A Bad Day for Sunshine--A Novel Read online

  “Yeah, Levi,” another boy chimed in, his voice soft as though mesmerized. “Get her on the ground. We can take care of the rest.”

  Her fingertips dipped farther until he wrapped a hand around her wrist, the movement slow and calculated, effectively putting a stop to her exploration. He lifted out her empty hand then he reached down his shorts and brought up the key himself.

  She reached for it, but he pulled it toward him. Not to be mean like Hailey, but to study it, his dark hair with sun-streaked, coppery-blond locks falling over his face. He was the kind of boy summers were made for.

  “Can I have that back, please?”

  He ignored her, took the broken link, and re-clasped the chain so she could wear it again. Then he lifted it over her head, put it around her neck, and examined his handiwork.

  She didn’t know what to do. Thank him? She’d had her bike stolen. She’d been threatened with physical violence from a pack of jackals. And she’d touched, for the first time in her life, the boy she’d been in love with since forever.

  Emotion threatened to spill over her lashes. The last thing she’d wanted was for him to see her cry. This perfect boy who came from a perfectly broken home. A home that had been broken for generations.

  With back ramrod straight, she turned and walked home, mortified and humiliated and more in love than she ever imagined possible.

  She didn’t see him again that summer. She’d heard from other kids around town that Levi spent most of his summers on the Mescalero Apache reservation, but they didn’t know why.

  Sun did. Thanks to her parents, she also knew he almost died because of it. His mother hadn’t been so lucky.

  Levi’s gaze finally landed on her and he paused, his expression incredulous, the sinew in his arms straining as he flexed. “Really?” he asked, the edge in his voice razor sharp. “On your first day?”

  Quince started to come to her defense, but she couldn’t let him. She needed to set the precedence for their interactions from here on out. “There’s a girl missing,” she said, her voice just as sharp. “We got a tip that she’s been seen several times with your nephew, Jimmy. We need to talk to him.”

  If Sun had told him she was going to burn down his world and kill his family, she doubted he could have become more enraged. He stepped toward her, and both men closed in. Fields held up a hand, warning him to keep a safe distance.

  The passenger got out of the truck. She couldn’t be certain, but she thought he was one of Levi’s cousins. A shorter, stockier cousin like they all were.

  Levi took note of the FBI agent at last, his expression a blatant confession of just how unimpressed he was.

  “What are you doing here?” the cousin asked.

  Before she could ask Levi where his nephew was, an older man came out of the front door with Levi’s sister, Hailey. She screeched to a halt when she saw the officers, but then she ran to Levi, her eyes like saucers.

  “Did you find him?” When Levi didn’t answer, hysterics took hold. “Levi!” she shouted.

  “What are you talking about?” Sun asked.

  Hailey finally noticed Sun specifically, and her face morphed into one of disgust. “What the fuck is she doing here?”

  “Hailey,” Sun began, but the woman lost it.

  She bolted toward her and was only held back by her much larger brother.

  Sun kept one hand on her duty weapon, but showed a palm in surrender with the other. “We just need to talk to Jimmy. He’s not in trouble.”

  She tried to fling herself at Sun again, but Levi held her back.

  “They think Jimmy’s been hanging around with that missing girl,” Levi said to her.

  And Hailey went ballistic. She clawed and scratched at him, trying to get to Sun. “How dare you!” she shouted. “He would never hang out with a St. Aubin. Those kinds of girls wouldn’t give my son the time of day. But maybe that’s why you’re here.” She stilled as shock took over. “You think he took her.”

  “We don’t think anything, Hailey.” Sun worked hard on keeping her tone soft but confident. “We just need to talk to him.”

  Hailey fought Levi’s hold again until he pulled her against him and spoke into her ear.

  She whirled around and gaped at him. “What do you mean?”

  Levi let out a long breath, then said, “I lost his tracks in the snow. He’s still up there.”

  Hailey plastered both hands over her mouth as fresh tears fell down her cheeks. She looked like she’d been crying all morning. “He’ll freeze to death in those mountains.”

  “He knows that rock better than I do. I’ll find him, Hails,” Levi promised as the older man came forward and put an arm over her shoulders.

  She stiffened and shook him off before heading back inside the house. Just before she closed the door, she looked at Sun and said, “Get that piece of shit off this property.”

  It was nice to see nothing had changed. Sun was still hated for no reason whatsoever, and Hailey was still a hellcat. At least she knew where she stood.

  The slam echoed against the surrounding buildings, and Sun turned to Levi. “What’s going on?”

  “We just came back for dry clothes. Dipshit over there fell in the river.” He gestured toward the dipshit.

  “You’re searching the mountain. For whom?”

  He tilted his head to the side as though stunned she would dare talk to him, his annoyance crystal clear.

  When they were growing up, he’d seemed to like her. Well, like may have been a strong word, but he didn’t hate her. They’d even started talking. He was three years older, but after he’d graduated high school, she’d see him around here and there. It always made her day.

  But in high school, Sun was involved in … an accident. She spent a month in the hospital in a coma. Afterward, Levi kept his distance, even going so far as to ignore her when she called out to say hi. It was bizarre, and she didn’t deserve his indifference, so she grew bitter and he grew bitter, and before she knew it, they were at an impenetrable impasse.

  “Or I can bring you in for questioning,” she said, her threat as clear as his corn whiskey. “If that would make this easier.”

  He kept his dark, unwavering gaze trained on her face for a solid minute before he answered, “Jimmy didn’t come home last night.”

  Sun released a disappointed sigh. Of course, she’d guessed instantly who they were talking about, but she’d needed confirmation. “Levi, I have a missing girl, and now a boy who’s been seen with her is missing, too?”

  Fury sparked in his whiskey-colored eyes. He leaned closer, putting Quincy on edge enough to step between them, and whispered just for her, “Fuck you,” before stalking into the house.

  The cousin laughed, the sound strangely high-pitched like the jackals she’d considered Levi’s relatives to be.

  “Wow,” Quincy said softly at her side. “He really dislikes you.”

  “Thanks for the reminder.”

  “No, seriously, what did you do?”

  “Hey,” she said to the cousin before he could follow Levi inside.

  He grinned. “What is it, little girl? You think I’m going to give you information when Ravinder wouldn’t?”

  Even the other family members called him Ravinder. “Why do you call him that?” she asked. He flipped her off and tried to walk away again, but she asked, “How long has he been missing?”

  The guy turned back, and she could tell his concern was real. “Since yesterday afternoon.” He looked back at the house, checking to see if anyone was watching. “We think he went out and got caught in the storm yesterday.”

  “You should have called us.”

  “Yeah,” he said, chuckling. “Because the law enforcement officers of Del Sol have always been such peaches to work with.”

  She lifted a shoulder. “New regime. You could do something crazy and give me a chance.”

  He wore the very definition of a shit-eating grin before he turned and followed his younger cousin inside
.

  With little choice, Sun climbed back into the cruiser. Quincy followed, but Fields stayed back.

  “You’re just going to let this go? It’s the only lead you have.”

  “I have no intention of letting it go, but I know the Ravinders. The more we push, the more belligerent they become.” She gestured for him to get inside the cruiser. Once he was inside, she asked Quincy, “How fast can you get into civvies and get back out here?”

  He smiled. “Depends on how long it takes you to get back to the station, Grandma.”

  “Do they know your vehicle?” she asked him.

  “Yep, but they don’t know the Yellow Jacket.”

  “You still have your mom’s junker?”

  “Junker?” he asked, thoroughly offended. “Well, okay. But you have no idea how much action that old pickup has seen.”

  “Um, ew?”

  “Jealousy is so unbecoming.”

  Fields leaned forward. “May I ask what we’re doing?”

  “Wait,” Quincy said, cutting Fields off. “You are jealous, right?”

  “Levi Ravinder just happens to be the best tracker in the area,” she said, ignoring her BFF. “Probably the entire state and quite possibly the entire country. If he’s tracking Jimmy and the only lead we have connects Sybil St. Aubin to him, we’re following up on that lead.”

  Quince urged her to drive faster, gesturing with his hand. “It won’t take them long to change, eat, and get back out there.”

  “I’m hurrying,” she said, trying to stay on the slippery road.

  She didn’t want to say it out loud, not with Fields there since he was such a pessimist concerning the note, but according to Sybil, there was a strong possibility the girl was being held somewhere in the mountains as well. Since that covered thousands of square miles, she’d stick with Levi.

  “We just need to know where they’re concentrating their efforts. We can get the search party started from there.”

  “How long will it take to get a search party going?” Quincy asked, already stripping.

  “For now, it’ll just be us. If you’re up for it, Agent Fields.”

  He nodded. “Of course. I have a change of clothes in my car.”

  “It’s too late to get a large party going. It’ll be dark in two hours. Tomorrow, we can call in the volunteers and get an early start. And you might want to invite your sister. She’s amazing.”

  “That she is.”

  “His sister?” Fields asked.

  “Twins,” Sun said. “Wait until you meet her. You can hardly tell them apart.”

  She and Quincy laughed softly, and Fields apparently decided not to go there.

  The minute Sun stepped inside the station, Anita handed her a file with everything they’d found at the St. Aubin house.

  “No blood,” Anita said, filling her in as Sun examined the construction crew installing temporary wood panels at the front of the station. Which would certainly help with the heating bill. “But they did find a partial fingerprint. Price is bringing it in now. And they sent over a description of what Sybil was wearing the day before she disappeared. Mrs. St. Aubin can’t find those clothes, so she could still be in them.”

  “And the photo? It looks like an ad off the internet.”

  “It is an ad off the internet. That’s the backpack the button came from. She could have it with her.”

  Sun studied the list and the photo. “Anita, you are a god among mortals. Get this out to everyone.”

  Anita lowered her head, unused to such compliments, then turned to Fields as he scanned the file over Sun’s shoulder. “Mr. St. Aubin is home. He wants an update.”

  Her words seemed to irk the agent if the straight line across his face where his mouth used to be were any indication. She could hardly blame him. Mr. St. Aubin was used to getting his way because of his money. That wouldn’t get him far with a hardworking field agent.

  “Would you mind calling him for me, Anita?” He took his clothes and followed Quincy to the locker room.

  “What should I say?”

  “Tell him I’ll call him when I have something.”

  Anita shrugged and went back to her desk to make the call.

  Sun watched him go. Chiseled features. Assertive personality. Penis.

  All qualities she liked in a guy.

  11

  Suspect arrested for shoplifting a travel-sized

  toothpaste and for murdering his neighbor.

  The incidents do not seem to be related.

  —DEL SOL POLICE BLOTTER

  Before they headed out, Sun checked in on her inquisitive daughter. “Knock, knock,” she texted.

  After a few seconds, her phone vibrated. “Who’s there?”

  “Mrs. Are you staying out of trouble?”

  “Mrs. Are you staying out of trouble who?”

  Sun giggled. “Mrs. Are you staying out of trouble because if you’re not, you’ll be grounded for the rest of your life and your grandmother is going to pick you up after school.”

  “That is the longest name ever. Have you heard anything?”

  “Not yet, hon, but we may have a lead. Anything on your end?”

  “Nothing substantial.”

  Sun swelled with pride. How many kids used the word substantial accurately in a sentence?

  “Sybil is nice and smart and cute, but she keeps to herself, and I have yet to find a single student who really knew her. One she opened up to.”

  “That’s okay. At least you tried. I’ll be home late.”

  “Can I help?”

  “Yes. You can go to your grandparents’ house and do your homework. And don’t con them into ordering pizza.”

  “Okay.”

  “And when you do con them into ordering pizza, at least make sure there’s a vegetable on it. Somewhere. Or a fruit. Pineapple is good, I hear.”

  She could almost see the eye roll when her daughter texted back, “Fine.”

  Quincy came out in civilian clothes.

  Sun gestured him closer as she looked past the guys doing construction and pointed. A rust-colored rooster rushed past, much like the roadrunner in the Wile E. Coyote cartoons. “Isn’t that Puff Daddy?”

  “The chicken?” he asked.

  “The rooster. And, if I’m not mistaken, that’s Mr. Madrid chasing him.”

  A man with more bandages than a six-year-old left alone in a doctor’s office stumbled past the front of the station. The two plodded through the snow. The rooster with relative ease. Mr. Madrid not so much.

  “Bold of him to give a station full of deputies front-row seats to his criminal activities.”

  “Okay, now we have to arrest him.”

  “For what?” she asked. “Technically, poor Mr. Madrid does not have possession of Puff Daddy.”

  Quincy snorted. “Not for lack of trying.”

  “True. But we have work to do.”

  “Fine. I’m heading home to get my mom’s pickup.” He wore a khaki jacket, denim jeans, black-framed glasses, and a baseball cap low over his brow. “They’ll never recognize me in it.”

  The Ravinders were painfully private people. They would never let Sun or her deputies on their land without some kind of warrant, but Sun needed to know where Levi was searching. Once they had a location, they could get a warrant to assist. If, and only if, Quincy wasn’t spotted on their land.

  If it were up to Levi, Sun liked to think he’d be sensible and allow them access. But she couldn’t take the chance. If Sybil was up there, they needed to know sooner rather than later.

  “Thanks, Q. Keep me updated.”

  “I’ll let you know where they’re searching.”

  He started for the exit, but Fields called out to him, “I’m going with you.”

  Quince lifted a shoulder. “I’m just getting a location.”

  “Yeah, from what I’ve seen, if they spot you following them, you’ll need more than that thin disguise.”

  “Thin?” He gestured to himself a
s they headed out. “There is nothing thin about my disguise.”

  “Other than the fact that there is?”

  “I’ll have you know I played the lead in Oklahoma!”

  Sun laughed softly, wondering, as Fields probably did, what the hell that had to do with anything.

  She waited three more minutes, told Anita she was going out, then headed out the side door as well. After making sure they were gone, she walked around the small detention center and down the alley, careful of the shaded areas where the snow was still high and packed hard enough to be hazardous.

  Then again, even butter knives could be hazardous in the wrong hands. Like hers. She’d never been accused of being agile.

  Her phone had dinged on the way back to town with a message from Daisy Duke. It simply said, 15. That was twenty minutes ago, so Sun hurried.

  She opened the back door to the latest and greatest coffee shop Del Sol had to offer, Caffeine-Wah, and stepped into a dark storeroom. The smell of espresso almost dropped her. She hadn’t realized her levels had plummeted so low.

  A small blonde came out from behind a stack of shelves overflowing with coffee of all makes and models. She glanced around, her eyes red and swollen, making sure no one was with Sun, then ran to her.

  Sun wrapped her in her arms. “Sweetheart,” she said when Hailey Ravinder began sobbing. “Are you okay?”

  “No.” She let another round of sobs quake through her, before saying, “My baby is gone.”

  Sun sat her at arm’s length and smoothed back her hair. “Hailey, why didn’t you call me? Holy cow.”

  Despite her emotional state, her expression went flat. “Sun, my big brother is the best tracker in the state. What else could you have done?”

  She had a point.

  Even so, there were about a thousand reasons she should have called her, but there was no sense in going into it now.

  “And even if Jimmy knows that St. Aubin girl, he would never hurt her. I know every parent says that, but he’s a gentle giant. He is the sweetest kid on the planet, Sunshine.”