Page 79 of The Last Straw

“Do you like it?” he asked.

“It’s growing on me,” Wyrick said.

Charlie looked up at her then, thinking to himself... Just like you’re growing on me...a crazy combination of things I didn’t know I liked.

“Want a Pepsi?” he asked.

She nodded.

He got up, got a beer for him and a Pepsi for her and came back to the table. The ice cream was gone, and Wyrick had a look on her face that he knew all too well.

“What do you know that I don’t?” he asked as he handed her the drink.

“Well...since we found Rachel on the property, it’s logical to assume all of the other women were likely kept there, too, until they died. So I started to wonder if there were any residents still at Detter House who’d been there from the time the first woman went missing.”

“And?” Charlie asked.

“There are two. One has been there fourteen years. One has been there twelve years. And the first woman went missing eleven years ago. I’m sure the police are already on the same page, but after that thought was in my head, I had to find out.”

Charlie nodded. “Good for you. That sure shortened their list of possible suspects.”

“Unless, of course, someone we’re not even aware of has been coming in and out through the tunnel and taking them elsewhere,” Wyrick said.

“Then why stash Rachel Dean on the premises?” Charlie asked. “Nobody even knew she’d gone missing for more than twelve hours. I think your first guess is the right one.”

“So do I,” Wyrick said and took a drink of her pop. “It would certainly make things easier if Rachel Dean would just wake up and give us a name.”

“Agreed. How’s your bounty hunting going?” Charlie asked.

She shrugged. “I haven’t gotten back into that yet. I’ll check in tomorrow and see where I am.”

“Are you ready to go to bed now?” Charlie asked.

“Yes, but you didn’t have to stay up,” Wyrick said. “You’re not my babysitter.”

“No, ma’am, I am not your babysitter. At times I am your boss. Other times I am your bodyguard. But at all times I am your friend.”

Wyrick paused, too stunned to respond, and then took another drink before she could get herself together enough to ask, “So out of curiosity, what got you up tonight?”

“Hunger. And you just ate my snack,” Charlie drawled.

Wyrick knew that wasn’t the truth, but she let it slide.

“I’m going back to bed now,” she said and picked up her Pepsi.

“This time remember not to run with that,” he said, pointing to her bottle of pop.

Wyrick swished herself out of the kitchen with her chin in the air. He thought he heard her laughing as she went up the stairs, but he wasn’t sure.

And by the time he got everything cleaned up and turned out the lights, she was out of sight. He paused in the hall outside her room, watching the light shining beneath her door, and didn’t move until he saw it go out.

Then he went back into his room, crawled back into bed and closed his eyes. It was becoming more and more difficult to keep his hands to himself on the rare times he saw her falter. She mattered. And he didn’t want to lose her, but trouble followed her everywhere.

He was still waiting for the other shoe to drop when he finally fell asleep.

Ray Chriss’s plane landed at DFW in Dallas, just after midnight. It took forty-five minutes to retrieve his luggage and get a ride to the hospital, then another fifteen minutes to find the only entrance to the building at this time of night. By the time he found Millie, asleep on a sofa in the ICU waiting room, it was after 1 a.m.

He set his bag at the end of the sofa and then laid a hand on her head, feeling the soft brown curls wrapping around his fingers.

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