An empty crib.
KIRK STRODE INTO THE AIRPORT with Pepper, determined to catch the first plane back to Michigan. Sara didn’t want him and he intended to go home to lick his wounds and plan his next move.
When his cell phone rang, he answered automatically. “Kirk here.”
“Abby’s gone.”
The panic in Sara’s voice had his feet changing direction and heading back to the airport exit before he’d stopped to consider any other response. Pepper trotted alongside him, the loyal animal’s ears perking up, immediately sensing something was wrong.
Kirk hadn’t thought his stomach could clench any tighter, but he was wrong. It knotted into one massive cramp. And as he breathed in the California smog outside, his breath hitched, sticking in his throat.
“What happened?”
Sara’s voice was a whisper of misery. “I checked on Abby soon after you left, and she was sleeping soundly in her crib. After I showered and went in to feed her…she wasn’t there.”
Kirk had to ask, although he was sure Abby had already done a thorough search. “Could she have climbed out of the crib?”
“Logan’s team searched the entire suite, every cabinet, every closet, even looked under the beds. She’s gone, Kirk. Our baby’s gone.” Sara spoke quickly and quietly, but he couldn’t miss the raw agony in her tone.
His heart knotted as he heard her terror. “Hang tight, Sara. I’ll be back within thirty minutes. In the meantime, do exactly as Logan’s men suggest.”
Kirk hailed a cab and sped back the way he’d come. At midday the L.A. traffic allowed a decent pace, but it still seemed like a crawl to him. The bright sunshine mocked him. So did people going about their normal lives while he was caught in a nightmare.
Kirk was accustomed to walking into danger. But he felt totally unprepared for the emotional impact of losing his innocent baby to a kidnapper.
He’d barely gotten to know his daughter, but he already loved her.
He couldn’t let his emotions rule. Abby and Sara needed him to think clearly. And he didn’t care what it took, he would find his baby and bring her back.
How had her enemies found Sara again? The damn government meeting. For all he knew, the information was posted on a Web site. Or someone from the government might be in collusion with the kidnapper. The important thing was that they’d known to look for Sara in Los Angeles because that’s where she had to come to sell her software.
His baby was gone and Sara had sounded ready to crack. Sara had doted on their daughter with a maternal instinct he hadn’t suspected she’d had. He recalled her proud expression whenever the baby spoke or laughed or tried to stand, recalled the love on her face as she’d breast-fed the child. As bad as he felt, she had to be feeling a hundred times worse.
And poor little Abby. The baby would wake up among strangers in a place she didn’t recognize. She might be terrified. And when Abby was unhappy, she cried. Loudly.
Which could draw attention to her presence, but could also irritate her kidnapper. Hang on, Abby. Daddy’s coming to get you and bring you home. I promise.
Kirk had to stop wallowing in his emotions. He’d be no good to Sara or Abby if he didn’t pull himself together. Slowly, he tamped down the emotions and began analyzing the situation rationally.
How had they gotten inside the suite, and why had they taken Abby? All along, someone had been after Sara’s software. Neither of them had ever suspected that their child could be in danger. Kirk recalled the guards posted outside the suite and wondered if they’d been overpowered. He’d know soon enough.
He entered the hotel lobby at a run and rode the elevator straight to Sara’s suite. Two guards outside her door let him through without any hassles.
Logan gestured for him to join a group of men, and Sara, who ran and wrapped her arms around him the moment he stepped inside the room. Pale faced, her eyes red and swollen, Sara held him tight. He patted her back in a soothing gesture.
“We’re going to find her. She’s going to be okay.”
Even as he consoled Sara, Kirk assessed Logan’s team. He already recognized the helicopter pilot, Jack Donovan, and Logan introduced the other men.
“Ryker Stevens is ex-Special Forces, our business specialist. You met him on the radio during the chopper ride.”
Ryker nodded. Ryker possessed strong, forceful features and exhibited intense concentration as he typed furiously onto his laptop’s keyboard.
Logan clapped the man on the shoulder. “Ryker specializes in unraveling the intricacies of complicated white-collar crimes. He’s trying to trace a payoff from the kidnapper to the maid.”
Kirk raised a brow. “The maid?”
Sara finally released him and took a step back. “We think two maids switched places and the new one took Abby out of here in her laundry cart.”
“Her name is Gail Fennway and she’s worked here for twenty years.” The next man on the team spoke from the sofa. He sat quite still with a cell phone plastered to each ear, but told Kirk about the maid as if accustomed to carrying on three conversations at the same time. His pager kept beeping, and he handled the multitasking with ease, acknowledging Kirk’s presence with a sharp nod.
Logan gestured to the cell phone addict. “Web Garfield is ex-CIA. He’s the one who’s been protecting your back.”
Kirk took in Web Garfield’s casual demeanor but wasn’t fooled. Web kept himself in top-notch condition, his shirt stretching over a muscular chest and powerful arms, the telltale ridges and calluses on the ex-agent’s hands revealing that he excelled in deadly hand-to-hand combat.
Ryker frowned at his computer screen. “Gail Fennway deposited one hundred grand into her bank account half an hour ago.”
“Can you trace the check back to the depositor?” Web asked, again, putting his multiple-phone conversations on hold.
Ryker shook his head. “The wire transfer came from out of the country. The Cayman Islands. Gail withdrew the cash and purchased a money order made out to L.A. Memorial Hospital.”
Web stood. “I’m on it.”
“Hold on.” Logan held up his hand. “Let Ryker see if she’s checked in as a patient.” While the man typed and Web murmured into his phones, Logan strode over to the last man in the group. “This is Travis Cantrel, an expert in hostage negotiations.”
Sara’s eyes widened. Kirk wrapped an arm over her shoulder and could feel her trembling in distress.
Travis looked like a wrestler. He had a barrel chest, rounded shoulders and legs as thick as telephone poles. He spoke with a Texas drawl, and a diamond winked in his ear. “I’m expecting the kidnappers to call soon and demand a ransom,” he said.
Web stared at the computer screen over Ryker’s shoulder. “Don’t crowd me,” Ryker complained. “The hospital has a firewall that’s on the touchy side.”
Web took a half step back. “I need to move now. Call me with—”
A knock on the door startled Sara. Web reached for a weapon. Ryker kept typing, and Logan turned casually but kept his back to a wall. Travis didn’t move a muscle, the diamond in his ear shining brightly. Kirk led Sara toward the sofa, wanting her to sit before she collapsed. The stress on her face made his heart ache.
The security guard poked his head through the doorway. “Sir, there’s a woman out here you need to talk with.”
“What’s her name?” Logan asked.
“Gail Fennway. She claims to have information about the baby, sir.”
“The maid?” Sara tugged on Jack’s sleeve. “We have to talk to her.”
“Easy now. Don’t attack her,” Kirk warned.
The security guard returned to the hallway, patted down the woman, then spoke through the open door. “She’s clean.”
Logan nodded at Web. The man stepped into a doorway and merged with the shadows. Travis did the same on the other side. Ryker kept typing. “There’s no Gail Fennway at L.A. Memorial. No other Fennways, either. Our gal’s got a clean record except for two speed
ing tickets twenty years ago. Her credit card is maxed out. And the bank’s about to foreclose on her trailer. A secondhand dealer repo-ed her car last week.”
The woman had money problems, but so did lots of people. Jack wondered if she knew that kidnapping was a felony and that if she was convicted she’d end up behind bars for the rest of her life. Most criminals disappeared after the payoff. They didn’t come out of the woodwork to shake down their victims.
Gail Fennway hurried into the room, wringing her hands, mascara leaking from her eyelashes down her wrinkled cheeks, her white hair a mess. She didn’t have the record of a criminal and she didn’t act like one. She looked guilty and full of remorse.
She rushed toward Sara and Kirk. “I’m so sorry.”
Sara started to approach the kidnapper, but Kirk held her back where he could protect her if the woman pulled a weapon.
Sara jerked free of his grip. “Where’s Abby? What have you done with my baby?”
Chapter Twelve
Sara stared at Gail waiting for an answer, her teeth clenched. Anger raged through her so furiously that she shook. Never in her life had she wanted to hurt anyone. Until now. It took every fiber of her self-control not to attack the woman.
How could Gail have taken her child? Sara had read about child kidnappings in the newspaper, seen parents’ desperate faces on television and had always felt sorry for those involved, but she’d never expected such trauma to happen to her.
And she had so many worries circling through her mind, she had trouble concentrating. She couldn’t stop thinking that somehow Abby’s disappearance was all her fault. She should have kept the baby with her every second, never let her out of her sight. She should have hired a security specialist to stand guard over her crib, or canceled the meeting and backed out of selling the face-recognition program—anything to have Abby back and safe in her arms.
Gail burst into tears. “It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.”
Logan placed a hand on the distraught woman’s arm and led her to a chair, where she collapsed into sobs. She took a tissue from her pocket and dabbed her eyes.
“I’m sorry. So sorry.”
“Tell us what happened,” Logan suggested gently. The man was the epitome of caring.
Sara wanted to shake the words out of the woman, but held onto just enough of her sanity to recognize that Logan’s technique would elicit more information. Kirk’s steadying arm over Sara’s shoulder lent her enough support to dig deep for control.
The moment she’d realized Abby was missing that morning, her first instinct had been to call Kirk. And now she was more than glad to have him at her side. But she couldn’t help wondering if Kirk had to fight back the same violent tendencies that welled up in her.
Gail’s mascara ran down her cheeks with her tears. “I needed the money.”
“You risked my child’s life for money?” Sara snapped, hearing her voice rise an octave.
More tears brimmed in Gail’s eyes. “She was supposed to stay with me. I intended to keep her safe.”
Sara’s heart ached and so did her breasts. Without Abby to remove the milk, she was swollen and uncomfortable. In the baby supplies that Logan had bought—that man thought of every detail—he’d supplied a breast pump. She would excuse herself to use it at the first opportunity.
“Could we please start at the beginning,” Logan said quietly, but Sara heard the steely tone of an order beneath his polite request.
Gail blew her nose noisily into the tissue. “A man phoned and promised me a hundred thousand dollars if I would steal your computer.”
Ryker poised his hands over the keyboard. “Do you know the man’s name?”
She shook her head.
Ryker stroked his keyboard but didn’t press any keys. “When exactly did he call?”
“Two days ago at eight o’clock.”
Ryker started typing. “He probably called from a pay phone, but I’ll check with the phone company.”
Sara suspected he might not have permission to hack into the phone company’s database, but she didn’t care. It wasn’t as if Ryker would do any harm, and he might get them a lead.
“My computer isn’t missing, my daughter is,” Sara reminded the woman.
“I took your computer to a man waiting in the next room down the hall, but he said the information they wanted wasn’t there.”
Sara had been right to keep the hard drive hidden. But she realized with a sick feeling in her gut that if they’d found the program, they wouldn’t have taken her baby. “So they convinced you to kidnap my child, instead?”
“I knew you’d be upset—”
Upset? Sara wanted to deck this woman, but antagonizing their only lead would be stupid.
“—and after they called me the second time with the plan to take your child, I decided I could live with my conscience if I took very good care of your baby.”
“What did the man you met look like?” Logan asked.
“I don’t know. The drapes were pulled in the hotel room, and he didn’t turn on a light. He was taller than me, that’s all I can say.”
Logan spoke quietly. “This man ordered you to return the computer and grab the baby?”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“I was supposed to go to my bank, verify that the money was deposited and take the baby to a safe place.”
“You went to the bank?”
“Yes. And I paid the hospital the money for my grandchild’s bone-marrow transplant.” Gail gazed with teary eyes at Sara. “She’s only ten and will die without the operation. Insurance wouldn’t cover the procedure since they claim it’s experimental. I needed the money to save her life.”
Sara steeled herself against the woman’s sad story. “And you risked my child in the process?”
“There wasn’t supposed to be any risk.”
“Why?” Sara challenged her.
“I would have taken good care of the baby and returned her to you. I didn’t even want to make you worry, but when I weighed my granddaughter’s life against your worry, I just thought…”
“Where is my daughter?” Sara asked again, her stomach sick.
“I don’t know. The moment I walked out of the bank, a stranger stole her from me.”
“Can you describe him?” Logan asked.
“Tall. White. Middle-aged with brown hair. He wore black pants and a black coat. He could have been the same man I met in the hotel room, but I can’t be certain.”
Ryker stopped typing. “The call was made from a pay phone at the airport. It’s unlikely anyone will remember the person using the phone.”
“You don’t usually clean this suite, do you?” Logan asked the maid.
Gail shook her head. “I asked to be switched here. It was easy to do since Milly, the attendant who usually works this shift, didn’t show up today.”
“I’m on it,” Ryker muttered and started typing. “What’s her full name?”
“Milly Pane.” Gail’s eyes suddenly widened in terror. “You think she’s okay, don’t you?”
Ryker must have gotten her phone number, because he dialed a cell phone, spoke into it and then hung up. “She’s fine. She had car trouble this morning.”
Logan’s phone rang and he spoke quietly, then turned to Ryker. “Fingerprints from AFIS have identified the body we extracted on the mountain. Complete details are being sent by attachment.”
“Who was he?” Kirk asked.
Ryker typed at his keyboard and pulled up the incoming data. “Donald Ely.” His fingers danced. “Give me a sec.”
While he researched, Logan escorted Gail from the room, turning her over to the police, who must have been summoned by the security guards. Sara knew she should feel sorry for the woman, but she couldn’t—not with Abby’s life in danger.
They waited for Ryker to get the information, and Sara excused herself to go to the bathroom and use the breast pump. The slightly painful procedure took half an hour. Exh
austed, Sara returned to the living area to hear Ryker’s news.
He read the information on his screen. “Donald Ely. Last known address: Ann Arbor, Michigan.”
Both she and Kirk were from Michigan, too. A coincidence?
“Ann Arbor is the home city of two of my competitors,” Sara told them.
Logan pushed a pad of paper and pen in her direction. “I want the names of the firms, along with their addresses and owners, if you know them.”
She knew the names of both men. Educated, professional people like herself didn’t kidnap children, make planes fall out of the sky or steal software, did they?
Ryker read them the pertinent information from his lightning-fast search. “Donald Ely’s bank account shows another hundred-thousand-dollar deposit that came in last week by wire transfer from the Cayman Islands.”
Ryker was truly a wonder at hacking. But maybe Logan’s team had clearance and passwords. More likely he’d already found cracks at these sites and had hidden the encryption programs until needed. The method was similar to hiding a key to a lock and finding that key again when one needed to unlock a door.
“Are we talking about the same Cayman bank that Gail’s money came from, as well as the same amount of money?” Logan asked.
Sara’s hopes rose while Ryker did more fast typing. If Ryker could trace the account, they might learn the identity of Abby’s kidnapper. However, she told herself not to get too excited. Even after they identified the kidnapper, they had to find him and somehow rescue Abby.
“Same bank. I can’t give you the account number yet. Give me a few minutes.”
A few minutes to hack into a Cayman bank? Past the most elaborate security systems created by man or machine? Past the firewalls and encryptions and code? Ryker was damn good at his job, and Sara prayed he would find the information they needed in time to rescue her baby.
“Any chance Ely served as a marine?” Kirk asked, obviously remembering her comment about how the two men had fought with the same skills back on the mountain.
“He was dishonorably discharged two years ago,” Ryker told him, then frowned at his screen. “We’ve got a problem, boss.”
Daddy to the Rescue Page 15
