He wasn’t quite what Rachel had expected. He was thin, almost wiry. Stress and worry lines were all over his face. And even though he was probably only in his mid-thirties, his auburn hair had streaks of gray.
Tanner immediately turned to leave. “I’ll leave the three of you alone.”
The moment Tanner closed the door, Jared walked behind the desk, bracketed his hands on each side of the chair and got right in the doctor’s face. “Let’s make this quick. Do you have any idea who we are?”
Sheridan nodded.
Rachel released the breath she didn’t even know she’d been holding. It wasn’t a tell-all confession, by any means, but at least he wasn’t going to try to stonewall them.
“And you know why we’re here, don’t you?” Jared again. But instead of a question, it sounded like a threat.
“I know what you want.” Dr. Sheridan turned his hazy blue eyes in Rachel’s direction. He crushed the cigarette in an ash tray and slowly blew out the leftover stream of smoke. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. They’ll kill me. You must realize that.”
“Do I?” she countered. She walked closer. “Or are you the one who put this plan together?”
“No. Never. It was Esterman.”
Jared pulled up a chair, parking it right in front of the doctor. “I need names and information. And I need it now. Where’s my son?”
“I don’t know,” Sheridan answered immediately. “I swear I don’t.”
“Then, you’d better start telling me what you do know, because Esterman isn’t the only one you should be afraid of. As far as I’m concerned, my child is in danger because of you, so that makes your life worth next to nothing.” Jared paused just long enough to move a fraction closer. “Convince me otherwise, and you might just get out of here alive.”
Normally, the threat of violence would have sent her heart pounding, but it was pounding for a different reason now. Jared was a good cop. She knew that for a fact. If anyone could get answers from Sheridan, it was Jared.
With his hand shaking so much that the coffee nearly sloshed out, Sheridan took a drink before he responded. “I’m sorry for what you’re going through. I’m even sorrier that I wasn’t able to stop this.”
“You can stop it now,” Jared pointed out.
“But Esterman—”
“You can go into protective custody. Hell, you should have done that already. Because if we can find you, then Esterman won’t bother to keep you around much longer. You’re a huge liability to him now, and you’re living in a dreamworld if you think otherwise.”
That must have sunk in, finally. The doctor glanced at both of them and took a deep breath. “You really believe you can arrange protective custody so I’ll be out of Esterman’s reach?”
Jared nodded. “Not me personally, but I’ll put you in touch with someone who can.”
If Sheridan believed that, it didn’t show on his face. He gave a heavy sigh as if surrendering to the inevitable. The inevitable in this case being not protective custody but something much worse.
“Esterman’s assistant came to me in prison a little over a year ago,” Sheridan began. He sat his coffee cup aside and rubbed his hand over his face. “He said he could get me out early if I’d do a surgical procedure. He didn’t explain beyond that. He just said that I’d have to keep it a secret, and that it might not be legal.”
No surprise there. Many things that Esterman did were illegal. “But you agreed, anyway?” Rachel asked.
“Yes.” Sheridan stared down at his hands and repeated it. “Because I would have died if I’d stayed in that prison. I swear, I would have died. I was being threatened by this...thug who had this intense hatred for anyone in the medical profession. He’d already gotten to me twice, and each time I ended up in the infirmary. I knew if I stayed there, he’d kill me.”
Even though there were tears in the doctor’s eyes, Rachel could feel no sympathy for him. He’d known that he was agreeing to do something illegal before he ever left prison, and in this case, the illegal activity had put others in danger.
“So Esterman got you out early,” Jared finished. “And you did the in vitro procedure on Sasha Young—”
“Were there others?” Rachel interrupted. It was something that had bothered her from the beginning. After all, several embryos were stolen from the clinic. “Or was Miss Young the only surrogate?”
Sheridan shook his head. “She was the only one as far as I know, and I think Esterman would have told me if there had been others. I did the surgery here in the office. Not ideal conditions, I can assure you. But it was successful.”
Yes. Very. And because of that success, she, Jared and their son were facing this horrible ordeal.
“That’s a great start, but keep talking,” Jared insisted when Sheridan paused.
“I did the prenatal checkups on Miss Young at her house. Nothing much more than cursory exams. Then, last week Esterman called me to do the C-section. It was a little sooner than I would have liked, but he insisted.”
Rachel latched onto that right away. God, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t asked about that earlier. “The baby was healthy when you delivered him?”
“He was fine. Good Apgar.” Sheridan glanced in her direction again. “That’s the test we give newborns to evaluate their heart rate, muscle tone and other physiological indicators.”
So her baby was alive and well.
At least, he had been about a week ago.
“Esterman had a backup plan,” Sheridan continued. “If for some reason the child didn’t survive, he wouldn’t have told you. He intended to use the infant’s DNA to prove the infant was yours, and he thought that would be enough to get you to cooperate.”
Rachel held onto the desk. That wasn’t an easy thing to hear. She’d hated her former boss before this, but after listening to Sheridan spell out Esterman’s intentions, her hatred reached a whole new level. If all Esterman had wanted from the child was a DNA sample, then maybe...
But Rachel couldn’t even finish the thought. She couldn’t let her mind go beyond the moment. She was thankful that Jared was able to continue the questioning.
“After you delivered the baby, did you murder Sasha Young?” he demanded.
“No!” Sheridan’s face bleached out to a sickly color. “It was that man, Gerald-something. The one who calls himself Esterman’s personal assistant, the one who visited me in prison to tell me about this arrangement. He’s really a hired killer, that’s what he is. He strangled Sasha before she even came out of anesthesia. You have to believe me, I had no idea that Esterman had planned something like that.”
“I’ll bet Sasha Young didn’t, either,” Jared tossed back at him.
“Yes. You’re right. She was the innocent one in all of this. She just wanted a way to make some money. She wanted a new life. And instead, she was killed.”
Yes, and they had to stop him before he killed again.
“Where’s the baby?” Rachel managed to ask.
Sheridan shook his head again. “I honestly don’t know. Gerald took him just minutes after the delivery, and I haven’t seen either of them since.”
“Then, give an educated guess as to where you think Gerald took him,” Jared ordered.
The man touched his fingers to his temple and mumbled something as if going through some old information. “I can’t say for sure, but once when I heard Gerald talking to Esterman on the phone, I heard him mention a woman’s name. Agnes, or maybe Alice. I think she could possibly be the one who’s taking care of the child.”
“Agnes,” Jared repeated. “You have a last name for her?”
“No. I only heard him mention her that one time.”
Rachel moved closer so she could whisper to Jared. “I know who she is. It’s Agnes McCullough. That’s one of the names on the list of parolees. She’s an RN, but there w
asn’t an address for her.”
Jared stood, reached into his wallet and extracted a business card. He tossed it on Sheridan’s desk amid all the paper clutter. “Call that number immediately after we leave and ask to speak to Captain Elizabeth Thornton.”
Sheridan didn’t take the card, but he stared at it. “Who is she?”
“My boss. Tell her that you have information about Esterman and that you need to be placed in protective custody. She’ll work out the arrangements.”
“I’m really sorry about all of this.” Sheridan sank his fingers into his hair and squeezed his eyes shut. “I had no idea anyone would get hurt.”
“Yeah, right” was Jared’s comeback. “You helped a monster put a sinister plan into action, and you figured no one would be hurt? At least with that kind of reasoning, you shouldn’t have any trouble rationalizing away the fact you put innocent people in danger—including a child. Guess that Hippocratic oath you took of ‘do no harm’ didn’t mean much when the bottom line was saving your own hide.”
While Jared continued to talk with Sheridan, Rachel opened the door to find Tanner waiting on the other side. “We need to find a woman named Agnes McCullough,” she relayed. “She’s the one who might have the baby.”
Tanner immediately took out his cell phone, punched in some numbers and repeated the woman’s name to whoever had answered. She hoped it was someone with better contacts than she had. She’d had no luck finding out anything on the computer.
“I did a pretty thorough database search back at the hotel,” she told Tanner when he finished the call. “But I wasn’t able to come up with an address.”
“Then, we’ll have to do some hands-on searching. My advice is for Jared and you to lay low until you hear from me. Once Esterman figures out that we’ve found the doctor, he’ll be gunning not just for Sheridan, but for Jared, as well.”
Tanner was right, of course. There was no reason for Esterman to want Jared alive. However, there were some serious reasons why Esterman would want him dead.
“Esterman might do anything to keep you alive, but that courtesy doesn’t apply to anyone else in the middle of this.” Tanner kept his voice low. Almost a whisper. “In his sick mind, Esterman probably figures if he takes Jared out, you’ll surrender. Remember that, when and if all of this comes to a showdown.”
Rachel tried to grasp the reality of that. It wasn’t easy. She’d known that Jared was in danger, but it sent her heart pounding to hear that threat spelled out.
“Did you hear what he said?” Jared asked, walking up behind her.
It took her a moment to realize that he was speaking to Tanner and not her. Rachel heard the two discuss their options for finding Agnes McCullough, but it was white noise. Background that she had to push aside so she could think.
Remember that, when and if all of this comes to a showdown.
Oh, she would remember, all right.
Rachel was sure of that.
Finding Agnes and the baby was critical. But so was keeping Jared safe. Staying alive so she could testify against Esterman would mean nothing if she lost Jared and the baby. Nothing.
Chapter 15
Jared stood just inside the back entrance to Sheridan’s office and watched Tanner drive away. With luck, Tanner’s P.I. staff would be able to find Agnes McCullough pronto. And with even more luck, maybe she’d have the baby with her.
“What now?” Rachel asked.
Well, it certainly wasn’t what Jared wanted to do. He wanted to get his hands on Agnes now. He wanted the baby now. But apparently, that wasn’t going to happen.
“I guess we go back to the hotel and wait.” He stepped out and checked the area to make sure it was safe. Only then did he motion for her to follow him to the car.
Even with everything else going on, he couldn’t help but notice that Rachel had been awfully quiet since their conversation with Sheridan. Too quiet. Maybe all of this was starting to get to her. But if so, Jared prayed she could hold it together a little longer. He didn’t want to tell her that the worst was probably yet to come.
They had barely made it halfway across the parking lot when he heard the sound. It registered immediately.
A shot.
Just one.
But it was more than enough to make Jared draw his own weapon, and to send them running for cover. It was too far to make it back to the office and too far to the car. So, he gripped Rachel’s arm and pulled her to the ground next to Sheridan’s vehicle.
She moved closer so she could whisper in his ear. “Was that what I think it was?”
“Afraid so.”
She groaned softly, and he pushed her behind him. They waited. In silence. Even though he could hear Rachel’s breathing coming out in short spurts.
“Do you see anyone?” she asked.
Jared shook his head. The sound had come from behind them. Not good. Because behind them was the office. Right where they’d just left Sheridan.
“It was a handgun,” Jared said, more to himself than to Rachel. “Or else a rifle chambered for a handgun.”
“That makes a difference?”
All the difference in the world, and that difference wasn’t good. “If it’s a rifle, it means someone probably shot into the building.”
“As opposed to someone who was already inside,” Rachel finished.
Yes. Either way, Jared damn sure didn’t want a rifle-toting assassin to fire shots at Rachel. Or Sheridan. It was possible the doctor could still help them find Agnes McCullough.
While keeping a vigilant watch around them, Jared pressed in Tanner’s number. It was a risk. A big one. If the gunman heard the phone ring, he might turn the gun on Tanner. Still, Jared had enough faith in his friend. Tanner had probably already taken cover and was waiting for Jared’s situation report.
“I heard the shot,” Tanner said the moment he answered. “Are you all right?”
“For now. Did you see anything?”
“No. I’m at the front of the office. Some cars have passed, but no one’s stopped.”
“Same here. I don’t have a visual on anyone. Could the gunman have gotten inside the place when Rachel and I were going out the back?”
“Negative. I had men posted at the front door and the side. They left less than a minute ago.”
Less than a minute ago was just about the time that he’d heard the shot. Jared checked the area again and was about to tell Rachel they’d have to make a dash for the car. But something stopped him. The dull heat in the back of his head. A tightness in his stomach.
Something beyond the obvious was wrong.
Levering himself up just slightly, Jared looked on the roofs of the surrounding two-story buildings. It was just a glimpse. A glint of reflected sunlight.
A rifle.
Hell.
Jared didn’t waste any time getting that information to Tanner. “The shooter’s on the roof of the brownstone. I need a distraction so I can get Rachel out of here.”
Tanner didn’t answer for several moments. “I see him.” He mumbled a curse. “He’s got a scope. If he’s after you, the second you try to drive out of here, he’ll have you in his range and pinned down. The windows on the car aren’t bullet resistant.”
That meant going back into the building. It wasn’t exactly Jared’s first choice of escape plan. He needed to get Rachel the hell away from there. If someone nearby had heard the shot, they might already have called the police. Not good. Still, he couldn’t risk some stray bullet going through the car window and hitting her.
“We can’t stay around here long. Think you can manage to have our shooter off that roof in under ten minutes?” Jared asked Tanner.
“I’ll try. Get Rachel in the office and stay down until I give you an all-clear.”
He handed Rachel the phone so he could keep his hands free. “Come on.
We have to go back in.” Jared positioned her between the gunman and him, hoping that was enough. “If something goes wrong, get inside. No matter what.”
“Excuse me?” She pulled him back when he started to move. “I should be the one protecting you. They don’t want me dead.”
No way would that happen. “We don’t know that for sure. They’re making up the rules as they go along. Just like we are.”
“Then, why do you have to be the one in the line of fire?” she asked.
“Because I’m bigger.” It was a weak answer, but he didn’t want to waste any more time arguing a point that wasn’t open for debate. “Let’s go.”
He didn’t give her a choice. Jared looped an arm around her waist and got her moving back toward the office. His heart pounded harder with each step. No more shooting. Thank God. He didn’t know if that was because Tanner had managed to distract the gunman or because the guy was just waiting until he had a better shot.
Jared opened the thick metal door and pulled Rachel inside with him. “I swear this will make a praying man out of me yet,” he mumbled.
Rachel started to back into the hallway that led to Sheridan’s office, but Jared caught her again and repositioned them so he was in front. If by some chance Tanner was wrong and a gunman had managed to get inside, he didn’t want Rachel coming face-to-face with him.
Jared kept his footsteps light so he could hear any movement in the other room. But it was silent.
“Dr. Sheridan?” he called out.
Nothing.
This wasn’t good. The man knew the sound of his voice and should have responded. If he was capable of responding, that is.
Jared had already anticipated what he might see long before he got to the doorway.
And he was right.
Dr. Randall Sheridan was slumped over his desk. Facedown. His lifeless eyes staring at the wall.
There was blood. Plenty of it. But that wasn’t what captured Jared’s attention. It was the gun still cradled in Sheridan’s limp right hand.
Sinister Intentions & Confiscated Conception Page 31