Risky Baby Business

by Debra Salonen

  “Zeke’s right,” David said. “I’ll be just fine in a motel.”

  Zeke looked at Mark. The two appeared to know each other, which didn’t surprise Liz. Mark had also been a cop. She wondered whether her mother told Zeke about her eldest daughter’s near-miss at matrimony—and the anguish that resulted from Mark’s defection. Probably, but Liz couldn’t tell from their body language. Nor did she care. This wasn’t about Mark and Alexa. It was about David—the topic of a low, intense conversation between the two law enforcement officers.

  “My gut says this was set.”

  “I agree. The question is why and who profits?”

  “Exactly. But this guy is a renter. His landlady doesn’t even know if the place is insured. And the only loss is some secondhand furniture and a rattletrap truck.”

  “Hey,” Liz protested without thinking. “That’s a man’s life and livelihood you’re disparaging.”

  Zeke looked at her. “Tell that to your pal, who seems to be suffering from amnesia about everything that happened before he arrived in Vegas.”

  Liz looked at David whose stubborn frown was easy to read, even in the harsh shadows cast by the fire equipment. She realized they’d reached an impasse. Looking to her sister for help, she said, “Mom wants us to bring David back to the house, right? Fine. Let’s do that. He doesn’t have to stay if he doesn’t want to. And Zeke, you can use the time to decide whether or not you want to arrest him, okay? I promise he won’t go anywhere until you make up your mind.”

  “I don’t like it,” Mark said. “If someone wants him dead, his presence in the Compound puts your whole family in danger.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s our problem. You’re not a part of this family, remember?” Alexa said. Even in the dim light, her regal dismissal was clear.

  Zeke stepped between Alexa and Mark. “Don’t worry. Nick, the guy Grace is going to marry, is a cop. He and I are both going to be on the premises tonight.” Zeke is staying at Mom’s? Liz and Alexa looked at each other in surprise. “Plus, I’ll get a couple of patrols to add the Compound to their rounds.”

  Liz sensed that a decision had been made and each of the five was giving in—for different reasons. Personally, the noise, the smoke, the stress reminded her too much of a war zone. She couldn’t wait to get away from it.

  As she trudged to the car—David and Alexa following a few steps behind, she made a new plan. First, she’d drop David off at her mother’s, then she’d go home to bed. Alone. Not the way she’d first pictured the evening ending, but…

  On the drive back, Alexa, who was sitting in the rear this time, asked David about Zeke’s attitude. He was scrunched low in the passenger seat, his gaze pinned to the side mirror. “Surely he doesn’t suspect you of setting the fire? You were at the wedding the whole time.”

  “No. He doesn’t think that.”

  “Then why was he so hostile?”

  “Because I’m an enigma. Cops don’t like things they can’t label or check off in a box. White male, check. DOB—ten, twelve, whatever, check. SSN—a number that matches the name and date of birth he already has. That sort of thing.”

  “And some of your boxes don’t match.” It wasn’t a question.

  His soft sigh told her he was tired of pretending. “None of them match.”

  A part of Liz’s mind acknowledged that receiving information like that could get a person killed in some circles, but she wasn’t afraid of this man—even if his boxes didn’t jibe.

  He sat upright and reached over to place a hand on Liz’s arm. “I think for your own safety, you should stop the car and let me out.”

  Liz glanced around. They were near the Stratosphere. The freeway wasn’t far. The always-busy downtown area—a popular tourist attraction—was within walking distance. But at this time of night, the streets weren’t safe for a man alone. “Not on your life.”

  He leaned closer. “What about on your mother’s? Or your sister’s?” She sensed him looking behind her to address Alexa. “Zeke said Grace and her fiancé are staying at your mom’s. Your niece will be around, too, I presume. Are you certain you want to put them all in jeopardy?”

  Liz looked in the rearview mirror. She could almost hear her sister’s change of heart. “Those are valid points, but I’m too tired to fight about this. Mother wants you there. What you do after we drop you off is your business.”

  David gave up arguing. She was right. He was free to slip away once he’d had his little talk with Zeke—a talk David knew there was no way to avoid. He just wished he’d handled things differently. Regret and self-recrimination made him want to hit something. He’d blown it big-time. He’d waited too long, and, now, this strong and generous woman and her family were in danger.

  He hadn’t seen any sign of a tail. Maybe the bomber thought David was dead. Maybe he wouldn’t know otherwise until he read about the fire in the morning news. Maybe.

  But David was pretty sure Ray was involved. Ray, who paid attention to every little detail would have stuck around to watch the coroner haul David’s dead body away.

  That scenario meant Liz and her family were at risk. And that wasn’t okay. Because David cared about her. In another life, he probably would have fallen deeply, irrevocably in love with her. Which might explain why he wanted to tell her the truth before he left. To clear the air between them before he took off for good.

  “So, who was that fireman you were arguing with?” he asked. “He seemed to know a lot about your family.”

  Liz gave a nervous chuckle and glanced in the mirror at her sister in the backseat. “He should. He dated Alexa for almost two years, right?”

  “We were engaged. Until he got another woman pregnant,” Alexa said.

  “Oh. Sorry.”

  “Yeah, me, too.”

  “But Mark did tell me your landlady saw somebody running away before the explosion.” She suddenly stomped on the brakes, throwing David and Alexa forward.

  “What?” Alexa cried.

  “I just remembered about David’s cat. We should turn around and go look for him.”

  Her concern touched him deeply. His throat muscles seemed unusually tense when he told her, “I asked the firemen. There wasn’t any sign of him. Dead or alive. Mrs. Simms, my landlady, is going to keep an eye out for him.”

  Liz let out a sigh. “Thank goodness.”

  “Scar’s a street cat. He probably saw the guy messing with the water heater and figured it was a good time to make himself scarce.”

  “Scar?”

  “He’s seen his share of battles.”

  Nobody spoke again until they reached the cul-de-sac where Liz stopped to let Alexa out. In the glow from the headlights, David could see a chain-link fence and a purple-and-pink sign that read The Dancing Hippo. The two sisters exchanged words in a low murmur David couldn’t interpret.

  A moment later, Liz parked in front of a ranch house a few doors down. “Apparently, Mom isn’t back yet. Come on. Let’s go in and figure out what’s going on.”

  David followed her inside, only because she didn’t leave him any choice. Most of his options—certainly his carefully laid plans—had burned up in the fire, but he wasn’t helpless. He had a few bucks in his pocket, but maybe a cup of coffee to clear his head…

  The first thing Liz did upon entering her mother’s kitchen was fill an electric kettle with water. Next, she called her mother on the phone. The wedding, he gathered, was dwindling down.

  “Mom and Grace and Nick will be here shortly,” she said. “Where’s your niece staying? Surely, she’s not going on the honeymoon.”

  She took a large, cloth bag filled with some kind of tea, he surmised, and placed it in a squatty ceramic teapot. “No,” she said, not looking at him. “Maya’s spending the next few days with Jo. Rob’s mother. Jo has a dog that Maya’s quite attached to. This should be a good bonding experience for all three of them.”

  Rather than waste what private time they had in small talk, David decided to tell L
iz the truth. “My name wasn’t always David Baines. It used to be Paul McAffee.”

  Liz turned around so swiftly she accidentally bumped into the counter. He reached out and took her hand and led her to the table. She started to sit down, but returned quickly to where she’d been standing and reached for the teapot. “Just a sec. This needs to brew.”

  The minute she was sitting down, David said, “I used to live and work on the East Coast in a highly competitive industry where there was a lot of money to be made if you didn’t mind sidestepping a few government safeguards. My boss was that kind of man. When I decided my conscience wouldn’t let me risk poisoning a million unsuspecting consumers, I took my proof to the Justice Department. My life changed overnight. And my boss, the man who should have paid for this travesty, lawyered up. He bought just enough time to disappear—after making it clear that he planned to kill me for turning him in.”

  “You’re a whistle-blower?”

  “So they say.”

  “And you think what happened tonight is tied to your past?”

  He nodded.

  Neither spoke for a minute or so, then Liz asked softly, “Can you talk about your other life? Or is it…like…classified?”

  He had no idea where he stood with the government. He hadn’t talked to anyone about what had happened to him since the day he’d parted ways with WITSEC. Soon, he’d be another person. This could easily be his only chance to leave behind a record that Paul McAffee had existed.

  Once he started talking, he couldn’t seem to stop. He told her about his ex-wife and her children. About feeling blue the day he’d yelled at Liz over the cactus because of his little girl’s birthday. About the good he’d hoped to accomplish in his career and how those dreams had been destroyed by a bastard who only thought of money. His dreams had gone up in smoke when his laboratory burned—and the irony wasn’t lost on him that the new life he’d created from scratch had met a similar fate.

  In the process of opening up to Liz, he managed to drink a couple of cups of her tea. He’d never taken his tea with honey and milk but discovered he liked it that way, despite the brew’s unusual aroma. When her family returned from the wedding, she kept them at a distance with just a nod of her head. She listened to his story and added only a question or two for clarity. And when he ran out of words, she reached across the table and said, “You need to stay here tonight.”

  He didn’t have the energy to argue. His confession had left him feeling drained. Yes, a couple of hours of sleep would be good, he thought. I’ll set my watch alarm for three, then slip away in the night.

  But when he looked at his wrist, his watch was gone. That was when he remembered taking it off and placing it on this bedside table because it had looked too cheap to wear with his new shirt.

  Oh, well, he thought, I’m a light sleeper. I’ll wake up on my own. No use putting these kind folks in danger for any longer than absolutely necessary.

  LIZ PUT DAVID in Kate’s old room and closed the door. He’d declined the use of a pair of her father’s pajamas, but had smiled his thanks when she’d pointed out the extra toothbrushes her mother kept in a drawer in the main bath.

  He wouldn’t be there when she returned in the morning. She was certain of that, but, at least, he’d get a few hours of deep, dreamless sleep. The tea she’d brewed contained jatamamsi, brahmi, cardamom and rose petals, to which she’d added milk and honey to mitigate the strong taste of the herbs.

  She’d created the special sleep formula for her mother who several months earlier had complained of disturbing dreams and too many sleepless nights. She closed the door and started toward the front of the house, intending to head home, but paused when she heard voices coming from the patio. Her mother and Zeke were sitting side by side in the glider. Several candles in hurricane lanterns gave the area a romantic glow.

  Liz was happy that her mother had found a man who interested her. Whether or not the relationship would lead anywhere, she couldn’t guess. The two came from such different worlds. The odds were against them, but at least Zeke didn’t have a madman on his back lusting for revenge.

  Nope, leave it to me to fall for a guy whose shadowy past includes a killer who likes to play with matches.

  Liz started away, but stopped when she heard her name.

  “Elizabeth.”

  She popped her head out the sliding glass door. “Just leaving, Mom. David’s asleep.”

  “Come here, dear. Just for a minute. I know you’re tired, but Zeke and I were discussing your prophecy.”

  “Mother, I really wish you wouldn’t. That’s personal.”

  Yetta made a negating motion with her hand. “But hardly a secret. You and your sisters used to make up wild stories about the men who would someday come into your lives. Yours was always by far the most tragic and dramatic. Do you remember?”

  Vaguely. Although there had been one story that had haunted her dreams for weeks. In it, she’d married her very own Mr. Rochester, only instead of a wife in the attic, he’d had a child. A son, who his father claimed wasn’t right in the head. When the mansion they’d been living in caught on fire, she’d had to choose between rescuing the man or the boy. She never seemed to make the right choice. If she saved the man, he’d slowly go crazy with grief and guilt. If she saved the boy, he would grow up hating her for not saving his father.

  “Sorta.”

  “David and I are going to have a long talk in the morning,” Zeke said.

  I wouldn’t bet on it, Liz thought, but didn’t say aloud.

  “I’m going home.”

  “I’d rather you stayed here, dear. You can have Maya’s room since she’s spending the weekend with her new grandmother.”

  “I’ll sleep better in my own bed.”

  “Please, darling. If you leave, Ezekiel will feel compelled to follow you home, and he and the others were up much too late last night at Rob’s bachelor party. That’s why he’s staying next door tonight. Since Jurek wasn’t feeling up to making the trip with Nikolai and Grace, we have an extra bed.”

  Liz was certain her mother was describing the sleeping arrangements to allay any fears her daughter might have about another man taking her father’s place. Liz cared, but at the moment she was too tired and emotionally depleted to worry about such things.

  “Plus, your mother tells me your roommates are out of town for the week,” Zeke said. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to be alone tonight?”

  That gave Liz pause. So much had happened, she’d almost forgotten about Lydia and Reezira. Thanks to the Internet, the two had connected with family members of Reezira’s who lived in Phoenix. Although the girls had been invited to the wedding and regretted not having more time to spend with Grace, they’d gleefully boarded the bus early yesterday morning—excited about a chance to see more of America.

  Zeke had a point. Suddenly the idea of an empty house didn’t sound too attractive. “Okay. Can I borrow a nightgown?”

  “Of course.”

  Zeke followed them inside. While her mother went to her room, Liz used the opportunity to ask him, “What did David tell you about his past?”

  “Not enough. How ’bout you?”

  “Too much,” she said, shaking her head. Was this his way of telling me goodbye? She feared so.

  “He should have stayed in the Witness Protection Program. Turning down the government’s help…” He shook his head. “Alone, you’re a sitting duck.”

  Well, she wasn’t the government. She couldn’t protect a man who didn’t want help, but even if she could, she had Prisha to worry about. A vulnerable child whose future was in jeopardy. Liz had to get her out of the orphanage. Her choice was obvious, wasn’t it?

  Chapter 12

  David opened his eyes to light. He sat up in bed and looked around. Pale peach walls. A woman’s room. He knew instantly that his plan to wake up in the middle of the night and sneak out had failed. Today was Sunday. The day after the wedding—and the fire.

 
He exhaled loudly and sank back down to the pillow. He was still dressed in the same clothes he’d worn to the wedding. The only clothes he presently owned. His carefully packed backpack filled with all the stuff he needed to survive in the desert had been hidden behind the seat of his truck. Gone. Just like his house.

  Fortunately, he still had his buried waterproof stashes of money waiting to be picked up. Unfortunately, without his truck and tools, he’d look rather suspicious if he started digging around plants with his bare hands, especially dressed as he was.

  Pushing up, he put his feet on the floor and looked around for his shoes. He rested his elbows on his knees and tried to jumpstart his brain. “What the hell is wrong with me?”

  “You probably need caffeine to offset the effects of Elizabeth’s tea,” a voice said.

  He looked over his shoulder and found Yetta standing in the doorway with a tray. It even included a white rose in a cobalt-blue vase. He quickly stood up. “Oh, please, no bother. Not for me. I shouldn’t even be here.”

  “You’re my guest. We’ll talk while you eat and then you can decide where you’re in such a hurry to be off to.”

  She placed the tray on the bed and motioned for him to sit down beside it. His mouth watered at the delicious smells of bacon and maple syrup. He was starved and couldn’t resist tasting the thick, golden brown French toast. The hint of cinnamon enticed him to take a second bite. And a third.

  “What do you want to know?” he asked. “I told your daughter everything about my past last night.”

  “That’s good. There shouldn’t be such big secrets between people who love each other.”

  “L-love?” he sputtered, nearly choking on the bite he’d just swallowed. “She…we…no, I think you’re mistaken.”