Protector - Laurel Dewey [194]
“Jane Perry? This is Jeff. Lisa’s brother? Look, I did some digging like you asked. I followed the protection trail. That Weyler guy you mentioned is not involved. But it is clear that a Detective Christopher Crawley has been offering illegal police protection to the immigrant businesses downtown. He gets paid off in goods and services. Something about a boat and other stuff. From what I can sort out, Crawley edged in on businesses that were already paying protection to the Texas mob. They could have killed him and Crawley knows that, but the mob decided to keep him in their back pocket. He does things for them. Jobs . . . Intimidation . . . Whatever they ask. Maybe even murder. The business people downtown are terrified of him. I tried to track him down but he suddenly left town this morning. Mentioned something to one of the shop owners about having to pay back somebody—” With that, the sixty second tape cut off.
Payback. Jane’s adrenalin hit the roof. She grabbed her shoulder holster, snapped it across her body and shoved in her Glock pistol. Tearing open her fanny pack, she quickly pulled out two extra clips and secured them in her front pockets. She threw on her leather jacket to conceal the gun and started down the hallway when she stopped and quickly ran back into the bedroom. Flinging open the closet door, she grabbed her duffel bag and emptied the contents onto the floor. She rummaged through the assorted items until she located the square, thin, black leather container that held her police badge. Jane hid the badge in her back pocket and ran down the hallway toward Emily’s bedroom door.
She tried the door. Still locked. “Emily!” Jane shouted, pounding on the door. “Unlock this door! Let me in!”
An eerie silence fell around Jane. Something was very wrong. She backed up several feet and kicked the door with her cowboy boot, sending splinters of wood flying across the floor. With one final devastating kick, directly onto the doorknob, the door flew open.
Emily was gone. Her pajamas lay in a heap on the floor. Her jeans, boots and shirt were missing from the chair where she’d left them. Jane turned. A gust of wind blew in through the narrow front window. The window screen had been punched through and tossed onto the front lawn.
“Oh, God, don’t do this!” Jane shouted as she spun around and ran out the front door.
Chapter 28
Jane skidded to a halt outside the house on the front pathway, quickly observing the scene. From what she could tell, it looked as if two separate footprints—one belonging to Emily and one clearly belonging to an adult—left indentations in the dewy grass and tracked away from the house, heading down Main Street toward town. The sidewalk was quickly filling up with parade watchers. Orange cones and wooden barricades lined the periphery, preventing people from walking into the street. Half a block up toward the highway, Jane saw a crowd of parade participants busily getting into line in preparation for their procession down Main.
Jane looked up in a nearby tree and saw a city worker adjusting a patriotic flag. “Hey! Did you just see a little girl being grabbed out of that window over there?”
“Uh-huh,” he said, casually.
“Did you notice where the kid and the guy were headed?”
“Guy? There was no guy.”
“She was alone?”
“No. That woman . . . what’s her name? She works at the real estate office . . .”
“Kathy?”
“Yeah, Kathy. She walked up there and, I don’t know, I guess asked her if she wanted to watch the parade or something—”
“Oh, shit,” Jane muttered under her breath. “Did you notice where they went?”
“They walked under the barricade and across the street, headin’ down Main.” Jane scanned the growing crowd on the other side of the street. She ran to the Subaru and started to get in when the city worker called out to her. “Hey, you can’t drive anywhere until the parade is over! City regulations! The street’s blocked!”
“It’s an emergency!” Jane shouted back to him.
“Lady, you can’t drive anywhere! They