Christmas Conspiracy

by Susan Sleeman

  He pounded on the door, but no one answered. Jake wasn’t going to let them get away with not talking to him, so he parked himself on the porch and waited.

  An hour later, Mr. Baldwin poked his head out the door. “We’re through talking to you until our lawyer is present.”

  Jake doubted the family had a lawyer on retainer, and figured Mr. Baldwin had simply heard the lawyer threat many times on TV. Either way, it didn’t matter. The man wasn’t going to talk, and Jake was wasting his time trying to get him to speak.

  The good news was that if Pam’s father really did believe he needed a lawyer, he likely had something to hide. Once Jake told Skyler about the conversation, she would insist on bringing him down to the station and placing him in an interrogation room, which often encouraged suspects to talk.

  Jake drove back to the firehouse and located Skyler in the office on the main floor. She still looked pale and, if possible, greener than yesterday. Since he knew the probable reason now, he chose not to mention it.

  He recounted the information he’d learned at the Baldwin residence. “As you said, Pam’s father isn’t the right build for the kidnapper, but they’re hiding something. Perhaps he skipped work so the real kidnapper could hand Kelly over to him.”

  Skyler nodded. “I’ll be glad to contact their lawyer, if they really do have one. Then we’ll see how tough this guy is. And I’ll have the techs pull video feeds from the general area around their home to see if we can catch him in his car that morning.”

  “You think they’re involved?”

  “First rule of investigation. Don’t form any opinions that facts don’t support.”

  Jake eyed her. “But you formed an opinion on Rachael.”

  “Honestly, I haven’t. I just said we have to keep an open mind in case we discover she’s involved. Maybe I hit it a little hard, but I thought I needed to balance you out, as you’ve gone completely in the opposite direction.”

  “True,” he said. “And I won’t apologize for it. Rachael needs someone in her corner.”

  Skyler gathered her papers. “Problem is, you want more than to be in her corner. You want to invade her whole life.”

  Jake arched a brow, but didn’t bother arguing. After his behavior of late, he couldn’t deny the obvious. It was best for him just to move on.

  “Did you find Pam’s past boyfriends?” he asked.

  Skyler came to her feet. “Actually, we just got a lead on the whereabouts of Hal Ladell. He hangs out in an abandoned building on the north side, and I’m heading over to talk to him.”

  “Do you think he could have done this?”

  She shrugged. “Both guys have records. The height and weight for both of them are in line with the kidnapper’s build.”

  “Do you think it’s of any value to show their mug shots to Rachael?”

  “Couldn’t hurt.”

  “I’ll take care of that, then.”

  She nodded.

  “Have you checked for stolen cars matching the one the suspect fled from Francie’s apartment in?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “You think it was stolen?”

  He shrugged. “If I was going to try to kidnap a baby, I wouldn’t want to use my personal vehicle.”

  “Good point.”

  “I’ll check the database and see what I can come up with.”

  “You should know I’ve reviewed traffic cam footage near the center for Monday morning. No sign of that Honda.” She stepped from the room, pausing to grab the doorjamb for a second.

  Jake couldn’t imagine what it felt like to be nauseated every day. Sure, having a baby was a great reward, but still, feeling like you were going to be sick all the time had to be taxing.

  He sat behind the computer and logged in to the county’s database to plug in the make and model of the Honda. He scrolled down the most recent log and came upon two Accords stolen in the last month. One of the reports was dated three days ago, and the Portland Police Bureau had handled the call.

  Jake dialed the detective in charge of the case and explained his need for information. The detective agreed to email a copy of the stolen vehicle report. Jake hung up and waited for his email account to display a new message. When it did, he clicked on the file and located the address where the car was stolen, then sat back to think.

  He seemed to be on target with the stolen vehicle hunch, so maybe the guy had used the car to steal the ketamine, too. A vet’s office would be a far easier target than a medical facility, and the thief could have found the car near the vet’s office.

  Jake plugged the car owner’s address into a map program and searched for veterinarians, then also added doctors’ offices and hospitals in a five-mile radius.

  The map returned a few results, but Jake focused on a veterinary clinic located on a corner very close to the car theft address. Even more important, the address was near Mr. Baldwin’s job.

  Jake grabbed the phone and dialed the PPB detective again.

  “Any chance there was a burglary in a veterinarian’s office in the same area where the car was stolen?” Jake asked.

  “Hold on,” the detective said.

  Time ticked by, and Jake tapped his finger on the desk.

  “Yeah, man. The Pet Spot, the same night.”

  “Can you transfer me to the detective who worked the case?”

  “Yeah. Hold on again.”

  Jake was soon transferred to the other detective. Jake identified himself. “What can you tell me about the break-in at The Pet Spot?”

  “They were after drugs, what else? Ketamine, to be specific.”

  Jake explained how ketamine fit into his investigation. “I was hoping I could take a look at your report and the evidence.”

  “Sure, man. Since it involved drugs, we called out forensics. They lifted evidence, but none of it panned out. Looks like the items we recovered were from the normal course of doing business.”

  Jake wouldn’t have made such an assumption. “When can I stop by to look at the report and evidence?”

  “I’ll be out of the office all day, but I can have the information waiting for you tomorrow morning.”

  They scheduled a time, and Jake hung up. He entered the vet’s address into the map program and scanned the surrounding businesses. A halfway house popped up just down the block.

  Jake sat back, his mind whirring.

  Could Sid Cooper, Pam’s other ex, have moved to the house? Was he behind the kidnapping?

  Maybe.

  Jake texted Skyler to tell her about his lead. Ideally she would be able to obtain a list of the halfway house residents, and Sid Cooper’s name would be on it.

  * * *

  At The Pet Spot, Rachael stood near a wall filled with crates holding recuperating dogs and cats. She and Jake were on their way to the center and he’d wanted to stop in on the way. With the way the vet kept watching her, she wished they’d headed straight to the center.

  A tall man in his thirties with tousled dishwater-blond hair and a nose that reminded her of a mini pig snout, the vet locked his eyes on her. She suspected he watched her because he could feel her discomfort with the pets, who were clamoring to be released. She’d never been an animal person. Not because she didn’t like them. She’d simply had no exposure to them as a child, as her mother had been allergic.

  “That’s where I know you from!” he exclaimed. “I saw you on the news. Oh, man, I’m sorry. That must have been horrible.” His expression turned suspicious. “You aren’t... I mean, the reporter... He said you were involved. But you couldn’t be, right? You’re here with the police.” He shot a look at Jake.

  “Sometimes reporters get things wrong,” Jake replied.

  Rachael didn’t like his vague answer. He could have said she wasn’t involved
and cleared her name, but he didn’t.

  “Gotcha,” the vet said, but he kept glancing at Rachael like she had two heads.

  She should have been thankful, she supposed, as it took her mind off the mug shots Jake had shown her before they’d left the house. She didn’t recognize either Sid or Hal, but they were both mean-looking guys, and after seeing their rap sheets, she thought either one could have tried to kidnap little Kelly.

  “This is where we keep our meds locked up.” The vet pointed at a steel cabinet on the far wall. “That’s not the actual cabinet, though. The burglar destroyed the other one, so I had to replace it.”

  Jake looked from the window to the cabinet and back again. Then his gaze roamed over the room. Rachael wished she could read his thoughts. Not only now, but all the time. Especially when it came to her. Or maybe she didn’t want to know what he thought, because it might make her consider things she wasn’t ready for.

  Jake pointed at the far wall and a security camera mounted near the ceiling. “Did the detective pull your video feed?”

  The vet nodded. “But I made copies of the files for my insurance company. You’re welcome to look at them if you’d like.”

  Jake glanced at his watch. “We have an appointment in a few minutes. Could you email them to me?”

  “Sure.”

  Jake handed his business card to the vet. “You’ve been most helpful.”

  “Are you kidding?” The vet laughed. “I’ll do anything I can to find this guy. Ketamine isn’t something that should be handled without a medical license.” The vet changed his focus to Rachael. “I’m sorry if he used drugs stolen from my practice to inject you. I’ve installed a top-of-the-line security system, so it shouldn’t happen again.”

  “You have nothing to be sorry for,” Rachael assured him.

  Jake tapped his watch. “We should get going.”

  “Thank you again,” Rachael said, and followed Jake out to his truck.

  She settled in and buckled her seat belt. “Except for the fact that the vet thought I was a criminal, he seemed to be a nice guy.”

  Jake started the car and glanced at her. “He’s a victim in all of this, just like you.”

  She was so surprised to hear him say he believed she was a victim that she stared at him for a minute. “So you’ve finally decided I’m not involved.”

  “I never really believed you were, but honestly if I had thought you were guilty, as I got to know you, I’d have let that go. You’re conscientious and caring about the families you work with. You’d never hurt them. Not a single one of them. That’s clear.”

  His admission warmed her heart more than she wanted to admit. “I’m glad you figured that out.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  “Why what?”

  “Why do you devote so much of yourself to your families? I mean, as far as I can see, you don’t have much of a life outside the center.”

  “I want it that way.” She wondered how much to tell him about her past and decided to reiterate what she’d already told him. “When I was struggling to go on after Eli died, God showed me that helping these needy families was to be my path in life.”

  “And you think that helping them means you have to spend your life alone?”

  “Don’t you think the same thing? People need us, and we have to give them our all.”

  He nodded, but his forehead creased, and he didn’t seem to believe it.

  She wanted to pursue the conversation further, but she’d vowed to keep things professional—and asking why he chose to be alone and not have a personal life was as unprofessional as it got.

  * * *

  The licensing rep was round and short, and wore a serious pucker. Jake could tell she was treating her visit to Rachael’s center solemnly, and if her sour look gave any indication of her willingness to lift the suspension, it wouldn’t happen. In fact, she looked so terse, Jake hated to leave Rachael alone in the office with her. But as a law enforcement officer, he was a reminder of the severity of the problem, so he took his iPad to the staff lounge and sank down into a comfy sofa.

  He opened his iPad case, but the uneasy look on Rachael’s face kept distracting him from his email. He suspected Rachael thought that losing her center was similar to losing a child. Her suffering continued to multiply, and it made Jake mad that God didn’t intervene and help her out.

  Why? he asked. Why let this happen?

  Jake had asked the same question for years after his family had died. A question he still asked when he saw someone needlessly suffering, as he often witnessed on the job. He never received a satisfactory answer, so he’d stopped expecting one.

  After all, why try to maintain a relationship with God if He never answered?

  At least that’s how he’d felt for years, but Rachael’s continued faith in the wake of losing her husband made Jake want to revisit this issue and try to understand God’s purpose in suffering. Over the years, Jake had read or heard that God used suffering to make people stronger. All it seemed to do for him was make him worry more about putting himself in a position where he could lose people he cared about—but there had to be more to it, right?

  On his iPad, he logged in to an online Bible program and searched for worry. The first verse that came up was Matthew 6:34:

  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

  “Isn’t that the truth?” he mumbled, thinking about the last few days.

  He could never have predicted the problems he and Rachael had encountered. Nor could he have predicted that in such a short time he would actually be thinking that life held more than he’d been experiencing. So maybe God was talking to him. Telling him to take each day as it came and stop thinking God should change his situation. To consider why God allowed him to remain in these difficult situations.

  His iPad signaled the receipt of an email. Could be from the vet. He navigated to the email and discovered the vet had indeed sent the promised videos.

  Jake played the first one date-stamped 2:00 a.m. Friday night. A masked man fitting the build of Kelly’s kidnapper smashed the window, glass flying in all directions. He then shimmied through the opening and crossed the room to raid the medicine cabinet before leaving the same way he’d entered.

  Jake tapped the link for outside cameras that captured the suspect rushing across the parking lot to the street, but the range didn’t extend far enough to show the vehicle he departed in.

  Jake emailed Skyler and asked her to look at traffic cam footage for the Accord in the surrounding area.

  He closed his iPad case, disappointed that he hadn’t learned anything new, but he still had hope for the physical evidence secured at the PPB property room.

  Raised voices drifted from the office, grabbing his attention.

  Was Rachael arguing with her rep? Odd. Rachael wanted the visit to go well and arguing was counterproductive.

  Perhaps he could help. He stepped into the hallway and listened.

  “I don’t understand,” Rachael said. “I’ll write a letter indicating my intent to comply with your corrective actions, so why don’t you think the suspension will be lifted?”

  “It very well might be, but I know the committee will look more favorably upon your request if the kidnapper has been caught. I realize this has nothing to do with your willingness to comply with the regulations, and in all honesty, it’s none of their business if the kidnapper is still at large. They shouldn’t let it color their decision, but I know they’d rest easier if the threat was no longer valid.”

  “As I mentioned earlier, the police believe the kidnapping is specific to Kelly and the other children aren’t in danger. What if I asked to have the suspension lifted but agreed not to let Kelly return until the kidnapper is caught?�
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  “Are the police one hundred percent sure?”

  “No. Not one hundred percent.”

  “Then I’m going to suggest again that you wait to ask for the suspension to be lifted,” Yolanda said. “But it’s your decision, and you should do what you think is best. You’re one of the most caring and diligent providers I know, Rachael, and I only want to give you the best chance to succeed.”

  Jake thought Rachael would take Yolanda’s advice and wait to request the suspension be lifted. He also suspected that she’d be upset, and he hoped he could find a way to help her handle another setback.

  They stepped into the hallway, and Jake turned his attention to a parent bulletin board while Rachael bid Yolanda goodbye.

  He saw a flyer for a fund-raiser scheduled that evening for a group called Children at Risk—CAR for short. According to the flyer, the group helped low-income parents secure quality child and health care and helped provide for their everyday living needs. It made perfect sense that Rachael supported such a cause but no sense that she hadn’t mentioned she was the scheduled guest speaker for tonight.

  When the door closed, he joined her in the foyer. “I overheard the end of your conversation with Yolanda. Are you going to wait to ask to have the suspension repealed?”

  She peered up at him. “It seems like the prudent thing to do.”

  “I know this is another setback for you. Is there anything I can do?”

  “Find the kidnapper.”

  He kept failing her, reminding him of how he’d let down his family. “I’ll meet with the team and see if we can do better.”

  “No, no. I wasn’t criticizing. I know you’re doing your very best and I’m blessed to have you and your team working this investigation and looking out for my safety.”

  “Speaking of safety, I noticed a flyer.” He pointed at the parent board. “There’s a fund-raiser tonight, and you’re the speaker?”