by Debra Lee
“How’s it goin’, Ellie?” Reilly broke in with all smiles.
“I’m afraid my friend Louise has come down with the flu. You know it’s hitting early this year.”
Mary managed to release the hold on her breath. “So you’re going to stay with Louise then?”
“Now don’t you go worrying, I’ll be back in plenty of time to sit with Jena come Monday.” Ellie ran a hand over her overnight bag. “Got me masks and gloves right in here I’ll be wearing so I don’t bring home any nasty germs either. But you know Louise, a hard one to keep down. If I don’t go she’ll be up and about when she should be in bed.”
“You tell your friend to take care of herself. Be awful if she couldn’t play bridge next week,” Reilly commented and crossed the hall to Mary’s apartment door.
Mary lingered a few seconds longer to add her good wishes for Louise’s speedy recovery. The instant she heard Jena give out a whimper, she said a quick goodbye and hurried over to unlock the door for Reilly.
Reilly took it upon himself to make sandwiches while Mary put Jena down for her nap.
Mary smiled when she joined him in the kitchen and saw what he’d done.
Reilly pulled out a chair and motioned for her to sit. She did. As Reilly slid her chair in for her he said, “I was hungry. Hope you don’t mind?”
Mary responded with a bigger smile. She had to admit the guy had a way of always making her feel good without trying. Except of course for the short period when she was feeling uncomfortable about feeling so comfortable around him.
“Go ahead and dig in,” Reilly insisted when Mary sat staring at the pile of sandwiches he had stacked on a plate in the center of the small table.
Mary helped herself to two slices of the wheat bread stuck together with peanut butter and jelly. “You know these are my favorites.”
“We both know that’s not quite true. But your fridge is a little bare,” Reilly informed and bit into his sandwich. As he slowly chewed, he closed his eyes. “Melts in your mouth.”
“That good, huh?”
“Steak’s always good.” He opened his eyes and took another bite and closed his eyes again as he chewed.
“What are you eating now?”
His eyes remained closed when he said, “Let me see. It’s hot. Garlic. No wait.”
“I think I’ll have the peanut butter and jelly,” Mary said and bit into her sandwich.
Reilly’s eyelids flipped open and his mouth twisted with disapproval. “You’ve got to be creative here, Mare.”
“You’re the creative genius. Not me.” Reilly didn’t respond right away. Instead, he finished his sandwich in silence. But Mary sensed his mind was cooking up something. “Cat got your tongue?”
Reilly started twisting his mouth into odd looking shapes. Precisely the impression he wanted to display.
“Reilly! Reilly Jackson, stop that. Come on, you’re scaring me.”
His hands began working on his mouth. His fingers attempted to pry his lips apart. Then, as if a miracle occurred his hands dropped to the table and he acted perfectly normal when he said, “So how’s your sandwich.”
“You.”
“Got ya.”
Mary got him too when she fired a sandwich across the table hitting him in the face. “Got you back,” she said and laughed at the sight of the slice of bread sticking to the tip of his nose.
“Good one.” As he said the words he reached up and crumbled the bread into his fist before firing it back at her.
And the battle was on.
Before they were finished, pieces of bread stuck everywhere. One slice hung by a crumb from the ceiling. Reilly and Mary watched with fascination as they waited for the bread to let loose.
“Three, two, one, landing,” Reilly counted down as they witnessed the crash.
“You know, this was my first food fight,” Mary admitted, suddenly serious.
“No,” Reilly said, surprised at first. “Want another round?”
Mary exhaled. “You’ve got to be kidding. Look at this mess.”
“Wasn’t it worth it?”
Mary had to admit she had more fun than she could remember having in a very long time. Reilly stood so close to her. Close enough that Mary got a whiff of his aftershave that collided with the smell of peanut butter on his breath. And then their eyes found each others and held for a long time.
In reality though, it was only seconds before Reilly broke the stare and began picking bread crumbs from the black strands of Mary’s hair.
“I must look a sight,” Mary said and blushed.
“You are a beautiful sight, Mary Murray.” His words came in a husky whisper as his fingers slid down the side of her cheek.
Mary couldn’t breathe. She knew what was happening and it scared her. She knew Reilly sensed as much when he suddenly dropped his hand to his side and moved away from her. “I’ll have this place cleaned up in no time.”
Mary released the hold on her breath and took a moment to get a grip before pitching in to help him clean up the mess they had made.
It was almost dark outside when Reilly left Mary’s apartment building. He was completely unaware of the cold wind slapping into him.
The day had been wonderful. Partly because Jena had slept the entire afternoon away and Reilly had Mary all to himself for a change. That is if dusting, vacuuming and doing the laundry counts. They finished the chores together and had fun in the process.
Without the time out for the pillow fight in the living room they would have finished sooner. Maybe in time to do some serious talking before Jena woke. But they hadn’t and Reilly didn’t press his luck by attempting to impose on more of Mary’s time alone with Jena.
In truth though, having the baby around all morning had been rather fun for him. He was beginning to understand why she was at the center of Mary’s universe. The place he longed to be. And that brought him back to the idea he had earlier in the week. He needed more time alone with Mary.
More time than they had this afternoon. So he went back to firmly believing he had to do it. Not just for his own selfish reasons, but for Mary and Jena as well.
“Some day you will thank me for this, Mary Murray,” he said and ducked inside his car just as a few faint snowflakes swirled by.
Chapter Seventeen
Shortly after Reilly left Jena fell back to sleep, leaving Mary alone with her thoughts. Sorting through the mass of confusion is not how she wanted to end an otherwise pleasant day.
She headed for the phone in the kitchen. Before trying Carol’s number she took a moment to reflect. Decide if she was ready for one of Carol’s rants for not returning her call sooner.
It was a few nights ago when she last spoke to Carol. She promised to call her back the minute she got Jena settled down. It took longer than usual to satisfy Jena. By then Mary was so exhausted she had forgotten.
Now that she remembered, she sensed Carol was in dire need of one of their long, friend to friend talks. She hadn’t given Carol’s depressing tone a second thought. Jena needed her. Now she knew Carol had needed her too.
Mary poked in the numbers to Carol’s house phone. When the answering machine came on she hung up. It took her a minute to collect her thoughts. To decide what she’d say. Then she called Carol’s cell phone. She would apologize before Carol had a chance to say more than hello. She’d invite her over. They could order out for pizza and watch old movies. The perfect combination to make amends.
After the third ring Mary heard the recording. Instead of putting down the receiver, she waited for the sound of the beep and left a message. “Carol it’s Mare. I’m sorry. There’s no excuse for not calling you sooner. Please call me.”
Mary felt worse when she hung up. Now she had no choice but to think about Reilly and the way she was beginning to feel about him. Before she could get into any serious soul searching she heard Jena crying.
As the evening hours drifted by, Mary had become more concerned with why Carol hadn’t retur
ned her call than any serious thoughts that dealt with Reilly. Besides, Jena was wide awake, cranky and constantly needing Mary’s attention in one way or another.
When she put Jena down for her first long sleep of the night, Mary went to bed too. She crawled between the sheets thinking good thoughts about Reilly. But her dreams included Kyle.
Chapter Eighteen
The first snow storm of the season made driving treacherous. Red lights on emergency vehicles suddenly flashed up ahead. Flares lit up the highway. Teddy braked harder when the state trooper standing on the center line came into view. The trooper waved his arm and pointed toward the opposite lane from the accident. Teddy breathed more freely and moved on.
Evading detection was easy this time. Sliding into a ditch and needing to be rescued like that other driver would be a downright injustice after making it this far.
Teddy glanced over the seat to the baby. She was fastened in a child safety seat, her little head drooped over. With any luck, she’d remain asleep until Teddy left her and got clean away without being seen.
Teddy managed to reach destination within the next hour without catastrophe. Now it was done. Teddy steered the car through the small town and pulled into the gas station that had a closed sign in the front window.
Teddy picked up the cell phone from the center console and poked in the numbers.
***
On the third ring, Jim Thomas reached into the darkness for the telephone at his bedside.
“Hello,” the elderly Jim grumbled.
On the other end, “I can’t take care of her anymore.”
“What? Who is this?”
“Open your front door and save her before she freezes to death.”
The line went dead.
***
He stood at her door. A bouquet of white carnations in his hand when he announced, “I’ve come back, Mary. It’s you I want. You and Jena.”
“But I don’t like carnations.” Mary was stunned that it was her voice who spoke the words.
Then another figure wandered on stage. Reilly stepped in front of Kyle. When he opened his hand to wave, the strings attached to the bundle of balloons came loose.
Mary tossed and turned, tangling herself in the bed sheet as the balloons coasted toward her, right along with Reilly’s words. “I love you, Mare.”
In the background she heard the faint sound of Kyle’s voice. “It’s you I want, Mary.”
“No,” Mary shouted and sat up in bed, gasping for breath. What she saw when she focused gave her another scare.
The light of day was all around her. Morning. She had slept through the night for the first time in two months.
Panic set in instantly and she wrestled with the sheet tangled around her legs as she worked herself off the bed.
There wasn’t time to pull on a robe. Something was wrong. Jena slept through her three o’clock feeding or Mary had. The thought created more panic.
She forced herself to enter the nursery quietly. There was the slim possibility Jena had actually slept through the night. But the closer Mary tiptoed toward the crib, this eerie, then terrifying sensation ripped through her.
Seconds passed before the sudden shock allowed her to react to the empty crib with a spine chilling scream.
She banged into the bedroom door and stumbled over a basket of clean laundry as she ran frantically through the apartment to the door.
She had the door unchained, unbolted and unlocked in seconds and dashed across the hallway. After pounding feverishly on Ellie Webber’s door without a response from Ellie, she dashed back to her apartment.
In the nursery she checked the crib again. Her eyes could’ve been playing tricks on her.
She ripped the blanket and sheet from the mattress like a mad woman then knew it wasn’t her eyes. Jena was gone.
Mary gripped the crib railing with both hands. Her knuckles instantly faded white from her powerful hold. She sealed her eyelids shut in an effort to bring some sort of control to herself so she could think.
“Think. Come on, think,” she ordered herself.
Then it came to her. No one could have taken Jena out the apartment door. She had thrown the locks from inside. So how?
Slowly, her eyelids opened. Her head tilted toward the window. Seeing it was not all the way closed gave Mary her answer. Someone took Jena out the window to the fire escape.
Maybe, just maybe, Mary thought as she lunged to the window. When she made a quick sweep of the area all she saw was an empty set of steel stairs.
She ran to the kitchen and grabbed the phone. She poked in the numbers 911, ordering herself to calm down so when her call was answered the person on the other end of the line would understand her words.
It was apparent she hadn’t been successful when the female voice asked her to calm down and slowly repeat her address.
Once Mary heard the dispatcher accurately repeat her address she did not stay on the line as she was told to do. She had to find Jena.
This time Mary started her search in her own bedroom. Had she put Jena in bed with her during the night and forgotten?
Jena was not in Mary’s bed, nor underneath, nor anywhere else in the room. By the time Mary finished ransacking the room she heard the sirens.
She quickly pulled on jeans and a sweatshirt with time to spare before she heard the knock on her apartment door.
What began with one of the local uniformed police officer’s entering Mary’s apartment, soon became two, then three officers, each one requesting Mary explain what happened.
In the beginning she did. By the time Detective Kelly Rogers introduced himself Mary had had enough.
“Why aren’t you people out looking for her?” she shouted, her cheeks soaked from the tears.
The detective began barking out orders. Someone was told to fetch the k-9. Someone else was to lift prints. Another was to start questioning the people living in the apartment building.
Once the detective thinned out the crowded living room he turned to Mary, pulling a handkerchief from his inside jacket pocket and handing it to her before he began with the questions.
Chapter Nineteen
The female officer opened the passenger door of the police car and extended her hand in toward Mary.
Mary’s fingers closed around her slender ones and held fast to pull herself out of the cruiser.
The officer led the way into the building to the chief’s office. Mary faced the chief-of-police, who stood up from behind a tidy desk and introduced himself, then motioned for Mary to have a seat.
Mary hadn’t noticed the officer who drove her to the station had slipped out of the room until she and the chief were situated in their seats.
Chief Daniels’ first thought was that the woman appeared to be in shock. But after years of patrolling city streets, then five years as chief here in a small town, Al Daniels had seen enough to know just how deceiving someone’s appearance could be. Yet, he felt obligated to tell her what was going on before he started asking questions.
“The entire town’s being notified, Miss Murray.”
Mary sprang from her chair. “Don’t you see that’s not enough? The entire state-country must be on the look out.”
“An Amber alert already went out.”
“Mary.”
Chief Daniels didn’t know who the woman was that had let herself into his office. But it was clear the Murray woman knew her when she flew toward her.
“I just heard it on the radio.” Carol barely got out the words when Mary clutched her arms in pure hysteria.
“It’s happening again, Carol. Just like with Michael.”
“No,” Carol insisted in an attempt to calm her. But she sensed Mary saw the growing horror in her own eyes.
“Who’s Michael?”
Carol gave the chief a quick glance as she guided Mary to a chair, all the while assuring, “It’s gonna be okay, Mare.”
She continued to allow Mary to squeeze her hand after she got her to
sit down. Then she turned to the chief. “Michael was Mary’s little brother. About twelve years ago he was taken from his front yard. Days later his body was found. His killer never was.”
Mary jerked away her hand as she jumped up hysterical again. “Do you know what that means?”
Carol gripped Mary’s hand. “Jena is fine.” In the next moment she loosened her hold on Mary and toned down her voice. “We have to believe that, Mare.”
Daniels made a mental note to do some checking on the Murray woman’s family history. But for now he was more concerned with the present.
“Can you think of anyone who might have had a reason to take your baby, Miss Murray? What about the baby’s father? Is there someone that might resent you or the baby?”
“Of course not,” Carol was quick to answer for her.
Daniels heard the woman, but ignored her comment. He studied Mary. She appeared to be giving his questions serious thought.
Was it possible? Could Jena’s abductor be someone she knew? Mary shook her head. “No one I know would do such a terrible thing.”
“What about Jena’s father?”
“I’d sooner think Reilly had more to gain,” Carol said.
“Why would—” Mary stopped short. What made Carol so ready to accuse Reilly? Did she know something about him Mary didn’t?
“Who’s Reilly?” Daniels no sooner got the words out and the door to his office flung open.
“Mary, is it true? Is Jena really missin’?”
“There’s your Reilly,” Carol said with a disapproving arched brow.
Reilly did not hear her. His attention was completely focused on Mary as he rushed to her side, practically mowing over Carol in the process.
“She’s gone, Reilly,” Mary told him and jumped up into his arms.
“It’s okay, kid. We’ll find her,” Reilly said in an attempt to comfort her.
“Whoever took her came in through the nursery window. Why would someone do this, Reilly?” Mary asked as she pulled back from the embrace and glared at him in hopes of an answer.
“So where were you last night, Jackson?” Daniels picked up on Carol’s inquisitive look. He attempted to put her at ease when he said, “I’ve known this Reilly longer than I care to admit.”