Girl Undone (TJ Peacock & Lisa Rayburn Mysteries Book 3) Page 3

  “Kelsey, how long have you been living with your aunt?”

  “Rina pretty much raised me. I’m surprised she didn’t tell you all about my evil mother.”

  “Tell me about her.”

  “My mother is nothing like Rina. She dropped out of high school when she was sixteen and was a drug addict by the time she was seventeen. My grandparents had her in and out of rehab for years. Then she and one of her rehab buddies ran off and got married. That’s when she had me. The only good thing I can tell you about my mother is that she managed to stay off drugs until I was born.”

  Lisa considered the girl’s bitter words. “Kelsey, if you’ve never been an addict, then you have no idea what an enormous sacrifice that was for your mother.”

  Kelsey’s gaze returned to the scene outside the window.

  “So, when did you actually move in with your aunt?”

  “I’ve stayed with Rina off and on since I was only a year old. My mother got back on drugs a few months after she gave birth to me. She started having a hard time paying for both her drugs and the things she needed for me. And having a kid around cramped her social life, if that’s what you could even call it. She dropped me off on Rina’s doorstep late one night and rang the bell.” Kelsey made a sour face. “That night wasn’t the only time that bell rang to announce my arrival. I suppose you’ll stick up for her again and say that at least she sent me to Rina all those times she knew she couldn’t take care of me.”

  Lisa would have but Kelsey’s resentment stopped her. “How old were you when you started living with your aunt permanently?”

  Kelsey’s eyes moistened. “When I was fourteen, she filed for permanent custody. It was the first time she did anything legal because then I was old enough to tell the court where I wanted to live. She never would have done it if she thought it would mean putting me through an ugly custody battle, but she knew my mother couldn’t afford to pay a decent lawyer. She thought if it was my choice, it wouldn’t be a problem for anyone.”

  “And was it?’

  Kelsey rose and walked to the window. “No.”

  “Kelsey, is there anything you’d like to talk about?”

  A minute passed and she turned to Lisa. “You can’t tell anybody what we talk about here, right?”

  “I planned on discussing that with you before you left. Everything here is confidential unless you give me permission to talk to someone else about our sessions. I’d like you to consider giving me the go ahead to share with TJ anything that could help us find out who took you and what they did to you. I believe you met TJ this morning. Your aunt hired her to find out what happened to you.”

  “No,” she said quickly. Then, “Is TJ sworn to confidentiality too?”

  “Technically, no. She’s working for your aunt. But we could talk to both of them and see if they would agree to me giving TJ information that she wouldn’t share with Rina.”

  Kelsey sat down again but didn’t respond to Lisa’s suggestion.

  “Why don’t we do this?” Lisa said. “I’ll talk to TJ. She’s a professional. If I share something with her because it might help find out what happened to you, she will be obligated to keep it to herself. But I’ll need you to sign this.” Lisa handed her a release form.

  The girl agreed and signed the paper.

  The situation was getting complicated. If it weren’t for the pain in Kelsey’s eyes, Lisa would have wished she’d said no to getting involved with Rina Petretti and her niece. “I feel there is something you need to talk about, Kelsey. Remember, I can’t discuss anything we say here with anyone else without your permission.”

  She stared at Lisa without blinking. “I met someone . . ..”

  6

  When Kelsey mentioned a man in her life, Lisa couldn’t help but think the relationship had something to do with her abduction.

  “Tell me about him.”

  “Just so you know, he has nothing to do with any of this. I met him last spring in Madison.”

  “Did someone introduce him to you?”

  “No. He came over and talked to me one day when I was having lunch at a restaurant near my apartment. He’s a businessman, older than me, and was in Madison for a meeting. It ended up cancelling at the last minute, so he stopped in for lunch before he drove back to Milwaukee. The restaurant is one of those places with long tables where everyone just sits together, and he sat down across from me. We started talking and just kind of hit it off.”

  “And you saw him again?”

  Kelsey nodded. “ Yeah. He was special. I never cared much for guys my age. I haven’t even dated a whole lot. I’m usually busy with school. And the horses.”

  “But you made time for him?”

  She smiled for the first time, a smile that transformed her oval face from plain to pretty. “Yes. I had told him about the horses we train. He came to our next show and was waiting for me after I won a blue ribbon with Mr. Merlin.”

  “Did you introduce him to your aunt?”

  “No, I wouldn’t do that. Rina never approved of anyone I went out with, and she thinks I should spend time with boys my own age. I guess she forgot what they were like.”

  Lisa forced back a smile. She had always preferred younger men, but she did remember what they were like at Kelsey’s age. “So you started seeing this man without telling Rina?”

  “Yes.”

  “Does he have a name?”

  “Let’s just call him . . .Aiden.”

  “You said ‘There was a guy.’ I gather that the relationship didn’t last. What happened?”

  “We met at hotels about once a week. Nice ones. Then just before I was going to go back to school, he told me that he couldn’t see me anymore. He and his wife were separated, which he had told me about the first time I met him. He told me then, that because of their children, they decided to try to make a go of their marriage again. It was really hard for him; he had tears in his eyes when we said goodbye.”

  “That must have been painful for you.”

  “I’d never felt like that before; I was in love with him. I wanted to die or crawl in a hole somewhere and never come out. But then school started, and I had to forget about him . . . get back to classes.”

  “And did you forget about him?”

  “I didn’t have a choice. My studies took all my concentration. I’m only telling you this so you understand why I was feeling so tired all the time. I had a difficult time carrying around all that pain and still keeping up my grades.”

  “Kelsey, I wish you would share this with your aunt. You don’t have to give her any details about the relationship, but I believe she would be less worried about you if she knew you were feeling bad because you lost someone you loved.”

  “You don’t know Rina. If I give her even a hint about it, she’ll keep picking at it like a dried-up scab.”

  “Would you like me to tell her? I can caution her that you won’t want to talk about him. I think she would listen to me.”

  Kelsey sighed. “I suppose that would be all right. Maybe she would stop asking me how I feel every five minutes.”

  Lisa wanted to ask her the mystery man’s real name. Actually, there were a lot of things she’d like to ask Kelsey. Her entire story about Aiden somehow sounded too pat. And the way Kelsey said they had met seemed beyond coincidence to Lisa. However, she didn’t force the issue, since she wanted Kelsey to keep an open mind about therapy. She hoped TJ would find out what had happened to Kelsey before Lisa had to pursue questioning the girl any further about Aiden.

  Kelsey looked brighter as she left the office. Talking to someone other than Rina must have been helpful for the girl.

  Lisa still had her doubts about getting involved with TJ in solving Kelsey’s mysterious abduction, but doing so had certainly taken her mind off of Bart Kosik and his tell-all crime blog.

  Bart Kosik hated mirrors, especially the ones in the locker room at the gym. He had just stepped out of the shower, gotten dressed, and toweled off h
is hair. The mirror, though, was necessary in order to get his bushy, reddish-blond hair back in some semblance of normalcy. Like an elephant in the room, the more he tried to avoid comparing the face in the mirror to that of the nerd from Mad magazine, the more his face merged into that of Alfred E. Neuman. But Bart was his own worst critic. In reality, his face wasn’t as round as Neuman’s, his ears and nose were fairly normal-sized, and his hair was definitely wilder than his lookalike. Most days, Bart didn’t think he looked like him at all.

  Even though Bart spent entire mornings working out, his slim build never showed any improvement, just as it didn’t matter how much food he ate—the scale still registered 156 pounds. He tried joining an aerobics class once but dropped out when the women began to treat him like a kid brother.

  In high school, he foolishly kept hoping that he would experience a growth spurt that would extend his meager five-foot-seven-inch frame to six feet, but it never happened.

  Bart published a new Crime Beat blog every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The other days he spent doing research, interviewing, answering emails, and responding to comments on the blog site.

  He left the gym carrying a nylon bag and walked past a dark blue SUV parked two rows over. A man in dark glasses sat behind the wheel. Probably some poor slob waiting for his wife, Bart thought as he tossed his gym bag in the trunk of his BMW.

  7

  After a brief meeting with Rina and Kelsey before Kelsey’s session with Lisa, TJ returned to her office. T & J Security was housed on the lower floor of her duplex, off of State Street in Wauwatosa. She, Richard and JR had an apartment on the second floor.

  TJ hadn’t formed a strong opinion of the girl, but noticed that Kelsey had been careful to answer only the questions she was asked, and never expanded on her answers. TJ had enough to get started with, so she put what little information she had into her computer and added details to a small notebook. Kelsey’s roommate, Whitney Chamberlain, seemed like the obvious place to start her investigation.

  TJ spent some time upstairs playing with JR. Then, equipped with the roommate’s cell number, the address of the apartment she shared with Kelsey, and of the restaurant where Chamberlain worked, TJ left for Madison in the Mini.

  With so little snow so far that winter, she felt safe in the small car. TJ loved driving it and had refused to sell it when Richard insisted it was a poor choice for a woman with a small child. Her stubbornness had prevailed, and when she bought her new Ford Escape, she hadn’t traded in the Mini Cooper. Instead, she only drove it when she didn’t have JR with her.

  On her way out of Milwaukee she dialed Lisa and put her on speaker. “You talk to the girl?”

  “I did.”

  “I’m on my way to Madison to interview her roommate. Got a few minutes?”

  “I’m going across the street for lunch. Want to meet me there?”

  The café in downtown Pewaukee had a nice selection of soups, salads, and sandwiches. TJ got there in record time and sat down across from Lisa. They ordered the daily soup-and-sandwich combo.

  “So what can you tell me?” TJ asked as soon as the waitress left their table.

  “The only new detail is that Kelsey had a man in her life last spring and summer—one that Rina doesn’t know about. She’s given me the go ahead to tell you, but you can’t tell Rina. I’m hoping Kelsey will tell her about it, but I did offer to break the news myself.”

  “If it ended that long ago, why do you think it matters?”

  “I don’t know that it does. Rina believes that her niece has had a significant personality change since she came home and is blaming the change on whatever happened to her. But according to the girl, the difference is because she had a broken heart. This man broke up with her right before she went back to school. Apparently, Kelsey and Rina’s only communication since then is by phone, so Rina wouldn’t have noticed any difference in Kelsey.”

  “What did Kelsey tell you about this guy?”

  “Not his real name, unfortunately, I’m sure she gave me a fake one, but I’m hoping I can get it out of her the next time I talk to her.” Lisa told TJ what little she knew about Kelsey’s history with Aiden. “I’m certain she’s holding something back, but there’s no way to know if it’s related to him or to her abduction.”

  “The guy sounds like a real winner. I figure the roommate should be able to tell us a lot about Kelsey’s routine. Our best lead’ll be the drug report. She was on somethin’ when I found her, probably some kind of anesthetic since she’s not a user. Or says she isn’t.”

  “Did you ask Rina how thoroughly Worthington examined the girl?”

  “I asked if they did a rape kit, but she said the girl refused to have that kind of exam.”

  “How about other tests? A blood workup like you’d have on a routine exam?”

  “Dunno. Kinda got the impression the girl didn’t let Worthington do much examinin’. Weird if she was so out of it, right?”

  “Kelsey said she was fully conscious by the time they got her home.”

  TJ wrinkled her nose, remembering the stern doctor. “Makes sense, then. Wouldn’t want that creepy doctor touchin’ me either if I was her. You think gettin’ more tests could be important?”

  “Yes, if the symptoms she described weren’t caused by her upset because this Aiden broke up with her and are really related to whatever was done to her when she was missing.”

  “What symptoms?”

  “I feel like I’m walking a fine line here with the confidentiality issue, but Kelsey did sign the release and did agree to let me talk to you if it was something that could help us find out who abducted her. She’d been feeling tired since she went back to school. That could have been caused by the break-up, but under the circumstances, we can’t be sure.”

  “So whatever’s goin’ on with her, it could have been happenin’ for a long time.”

  “I don’t know, maybe I’m just reaching. All we know for sure is that Kelsey showed up at Mayfair Mall in a trance-like condition. The last thing she remembers is being in Madison in her apartment on Tuesday morning, studying.”

  “Or that’s the last thing she wants us to think she remembers.”

  8

  Bart Kosick flicked on his police scanner and sat down at the computer to go through his emails. His home office contained the scanner, three computers, a printer, and a fax-machine-and-scanner combo. A waist-high workstation was installed along the wall opposite the window so he could work standing up. Custom connections for his electronics were installed along the wall above the ledge. The adjoining wall held bookcases filled with crime novels, real-life crime magazines, books on forensics, police procedure, and case histories.

  Bart’s African violet collection was displayed on shelves in front of the south and west windows. The room also had his favorite recliner and a dorm-sized refrigerator where he kept at least a three-day supply of assorted energy drinks.

  Bart, a compulsive neat freak, sensed something about the room wasn’t right. He had a specific place for everything, and things were out of order. His pen and pencil holder—it was on the right side of the computer and should have been on the left. His notepad was on the left of the keyboard and should have been centered in front of it. As he looked around the room, he spotted other things that weren’t quite in their proper places. He shook his head, and wondered if the caffeine overload was making him forgetful.

  Pacing the room, he spotted something he couldn’t blame on forgetfulness. His two most prized violet plants, the ones he’d recently purchased in Chicago and lovingly transported home, were not in their place of honor on the top shelf in front of the south window. The delicate, peach-colored Adeline Krogmans were nowhere in the room. Bart swore under his breath, something he typically only resorted to in dire circumstances, like the time he went on a ride-along with the police in the inner city and car had been stormed by a wandering group of teenage thugs.

  He hated to call the cops to report missing plants. Not
only would they laugh it off, they’d label him as light in the loafers because of his violet collection—which he wasn’t, even though at times he thought life would be simpler if he were.

  Bart couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a date. The exclusive matchmaking service he had shamefully signed up for hadn’t come up with anything for him in months. He had met the last woman they lined him up with at a coffee shop north of downtown and she’d been a head taller than him. They had taken one look at each other and burst out laughing before agreeing to stay for coffee and commiserate on the shortcomings of the matchmaking service. He left the “date” wishing, once again, he was six feet tall.

  His immediate problem concerned home security. Bart’s bungalow on the east side of Milwaukee was about a half-mile from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus but an even shorter distance from a high-crime neighborhood. He liked the ambiance and diversity of the area, but as a realist, he’d also put in what he believed at the time to be a decent security system. In hindsight, he regretted that he had only put in the best one he could afford then and had never upgraded.

  He needed to call the service and let them figure out how it had been compromised.

  9

  The apartment Kelsey shared with Whitney Chamberlain sat three quarters of a mile south of the University of Wisconsin campus on Lake Mendota, in a neighborhood of office buildings and apartments. The six-unit structure, with bicycles tied to the railings of almost every balcony, revealed that most of the residents were probably students. Still, the rent had to be costly that close to the university. TJ figured Chamberlain must have been making pretty good money to afford it with only one roommate to share the cost.

  The front door opened without a key when TJ entered—crappy security, she thought—into a foyer packed with even more bicycles and a large pet carrier. She took the stairs to Whitney’s floor.