Sealed with a Kiss by Leeanna Morgan (mobile ebook reader TXT) đź“•
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- Author: Leeanna Morgan
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Rachel’s cell phone let out a shrill blast. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and deleted the message. “That’s the third AMBER text alert I’ve had about Bella.” Her eyes filled with tears. “What if she dies?”
Tess pulled a handful of tissues out of a box on the counter. “There’s no point dwelling on things like that. Let’s go and look for her.” She passed Rachel the tissues. “I can’t sit here and not do anything.”
“But John said to stay here,” Rachel said with reluctance. “I’ve already made too many wrong decisions. If Bella suddenly finds her way here, she won’t know what to do.”
Kelly waved her hand in front of Rachel’s face. “Hello? Earth to Rachel? I’m not exactly invisible. If Bella comes in the store, I’ll keep her warm and call the police. I’ve got plenty of things she can do until they get here.”
“Are you sure?” Rachel asked.
Tess pulled Rachel off the stool. “Of course she’s sure. Kelly has six brothers and sisters. If anyone can look after an eight-year-old, it’s her.”
Rachel zipped her jacket to her chin. “Okay, but we have to get back here within an hour. If John finds out that I’ve left the store, he won’t be happy.”
“I hate to break the news to you,” Tess said. “But John probably won’t care where you are. His main focus is on Bella. Kelly will look after her if she comes into the store. We’ve covered all the bases.”
“Why don’t I feel as confident as you are?” Rachel asked.
“Maybe because you’re closer to Bella than I am?”
Rachel blinked back her tears. “Tank is meeting John at the police station. Where should we start looking?”
Tess buried her hands in her jacket pockets. “I vote for starting at the café. We can work our way back to where she left the SUV.”
“I’ll call you if Bella comes into the store,” Kelly said. “Good luck.”
Rachel knew they’d need more than luck. She just hoped Bella had found somewhere safe and warm to stay if she was lost.
The alternative wasn’t worth considering.
John sat in a black plastic chair in the chief of police’s office. If Bella had been kidnapped, there was a high probability that someone would contact him and demand a ransom.
And he knew exactly what they’d want.
Dan Carter walked into the room. “We’ve checked the security cameras on Main Street. There was no sign of Bella going past the craft store. Between your security guards and my detectives, we’ve gone into every store within half a mile of where she was last seen.”
“If she was snatched off the street and bundled into a vehicle, she could be miles from here by now.”
Dan looked up from the file he was holding. “We’re doing everything we can to find her.”
“I know. I feel so useless just sitting here.”
“With the death threats you’ve already received, you need to stay here. If we haven’t found Bella in the next couple of hours, you can go home. But if I hear that you’re on the streets looking for her, I won’t be happy.” Dan sat behind his desk. “I know that a detective has already asked you these questions, but I’m going to ask them again. Does Bella have any places she regularly visits in town?”
John crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I’ve taken Bella to Angel Wings Café a few times. Mrs. Daniels, my housekeeper, takes her to Safeway when she does the grocery shopping, and Rachel has taken her to Walmart. She goes to the library for drama club and to Denise Walker’s dance studio for her ballet class.”
“Friends?”
“Poppy O’Sullivan is her best friend. Bella likes talking with Franky Smith at drama club.”
“You didn’t mention Franky’s name before.”
John’s gaze shot to Dan. “Do you know something I don’t?”
Dan stood up and walked around his desk. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. If your cell phone rings, let Detective Adams know and we’ll try and trace the call.”
John watched Dan walk into the squad room and talk to one of his detectives. He glanced at the phone on Dan’s desk, then at his cell phone.
He needed to speak to Tank, and he needed to do it now. John looked back at the squad room and leaned across the desk, lifting the police chief’s phone off its cradle. He punched Tank’s cell phone number into the handset and waited.
Dan was still talking to the detective.
“Tank speaking.”
“It’s John. I need you to look through the background check you did on Franky Smith’s family. Pull everything you can on his father.”
“Sure. Is there anything in particular you want me to check?”
“Find out why he left the police force.” Dan was coming toward him. “I can’t talk and my cell phone is out of commission. Call me on this number.” John hung up and sat back down in his seat.
He might have been grasping at straws, but at least it was more productive than sitting here doing nothing. If Franky’s father had anything to do with Bella’s disappearance, he’d track him down and make sure he never hurt another child.
Dan walked into his office and frowned at John. “Who did you call?”
“Would there be any point telling you that I didn’t call anyone?”
“No. I traded my spare set of eyes for an eagle-eyed duty officer.”
John looked into the squad room and a police officer nodded at him. “I called Tank. We’ve already completed a background check on Franky’s family. I want to make sure we didn’t miss anything. I’ll make sure you get a copy of the information.”
Dan nodded. “I thought you’d want to know that one of my officers saw Tess and Rachel in town. They’re backtracking through the places that Bella could have gone.”
“On their own?”
“I don’t have any extra staff to go with them and neither do you.”
John ran his hands through his hair. Today had turned into the biggest nightmare of his life. He only hoped it didn’t get worse.
Rachel lifted the lid on a big trash can halfway down an alley. The smell of rotting garbage made her stomach heave. “She’s not here.”
Tess looked behind a pile of old wooden pallets. She pushed her hat out of her eyes and frowned at Rachel. “If you were eight years old, where would you go?”
Rachel looked down the alley. “I wouldn’t go here, that’s for sure. I don’t understand why she went into the café when she wanted to go to the craft store.”
“What time did Bella jump out of Tank’s SUV?”
Rachel wiped her hands on the side of her jacket. “At about half-past one. Why?”
“I’m trying to work out if there was another reason why she would have come into the café.”
“She wouldn’t have been hungry. We had a big lunch before we went to Pastor Steven’s house. And even if she was hungry, Bella didn’t have any money with her.”
Tess started walking out of the alley. “Kelly bought a sandwich from me. It would have been about the same time that Bella was trying to get into the craft store. Kelly doesn’t usually close for lunch, but it was so busy with the parade that she didn’t have much choice. What if Bella ran to Kelly’s store and the door was locked? Would she come into the café to see me?”
“She could have. She likes going to the café and I know she enjoyed spending time with you at The Bridesmaids Club. She would have known that Tank and I were going to be upset with her. Maybe talking to you would have been her way of working out what she would do next.”
Tess kept walking toward the café. “That still doesn’t account for why she took off her jacket. She wouldn’t have been in the café long enough to get hot.”
Rachel looked closely at the stores they were passing. They’d already been into each and every one of them, asking about Bella, finding out if they’d seen anything out of the ordinary at the parade.
Tess stopped and picked up a red button that was lying on the sidewalk. “Is this Bella’s?”
Rachel held the heart-shaped plastic button in her hand. “No. Her jacket had a zip and she
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