Child Most Wanted
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Carole Halston
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Chapter 1
“A kid?” Jonah Rhodes was taken aback. “You’re telling me this Molly Jones is a single mother?”
That bit of information pretty much clinched his gut instinct: he was wasting his time here in Amarillo, Texas. When the police in his hometown back in Georgia had passed along the tip, he’d been skeptical that it would lead him to the Gulley sisters. In truth, Jonah’s zeal for tracking down the fugitive pair and bringing them to justice had died during the past six years. But since he’d been headed to southwest Texas, anyway, he’d detoured the extra miles out of a sense of brotherly duty.
“Old Mr. Griffen wasn’t sure which of the two gals was the birth mother,” explained Betty Willie, the informant. Her dyed red hair, framing a plump face, looked unnaturally bright even in the dim lighting of her overfurnished apartment. “Molly, the older gal, took care of the little tike. He kept on living with her after the younger gal, Lynette, wasn’t around anymore. Old Mr. Griffen figured Lynette must have taken off with the boyfriend who always picked her up on a motorcycle.” Betty heaved a sigh as Jonah shifted restlessly on the sofa. “I wish Mr. Griffen hadn’t up and died of a heart attack last week. You coulda got his story firsthand. And he coulda shared in the ten-thousand-dollar reward,” she added on a hopeful note.
The greedy glint in her hazel eyes stirred disgust in Jonah. He reminded himself that he’d originally offered the reward six years ago, intending to capitalize on the greed that led one human being to betray another for monetary gain. At the time he’d acted out of the bitter rage that had consumed him when his sixteen-year-old brother, Joel Rhodes, was violently killed and the person responsible, Joel’s juvenile-delinquent girlfriend, Karen Gulley, fled from the law and escaped any punishment. The way Jonah saw it, Karen might as well have pulled the trigger of the policeman’s gun that fired the fatal bullet. Joel had been a good kid before he got mixed up with her.
The older sister, Susan Gulley, who’d skipped town with her bad-egg sibling, shared the blame. She’d refused to cooperate when Jonah had sought her out just a month prior to the tragic episode that had ended in Joel’s death and the eventual disintegration of the Rhodes family. Jonah remembered begging the pretty young blond woman to do everything in her power to break up the teenage couple. He’d been wasting his breath. Susan had defended Karen and made excuses for her.
“The ages are right.” Betty Willie broke into Jonah’s grim thoughts. “Three years ago when old Mr. Griffen saw that cable TV program about rewards for missing persons that hadn’t ever been collected, he placed Molly Jones in her early or mid-twenties. And she was blond with blue eyes. He guessed Lynette Jones to be eighteen or nineteen. Her hair was black instead of brown, but you can’t tell about the real color of women’s hair.” Betty raised a dimpled hand and patted her overly bright auburn locks.
“Why didn’t Mr. Griffen contact the Georgia police himself after he saw the TV program three years ago?” asked Jonah. Dozens of other people all over the United States had. By then Jonah was married to Darleen and busy making fortunes for his investment clients and himself. He’d put his family tragedy behind him, had even forgotten about the reward, which amounted to a bounty on the heads of the two runaway sisters.
Betty was answering his question. “The old fellow was too softhearted. Several times when he was carrying in groceries, the older gal, Molly, took the time to stop and help him. So he didn’t want to get her in any trouble. He didn’t even mention his suspicions to the neighbors until after she and the little boy moved out a month or so after the TV show. Nobody paid any attention to the poor old guy.”
Until Betty Willie had come along several years later, heard Mr. Griffen’s story and acted on it.
“Jones could be an alias,” she said.
“Yes, along with Smith and any number of other common names. I’ve checked, and there’s no phone listing for a Molly Jones or an M. Jones in Amarillo. No Lynette or L. Jones. Nor do the police have any knowledge of them.”
“You could hire a private investigator.”
“If there were more reason to believe these two women really are the Gulley sisters, I could hire a private investigator,” Jonah agreed. His glance fell on a partially completed sweepstakes entry form that lay on the coffee table atop the litter of advertisements for magazines and other merchandise that had accompanied the form.
Betty followed his gaze and heaved another disappointed sigh, apparently reading his thoughts—that his odds of following up her tip and locating the Gulley sisters were about the same as her odds of winning the sweepstakes prize of ten million dollars emblazoned on the entry form.
“You lost all interest when I mentioned there’d been a little boy about two or three years old,” she commented, rising to her feet as Jonah stood up, preparing to leave.
He nodded. “The time scenario makes it unlikely there would have been a child that age.”
During their first nine months as fugitives, one of the two sisters would have had to get pregnant and carry the baby to term. Based on his very brief acquaintance with Susan, the older girl, he couldn’t quite picture her as the type to sleep around. If anything, he would have guessed she was a virgin. And Karen, hard-boiled at sixteen, wasn’t the type to be an unwed mother. She would have taken the easy way out and gotten an abortion.
No, Jonah didn’t believe this Molly and Lynette Jones were the Gulley sisters, and, frankly, he was relieved rather than disappointed as he strode toward his brand-new pickup truck out in the parking lot of the apartment complex. A divorced man now, Jonah was starting out a new life by taking off six months to a year and doing some long-overdue traveling around the U.S.A. The last thing he wanted was to reopen the unhappiest chapter of his past.
Minutes later Jonah was headed due south on I-27, his destination Big Bend National Park. As far as he was concerned, the search for the Gulley sisters was officially ended.
“Can I help you find a particular book?” inquired a petite brunette woman. The name tag pinned on her brown park ranger’s uniform identified her as Heidi Sykes.
“Thanks, but I’m just browsing,” Jonah replied, smiling his appreciation for her helpfulness.
He’d arrived at the park yesterday in the early afternoon and set up camp in the Basin camping area. This morning he’d risen early and gone hiking. Having gotten his exercise, he’d decided to visit the main Visitors’ Center at Panther’s Junction during the afternoon. After inspecting the interesting exhibits, which included a topographical model of the huge park situated in a bend of the Rio Grande, he’d wandered into the gift/bookshop and was fast collecting a whole stack of informative books and guides to purchase.
With no TV, there would be plenty of time to read up on the history of the area and the flora and fauna. Jonah would probably spend a couple of weeks here in Big Bend country before he moved on. It would take every bit that long—and perhaps longer—to explore the park, which encompassed over seven hundred thousand acres of rugged Chihuahua Desert wilderness.
Vast was certainly the key word to describe the landscape with its rocky mountain ranges and valleys and plains stretching as far as the eye could see. Awesome kept coming to mind, too. The congestion of downtown Atlanta seemed far, far away in another world entirely. Jonah didn’t miss the hustle and bustle one bit, although, admittedly, it felt strange having leisure time on his hands.
“Hi, Roger. Welcome back. How was your vacation?”
Jonah couldn’t help overhearing Heidi’s voice, since she was standing only a few feet away.
“It was a nice change of pace,” came a man’s reply. “I visited my folks up in Michigan.”
“You saw the flyer I put on your desk about the bingo fund-raiser tomorrow night in Study Butte?”
Roger chuckled. “I saw it, and I read your note.” He sounded sheepish.
“I knew you wouldn’t want to miss it when you learned that Molly Jones would be there.”
“You got that right. She’s calling the numbers?”
Jonah had been trying to tune out the conversation. Suddenly he was eavesdropping against his will, smothering a curse. Why couldn’t these two have had this chat out of his earshot?
“Yep. Which means she’ll be in plain sight for you to gaze at her like a sick calf. Why don’t you ask her out, for Pete’s sake? She’s single.”
“Because I haven’t worked up enough nerve. I get tongue-tied when I talk to her. She’s so...fine.”
“You men always fall for the pretty blue-eyed blondes,” Heidi accused.
No denial was forthcoming from Roger. “Well, I’ve got to go check out the Glenn Springs Road and make sure it hasn’t washed out,” he said. “See you around, Heidi.”
Jonah turned his head and got a look at Roger. He was a well-built sandy-haired man in his late twenties who might have come straight off a Michigan farm to don his brown park uniform.
This blue-eyed blond woman named Molly Jones undoubtedly wasn’t the same Molly Jones who’d been living in Amarillo three years ago. There were probably several dozen women with the same name and the same general description residing in the state of Texas. Even if she turned out to be the Molly Jones who’d helped old Mr. Griffen with his grocery sacks, that didn’t increase the odds that she was Susan Gulley, originally from Columbus, Georgia.
Still, Jonah knew damn well he would have to satisfy himself that he hadn’t stumbled upon the Gulley sisters’ whereabouts. The easiest way to do that would be to go to the bingo fund-raiser himself and get a look at the park ranger Roger’s heartthrob.
The very fact that she was calling the numbers for the bingo game made him that much more skeptical she would turn out to be Susan Gulley in disguise. Susan had struck him as far too shy to be comfortable standing in front of a group of people. Also, while she was certainly a pretty girl, Jonah couldn’t imagine her having the kind of effect on Roger that would make the park ranger tongue-tied in her presence.
After tomorrow night Jonah intended to turn a deaf ear if he happened to hear the name Molly Jones again, in Texas or elsewhere.
The drive to Study Butte, a former mining community, was roughly fifty miles along two-lane highways, most of that distance within the park itself. Mindful of the forty-five miles per hour speed limit, Jonah allowed plenty of time. With virtually no traffic, he settled back, his resentment of being on a wild-goose chase fading as he gazed out at the wilderness scenery and watched the rugged mountain ranges turn shades of delicate violet that deepened to purple as night fell.
Following Heidi’s directions, Jonah easily located the community center in Study Butte, population less than a hundred people. It had been named after a miner named Will Study, who pronounced his surname Stewdy, hence the odd pronunciation.
The community center building was a plain one-story cement-block structure painted the tan color of adobe. Some talented artist had used the outside walls as a canvas and created a mural depicting the colorful and lawless era of the past when Mexican banditos and fierce warring Indians roamed freely in Big Bend country. The figures on horseback seemed so lifelike that Jonah made a mental note to come back during the daylight with his camera.
The parking lot wasn’t paved. Jonah’s hiking boots kicked up little clouds of red dust as he walked from his pickup to the building. Other arrivals spoke to him with casual friendliness. Jonah couldn’t help noticing that Western garb was the chosen style. Men and women wore cowboy boots and tooled-leather belts with ornate silver buckles. Stetson hats were apparently as common down here in southwest Texas as baseball caps were back in rural and small-town Georgia.
Thanks to Heidi, Jonah understood the setup when he entered. A woman and a man, seated behind a table just inside the door, were distributing bingo cards and accepting money. A poster-size sign stated what Heidi had explained—there was no charge, since public gambling wasn’t legal in the state of Texas. However, a five-dollar per card donation to the school fund would be much appreciated. Jonah handed over a twenty and took four cards.
A quick glance around told him that, not surprisingly, none of the women present resembled Susan Gulley. For all he knew, Molly Jones might not be among them yet, but Jonah felt positive she wouldn’t resemble Susan when she stepped up on the platform at one end of the room, where a microphone on a stand had been positioned near a wire cage with ping-pong-size numbered balls.
A concessions counter was located along an adjacent wall. Long tables surrounded by folding chairs took up the rest of the space. Jonah made his way to a table in the center that had an unoccupied chair facing the platform. Once he’d sat down, he soon began chatting with two outgoing local people who seemed to be real characters—a man named Casey, who owned and ran a gas station in Study Butte, and a real estate agent named Flora. Both were retirement age, probably in their late sixties, but it was obvious that neither of them had any thoughts of retiring because they thrived on their work.
That’s what he wanted to find, Jonah reflected, a means of livelihood that he could enjoy. While he was traveling around the country, he intended to be on the lookout for a good business opportunity, preferably in a small-town setting. Jonah had tolerated big-city life, but he hadn’t liked it.
“Guess it’s time to get the show on the road,” Casey said.
“Doesn’t Molly look pretty in that red dress?” Flora commented, her tone fondly approving. Like Casey, she was gazing toward the platform.
The din of voices had quieted and people were arranging their bingo cards with an air of expectation. Jonah looked toward the platform, too, with mild curiosity that swiftly turned to disbelief. He blinked and stared at the woman standing before the microphone. Her shoulderlength tawny hair was streaked with golden blond. She wore a short red dress and red Western boots, a white Stetson set at a saucy angle on the back of her head.
Pretty didn’t quite describe her. She was a knockout.
More to the point, Jonah was almost certain she was Susan Gulley.
“Is everybody feeling lucky tonight?” she drawled into the microphone. Her amplified voice sent shivers down Jonah’s spine, shivers of male pleasure. When a dozen people called out friendly responses, she smiled a dazzling smile that speeded up his pulse. “We have some great prizes just waiting to be claimed.”
“Is one of the prizes a kiss, Molly?” called out the man who had been working at the door.
“Shame on you, Charlie. You’re making me blush,” she chided him. “Without any further ado, why don’t we get started? Watch those cards closely, folks.”
Jonah could have cared less about watching his cards. He didn’t take his eyes off her while she manually rotated the cage, plucked out a ball that had popped into a cuplike receptacle, then read out the number. “B-4.”
Doubt had set in. Despite the resemblance, this vibrant, self-assured woman couldn’t be the shy, demure Susan Gulley he remembered well from that one meeting six years ago. She’d blushed whenever their eyes had met. The voice was different, too. Molly Jones sounded more Texan than Southern.
She’s not Susan, Jonah told himself, relaxing.
Afterward he would seek Molly Jones out and introduce himself and ask her whether she had relatives in Georgia. A grin tugged at Jonah’s lips as he admitted he was glad to have a good excuse to talk to Molly Jones. Now it was easy to understand why the park ranger from Michigan, Roger, was bowled over. Jonah was in pretty much the same state.
“You have B-4,” Flora said to him, reaching out a beringed hand to tap one of his cards.
“Thanks, Flora.” Jonah obligingly placed a cardboard disk in the square she’d indicated.
He tended his cards in a lackadaisical manner as Molly proceeded in her role of numbers caller, her gaze roving over the faces of the crowd. Jonah was amused by his own eagerness for her to make eye contact with him. Had he ever been this attracted to a woman on sight before?
Certainly not to Susan Gulley, although he’d found her pretty and appealing before he’d brought up the subject of Karen Gulley. At that point any man-woman interaction had died.
Molly had finally zeroed in on the people at Jonah’s table. Casey and Flora both waved at her. Her smile grew warm as her gaze lingered on them. Jonah silently urged her to look at him. Finally she did. His smile automatically broadened, while hers froze on her lips. For the space of a few seconds she stared at him as though she’d seen a ghost. Then she quickly recovered her poise.
Jonah was jolted by her reaction. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe she was Susan Gulley, and she’d recognized him.
For Molly, spotting Jonah Rhodes among the crowd was like the awful reverse of waking up from a nightmare and being relieved and grateful that the nightmare wasn’t real. One moment she was feeling safe and happy. The next moment her worst fear had come true.
The Rhodes family had tracked her down. Had they learned of Joey’s existence and put two and two together?
Panic seized Molly. It was all she could do to stand there on the platform and go through the motions of calling the bingo numbers when frantic instinct told her to rush home to her condo and grab her nephew up in her arms, buckle him into her automobile and drive as fast as she dared for parts unknown.
A vision of the precious five-year-old boy helped restore sanity. Thirty minutes ago when she’d left him, dressed in his new Batman pajamas, he’d been proudly holding out a plate of cookies to Manuel, his teenage sitter whom he greatly admired. Earlier in the afternoon Molly and Joey had made the cookies together.
I’m not running away this time, Molly resolved. I’ll stand my ground and fight.
Her immediate challenge was to get through the next two hours. That is, if Jonah Rhodes were patient enough to sit through the fund-raiser. The prospect of his creating a scene before her friends and neighbors set off fresh waves of panic that Molly had to subdue as she mechanically went through the motions of calling the numbers.
“Bingo!” called a woman’s voice.
The winner was Heidi Sykes, who worked for the park service. After she’d read off her numbers to verify them, she came up to the stage to claim her prize, a gift certificate for a gas fill-up at Casey Doyle’s gas station in Study Butte.
“Hey, Heidi, now don’t run out of gas getting your tank plumb empty,” Casey called out to her.
His joking remark brought laughter and prompted other facetious comments. Molly welcomed the diversion of attention away from her and risked a glance at Jonah Rhodes. He was looking intently at her, the smile gone from his face.
It dawned on her suddenly that he had been smiling when she first saw him. A friendly male smile. She couldn’t imagine that Jonah Rhodes would feel in the least friendly toward her, whether or not he knew about Joey. Could this man possibly be a stranger with an amazing resemblance to the handsome older brother of Joel Rhodes?
Please, God, Molly prayed.
Bolstered by cautious hope, she spoke into the microphone and settled the crowd down. As she resumed calling out numbers for the next round of bingo, Molly kept a watch on the man and grew more optimistic. He must be a stranger. If he were Jonah, his expression would be hard and accusing. Vengeful. Instead he had a thoughtful, puzzled air.
The next person to call out “Bingo!” was Ellie Sommerfield, the wife of a rancher. The fact that two women in a row had been winners brought loud joking complaints from some of the local men.
“Hey, maybe it’s ladies’ night, guys,” Molly quipped into the microphone. She’d relaxed enough that her smile felt more natural on her lips. She allowed herself a bold glance at the Jonah Rhodes look-alike. Whatever had been bothering him, he’d evidently put it out of his mind.
He grinned back at her, his eyes sending admiring male signals. Molly’s heart did a little flip-flop and her pulse quickened. Whoever he was, he affected her the same way Jonah had six years ago on that one occasion she’d talked to him. He’d bought her a cup of coffee at a café in her hometown. His hometown, too, although he had relocated to Atlanta.
At that time Molly had been terribly shy. Her name hadn’t been Molly then, of course. It had been necessary to take on a different identity to protect Joey, necessary to become a different person altogether, a person she liked a whole lot better than her old timid self. Six years ago she would never have had the confidence to stand on a stage in front of a hundred people.
A new thought flashed into Molly’s head. Had she changed so much outwardly that people who’d known her back in Georgia, including Jonah Rhodes, might not recognize her now?
Maybe the man sitting out there was Jonah, and he’d gotten that puzzled air from trying to figure out why she seemed familiar.
One way or another, she would find out who he was later on. Because before he left tonight, he would try to meet her. Intuition told her that.
Molly quieted the hubbub and turned the crank of the cage, aware that her fear and nervousness were mixed with anticipation.
As things turned out, it wasn’t necessary to wait until the fund-raiser was over to end the mystery. After Molly had called a long series of numbers, Flora Holmburg exclaimed in her throaty voice, “You’ve got bingo on two cards, dear boy!” She was addressing the man who’d become the focal point of Molly’s attention.
“So I do,” he said with slight surprise.
Molly seized the opportunity fate had given her. After he’d read out the numbers and she’d verified them, she followed the same format she’d used with the previous two winners. “Congratulations to—” She broke off, adding apologetically, “I’m sorry, but I don’t believe I know you personally.”
If he didn’t readily volunteer his name, Molly would drop the matter right there. Down here in Big Bend country, people’s names, along with all the other facts about themselves were their own business. It was a hangover from more lawless days.
He rose to his feet. Molly held her breath with the awful suspense, panic flaring up inside her. What was he going to do? What was he going to say? I think you do know me very well.
“I’d sure like to correct that,” he said, and grinned at the male chuckles. “I’m Jonah Rhodes, originally from Columbus, Georgia.” His voice was as deep and attractive as Molly remembered it being.
She clasped the microphone stand, needing to hang on to something for support. Everything hinged on her acting ability. The slightest hint of recognition would be her undoing. “Hi, Jonah. You can come and get your prize. It’s a good one, too. Four coupons for a Texas-size mug of coffee and a big slice of homemade pie at the Cactus Café. Yum-yum. Right, folks?”
Jonah was making his way to the platform, threading a path between tables. Just look at him as a good-looking guy who’s a stranger, Molly said to herself.
It was easy advice to follow. Molly came up with all pluses and no minuses as she took in the details of Jonah’s appearance. Neatly trimmed dark brown hair. Brown eyes. Clean-cut, strong facial features. Height about six foot two. Broad shoulders. Rangy, muscular build. Jeans and denim shirt. Plain leather belt and hiking boots.
He’d reached the platform.
“Here you are.” Molly stepped to the edge and held out an envelope containing the coupons. He accepted it with his left hand, which was bare of a wedding ring.
“Thanks, Molly,” he said without any hesitation in speaking her alias.
“You’re welcome,” she answered. “Enjoy your coffee and pie.”
Almost euphoric with her relief, Molly offered up a prayer of thanks as she returned to her station in front of the microphone. She would deal later with her other emotions, including the absurd sense of hurt that she’d deceived Jonah Rhodes so easily.
Obviously she hadn’t made the same kind of indelible impression on him six years ago that he’d made on her.
