Deadly Disclosure

by Meghan Carver

  I would give my life for you.

  Susan

  At the sight of her birth mother’s name, Hannah’s tears erupted. She thrust the letter at Derek, and he came to her, grasping the letter with one hand and encircling her waist with his free arm. She sank into his chest, letting her tears be absorbed by his T-shirt as she thanked the Lord for the strength of his arm around her.

  So that was all she was going to get? Despite how much her sense of identity, even the foundation of her family, had changed in the last few hours, she still didn’t know much. Her mother’s name was Susan, and at one point, she had been in Chicago. Something terrible had happened that made her think that Hannah was safest without her. But what? And whatever it was, was it coming back now to harm her?

  She tore away from Derek. His comfort had been helpful for the moment, but there was no point in relying on him. He was only here temporarily. She couldn’t count on him for the long term, so there was no reason to depend on him now.

  Suddenly, the comfortable and quiet life of garden-club meetings and country-club tennis looked wonderful. Her parents had provided so, so much for her that she had taken for granted growing up. Yet, a secret had been withheld from her. The very nature of her identity. Why she didn’t look like anyone in the family. Why she had always felt a little bit like an outsider, even in what she had thought was her home environment. Why her interests and pursuits had been so different from everyone else’s.

  Derek’s quiet tone broke into her reverie, diffusing what had been becoming a build-up of anger and resentment. “Your birth mother mentioned a doll. Do you still have it?”

  The doll. Hannah mentally raced through the few boxes of childhood keepsakes she had stashed in the back of her closet. “Yes. Father thought I should get rid of it along with many other things from my childhood. But it was one of my favorites. It’s tucked away in my closet.” She had to find it. If it was important to her birth mother then it was important to her. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

  She dashed back through the den, down the hallway and into her old bedroom. With a few minutes of rifling through boxes at the back of the closet, she found the doll. As she emerged from the closet, her gaze fell on the now-empty window seat in her room. As she had packed for her move to her apartment, she had taken one last photo of her mementos arranged on the seat, things she loved but just couldn’t take with her. That photo had appeared on her blog along with a post about packing away the old to make room for the new. A couple of her friends had shared online their own photos of keepsakes they couldn’t let go of. It had been encouraging at the time, knowing she wasn’t alone in her sentiments or in keeping boxes of childhood reminders.

  But now a moment of apprehension stopped her. She pulled out her phone to see the photo again, the photo she had plastered all over her online world. The doll’s blue eyes seemed to twinkle at her and the yarn mouth smiled encouragement and love as Hannah closed the bedroom door behind her, doll in hand, eager to return to Derek and what felt like safety.

  Back on the patio, she handed it to Derek. He turned it all around, examining it, then handed it back. “Do you have any memory of being with another family?”

  “Not at all. I don’t remember anything but Mother and Father.”

  “Then you must have been quite young when they got you. Probably under two years old.” He stepped closer and touched the doll’s hair where some yarn was coming loose from the seam. “She must have been a great comfort to you.”

  “Yes. I guess it’s just part of my personality to keep things. I can’t part with keepsakes that have meant so much to me.” How surreal. A younger version of herself had probably clutched this dolly to her chest as she met her new mommy and daddy, yet this older version who held it now had no recollection whatsoever of those exact moments. Whatever had happened in the past, Hannah only knew that she felt a sense of security when she held the doll.

  She tore her gaze from the rag doll and looked up into the rich brown eyes of this living, breathing man in front of her. He was definitely real, and she had plenty of memories of him. “What do I do now?”

  “First, you remember that you should lean on God. He is your defender and your protector. He’s in all of this, and none of it is a surprise to Him.”

  “Yes, you’re right. Of course.”

  Derek stepped closer and laid his hands on her arms, his touch warming her in the cool of the early summer evening. “He protected you as a child. The letter reads like your birth mother found the Lord, accepted His salvation and knew that the best she could do for you was to give you to the safety of a loving family.”

  Her mind tried to wrap around that thought, despite the distraction of Derek’s nearness. Questions and desires and doubts assaulted her.

  A loud crack broke the stillness of the moment. Glass shattered behind her.

  Someone was shooting at them!

  Derek pulled her to the ground. Her hip hit the cement slab, cushioned only by the thin rug. She winced and kept her eyes closed as he rolled with her farther into the sitting area. Pain shot down her leg. She longed to massage it, but she held on to Derek tightly instead. The air around her seemed suddenly still, and she sucked in a breath, mentally running over her arms and legs. She wasn’t shot, and Derek seemed to be in one piece as well.

  In one fluid motion, he lifted himself from her and grabbed his weapon from the holster hidden under his shirt. His eyes were trained on the landscaping across a grassy area.

  “Hannah!” Her father’s strident tone brought her focus to the back of the house, and she propped herself up on an elbow. “Come inside!”

  Her father stood to the side of a French door that now had a jagged hole in the middle. Her mother seemed to tremble several feet behind, her cell phone in her hand, probably—hopefully—calling 911.

  “Father, get back!” she squeaked out, but she doubted that he could hear her.

  A second shot suddenly struck the back of a wrought-iron chair just inches from her. Derek, crouching low, pushed her down in front of the massive stone fireplace. “Who is it?” she whispered.

  Derek didn’t remove his gaze from the landscaping. “Not sure. I can only see the shrubs moving.”

  Hannah huddled down, a quiet prayer escaping her lips—she was grateful for her protector. She had heard, over the years, that Derek had joined the police force, but she hadn’t seen him since high school and hadn’t known, until that day, that he was FBI. Hadn’t seen him wield his weapon. Hadn’t seen his training in action. It was an impressive thing to behold.

  “Let’s go.” He gestured toward the bushes that ran alongside the pool. “Follow me, close to the house, and stay low.”

  “What about my parents?” She couldn’t leave them in danger.

  “They’ve called for police. I’ll get the guy if I can, but my first responsibility is to protect you.” He nodded. “Now let’s go.”

  With his weapon still in hand, he crawled from behind the fireplace into the bushes near the pool. Hannah stared at the house. Her father and mother had retreated and couldn’t be seen from her vantage point. But how could she leave them?

  “Hannah.” The urgent whisper came from ahead. Derek was now several feet in front of her. She didn’t want to leave, but she needed to trust him. He had the weapon and, it seemed, more knowledge of her situation than she did.

  Balling her crinkled skirt into one fist to make crawling easier, she inched out from behind the fireplace and in the direction Derek was headed. She glanced back toward the house and saw her parents crouched down behind the curtain, watching Derek and then her crawl away. Her father had retrieved his own weapon, probably from some hidden safe, but he held it at his side, perhaps unable to clearly see the man who threatened them. Her heart broke for her parents. She couldn’t imagine what they must be feeling, after the confrontation th
ey had just had about her adoption, and then watching some thug shoot at their only daughter. Now she was leaving them behind with so much unsettled between them.

  A flutter of the bushes ahead caught her attention, and she riveted her gaze back to Derek. It was best that she focus on getting out alive. She sped up her crawl until she was within a couple of feet of his shoes.

  As he neared the far edge of the pool, almost to the point where they could make a run out of the backyard, the bushes parted. A tall, burly man leaped out toward Derek, a blur moving so quickly she couldn’t distinguish his facial features. Derek must have seen him coming, for he lunged upward toward the man’s chest, and loud oompfs erupted from both of them.

  Without assessing the risk to her or to Derek, Hannah sprang up and ran forward, picking up as much speed as she could in the few feet between them. The element of surprise was on her side as the man stepped away from Derek, his arm raised as if to swing it at him. He spied her and seemed frozen for the moment it took for Hannah to close the space between them. Leading with her shoulder, she rammed him in the upper abdomen. Her momentum continued a couple more steps until he stumbled backward. His heel hit the low curb that surrounded the landscaping around the pool. Arms flailing, his weapon flew out of his hand and into the far shrubbery. A loud splash heralded his fall into the pool, and cool drops of water splashed on Hannah’s nose and cheeks and forehead.

  Derek grabbed her hand, and she glanced over at him, her efforts rewarded with his wide smile. “Come on, GI Jane.”

  Without letting go of his grasp, she followed him around the pool. A glance over her shoulder revealed the thug floundering in the water, as if he couldn’t swim. If he would just put his feet down, that was the shallow end. But she wasn’t going to give him any pointers. Over her other shoulder, she saw her parents step out of the house, her father training his weapon on the shooter.

  Her father shot a look at her, making eye contact. “Hannah! Come back here with us for your protection.”

  But Derek tugged on her hand and her heart. With whom should she go?

  * * *

  The pressure of Hannah’s hand in his reinforced Derek’s resolve to keep her safe no matter what. The thug still seemed to be stuck in the pool, and even if he got out before they got away, his weapon was lost in the bushes. It didn’t seem likely that he had any other weapon on him since he hadn’t retrieved it yet. And Mr. and Mrs. McClarnon would be safe until the police arrived. Even now, sirens began to pierce the air.

  Mr. McClarnon kept his gun focused on the pool, but he followed after them a few steps. “Hannah, come back. It’s safer. The police are almost here.”

  Derek could feel Hannah slowing, her steps lagging behind, her hand slipping out of his. There might be only one thug this time, but there would be more later, and her father wasn’t trained and didn’t have the maneuvers to protect her against these guys who killed whenever it suited their purposes. Now was the time to reveal himself to Hannah’s parents.

  He pulled the badge from his belt and held it high so they could see it in the evening twilight. The pool lights reflected off the brass. “I’m FBI now, Mr. McClarnon. Hannah will definitely be safer with me.”

  The older man gasped loudly, the lights from the house illuminating the shock etched on his face. He had always underestimated Derek, but Derek didn’t have the time or the inclination to revel in the bump-up of respect that, most likely, he had just achieved. Protecting Hannah was his number-one priority.

  Without taking his eyes off the man in the pool, Derek nodded to Hannah. “Stay low.”

  He retrieved the handcuffs from his belt and fished the thug out of the water, wrestling him onto the grass and securing him as soon as he was facedown on solid ground. “What’s your name? Who do you work for?” Derek didn’t expect any answers, but now was the best time to get him to talk, before he had time to think or contact his lawyer.

  The man didn’t answer, just spit out a bit of pool water and grass.

  “Who else is with you?”

  No answer.

  “What do you want?”

  Derek only got a grunt from the man.

  The sirens approached quickly, and soon the backyard was filled with a half-dozen uniformed officers. He filled them in and left the thug in the capable hands of the police. He wasn’t going to answer any of Derek’s questions anyway.

  Derek grabbed Hannah’s hand again, and they darted around the side of the house. He released her hand at the car, too worried until now that she might run back to what she thought was the safe sanctuary of her parents’ home. She slid in to the passenger side, lines of concern creasing around her eyes and furrowing through her forehead as she tucked the letter and the doll into the bag she had left in the vehicle. A lot had happened today, and Derek would take it all away if he could. But the best he could do now was protect and comfort.

  Comfort carefully, so as to keep his emotional distance.

  He turned the Escape around in the wide driveway, tires squealing and a faint stench of burning rubber wafting into the SUV. At the end of the McClarnons’ lane, he turned away from the police vehicles with lights still flashing parked at the front of the house. He drove carefully and counted the cars as they passed. Three police vehicles and an ambulance sat at the mansion. Assured that the McClarnons would be well cared for, he turned his attention back to the road ahead.

  The short hairs on the back of his neck tickled, and he turned to find Hannah staring at him, questions and concerns narrowing her pretty brown eyes. “Why are we driving away from Mother and Father?” She crossed her arms across her seat belt.

  Law school had certainly taught her a few things about cross examination.

  “First of all, your parents will be safer if we lure any other bad guys away. They don’t want your parents. Second, you saw all those police officers. The thug is in custody. Your parents are fine.”

  “My parents have an alarm that alerts them when anyone comes onto the property. Why didn’t they hear it?”

  That was a concern and something Derek should pass on to his supervising agent. “I don’t know exactly. We can’t rule out a simple malfunction. But it could be that that guy disabled it in some way.”

  “So they’re smart bad guys?”

  “Most are.”

  She scowled at him. “That’s not comforting.”

  “We just need to be smarter.”

  Hannah’s cell phone trilled, and Mrs. McClarnon’s face appeared on the screen. Hannah answered it on speaker. “Mother? Are you all right?”

  “Yes, darling. Your father and I are fine physically.” Her voice wavered a bit. “It’s been quite an ordeal for one day. I have wondered if this day would come, the day we would need to tell you the truth. Yet I never imagined it would include a strange man nearly drowning in our pool and a bullet through our French doors.”

  “Mrs. McClarnon, have the police been able to get any information out of him?” Derek hoped Hannah and her mother didn’t mind his intrusion on their call, but the more he knew about the attacker, the more he could report to his superior.

  “Oh, Derek? What a blessing that you were here to protect us all. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, ma’am. I’m glad no one was hurt.”

  “I’m not so sure about Mr. McClarnon. He was worried about what the neighbors might think with our home surrounded by law-enforcement vehicles. Then, when they got out the yellow tape to mark off the crime scene, he almost collapsed. The officer who seemed to be in charge insisted that it at least go in the backyard.”

  Derek glanced to check Hannah’s expression in time to see a half-suppressed eye roll, her lips pressed tightly together. Everyone had different priorities, and they could switch in an instant, depending on the circumstances. During the shooting, Mr. McClarnon’s priority was the safety of
his family—his wife and daughter—and perhaps even Derek. But once the area was secure again, he reverted back to his old ways. A man didn’t get ahead in business without some concern for what others thought. That wasn’t the way Derek wanted to live his own life, but to each his own.

  “Mrs. McClarnon, that’s fine. They just want to keep people out of the area until they’re done sweeping for evidence. Anything that might help them figure out who that perp is and why he was there.” Derek doubted the police would find anything but some damaged shrubbery, but it was important that the McClarnons let law enforcement do their job. “They won’t take long.”

  “Mother?” Hannah broke in. “You never said if the police know the man’s name.”

  “Oh, that’s right. No, dear. He hasn’t said a word, and they’ve taken him now.” A sigh slipped through the phone. “Please be careful, sweetheart. Stay with Derek. He’ll protect you in whatever is going on.”

  “Yes, Mother.” She said goodbye then ended the call.

  Well, he had one parent’s approval. It could be just temporary, until their daughter was safe again. But for now, Derek wanted to puff out his chest in victory. Maybe he had something to contribute after all.

  “So they’re fine. All’s well that ends well. What now?”

  Derek admired the beautiful smile that lit Hannah’s face, but her eyes were wide and worry tinged her cheerful tone. She had always been happy and kind and generous, all qualities that had drawn Derek to her in the first place. But it hadn’t taken too many conversations to realize that her smile didn’t always reach her heart. Her smile hid her discomfort in different situations. Often, the bigger the smile, Derek knew, the greater her discomfort.

  Right now, her smile was ginormous.

  Yes, she had reason to be relieved. A shooter had come onto her parents’ property, into the privacy of their backyard, and tried to shoot her and harm him. They had come out of it triumphant, albeit temporarily. But this was nowhere near the end of it, and judging by her body language, Hannah was hiding a load of anxiety.