Page 42 of Jasmine Street Blues

“I’m breathing fine.” He cranked the engine.

“If you don’t calm down you’re going to make a mistake.”

He sped down the residential street, eyes on the road. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my lifetime. What’s one more?”

This was a new side of Mac, one she hadn’t seen before. She should have. He was here, after all this time, searching for his stepdaughter. He’d run into a dead end, but still he stayed. He continued to look for the girl, even though he’d lost his last lead years ago. With nothing to go on — until his ex’s ghost had shown up — he’d stayed the course.

He didn’t give up, and finding this nugget of information was like handing a sandwich to a starving man.

“If you go at Sonny with that expression on your face, he’s going to clam up.”

“I’ll arrest him.”

Was that his answer for everything? Today it seemed to be. “On what charge? You don’t strike me as the kind of man who’d break the law in order to get what you want.”

That statement made him go quiet. He even slowed down, a little. “What is it you think you know that I don’t?” he asked as they turned down a side street near downtown proper.

“Like I told you, last week Sonny saw a sketch of Carrie. I’d been doodling at work, and… and she was still there. Well, Kylie was there, I guess, putting that image into my mind.”

“This isn’t news. You already told me he didn’t recognize her.”

“He didn’t seem to, but the expression on his face changed. The shift was subtle, but I caught it. I just didn’t understand what it meant.”

“This is hardly earth-shattering news.”

Might as well be honest. “I had to say something so you’d let me get in the car. You don’t need to be alone right now.”

He looked at her then, brief but hard. Oh, those probing eyes! Maybe in spite of himself he understood, even though he was unlikely to admit that he needed anyone.

“When I ask if he knew her he better give me a quick yes. Fucking Sonny Baxter.”

“One more thing,” Loran said as he swerved the patrol car and parked by the curb of a small, neat house.

He glared at her.

She didn’t let that glare intimidate her. “Carrie went by her real first name when she was here. Odds are she’s still using it. If that helps at all.”

“Why do you say that?” he snapped.

Loran took a deep breath. “Because I did. It was the one piece of myself that I kept, as I moved from place to place. I’d change my last name, my hair color, the way I dressed. But I was always Loran.”

Mac unwound a little. She saw it in the set of his mouth and his shoulders. “Henry never would’ve found you if you’d changed your first name.”

“I know,” she whispered. “Hanging onto my real name has always been important, in a way I can’t explain. I didn’t want to lose that part of myself and become someone else entirely. I can’t guarantee that’s the case with Carrie, but it might be. Maybe that will help. I just… I want to help you, Mac.”

Some of the anger left his face; those eyes that were so hard to read softened. “Fine. Come in with me. If I lose my temper with Sonny he’ll clam up and I won’t get anything from him.” The stress came creeping back. “If he knows where she is…”

Mac jumped out of the car and so did she. She had to jog to keep up with him as he stormed toward the front door and banged on it with his fist.

He didn’t give Sonny two seconds to make it to the door before he yelled, “Police! Open up!”

As the door opened, Loran slipped around Mac and placed herself between him and Sonny. “Sorry to be here so early,” she said. Sonny was dressed in familiar work clothes, holding a cup of coffee. He hadn’t started his day yet, but he was up and about.

He looked truly confused. “What’s wrong?”

The handyman looked and sounded like an innocent man. Was he?

Mac whipped out his phone and pulled up his photo of the portrait. “Tell me everything you know about this girl.”