A Cop In Her Stocking

She glanced down the staircase. A cop in full uniform climbed the staircase behind him but no little boy. She hurried toward Ty. “Where’s Connor?”

His face appeared tighter the closer she came. Lines etched his forehead and cupped around the corners of his lips.

“Where’s Connor?” she repeated. Hadn’t he heard her? What was wrong with him? “Is he hurt?”

“We need to talk, Meg.” He cupped a hand under her elbow and steered her away from the stairs. “Let’s go back inside your apartment for a moment.”

Her breath seemed to clog her throat. Something had happened. That much was clear.

“Meg?”

Now was not the time to lose her head. She couldn’t let her mind race off in a panic…not until she knew what it was she faced. “Oh…okay.”

Without releasing her, he moved her hand into the crook of his arm and guided her back to her open door.

Possibilities whipped through her mind. Was Connor hurt? Had he tried to steal something? Had her mother wandered off from the nursing home? Or had she died, and Ty hadn’t wanted Connor here when he broke the news? She moved one foot in front of the other, reaching the apartment, stepping inside. She stopped and angled her body to face Ty. Her hands were shaking and she gripped them together to keep them still. “What happened?”

“I think you should sit down.”

Sit down? Like hell. “What happened?” Panic shrieked inside her, but her voice became quieter the louder her fear.

He paused, searching for words or still waiting for her to take a seat, she didn’t know.

Clearly something had happened. Something she hadn’t seen coming. Something she’d missed. “Tell me, Ty. Please.”

He gave a slow nod. “I’m so sorry, Megan.”

Her lungs contracted. She couldn’t breathe. “My mother?”

“It’s Connor. He was abducted from the store.”

She shook her head. It didn’t make sense. “But he was with you.”

He flinched ever so slightly, as if the statement caused him pain. “The entire department is looking for him. Store security, too. We’ll find him, Megan. We’re going to find him.”

“No. No.” She couldn’t stop shaking her head. She hadn’t seen this coming, all right. She hadn’t seen it, because it was impossible. “He was with you. This can’t happen.”

“I’m so sorry.”

She swayed. Her knees felt like they were going to buckle, but she willed herself to stand on her own. This couldn’t be happening. There had to be some kind of explanation. Some kind of sick joke. She waited for him to tell her that he was kidding, to take it all back, to…something, but she knew deep inside that something wasn’t going to come.

Her baby was gone.

Chapter Three

Ty didn’t know how much Megan was absorbing. She stared at him, green eyes wide and a little glassy. And although she nodded at the appropriate times, there was a blankness to her expression that felt hard and brittle at the same time, like the face of a porcelain doll.

“Doug.”

“Officers are trying to reach him.”

“Could he…could he have taken Connor?”

“We’re looking into it. Believe me.” Ty wanted to go question the bastard himself, but the lieutenant wouldn’t allow it. Probably a good idea. If Doug did sneak Connor out of the store under Ty’s nose, Ty wasn’t sure he could leave the interview without beating the tar out of him.

Still, compared to the alternative, Doug being the kidnapper would be a huge relief. “You can help us determine if Doug took him.”

“How?”

He motioned to Baker. Even though the detective was supposed to be in charge of this notification and interview, he’d hung back and let Ty take the reins. Todd Baker was a good guy.

Baker set up his laptop on the coffee table and recalled the pictures they had downloaded from the security footage. The first image of the kidnapper came on the screen, a shot of the parka-clad man approaching Connor. Ty was also visible just a few feet away.

Megan gasped.

“You recognize him?”

She shook her head. “No. Not really. I mean, it could be Doug, but…” Her eyebrows pulled low over worried eyes. Her chin trembled. “I can’t really tell.”

“We have a few different angles.” Ty glanced at Baker.

He rolled the snips of video and magnified the kidnapper. “Better?”

Megan shook her head. Tears wound down her cheeks, but she didn’t make a sound.

Baker stopped the video on an image. A sliver of the kidnapper’s cheek peeked from beneath the hood. “That’s as good a shot of his face as we could come up with.”

It was strange, Ty had to admit. In each bit of video, the kidnapper had averted his face at just the right angle and pulled up his hood in just the right amount to avoid security cameras.

Megan shook her head. “I don’t know. It could be Doug. It also could be almost anyone.”

Ty stared at the image, comparing it to his memories of Doug Burke’s face. She was right. It could be almost anyone.

“You lost him…how did you lose him? You’re right there.” Her voice was only a whisper, yet it cut into him like a whip crack.

He met her eyes. They glistened in the muted light of the window. A few tears spiked her lashes and escaped down her cheeks.

He could understand her frustration, understand her fear. Scratch that. He couldn’t truly understand. But he could imagine it. And if he were in her place right now, he imagined he would be furious. One thing was certain. He more than deserved her fury. “I’m so sorry, Meg.”

She didn’t answer. She looked back at the image on the computer.

“The department is working on finding him,” Baker said in a steady voice. “We are searching every inch of the mall. We’ve contacted the FBI, in case we need their help. We are prepared to issue an Amber Alert. Everyone is on this.”

Ty had already told her all this, but he was grateful for Baker’s calm, reliable recitation. Maybe Leo was right. Maybe Baker should have broken the news to Megan instead of him. He had a steady influence Ty couldn’t come close to matching. But the thought of not being there when Megan needed him wasn’t acceptable. Not again.

“How did it happen? What were you thinking? What were you doing that you weren’t watching him?” She hadn’t looked up, but it was clear she was talking to him.

He opened his mouth, then shut it tight. What could he say? That he was looking at lingerie? That he was fantasizing about how she’d look in it? Imagining taking it off her? “I was…shopping. I only took my eye off him for a moment.” He decided not to mention the Giftinator. Megan would only think he’d been flirting instead of paying attention to her son. It hadn’t been like that, not at all. But he wouldn’t be able to convince her.