Operation Bassinet

by Joyce Sullivan

  “Look, I bought this wallet from you last week, but it doesn’t fit in my purse so I can’t use it. How about I trade it for this other wallet that I want?”

  The kidnapper didn’t hear the rest of the conversation because the crowd started to move. But it didn’t matter. The overheard conversation had given the kidnapper an idea, the perfect way to trade Emma for the real Riana.

  MITCH WAITED in the Emergency Room for more than three hours. He paced. He asked the nurses for information on Stef’s condition. He blatantly lied and said he was Stef’s fiancé. He didn’t care what he had to do to find out if Stef was going to be okay. A representative of the Clairmont Hotel, a slender woman with sky-blue eyes and dark bobbed hair, arrived at the hospital and informed the administration that the care for both victims would be covered by the hotel.

  She introduced herself to Mitch as Brook Sinclair.

  Mitch went into wary mode. Annette York had been arrested at Brook Sinclair’s island home in the St. Lawrence River. “You’re Juliana Goodhew’s friend.”

  Ms. Sinclair gave him a circumspect smile as she shook his hand. “Yes, I own the Clairmont Hotel. I’m very concerned about what happened to Mrs. Shelton and one of my employees. So far we haven’t been able to find or identify the attacker. We’re checking the videotapes of the surveillance cameras in the lobby and the pool area. The Guardian would like you to call him as soon as possible.”

  Mitch found himself thinking that Brook Sinclair must be very tight with Juliana Goodhew to offer her the privacy of her island home as well as special accommodations in her hotel. Was she only Juliana’s friend? Or had Ross and Lexi Collingwood appointed her Riana’s legal guardian? Was that why she’d personally come to check on Stef?

  When he had time, he was going to do some private research on Brook Sinclair. “I’ll call The Guardian as soon as I know Mrs. Shelton is all right,” he assured her.

  Finally he was allowed in to see Stef. The doctor was finishing suturing the gash in her temple.

  Stef’s eyes compelled him like arms raised for a hug. Mitch wasn’t in a position to refuse. He went to her side, gripped her hand, stroked the soft skin of her inner wrist with the pad of his thumb. “You okay?”

  She dismissed his question with a weak smile. “I’m fine. They did a CT scan and it’s okay. I was stunned apparently. No permanent damage and no broken bones—just a mild concussion. Keely’s safe?” she demanded anxiously.

  “She’s with G.D. and Juliana. They promised not to let her out of their sight.”

  Stef nodded. “Good. I miss her.” She winced as the doctor took another stitch. A monster of a bruise was forming on the left side of her face, but it didn’t detract a bit from her delicate beauty. “I need to hold her.” Tears welled in her eyes and Mitch was helpless to the fear that he saw reflected there. The knowledge of what could have happened to Keely.

  His fingers tightened their hold on hers, sharing her fear, bolstering her courage. For the first time in his life he truly understood that his grandfather hadn’t just been an honorable man doing his duty by his grandson. Paddy had gotten something priceless in exchange for the love he’d showered on a confused anger-ridden kid. He’d gotten a family. Someone to hold. Someone to care about. Someone who cared whether he lived or died.

  Mitch lowered his head so Stef wouldn’t see the moisture that sprang suddenly in his eyes. He had to tell Stef that the situation had escalated. That the bound staffer in the pool area indicated the attack on Stef and Keely was a planned kidnapping attempt. The kidnapper knew he had the wrong child.

  How could he tell this caring, trusting woman that there would be no ransom demand now? In all likelihood her child had been discarded, was dead.

  He’d promised to tell her the truth, but Mitch would as soon cut off his arm. He cursed the bastards who’d done this to her, who’d stoop to kidnapping innocent children and heartlessly destroying two families. Mitch knew what it felt like to have someone you loved ripped from your life. To live in the emptiness of knowing you had no one left.

  He had to protect her from this truth.

  He felt her fingers feather through his hair. He closed his eyes, absorbing the comfort her light touch offered. “Mitch, what is it?”

  He lifted his head. “It can wait until later.”

  Stef’s hand stilled in the raw silk of Mitch’s hair, words bottling in her throat. She felt immeasurably safer now that he was here. She shouldn’t have insisted on taking Keely to the pool. She hadn’t known how dangerous it could be. She could have lost her baby—and all because she’d insisted The Guardian’s bodyguards not accompany them into the ladies’ locker room. Hadn’t thought it was necessary.

  She swallowed hard. She wouldn’t let Mitch blame himself for not being with them. He’d been with Sable, trying to trap her into revealing where she was holding Stef’s baby. Stef would never be able to repay Mitch for the effort he was making. As much as she wanted to hate him for figuring out that Keely wasn’t her biological child, she simply couldn’t. The truth was, if Mitch hadn’t shown up on her doorstep, the kidnapper might have overpowered Stef at home and snatched Keely. And the police would have had no idea why Keely had been taken.

  No, she didn’t hate Mitch. Keely was safe with The Guardian. And Stef tried to hold tight to the hope in her heart for her real daughter’s successful return.

  “One more stitch and we’re done,” the doctor said. “That makes twenty-three. When’s the wedding?”

  Wedding? Stef wondered if she was imagining things. If it was part of the concussion.

  Mitch lifted his big head, his face reddening slightly. Stef felt a molten warmth at his embarrassment. He was at his most endearing when his confidence was on shaky ground. “I told him we were engaged, sweetheart.” He cleared his throat, spoke more firmly. “We’re thinking Christmas, Doc. It’s the season of miracles.”

  “Well, this will be well healed by then. You might have a faint scar.”

  “Scar or no scar, she’s still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

  The doctor laughed. “Spoken like a man in love.”

  It was Stef’s turn to be embarrassed. There could never be any love between her and Mitch. No matter how much she was becoming to depend on him, she couldn’t betray Keely and Brad by falling in love with Mitch.

  THEY MOVED Stef to a private room to keep her overnight for observation. Mitch left her for a few minutes under Brook Sinclair’s watchful eyes so he could interview the towel boy before he was discharged.

  Unfortunately the towel boy had been so disoriented by the shock from the stun gun he remembered very little of the attack. He’d gone into the ladies’ locker room to collect the bag of dirty towels and someone had zapped him from behind. He couldn’t say whether his assailant was male or female.

  Frustrated by the lack of clues, Mitch called The Guardian from a pay phone to update him on Stef’s condition.

  G.D. was clearly relieved. “Thank God she’s going to be fine. I take full responsibility. She wanted to take Keely swimming and I could tell she was feeling pressured by the situation and needed some space. I struck a compromise when she insisted that having the bodyguards follow them into the change rooms was too invasive. One guard stayed in the pool area, the other out front.”

  “Did they see anything?”

  “Actually, no. But I’ve figured out what transpired, because an emergency exit door was activated. I think the original plan was to subdue Stef and Keely in the shower area, put Keely in a laundry bag and carry her out the service exit. A shower was left running, which suggests the kidnapper intended to stow Stef there to buy some time before anyone discovered her.

  “But Stef and Keely went into the bathroom first and the kidnapper attacked. I’d just alerted the bodyguard that your key card was missing when Keely started screaming. The guard near the pool area entered the ladies’ change room. The assailant waited until he passed and slipped back toward the pool where he left by an
emergency exit. No one paid attention to him because he was wearing a hotel uniform.”

  “You say he? Do you know for certain the suspect is a male? I just spoke to the towel boy. He doesn’t know who jumped him.”

  “I’m assuming it was a male because Keely told me that the troll had dark hair on his arms,” G.D. admitted sheepishly. “Unfortunately the surveillance camera in the pool area is angled toward the pool and the hot tub to prevent guests from becoming too indiscreet. We don’t have the suspect on tape.”

  Mitch massaged his forehead, trying to make all the pieces fit. “Maybe it’s this Tony. The bartender at Herman’s said he hasn’t seen Tony since Brad died. Unfortunately, the bartender didn’t know Tony’s last name, but he gave me the names of two of Brad’s basketball buddies. They might know who Tony was. But my point is, maybe Tony conveniently dropped into Brad’s life for a reason.” Great, now he was searching for ways to make Brad look like a saint in Stef’s eyes.

  “The reason being that Tony was working with Sable?”

  Mitch bemoaned the fact that the telephone cord was so short. He couldn’t pace, couldn’t stretch his thoughts beyond an image of Stef lying injured in a hospital bed down the corridor. “Or someone else.” Mitch finally realized what had been bothering him all along about the videotape. The timing! “This Tony could have been keeping an eye on Sable and Brad. Think about it, Tony just happened to show up at Herman’s just as Sable was leaving. Tony’s interested in the baby and Brad’s schedule. Stranger things have happened. The bartender described him as being medium height, dark hair, with a tattoo of a pair of red lips on his shoulder. Thinks he’s a real ladies’ man.”

  “Give me the names of Brad’s friends. I’ll track down current home and work addresses for them.”

  Mitch gave him the names.

  “I could assign someone to interview them tonight if that would speed things up,” G.D. offered.

  “Thanks, G.D., but I’d prefer to conduct the interviews myself. Then I’ll start interviewing the people on the list of Brad’s co-workers that Sable gave me. But you could get your elves to track down a piece of property for me in the Catskills. Sable Holden told me her family has a place there—and it was worth more to her than gold.”

  “Excellent, Mitch. Sable could have Stef’s real daughter stashed somewhere in the vicinity.”

  “It’s a long shot, but it’s worth pursuing.”

  “Mitch, there’s one more thing,” G.D. said in a silver-spoon diplomatic tone that put Mitch’s radar on high alert. “I’ve moved Keely out of the hotel—to another location.”

  Mitch felt an explosion of alarm in his gut, knowing how Stef would feel about that. Hell, he knew how he felt about Keely being moved to another location without Stef’s consent. “Was this your decision or your employer’s?” he demanded, not giving a damn that he sounded like a hard-assed jerk. For all he knew, Brook Sinclair was covertly assessing Stef’s suitability as a mother right this instant.

  G.D. showed no sign of taking offense. “This decision is mine. And just for the record, when it comes to protecting an individual’s life, I call the shots. My clients are made fully aware that it is a non-negotiable condition of my involvement in a situation. Please inform Mrs. Shelton of the necessity of the change. I won’t give you the address over the phone for obvious reasons, but Keely’s with me and Juliana. She’s safe. When I explained to Keely that we were leaving she seemed relieved because she didn’t want the troll to come back. I assured her that you would bring her mommy to her in the morning.”

  Mitch closed his eyes and banged his head against the wall. Goddamn it. What was really messing with his brain was the fear that Keely might be meeting Brook Sinclair or her legal guardian at this undisclosed location.

  G.D. wouldn’t do that, would he? No, he’d said Keely’s legal guardian wasn’t going to be brought into the picture until the situation was resolved. He wouldn’t want to take any additional risks. They needed to focus on bringing Stef’s child home safely, not be distracted by a custody battle. Mitch was still going to check out Brook Sinclair.

  “G.D.?”

  “Yes?”

  Mitch’s voice hitched. “The kidnapper knows he has the wrong child.”

  “I’m aware of that, yes.”

  “The variables have changed. There would be no reason to keep Stef’s real daughter alive now.”

  “That’s why we have to find her before that happens. You’re doing a hell of a job, Halloran. If you hadn’t called me when you did, the kidnapper might have succeeded in snatching Keely, too.”

  “I’d feel a helluva lot better if we’d nabbed the bastard.”

  “We will. I’ll send a car for you in the morning.”

  Mitch smiled at G.D.’s confidence. Somehow G.D. managed to do the job and stay detached. “Tell the jelly bean that I’m taking good care of her mommy.”

  He hung up the phone and felt like kicking something in frustration. Time was running out. He had to find Stef’s daughter. When he returned to Stef’s hospital room, Brook Sinclair was flipping through the pages of a fashion magazine and Stef was sleeping, the sheets pulled up around her huddled form and her dark hair forming a pool of silk on the pillow.

  Mitch kept his suspicions about Brook well under wraps as he thanked her for staying with Stef.

  “Glad to be of help. Again, I’m sorry this happened in one of my hotels. I left my card on the table. If Mrs. Shelton has any concerns about her medical bills, she can contact me directly.”

  “Thanks.”

  After Brook Sinclair had left, Mitch dimmed the lights in the room and pulled a chair up to Stef’s bedside. In the darkness he could hear her soft breaths, could smell her vanilla-and-home-baked-cookies scent. He touched the dark pool of her hair reverently.

  He wasn’t giving up hope of finding her daughter alive.

  Chapter Nine

  Love conquered all.

  Darren Black awoke after a restless night dreaming of his lost love and finally discovered the words that he had been waiting so long to hear from Annette’s lips printed in the New York Times for all the world to see.

  I love Darren Black. I always have. Calling off our engagement was one of the most foolish things I’ve ever done. I let what other people thought matter more than what I thought. But losing my sister and her husband has taught me how important love is. That it is the only thing. I hope and pray that when I’m acquitted, Darren and I can begin again.

  She loved him. He jostled the table, spilling his corn flakes and coffee as he leaped from his chair and raised his hands in triumph to the plastered ceiling of the home he had bought to share with Annette. With their children.

  The joy resonating through him vastly surpassed the egotistical glow of proving the big math theorem that had landed him his plum position at Cornell.

  He’d known he was destined for a bigger and brighter future.

  Annette still loved him.

  He had to see her.

  STEF AWOKE with a throbbing headache. But a smile curved her lips when she opened her eyes and saw Mitch had stayed the night with her, his large body cramped into a chair that was several sizes too small for him.

  He was sleeping. With the bloodstains on his shirt and his hair a halo of bleached gold, he looked like Ares, the Greek god of war, in repose.

  Her gaze traced the map of faint lines in his forehead and descended down the blade of his nose to the lines bracketing his mouth. Even in sleep Mitch was restless, intense. Planning his next step.

  One of his hands rested on the bed not far from her own. Stef let her hand creep toward his, seeking its warmth. Its strength. She didn’t know what drove Mitch, but whatever it was, she was glad he was here. He was a very special man.

  Feeling safer than she’d ever felt in her life, Stef wished away the pain in her head and drifted back to sleep.

  “MOMMY! MITCH!”

  Her hair dancing around her shoulders, Keely raced down the hallway to welc
ome them to the safe-house apartment on Central Park West.

  Mitch felt a powerful punch in the abdomen as he witnessed the transformation on Stef’s face as she opened her arms to her daughter. Her eyes had the welcoming glow of a lighted window and her smile made the world seem right.

  She’d had such a headache this morning, Mitch had glossed over his rendezvous with Sable and his subsequent interview with the bartender at Herman’s. The doctor had prescribed some pain medication and told her she’d feel better after she’d eaten something and had a decent night’s rest.

  She hadn’t uttered a word of protest when he’d informed her that The Guardian had moved Keely to a safe house. Mitch had explained that there was a chance someone had been in her home the day before and had stolen the hotel key card from his pocket.

  Stef had turned ashen and suggested that Sable had sent someone to her home after their visit to her office. “You were right, Mitch. I shouldn’t have spoken to her privately. She knows I’m suspicious now. I’m relieved The Guardian moved Keely to a safer location. I just hope we’ll find my baby at Sable’s place in the Catskills.”

  Mitch had nodded and said nothing.

  Keely chattered happily to Stef. “I had heart pancakes for breakfast, Mommy. And Juliana read me a story. And G.D. said I was a big brave girl.” Then Keely turned to Mitch and held out her hand. “This is for you!”

  Lying in her grubby paw was a single black jelly bean.

  Mitch recognized a token of friendship when he saw it. “For me? It’s a jelly bean. Not just any jelly bean—a black one.”

  Keely gave him an impish smile. “I saved it for you.”

  Mitch plucked the jelly bean from her hand and popped it into his mouth. It tasted of licorice and lint.

  He promptly grabbed his throat and winked at Stef. “Oh, no, it’s a yucky jelly bean.” He fell to his knees and clutched his stomach as Keely chortled with laughter. “The yucky jelly bean is killing me.” With a final dramatic groan, Mitch flopped onto the marble floor, feigning death.