Second Chance, Baby

by A. C. Arthur

  “We’re doing just fine this morning, Doctor. What’s with the machine?” Ty asked defensively.

  “We’re going to perform a sonogram. I want to take the baby’s measurements and make sure there’s enough fluid around it. I’ve been watching the fetal strip and the contractions have all but stopped.”

  “But I just saw something,” Ty interrupted.

  “Yeah, I saw that, too. I figured Mrs. Braddock had moved or coughed or something like that to alter the monitor. The interruption is not consistent with a contraction.”

  Ty nodded, thankful that Felicia appeared to be getting better.

  “I want to keep her on bed rest for another day or so and then maybe we’ll let her go home. But only if she promises to rest as much as possible.”

  “She will,” Ty said immediately.

  Felicia gave him a scathing look. “Yes. I will rest, Doctor. But can I go back to work?”

  Dr. Franz shook his head. He’d put on his wire-framed glasses and was now staring at the fetal strips that Ty had just looked at. “Ah, probably not for another week or so. I don’t want you overdoing it too soon.”

  Ty didn’t want her to return to work. He wanted her home, taking care of herself and their child. But he knew better than to say that. The look she’d given him for answering for her a few seconds ago had warned him enough.

  “Do you think I should just take the rest of the school year off?” she asked.

  Ty was surprised but still did not speak.

  “I’ll let you know after the sonogram. Trudy, are we ready?”

  The nurse with the long blond ponytail hanging down her back nodded and moved to pull down the sheets Felicia had tucked so securely beneath her arms. “We’re ready,” she said.

  “Now, Mrs. Braddock, I’m just going to remove the belts for the fetal monitor for the time being. I’ll put them back on after we’re finished.”

  Felicia nodded. Her hair was pushed back from her forehead and she looked a little pale. She was probably nervous. Yeah, she had just begun to gnaw on her bottom lip. Ty moved a little closer to the bed. To Felicia.

  “Now,” Trudy was saying as she lifted a tube from a rack on the side of the machine. “This is going to be a little cool.” She squirted.

  Felicia jumped. “A little cool is a gross understatement,” she said and shivered.

  Ty couldn’t hold back any longer. He reached for her hand, taking it soundly in his. To his extreme pleasure, Felicia did not try to pull away.

  Once the gooey substance was smeared over Felicia’s stomach, Trudy handed Dr. Franz a probe. Dr. Franz immediately touched it to Felicia’s stomach and looked at the monitor on top of the machine.

  Ty looked down at Felicia. She quickly looked away from him to the monitor. Following suit, Ty also looked at the monitor but had no clue what he was seeing.

  The screen was black with a cone-shaped center in a grainy shade of gray. In the middle of the gray was another black area. But this area had some shaky-looking movements. Dr. Franz began to speak in measurements while Trudy clicked on the small keyboard beneath the monitor.

  Felicia’s fingers trembled and Ty instinctively brought them to his lips, kissing each one until she stilled. Momentarily he pulled his gaze from the screen to look at her. She looked at him almost shyly and he continued to rub her hand with his.

  “Here’s the head,” Ty heard Dr. Franz say. He immediately looked back at the screen.

  “Where?” he asked.

  “Here,” Dr. Franz said, and pointed to the screen with his free hand.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Ty whispered as he made out the almost oblong shape. That was his child’s head. Amazing, he thought.

  “And look, here’s a hand.”

  Felicia gasped. “It is! It is! Ty, look at the hand.”

  Ty couldn’t hide a smile. “I see it, sweetheart.”

  “Here are the heart and the kidneys. Everything looks really good,” Dr. Franz continued.

  But Ty wasn’t really focusing on what the doctor was saying. His eyes were glued to that screen, watching this tiny life that he’d helped to create. Now his fingers were the ones trembling until Felicia reached over, touching her hand to the top of his.

  “Turn the machine up,” Dr. Franz told Trudy. “Let’s have a listen to the heart rate.”

  In the next instant, the room filled with a sound that was fast and rhythmic, almost like a locomotive engine. Ty was instantly concerned. “It’s too fast,” he said.

  Dr. Franz chuckled. “No, Mr. Braddock. It’s actually perfect.”

  And as Ty continued to listen, to hear the heartbeat that outran his, yet matched when he thought of his and Felicia’s together, tears formed in his eyes.

  He was going to be a father. On the screen was a picture of his child. Inside the woman that he loved so much, was a baby, growing and waiting. Waiting on him to be the man he needed to be.

  Felicia cried as she watched the screen and Ty leaned forward, kissing away the first tear as it trickled down her cheek. She leaned into him and he felt the tears he’d held at bay slipping past his lids.

  A short while later, Ty left Felicia’s room with even more hope that things would be better between them. He was just stepping off the elevator into the front lobby of the visitor entrance when his cell phone began to ring.

  “Tyson Braddock,” he answered.

  “Ty, it’s Gloria. I’m on my way over to Malcolm’s. You need to meet us there.”

  “What’s happened?”

  There was a pause, then a sigh. “Joe Dennis was found dead an hour ago.”

  “They don’t know how he died yet. Del’s going to call me later with more info,” Ty relayed.

  Detective Delroy London worked out on a weekly basis at the same gym as Ty. They’d built a general sort of friendship, but when Harmon died Del had made a point of assuring Ty that the HPD was doing all that they could to wrap up the accident. Ty called him immediately after hanging up with Gloria as he drove to Malcolm’s house.

  While Del wasn’t on the case, he could still get info. He promised to keep Ty updated. It was likely that the detective had questions about Harmon’s death, as well. Now with the death of the last person to see Harmon alive, those questions would undoubtedly increase.

  Now, sitting in Malcolm’s living room, he gave everyone the most updated information. Shondra was sitting in a deep, cushioned chocolate-brown chair with Connor right beside her. While Malcolm paced the floor, Gloria fixed them all cups of coffee.

  Ty sat back on the couch, thinking that it wasn’t even noon but already he’d heard the sound of his child’s heartbeat and gotten the details of a man’s death.

  “This has to be connected,” Shondra said.

  Connor nodded. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. It’s too coincidental.”

  “The question is, what did Joe Dennis know that may have gotten him killed?” Gloria said.

  “No.” Malcolm stopped pacing to face them all. “The question is who may have killed him? Because I bet that whoever did this to Joe Dennis also staged Dad’s accident.”

  “You’re probably right,” Shondra remarked solemnly. Connor must have heard the despair in her tone because he took her hand in his. A gesture of comfort that Ty wished he had at the moment.

  “It’s pretty obvious that Joe was somehow involved. We need to find out just what he knew. And if he’s dead now it’s going to be pretty damn hard to do that,” Ty added.

  “We need to enlist some help,” Gloria suggested.

  “Drey St. John,” was Shondra’s immediate reply.

  Malcolm nodded. “I think that’s the logical next step.”

  Ty was silent, but he realized with a start that everyone was staring at him. They were all in this together. No decisions would be made without total agreement. He wanted to find out the truth about his father’s death, but a part of him hated that it hadn’t been an accident. The thought that someone would kill his fath
er was too unsettling.

  “Call him, hire him and let’s get this done. There’s a killer out there and he needs to be stopped,” he said with finality.

  Malcolm looked at Gloria, who was already reaching for her cell phone and punching in numbers.

  Drey St. John was a strikingly exotic and devilishly handsome man. No matter how many times Gloria saw him that fact never escaped her.

  It had been an hour since she’d called him. Ty had returned to his penthouse, claiming he’d had things to get done before Felicia was released from the hospital. Gloria hoped he’d gotten his act together. From what Gloria knew of her, she thought Felicia was a very nice woman. And Ty was just being a man, a selfish and pigheaded man. But Malcolm was certain his brother would come around. She’d have to trust him on that.

  Shondra and Connor had left for a lunch date with Connor’s father. Gloria and Malcolm had stayed at his place and waited for Drey.

  Malcolm was fixing Drey a drink while she brought the folder that held all the clues they’d collected to the table and took a seat.

  “It’s nice to see you again, Drey,” she said, falling instantly into those slanted eyes of his. The man had to have some Asian in him, although he was a shade or two darker than Malcolm.

  Drey accepted the drink from Malcolm. “It’s good to see you, too, Gloria. I don’t think we’ve seen each other since the funeral.”

  “You haven’t been to the office,” Gloria quipped. She caught Malcolm’s confused glare. He’d never understood what exactly his father had hired Drey St. John and his private investigation firm to do. In that regard Gloria couldn’t help him out, as she didn’t really know what the relationship between Harmon and Drey was, either.

  “No. But I’ve been keeping a close eye on what happened. I figure since you called me, you and the family have some of the same suspicions that I do,” Drey said, more to Malcolm than Gloria.

  Malcolm took a seat. “The week after the funeral, Gloria and I were in my father’s office and she received a call. The woman on the other line said that my father’s death was not an accident.”

  “Did you get the number from the caller ID?” Drey asked, obviously interested.

  “No. It came up unavailable. But when Harmon’s cell phone bill came in, we found the last number he called before the accident was to a woman named Daiyu Longwei who worked at Stewart Industries,” Gloria responded.

  “As far as I know, my father didn’t do any business with Stewart Industries,” Malcolm said.

  “Strange,” Drey whispered.

  Malcolm sighed. “It gets stranger. Shondra applied for a job at Stewart Industries. One of her intentions was to find out what my father’s connection was to the company but instead she fell in love with the owner.”

  Drey grinned. “An unexpected development.”

  “That it was. But it worked out to our benefit. When Connor Stewart found out the real reason Shondra was at his company, he was initially pissed, but then he wanted to help us find out what really happened. Dad’s last call was made to the direct line of a woman named Daiyu Longwei. Connor spoke to this woman, but she denies ever receiving a call from Dad and says she doesn’t know anything about the accident. Plus, Dad booked travel to D.C. on the very day he had his accident.”

  For a moment Drey remained quiet. He looked to be contemplating all that Malcolm had said.

  “I know you’ve heard about Joe Dennis’s death by now,” Gloria said. “We think this is too much of a coincidence to let it slide. So we decided to hire some professional help. That’s where you come in.”

  “You’re right. There is no such thing as coincidence. There’s a connection and I’ll bet if we find it, we’ll find the killer.”

  “So you think it was murder, as well?” Malcolm looked relieved.

  “I think that Harmon Braddock was a very cautious man. He was an excellent driver and he was smarter than just about everyone he worked with. He wouldn’t have driven his car off the road. And he wouldn’t have been driving himself to the airport unless the trip he was taking was top secret.”

  “Anything top secret reeks of conspiracy, lies and betrayal. All reasons to commit murder.”

  Malcolm exhaled, rubbing his face. Gloria placed a hand on his shoulder. So they were involved now? Drey thought. He looked at two people he’d seen in passing for a few years now. He guessed they were probably a good couple. They certainly looked comfortable together.

  “So where do we go from here? I think this Longwei woman knows something she’s not telling us.”

  Drey had a sick suspicion that this was true.

  “What are your rates?” Malcolm was asking.

  Drey stood and picked up the folder that he suspected held the phone records. “Harmon was a good man. We had a great relationship. There’s no way I can charge to find the person responsible for his death.”

  With that said, Drey left Malcolm’s apartment with the promise to call him the moment he found out something.

  He knew exactly where his first stop would be.

  Ty had a vicious headache. He was back at the penthouse after a two-hour phone conference with Brentwood. His newest client was in no way pleased that Ty was handing him off to an associate broker in his firm. But Ty was not budging. After an hour and a half of assuring Brentwood that Brandon Donovan would do the job well, he’d finally given Brentwood an ultimatum: he could work with Brandon or he could take his money and have someone else invest it.

  A month ago—no, a week ago—Ty would not have dared say such a thing. But then a week ago his wife hadn’t almost lost their child due to his neglect. That was a road he’d rather not travel again, ever.

  With that said, Brentwood had immediately calmed down, asking questions about Brandon’s education and track record. Brandon was one of Ty’s brightest protégés; Ty would not have given him the account otherwise. He’d even agreed to have dinner one night next week with Brandon and Brentwood to assure the change went over smoothly. Brentwood wanted to have the dinner tonight, but Ty had other priorities.

  He’d just come from the bathroom where he’d swallowed two aspirin when the doorbell rang. He answered it and was a little thrown when the neatly dressed man asked him his name. He gave it and accepted the envelope that the man extended to him.

  Closing the door, Ty opened the envelope, praying it wasn’t another work issue. He hadn’t realized how difficult it was going to be to scale back on his work hours. He was heading to the kitchen to fix himself a sandwich, then he had to leave for another appointment. As he did, he scanned the papers he’d pulled out of the envelope.

  He stopped cold as he read the bold print title: Complaint for Absolute Divorce.

  Chapter 13

  It was time for Daiyu to get off from work. Drey had timed his appearance perfectly. She was a stickler for professionalism, so she would take offense to him wanting to discuss outside business during business hours.

  He’d taken the day going over Harmon Brad dock’s records, the ones that Gloria had boxed up and had couriered to his office. So far he hadn’t come across anything that would suggest a conspiracy or a setup.

  Admittedly, he’d only been half looking. Daiyu’s involvement was a puzzle to him, one that worried him more than he could explain.

  Stepping off the elevator, he’d walked through the small waiting area of the human resources department of Stewart Industries. He smiled and waved to the receptionist as she was packing up her belongings for the day. He knocked on the door, then entered on his mother’s command.

  “Hello,” Daiyu said with a smile. She was just closing down her computer, her purse and briefcase already on top of her desk. “This is a wonderful surprise.”

  “Hi, Mom.” Drey went around the desk and kissed his mother’s smooth cheek.

  “What brings you down here? There is nothing wrong, is there?”

  His mother worried about him like he was still a child. Drey hated that. He hated that there was ever a mom
ent that his mother worried at all.

  “Nothing’s wrong. I just needed to talk to you about something.”

  “What is it?” she asked, pulling out her chair and sitting down.

  Drey sat on the edge of her desk and looked at her for a long moment. She was beautiful. No matter how many times he’d stared at her, he never got over how beautiful she really was. And she was sad. She had been for most of his life. Drey attributed that to the loss of his father, Officer Ronald St. John.

  “I’ve got this new case,” he began.

  “You work too hard,” she chastised.

  Drey smiled then glanced around her office. “I learned from you.”

  “Don’t be funny.”

  “Seriously, Mom, about this new case.” He cleared his throat. “Your name came up.”

  “What? Me? How would I enter into one of your investigations?”

  “The family of Congressman Harmon Braddock have hired me to look into the accident that claimed his life.” Drey purposely stopped there to gauge her reaction.

  “I still do not know how I would be involved.”

  “He called you. On his cell phone, he called you, one hour before his car crashed. I’ve checked the cell phone records three times. I even had my trace guy search the line again. He dialed your direct line here at work.”

  Daiyu’s only movement was a shifting of her hands on her lap.

  “How did you know him?”

  Daiyu looked away momentarily, then met his gaze. “I had information that he needed.”

  “What kind of information?”

  “Something that the congressman was looking into.”

  “Mom, I need to know what your involvement with him was.”

  Her dark eyes bore into him and Drey felt a tightening in his chest. What was she about to say?

  “I reported some international fraud that has been going on here. All kinds of things—smuggling of goods, bypassing customs, duties and tariffs…Congressman Braddock was investigating the matter. That is how I was involved.”