Scream for Me Read Free

niece.”
    Alex sat down, stunned. “I didn’t know Bailey had a daughter.”
That poor child.
    “Oh. Then you didn’t know that you’re listed as the emergency contact on all of Hope’s registration forms at her preschool.”
    “No.” Alex drew a bolstering breath. “Is Bailey dead, Ms. Barker?”
    “I hope not, but we don’t know where she is. She didn’t show up for work this morning and one of her coworkers went to her house to check on her. The coworker found Hope curled up in a little ball in a closet.”
    Sick dread settled in Alex’s gut, but she kept her voice calm. “And Bailey was gone.”
    “The last anyone saw her was last night when she picked Hope up from preschool.”
    Preschool. The child was old enough for preschool and Alex had no idea she’d even existed.
Oh, Bailey, what have you done?
“And Hope? Was she hurt?”
    “Not physically, but she’s scared. Very scared. She’s not talking to anyone.”
    “Where is she?”
    “Right now she’s in emergency foster care.” Nancy Barker sighed. “Well, if you’re not going to take her, I’ll line up a permanent foster family for her.”
    “I’ll take her.” The words were out of Alex’s mouth before she even knew she planned to say them. But once said, she knew it was the right thing to do.
    “You didn’t even know she existed until five minutes ago,” Barker protested.
    “It doesn’t matter. I’m her aunt. I’ll take her.”
Like Kim took me. And saved my life.
“I’ll get there as soon as I can arrange leave from my job and buy a plane ticket.”
    Alex hung up, turned, and walked into Letta, whose brows were nearly off her forehead. Alex knew she’d been listening. “Well? Can I have the leave?”
    Letta’s eyes were filled with worry. “Do you have vacation saved up?”
    “Six weeks. I haven’t taken a day in more than three years.” There hadn’t been reason to. Richard never had time to go anywhere. He’d always been working.
    “Then start out with vacation,” Letta said. “I’ll get somebody to cover your shifts. But, Alex, you know nothing about this child. Maybe she has a disability or special needs.”
    “I’ll cope,” Alex said. “She has no one, and she’s family. I won’t abandon her.”
    “Like her mother did.” Letta tilted her head. “Like your mother did you.”
    Alex fought the wince, keeping her face impassive. Her past was only a few clicks away from anyone with Google. But Letta did mean well, so Alex made her lips curve. “I’ll call you when I get down there and find out more. Thanks, Letta.”
    Arcadia, Georgia, Sunday, January 28, 4:05 p.m.
    “Welcome back, Danny boy,” Special Agent Daniel Vartanian murmured to himself as he got out of his car and surveyed the scene. He’d only been gone two weeks, but it had been an eventful two weeks. It was time to get back to work, back to his life. Which in Daniel’s case meant the same thing. Work was his life, and death was his work.
    Avenging death, that was. Not causing it. He thought of the past two weeks, of all the death, all the lives destroyed. It was enough to drive a man insane, if he let it. Daniel didn’t intend to let it. He’d go back to his life, finding justice for one victim at a time. He’d make a difference. It was the only way he knew to . . . atone.
    The victim this day was a woman. She’d been found in a ditch on the side of the road, which was now lined with law enforcement vehicles of all shapes and functions.
    The crime lab was already here, as was the ME. Daniel stopped at the edge of the road where someone had strung yellow crime scene tape and peered down into the ditch where the body lay, a tech from the ME’s office crouched by her side. She’d been wrapped in a brown blanket that had been pulled away just enough to do the exam. Daniel could see she had dark hair and was perhaps five foot six. She was nude and her face was . . . damaged. He’d lifted one leg over the tape when a voice stopped