Trapped Read online

  “I didn’t actually tell her that part. About the name. I just told her he might be getting bullied at school or at home.”

  Angelina discussed her misgivings.

  “I think I’ll make sure I go to that classroom on Thursday and make sure little Charlie and I have a little alone time,” Nate said with a small frown.

  “Thanks. That will make me feel better. Can you call and let me know what you think?”

  “Sure, but I warn you that I might call you for dinner on Friday night. Unless you have other plans.”

  17

  After reading to the kids in Miss Dawkins’ room, Nate headed to the principal’s office. He stuck his head in. “Am I interrupting you?”

  “Yes, you are. You’re stopping me from the endless mountain of paperwork.” She stood. “So you are a very welcome interruption.”

  “I know what you mean. It seems as if that’s all my job is these days.”

  “What can I do for you, Nate?”

  “I was in Miss Dawkins room and—”

  “Let me guess. You’re concerned about Charles Wright. Right?” The look on her face told him he was busted.

  He nodded. “OK, let’s not play games. Angelina Matthews came to me with some concerns. But I’ve got to tell you after talking with little Charlie, I share them.”

  She sat back down. “Fine, tell me about it.”

  “He tells me he used to have another name. He remembers being called Carlos but he can’t remember his last name. And his mother told him that it was a secret name. That he shouldn’t tell anybody about it. That’s a little odd, don’t you think?”

  “Sometimes kids go by cute little nicknames until they start school. Or some of their family calls them one name while others call them something different. It’s not really out of the ordinary.”

  “I suppose. But I’d like to take a look at his records anyway. If you don’t mind.”

  She tapped her index fingers together forming a moving steeple. “I’m not sure if I should do that. I mean the records are private.”

  “Instead of me looking then why don’t you have a look? See if anything stands out to you.”

  “I guess I could do that.” She hit some keys on the computer. “Mmm. That’s interesting.”

  “What’s that?”

  “No birth certificate. No previous school records. The only documentation the mother gave us was her current electric bill. To prove she lived in the district.”

  “Isn’t that odd?”

  “A bit odd, but sometimes that happens. Parents lose or don’t have one initially, and have to order it from wherever the child was born. We take the child into the system, and when the parent receives the BC, they bring it to us. Hold on a minute. Maybe my assistant forgot to scan them. Let me check.” She walked out of the office but was back within a few minutes, holding a paper file. “According to Darlene, when the mother registered Charles, she’d explained that the office that had her child’s BC had a fire and the records were destroyed. And he was a kindergartener at the time so he hadn’t been enrolled in any other school before. A few states still don’t have mandatory kindergarten. The mother promised she’d get a copy of his medical records sent to us.”

  “But she never did, right?”

  “Never did.”

  “I thought you had to have proof of immunizations.”

  Margaret nodded and looked through the papers in the file. “They are here, but they were done in town by a local doctor. And only after we asked for them.” She looked up at him. “It’s not as if she did anything wrong. She followed the law but…what do you think it means?”

  “I’m not sure yet. But I’ll look into it and let you know. In the meantime, let’s keep this between ourselves.”

  An hour later Nate stared at the computer screen in his office. No info on Charles or his mother, Bonnie Wright. There didn’t appear to be any social media presence for either of them, a rarity these days.

  When he’d asked Charles about the name Carlos, he’d told Nate that he couldn’t remember any other part of the name. Nate went to the missing child network. The FBI kept a database of every missing child in the country. He typed in the name CARLOS.

  18

  As Angelina pulled in to her drive, Keren peeked out and waved from the back deck. After parking, Angelina joined her on the deck. “Hey. You look like you’re enjoying yourself.”

  “I admit that I am.” Keren took a sip of lemonade. “Hey, I guess you’re feeling better, huh? I was surprised to find you gone. I thought you’d just want to hang around here.”

  “It was my day to read with the kids.”

  “Ahhh. I didn’t expect you to go. Not after everything that happened yesterday.”

  “Yeah, yesterday was a bad day. But you know what? It was only one day.”

  “I guess. I just wanted to thank you for the cleaning lady. She’s awesome. Gives me a little time to sit out here and enjoy the day.” She pointed at the book sitting on the little wooden table beside her glass of lemonade.

  “No problem. I should have thought of it sooner.”

  “I can send her over to your apartment next time if you’d like?”

  “Not necessary. I sort of like learning how to clean. The first time I used the vacuum cleaner I wasn’t sure who was going to win. Me or it.” She laughed. “But I’m getting the hang of it.”

  “There’s no reason you should be getting better at it. You’re rich. Take advantage of it. I know I would. I hate cleaning.”

  “It’s time for me to grow up a little. I might even buy a cook book and learn how to cook something besides scrambled eggs.” For a moment, she was back in that house with Luther as she’d begged him to let her cook for him. She brushed the memory away. Thinking of Rosie, she said, “Maybe I’ll start with cookies.”

  “I really wish you’d change your mind and move back in here. In your own house. There’s no reason—”

  “It’s part of the whole growing up thing.”

  “If you say so.” Keren rolled her eyes.

  “Speaking of growing up, we need to have a little talk.”

  “About what?”

  “I really appreciate all you’ve done for me. Taking care of me, moving down here so I wasn’t completely alone. All of it.”

  “Uh-oh. That sounds ominous.”

  “Not at all. I just want you to know how much I appreciate you. But…” She grinned at her cousin. “But I am an adult. And I do need to…never mind. I just wanted to remind you I’m an adult, and you don’t really need to worry about me every minute of the day. It’s really not your job.”

  Keren stared at her for a moment. “OK, if you say so, but that’s easier said than done. Want to eat dinner with us tonight? You seem as if you’re always busy anymore. No time for your family.”

  “What’s on the menu?”

  “Well, I haven’t started dinner yet so what would you like?”

  “In that case, how about we go out to eat?” It had been a long time since she’d gone out for dinner. The doughnut shop with Nate didn’t technically count, since it wasn’t dinner.

  Keren wrinkled her nose, and then sighed. “Probably not.”

  “Why?”

  “Money’s a little tight. I might as well tell you Peter lost his job. The company cut ten percent of their work force. And, of course, since he hadn’t worked there all that long…” She sighed. “So, no restaurants for the time being. And I might have to go look for a job myself if he doesn’t find one soon.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know. I’m so sorry. Dinner will be my treat. It’s the least I can do after scaring the wits out of both of you yesterday. If that’s OK?”

  “Sure. If you want. Now that he’s laid off, Peter can get to some of the things around the house that need to be done, anyway. He might as well put his time to good use. There’s a ton of things that need some work. Nothing big, just small things.”

  “Oh, I suppose there is.” She looked around the back
yard, feeling slightly guilty. She really hadn’t done a whole lot to take care of this place lately.

  “Nothing major, Angelina. But it’s still a good idea to keep up with them. Of course, we might need to borrow a little money from you for supplies, but he’s glad to do the work for free.”

  “I wouldn’t hear of it. And you’re right, we’ve always had a few staff around here when I was growing up, so maybe that’s what we need to do again. Tell Peter, he’s officially hired. If he wants the job.”

  “You are too sweet. But it’s not necessary. You’ve already done so much for us. Letting us live in this beautiful house. We’ll be OK, financially. I’m sure he’ll find a job soon, and his DJ work helps. In fact, he has a gig tomorrow night. In Akron. Want to go with us?”

  “No, thanks and it is necessary. I own the house. It’s my duty to keep it in good shape. Tell him we can talk about his salary at dinner. See you later—about six.” She walked off the deck and toward her apartment.

  Her cell phone started ringing as she went up the stairs to her apartment. She rummaged through her phone and quickly pressed the button. “Hi, Nate.”

  “How’d you know it was me?”

  “I programmed your number in my phone.”

  “Oh, yeah. Anyway, I talked with little Charlie Wright, and I think you might be right. You told me he’d carried a few books for you.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Think I can see those books.”

  “Why?”

  “I’d like to compare his prints with some missing children.”

  She couldn’t breathe. “You think he was kidnapped?”

  “It’s only one possibility, but I did find some missing children named Carlos in his age group. I can stop by and get the books.”

  “No need. I’ll bring them to you right now.”

  “You don’t—”

  “Oh, yes I do.” Twenty minutes later, she walked into the Mt. Pleasant police station.

  Nate was sitting in an office, but the moment he saw her, he stood and motioned for her to come in. “Thanks for coming so quickly.”

  “Well, of course. It’s important.” She looked around the office. “I only see this one office, and it says Chief of Police. Is it your office?”

  “Yeah, they promoted me when Leslie left to join the FBI. You remember Leslie, right?”

  She nodded. “I had no idea you’re the Chief of Police. Now I’m really impressed. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were promoted.”

  “Don’t be. I probably only got it because of you anyway.”

  “Because of me?”

  “You and timing. Leslie left a few weeks after the incident with Luther Marks.”

  “You mean when you saved me,” she corrected.

  “Only Jesus saves. I found you. Anyway, with all the headlines and news about it, they must have decided it would be best to promote me instead of hunting for a new chief.”

  “Well, at least something good came from…” She hated even saying his name. Baby steps. She took a deep breath. “Luther Marks. Plus, I’m sure you’re the right man for the job. You probably would have gotten the promotion anyway.”

  “I don’t know about that but so far so good. Speaking of which, let’s take a look at those books. Are they library books? If they are, they’ll have a ton of fingerprints on them.”

  “No. I actually just bought them. They probably only have mine and Charlie’s prints on them.”

  “Great.”

  “What will you do? Send them to some forensic place or something to be examined?”

  “Nah. That would take too much time. A little old-fashioned police work. This isn’t for a trial. I just want to compare with some of the missing kids’ prints from the national database. If we find anything that looks close to the same, we’ll go from there.”

  She handed him the two books. “Can I watch?”

  “Sure.” He walked over to a cupboard and pulled out a bottle. “This should do the trick. This is fingerprint powder. It’s bi-chromatic which means it will show up light on dark surfaces and dark on lighter-colored surfaces.”

  “Interesting.”

  He shook the jar of powder, then opened it and twirled the brush in the lid. “It’s not good to use too much of the powder. It’ll actually mess up the print. So I always go with the less is more philosophy.” He gently swirled the brush across the book. He repeated the process one more time and then held the book up with a smile. The book cover had several prints on it. He walked back to the cupboard. “This is fingerprint tape. But first we need to see which is yours and which is Charlie’s.”

  She stared at the book cover and pointed at one. “I think that’s his. It’s smaller than the other ones. Plus that’s probably where he held the book.”

  He nodded. “I agree. You’ve got a good eye. Maybe you should take up police work.”

  She laughed. “I don’t think so.”

  Nate opened his drawer and pulled out a small camera. He snapped several pictures of the print. “Just in case I mess up, we can use the photo if we have to.” Using a piece of the fingerprint tape, he pressed it against the print. He took a ruler from his pencil holder and ran it across the tape. After that he lifted the tape as if it were a bandage, one quick motion. Then he pressed the tape against a small white card. “This is a fingerprint backing card.” He examined it and then held it up so she could see it. “Not bad if I say so myself.”

  “Wow. That’s pretty cool. Now what?”

  “Now I compare it to prints of the missing Carloses. They’re already on my computer.” He walked over and sat down and then stood again. “You sit. I can look over your shoulder.”

  “Don’t be silly. I’m just watching. You’re the one who knows what they’re doing. Sit.”

  He’d narrowed it down by age group as well as race. Still, there were more than twenty candidates who had the first or middle name of Carlos or Charles. Her heart broke as Nate compared fingerprint after fingerprint. How could there be that many missing children with the name Carlos?

  Finally, he looked up. “This one looks close. What do you think?”

  She leaned down, staring between the screen and the fingerprint on the card. “I don’t know. It looks like a lot of squiggles to me.”

  “That’s what they are but look closely.” He ran his finger over the screen. “See that line. Probably a small scar.” He held up the card. “This one has the same scar in the same place.”

  Her heart pounded. Little Charlie really was a kidnap victim. Unbelievable. “What’s his real name?”

  “Carlos Perez.” He pressed a button.

  “He’s really a kidnapped child?”

  “No, not kidnapped. Both he and his mother are listed as missing persons.” Nate clicked on a button.

  The fingerprint was replaced with a picture of a sweet-looking, chubby toddler being held by a young woman. Angelina squinted at the name. Bonita Perez. “Why are they listed as missing?”

  “I’m not sure. All this gives is a number to call if they’re found.”

  “Are you going to call?”

  “Of course.”

  Why were they listed as missing? It didn’t make sense. “But shouldn’t we find out why they’re missing first and who’s looking for them?”

  “I’m sure I’ll find out more when I call.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t want to be found. She could have been in an abusive situation or something like that. Can’t you go find out more on your own? Before you call.”

  “I don’t really see a reason to do that. Someone must be very worried about them. This will put their mind at ease.”

  “I need to go, Nate. See you later.” She headed for the door.

  “Everything OK?”

  Her feet stopped. “What do you mean?”

  “One minute you’re all involved, and now you seem as though you can’t wait to leave.” Even though his tone was calm, his gaze demanded an answer.

  Should she tell
him? “Well…I…uh…I’m not sure.”

  “Not sure about what?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just a feeling. She’s an adult. Doesn’t she have a right to decide who she’s in contact with?”

  “But think about it, Angelina. If I’d ignored Keren when she came in and filed a missing person’s report on you, who knows what would have happened?”

  “Well that’s true, but what if she doesn’t want to be found?”

  ~*~

  Nate didn’t have a chance to ask another question.

  Angelina hurried out of the station.

  What if Carlos’ mother didn’t want to be found?

  Nate didn’t like the sound of that. Certainly Angelina wouldn’t do something she might regret later. Maybe it just reminded her too much of her own kidnapping and she needed a breath of fresh air. He hoped it wasn’t another setback. She was improving every day, not just from the ordeal, but in her personal life.

  She seemed to be intent on becoming a different person. And he liked that person. A lot. More than he should. But he also knew this wasn’t the time in Angelina’s life for her to get involved romantically with someone—not even him.

  Her focus needed to be on her—on getting healthy.

  He did enjoy being around her, though. Focus, Goodman, on the task at hand. He picked up the phone to call the number listed on the missing person’s report but stopped.

  What if she doesn’t want to be found?

  It was his job to make the call. Even as he pressed the numbers, a part of him wondered if he was doing the right thing.

  19

  Angelina followed the yellow school bus, feeling a bit like a stalker. But it was for a good cause. She needed to meet Charlie’s mom, figure out why someone thought they were missing. She couldn’t really explain why, but it seemed important.

  By now it was probably out of her hands. Surely, Nate had already called the number. Or even the FBI. Maybe not. Did all missing person’s reports go through the FBI? She had no idea.

  Still, she kept following the bus. It left the town and headed out onto the rural roads dropping off children every few houses. Most of the kids would turn back around and give a big wave to their friends.