A Cop In Her Stocking. Ann Peterson Voss

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СКАЧАТЬ but she couldn’t help it. She’d even put makeup on this morning before he’d stopped by to pick up her son. Not because she hoped for something between them. Any hope of that had fizzled out years ago, during that awful summer and in the fall afterward when Ty had left to attend a police academy in Madison.

      Not that it mattered. She’d done marriage, and there wasn’t a chance she was gullible enough to try it again. But there was just something about the way Ty looked at her that made her want to show him the fabulous woman he’d lost all those years ago. Rub his face in it a bit. Silly, vain, and more than a little vengeful, she admitted, but there it was.

      Much more important than old feelings between her and Ty was whether the shopping trip with Connor had gone well.

      A stronger jitter gripped her stomach and climbed into her chest. Her little guy had been through so much with the divorce. And now that they’d left Chicago and moved back across the Wisconsin border to Lake Hubbard, she could tell he missed his dad. That was the reason she’d let Ty talk her into taking him on this outing when he’d told her there were leftover donations to the Shop with a Cop program. Connor needed some time with a man, and that was something she couldn’t provide. And this morning he’d been so excited…it was almost as if the opportunity was tailor-made.

      But that didn’t mean she wasn’t nervous about it. She was nervous every time Connor was out of her sight. At least today he was with a police officer. She just hoped his experience was a positive one.

      The outside buzzer blared again through her apartment.

      Running her fingers through her hair a couple more times, she crossed the living room and hit the button unlocking the building’s main door, a low buzz humming through the halls.

      She couldn’t wait to see Connor’s face. Please, let him be happy. She opened her apartment door and stepped out into the long corridor.

      A man’s steps thunked up the stairs and echoed in the open stairwell and lobby below.

      Leaving her door ajar, Megan started down the hall, hurriedly padding on stocking feet to meet the sound, eager to see her son’s face.

      A blue-clad leg and black shoe crested the top step. Ty Davis stepped around the corner and into the hall.

      She focused on Ty’s face, and for a moment, her heart felt like it fluttered, just like it had when she’d first laid eyes on him back in high school. Then it occurred to her that he didn’t look happy.

      She glanced down the staircase. A cop in full uniform climbed the staircase behind him but no little boy. She hurried toward Ty. “Where’s Connor?”

      His face appeared tighter the closer she came. Lines etched his forehead and cupped around the corners of his lips.

      “Where’s Connor?” she repeated. Hadn’t he heard her? What was wrong with him? “Is he hurt?”

      “We need to talk, Meg.” He cupped a hand under her elbow and steered her away from the stairs. “Let’s go back inside your apartment for a moment.”

      Her breath seemed to clog her throat. Something had happened. That much was clear.

      “Meg?”

      Now was not the time to lose her head. She couldn’t let her mind race off in a panic…not until she knew what it was she faced. “Oh…okay.”

      Without releasing her, he moved her hand into the crook of his arm and guided her back to her open door.

      Possibilities whipped through her mind. Was Connor hurt? Had he tried to steal something? Had her mother wandered off from the nursing home? Or had she died, and Ty hadn’t wanted Connor here when he broke the news? She moved one foot in front of the other, reaching the apartment, stepping inside. She stopped and angled her body to face Ty. Her hands were shaking and she gripped them together to keep them still. “What happened?”

      “I think you should sit down.”

      Sit down? Like hell. “What happened?” Panic shrieked inside her, but her voice became quieter the louder her fear.

      He paused, searching for words or still waiting for her to take a seat, she didn’t know.

      Clearly something had happened. Something she hadn’t seen coming. Something she’d missed. “Tell me, Ty. Please.”

      He gave a slow nod. “I’m so sorry, Megan.”

      Her lungs contracted. She couldn’t breathe. “My mother?”

      “It’s Connor. He was abducted from the store.”

      She shook her head. It didn’t make sense. “But he was with you.”

      He flinched ever so slightly, as if the statement caused him pain. “The entire department is looking for him. Store security, too. We’ll find him, Megan. We’re going to find him.”

      “No. No.” She couldn’t stop shaking her head. She hadn’t seen this coming, all right. She hadn’t seen it, because it was impossible. “He was with you. This can’t happen.”

      “I’m so sorry.”

      She swayed. Her knees felt like they were going to buckle, but she willed herself to stand on her own. This couldn’t be happening. There had to be some kind of explanation. Some kind of sick joke. She waited for him to tell her that he was kidding, to take it all back, to…something, but she knew deep inside that something wasn’t going to come.

      Her baby was gone.

      Chapter Three

      Ty didn’t know how much Megan was absorbing. She stared at him, green eyes wide and a little glassy. And although she nodded at the appropriate times, there was a blankness to her expression that felt hard and brittle at the same time, like the face of a porcelain doll.

      “Doug.”

      “Officers are trying to reach him.”

      “Could he…could he have taken Connor?”

      “We’re looking into it. Believe me.” Ty wanted to go question the bastard himself, but the lieutenant wouldn’t allow it. Probably a good idea. If Doug did sneak Connor out of the store under Ty’s nose, Ty wasn’t sure he could leave the interview without beating the tar out of him.

      Still, compared to the alternative, Doug being the kidnapper would be a huge relief. “You can help us determine if Doug took him.”

      “How?”

      He motioned to Baker. Even though the detective was supposed to be in charge of this notification and interview, he’d hung back and let Ty take the reins. Todd Baker was a good guy.

      Baker set up his laptop on the coffee table and recalled the pictures they had downloaded from the security footage. The first image of the kidnapper came on the screen, a shot of the parka-clad man approaching Connor. Ty was also visible just a few feet away.

      Megan gasped.

      “You recognize him?”

      She СКАЧАТЬ