She’s beautiful.”

“Yes, she is.” Matt’s voice held anguish. “We have to find her.” He disappeared inside.

Through the screen door, Hannah heard him telling his suspicions to the other deputies. Through a fog of confusion, she was aware they were calling for more help, putting out a warrant for Reece. With the thunder rolling over her and the lightning flashing overhead, a bubble of disbelief surrounded her. This couldn’t be happening. She’d begun to love Matt, to trust him. He’d proven to be no different from Reece. He wore a smiling mask that hid the true man. And now her daughter was in Reece’s clutches. She shuddered.

She’d tell the deputies Caitlin belonged to her. When she was found, she’d have her daughter and she’d never have to look Matt Beitler in the face again. She rubbed her forehead. That wouldn’t work. Matt had friends, connections. He had adopted Caitlin. Sorting out the mess would be no easy matter. And if Reece really had Caitlin, finding him might be impossible.

She knew what she had to do. Call Reece and, to rescue Caitlin, go crawling back.

Her cell phone rang. Of course. She didn’t have to look at the caller ID to know who it was. In a dreamlike state, she dug it out of her purse and flipped it open. “Hello, Reece,” she said in as sweet a voice as she could muster. “I’ve been thinking. I want to come home.”

“Wh-what?” Reece’s voice quivered.

“We’re attuned to one another. I was sure it was you when the phone rang. You’re right. We have to work things out. I miss you.” It was as if she stood outside herself listening to her lies. God forgive her, but she had to save Caitlin.

“I’m so glad, hon.” His voice grew stronger. “And when you get here, I have a wonderful surprise for you.”

A cold stone formed in her belly. He had Caitlin. An unnatural calm descended on her. She wasn’t the same weak woman Reece once knew. He would find a bitter adversary. And she would protect Caitlin with her life.

“Where should we meet?” she asked in a soft and low voice that was sure to attract Reece.

“I’ll pick you up at the coffee shop. Have your Angien friend drop you off and leave us alone. No tricks,” Reece said as though he suddenly thought she was setting a trap.

Hannah didn’t intend to tell anyone what she planned. The safest thing for Caitlin would be for her to go in alone, then slip out with the child the minute Reece went out to the store or to work. The problem would be that Reece might expect a lot from her until that time. A real marriage. He’d always had a strong sex drive. The thought of him touching her made bile rise in her throat, but she forced it back. She could do this. She had to do it.

“That sounds wonderful.”

“What’s brought about this sudden change of heart?” Suspicion vibrated in his voice.

“Being with my family, being back where we met. It brought all the love back.” The words nearly gagged her, but she put tenderness into them.

“I should have made sure you stayed in touch, then.” He chuckled then, a self-satisfied sound.

“I’ve missed you. I can’t wait to see you. When can you come get me?”

“I—I’ve got something to take care of. Your surprise. Give me two hours. Don’t be late,” he said.

“I’ll be early,” she said. She put her phone away. Somehow she had to slip away without raising suspicion. Get her things from the house, get to the coffee shop. In a fog, she went inside and listened as Matt barked out orders. Every time he looked at her, she glanced away.

In the end, it was surprisingly easy to arrange. When Angie arrived, Hannah told her she needed migraine medication and needed to run home for it. The detectives were out slogging in the mud and searching the woods behind the house for Caitlin. Hannah simply told Angie she’d be right back, then drove to the house, packed her things, and went to wait at the coffee shop with her suitcase. She bound her hair up in a bun on the back of her head, then sat at a table by the door to wait.

“Hannah?”

She looked up at the sound of a woman’s voice. Ellen Long stood in the doorway. The old anger surged at the sight of the woman’s face. Hannah had always believed Ellen knew more than she would admit to. “Ellen.”

“Mind if I sit down a minute?” Without waiting for an answer, Ellen slid into the chair across from Hannah. “I’d heard you were back in town.”

Hannah laced her fingers together in her lap. The woman had lost the bloom of beauty she’d had the last time Hannah had seen her. She was dressed in too-tight jeans and a top that revealed ample cleavage, and her features had a hard cast. “I’ve been back a couple of weeks.”

“I was hoping to run into you, see how you’re doing. I never got a chance to tell you how sorry I was.” Ellen’s words spilled out but held not an ounce of emotion. It was as if she’d memorized them and waited for the chance to spew them out.

Hannah held her tongue as her resentment grew. She had enough to worry about without listening to Ellen cry alligator tears.

Ellen fidgeted when Hannah didn’t reply. “Reece stopped to see me the other day. He says you’ve left him. That’s too bad.”

Why had Reece stopped to see Ellen? For the first time, Hannah wondered if Ellen and Reece were connected in some way. The thought hadn’t crossed her mind.

“How well do you know Reece?” Hannah asked. A secret smile flitted across Ellen’s face so fast that Hannah wasn’t sure it had come at all—until she saw the self-satisfied expression in the woman’s eyes.

“His mother introduced us.”

“His mother?” Reece had been a foster child of Trudy’s.

Ellen nodded. “I was taking quilting lessons from Irene Beitler. I met him there.”

Irene was Reece’s mother? Hannah wanted time to process the news. He’d never told her, yet he’d told his mistress? Even Matt hadn’t seemed to know. Even though Hannah longed to be free of Reece, the thought scalded her. “And had an affair?” Hannah could see it was true by the way Ellen looked away. “So why are you telling me this?” Her rage nearly choked her.

Ellen shrugged. “I just wanted to clear the air. Let you know Reece and me go back a long way. Make sure you’re not longing to reconcile. I don’t want to play second fiddle again.”

“I think Reece might have a say in that. What makes you think he wants you back?” Hannah heard the roar of a truck. Glancing out the window, she saw Reece behind the steering wheel. “I’ll ask him about it now.” She rose and walked past Ellen’s shocked face toward the truck.

Everything she thought she knew wasn’t true, and she couldn’t see through the deep water to the bottom. She reached the truck. When he grinned, she nearly fled, but she forced herself to return his smile and climb into the truck he was driving—one she’d never seen before. He took her cell phone and tossed it out the window. She was alone with him, and she didn’t know if she’d live to see tomorrow.

RAIN DRIPPED FROM the brim of his hat, and Matt lifted a mud-coated boot from the muck. No one had located any sign of his daughter. Even Ajax hadn’t found a scent. That had to mean she’d been taken somewhere in a vehicle, and the realization made his mouth dry up.

He glanced at his watch. Nearly noon. His baby girl had been gone an eternity. He’d prayed all morning for God to keep her safe, to keep her from being frightened. He motioned to Blake. “I don’t think she’s out here. Any word on Reece?”

“No one has seen him. He might have ditched the truck and gotten another vehicle.”

“Let’s call off the search out here. I’m sure he’s got her.”

“You’re probably right.”

Matt and Blake tramped through the mud back to the farm. Buggies and cars lined the road as far as he could see. The Amish community had poured out to help him. He’d never look at them the same again. Matt saw them as friends now, friends who cared.

Everyone was coming back to the yard now that the search had been called off. He found himself searching for Hannah’s bright head. He knew the news had rocked her hard. And it had probably ended any future they might have had. Instead, they would engage only in a long, bitter battle over Caitlin’s future.

His fear and deceit had ruined everything. He didn’t like the person he’d become. He’d always told himself he feared nothing, but instead of trusting God to work things out, he’d run scared, told countless lies, and put his daughter in harm’s way. And he’d been stupid to boot.

He didn’t see Angie’s familiar red car. Angie stood talking to Sarah and Gina under the shelter of a giant tulip tree, but rain still dripped onto their heads.

Gina rushed to him, and he embraced her. “Oh, Matt, I’m so sorry!” She was sobbing so hard she could barely talk. “A friend from church called me.” She swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “We’ve got to find her, Matt.”

“I will. I’m calling off the search in the woods, though. I think Reece has her.” A foggy disorientation muffled his thoughts, but he focused on his sister’s face. “You went to confront Vanessa?”

“Yeah, but Blake was there, Matt. And I saw a bunch of stuff in her garage. I think she and Blake are behind the robberies in town. I just turned around and left. I’m leaving him.”

Matt found no joy in discovering that his suspicions about Blake were true. “I’ll tell the captain.”

She put her face against his chest. “If only I hadn’t brought Caitlin here!”

“It’s not your fault, Sis. If Reece has her, he could have taken her from your house just as easily.” It was his job to keep his daughter safe, and he’d blown it. He glanced around the yard again. “Where’s Hannah?”

Angie wrinkled her nose. “I’ve been wondering that myself. She left here two hours ago to go get some migraine meds. I thought she’d be back in fifteen minutes. Maybe she had to lie down a few minutes.”

Matt knew Hannah well enough by now to know she’d crawl on bleeding knees to help those she loved. “I can’t see her doing that.” Something was going on, and every nerve in his body tightened in response.

“Me neither, to tell you the truth. I was trying not to worry.” Angie pulled her cell phone out of the purse slung around her shoulder. “I’ve got a good signal here. So if she had a breakdown, she could have called me.”

“I hope Reece didn’t find her,” he said. His pulse galloped as he thought it through. “If she thought Reece had Caitlin, would she go back to him?” Even before he saw Angie’s face change, he knew the answer. “Of course she would,” he said. “In a heartbeat.” He wanted to hit something. “Reece would call her and taunt her with the fact that he had their daughter.”

“Their daughter,” Angie said. “Do you think it’s really true?”

“I think so. I’ve got to find Hannah.” He called Ajax and ran to the SUV.

IN THE WASH of daylight, Reece looked older, harder. His hair was grayer and coarser, especially the straggly beard he’d grown. His jowl seemed softer too, but the same hard light shone in his eyes. Hannah had to look hard for it, though. His jovial smile would have masked it completely from someone who didn’t know as well as she just what he was capable of.

“You look good, hon,” he said. “Take your hair down.”

“Not now,” she said before she thought.

“Take it down now.”

The hard tone of his voice and the way the amiable mask vanished told her to obey. Slowly, she reached up and began to pull the pins from her hair. She’d thought he would hide his true colors at least for a little while. His eyes spoke of a further slide into madness. When her hair lay on her shoulders, she leaned forward to grab her bag from the floor and drop the pins into it.

Reece’s fingers plunged into her hair and wrapped around the locks. “No one has hair like yours. I’ve told you never to wear it down for anyone else.”

Using her hair as leverage, he dragged her across the bench seat until she was close enough for him to release her hair and slide his arm around her.

Her scalp stung, but she said nothing. He seemed calm at the moment, and she didn’t dare complain. With the overpowering scent of his familiar cologne nearly asphyxiating her, Hannah’s strength and courage waned. What made her think she could outwit him? Whenever she was around him, he sapped her will and determination. Her life would slide into the same old nightmare, and she would be helpless to prevent it.

No. She had Caitlin to think about. The little girl needed her protection. Hannah saw no evidence of Caitlin in the vehicle. Could he have merely used the situation to bait Hannah? She prayed that was true. It would be easier to escape if she wasn’t frozen with fear for her daughter.

“So where are we going?” she asked in a bright voice. From the corner of her eye, she saw his quick glance as though he couldn’t figure her out.

“You’ll see. I’ve got a surprise for you. Things are going to be different, Hannah. You’re going to obey me this time. We’re going to be the model family.”

“Family? Are we going to go find our daughter?” The words nearly gagged her, but she got them out in a loving tone.

“Maybe.”

“Why did you take her away from me, Reece?” The words poured out of her in spite of her resolve not to annoy him. “I wanted her so much.”

“I didn’t want to share you with anyone else. Now I see I was wrong about that.”

The craftiness in his glance frightened her. He had some kind of plan, and she feared for Caitlin. Where was the little girl? Surely he hadn’t left her alone somewhere.

“If she’s been adopted, how can we find her and get her back?”

“You leave that up to me.” He reached a dirt road that was only wide enough to allow a single car to navigate. “Where were you when I called?”

“At the farmhouse. Working on the quilt.” The lie came too easily to her lips. What kind of a Christian was she that she could smile and lie without compunction?

“Liar!” His fingers squeezed her arm hard enough to leave bruises. “I followed you. I know you were looking for Caitlin. You know I have her. That’s why you came, isn’t it?”

“No!” She tried to pull away, but his grip was too tight. “Do you have her? We thought she just wandered off into the woods. That’s where Matt was looking. How do you know Caitlin?” She thought her subterfuge had worked when he didn’t ask why she lied.

But his attention was on something else. Glancing in the rearview mirror, he accelerated around the curve, then whipped the steering wheel. “Did the detectives follow you?” he snarled.

“No, of course not. I was careful to make sure I was alone.”

The truck fishtailed in the mud, then slid into a wide spot between some shrubs. Ahead was an abandoned covered bridge. He drove over the grass toward it. “Hang on,” he said. His grip fell off her shoulders.

This bridge had never been restored, and Hannah immediately spotted the missing planks and rotted girders. Any minute she expected the truck to plunge through the floor of the bridge and into the creek below, running deep with cold water from the storm. She’d never seen the water so high. The tires rumbled on the planks, then Reece wrenched the wheel to the right and rode the passenger side tires up onto the side, where the frame looked stronger.

Hannah caught another glimpse of the water below through gaping holes in the structure of the bridge. She gripped the armrest on the door. Her pulse pounded in her head. They weren’t going to make it. The openings in the bridge passed by in a dizzying blur when Reece accelerated. The light at the other end grew larger, then the truck lurched over the last of the uneven boards. The tires found purchase in the rocky dirt at the other end and gave the truck traction through the last few feet.

Reece guided the truck to a stop in the shelter of underbrush. “Lost them,” he said with a smug grin.

“I never saw anyone.”

He stretched his arm across the top of the battered bench seat. “You haven’t kissed me yet, Hannah. That will tell me how sincere you are.”

Her stomach roiled. How could she cover her revulsion? She’d known it might come to this. The distance between her lips and his wary smile seemed as vast as the Pacific Ocean. Her muscles froze in place, pressing her back into the safety of the cracked leather seat. Any minute he would reach across the chasm and grab her. It would be all she could do not to scream, and he would know. Know she’d rather die than touch him.

A siren blared in the distance. His head whipped around, and he peered back through the trees. “We’d better get going. This can wait until tonight.”

Somehow she would have to find a way to get Caitlin to safety before then.