Читать книгу The Baby He Wanted - Janice Kay Johnson - Страница 11
ОглавлениеWAITING WAS REALLY HARD.
After one look at Lina when she first arrived at the Moreno’s house, Isabel sent her two kids to their bedrooms. Then she sat Lina down in the kitchen and insisted she nibble on soda crackers and drink ginger ale while she told the whole, awful story.
Well, she didn’t mention that, to complete the trauma, she had just come face-to-face with the father of her baby. Who happened to be the investigator.
Not even Maya had known who the father was. All Lina would ever say was that it had been a mistake. Admitting that she’d gotten drunk and willingly had repeated sex with a complete stranger in a cheap motel room? No.
Steadier, Lina was able to have a bowl of soup and half a sandwich with Isabel and both kids, who were told only that Lina was waiting for a friend to call. At three and five, they nodded incuriously and chattered away. Predictably, they were excited about Christmas. Their tree was up in the living room, but without gifts under it.
“Carmen might be able to keep her hands off them,” Isabel said, once the children had trotted off to the living room to watch a Disney movie on DVD, “but Ricky never could. They’ve both been hyper from the minute I left work Tuesday.”
Of course, the women’s conversation reverted quickly to the horrific scene at the bank. Isabel had met Maya through Lina and had to deal with her own shock.
“In Clear Creek!” she kept exclaiming.
Lina felt the same. She read in the newspaper about things like this happening, but it never did in this small, rural county. Except now she wondered if she hadn’t been naive. Crimes of some kind must occupy Bran and all those other cops she’d seen swarming the bank.
Eventually she wound down as if her battery was failing. She had to ask if there was someplace she could nap. She was afraid she’d have had to lay her cheek on the table and sleep right there otherwise.
Once alone, exhaustion claimed her before she could shatter. It was as if her body had to shut down.
Hours later, she woke up disoriented. Night had somehow fallen. She’d have been completely in the dark if not for a night-light glowing softly on the dresser.
She was in Carmen’s room, Lina remembered. Posters, wallpaper border and curtains all featured horses. Five-year-old Carmen had told her earnestly that she wanted to grow up to be a horsie rancher and a ballerina. She was dainty enough to be a ballerina, but admitted to having been on a pony only twice. Mama and Papa—she had looked daggers at her mother—wouldn’t buy her a horse.
Lina stumbled to the bathroom across the hall where she washed her face and brushed and braided her hair. For a minute, she stared unseeingly into the mirror.
Oh, dear God. Maya. She wanted it to have been a nightmare, but knew better.
From the smells, Isabel must be cooking. Lina felt queasy, as if the morning sickness had reappeared.
Isabel looked her over anxiously when she appeared in the kitchen. “You look better. Would you like a pop? Or juice?”
That might help. Lina poured herself a glass of cranberry juice and sat down. “I’m being useless. I’m sorry.”
“No, no. I wouldn’t have let you help,” her friend said. She nodded toward the bag Lina had plopped at her feet. “You should call the detective. He called me because you weren’t answering. I think you scared him.”
“I didn’t hear it ring.” Lina checked her phone. He’d tried her four times and left two messages. Listening to them, she realized Isabel was right; he did sound worried.
He answered on the first ring.
“I’m sorry,” she said before he could say anything but her name. “I took a nap. I must have really conked out.”
“So Isabel said. She checked on you for me.”
“She did?”
“I’m winding things up here. Why don’t I come over? I can update you on what we’ve learned, and then I think you can safely go home.”
“Oh, thank goodness! Does that mean the camera was pointing at him?”
“Not exactly. I’ll explain when I get there.”
Either somebody was within earshot or he was determined to sit down face-to-face with her.
Or it wasn’t really the bank robbery and Maya he wanted to talk about. He wouldn’t confront her about the pregnancy here, with Isabel and maybe Eduardo or the kids within earshot, would he?
If not, he’d want to follow her home. There’d be no escaping the conversation she dreaded.
The one we have to have, she reminded herself. She’d always known she would have to tell him about the baby and give him the chance to be involved in her life. She just...kept putting it off.
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll wait until you get here.”
“Ten minutes,” he promised, and was gone.
He hadn’t asked for directions, but she supposed he could find any place, even if it was within the city limits and therefore not in his jurisdiction, which was unincorporated county.
Predictably, Isabel insisted they should at least stay for dinner. She’d made plenty. Lina thanked her, but said, “Detective Murphy is a police officer. He feels obligated to tell me some of what they’ve learned, but after that he’d probably like to just get home.”
“But it will be ready—” Isabel laughed and shook her head. “I have this ridiculous need to feed people. I’m turning into my mother. Ignore me.”
Laughing for the first time in many hours, Lina hugged her petite, dark-haired friend. “If you’re turning into your mother, it can’t be such a bad thing. And if you mean it about dinner, I’ll ask Bran—I mean, Detective Murphy—when he gets here.”
Isabel’s eyes sharpened at Lina’s slip, but she didn’t comment on it. “Either way is fine.”
Bran had been more than kind today, but the closest thing to real emotion she’d seen on his face was the shock when he recognized her...and saw that she was pregnant. Otherwise, he’d been guarded, even remote. She couldn’t imagine him wanting to sit down with a cheerful family to share their dinner.
When the doorbell rang, she let him in, feeling an immediate punch of awareness. He wouldn’t have to say a word or do anything to dominate any gathering. He did that with just his physical presence and those piercing blue eyes that took in everything.
“Why don’t you come in and meet my friend?” Lina suggested.
“Sure.” He took one step in and inhaled. “God, that smells good. I’m starved. No lunch.”
“We’re invited to stay for dinner. Eduardo should be home any minute. They have two kids, though...”
His stomach chose that moment to rumble, and one side of his mouth tipped up. “Do you think there’s really enough to go around?”
“I’m sure.”
She’d barely introduced him to Isabel when they heard the garage door rising. Lina didn’t know Isabel’s husband well, but had liked what she’d seen of him. He was a strong, stocky man not that much taller than her, his skin much darker than his wife’s. His kids raced to greet him, and he had a huge smile as he tossed each one into the air in turn before gently setting them down.
Then he looked at Lina. “Isabel called to tell me. What a terrible thing to happen, and for you to see it...”
“I appreciate Isabel taking me in. And—” she smiled at the little girl “—Carmen letting me borrow her bed for a nap.”
She had started to introduce the two men when it became apparent they already knew each other.
The next thing she knew they were all seated around the dining room table eating chile verde con puerco with refried beans and warm corn tortillas. Lina guessed Isabel had been cooking all afternoon, but maybe it was one way she enjoyed using her days off. Lina barely nibbled at her dinner, hoping no one noticed, but Bran ate enough for both of them.
He answered a few questions from the adults about the robbery, careful not to say anything the kids shouldn’t hear, then began talking to Eduardo about his business, Clear Creek Power Equipment. It sounded as if he had rented equipment from him a few times. He had also investigated a burglary from the business.
Isabel taught biology and coached the girls’ soccer team. “They asked me to take over the basketball team, too,” she joked, “but I had to admit it isn’t my sport.” They all laughed at that. Isabel might have been five foot one. Her husband teased her, saying she could make a basket if she were standing on his shoulders.
After accepting hugs and promising to call, Lina and Bran left.
“I’ll follow you home,” he said, his tone completely inflexible.
Shivering, Lina didn’t argue. Snow had been forecast for the next day or two, and she wondered if it might start falling tonight. They could hardly stand out here on the sidewalk and talk.
Bran’s black Camaro hugged her bumper all the way home. At her complex, he parked illegally but stuck something on his dashboard that she assumed said Police or the like, and followed her into the lobby where she collected her mail before leading him to the elevator.
As it rose, he said, “Your friends are nice people.”
“They are. You already knew Eduardo.”
“Because of the investigation.”
The elevator doors opened and they went down the hall to her apartment. “And you rented equipment to work on your house,” she said, curious about him.
“I live in an apartment, too. I’ve been helping my brother work on an old place he’s restoring. I’d have said it was a dump, but it’s starting to look good.”
She unlocked the door. “You’re lucky to have family nearby.”
“He only moved here this spring. We’d...lost touch.”
Lina wondered about the hesitation, but only nodded. Once inside her apartment, she watched as he assessed it, starting with the small, decorated tree that sat on a tabletop, then taking in her bookcases, furniture, the opening into the kitchen.
“Can I get you a cup of coffee?” she asked, as much to fill the silence as anything.
He shook his head. “Not when you won’t be having any.”
“It’s no trouble...”
“Thank you, Lina, but no.” He nodded toward her sofa. “Why don’t you sit down?”
She did, her apprehension making her feel like a child who knew she was in trouble. So much for having the upper hand because this was her territory.
“What did you mean by not exactly? Did you or didn’t you see his face?”
Bran sat in a maple rocking chair facing her across the coffee table. “There’s not a good view.”
“How can that be?”
He sighed. “Cameras are aimed in front of the tellers, not behind them. One placed to the side let us see your friend and the manager with the two men, but it wasn’t a good angle. Both men wore knit ski masks. They stormed in, brandished weapons and yelled to intimidate the employees and the two customers who were in the bank at that point. Only one teller was at work, and she froze and didn’t push the alarm. They took away everyone’s cell phones. As I said, they were made to sit on the floor with their backs turned. According to one of the women, they were told that the first person trying to sneak a look would be shot.”
“So none of them did.”
“No. They were scared out of their skulls. None of them could even describe body types. They all agreed both men were big, which is typical when witnesses are scared. They did confirm that you were right about what was going on. The manager was refusing to open the vault. The robber who did the talking said they’d kill the woman if he didn’t do what they wanted. He said no again.”
A whimper escaped her.
He half stood, then sat again, his hands gripping the arms of the chair. “I’m sorry, Lina.”
She took some deep breaths and was finally able to nod.
“When the guy grabbed your friend, she fought. From what we can see on the video, it looks like she hooked her fingernails in the knit mask and pulled it sideways. He wouldn’t have been able to see at all. Subduing her, he couldn’t fiddle with it to align the eyeholes, so he wrenched it off. After he shot her, he grabbed it and put it back on. He wasn’t without it for more than a minute, if that.”
“But Mr. Floyd would have seen him, too.”
“Yeah. That was a death sentence for him, I’m afraid. That and—”
She could tell he didn’t want to finish the thought. So she did. “And trying to stand up to them?”
“I’d have put it a little differently,” Bran said. “If he’d cooperated from the beginning...”
Maya and he would both be alive. Lina swallowed and nodded.
“We’ll definitely want you to sit down with the artist,” he continued. “A couple of FBI agents arrived, and they’re pretty excited that you saw him. It turns out they’ve been after these two for a while.”
“What do you mean? Have they robbed other banks?”
“This is at least the third, and there’s a possibility of others. These guys have used the signs before. They took them away when they left after the two previous robberies, but witnesses had noticed them and remembered the wording, which was identical to what you saw and to the one taped to that sandwich board. You were right—they did take down the one on the door as they fled, but left the one at the drive-through. Unfortunately, neither have any fingerprints. These guys are careful.”
Hung up on what he’d said at the beginning of that last speech, she asked, “What do you mean, a possibility of others?”
“There’ve been a couple others in the past eighteen months that were so similar, it’s likely the same two guys. Ski masks, yelling, making everyone sit behind the counter with their backs turned. No one saw signs.”
“If no one happened to come to the door or try to go through the drive-through...”
“Exactly,” he said.
“I remember the news mentioning several bank robberies not that long ago,” she said, trying to recall details. “But weren’t they down south?”
“The two where we know they used the signs were both in Pierce County. One in Tacoma, one in Lakewood.” Two hours away, then. “The others that may be linked happened in Issaquah and Monroe.”
So, midway. Both were at least an hour drive from Clear Creek.
“Because of the string of robberies, we’re assuming the two men are not locals,” Bran said. “The agent in charge of the investigation suspects that they live in Pierce County, but decided it was getting too hot down there for them to risk hitting another bank in the area. Some had taken additional precautions, including armed guards, and these two were smart to be nervous.”
“That’s why you think I don’t have to worry.” She felt lighter, suddenly.
“It’s likely that the guy just had one of those faces that isn’t especially distinctive.”
“Have they killed anyone before?”
He shook his head.
Lina absorbed the information. So much anger rose in her, for that instant she was almost glad Mr. Floyd was dead, too. If not for him, Maya wouldn’t have died. He’d put the bank’s money ahead of her life.
They sat in silence for long enough, she had trouble making herself look at Bran. Could he tell what she was thinking? If she didn’t say anything else, would he go away?
If he did, that would only give her longer to tie herself up in knots. Ask. You have to ask.
She took a deep breath. “Are you married?”
He jerked, rocking the chair. “What? Why would you think—” Then he fell silent.
“I saw the invitation. You left it on the dresser. It was...it was your wedding day.”
“Oh, hell.” He sounded weary. “That’s why you took off, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not married, Lina. I wouldn’t have slept with you the night before my wedding, for Christ’s sake. How could you think—”
“I didn’t know you. I still don’t know you.” With an effort, she calmed herself. “But you were planning to get married.”
“We’d called it off a couple days before I met you.” He made an odd sound. “She called it off.”
“It’s not very flattering to me, either way,” Lina said. “All I knew was that I’d been stupid.” So much for calm. Every tumultuous emotion she’d felt today coalesced into a burst of rage. “You didn’t use a condom!”
“No.” Honesty and regret showed stark on his hard face. “I didn’t even think about it until later. I’m sorrier than I can say. I...worried.” He paused. “I tried to find you.”
Because he was afraid he’d gotten her pregnant, not because he wanted to see her again. Good to know.
“If you saw the invitation, you knew my name.”
She bent her head and focused on her hands, clenched into fists on her thighs. “Yes.”
“Were you ever going to tell me?” For the first time, anger crackled in his voice, too.
“Yes.” She made herself lift her head and meet those blue eyes. “I swear I was.”
“When?”
“Soon.” She’d been telling herself the same thing for months. Soon. More honestly, Lina said, “Before she’s born.”
He looked stunned. “She?”
“Yes. I had an ultrasound. I’m having a girl.”
“You mean, we’re having a girl.”
She didn’t blame him for the renewed anger, even though she had good reason to be mad, too. “It’s we if, well, you believe this is your baby. And you plan to take responsibility.”
“Yeah,” he said hoarsely. “I believe you. And of course I do. This is my fault.”
“This?” She shot to her feet. “If you see this baby as some horrible mistake you feel duty-bound to take responsibility for, forget it!”
Instead of fighting back, he let out a pained sound and rubbed both hands over his face. “Lina, will you sit down?”
She wanted to tell him this was her baby and he could take a hike. But she suspected her volatile emotions had more to do with hormones and the horror of the day than with anything he’d said. Slowly, she lowered herself again to the sofa.
He sounded inexpressibly weary when he said, “You’ve had time to come to terms with it. I haven’t.”
“You’re right,” she said stiffly. “I’m sorry.”
“Did you consider an abortion?”
She closed her eyes and made herself be honest. “Briefly. I was...pretty freaked out. But, you know, I’m thirty-two. I want to have children. I can be a good mother on my own.”
“You won’t be on your own.”
She couldn’t deny that financial support would be welcome. A teacher’s salary wasn’t fabulous. Even if she could work up until the birth, she would miss the last three months of the school year, which would eat up a fair amount of her savings.
“Do you have other children?” she blurted. Why hadn’t she wondered before?
“No. God, no. I’ve never been married.” A muscle twitched in his jaw. “You?”
“I’m divorced.”
At her answer, emotion crossed his face. She couldn’t quite decipher it.
At last he nodded. “There’s more we’ll have to talk about, but right now I just want to say one thing. From here on out, this baby ties us together. It would help if you could trust me.”
He hadn’t gotten mad. He almost sounded...gentle. Lina took some deep breaths and remembered the hope she’d felt that morning six months ago, before she saw the wedding invitation. What had he done that was really so awful? Face it, she’d readily agreed to spend the night with him. He had gone so far as to give her an out when he asked if she’d be sorry in the morning, and she knew in her heart he wouldn’t have taken her to bed if she’d said yes, or even maybe.
Not using a condom had been unbelievably stupid, of course, but he’d probably been hungover.
She was making excuses for him.
Well, who was she to talk? The responsibility had been shared. Drowsy or not, she should have thought about a condom, too.
And...he was right. He would forever be her child’s father.
“I...I think I can,” she said shakily. “Trust you, I mean.”
“Thank you.” Instead of leaving, he asked, “Do you feel all right? You’re not having any problems?”
“So far, no big problems. I was sick to my stomach for a couple months, but mostly right now I just need more sleep than usual.”
He gazed at her, unblinking. “What do you mean, so far? And do you have problems that aren’t big?”
“Nothing ominous.” Although she worried constantly. “My blood pressure is a little higher than the doctor would like. She’s leaning on me to get plenty of exercise, which I’m doing. Otherwise...things can go wrong later in the pregnancy, but that’s rare. I’ve always been healthy. My mother had no difficulties in childbirth.” When he failed to look convinced, she added, “It is all natural, you know.”
“Do you feel the baby moving?”
She smiled and looked down to see that she had laid an open hand on her swollen belly. “Yes. It’s amazing. The first time—” she lifted her head “—it was a flutter, like a butterfly inside me. But she’s already getting stronger. She’ll be kicking me before I know it.”
He appeared unwillingly fascinated. “I’ve never really been around many pregnant women. Today I wondered how you’ll manage to drive when you get further along.”
She made a face. “I don’t know. I want to work as long as I can, though, which means driving.”
“At least you’ll have the summer.”
“Combined with maternity leave, it’ll give me nearly six months off, thank God. I have a bad feeling that leaving her in day care will be hard.”
Lina would swear he was making calculations, but he didn’t share them with her. Instead he shook his head after a minute. “Man.”
“I’ll bet you wish you hadn’t gotten out of bed this morning.”
“But you were going to surprise me with the news one of these days anyway, weren’t you?”
Lina didn’t like the sardonic note in his voice. He didn’t believe she would have told him. She’d have liked to be offended, but couldn’t really blame him. After all, she’d procrastinated for months.
“I would have.”
He rose abruptly and said, “I’ll let you know when we get the sketch artist scheduled. The holiday may complicate that. I assume you’re off work.”
“We go back the fourth.”
“Can you make yourself available tomorrow for the FBI agents to interview you?”
“Yes.”
His gaze settled on her Christmas tree before returning to her. “Are you expecting family?”
She wasn’t expecting anyone. Did she have to tell him the truth? He’d think she was pathetic.
“My family lives near Minneapolis. Flying didn’t sound like fun right now—” she touched her stomach “—so I decided not to join them.”
He frowned a little. “Won’t you be celebrating with friends?”
“Maya—” Her voice hitched. “Maya was my best friend.”
“I’m sorry I reminded you.”
“Did you think I’d forget?” she asked incredulously.
“No.” A man she suspected was rarely hesitant, Bran lingered, looking down at her. “You’re likely to have nightmares, Lina.”
“I didn’t this afternoon when I napped.”
“It’ll all catch up with you.” On that cheerful note, he nodded. “I’ll call in the morning. Lock up after me.”
She followed him to the door. He hovered momentarily just outside as if he wanted to say something else, but finally dipped his head again and walked away without looking back.
Lina closed the door and locked it, then sagged against it, the painted steel cool beneath her forehead. Thoughts and images tumbled in her head like clothes in the dryer.
Maya staring at her. Her head... The monster seeing her. Tearing across the street, expecting a bullet to strike her any moment.
And then the shock of having Bran walk in.
At least she’d gotten the dreaded meeting over with, but...
From here on out, we’re tied together.
Lina moaned and bumped her head repeatedly against the door.
