Multiples Mystery

“She’s a new mom. There’s no real reason for her to have to wait. She’s a very fit young woman who’s been athletic her whole life. Let her call the shots of what she can and can’t do.”

“Not without—”

“I mean, how would it sound,” Zac mused, “if the press got wind that the new mother of quads couldn’t see them?”

The nurse’s eyebrows rose. “Maybe you have a point,” she said. “It doesn’t do to be a slave to rules.”

“I agree with you,” Zac said with a smile.

“I’ll go take her vitals and if everything checks out, I’ll get a wheelchair.”

“Excellent,” Zac said. “Thanks.”

He and Faith watched the woman hustle down the corridor toward Olivia’s room, snagging a vitals cart as she passed one. Faith said, “That was smooth.”

“Maybe she could sense I was ready to shoot her if she didn’t cooperate.”

Faith grinned. She was short and willowy with a pale complexion and pretty, girl-next-door looks—the opposite of Olivia, who was tall and graceful with dark, exotic beauty. Faith was a teacher by trade, patient and good-tempered by nature, a homebody. Olivia could be impulsive and restless. Faith dated regularly, though she’d yet to find the love of her life. Olivia kept men at arm’s length, always too busy planning for the day she could strike out and see the world. That is, that’s what she’d been like before Anthony Capri came along.

“Is Juliet Hart still in with the babies?” he asked.

“No, I just saw her. She left Olivia’s sisters to look after things while she arranges a press conference. She wants to make sure the babies hit the state news before Olivia takes them back to Westerly. I think she’s afraid they’ll fade into obscurity before she gets her moment in the sun as the grandmother of the state’s newest quadruplets.”

“I wanted to ask her if she’s heard from Anthony.”

“She hasn’t, I asked. Olivia told you about him?”

“That he didn’t come for the births? That he left her here alone?” A knot worked in his jaw as he reined in his temper and said, “She’s convinced he’s had an accident or some kind of unavoidable delay.”

“Is she?”

“Isn’t she?”

Faith shrugged. “I’m not sure.” She studied his face for a second before adding, “I’m glad you came, Zac. I kind of thought you might show up before, while she was stuck in here—”

“I didn’t want to get in the way,” he said quickly. “Stay close to her, will you?”

“I’m on leave from the school for the rest of the spring semester, and then I have all summer. I’m not going anywhere.”

“She’s going to need help.”

“She’ll get it. I’ll be her unofficial nanny. The rest of Westerly is behind her and Anthony.”

“They’ve known Olivia forever,” Zac said. “She does the bookkeeping for half of the small businesses in town.”

“And everyone likes Anthony,” Faith said, “even though he’s a newcomer. Plus, you know, Anthony is rolling in dough. Olivia can afford to quit work and hire help.”

He had nothing to say to that. It was true. Anthony could give Olivia the life she wanted. Travel, excitement, adventure. Only right now, all she wanted was his presence. “I have an appointment later that I can’t break. Between now and then I’ll do what I can to track down the new daddy. Call me if he shows up here.”

Faith’s small hand wrapped around his forearm. “Zac, Olivia’s gut is telling her Anthony isn’t happy about becoming a father. I think she’s worried he’s run out on her.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Zac said, though he wasn’t surprised. The Anthony Capris of the world liked to be the center of attention. Being relegated to second fiddle behind a beautiful wife and four adorable babies wouldn’t appeal to him. “Maybe he just got new-dad jitters. I’ll try to find him and talk some sense into him.”

Faith bit her bottom lip, something she often did when she wasn’t sure if she wanted to say something or not. She obviously decided to go for it. “There’s something else. Grant Robinson is making noise. He says Anthony hasn’t been returning calls. Hugh is mad as a hornet, too, but you know Grant, he’s the one who runs around making threats. You know what a hothead he can be.”

“Great,” Zac said. “If I take the sheriff job, I’ll inherit the Robinson brothers. Well, one thing at a time. First I find Anthony.”

“Hurry,” Faith said. “I didn’t tell Olivia this, but I called the hotel, you know, to get someone to knock on his door in case Anthony, well, you know, overslept or got sick or something.”

“And?”

“They couldn’t find his reservation. I didn’t have time to go through the whole process of them figuring out what they’d done wrong, but Zac, I have a bad feeling about this.”

Chapter Two

Anthony Capri hadn’t been missing long enough to tap official channels. For that matter, he wasn’t missing at all. He just hadn’t shown up where he damn well should have been.

Why? How does a man forget such a thing as his wife giving birth to quadruplets? Everyone from Westerly to Seattle knew about it!

That left an accident or foul play. Zac didn’t like the man, that was true. Capri was a natural born salesman, glib and charming, self-deprecating and able to relate to anyone. That, in Zac’s book, made him as slick as a shucked oyster, the kind of guy who could talk a snake into buying socks. Zac just plain didn’t trust him.

But Olivia did, and right now, that was all that mattered.

The month of May could be beautiful in Seattle and today was one of the better examples. Fluffy white clouds, crystal blue skies, the distant peak of Mt. Rainier—the city looked like one of the postcards for sale down at Pike Place Market.

All that said, it was still a sprawling city with major traffic issues and he wasn’t a sprawling city kind of guy. Olivia said it was okay with her if he moved back. Anthony, even if he wasn’t dead or halfway across the country, wouldn’t care one way or another. That meant it was up to him and he wasn’t sure he could handle it.

No way was he going to start stewing over this again. He’d told himself if he and Olivia could get along without fireworks, he’d take the job. He’d just seen her, they’d parted friends. Of course, he hadn’t had to face Anthony fawning over her. Never mind, he could do it. End of discussion.

The Marina Inn had been built before waterfront property became so precious and it took up a lot of prime real estate. He told the valet to leave his car where it was, showing a badge to make his point, then entered the vast lobby with the three-story glass wall overlooking Puget Sound and a half dozen marinas.

He’d stayed at the place once, on his honeymoon a decade before. The hotel had thrived—the marriage had not.

He showed his badge again at the front desk and asked in which overpriced room they’d stashed a guest named Anthony Capri. The clerk was a young woman with a lilting accent and a name he couldn’t pronounce. She tapped a few keys, informed him they didn’t have a guest by that name. He asked if they’d had one with that name within the past two months. The woman shook her dark head and asked if he wanted to speak to the manager.

“Absolutely,” he said.

The manager was a middle-aged woman with heavy black frame glasses and earrings shaped like miniature Space Needles. She was obviously fighting an allergy as she sniffed every twelve seconds. Zac knew this as he surreptitiously timed her with his watch. After much computer time, she informed him they had never had a guest named Anthony Capri, not at the Marina Inn, not even at their smaller branches, Marina Overlook and Marina Cove.

Zac went back outside and stood for a moment, taking in the fresh wind wafting off the water, the snapping flags atop masts of million-dollar yachts, the tangy, salty taste of the air. Now what?

He finally took out his cell, punched in Faith’s number and left a message. She called him back a few minutes later after she’d checked with Olivia. Yep, he had the right hotel. Which must mean Anthony had lied about where he was staying.

Why would he lie about something like that? What if the hospital had tried to reach him, what if they’d called the front desk and asked for him by name?

Hadn’t Faith done that very thing and assumed the hotel was the one with the problem? A would-be caller would proceed to leave a message on Anthony’s cell and sooner or later, Capri would check his messages. Zac would bet a million dollars that if questioned, Capri could come up with a perfectly reasonable sounding explanation for the confusion.

He got back in the car at last. Olivia must know something else that would help him figure out what was going on. She’d been defensive when he asked her questions, reminding him of when she’d been a kid and he’d caught her in his bedroom with Faith. The two of them had dug around in his closet until they found his stash of X-rated magazines. Faith had had the grace to turn bright red and stutter. Olivia had turned the tables and chided him for looking at pictures of naked women.