Wanting (3 page)

“
Nothing that stood out. I
also made a few phone calls to the local shelters and hostels I
have contacts at. So far Ashleigh Cavanaugh hasn’t been to any of
them, though the generic physical description fits any number of
girls that pass through there. Girls are always the hardest to pin
down, sir.”

“
And why is
that?”

“
Because once girls hit the
streets they tend to disappear. Especially blue-eyed blondes,”
Carrie said, grimly.

“
And you? What happened
when you first ran away?” Sebastian asked as he maneuvered the car
onto the Interstate. She was a beautiful woman and had probably
been a beautiful girl. Vulnerable for so many reasons. “Tell me.
Maybe Ashleigh’s done the same thing.”

“
First thing I did was find
a place to hide,” Carrie said as her arms tightened around the
computer bag in her lap. “I was afraid.”

“
Of what? Tell me.” He kept
his voice soft, though he knew that she’d answer. He’d figured out
quickly that she was a stickler for proper protocol and the
hierarchy of the Bureau. If a superior agent asked her for
information, Carrie would automatically give it.

“
I was afraid that they
were behind me; my foster parents. I didn’t want to be found. I was
afraid of the other people on the streets. They looked so
terrifying, mean, and crazy. Afraid of Social Services. I didn’t
know what I was doing back then and it was so overwhelming.” Her
words came softly and he glanced at her.

He reached over and pulled
her hand to rest between them unthinkingly. She didn’t resist, so
lost in memories that she was oblivious to him. Her hand was small,
fragile beneath his.

“
How long did that last?
What did you do next?” Sebastian admitted to a deep curiosity about
Carrie Sparks, a curiosity that was fast growing with each
interaction they had. “Tell me, Carrie.”

“
I hid. Not at a hostel,
but in the back of an old church. Hid my stuff beneath floorboards.
Like they’d done in a movie. I’d seen it with Jeremy.”

“
Jeremy?”

“
My foster brother. We
always watched movies together. He’d given me money, you see. To
run away with. Even bought the bus ticket for me. He was old
enough. I wasn’t.”

Sebastian ruthlessly shoved
his curiosity to the back burner. They weren’t there to rehash her
history, but to find a missing fourteen-year-old. But still, why
would an adult foster brother felt the need to help a
fifteen-year-old special needs child run away?

It didn’t sit right with
Sebastian. None of it did. What had happened to her? Why had she
run away? The questions burned on his tongue, but weren’t any of
his business. He bit them back. “How did you know to go there? How
long were you on the bus?”

“
Eight hours. Went from
Oklahoma to as far as I could go,” Carrie said. The tapping of her
fingers increased. “But it was different back then. Getting a bus
ticket wasn’t that hard, riding one alone wasn’t that hard. Hiding
wasn’t that hard. Not like today with all the added security
measures put into place.”

“
What did you do
next?”

“
Stayed all day in the old
church. I had my computer. The power was still on, probably to
discourage vandals, so I worked on it all day.”

“
Your computer?”

“
An old laptop. Big, ugly,
clunky. Jeremy gave it to me as a present. To say he was sorry for
what had happened.” Her words were matter-of-fact, and he doubted
she even realized how she was fueling his curiosity. “I practiced
code and worked on software. We didn’t have the internet then. Not
really. At least, not as easily accessed. So I just taught myself
code during the day after looking at the documents Jeremy had left
on the hard drive. He was in college, studying computer science.
Then, when it was dark, I went looking for something to eat. That’s
what was hard. It took me three days and seven hours to find
something to eat. I found Paige instead; she found food. She’d been
on the streets for two years by then.”

She was quiet for a moment,
and Sebastian remained silent as well. What was he supposed to say?
He hated the thought of Carrie and Paige living that kind of
existence. They both had deserved better.

“
Did Ashleigh’s mom say if
she took any money with her?” she asked.

“
No. She was given a weekly
allowance. Twenty dollars. But her mother didn’t know whether she’d
saved any of that or spent it. She also babysat
occasionally.”

“
What sort of communication
existed between Ashleigh and her mother?”

“
Not much, from what I
gather. But Sherry just thought it was natural for a
fourteen-year-old girl to pull away from her mother.” Sebastian’s
mouth tightened. He had his doubts that Sherry had fully understood
the girl’s behavior.

“
When did it start? If we
have a time frame we might be able to narrow down what caused her
to run.” Carrie gripped the door handle tightly when he took
another sharp turn.

“
Does medication help?” he
asked, noticing how she’d turned pale. Sympathy rushed
him.

“
No. I don’t take many
medications because of side effects.” She shook her head, then
pulled on the seatbelt a few times. She took a deep breath before
continuing. Composed herself in almost an instant. When had she
learned to do that? He admired her ability to rein in how she felt
in any moment. He half-wished he’d learned the same skill. “You
said she’s caused trouble before. Before. Probably something
happened to her around the first time. Probably. But what was
it?”

“
A week ago, her teachers
sent the first notice that her grades had slipped,” Sebastian said,
mentally reviewing what he’d read in the file while he maneuvered
the car through the interstate traffic. “And her grades had been
declining for at least two weeks at that point.”

“
So we’re looking at
something at least three weeks ago.” Carrie pulled her smallest
laptop free of her bag. Sebastian wondered just how much that
computer bag of hers weighed; it was crammed with two laptops and
various accessories and her paper copies of the files. Combined
with her backpack she’d crammed in the floorboard, it was probably
not that light of a burden. “Do you remember reading anything
online about that time period? Anything in her blogs or
emails?”

“
Not off the top of my
head. We’ll check when we stop for lunch,” Sebastian said. “What do
we know about Ashleigh’s father?”

Carrie made a few quick
strokes of the keyboard. “Aaron Cavanaugh. Currently lives in
Louisville, where he works as a construction foreman. And a
seemingly successful one, if his tax return is anything to go by.
He’s had two parking tickets, one speeding ticket, and a civil suit
against a neighbor—all in the last year.”

Sebastian frowned. “Sounds
ordinary.”

“
Typical. I can go deeper,
but it will take time.” He heard her fingers flying over the
keyboard.

“
See what you can find.
Have you been able to isolate any emails or texts she sent to her
father?” Sebastian remembered the girl from the few times he’d met
her. She was a little on the quiet side; he’d pegged her as being
bookish. He’d heard she did well in school, at least throughout
elementary. When had that changed?

“
She sent him an email
every day, from what I can find. Just ‘Hi, dad, I got an A on my
history test; Mom is getting on my nerves. When can I come visit
you again?’ type of things. Nothing that says she’s going to run
away soon.”

“
What are those types of
indicators? What do you know about it?”

She sighed. “I’ve seen so
many kids in St. Louis who’ve run away…it starts with antisocial
behavior, withdrawal from family events, many have sleep issues,
and start running around with a different set of friends. Friends
who often have reputations for deviant behaviors. They also may
have signs of inability to control themselves or their emotions.
School issues.” The tapping increased, her fingers drumming against
the side of the laptop. “According to the blog entries I found,
Ashleigh definitely exhibited several of these. Why didn’t her
mother see?”

Sebastian thought of the
Sherry he knew. She was good-hearted, he couldn’t deny that. And he
knew she loved her daughter, but Sherry had never been good at
observing things. Had almost always buried her head in the sand
when problems presented. “Sherry’s always been good at avoidance.
She probably didn’t want to admit there was a problem.”

“
So she just ignored the
signs. And Ashleigh had no choice but to run. It isn’t fair.” The
heat in her voice surprised him. Carrie Sparks was so rarely
passionate about anything in front of him. That had his mind
drifting for a moment toward other areas she might be passionate
in

“
Did you exhibit the signs,
Carrie? When you ran?”

“
I’ve thought about it,
several times over the last few years. I didn’t exhibit the signs.
I always had good grades. I didn’t have any friends, good or bad. I
was the weird foster girl who preferred computers to real people. I
hated to be touched. Still do. I had no real family so I wasn’t
close enough to anyone to start pulling away. My emotions were
often out of control. Wildly so. I have sensory issues and
Aspergers, you know that. Everyone knows that. I had been diagnosed
two years before I ended up with the Ellisons. But other than
diagnosis, I’d had no real treatment. Not until college, when I
sought it out myself. Behavioral therapy was a godsend for me. Now
I can deal with it. Then I would freak over little things. Even
rain. Or wind on my skin.”

“
So why did you
run?”

“
Jeremy. He told me I had
to. I know now that was his way of protecting himself, not
me...”

“
Why? How old was
he?”

“
Twenty. I was fifteen. He
didn’t want to get in trouble, or go to jail. He also said his
parents, my foster parents, would blame me. Because I trusted him,
I believed him. So I ran.”

“
Blame you? You were a
child!” Sebastian had a strong suspicion what the bastard had done
to a fifteen year old girl.

“
Even at fifteen, Agent
Lorcan, I was not a child.”

Sebastian would argue that.
That the bastard would convince her to run, that was reprehensible.
Someday, he hoped he ran into the man. Fifteen minutes alone with
him would be all he’d need.

***

They stopped for lunch and
to go over the files one more time around eleven.

Sebastian followed her into
the diner, not blind to the looks she garnered. She was young and
exotically beautiful. She was bound to draw attention wherever she
went. Had she even noticed?

How had she stayed under
the radar for so many years? Had her foster parents not looked for
her?

Sebastian knew that was
probably the truth of it. So many foster kids ran away each day,
there was no way the system could keep up with them.

But still, a beautiful
redhead like Carrie? He would think someone would have found her if
they’d looked hard enough. He’d look hard enough and they would
find Ashleigh. He wouldn’t stop until they did.

Carrie seemed completely
unaware of the diners around them, but by the time they reached
their table, Sebastian had catalogued every person in the
restaurant. Habit; one that had kept him alive on many
occasions.

She waited until the
waitress left with their orders before pulling a file from the bag.
“Ashleigh exhibited several warning signs. Most runaways do. But I
think there is something else. What do you know about her
mother?”

“
Sherry is a nice woman.
She’s not extremely smart, somewhere on the average end of the
scale. She’s good at making small talk, at putting people at ease.
But whenever there’s a problem, she tends to back away. She is
definitely non-confrontational. Always has been. She’s a hostess at
a mid-end restaurant. She’s been there ten years, I think. She
receives alimony and child support and lives standard middle class.
She’s a good parent, Carrie. I’ve seen evidence of that myself.
That’s why this surprises me. And makes me think it isn’t a typical
case of running away.”

“
I’ve got that impression,
too.” She surprised him, darting a small hand out to cover his
where his rested on the table for a moment. Had she ever touched
him before? He didn’t think so. “We’ll find her. I know we will.
And most runaways do go home eventually. Ashleigh will be one of
those statistics.”

They discussed the case
more, running possible scenarios back and forth. They didn’t even
know why the girl had run away. Until they found that information
and got a few viable clues, they had virtually nothing. Sebastian
stood. “Come on.”

Carrie looked up at him,
surprise evident on her face. “What is it?”

“
We need to speak with
Cavanaugh; let’s go find him.”

Chapter 5

*****

She wished she had more
money. She wished she had more food. She’d snuck into the motel a
few miles away from her dad’s house that morning. They’d advertised
a free hot breakfast on their sign out front. She’d hoped that the
clerk wouldn’t see her but he had. She’d managed to avoid him
yesterday, but today wasn’t that lucky.