His Case, Her Baby

“You sound so optimistic,” she said.

He smiled then. It was the first real smile she’d seen on his face, and it was a nice one. It softened the sternness and deepened the warmth of his eyes. “I’m generally an optimist. I’d rather think on the positive side unless I have a reason to think otherwise.”

“What’s positive about all this?” she asked, needing something, anything to hang on to.

“It’s encouraging to me that she didn’t kill you. According to you, you blacked out and you aren’t sure how long you were out. She would have had a perfect opportunity to kill you then, but she didn’t. I’d rather be chasing a kidnapper than a killer.”

He got up from the table and walked over to the coffeemaker. For a big man he moved with an innate grace, as if perfectly comfortable in his own skin. He picked up the coffee carafe and carried it to the table.

“No more for me,” she said. He filled his cup, then returned the pot to the machine and once again sat down across from her.

“Your brother doesn’t believe my story about Kathy, about anything I said,” she said. “He thinks I did something to Lilly.” The very idea threatened to squeeze the breath from her lungs.

Once again a small smile raced across his features. “Caleb is the cynic in the family. Half the time he doesn’t believe anything I tell him.”

“Tell me about the rest of your family.” She needed something to take her mind off the ticking of the clock, off the deepening of the night and the fact that her baby girl wasn’t in her crib where she belonged.

“I’m the eldest. I’m thirty-six. Jacob is next. He’s thirty-four. He’s the only one of us who didn’t hang around Black Rock. Instead of joining the sheriff’s department like all of us did, he became an FBI agent, working out of the Kansas City field office. A little over a month ago he quit his job and came back to Black Rock. He’s been staying in a little cottage we have on the ranch property.” A deep frown furrowed his forehead and he glanced out the window as if in deep thought.

“You’re worried about him,” Peyton said softly.

His gaze shot back to her. “Yeah, I guess I am. He hasn’t told any of us what brought him home. He refuses to leave the cottage and has become a recluse.” He shrugged. “I guess he’ll tell us what’s going on when the time is right.”

“And what about the others? Benjamin seemed very kind.”

“Benjamin is the softie of the family. Even when he was a kid he was trying to save the whales, adopt a pet, sponsor a starving child or whatever to help. Besides being a terrific deputy he also runs the family ranch on the northern edge of town.”

“And you mentioned a sister?”

This time his smile was full of fond indulgence. “Brittany, she’s twenty-four and the baby of the family. She’s also a deputy.”

“What about your parents? You haven’t mentioned them.”

“They died six years ago in a private plane crash. They were adventure junkies. The minute we were all old enough to take care of ourselves, they disappeared to one exotic location or another. The end result was that it made us kids closer than most big broods. What about your mother? Where is she now?”

“She died in prison when I was eighteen. I was thirteen when she was arrested for manufacturing meth. She went to prison and I went into the foster care system. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of their success stories, and when I turned sixteen I ran away.”

She couldn’t believe she was telling him all this. Usually she was reticent to share the details of her ugly past with anyone. She hadn’t even told Rick much about her childhood.

Maybe it was because it was dark and the middle of the night and she was feeling especially vulnerable. Or perhaps it was because his eyes were soft and without judgment and there was a solidness about him that made her think she could tell him anything.

“Sounds like things haven’t been easy for you,” he said.

She shrugged. “They say what doesn’t kill you makes you strong.” The darkness that she’d tried to push away all night suddenly slammed into her. An unexpected sob caught in the back of her throat.

“If anything happens to Lilly, it won’t make me strong,” she exclaimed. “It will kill me, Tom. It will honestly kill me.”

As she began to cry once again he stood and pulled her back into his arms. This time his embrace not only felt welcomed, but familiar. She leaned into him, absorbing the strength she instinctively knew he possessed.

If she could just get through this night, then surely Lilly would come home. All she had to do was get through the agonizing long, dark night.

It was four in the morning when Peyton finally fell into an exhausted sleep in a chair in the living room. Tom considered moving her to her bedroom but was afraid in rousing her she would never go back to sleep, and she needed to sleep.

So did he.

When he was sure she was down for the count, he called Benjamin to come and sit with her so Tom could head home for a couple hours of sleep.

As he waited for Benjamin to arrive, he thought of everything that had been done so far in an effort to find Kathy Simon and the missing baby. Throughout the evening there had been a steady influx of deputies checking in to tell him what had been accomplished.

The sketch and picture of Lilly had gone over the wire services, the AMBER Alert was in effect and everything that could be done was being done. Now it was just a matter of time.

He met Benjamin at the front door and motioned him into the kitchen. “Hopefully she’ll sleep for a couple of hours.”

Benjamin nodded. “And hopefully in the next couple of hours we’ll start getting some phone calls that will lead us to the baby.”

“I’m going to catch an hour or two of sleep then head into the office and coordinate things. I’ll try to be back here by noon.”

“You okay?” Benjamin asked, his brow furrowed with concern. “I know this one must be tough for you.”

“No tougher than any other,” Tom replied curtly. There was no way he’d admit to his brother that for just a moment, as he’d looked at the photograph of Lilly, he’d remembered another little girl and an unexpected knife had pierced through his heart.

He shoved this thought away as he left Peyton’s house and got into his patrol car. A deep weariness gripped him as he drove the short drive home.

He hoped Peyton was right and this Kathy character wouldn’t harm the baby, and he hoped that when morning dawned phone calls would start flooding into the office, tips from people who either knew or had seen the woman calling herself Kathy Simon.

Tom’s house was a white two-story with a wrap-around porch and hunter green shutters at the windows. It was the second house he’d owned. The first had been sold five years ago after his divorce, when he realized the memories that resided there were too painful to avoid.

He’d bought this particular house for a song because of all the work it needed. He’d thought it would be a terrific project in his spare time, a hobby to keep painful thoughts at bay.

As always when he entered the foyer a faint sense of satisfaction swept over him. The wooden floor gleamed beneath his feet and the throw rug in shades of copper and brown emphasized the beauty of the wood beneath.

He tossed his keys on the small table in the hallway and went directly up the stairs to the master bedroom. He’d give himself a couple of hours of sleep and then head into the office to see if anything had popped.

It took him only minutes to place his gun and holster on the nightstand and undress and get into bed. Even though he was exhausted, his mind refused to turn off as it replayed the events of the day. He believed Peyton’s story of what had happened, but he’d still instructed Sam to run background checks on both Peyton and Rick. The last thing he wanted was for something unexpected to jump up and bite him on the butt.

Every base needed to be covered, and he was certain as he closed his eyes that he’d covered them all. They were a small town, with a small force of law enforcement officers, but Tom was confident in his team. They were all smart and committed to their work.

As sleep began to edge in, his thoughts turned to Peyton. She’d touched him on levels nobody had reached in a very long time. She had to be strong in order to have survived her childhood, and yet there was that frailty about her that made him want to take care of her.

If he were completely honest with himself, he had to acknowledge that as he’d held her in his arms he’d been stunned to realize that although his intent had been to comfort, there had been a part of him, a strictly male part, that had enjoyed the feel of her in his arms.

In fact, he had more than enjoyed it. A quick fire of desire had swept through him as he’d felt the press of her soft breasts against his chest, as he’d smelled the fresh scent of her hair. It had stunned him, first because it was so unexpected and second because it was inappropriate, considering the circumstances.

He drifted asleep with thoughts of her in his head and awoke to his alarm clock ringing two hours later. He rolled over and punched it off, then bounded out of bed, eager to get to the office and find out how things had gone while he’d been sleeping. A sense of urgency chased him. Somewhere out there was a baby who needed to be brought home.

He was in the office by seven-thirty, and Sam greeted him as he walked through the door. Sam McCain was a big, burly black man who had come to Black Rock after working as a policeman in Chicago. He and his wife had moved there for the slower pace and a safer place to raise their kids.

Every day Tom was thankful that Sam had landed here working for him. “Hey, Sam. Please tell me the phone has been ringing off the wall with tips on Lilly Wilkerson’s whereabouts.”

Sam frowned and shook his head. “We’ve only had two calls so far this morning, and if you think real hard you’ll be able to tell me who they were from.”

“Sally Bernard called threatening to kill her husband, and Walt Toliver called to report that Lilly was probably taken into the spaceship that landed in his field last night,” Tom replied.

“And the kewpie doll goes to the big fella with the gun on his hip,” Sam exclaimed.

Tom grinned. “It wouldn’t be a normal day without the two of them calling in.” His grin flattened into a frown. “I was really hoping somebody would have seen this Kathy Simon.”

“It’s early yet, boss. It’s possible she’s holed up somewhere for the night, but eventually she’ll have to get out and around, and somebody will see her.”

“Where’s Brittany?”

“She hasn’t shown up yet,” Sam replied.

Tom looked at his watch. She should have been in a half an hour ago. “Has she called in?” Sam shook his head. Tom sighed. “This is the third time in the last couple of weeks that she’s been late. Guess I’m going to have to kick some sister butt.”

Sam grinned. “Benjamin called earlier to tell you that everything is under control at the Wilkerson house and Caleb is waiting for you in your office.”

“As soon as I check a few things here I’ll be heading back over there,” Tom said as he walked to his office.

Caleb sat in the chair in front of Tom’s desk, his big feet propped up on the polished oak. Tom slapped Caleb’s legs as he passed by and frowned in disapproval. His younger brother hurriedly straightened up.

“You heard from Brittany this morning?” he asked Caleb as he eased down into the chair at his desk.

“Why would I hear from her?” Caleb asked.

“She’s late … again.”

“She’s probably hung over. She’s spending way too much time down at Harley’s bar. I think she has a crush on the new bartender there.”

“I don’t care what she does in her time off, but I can’t have her ambling into work whenever she feels like it.” Tom definitely needed to have a stern conversation with his baby sister. “But in the meantime, I’m headed back over to the Wilkerson place to check on Peyton.”

Caleb frowned. “Don’t you find it odd that nobody saw this woman who supposedly stole her baby? She didn’t know where this Kathy lived, doesn’t have a picture of the woman and doesn’t have any evidence to support that this woman even exists.”

“Do you have pictures of your friends?” Tom countered. “Peyton only knew Kathy for two months, a span of time when Peyton wasn’t taking her baby out much. Odd? Maybe. But impossible to believe? No.”

“I think you should order that new patio ripped up,” Caleb said. “I think if you want to find that baby then that’s the first place you should look.”

“I’ll tell you what you’re going to do today,” Tom said. “According to Peyton, this Kathy Simon has been in town for at least two months. During that time she had to eat, so I want you to spend the day taking a sketch to every grocery store and every restaurant in town and find out who saw her when.”

“Sounds like a waste of time,” Caleb exclaimed.

“Your time is mine as long as you wear that deputy badge, little brother. Oh, and another thing, apparently Peyton had a run-in with somebody in the parking lot of the grocery store last week. She said the guy was driving a black pickup and had shaggy brown hair. See if you can figure out who that might have been.”

“Now, that sounds like a bunch of busy work,” Caleb exclaimed.

Tom smiled. “So get out of here and get busy.”

As Caleb left, Tom called Sam into his office. “Coordinate with the others and start a door-to-door campaign to find somebody who knew Kathy Simon. I’m headed to the victim’s house. Keep me updated on any calls that come in, anything that smells just a little bit like a break.”

“Got it,” Sam replied and followed Tom out of his office.

“Oh, one more thing. Call Brittany and tell her to get her butt in here, and call the men off the roadblocks. My guess is that Kathy Simon scooted out of town as fast as she could and is probably long gone.”

Minutes later, as Tom drove toward Peyton’s house, he wondered what condition she’d be in when he arrived. Although he didn’t know personally what it was like to have a kidnapped child, he certainly knew personally how to grieve for a child.

His head filled with a vision of a baby face with merry brown eyes and chubby cheeks. Even though it had been five years since he’d lost her, his heart constricted with pain.

Nobody should have to suffer the loss of a child, and he certainly didn’t want Peyton to know that kind of pain. She was hurting now, but if her baby wasn’t returned to her and all hope was lost, she would be cast into a hollow darkness that Tom knew too well.

But he couldn’t think about his own loss. He needed to focus on making sure that everything was being done to bring baby Lilly home. He also needed to decide if the FBI needed to be called in. At the moment, his plan was to give himself and his deputies twenty-four more hours to find Kathy Simon. If they didn’t succeed, then they would have to proceed under the assumption that Kathy Simon had crossed state lines with the kidnapped infant.

Rick’s car was back in Peyton’s driveway as Tom parked at the curb. Benjamin’s car was also still there. It was Benjamin who opened the door to his knock. He looked tired.

“Heard anything?” he asked Tom.

“Nothing. How are things here?”

“A bit tense. She didn’t sleep much, hasn’t eaten at all. Rick showed up about an hour ago and they’re in the kitchen now.”

Tom clapped his brother on the shoulder. “Go home. Get some sleep.”

As Benjamin headed out the door Tom walked toward the kitchen where the murmurs of Peyton and Rick’s voices drifted out.

“Tom!” Peyton jumped up from the table as he entered the room, looking relieved to see him.

“I hope you’ve brought us some news,” Rick said. He started to rise as well, but Tom motioned him back into his chair.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have news,” Tom said, hating the way the hopeful expression on Peyton’s face fell away. “The roadblocks on either end of town yielded nothing.”

“She had plenty of time to get out of town before you put those roadblocks into effect,” Rick replied. “Peyton isn’t even sure how long she was unconscious. She might have had as much as a half an hour head start before Peyton called for help.”

“I’m aware of that,” Tom replied. He leaned against the kitchen counter and tried not to notice how Peyton’s jeans hugged the long length of her legs, how the blue T-shirt she wore perfectly matched her eyes and molded to the full breasts that had been against his chest the night before.

He focused his attention on Rick. “We’re starting door-to-door canvassing this morning, hoping somebody knows something about Kathy Simon. She was in town for at least two months. She had to be living somewhere, and if we can find out where that was, then maybe we can get some clue as to where she might have gone.”

Rick nodded. He looked tired, as if the night had been unkind to him and sleep had not come easy. “I just hope we get her back today. I hate to leave here without everything being resolved.”

Tom focused again on Peyton. “How are you holding up?” His heart squeezed in his chest as he saw the dark smudges beneath her eyes, the lines of strain on either side of her mouth.

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