Operation Bassinet

by Joyce Sullivan

  “I only have your word on that,” Stef said stiffly.

  Color infused Juliana’s cheeks. “You’re in good hands with The Guardian and Mr. Halloran. I wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for The Guardian. He saved me from Ross and Lexi’s killer. I don’t know Mitch Halloran all that well, but if The Guardian hired him, you can be sure he’s the best there is.”

  Stef had no doubt that Mitch Halloran knew exactly what he was doing. He was ripping her life apart one foundation at a time. First, questioning her child’s identity. And now, casting doubt on her husband’s integrity.

  She eyed Juliana warily. “Does Riana have family who want her back?”

  Juliana nodded, tears glimmering bright in her eyes again. “Yes. Very much.”

  It was not the answer Stef was hoping for. “Who?” she demanded. “Mitch won’t tell me who they are.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t either for security reasons. The Guardian will introduce you to the family when he determines it’s safe to do so.”

  Despite her frustration with the answer, Stef felt herself thawing toward Juliana, viewing her as less of a threat. “Thank you for the honest answer. We’ll get along better if you call me Stef.”

  Juliana’s shoulders dropped their tautness. “Can I give you a hand helping you settle your daughter, Stef?”

  Your daughter. Stef felt a knot of gratitude tighten in her throat at Juliana’s sensitivity. “I don’t want to wake her up too much. But it would be a big help if you could get her pajamas from her bag.”

  “Consider it done.”

  Stef sat on the foot of the ladybug trundle bed and eased off Keely’s shoes and jacket. Her worry that Juliana’s presence might be obtrusive was unfounded. She handed her the pajamas, then turned down the sheets of Keely’s bed and dimmed the lights before she left the room.

  Keely whined and demanded to go home. Stef soothed her with soft words as she removed her sweat-pants and top and slipped on her pajamas. Then coaxed her under the covers.

  “Look at this special bed, Kee. It’s a beautiful mama ladybug. There’s even baby ladybugs on the sheets,” Stef whispered, tucking her daughter into bed. “I told you this trip would be special.”

  Keely gave her a groggy combative look, her tiny chin stubborn and determined. “Fly away home, Mommy.”

  “Fly away to sleep, Kee.” Stef kissed her daughter’s brow, breathing in the fruity scent of her hair and the milky sweetness of her skin. Keely rolled onto her side, clutching her snuggie to her body before Stef had even begun the first bars of their “I love you” song.

  Stef’s gaze lighted on the shimmering pastel colors of her daughter’s blanket. Sable Holden, the former owner of Office Outfitters, had personally sent the gift after Keely was born—a good six months after Brad had been laid off.

  In the shadowy stillness of the room, fear gripped Stef’s heart. She’d defended her husband against the blunt accusations in Mitch Halloran’s eyes. She’d insisted Brad would never be involved with something that could place his own child’s life at risk.

  But what if she was wrong?

  SMOOTH MITCH, real smooth.

  Way to earn her confidence by jumping all over her dead husband and getting her back up.

  Mitch felt like a jerk as Stef followed Juliana from the suite’s sitting room, her back as rigid as steel-reinforced concrete and her arms clutching Keely.

  Worry rocked through him. How much could Stef take? If her husband was involved in the kidnapping, she’d lose more than Keely. She’d feel humiliated and betrayed by the man she’d loved and lose her fundamental beliefs about her husband and her marriage. And she’d blame herself for not knowing, not realizing, what Brad had done.

  He swore silently, telling himself that thoughts like that were none of his concern. He couldn’t not investigate a viable lead because it would destroy Stef. Mitch’s job was to get to the truth.

  Mitch prowled the perimeter of the sitting room. The Guardian had given him copies of the files pertaining to the Collingwood murders, but he hadn’t finished reading them yet. “So, what’s the scoop on this Office Outfitters, G.D.? Just how hostile was the takeover?”

  “Let’s just say that Sable Holden didn’t concede defeat quietly or graciously. She’d revamped her grandfather’s office supply chain from the name to the way the product was sold to the customers. She was one of the first to capitalize on the concept of warehouse shopping. Several hundred employees were let go when the Collingwood Corporation took over and restructured— Brad Shelton, among them. Sable wrangled a seat on the Collingwood Corporation’s board of directors as a condition of the takeover. She is one smart lady.”

  “When did this takeover happen?”

  “Just before Ross and Lexi’s wedding. Sable was invited to the wedding as a matter of etiquette. Lexi was five months pregnant with Riana at the time, and Sable made a smart-aleck remark to her at the reception about the child’s paternity.”

  “Sounds like there was some bitterness between Sable and Ross Collingwood.”

  “Lexi’s sister, Annette, told me Sable had a love-hate relationship with Ross. She hated that he’d outwitted her, but she was hot for him. It didn’t matter that he was married.” G.D.’s mouth twisted wryly. “Of course, we can’t assume anything Annette York said is truthful. But Juliana witnessed a few public exchanges between Ross and Sable and she concurs with Annette.”

  Mitch shoved his fists into his pockets. “Think there was any hanky-panky going on?”

  “No.” The Guardian’s response was unequivocal.

  Mitch shot him a questioning glance. “Why so sure?”

  “Because Ross was deeply in love with his wife.”

  “You really believe that—that couples are still faithful to each other in this day and age? The statistics suggest otherwise, my friend. Ross had power, money and a good-looking head shot. You just said Sable was hot for him. He must have been some chick magnet.”

  G.D. raised a skeptical brow. “You’ve never been in love, have you?”

  Surprised at the question, Mitch shrugged. No, he’d never been in love. Outside of the department he didn’t have much of a life. No steady girlfriend. He’d done his fair share of lusting, but it had always worn off. The women he’d dated always thought it would be great to hook up with a cop until he disappeared for days on end on an investigation or said he didn’t want to talk about what it felt like to see the empty display cabinets of a jewelry store splattered with the store owner’s brains.

  Frankly, that suited him just fine. He was only interested in catching the bad guys.

  He’d seen a few good marriages among the officers he’d worked with over the years. Mostly he saw a lot of guys who stopped telling their wives what the job was really like because they didn’t want their families to worry about them.

  But The Guardian seemed dead certain that Ross Collingwood hadn’t cheated on his wife. Mitch circled the room, wondering if G.D. had ever been in love. His boss wasn’t sporting a wedding band.

  “As I see it, we got two possibilities, G.D. Brad Shelton staged the kidnapping on his own or Sable Holden recruited him to do the dirty work. Shelton had means and opportunity. We know he had some climbing experience and Stef—I mean, Mrs. Shelton, told me her husband was home alone the night Riana was kidnapped.” He paused significantly. “She also remembers someone entering her hospital room around 3:00 a.m. She thought it might have been a nurse or her husband, but she isn’t sure. She called out but nobody answered.”

  G.D. leaned forward, his fingers tapping pensively on the arm of the sofa. “It could have been her husband switching the babies. We can show Shelton’s picture to the nurse who was assaulted during Riana’s kidnapping. She might recognize him even though it’s been over two years. But we can’t discount Sable Holden’s possible involvement. After the Collingwoods’ funeral service, Juliana caught Sable wandering around alone upstairs in the Collingwoods’ home—even though the area was clearly cordoned
off. Sable claimed she was looking for a powder room. She was questioned and searched to see if she’d tucked any souvenirs in her purse, but the police didn’t find anything.”

  Mitch halted cold in his tracks. “Maybe they were looking for the wrong thing. What if Sable was after samples of Ross’s and Lexi’s DNA? She could have swiped used tissues from a coat pocket or hairs from a brush.”

  G.D. didn’t look convinced. “If she’d been successful, she’d know the child she has isn’t Riana,” he pointed out.

  Damn, G.D. was right. “But what if Juliana intercepted her before she could find what she was after? Sable would have had no choice but to assume she had the right child.”

  G.D. nodded, his ice-blue eyes sharp as lasers. “I’ll buy that.”

  Mitch snapped his fingers. “And wasn’t there something in the files you gave me about Sable trying to hire the Collingwoods’ chef to cater a private function? If memory serves, you thought she was trying to establish an in with someone in the Collingwood household staff.”

  G.D.’s mouth curled up slightly at the corners. “Your memory serves you well, Mitch.”

  Mitch shrugged. “It’s hard to forget a loony chef who turns down a client because she doesn’t like her aura. But let’s backtrack a sec. What if your initial instincts were right and Sable was trying to get an in with the household? You really think she was planning to return the child?”

  “Hard to say. Her goal may simply have been to make Ross suffer the same losses she suffered when the Collingwood Corporation took over her company. But then again, she may have been waiting until the timing was right to wrest back control of her company. The ransom amount jumped from two million in the first demand to five million in this demand. Maybe she’s planning to use the five million dollars to help her achieve that.”

  Mitch’s interest was whetted. This was a lead worth pursuing. “I need to meet this woman.”

  The Guardian steepled his index fingers and smiled indulgently. “You will. Tomorrow. Mrs. Shelton needs to drop by Sable’s office unexpectedly. You’ll be a friend of the family accompanying her. After your visit, you’ll convince Mrs. Shelton to let you search her home for any evidence that would link Brad with the kidnapping. And while you’re at it, dig up a picture of him. I’ll assign some men to investigate the cause of Brad’s death. It may not have been an accident.”

  Mitch’s lips pressed into a taut line. Convincing Stef Shelton to cooperate at all was going to be a tall order. “Can we get a list of the staff working in both hospital nurseries the night the babies were switched? I don’t want to overlook the possibility that someone on either hospital staff may have been involved.”

  “Good point. I’ll get you the list.”

  “I still think you should notify the FBI agent assigned to Riana’s case of this latest ransom demand. The FBI has considerable resources.”

  The Guardian’s tone was unyielding. “I’m following the kidnapper’s demands to the letter this time. That’s why you’re here. You have the police experience without currently being a police officer.”

  Mitch let his posture silently inform G.D. that he was making a bad decision. “Anything else, boss?”

  G.D. drilled him with his trademark dry-ice stare, but Mitch refused to be intimidated. “Keely will not be leaving the hotel. She’ll stay with Juliana where she can be kept secure under the constant surveillance of a security team.”

  Mitch swore under his breath and resumed his pacing, picturing how Stef would react to that dictate. “I’m sure that will go over big with Mrs. Shelton.”

  “She doesn’t have to like it. She just has to live with it. And, Mitch, I would never presume to tell a seasoned investigator how to do his job. But you might charm more information out of Mrs. Shelton if you were slightly less aggressive. You’re not in L.A. anymore.”

  Mitch managed to keep his jaw from sagging like a door kicked off its hinges. “What, I’m not charming?”

  G.D. laughed. “You call me G.D. and given your colorful vocabulary, I suspect it’s not an abbreviation for The Guardian.”

  WHILE STEF WAS LOATH to leave Keely sleeping in the ladybug bed, she did. Questions were beginning to form in her heart as well as a need to prove her husband’s innocence. She returned to the suite’s luxurious sitting room as a butler pushed in a serving cart laden with sandwiches, fruit and soft drinks.

  The sight of the butler gave Stef another case of the willies. Keely didn’t need a butler or an army of servants looking after her, she needed her mommy.

  The Guardian sat on one end of the plush sofa, his air of unquestionable authority both calming and intimidating. Juliana occupied the opposite corner of the sofa, her hands folded in her lap and her polished brown eyes darting anxiously between The Guardian and Mitch Halloran.

  Mitch Halloran, on the other hand, prowled the room, munching on a sandwich he’d plucked from the cart. He reminded Stef of the TV detectives who ate donuts and drank coffee while attending a murder scene. But then she remembered what Mitch had told her about remaining detached from his work to prevent himself from drowning in alcohol or puking his guts out and she decided that it was okay that he was so overwhelmingly intense. So forceful.

  He was wrong about Brad. But she wanted her baby back.

  Mitch checked his stride as her gaze collided with his cobalt eyes, his expression forcibly softening around the edges like an ice sculpture melting in the glare of the sun. Stef was instantly on the defensive.

  “How’s Keely doing?” he asked.

  Stef bit back the urge to say that her little girl wanted to go home, knowing that appeal would fall on deaf ears in this audience. “She’s sleeping,” she said tightly.

  He tugged at his tie as if it were strangling his thick tanned throat. “Good. Sometimes it’s hard for kids to settle down in strange places. I had trouble with that when I was a kid.”

  She shot him an abrasive glance that seemed to roll off his sleek perfection like a bead of oil on water. Mitch possessed more brash self-confidence than she’d ever encountered in a real-life man. And while his confidence was as irritating as his unabashed handsomeness, she realized to her dismay that she was listening to him, depending on him to deliver on the promises he’d uttered, even when a part of her was desperately afraid he’d fail her just as Brad had failed her so many times before.

  He jerked a thumb at the serving cart. “Are you hungry? Would you like something to eat before we get started? A cup of coffee? The sandwiches are pretty good.”

  She twisted her fingers together, trying to read the thoughts behind the earnest appeal of his expression.

  “Is this your ‘good cop’ routine? Offer me food and coffee so I’ll confess that my husband was involved in a kidnapping scheme? I don’t think so.”

  She experienced a bittersweet feeling of satisfaction as Mitch’s jaw clenched and he transmitted a barely constrained message of pure frustration to The Guardian.

  Juliana cleared her throat as if to intervene, but The Guardian silenced her with a lift of his hand.

  Mitch sighed. “F.Y.I., I am a good cop. Or I was a good cop. Now I’m a damned good investigator who recognizes that people who are tired and hungry don’t make good interview subjects because they aren’t thinking clearly. You’ve had a shock today. You need to eat to keep up your strength.”

  Stef didn’t know whether to burst into tears or to scream in frustration. She marched to the cart and helped herself to two tuna sandwiches and a can of diet soda. Then she plopped down in an armchair across from the sofa, her green-gold eyes glittering and vulnerable. “Satisfied?”

  Mitch felt the place in his chest where his heart should be crumble. He smiled at her in an effort to be charming, but he felt like gnashing his teeth in despair. He had a nasty intuitive feeling that he would never be satisfied when it came to this case. He might find Stef’s real daughter, but her life would still be in emotional turmoil over Keely. There was no happy solution.

  He d
ug into his questions. Charming might work for The Guardian, but it wasn’t working for him. “How long did your husband work for Office Outfitters?”

  “About seven years. It was his second job out of college. He was an assistant manager at one of the stores and worked his way up. He liked the team atmosphere—each store was a team and his job as regional manager was to keep the teams in his region happy and working well together.”

  “So he was loyal to the company?”

  Stef lifted her chin and Mitch could feel her cold anger pulsating toward him in a wave. “Yes. Very. I don’t think that’s a crime.”

  Mitch ignored the gibe. “How well did he know his boss, Sable Holden?”

  “They were on good terms. Brad respected her for turning the company around and he worked hard to live up to her expectations. She was a tough boss, but in a big sister kind of way. She wanted everyone to feel like the company was their extended family and that she cared about each and every one of them. She even called Brad from time to time after he was laid off to see if he’d had any luck finding a job.” She paused and nibbled a corner of one of her sandwiches. Mitch sensed a but lurking in her.

  “Say what you’re thinking,” he ordered.

  Stef set the sandwich on the plate and stared at it, a frown creasing her brow. “I thought it was nice of her to call Brad. She was obviously shaken about the takeover and felt guilty that so many of her employees were fired. But knowing what I know now, is it possible that she had an ulterior motive for staying in touch with Brad? She knew when Keely was due—Brad was a typical new dad, bragging to anyone who’d listen that he was going to be a father and that we were going to have a girl. Sable sent us a baby gift a few days after we came home from the hospital, so Brad must have called her when Keely was born.”