Hero in the Nick of Time

by Marie Ferrarella

  He was the type, she thought. Like a swan, or an elephant, Cade Townsend struck her as the type of person who committed himself for life to a single soul mate.

  She was being hopelessly romantic. Or hopelessly naive, she thought, upbraiding herself.

  Turning in her seat, she pounced on him the second he broke off the connection. Mac knew without being told that whatever had gone on between them had to do with Heather. “What did she say?”

  Instead of answering her immediately, Cade got out of the car and opened the rear passenger door. As she twisted in her seat to watch, he got into the back seat and opened up the briefcase he’d brought on the plane with him. He took out a notebook computer and the smallest printer she had ever seen. Moving with practiced speed, Cade hooked up the printer to his cell phone.

  He still hadn’t answered her. “Are you setting up an office back there?”

  He glanced at the back seat. He was perched on the edge to make room for the electronic hardware.

  “Something like that Megan got in contact with someone she knew from the bureau-” he glanced up “—Megan used to be a special agent with the FBI. They found some prints in the ambulance.”

  She held her breath, not sure where this was going, only that it had to help. “And?”

  He knew this was going to disappoint her. Double-checking, he read the screen. “No criminal record, but there was a fairly clear thumbprint she managed to check out with the DMV. At least we have a name. And a real photograph.” Which, in the long run, was more important than a name the woman could change whenever the whim hit her.

  As he filled Mac in, the printer suddenly came to life, making far more noise than its size would have warranted. Within moments, they had a somewhat blurred reproduction of a driver’s license photograph.

  Holding it aloft, he said to Mac, “Meet Shirley Lambert.” He leaned forward, offering the photograph to her as his printer began working on a second page. “That may or may not be her real name, but at least it was when she got this license. It’s expired now, but Megan used her social security number from her file to trace her to Phoenix, where she seems to be currently living. At least it gives us somewhere to start.”

  Closing everything up again, he got out and returned to the front seat.

  Mac stared at the photograph. Shaking her head, she handed the photograph back to him.

  “The paramedics were right. If this woman approached me, I wouldn’t have thought twice, either. She looks like the soul of propriety.” She paused, pressing her lips together. “You’re right, you know. This has the feeling of being bigger than just Heather’s kidnapping.”

  “The question is, how big.” He paused, looking over the second sheet that Megan had just forwarded to him. This one was on the lawyer’s background. It looked impressive. “The lawyer Shirley’s mixed up with specializes in private adoptions.” Cade skimmed over the numbers Megan had compiled for him. So many lives affected by this man. Folding the sheet, he tucked it into his pocket. “You can’t help wondering how many of those adoptions involve kids whose parents are still looking for them.”

  The implication behind his question was too vast, too horrible for Mac to contemplate. It was bad enough just thinking about Heather’s abduction. And then a thought hit her.

  “But if we think that, why haven’t the police come across them before?”

  It was a good question, but Cade had no answers. “Maybe there hasn’t been anything to tie them to a kidnapping before. These people aren’t amateurs.” That was clear from the lawyer’s apparent standing. “Most of the adoptions are probably aboveboard.” He considered the situation, trying to put himself in the lawyer’s shoes. “But maybe the supply dries up every so often, and Taylor and his little band have been helping it along just enough to keep it moving.” He sighed, looking toward the building. “There’s no telling how long it might have been going on.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  “We stay here a little longer to see if our lady friend shows up.” He knew she didn’t like that. But if the woman showed up, there might be a strong chance that she could lead them back to Heather, or at least to the next step in finding her. “If not, we check out her address.” He had a feeling it was bogus. “And we have a conversation with Lieutenant Graham Redhawk.”

  It sounded like a great deal of wheel-spinning to her. “And that’s all?”

  There was something else Cade was working on in the back of his mind, something that was a little bit more intricate than what he’d just proposed to her. But he didn’t want to talk about it until it was time. “No, but it’s a start.”

  Mac shifted in her seat. Frowning, she sighed. “I guess walking in and beating the information out of him is out of the question?”

  He laughed. “That’s the backup plan.” The woman certainly could never be accused of being passive. And somehow Cade found that very appealing.

  Chapter 8

  “Kane called and told me you might be stopping by,” Lieutenant Graham Redhawk said as he ushered Mac and Cade into an empty office.

  “I’m Dr. McKayla Dellaventura. Heather’s my niece.” She was getting ahead of herself again, Mac thought. “Did Kane also tell you what this was about?”

  Gray nodded. “Dirty business,” he agreed heartily without waiting for the sentiment to be expressed aloud. “How can I help you?”

  “Officially?” Mac wanted to be perfectly clear about just what sort of help they could expect, if any. In her experience, anything official came wrapped up in miles of sticky, impeding red tape.

  “Officially or unofficially, makes no difference as long as laws aren’t broken outright.” He studied their faces and satisfied himself as to their involvement. “Can’t think of anything worse than having your child stolen from you. No matter what the age,” he tagged on.

  Gray’s first was growing so fast these days, it was hard remembering what the boy had been like at Heather’s age.

  “How can I help?” he repeated more softly, this time looking at Mac.

  Very quickly, Cade filled Gray in on the events of the last two days, giving him all the information they had at their disposal.

  Fishing out the DMV photograph that Megan had faxed to him earlier, Cade placed it on the desk next to Gray’s thigh. “We think the kidnapper is this woman.”

  Gray picked up the rendition and carefully studied the face in the photograph. Neither the name nor the face rang any bells. “I can run her for a list of priors.”

  “She hasn’t any,” Cade told him. “At least, not under that name.”

  Gray opened the door. “No offense, but I like checking things out for myself.” Sometimes two sets of eyes help. “Maybe there’s something in our program that isn’t in yours.” He began walking out toward the receptionist. “Gretchen, would you mind running this through the system? I need this in a hurry,” he told her as the woman took the sheet.

  Graham was back in the captain’s office, about to close the door when Gretchen actually looked down at the photograph. “Why are you running Mrs. Lambert through the system?”

  Mac was on her feet instantly, crossmg to the younger woman before Gray had a chance to say anything. She grasped Gretchen by the shoulder, unconsciously afraid that this newest connection was just a product of her overly tired brain. “You know her?”

  “Well, yeah.” Pausing, Gretchen looked back down at the photograph to make sure she hadn’t made a mistake. “She’s my doctor’s nurse. His wife, actually. Her name’s Shirley Lambert, just like the license says.”

  Mac was less interested in the validity of the name than she was in what Gretchen had just said. “Doctor? What kind of doctor?”

  She stared at Mac with just a touch of apprehension. “An ob-gyn, why?” The receptionist looked from the woman to the other man and then finally at Gray. “Is something wrong?”

  Mac’s heart was hammering hard enough to leave dents in her rib cage. She looked at Cade. “Are you thinking what
I’m thinking?”

  Cade nodded. “I am if you’re thinking it’s a perfect tie-in.”

  He knew Mac had been concerned about Heather’s condition because of the accident. For the kidnapper to go to a doctor would have been difficult, arousing suspicions not easily fielded. There would be questions to answer and forms to fill out—unless there was a doctor in the organization, ready to treat any problem that came up.

  This bore further examination, Gray thought. “Gretchen, would you mind joining us for a minute?” Motioning to a chair, Gray waited for the receptionist to sit down.

  Gretchen bit an overly red lower lip. “The captain wants me to run a check on—”

  “The captain won’t be back until tomorrow morning. This will only take a minute,” Gray assured her. When she sat down hesitantly, he closed the office door. “Relax,” he counseled. “I just need a little information. Does your doctor have any areas of specialization, beside being an ob-gyn?”

  It was obvious to all three of them that Gretchen was uncomfortable with the question. She stared for a long time at a stain in the carpet. “Infertility. My husband and I wanted a large family—someday.” She directed her words at Mac, as if it was easier to talk to her than it was to Gray. “But by the time I was ready, ‘someday’ seemed to have moved on. Someone told me that Dr. Lambert practically guaranteed you a baby.” Her voice picked up a little volume as she continued. “He does a whole battery of tests, works up a profile, and then if everything he tries fails, he offers other types of assistance.”

  “Other types?” Gray prodded.

  She took a deep breath. “Fertilization outside the mother. That’s the stage Tim and I are at now.” It was obvious from her expression that she didn’t want to go into any greater detail.

  It wasn’t exactly what he was hoping to hear. Cade placed a hand on her shoulder, drawing her attention. “Do you know if he sometimes offers to help couples with private adoption arrangements?”

  “I wouldn’t know.” She looked at Gray. “Is that all? I’ve got to get back—”

  “Sure.” He opened the door for her. “Thanks for your time.”

  Almost out of the office, Gretchen suddenly turned around. Her brow was puckered as if she was trying to clarify a memory more clearly.

  “You know, now that you mention it, I do remember overhearing a conversation in the waiting room once.” Her eyes darted back and forth, unseeing, as she stared into the past. “Something about the doctor helping this woman find her a baby.” A flush of triumph colored her cheeks as she looked at Gray. “ ‘Connection with an angel,’ she called it.”

  Mac latched onto the one word that jumped out at her. “Find. ” She was at Gretchen’s side, turning her toward her. “You’re sure she used the word find?”

  Gretchen chewed into her lipstick a little further, eating away the red hue. Some of the hesitant air faded. “Pretty sure.” Her dark eyes shifted back to Gray. “What’s this all about?”

  “I’m not sure yet,” Gray told her honestly. It was best if she remained in the dark as much as possible if Lambert proved to be part of the ring. A rather ugly picture had begun forming in his head. “But add Dr. Lambert to your search for priors. And don’t say anything to anyone.”

  Looking skeptical, Gretchen hurried from the room.

  Cade waited until Gray closed the door again. “This Dr. Lambert, is there any way to find out if he has any priors anywhere in the country? Specifically if he had his license revoked in any other state.” An embittered man might find a special sort of revenge in living well after suffering that sort of humiliation, Cade thought.

  “That sort of information isn’t readily available. Like any other fraternal group, the AMA protects its own.”

  “You’d need a hacker,” Mac interjected. “Given that the information exists in some database.”

  Cade thought of Sam’s wife. If Megan couldn’t be reached, he’d place a call to Savannah. She had the ability to make computers do anything short of assuming a secret identity. And there was the added bonus of Savannah having been in exactly the same situation that Mac’s sister now found herself in. “I have access to a very good hacker,” Cade told her.

  Gray held up his hands. “I didn’t hear that.” His voice dropped. “Call whoever you have to. In the meantime, Gretchen’ll try to see if there’s anything readily available on Lambert.”

  “You could try passing his thumbprint through the system,” Mac suddenly suggested.

  He looked at her. “You have his thumbprint?”

  “No, but the California DMV might. Since his wife had a license from there as Shirley Lambert, there’s every reason to suspect the good doctor’s originally from there, too,” Mac speculated.

  It was something to start with for now. Nodding, Gray opened the door. A wall of noise immediately pushed its way in. He raised his voice. “Wait here and let me tell Gretchen.”

  Excitement coursed through Mac’s body. She felt as if she were going to leap out of her skin. The true irony of the saying “so near and yet so far” hit home. They’d gotten farther than she’d hoped, but not nearly as far as she would have liked.

  Unable to sit, she paced around the small room, stopping by the window. She was out there somewhere, her niece. One small, helpless being in a city of—how many? Too many, Mac thought with a frustrated sigh.

  She nearly jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Swallowing the yelp that rose in her throat, she swung around to find herself looking up into Cade’s eyes. Eyes like the warm waves of the Mediterranean Sea.

  “We’re making progress.” Low, soft, soothing, his voice would have been infinitely comforting under normal circumstances. For now, she appreciated the gesture and the thought that was behind it.

  “I know,” she answered. “But not fast enough. If this is a black market, if these people are dealing with stolen babies, then Heather could be anywhere by now.” She struggled not to let that thought choke the very air out of her lungs.

  “That police detective I called, Kane Madigan,” Cade began, “had his stepdaughter abducted straight out of a hospital. She’d already been placed in a home when they broke up the ring.” Without realizing it, he took her hands in his. They were icy. He clasped his hands around them, trying to warm them. “But Kane and his wife managed to track her down—with Redhawk’s help.” His eyes held hers. He was talking now to the fears that were threatening to engulf her, trying to help her hold them at bay. “It’ll be all right.”

  It was a promise, Mac realized. A promise Cade meant to keep no matter what. There was no real, logical reason to believe that he could actually deliver. It wasn’t up to him, not in the long run.

  And yet, she believed him. With her whole heart and soul. The comfort she derived from the very sound of his voice amazed her.

  “Did I just hear my name being mentioned?” Walking in, Gray pretended not to notice that he had interrupted something.

  Cade released Mac’s hands, stepping away from her and toward the police detective. “Just singing the praises that Kane sang to me about you.”

  Gray laughed under his breath. The sound was amazingly soft, given the demeanor of the man. “Well, I won’t say that Kane tends to exaggerate, because the man hardly talks unless prodded. But if there’s credit to be taken, it mainly belongs to him. The only thing I can tell you until Gretchen finishes her search is that there hasn’t been a rash of infant kidnappings here or in any of the surrounding areas.” He’d checked that out himself after talking to Kane. “There have been a couple of abductions, but nothing to lead us to believe that it was an ongoing issue.”

  It was beginning to get to her. She thought of the Web site Cade had shown her at his office yesterday afternoon. The one that was bursting at the seams with statistics on missing children.

  “Just your run-of-the-mill, ordinary kidnappings.” The bitterness in her own voice pulled her up short. She flashed an apologetic look in Gray’s direction. “I’m sorry. I’m
afraid I’m getting a little edgy.”

  “She’s had five minutes’ sleep, spread over two days,” Cade explained to Gray.

  Mac was surprised not to feel the customary flash of temper she usually experienced when someone apologized for her. She had no idea why, but hearing Cade make the excuse on her behalf made her feel as if they were a unit, something closer than just two people thrown together by circumstances for a short duration.

  Maybe she was just getting punchy again. But whatever the reason, something warm struggled to open within her.

  “Been there myself,” Gray concurred, dismissing the incident as if it never existed. “You’ll sleep when this is over, right?” he asked her.

  It was Cade who answered again. “She’d better sleep soon, or we’re all in a lot of trouble.”

  Mac started to ask him just what he meant by that, but Gretchen picked that moment to knock, poking her head in. “Sorry, nothing on Lambert or his wife.”

  “I can take a run up to their house,” Gray volunteered, but without enthusiasm. “But if these people are as sharp as we think they are, I doubt if your niece is there.”

  Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the situation, or a combination of everything, but her mind had been scrambling, linking fragments of thoughts together ever since Gretchen had mentioned seeing the doctor herself. Mac looked at Gray suddenly, only half realizing that he was talking.

  “Why don’t I go?”

  Both men looked at her. “To the house?” Gray asked.

  “No.” Trying her best to be coherent, she waved away his question. “To the doctor. To Lambert,” she stressed in case they weren’t following her. “Gretchen said he specializes m infertility. Why don’t I tell him that I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant for several years now, and—”

  There were so many things wrong with that idea, Cade didn’t know where to begin. “He’s going to want to examine you, take tests—”

  Eager, feeling as if she was finally on a positive track, Mac interrupted him. “I’ll tell him I’ve been through entire batteries of tests, and I’m tired of being poked and prodded. I’ll flatter him, lay it on thick, saying that someone told me he could put me in touch with a lawyer who—”