Within Range (HQR Intrigue)

by Janice Kay Johnson - His Best Friend's Baby

  “Sleep tight,” she whispered, softly stroking his back until his breathing slowed and his muscles went lax.

  Her recurring nightmare was always so vivid, so real...except for the twist at the end. A shameful part of her wished it was Richard she’d killed, instead of his butler-bodyguard. He was a monster. Instead, she was haunted by the slack face of a man she hardly knew.

  She stiffened. If Detective Renner had entered her fingerprints in that FBI database, he’d know who she was, that she was a person of interest in a previous murder. Why hadn’t he? Or had he?

  Her teeth wanted to chatter, but she clenched them. She had to take off soon, before it was too late.

  Chapter Five

  Helen awakened to the peculiar sensation of bobbing as if she were in a small boat riding the wake of a bigger one. With a groan, she pried open her eyes to see Jacob jumping up and down on her bed. His diaper had overflowed, which explained the strong smell of urine. He hadn’t yet noticed she’d opened her eyes.

  If she felt dazed, it was with surprise because she’d slept, after all. And hadn’t had another nightmare, or at least didn’t remember one.

  Her brain began to resume functioning. This was Saturday. Usually she welcomed the weekends. Even though she had to do errands, she also had time to do fun things with Jacob. Today, she felt weighed down by dread.

  Detective Renner would be back to ask more questions. She had to pack without a curious two-year-old or a nosy detective noticing. Knowing how much she’d have to leave behind didn’t help her mood. Not counting when she first left home for college, this was her third experience of starting entirely over, Jacob’s second—but since he’d only been seventeen months old last time, he’d been oblivious to the disruption of sneaking away in the night. This time would be different. It was just as well that he wouldn’t understand he’d never see Iris again, or Jenna or bossy Courtney.

  Wanting to give him one last day of normalcy, Helen tackled Jacob, but even as she tickled him and laughed along with his giggles, she plotted her day.

  Grocery shopping had become a necessity. They’d make it through breakfast, barely, with what remained in the refrigerator and cupboards. Plus she’d need to take some food with them—snacks for Jacob, a small cooler with drinks, breakfasts and probably lunches she could prepare their first days in cheap motel rooms, so they didn’t have to waste money eating out, or stop at stores too soon. The less he and she were noticed, the safer they’d be.

  Helen hated that she couldn’t let Jenna know Jacob wouldn’t be coming back, and that they didn’t dare say goodbye to her or Iris. Her mother would describe it as stealing away into the night like thieves.

  With sadness that might even be grief, she was dismayed to see Seth Renner’s face in her mind’s eye, too, as if he were part of what she hated to leave behind. Given the way he’d been questioning her, that made zero sense. Even so, she didn’t like knowing that he’d probably think she’d fled because she had killed Andrea and feared his investigation.

  The disconcerting part was a suspicion he’d also be at least a little hurt because she’d disappointed him, hadn’t trusted him. Because he’d never know what had become of her and Jacob.

  He’d let her see something she’d never have. As she put together breakfast and then showered quickly, she kept remembering not only the relentless questioning but also the detective’s patience and occasional kindness. His smiles for Jacob, the oddly tender note she heard a few times in his voice—the heat in his eyes when he let down his formidable guard. He’d reminded her of what some people were lucky enough to find.

  Except, it couldn’t possibly be Seth himself she would miss. What she felt was a foolish wish not to be so entirely on her own, that’s all.

  She’d forget him in no time, except as one more threat, another person who might be tracking her.

  * * *

  THE DAY FELT like summer when Helen ushered Jacob out the front door for the grocery expedition. He immediately cried, “Iris!”

  Helen turned to see her neighbor returning from the curb with her newspaper.

  Iris waved enthusiastically. “Where are the two of you off to?”

  With Jacob, Helen crossed her own somewhat scruffy lawn onto Iris’s manicured one. She wrinkled her nose. “Grocery shopping, what else? But since I have to go, is there anything I can pick up for you?”

  “Oh, if you wouldn’t mind, I forgot eggs when I went to the store yesterday.” She smiled at Jacob. “Perhaps this young man would like to stay with me while you do whatever you need to. I thought I’d do a little weeding out back, and I have a plastic bucket and shovel, you know. He can help me.”

  When she chuckled, Helen had to join her even as her heart ached. Oh, she’d miss Iris. “You’re a saint,” she declared. She’d have had to say no if Iris had intended to work on her front flower beds, but in back...that ought to be safe enough.

  One more thing to hate: how often she used that word in her thoughts. Safe.

  It was a relief to be able to set off on her own to make another ATM withdrawal and do her shopping. She took her time, calculating what meals would be most practical to make on the run. At last, she went to Walgreen’s and bought several modestly priced new toys that should entertain Jacob during days of driving. She’d leave those in the trunk so they’d be a surprise.

  She parked, took the groceries into the house and put away everything that had to go in the refrigerator, then slipped out her back door carrying the carton of eggs for Iris. No fence separated their yards.

  Iris and Jacob must be inside, leaving the bright blue plastic bucket and yellow shovel on the grass, and a real shovel left standing in what would be a small vegetable garden.

  She had started across the yard, when the screen door slammed open, bouncing against the side of the house. A dark figure burst out. In a shocked instant, Helen realized the man wore a ski mask, and had Jacob slung over his shoulder.

  With a scream of rage, she dropped the eggs, grabbed the shovel and tore across the lawn to intercept the man who held her sobbing, struggling child. His head swung toward her at the last minute. In a horrible replay of her nightmare, she swung the shovel with all her strength. This time she went for his shins.

  He tried to dodge. The blow was glancing, but enough to send him staggering. In that moment, Helen threw herself at him, closing her hand around Jacob’s kicking leg even as her shoulder connected with the man’s chest or side. Jacob tumbled from his shoulder and she caught him, staggering back.

  She retreated a step, her eyes locked on the furious, slitted eyes not hidden by the mask. Heart thundering, Helen knew he’d overpower her easily. She should have held on to the shovel.

  She took another step back. He advanced...and they both heard the wail of an approaching siren no more than a few blocks away.

  He broke away and ran, disappearing around Iris’s detached garage and down the alley, the slap, slap of his footsteps receding.

  With a dry sob, Helen sank to the grass, cradling Jacob. She had him. Thank you, God.

  * * *

  THE SECOND HE heard Iris Wilbanks’s address over the police radio, Seth switched on his lights and siren and accelerated away from the curb. Yeah, this was a small town, but he didn’t believe in coincidences.

  A patrol officer indicated that he was responding. Seth chimed in to say he was on his way, too.

  Since he’d been less than half a mile away, he pulled up in front of Iris’s house only seconds behind Officer Todd. He leaped out. His gaze went to Helen’s house, but the drawn blinds didn’t even twitch.

  “I’ll go around back,” he said tersely, and Todd nodded. As Seth rounded the house, he heard a solid knock on the front door and the young officer calling, “This is the police! I’m coming in.”

  He felt a torrent of anger and relief and probably more at the sight of Helen sitting in the
middle of the yard clutching her sobbing boy. Her fear hit him hard. He’d seen the same expression on the faces of parents who’d had a child go missing, or be hit by a car after running into the street. The knowledge that the unimaginable loss might have happened.

  He wasn’t even aware of crossing the lawn, only that he crouched beside Helen. However much he wanted to take her and Jacob in his arms, he had to do his job. “Was somebody here?”

  “He went that way.” She pointed past the garage. “I heard him running down the alley.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Only...only a minute or two.”

  Seth sprinted, despite knowing he’d be too late. Gun in hand, he reached the side street, where he saw no movement at all...but heard the receding engine of a car.

  He ran to the closest house. No one home. The one across the street, the kids were watching cartoons and nobody had seen anything.

  Ten minutes later, he walked back to Iris Wilbanks’s house to find the backyard empty. He opened the screen door and followed the voices inside.

  A pair of paramedics had the woman on a stretcher and were obviously ready to transport her. She was conscious but looked bad, tiny and fragile. Bandages were wrapped her head, and an oxygen mask covered her face.

  A distraught Helen stood at her side, Jacob on her hip. “You saved him. I’ll never forget. Thank you.”

  “Ma’am, we need to go,” one of the EMTs said.

  “Yes.” Helen squeezed the older woman’s hand and stepped back. Then she saw Seth and came to him, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

  “Hey, buddy,” he murmured.

  Jacob kept blubbering, and who could blame him? Even if the piece of scum hadn’t actually gotten a hand on the boy, he must have seen unfamiliar violence.

  “I need to sit down,” Helen said suddenly.

  He allowed himself to wrap a supportive arm around her as he steered her to the sofa. She sank down as if her knees had given way. Seth excused himself, and he and Dave Todd stepped onto the front porch, both watching as the ambulance pulled away.

  “Were you able to talk to the victim?”

  “She kept saying, ‘Jacob, Jacob,’ over and over again.”

  “That’s the boy’s name,” Seth said. “Okay, let’s get the story from Ms. Boyd. She lives next door.” He nodded toward her house. “Last week’s murder happened in her rental. She tells me she left behind an abusive ex. I’m thinking the two crimes have to be related.”

  Todd nodded, and the two men went back into the living room. Seth sat on the coffee table facing Helen, while Todd chose a wing chair a little farther away. Fortunately, Jacob’s sobs had dwindled to rhythmic snuffling.

  “All right,” Seth said, “can you tell us what happened?”

  “Iris offered to watch Jacob while I grocery shopped. She said he could help her work on her vegetable garden.” She almost sounded steady. “I came home, took my groceries into the house and went out the back door with a carton of eggs for Iris.”

  Seth could just imagine how much help a two-year-old would have been.

  “They weren’t outside, though,” she continued. “I was partway across the yard when the screen door slammed open and a man wearing a ski mask ran out. He—” her voice broke “—he had Jacob over his shoulder.” Her desperate gaze met Seth’s. “If I’d been twenty seconds later—”

  He couldn’t help himself. He reached out and took her hand in his, not surprised to find her fingers were icy. “You weren’t.”

  After a minute, she nodded.

  “How did you get Jacob away from him?”

  She told them about having noticed the shovel, snatching it up and swinging at the kidnapper’s legs. The stumble, her tackle.

  “He took off because he heard the approaching siren.” Helen shivered. “Iris must have called 9-1-1.”

  “She did,” Todd confirmed.

  “She saved Jacob. And she got hurt so badly doing it. I should never have left him with her. Never!”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Seth saw the other officer’s brows rise, not only at what she’d said, but also the passion in her voice.

  His fingers tightened on her hand. “Helen.” He waited until he had her full attention. “Was this your ex-husband?”

  She shook her head slowly, some bewilderment showing. “No. He was bulkier than Richard. Anyway, I saw his eyes. They were light colored. Gray, I think. Richard’s are brown.”

  “Is your ex-husband the kind of man who’d send someone else to snatch his son for him?”

  She didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

  So he either had scumbag friends or money to hire some muscle.

  “All right,” he said. “Give me a minute, and then I’ll walk you and Jacob home.”

  Dave Todd followed him outside.

  “File a report with what you know,” Seth said. “I’ll head over to the hospital to talk to Mrs. Wilbanks. With a little luck, she got a better look at the guy.”

  “You’re thinking Ms. Boyd’s ex-husband is behind this?”

  “If somebody had grabbed the boy when he was momentarily alone, I’d be more likely to consider other possibilities. But to attack openly like this? Assault a woman to get at the kid? Yeah, I think Jacob’s father has to be behind it.”

  “And the murder.” Gravity aged Dave Todd’s boyish face.

  “That, too.”

  They exchanged a few more words before Todd got back in his patrol car. Going back into the house, Seth asked, “Ready?”

  “Yes, of course, but you don’t need to—”

  He cut her off. “I do.”

  Helen bit her lip, nodded and started to push herself up. With reaction setting in, she collapsed back onto the cushion. Seth reached for the boy. “I’ll carry him.”

  “If you’ll just help me up...”

  He waggled his fingers. Jacob looked at him shyly from red, puffy eyes, then took his thumb from his mouth and held up his arms. Seth lifted him, holding him close. “Good boy. Mommy had a tough day.”

  Helen stood, expression mulish. “And yet, somehow I’ve always managed fine before.”

  “Today you don’t have to.”

  She got all the way to the front door before stopping suddenly. “Wait. Iris won’t have her insurance card or her keys.”

  “Good thought. Can you find them? I’ll lock the back door while you’re looking.”

  He bent over so Jacob could push the button on the doorknob. That wouldn’t keep an eight-year-old kid out. Dismayed, Seth decided to pick up a dead-bolt lock and install it himself before the home owner was released from the hospital.

  Helen handed over both the key and the Medicare Advantage card, waiting on the porch while he locked the door. They’d started along the sidewalk when she exclaimed, “Oh, no! I dropped her eggs. I should go—”

  Seth put his free hand on her lower back and gently propelled her forward. “There’s no urgency. I feel sure Iris will be admitted to the hospital for the night, at least.”

  Helen seemed to stumble over her pride when he offered to go get them all hamburgers and fries, but reluctantly accepted.

  “Let me walk through your house first,” he suggested.

  “Please,” she said simply.

  He hadn’t expected that the creep would have circled around and let himself into her place to wait, but had to be sure, checking under her bed and in their closets before feeling satisfied enough to leave.

  A local burger restaurant had no drive-through but better quality food, so he went there. As he waited for the order, an uneasy feeling crept over him. He didn’t like Helen and Jacob being unprotected even for half an hour, although he honestly didn’t expect a repetition of the attack so quickly. And maybe that wasn’t even what worried him right now. Helen had to know her ex wasn’t going to
give up, so what would she do?

  He had a suspicion he knew.

  * * *

  IT HADN’T BEEN easy getting rid of Seth, but he did finally leave.

  Even on the front porch, he’d turned to give her one last piercing look. “You have to tell me who this guy is. You know that, don’t you?”

  Knowing she was lucky he’d been patient this long, she said in a small, cracked voice, “Tomorrow.”

  “All right,” he said, sounding astonishingly gentle. “Get some rest, Helen. I’ll have patrols drive by regularly this afternoon and during the night. Keep your phone handy. Do you still have my card?”

  She nodded.

  “Put my number in your phone. If something happens, call 9-1-1 first, then me. Okay?”

  “Yes.” She felt her smile wobble. “You’ve been...really nice. Thank you.”

  He smiled ruefully, not moving. All he did was study her face for longer than was comfortable. Finally, he gave his usual clipped nod and walked down her concrete walkway toward his car. A lump in her throat, Helen watched him go, thinking that even when he appeared relaxed, he wasn’t; his head kept turning so he could take in his surroundings, and she suspected he could hit a dead run in about one stride.

  And if all went well, she’d never see him again.

  When she put Jacob down for his nap, he conked out instantly. Helen hoped all the excitement today had worn him out enough so he’d sleep longer than usual. In case he didn’t, she had to hustle.

  She’d wait until dark before she went out to the garage to get the two bags she always kept packed. For now, she’d have to revert to her previous identity and pray it wouldn’t occur to Richard that she might do that.

  Selecting carefully what they could take, she packed everything in a couple of black plastic garbage bags. She openly carried those out to the car under the theory that anyone watching would think she planned to drop them off at the thrift store or maybe the waste disposal site. Nonperishable food went into a cardboard box and grocery bags that she wouldn’t take out until after dark.