Love You More: A Novel by Lisa Gardner Read Free Book Online Page A

She … rolled over, pulled the covers up.”
    “And your husband?”
    “Downstairs. Watching TV.”
    “What was he watching?”
    “I didn’t notice. He was drinking a beer. That distracted me. I wished … I preferred it when he didn’t drink.”
    “How many beers had he had?”
    “Three.”
    “You counted?”
    “I checked the empties lined up next to the sink.”
    “Your husband have a problem with alcohol?” D.D. asked bluntly.
    Leoni finally looked up at D.D., peering at her with one good eye, as the other half of her face remained a swollen, pulpy mess. “Brianwas home sixty days at a stretch with nothing to do. I had work. Sophie had school. But he had nothing. Sometimes, he drank. And sometimes … Drinking wasn’t good for him.”
    “So your husband, who you wished didn’t drink, had had three beers and you still left him alone with your daughter.”
    “Hey—” Trooper Lyons started to interrupt again.
    But Tessa Leoni said, “Yes, ma’am. I left my daughter with her drunken stepdad. And if I had known … I would’ve killed him then, goddammit. I would’ve shot him last night!”
    “Whoa—” Attorney was out of the chair. But D.D. didn’t pay any attention to him and neither did Leoni.
    “What happened to your daughter?” D.D. wanted to know. “What did your husband do to her?”
    Leoni was already shrugging her shoulders. “He wouldn’t tell me. I got home, went upstairs. She should’ve been in bed. Or maybe playing on the floor. But … nothing. I searched and I searched and I searched. Sophie was gone.”
    “He ever hit her?” D.D. asked.
    “Sometimes, he got frustrated with me. But I never saw him hit her.”
    “Lonely? You’re gone all night. He’s alone with her.”
    “No! You’re wrong. I would’ve known! She would’ve told me.”
    “Then you tell me, Tessa. What happened to your daughter?”
    “I don’t know! Dammit. She’s just a little girl. What kind of man hurts a child? What kind of man would
do
such a thing?”
    Trooper Lyons placed his hands on her shoulders, as if trying to soothe. Trooper Leoni, however, shrugged him off. She rose to her feet, obviously agitated. The movement, however, proved too much; almost immediately, she lurched to one side.
    Trooper Lyons caught her arm, lowering her carefully back to the love seat while skewering D.D. with an angry stare.
    “Steady,” he said gruffly to Tessa Leoni, while continuing to glare at D.D. and Bobby.
    “You don’t understand, you don’t understand,” the mother/trooper was murmuring. She didn’t look pretty or vulnerable anymore. Her face had taken on an unhealthy pallor; she looked like she was goingto vomit, her hand patting the empty seat beside her. “Sophie’s so brave and adventurous. But she’s scared of the dark. Terrified. Once, when she was nearly three, she climbed into the trunk of my cruiser and it closed and she screamed and screamed and screamed. If you could’ve heard her scream. Then you would know, you’d understand.…”
    Leoni turned to Trooper Lyons. She grabbed his beefy hands, peering up at him desperately. “She’s gotta be safe, right? You would keep her safe, right? You would take care of her? Bring her home. Before dark, Shane. Before dark. Please, please, I’m begging you,
please.
”
    Lyons didn’t seem to know how to respond or handle the outburst. He remained holding Leoni’s shoulders, meaning D.D. was the one who grabbed the waste bucket and got it under the ashen-faced woman just in time. Leoni puked until she dry-heaved, then puked a little more.
    “My head,” she groaned, already sagging back into the love seat.
    “Hey, who’s disrupting our patient? Anyone who’s not an EMT, out!” Marla and her partner had returned. They muscled into the room, Marla giving D.D. a pointed glance. D.D. and Bobby took the hint, turning toward the adjoining kitchen.
    But Leoni, of all people, grabbed D.D.’s wrist. The strength in her pale hand startled