A Cop In Her Stocking

Leo glanced at him, his bushy blond eyebrows pulling low. “You took the kid shopping for bras?”

“Slippers.” Ty pointed to the image of the slipper rack beyond the lacy under things. “He wanted to buy his mom dog paw slippers.”

The security man squinted up at him through coke-bottle lenses. “How long you want to go back?”

Ty glanced at his watch. “Almost a half hour.” He couldn’t believe that much time had already passed. They had locked down the store right away. But even though patrol officers and store security personnel were all combing the area, they hadn’t found a single sign of Connor. In those precious minutes that Ty was being polite to a stranger, Connor had seemingly vanished. He prayed the video would give them an idea of where the boy had gone.

He forced himself to concentrate on the speeding images moving in reverse on the screen, not on what might have happened to Megan’s son. He spotted himself, racing around the area backward, peeking in the circular clothing racks, talking to the woman holding flannel. And there he was, peering at the lingerie, listening politely to the woman who called herself the Giftinator, barely visible on the screen. And then…

The angle wasn’t great, the camera was too far from the slipper rack to show much detail, but what he did see sent a chill down his spine. A man in a shapeless coat and hood. Then the man was gone, and Connor was there, clutching those dog paw slippers. “That’s it. Stop.”

The security tech stopped the reversing images.

“Okay. Play it.”

Ty held his breath and watched as the action went forward at normal speed. Him talking to Connor. Him drifting a few feet away to the lingerie, leaving the poor kid all alone. The figure in the shapeless coat stepping around the slipper rack, taking Connor’s hand and leading him to the exit nearby.

“Fifteen feet away. I was only fifteen feet away.” Yet he’d been so caught up in his memories of Megan, in his selfish fantasies, in being polite to that woman, he hadn’t even noticed the man in the parka. He hadn’t had a clue that Connor was gone.

Not until it was too late.

Leo leaned over the security system tech’s shoulder. “Can you save that section of the recording and get me images from the camera for that exit?” He pointed toward the one where the man in the parka and Connor had disappeared.

“Sure thing.”

“After you’re done with that, check prior footage for all the exits, starting with that one. He must have entered the store at some point. I want a face shot of him. Anything we can use to get an ID.”

The tech nodded and started tapping keys.

The lieutenant turned his laser gaze on Ty. “You know the ex-husband. Could this be him?”

Ty considered for a moment. “Hard to tell without a better view of his face. But the body type fits.” Or at least as much of it as he could see in the oversized parka.

Leo nodded. “Average height, average weight?”

“Like most of the male population.”

“It’s something. We need to have the mother take a look at whatever pictures we can get of this guy. Even if he isn’t the ex, she might know him. There’s a chance.”

A cramp seized Ty’s chest. He knew the odds of an abducted kid being found, and they weren’t good, especially if the abductor was a stranger. Either it happened right away, in the first forty-eight hours, or it wasn’t likely to end well.

This was his fault. All his fault.

Leo let out a sigh and clapped the security guy on the shoulder. “The moment you find any kind of a face shot, let me know.”

“I sure will.”

“I’m calling the feds’ CARD team to give them a heads-up. I want to be prepared, and if this isn’t the ex, we could use the help. And we need to be ready to issue an Amber Alert.”

Ty nodded. CARD stood for Child Abduction Rapid Deployment, one of ten teams of experts located across the nation. Each team member had extensive experience in crimes-against-children investigations, particularly cases where the abductor was not a family member, and Ty was glad to hear Leo wasn’t planning to mess around. The Lake Hubbard P.D. was awfully small to handle a case like this on their own. Even with help from the sheriff’s department, it would be nice to have the extra resources. “What do you want me to do?”

“Sorry, Ty. I want you to lay back a little on this. At least until I get the word on how the chief wants to proceed.”

Ty knew there would be consequences to pretending his shopping trip was an official police department program. On top of that, when the media found out about him losing Connor, the blowback would only get worse. But whatever happened, he didn’t care. All he could think about was that little boy. “You’ll need photos of Connor for the search and Amber Alert.”

“I’ll send Baker to notify the child’s mother and have her take a look at the images of this guy. He can ask her for pictures.”

Nothing against Baker. He was a good cop. But it wasn’t right that Megan hear about this from a stranger. “Can I do it?”

Leo gave him a frown, lines digging into his forehead, deep as trenches.

“You got to let me do it, Leo.”

“You really want to?”

Of course, he didn’t. Not one bit. “I have to.”

“All right. Go with Baker.”

“Thanks. I couldn’t live with myself if she heard it from someone other than me.” Truth was, he wasn’t sure he could live with himself even now.

WHEN THE DOOR BUZZER SOUNDED and Megan glanced out the window, she was expecting to see a police car in front of her building. She wasn’t ready for the tremor that seized her stomach and made her head swirl like she’d just climbed off a carnival ride.

It was so strange, seeing Ty again after all these years.

She pushed her hair back from her face and ran her fingers through the ends. Man, she was pitiful, 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.