He nodded grimly and was surprised to hear Kait murmur, “Poor woman.”
“Why would you say that?” he asked. “She almost killed you.”
That was only a piece of the story. There was more to it, the portion that tugged at her heart.
“She lost her daughter and grief pushed her over the edge.” But there was one thing she couldn’t understand. Megan had been a little girl living in a different state. Why had Greta specifically come after her? “But why did she take Megan? Why not some other little girl?”
He’d gotten the story from Brian, who’d had one of the other detectives interrogate Max Crammer. He was a broken man now that his wife was gone.
“Greta was visiting a relative in New Mexico when she saw Megan playing in the park with some friends. According to Max, Megan looked identical to the little girl she’d lost ten years ago. Greta followed her home to see where she lived, then called her husband. She told him that she’d found Sally and insisted that he drive out here ‘in their white van.’”
“Why was she so specific?” Kait asked.
“Because that was the vehicle she was driving when she had the accident that killed her daughter. It wasn’t some guy who hit her daughter with a car,
she
did. Crammer said that his wife had been sinking deeper and deeper into depression since their daughter’s death and he was afraid for his wife’s sanity. His wife was all he had and he was desperate to save her. He was afraid if he didn’t find a way to keep her from sinking into a really black depression, she’d kill herself and he’d be all alone. That was why he did as she asked. He must have known she wanted to abduct the little girl,” he guessed. “That was why he doctored the driver’s license. Turns out he’s some kind of a shady computer wizard, so it was pretty easy for him to falsify documents.”
There was desperation and there was decency. From what she’d seen, Crammer didn’t strike her as a cold-blooded kidnapper. “And he helped her kidnap Megan?” she asked incredulously.
Tom spread his hands. “It was either that or watch her go crazy.”
There was no “go” about it, Kait thought. “She was already there.”
Tom laughed shortly. “Yeah, but a lot of people live in the state of denial,” he told her. “Especially when it comes to a loved one. But once his wife was dead, there was no reason for Crammer to lie to anyone anymore.”
Finished with his explanation, Tom suddenly felt overwhelmed. He took her hand in his. God but she felt fragile, he couldn’t help thinking. As fragile as life could sometimes be. He shook his head, thinking how close he’d come to losing her.
“I can’t believe you actually did that.”
She raised her eyes to his. He’d lost her. “Which part?”
There was only one part that mattered as far as he was concerned. “The part where you’re throwing yourself between that knife and me.”
“You threw yourself on top of me that first day—when that carjacker was going to shoot me, remember?” she reminded him pointedly. “I was just trying to return the favor.”
So that was what she’d meant when she said they were even. He thought she was in shock. The woman was far too cavalier.
He reined in his anger because he knew that it was driven by fear. Fear that he could have lost her permanently. “That was different.”
Her mouth felt dry but she forced the words out. “Why? Because you’re a man?”
Frustrated, he said, “Shoot me, but yeah, because I’m a man and I’m supposed to be the protector.”
She would have laughed if she could have, but she instinctively knew it would hurt too much. “And I’m a cop. I’m supposed to serve and protect.”
He wouldn’t accept that excuse from her. Her scream when the other woman drove the shears into her back was going to haunt him for a long, long time. “That applies to private citizens.”
Weak, tired, she still refused to let him win the argument. “That applies to everybody,” Kait contradicted. “News flash, Cavanaugh. It’s the twenty-first century. We’re equals. Some of us are just built a little softer than others.”
Tom shook his head. “I’m never going to win an argument with you, am I?”
Maybe it was her weakened state, but that almost sounded as if he was talking about the future. A life together would be impossible. The case was over. And she was going home.
Still, she looked at him. “You make it sound as if arguing is going to be an ongoing thing between us.”
He laughed shortly. “I figure, given your temperament, it will be.”
He was just confusing her more. “You’re planning on calling New Mexico to harass me?”
He answered her question with a question of his own. “You’re planning on going back?”
Nothing was making sense to her right now. Her head was pounding. “Shouldn’t I be?”
He didn’t want to corner her, not in this condition because then she could always say that he took advantage of her in a weakened state. When she made her decision, he wanted her to be able to think clearly.
So all he said in response was, “I thought maybe you’d stick around here for a while.”
“Why would I do that?” she asked him. “My job’s back in New Mexico.”
He noticed she didn’t say that her life was back in New Mexico. At least that was a hopeful sign. “What if there was a job for you here?”
“Somebody need another knife blocked?” she asked wryly.
“No, but we could always use another good detective on the force,” Brian said, answering her quip as he walked into her room. He smiled warmly at her. “How are you doing, Kaitlyn?”
She wanted to say “fine” but they all knew that was a lie. “It only hurts when I laugh.”
“Then we’ll try not to make you laugh,” Brian promised.
Kait looked from the chief of detectives to his nephew. Was it just her, or had they said what she thought they’d said? “Are you serious?”
“About not making you laugh?” Brian asked.
“No, the other thing.” Maybe her mind
was
playing tricks on her. “About there being a job here.”
“Just say the word,” Brian told her. And then he added with knowing smile, “Oh, and by the way, I had a long talk with your lieutenant that first day you came here.”
Groggy though she was, Kait knew that could only mean one thing. The lieutenant had told Brian that she was out here on vacation, not on official police business. “You knew.”
Brian nodded. “I knew.”
She didn’t understand. “Then why—”
Brian kept his answer deliberately vague. “Sometimes a person has to do what they have to do. There was a child involved. I didn’t think that a little slack was out of order.”
She knew she’d liked the man for a reason. “Can we talk about the job later?” she asked. “I’m feeling a little tired right now.”
“No problem,” Brian said.
Or maybe it was Tom whom she heard. Kait couldn’t be completely sure. Everything seemed rather fuzzy all of a sudden.
She drifted off the next moment.
Chapter 16
K
ait felt something small and delicate brush against her face, like the fleeting kiss of a butterfly seeking some place to land. It slowly drew her out of the hazy, gauze-wrapped, shapeless universe she’d been timelessly floating through.
With a start, Kait realized that she must have fallen asleep again. The last thing she could remember was seeing the chief of detectives and Tom in her room. Something about a job opening.
Or maybe she’d dreamed that because it had made her feel wanted.
But she wasn’t dreaming the soft, fluttery movement along her cheek. She could
feel
it.
Her eyes were still closed. With effort, Kait opened them.
Megan was peering into her face. The moment she opened her eyes, she saw the little girl smiling broadly at her.
“You opened your eyes. You’re alive,” Megan declared happily.
“I’m alive,” Kait confirmed, the words inching their way up an oddly hoarse throat.
Still caught somewhere between dreams and reality, Kait blinked twice, trying to focus not just her eyes but her mind, as well. Both were still rather fuzzy.
As her vision cleared, she saw that beside Megan, the little girl’s parents were standing around her bed. And Tom was in the background, standing off to the side. Watching her.
Kait tried to smile at Amanda and Derek, but she wasn’t sure if the action was actually completed. She realized that Derek was still in his uniform. They must have come here directly from the airport.
What were they all doing here? Was she dying? She felt incredibly achy and confused. Was that how you felt when you were dying?
Amanda took her hand. “I don’t know how to thank you, Kait,” she said, tears filling her eyes. “I knew that when you made me that promise that you’d find our little girl. That you’d find Megan.” Her voice hitched a little and it took her a second to continue. “You’ve never broken a promise to me—ever—but I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I was scared that maybe this time…?.” Amanda’s voice trailed off. She couldn’t finish her sentence.
Kait lightly squeezed the other woman’s hand. It was all she had the strength for. “It’s okay. I was scared, too,” she admitted.
Amanda blinked back tears. “I guess Uncle Ron knew what he was doing when he gave you my mom’s name. It was like she was watching over both of us that way.”
With effort, Kait nodded. “Yes, she was. Are you going to go back home now?” she asked. After all, there was nothing to keep them here now that they had been reunited with their daughter.
“Not right away,” Derek told her. Reaching for her other hand, the corporal ever so slightly squeezed it in mute gratitude. Kait understood. “The corps’s given me two weeks off to be with Mandy and Meggie, now that she’s been found. And that chief of detectives that met us at the airport, he said we were welcome to spend Christmas with him and his family. He said that was where you’d be once they released you from here, so there’s no way we could refuse.”
Kait looked to Tom for an answer. Had she missed something? When had all this been decided? “I’m spending Christmas with your family?”
Tom could see what she was thinking. The case was solved, time for her to return to where she came from. Well, not if he could help it.
“Hey, you’re in no condition to fly,” he protested. “We had to pull strings to get you released to Brian.”
“Honey, why don’t we let cousin Kait rest?” Amanda suggested to her husband. “We can come by and see her later today.” As she herded her daughter and her husband out, Amanda turned her head and mouthed, “Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” to Kait.
Tom waited until the threesome had left the room and closed the door behind them. Only then did he come forward and sit down on the chair beside Kait’s bed. He looked at her for a long moment.
“Cousin Kait, huh?” He already knew all about the connection. Brian had told him when he brought the family to the hospital, as he’d requested. When he’d initially made the suggestion, he’d thought it might help Kait to see the family being reunited in person. Now it was obviously more than just that. “You could have told me you were related to the victim.”
“I didn’t think you needed to know that,” she said vaguely. And it would have meant sharing more of herself than she’d wanted to in the beginning. As they became closer, the revelation had felt awkward, so she’d just let it go.
“You don’t get it yet, do you?” he asked her impatiently. “I
need
to know everything.”
“But why?” she asked. What he said to her made no sense. “The case is over. We found Megan, remember?”
“The
case
is over,” he echoed, putting emphasis where it belonged. “
We’re
not over.”
She searched his face, trying to grasp what he was saying. Afraid of getting it wrong. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Tom blew out a breath, silently cautioning himself to move slower. He had one shot at making his case and he didn’t want to blow it. “What do you think it means?”
Oh, no, she wasn’t going to get sucked into some kind of psychological babble. “I asked you first. Don’t play games with me, Cavanaugh. I took a pruning shear for you.” That had sounded way better in her head than it did on her tongue, she thought.
Humoring Kait, he spelled it out for her. “It means that my new uncle offered you a job on our police force. It means I want to know everything about
you,
” he said pointedly, then underscored it again.
“Everything.”
“Everything?”
“Everything,” he repeated emphatically.
A half smile curved her dry lips. “You mean like that my real name was Bob?”
Tom could only stare at her, stunned. “Bob?” he echoed in confused disbelief.
“Bob,” she affirmed. It was about the only time she ever remembered her grandmother explaining anything to her. “My grandmother named me after her boyfriend. When he rescued me from them, Ronald made sure that he changed my name for me. He named me after his late sister.” Her smile deepened as she remembered the man who had been so kind to her when he could have just walked away. “Years later, he told me that she’d died from a brain tumor a few months before he rescued me. He said if he was ever going to have a daughter, he would want to name her after his sister.”
Tom was still trying to understand why anyone in their right mind would name a little girl Bob. “Your name was actually
Bob?
”
She’d made a mistake, exposed too much. “Okay, maybe that was too much information,” she said, upbraiding herself.
“There’s no such thing,” Tom told her, his tone deadly serious. “And I meant what I said. I want to know
everything
about you, no matter how insignificant or trivial you might think it is.”
Was he conducting some kind of an investigation on her? Her head was beginning to ache. “Why?”
He looked straight into her eyes. “Why do you think?”
She blew out a breath, tired. “Why are you always answering questions with questions? Just tell me what you mean.”
“Okay,” he replied gamely.
Here goes nothing.
“I mean to convince you to stay here in Aurora. I mean to be part of every day of the rest of your life until one of us is dead. Is that clear enough for you?”