Special Delivery (Mountain Meadow Homecoming 1) (29 page)

He’d taken precautions to cover his tracks. Spence told his family he and Seely were skiing at a different place. Hell, he’d even made the reservations under a different name where they really were. That way, his family would truly believe they were telling the truth if they had to give the police any information. He’d purchased a car last week, and would return the rental he was now driving east of here where he’d stashed the other vehicle. Then he’d drive back to the ski resort.

Seely would have the kid to take care of, and once the heat died down, they’d go back home. It was a great plan. Spence had absolutely no worries. Everything would be perfect.

* * * *

Holly watched Tyler walk down the street that morning while she hummed Christmas carols to Noelle. The baby was more active now, staying awake for longer periods, and Holly was pleased to see the little girl had a very sunny personality. Holly knew she was right. Noelle had smiled. It hadn’t just been gas.

“It’s you and me, baby girl, the Christmas elves. I think your good cheer power might be just a bit more than mine. What do you think?”

Noelle blinked and her little mouth curved. Holly kissed the baby on each cheek, inhaling her sweet fragrance. She would never get enough of it.

After closing the door and locking it, Holly took the infant back upstairs and laid her in her crib so she could get ready to go. She had a million things to do to get ready for the upcoming holiday weekend. There was food and presents to buy. She would stop by the jeweler’s first. She had found an old pocket watch of Jake’s that no longer worked. He admitted it had belonged to his grandfather, and he’d always treasured it; he just never took the time to have it fixed, so Holly had seen to that for his Christmas gift. Tyler was a different matter, and after talking with Jake, they had decided he deserved the video gaming system he’d been so keen on. That was the main reason she was headed to the discount store with Jake’s debit card in hand, and she figured she could purchase most of her groceries there as well.

More than an hour later she loaded Noelle in the infant carrier in the backseat of the car and drove down the highway. Shopping options were minimal, so folks tended to hit the huge store for socializing and shopping. Today the shopping was paramount and getting harried as people rushed to buy last-minute gifts and necessities.

With the jostling crowds, Holly decided to leave Noelle in her carrier and put it in the basket. She was afraid to use the sling in case anyone bumped into her. She pushed the cart to the Christmas wrapping section first to get paper, boxes, bags, and bows. Noelle slept peacefully despite the crush of people. Once she was done there, Holly maneuvered to the back of the store where the electronics were located.

What a crush! Wall-to-wall people made it difficult to get through with the cart. As she waited for an opening, a woman just in front of her bumped a display of DVDs, knocking them all to the floor. The woman was so embarrassed, and Holly felt sorry for her.

“Here, I’ll help.”

She looked up, her face red with mortification and exasperation. “Oh thank you. I came on my lunch hour to finish shopping for my little girl, and I just didn’t think it would be this crowded at this time of day.”

Holly smiled reassuringly as she collected the DVDs. “It does get a little hectic. We forget why we celebrate this time of year. Your daughter must be very special for you to brave these crowds.”

The woman beamed, her face relaxing and a smile actually appearing as she picked up the last of the DVDs. “Oh she is. Heather’s nine.”

Holly stood and smiled at her. “Well you and Heather have a wonderful Christmas.”

“You too, and thank you.”

Holly grabbed her shopping cart. The infant carrier and blankets were still there, but not exactly as she’d left them. Coldness trickled through her. She touched the blanket with cold, stiff fingers. Gone. Noelle was gone!

“My baby.” It came out the first time as just a whisper of sound. The disbelief still outweighed the horror. “My baby!” This time her voice was stronger. “
Someone’s taken my baby!”
Holly shouted.

The store clerk behind the register pushed his way through the crowd. “Ma’am?”

Holly gasped for breath. “Noelle! My daughter! Someone’s taken her!”

Why didn’t they understand?

“Could she have wandered away?”

Holly blinked at the clerk. “Wandered away? She’s only three weeks old.”

The clerk pulled a walkie-talkie from his belt. “I need a Code Adam issued on a newborn infant girl. She was taken from electronics in the last five to ten minutes.” He looked at Holly. “What was she wearing?”

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, but inside creeping coldness and almost certain knowledge settled. Spence had gotten her. “She had on a pink snowsuit and…and underneath a Christmas sleeper that was green with red trim. Please! You have to find her.”

She swallowed jerkily, thinking her heart might beat right out of her chest. The clerk patted her back as he relayed the information, and two burly security guards hurried their way, but Holly saw all of it through a fog. The only thing she could really hear anymore was the frantic beating of her own heart and her shallow, uneven breathing. Somewhere deep in her consciousness she acknowledged the bitter irony of the Christmas carols playing over the speakers in the stereo section.

* * * *

Spence had tucked the baby inside his leather bomber jacket and walked out the doors of the huge store right before he heard the Code Adam go out over the loudspeaker. After walking casually through the parking lot, he unlocked the rental car, bent inside the vehicle, and slipped the baby from inside his jacket and into the infant car seat. Somehow, amazingly, the girl still slept. It had all gone even easier than he suspected thanks to that stupid woman knocking over the DVD display, and of course Holly just had to help. She had always been a little too good to be true. Well, that’s what being nice got you—the purple shaft with the barb-wire cluster.

Spence looked at the sleeping baby, feeling only curious detachment, not any real tie to her at all. Hard to imagine one night of really bad sex had resulted in the kid strapped in the car seat.

He hoped she wouldn’t make noise. He didn’t like crying babies. Plus, Spence still had a bit of a hangover. He’d never spent much time around kids and didn’t really want to have much to do with her. The kid was for Seely and their parents. He hoped Seely knew something about babies. Spence pulled out of the parking lot just as the sheriff’s cars slid to a stop in front of the store with their lights flashing.

* * * *

Jake had just left Mercer’s where he’d met Evan for lunch when his phone rang.

“Lieutenant Allred?” the unidentified caller asked.

“Yes. Can I help you?”

“This is Joshua Patterson, manager of the Walmart. I have your fiancée with me, Holly Morgan. She needs to speak with you.”

Jake’s senses went on high alert. He heard Holly’s ragged breathing through the phone. “Holly? Honey? What is it?”

“Noelle. He’s taken her!”

Jake stumbled and had to lean against the corner of Mercer’s building. Evan stopped too and put a hand beneath his elbow. “Jesus!” Jake breathed. “Are you sure?”

Holly cried softly. He heard her even through the phone, and it broke his heart. “Who else could it be?” There was a long pause. “Jake, I need you.” Four little words that ripped him right in two.

“I’ll be right there.”

He jammed his phone in his pocket and began swearing a blue streak, his voice cracking with pain. “The son of a bitch has taken Noelle. We let our guards drop, and he’s fucking taken her!”

Evan held Jake’s shoulders and shook him slightly. “Jake! Hold it together. You still got lights on your truck?” At Jake’s nod, Evan hurried him across the square. “Get in. I’ll drive. You radio the chief, let him know what’s happening.”

Two sheriff’s cars, with lights still flashing, idled in front of the store. As soon as Jake and Evan arrived, a deputy was there to escort them to the business office where Holly was seated. She was in a daze, her face pale and her eyes unfocused.

“Lieutenant?” The deputy standing near her said, “We haven’t been able to get anything out of her.”

Jake squatted in front of her and Evan sat next to her. While Evan stroked her hair from her face, Jake rubbed her icy hands.

“Holly, honey,” he rasped. “I’m here. Can you hear me, sweetheart?”

“Jake?” she whispered, but she didn’t seem focused on what was happening, and her skin felt so cold.

“I think you’d better get hold of Doc, Ev.” To the deputy, he ordered, “Bring me a couple blankets. She’s having a stress reaction.” He’d seen it so many times in the military, but seeing it in Holly was a thousand times worse.

“Jake?”

“What, hon?”

“It’s time to nurse. Noelle will be hungry. Do you think he’ll feed her?”

“I’m sure he will, but we’ll find her so you won’t have to worry.” While Evan wrapped the blankets around her shoulders, Jake stood and spoke to the deputies. “Sam deputized me, so there’s no problem working this together. I can give you a name of a prime suspect, but we’ll need to see security tapes. If you can pull them, I’ll get her to ID the person. In the meantime, begin looking for Spencer Dilby as a person of interest in this. Family’s from Richmond; he may also have ties to Lynchburg.”

Jake knelt in front of Holly. “We’re going to get the security tapes for that part of the store. I’ll need you to look at them Holly. You’ll need to look so you can tell for sure if it’s Spence. Can you do that for me?”

She nodded, burying her face in Evan’s shoulder. He cradled her head against his wool coat. “I’ll stay with her while you get things set. The faster the better, as you and I both know.”

Jake hated to leave her. He desperately wanted to be the one holding her and comforting her, but his first priority had to be getting a BOLO out for Spence. He’d never met the man, but he was filled with an overwhelming urge to smash his fist in his face.

* * * *

Spence drove east first until he reached the small community where he’d stowed the SUV he’d purchased. He had almost finished transferring everything from the rental car to the SUV when the baby began to wiggle and shift. She waved her fists and her face reddened. Now what the hell was this? He had stuff to do. Didn’t she know any better? Noelle added a loud, indignant cry.

Spence’s eyes opened wide as he stared at the squalling baby. Damn! That was the most earsplitting sound he’d ever heard. No wonder so many parents seemed like they couldn’t hear their kids. They weren’t tuning them out as he’d always thought; they were deaf from the god-awful noise.

After stumbling through the mysteries of how all the clothing went together on the tiny, wiggling body, Spence discovered the dirty diaper. Nose wrinkled in distaste, he changed the baby and got all her clothing back on, but still she cried and seemed even more pissed than before. He poured formula in one of the bottles and shook it before offering it to her. She rooted at it, touched it with her small mouth, then turned her face away, screaming all the harder.

“Well
shit
.” He glared at the baby and muttered, “You’ll sure as hell eat once you get hungry enough.”

He slammed the rear door, slid into the driver’s seat of the SUV, and blasted the radio to drown out the baby’s squalling as he headed back to the mountains along a different route. He had mapped out a way along back roads. While shorter in mileage, the twisting and turning of the narrow highways made it infinitely more time-consuming.

The baby fell asleep eventually and Spence smiled. Fatherhood wasn’t so tough after all. He pulled his flask out and took a swig. Just a few sips would help calm his nerves.

* * * *

Within an hour of the Code Adam, Jake seated Holly in front of a security monitor. As they scanned the tapes, Evan stepped through the door with a state trooper. Introductions were quickly handled and the trooper stepped over next to Jake. They watched as Holly bent to help the woman who’d bumped the DVDs. In the bottom left corner of the screen a man stepped forward amid the chaos. Everyone else’s eyes were focused on the scattered DVDs as the man removed Noelle from the infant carrier. For just an instant, his face was visible.

“There. Freeze it.” Jake told the computer tech.

Holly gasped. “It’s him, Jake. It’s Spence.” She started to shake.

Jake put his arms around her, feeling her lean into him. Focusing must be so hard for her. Between Evan and the other lawmen there, terms flew around the room she would be unfamiliar with. They had already put out an Amber Alert, and were in the process of issuing an All Points Bulletin for Spencer Dilby. As long as he stayed in Virginia they would be working under state kidnapping laws, but they had put the feds on alert just in case Dilby headed south into North Carolina. The family had a house on the coast, so law enforcement agencies there were also put on alert. Officers contacted the Dilby family in Richmond.

Jake bent his head to her. “Honey, I need to ask you about the woman you helped.”

“Woman?” She still appeared dazed.

“The woman who knocked over the DVDs. You helped her pick them up.”

Holly smiled. “Yes. Rebecca Austin. She has a daughter, too.”

Jake stroked her cheek. Only Holly could have gotten all that information from just a chance encounter. “Honey, do you have any reason to think she might have done that on purpose? That she might have helped Spence?”

Holly’s eyes widened with horror. “Oh no! She was so embarrassed at what had happened. No.”

“Okay,” he soothed. “That’s all I needed to know. Look, I’d like you to go with Evan. He’ll take you home. I’ll bring your car later.”

“Wh-where are you going?” Tears welled. “I need you.” It tore him apart, but he had to help. He cupped her cheeks in his hands, and leaned his forehead against hers.

“To the sheriff’s office, honey. I wish I could be two places at once, but I can’t. I’m gonna find her and bring her home.”

He doubted seriously if Dilby had any clue how to care for a baby.