His Case, Her Baby

He drifted asleep with thoughts of her in his head and awoke to his alarm clock ringing two hours later. He rolled over and punched it off, then bounded out of bed, eager to get to the office and find out how things had gone while he’d been sleeping. A sense of urgency chased him. Somewhere out there was a baby who needed to be brought home.

He was in the office by seven-thirty, and Sam greeted him as he walked through the door. Sam McCain was a big, burly black man who had come to Black Rock after working as a policeman in Chicago. He and his wife had moved there for the slower pace and a safer place to raise their kids.

Every day Tom was thankful that Sam had landed here working for him. “Hey, Sam. Please tell me the phone has been ringing off the wall with tips on Lilly Wilkerson’s whereabouts.”

Sam frowned and shook his head. “We’ve only had two calls so far this morning, and if you think real hard you’ll be able to tell me who they were from.”

“Sally Bernard called threatening to kill her husband, and Walt Toliver called to report that Lilly was probably taken into the spaceship that landed in his field last night,” Tom replied.

“And the kewpie doll goes to the big fella with the gun on his hip,” Sam exclaimed.

Tom grinned. “It wouldn’t be a normal day without the two of them calling in.” His grin flattened into a frown. “I was really hoping somebody would have seen this Kathy Simon.”

“It’s early yet, boss. It’s possible she’s holed up somewhere for the night, but eventually she’ll have to get out and around, and somebody will see her.”

“Where’s Brittany?”

“She hasn’t shown up yet,” Sam replied.

Tom looked at his watch. She should have been in a half an hour ago. “Has she called in?” Sam shook his head. Tom sighed. “This is the third time in the last couple of weeks that she’s been late. Guess I’m going to have to kick some sister butt.”

Sam grinned. “Benjamin called earlier to tell you that everything is under control at the Wilkerson house and Caleb is waiting for you in your office.”

“As soon as I check a few things here I’ll be heading back over there,” Tom said as he walked to his office.

Caleb sat in the chair in front of Tom’s desk, his big feet propped up on the polished oak. Tom slapped Caleb’s legs as he passed by and frowned in disapproval. His younger brother hurriedly straightened up.

“You heard from Brittany this morning?” he asked Caleb as he eased down into the chair at his desk.

“Why would I hear from her?” Caleb asked.

“She’s late … again.”

“She’s probably hung over. She’s spending way too much time down at Harley’s bar. I think she has a crush on the new bartender there.”

“I don’t care what she does in her time off, but I can’t have her ambling into work whenever she feels like it.” Tom definitely needed to have a stern conversation with his baby sister. “But in the meantime, I’m headed back over to the Wilkerson place to check on Peyton.”

Caleb frowned. “Don’t you find it odd that nobody saw this woman who supposedly stole her baby? She didn’t know where this Kathy lived, doesn’t have a picture of the woman and doesn’t have any evidence to support that this woman even exists.”

“Do you have pictures of your friends?” Tom countered. “Peyton only knew Kathy for two months, a span of time when Peyton wasn’t taking her baby out much. Odd? Maybe. But impossible to believe? No.”

“I think you should order that new patio ripped up,” Caleb said. “I think if you want to find that baby then that’s the first place you should look.”

“I’ll tell you what you’re going to do today,” Tom said. “According to Peyton, this Kathy Simon has been in town for at least two months. During that time she had to eat, so I want you to spend the day taking a sketch to every grocery store and every restaurant in town and find out who saw her when.”

“Sounds like a waste of time,” Caleb exclaimed.

“Your time is mine as long as you wear that deputy badge, little brother. Oh, and another thing, apparently Peyton had a run-in with somebody in the parking lot of the grocery store last week. She said the guy was driving a black pickup and had shaggy brown hair. See if you can figure out who that might have been.”

“Now, that sounds like a bunch of busy work,” Caleb exclaimed.

Tom smiled. “So get out of here and get busy.”

As Caleb left, Tom called Sam into his office. “Coordinate with the others and start a door-to-door campaign to find somebody who knew Kathy Simon. I’m headed to the victim’s house. Keep me updated on any calls that come in, anything that smells just a little bit like a break.”

“Got it,” Sam replied and followed Tom out of his office.

“Oh, one more thing. Call Brittany and tell her to get her butt in here, and call the men off the roadblocks. My guess is that Kathy Simon scooted out of town as fast as she could and is probably long gone.”

Minutes later, as Tom drove toward Peyton’s house, he wondered what condition she’d be in when he arrived. Although he didn’t know personally what it was like to have a kidnapped child, he certainly knew personally how to grieve for a child.

His head filled with a vision of a baby face with merry brown eyes and chubby cheeks. Even though it had been five years since he’d lost her, his heart constricted with pain.

Nobody should have to suffer the loss of a child, and he certainly didn’t want Peyton to know that kind of pain. She was hurting now, but if her baby wasn’t returned to her and all hope was lost, she would be cast into a hollow darkness that Tom knew too well.

But he couldn’t think about his own loss. He needed to focus on making sure that everything was being done to bring baby Lilly home. He also needed to decide if the FBI needed to be called in. At the moment, his plan was to give himself and his deputies twenty-four more hours to find Kathy Simon. If they didn’t succeed, then they would have to proceed under the assumption that Kathy Simon had crossed state lines with the kidnapped infant.

Rick’s car was back in Peyton’s driveway as Tom parked at the curb. Benjamin’s car was also still there. It was Benjamin who opened the door to his knock. He looked tired.

“Heard anything?” he asked Tom.

“Nothing. How are things here?”

“A bit tense. She didn’t sleep much, hasn’t eaten at all. Rick showed up about an hour ago and they’re in the kitchen now.”

Tom clapped his brother on the shoulder. “Go home. Get some sleep.”

As Benjamin headed out the door Tom walked toward the kitchen where the murmurs of Peyton and Rick’s voices drifted out.

“Tom!” Peyton jumped up from the table as he entered the room, looking relieved to see him.

“I hope you’ve brought us some news,” Rick said. He started to rise as well, but Tom motioned him back into his chair.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have news,” Tom said, hating the way the hopeful expression on Peyton’s face fell away. “The roadblocks on either end of town yielded nothing.”

“She had plenty of time to get out of town before you put those roadblocks into effect,” Rick replied. “Peyton isn’t even sure how long she was unconscious. She might have had as much as a half an hour head start before Peyton called for help.”

“I’m aware of that,” Tom replied. He leaned against the kitchen counter and tried not to notice how Peyton’s jeans hugged the long length of her legs, how the blue T-shirt she wore perfectly matched her eyes and molded to the full breasts that had been against his chest the night before.

He focused his attention on Rick. “We’re starting door-to-door canvassing this morning, hoping somebody knows something about Kathy Simon. She was in town for at least two months. She had to be living somewhere, and if we can find out where that was, then maybe we can get some clue as to where she might have gone.”

Rick nodded. He looked tired, as if the night had been unkind to him and sleep had not come easy. “I just hope we get her back today. I hate to leave here without everything being resolved.”

Tom focused again on Peyton. “How are you holding up?” His heart squeezed in his chest as he saw the dark smudges beneath her eyes, the lines of strain on either side of her mouth.