Deadly Deception

by Alexa Grace

  Chapter Six

  Frankie sat at one end of the long dining room table beneath the crystal chandelier and Lane sat at the other. They were facing each other, laptop to laptop, as they searched for the identity of the driver of the Lincoln Town Car. Frankie pressed the Enter button on her keyboard and nearly jumped out of her chair.

  "I've got him, Lane! David Edward Chambers."

  "Okay, let me input that name into IAFIS and see if Mr. Chambers has a record."

  "Think he'll be in there?"

  "It's the largest database in the world with the fingerprints and criminal histories for more than seventy million subjects, so there's a good chance he'll be in there if he has a record or has been in the military."

  A computer email alert beeped from Frankie's laptop prompting her to quickly close the email account she'd forgotten was open. After she'd installed the computer surveillance software on Dr. Caine's computer, she'd created a separate email account devoted to information the software gleaned. She didn't want the reminder to go off again and draw Lane's attention to the special email account. Not that he could find it, unless he was looking for it, and knew what he was looking for. She should tell him that she planted the recording device in Dr. Caine's office and installed the computer surveillance software, but she couldn't. He'd kick her off the case, and even scarier was the thought that he'd tell her Uncle Tim.

  Lane, whether he realized it or not, needed her help. So what if she occasionally went outside the box? Okay, more than occasionally. But he needed the information the two surveillance tools would provide to solve the case and put Mandy's killer away. She'd just have to figure out a way to give him the information without telling him how she got it, since she'd undoubtedly broken a couple of laws by planting the bug and installing the software. They'd just have to find a way to confirm the information so it could be used as evidence in court.

  "Got it!” Lane called from over his laptop. “David Chambers served in the military spending time on the front lines in Iraq as well as Afghanistan. In both cases, he served on the sniper team."

  "You're so lucky he missed you the night he shot at you in the woods. Does he have a record?"

  "Two instances of domestic violence, once while in the military and once after he came home. The second time he put his wife in the hospital. She must've dropped the charges because there's no record of a trial or that he served time."

  "Nice guy," Frankie said, her voice laced with sarcasm. She got out her cell phone and called the Forever Home Adoption Clinic. "Hello, I'm from the Henderson Mortgage Company and I need some information about an employee by the name of David Edward Chambers. Yes, I'll hold on to speak to someone in Human Resources."

  "What are you doing?" Lane whispered.

  "Listen and learn."

  "Hello, this is Jane Sell from the Henderson Mortgage Company, and I need a little information about your employee, David Edward Chambers so that we can complete his application. Is Mr. Chambers employed by you? He is. In what capacity? So he is a personal assistant and driver for Dr. Caine? How long has he been employed by Dr. Caine? Ten years? That's a long time. One last question, how much did Mr. Chambers earn last year? $210,000? Well, I think that is all the information we need. Thank you very much. You have a good day."

  "Personal assistant? He makes $210,000? Give me a freaking break. The guy's a hired gun."

  Frankie rolled her eyes and shook her head in disgust. "Yeah, and you just have to wonder how far this guy will go to protect Caine's interests. He doesn't seem the kind of guy afraid to get his hands dirty. But would he kill for him?"

  Jennifer cleared her throat at the nurses' station to get the attention of one of the two nurses glued to their computer screens. The nurse in the stork print scrubs moved to the counter.

  "I'm looking for the young woman who was in Room 323C. Her name is Ally Black. She had a baby girl last night."

  "Sure, let me look it up." She moved back to her computer and pushed a couple of keys on her keyboard. Soon, she looked back at Jennifer. "It looks like she checked out this morning." This confirmed the information she'd already gotten from the nurse's aide changing the sheets in Ally's room.

  "What about her baby girl? Where is she?"

  After she clicked through a couple of screens, the nurse said, "I'm sorry. I can't give you any information about the baby due to the patient privacy laws."

  Jennifer nodded and walked to the waiting room to sit down and think. She'd had a sleepless night waiting for Ally to show up at the apartment. Why didn't she come back for her things? Where was she? How was she going to find her? She pulled her cell phone from her purse and dialed the number for the Forever Home Clinic and asked to talk to a nurse.

  "I'm looking for one of your patients, Ally Black. She checked out of the hospital last night and I can't find her."

  "What did you say your name was?"

  She hadn't given her name, but offered it now, "Jennifer Brennan. I'm a patient too."

  "Jennifer, I cannot release patient information to you. I'm sorry."

  Moving toward the elevator, Jennifer slammed the cell phone back into her purse and pushed the button for the parking garage. Just as she slid in to the driver's seat of her car, her phone rang.

  "This is David Chambers from Forever Home Adoption Agency. I'm the personal assistant to Dr. Caine. Do you remember me? We met yesterday in Ally Black's room."

  She remembered him all right. He was the man who gave her the creeps. "Hello, Mr. Chambers."

  "Call me David. I just learned from our head nurse that you have some questions about Ally Black. Maybe I can help you."

  "I'm looking for Ally. She's checked out of the hospital, and she didn't come back to the apartment last night. All her things are here."

  "Well, don't worry about Ally. She's just fine. In fact, I just talked to her. She's staying with her father at his condo at Flagler Beach in Florida."

  "Really?" He was lying. Ally's own mother didn't even know who her father was. There was no way Ally was with him.

  "Yes. They're having a great time. She said she'd be staying in Florida for at least a couple of months, maybe permanently. I'm sure she'll pick up her things from the apartment when she returns."

  "Where's her baby?"

  "Ally's baby was adopted by a couple who will give her the best home a child could want."

  "I'm surprised to hear that. Ally had changed her mind. She'd decided to keep her baby."

  There was a long pause, and then David said, "Once she had time to think about it, Ally realized she couldn't support a baby at this point in her life. She did the best thing for the child. She gave her to a loving home."

  Frankie had gone to bed early, but after an hour of tossing and turning, she flipped on the bedside lamp, grabbed her laptop and started reviewing the emails sent to and from Dr. Caine. A message of interest popped up on her screen. An email from a realtor revealed the doctor was buying a house in the Cayman Islands. She clicked on a link and a photo of the home appeared. It was a gray with white trim, two story, ocean view home with its own private beach. With water views from all rooms, a French balcony graced the second level. A patio with a hot tub jutted out from the first floor. All for 2.6 million dollars. The baby-trafficking business must be very, very profitable.

  Another email revealed a Cayman Islands bank account. Frankie jotted down the account number. She’d come up with a way of getting the information to Lane without revealing her source.

  A beep announced the arrival of a new message that Frankie immediately opened. It was to the doctor from David Chambers.

  We have a problem. Need to talk to you. Meet you at your house at midnight.

  Crap! Why couldn't they meet for this little chat in the doctor's office where she'd planted the listening device? One thing was for certain, she needed to get some listening devices into Dr. Eric Caine's home — the sooner the better.

  She looked at the clock on her bedside table. It was eleven o’cl
ock. There was still time to do surveillance out at Dr. Caine's house. She could enter through the woods then move to the window of the front room where the two usually met. She'd be able to hear the conversation. There was one big reason why she couldn't do this — Lane. What if he heard her leave and followed her? She'd be kicked off the case before she could say, "I can explain."

  Frustrated, she shoved the laptop from her lap and headed downstairs to the kitchen. With any luck, there were still a few of Lane's chocolate chunk cookies left. The man should enter the Pillsbury Bake Off with those mouth-watering morsels. She thought of Jill, a classmate at the police academy. She was sure Jill would describe Lane's cookies as being so delicious, that eating them was almost an orgasmic experience. She chuckled as she entered the kitchen. Excellent! There were about six cookies left in the clear glass cookie jar.

  Frankie went to the cabinet and pulled out a dessert plate and a glass. She plopped a couple of cookies on the plate then grabbed the milk carton from the refrigerator and poured a full glass of milk. As she closed the refrigerator door, a pair of strong arms encircled her waist then lifted her off the floor. She screamed, and then heard Lane laughing behind her as he set her back on the floor.

  "Damn it, Lane. You scared me."

  "You like my cookies, don't you?" Lane asked.

  "They're okay." Frankie backed against the counter, taking a bite out of one of her cookies. He was watching her intently and she thought she detected a flicker in his intense eyes.

  He trapped her against the counter with his hands braced on either side of her waist. He was so close she could feel his heat. The intensity in his eyes made it hard to breathe. His gaze lingered on her mouth as he slowly lowered his head to lick melted chocolate from her lower lip. A hot jolt of lust surged through her veins as he raised his head. Dropping the cookie, she snaked her arms around his neck, entangled her fingers in his hair, pulled him to her, and fully pressed her lips to his.

  He groaned and pushed his hard length against her, molding her body to his until the blood pounded down to his sex. The taste of chocolate and pure Frankie was intoxicating and he kissed her with the hunger he'd had for months. He was starving for her, and the way she kissed him back let him know she was hungry for him too.

  He lifted her slightly and felt her wrap her legs tightly around his waist, pressing against the rock-hard evidence of his arousal. His body screamed with need. If he didn't get inside her soon, he'd explode. He started to lower her to the kitchen floor, but stopped himself. He wanted her badly. But not on the kitchen floor. Not this time. He wanted this time, which really wasn't the first, to be special and be something she wouldn't easily forget. He wanted to spend the night, and the next morning too, slowly making love to her. So he headed for the stairs to get to one of the bedrooms. Only she pulled him into another passionate kiss so he gently laid her on the steps and crushed her to him. His body was on fire, a heady combination of lust and need.

  He felt her hips rock against him. He knew if he didn't get her upstairs soon, they'd never make it there.

  "Lane." Her voice was breathless.

  "Hmm."

  "It's your cell."

  He opened his eyes and looked down at her. "Baby, what did you say?"

  She slid her hand down to the back pocket of his jeans. "Your cell phone."

  "God damn it. Who calls at this hour?" He braced himself on an elbow, angrily jerked the cell phone out of his pocket, and looked at the display — Sheriff Brennan. He glanced back at Frankie, still beneath him. "It's the sheriff." He rolled over on his side. She rolled with him and stayed pressed against him.

  "Hansen."

  "Where in the hell were you and why do you sound out of breath?"

  "Sorry, sir, I left my cell phone in other room and ran when I heard it." He didn't like to lie to his boss, but he also didn't want his boss to know how close he was to breaking Rule #1 with his favorite niece.

  "Another body's been found. A farmer found it in the woods near Kramer. It was dumped very close to where Mandy Morris was left. It's a young girl, Lane."

  "Leaving now." He ended the call and shoved the phone back in his pocket. He got to his feet, pulling Frankie up with him.

  "I heard," she said, her eyes wide and dark.

  "We have to go." He was already bounding up the stairs to change his clothes and get his gun and badge.

  By the time he reached the SUV, Frankie was already sitting in the passenger seat.

  Lane slammed the vehicle into reverse to turn around, and then raced down the road toward the Interstate.

  The doorbell was so freaking loud, he thought his skull would explode at the sound. Dr. Eric Caine had had a hell of a day and a migraine raged in his head. Now David Chambers had some sort of a problem. This meant he had a problem, and he was in no mood for one. He jerked the door open and motioned for Chambers to come in.

  Chambers walked into the living room, flipped on a table lamp and sat on the sofa. "This may be nothing. Or it may be a problem."

  Dr. Caine sat on a nearby chair. "Just spit it out." Sometimes Chambers was such an idiot he didn't know why he put up with him. If Chambers didn't know so much about his operation, he'd fire his ass. And then there were the things Chambers had done for him that could send them both to prison for a long, long time.

  "I took care of..."

  "Shut the hell up. I told you, I don't want to know. You already told me it was taken care of. That's all I care about."

  "Something related to that happened today."

  "What?" The doctor rubbed his throbbing head. The dim light from the table lamp was making the pain worse.

  "Ally's roommate at the apartment, Jennifer Brennan, is asking a lot of questions."

  He remembered Jennifer Brennan with her big, brown eyes and long, blonde hair. If she were only a couple of years older. Yeah, right. Like age ever stopped him before. "What is she asking about?"

  "She wants to know where Ally is and why she didn't return to the apartment after checking out of the hospital."

  "Who's she asking?"

  "She called the clinic head nurse who told me. I called her back and told her Ally was in Florida with her father and that she may not be coming back."

  "Did she believe you?"

  "I don't know. She's suspicious. Ally told her she'd changed her mind about giving the baby away."

  "Shit! Is she asking about the baby too?" Christ! He hated complications and this could be one that could land him in prison for life.

  "Yes. Do you want me to take care of her?"

  "No, not yet. But keep an eye on her."

  Lane and Frankie arrived at the crime scene within an hour. Having slapped an old police dome light from his suitcase on the dashboard, he'd flown up the Interstate with speeds as high as 95 to 100 mph. The medical examiner and the crime scene technician vans were still parked with half a dozen sheriff cars alongside the road. Flood lights in the distance illuminated the crime scene. They were already out of their vehicle when they noticed a deputy headed toward them.

  Lane pulled out his badge and the deputy let them pass, telling them to steer clear of the dirt path where technicians were collecting evidence. They entered the woods, wading through scrub and underbrush as they followed the yellow plastic crime scene tape, careful not to add their footprints to the dirt path. They passed a crime scene tech who was making a cast of a shoeprint on the path. Soon they could see a group of men in a huddle focusing on a small body on the ground. As they approached, Sheriff Brennan raised his head, noticed Lane and Frankie, and then moved away from the group to walk toward them.

  "You got here just in time. The medical examiner is getting ready to take her back for the autopsy once the techs complete the shoe and tire print casting. He wants to do it as soon as possible. He thinks she's only been here a day or so. She looks young, younger than Mandy Morris. Can't be more than sixteen. The doc's got a daughter about her age and he's taking it bad. So keep that in mind if you ask him
any questions. He's in a nasty mood."

  "What do you think happened?" Lane asked as he brushed an insect out of his hair. He heard the buzzing of flies and knew there must be a thicket of them covering the body by now.

  "The kill wasn't clean like with Mandy Morris. It looks like her clothes are ripped by the undergrowth so she must've run from her killer. We won't know for sure until the doc finishes the autopsy. I saw the entry wound, and it was surrounded by soot, so I think the kill shot to her back was in close range and most likely went clear through her heart." He paused as two men with a stretcher passed them tramping through the brush. "Now that you're here, I'm heading back to my office. Call me when you get the autopsy results. The prosecutor will want a briefing."