Where There's Faith Read online

  “I’ll check into that. It’s probably sitting in an evidence locker somewhere.”

  “I hate to ask, but can you find Madison? She’s not dead, and I have to be able to put this behind me.”

  “I know a very reputable private investigator. I’ll have him try to track her down. If anyone can do it, he can. I’ll call him as soon as we’re done here.” Brent pulled out another paper. “While we were waiting for the results, I started looking at this from the other end. Did you realize Faith was found the same day as the accident?”

  “What?” Robbie looked at Faith. “The same day?”

  “Wow,” Faith exclaimed. “That’s some coincidence.”

  “I’ve got my contacts pulling the case file. I’ll look into it and let you know what I find.”

  “Thanks, Brent,” Robbie said as he shook his hand. “I’ll pay whatever it takes.”

  Two days later, he stared at the folder on his desk. Brent had dropped off the file on Faith that morning. His business partner’s warning about the graphic nature of the photos inside running through his mind, he opened the packet and blew out a breath before reading the contents. The images the report planted in his brain were nothing compared to the photos. Her face looked like hamburger—bloody and raw. Hardly recognizable as a human face. He marveled at her strength. To wake up to such physical destruction with no memory of who she was, had to be devastating.

  Chapter 22

  Looking for any lead, Brent had pulled up information on Robbie’s Maddy and reached out to some of his old contacts while he waited for the reports on the accident and the autopsy from the LAPD. Madison Renee Miller was the oldest child of deceased parents Thomas and Cecilia Miller. As he probed deeper into her family, he focused on the screen in front of him, not quite believing what he was reading.

  Leaning back in his chair, Brent picked up his phone and sent off a text before digging deeper. He printed off the page, perusing the information again just to verify he read it correctly the first time. Engrossed in the paper in his hand, he didn’t hear Logan’s approach until he knocked on the doorframe.

  “Hey, Brent, got your text. What’s up?”

  “You know Robbie asked me to look into Madison’s accident? Well, did he ever mention that Madison’s last name was Miller?” He held the paper out to the deputy. “I found something interesting when I started looking into her background.”

  “Shit, is this for real? Madison was our Sonny? I always wondered what happened to her after her family moved to California.” His eyes shimmered. “Damn.”

  “What are the odds that Robbie would fall in love with your cousin?”

  “Somehow, Adam and I were both drawn to Fairfield Corners, so it stands to reason that Sonny would be too. I want to talk to Adam about this before we tell Robbie.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped on a number.

  Ten minutes later in Adam’s office at the pub, Adam paced the length of the room and back again. “Robbie’s Madison was our Sonny? Are you sure?”

  Brent handed him a printout of the database entry showing Madison’s connection to him and Logan. “I’d always hoped to find her one day.”

  Logan clapped him on the shoulder. “You know we have to tell Robbie.”

  Adam looked closer at the printout. “This says she had a sister. Were you able to find her?”

  “No, she disappeared the day of Madison’s accident. It’s as if she dropped off the face of the earth. Brent and I will do a more in-depth search, so maybe we can find her.”

  Logan stood in front of the two-way mirror and watched the pub’s lunch crowd. “If we’re telling Robbie, we might as well do it now. He just walked in.”

  Brent stood and motioned to the door. “I’ll let you two talk to him about this. Just yell if he has any questions. I’ll be in the restaurant.”

  Adam picked up his phone to call Mike, the bartender on duty, and asked him to have Robbie come back to the office.

  He opened the office door at Robbie’s knock. “Hey, Robbie, thanks for coming back.”

  “Is Ragan okay? AJ?”

  “Everyone is fine. How are things with Faith?”

  “Better. We’ve made progress since I’ve been back.”

  “Robbie, Brent discovered something when he was investigating Madison’s accident.” Adam gently led Robbie over to the couch. “Sit, and we’ll tell you what he found.”

  Looking at him quizzically, Robbie followed his direction and sat on the couch next to Logan. “So, what is so bad that Brent couldn’t tell me himself?”

  Logan rubbed his hands on his jeans as he thought about how to begin the conversation. “Brent told me you asked him to look into Madison’s accident after you found her necklace in Faith’s things. While he was waiting on the reports from the LAPD, he started looking into Madison’s past.” He cleared his throat and continued. “When he pulled up her details, he discovered she had a connection to Adam and me.”

  “What kind of connection?”

  “A family connection. I know you’ve heard me talk about Miss Hattie and how we spent our summers at her place while our parents toured. Well, our uncle and his wife were part of the group, and their daughter, who we knew as Sonny, would spend the summers with us there at Miss Hattie’s. The last time we saw her, she was five years old. After that summer, she moved with her parents out to California. Robbie, your Madison was our cousin Sonny.”

  Brent shuffled the reports on the table. The private investigator hadn’t been able to find Madison. She was just gone. And now, looking at the police report on Faith, he just couldn’t wrap his mind around it. She was found about half a mile from the off-ramp where Madison had gotten off the freeway when she had a flat tire. The coincidences were piling up. And the timeframe—she was found about thirty minutes after the accident. Was she there when Madison changed her flat tire? Something just didn’t feel right.

  “Brent? You about done?” Jordan asked as she stirred something on the stove. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

  He looked up at her. “Yeah. I wish I had something more to tell Robbie and Faith. I’m running into dead-ends on all fronts.”

  She looked down at the papers spread across the table. “Do you think Madison could have had something to do with Faith being beaten? They have similar coloring. Maybe someone thought she was Madison.”

  “That’s a possibility. I’ll have to think about it.”

  A week later, Brent stared at the report in his hand, not quite believing what he was seeing. He walked across the hall and knocked on the doorframe. “Hey, Robbie, you got a minute?”

  “Sure,” he answered, looking up from his computer. “What’s up?”

  “I have some information on Madison.”

  “Should I call Faith? She’s over at the bookstore with Ragan and Cassie getting ready for Words and Wine night.”

  “No, you should hear this first, and then you can decide how to tell Faith.”

  “What is it? You found Madison, didn’t you?”

  Brent didn’t say a word and handed the report to Robbie.

  Robbie looked up at him in confusion. “This says the DNA sample is a match to Faith. What sample? I don’t understand.”

  “I ran the DNA from Madison’s toothbrush against Faith’s.”

  Robbie jumped up and paced the length of the office. “But that means… Holy shit,” he whispered. “Faith is Madison.” He dropped into his chair as the strength left his legs. “Jesus.”

  Brent squeezed his shoulder. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m just trying to figure out how I’m going to tell her.”

  “The truth is always the best, believe me.”

  “How the hell did you figure it out?” Robbie jumped up and hurried toward the door. “Never mind. I’ve got to tell Faith, I mean Madison.”

  Thirty seconds later, he ran back into his office and looked around frantically. “What the hell did I do with my keys?”

  Brent held out his hand, the keys d
angling off his finger. “How about if I drive? I don’t want you having an accident.”

  Robbie’s leg bounced up and down during the drive to Fairfield Corners. “What made you decide to run Faith’s DNA against the sample from Madison’s toothbrush?”

  “It was something Jordan said. She made a comment about how Faith could have been mistaken for Madison as their coloring was so similar. I thought maybe they were related, but I was not expecting them to be the same person.”

  Brent pulled up in front the bookstore, letting Robbie out before driving into a parking space.

  Robbie opened the front door and scanned the bookstore, looking for Faith.

  “Robbie? You okay?” Ragan asked.

  “Yeah,” he said with a giant grin. “I’m great. Where’s Faith?”

  “She’s in the office. What’s going on?”

  He didn’t bother answering and took off at a run toward the office.

  Faith stood up with a bottle of wine in her hand. “Robbie? What’s going on? I thought you were at the restaurant today.”

  “Brent found something.”

  “He did? What?” She set the bottle down on the desk with a thunk. “Tell me.”

  “He found Madison,” Robbie stated.

  “He did? Where is she? Why did she disappear?” Faith looked at Robbie, not sure why he looked so happy.

  “Here, take a look at this,” he said as he handed the report to her.

  “What does this mean? You just said he found Madison, but this report has my name on it? I’m confused.”

  “Faith, baby, you are Madison.”

  “What?”

  He pulled her into his arms, now knowing why she always felt like she belonged there. “You are Madison,” he repeated. He frowned at the tears streaking down her face. “Hey, this is good news.”

  “I need to think. This is too much…” she mumbled as she raced out the door.

  “Faith, wait,” he yelled, afraid this news was going to ruin everything if he didn’t find out what had her so upset.

  The slam of the door was his answer.

  Faith sped away, no particular destination in mind. She just needed to get some space and think. The road in front of her disappeared into the distance, through cornfield after cornfield. Her foot pressed harder on the gas pedal as she tried to outrun her thoughts, her mind going back to those first days after she awoke to a world that had no place for her.

  The feelings of abandonment welled up, wrenching a sob from her chest. Her mind knew that he would have moved heaven and earth to find her if he had known she was alive, but her heart thumped out a rhythm that seemed to say: Why, why, why didn’t he look for me?

  The end of the road was coming up fast, but Faith didn’t notice the signs through her tears. She looked up and saw the guardrail across the end of the road with a big yellow sign that said Dead End. Both feet stomped on the brake pedal as she prayed. She had to stop or run into the ditch on either side of the road. The trough was deep enough that it would probably roll her car, and she had neglected to buckle her seatbelt.

  The vehicle came to rest with the bumper just touching the guardrail. As her hands shook, she put it in park and dropped her head against the steering wheel. How did he not know it wasn’t me in that car? How could he give up on me that easily? She screamed and yelled and cried until she had nothing left.

  The purple of dusk had encroached on the car when her attention returned to the present. Her temples throbbed with the beginnings of a headache as she looked around for her purse. Moving slowly and carefully, she checked the backseat and realized it was still at the bookstore. No purse meant no pain meds. There was no way she would be able to make it back to town before the pain became unbearable. Now, what was she going to do?

  Night fell as Robbie paced the length of the bookstore. Three hours and nothing from Faith. He was worried. Her purse and cell phone were in the office, and she had no way to call for help if she needed it. Terrified that she had disappeared never to be seen again, his stomach threatened to bring up the sandwich Ragan had made him eat an hour earlier. Cassie’s phone rang, and his attention immediately went to her face. His heart hurt when she shook her head no—Logan and James hadn’t found her yet.

  “I should go to the lake. She’ll go there after she’s thought things through.”

  Ragan brushed the hair out of his eyes. “You’re in no shape to drive, Robbie Newlin. James and Logan are both out looking for her. They’ll find her and bring her back here.”

  “What if she’s gone for good? I can’t lose her again.”

  “Shhh. Everything’s going to be okay. You have to believe fate wouldn’t put her back in your life for her to leave you here alone.

  Faith huddled under the blanket she had found in the back seat, grateful that the sun had finally set. The glinting on the metal guardrail had felt like hot knives searing into her brain. She looked up, testing her equilibrium.

  The hard-soled loafers in front of her looked out of place on the gravel road, but she was glad to see them. Maybe whoever was standing there would make a call for her so someone could pick her up out here in the middle of nowhere.

  She forced her gaze upward, hoping to see a friendly smile, but she was disappointed to see a scowl on the handsome face looking down at her.

  With a click, he turned on the flashlight in his hand, using it to blind her.

  “I’ve been looking for you. How did you end up in the ass-end of nowhere?”

  Steeling herself against the pain the bright light was causing as it shined in her eyes, she stood and looked at him square in the face. “Who are you? What do you want?” She knew that voice. “You’re the guy who’s been calling me.”

  “Who I am doesn’t matter. I want to be sure you will never tell what you saw back in Los Angeles. Being here with him may bring your memory back, and I can’t have that. I didn’t want it to come to this, but you leave me no choice. I’m already damned for killing your sister, what’s one more dead body on my conscience?”

  He looked back over his shoulder at the sound of a car coming up the road.

  The glow of headlights stopped and went out. Faith strained her eyes trying to see who was there without moving. She mentally chanted, “Stay back, stay back,” as the stranger returned his attention to her.

  She crossed her arms and continued to stare at him, hoping it would spark a memory. Nothing. “What do you mean here with him? I don’t understand.”

  “Here with your husband. Or don’t you “remember” that either?” her stalker asked with a sneer. “Don’t you think it’s time to own up to who you really are?”

  The sound of footsteps on gravel took his attention away from her. She stepped back, her head pounding as her vision pulsed in time to her heartbeat. She prayed she wouldn’t be sick from the pain.

  “Don’t move.”

  The click of the hammer being pulled back brought her attention back up. Her eyes widened in fear at the gun pointing at her head. She couldn’t take her attention off the end of the barrel which looked to be the size of a bowling ball from her perspective.

  “There’s only one way to be sure you never talk.”

  Faith watched as his finger pulled back on the trigger. The sound of a single gunshot echoed across the empty cornfields.

  Deputy Logan Miller turned left onto an unmarked dirt road even though he didn’t think Faith would have come this way as it was clearly marked as a dead end. He was not one to do anything half-way, so he continued on. His headlights cut through the darkness, shining off something on the road ahead of him. When he hit the high-beams, he could see a car pulled off to the side of the road. He stopped and turned off the headlights, taking out his flashlight to get a closer look. His eyes traveled over the vehicle, looking for the reason it was out here in the middle of nowhere. It didn’t seem to have a flat tire, so maybe it had some mechanical issue.

  Hearing what sounded like voices coming from ahead of him, he walked slowly tow
ard the sound as he pulled his gun, his flashlight off and in his left hand ready to be turned on and used to temporarily blind a suspect.

  The night was dead silent, not even a cricket chirped to break the quiet. His footsteps seemed unnaturally loud as he made his way forward. He could see Faith, her face frozen with fear as the guy in front of him pulled the hammer back on the gun in his hand.

  His mind raced, running through every possible outcome in a split second before he brought his gun up and fired, hitting the man in the arm to distract him from Faith.

  The gun dropped to the ground, and he clutched his arm, cursing loudly.

  Logan cuffed him to the guardrail before bandaging his wound as he called for backup and an ambulance. “You okay, Faith?”

  She hadn’t moved. Standing there, she trembled as tears ran down her face.

  Dropping a blanket around her shoulders, Logan pulled her into a hug. “It’s okay, I’ve got you.”

  “He was going to kill me over something I can’t remember,” she whispered between sobs. “Why?”

  “I don’t know, but we’ll find out. Robbie will be here in a few minutes.” He led her over to her car and had her sit. Wrapping the blanket around her with one hand, he used the other to dial his cell phone. “Robbie? I’ve got her. She’s okay.”

  Chuckling at Robbie’s response, Logan handed the phone to Faith. “Robbie wants to talk to you. He won’t believe me until he hears your voice.”

  When she ended the call, Logan wrapped another blanket from his trunk around Faith to try and stop her trembling, but she couldn’t seem to get her body under control. It was as if being held at gunpoint had broken something inside her. She was glad for the blanket and Logan’s arms around her, and she finally stopped shaking as his warmth seeped into her bones. It was as if an older brother were holding her together. When the tears started sliding down her cheeks, Logan pulled out his wallet and removed a picture, smiling as he showed it to her.

  “Did I ever tell you about my grandma, Miss Hattie? Adam and I spent every summer at her place while our parents toured.” He showed her the picture of his grandmother with eleven-year-old Logan and Adam and a younger girl with pigtails.