AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Not only that, but Lucas had always had an eidetic memory for things he heard, and things he read. It served him amazingly well when he was in med school; he passed at the top of his class, and flew through his residency before he was back in Hamlet as the village doctor by twenty-six. When he was younger, as he realized that not everyone had the same gift, he would use it as a parlor trick.
Later, when his inability to forget made his obsession with Tessa Ryan all the more consuming, he admitted that it could sometimes be a curse.
Now? It was something about Maria’s disappearance that he hadn’t known before…
Running the words through his mind again, he compared what was written down on the back of his card to the rhyme Mrs. Walsh once read to them. It was obviously the same rhyme, only the anonymous writer had changed the lines to reference what Maria had been doing when she was taken—and an undeniable threat about what might happen to her if she wasn’t found in time.
Rick frowned. “Do you think that old rhyme has something to do with why she was taken?”
To be honest, Lucas doubted it. But it was something, and he was going to hold onto it until proven otherwise.
“How did it go again?”
“‘Little girl, little girl, where have you been? Gathering roses to give to the queen’.”
“‘Where have you been,’” echoed Rick. “Well, whereisshe?”
If only Lucas fucking knew.
* * *
Hours later,Lucas still had the rage fueling him, and while the caffeine had long since worn off, he was ready to takeanothertour around Hamlet when Rick finally called it for the night.
It was easy to see that the deputy was itching to return home. He couldn’t really blame the man. It was well past dinner, the sun had already set, and though neither one wanted to come out and say it, either someone in Hamlet was helping hide Maria—or touring the village was pointless because she was already long gone.
Actively searching made Lucas feel better. Just like when four-year-old Liam Johnson was abducted by an outsider, he joined the search out in the snow because it was better than waiting around for a buzz that might never come.
From the hard edge to Rick’s square jaw, Lucas knew that there’d be no convincing him to continue driving. Deciding he could always go back to the Harts place, trade the cruiser for his Mustang and then go back out on his own, Lucas gave a single jerk of his chin in agreement.
Rick was already heading back toward the gulleyside. Sparing Lucas a sideways look out of his dark eyes, he said, “I know you want to find her. I do, too. Maria… she’s important to all of us in Hamlet.”
“Someone still took her,” Lucas responded, his clipped voice short. “They could be hurting her.”
“We’ll find her.” It was a solemn vow. Lucas knew that Rick—unlike himself—was a man of integrity. If he said it, hemeantit. “But, if I’m being honest, doc… someone tried to take my wife once before. I know how fucking terrifying this is. We won’t stop until we get Maria back, but I need eyes on my family, too.”
Rick wasn’t wrong for that. In Hamlet, locking the doors was a step most residents never took. The deputy refused to leave the property until he double-checked that all exits were sealed behind him.
Still…
“My wife probably needs me, too,” Lucas admitted.
More than that, Lucas needed Tessa. If he wasn’t bringing Maria home tonight, at least Tessa would be there to keep him from losing his temper completely and doing something without planning his moves out first.
“Hang on.”
Rick coasted the cruiser to the side of the road. Unclipping the radio from his belt, he turned the knob at the top until he reached the channel he was looking for. Squeezing the receiver he said, “Sly, buddy? You there?”
There was a slight crackle, and then Sylvester Collins voice came through the communicator.
“Yeah, Ricky. I’m here.” Another crackle. “What’s going on? Tell me you’ve got a lead. Tell me you know what happened to her.”
He sounded awful, Lucas thought. A mixture of anxiousness, anger, hope, and exhaustion, Sly said what he was supposed to in his shoes, though all three men knew he expected the answer that Rick reluctantly gave him.
“Sorry. No sign of her yet.”
“I’ve had Willie on the radio all evening. Caroline, down at the inn, has been helping her, and I think everyone in Hamlet knows by now to be on the look-out for Maria. Nothing yet on my end, though.”
Telling Sly the same thing he told Lucas, Rick said, “We’ll find her.”
