Читать книгу Under The Cowboy's Protection - Delores Fossen - Страница 11

Raleigh cursed and snatched the phone from Thea. “Tell me the location of the baby now!” he demanded. But he was talking to the air, because the kidnapper had already ended the call.

“Oh, God.” Yvette grabbed the phone, too, and she hit Redial.

No answer.

A hoarse sob tore from Yvette’s mouth, and she would have likely fallen to the ground if Warren hadn’t caught her. Raleigh didn’t thank him for doing that because he didn’t want the man anywhere around here. Raleigh had enough distractions with Thea and Yvette, and he didn’t need to add his so-called father to the mix.

Raleigh turned to Dalton. “Take Yvette to the station. Call a doctor for her, too. She might need some meds to calm her down.”

“The only thing I need is my baby!” Yvette shouted.

The woman tried Redial again, and she was gripping Thea’s phone so hard that Raleigh thought she might break it. That wouldn’t be good since it was obviously the way the kidnapper had chosen to communicate with them.

“She’s a newborn,” Yvette went on. “She has to be fed. Someone has to take care of her.”

“And the men who have her will do that,” Thea said. “They’ll want to keep the baby safe and well. Remember, they took formula so she won’t be hungry.”

True, but that didn’t mean a newborn was going to get expert care from the thugs who’d snatched her. That’s why they had to find her ASAP.

Dalton gently took Yvette by the arm. “Once we get to the station,” he told the woman, “I’ll examine the call. I might be able to get a match on his voice, because Raleigh will send me the recording of the conversation.”

Raleigh would do that, but he wasn’t holding out any hope for a match. Or that the call would be traced for that matter. The kidnapper had almost certainly used a burner cell, a disposable one that couldn’t be traced. Still, they’d try.

“What can I do?” Warren asked him.

“You can go home to your wife and family in McCall Canyon until I’ve got time to interrogate you. After all, it was your name on that wall, and there had to be a reason for it.”

That was a knee-jerk reaction. One that Raleigh instantly regretted. Not because he hadn’t meant it—he had. But it was the wrong time to vent.

Raleigh took a deep breath to steady himself. “My people have the scene secured,” he added to Warren. There was much less emotion in his voice now, which was a good thing. “Give me a couple of hours so I can deal with this kidnapper, and then I can question you.”

Warren didn’t balk at any part of that, but judging from his tight expression, something was on his mind. “What about Thea?” Warren asked.

Of course. Thea. Warren was worried about the woman he’d practically raised.

“I’ll take Thea to the station so we can wait on this thug to call us back,” Raleigh answered.

Warren stood there, his hands on his hips while he volleyed glances between them as if he was trying to figure out if that was the wise thing to do. The man didn’t budge until Thea nodded.

“I’ll be okay,” she assured Warren.

“Call me if you need anything,” Warren finally said, and he hugged her again. After he pulled away from her, he looked at Raleigh, maybe trying to figure out what to say to him, but he settled for another tip of his hat. This one was a farewell, and he headed to his truck.

Raleigh and Thea were right behind him, and the moment Raleigh had her in the cruiser, he started toward town. It wouldn’t be a long drive, only about twenty minutes, but he could use that time to get some things straight.

“The kidnapper said there’d be rules,” he reminded her. “That probably means a ransom demand with instructions for the payout so we can get the baby. You won’t be involved in that. If I haven’t worked out a protective custody arrangement by then, you can wait in my office.”

She shook her head. “The kidnapper said I was to come and get her.”

“That won’t be happening.” At least he hoped not anyway. Raleigh didn’t want to involve Thea in this any more than she already was.

But obviously Thea wasn’t giving up. “I’m the person best suited to make an exchange like that. The kidnapper said if he wanted me dead, he would have killed me on the porch. And he could have done just that.”

Raleigh wasn’t giving up, either. “Maybe because the person standing next to you was holding a baby, and he didn’t want to risk hurting her. That could have been the sole reason he didn’t kill you.”

She opened her mouth as if she might disagree with that, but she must have realized it could be the truth because Thea huffed and leaned back against the seat.

“I’ll get Yvette’s husband in for questioning,” Raleigh added a moment later. “Right now, he’s a person of interest. He could have orchestrated all of this because he doesn’t want to be a father.”

Though it did seem extreme—unless he hadn’t intended for Sonya to die. Maybe the thugs hadn’t had orders to kill Sonya or anyone else who showed up. That would explain why they’d had a stun gun with them. It would also explain why the one that Thea had seen was wearing a ski mask. He didn’t want his identity known because he hadn’t intended to kill any witnesses.

That was the best-case scenario though. It was still possible that the goons wanted Thea dead.

“Warren is a person of interest, too?” she asked.

“Of course.” Raleigh would love nothing more than to charge the man with something. Anything.

“And what about your mother?” Thea pressed. “Will you also question her?”

Raleigh’s gaze slashed to her, and he nearly had another of those knee-jerk reactions. But he forced himself to see this through her cop’s perspective. His mother, Alma, no longer loved Warren. In fact, she might actually hate him.

“Alma thought Warren was going to leave his wife to be with her,” Thea continued when he didn’t say anything. “That didn’t happen, and when he broke off things with her six months ago—”

“Don’t finish that,” Raleigh warned her. “I know how upset my mother was, and I don’t have to hear a recap from you.”

Hell, she was still upset. Alma had carried on an affair with a married man, gotten pregnant and had basically lived her life waiting for the emotional scraps that Warren might toss her. Now that the secret was out, she was just seething in anger.

Raleigh hated to admit it, but he was seething, too. Because his mother had lied to him about his father. She’d lied all because she didn’t want Warren’s secret life exposed. Well, it was sure as hell exposed now.

“Did your mother know Sonya well?” Thea asked. It was a cop’s kind of question, because Thea was again trying to link his mom to what was going on.

“Everyone in town knew Sonya,” Raleigh snarled. But his mom had known Sonya better than most because Sonya had done some office work at his mother’s ranch. “Don’t worry. I’ll question my mom,” Raleigh added. “But there are plenty of other ways for her to get back at Warren. Ways that don’t involve kidnapping a newborn baby and killing a surrogate.”

It surprised him a little when Thea made a sound of agreement. After all, Warren’s wife, Helen, had raised Thea, too, and that meant Thea and the McCalls likely thought of his mother as the villain in all of this.

“There doesn’t seem to be a connection between Warren and Sonya,” Thea added. “If your mother was going to try to get back at him in some way, she would go after him or someone he cared about.”

True. But his mother would only do that if she’d finally gone off the deep end. There were times when Raleigh thought she might be headed there, and he was doing his damnedest to make sure that didn’t happen.

“I also want to talk to the doctor who did the in vitro procedures for both Hannah and Sonya,” Raleigh continued, and he was about to ask Thea what she knew about the man, but her phone rang.

Unknown Caller.

Raleigh immediately pulled onto the shoulder of the road so he could again use his phone to record the conversation. Once he had it ready, Thea took the call. The first thing Raleigh heard was the baby crying again. It was like taking hard punches to the gut. It sickened him to think of these monsters having that little girl.

“All right, you ready to do this?” the kidnapper asked.

“We are,” Raleigh answered, and he waited a moment to see if the guy would ask who he was. He didn’t. Which meant the thug likely knew all the players in this. That wasn’t much of a surprise since whoever was behind this had probably done their homework.

“Good. Because I’m gonna make this real easy. Transfer fifty thousand into the account number that I’m about to text to you.”

In the grand scheme of things, fifty thousand wasn’t much for a ransom demand, which made Raleigh instantly suspicious. Then again, maybe these guys just wanted some quick cash so they could make a getaway. After all, they were killers now, and if arrested, they’d be looking at the death penalty. Fifty would be more than enough to escape.

“If you do it right,” the kidnapper went on, “it’ll only take a couple of minutes at most for the money to show up. Then you can have the kid.”

Raleigh huffed. “How do we know you even have the child? The crying we heard could be any baby. Or a recording. And if you do have her, what stops you from taking the money and running?”

“I figured you’d ask that. Well, I’m sending you a picture of the kid, and since Thea’s using her cell for this call, I’ll text it to your phone.”

The guy didn’t ask for Raleigh’s number, and several moments later Raleigh’s phone did indeed ding with a text message. Two of them, in fact. The first was the routing number for a bank account. Probably an offshore one that would be out of reach of law enforcement.

Raleigh went to the second text. A photo. It was indeed a baby wrapped in a blanket, and seeing her was like another punch. He reminded himself though that the picture could be fake. But this didn’t feel like a ruse. Raleigh was certain these snakes had that little girl.

He showed the photo to Thea, and he saw the raw emotions go through her eyes. “Oh, God,” she whispered, her voice mostly breath.

She obviously didn’t think it was a ruse, either. And that led Raleigh back to his second issue with this ransom arrangement.

“I’ll transfer twenty grand,” Raleigh told the kidnapper. He could take that from his own personal checking account. “You’ll get the rest when I actually see the baby. And Thea will have no part in the drop. It’ll be between you and me.”

Along with some backup deputies that Raleigh would have in place. The plan was to catch these idiots and make them pay for what they’d done. First though, he had to make sure the baby was safe.

The guy didn’t say anything, and the silence went on for what seemed to be an eternity. “All right,” the kidnapper finally answered. “Get that money to me in the next five minutes, and then I’ll give you the location of the kid.”

Before Raleigh could ask for any more time, the kidnapper ended the call. Raleigh didn’t bother to hit Redial because it would just eat up precious time.

He had a quick debate with himself as to how to handle this, and the one thing he knew was that he didn’t want Thea anywhere near this. That meant getting her to the station.

“Call the emergency dispatcher,” Raleigh said as he used his own phone to access his bank account. “Have him connect you to Dalton. Tell him to gather up as many deputies as he can because I might need them. I also need Dalton to get the remaining thirty grand of the ransom money.” If nothing went wrong with the first part of this plan, Raleigh wanted to be ready.

“I could do backup,” Thea insisted. “I still have your gun, and I’m not woozy anymore from the stun gun.”

Raleigh dismissed that with a headshake and motioned for her to make the call. She did, and he continued with his own task.

It took several moments for him to get access to his account, several more for Raleigh to put in the number the kidnapper had given him. The transfer went through without any hitches.

He had more money in investment accounts, but he doubted those would be as easy to tap into. That’s why he’d wanted Dalton to come up with the rest. That would involve getting some help from fellow law enforcement, maybe even the DA. Somehow though, they’d come up with that money.

“Dalton said to tell you that he’ll get to work right away on all of that,” Thea relayed to him the moment she finished her call. She also took his phone and had another look at the photo the kidnapper had sent. “I’m just trying to figure out if there’s any resemblance between the baby and Yvette.”

“And?” He started driving again so he could get Thea to the station. They were still ten minutes out, so Raleigh sped up. After everything that’d happened, he didn’t want to be on this rural stretch of road any longer than necessary.

“I can’t tell. You think we should send it to Yvette to see if she recognizes any features? The baby could resemble her husband since it was Yvette’s and his fertilized embryo that was implanted in Sonya.”

He had another short debate about that and dismissed it. The woman had been so frantic that this might push her over the edge. Raleigh wanted her to stay put with Dalton at least until he could get there.

“Egan would send backup if you need it,” Thea reminded him.

She probably hadn’t suggested that to rile him. After all, Egan was Sheriff Egan McCall of McCall Canyon. Along with being Thea’s boss, he was Raleigh’s half brother and Warren’s son. Raleigh wasn’t so stubborn that he would refuse help and therefore put the baby at even greater risk, but he didn’t think he would have to rely on McCall help just yet.

Only a short distance ahead, Raleigh spotted a dark blue SUV. It wasn’t on the road but had pulled off onto one of the ranch trails. A trail with a lot of trees and wild shrubs. Normally, seeing a vehicle parked there wouldn’t have alarmed him. After all, there was pasture land out here for sale, and this could be a potential buyer. But this day was far from normal.

“You recognize the SUV?” Thea asked. She drew her gun, which meant this had put her on edge, too.

“No.” And it was parked in such a way that he couldn’t see the license plates.

Raleigh considered just speeding up, and once he passed the vehicle, he could get the plates and call them in. But he saw something else. Something on the ground next to the passenger’s side door.

“Is that what I think it is?” Thea muttered. “It looks like a baby carrier.”

It did. Raleigh had already had a bad feeling about this, and that feeling went up a significant notch when the SUV came flying off the trail and onto the road just ahead of Thea and him. The driver sped away, heading in the direction of town.

Raleigh hit his brakes and slowed so he could have a better look. At first, he thought the carrier was empty, that this was some kind of trick. But then he saw the baby’s tiny hand moving away. He heard the cries, too.

His phone dinged with another text. Since Thea still had hold of it, she read it to him. “Change of plans. The kid is all yours. Thanks for the twenty grand.”

Raleigh wanted to know what had happened to make them flee like that. He also wanted to go in pursuit, but that would mean leaving the baby out here.

“Call Dalton back,” he told Thea. “Let him know what’s happening. I want that SUV stopped.”

While she did that, Raleigh drew his gun and got out. He fired glances all around them but didn’t see anyone. However, the baby’s cries seemed to be even more frantic now. She could be hungry or scared.

Still keeping watch, Raleigh went closer, and he prayed this wasn’t some elaborate dummy. It wasn’t. The baby was real. And there was what appeared to be a note on the blanket that was loosely draped over her.

Raleigh went to her, stooping down, and he touched her cheek, hoping to soothe her. It didn’t work. She kept crying, and he was about to pick her up when he saw what was written on the note.

He read the note out loud, so Thea could hear. “‘Warren’s going to be so sad when he finds out she’s dead.’”

Raleigh shook his head, not understanding what it meant. Who was the she? Certainly not the baby because she was very much alive. It hit him then. Another she, and this one was definitely connected to Warren. He whipped back around, his attention going to the cruiser.

What he saw caused his heart to go to his knees.

Because there was a guy wearing a ski mask, and he had a gun pointed right at Thea’s head.