“It does, and I will, the second I’m in my apartment.”
“Or if you get a feeling something’s off before you get there. I mean it.”
“You said you don’t think he’s around. At least not yet.”
“I don’t, but there’s no sense taking chances.” Ric stepped back so Theo could get into the car. When Theo rolled down the window, Ric leaned down to give him a quick kiss, followed by, “Drive safe, and call.”
“I will.”
A few minutes later, Theo was in the elevator, riding up to his apartment. No one had followed him home that he could tell, but not wanting to take any chances, he took out his phone to call Ric as he stepped off the elevator. When Ric answered, Theo said, “I’m walking down to my apartment. I won’t hang up until I’m inside and know everything’s okay.”
“Smart man,” Ric replied. “Don’t close the door until you’re sure it is.”
“Got it.”
Theo did as Ric said, then told him, “I’m good.”
There was a chuckle before Ric said, “I intend to find out just how good, as soon as possible.”
“Only you would say that.”
“When it comes to you, I’d better be the only one.”
“Believe me, you are,” Theo replied softly. “Call me in the morning?”
“You bet.”
Theo was smiling happily as they hung up. This is going to work. It has to. I’m already halfway in love with him. With that thought, he turned off the living room lights and went to get ready for bed.
Chapter 6
Ric called Theo Sunday morning. He really wanted to go see him, maybe take him out for a late breakfast. The problem was, the more time that passed since getting the email, the greater the possibility that whoever had sent it might already be in Denver to make good on their threat. Going proactive to be certain I don’t continue my search. I was probably being overly cautious last night. Now? Not so much so and for damned sure I’m not going to lead the bastard to Theo.
Even if they continued acting as if they were a couple, it might not fool the email writer. Or it could put Theo in the spotlight for a different reason—as a target to reinforce the man’s threat that he meant business.
When Ric explained his thoughts during his call, Theo reluctantly agreed he had a point.
“I don’t like it,” Theo said. “Not because I might be in danger—’Might’ being the operative word. I hate the idea we can’t see each other until he’s stopped.”
“Frustrating, I agree.”
“You could always disguise yourself. Right?”
Ric laughed. “I could, but I won’t. First off, if, and I agree it’s only if he does know who I am and is watching my house, he might wonder who the stranger was who he saw leaving. Especially since you and I are a couple.”
“I like that idea. I mean the couple part. But how would he know who you are?” Theo asked. “Oh, right, never mind. Your name and Ethan’s are on the website. I suppose it’s a good thing your photos aren’t.”
“Yep. There are times when anonymity is a must in our business.”
“I’m sure. So, are you going into work today?”
“Nope. Ethan made it clear I had to take today off, and since he lives upstairs, he’d know if I disobeyed him.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Clean house, do laundry, grocery shop,” Ric grumbled.
“You and me, both. At least my place is pretty small, so the cleaning part’s easy.”
“Trade?” Ric asked, chuckling.
“Nope. If I wanted a house, I’d own one. I like being self-contained, as it were. Fewer walls to bounce off when I’m restless.”
“Does that happen often?”
“Eh, every once in a while,” Theo told him. “Then I go for a walk.”
“Don’t do that today. Okay?”
“I won’t,” Theo promised. “I still think you’re overreacting, but I get why. If someone threatened me, I’d probably be a basket case.”
“I haven’t reached that point, yet. I won’t until I’ve got a real reason to think I’m in danger, and that probably won’t happen until I get back to searching for Lilliana.”
“Then don’t.”
“Theo, I told you I’m not giving up. I will be careful, though. I’ll up the security when I’m online, for starters. And, yeah, maybe…”
“What? Don’t leave me hanging.”
“Sort of screw up when I’m checking out one the names I found who is obviously much too old to be your birth mother. If he sees that happen, he’ll know I haven’t given up. That could push his buttons.”
Theo sucked in a breath. “Then he will come after you.”
“And I’ll be ready.”
“I don’t like it.”
“I can’t say I’m ecstatic about the idea of being a sitting duck, but if it brings him out of the woodwork, it’ll be worth it,” Ric replied.
“Promise me you’ll let Ethan know what you’re doing.”
“I will. Between the two of us, if the guy tries anything, we should be able to stop him in his tracks.”
“Without getting hurt,” Theo said in a worried tone of voice.
“That’s the plan.”
They talked for a few minutes more, moving on to less upsetting subjects before ending the call so they could do their Sunday chores.
* * * *
“Which one are you?” Lilliana’s brother asked under his breath a few minutes before nine Monday morning. He was watching Moore Investigations from a vantage point on the roof of a three-story apartment building across the street. He didn’t intend to do anything more than observe for the time being. Not until he knew whether his threat had worked or not. That he would determine once he got back to his hotel, where he’d go online so he could track any searches for his sister. He knew he’d be lucky to get a hit, but then it had been luck that his father’s lawyer, combined with his own skills, had enabled him to find out who was looking for her in the first place.
He was crouched down behind the parapet at the edge of the roof. From there he could look through the large front window into what appeared to be a waiting room for the agency. Two men were standing by a desk, talking to the woman seated behind it. One was older, in his forties, the brother estimated. The one with the dark hair appeared to be in his middle to late twenties.
Neither one had entered through the front door, but the brother knew from casing the house as soon as he’d arrived in the neighborhood the previous evening that there were back and side doors, and a garage. When he’d peered through the garage window, he saw a car. That, plus the lights on the second floor of the house, led him to believe one of the men lived there. Probably Ethan Moore, the guy who owns the agency. He knew from the website that the only other man connected with the agency was one Ric Baron. The dark-haired guy? Probably.
His thoughts were confirmed when the men ended their conversation and went through different doors into what he presumed were their offices.
With that settled, and having a good idea of what he might be dealing with, if it came down to it and his warning was ignored, the brother left, returning to his hotel and what he had to do next.
* * * *
“I think you’re crazy,” Ethan said when Ric came into his office half an hour after the agency opened to tell him what he had planned.
“But you’re okay with it?” Ric replied, resting his butt on the edge of Ethan’s desk.
“No, I’m not, but I know I can’t stop you, so I’ll do my best to make certain you come out of it alive.”
“You be careful, too,” Ric warned. “He’ll probably come after me, if the threat was serious, but it is your agency. Unless he’s stupid, he’ll figure I’ve reported everything I’ve found out to you.”
Ethan nodded. “I know. I think it’s time Susan pays a visit to her family.”
“Trying to convince her of that should be fun.”
“Oh, yeah. She k
nows what’s going on, but you know her. She can be stubborn.”
“Who’s stubborn?” Ethan’s wife asked, coming into his office.
“You, my dear,” Ethan replied. He smiled ingratiatingly. “You’re also sensible.”
Crossing her arms, she looked at the two men and then focused her gaze on Ric. “You’re setting yourself up to make the man show himself,” she stated unequivocally.
“Yep, with Ethan’s blessing.”
Ethan snorted. “Not sure that’s the right word, but I did give him my okay.”
Susan crossed the room to give Ethan a peck on the cheek before saying, “You want me gone, just in case.”
“Please. I don’t want to worry about you, too.”
“All right. I’ll call Mom to let her know I’ll be up there this afternoon. Why don’t you come upstairs and help me pack.”
Ethan stood, and he and Susan left his office, but not before she said to Ric, grinning, “See, I’m not stubborn—when it comes to important things.”
“Thank God,” Ric said under his breath as he returned to his office to get to work on trying to draw out the man who had sent the threatening email.
* * * *
“You’re as jumpy as…whatever’s really jumpy,” Donna said to Theo, looking over from her desk in the office they shared at the travel agency.
“Me?” he asked in feigned surprise. “Why do you think that?”
“You can’t sit still, for one. You’re up and down, getting coffee, going to the window. You’re also grumping at clients, although thankfully it’s only muttering about emails they’ve sent.”
“Some of them can’t make up their minds,” Theo replied. “It’s driving me up the wall.”
She got up, coming over to sit in the client’s chair by his desk. “Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on. Is it Ric? Have you and he had a fight, already?”
Theo went with that, coming up with something that might appease her, rather than telling her the real problem. “He’s going out of town next weekend and he wants me to come with him, but damn, Mom, it’s too soon. I mean it is, isn’t it? That’s what I told him and he got upset.”
She smiled, patting his hand. “It depends. If he’s expecting you to share a motel room with him, I’d say it is. You never have been a young man who jumped into bed on a first date, or even the third one.”
Surprised, Theo asked, “How do you know that?”
“Because I’m your mother. I know you well. When it happens, you get a sort of glow about you, whether you realize it or not. The ‘I’ve been well-satisfied, I’m happy, and I hope it lasts’.” She didn’t add, “This time,” although he knew it was implied.
“I don’t!” Theo protested.
Donna grinned. “Yep, you do. Does he want the two of you to share a room?”
Oh boy, how do I answer that? I don’t want her to think he’s after my body and that’s it.
“No,” he replied. “He made it very clear that we’d get adjoining rooms at the motel. And don’t make more of that than you should. It’s only…Mom, we haven’t known each other that long.”
“You’re afraid he’ll read more into it than you want him to, if you do go with him.” She patted his hand again. “You like him, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you trust him?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Then what’s the problem? Go. Have fun. It will give you a chance to get to know each other better. And not that way,” she added, smiling. “Save that until you’re sure he’s right for you, and vice versa.”
“I will.” He hugged her. “Thank you.”
“For what? For giving motherly advice? That’s my job.” She got up, bent to kiss his cheek, and went back to what she’d been doing.
And when I don’t leave town next weekend, what do I tell her? I guess I’ll come up with something. With a sigh he got back to work, forcing himself to relax. But he couldn’t stop checking the time, wishing it was noon so that he could leave for lunch—and call Ric to see if his plan had worked. But not the being attacked part, damn it. He knew that was behind his restlessness. Fear that the bastard who had sent the threatening email would go after Ric when he found out that Ric was ignoring his warning.
* * * *
The hook is baited. Now let’s see if he bites.
Ric had decided to ‘screw up’ twice in his online search for Theo’s birth mother. Using women from the original list he’d compiled, he went back to the sites where he’d found them, going through the information as if it were his first time looking at it. One was a Lilliana who was definitely too old to be Theo’s birth mother, the second a woman who was only thirty. He did one directly after the other, making it appear as if the he’d forgotten to use his secure login—and then ‘remembered’ before moving on to a third one. He hoped, if the man who’d sent the threat was checking, he’d buy the ruse.
He rolled his shoulders as he closed out the sites and pulled up his file on the women who might actually be the Lilliana he wanted. Some had a current phone number to go with their most recent address of record. None of the women lived in Denver, which didn’t surprise him in the least. Having sorted them by addresses, working out from the Cleveland area, he began a real search for everything he could find out about each one of them.
He couldn’t spend as much time as he liked on what he was doing as he had other cases which needed his attention, too, including staking out a woman who might be trying to defraud an insurance company that was one of the agency’s regular clients. He stopped to check in with Ethan to tell him he’d put his plan into motion and then took off. Before he did, Ethan told him Susan was on her way to her parents’ house and would stay there until he felt it was safe for her to come home.
* * * *
If Theo’s mother thought he was jumpy that morning, it was nothing compared to how he felt when he finally left for lunch and tried calling Ric. When he didn’t answer, Theo envisioned him lying in a pool of blood somewhere as his life drained away. Unable to face eating—his stomach clenched at the mere idea—he began walking in an attempt to work off his tension, clutching his phone in one hand. He was several blocks from the office when it rang, startling him enough he almost dropped it. The caller ID told him it was Ric.
“I’ve been worried sick about you,” Theo said, knowing he sounded angry rather than relieved.
“Sorry,” Ric replied. “I’m on a stakeout and this is the first chance I’ve had to return your call. What’s up?”
“That’s my question,” Theo shot back, and then quickly apologized. “When you didn’t answer I couldn’t help picturing you dead or dying because the man decided to carry out his threat.”
“Damn. I’m the one who ought to be apologizing. I should have called you to tell you what’s going on before I left the agency. The trap’s been baited, but I think it’s too soon for him to have found out and then come looking for me. First, he’ll have to figure out whether it’s me or Ethan doing the search.”
“Uh-huh. Or decide it doesn’t matter because he’s going to kill you both.”
“All right, I’ll admit that’s a possibility. If he tries, he’d have to do it at the agency when he knows both of us are there.”
“Why? Oh, because otherwise, whoever was left would go straight to the police.”
“Exactly. He can’t risk that happening since he doesn’t know how much we’ve found out.”
“So don’t go back to work. That should, what’s the saying? Put a cog in his gears?”
Ric chuckled. “I think you mean throw a monkey wrench into his plans.”
“Whatever. Stay away and it will.”
“If he’s watching the agency, and by now I’d bet he is, he might wonder why I didn’t come back. Or more to the point, he’ll just wait us out until tomorrow and then try. I can’t stay away forever.”
“Well…”
“Not happening, Theo. Among other things, I can’t search for Lilliana f
rom my home computer. I don’t have the resources or the necessary security.”
Theo sighed, knowing he was right. “At least call me when you can?”
“I will, I promise. Right now, though—”
“You have to get back to your stakeout. I understand.”
“Yeah, I do. My target’s on the move again.” There was a pause before Ric said, “You be careful, too. I’m sure he doesn’t know who you are, but still…”
“That gave me the warm and fuzzies…not,” Theo replied with a bark of laughter, more feigned than real. “I will be.” He wanted to end by saying something he had the feeling was the truth—’Love you’—but knew it was much too early in their relationship to voice it.
“I’ll talk to you soon,” Ric said, and hung up.
Theo shoved his phone back in his pocket, turned around, and headed back to work. He was still uptight, the tension in his shoulders was proof of that, but now it was because of the thought that the man might know who he was. Ric’s right, he can’t know. I haven’t been by the agency since they got that threatening message. He rolled his shoulders, trying to relax—or at least make it seem as if he was. He didn’t need his mother questioning him again about why he was so jumpy. By the time he walked into the travel agency he’d succeeded. He greeted her, told her it was her turn to go to lunch—which she did—and settled down at his computer to begin planning the vacation of one of their regular clients.
* * * *
The brother scowled when he discovered that someone from the detective agency was still searching for Lilliana. Did you think I was making an empty threat? If you did, you were wrong.
Although he’d done surveillance on the agency, he decided to bring up the aerial view on a map website. He used the laptop’s keypad to rotate the house, studying each side in detail. Then, he smiled as something occurred to him. It’s a weekday so they’re open for business. I can walk in through the front door as if I were a new client. Shutting down the laptop, he went into the bathroom. When he exited a few minutes later he was wearing a dark wig with white at the temples, there was a small, neatly-groomed mustache on his upper lip, and he had dark-rimmed glasses. The transformation complete, he got what he’d need from his bag and set out.
A Secret Uncovered Page 6