Loe raamatut: «Shattered Lullaby»

One

Lacy Germaine woke to the sound of heated arguing. For a moment, she buried her head into the pillow in an effort to drown out her parents’ fighting.

And then she remembered—her parents were long gone, both killed in a car crash several years ago. Abruptly, she sat bolt upright on the futon, her heart thundering in her chest.

One of the voices belonged to her sister, Jill, but who was she talking to?

Lacy leaped out of bed and went over to check on her three-month-old nephew, Rory, who was still sleeping, but not for long, considering the harsh tones coming from the next room.

At first the voices were low and angry but still incomprehensible. It didn’t take long for the deeper male voice to rise. “Tell me the truth! Now! Or I’ll kill you and the brat, too!”

Lacy sucked in a harsh breath, understanding with sick certainty that her sister’s worst fears had become reality. Jill’s husband, David Williams, had returned home.

And he was ambushing her sister after midnight.

Reacting instinctively, Lacy lifted her nephew from the crib and grabbed the long shawl-type wrap, winding it around and around, swaddling the baby snugly against her body. Then she fumbled for her cell phone and dialed 911.

“What’s your emergency?”

“Domestic violence at 1671 Elmwood Lane,” she whispered into the phone. “Hurry!”

“Please stay on the line,” the woman responded calmly.

Lacy wanted to yell that this was her sister’s life at stake! But of course she didn’t.

“I can’t. He’ll hear me.” Lacy disconnected from the call. She needed both of her hands free in order to manage the baby.

Her brother-in-law obviously didn’t know Lacy was there, staying with Jill to help out over spring break. If he found out Jill wasn’t alone...

She couldn’t finish the thought.

“No, please...”

Lacy hated the idea of Jill begging for mercy. Her sister had confided that she was filing for divorce from her husband because his anger and verbal attacks scared her.

Clearly, Jill had been right. Lacy was getting a firsthand idea of how frightening her brother-in-law could be.

“Please don’t do this...” Her sister’s voice was full of tears.

Bang! Bang!

No! Lacy gasped, her heart lodging in her throat. Dear God, what had David done?

There was nothing but silence after the gun went off, forcing Lacy to assume the worst.

Jill was dead. Shot by her own husband.

And if his threat was to be believed, Rory was next.

Lacy jammed her cell phone into her purse, slung the strap over her shoulder and shoved her feet into her running shoes. Where was the diaper bag?

In the kitchen.

Knowing she couldn’t dare pass her sister’s room to get the bag, she eased out from Rory’s bedroom and darted around the corner in the opposite direction to go into the living room. She needed to get Rory out of the house, far away from his armed and dangerous father.

Thankfully, the patio doors slid open without a sound. She eased through into the mild April spring air. Relieved it wasn’t too cold, she crossed the concrete patio until she reached the damp grass.

Grateful for the lack of snow, Lacy didn’t hesitate, running around the house and toward the road. Her car was parked less than a block from her sister’s home, on the opposite side of the street, and she hoped she’d make it to the vehicle before David realized the baby was gone.

Mud squished beneath her running shoes. The warm spring weather had melted what was left of the snow, leaving mush behind. She slipped, then steadied herself.

Twenty yards, fifteen, ten. A loud thud from inside the house caused her to misstep, and this time she fell, one knee hitting the ground. Clutching the baby to her chest, she braced herself with one hand on the ground, surprised to feel a hard ridge beneath her fingertips. Some sort of key. Instinctively she picked it up and shoved it into the pocket of her hoodie as she leaped up to her feet.

Still holding the baby close with one hand, she fished in her purse for her car keys.

Five yards. Three. She was going to make it! Using her thumb, she pressed the key fob to unlock the driver’s-side door. The car made an extraordinarily loud beeping noise, front and rear lights flashing. She winced, hoping David wouldn’t hear. As if the car wasn’t loud enough to broadcast her escape, Rory began to cry.

“Hey! Stop! Get back here!”

David’s irate shout had her hunching her shoulders, half expecting to be hit with a bullet squarely in the back. Somehow, she managed to yank the driver’s-side door open and to slide in behind the wheel. There was just enough room to maneuver with Rory bundled against her. She shut the door, jammed the key in the ignition and hit the accelerator, speeding away from her sister’s house.

Lacy took a quick right and then a left, leaving the normally quiet neighborhood, expecting to hear the wail of sirens at any moment.

But there was nothing.

She’d called 911 for help, hadn’t she? So where were the Milwaukee Police? How long would it take for them to show up?

What should she do? Even if the police would be there at any moment, Lacy didn’t want to stop. What if David followed her? Every instinct she possessed told her to keep going, to put as much distance between herself and Rory’s father as possible.

Think, Lacy, think! Where was the closest on-ramp? There! She found the sign and quickly took the ramp heading northwest, deeply afraid that David wasn’t far behind.

No way would she allow him to lay one finger on Rory.

She would protect the baby with her own life if necessary. And she really, really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Driving through the night, she kept her eyes peeled on the rearview mirror. She wished she could remember what kind of vehicle David drove, but she’d been focused only on escape, nothing more. She couldn’t actually remember seeing any type of car, but David had to have driven to Jill’s house in something. Her sister’s house wasn’t near a bus route.

Rory was still crying, signifying he was either hungry or needed his diaper changed, or both.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you,” she whispered in a soothing voice. Logically, she knew she should head to a police station, but nothing about this night made any rational sense.

And her sister’s warnings echoed in her mind.

David’s fellow police officers always cover for him; they believe whatever lies he’s told them about me. Not one of them can be trusted.

At the time she’d thought Jill was being paranoid, but after this, she believed her sister had been right all along.

In fact, Jill had died because of it.

Tears welled in her eyes, blurring her vision. Lacy swiped them away, knowing she needed to be careful. In an effort to relax, she turned on the radio, searching for a soft jazz station, hoping the music would help calm Rory.

His crying had subsided to soft hiccupping sobs, the sound tearing at her heart. Keeping one hand on the wheel, she stroked his back as she drove, feeling guilty over not having him in a proper car seat. Driving with him in front of her was dangerous, but not as bad as staying behind where his father might try to kill him. Once again, her desperate need to flee wavered.

Should she turn around, go back to the police? But what if they were David’s buddies? What if they didn’t believe her?

If David succeeded in getting custody of Rory, what would prevent him from killing his son, the way he’d killed his wife?

No, she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t go back there. She had to wait until morning. There’d be plenty of time to find officers in another district far away from the one where David worked, who would listen to her side of the story. Surely they would believe her.

A weird beeping sound came from the radio, but before she could reach over to change the station, she heard the announcement of an Amber Alert.

“Missing three-month-old boy, Rory Williams, believed to be in a blue sedan belonging to his aunt, Lacy Germaine. The woman who took the child is in her late twenties and has long blond hair. Please call the Milwaukee Police Department if you see anyone matching this description.”

Lacy tightened her grip on the steering wheel, feeling sick to her stomach. How was it possible that there was an Amber Alert so soon? Why would the police be looking for her and Rory? What had happened at her sister’s house when the police had arrived? Had David played the role of grieving husband and father? Had he found a way to place the blame for what had happened to Jill on someone else?

On her?

She hadn’t prayed in a long time, since before her parents had died. But desperate times called for extreme measures so she sent up a quick request, hoping God would care about an innocent baby.

Help me keep this child safe.

A sense of calm settled over her, slowing her breathing, but she still needed a plan. She took the next exit on the freeway and began searching for a convenience store. Rory began crying again and she knew she couldn’t wait a moment longer. She needed diapers and formula, both essentials in caring for an infant. Good thing she still had one of Rory’s bottles in her purse from their earlier outing to the park.

Once she found a safe place to stay and had the baby changed and fed, she would think about what she would do next. There must be a police department she could go to in order to turn herself in. A district that wouldn’t believe David’s lies.

Catching a glimpse of bright lights up ahead, she gratefully headed toward the store attached to a gas station. She pulled up to a pump and quickly filled her tank. She didn’t have a lot of cash, however, forcing her to use a credit card, but having enough fuel was worth the risk. She knew the police would track her this far, but hopefully she’d be long gone before they could send a squad car to come pick her up.

She walked into the store and began searching the shelves for what she would need. There was a short, rotund man with a long scraggly beard behind the counter. He watched her like a hawk through thick, dark-rimmed glasses. Was he expecting her to steal something?

Or worse, had he heard the Amber Alert?

Praying it wasn’t the latter, she tried to act natural, idly perusing the shelves, searching for the items she needed. She could feel the round bearded guy’s gaze piercing her back, like tiny laser beams.

She tucked a package of diapers beneath her arm, then shifted a few steps to the right, looking over the various types of formula on display. Recognizing the yellow canister her sister used, she picked that one up.

Bright lights flashed through the window, startling her so much that she jumped a little. She cast a fugitive glance over her shoulder. Had the police found her already? She hesitated, wondering if she should just leave and go somewhere else.

The front door of the shop opened, and it took every ounce of strength she possessed not to turn and stare at whoever had come inside. She slid around the row of shelving, putting distance between herself and the newcomer.

A glimpse of black hair beneath a dark hat caught her eye and she ducked farther down, her pulse skipping several beats.

David had black hair. But he couldn’t possibly have found her so quickly. Right?

She didn’t want to believe it. Couldn’t imagine how. Her sister’s husband might have been a Special Ops soldier at one point, but he wasn’t Superman.

Just her worst nightmare.

She tucked the canister of formula into the folds of the baby wrap and slipped a twenty-dollar bill from her purse, leaving it on the shelf to pay for the items she’d taken. Then she eased around another row of supplies, slowly making her way toward the main doorway.

After painstakingly slow maneuvering, she finally had a clear pathway to the door. Praying for safety, she took a deep breath, tucked her head and made a run for it.

* * *

Heading home after a long double shift, Officer Matthew Callahan and his K-9 partner, a tall German shepherd named Duchess, came upon a convenience store located six blocks from the church the Callahan family had attended ever since he could remember. His stomach rumbled with hunger, and since he knew there wasn’t much food at home, he decided to stop for a bite to eat.

As he pulled into the parking lot, his headlights shined on a tall woman with long blond hair holding something bulky beneath her arm, running in a full-out sprint for the navy blue sedan sitting next to a gas pump.

What in the world?

Matt threw the gearshift into Park, hit the button to lift the tailgate so Duchess could jump down and then bolted from the vehicle.

Before he could yell at the woman to stop, he saw another tall man, a black cap covering his head, coming out of the convenience store, obviously following her. At first, Matt thought he was another cop, especially when he saw the gun in the guy’s hand.

But then he lifted his weapon and aimed it directly toward the fleeing woman without warning.

“Stop! Police! Drop your weapon!” Matt shouted, turning his attention to the armed man. “Duchess, Attack!”

The man wearing the cap glanced over in alarm, lowered his gun and quickly took off behind the store with Duchess in hot pursuit. With the gunman covered, he went after the woman.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” he said, grabbing a hold of her before she could get into her navy blue four-door. “What’s going on here? What happened inside the store?”

“Let me go! Didn’t you see that man back there?” she demanded. “He’s trying to kill me and the baby!”

Since he’d seen that much for himself, Matt couldn’t deny her statement held merit. Still, something about this entire scenario seemed off. “Who is he? What’s his name?”

Before she could respond, his K-9 partner let out a yelp of pain.

Instantly he spun on his heel, alarm skittering through him. “Duchess!”

The dog came running toward him, her coat glistening with something wet and shiny. Then he noticed the blood trail behind her.

“Oh, no, he hurt your dog!” The woman said in alarm.

Duchess came up to rest against his leg. He reached down and saw there was a long laceration in her side, most likely from a knife. Thankfully, it didn’t look too deep.

“Please don’t arrest me,” she said in a low voice. “My name is Lacy and I’m a schoolteacher on spring break. You need to understand that man is my brother-in-law, and he shot and killed my sister. Rory is my nephew and I heard him threaten to kill his son, the same way he murdered my sister. Please, you have to believe me!”

Oddly enough, Matt was leaning toward believing her. Not just because he’d watched that man point a gun at the woman, but also because he had lashed out at his partner. He glanced down at Duchess, who was still bleeding, and made a split-second decision. “Fine, but you’re coming with me.”

“No, wait...”

“Now!” Matt wasn’t in the mood to quibble. He needed to get his partner’s injury taken care of, and since this woman and the baby were also clearly in danger, he decided it was better to take them along.

He would figure out what to do with them later.

“Okay, but we need to hurry,” she said.

Lacy surprised him by gathering up her items—baby things, he belatedly realized, such as diapers and formula—then heading over to his SUV without waiting for him.

Once she made up her mind about something, clearly, she acted on it. It was a trait he couldn’t help but admire.

“Come on, Duchess.” He led his partner back to the SUV and lifted her inside. Opening the first-aid kit he kept on hand for just these types of emergencies, Matt quickly pressed several gauze pads over the gash in her coat to stop the bleeding, then wrapped gauze around her abdomen as an added precaution. Duchess was trained well enough to leave the field dressing alone.

Satisfied he’d done what he could for the moment, he leaned over and rested his face against the animal’s neck. “You’re going to be okay, hear me? I’ll get this taken care of right away.”

Duchess licked his face, making him smile. He stepped back and closed the tailgate.

Gunfire erupted from the far east corner of the store, the same place where the gunman had disappeared. A bullet shattered the plastic sign hanging just over his head.

Matt didn’t waste another moment. He jumped in behind the wheel and started the engine with a roar.

His tires screeched loudly as he drove away from the gas station. Once the lights from the store faded to nothing, he glanced in the rearview mirror at his passengers. He hated leaving the scene of the crime, but at the same time, Duchess’s needs came first.

While he thought it was odd Lacy had chosen to sit in the back seat, he’d barely gotten onto the interstate when he saw the electric sign over the freeway blinking with the news of an Amber Alert.

The description on the sign matched the woman and baby sitting behind him.

He ground his teeth together, knowing this case was getting more complicated by the minute.

Somehow, some way, he needed to keep this woman and baby safe while he figured out what in the world was going on.

He couldn’t bear the thought of losing another innocent child...