The Baby’s Guardian

by Delores Fossen

  Or else the doctor wasn’t saying.

  Still not looking pleased about this call, Shaw reached out to hand her the phone. “She wants to talk to you.”

  Sabrina’s first thought was a bad one. The doctor had drawn her blood yesterday, and maybe something was wrong. She practically grabbed the phone from Shaw.

  “Is this about the blood test?” Sabrina immediately asked.

  “No. All your tests were fine. But I just found out from my business manager that the police are investigating me.”

  Until this call, Sabrina had forgotten that the investigation had extended to her OB.

  Sabrina clicked on the speakerphone function of Shaw’s phone. “They’re not really investigating you.” She stopped, looked at Shaw, and he nodded for her to continue. “It’s because of your friendship with a possible suspect.”

  “Officer Keith Newell,” the doctor supplied. “Yes, as I just told the captain, Keith called me last night and said he’s being railroaded, that Captain Tolbert is so anxious to make an arrest for the hostage crisis, that he’s willing to ruin an innocent man’s career.”

  “If Newell’s innocent, that’ll come out in the evidence.” She hoped.

  “Well, whatever comes out, I haven’t done anything wrong. Keith and I are old friends. Nothing more.” The doctor mumbled something that Sabrina couldn’t understand, but she sounded frustrated. “If, and that’s a big if, he’s a dirty cop, he wouldn’t have come to me.” She paused. “What exactly do the police think I could have done to help him?”

  “There’s a DNA file and the DNA itself that was destroyed during the hostage standoff. It belonged to a newborn that’s missing. His mother was murdered.”

  “And you think Keith did that?” the doctor snapped.

  “He’s just a possible suspect,” Sabrina corrected. Then she paused. “Is he capable of that?”

  “No.”

  “Even if it meant this dead woman could have hurt his career?” Sabrina pressed.

  Dr. Nicholson wasn’t so quick to answer this time. The seconds crawled by. “I don’t think he would murder anyone.” But she didn’t sound convinced.

  Neither was Sabrina.

  “You should get another OB,” Dr. Nicholson said. “You should be in the care of someone you trust completely. Obviously, I’m not that person.”

  Sabrina wanted to assure her that she did trust her. But it wasn’t true.

  The doubt was there.

  “I’ll contact some colleagues,” the doctor continued. “I’ll get some names of available OBs and call you back. I’ll also send over some prenatal vitamins. With everything going on, I’m sure you haven’t been taking them.”

  “I’ve missed a few days,” Sabrina admitted. And she had no idea when she’d be able to go home and get them.

  “Not to worry. I always have a supply here at the clinic, but I forgot to offer them to you yesterday. Should I send them to Captain Tolbert’s office, since Keith said you’d been staying with the captain at the precinct?”

  The question caused Sabrina to hesitate. It didn’t sound like a fishing-expedition type of question, but she wasn’t exactly eager to volunteer her exact location. “Just phone the script into the pharmacy on St. Mary’s, and I’ll have someone pick it up for me.”

  Now, it was the doctor’s turn to hesitate. “Of course. Good luck with this pregnancy, Sabrina. I wish you the best.”

  The doctor hung up, leaving Sabrina feeling frustrated and uncertain. Mercy. If the doctor was truly innocent, she was going to owe her a huge apology. But if Dr. Nicholson did have some part in this, even a small one, Sabrina didn’t want to take any chances.

  “I’m sorry,” Shaw said.

  Sabrina shrugged. “Couldn’t be helped.” Though she did hate the idea of having to find a new doctor this close to her delivery date.

  “I’ll call Lieutenant Rico in a few minutes and make arrangements for someone to pick up your prenatal vitamins,” Shaw offered, just as there was a knock at the door. “Who is it?”

  “Detective Luke Hennessey. I have your food and a report that Lieutenant Rico asked me to give you. I also have a message. The lieutenant said the report was important and that you’d want to read it right away.”

  Shaw stood and went to the door. He eased it open and peered out at the young officer who was in the hall. He handed Shaw a brown delivery bag, the report and a large cup of coffee.

  “Lieutenant Rico wanted you to know that Danny Monroe died during surgery.”

  Sabrina hadn’t expected the news to hit her so hard, but it did. Part of her had hoped that Danny would pull through and be able to help them identify his boss. There was no chance of that happening now.

  Shaw cursed, but then thanked the detective, and closed the door.

  He immediately reset the lock.

  It seemed absurd to take these kinds of security measures in police headquarters, but it had to be done.

  “I didn’t think Danny would make it,” Shaw mumbled. But there was still disappointment that he hadn’t.

  Sabrina took out the food while Shaw read the report. There were several sandwiches, a fruit salad, two bottles of juice and one of milk, and she placed everything on the table. And waited. Whatever was in that report had captured Shaw’s complete attention.

  “At any point during the hostage standoff did one of the gunmen take your sandals?” he asked.

  “No.” But then she shook her head. “Wait a minute. When they were holding me at the office building, one of them, Burney, took them. He said it was so I wouldn’t escape. There was broken glass on the floor, and he warned that it would cut my feet to shreds. But then, about ten minutes later, he brought the shoes back to me.”

  Shaw rubbed his fingers over his forehead and winced when he connected with one of the nicks. “Because evidence and trace just got around to examining them, and they found a tiny device that’d been affixed adjacent to the heel of your left shoe. It’s a transmitter with eavesdropping capabilities. The heel was just high enough so that the receiver wouldn’t hit the ground when you were walking.”

  Oh, mercy. So, the gunmen could have listened in on everything she and Shaw said from the moment he rescued her. “Did they put the device on me and then let me escape when you arrived at the abandoned building?”

  “I don’t think they let you do anything,” Shaw said, staring at the report again. “I think this was their insurance policy. If you did manage to run, they would have been able to track you down.”

  Yes. And they’d tracked her down to the hotel room where they’d planned to take her hostage again. They’d probably also listened in to determine when the best time was to attack.

  “So maybe Newell didn’t leak our location,” she suggested.

  “Not necessarily. He could have followed the transmission to the hotel. Or he could have put it there after the fact so it would give us a reasonable doubt not to suspect him.”

  Yes. After all, they’d left Newell in the hotel room when she’d started cramping. Her bagged clothes and shoes had been there, and Newell would have had ample time to put a transmitter in place.

  Shaw downed some of his coffee and motioned for her to eat, but he continued to read the report from Lieutenant Rico.

  “The leak about the fake pacifier and the missing baby’s DNA is making the rounds. Rico’s already gotten some calls about it. A couple of reporters want to know if it was true, and it’ll be the lead story on the noon news.”

  So, the word was out, and that meant the person responsible might be desperate to keep the information hidden. “What about the baby?”

  Shaw shook his head. “He’s still missing, but the FBI’s involved now. They have a deep cover agent near the border, and he has connections to several black market baby brokers. He’s been alerted in case the birth father is trying to sell the child.”

  Sabrina nearly choked on the sip of milk she’d just taken.

  “It takes all kinds,” Shaw mumbled.r />
  There was a sound. Like a loud blast. And it brought Sabrina to her feet.

  “A gunshot?” she asked Shaw.

  He shook his head. “It was more like an explosion.” Shaw took out his phone, but it buzzed before he could make a call. He checked the caller ID screen.

  “It’s Gavin,” he relayed to her.

  Sabrina groaned. She didn’t want to go another round with Gavin, or any of the others. She wanted to know what had caused that sound. Mercy, they might have to evacuate. She only prayed this wasn’t some other form of an attack.

  Shaw put it on speaker. “How did you get this number?”

  “From dispatch. I told them it was an emergency and I had to speak to you.”

  Shaw rolled his eyes. “What do you want?”

  “You have to help me,” Gavin said. It was clear from the man’s tone that this wasn’t one of his usual complaints. “Someone just tried to kill me.”

  Sabrina put her hand over her heart to steady it and moved closer to the phone.

  “I’d parked my car in the lot across the street, and when I started toward it, the damn thing blew up.” Gavin’s voice got even louder. “Rouse is behind this. I know he is. I told you to arrest him.”

  “Where are you?” Shaw asked. Unlike Gavin, his voice was calm, but his expression wasn’t.

  “In the parking lot across from the headquarters building.”

  “You need to take cover in case the blast is just the beginning.” Shaw hung up and made another call. “Lieutenant Rico, what’s going on?”

  “I’m not sure. It appears someone set a car bomb—”

  There was a second blast, a loud crashing sound. Sabrina looked around, wondering if she should take cover.

  What was happening?

  “Lock down the place,” Shaw ordered. “And get some men out there to see what’s going on. I just got a call from Gavin Cunningham, and he said someone’s trying to kill him.”

  But Sabrina wasn’t sure Lieutenant Rico heard the last part of Shaw’s order because there was a third blast. Louder than the others.

  This one shook the entire building.

  And Sabrina got a whiff of something that caused her heart to pound even harder.

  Smoke.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “What now?” Shaw cursed.

  The building’s fire alarm started, the shrill noise filling the flop room. The sound didn’t do much to steady Shaw’s nerves, which were already on full alert. His body was primed for a fight, but he hoped it wouldn’t come down to that. There’d already been enough battles to last him a lifetime.

  Shaw drew his gun and tried to finish the call with Lieutenant Rico. Whatever was going on out there, it couldn’t be good, but maybe Rico already had everything under control. However, Shaw knew that wasn’t the case when the lieutenant came back on the line.

  “We have a big problem,” Rico yelled over the piercing alarm. “In addition to the car bombs, someone set a fire in the men’s bathroom. The fire department’s on the way, and I have men responding with fire extinguishers. But I’m short-staffed because a lot of officers are at the memorial service.”

  Well, that explained the smoke and the blasts. “How bad’s the damage?”

  “We’re just now assessing the situation. But I can tell you the car bombs have broken windows and damaged other vehicles. We probably have some injuries. There were three blasts, two from the parking lot across the street and one from a car parked illegally curbside. We’re closing off the area until the bomb squad can give us an all clear, but Captain, you should evacuate. We don’t know if there are any other explosives or fires.”

  Hell, this was not what he wanted to hear.

  “Keep me posted,” Shaw ordered the lieutenant, and he put his phone away so his hands would be free.

  There were no windows or secondary doors that he could use for evacuation, so he would have to get Sabrina out through the main hall. And he probably shouldn’t delay. The smoke wouldn’t be good for her or the baby, and that was especially true if the fire wasn’t limited to the men’s room.

  “What’s happening?” Sabrina asked.

  He shook his head. “I’m not sure, but we have to get out of here now.”

  Her eyes widened, and her hands dropped from her belly to her side. “Is it safe to do that?”

  She looked terrified and likely was, but this was something he couldn’t sugarcoat. “It should be safe, but just in case I want you to stay next to me, and if anything goes wrong, keep down.”

  Sabrina nodded. Then, she nodded again when he motioned for her to walk with him toward the door. She certainly didn’t look confident about this, but then neither was Shaw. He couldn’t wait though because if the fire spread, then they could be trapped in a burning building.

  As if the building had heard him, the overhead sprinklers came on and began spraying water all over the room. And on them. Shaw tightened his grip on his weapon, disengaged the lock and cracked the door just a fraction so he could peer out into the hall.

  He held his breath and braced himself for an attack.

  Thankfully, there wasn’t one. There were some officers scurrying toward the front of the building, but his end of the hall was empty.

  Well, other than the spray from the sprinklers and a few wispy threads of smoke.

  “Smoke,” he mumbled under his breath. He remembered the fire at the hospital. The gunmen had used it as a literal smokescreen to help them escape.

  Was this a smokescreen, too?

  Was it meant to cover up something else that was going on?

  If so, Shaw had to trust that his officers would put an end to it before it became a bigger threat. Right now, he had to focus all his energy on saving Sabrina.

  “This way,” he instructed her.

  Sabrina moved directly behind him, but he could sense her hesitation when she realized the direction where they were headed. “We’re going out through the dispatch exit?” she asked, her voice practically a shout over the fire alarms.

  “Yeah.” And Shaw was well aware that the last time he’d taken her through that door, Danny had fired shots at them. But Danny was dead, and he couldn’t do a repeat attack. “The parking area off dispatch is secure. Guarded at all times. A person wouldn’t have been able to get in there and plant a bomb.”

  He hoped. He also hoped another gunman wasn’t perched on a rooftop.

  Shaw continued to lead her down the hall, but he stopped when he reached an open office door to his left. No one appeared to be lurking there, ready to strike. But just in case, he checked that room and then over his shoulder.

  Hell.

  There were open doors behind them, too. At least a dozen of them. He hadn’t considered open doors and empty rooms a threat before, but he certainly did now. He needed to hurry and get Sabrina out of there because he was getting a bad feeling about all of this.

  “Why is this happening?” she asked.

  Shaw heard her, but he didn’t answer. He kept his attention on their surroundings. When they were outside and away from the blare of the alarms, he’d give her his theories. Maybe it was a terrorist attack. Or maybe it was an attack of the ordinary variety. If there was such a thing.

  But he also had to consider that this was linked to everything that had been going on for the past two days. The hostages. Sabrina’s kidnappings. The subsequent attacks. That’s why he couldn’t let down his guard. Nor could he hang around and take control of this new crime scene. He had to get Sabrina far away and to a safe house.

  The tile floor was slick from the overhead sprinklers. Shaw slowed so Sabrina wouldn’t slip. It seemed to take forever, but they finally made it to the door, and Shaw placed his hand on the push handle. He wouldn’t just shove it wide open, though the smoke and the need to get Sabrina out of there made him want to do just that. But he couldn’t. He had to make sure the area was indeed secure.

  He didn’t hear any sounds, other than the fire alarm, but Shaw felt th
e movement behind him. He turned, and in that split-second glimpse, he saw Sabrina.

  Her eyes wide with fear. The gloved hand over her mouth.

  And her attacker pressing a gun to her head.

  SABRINA’S HEART SLAMMED against her chest.

  Her breath froze.

  She couldn’t see the person who grabbed her from behind, but she felt his viselike grip on her shoulder. She felt it more when he hooked his arm around her neck and crushed her back against his chest.

  In that same split second, he jammed the gun to her head.

  She tried to call out to Shaw, but the person loosened his grip on her throat so he could slap his hand over her mouth. Not that Shaw would have heard her anyway over the noise.

  But then Shaw looked back.

  And no doubt saw that things had just gone from bad to worse.

  Shaw automatically lifted his gun to aim it at her attacker, but the man’s only response was to jam his own weapon even harder against her right temple. He didn’t have to issue a verbal threat because Sabrina had no doubt that he would shoot her or Shaw.

  The man shoved her forward to get her moving. Shaw moved, too. Without lowering his gun, he backed up until he ran into the door. Her attacker used the barrel of his weapon to motion for Shaw to open it.

  Oh, God.

  He was going to get them outside so he could kidnap her. But who was this, and why was he doing this to her again?

  She tried to glance over her shoulder, but the man rammed his chest into her back and propelled her forward, almost into Shaw. The motion sent Shaw into the door again, and he must have hit the push handle, because it opened.

  Sunlight spewed into the corridor, and she felt the fresh air reach her lungs. She still couldn’t draw a full breath because her chest was tight with fear. She wasn’t afraid for herself but for the baby and for Shaw.

  Shaw continued to back up while he shot volleying glances behind him, at her, and at her attacker. Could Shaw see the man’s face? Did he know who was holding the gun on her?

  Despite all the fear and the adrenaline, Sabrina tried to cut through the panic and figure out who was doing this. Rouse? Gavin? Maybe even Newell? It certainly wasn’t Dr. Nicholson, but then maybe it was no one she even knew.