Colton 911--The Secret Network

by Marie Ferrarella

  He suddenly realized that he was so hungry, preparation didn’t matter. “Cooked,” he answered simply.

  January could feel her eyes crinkling at the corners. She was trying very hard to divorce herself from this euphoria that had seized her soul, but it was extremely hard to achieve that impartial distance.

  “You really are very easy,” January told the detective.

  Sean nodded, doing his best to look serious. “I try to be,” he replied, looking at Maya. He smiled at the little girl before he signed a greeting to her.

  January brought over Sean’s plate and placed it in front of him. Since he hadn’t asked for anything special, she gave him the sunny-side-up eggs she had already prepared.

  “You just said good morning to her,” January observed, stunned and impressed.

  Sean nodded. “I know what I said,” he replied, smiling at Maya.

  January wasn’t ready to let the subject go. “You’re really getting good with that,” she said, commenting on the way he had taken to signing.

  “The internet is a great source of information on just about everything,” he told her. “I just decided to look up a few terms after you went to bed last night.” His eyes met hers. “I couldn’t sleep.”

  January’s delighted smile seemed to encompass her entire face. “I could,” she told him. “As a matter of fact, I slept like a baby.”

  He considered that for a moment, then shrugged. “Not sure just what that says about me,” Sean admitted.

  A wicked twinkle entered her eyes. “I guess we’ll just have to figure it out as we go along,” she told him. “But for now, eat your breakfast.” January pointed at his plate. “You need to keep up your strength.”

  Though he was trying to separate himself from last night’s events, he wasn’t quite as successful as he would have liked to be. “I certainly will if I plan to share another go-round with you any time in the near future.”

  Anticipation undulated through her and her grin grew that much more wicked.

  “We’ll see,” January told him. Finishing her breakfast, she moved back her plate. “So, what do you have on tap for today?”

  His answer would sound deadly dull to her, he thought. “I’ve got to get some work done on my ongoing investigation,” Sean told her, then anticipated her next question. “And yes, I’ll check with the lab to see if they’ve managed to make any progress with finding a match on Maya’s DNA test.”

  January remained seated for another minute or so. “Nice to know you’re on top of things,” she told him.

  Maya had scooted into her seat earlier, sitting down opposite Sean. She was watching him with adoring eyes and for all the world appeared to be absorbing each of his words, even though January knew that was really impossible.

  Listening to January, it was Sean’s turn to smile wickedly at her. “I guess I have my moments,” the detective admitted.

  * * *

  “That was a really great breakfast,” he told January less than fifteen minutes later. His plate was completely denuded of every last morsel of food. “Want help with the dishes?” he offered.

  Smiling, January shook her head. “You’ll just get in the way. Maya and I will handle what’s here. Go, do your thing,” she told him, waving the detective off. “Make the world safe.”

  Sean rose to his feet. “Never let it be said that I ignored a lady.” He gave her a formal salute and winked at Maya. “I’ll be in my office if you need me—and even if you don’t,” he added whimsically, then left.

  * * *

  Try as he might, he kept coming to the same dead end time after time, Sean thought. He was staring at the same array of photographs depicting Kid Mercer at different stages of his notorious career.

  “What the hell am I missing, Mercer?” he demanded of the subject of all these photographs. “And just where did you disappear to? Was that why you killed those three men? Because one of them could tell me where to find you?”

  Sean flipped through the various images, feeling frustrated and utterly stymied. “Too many questions, not enough answers,” he complained to the cartel leader who wasn’t there.

  Sean was so immersed in looking through the drug lord’s file, he didn’t hear Maya come in at first. He had deliberately left his study door open to get a little air circulating through the tiny room. Otherwise, with his computer running, the small bedroom/study became much too warm all too quickly, even though it was still winter.

  Seeing the shadow cast over his computer, Sean looked up. And smiled.

  “Hi, princess,” he said, greeting her even though he knew Maya couldn’t hear him. He reasoned that talking to her somehow comforted him. “I’m a little busy right now. Maybe I can play with you later,” he suggested.

  Maya cocked her head, making him think of a bird that was trying to understand what a human was saying. It was frustrating for him. Sean wanted to be able to communicate with her, to get the basic gist of what he wanted to say across to her.

  “Bear with me, princess. I’m not very good at this yet,” Sean said as he did his best to sign at least a little of what he had just said.

  Maya stood by his desk, watching him with wide, patient eyes. He had the feeling that at least a part of her felt sorry for him.

  That was okay, he thought. Sympathy acted in his favor.

  But as he awkwardly tried to tell her that he would play with her as soon as he had done a little more of his work, Sean watched as Maya’s eyes suddenly grew very large.

  “I sure hope that I didn’t just say something I shouldn’t have,” he told her, knowing his words were only a comfort to him, not her.

  It took him a second to realize that Maya wasn’t focused on him anymore. She was looking at one of the photographs he had pulled up on his computer screen. Guilt shot through Sean.

  She shouldn’t be looking at those, he thought. The man on the screen was a killer. He was—

  Maya had suddenly grown very excited, shifting from foot to foot and signing the same word over and over again.

  The third time she did it, Sean realized that he recognized what she was signing—or thought he did.

  Stunned, he heard himself asking Maya, “Did you just sign daddy?”

  That was the first word he had seen her signing. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

  “January,” he called out, raising his voice. “Can you come in here, please?”

  A minute later, January came into the room, drying her hands on the dish towel she had slung over her shoulder.

  “Sorry,” she apologized. “I didn’t realize that Maya had come in here, looking for her idol. I’ll just take her to—”

  Sean waved away her apology. “I think Maya just signed daddy.” Raising his eyes to January, he said, “I think that Kid Mercer might be Maya’s father.” He grew more excited as he entertained the possibility. “You know what that means, don’t you?”

  Not waiting for January to answer, he told her his theory. “Those men we thought were after Maya weren’t after her to kill her because she was a witness. They were trying to kidnap her in order to bring her back to Mercer. She’s his daughter. Look at how excited Maya got recognizing him.” He pointed to the little girl’s face. “She’s too innocent to be devious. Mercer has to be her father.” The moment he’d said that, Sean took out his cell phone.

  “Are you calling the lab?” January asked Sean.

  He nodded, repeating the words and confirming her suspicions. “Calling the lab.”

  The moment Sean got through, he told the CSI tech who picked up to compare the DNA sample he had brought in to Mercer’s DNA that was on file. He asked the tech to get back to him as quickly as possible.

  Hanging up, he looked at Maya, still somewhat surprised. “Who would have ever thought Kid Mercer was your daddy?” he marveled.

  January, meanwhile, had arrived
at her own decision about this situation. “She can’t go back to him,” she told Sean flatly. When he looked at her quizzically, she said, “I don’t care if he is her father.” She was not about to be argued out of the stand she had taken. “Maya obviously loves him, but it’s not safe for her to be with him. I am not about to allow her to go back to live with a killer.”

  The man had to understand why she was taking this position. “Think of what could happen to her,” she said emphatically, shaking her head. “No, there has to be another way.”

  While they were talking, Maya had gone up to the computer, spreading her fingers out over Mercer’s image as if she could actually feel his skin beneath her fingers.

  Observing her, January could only shake her head. “Breaks your heart. Some people just don’t deserve the love that they get. That DNA test,” she asked, turning toward Sean, “can it help us to locate her mother?”

  “Yes, if the woman is in the system for any reason,” he told January, then added an all-important qualification. “And if she’s still alive.”

  “We need to get Maya into protective custody,” January argued. Especially if they couldn’t identify her mother.

  But Sean shook his head. “Mercer will find her,” he predicted. “Mercer’s good. He’s got feelers out everywhere. It’ll just be a matter of time before he finds her.”

  “All right, so how do you propose we keep her safe?” January asked belligerently.

  “Well, I’ve got an idea,” he told her.

  She could have sworn a chill shot up and down her spine. Her eyes met his. “I’m not about to risk Maya’s life by using her as bait,” January informed him.

  “Dabbling in mind reading?” he asked her.

  Her eyes narrowed. She had her answer. “Then you are planning on using her as bait.” What was he thinking? “You can’t do that,” she told the detective. “I won’t let you.”

  “Relax, tiger, I’m not going to use her as bait, not really,” he clarified. “I am using the thought of her as bait.”

  She stared at him, shaking her head. “You’re going to have to make that a little clearer for me.”

  “I will,” Sean promised, adding, “All in due time. But first, to set this plan in motion, I’m going to need to get in contact with that so-called new ‘chef’ your sister Tatum hired.”

  Her eyes narrowed as she tried to make sense out of what Sean was saying. Where was he going with this? Unfortunately, he had managed to completely lose her.

  “I said clearer, not muddier,” January reminded him.

  He told her as much as he was free to share. “I need to call Cruz,” he told her. “And then call in a few favors. In order to assure ourselves that Maya remains safe, we are going to need to set a trap for Mercer. If he takes the bait, we can get him permanently off the streets.”

  “And you can do this without putting Maya’s life in any sort of jeopardy?” January asked, never taking her eyes off his face. She hated this plateau they had suddenly reached, but the little girl’s life depended on her being careful.

  That meant not blindly following Sean just because she had fallen in love with him.

  “Trust me. When I’m finished setting this trap, she’s never going to be in danger again,” he told the worried woman beside him. Seeing the doubt in her eyes, Sean said, “You’re going to have to trust me, January.”

  January sighed. She knew he was right. Even so, she knew she had to ask, “Do I have a choice?”

  Sean’s eyes met hers. “Ideally, no.”

  “Well, then I guess I trust you,” January said, resigned. “Let me get hold of Cruz for you,” she offered.

  “I’d appreciate that,” Sean responded, already taking out his cell phone to make another call to someone at the police station.

  Chapter 20

  “You wanted to see me?” Cruz Medina asked, closing the door behind him as he slipped into Tatum Colton’s office at the rear of True Restaurant.

  He was on his break, which he judged was the perfect time to meet with the man he knew was a Homicide detective. The same man he had just run into at the Coltons’ house during the family gathering.

  “Yes,” Sean replied, gesturing toward a chair facing Tatum’s desk. Cruz chose to stand. Sean took it as a sign. The undercover detective was leery.

  “Look, why don’t we just spare ourselves the needless dancing around the facts,” Sean suggested.

  Cruz looked at him blankly. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

  Sean could appreciate the man being careful, but right now, he didn’t have time for this. “Then let me explain it to you,” he said flatly. “Your current partner used to be my old partner when he worked in Homicide. Before he switched over to the Narcotics Division. You can call and ask him.” He knew that was taking a chance, after how he and Harry had parted, but he trusted his former partner to vouch for him.

  “All right,” Cruz replied vaguely, neither confirming nor denying Sean’s assumption. Taking quiet measure of the man before him, Cruz sat down. “So where is this thing going?”

  “I need to have someone plant some information for Elias ‘Kid’ Mercer to ‘uncover,’” Sean told Cruz without any preamble.

  “What kind of information?” Cruz asked, eyeing Sean suspiciously.

  In an ideal world, he would have been able to work his way up to this, feeling Cruz out as he went. But the world he found himself in was far from ideal.

  Okay, here goes everything. “I want it known that his daughter, Maya, is being moved to a safe house. Once we have her there, it’s only a matter of time before she’s going to be put into witness protection. He’ll never see her again.”

  “Maya,” Cruz repeated. An image immediately clicked in his head. “You mean that kid you brought with you to the party—”

  “—is Mercer’s daughter, yeah,” Sean confirmed. “I thought that because she might have witnessed a triple murder, Mercer had sent out his people to eliminate her. Turns out I think he wants his people to bring her home to him.” The more he thought about it, the more he believed that January had been right about Mercer. Daughter or no daughter, he couldn’t be allowed to get his hands on Maya.

  For his part, Cruz looked stunned. “How about that?” he cried. “I knew Mercer had a kid, but I thought she was older.” He thought about the other fact he had learned, watching some of Tatum’s family interact with the little girl. “And I definitely didn’t know that she couldn’t hear.”

  “Yeah.” Sean nodded solemnly. “Changes the playing field, doesn’t it?”

  Cruz made no comment one way or the other. Something far more important had struck him. The social worker had seemed very protective toward the child in her care, more so than he would have thought was usual. “Is January okay with this?” he asked Sean, elaborating in case the detective didn’t catch his meaning. “Using the kid as bait to catch the kid’s father?”

  “The story we’re putting out is the bait,” Sean corrected him. “The little girl definitely isn’t.”

  That sounded like a pretty gray area to Cruz. “Someday, you’re gonna have to explain that, but right now—” he glanced at his watch “—I’ve got to be getting back.

  “And don’t worry, I’ll see to it that this ‘information’ winds up on the streets.” He had one question for Sean. “Your end game is to lock up that SOB, right?”

  “Right,” Sean confirmed. “I want to lock Mercer up and not only throw away the key, but weld the door permanently shut.”

  “Okay, then count me in,” Cruz said, surrendering the last of the pretense he had cloaked himself in. For the first time since he had entered the office, he grinned. “Damn, that means I can finally ditch this undercover gig and start living a normal life again.”

  Sean couldn’t help but laugh. “You call what we do for a living normal?”

&n
bsp; To Cruz there was no question about that. “You mean in comparison to this dual life?” he asked, gesturing around Tatum’s office. He had come to Tatum’s restaurant for a specific reason. He was here pretending to be a drug dealer who in turn was pretending to be a chef. There were times when he felt himself dangerously close to losing track of all the pretenses that were involved. “Hell, yes,” Cruz said with enthusiasm.

  Sean had done his homework, looking into the reason that would have brought an undercover agent to Tatum’s door in the first place. The answer was more than a little surprising.

  “You really think that Tatum’s restaurant is laundering drug cartel money?” Sean asked the dark-haired pseudo-chef bluntly.

  Cruz shrugged noncommitally. “I can only go with the evidence,” he answered.

  “But you don’t believe it,” Sean guessed, reading between the lines.

  “What I believe doesn’t matter,” Cruz told Sean.

  Sean knew better. Every good law enforcement agent he had ever met relied heavily on their own gut feelings. And he had a feeling that Cruz’s gut exonerated Tatum.

  Wanting to get away from this line of conversation, Cruz repeated, “I’ll make sure the word about Maya’s safe house gets spread around. We’ll see if that gets the big fish to bite.”

  Sean rose to his feet. He had another appointment to get to. “I’m counting on it—for everyone’s sake,” he said as he left Tatum’s office.

  * * *

  Sean’s next—and last—stop before he went back to January and Maya was the police station. If everything went according to plan—meaning that he would wind up taking down Mercer—Sean knew he would need backup.

  Since, technically, taking down Mercer and his associates was the province of the Narcotics Division, that division would be the one that he needed to approach for backup if his plan were to be pulled off. Under perfect conditions, he could go in, make the necessary arrangements and then get back out again in a matter of minutes.

  But conditions, Sean had learned almost from the start of his law enforcement career, were never ideal. In this case that meant that, preoccupied the way he was with the myriad details involved in catching Mercer, he was not in the best frame of mind to run into Harry Cartwright.