Harper

by Kathi Daley

  Michael got up and tossed his fast-food wrapper in the trash. “Which brings us to the reason someone is after the baby.” He picked up his laptop and set it on the dining table. “If you have that thumb drive, we can take a look.”

  She pulled the drive out of her pocket and handed it to Michael. He inserted it into his computer and waited for it to open.

  “It’s password protected.”

  “Can you get in?”

  Michael nodded. “It might take some time, but I’ll get in.”

  She stood up and tossed her trash as well. “I’m going to jump in the shower. The baby has been fed and is sleeping. I don’t think she will wake up, but if she does, there are diapers in the diaper bag. Do you know how to change a diaper?”

  Michael chuckled. “I’m not sure I’ve actually ever changed one, but I think I can manage.”

  “Okay, great. I’ll hurry.” After heating up the bathroom, she stepped under the spray of hot water. She simply stood under the powerful showerhead as she willed the tension in her back and shoulders to dissipate. Had it really been only twenty-four hours since she’d left San Francisco? It seemed as if it was days ago. She supposed at some point she was going to have to call her mother. She’d be expecting her. Although her mother knew that she planned to drive from San Diego to Moosehead, and they’d talked about her interest in taking the scenic route rather than hopping on the interstate, so she most likely wouldn’t begin to worry if she hadn’t heard from her for several days at least.

  Michael had purchased both shampoo and conditioner appropriate for her hair type. After she washed and rinsed her hair twice, she soaped up her body, then did a final rinse before turning off the water and grabbing one of the thick, fluffy towels the hotel provided.

  Michael looked up when she returned to the sitting area wearing her new sweats. “It looks like they fit.”

  She nodded. “The sweats are very comfortable. Did you get into the thumb drive?”

  “Not yet, but I will. I did check in with Ben. He wants you to call him.” Michael handed her a burner phone. “Use this. Ben said to call this number.” Michael handed her a phone number that he’d written down on a napkin. “Ben is going to use a burner as well. He said not to call the office or his cell from this point. I think the fact that the California Highway Patrol seems to be involved in whatever is going on has him worried.”

  “Yeah,” she said, sitting down on the sofa. “It has me worried too.” She glanced at the computer. “I just hope there is something on that drive that can help us make sense of all this.” She used the burner to dial the number he’d given her.

  Ben picked up after the first ring. “I’m glad to see that you made it out of California all right.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed. “Me too. Things were pretty dicey there for a while, but Michael seems to have things under control. He’s checked us into a hotel using his name only, so no one even knows I’m with him. Well, no one should know I am. Do you have any idea what is going on?”

  “No,” Ben admitted. “I did track down your shooter. Or at least I think I did. His name is Curt Loughlin. He has been with the CHP for twelve years and, as far as I can tell, has never been the subject of disciplinary action. I can’t explain why he shot the man and the woman in the car in cold blood, but given your description and his photo, I assume we are discussing the same man.”

  “Can you email a photo to Michael?”

  “Yeah. Hang on.”

  She waited for Ben to come back on the line. The scenario was completely bizarre.

  “Okay,” Ben said. “Have Michael check his email.”

  He did and she nodded. “Yep, that’s him,” she confirmed. “The fact that this guy is involved has me worried. Do you think he acted alone, or could there be other members of the CHP involved?”

  “I don’t know. I want you to walk me through everything that happened.”

  She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “All right. I was heading north up the coast and had just passed the point where the coastal view gives way to the redwoods when a dog ran in front of my car. I slammed on the brakes and swerved to avoid him. I managed to bring the car to a stop and avoid hitting the animal, but the car was in bad shape because I drove into a drainage ditch. I got out and went to look for the dog, who is really no more than a puppy. I hadn’t thought I’d hit him, but I wanted to be sure. It was the dog that led me to a blue sedan that looked as if it had been run off the road. The male passenger was unconscious when I first arrived, but when I checked his pulse, he came to. He told me to hide the baby, who was strapped into a car seat in the back seat of the vehicle. There was also a female passenger, but the driver told me she was dead. I grabbed the baby and the diaper bag and was trying to figure out what to do next when I heard another vehicle on the highway. I guess it was instinct that made me hide rather than greet the patrolman who climbed down from the road to the car. I thought he might help the driver, but instead he pulled out a gun and shot him. He also shot the passenger, who I assume was the baby’s mother, but like I said, it seemed she was already dead. It looked as if she had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest before the accident.”

  “And after he shot the occupants of the vehicle?”

  “He pulled out a phone and called someone. He said that Agent Beaverton was dead and so was the witness. He also informed the person on the other end of the line that the baby was gone, and he suspected that whoever had been in the car in the ditch, which was mine, had probably taken it. Then he climbed back up to the road and took my purse, phone, and vehicle registration from my car.”

  “Anything else?” Ben asked.

  “He assured the person on the phone that he’d find them one way or another. I assumed he meant the baby and the driver of the abandoned vehicle.” Harper frowned. “Wait, there was something else. He made a comment about ‘the ledger’ being missing.”

  “Did you find a ledger?”

  “No. All I took from the vehicle was the baby and the diaper bag.”

  “You said you found a thumb drive in the diaper bag. Are you sure there wasn’t a ledger in there too?”

  “I emptied out the bag when I was looking for diapers and formula. If there had been anything as large as a ledger, I would have seen it immediately. Maybe Agent Beaverton hid it before he set out with the woman and the baby. Or maybe the ledger is on the thumb drive. Michael is working on getting into it right now.”

  “After the man in the uniform left, what did you do?”

  “I walked down the road with the dog and the baby until I came to a little tourist stop. It was closed for the season, but I picked the lock on one of the motel rooms and then called you. After I fed and changed the baby and got the puppy settled I called you and then waited for Michael to come and rescue us. I wonder who Agent Beaverton was.”

  “I don’t know, but I’ll find out. I know I’ve said this before, but I’m going to say it again: I’m really not liking this one bit.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “Is the baby still doing well?”

  “She seems to be doing fine. She is eating, her color is good, and she seems healthy.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. We are going to stay in constant contact until we get this resolved using the burner phones only. Don’t call anyone but me using the phone Michael gave you. We will change out the phones we use every couple of calls to avoid detection. I want you to lay low. If Michael can access the thumb drive, we might be able to figure out who is behind everything that has happened, and if you find a ledger of some sort, I suspect we’ll know a lot more. In the meantime, get some rest. There is a good chance you’ll need to move again sooner rather than later.”

  She glanced out the window at the beautiful view. It looked like any normal day. It really was too bad that it wasn’t. “Okay. And if you find out anything, let us know.”

  “I will. Have you told anyone other than Michael and me what’s happened to you? Your family?”
>
  “No. Just you. I don’t want to drag them into this.”

  “That’s good. I’m going to do some digging. I’ll check back in with you both in a couple of hours.”

  She hung up and looked at Michael, who was still hard at work. It had been several hours since the baby had eaten and the puppy had been out. She decided to check on the baby, and if she was still asleep, she’d take the puppy for a bathroom break. Despite the fact that she was in a beautiful hotel with a handsome man, she couldn’t wait for this whole thing to be over so she could go home.

  “I’ll take the puppy out for a quick run on the beach,” she said to Michael once she’d seen the baby, who was still asleep.

  “I’ll take him. You should stay out of sight until we know whether anyone is following us.”

  “Do you think someone is?” she asked. “I hoped that once we crossed the state line we’d be out of danger.”

  “Given the circumstances that brought us here, I don’t think that the state line is going to offer us any protection. The man who shot the occupants of the car took your wallet, which I assume held your ID. They know who you are and what you look like.”

  Michael had a point. Loughlin did have her photo ID. She supposed she should stay in the room despite how lovely a day it appeared to be. “Okay, I guess you are right. I’ll stay here with the baby while you take the puppy out.”

  Michael clipped on the leash. “Do you think we should name him? The pup? It looks like he is going to be traveling with us.”

  “I guess. I’m also getting tired of calling the baby, the baby. I thought that maybe her name would be mentioned on the thumb drive, so I have avoided coming up with my own name for her.”

  “What about a nickname?”

  “That would work. How about Princess? My dad called me Princess Rose when I was little because my middle name is Rose. In fact, he had nicknames for all five of us. My older sister Hayden was Kiwi, and Haley was Jellybean.”

  “I think Princess is a great nickname for the baby until we can figure out what her actual name is. And the puppy?”

  “How about Bosley? I had a lab named Bosley when I was a kid. Best dog ever.”

  “Bosley it is.” Michael opened the door. “I’ll just be a few minutes, but latch the privacy lock just in case.”

  Chapter 5

  Michael let the puppy off the leash as soon as they’d made it through the parking lot to the deserted beach. The last time he’d been here had been Christmas two years ago. He’d been avoiding his family, so he’d purposely taken a job in Portland that he’d sworn to his mother would keep him occupied from the twentieth of December until after the New Year. Of course, the job hadn’t even started until after January 1, so he’d checked into his hotel in Portland and then driven down the coast in search of a peaceful location to lick his wounds. At the time, he’d been so miserable that he hadn’t enjoyed the scenery, but with time had come a healing of his damaged heart, and he’d found that he enjoyed the steady rhythm of the waves rolling onto the sand.

  He picked up a stick and tossed it for the dog, thinking about the woman waiting back at the hotel. Julia’s betrayal had deadened his heart so completely that it had been years since he’d felt the slightest attraction for anyone, beyond the random physical pull he couldn’t help but experience when encountering a beautiful woman. He had to admit that in the few hours he’d known her, Harper’s bravery and willingness to do whatever was necessary to protect the dog, and then the baby had penetrated his stone-cold heart in a way he wasn’t quite sure he was ready to deal with. She had, he reminded himself, recently lost her fiancé. He doubted she would be ready to enter into another romantic relationship for a good long time. It was important to his own well-being that he remember that. Keeping her at arm’s length really did seem to be the best plan because he was sure his heart couldn’t take another hit so soon.

  Thinking of Julia made him sad. God, he had loved the woman who had professed to love him back. He’d never been the sort to settle down until he met the blond vixen with huge green eyes, pouty lips, and a giving energy that had grabbed hold of his heart from the first day he’d met her. He’d worked hard after Ben had arrested him, and after years of sacrifice, he’d finally felt he had something to offer a woman. He’d owned a beautiful apartment in the city and owned and operated his own business. He’d fallen deeply in love with Julia within hours of meeting her and had been so sure that she was the one he was destined to spend his life with. And he would have. He was certain of that. He would have forged ahead and never looked back if Matthew hadn’t come home from an overseas teaching assignment just weeks before they were to be married. It had taken a single look from the man who looked exactly like him but was very much different in terms of personality, to sweep the love of his life off her feet, destroying his life in the process.

  Bosley dropped the stick at his feet, dancing around for him to toss it again. He picked it up and threw it as hard as he could. The puppy sure was a cute little thing. He couldn’t help but wonder whether he’d been with Agent Beaverton, the dead woman, and the baby. Michael frowned. It bothered him more than he wanted to admit that someone might be after the infant, wishing to do her harm. What sort of monster would want to hurt a baby? He and Harper didn’t have much to go on yet, but one way or another, he knew he would do whatever it took to keep the baby and the woman who had rescued her safe. His best hope right now to do that was to figure out how to unlock the thumb drive; hopefully, that would lead to the answers they needed to navigate the murky waters into which Harper had been thrust. Calling the puppy to his side, he turned and headed back toward the hotel.

  Chapter 6

  Harper went into the bathroom to dry her hair after Michael left with Bosley. By the time she had managed to tame her thick brown hair, Princess was awake and had begun to fuss. She headed into the bedroom to change her diaper and grab another bottle. Her sister Harlow loved children and would most likely be in seventh heaven if she were to bring the baby home. Of course, she hadn’t spent time with Harlow for a very long time. Perhaps the teenager who loved to babysit even more than she liked to hang out with her friends had grown into a woman too busy for either children or friends. She owned her own bookstore now, which she was certain demanded quite a bit of her time and attention.

  The more she thought about it, the more bothered Harper became that she barely knew her sisters anymore. She had missed so much during the fourteen years she’d been away. She’d been overseas doing her second tour of duty when her youngest sister, Haven, graduated high school, and she’d just left US soil for a trip to Australia, where she and Eric had signed on to a salvage operation when her middle sister, Haley, the sister she was probably the closest to, had dropped out of college and moved back to Moosehead after a nasty breakup with the guy she’d dated since middle school. Haley owned her own construction company now and seemed to be doing well, but Harper hadn’t been there for her when she needed her most.

  Even though her visits with her sisters had been limited to the times they’d come to see her, Harper had tried to stay on top of the important events in their lives. Hayden was a popular on-air reporter for a local television station operating out of the Twin Cities, with dreams of making it big once she landed her dream job at a network, and Haven was a budding artist and musician who worked with their mother at the veterinary practice she had owned since Harper was a baby.

  After heating the formula, she snuggled onto the sofa with the baby. Princess stared at her with huge brown eyes, seemingly fixated on her face as she drank. Her heart melted just a bit when Princess looked at her with such serious concentration. To be honest, Harper had never wanted children of her own. She was thirty-two years old now and should be considering that sort of thing, but settling down as the mother of a couple of kids had never been part of either her short- or her long-term plans. If Eric hadn’t died and she hadn’t lost her will to go on with the life that had suited her when they were a couple, t
hey might very well have continued continent-hopping until they were ready to retire to the old folks’ home.

  When Michael got back with Bosley, the puppy settled down on the bed he’d bought him with the chew toy he’d also purchased.

  “I’m going to pay you back for all the stuff you bought as soon as I can access my bank account,” she informed him.

  Michael shrugged. “Don’t even think about it now. I was happy to help out.” He frowned. “I think I am close to being able to get into the thumb drive. I’ve had a program working in the background that should be just about done.”

  “I hope there is something useful on the drive because not a single thing that has happened since Bosley ran out into the road in front of my car has made a bit of sense.”

  It took Michael a bit longer than he expected, but before too long he announced that he was in. Princess had finished her bottle, so Harper set the infant carrier on the table and tucked her in. She seemed content as she looked at the cute bunny mobile Michael had bought. Harper sat down next to him and said, “So, what do we have?”

  “There are several files,” he answered. “Five in all.” He opened the first, which was labeled agreement.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “A contract of some sort. It looks as if someone named Isabella Fernandez has agreed to provide important information to the Drug Enforcement Agency about a man named Salvador Garcia in exchange for US citizenship for her baby, asylum for herself, and a new identity.”

  “The woman in the car must have been Isabella. Do you have any idea who Salvador Garcia is?”

  Michael continued to read. “A powerful drug lord operating out of South America who is currently in the United States. It looks as if the DEA has been after him for a long time, but he’s been too smart and too well protected to allow himself to be found and captured.” Michael frowned.