Christmas Conspiracy

by Susan Sleeman

  “I’m sorry, but you won’t be able to go to the center,” the detective said. “It’s a crime scene. Only official personnel are allowed inside, and it will remain closed during the initial investigation.”

  “Closed?” Rachael asked. “For how long?”

  “We won’t know for sure. I can give you a better estimate later in the day.”

  “Then it’s even more important for me to get going and find a way to contact the parents. Many of them are low-income and can’t afford to miss even a day of work, and I need to help them find alternative care. I also have to notify my state licensing representative, who will need to complete her own investigation.” Rachael swung her legs over the edge of the bed and nearly tumbled to the floor.

  Jake grabbed her arm to steady her. Warmth from his touch rushed up her arm. Shocked at her response, she pulled her arm free.

  He met her gaze and held it. “It’s admirable to want to take care of these people, but it’s not wise to leave before the doctor releases you.”

  “He’s already given the okay. I’m just waiting for the nurse to take out my IV and bring my papers.” She raised her chin to show her sincerity in helping her families. “The parents must be frantic over what’s happened. Can’t I at least pick up my iPad so I can call them?”

  Jake turned to his fellow deputy. “What if, after Ms. Long answers your questions, I accompany her to the center and keep an eye on her while she gathers any information she needs?”

  Detective Hunter arched a brow, watching Jake like a hawk. She didn’t look happy with him. “I’ll have to check with our forensic team, but if they’ve processed the office, then that should be fine.”

  He turned his focus back to Rachael. “Our questions won’t take long.”

  The detective leaned against the wall, appearing casual and at ease, but her eyes were sharp and direct. “You seem especially fond of Kelly. Do you have a connection to her other than as the center director?”

  “Connection?” Rachael thought about it as she planted her feet on the floor to test her strength. “I’m fond of all the children at the center. In fact, I take care of some of them at my house when their parents have to work outside the normal center hours. I guess I care for Kelly more often than most, so I might be a bit more protective of her.”

  Detective Hunter flashed a knowing look at Jake, who gave an almost imperceptible shrug.

  “But today you chose to watch Kelly at the center,” the detective said.

  “It just made more sense to have Pam bring Kelly to the center as they live nearby. She’d have to take several buses to get to my house. Plus Pam would have dropped Kelly at my house right when I’d have to leave to open the center.”

  “Why don’t you tell us what happened this morning,” he said. “Every detail.”

  Rachael would rather not have to rehash all of the details, but she had to do everything she could to make sure they caught this creep. “The day started out crazy. Pam has been late for work a few times because we don’t open until six thirty. So this week, I’ve been opening at six so she can get to work on time. I should mention that my center is licensed by the state, and I am required to operate within my posted hours. So by opening at six, I violated my licensing agreement.”

  “And yet you did so,” Skyler said.

  “Yes, for Pam,” Rachael said. “But you should also know if the schedule needed to continue beyond this week, I would have called my licensing rep and asked to change my hours. Also when my teacher was late and Pam needed to get to work, I should have made Pam wait, as licensing regulations require two staff members be on-site when children are present.”

  Rachael paused and looked away. “You must think I’m a terrible person, but I strive to follow the rules, and I realize I made a mistake. It’s not an excuse, but I did it for Pam and Kelly. If Pam lost her job, she would have to apply for government subsidies and that could be endangered by her past drug use. She’s afraid she would lose custody of Kelly. That wouldn’t be good for either of them.”

  “What will happen when licensing learns of your actions?” Jake asked.

  “I don’t know. Since I’ve never had a violation before, I hope they’ll give me the benefit of the doubt.”

  “Let’s hope so,” Jake said.

  “So you took Kelly,” Skyler said, moving them back to the incident.

  “Since she was sleeping, Pam laid her in the crib, and then she went to work.” At the thought of precious Kelly lying there oblivious to the masked man, Rachael’s voice caught, but she forced down the anguish, just as she did whenever she thought of the child she’d lost in a miscarriage.

  Detective Hunter raised an eyebrow. “I don’t pretend to know anything about child care centers, but it seems odd to me that even if one teacher was late, there weren’t other teachers present.”

  “That’s typical for us. Staffing is the largest expense in child care, and very few children arrive when the center opens. To save on staffing dollars we combine all age groups when we open, and ramp up the staffing as the morning progresses. My next teacher was due in at seven.”

  “I’ll need to see your time cards to confirm this is the norm.”

  Rachael couldn’t imagine why the detective had to confirm that, but she had nothing to hide. “I can get them for you once I’m allowed back in the center.”

  The detective jotted down a few notes on a small notepad, then looked up. “So, you were alone in the room with Kelly. What happened next?”

  “I was putting fresh sheets on the other mattresses when a masked man pried the door open and pointed a gun at me.”

  “I noticed you have an alarm system at the center. Didn’t this set off an alarm?”

  She shook her head. “During times when children are present, we turn off the burglar alarm for the building. The front door remains locked for safety reasons. During open hours, each parent has a code to enter on a keypad to gain access through the front door.”

  “This keypad is only at the main entrance?”

  “That’s right. When I arrive, the first thing I do is turn off the burglar alarm, and then, when I’m ready to open, I activate the parent controls at the front door.”

  “Okay, the man is in the baby room and holding a gun on you,” the detective continued. “What does he do next?”

  “He told me he was going to take Kelly, and he threatened to hurt me if I didn’t cooperate. I tried to protect her, but he overpowered me. He gave me that shot, and I fought him off. I don’t know what happened after the drug took effect.”

  “You fought hard,” Jake added. “You should be proud of the way you stood up for Kelly.”

  Her ribs ached from the man’s grip, and her arms were bruised from trying to escape, but only she and the intruder could possibly know that he had manhandled her.

  She eyed Jake. “How do you know what happened?”

  “We accessed your center’s closed-circuit video.”

  “Oh, right. The video. I should have thought of that.”

  “You have quite a system.” An accusation of some sort lingered in the detective’s tone.

  “I installed it for parents to be able to check on their children any time of the day. They can all log in to view a live feed.” She shook her head. “Thankfully there wasn’t a reason for any of them to watch this morning.”

  Jake pulled a chair up to her bed. A hint of his musky aftershave drifted over, and she peered at him. This close, she could see striations of black and gold in his eyes, and she couldn’t pull her gaze free.

  “Forget I’m a deputy,” he said softly. “I’m just Jake. The guy who held your hand in the ambulance. I’m sorry we have to question you after all you’ve been through. It’s just routine. We’ll make this as quick and painless as possible. Then I’ll give you a ride to your cente
r.”

  Detective Hunter pointedly cleared her throat.

  Rachael suspected Jake was breaking the rules of questioning, or maybe he didn’t care about the rules but truly wanted to help her through a difficult time. Either way, the detective didn’t seem to like it.

  “We were unable to see the intruder’s face on the video,” he continued. “But I know you ripped off his mask. Can you describe him?”

  “Other than getting to see Kelly and Pam and talking to my center families, I’ve thought of little else, but I can only call up a vague image of his face. It’s too fuzzy to see in detail. I do remember his eyes though...his eyes and his breath.”

  “Go on,” Jake encouraged her.

  “His eyes were mean and hard. Like he enjoyed hurting us. They were gray, almost black. His breath was minty fresh, like a man who takes good care of himself.” She paused to calm her nerves. “I know it’s a weird thing to remember, but I didn’t expect a kidnapper to have good hygiene.”

  Detective Hunter pushed off the wall and stepped forward. “Since you’re the only one who can identify him, I need you to keep trying to picture his face.”

  “What about one of the neighbors?” Rachael asked. “Or someone on the street, or the person who called 911? Maybe they saw him before he put on his mask.”

  “Deputies are canvassing the neighborhood right now, but the woman who called this in didn’t see his face.”

  “Go back earlier in your day,” Jake said, changing the subject. “On your way to work, or even in the last few days, did you notice anything out of the ordinary?”

  “Like I said, I expected to see my teacher waiting for me in the parking lot, but she wasn’t there. She called to tell me she had a flat tire and had to take the bus.” Guilt crowded out other thoughts, and Rachael bit down on her lip.

  “What is it?” Jake asked.

  “If I’d waited for her to get there before letting Pam go, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”

  “If an armed man wanted Kelly,” Jake said, “he would’ve taken her even with two people present, and something bad could have happened to Ms. Baldwin or your teacher.”

  “Unless, of course, Ms. Baldwin is involved in this somehow,” Detective Hunter said.

  “Pam? Involved? But why? She has full custody of Kelly. She has no need to kidnap her.”

  “You mentioned that she had a past drug problem. Maybe she started using again and needed money,” the detective said bluntly.

  “No.” Rachael shook her head hard. The room spun, so she waited for it to still before continuing. “Pam is clean, and if you think she’d fake a kidnapping to sell Kelly to someone, you’re wrong. Pam loves Kelly, and she’s a good mother. She’d never hurt her child.”

  The detective fixed her eyes on Rachael. “What about you?”

  Rachael swiveled to face her directly. The room swam, but she grabbed the arm of Jake’s chair. “You think I’m involved in Kelly’s attempted kidnapping? That’s unbelievable. I would never do that. Never. Not in a million years.”

  Jake stood. “I think this is enough for now.”

  Rachael shot him a look. “You think I did this, too?”

  “I—” Jake said, but the door opened and the nurse entered, taking his attention.

  She didn’t seem to notice the tension in the room, but smiled and marched across the small space. “Let’s take that IV out so you can get going.” The nurse cocked an eyebrow at Jake and the detective. “If you’ll excuse us...”

  “I’ll wait in the hall to give you a ride to the center,” Jake said.

  Rachael nodded, but she wasn’t sure if she should be glad for his help or concerned about spending more time with him. Especially if he thought her capable of kidnapping an innocent little baby.

  THREE

  Jake hated leaving Rachael behind, but he stepped into the hallway anyway, the Christmas music playing overhead barely registering as Rachael lingered in his thoughts.

  Skyler followed him from the room, grabbed his sleeve and pulled him out of the bustle of hospital staff scurrying down the hallway. They must have made a sight, the small, slender woman dragging him across the hall. People often took one glance at her stature and girl-next-door look, and then underestimated her skills as a law enforcement officer.

  She planted her hands on her hips and glared up at him. “What’re you doing? You want to sabotage this case before it begins?”

  He’d expected her to pounce the minute they’d entered the hallway. She was fierce at her job and worked tirelessly to close her cases. He owed it to her to do a better job of containing his feelings and not getting in her way.

  Still, he would voice his opinion. “I told you before. I’m not liking Rachael for this.”

  “I’ll ignore the fact that you’re choosing to call her Rachael instead of Ms. Long, but physically holding her hand? That’s going a little far, isn’t it?” Skyler sharpened her gaze, and he felt like a suspect under her watchful eye in an interrogation room.

  “She was worried, and I helped her through it,” Jake said to downplay his role that had gone beyond professional.

  Law enforcement officers held victims’ hands all the time, but he knew in his heart that he didn’t take her hand for that reason. They had a connection and he wanted to offer her comfort.

  His need to protect her had hit him the minute he’d seen her on the video when she’d bravely stood in front of a gunman, risking her life for a helpless baby. It took a strong woman to stand up to such a threat, and yet, at that moment and even later, he’d seen an extreme vulnerability in her eyes. He wanted to do whatever it took to help her.

  Maybe when the medic asked if they could call anyone for her, and Jake had learned that she had no one, he’d wanted to make sure she had support. Or maybe he’d transferred his thing for protecting kids onto her. But as a law enforcement officer, especially a supervisor who should set an example for others, he had to step back, put up a professional wall and not let her distress get to him.

  And, of course, Skyler picked up on that.

  “You better make sure that’s all it is,” she continued. “Because despite what we think about Ms. Long, she has to remain a suspect. Especially since she admitted to a special bond with Kelly, and she often takes care of her. Maybe she thinks since her husband died, she’ll never have a child of her own. Maybe she thinks she’d be a better mother than Ms. Baldwin, that she’d be doing Kelly a favor by taking her.”

  “If that’s the case, she wouldn’t go about it in such a violent way, and she certainly wouldn’t risk being drugged.”

  “Maybe not, but unless you stop with the whole protective thing and allow me to question her thoroughly, we won’t get anywhere in this case.”

  “Did you consider the fact that as a child care director, she couldn’t possibly have a sketchy past? Not with the way child care workers are vetted in Oregon.”

  “Be that as it may, I need to do a thorough job, and you’re getting in my way of finding this creep.” The color in her face drained away, and she looked like she might be ill.

  “Are you okay?”

  She grabbed the wall and took long breaths as she ran a hand over her face. “I’m fine, and let’s not change the subject. I need your help, Jake. Not your interference.”

  Jake leveled his gaze on her. “When the nurse is finished, we’ll talk to Rachael again.”

  “No, I’ll talk to her.” Skyler raised her shoulders, which she often did to make herself seem bigger, but one hand lingered on the wall. “You may be my supervisor on the team, but you have no say in my detective duties, and you’ll stay out here.”

  Jake smiled wryly at Skyler putting him in his place. “I’ll come with you, but you can do all the talking.”

  “It’s best if I go in alone.”
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br />   He knew he should stand down. Take off. Leave Rachael behind as he did with victims on all other callouts, but he couldn’t make his feet head in the opposite direction. He could temper his actions, though, and move closer to toeing the official line.

  “Tell you what,” he said. “I’ll find out where Rachael keeps her iPad, and then, while you question her, I’ll head over to the center to pick it up so she can make her calls. When you’re finished, I’ll escort her home and stay with her until we can assign a protection detail.”

  Skyler’s gaze didn’t lighten up. “I know the kidnapper said he would kill her, but do you think he’ll keep coming after her?”

  “It didn’t sound like an idle threat. As long as we aren’t showing up at his door to arrest him, he has to know we haven’t identified him, giving him a chance to stop her from doing so now or accusing him in a trial.”

  “You’re right. She needs protection.”

  He held out his hand. “Then we have a deal?”

  “Deal.” She sounded reluctant but shook his hand.

  “Let me just tell Rachael about the change in plans, and she’s all yours.”

  As they stepped to the door, Skyler’s phone rang. “I need to take this, but I’ll make it quick.”

  He pushed through the door and found Rachael lying back on the bed, her eyes closed. He studied her face, the high cheekbones and long eyelashes lying on them. Her face hadn’t regained much color, and her breathing still seemed shallow. He wished she would wake up so he could get a read on how well she was coping before Skyler came into the room.

  The wish mimicked the one he’d made at the US embassy in Nairobi. A wish for his parents and his younger sister and brother.

  Even in twenty-plus years, the incident hadn’t faded from his memory. He could still hear the earth-rending explosion, feel the ground rumbling under his feet and taste the dust filling the air. He’d been only thirteen, but in that instant, he knew his family was in trouble. He’d charged down the road only to learn the rubble trapped his family, and he could do nothing to help. He hadn’t been there when they’d needed him, and the bomb ensured they wouldn’t ever wake up again.