“I have a business meeting at eight-thirty.” Like a warrior preparing for battle, he’d put on his armor for the occasion.
“Mac told me about Brock hiding in the cottage attic. What a coincidence that Kit came back yesterday in time to hear him moving around!”
“It was providential. Otherwise Ben and Julie could have spent untold days in agony wondering where he was.”
Gwen frowned with concern. “What’s wrong, Cord?”
His emotions were too close to the surface to pretend all was well. “My life’s been thrown into chaos, and so help me, I don’t see it ever changing.”
“It’s Kit, isn’t it.”
He nodded, unable to talk about her yet. He wouldn’t know where to start.
“Speaking as a psychologist as well as your friend, you need to get away. In all the time I’ve worked here, you’ve never taken a vacation. I’m not saying it will solve your problem, but a change in location and routine forces you to look at a situation from a different perspective.”
“I appreciate the advice, Gwen.” I might even take it. “Since I canceled a handball game with Brent, I’ve a feeling he’ll be phoning to set up a new time to play at the club. Tell him I’ll have to get back to him later.”
“Anything else?”
“If an emergency crops up, call me on my cell phone. I’ll be in conference at Maggie’s office until further notice.”
WHEN KIT ENTERED the law firm, she discovered Maggie waiting for her. They gave each other a hug before walking into the conference room. Pat was already seated at the oval table, looking through some papers.
Cord hadn’t come in yet. Kit had been bracing herself for the moment she saw him. Thankful to have arrived ahead of him, she took a chair on Pat’s left.
There’d been no sleep for her last night. Toward morning, when the pain had become too excruciating, she’d phoned Janene. Her friend handled the breaking news with her usual calmness and practicality. Like Cord, she cautioned Kit not to jump to any conclusions. But she agreed it was a good idea to be around him only when someone else was present.
What other choice did Kit have? Run away from the whole situation and never look back?
That wouldn’t be fair to the McFarland family, not if Kit turned out to be their stolen baby girl.
And if Cord’s your brother?
Kit couldn’t fathom it. Until she had absolute proof, she had no idea how she would handle the news. Right now she needed to put away her dreams, and focus on the reason she’d come to Salt Lake in the first place.
During the dark, heavy hours of the night, she’d finally started to think about the McFarlands. What would it be like to claim them for her very own? A mother and a father. She’d imagined them being her parents—hugging and kissing them, going to them for advice, talking things over. Laughing, crying with them. Living, loving. Going on vacations together. Knowing safety and security with them. Knowing she’d been conceived in love.
She would have roots. Siblings. Her life had been lonely without a brother or sister to confide in. She already loved Maggie and Brock. Ben seemed like a wonderful man. Cord…
As long as he kept his distance, she had to believe it was possible for them to work side by side while they helped the FBI.
“Here’s coffee and Danish pastries for us.”
Maggie set the tray on the table. Kit eyed her, loving the idea that they could be sisters. But that meant Cord was her brother. This was torture.
“Thank you for being so thoughtful.”
“I did this for me, too,” Maggie explained.
Kit hadn’t thought she could stomach anything, but the wonderful aromas reminded her she’d eaten nothing since those bagels yesterday. Deciding she needed fortification to get through this session, she reached for a pastry and poured herself a cup of coffee.
Halfway through her breakfast, Cord entered the conference room. She’d never seen him dressed in a suit and tie before. Though lines of tension darkened his face, her heart skipped a beat at the sight of his handsome, virile looks. In an effort to squelch her desire for him, she averted her eyes, but it was too late.
Who was she kidding?
There would never be a time, not if they lived to be a hundred, that she wouldn’t be affected by his presence. She could will her mind to be disciplined, but her body came alive the moment he drew near.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Maggie urge him to sit next to her. He hesitated for a moment, then did her bidding. Every action was unnatural. Only Pat Simpson seemed unaffected by the silent tableau.
“Good. I’m glad everyone’s here. After the many questions you’ve all had over the years, I knew this meeting couldn’t come soon enough for you.”
“What makes you think you’ve found Kit’s father?” Cord asked without preamble. His voice sounded deeper than usual. Like Kit, he probably hadn’t been able to sleep. She bowed her head.
“Let’s put it this way,” the agent began. “As Kit herself said, she doesn’t know if he’s her father, but we do know we have the right man.”
Kit shuddered, as if this was the first time she’d heard the news. “You’re absolutely sure?”
“Yes.”
“How could you have tracked him down so fast?”
Cord’s question caused Maggie to put a hand on her brother’s arm. “I asked the same thing. Just listen to what Pat has to say.”
The agent finished the last of her coffee and put the cup back on the tray. “To you this may sound too quick and miraculous to be true, but I approached this case the way I always do. First, I start by finding out if a suspect has been operating on the wrong side of the law, then go from there.
“After I left here the day before yesterday, I went straight to headquarters and ran the names of Kit’s parents through the FBI’s computer database. Nothing came up on a Rena or a Reba Harris. It doesn’t mean the woman who raised you is clear of any wrongdoing. All I can gather from this report is that she was never arrested.”
“So kidnapping me might have been her one and only offense? Is that what you’re saying?”
“There are several possibilities to consider, Kit. The fact that your mother kept a photo of her and Frankie Burke all these years tells me there was a relationship, whatever it was.”
Pat leveled a compassionate gaze on her. “She could have been the perpetrator of the crime, or a co-conspirator. But Agent Kelly was able to find a woman who lived in the same boardinghouse in California as your mother.
“When he showed her the picture, she recollected seeing that same man holding a baby, talking to your mom outside the house. She only saw them together once before your mother moved out.”
“I assume he talked her into living with him, wherever that was,” Kit murmured.
“In any case we could hope that your mother might have been the hapless, innocent wife or girlfriend. It’s conceivable she either was forced or was willing to look after you, not realizing who you were.”
“But she did know, Pat. She confessed.”
“Perhaps she only learned about it later in life.”
“I don’t believe that.” Kit didn’t want any of this to be true, but she had to get past her denial. She wanted answers and couldn’t back away from them now. “I’m assuming you found Frankie Burke in the database.”
“Yes. That little arcade picture you gave me was the identical match of a mug shot of him down to the mustache, taken twenty-seven years ago when he was arrested in Venice Beach for auto theft. It wasn’t the first time the twenty-two-year-old had been arrested under the name Burk Frank.”
She blinked. “Burk Frank?”
“That’s right. By age fifteen, he was leading a life of crime in New York City. Over the years he moved around the country using half a dozen fraudulent social security numbers and aliases. They include Frankie Burke, Frank Burk without the e on the end, Burke Frank with an e, Burt Frank with a t, Frank Burt and Frankie Burt.”
Kit shook
her head in bewilderment. “That many?”
“I’m afraid so. According to a New York gang member who did some talking after their first arrest, his real name is Franz Buric. The information on his record indicates he was fifteen at the time he was living with his Czech grandmother in the Bronx. He’s forty-eight years old now, and has to serve eight more years of a twenty-year prison sentence for armed robbery at Lompoc Penitentiary in central California.”
Kit clutched the armrests of the chair in reaction.
“I ordered a DNA test done on him immediately,” Pat informed her. “A rush job at the paternity crime lab takes seventy hours. They’ll match his results with yours. We should have the information we’re looking for by noon tomorrow.”
“A man like that would kidnap a baby without even thinking about it,” Kit said, more to herself than the others. Unable to control her emotions, she found herself glancing at Cord. His features took on a hardness that made him look forbidding.
Once upon a time the thought of being the daughter of a criminal would have horrified Kit. But she would claim him this instant if it meant she and Cord weren’t related.
“Jack Kelly, the FBI agent in California, told Frankie he might be able to get his prison sentence reduced if he’d tell what he knew about the abduction. Naturally, he didn’t let Frankie know your mother confessed.”
“Did he say he would?” Cord fired the question before Kit could.
“No. He said he’d think about it.”
“Think about it?” Kit whispered. “Then it means I probably am Kathryn.” Perspiration beaded her brows.
Cord shot out of the chair. “He could be playing mind games for the sheer hell of it!”
Pat nodded. “Inmates usually do, because they figure they don’t have anything to lose. If he chooses not to cooperate, at least his DNA results will tell Kit if she’s his biological child.”
A deep-seated rage Kit had been fighting all these years boiled to the surface. “Whether I’m his daughter or not, I have questions to ask him face-to-face about my mother. Now I have that chance! Would you arrange it for me, Pat?”
“While we’re waiting for the results to come back on his DNA, I could get you into the prison. Normally we don’t allow it, but this is a very unique case. We don’t know his relationship to you yet, but he does. Meeting you might be what he needs to start talking. I think I could set this up for later today.
“If it turns out he’s your father, he might be willing to tell you who your biological mother is. In case he’s not your father, it’s still possible he might let something slip during the conversation that could be vital to the kidnapping case.”
“Even if he does say something, it could all be lies.” Cord said the words that were on everyone’s mind.
“I agree,” Pat murmured. “But after twenty-six years without a lead, it’s worth a trip if any information could be gleaned.”
“You’d get me in to see him today?” Kit cried.
“Yes.”
At this point Maggie stood up. “I’ll fly us down. It’s only about an hour-and-forty-minute flight. Give me time to file a flight plan and call one of the mechanics at the hangar. They’ll get the plane ready.”
Pat nodded. “While you do that, I’ll phone Agent Kelly in California who’ll arrange for our meeting at the prison.”
The two women went to make their calls, leaving Kit and Cord alone.
CHAPTER TWELVE
CORD WALKED AROUND to Kit’s side of the table. “Look at me.”
Why had Maggie and Pat left them? This was too hard. “I don’t dare, Cord.”
“For the love of heaven, I swear I won’t touch you, but don’t avoid me as if I weren’t here.” The anguish in his tone brought her around. “I’m flying to California with you.”
“No—”
“Yes,” he insisted. “If you think I would let you go through this alone, then you don’t know me at all.”
She shook her head. “It will only hurt more.”
“How could it possibly hurt more? When and if we get proof that we’re brother and sister, then we’ll sit down and figure out how we’re going to get through the rest of our lives. Until then, I need to be with you.”
Kit had never felt so vulnerable. “I need to be with you, too,” she admitted.
“Then it’s settled. I’ll let Maggie know I’m driving us to the airport in my car. She can bring Pat in hers.”
Kit had promised herself not to be alone with him, but suddenly she couldn’t imagine going through this experience without him. She was secretly glad he would be accompanying her to California.
They left Maggie’s office and headed down to the plaza parking garage. Once he’d helped her into the Land Rover and they’d pulled out on South Temple, she said, “After my plan to show you around my part of California, it’s ironic we’re going to be there under these circumstances.”
“You’re reading my mind.”
It was time to change the subject. “Have you had a chance to talk to your brother yet? Is everything okay with Brock?”
“I wouldn’t know. Last night I wasn’t in a state to communicate with anyone, and turned off my cell phone.” A heavy sigh escaped his lips. “If there was something to report, Maggie would have told me. At this point, I’m operating on the theory that no news is good news. Heaven knows I could stand a little about now.”
You’re not the only one. She bit her lip. “Why do you think Brock did it?”
“To get Ben’s attention in the only way he knew would produce results. My nephew understands enough to realize that a disappearance act in our family would cause extreme pain. He was counting on that to force his father to wake up before there’s a divorce.”
“Oh, I hope not. Brock’s already wrapped himself around my heart.”
“He thinks you’re very cool, too.”
Kit studied Cord’s profile. After meeting Ben, she could see a resemblance between the two brothers in the shape of their faces and bone structure. She still saw nothing of herself in either man.
“What do you think has caused their marital problems, or would you rather not talk about it?”
“On the contrary, I need to verbalize my feelings or go crazy. Ben has the same problem that plagues all the McFarlands. He loses himself in work instead of his wife and family.”
“Everyone has to have work, Cord.”
“That’s true, but when it takes over your life, you pay a price. A year ago I broke my engagement to a woman named Lisa.”
So he’d been engaged. Kit was surprised he hadn’t married long before now.
“We couldn’t get along. I’ve put all kinds of labels on what went wrong, but when it comes right down to it, I let my work intrude on our time together. Ben has put Julie and his family second. My father did the same thing to my mother. Maggie’s relationships with men never work out because she’s driven like the rest of us.
“None of us does it on purpose. I certainly wasn’t aware of the toll this disease has taken on our family until the day I drove Brock to Alta to work on his Forester badge. He confided his feelings to me. I told him it all had to do with guilt.”
“Guilt? What do you mean?”
For the next few minutes she heard about the kidnapping and the pain their family had suffered because none of them had been able to prevent it from happening.
“It’s a miracle any of you survived that kind of agony.”
“As you can see, none of us came out of it unscathed. Mother grew so protective of Maggie, my sister had to do something to escape that straitjacket. She begged to learn how to fly, but Mother wouldn’t hear of it, of course. Fortunately, Dad could see what was happening, and he allowed her to take lessons after she turned fifteen. I’m convinced it saved Maggie’s life. Being free to fly helped her keep her sanity. She ended up attending law school, and now runs the foundation with the rest of us.”
“She’s remarkable.”
“Maggie’s my best f
riend.”
Kit had already sensed as much. “What about you and your brother? Where did you go to school?”
“We all went to the U. None of us considered leaving the state. Mother couldn’t have handled it. Ben’s a chemical engineer. I got a master’s in business with the idea of running a shelter. We both work for the foundation in our spare time.”
“What about all those years your father was a senator?”
“When he had to be in D.C., Mother flew out to be with him on weekends, or he flew here.”
“That must have been hard on all of you.”
“I guess. But when you’re living it, you don’t think about it most of the time.”
“If the kidnapping had never happened, what do you think you’d be doing today?”
“Ranching.”
She smiled sadly. “So I wasn’t that far off when I told you I could picture you on a horse.”
“You had me pegged, all right.” He gave her a quick glance before his hand made a move toward her. Then he grimaced and put it back on the steering wheel.
For just a moment they’d both forgotten.
Kit stared out the passenger window. It surprised her they were already on the divided part of the highway leading into Salt Lake International Airport.
“I’ve never flown in a small plane before.”
“In case you’re afraid we’re taking a crop duster, we’ll be flying down in a Cessna cj2. It’s a jet.”
He drove along a maze of roads until they pulled up to a fairly large hangar. Sitting on the tarmac was a gleaming white-and-blue plane with a gold stripe. The backdrop of the snow-crested Wasatch Mountains beneath a cloudless blue sky made it a beautiful sight.
Cord got out of the car to help her down. It killed her to think he had to be so careful not to touch her. If they learned they were related, this was the way it would always have to be, but Kit knew she couldn’t handle it.
After Cord pressed the remote to lock the car, they walked toward the plane. He waved to a mechanic in overalls standing in front of the hangar, which had another plane inside.
Somebody's Daughter Page 17