Maternal Harbor (26 page)

“Sarge?” asked an officer who was sitting at the back of the crowded squad room.  “Any news about the missing babies?”

By sheer willpower, Erica Thorburn pretended to scan the clipboard in her hands.  “Here’s something.  A sheriff’s department in Montana has located them.  They’re fine and on their way home.”  As smattering of hand claps and cheers circled the room full of uniformed officers, she inwardly blessed her chest protector.  It held her erect and no one could see how her body sagged with relief.  She hid her thoughts behind the chiseled expression she had practiced for hours after the night her mother started bringing home men.  Mother had soon cowered from the look.  Now, it was underlings and felons who cringed from her stare of pure predator adrenalin.

However, for the last thirty-six hours, it was Erica who suffered in an endless limbo; the aggression necessary to be a good cop was lost to over-powering fear for Derek.  He could not be alone so long.  The chapel of her mind was chaotic; the tranquil space destroyed by a splitting pain behind her eyes.

Get a grip.  The babies are on their way home.

Erica acknowledged Iska only in her heart.

After the last officer pushed through the door, she collapsed on a chair, staring at the wall clock.  Only 8:00 a.m.  She couldn’t wait much longer.  Her sore arm ached under her standard blue sleeve, and she cursed Doretta’s bite.  The throbbing wound was a constant reminder of her failure to bring the boys to Derek.

She reread the bulletin on the babies.  CPS sent a caseworker on the first available flight.  Before long, Jimmy and Levi would be here and in foster care where they should have been in the first place.  Damn that red-haired witch.

Get up and do something!

Erica slowly rose.  By the time, she left the squad room, her slip into weakness was forgotten and her emotions were under tight control.  Wouldn’t hurt to find out which flight the babies were on, and to have a peek when they arrived, see how much growth had developed, how much advancement.

Derek would have surpassed it.

Erica abruptly stopped.  Her eyes narrowed.  On the far side of the lobby, Detective Lute was deep in conversation with another man.  What the hell was he doing here?  Who’s he talking to?  She regarded the look of the man:  short, husky, tattooed, confident.

Duffy Sanders
? 

Erica quickly retreated to the squad room and leaned against the wall, struggling to grasp this unexpected development.  She was sure it was Sanders.  Pai introduced them only once at the clinic, but once was enough.  He wasn’t supposed to be back yet.

But why not?  You should’ve known.

“
I’m sick of your yammering, Iska.”

“
Sarge?”

Erica jerked upright and glared at the officer standing in the doorway.  “What is it, Sheehan?” she asked and didn’t give a rip about his answer.  She just wanted to be alone.

“Why are you hiding?  I’ve been looking all over.  Detective Lutavosky wants to see you, and says he’s short on time.”

“
Detectives are always in a hurry,” Erica snapped.  “It’s good for them to wait once in awhile.”

“
It’s your neck.”  Sheehan ducked back through the door.

Erica wanted to lace him with a stern lecture about more respect; however, she dismissed the thought and focused on Derek until an inner joy leaped and cart wheeled.  The capable Montana Police found the boys.  Now she’d simply wait.  Removal of Levi from his gullible grandmother posed no problem.  Jimmy from his navel-trained father did, but with a little planning, she’d outsmart Duffy.  Charlie in foster care was a simple matter of learning the address.  The time was closer now.  Soon Derek would lead a race through seaweed under sun-drenched waves.  Her boy now demanded the Pacific, and the more he asked, the more she liked the deep as the perfect place.

Detective Lute would not spoil it.

Erica strode from the room.  Her boots struck the tile.  Heel-toe.  Heel-toe.  The familiar cadence relaxed her enough to hold out a steady hand to Duffy and say, “I’m sorry about Pai.”  He nodded; his watery eyes spoke his emotion, a pitiful runt of a man.  It won’t be so hard to take Jimmy from him.  “I understand your son has been located and is coming home.”

“I’m on my way to the airport.”

Erica smiled.  “Want some company?  I have time.”

Lute straightened to his towering height.  “Erica, I’ve been trying to get you on the phone.”

“
Hi, Lute.”  She batted at his shoulder with the side of her fist.  “You’re a far cry from homicide.  I’ve left you messages, but you’re hard to reach.”

“
I understand you became friendly with both the victims and Ms. O’Riley at the clinic.  Do you recall anything that might help us sort this out?”

His direct question rattled her for a moment.  “I’ve racked my brain.  All I could come up with is Teagan devised a plan for us to help one another.”  Erica forced her voice to catch and blinked a few times.

“This must be hard for you,” Lute said.

Erica moistened her lips and nodded.  “Any word about Teagan?” she asked softly.

“She’s still at large.”

“
Thank God, we got the boys.  Stupid of her to flip out.  I offered to help, but she turned me down.”  Lute’s eyes shadowed with doubt or was it disbelief?  Erica didn’t like whichever it was.  Had she gone too far?

Duffy stepped away.  “Are you coming?  The babies are due at SeaTac at 9:30.”

Erica glanced at Lute.  “Case worker knows you and Duffy are meeting her?”

Lute took a moment before answering, “CPS said they’d handle it.  I have an appointment.”

“Duffy, let’s go see your son.  I met him at the hospital right after he was born.  He’s the cutest little guy you ever saw.”  They passed rapidly down the hall.

At the end, Erica glanced back.  Lute still watched.  She screamed silent curses.  Lute had noticed her slight limp.

Bryan Winslow shifted in the uncomfortable metal chair at the Flathead County Justice Center.  He was sick of the wasted hours spent talking to people, especially the self-important assistant county attorney who sat across the table.  The man’s inflexible expression showed no hint of understanding.

Once more Bryan swallowed to moisten his throat.  “I don’t know what else I can say, except don’t send the babies back to Seattle until you’ve talked with a Detective Lutavosky.  Teagan has contacted him by now.”

“That’s quite a story spun by a woman you haven’t seen for ten years.”  The assistant shoved away from the table, straightened his trendy tie and buttoned his severe jacket.  “And it’s hard to believe.”

“
Teagan is trying to prove it.  She figures it’s the only way any of you will believe her.”

“
Well, she is only making her life harder.”  He shut the door behind him.

Worried and helpless, Bryan watched while the second hand on a wall clock swept repeatedly by the twelve, adding more minutes to the hours since he last seen Teagan.  He finally quit drumming his fingers on the table and slid down in the chair, sinking into ever deeper anxiety.

The door finally opened.  Fiona stormed into the interview room and lowered herself onto one of the hard chairs with all the precision of a dethroned queen.  She perched with her chin high, jaw locked, and eyes furious.  No wonder they brought her to him.

“
Are you in pain, Grandma?”

She looked down her nose at him.  “I just know those clowns put Mitzi in the animal shelter.  She’ll never forgive me.  And what if the babies are flying to their deaths?”

Bryan worked his fingers along his hairline, trying to stop the throbbing that had began with the smart-tongued lawyer and elevated at the sight of Fiona.  He peered at her from under his hand.  “They’ll release us,” he said more to himself than her.

“
You can bet your booty, they will.  I called Sheigman.  He and Mr. Wanna-be County Big Shot were having a nice chat when they kicked me out and brought me here.”

“
I have to go to Teagan.”

“
Go quickly.”  Her firm words held a tremor.

“
I hate to leave you to. . . .”

“
Die alone?  Old ladies are supposed to go to their maker.  Babies aren’t.  If anything happens to them, I know a couple fools who will pay dearly.”  She sighed.  Her watery eyes bored inside him.  “Bryan, I managed before you arrived and will after you’re gone.  I know people at the nursing home by the hospital.  They’ll help me if I need it.”

The door opened and Sheriff Volker entered.  “You may go on home for now, but charges may be filed later.”

The unexpected release sent Bryan into limbo for a moment.

Fiona rose quickly.  “Let’s go, Bryan.”

He understood her hurry, but asked the sheriff, “Did you contact Detective Lutavosky?”

“
We’ve been in touch with Seattle.”

The vague answer didn’t set well, but what the heck, Bryan tried another.  “When can I talk to TJ?”

Volker scowled at him.  “He has agreed to extradition.  He’ll be on his way to Oklahoma in a few hours.”

“
I’d like one last shot at making peace with him.”

“
He’s angry at you?”

“
I am with him.”

The sheriff sighed.  “The best I can do is give you a few names in Oklahoma to contact.  I don’t believe he’s in too much trouble if he co-operates.  Maybe some time in juvenile detention and probation.  Now take your grandmother home.”

Sturdy and stiff Fiona turned back at the doorway.  “If you put
my
poodle in the dog pound, she’ll be frightened silly.  There’s an odor of death about that place.”

“
She’s in my office.  We’re not the enemy everyone thinks we are.”

“
You just sent three babies into the arms of a killer.”

“
Grandma
.”  Bryan tugged at her elbow.

Fiona tipped a precise nod at Volker and stalked out.

Mitzi jumped into Bryan’s arms the moment Volker’s office door opened.  Carrying the dog, he ushered Fiona outside.  He glanced back at the modern Justice Center and pictured TJ crestfallen and alone in the bowels of the building.  He drove Fiona home, feeling as if he had left something behind.

Once inside her house, Fiona immediately shuffled past Bryan and climbed the stairs.  She hadn’t spoken since they were freed.  He listened to her feet pad down the hardwood hallway.  Her door closed with a slam.  Her total disappointment remained with him at the bottom of the stairs.

Bryan exhaled.  “Okay,
Grandma
.  I should’ve done something to keep the babies here.”  She didn’t hear his words, but he was glad he mumbled them.  Detective Lutavosky would be the one to hear what he had to say.

Bryan reserved a seat on the next flight to Seattle and climbed the stairs to say goodbye to his grandmother.

Fiona nestled in her bed with Mitzi beside her.  Weakness shaded the deep hollows of her dear face.  Her chest barely rose with breathing.

This might be the last time I see her alive, Bryan thought.  Unexpected tears stung his eyes and a lump choked his throat.

“I’m flat tired of you looking at me like I’m dead,” Fiona muttered.  “I have a friend who’ll stay with me until you return.  His number is by the phone in the kitchen.  Call him.”

“
Him?”

“
Just
make the call.”

Bryan sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Go,” Fiona said with authority.  “You’re all Teagan and those babies have.”

He kissed her bloodless cheek and rose.

At the door, her voice stopped him.  “I won’t die before you come back with Teagan and Charlie.”

Erica and Duffy trotted through the cavernous parking tower at SeaTac Airport, and then hoofed it rapidly over a sky bridge and long stepped onto an escalator, descending to the ticketing area.  “Which concourse?” she asked, scanning the directional letters painted above the different arteries which fed from the heart of the terminal.

“Horizon B1.”

Erica spied the letters first.  Duffy quickly caught up, and they hurried abreast down the corridor.  A little out of breath, they finally reached the Horizon gate fifteen minutes before arrival time.  Neither chose to sit while they waited and both kept their eyes glued to the door where Duffy’s son would arrive.

The aroma of thick coffee from the Gateway Café sullied the air.  Erica wrinkled her nose and chose to ignore it and the waiting crowd.  Minutes dragged.  9:30 came and went.

Then suddenly two women carrying three infants arrived at the gate!

Duffy and Erica parted the crowd and rushed to them.

Erica recognized the caseworker.  “Linda, this is Duffy Sanders, Jimmy’s father.”

Linda’s smile was tired, yet pleased.  She shook Duffy’s hand.  “Bet you want to meet your son.  It’s so crowded here.  Let’s go over by those wall seats.”  Again the crowd parted with curious stares.

Linda set Jimmy’s carrier on a seat and re-tucked the blanket under his chin.

Erica stood aside while Duffy crouched down and spoke to his son.  What she could see of Jimmy calmed her frenzied emotions.  His newborn face had rounded into gopher cheeks in just over a week; his dark eyes and button nose were perfect.  She bridled her first impulse to grab him and race away.  Or to latch onto either Charlie or Levi as they nestled in their infant seats held by Linda Clark’s helper.

Derek is patient.

Jimmy screwed up his face and squalled.  Duffy picked his son up and held him like hand blown glass.  The crying intensified.  “What do I do?”  Panic touched his voice.

“
Take it easy,” Erica said.  “Hold Jimmy on your shoulder and pat his back.” 

Duffy fumbled around, but managed to do what she advised.  Jimmy still fussed.

“Do you have someone to help you for awhile?”  Linda asked.

“
Only Erica.”

Erica held out her arms.  “Give Jimmy to me.”  The weight of the baby was so light, yet so substantial.  Derek would’ve felt like this.  She drew Jimmy closer and rocked back and forth.  “Hush baby boy.”  To her surprise, he burped and quieted.  A mother’s tenderness filled Erica’s chest and spread throughout her every part.  She could take care of him and the others, lots of others.  How could any ever be abused?  She stepped nearer Charlie and Levi.  Her eyes filled with them.

Erica blinked and glanced at Linda’s helper.  “Have they been good, Miss . . .”

“
I’m Cathy.”  The young social worker spoke meekly.  Her tone matched her flat-chested body and missionary features.  She wore an ankle-length denim skirt with a beige peasant blouse.  Normally Erica preferred no makeup, but this girl could use a good dose of blush and mascara; and something on her feet besides the Jesus sandals.

“
Don’t let my uniform put you off,” Erica said.  “Come on, let’s sit down.”

A section of four chairs emptied to the right.  Cathy placed Charlie on one, Levi on the other and sat down.  She smoothed her skirt and patted the seat next to her.  “Please join me.”  Modest, friendly, a real pushover.

Jimmy warm in her arms, Erica sat down.  “Have you worked for CPS long?” she asked Cathy in a friendly sort of a way, soft and sweet, just like any friendly mother; she enjoyed the sound in her voice.

“
Two weeks.”  Cathy leaned nearer and almost whispered, “You seem so calm with a baby.  I was sure I’d like social work, but the newborns frighten me and I will have to keep him until a foster family is ready to take over.”

“
You needn’t be afraid.  I’ll be glad to help.”

Cathy leaned in even more.  “You are so busy fighting the evil in this city there isn’t time for you to fuss with me and the babies.  You do your job and I’ll do mine.”

Why the meek little shit is telling me what to do.  Erica’s elbow touched her Glock on her hip.  “Give me your address and I’ll check to make sure you are okay.” 

“
I live over on Fremont at the Pickford Apartments.”

Joy leapt into Erica’s heart: Charlie at Cathy’s, Jimmy at Duffy’s, Levi with his grandmother; that’s all she needed.

Leave right now. 

Erica stood and handed Jimmy back to Duffy.  “I have to report in.  Gotta keep the criminals out of trouble.