Monday's Child (25 page)

Phil let his hand containing the gun drop as Sara crumpled to the floor.

Sara lay there, longing for unconsciousness, but it wouldn’t come. Three voices echoed above her, one Scottish lilt hauntingly familiar, but she couldn’t put a name to it.

Please…let Luke find me. I don’t want to die before I tell him I love him.

Someone picked her up carried her back to the bedroom and retied her hands to the bed. The darkness grew, and she knew no more.

24

Luke dozed on and off all night, beside himself with worry. Just after six thirty, he got up and showered. He stood under the hot water, letting it pour down on him. His stomach twisted as if he was going to throw up, yet he knew he’d not eaten enough for that. For the first time in his life he understood the term, heartsick. A huge hole, no, make that chasm, had opened up within him and he had no way of fixing it.

He’d failed. He’d never failed at anything before. Not a case, a race, or even a tennis match. But now he’d lost the single most important thing he’d been given. He dressed and headed downstairs. He went into the kitchen and filled the kettle. Footsteps made him turn. “Morning, Mary. How did you sleep?”

“Not very well. You?”

Luke shook his head. “Dozed, but that’s it. The same thought has gone around my mind all night. I failed in my duty, and as a direct result, my charge, the woman I love, is probably dead, either at the hands of Austin or her own body.”

Mary moved over to him. “You can’t think like that. Sara is a fighter. She’s stubborn. You said so yourself. She’s not going to let something like this kill her.”

“I ought to be assigned traffic duty for the rest of my career for this. And be demoted. How can I be the lead officer for anything now?” His hands curled into fists in frustration. “It’s my fault.”

“You can’t blame yourself for being sick when no one else does. It happens.”

“I do. I deserve every harsh comment…even the entire book thrown at me.”

“Snap out of it.” Mary’s tone was sharp and he looked up in surprise. “She needs you to be strong, not berate yourself over something you had no control over. It’s not as if she wandered off on her own.”

“I’m sorry?”

“She had the cop from outside the house with her, Luke. She took your phone, left you a note. Even rang Carole to say she was going out. She listened to you and took what you said to heart.” She dropped the cup on the table in front of him. “Now pull yourself together, drink your coffee, and we’ll get through this.”

“Don’t want it.”

“Luke Nemec, you need to take care of yourself. When she comes home, she’ll need you strong and here to look after her. Now drink up while I fix you some toast. My goodness, you’re worse than a ten-year-old at times.”

He suddenly felt like a child, remembering being berated by his own mother in just that fashion. He took a deep breath. “Yes, Aunt Mary.”

“That’s better.” She smiled, softening her voice. “It’s hard being on the other side of the desk, huh?”

“You have no idea.”

Four coffees later, the doorbell rang. Luke went to answer the door. DCI Shepherds and Dave stood there.

“Ye look dreadful,” Dave told him bluntly. “Did ye sleep any?”

“Did you?” Luke retorted.

“Aye, I did, when I eventually got home at three, but I asked ye first.”

“Not much.” Luke took their coats and hung them up. He turned at Shepherds, knowing he was going to be reprimanded and wanting to get it out of the way. “I’m sorry, sir. It’s my fault.”

“Ye were ill. I’ve spoken tae Dr. Scott, and he filled me in. Even so, ye should have rung and asked for backup. Better yet, Sara should have rung me or Dave.”

Dave intervened. “She rang Carole, but she was already at the doctor’s. Sara doesnae have any other numbers. And Carole was in the dark about this whole thing. Otherwise she’d have rung me immediately when she got home and found the message. As it was she dinna think twice about it.”

“It’s my fault.” Luke led the way into the kitchen where Aunt Mary cleaned the counter. “I programmed all the numbers into my cell phone, but Sara doesn’t know that. I hadn’t told her as I didn’t think she needed to know. You know Sara’s aunt, Mary Daniels. Do you want some coffee, sir?”

“I’ll do it,” Dave said. “Yer answer phone’s flashing.”

“Answer phone…Ohhh.” Luke tutted, annoyed with himself. “I meant to play you a message yesterday. I just hope this machine hasn’t recorded over it already.”

He pressed play, and the tape rewound. “I’ll play the messages back.”

The phone’s voice intoned. “You have five messages. Message one.”

That was hopeful as last time there’d only been three messages. First it played Carole’s messages from the night before. Then there was silence for a moment then the same muffled sounds he’d heard before. The cry this time resonated with in him. Chills ran down his spine and he knew without a doubt whose voice it was.

The tape continued with then two new ones.

“Message four.”

“Hi, Luke, it’s Dad. Is everything all right? It’s pretty late there, so I guess you’re asleep. I’ll call you tomorrow. Bye.”

“Message five.”

“Hi, it’s Carole. Just tae say I got home all right. I’ll come back in the morning, probably about ten. Bye.”

“What was that third one? Play it back.” Shepherds voice was sharp.

Luke rewound the tape and replayed the message. “Sara took my cell yesterday. She must have tried calling.”

Shepherds shot him a hard stare. “Are ye sure?”

Luke jerked his head in response. Like he wouldn’t know the sound of the voice of the woman he loved. “Positive. She wakes two or three nights a week, screaming with nightmares. It’s her.”

Luke turned to Dave. “Did you ping my cell?”

Dave blinked. “If ye mean yer phone, then aye. The last time it registers is eleven-thirty-two roughly in the center of town—which we’ve narrowed down to the war memorial. Then nothing. We can pin point it to the minute as the phone was in use when it cut off.”

Luke swallowed hard. “That was the call…the instant she was taken.”

Shepherds held out a hand. “I need the tape. I’ll get it analyzed.”

Luke handed him the tape, and Shepherds put it in his jacket pocket. The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it.” Dave said.

Luke nodded and pushed a hand though his hair. How many other ways could he screw up here? Dave came back into the room with Dr. Scott and Carole.

Scott put his bag on the table. “How are ye feeling, Luke?”

“How am I supposed to feel? Sara’s still missing.”

“That was nae what I meant. How’s the headache?”

“Still there.”

Scott frowned. “As bad as it was?”

“Not quite, but pretty bad.”

“Where can I check you over?”

Luke was about to refuse, but he saw the glare Mary gave him. ”Come through to the lounge.”

Luke sat on the couch and winced as Scott shone the penlight in his eyes.

“When did the headache start?”

“Two days ago.”

“Roll yer sleeve up for me.” Scott took his blood pressure. “Have ye ever had migraines before?”

“I get the occasional headache, but nothing this bad.”

“I want ye tae rest. If the headache does nae go by tomorrow, I want tae know.”

“It’s Sara we need to be concerned about. I’m fine. Tell me the truth, Doc. How long has Sara got?”

“She could be fine for a week or seriously ill this afternoon. We need tae locate her and get her tae a hospital quickly. What ye have tae remember is, aye, pre-eclampsia is dangerous, but no’ necessarily fatal.”

As long as it’s treated in time.
Luke took a deep breath. “Doc, let me have a word with Dave before you leave. Do you have time for coffee?”

Scott checked his watch. “Sure, thanks.”

Luke beckoned to Dave and waited in the hall. As Dave came out, Luke shut the kitchen door. “I want Scott to see the CCTV pictures. He might recognize someone we don’t.”

Dave raised an eyebrow.

Luke held his gaze. “One, he’s the police surgeon and he knows what’s going on. Two, it’s not like I’ve not screwed up enough by bringing Mary here. We ought to tell Carole, too.”

“Fine, but we dinna tell the Guv. He left a few minutes ago and took the tape tae get it analyzed.”

“I meant to give him the one from upstairs, too. For some reason, it records the same messages.”

“I’ll take it in with me. Let me do the talking. Ye can sit in, but ye dinna say a word.”

“OK.”

Dave smiled at him. “By the way…Carole’s pregnant. Tha’s why she could nae go with Sara yesterday.”

Luke smiled. “Congrats…that’s really good news. Why didn’t you say earlier?”

“It was nae the right time, still isnae, but had to tell someone.”

Luke hugged him. One ray of hope in an otherwise black sea of despair. “I’m so pleased for you both.”

****

Luke sat in the kitchen with a mug of coffee. Dave, Carole and Scott sat drinking theirs, whilst Mary stood at the sink, cleaning every pan she could find.

Dave drummed his fingers on the table, and then raised his eyes. “What I’m about tae say goes no further than this room. As Sara’s aunt, Mary already kens, as does the Doc. Luke and I both want Carole to ken. Yer going tae have tae forgive us all here, love, as we’ve all lied tae ye over the past few weeks.”

Carole stiffened. “Oh?”

“Sara is nay Luke’s wife. They only met in November. Luke isn’t an author. He’s a cop, my partner for the duration of his stay here. Sara is in protective custody. She’s the only witness tae a murder.”

Carole took a deep breath. “So I was right all along about ye being a cop. Yer talking about Jamie’s murder, right?”

Luke spoke up. “How do you know that?”

“When we were talking about old boyfriends, she said she’d been out with a bloke called Jamie. At the party, she said he’d been killed on a date. It only came up because she thought she saw him there. It was nae him in the end.”

“Jamie died three days into their honeymoon. That’s why she’s so sure of her dates. The twins were conceived before she was shot and Jamie killed.”

“She was
shot
?” Carole asked. “I thought she just broke her leg.”

“Yeah.” Luke glanced at Dave. “Sorry, I’ll shut up now.”

Dave smiled. “As far as we ken, the blokes we were protecting her from have her. We’ll get her back. It’s just a question of when.”

“I should have gone with her.” Carole ran her finger around the rim of her cup. “She rang me. If I hadn’t insisted on going tae the doctors so early and taken the four thirty appointment instead of the morning one, I could have gone with her.”

“Then he might have you, too,” Luke told her. “And congrats…Dave told me about the baby.”

“Thanks, but she went alone.”

“It’s not yer fault, love. Like I told Luke, this bloke could have snatched her on the way tae church or hospital.” Dave put his arms around his wife and held her. “She did nae go alone, she took the officer on duty with her.”

Luke finished his coffee. “What did the CCTV show?”

Dave pulled the pictures from his pocket and laid them on the table. “Collins was definitely with her, but so far he’s no’ turned up, either. They stopped for coffee in the café we ate in the other day. There are images of her at the war memorial. Someone grabbed her. She struggled briefly, and then she stopped resisting and let them put her in the car.”

“Who was it?”

“Austin and this guy.” He slid a photo across to Luke.

Luke studied the photo. “He looks familiar, but I can’t put a name to him. Does he have a record?”

“None we can find.”

Carole held out her hand. “Let’s see.” She took the photo. “He was at the party at Toni’s Monday night. He’s the guy Sara thought was Jamie at first. Creepy guy. He tried hitting on Sara and ran a mile when he found out she was married. He had a weird tattoo on his wrist. He’s been living there a few weeks now.”

“Phil Baines.” Scott took the photo from her. “He’s a business associate of Daniel’s.”

“Are you sure?” Dave put his cup down.

“Positive. He has a tattoo of a dragon on his left wrist. He was showing me at the party. He was also asking a lot of questions about Sara. Not that I answered them.”

“A dragon?” Luke asked sharply.

“Aye, a pretty good one. He was quite proud of it.”

Luke slumped back in the chair, his stomach threatening to eject the coffee he’d drank. “Would you be able to describe it or draw it for me?”

“I canna draw tae save my life, but I could describe it.” Scott glanced at his watch and stood. “I must get going. Ye know where I am if ye need me.”

“Sure. Thanks.”

“Rest, Luke. That’s an order.”

“Yes, sir.” Luke snapped off a mock salute.

Scott grinned. “Good. See ye later.”

Dave got up. “I have tae go, too. I’ll see ye out.”

****

Sara woke, drowning in a sea of pain. Her arms and legs ached, her wrists and ankles felt like they were on fire, and her head throbbed. She moaned and tried to move. Someone ripped the blindfold from her eyes. Bright light dazzled her, and it took a while to focus on the figure sitting on the bed.

Austin removed the gag. “So Sleeping Beauty finally awakes. How are you?”

Sara blinked several times as spots flashed in front of her eyes. “Stupid question. How do you think I am?”

“In a fair amount of pain, I would imagine. You shouldn’t have tried to escape. I did warn you. Phil takes his work very seriously. He never says anything he doesn’t mean. You must remember that. Would you like to sit up?”

“Yes.”

“Yes what?”

Sara glared at him. She’d rather stay like this than beg.

“Yes what?” Austin repeated.

Sara narrowed her eyes. “You killed Jamie.”

“That was, shall we say, unfortunate. It wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“I saw your eyes when you shot me. You meant it.”

“Oh, shooting you was deliberate. I intended to kill you for interfering. Robert organized it all.”

“What?”

Austin stared at her, cold hatred in his eyes. “Robert, or
Jamie
as he started calling himself, and I worked together for years. He betrayed me, and he had to pay. When he came crawling back, I told him we could work together again, but it would cost him the thing he loved best in the world as payment. You.”