Interrupted Lullaby

by Dana R. Lynn

  She shook her head. How he decorated or didn’t decorate his office—or his home—was nothing to her. Or it shouldn’t be. As soon as she was safe, she would collect her babies and her association with Lieutenant Dan Willis would come to an end. That really stank.

  But she knew she had no future with a man like Dan. Not only because he had issues, but also because she didn’t want a man whose job involved danger. Did she? Absolutely not. She had her kidlets to consider. They deserved a father who could be certain he’d be there for them. But since when was she searching for a father for her children? Since never, that was when. She was a strong, independent single mom. And that was the way she liked it.

  She was giving herself a headache over this. Slumping in her chair, she closed her eyes and massaged her temples with her fingers. She was tired, cranky, and oh, how she missed her kids. Unbearably so. Just thinking of them made her ache. Was Rory having trouble sleeping? He was used to her rocking him at night. And Siobhan... Vonnie had been teething when she’d left. Her little gums would get so red and angry looking, and she would scream and wail until Maggie made the pain go away.

  Footsteps sounded on the porch. They seemed to echo in the silent room. Maggie leaped from the chair she had just sat down in and shot across the room. She crouched down in the corner, behind another chair, heart pounding. Her mouth was dry, so she tried to swallow. Seth opened his eyes and sat up. Frowning, he glanced around the room until his eyes came to rest on her. Upon seeing her, he gave her a tight smile and hurried from the room. She pulled her arms in tighter and bowed her head to make herself as small as possible. Briefly she closed her eyes. She should pray. Dan would. The door opened.

  “Maggie?” Maggie opened her eyes and saw Chief Kennedy watching her. She straightened from her crouched position. That was when she noticed Jace and another police officer in the room.

  “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me,” Seth informed her from the doorway. He pulled the door closed behind him as he left. The chief moved farther into the room. “I’m sorry if I scared you. My men have gone through the safety deposit box. I thought you might be interested in seeing some of the things we found.”

  Relieved, Maggie surged up out of the corner to join them at the table. She didn’t know how much more introspection she could handle. Shaking off the maudlin mood, she waited for the officers to continue.

  “Hi, Maggie,” Jace greeted her. “This is Officer Martello. He and I went to visit that bank in Erie this morning. Have a seat, and I will go through the stuff that concerns you.”

  Maggie understood. They were not willing to tell her everything they had found. Well, maybe she could convince Dan to tell her later. After all, she had been married to Malcolm. It was easier to call him by his real name now. Somehow, she had managed to distance herself.

  Jace pulled out a large envelope. Inside were bank statements and legal documents.

  “Dan told me about the twenty thousand that was in the box.”

  Maggie held her breath. At the time, she hadn’t questioned that the money was Phillip’s, therefore hers, to use. But what if it wasn’t? Would she have to pay it all back?

  “According to the documentation here, the money was all Malcolm’s.” She blew out her breath, hard. “We looked into the money he had made while working for Spiles. Pretty much everything was either used to pay off his previous debts, which he did before going to the police, or was seized under the government’s asset forfeiture program. He lived very frugally after entering the Witness Protection Program. And he started making investments, very smart investments, through a third party. If I had to guess, he was planning for the day when his old boss would find him. He had pulled the money from the investments a few weeks before he was killed. And there was more than the twenty thousand.” Jace showed her a statement for a bank account. Her eyes widened. That much money? It had never occurred to her that her husband had been a wealthy man.

  “As soon as it is cleared, it’s yours.”

  Dizzy, she leaned her head on her hands. She wouldn’t be poor. More important than that, her children wouldn’t be poor. They wouldn’t be raised the same way she had been.

  “Maggie? You okay?”

  She nodded and cleared her clogged throat. “I’m fine. Please, continue.”

  “There wasn’t much else.”

  Uh-uh. She so wasn’t buying that. “You found the evidence. Right?” She turned her glare from one to the other.

  Chief Kennedy entered the conversation. “I know it goes against protocol, but I think she should know a little of what we are up against.”

  The cop she didn’t know started to protest. Chief Kennedy halted him with an upraised hand. “I will take full responsibility, Tony. But this isn’t just another case. These people mean business, and they are after her. She needs to understand why they are so set on it.”

  Tony. She knew that name. This was the officer married to Jace’s sister, Irene. Well, that explained why he was let in on the secret that she and Dan weren’t dead.

  “Human trafficking.”

  She whipped around to face Jace. Realizing her mouth was hanging open, she closed it with a click of her teeth. She didn’t want to believe that the man she’d loved, the man she’d married, had been part of something so repulsive.

  “Was Phillip...”

  Chief Kennedy interrupted. “You don’t need all the details, but I can tell you your husband was not involved in that part of the business. As best I can tell, as soon as your husband saw something that bad was going on, he decided to get out of it. He couldn’t, but he tried.”

  Sinking into a chair, Maggie struggled to deal with the new information.

  “How could he withhold that information from the FBI?” The harsh voice was barely recognizable as her own. “To turn his back on it, that’s almost like, I don’t know, it’s like he was enabling it.”

  Jace leaned back against the buffet, his arms folded across his chest. “Dan told us what Robert said. The information we have, though, was dated after Malcolm was put in the Witness Protection Program. So I doubt that it’s the info he withheld. If I had to guess, I would say he had a suspicion something darker was going on, but the only thing he had proof about was the money laundering. Then he kept digging into it later, after he’d entered the program.”

  “I’m so confused.” Maggie rubbed her forehead. A nagging ache was beginning between her eyes.

  “Maggie.” She pulled her hands away from her eyes to meet the chief’s gentle gaze. “As soon as Dan gets back, we should be able to piece together more information. Until then, I need you to be patient and lie low. It works to our advantage that the perp thinks you are dead.”

  “But Dan—”

  “No one knows where Dan is except for us. And no one else knows about his mission today.”

  “But what if someone finds out?”

  Chief Kennedy shook his head. “We have done a sweep of the station. Only highly trusted members of the police force have been in today. There are no bugs, his orders are not in writing and he is using a track phone to communicate. He’s off the grid at the moment, and so are you.”

  * * *

  Dan had the cab driver let him off a couple of blocks shy of Lily Hutchins’s house. If anyone had realized he was still alive, he didn’t want to lead them to her. He pulled his baseball cap low and hunched his shoulders to appear shorter. He adopted what he hoped was a nonchalant attitude. In reality, he was wound up so tight he felt as though he might explode at any second. Part of it was this case. Part of it was being away from Maggie. He had been mentally entangled in Maggie’s whereabouts for so long it was hard to keep his perspective when he couldn’t physically watch her to make sure she was safe. Not to mention his concern over the twins. Add to all that the guilt that was building inside him over Dennis’s death, and he was a walki
ng time bomb.

  Digging deep, he focused on God for a moment. He didn’t have the words but allowed himself to just be with the Lord as he walked.

  Arriving at Lily’s house, he knocked three times on the door. The sound was loud, sharp.

  A minute later, he heard a clicking sound inside. Heels. Who wore high heels inside the house? The thought had barely formed when the door swung open and he was face-to-face with a woman who could have stepped off a magazine cover. Tall, elegant, with flowing gold hair and crystal blue eyes. Her skin was flawless—until you noticed the angry red scar running along the left side.

  Discreetly pulling out his badge, Dan held it close to his chest and flashed it so she could see it, but anyone passing by couldn’t. The only sign she gave of being surprised was the stiffening of her spine. Although her eyes darted around, making sure they were alone.

  “Mrs. Hutchins,” he began.

  “I go by Lily Klemz now,” she informed him, her eyes wary. He recognized her maiden name.

  “Of course. Ms. Klemz, I need to speak with you. May I come in?”

  She stood aside and motioned him inside with her head, quickly shutting and bolting the door behind him. When she faced him again, he saw it. The terror that she was trying to hide. It was in the way she folded her arms so close against her body.

  “What do you want? Is this about my worthless ex-husband?” she hissed at him.

  “Yes and no. Ms. Klemz, were you aware that Malcolm had entered the Witness Protection Program under an assumed name?”

  “Not until the feds showed up at my door a year and a half ago to tell me he was dead. Before that, I hadn’t seen him since I left him.”

  He needed to tread lightly here. Bringing up her ex-husband’s second wife could be tricky. It was a long shot, but he needed to know what she knew.

  “How much did you know about his former job?”

  She seethed. “I knew nothing about it. But that doesn’t matter, does it? I was innocent, and still I have police and feds questioning me, and his old work associates harassing me—”

  Whoa. What?

  “Hold on. What do you mean, his old associates harassed you? Have you been in contact with them? Any names and details you could give me—”

  “Names! What, you think they’d leave their cards? ‘Yes, hi, I’m one of your ex’s pals who works in an illegal business’?” She laughed, a chilling, ugly cackle completely devoid of humor. “All they left me with was this scar.” A trembling finger pointed to her face.

  Pity and sorrow grew in his heart.

  “Did you report it?”

  She sneered. “Yes, but the police had no leads. Nothing they could prove. The business used as a front that initially hired Malcolm had already shut down. No one was saying anything more.”

  Great. He’d come all this way, and it was another dead end.

  “There is one thing, though. One thing that struck me as odd at the time.” She paused and uncertainty washed over her expression.

  “Yes? Ms. Klemz, whatever it is, you need to tell me. No matter how small it may seem.”

  She bit her lip. He waited, forcing down his impatience.

  “After Malcolm disappeared, a man came looking for him. He said he and Malcolm used to go to school together, and he was trying to reconnect. I didn’t believe him, not for a second, and was only too glad to tell him that I had no idea where my lying ex was. I forgot about it for a long time. Then months later, I opened the newspaper to see this man’s face staring out at me. He was some sort of reporter or something who had been killed.”

  “Was his name Brandon Steel?”

  Her eyes widened. “Yes.”

  * * *

  Dan crept into his apartment as quietly as possible. Fortunately, most of the other tenants were already at work. Booting up his computer, he started researching Brandon Steel. And came up with some surprising facts. A little more research and a few phone calls, and a different picture began to evolve.

  Standing up to stretch, he noticed the time. Wow. He had sat at the computer for over an hour. Maggie must be going stir-crazy at Seth’s house. He would go get her soon. Although he still wasn’t sure what the game plan was. His grumbling stomach reminded him he hadn’t had lunch. He put together a quick ham and cheese sandwich. He ate standing up by the sink, then chugged down a glass of water. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a movement. Whirling, he just managed to dodge the baseball bat swinging toward his head. It bounced off his shoulder instead. Pain lanced through him, but he ignored it. He zeroed in on the man before him, noting the knit cap and unshaved jaw.

  His attacker screamed, a shout of pure frustration, raised the bat above his head and swung again. This time Dan was ready for him. He grabbed the bat and yanked it out of his hands before tossing it aside. It clanged against the table. Then he attacked. It turned out his opponent wasn’t much of a fighter when it came to hand-to-hand combat.

  Dan fought to hold himself in control. He easily subdued the intruder. His jacket was hanging on the back of a chair. He swiped the handcuffs he always carried with him and restrained the other man. What he really wanted to do was pound him to a pulp. All the problems of the past few days were catching up with him. This guy had no clue how close he was to becoming a human punching bag. Dan reined in his emotions. There was too much at stake to lose it now.

  He recited the Miranda rights while he grabbed his cell phone off the counter. Not the track phone, because, really, it was obvious he was no longer off the grid. He shot a quick text to Paul. He needed to know Maggie was in danger. Paul responded almost immediately that Jace was on his way in a cruiser.

  Good. If he was honest, he had mixed feelings about having his cover blown. It gnawed at him to have to hide, to rely on secrecy. Too many variables could go wrong. On the other hand, Maggie’s safety was compromised.

  Giving the intruder his most obnoxious smirk, he remarked, “Not so brave without a bat, huh?”

  An angry snarl twisted the man’s face. “I can’t believe you didn’t die this morning.”

  “Ah, so it was you in the truck. Your driving skills are questionable.”

  “You think you’re safe? You think that chick you’re hiding is out of danger?” He laughed. “She won’t be safe...ever. My boss is sure she has something her hubby stole. And he has enough money to send people after her every day for the next ten years.”

  Without any memory of how he got there, Dan was across the room. His hands trembled with the urge to shake the audacity out of him. Clenching his fists, he shoved his face close to the other man’s, ignoring the stench of chewing tobacco and sweat.

  “Is this guy worth going to jail for three counts of attempted murder?”

  A gleam of panic entered the other man’s eyes. He probably hadn’t counted on Dan living long enough to arrest him. The gleam disappeared. The man smirked back, although it appeared to be forced.

  “I’d rather be in jail with my boss’s backing to protect me than in Maggie’s shoes. How safe do you think your little girlfriend will be when she reads today’s newspaper?”

  Huh? Backing away, Dan held up a hand, warning his prisoner to stay where he was. He pulled his smartphone out of his pocket and called up the web address for the local newspaper, careful to keep one eye on the man standing a few feet away.

  Ice sloshed through his veins as the front page came into view.

  Local Woman Found Alive After More Than a Year

  Smiling up at him from his phone was an image of a young woman. It was several years old, but he would know that face anywhere. It was Maggie. And the story below sent dread coursing through him. The reporter somehow had found out about the twins and Anna. The story didn’t come out and say they were being hidden. No, it made it seem as though Maggie’s mother was merely becoming acquainted wi
th her grandchildren. But the facts were undeniable. Someone had found out about them. Now they were in danger, too.

  THIRTEEN

  Maggie paced the confines of Melanie’s kitchen, alternating between frustration and anger. It seemed all she had done lately was wait. How she hated being forced to wait when people she cared about were in danger! Every now and again she would stop and mutter a prayer. It felt awkward, but she was desperate to do anything she could to get her babies back safe. And her mother. She knew if any harm came to her children it would mean her mother had been incapacitated or worse.

  Shouldn’t she have heard something by now? Jace and Dan had left hours ago! The sun had set, and she could see a few stars out the window. In the background, she could hear the murmur of voices as Melanie and Jace’s sister, Irene, chatted in the next room.

  Dan’s phone call had caused a flurry of activity. Melanie and Irene had gone out to Seth’s house to pick her up and bring her back to the house, while Jace and Dan had lit out of there, the siren blaring on the cruiser. Paul had headed into the station. He needed to plug a leak, he had stated darkly, and he wouldn’t leave the station until it was done. Maggie wasn’t surprised. The chief of police was very charming, but she strongly suspected it was a facade to hide a very lonely man. It didn’t seem as though he had anyone to rush home to.

  Reverting to a habit she’d had since childhood, Maggie started talking to herself. In Gaelic. Slipping into the tongue she had learned from her grandmother had always brought her comfort, as if her grandmother were close by.