Blind Faith - Sharon Sala Page 0,16

then pulled up the Dawsons’ home phone and called.

Macie Dawson answered. “Hello?”

“Mrs. Dawson, this is Wyrick.”

There was a gasp, and then Macie’s voice began to shake.

“Oh my God, do you have news?”

“No, not yet,” Wyrick said. “But I have a favor to ask. I need something personal of Tony’s. Something he uses or wears all the time. I’ll get it back to you.”

“Yes, of course. I’m home. I’ll have it ready for you.”

“I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes,” Wyrick said, then put the address in her GPS system and headed to the Dawson home.

She kept trying to focus on Tony, but she couldn’t establish a mental or emotional connection. She didn’t feel good about any of this now. Finding out that his hiking gear had been hidden wasn’t a good sign. And the fact that there were no physical signs of him around the gear was disheartening.

What had they done to him, and what had they done with his body?

Four

Macie Dawson went to Tony’s room, then paused in the doorway. What would she choose to give to Wyrick? Then she saw his baseball caps. He wore a cap all the time, and his Dallas Cowboys cap was one of his favorites.

She took it off the bedpost, then carried it downstairs, put it in a paper bag and waited. When she saw Wyrick pull up into their drive a little over fifteen minutes later, then get out at a jog, it made Macie nervous, like something was imminent, that there was news they weren’t telling her. But if they’d found him, they wouldn’t be wanting this baseball cap.

When Wyrick rang the bell, Macie was there. She opened the door and thrust the paper sack toward her.

“Will this do?”

Wyrick looked inside. “Does he wear this a lot?”

“All the time,” Macie said.

“I’ll get it back to you. I promise,” Wyrick said, and sped off, anxious to get back to the office, where it was quiet. She needed to be able to focus.

“Godspeed,” Macie said, but Wyrick was already gone. She stepped back into the house and closed the door.

* * *

Another thirty minutes passed before Wyrick made it back to the office. She parked in her space and was heading for the building when Darrell Boyington jumped out of a car and stepped between her and the building.

“Wait! Wait! I just want to talk,” he said. “I’m sorry I was rude. I’m sorry I called you a freak. I need help.”

“You didn’t listen before, but I want you to listen to me now. You’re lying to me, but I don’t have time to figure out why.”

Boyington blinked.

“What do you mean, you don’t have time to figure it out?” he muttered.

Wyrick ignored him and kept walking straight toward him, but Boyington didn’t like being thwarted, and stood his ground.

When he wouldn’t move, Wyrick poked a finger into the hollow between his collar bones, pressing so hard it made him wince.

“This is the second time you have staked me out after being asked to leave the office. Am I going to have to file stalking charges against you?”

Boyington backed off. Cops were the last thing he needed. “No, no, I just need help and—”

“Find someone else, because if I see you anywhere around here again...or if you try and chase me down on the freeway again, I will tell Charlie Dodge. And trust me, you do NOT want that to happen. There are dozens of other investigators in Dallas. Go hire one of them. Now get your ass in that car and get the hell out of this parking lot, or I’m calling the police.”

“Sorry,” Boyington said. “I’m leaving. No cops. No cops.”

And the moment he said that, Wyrick’s heart skipped a beat. He knew Cyrus Parks. She didn’t know how, but she saw Cyrus’s face superimposed over Boyington’s and knew that was who he was thinking about. Holy hell! Was he working for Parks? Was she in danger again? So, now was the time to put a stop to it before it went any further.

“While you’re at it, call Cyrus Parks and tell him you quit, because I’ll destroy the both of you if I see your face again.”

The shock on Boyington’s face was real.

“How did you—?”

Wyrick took another step toward him. “Get away from me. Now!”

The thought ran through his head to just break her neck now, but he already knew there were video cameras everywhere. And naming the man who’d hired him had been shocking. How the fuck had she known