Safe in Your Arms

by RaeAnne Thayne

  His partner didn’t hesitate, and Beau realized again how unfair he’d been to the other detective. “Sure. Let me see what I can do.”

  He was passing Eagle Harbor when his cell phone rang just a few moments later. “I’ve got two numbers for you, his house on Mercer and his own office number. That cute new assistant district attorney says this is the emergency line they try to use when they need warrants in the middle of the night, so you should be able to reach him if he’s home.”

  Beau wrote the numbers down on the edge of a chart. “Thanks.”

  “Anything else I can do?”

  He thought about it and realized he would be stupid to play Lone Ranger on this one. Too much was at stake. “Yeah. I’m going to give you an address on Bainbridge Island. It’s Elizabeth Quinn’s place. I want you to go there and start interviewing neighbors, see if any of them saw Elizabeth and a little boy get onto a blue-and-white power yacht. I’m looking for anything that can identify the yacht. It might be a wasted trip for you but I could use your help.”

  “Right. Is this an official investigation?”

  “Not yet, so play it low-key.”

  Griffin agreed, and Beau quickly gave him directions to Harbor View. It would take his partner an hour to get there but he had to admit it felt good to have someone watching his back.

  He continued scanning for any other blue-and-white yachts on the water as he dialed Sheffield’s private number. He didn’t expect anyone to answer so he was surprise when the judge himself picked up after four rings.

  “Yes?”

  Beau paused, not sure what to do now. If the judge was at home to answer the phone then he hadn’t taken Elizabeth and Alex.

  That left Leigh—or someone else completely unknown.

  What motive would the judge’s daughter have to abduct Elizabeth and Alex? Did she know about her new half brother?

  He cleared his throat. “This is Beau Riley.”

  There was a long pause on the other end where he guessed the judge was trying to figure out why he might be calling him at home.

  “Yes, Detective Riley.” Though puzzled, he sounded cordial enough, not like a person with something to hide. “How may I help you?”

  “You can tell me if your daughter is home.”

  He could practically hear the temperature in the judge’s voice plummet several degrees. “Leigh? What business do you have with my daughter?”

  “It’s, ah, personal.”

  Beau winced as soon as the words left his mouth. It would be entirely too easy for someone to misconstrue such a statement to mean he had a personal involvement with the barracuda. Last the judge knew, Beau and Elizabeth were hot and heavy. He probably wouldn’t be too thrilled at the idea of Beau sniffing around his daughter now.

  “I’m afraid Leigh is not at home right now.” Sure enough, Sheffield’s voice was positively frigid. “I shall certainly give her a message that you called.”

  He had never been less in the mood for diplomacy. “Where is she?”

  The judge bristled. “I don’t believe I like your tone, Detective. What business is it of yours?”

  “Look, I need to know, did Leigh take her new yacht out this afternoon? It’s important.”

  Sheffield paused for a moment. “Yes. At least that’s what she told our housekeeper.”

  “What color and make is the yacht?” Beau asked urgently, his mind spinning with grim possibilities.

  “Unless you explain to me what this is about, I don’t think I need to give you that information.”

  He ground his teeth. Damn it, he did not have time for this. “It’s about Elizabeth Quinn and your son.”

  “My…son?”

  “Yes. Your kid, Alex Hidalgo. I have reason to believe he and Elizabeth might be in trouble. They’ve disappeared.”

  “And you think Leigh and her new yacht might have something to do with it?”

  He hoped not. He sincerely hoped not. “I don’t know.” He paused then plowed ahead. “Can you tell me if your daughter knew about your affair with Tina?”

  The judge said nothing for several seconds, then he sighed heavily. “Since you already appear to know so much about my personal business, I don’t see any point in denying it. Yes. She knew. I told her as soon as I found out about Alex.”

  “I don’t imagine she was too thrilled about it.”

  “Leigh can be…difficult. She was mortified about the whole mess, and with good reason. I’m sorry but I still don’t understand how you think any of this might be linked to Elizabeth and Alex going missing.”

  Leigh had as much motive as her father to permanently silence Tina. How did he tell a man his daughter had just risen to the top of a pretty small list of murder suspects?

  “Luisa Hidalgo saw them go onto a yacht this afternoon, then they vanished without a word to her about where they were going, very unusual for Elizabeth. I need you to give me the identifying detail of Leigh’s yacht. Call numbers, color, make. Anything you know.”

  “You think they might be with Leigh?”

  The judge’s outrage was really starting to get on his nerves. “Look, Sheffield, Tina Hidalgo didn’t commit suicide. She was murdered. Up until now, you’ve been the chief suspect but I’m beginning to think we may have been wrong. Elizabeth and Alex could be in danger.”

  “Are you saying you think Leigh killed Tina?” The judge’s voice rose. “And that now she’s planning to hurt Elizabeth and Alex? That’s ridiculous! Completely ludicrous.”

  “Maybe so.” Beau’s voice hardened. “But if you don’t help me and I find out your daughter is involved—if I find out she has managed to hurt Elizabeth or Alex in any way before I can get to them—I’m coming after you, Sheffield.”

  Silence met his harsh promise, then after several beats the judge spoke quietly, his tone subdued. “I think you’re completely wrong but I don’t see the harm in giving you the information you want. My daughter’s yacht is a thirty-six-foot Piazzo. It’s blue and white with a flybridge and a secondary mast. It goes by the name Minx and the call letters are alpha charlie four-niner-two.”

  He paused. “Find them, Detective. Please.”

  “I intend to,” Beau vowed, and severed the connection.

  * * *

  I want to go home now, Alex signed, a petulant look on his face. I’m hungry.

  I know, she answered. We’ll go home soon.

  Please, God. But first she had to figure out a way out of this. While the yacht’s powerful motors carried them ever closer to what she feared would be their doom, Elizabeth continued her search of the stateroom, looking for any kind of weapon.

  Oh, there were drawers full of skimpy lingerie and sex toys of all shapes and sizes. She wasn’t sure she would ever be able to stop blushing from having to look through them all. But unless she could figure out some way to turn a bustier and a vibrator into a slingshot of some kind, they were in serious trouble.

  She had found some handcuffs that might be useful if she could somehow figure out a way to distract Leigh while she took that deadly looking gun away from her.

  She hated this! The only thing she wanted to do was climb into that bed and pull the covers over her head, pretend this was just some hideous dream. All her insecurities loomed huge and insurmountable in her mind. She couldn’t possibly be smart enough to outwit Leigh.

  Leigh was quick and bright and clever and she was awkward, tongue-tied Elizabeth.

  But she had to be strong, had to think of something. Alex had no one else to help him but her, poor thing.

  Fighting back her fear for the hundredth time, she continued searching through the stateroom, aware with each passing second that she was running out of time.

  Perhaps an hour after she’d pretended to be sick, the yacht’s motors suddenly, ominously, fell silent.

  Oh, dear heaven.

  This was it.

  Panic threatened to crowd out any rational thought but she somehow managed to order herself to keep it together.
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br />   Alex, I need you to listen to me, she signed rapidly. Go into the bathroom. Lock the door. Climb into the tub and lie down.

  She remembered reading that in a novel once, about a way to avoid bomb debris and flying bullets. If she failed and Leigh shot her, at least Alex would have that little extra protection. Maybe, by some miracle, that would give him enough time to be rescued.

  She would be damned if she would make it easy for Leigh to get to the boy.

  Don’t come out for anything until I say it’s okay, she signed. It’s a game, okay? Like hide and seek. You have to promise me.

  He nodded, and she suddenly remembered that he wouldn’t be able to hear her tell him to unlock the door. When I want you to come out, I’ll pass my ring under the door, she signed. As soon as you see it, you can unlock the door. Come on, I’ll show you how to lock it.

  She still didn’t have more than a half-formed plan, but as she led him to the bathroom, she gathered the few paltry weapons she’d found earlier—the handcuffs, a can of aerosol hair spray from the bathroom, one of the heavy lamps she had spent twenty minutes trying to unbolt from a bedside table.

  As weapons went, they weren’t much but she didn’t have too many other options here.

  You can’t do this, the nasty voice of self-doubt whispered in her ear. She’s smarter and stronger than you’ll ever be.

  Elizabeth drew a shaky breath. Maybe Leigh was more clever but she had far more to lose. Alex was counting on her and she couldn’t fail him. Besides, she had the element of surprise on her side. Judging by their past history together, Leigh probably expected her to sit meekly by and not even whisper a single objection while the bitch killed them both.

  Adrenaline pumped through her as she helped Alex secure the head door. She gripped her paltry weapons and stood on the balls of her feet by the door leading into the salon.

  She didn’t have long to wait. A few moments later she heard the sound of footsteps descending below deck, then a key turned with agonizing slowness in the lock.

  You can do this. You can do this, she chanted to herself, her pulse as loud as a roaring waterfall in her ears. Finally, after what seemed an eternity where the entire world condensed to the twist of a key, the door opened, and Leigh peeked her head inside the room, that evil-looking gun in her hand and her features twisted into a smirk.

  “Ready or not, here I come,” she said.

  Elizabeth took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the door, held out the hairspray just inches from Leigh’s face and sprayed as hard as she could.

  As a distraction, it worked perfectly. Taken off guard, Leigh shrieked and coughed and threw her hands—including the one holding the gun—up to her eyes. That gave Elizabeth a few extra seconds to drop the can of hairspray and use both hands to wield the heavy lamp high over her head. She brought it down as hard as she could, gasping as it connected with Leigh’s head with a hollow, sickly thud.

  An instant later the other woman crumpled to the ground like an inflatable punching bag with a big puncture, the gun loosely clutched in her outstretched hand.

  Her breath came in hard, sharp huffs as Elizabeth gazed at Leigh’s limp form in stunned disbelief. It worked! It actually worked!

  They were safe!

  Well, almost. She still had to figure out a way to get them off the water and onto solid ground.

  With her knees wobbling and her stomach churning, she managed to take the gun away from Leigh and gingerly moved it out of reach, then she handcuffed a dazed, half-conscious Leigh to one of the bolted-down legs of the bed. It occurred to her that Leigh might know how to unlock the handcuffs without a key so she rooted through the X-rated drawers again and came up with several other useful restraint devices—ropes, velvet-lined ties and a handy leather whip.

  And Leigh had called her naughty.

  By the time she tied them around her hands and feet, Leigh was rendered completely immobile.

  Elizabeth spent a few moments trying to catch her breath, her muscles aching now as her adrenaline level crashed, then she slipped her ring under the bathroom door to signal Alex to open it.

  It took him a few tries but just as she was trying to figure out if she had any strength left to bust down the door, he managed to unlock it and stood in the doorway, a proud grin on his little face.

  I waited, just like you told me, he signed.

  Yes you did. You’re such a good boy. With a strangled cry of relief, she scooped him into her arms and held him tight, pressing her mouth to the curve of his neck that smelled of sunshine and little-boy sweat.

  They were safe! And she—stupid, stammering Elizabeth Quinn—had taken on her devil and won.

  CHAPTER 18

  “I don’t care about your damn policy and procedure,” Beau ground out into his cellular phone. “The lives of a woman and a child may be in jeopardy, and you want to sit there on your can.”

  “I’m sorry, Detective.” The uptight Coast Guard lieutenant he had been transferred to after three underlings wouldn’t budge. “We have to follow protocol, just as you are bound by constitutional protections in law enforcement.”

  She spoke patiently, like a parent talking to a particularly obtuse child. It was all he could do not to throw the phone overboard in frustration.

  “We can’t simply board a boat without some evidence that a crime has been committed or is about to be committed,” the lieutenant went on. “If you can provide that, we will of course be happy to assist the metro police in any way we can.”

  “Can you at least try to raise the Minx on the radio again?”

  “We’ve tried repeatedly. If the boat is indeed underway, anyone at the controls should have been monitoring Channel 16. They would have to have heard us by now and should have responded. I’m sorry, Detective. I don’t think there’s anything else we can do to help you. At this time, we are advising all recreational watercraft to find safe harbor as another storm is rapidly moving into the area.”

  Yeah, he kind of figured that out by the three-foot swells rocking the Mari like an amusement park ride on steroids. He shouldn’t even be out on the Sound, not alone and not at night when he had no sure destination. He was breaking just about every single one of his personal standards of intelligent boating.

  All he needed was to hit a log or some other piece of floating debris he couldn’t see in the dark to jam his prop or even sink her.

  He knew the dangers, but he couldn’t leave. Not while Elizabeth and Alex were still out there facing those same dangers and much worse.

  “Again, Detective, we strongly recommend that you find safe harbor as soon as possible.”

  “Thanks for the advice,” he growled, and hung up the phone in frustration.

  He was on his own out here and realized he had no clue what to do next. He didn’t know the first place to look for them, had no idea how to even identify Leigh Sheffield’s yacht, and as the Coast Guard officer pointed out, he really had no clear evidence they were even on her yacht with her.

  For the first time, he wondered what he would do if he failed, if he wasn’t able to find them. A hollow, painful fear like nothing he’d ever experienced burned in his gut. The idea of a world without Elizabeth’s sweet smile and little Alex’s eager giggle was unendurable.

  He loved them both. The strength of it didn’t scare him anymore. He was only scared he would never have a chance to tell Elizabeth. He had to find them. He wouldn’t even consider the alternative.

  He picked up the VHF microphone. “Mari to Minx. Mari to Minx,” he said into the mike. “Come in, Minx.”

  Pick up, damn it.

  He wasn’t sure how long he kept on calling them while he battled the storm and the current. His valiant little cruiser had just crested a pretty big one and plunged down the other side when he heard something different on the channel, a woman’s hesitant voice.

  “Hello? M-mayday. Mayday.”

  He froze, his heart in his throat. That sure sounded a hell of a lot like Elizabeth.
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  The channel went instantly quiet as all watercraft within range waited to hear the distress call.

  “Station calling, this is Coast Guard Group Seattle. What is your vessel location and the nature of your problem. Go ahead.”

  “I don’t know the location. I’m alone out here and I don’t…I don’t know what to do.”

  “Roger. Station calling, this is Coast Guard Group Seattle. Identify yourself. Go ahead.”

  “I think the boat’s name is the Minx. I know I’m supposed to give you the…” There was a long pause and then the woman’s voice went on. “The c-call letters but I’m sorry. I don’t know what they are.”

  Beau knew he should let the Coast Guard handle the situation. As a civilian boater, he wasn’t supposed to do anything but monitor Channel 16 when another boat in the area was in crisis, but he couldn’t stay silent. That was Elizabeth out there and she sounded frantic. He picked up the mike and spoke urgently into it.

  “This is Mari. Elizabeth? Sweetheart, where are you? Over.”

  He heard only a crackle of static and his heart stopped, afraid he’d lost her, then she spoke again. “B-Beau? Is that you?”

  “This is Mari. Yeah, it’s me. What’s happening? Are you hurt?”

  “No. I…I’m okay.”

  “What about Alex?”

  “He’s fine too. Scared and hungry but fine.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t see any landmarks I recognize. Everything is dark.”

  “What about the GPS? Remember when I showed you how to read it?”

  “Coast Guard Group Seattle. Mari,” a male voice spoke up tersely. “Cease transmissions immediately and let us handle this.”

  “Coast Guard, this is Mari. Detective Beau Riley speaking, Seattle police. This is a police matter. Call your Lieutenant Hershner and she can explain everything. Mari to Minx, Elizabeth, where’s Leigh?”

  He thought he heard something about her being handcuffed in the stateroom but he thought it must have been static. “Are you in danger? Go ahead.”