Baby Trouble. Beth Cornelison

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СКАЧАТЬ school who practiced in Boston. That guy didn’t know anything, but referred Tatum to someone else. As the lawyer placed a second call, she reflected on the enormous power of good-old-boy networks.

      The second lawyer knew something. She could tell by the way Tatum’s face lit up as he listened intently.

      “Ward, MacIntosh and Howe,” Tatum announced as he disconnected the call. “Want me to contact them and see if Nick’s been in their offices recently?”

      “Sure.”

      If Nick had been to visit his lawyer, he might still be in the Boston area. During his incarceration, his shipping company had been sold out from under him, and he might very well be trying to reverse that sale. If not that, Nick was probably getting funds released into his hands to finance whatever he planned to do next. She had an alert set on their joint bank accounts to notify her the second Nick accessed any of them, but so far, he hadn’t. He was welcome to whatever he needed or wanted from her accounts.

      Funny how love and family made something like money seem so trivial. Not that she’d ever been that hung up on wealth. She just wanted to have enough to do what she wanted to without having to worry about it. Case in point: It had been handy over the past five years to finance her own investigations as she helped women find the fathers of their children. Most of her clients had been in desperate financial straits and couldn’t have paid her a dime even if they’d known who she was.

      Tatum was on hold with Nick’s law firm and muttering to himself as he waited. “… fly up to Boston and try to contact him before the federal prosecutors get wind of the fact that he’s fled.”

      “I don’t think he’s fled,” she responded. “I think he’s taking care of personal business.”

      “Yeah, well, he’d better take care of it fast—” He broke off and spoke into the phone. “This is Tatum Carter of Carter and Associates in Fairfax, Virginia. I represent Nick Cass—Nikolas Spiros—in an upcoming trial against the people who allegedly kidnapped him. I need to speak with Nick’s attorney at your firm.”

      Laura frowned as Carter visibly paled.

      “I’m so sorry,” he stammered. “I’ll be in touch in a few days. Of course. My sympathies.”

      Alarmed, Laura blurted the second he hung up, “What happened? What’s wrong?”

      “Nick’s lawyer is dead. Someone broke into the guy’s house last night. The police think William Ward startled the intruder and was murdered.”

      Warning bells clanged wildly in Laura’s head. Home robbery, her foot. What were the odds that someone randomly broke into the lawyer’s house the day after his kidnapped billionaire client surfaced? Ohmigosh. Nick. How much danger was he in? Her gut yelled that he was the prime target on the hit list.

      “I have to go, Carter. I’ll be in touch.” She raced out of the room and upstairs to pack. Somewhere in the next ten frantic minutes, she ordered up an emergency corporate jet to fly her to Boston ASAP.

      Ellie squawked over the baby monitor, startling Laura out of her panicked packing. The baby. What was she going to do about her daughter? The infant nursed exclusively, and after her recent bout of jaundice, Laura was loathe to shift Ellie over to formula. She didn’t have enough pumped milk in the freezer to be gone for several days.

      Laura closed her eyes in frustration. Mother or frantic lover? How was she supposed to choose between the two? With a sigh, she headed for the nursery to feed the baby. Afterward, she quickly packed a bag for Ellie as well.

      She popped into the playroom to say goodbye to Adam. “Hey, kiddo.”

      He flung himself at her and she laughed as he planted a sticky kiss on her cheek. “I’m off to go rescue Daddy. Call me whenever you want to, okay?”

      Adam nodded against her neck. “Promise you’ll save Daddy from the bad man.”

      “You’ve got it. I promise. Daddy and I will be home in no time. You and Lisbet have fun while I’m gone and don’t eat anything healthy, okay?”

      Adam laughed. They both knew his health-freak nanny would never dream of letting Adam exist on junk food.

      “I love you, Adam.”

      “Love you, too, Mommy.”

      Her heart ached at having to leave her precious son for even a few days. She nodded at Lisbet over Adam’s dark head, and the nanny smiled and nodded back. Lisbet knew full well how deeply Laura treasured her children and would take care of Adam like her own son in Laura’s absence.

      “I’ll be back as soon as I can. No more than, say, three days.”

      “Yes, ma’am. Have a safe trip.”

      Before she could dissolve into completely un-superhero-like tears in front of her son, Laura spun and left the playroom, giving a theatric leap as she passed through the doorway. “Super Mommy away!” she called out.

      The last sound she heard as she scooped up Ellie and headed out was Adam shouting, “Go, Super Mommy!”

      The drive to the airport and subsequent flight to Boston took several hours. It was late afternoon when Laura and Ellie arrived at Logan Airport. The baby traveled like a champ. She must take after her mother when it came to enjoying adventure and new experiences.

      A newspaper purchased in the airport terminal told Laura that William Ward had been at his home on Cape Cod when he was killed. She plugged the town into her rental car’s GPS and in a few minutes was crawling down I-93 in the remnants of the day’s rush-hour traffic. Big Dig or no Big Dig, traffic in Boston was horrendous.

      It was nearly 10:00 p.m. when she finally found Ward’s house just outside Hyannisport. In full spy mode, she turned off her headlights and drove past. It was impossible to miss with yellow crime scene tape stretched all around it. She turned down the first side road and parked parallel to Ward’s house. Time to go cross-country. Although how Super Mommy was supposed to pull that off with a baby in tow, she wasn’t sure.

      She donned a baby backpack and settled Ellie into a nest of blankets within it. The baby had just dined and was ready for a nice warm nap. Thankfully, as Laura set out hiking toward the Ward house, the motion seemed to soothe her daughter.

      Ward was not a criminal lawyer, which eliminated some disgruntled client or victim of one of his clients being the killer. It had to be Nick who triggered the attack. What information could Ward have on Nikolas Spiros that was worth killing for? Laura had no idea what it could be, but she’d bet Nick had a good idea what it was. Or if Nick didn’t know what it was, he’d darn well be dying of curiosity to know. And in either case, she figured Nick planned to find out what information Ward had been murdered over.

      A clearing came into sight ahead. Assuming she hadn’t lost all of her CIA field skills, that would be the backyard of the Ward house. Hopefully, Nick would be paying this place a visit soon. And if she was lucky, she just might spot him and hook up with him. At least that was the plan. It was admittedly a sketchy plan, but better than having no plan at all. Given that Nick hadn’t used any of his credit cards and still had not withdrawn any funds from their checking accounts, she could only assume he was using cash and an assumed name. It was what she’d do in the same situation. And Nick was nothing if not highly intelligent.

      She СКАЧАТЬ