A Secret Uncovered

by Edward Kendrick

  “I suppose.” Theo sounded dubious but didn’t argue.

  “Call you mother,” Ric said.

  “Oh, yeah.” Theo did. It took some fast-talking but he eventually convinced her that he’d be fine, once he got past spending half his time on his knees in front of the toilet. He promised her he’d be back at work Wednesday morning, “Thinner, but otherwise up to par.” She chuckled, told him to drink ginger ale and stay in bed, and they hung up.

  * * * *

  Theo drove with one eye on the rearview mirror as they went downtown to meet with Detective Kane. Intellectually, he knew the man who had threatened Ric and attacked Ethan didn’t know where he lived, or what he drove. Emotionally was another story. If it hadn’t been for Ric’s keeping up a running commentary on the various people they passed, he would probably have been a nervous wreck by the time he parked the car and they walked into the building. Ric told the desk sergeant they were there to meet with Detective Kane and a couple of minutes later he appeared.

  “We’re meeting with my lieutenant,” he told them as he led the way to a doorway at one side of the detectives’ squad room.

  When they entered, an older man got up from his desk, coming over to introduce himself as Lieutenant Archer. After Kane introduced Theo and Ric, they all took seats around Lt. Archer’s desk.

  “Paul…Detective Kane—” Lt. Archer nodded toward him, “—has filled me in on everything that’s been going on. I gather, from the gist of it, the man who attacked Mr. Moore has threatened you as well, Mr. Baron, and your client, if you don’t stop looking for Mr. Speer’s birth mother.”

  “He carried out his threat in Ethan’s case,” Ric replied tightly.

  “He really wants me,” Theo added. “At least that’s what we think. If so, he knows I’m somewhere in the city. Otherwise, why would Moore Investigations be involved?”

  “Logical,” Lt. Archer agreed. “Paul also told me you want to set something up so that this man comes after you.”

  “Yes.”

  “Only if we can keep Theo safe,” Ric said succinctly.

  Lt. Archer smiled briefly. “Of course. I don’t want us dealing with a murder, which we can presume is what this man has in mind, given his threats and his attack Mr. Moore. Although…” he pressed his fingertips together, looking at Ric, “I’m surprised he doesn’t want you to locate the ‘Lilliana’ who could be Mr. Speer’s birth mother. It seems to me he’d hang back until you did, and then go after her in hopes of learning Mr. Speer’s whereabouts.”

  “He’s probably smart enough to realize she wouldn’t know at this point,” Ric replied. “The threats, and the attack, could be his way of getting us to lead him to Theo.”

  “He has to know I’m the one who hired them to find her,” Theo pointed out. “Okay, not me, specifically, but someone who’s looking for her because she could be his birth mother.”

  “I get that,” Lt. Archer replied with a wry smile. “Give what’s happened, I doubt he wants to find you to welcome you into the bosom of his family.”

  Theo snorted. “No kidding.”

  Leaning back, Lt. Archer eyed Theo. “Do you have a plan to catch his attention?”

  “I thought that’s why we were here—to come up with one,” Theo replied.

  “It was your idea,” Kane pointed out.

  “I know, but damn it. This is not something I’m good at. I plan people’s vacations, not how to stop a killer.”

  Ric squeezed Theo’s shoulder. “We’ll figure it out, if you’re bound and determined to put yourself in his sights.”

  “It will happen sooner or later. We might as well be the ones running the show…or whatever.”

  “Something I’ve neglected to ask,” Kane said. “Did you talk to your parents about your adoption after you found the adoption certificate?”

  “My father died a year ago. My mother is still dealing with that because it was so unexpected. Since then, she’s poured all her time and energy into keeping Imagination Tours up and running, with my help. The last thing I want to do is add to everything she’s got going on until we have some answers.” He chewed his lip before saying, “To be honest, neither of them ever told me I was adopted. I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t found the certificate. My father kept it in a locked drawer in his desk, in a file with my name on it. The drawer was off-limits to me—and perhaps to Mom as well.” When Kane looked at him in question, he explained how he’d found the file to begin with. “She might not have seen it.”

  “Obviously she knows you’re adopted,” Lt. Archer said, and then shook his head. “That was a stupid thing to say.”

  Theo agreed, although he didn’t say so. Instead he replied, “Of course, but she may not have known the exact circumstances. Dad was very protective of her, so he could have handled the details without her.”

  “You might want to ask her,” Lt. Archer replied.

  “I already said, I’m not going to let her know that I know until after this is over, if I ever do. She, they, carried on the façade—that’s a horrible word but that was what they did. Anyway, they never told me I wasn’t their natural born son. If it makes her feel better to think that I think I’m hers by birth, I don’t want to destroy that.” Theo looked at Kane and the lieutenant. “Does that make sense?”

  “It does,” Kane replied. “Now back to why we’re here. Figuring out how we can apprehend Mr. Moore’s attacker in such a way that he doesn’t smell a trap.”

  “To start with, I continue searching for the right ‘Lilliana’,” Ric said. “That should push his buttons.”

  “I can come by the agency,” Theo started to say.

  Ric interrupted. “If he’s trying to track my search, he’ll be in his hotel so he wouldn’t see you. If he’s staking us out, he’d have no way of knowing who you are.”

  “I’ll wear a sign,” Theo replied with a grin. He sobered seconds later. “I’m the right age to be me.”

  Kane chuckled. “Strange phrasing, but you’re right. The problem is—” he looked at Ric, “—do you have other clients or potential clients in their mid-twenties?”

  “Yes, a couple of them.” He looked thoughtful, and then asked Theo, “When did you get, or renew your driver’s license?”

  “I renewed last year. Why?”

  “I had an idea. May I see it?”

  Theo took it out of his wallet, handing it to Ric, who used his phone to take a photo of it. “Here’s what I’m thinking,” Ric said, handing it back. “I’ve narrowed the list down to eleven women. There are photos of all but two of them. Detective Kane suggested last night that I could ‘accidentally’ give our man access to them.”

  “After I set up protection on the women,” Kane put in.

  “Yes. So, suppose I make the man think I’m comparing Theo’s driver’s license photo with the various women’s, looking for a family likeness?”

  “Not a bad idea,” Lt. Archer replied after a moment’s thought. “Then he’ll know who he’s looking for, at which point either Mr. Speer visits the agency, or Mr. Baron meets him somewhere. My suggestion, if you want to go in that direction, is at a restaurant. There’s no sense in leading our perp directly to Mr. Speer’s home.”

  “Apartment,” Theo said. “And why not?”

  “He wouldn’t know it’s yours, if Mr. Baron goes directly from work to there. Go out to dinner together to set it up, and then return to your apartment. We’ll have it under surveillance.”

  “Not a restaurant,” Ric said. “The hospital, to visit Ethan. It’s logical for us to do that. As a matter of fact, I’ll pick Theo up at his place as soon as I leave work. With luck, our man will have fallen for the bait, so he’ll know what Theo looks like and where he lives from his driver’s license. I’ll pick up Theo and we’ll go on to the hospital.” He smiled evilly. “That will give the bastard time to case Theo’s building and set up something to take him out.”

  Kane nodded. “Probably from a spot where he can watch the back and front ent
rances, like the roof of a building next door. Are they apartment buildings, too, Theo?” When Theo nodded, Kane said, “I can have men surveilling those buildings.”

  “Do not arrest him until he’s acted,” the lieutenant cautioned. “There are legitimate reasons a person might go up to the roof of a building, especially apartment buildings. Sunbathing comes to mind for starters.”

  “It’s only April,” Theo protested.

  “And the last couple of days have been sunny enough to get a start on a tan, at least according to my daughter,” the lieutenant replied.

  “If he does go up on one of the roofs, how can you watch him without his knowing?” Theo asked.

  “Our people know what they’re doing,” Lt. Archer replied. As condescending as his tone of voice was, Theo had the feeling that if he was female instead of male, the lieutenant would have said ‘Don’t worry your pretty little head about it’.

  Kane must have had the same though because he shot his lieutenant a disgusted look before saying, “We’ll also have men in your building, Theo, which means you have to give me a walk-through as soon as we leave here.”

  “No problem.”

  “All right, we have a basic plan,” Lt. Archer said. “Let’s fine-tune it and then Mr. Baron can go back to his office to do whatever he has to, to give our perp access to his computer without letting the man know he’s being set up.”

  “I can do it so I know if he does hack in,” Ric said. “I’ll call you as soon as that happens, Kane.”

  They spent the next twenty minutes setting up the plan’s details, and then Ric left, coming back moments later to say, “You drove, Theo.”

  Theo grimaced. “I did. Here.” He tossed Ric his car keys.

  Ric caught them and left, again. A couple of minutes later Theo and Kane did as well, driving to Theo’s apartment building in Kane’s personal car. For the next half hour, Kane went through the building, and then Theo’s apartment, looking for places where his men could watch without Ethan’s attacker knowing they were there.

  * * * *

  The brother smiled maliciously as he worked his way through the layers to get to the information he wanted. You are as stupid as you look. Or are you so worried about your boss that you’re being careless? He decided it was the latter, having tried the same thing before with little success. It was close to two on Tuesday afternoon when he hit the jackpot—as far as he was concerned.

  “Mr. Baron, you just made my life a whole lot easier,” he said under his breath when he saw a photo of a driver’s license pop up next to a picture of one of the women the investigator had apparently decided might be Lily. The woman wasn’t. The brother would have recognized her if she had been. It didn’t bother him at the moment, however. He had what he needed. He now knew what Lily’s brat looked like and where he lived.

  * * * *

  Ric picked Theo up, in Theo’s car, a few minutes before four that afternoon. When he got in, Theo scrunched down, prompting Ric to say, “If you do that, and he’s already watching, which he probably is since he did see your license, he’s going to wonder if something’s hinky. Kane already knows he saw it, so his people are on alert.”

  Theo sucked in a breath before sitting up straight. “I feel as if I’ve got a target on my back.”

  “Turn around and let me check.”

  “That is so not funny, Ric.”

  “Sorry. Merely trying to get you to relax. He’s not going to take potshots at you while we’re on the road.”

  “Says you,” Theo muttered.

  When they got to the hospital, Ric found a vacant spot in the same lot where he’d left his car the previous evening. “If he’s here watching my car, which I seriously doubt,” he said as they walked quickly to the hospital’s entrance, “he’s well hidden.”

  “That doesn’t make my day.”

  Ric put one arm around Theo’s shoulders. “My guess is, he’s already at your place and even now is trying to decide whether to use a rooftop or get into your building to make his move.”

  Theo crossed his fingers, which prompted Ric to take his hand as they entered the main lobby. He didn’t let go until they got off the elevator on Ethan’s floor. A nurse stopped them to say that visiting hours were over.

  “We’re here to see Ethan Moore,” Ric replied. “It should have been okayed by Detective Kane of the DPD.”

  She checked her computer, sighed, and said it had been. “You know which room?”

  “The one with the cop sitting outside,” Ric replied caustically and then apologized, telling her he did know, as he’d been there the previous night when Ethan had been moved to the room after his surgery.

  “Guess I’m not as relaxed as I thought,” he said to Theo as they walked down the hallway. “I usually don’t snap at people like that.”

  “At least you didn’t flip her off.”

  “I was tempted, and resisted,” Ric admitted as he opened the door to Ethan’s room.

  Susan was seated by his bed, holding Ethan’s hand in both of hers. Because Theo hadn’t met her, Ric introduced them before saying to Ethan, “You don’t look as bad as I expected.”

  “Meaning I don’t look dead?” Ethan teased before sobering. “The doctor says I’m doing well and should be able to leave soon. I suspect ‘soon’ is a relative term and he’s warned me not to go back to work until he gives me his say-so.”

  “I’m going to make certain he doesn’t, even if I have to tie him to the bed,” Susan said.

  Ethan chuckled. “She’s kinky, in case you didn’t know it, Ric. Okay, fill me in on what’s happening.”

  “A question, first, which I bet Detective Kane’s already asked. Did you see the man who attacked you?”

  “Barely,” Ethan replied. “I heard Ms. Lane leave, after she called out ‘Goodnight’ the way she always does. I was closing down my computer when I heard the office door open and figured it was you. I turned to check and got a vague impression of an older man wearing glasses, holding a knife as he rushed toward me. I raised my arm to protect myself. That’s how I got this.” He touched his bicep. “Then he used the hilt of the knife to knock me out and that’s all I remember.”

  “That matches the description Ms. Lane gave of the man who asked if you had time to talk to him.”

  Ethan nodded. “Figured as much. She said he’d left when she got back to the waiting room. I presume he found somewhere to hide until we closed for the day.”

  “That’s what the cops think,” Ric said, and then he filled Ethan in on what was going on in terms of the plan to catch his attacker.

  “You be damned careful, both of you,” Ethan said when Ric finished. He looked at Theo, smiling wryly. “Not quite what you expected would happen when you hired us, I bet.”

  “Not at all,” Theo agreed. “I hoped you’d find Lilliana and then I’d have to decide if I wanted to contact her or not.”

  “A big decision,” Ethan replied.

  “I know. Right now, though, I’m more concerned with why this man doesn’t want me to.”

  “With any kind of luck, we’re going to find out,” Ric said. “And come out of it in one piece, with him in custody—at the very least for assault with a deadly weapon.”

  “If the police can prove he’s the one who attacked me,” Ethan pointed out. “I presume they went over my office with a fine-toothed comb so hopefully they found fingerprints and other trace evidence.”

  “They did, and Detective Kane’s people are working of putting names to the prints they found.”

  Ethan looked as if he was about to reply when a nurse came into the room. “Gentlemen, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” she said as she went to check the machines monitoring Ethan’s vitals. “You can come back during evening visiting hours, which for this unit are from six to eight,” she pointedly told Theo and Ric.

  “We’ll keep in touch and let you know what happens,” Ric said to Ethan.

  “You’d better,” Ethan grumbled. “I don’t li
ke being kept in the dark, especially now.”

  “Be careful,” Susan said, getting up to give Ric a hug. “You’re his favorite employee. He wouldn’t want to lose you.”

  Ric snorted. “I’m his only one.”

  Ignoring Ric’s reply, Susan took Theo’s hand. “You be careful, too. Promise?”

  “I will be. I have good men watching my back. Now we’d better go before the nurse calls security.”

  The nurse smiled. “That thought did cross my mind, but you’re sensible men.”

  “So they say,” Theo replied, wondering if they were, considering what they had planned for the next couple of hours.

  Chapter 9

  “I’m scared,” Theo said as he and Ric walked to the lot where they’d left their cars. “I shouldn’t admit it, but I am.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with being afraid,” Ric replied. “Any smart person would be when they know someone wants to hurt them.” He stopped, turned, and put his hands on Theo’s shoulders. “We’re going to make it through this. I have plans for us.”

  “I do, too, so yeah, this will work.”

  “Damned straight!” Ric kissed him quickly before saying, “We’ll take both cars. If he sees us drive up in your car, or mine, he might abort whatever he’s got planned until he knows I’m not around.”

  “But you’ll be there, somewhere?” Theo replied, looking directly into Ric’s eyes.

  “Yes,” Ric assured him. “Like Kane’s men, he won’t know it, but I will be. I’ve got a vested interest in catching him.”

  “Paying him back for what he did to Ethan.”

  “Well, yeah, but that’s only part of it. You’re the other part.” They were at Theo’s car by then. Ric opened the door for him then handed him the keys. “Oh, I don’t suppose you have a spare key to you building on the ring.”

  “No, but…” Theo took out his wallet and removed two keys from behind his driver’s license. “The building, and my apartment,” he said as he gave them to Ric.

  “Good. This will make things easier.” Ric pocketed them before kissing Theo again, and then swatted his butt. “So let’s get this show on the road, kid.”