Saving Madeline

by Rachel Ann Nunes

  Caitlin had a glimpse of Parker’s eyes, only instead of being intense like his mother’s they were shadowed with attraction for her as they had been that last night. The night she tried to convince him to stay.

  The woman must have sensed a softening around her. “Please?”

  Caitlin sighed. “I got to know Parker pretty well during the week I knew him. I asked him to trust me. He didn’t.”

  “I’m not surprised. There’s never been anyone he could really trust, not even me, and Madeline means the world to him.”

  “Did you know that he might not even be her father?”

  “That’s a lie! I see Parker in Madeline’s face all the time. I know she’s his.”

  “But you don’t seem surprised that Dakota might claim he isn’t the father.”

  “She’s hinted at it before to me. But I know it’s just one more way Dakota tried to control him.”

  Since Dakota hadn’t brought the idea up to the police, Caitlin had to agree.

  Norma Hathaway seemed to take her silence as permission to proceed. “Tell me, were you close to finding anything?”

  “No. It was only a feeling.”

  She sat up straighter. “See? Then you know there’s something. And also why he had to leave. He had to make sure Madeline would be safe.”

  Caitlin felt like crying on this woman’s shoulder. She would understand what that last night had meant to her, and how crushed she’d been when Parker had walked out. Instead, she asked softly, “Has your son been involved since his relationship with Dakota?”

  Her head turned slowly from side to side. “He said he’d never trust another woman again. I hoped that wouldn’t last. He’s a good man and deserves to be happy.” She studied Caitlin for a long moment. “You’re not telling me everything, are you? Was there something between you and my son?”

  For an instant Caitlin was tempted to lie, tempted to put on her attorney deadpan and deny everything. But Norma Hathaway looked at her with a mixture of pain and hope, the same feelings Caitlin had tried fruitlessly to crush for the past weeks. “I liked Parker very much, Mrs. Hathaway. I tried everything I could to get him to stay, but he didn’t.”

  Her eyes were shining now. “You’re involved with him. I can see it in your face.”

  “There was attraction, that’s all. It didn’t matter. He left anyway. And he took Madeline.”

  “Did he tell you he was going?”

  Caitlin bit back the inclination to tell her that was none of her business, but she shook her head. “We had a date the last night he was here. He didn’t show up.”

  “Then he must really care about you. He probably realized that if he’d shown up, it would have been too hard to leave.”

  “He could have trusted me.”

  “He’ll be back.” Her voice lowered as though she suspected there were listening devices in the room. “He’s coming back for me.”

  “Mrs. Hathaway, you shouldn’t tell me that. Please don’t tell me anything about Parker. I’m not your attorney, or his anymore, and I’ll have to tell the police.”

  “I’m not telling you anything except that he doesn’t make promises lightly. Now, please, will you keep looking into his ex-wife? I’ll pay all that I can.”

  He doesn’t make promises lightly. Problem was that he hadn’t made Caitlin any promises at all except that he could wait. Well, he’d apparently mastered that. Only now the waiting was hers, and she hadn’t signed up for it.

  “Please?” Mrs. Hathaway asked again.

  Caitlin hesitated a few more seconds before nodding slowly. “I guess I can do that.” She waited for the woman to leave and when she didn’t, Caitlin reached for the phone and dialed Kenny’s number. “I changed my mind, Kenny. I want you to keep looking for a while.”

  “I knew you’d say that. Don’t worry, I’m still following her. I got a feeling. How about if I follow up all my remaining leads and see what happens? If I don’t find anything in another week, we can drop it. I don’t mind pulling my best on this. After all, your client might have saved his daughter, but there’s still another child at that house. Cute little thing, even if he does seem to be crying all the time. The mother can’t seem to do anything with him.”

  “I think he used to spend most of the time with his father until recently.” Caitlin found she was actually beginning to feel sorry for Dakota. Maybe there was more to the woman than she knew. Maybe she had reasons for becoming the woman

  she was now. Reasons that started and ended with Parker Hathaway. Look at how just five days with Parker had changed Caitlin’s life.

  “I’ll keep you informed.”

  “Thanks.” She flipped the phone shut.

  “Thank you. I’ll let you get back to work now.” Mrs. Hathaway arose and took a few steps toward the door before pausing. “Look, I wanted to tell you that I heard something in my son’s voice a few nights ago when he was talking about you. I think it was hope. That’s the only reason I dared come today. I know everything’s a mess and you have no reason to trust us, but maybe you can find it in your heart to wait a bit. Give him a chance.”

  I can wait. That was what his note had said, arriving in a bouquet of bright, beautiful sunflowers. They still stood on her kitchen counter, wilted now, though she could barely look at them.

  Caitlin couldn’t speak. The anger and hurt whirled around inside her, mixed up with memories of his kiss. Fortunately, Mrs. Hathaway didn’t seem to expect an answer. She glided to the door with her strange grace and vanished.

  Caitlin closed her eyes. A mistake because now the memories were back in full force. He’d kissed her, made her blood rush, all the while planning to leave her behind. That’s what hurt the most, that he hadn’t confided in her. They had been good together, and she knew from past experience that such a connection was hard—nearly impossible—to find, much less forget. Maybe it was even similar to what her parents had felt when they had been together. Maybe that’s why her father had been unable to go on after her mother’s death.

  She let her head drop to her hands, her fingers splaying in her hair, palms pressing against her eyes. More than anything she wanted to forget. No, she wanted another try. She wanted Parker. To talk with him. To convince him to stay.

  Or maybe so he could ask her to go with him.

  “Caitlin?”

  She looked up to see Jodi at the door. “Sorry for barging in. I knocked but there was no answer. Your phone went to messages. Boss man’s looking for you.”

  “Thanks, Jodi.”

  Caitlin made her way to Mr. Tyson’s office, wondering what new case he would assign her to now. Another rapist? Another man who killed his girlfriend’s baby?

  I’m so tired of this.

  As she reached Mr. Tyson’s office, she came face-to-face with Mace Keeley emerging from the office. “What are you doing here?” she rasped, not hiding her disgust.

  Mace smiled pleasantly, looking relaxed and in control. “Just making a visit, that’s all.”

  “Right.” She pushed past him into the office, not believing him for a moment. Her being called into Mr. Tyson’s office at the exact same time as Mace’s visit couldn’t be a coincidence.

  “Ah, Caitlin, please have a seat.” Mr. Tyson indicated a chair. Caitlin sat on the edge, back straight, willing her senses to stay alert.

  Mr. Tyson shifted a few papers on his desk without looking at her. He was a trim man with white hair and eyebrows. His face was also pale, but his eyes were a bold blue, seemingly brighter for each year that sapped the color from the rest of him. Today he wore a white sport coat and tan slacks.

  “Caitlin,” he said, finally lifting his eyes. “I’ve had a disturbing report from the DA’s office. I called you in to see what you have to say about it. I’d hoped to have them here at the time, but their representative had to leave.”

  “I passed Mace Keeley on the way in.”

  “I see.” He studied her. “Caitlin, you’re an excellent attorney, and you have do
ne a magnificent job for us, but Mr. Keeley seems to think there are some irregularities in some of your cases.”

  Caitlin sat even straighter and opened her mouth, but Mr. Tyson shook his head. “I understand you will have a lot to say about that. It’s why I brought you in here. I wouldn’t even have bothered, but I have good information that says Mr. Keeley might just become second in command at the DA’s office, and I want to be sure where we stand.”

  “Did Mace tell you that he both threatened and sexually harassed me several weeks ago at the courthouse? There were at least three witnesses. As for my cases, there is absolutely nothing wrong about them. I’ve worked hard to get every criminal on my list a fair shake, whether they deserved it or not.”

  A rueful smile played on his lips. “That’s what I thought. Well, about the harassment anyway. I knew there had to be something else. Look, Caitlin, these are serious charges, both on your side and on his.”

  She shrugged. “I was willing to let it go. He’s the one coming in here.”

  Mr. Tyson waited for a few minutes before speaking. “Caitlin, are you sure there’s nothing else I should know about? I’ll stand behind you one hundred percent because I believe in you, but if there’s anything amiss I could be putting this whole department in jeopardy.”

  Caitlin’s indignation faded. He had no plans to put her out to the wolves, and suddenly she found that she couldn’t keep up the pretense. “There was something. Something you should know.”

  He nodded, folding his hands atop his desk, waiting.

  “That rape case I had a few weeks back. Chet Belstead.”

  “I remember.”

  “I sent Kenny Pratt to question the people on Belstead’s route home. I gave him a different date, though, so it was totally unrelated to the case. Could have been any case. He found a boy who remembered hearing something and advised him to call the police. That’s what led to finding the knife.”

  Mr. Tyson leaned back. “On the surface it seems you did nothing wrong. You weren’t directly involved in the information.”

  “I hoped he’d find something.” She didn’t want to be excused so easily. It was a breach of ethics, and she knew it. “I knew about the knife in the jacket from my client. He mentioned it in one of our interviews as a sort of . . . well, twisted courtship, for lack of a better word.”

  “I know the type. I’m sorry that’s something you’ve had to deal with.”

  Caitlin shrugged. They both knew it went with the territory. “Apparently Mace became suspicious at how the police were given the evidence and started sniffing around Kenny. As far as I know, Kenny’s told him nothing about who he was working for. I think Mace wanted to use the information about my possible involvement to help him get promoted, even though Belstead was as guilty as they come. Then he changed his mind and decided I could do other things that would be more gratifying for him.”

  “I get the picture.” He put a hand under his chin, supporting the elbow with his other arm that lay horizontally across his stomach. “So where do we go from here?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I wish I could go back, but I can’t.”

  “I think you’ve learned a valuable lesson. The real question is, would you do it again? In this business I can almost guarantee that you will face similar challenges in the future. Can you adhere to the standard we must maintain?”

  She was silent a long moment before saying quietly, “That’s just it. I don’t know.”

  Mr. Tyson nodded. “Don’t worry about Mace. I’ll fix him. But I want the names of the witnesses you mentioned, just to be sure we have backup before I wade into the fray. And if anyone asks you questions about this, you refer them to me. As of this moment, I am your counsel on the matter.”

  Caitlin felt a huge relief. “Thank you.”

  “Meanwhile, I want you to take the rest of this week and get where you can either finish or hand off your cases. Then I want you to take two or three weeks off while we get this mess cleared away once and for all and decide if you really want to stay here. Don’t get me wrong—I want you to. I think you’re the best attorney working here at the moment, the best we’ve had in a long time. But if you’re going to stay, you have to be able to answer negatively to that question I asked you. You know as well as I do the reasons we cannot pick and choose when it comes to the fine lines of the law. No one should have that kind of power. It’s too dangerous.”

  She nodded, blushing furiously, her English cool abruptly deserting her. “Thank you,” she repeated. She stood and made her way quickly to the door.

  “Oh, and Caitlin?”

  “Yes?”

  Mr. Tyson smiled, looking more like a grandfather than a powerful attorney. “I know how tough this all is, and I want you to know that if you decide not to stay, I’ll still write you a glowing recommendation. There are many firms that could use your skills to protect the innocent. And maybe you wouldn’t face as many ethical dilemmas.”

  Caitlin felt like crying. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “I don’t blame you for what you did. Sometimes you have to go with your gut feeling.”

  How she found her way back to her office through the tears, she would never be sure. But something in her had changed. She felt as though a burden had been lifted from her shoulders, a heavy burden that had been weighing on her for a very long time.

  Chapter 23

  Parker rolled up the building plans and stored them with satisfaction before catching the bus that would take him home to Madeline. The plans were every bit as good as the architect had promised. If they could pull it off, the expansive high-rise would be an accomplishment of a lifetime. And he would be a part of it, a major part—not just a crane operator but one of the planners and foremen.

  He and Madeline had visited Shane and Orla O’Doherty the same day they’d arrived in Chicago ten days ago. Ten very long and productive days. Mr. O’Doherty had underplayed his connections, and before he knew it, Parker had been rubbing elbows with local contractors who not only were willing to put him into the trenches with their regular crews but to give him a chance as a foreman. Parker had slept little in the past weeks, and every second he could spare from work or taking care of Madeline, he was visiting sites or studying construction plans. There were some notable differences in constructing such a large building, and there were many new city codes to learn, but the differences were not as many or as important as he’d expected. More vital to them were his organizational skills and the feel he had for the project.

  He was going to make it. He would have to work himself nearly to death in these first months, but he would give Madeline the life she deserved. Of course that didn’t mean everything was how he wanted it. He didn’t even try to pretend that this life could make him completely happy. Despite his satisfaction at work, there was an emptiness inside that he couldn’t overlook.

  Mrs. O’Doherty had insisted that he use one of her household employees to look after Madeline until they were settled, and every day when he picked her up at their expensive downtown apartment, Mrs. O’Doherty would say in her slight Irish lilt, “So when is your girl coming? Madeline could use her company, and I daresay you could use the support, too.”

  She had no idea how true that was. “To tell the truth,” he finally told her, “I don’t know that she’s coming after all.”

  “Well, it’s hard to woo a woman properly when you’re so far apart. You should go get her. Or tell her you’re moving on. Maybe that’ll spark a fire under her. At any rate, you can’t go on this way. If she doesn’t want you, I know a lot of ladies who will.”

  Parker gave her a smile. “Thank you for your faith in me.” He reached out a hand for Madeline. “Come on, sweetheart. Time to go home.”

  Parker thought about Mrs. O’Doherty’s comments as they walked half a block to where he’d parked the company truck the contractor had insisted he use while overseeing the job. He wanted to contact both his mother and Caitlin, but while he was sure of his mo
ther’s response, Caitlin was a complete wild card. What made him think she’d want him now? And if he felt guilt for ripping his mother from her comfortable life, how could he even begin to expect that Caitlin could leave her prestigious job as an attorney to accommodate his life on the run?

  Yet Orla O’Doherty was right in a way. He could put off his decision regarding Caitlin for months, hoping for a miracle. Months where she might go on with some pretty-boy attorney and forget the fire between them.

  He needed to act.

  Or let go.

  Maybe letting go was best for all of them. Utah already seemed like a distant dream, something no longer a part of him. Except at night he sometimes thought about his family’s little valley and the stars shining brightly above in the sky. Would his mother sell the land? Selling would probably be a good decision since he had no idea how long he’d be in hiding, but he hoped she wouldn’t.

  For some reason, his dreams of the valley always included Caitlin, and in those dreams it was always summer, definitely not snowing. It had snowed most of the ten days they’d been in Chicago, and Parker had taken to carrying an umbrella to protect Madeline from the wet weather.

  Logic said he should wait to do anything. He still hadn’t figured out a safe way to contact his mother, much less Caitlin. The cell phone he’d given his mother had been noted by the police during her questioning, and likely they were monitoring it. She would be past anxious by now, and that knowledge weighed heavily on him. But leaving things the way he had with Caitlin was worse—almost as bad as it would have been leaving Madeline.

  He had to know where they stood.

  Even if it risked everything he’d worked for? She could just as easily turn him in to the police as fall into his arms. Her sense of justice was strong, and he’d given her little reason to trust him.