Secret Delivery (9 page)

Jack believed him. He only wished he didn’t have his own hands so full that he couldn’t do some legwork to track down this guy. “I want his car impounded and searched. There might be something in it to reveal his identity. Run the plates, too. We could get lucky.”

“We have to get something from that car. It might be our only source of evidence.” Reyes glanced at Alana, reached behind him and locked the door. “The surveillance camera doesn’t monitor that end of the parking lot. And since he used the emergency exit to get in and out, there won’t be any film of him.”

“He wore latex gloves,” Alana volunteered.

That caused Reyes to look even more riled.

“I bagged the gown she was wearing.” Jack hitched
his thumb to the break room. “It’s on the counter. Let me get Alana in there for a nap, and I’ll do the paperwork to have it processed.”

The phone rang, and while Reyes answered the call at the front desk, Jack walked with Alana to the break room. Maybe this time he’d actually get her into the makeshift bed so she could rest.

Or not, he decided when he heard Reyes ask the caller, “You’re sure it’s the Sauder institution where Alana Davis was being held?”

Jack and Alana stopped and waited for the conversation to end. Reyes hung up, and in the same motion, he turned and snared Jack’s gaze. “We might have gotten a break. The Rangers learned the location of the institution. It’s about an hour from here, out in the middle of the sticks. They’re headed over there to check it out.”

Good. That could indeed be a break, especially since Alana wouldn’t have to get anywhere near the place. Between the facility and the kidnapper’s car, they might actually find something useful that would lead to the arrest of whoever was responsible.

Jack didn’t have time to savor that possibility because from out the window he saw a man making his way to the front door. Tall. About six-two. Rust-brown hair, cut short and efficient. The guy wore a suit.

This was no doubt Special Agent Parker Howell.

The timing sucked, but this could turn out to be yet more good news.

Jack was more than a little uneasy about what a federal agent would want with Alana, especially if this pertained to those illegal diamonds.

Reyes was the one who opened the door, and the visitor immediately made a sweeping glance around the room. His attention landed on Jack. Then Parker looked past Jack at Alana. He flashed a dazzling smile that made Jack even more uncomfortable.

What the heck was going on here? That wasn’t the normal greeting of a federal agent working in an official capacity. It was too friendly.

“Alana,” the man greeted.

“Agent Parker Howell,” she said stiffly. “What can I do for you?”

The dazzling smile faded. “Agent Parker Howell?” he repeated. “Why so formal?” But he didn’t wait for an answer. He turned to Jack. “Was Alana hurt? I heard she was attacked at the hospital.”

“How’d you hear that?” Jack asked.

“From the Rangers.” He stepped inside and walked closer, his attention fastened again to her. “I’m sorry about the attack, Alana. If I’d found you sooner, I might have been able to prevent it. That’s why I’m here. To stop anything else from happening to you. I’m here to take you into protective custody.”

Jack didn’t say a word. He stood back and listened. For now. But Alana wasn’t leaving with this man.

“You’re too late,” she insisted. “I’m already in Sheriff Whitley’s custody.”

“That was a good temporary measure.” He turned to Jack. “And I thank you for helping us out. But the FBI has authority here.”

“How do you figure that?” Jack asked.

Agent Howell shrugged as if the answer were obvious. “Because Alana is a federal informant.”

Alana was too tired and too numb to have an extreme reaction. But, mercy, could her life get any more complicated?

“A federal informant?” Jack asked. It was a challenge.

“Yes.” Agent Howell shifted those ice-gray eyes in her direction. “You don’t remember?”

“Remember what, exactly?” she asked.

He lifted his shoulder. “Anything about your dealings with the FBI.”

She glanced at Jack before she answered. “There are some blank spots in my memory. But I do recall you coming to my office in San Antonio to discuss some diamonds.”

“Blood diamonds,” the agent calmly provided. He kept his attention on her eyes as if he were examining her. “That’s what we discussed that day.”

“I remember that part. I also remembering turning down your request for me to become a federal informant.”

“You did, at first. But it wasn’t just the one visit. I
saw you again Christmas Eve, and we spoke on the phone several times before that. It was during one of those phone conversations when you finally agreed to help us. You don’t remember any of that?”

Alana took a moment to try to recall other meetings, but nothing came to mind. Of course, the meetings could have happened. She’d already tried to piece together those last several days before Joey was born, and she had no idea what she’d done or whom she’d spoken to.

“I’m sorry, Agent Howell, but I don’t remember,” she admitted.

“Parker,” he corrected, offering his first name as if they were that familiar with each other. And maybe they were.

Jack caught her when she wobbled a bit. “Did those meetings and conversations have anything to do with what’s happening to her now?” he asked.

“Possibly.” Without taking his eyes off her, Parker reached into his suit coat pocket and extracted a picture. It was a grainy shot, but the man in the image was still visible. “Is this the person who attacked you at the hospital?”

Alana’s breath started to race, and she nodded before she even took the picture from him and brought it closer to her face. Not that she needed a closer look. She’d recognized him after one glimpse. “That’s the man.”

Jack’s grip on her arm got slightly firmer. “Who is he?” he wanted to know.

“Eldon Thatcher.”

Reyes crossed the room and looked at the picture, as well. “Can I borrow this? I want to send it out to the sheriffs in the surrounding area. The guy’s probably still close, which means we can catch him.”

“Be my guest,” Parker offered, and Alana handed the picture to the deputy. He took it and disappeared into his office.

“Eldon Thatcher is the one who had the illegal diamonds that he was trying to sell to you.” Parker paused. “You really don’t remember?”

“Remember what?” she snapped at him. She was very uncomfortable about what she wasn’t recalling. And that had a lot to do with the agent in front of her.

Why did she distrust him?

It was the same niggling feeling she’d gotten when she saw Dr. Bartolo. There was just something about both of them that made her uneasy.

Parker took a deep breath. “Eldon Thatcher had these diamonds, and using an alias, he contacted you, hoping you’d buy them despite the lack of paperwork that would prove they were his and not illegally obtained. You got suspicious of him and recorded the conversation. Then you phoned the FBI. We identified the potential seller and asked you to set up a sting operation. We wanted to use your portion of the company to process the sale of the diamonds so we could catch Thatcher.”

“And did you catch him?” Jack asked.

“No.” Parker had the same look that Reyes had had when he walked in and announced the kidnapper had gotten away. But unlike Reyes’s account, something about this didn’t sound right.

Alana took a step forward and met Parker’s gaze head-on. “Are you saying I agreed to cooperate with this sting operation?”

Parker nodded. “You did.”

Alana huffed. “But I was pregnant. Nearly eight
months along. And I would have known this might be dangerous.”

Another nod. “You still wanted to do it. Of course, we didn’t know it would actually place you in danger. All we asked you to do was to agree to speak with Thatcher again. Not even in person. We wanted you to handle the transaction over the phone. An agent would have stood in for you if you could have arranged a sale to take place on Christmas day.” He shrugged. “That didn’t happen.”

“Why not?” Jack demanded, his voice cutting through the silence.

“Honestly, we don’t know. We think someone tipped off Thatcher that Alana was an informant. When I realized what’d happened, I tried to call Alana and warn her, but she wasn’t home. Her housekeeper said she’d left unexpectedly. After that, she disappeared.”

That filled in a few blanks.
If
he was telling the truth. “Why did I come to Willow Ridge?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe you realized someone was following you, and you started driving and ended up here.”

Because she badly wanted to refute that, Alana squeezed her eyes shut and tried to force herself to remember. It didn’t work. There was a huge gap of time missing between that meeting with Parker and Jack pulling her from that frozen creek.

“From what I’ve heard, you’ve been through a lot,” the agent continued. “We can arrange proper medical care for you. Maybe then your memory will return.”

Jack stepped closer to Parker. “Are we back to the protective custody issue now?”

“Yes. Alana has to go with me.”

“No. I don’t,” she said as the exact moment that Jack said, “No, she doesn’t.”

Parker’s eyes widened. “Why would you refuse protection? Alana, you could be in grave danger. Your son, too. Thatcher’s a dangerous man.”

“Obviously. He came after me at the hospital. Now, why would he do that? Before today, I’d never seen his face. I couldn’t identify him.”

“Who knows?” Parker lifted his hands, palm up. “He might just be trying to eliminate anyone who could connect him to those diamonds.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Jack insisted. “If all Thatcher wanted was Alana out of the way, then why didn’t he just kill her in the hospital room?”

As chilling as that possibility was, Jack was right.

Parker glanced away. Groaned under his breath. “This sounds gruesome, but he might have wanted to torture her first. As I said, Thatcher is dangerous.”

Alana hadn’t doubted that for a moment. “I’m not going with you,” she informed the agent.

Parker’s gaze slashed back to hers. “That could be a fatal mistake.”

“Could be,” she agreed. But she was going to rely on her instincts here, and her instincts were to trust Jack. Besides, she had no intention of leaving her son.

Parker extracted his business card from his pocket and handed it to her. “All right, then. I’ll inform my boss of your decision, but call me if you change your mind.” He turned as if to leave, but then stopped. He looked at Jack. “When Thatcher tries to take her again, my advice is shoot to kill. Because he won’t stop. He’ll keep coming after her until he succeeds.”

“I wish he were saying that just to scare me,” Alana mumbled as she watched the agent walk away. “But he’s probably right about this Eldon Thatcher.”

Jack shut the door, locked it and in the same motion he caught her arm and led her in the direction of the break room. “Talk to me about Agent Howell. The meeting with him that you can remember, how did it go?”

“Not well, actually. I told him that as a jewelry maker I got contacted often by sellers who were suspicious. These sellers either had no paperwork to prove ownership of what they were offering, or the paperwork was doubtful at best. That’s why I declined Parker’s request when he wanted me to set up this particular sting.”

“He says you changed your mind.” Jack’s tone mirrored her own doubts about what the agent had claimed.

Alana sank onto the sofa the moment they made it into the break room. “Why would he lie about something like that?”

“Maybe because he’s trying to cover his butt.”

Alana shook her head. “What do you mean?”

Jack eased the door shut and motioned for her to lie down. He didn’t continue until she complied. She could have sworn her feet and back breathed sighs of relief at the prospect of finally getting some rest. Still, she would have preferred to be in the room with Joey while they worked to find answers about this investigation.

“Parker said the FBI was going to use a stand-in if the deal went down,” Jack explained. “When you refused to get involved with the case, he might have used you anyway. He could have had this stand-in pose as you and contact Eldon Thatcher to arrange the sale.”

Alana worked her way through that theory. “And maybe something went wrong. Maybe Thatcher realized it was a setup, and he came after me because he believed I had betrayed him.” Mercy, it made sense. “I knew there was a reason I didn’t trust Parker.”

“I could be wrong.” Jack walked closer and looked down at her. “I can make some calls and find out what this deal with Thatcher was all about.”

More calls. Added to the arrangements he’d have to make to keep them all safe. “I’m sorry I’m putting you through this.”

He stood there, and a moment later he nodded. “I don’t think this is your fault.” He eased onto the edge of the sofa so that he was sitting next to where she was lying. “Your brother could be after your money. Parker could be trying to cover up something, and he could have inadvertently put Eldon Thatcher on your trail.”

“And then there’s Margaret and Ted. Maybe they’re working for my brother. Or maybe not. I suppose it’s possible they’ve been holding me all this time for their own monetary gain.” Her gaze snapped to Jack’s just as his jumped to hers. “My financial records. I need to go through them to see if someone’s gotten into them.”

He put his hand on her shoulder when she tried to get up. “I’d planned to do that after you were asleep.”

Yet more work for him. “I can’t rest. I need to help you.”

“You can rest,” he insisted. “Alana, I need you to have a clear head, and that won’t happen until you sleep off the sedative Thatcher gave you.”

She wanted badly to argue, but she wasn’t sure she had the strength to put up a fight. “Can I at least take my nap in the room with Joey?”

“Trust me, you won’t get a nap if you’re in the room with him.”

And at that moment, she heard her son giggle.

The right corner of Jack’s mouth lifted. “See?” But the smile was soon replaced with a more serious expression. “Tell you what, I’ll bring him in here for just a couple of seconds if you promise me you’ll get some sleep.”

“I promise.” She had no choice. Sleep was going to come whether she wanted it or not. “It must be hard to be so nice to me.”

She reached up to smooth away the worry lines on his forehead, but the moment she touched him, she knew it was a mistake. Even now, with all the danger and uncertainty, touching was out.

Jack snagged her hand to move it away. Or so she thought. But he held on to it, lacing their fingers together. He looked as if he were about to say something, but then he released the grip he had on her and started to stand.

Alana caught him. “What were you going to say?”

“Something stupid.”

“Go ahead. Say it. With this fog in my head, I probably won’t remember it anyway.” And for some reason, that made her smile.

He locked gazes with her. “You can’t take Joey from me.”

Oh, she’d thought this was about the attraction, but she was wrong. Thankfully, one of them had his mind on the right track. And the right track was Joey.

Alana forced herself to come up with a possible solution, one that would get that dour expression off Jack’s face. “What if I agree for us to split custody for
now? Once Thatcher is caught, we can work out something more permanent.”

The dour expression and the pain stayed. This was killing him. But it wasn’t a walk in the park for her, either.

“Jack, I have to be a mother to my son.” She paused. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll exclude you as his father. He calls you Da-Da, for heaven’s sake. I can see the love you two feel for each other.”

He didn’t say anything for several moments. “Split custody,” he repeated. He started to get up again.

Again, Alana stopped him. She wanted to tell him that she would be fair, that she wouldn’t do anything intentional to hurt him or her son. Even if that meant she had to back off for a while.

“I don’t get involved easily,” he said, surprising her with this turn in the conversation.

“Neither do I.” Her tone was cautious, and she waited for more.

“But there’s this attraction.” His tone was even more cautious than hers. “I’m guessing it’s because of Joey?”

Maybe it was the hazy head, but she couldn’t make the connection. “No. I don’t think it has anything to do with him. You’re a hot guy. It’s simple attraction.”

He seemed to give that some thought, and just when Alana was certain that he was indeed going to move away, she tightened her grip on his arm and dragged him down to her.

She kissed him.

Alana kept it brief. Hardly more than a peck. But her body reacted as if it were much more. The punch was like hot liquid fire. And she couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if they really kissed.

He stayed close, his mouth hovering over hers. “This complicates the hell out of things, you know that?”

“I know. I should probably promise that it won’t happen again.”

“But it will,” he disagreed.

“It will?” The only surprise was that he’d admitted it.

“Yeah. And if you figure out a way to stop it, let me know.” He did stand then. “I’ll bring Joey in.”

Alana hated when he moved away from her. She lost his scent and his warmth all at once. Worse, she lost the sensation of his being there for her. She realized she’d gone a lifetime without feeling that.

Jack hadn’t even made it to the door when there was a knock, and it opened. Reyes stuck his head into the room. “We got a problem, boss.”

Alana groaned and sat up, bracing herself for the next round.

“A Texas Ranger just called,” Reyes explained. He stepped inside, and Alana spotted the piece of paper he had in his hand. “When the Rangers got out to the Sauder Facility, the place was already on fire. They couldn’t save anything. By the time the fire department arrived, the entire place was nothing but cinders and ash.”