“Fine. She’s married and has two adorable little girls.”
“That’s great.” Danica had the sudden urge to babble but restrained herself. “Well, I’d better get going.”
“How about you? Do you have any kids? Or married?”
“Not yet. But I hope to someday.” She held up the paper. “Thanks again. When I get in touch with her, I’ll call you and let you know.”
10
A wild goose chase.
Agent Fellers was probably right about that. Now that she was almost at Katrina’s, Danica realized how ridiculous her idea was. What were the chances this young woman knew anything about Angelica’s disappearance? Still she was almost there so she would check it out—no matter how idiotic it now seemed. Her phone was ringing—again. Conner—again.
By now, he probably knew she’d been to the McKays’.
She didn’t have the time to explain to him. The drive up hadn’t been as bad as she’d feared, but she’d still needed her attention on the road.
The highway crews had more than done their job.
Her gaze searched the numbers on the houses in the run-down neighborhood. Her heart jolted to a stop when she found the address. She slipped the cell phone in a pocket, took a deep breath, stepped from the car, and put her coat back on.
Most of the green paint on the house had been a victim of Ohio winters, giving the house an odd polka-dot appearance. The steps she walked up didn’t look sturdy enough to hold her.
Danica rang the doorbell and waited. She pushed the button several more times. Finally, she held her ear to the door and rang. Nothing. The doorbell probably didn’t work. She balled her hand into a fist and pounded on the door.
“I’m coming. Hold your horses,” a woman called out.
A few moments later, the door opened.
A waif of a woman stood in front of her. Skin and bones is the way her mother would have described her. Anorexic or addict? Maybe both.
Martha McKay had good reason to be worried about her niece.
The girl’s eyes widened. “I thought you were—never mind. Who are you? What do you want? I don’t have time to talk to you.” She started to close the door.
Danica stopped it with her hand. “Are you Katrina?”
She nodded.
“Your Aunt Martha sent me to check on you. She’s worried because you’re not answering your phone.”
“Tell her I’m fine.” She started to close the door once again.
Danica moved closer. This time the door hit her shoulder, but she stayed steady. “I need to talk to you, Katrina.”
“No. You can’t. I’m busy.” Her gaze moved past Danica as if she was expecting someone.
“I don’t care if you’re busy. This is really important.”
“You need to leave.” This time she pushed the door with more force.
Danica put a foot in the jamb and leaned her shoulder into the door so it couldn’t close all the way. Pain shot through her foot and up her leg. “I’m not leaving until I talk to you.”
Katrina’s dark gaze flitted one way and the other before landing back on Danica. “You have to leave. Right now.” She tried to shut the door again.
Danica was ready—and much stronger than the thin woman. After a struggle, Danica made her way into the house. “I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to talk to you.”
Katrina grabbed Danica’s arm even as her gaze went up the steps. “Look, I’ll call Aunt Martha as soon as you leave. I promise. I didn’t mean to make her worry. I promise I’ll call her. You need to leave.”
“I didn’t come here to talk about Aunt Martha. I just really need to talk to you.” Danica felt sorry for the obviously frightened girl. If there was any way she could help Katrina, she would.
“I don’t know anything about that missing baby.”
“I didn’t say anything about a missing baby.”
“Well…I…are you sure…I thought you did. You did say something about a baby. I know you—you’re that mother—the one on the news.”
Danica and Leah looked enough alike for someone to mistake them for each other.
From somewhere in the house a baby cried.
Their gazes met.
Both women stood frozen.
Katrina moved first. She pushed Danica with both hands.
Danica stumbled backward and out of the door. Danica regained her footing and charged the closing door. She pushed with all her strength.
The two struggled but then the door opened wide.
Danica ran past Katrina and followed the cries up the steps. “Where is she? Where’s Angelica?”
“You get out of here. Right now. That’s my baby. Not yours.”
The cries stopped.
And so did Danica’s heart. Please, God, let her be OK. Danica ran into a bedroom with a baby crib. She rushed to it. Thank You, God.
Katrina grabbed her around her waist. “That’s my baby. Don’t touch my baby.”
“That’s Angelica.” Danica pried Katrina’s hands away from her waist and shoved her to the floor.
Katrina grabbed her legs.
Danica fell. She’d never had a fight in her life, but she had no intention of losing this one.
Angelica’s life depended on it.
They rolled on the floor one way and the other. Katrina grabbed her hair and tugged.
Tears came to Danica’s eyes. That hurt. As anger surged through her so did the adrenaline. She scrunched in the fetal positon and then pushed and kicked at the same time.
Katrina made a gasping sound and her grip loosened.
Danica jumped up and looked around the room for a weapon. A metal trashcan. She rushed to it and turned back.
Katrina was on her knees.
Danica ran over, hoisted the can, and smashed it on Katrina’s head.
Katrina fell over with a moan.
It sickened her. Rising pity and the need to help the unconscious woman nearly suffocated her. But Danica needed to get to the crib—to Angelica. She’d call the police after she was out of the house. Get the baby to safety first then worry about Katrina. Danica rushed to the crib.
And her heart broke.
She stared down at a naked little boy. What had she done? Attacked this woman over the wrong baby. But Katrina’s baby was dead—so who was this?
Someone began clapping. “Well done.” The man’s voice was laced with sarcasm.
She turned.
A man stood in the doorway. “That was certainly entertaining.”
“I…I…” She had no words.
“Not who you were expecting to find, huh?”
Her mind wouldn’t work. She needed to get out of here. Call the police. Tell them what she’d done. What would her students think when they found out she’d been jailed? She looked at Katrina, still on the floor unconscious. Please, God, let her be all right. “I’m so sorry. I thought—”
“Yeah, I know what you thought.” He walked in but still blocked the doorway—her only exit. Using his foot, he jostled the unconscious woman. “Are you still with us, Kat?”
She muttered something.
Relief poured through Danica. She hadn’t killed her. Her mind began to work again. “I’m so sorry. I thought she kidnapped my niece. I can see I was wrong. We need to call the police.”
But why had Katrina told everyone that her baby was dead when he obviously wasn’t?
The man looked up from Katrina. “That would seem to be the thing to do, wouldn’t it?”
Something in his tone made Danica’s skin crawl. She needed to leave, but the man was blocking the door—and he looked very scary.
His gaze met hers. “But not quite yet. Get up, Kat. We got things to do.”
Katrina moved to a sitting position. “What are you doing here?”
“Don’t make me angry, Kat. You know what happens when you do that.”
“We need to call the police,” Danica interjected as she reached for her cell phone in her pocket.
<
br /> “You need to get the baby dressed. We have an appointment.”
Something in his tone made Danica leave the phone in her pocket.
“You’re not taking my baby. You promised. You promised. You promised.” Katrina wailed, repeating the words like a mantra.
What was going on?
“Don’t worry about what I promised. I said get the babies ready. Now.”
Katrina was sobbing and shaking. “You promised to leave us alone if I got you another baby. So get out of here. Leave us alone. I did what you wanted. Leave us alone. You promised.”
He kicked her in the head.
She moaned.
He kicked her again as he shouted at her. “Shut up, you idiot.”
She jumped up. “You promised. You promised. I did what you wanted. Go away. Don’t touch my baby.”
She had to get help for Katrina. For herself. For Angelica. Without thinking too much about it, Danica ran toward the door.
11
Connor walked into the living room.
Leah still sat on the sofa, expressionless. Mark was talking with Agent Fellers. Where was Dani? He wanted to have a long talk with her. But that would have to wait until after Angelica was back home. Please, God, let that happen.
Now that he’d seen Dani again, he knew the truth. He’d never stopped loving her. He was pretty sure she didn’t feel the same. But it didn’t matter. He had to tell her how he felt. Maybe then he could move on with his life. Right now, he wanted to talk to her about Martha McKay’s niece. “Where’s Dani?”
Leah closed her eyes.
Connor thought she might have passed out, but a moment later, she opened them.
“Not sure. I think I saw her leave. A while ago.”
“Did she tell you where she was going?”
“I don’t remember. I don’t think so.”
Connor had a good candidate. Martha McKay’s niece, the one who’d used Mothers’ Helpers had been involved with drugs. Deeply involved. And her baby had died. The loss of a child could unbalance anyone. But was she unstable enough to kidnap a baby? He decided to talk to Agent Fellers—even if she had called their idea a wild goose chase. He clasped Mark on the shoulder. “Any news?”
“Not any good news. They’ve been stopping station wagons all over the state but no good leads yet.”
“That doesn’t mean there won’t be,” Agent Fellers said. “Good police work is ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
“Can I talk to you, Agent Fellers?”
“Sure.”
The two turned to walk away.
Mark grabbed Connor’s arm. “What about? If you have any information, you can say it in front of me. I’m the baby’s father. Are you hiding something?”
“Not at all, Mark. I just don’t want to get your hopes up. Dani and I followed up on an idea. I just wanted to update Agent Fellers about it.”
“Then do it in front of me.”
“Of course. No problem.” He looked at Agent Fellers. “Remember the idea about checking out the recipients of Mothers’ Helpers’ services?”
She nodded.
“We did find one young woman whose baby passed away from SIDS last week. It might have been enough to cause her to snap—to kidnap another baby to take her own baby’s place.” He didn’t add anything about Katrina’s drug use. He could tell her later about that.
Agent Fellers stared past him. “We’ll check it out. Do you have a name and address?”
“Not exactly. But I know where she was living while she was here. From what I understand, she’s back at her own home in Akron.”
“OK, give me the local address, and I’ll send an agent over there.”
“Maybe I should go with them. I’m a familiar face to most people around here. They might be more willing to speak out if I’m there.”
“Fine with me.”
“I’ll go with you.” Mark’s tone showed he wasn’t in the mood to argue.
“Do you think that’s the best idea? Leah looks in pretty bad shape. I think she needs you.”
Mark’s gaze moved to his wife. “I don’t know how to help her.”
“Hold her. Tell her how much you love her and that you don’t blame her.”
Mark met his gaze. “But what if…sometime in the future, if we…don’t find our baby…I do start to blame her?” His voice broke and his eyes welled up as he looked at his wife.
“Then ask God to help you to forgive he…no, ask God to forgive you for feeling that way. You can’t believe for one minute that Leah wanted this to happen.”
Mark’s eyes widened. Then he nodded. “Of course not.”
“It’s human nature to want to blame someone but don’t do that. Focus on loving each other, strengthening and comforting each other. If you turn on each other, you’ll never be able to get past that—even when Angelica comes home.”
“You’re right. I can’t believe I even thought it. Even for a minute.”
“Good. Now go show her how much you love her.”
“And you’ll keep in touch with me?”
“You don’t even have to ask, brother.” Connor handed him his cell phone. “Put your number in.”
12
Danica ran as if her life depended on it. And not just hers, but Angelica’s and Katrina’s, too.
Arms grabbed her. His fingers dug into her arms.
Tears sprang to her eyes.
“Nice try, missy. But you’re not going nowhere.” He lifted her off the floor.
She kicked at him, but he tossed her back in the bedroom. She landed with a thump on the floor like a sack of potatoes.
Katrina stood in front of the crib with tears streaming down her face, clutching the baby and staring at Danica.
The man closed the door. “Now what we have here is a failure to communicate.” He laughed and looked down at Danica. “Don’t you just love that movie?”
Danica barely remembered the movie, but she had to keep him talking. “The police will be here any moment. You should leave before you get in trouble.”
He grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her up.
She suppressed a shriek at the pain and stood up to stop it.
He glared at her. “I asked you a question. Don’t you love that movie?”
She flailed at him, but his arm reach was longer than hers.
“It’s a classic movie, sweetheart. You don’t know what you missed.” He grinned. “You should watch it sometime. Oh, wait. I guess that won’t happen since you’ll be dead.”
She lunged at him once again—with the same results.
“Kat. Get me that lamp.”
“Why?”
Through gritted teeth, he snarled, “Don’t ask questions. I said get the lamp. Or you’ll be sorry.”
Still clutching the baby, she unplugged the lamp and brought it to him. “Here.”
“Get rid of that baby. We got work to do. Set the lamp down and get me some scissors.”
“Why?”
With his free hand, he slapped her hard. “I don’t need you questioning me. Understand. This is all your fault. Put the baby down and get me scissors. I won’t tell you again.”
“Why’s it my fault?” she whined.
“She knows. And we can’t let her tell anyone else.”
He’d just confirmed Danica’s suspicions. Katrina had taken Angelica so he wouldn’t take Katrina’s baby from her. Crazy.
The man kept screaming at Katrina. “This is all your fault. I should just kill both of you. Then I’d be in the clear. Maybe I’ll do that.”
“I’ll get the scissors.” She hurried to the crib, put the baby down, then left the room.
He looked at her. “Don’t worry. It’s not gonna hurt. I’m not a cruel man.”
“Says the man holding me by the hair.”
He let go.
The relief from the pain was instantaneous.
“See I can be reasonable. Just don’t give me an excuse to do more than pull your hair. Got it?
Now sit.”
Everything in her wanted to argue, but instead, she sat.
Katrina came back with the scissors.
Danica couldn’t take her eyes off the scissors. Stab him. Stab him. Stab him.
But Katrina handed the weapon to him. Didn’t she understand? Katrina was in as much danger as Danica.
“Cut the cord on the lamp and tie her hands with it.” The man directed. “And make sure it’s tight.”
Katrina did as she was instructed. With cord in hand, she knelt in front of Danica. “I’m sorry about this,” she said softly.
Danica whispered, “Stab him.”
Katrina’s eyes fluttered, but she shook her head as she tied Danica’s hands in front. She stood and looked at the man. “Now what, Bobby Lee?”
“Don’t say my name. Are you so stupid I have to tell you everything? Think before you talk. On second thought, don’t think. Just shut up and do what I tell you to do.”
“Sorry. But what are we gonna do with her, Bo…?”
“What do you think we’re gonna do?” He grinned. “It’s not like I haven’t done it before.”
“We don’t have to hurt her. Can’t we just leave her here and leave? Go someplace where they can’t find us. Some place where we’ll be safe.”
“You really are stupid, ain’t you? We don’t want any trace of her here. That way the cops can’t connect her to you. Or to me.”
“Then go do it. Me and the baby will wait for you here.”
“Not happening.” He shook his head. “I found out that a baby boy brings even more money than a baby girl. So I got to thinking we should sell both of ‘em.”
“No. He’s my baby. You promised.”
“You already told everyone he was dead. What you gonna to tell them now? That God raised him from the dead?”
“That’s not funny.”
“I thought it was. Anyway, you get half the money and you can have another baby. What’s the big deal?”
“No.”
He slapped her across the face. “Fine. I kill both of you, still sell the babies, and get all the money. Don’t bother me none.”
Danica believed every word he said. And she believed Katrina wasn’t meant to survive this ordeal either.
A Christmas Stolen (Christmas Holiday Extravaganza) Page 6