His Unexpected Family

by Patricia Johns

  “So what’s he like?” Beth asked.

  “Nice,” Emily said.

  “Cute?” Nina prodded.

  “Yeah, he’s a good-looking guy.” Emily tried to keep her tone neutral.

  “Huh.” Beth nodded. “And you manage to keep conversation going between the two of you.”

  “Oh, stop it.” Emily laughed. “He’s the chief of police and nothing more. In fact, if anything, he seems really uncomfortable and serious around me. So don’t be getting your hopes up.”

  “You sure?” Nina pressed. “We’re a little worried about how long you’ve stayed single.”

  “Look who’s talking!” Emily laughed.

  “This baby needs a change.” Nina lifted Cora out of her lap and deposited her with Emily. Just then, the phone rang.

  “Would you mind getting that?” Emily asked.

  Beth leaned over to grab the handset and picked it up.

  “Hello?”

  Cora kicked her legs happily as Emily set to work on the diaper.

  “Just a minute.” Beth pushed herself out of her seat and brought the phone to Emily.

  “A lawyer?” she whispered, passing the handset over.

  Emily felt her heart speed up as she took the phone from her friend’s hand. Beth took over with Cora as Emily answered the phone.

  “This is Emily Shaw.”

  “Hello, Miss Shaw, this is Paul Hanson.”

  “Mr. Hanson. How are you?” It was her lawyer who had been dealing with the paperwork for her guardianship.

  “I’m sorry to call so late, but I thought you’d want to know.”

  “What’s going on?” Emily’s voice sounded breathless in her own ears.

  “Someone is contesting your guardianship.” His voice was quiet and professional. “A Mr. Steven Shaw.”

  “My cousin...”

  “He’s filed the paperwork.”

  “What does this mean?”

  “That’s up to you, really,” he replied. “Do you want to fight this?”

  Emily looked over at her friends, sadness welling up inside of her. “I’d better give you a call back,” she said, trying to control the tremor in her voice. “Thanks for letting me know.”

  “Absolutely. Call me tomorrow morning, if you can, so I know how you want to proceed.”

  “Thank you.”

  As she hung up the phone, Beth and Nina looked at her mutely, their eyes betraying their apprehension.

  “Well...” Emily said, the tears welling up in her eyes. “Steve is contesting my right to raise Cora.”

  “Oh, Em,” Beth breathed.

  Oh, God, is this it? Is this my brush with motherhood?

  “What will you do?” Nina asked.

  Beth just stood there, a hand protectively over her belly and tears misting her eyes. “Let’s pray.”

  They didn’t pray together often. It wasn’t their style; but tonight it felt right. Standing there with her two best friends, the three women bowed their heads.

  * * *

  Nate’s Steak was a local joint that had been thriving for the past thirty-five years. Nate retired and left the place to his son, Mike, who didn’t change a thing. The wings came in three flavors: hot, really hot and honey garlic, and the steaks were grilled to perfection. There was a reason why the officers at Haggerston made this their favorite meet-up place.

  The sun was setting over the town when Greg parked in front of Nate’s Steak and stepped out into the warm evening air. The smell of grilling meat met the sweet scent of hydrangeas that hung in baskets along the downtown streets. Greg looked around the parking lot and spotted three cruisers and a few pickup trucks he recognized from some nearby ranches. He’d be in good company tonight.

  As Greg stepped inside, he was met with the hum of voices, the clink of knives and forks against dishes and the general hubbub from the kitchen. Scanning the few tables, he nodded to the people he knew, then headed toward the back of the restaurant where the other officers were.

  “Hi, Chief,” Benny called, and the others looked up in welcome.

  “Hi.” Greg pulled up a chair. “What’s good tonight?”

  “Does it matter?” Nancy asked with a laugh. She was a muscular officer with a steady gaze and a gorgeous smile. Her hair was pulled back in a low-maintenance ponytail, but she was out of uniform, sporting jeans and a T-shirt from Graceland.

  “You want the regular, Chief?” Mike called from the counter. Greg gave a thumbs-up and Mike disappeared into the kitchen. He ordered the same thing every time he came by: hot wings and an herbal tea.

  “Couldn’t get enough of us, Nancy?” Greg joked.

  “Just can’t stay away.” Her tone was dry. “Actually, this beat grocery shopping.”

  “And reruns on TV,” Benny added. Nancy gave a shrug of agreement. A jukebox started playing a honky-tonk tune, and Benny tapped the table in time to the music.

  “How about you, Chief?” Nancy asked. “Long day?”

  Greg nodded, then frowned. “Actually, I’ve been thinking about that 11-80 the other day—the one with the baby.”

  “How’s Sweet pea doing?” Benny asked with a grin. They’d nicknamed her Sweet pea that night when Greg brought her back to the station, and Benny had settled in with a bottle of formula and held her for a solid hour.

  “She’s doing great.” Greg could feel the smile coming to his face. “She is very well cared for.”

  Emily Shaw had been on his mind more often than he cared to admit, but his concern for the case was more than the beautiful kindergarten teacher with her quick smile.

  “So what’s not sitting right with you, Chief?” Nancy leaned forward.

  “What did we find in the victim’s car?” Greg asked. “The accident happened outside of Haggerston, so we’re assuming she was on her way here. She had family here, after all.”

  “That’s right.” Benny nodded. “Emily Shaw, for one.”

  Greg nodded. Emily topped his list, too, especially since Jessica Shaw had thought enough of her to name her godmother, but even Emily seemed surprised by the honor. Something felt wrong.

  “But what did she have with her? A diaper bag and a purse with a toothbrush inside. She was two hours from Billings, where she lived. Does that seem right?”

  “Two hours there and another two back...” Benny shrugged. “Could have been a day trip.”

  “What do you think, Nancy?”

  “As a woman?”

  “Yes, as a woman.”

  Nancy gave him a smug look. “So now I’m a woman, am I? I’m just one of the guys when I beat you at push-ups.”

  Greg shook his head and laughed. “Don’t rub it in. What do you think?”

  “No woman travels two hours one way with a newborn and only brings a toothbrush and a diaper bag. No extra clothes for the baby or anything.” Nancy shrugged. “Something feels off with that.”

  “Who does that?” Greg asked.

  “A distressed woman,” Nancy replied. “That packing didn’t show any forethought. She was upset about something.”

  Greg nodded. “That’s what I was thinking, too.”

  “Or a woman who might not make great decisions at the best of times,” Benny said.

  Greg gave a smile of thanks to the server as his wings and tea arrived. The wings were plump and saucy, and the little dish of blue cheese dressing on the side was overflowing onto the wings. Crunching on a carrot stick, he looked across the table at Benny and Nancy thoughtfully.

  “So was she running away from something?”

  “Or someone?” Benny took a sip of his cola and shrugged.

  Greg shook his head and picked up a wing. “Wish it made more sense.”

  “Is the family suspicious?�
� Benny inquired.

  Greg shook his head. “Not that anyone has mentioned, formally or otherwise.”

  He sank his teeth into one of the wings, the spicy sauce making his mouth water. For a few minutes he put his attention into his food, and when he’d sucked the third bone clean, Nancy suddenly said, “If the victim thought someone had tried to kill her, she would have mentioned it, don’t you think? She was alert.”

  “But in shock,” Benny pointed out.

  Nancy nodded and gave a shrug. “Something isn’t adding up.”

  “It might be nothing criminal at all,” Greg agreed, “but something is nagging at me with this case.”

  “Is it a case right now, Chief?” Benny asked.

  “I’m not saying that I think this was murder.” Greg frowned thoughtfully. “I’m going to need a little more information, though, before I formally close the case.”

  Chapter Five

  The next evening, Emily pulled open McRuben’s front door, a blast of air-conditioning meeting her in a welcoming wave. There was no lineup, and the only other patron was an old man nursing a coffee in a disposable cup by the bathrooms.

  A bored teenager took her order, and Emily watched in silent delight as he filled her fries up to overflowing. When the boxed burger was deposited onto her plastic tray, Emily’s mouth watered in anticipation. Extra pickles, extra mayo and a dab of their secret sauce... This was the kind of dinner she looked forward to more than she cared to admit.

  “Need a hand with that?”

  Emily started at the familiar voice and looked up to see Chief Taylor standing there in uniform.

  “Chief!” She looked down at her tray piled high with burger, fries, a milk shake and a sundae and felt her cheeks heat.

  “Get me the same, would you?” He pointed to her tray and put a bill on the counter.

  “Do you have a secret love of fast food?” she teased.

  “I’m actually here for a perfectly professional excuse.” He shot her a grin, the most relaxed Emily had seen him yet.

  “I don’t believe you.” She felt a smile tickle the corners of her mouth.

  “All right, truth be told, I want a burger. But since you’re here, it could save me some time.”

  “That’s more like it.” She chuckled, picking up Cora’s car seat.

  “Let me carry this for you.” He picked up her tray.

  Leading the way to a booth by a window, Emily looked back over her shoulder. “So what is this good professional excuse of yours?”

  “Just some unanswered questions, mostly, Miss Shaw.”

  Greg waited until Emily had Cora settled on the bench beside her before he eased into the seat opposite her.

  He nodded his thanks to the teen who put down an identical tray to Emily’s in front of him. “About Jessica—does anyone know why she was coming to Haggerston?”

  Emily shook her head. “I don’t know, but I guess I’d assumed she’d been on her way here. Her dad was here, after all. I did ask people at the funeral, but no one was really sure.”

  He unwrapped the burger and peeked inside, his expression unreadable. “What is this?”

  Emily laughed. “You did ask for what I was having.... It’s a burger with extra pickles, mayo and secret sauce. It’s delicious. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.”

  Greg took a cautious bite, then smiled. “Good.” He wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin. “I normally do extra bacon and tomato.”

  Emily raised her eyebrows as an idea struck her. “I should start putting some bacon on this. That would be perfect.”

  Greg shot her an amused look and then sobered. “So no one knew Jessica was coming?”

  Emily shook her head. “Everyone was saying the same thing—we had no idea she was pregnant, let alone already a mother. We hadn’t heard from her in a long time.”

  Greg nodded slowly. “Did she have drug problems? What would isolate her from her family like that?”

  “Well...” Emily opened a ketchup package and made a little mound to dip her fries into. “Her parents were good Christian people, and Jessica was the black sheep of the family. She was the one who went out partying as a teenager and defied her parents at every turn.” She shrugged. “When she moved out of her parents’ house and went off to the city, she came back a couple of times for family events, but things were pretty strained between her and her parents.”

  “But no substance-abuse problems?”

  Emily shook her head, opening another packet of ketchup as she talked. “I think their biggest problem was that she was sleeping around, and they didn’t like it. She drank a little at parties, but I don’t think she was ever involved in drugs.”

  “Why not?”

  “She put herself through a fine-arts degree,” Emily said, raising her gaze to meet his. “She painted and drew. She was quite the artist. She worked too hard to get that degree on her own. She couldn’t have done it high.”

  “So more of a free spirit.”

  Emily nodded. “Don’t you remember her from Steve?”

  “No.” He shook his head and popped a fry into his mouth. “I didn’t know Steve terribly well, not well enough to know his sister.”

  “Why does any of this matter?” she asked, turning her attention to the food in front of her. She took a bite of her burger, the mixture of meat and condiments hitting her brain right in the pleasure center. Greg looked at her thoughtfully for a long moment, as if weighing his words. Finally, he shrugged.

  “Maybe it doesn’t,” he admitted. “I just don’t feel quite right about all of this. There’s something missing. It might be nothing, but...” He shrugged again.

  Emily licked a dab of ketchup off her finger, regarding Greg thoughtfully. Tiny lines were starting to appear around his eyes, and she could see that he shouldered a great deal of stress. He had the rugged features of a man accustomed to hiding his thoughts, but she could see something behind his eyes that she recognized—kindness.

  “I suppose I should tell you,” Emily said quietly, “that Steve is contesting my custody of the baby.”

  Greg winced, then nodded. “Yeah, I could see that coming.”

  Emily shot him a quizzical look, and he put his hands up. “Not because you aren’t an excellent choice to raise the baby, but because these things do tend to happen.”

  Emily sighed. “Well, regardless, I have a big decision to make.”

  “What decision is that?”

  “Whether to fight this in court or not.”

  “That is a big decision.” He gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” She smiled sadly. “I just don’t know what the best thing is for Cora. A big legal battle hardly seems in her best interest, but then, Jessica chose me, and I’d like to think that was for a reason.”

  Greg sighed. “So how are you holding up?”

  “I have good friends, but the family is already choosing sides. My mom will always be behind me, but I was close to my uncle Hank, too—that’s Jessica’s dad. He’ll want his son to raise Cora, no doubt...”

  “It’s getting complicated,” he said softly.

  “Very.”

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  “To raise this baby.” She looked over at Cora sleeping peacefully in the car seat. “I can’t have children of my own.”

  “Oh, I see.” He nodded and took a bite of his burger.

  Stupid, she thought to herself. It was a personal thing to blurt out, and she wished she could take the words back. What did Greg want to know about her fertility? Seriously, Emily, she chastised herself.

  “So what are you going to do?” he asked.

  “I don’t know.” She took a long, creamy sip of her milk shake. “It’s just so complicated.
”

  “I can see that.” His blue eyes met hers, and she was relieved to see compassion in them.

  “I wish I knew why Jessica chose me instead of her brother. If I knew that, I’d know if I should be fighting for this or not. I need to know what she wanted, really wanted.”

  He nodded slowly and leaned back in his chair. The comfortable quiet stretched out between them as they each finished their burgers.

  “Greg?”

  He raised his eyebrows in response.

  “Are you going to be investigating my cousin’s death?”

  “I’ll be looking into it,” he said. “I don’t have any reason to suspect foul play, but I’d like to get a few questions answered to put my own mind at ease.”

  “While you’re doing that, would you mind keeping an eye open for something that might explain why she chose me?” Emily asked.

  “Like what?”

  “I wish I knew. I just need a few answers, too, about now, and I don’t know how to get them.”

  Greg was silent for a moment, his gaze moving slowly over her face. His blue eyes seemed to be filled with conflicting emotions, something he wasn’t hiding very well. Finally, he took a deep breath. “Sure.”

  “Really?” Emily laughed nervously. “I didn’t think you’d agree.”

  Greg smiled at that. “I think you could use a favor about now.”

  “Thank you. This means a lot to me.”

  Just then, Cora began to cry, a thin, hiccup-y wail coming from the car seat, and Emily rummaged through the baby bag for a bottle.

  “I’m prepared.” She gave him a wink and gently picked up the wriggling Cora in her arms.

  * * *

  Emily tried to give Cora the bottle, but the baby scrunched her eyes shut and wailed all the louder, turning her face away from the milk. Emily patted her and shushed her, but to no avail. She peeked in the diaper and felt her little face for fever. At first, Greg’s thoughts were focused on the crying, wondering when it would stop, but then he saw Emily’s face and he felt a sudden surge of sympathy. She looked ready to cry, too.

  “What’s the matter?” Greg asked.

  Tears welled up in Emily’s eyes, and she shook her head. “I’m not her mother.”