A Secret Uncovered

by Edward Kendrick

  It’s time to show them I’m not playing games.

  * * * *

  Ric got back to the agency a few minutes after five. He had photos to prove that the stakeout subject had been feigning her injuries. All he needed to do was write his report and send it and the pictures to the client. He parked in the driveway then walked to the front door. It was locked, which didn’t surprise him since they closed at five. Unlocking it, he went inside, started to disarm the alarm box until he realized it hadn’t been armed. Meaning Ethan’s still working. He headed to Ethan’s office to let him know he’d had a successful afternoon. Well, successful for our client. He chuckled as he knocked on Ethan’s door.

  It swung open a couple of inches, which startled him. Pushing it the rest of the way open, he stepped in. Seconds later he was kneeling beside Ethan’s body, feeling for a pulse with one hand while he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed 911 with the other.

  “I need an ambulance and the police,” he told the dispatcher, trying to keep his voice under control. “My boss…I think he’s been stabbed. He’s got a pulse, so he’s still alive but…In the chest and one arm,” he added when the man asked where. “Yes, I’ll stay on the phone. Just get someone here on the double.”

  Ethan’s shirt was soaked with blood from, as Ric discovered when he tore it open, a deep wound between two ribs halfway down his torso. Frantic, Ric raced to the bathroom, returning with a wad of paper towels that he pressed over it—and the one in Ethan’s bicep.

  “Don’t die on me,” he whispered, followed by a feverish, “Where the hell are they?”

  That question was answered when he heard sirens approaching. By the time he got to the front door EMTs were exiting the ambulance. He let them in, taking them to Ethan’s office. A second set of sirens let him know the police had arrived.

  From there, it was controlled pandemonium as the EMTs worked to stabilize Ethan and the two of the officers watched while they talked to Ric.

  One of the officers asked for Ethan’s and Ric’s names, and, after writing them down, their occupations. Ric almost told him that should be obvious, since there was a sign by the front door. He refrained because he didn’t want to piss him off. Then the officer asked how to get in touch with someone from Ethan’s family. Ric told them, including the fact that Susan was visiting her parents.

  At that point, the first officer asked, “Do you know who did this?”

  “No. I have an idea but no name.”

  “Meaning?” one officer asked.

  “We received a threatening email Saturday from someone who wanted us to abandon a search we’re doing for a missing woman.” Ric was about to explain further when the EMTs let them know they were ready to transport Ethan to the hospital.

  “I’m going with him,” Ric stated as Ethan was being rolled out of the office on a stretcher. “I’ll answer your questions at the hospital, but not until I know if he’s—” he swallowed hard, “—if he’s going to survive.”

  It seemed as if the officer would protest, until a man with a blond crew cut joined them. He introduced himself as Detective Paul Kane and told Ric, “I’ll meet you there, once we’re finished here.”

  At that point Ric realized there were men and women, dressed in crime scene attire, standing at the office door. They waited to enter until the EMTs, followed by one of the officers, were gone.

  With a nod, Ric muttered, inanely he knew, “Lock up when you leave.” That rated him a brief smile from the detective. By the time he got to his car the ambulance, which was from Denver Health, was turning the corner of the street, headed toward the hospital.

  Ten minutes later, Ric was standing beside the officer as they watched the emergency room doctors working on Ethan. One of them came over to tell them they were taking Ethan up to surgery. “There’s a waiting room you can use down the hall from the operating room.”

  “Just don’t let him die,” Ric replied.

  “He won’t,” the doctor told him. “His attacker knocked him out at some point. X-rays show the skull wasn’t fractured, which is good, although he may have a concussion. We’ll find out once we’ve dealt with the internal injuries from the knife wound and he regains consciousness. He was a lucky man. The knife missed his heart, lungs, and most vital organs. Despite how it looked, the wound in his bicep was superficial, and in neither case were any major veins or arteries damaged.”

  “Most vital organs?” Ric asked in dismay.

  “The tip of the blade nicked his spleen. That’s easily repairable. Most of what has to be done involves sterilizing and then closing the wounds.” He smiled. “That’s layman’s terms for he’ll be fine if damned sore for a while.”

  “Thank God,” Ric exclaimed at the same time his phone rang.

  “Ric, how is he?” Susan asked in a panic-stricken voice the second he answered. “I’m on my way back but the officer who called me didn’t say anything more than that he’s alive.”

  “He is,” Ric assured her. “They’re taking him in to surgery right now. The doctor I talked to said he’s in no real danger. They just have to put him back together again.” He went on to explain what that meant, ending with, “I’ll wait here until you arrive.”

  “Thank you, and…and thank you for finding him before…” Her voice broke.

  “Susan, he really is going to be all right, I promise.”

  “I believe you. I have to, or…I’ll should be there…in a while. I mean. Damn it. Wait for me?”

  “I said I would and I will.”

  Chapter 7

  Ric had been pacing the hospital waiting room for what felt like forever when Detective Kane finally appeared. He stopped to talk with a nurse at the nurses’ station before taking a seat along the wall, gesturing for Ric to join him.

  “Looks like he’s going to make it,” Kane said at the same moment that a doctor came into the room. He, also, stopped at the nurses’ station and one of them pointed to Ric.

  “Your friend is out of surgery and in intensive care, where we’ll be monitoring his vital signs,” the doctor told Ric. “He won’t be allowed visitors until tomorrow morning at the earliest.”

  “Meaning I can leave,” Ric replied with a tight smile, although he wouldn’t until Susan arrived.

  “It’s your choice, but I will tell you those benches make damned uncomfortable beds.” The doctor patted his shoulder and then left.

  “If you’re planning on leaving, I want you to come down to the station with me. We have to talk about what happened and who did it.”

  “I’m staying here until Ethan’s wife arrives,” Ric replied. “So ask away.”

  Detective Kane did, starting with who might have been responsible for the attack on Ethan.

  “I don’t know. We got an email threat from someone but I haven’t been able to track it back to the source. The man knows what he’s doing when it comes to hiding behind fake IP addresses.”

  “Why didn’t you call us as soon as you got it?”

  Ric shot him a disgusted look. “You probably don’t like the idea, but we’re trained detectives. We know what we’re doing.”

  “But you don’t have the sources the department does,” Kane shot back.

  “Close,” Ric retorted angrily, and then softened his tone as he said, “Sorry, but like it or not, we wanted to handle this ourselves.” When Kane asked what the message said, Ric told him.

  “Who is Lilliana?”

  “That’s what we’re trying to find out.”

  “Why?”

  “She may be the mother of one of our clients,” Ric replied. “We were hired to find her. His mother, I mean.”

  “Who is he?”

  “I’d rather not tell you. We believe in keeping information about our clients confidential.”

  Kane scowled. “Even if it means one of you ends up dying because you are, Mr. Baron? In case it escaped your notice, whoever emailed you is obviously quite serious about his threat. Do you want to be next? And what if this m
an finds out who your client is? You’d better believe he’ll go after him.”

  “You’re right, of course. I’m still not going to tell you who he is until I’ve talked with him.” Ric frowned, or frowned more than he had been. “Why didn’t he kill Ethan? He had the chance.”

  “He might have thought he had, given the amount of blood and the placement of the chest wound. Or he was sending another message to the two of you that he can get to you no matter where you are and the next time he won’t hold back. I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t get another email to that effect.”

  “Good point. You’ll have an officer here to keep guard on Ethan’s room?”

  “There already is. When you let me know who your client is, I’ll make sure he’s got one, too, until we catch Mr. Moore’s attacker.”

  Ric nodded. “That might make him more willing to talk to you.”

  “I’d put one on you, as well, if I didn’t think you’d do your best to shake him so the attacker will come after you.”

  The corners of Ric’s lips turned up in a brief grin. “You’re right. I’m the only viable target, now, as long as my client is protected. I could do that myself, but I don’t want to lead the bastard to him. If I play it right, though, I should be able to draw him out.”

  “Don’t you dare!” Ric turned to see Susan striding toward him and Kane. “Isn’t it bad enough that Ethan was almost murdered? How do you think he’d feel if his attacker succeeded with you? It would kill him.” Then, she burst into tears. “Where is he? I have to see him. To know he really is…” She collapsed into Ric’s arms when he held them out.

  A nurse hurried over when Kane beckoned to her. “This is Mr. Moore’s wife. Would you please take her to his room?”

  “All right. But she can only stay for five minutes.”

  Susan composed herself, wiping away her tears. “Can, may, Mr. Baron come with me?”

  “Only to the door. He’s not family.”

  “Understood,” Ric replied. Putting one hand on Susan’s elbow, he walked with her as they followed the nurse to Ethan’s room, with the detective right behind them. As Kane had said, there was a police officer stationed outside the room. Ric could see Ethan through the window, with wires and tubes running from him to various machines, and IV lines stuck in his arm. He was pale, which didn’t surprise Ric, and his eyes were closed. They didn’t open when Susan bent to kiss his forehead, so Ric figured he’d been knocked out with drugs.

  As they waited for Susan to leave Ethan’s room, Kane said, “I want you to talk with your client. Now if possible. He needs to know what happened and agree to accept police protection.”

  “What about Susan?” Ric asked as he took out his phone. “She could become a target, too. That’s why Ethan had her go out of town to stay with her parents in Boulder.”

  “With her permission, we’ll arrange for the police to keep an eye her if she’s planning on returning there.”

  Ric nodded as he dialed Theo’s number. When his call was answered, he said, “We need to talk. Ethan was attacked a few hours ago. He’s at Denver Health and…”

  * * * *

  “Attacked?” Theo gripped his phone tightly as he tried to assimilate what Ric had said. “By that man? How bad? He’s not going to die, is he?”

  “No. He’s going to be hurting for a while, I suspect, but he’ll live, as the doctors have told us more than once.” Theo could envision him rolling his eyes.

  “Us?”

  “Me, Ethan’s wife, and the detective in charge of the case. That’s why I’m calling—well, other than to let you know what happened. The detective wants to talk with you, and give you police protection, if you’re willing. I haven’t told him who you are and I won’t until you tell me it’s okay.”

  Theo gripped the phone even tighter as the implications of what Ric was saying hit full force. “He, the detective, thinks I’m in danger? Damn. Stupid question. Of course he does, and I am, but fuck, Ric.”

  “The three of us need to talk, face-to-face,” Ric replied. “The problem is, I don’t know how to arrange it. For all I know, the bastard is watching the hospital, or at least my car, waiting for me to leave. I won’t lead him to you, no way, no how. Hang on a second.”

  Theo could hear someone talking to Ric, although he couldn’t make out the words. Then Ric was back.

  “Detective Kane has a suggestion. You come here and he’ll arrange for us to use an empty room. There’s no way the man could know that you’re the person he’s looking for, so it should be safe, given how many people come and go visiting friends or relatives here.”

  Theo swallowed hard. Suddenly the idea of his leaving the security of his apartment terrified him. On the other hand, he knew he had to and at least being there would be safe. Or as safe as possible, I suppose.

  “It will take maybe fifteen minutes for me to get there, once I pull myself together,” Theo said, hating the tremor in his voice.

  “Take a deep breath,” Ric replied softly. “You’re going to be okay. As you said, and I agree, our man doesn’t know who you are. If he did, he’d have gone directly for you.”

  “True, I guess.” Theo shivered. “How will I find you when I get there?”

  There was a low chuckle before Ric said, “Call me?”

  “Duh. Yeah. All right. I’ll see you in a few.” He hung up, put his phone back in his pocket, and then went to change from his sweats into jeans and a T-shirt. After checking that he had everything, he left the apartment. When he got to the ground floor, he hesitated. His car was parked in back of the building, and the lot was well lit, but the idea of going out there…Get a grip. He doesn’t know who I am. No one does but Ric and Ethan. I’ll be fine. Telling himself that and believing it were two different things, so it took all his courage to open the back door and step outside. There was no one around that he could see, which didn’t stop him from tensing as he hurried to his car. He didn’t relax until he pulled out of the lot, heading to the hospital.

  * * * *

  “We’re in room 404, in Pavilion C,” Ric told Theo when he called from the parking garage across the street from the main campus of the hospital.

  Three minutes later, Theo called again, asking, “Are you sure it’s Pavilion C? That’s for maternity and pregnancy.”

  “Can you think of anywhere our man is less likely to be watching, if he’s around?”

  Theo sucked in a breath and agreed. Not much later, a nurse on the fourth floor escorted him into 404, one of the private rooms for mothers and their newborns. Ric was perched on the edge of the bed, while a man Theo presumed had to be the detective sat in one of two chairs beside a small table.

  “Mr. Speer, I’m Detective Kane,” the man said as he stood, holding out his hand.

  Theo shook it and then, when the detective gestured toward the other chair, sat.

  “Ric’s filled me in on some of what’s been going on,” Kane said. “About who you are, and about the threat from the man we presume attacked Mr. Moore. I have a few questions.” He glanced at Ric. “He’s been very close-mouthed about the details of why you hired him and Mr. Moore.”

  “Client confidentiality,” Ric replied. “I told you that. Whether Theo wants to tell you is up to him.”

  Kane nodded, returning his attention to Theo. “From what little I understand, this Lilliana who’s mentioned in the email Ric received may be your birth mother, Mr. Speer.”

  “Before we go any farther, please call me Theo. And yes, from what little information there is on the adoption certificate I found in my mother’s files, Lilliana Nichole ‘something’ is my birth mother. Her surname was obliterated, as was the place of birth. The space for the father’s name was blank. The name of the hospital and the birth certificate number were also blacked out.”

  “We had a document expert examine the adoption certificate,” Ric put in. “He says it’s real, not a forgery, but he wasn’t able to work his magic to find out what was written in the blacked out spac
es.”

  “Your expert would be?” Kane asked.

  “Walter Foster,” Ric replied.

  “I’ve heard of him. He is an expert. I doubt our people can learn anything more than he already has.”

  “He also says my birth certificate is an expert forgery,” Theo told Kane. He smiled dryly. “It must be a damned good one. The government people accepted it when I applied for my passport.”

  “Was Mr. Foster able to determine who made it,” Kane asked.

  “Yes, but he says the man’s dead.” Ric replied. “Suicide apparently. I don’t know his name but I’m sure Foster can tell you if it’s important.”

  “All right. On to my next question. It’s more for you, Ric, than Theo. I know you’ve done a search for Lilliana even after the man who threatened you told you to stop. Have you been able to narrow it down to only a few possibilities?”

  “Eleven, none of whom live here in the city.”

  “You never told me that,” Theo exclaimed, shooting an angry look at Ric. “I mean that you’d narrowed it down that much.”

  “I only got it down to that this morning,” Ric explained. “Before I left for my stakeout. When I got back, I found Ethan and it sort of slipped my mind to call you at that point.”

  “Sorry,” Theo replied, dropping his gaze. “I had no right to yell at you.”

  “I don’t think you yelled,” Ric said with a smile. “Even when you’re pissed, you let me know quietly.”

  “I do? And when have I been upset with you until right now?”

  Ric chuckled. “Never…so far?”

  Kane broke in—Theo thought because he didn’t want to deal with what was obviously turning into a personal conversation. “Do you plan on contacting these women, Ric?”

  “Yes, but I haven’t figured out how, yet, without putting one of them in danger.”

  “Only one?” Theo asked.

  “I think we can presume whoever wants me to back off knows what she looks like. It’s pretty obvious he doesn’t know where she is and I’d bet my bottom dollar he doesn’t want the two of you getting together. Killing her would solve that problem.”