The Baby Plan: A Cozy Mystery

by Kathi Daley

  “A month or so ago, the team I work with was assigned the task of delivering a witness to the trial of a man considered to be both highly connected and dangerous on an international level. The woman, who you met this past Tuesday, was willing to testify against this very powerful man in exchange for relocation, but she wanted to be sure that her baby would be safe no matter what the outcome of the trial. I was assigned to find a safe haven for the baby. I brought her to Mike Monday, May 17th.”

  I glanced at Mike, who’d narrowed his gaze, but was listening intently.

  “Once the woman was convinced that her baby was safe with someone who would both protect and care for her, she allowed herself to be delivered to the location I’d been assigned to deliver her to,” he continued. “Given the complexity of the case, her testimony took several days, which I can assure you was extremely stressful for her due to the uncertainty of her future. In the end, it paid off, and this very powerful man was convicted of a series of crimes that will land him in prison for the remainder of his life.”

  Dad cleared his throat before he continued. “Before I go on, I want to thank all of you. When I was asked to find a safe and nurturing place for this child, the first people I thought of were my children, who I knew would do everything needed to both protect the child and to make her feel loved and safe in her mother’s absence.”

  Mike didn’t say anything, but I couldn’t help but thank Dad for his confidence in us.

  He smiled at me and then continued.

  “While I was in White Eagle to drop the baby off, I happened to notice your mother standing in front of the diner she owns. She was talking to a man who I was sure I recognized from my time with a different black ops group I was involved with immediately after I killed off Grant Thomas and was resurrected as Walton Davis.”

  “So that’s what you are going by now?” I interrupted. “Walton Davis?”

  “No, but I did use that alias for a while. Anyway, I called Tess to ask about the man, and when she confirmed the tattoo and accent, I knew that the man your mom had been talking to was a man who went by the name Arno Butane when I’d known him. Arno was a newcomer in international terrorism back then and not considered to be a major player. He was basically nothing more than a thug for hire when I arrested him back in two thousand seven. As far as I knew, he was still being detained, but apparently, he managed to find the right people to secure his release.”

  “So how did he end up in White Eagle with Mom?” Mike asked.

  “I’m getting to that.” Dad briefly paused and then continued. “Initially, I wasn’t sure why Arno was here or what he wanted with your mother, so I decided to follow him and see what he was up to. I asked around a bit and found out that he had a new boat and had been out on the lake in the overnight hours the previous evening, and that’s when I realized that he must have found out about my bunker and was looking for it.”

  “Bunker?” I asked.

  “When I lived in White Eagle as Grant Thomas, I had items that I needed to do my job stashed in various places. One of those places was a waterproof bunker that was camouflaged with rocks at the bottom of White Eagle Lake.”

  “Why would you keep things in the bottom of the lake?” I asked.

  “I had items in my possession which were highly classified and absolutely could not be found, so I decided the best placed to hide them was under twenty feet of water.”

  Who was this man?

  “Anyway,” Dad continued, “once I realized that Arno must have somehow found out about my bunker and was looking for it, I knew he needed to be dealt with. So I called an old buddy of mine who was retired CIA, and we set out together Monday night to track down Arno and whoever he was working with and detain them.”

  “Anton,” Mike said. “Your CIA buddy was Anton.”

  Dad nodded. “I’m sorry to have lied to you earlier. At the time, I thought that keeping you in the dark was the right thing to do. I figured you’d look for Anton’s killer for a while, realize there was no evidence to find, and then file his murder away in the unsolved cases file cabinet none the wiser.”

  Mike’s lips tightened to the point of being puckered, but he didn’t respond.

  Dad continued. “Anton and I followed Arno and his two cohorts for a while. They were trolling and diving, looking for the bunker they were never going to find. I decided they weren’t all that much of a threat since they seemed to be way off course, but I had seen Arno with your mother, and I couldn’t let that continue, so Anton and I decided to board the boat. When we boarded, Arno and one of his two accomplices were in the water while a man named Dargon manned the boat. Anton managed to detain him right off, so I went below deck to look around. While I was below deck, Arno had come back. By the time I made it back up to the main deck, Anton was in the water, and Arno, Dargon, and the third man named Billy were armed and ready to take me on. Of course, three armed men aren’t really a match for me. I managed to detain all three, but not before Anton drowned. I retrieved his body and then towed the boat I now understand is actually owned by your mother to the marina behind the one Anton and I had been using. I knew Anton drowned when he went overboard, so I figured it was best to let his body be found in the water. No one in town knew he was retired CIA, so I figured his murder would be treated as a local incident. I then took my three prisoners in for interrogation.”

  “And?” I asked. “What did you find out?”

  “As I suspected, Arno had met someone when he was in prison who had heard about my underwater bunker. When Arno got out of prison after cutting a deal I’m not privy to, he decided to look for it. He knew that Grant Tucker had lived in White Eagle, Montana, so he came here. Arno figured out that your mother had been Grant’s wife, so he took his time and established a relationship with her. He figured that he’d gain access to a boat and then start his search no matter how long it took. He might have eventually been successful if I hadn’t seen him with your mother.”

  “So is Mom in danger?” Mike asked, getting around to one of the main questions he wanted to ask.

  “No, I don’t believe she is. I’m not sure how Arno found out about the Grant Thomas link to Walton Davis, but I’m not overly concerned that the link is widely known.”

  “But you don’t know that for sure,” I said. “That the link isn’t widely known, I mean. You don’t know for sure that there aren’t others out there who know that Mom, Mike, and I are linked to you.”

  “No,” he admitted. “I don’t know for sure. But I am keeping an eye on things. I don’t want the two of you to be worried.”

  “Well, I am worried,” Mike said with a level of force I wasn’t used to coming from him. “My wife is having a baby in less than a month. I imagine the grandchild of Grant Tucker or Grant Thomas or Walton Davis or whoever you are now would be considered to be quite the bargaining chip.”

  “Yes,” Dad admitted. “I imagine that you’re right.” He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I can have all of you put into protective custody.”

  “No,” Mike said without even stopping to consider the offer. “I have a life here. Bree has a life here. White Eagle is our home. It is the place we choose to raise our children.”

  Dad didn’t respond right away, but he did look at me.

  “I’m with Mike. White Eagle is our home. Tony and I are staying.”

  “I understand,” Dad said. “While I’m fairly certain that everyone who knew about Arno’s plot and the connection he discovered between White Eagle and me has been dealt with, I will continue to monitor the situation until I’m certain.”

  “By monitor, you mean lurk around and watch us,” Mike said.

  “Basically,” Dad admitted.

  “What was going on the night Hap saw you down by the lake?” I asked.

  “I’d just dropped the baby and her mom off at the airplane that would take them on the next leg of their journey and decided to take a minute to pay homage to Anton. I went down to the lake to the spot where
the two of us would sometimes meet when I lived in White Eagle. I thought I was alone. The section of the beach where I was standing is pretty isolated, and it was late in the evening, so I wasn’t expecting anyone to come by. I guess I should have been alert to others in the area, but I was lost in thought and hadn’t even heard Hap approaching. When I turned around, I swear he was as shocked as I was.”

  “I think it’s a good thing he settled on the ghost story, or things could get awkward,” I said.

  “Which is exactly why I don’t come around all that often. Too many people I knew as Grant Thomas still live in the area. The last thing I need is for a rumor to be started that I’m actually alive.”

  I glanced at Mike, who looked to be deep in thought. “Maybe it’s time to tell Mom about all of this,” he said.

  “No,” Dad answered.

  “But your existence in the world puts her in danger,” Mike argued. “If Mom knew the danger existed, maybe she would be more careful about the men she hooks up with. Mom let this man into her home. She shared an intimate relationship with him. Who knows what he might have eventually done to her if you hadn’t come along and put a stop to things.”

  “There is truth in what you say,” Dad admitted. “But I honestly believe that her knowledge of my greatly exaggerated death would screw up her life.”

  “More than her marriage to you already has?” Mike asked.

  “Think about it, Mike. If your mother knew I was alive, then she’d have to live with the knowledge that she was still married to a person who isn’t really dead but who she can never divorce without proving to the courts that he’s alive. This is something she can never do without compromising my reason for dying in the first place.”

  Dad had a point. Mom had gotten over Dad’s death. She seemed okay with being a widow and had moved on even if she did tend to make bad choices in men. But if she knew Dad was alive, then what? In a way, knowing that Dad was still alive would put her in some sort of permanent limbo.

  Mike grew quiet, but I could tell he was far from happy. I suspected that once he’d processed things, he’d come up with a whole new set of questions.

  “Is there anything else before I have my men take you back?” Dad asked.

  “Can you tell us what name you’re going by now?”

  “No. My nickname is Ford. It’s a common enough nickname and won’t lead to me, so I suppose you can use that if you really need to have a label.”

  “What about the little black book and the flash drive Theo, or I guess I should say, Arno had? What do the initials and numbers in the black book represent, and what was on the flash drive?” I asked.

  “The black book seems to be a contact book of some sort. I’m not sure what it all means at this point. The flash drive provides information about my life as a spy and deeds I’d done in the past. Information about others in my agency is also included on the flash drive. I believe that Arno wanted the flash drive to be found by me so that I would know how much he’d actually figured out. I don’t know why exactly, but it does seem that the little black book and flash drive were planted at your mother’s house.”

  “I really, really hate this,” I said. “I feel like Mom is totally vulnerable. I have Tony, and the security system at our estate is top of the line, so we have a certain level of security. Mike is a trained cop, so I guess he can take care of himself and his family. But Mom is all alone. She lives alone, and she drives to and from work alone. She’s actively looking for love, which makes her vulnerable. Maybe you should just come home.”

  His face grew thoughtful. “I can’t come home, but I can send someone.”

  “Send someone?”

  “I need some time to work a few things out, but the house next to your Mom’s is for sale, and I think I have the perfect guy to buy it.”

  “Perfect guy?” I asked. “Are you setting Mom up?”

  “You want her to have someone close by who will protect her with his life, don’t you?”

  I nodded. “You know I do.”

  “Then when Sam moves in, I think it might be a good idea to welcome him with open arms.”

  Chapter 19

  “I can’t believe your dad is sending your mom a booty call,” Bree said after we’d driven from Tony’s home to Mike and Bree’s and shared the events of the afternoon with her.

  “I don’t think he’s sending her a booty call,” Mike said. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I think he’s sending her Sam Parker.”

  “Sam Parker, Dad’s old fishing buddy?” I asked.

  Mike nodded. “I don’t know for sure. I guess we can’t know until someone buys the house next to Mom’s, and this Sam guy shows up. But Sam and Mom used to have this connection. I think that if Mom hadn’t already been married to Dad, the two of them might have had something. Of course, I was just a kid at the time, so I didn’t know a lot about love or romantic relationships, but I do remember how he was with her.”

  “How was he with her?” Bree asked.

  “Kind. Gentle. Helpful. He was always looking out for her comfort. He would stop by and do chores for her when Dad was on one of his long runs. He would sit and talk to her about her day, and he seemed really interested in whatever was going on in her life. At first, I thought he was moving in on her and was prepared to do battle for Dad’s honor, but then I saw Dad and Sam talking one time, and I overheard Dad telling Sam to keep an eye on things while he was away.”

  “So, do you think that Sam actually worked for the same people Dad worked for?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe. I know Sam stopped coming around when I was around fifteen. I guess you would have been around seven or eight. To be honest, I never did ask what happened to him. Maybe he’s dead, and I’m way off base, but when Dad said to welcome Sam, I just had this flash of memory.”

  “So, do you think this Sam guy would move to White Eagle just to keep an eye on your mother?” Bree asked.

  Mike shrugged. “Maybe. If he isn’t married or otherwise committed. I know I was just a kid, but I really did think there was something between Mom and Sam. I think he genuinely cared for her. If he’s retired now and not committed to someone else and Dad asked him to come back and watch over Mom, my gut tells me he would.”

  “It’s been twenty-six years,” Bree pointed out.

  “That’s true,” Mike acknowledged. “Maybe Dad has another Sam in mind.”

  “You know,” I said. “I do remember Sam. He used to take you fishing, and I remember that when Dad was out of town, he came to my soccer games.”

  Mike smiled. “I remember looking forward to his visits. He was a big guy. Confident and muscular. He had this way about him that really communicated that he knew his place in the world and was comfortable. Don’t get me wrong, he could never replace Dad in my eyes, but he was a good guy, who I really enjoyed hanging out with. I don’t know if the Sam Dad is sending is Sam Parker, but I kind of hope he is.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “Me too. Since Dad is never going to be in Mom’s life again and Mom seems determined to find someone, it would be nice if she found someone we already knew.”

  “Where do you think this guy has been all these years?” Bree asked. “I mean, if he really was interested in your mother, don’t you think he would have come back around before now. Your dad has been gone a long time.”

  “Maybe he was still working with the black ops group and wasn’t free to enter into a relationship,” I said. “He might be retired now.”

  “Or he might have married after he left here and wasn’t free to enter into another relationship until now,” Mike added.

  “Or we’re both wrong, and Dad is talking about a different Sam altogether,” I reminded everyone.

  Mike and I continued to share stories about the Sam we remembered for a while, but Bree looked tired, so Tony and I decided to head home.

  “So, do you feel better?” Tony asked as we headed up the mountain. “Do you feel like you got the questions answered that you needed t
o have answered?”

  “Yes and no. I’m glad we had the chance to talk to Dad, but after we left, I thought of a bunch of things I wanted to ask but didn’t have the chance to. Still, I guess it’s good that we opened the lines of communication a bit. Today’s meeting might pave the way to additional meetings in the future.”

  “Perhaps.” Tony turned off the highway onto the drive leading up to our house. “Did we accidentally leave Titan out?”

  I frowned when I noticed him sitting on the porch. “I don’t think so. I didn’t notice he was out when we followed Mike back into town.”

  Tony parked, and we both got out. Titan came running over to greet us. I bent down to look at him to see if there was any evidence that he might have been injured, but he looked fine. Tony went to the house and opened the front door. Tilly and Kody came running up to greet us. I didn’t see the cats, but they most likely were sleeping upstairs. I headed toward the stairs to check on them when I realized the alarm hadn’t been on when we’d come in.

  “Someone’s been in the house,” I said to Tony. “Was the alarm set when we left?”

  “It was. I always set it when we leave.”

  “It’s been deactivated,” I pointed out.

  Tony was frowning as he went to the pad and entered the code. The alarm reset itself. “I’m going down to the basement to check on things,” he said before taking off in that direction.

  While Tony headed downstairs, I decided to look around the main floor and noticed a package sitting on the kitchen counter. I crossed the room and opened the lid to the box, only realizing after doing so that maybe opening the box without checking things out further was a bad idea. A stack of children’s books, tied up in a bow, was inside the box. There was a folded piece of paper on the top of the books. I slid it out from beneath the ribbon and opened it.

  Mike and Tess. I forgot to give these to you when we met earlier. I hope you enjoy reading them to your children as much as I enjoyed reading them to you. D.