Mother by Fate

Maddie had to do the telling in her own way.

Sara bit back the impatience that was bubbling so close to the surface. Every second that it took them to find the endangered woman was another second Nicole’s husband got closer to his goal.

“She asked me to come with her to get the jeans at the thrift shop because I don’t know why.” Maddie wrung her hands.

“Because she likes being around you,” Lynn said. “She told you so.”

“Yes, she did say that, but sometimes people say things just to be nice.”

“They do.” Lynn nodded and took a hold of Maddie’s hand. “But this time I think she said it because she meant it.”

Maddie’s glance was intent as she turned back to Sara. “Okay, then, she likes to be around me because I am genuine,” Maddie said. “She trusts me because I am genuine. That’s what she said.”

“Good.” Sara smiled, liking the missing woman even more, though this wasn’t about liking. It was about saving a high-risk victim from probable death.

“She didn’t want to go alone.” Maddie’s tongue seemed to trip over her teeth more than usual.

The minutes were ticking by and Sara’s nerves were ready to split. “It was very nice of you to go with her, Maddie. That helped her. But you already know that.”

“Yes,” Maddie said, frowning. “I do know that I was helping her. Greta was asleep and Darin was there if she woke up and he always texts me as soon as she does so I can feed her after he changes her diaper. We’re using disposables because they’re easier for us to fasten.”

“Everyone uses disposable diapers these days.” Lynn sent Sara another apologetic glance as she spoke.

“Not everyone.” Maddie’s reply was unusually staunch. “Nicole’s husband won’t let her use them. He says that a woman’s job is to keep up with her child’s laundry and every man deserves fresh soft cotton protecting his genitals.”

“What else did Nicole tell you?”

Lila was waiting to hear from Sara. She had an officer from the High Risk Team in her office. The LAPD had also been notified and a team had been dispatched to Trevor Kramer’s current residence.

“She told me about Toby.” Maddie frowned again. “And that she was pregnant before him, too. With a girl, like Greta. And her husband hit her until she couldn’t keep the baby inside her so that she wouldn’t have a girl. He said he told her that he was only going to be a dad to boy babies.”

Shaking inside, Sara used all of the skills at her disposal to keep a noncommittal, kind expression. Anything else Maddie would take personally and be waylaid.

“He’s not a nice man,” Lynn said. The nurse practitioner continued to hold her sister-in-law’s hand.

Nicole was out there in the dark. At Trevor’s mercy. “What was the last thing she said to you?” Sara asked Maddie. “You said you went with her to the thrift store...”

“I said she asked me to go,” Maddie corrected quite seriously. “I didn’t say yet that I did go.”

Leaning forward, Sara tried to hold Maddie’s gaze for more than the two or three seconds the other woman usually allowed. “Did you go?”

“Yes, I did.”

“And what was the last thing that she said to you? Do you remember?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Can you tell me?”

“She said, ‘I have to go.’”

“Go where? Why? Did she say why?”

Maddie’s face started to crumble and Sara gave herself an inner shake. She’d confused the slow-witted woman, and that was the last thing she’d ever want to do—whether someone else was in danger or not.

“Maddie,” she said, sliding to her knees in front of her. “I’m sorry. I’m scared for Nicole and it’s not your fault. It’s just...I need you right now. Okay?”

Sitting up straight, puffing out her chest, Maddie reached out a hand and patted Sara on the head. “Of course, Sara. You know I will do anything for you.”

Tears pricked the backs of her eyelids, a testament to her weakened state. “I know. So...if you could just tell me what happened at the thrift store to make Nicole have to leave...”

“It wasn’t at the thrift store, exactly...”

“Okay, was it before you went to the store with her that something happened?”

“No. We were in the thrift store, but he wasn’t.”

“He? Who’s he?”

Lynn’s gaze darted to Sara, but she didn’t interrupt.

“I didn’t see him. But she did. She said he was staring at us. And she said we should go to another part of the store and when we did she said that he moved, too, so he could see us. And then she said she had to go. But she didn’t go right away. She stood at the side door for a while and then she jumped on the side of a truck and rode away like in a movie.”

Sara had to get to Lila. To the police officer waiting for her.

“Did she say anything else to you?” she asked as she stood and glanced at Lynn, apologizing silently for running out and possibly upsetting Maddie, but she had to go.

“Just that I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone or her baby would get hurt, but then Lynn said that Nicole was confused and I had to tell to save her baby and...”

Sara lost Maddie’s words as she ran down the hall.

CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_77cfa8fa-4b28-59c9-b111-041733ee8bd2)

THE DRIVER OF bus twelve didn’t notice when a skinny blonde white woman got off his bus. Michael showed the guy a picture. He couldn’t remember her. He drove the beach route. Skinny blondes were a dime a dozen to him.

Michael didn’t know if Nicole had managed to convince the guy that she was a victim, to play the innocent female needing protection—as she’d obviously managed to do at the women’s shelter—or if she’d merely been that unremarkable. Perhaps the bus driver really was as oblivious as he’d said after driving the same route day in and day out, letting people on and off the bus.

Either way, he couldn’t do a damn thing about the man’s statement. It was what it was.

Neither could he rest with Nicole Kramer so close by. And on the run.

Hailing a cab to get him back to his car, he hit the first number on his speed dial.

“Don’t worry, she’s already had dinner and her bath and is reading a story to the dogs before bedtime,” Ashleigh drawled over the line.

“I wasn’t worried,” he said. His mom would have checked in by now, too. They knew he was on a job. “I just want to tell her good-night.”

“Mar?” Ashleigh’s tone was soft.