She’d recently kicked her husband out after a fight between them.” She sighed. “Things had been bad between them for a while. He was controlling, aggressive. He yelled at her all the time. She said he didn’t hit her...but I didn’t believe her. My sister wasn’t clumsy, and yet she always seemed to have bruises. Especially on her neck. He always went for the neck.” Elise’s eyes filled with tears again, and she angrily brushed them away.
“I tried to get her to leave so many times, but she seemed more scared of leaving than of staying. Then Mikey was born—that was when things finally changed. She had put up with the abuse when it was just aimed at her. When he started turning that anger toward their baby, she decided she’d had enough and kicked him out.”
Ryan grimaced. He’d seen this far too often in his work—women who put up with habitual abuse. He was glad that Elise’s sister had been strong enough to put a stop to things to protect her child.
“I think we both expected him to come back in a day or two, drunk and belligerent, so I went to stay with her for a while,” Elise continued. “She was scared to be at the house by herself. But he never came. After a few days, she tried tracking him down, but it was like he’d disappeared. She couldn’t find him...”
“I thought you said your brother-in-law was after you?”
Boy, did he get the stink eye for that one.
“If you’re through interrupting...” Her voice could freeze the air between them. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he was amused. This woman was not easily intimidated, that was sure.
“Yeah. Sorry. Go on.”
A regal nod, and she continued. “As I was saying, he was missing for a while. Then the police came and said that he had apparently been killed. His car caught on fire after some kind of explosion and was totally destroyed. His body was never found. I was relieved for my sister that he was truly gone, but it bothered me that they didn’t find a corpse.”
“It’s not that unusual,” Ryan told her. “Especially if the fire was as bad as you said.”
“Yes, I know that—but even then, I wondered if there was more to it. After he’d left, Karalynne had found evidence that her husband was into something bad, like in a mob or something. I got worried because it seemed like something he would do—fake his death so that he could get away from the trouble he’d created for himself, not caring about the consequences to anyone else. My sister was terrified. She didn’t know what he was involved in, but if it was bad enough to get him killed then she worried that she might not be safe. She was waiting for whoever might have killed him to come after her next.”
Ryan scooted to the front of his seat. There was more to this tale, he could feel it coming. Elise had gone pale again, and her breathing was quicker. Her eyes skittered to the closed door. The woman was practically jumping out of her skin from nerves. Why?
“Elise.” He brought her eyes back to his. “You’re safe here.”
“I know. I know. I’m sorry.” She brushed her short wispy bangs back with her left hand. The sight of her bruised cheek infuriated him. “Karalynne had found some evidence, like I said.”
“What did she find?”
“A box hidden in their crawl space with cash...a lot of it. The box also had a couple of phones—the cheap, pay-as-you-go kind. And a gun.”
Her next words were almost a whisper. He had to strain to hear them.
“A few days later, I came home, and she was all agitated. She had gotten up her nerve and searched through his things more carefully. This time, she found something that terrified her. Hard evidence on an SD card. She wouldn’t tell me what was on it, said I was safer not knowing. I told her she had to go to the police. Because even if Hudson was dead, he’d probably been working with others and this evidence could help the authorities make a case, stop these people from being a threat to her and Mikey and anyone else.”
“Did she?”
Elise shrugged. “I never knew. I stayed with her for another week. When nothing happened, she settled down and told me to go home. I did, even though I was worried for her. Two weeks later, I got a call from the neighbor across the hall. Karalynne been mugged, the neighbor said, and was dead. If she’d been shot or stabbed, or even had fallen and hit her head or something, I might have believed it really was just a random mugging. Or maybe even Hudson’s associates coming after her, as she’d feared. But that wasn’t how she died.”
“How did she die?”
Elise’s hazel eyes stared straight into his as she answered. “Strangled. Hudson always did go for the neck.”
Ryan reared back. “You think he killed her?”
She slumped back against the pillows. “I know it seems crazy. I just couldn’t get the idea out of my head. I shared my suspicions with the police, but it was obvious they didn’t believe me. I told them about the box Elise had found, and the SD card, too, but they couldn’t find any of it in the house. Which meant they couldn’t do anything about Hudson or his associates. I got custody of Mikey and moved here.”
Oh, man. What a heartbreaking story. He frowned. “I get that the coincidence is weird. Your sister being attacked after finding evidence against her husband, and especially her being strangled. But it really could be a coincidence. Why are you so convinced he’s alive?”
Elise reached out and grabbed his hand. He winced. Although he doubted she was aware of it, her nails were digging into his skin. Ignoring the sensation, he kept his eyes trained on the lovely woman lying on the hospital bed.
“I saw him.”
“Who?”
Elise tightened her grip. “Today, when I went home. I saw him. Hudson. He was there in my house. I think he really was in the car accident—it wasn’t faked. But he survived. And now he’s after he. He hit me. And said he’d come for his son. He blamed me for Karalynne kicking him out. Promised to kill me. And he demanded that I tell him where to find Mikey and where it was.”
A punch in the gut would have been more pleasant than hearing about some monster gunning for this woman and a poor child.
“What does he think you have?”
He had a hunch, but didn’t want to put ideas into her head.
“Isn’t it obvious? He thinks I have the SD card. I don’t—she never gave it to me. She must have hidden it. If he can get rid of the evidence that links him to any crime, and of me, then what would stop him from coming back and starting over somewhere else?”
He tapped his chin. “He obviously wanted his son back, also, enough to risk coming back from the dead. Why take the chance to confront you?”
Anxiety washed over her face. “And every moment I’m in here, he could be getting closer to Mikey.”
Ryan leaned forward, letting her see his eyes, hoping to convince her of his sincerity. “Elise, we’ll do everything we can to find Mikey. I need to know about Leah. Does she have family nearby?”
Her brow furrowed in thought. “I think she lives with her cousin. Pretty sure her parents passed away. She’s sixteen.”
Sixteen
