by Kathi Daley
Bree turned and looked at Mike.
“It’s not mine,” he said, defending himself. “Dad dropped her off.”
Bree crossed the room and picked up the baby, who was once again screaming at the top of her lungs. She gently rocked her, whispering into her ear, and miracle of miracles, the baby settled right down. “Maybe you should back up a bit, but first, let’s get this little darling changed and fed.”
Mike and I happily turned things over to Bree. Once the baby was changed and the bottle prepared correctly, Bree settled into the chair at Frank’s desk and began feeding the little girl.
“Okay,” she said once things were under control. “From the top, and don’t leave anything out.”
“There isn’t much to tell,” Mike said. “A short while ago, I was sitting at Frank’s desk, looking over incident reports when Dad walked in with the baby in his arms. Naturally, I was shocked to see him, so I hadn’t even managed to squeeze out a hello, when he handed me the baby, telling me that she was in danger and that I should hide and protect her. He then set the diaper bag on the counter, promising to return for her as soon as he was able to. Before I had a chance to ask any questions, he was gone.”
“Dad does seem to have the disappearing act down to an art,” I said.
“And that’s it?” Bree smiled at the baby as she suckled the bottle, seemingly quite content. “He just blew in, handed you this baby, and left?”
Mike nodded. “That’s exactly what happened. What are we going to do?”
Bree frowned. I could tell that she was thinking of offering to take the baby herself, but she had been having a difficult enough time as it was, and I knew that her doctor had warned her to take it easy.
“I’d take her, but I really need to get back to my route,” I said, realizing that I was going to have to skip lunch as it was in order to catch up. “Maybe I should call Tony. I bet he’s good with babies, and he’s home this week, so it shouldn’t be a problem for him to keep an eye on her. Plus, our place is isolated, so if the baby really does need to be hidden, she should be safe out there at the lake with Tony and the dogs.”
“That’s a good idea,” Mike said.
When Bree looked conflicted but didn’t object, I realized how concerned she really was about her health in general and the health of her baby.
“Josie is coming in to cover for Bree this afternoon, so maybe Tony can pick the baby up now, and then Bree can go out to the house and check on things once her assistant gets there,” I suggested, knowing that until Bree knew that the baby was settled, she would never walk away.
“Bree?” Mike asked. “Is that okay with you?”
She nodded. “Yes. Part of me wants to take care of this little darling myself, but I have been tired, and I don’t want to overdo it. Tess is right; Tony will be good with her.”
“I’ll head home as soon as I’m done with my route. Mike can come by as well, and the four of us can discuss the situation and come up with a plan.”
Bree hesitated and then nodded. “Okay. Call Tony. If he can come and get her now, we’ll do it your way.”
After a bit more discussion, Mike decided that he didn’t want Bree driving all the way out to our place on her own, so Bree called Josie to come in early, and then Mike drove Bree and the baby up the mountain to our home on the lake. Tony, of course, was more than happy to help in any way needed. I figured that once Mike got Bree and the baby to Tony, the two of them would be able to figure out what to do.
I’d been hoping to have more time to stop and chat with folks along my route since I was excited to see friends I hadn’t seen in months, but the way things were working out, I was really going to have to hustle in order to get finished by dark. I figured I’d just offer everyone a brief canned speech about being behind schedule, and then I’d promise to spend more time with my favorite merchants when I came back around tomorrow.
Chapter 2
When I arrived at the house, I found Tony sitting on the patio, feeding the baby. He seemed intent with his task and hadn’t seen me at first. I had to smile at the way the baby looked deeply into his eyes as Tony held the bottle and softly sang her a lullaby. The lullaby was in Italian, so I had no idea what words he was singing, but I could see how drawn in he was by the little girl in his arms. I knew that Tony wanted children, and I also knew that Tony knew that I wanted to wait a while, which is probably why he never brought it up. Based on the way Tony was totally enthralled by the baby, however, I knew that it would be cruel to deny him the child he wanted for too much longer.
Tilly trotted over to Tony, and he looked up. “Tess. I didn’t see you there.”
“It looks like you managed to get our girl all calmed down.”
“She’s actually a very calm and quiet baby as long as her basic needs for a clean diaper and food in her belly are met.”
I sat down on the patio chair next to Tony. “Is Bree still here?”
He nodded. “Bree was feeling tired, so she went in to take a nap. I figured I’d feed this little darling and then put her down as well.” He glanced at the sky as if assessing the time. “I should probably start dinner. I’m sure Mike will be here shortly. Would you prefer lasagna or penne with sausage?”
“Penne, I think. Mike loves that as well. Do we have sausage?”
“We do.” Tony slipped the bottle out of the mouth of the sleeping baby’s mouth. “I’m going to take her in. Why don’t you go ahead and get changed out of your uniform and then meet me in the kitchen. You can have a glass of wine while I make the sauce.”
“Okay.” I leaned over and kissed Tony on the cheek, being careful not to wake the baby. “I need to call and check in with Brady, but then I’ll be down.”
“Don’t say anything to him about the baby,” Tony warned.
“I won’t. Brady had a class today, and I just want to check in to see how it went.”
Shortly after I changed and came down, Bree woke up from her nap, and Mike arrived. Tony handed Mike a beer while he tossed a salad and buttered the garlic bread. Everyone was starving, and the pasta wouldn’t take long to cook, so we decided to eat first and then hold our strategy session after.
“So are we thinking that this baby is somehow involved in the Layton Henderson baby factory?” I asked the group after dinner had been eaten and the dishes had been cleared.
Layton Henderson had been involved in the manipulation of human intelligence back in the nineteen seventies. He kept the women he’d chosen to birth his test subjects in a facility so far off the beaten path in Hungary that no one other than a few select employees even knew what was going on. My dad, who was going by the name Grant Tucker at the time, had helped several women escape with their babies.
“I thought that whole thing was shut down years ago,” Bree said.
“Supposedly, it was, once the manipulation of human intelligence was replaced by the development of artificial intelligence,” Mike assured her. “I sort of doubt that Henderson is behind Dad asking us to hide and protect the baby, but I’m equally as certain that he wouldn’t have taken a risk by seeking me out in my office if he’d had other choices.”
“Don’t you think the baby should have a name other than the baby?” Bree asked.
“How about Secret?” I suggested. “Just as a placeholder until we can get ahold of Dad and find out her real name.”
Everyone agreed that Secret was an acceptable temporary name for the baby, who was much too young to care.
“So if Dad chose Mike to protect the baby, maybe whatever is going on is going on here in White Eagle or at least somewhere nearby,” I said. “I don’t really see him traveling all that far with a baby once it was thrust into his care unless he had to.”
“I agree with Tess,” Tony said. “Chances are that your dad came into possession of the baby shortly before dropping her off with Mike. It also makes sense that whatever is going on is probably not connected to Henderson and his experiments.” He paused and took a breath. “If you
think about it, the whole thing with Henderson went down before your father even met your mother, which would make the babies he experimented on older than we are.”
“Tony’s right,” Mike said. “Based on what we’ve been able to piece together, after faking his death, it appears as if Dad went back to the black-ops group he worked with before he got involved with Henderson. I’m sure he’s mixed up in all sorts of complex situations that have nothing to do with the guy.”
“Okay, so what’s going on this time?” I asked. “And where is Secret’s mother? Has she been killed? Kidnapped? Is there someone local looking for this child?”
“Your dad has always been cryptic, but it does seem odd that he didn’t give you a bit more information,” Bree said.
“Maybe he still will,” I said. “Maybe he’ll call or email or something to let us know what’s going on.”
“I guess in the meantime, we’ll take care of the baby and try to keep her safe,” Mike said.
“It does make sense that she stay here at the house with me,” Tony said. “Chances are that no one other than your dad and the four of us even knows we have her. I think it’s best to keep it that way.”
“We’ll need supplies,” I pointed out. “Formula. Diapers.”
“I’ll buy them,” Bree said. “If anyone asks, I’ll just say I’m getting the nursery ready for Ella.” She looked at the baby who was sitting in the car seat they’d brought her out to the house in and smiled. “I even have an extra crib.”
“You do?” I asked.
“You do?” Mike parroted.
“I do,” Bree confirmed. “I bought one from a mail-order catalog, but once I got it, I realized that I really didn’t like the style as much as I thought I would. I ordered another crib I’d seen on another site and planned to send the first crib back, but if you need it, Tony can follow us back to the house and pick it up.” Bree looked at Mike. “It’s in that big box in the garage.”
“We will need a place for the baby to sleep, even if it is only for a few days,” I pointed out.
“I’ll follow Mike and Bree when they go home and grab the crib,” Tony offered. “We can set it up when I get back.”
“I have sheets and blankets you can use as well,” Bree offered. “Who knows how long Secret will be with us. We might as well make her comfortable.”
“Mike and Bree used the car seat Bree bought for Ella to get Secret out to the house and are leaving it here for us to use, so we’ll need to buy her one to replace it,” Tony said.
“I ordered the one I got online. I can order another,” Bree said. “Ella isn’t due for five weeks. We have time.”
I looked at the baby who had started to coo. “I wonder if this might be the sort of emergency my dad had in mind when he gave Tony the flash drive and told him to only use it in case of an emergency.”
“I’m not sure that not having all the answers you want constitutes an emergency,” Tony said. “Your dad just left the baby with Mike this morning. Let’s give him a chance to get back to us before we try cracking what I’m sure is going to be a difficult code to crack.”
“I suppose that’s all true, but if the flash drive Dad gave you to use in a real emergency is encoded, and it appears to be a difficult code to unravel, don’t you think it might be best to work on it before we have a real emergency?”
Tony frowned, but he didn’t answer right away. I assumed he was working through my statement and trying to decide whether I had a point or not. If I were the one with the hacking skills, I would have decoded the message right away, but Tony was the trustworthy sort, which is most likely why Dad chose to give the flash drive to him rather than to me. And if Dad told Tony to wait for an emergency before accessing the flash drive, you could pretty well count on the fact that Tony would wait.
Once the four of us had discussed the basic situation and had come up with a plan to care for the baby, Mike announced that he wanted to get Bree home. As we’d discussed, Tony followed Mike and Bree home in his truck to pick up the crib, and I stayed home with the baby, who was sleeping on the guest bed surrounded by pillows. It wasn’t the best solution, but it would do until we could get the crib set up.
After Tony and the others left, I went out onto the deck to sit and look at the moon as it slowly rose over the lake. My phone rang, but the caller ID told me it was an unknown number. I usually ignore calls from unknown numbers, but given the fact that I hoped Dad would contact us, I decided to answer.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Tessie.”
“Dad?”
“I only have forty seconds, and then I need to get off, so just listen. When I was in town dropping the baby at Mike’s office, I saw your mom standing on the sidewalk outside the restaurant she owns. She was with a man in his forties. Dark hair. Tall.”
“That’s Theo. I guess you could say Mom and Theo are dating.”
“Does he have an accent?”
“Yes. South African, I think.”
“Is there a tattoo on his inner left wrist?”
“Yes, crossed swords.”
“Damn.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Is Mom in danger?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it, but don’t approach Theo and try not to act suspicious around him.”
With that, he hung up. No goodbye, sweetheart. No I love or miss you. And most importantly, no clue as to what was actually going on or when he might call back.
Chapter 3
Tuesday, May 18
Tony had gotten up with the baby during the overnight hours, allowing me to sleep, so by the following morning, he was looking a little ragged around the edges, yet even though he was fatigued, he looked content, even happy. He made breakfast for Tilly and me and then very sweetly saw us off with a kiss on the lips for me and on the top of the head for Tilly. He assured us that he and Secret would be fine and that Tilly and I should go about our day and enjoy the opportunity to take a step back into our old lives.
I hadn’t mentioned the call from my dad to Tony when he’d returned from Mike and Bree’s last evening. I wasn’t sure why exactly. When Tony got home, I was still trying to process everything, and then he went right to work on the crib and was still assembling it when I’d announced that I was tired and heading to bed.
I knew I needed to tell him. And I would as soon as I got home that evening. And although Dad had said not to approach Theo or act suspicious around him until he had time to check things out, I knew I should tell Mike about the call. Although, unlike Tony, who would play it cool, Mike had more of a tendency to go all Rambo on any guy he suspected of being a danger to Mom. I had to admit that my instinct was to get rid of the guy now and worry about the details later, but I wanted Dad to trust me, and he’d specifically asked that I leave it alone until he could get back to me, so I supposed that was what I would do.
Of course, I’d had enough experience with keeping secrets from Mike to know that not filling him in was a bad idea as well. I supposed I’d talk to Tony tonight, and then between us, we could figure out what the best course of action might be.
“Morning, Hattie,” I greeted Grandma Hattie from Hattie’s Bakeshop after Tilly and I wandered into the wonderfully smelling store.
“Tess! Tilly! Hap told me the two of you were back on the job, at least temporarily. Why didn’t you stop in and say hi yesterday?”
“I was going to, but then I ended up behind schedule, so when you were in the back when I came in, I just left the mail on the counter and continued on. But I stopped here first today, so we could have a few minutes to catch up.”
“Gosh, I’ve missed you both.” She reached behind the counter. “Can Tilly have a homemade dog cookie?”
“She can.”
“And would you like a treat as well?” Hattie asked.
I hesitated. “Tony made me breakfast, but maybe something small.”
“I have some of those oatmeal cookies you love.”
I smiled. “I’ll take
one.” I slipped my mailbag off my shoulder and let it rest at my feet.
“So, how’s married life been treating you?” Hattie asked as I nibbled on my cookie.
“It’s been wonderful. I guess there was a brief settling-in period after I quit my job at the post office and sold my cabin to move in full-time with Tony, but once we got settled and into a routine, it’s been just about perfect. I’m not sure why I waited so long to take the plunge.”
“Tony is a pretty great guy. I think you, my girl, are one of the lucky ones.”
“I’m definitely one of the lucky ones. Can you believe it’s almost been a year? Where has the time gone?”
Hattie chuckled. “Time does seem to pass in a blur. It seems like only yesterday I was your age and had my whole life ahead of me. I remember my first date with Hap and then our brief but passionate courtship. I remember making the decision to get hitched and deciding not to have children right away. I remember sitting on the stoop at the back of the little house we rented and dreaming of how our lives were going to turn out.” She looked down at her wrinkled hand. “Sometimes, I’m not even sure how we got from there to here. In a way, it seems like it was only yesterday that I was a young bride. When you’re just starting out and looking ahead, it seems as if life will be a marathon, but once you’re standing where I am, you realize that what you’ve just experienced feels more like a sprint. Never forget to slow down and enjoy your moments.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
She passed me a small cup of coffee. “Will you be filling in at the post office for long?”
“I’m not sure exactly. The woman who took my route broke her leg. When my old boss called, she was desperate for someone who knew the route and could fill in right away. She didn’t mention how long she’d need me. I understand the break was pretty bad, so I would think that Hannah will be out for a while. I guess the post office must be looking for a permanent replacement. I suppose I should ask about it at some point, but I’m happy to do it for as long as they need me, so I don’t suppose it matters all that much.”