The Baby's Guardian (10 page)

Shaw stood in the shower and let the scalding hot water spray over him. It didn’t help unknot the muscles in his back. Probably nothing would except for an arrest.

Thankfully, that might happen soon.

Not so thankfully, he might have to arrest a cop.

Lieutenant O’Malley had gotten back Newell’s financials, and there was an unexplained ten thousand dollars that had been deposited into his account the day before the hostage incident. Ten grand wasn’t a fortune by some people’s standards, but it was a lot to a cop. And it was a red flag since there weren’t any other similar deposits over the last few years. It also didn’t help that the money had been transferred into his account from an offshore bank.

Shaw was still waiting to hear Newell’s explanation, and by God, it’d better be a good one.

He bracketed his hands against the tiled wall and leaned into the shower spray so it’d hit the back of his neck. He didn’t stay in that position long. He couldn’t. He needed to finish up and get back into the flop room with Sabrina.

She’d been asleep when he turned on the shower.
And the flop room door was locked from the inside. Newell was in Lieutenant O’Malley’s office and would stay there until the lieutenant got some answers. So, Newell wasn’t running around the building, ready to strike, but Shaw didn’t want to leave Sabrina alone too long.

He dressed in the jeans and black T-shirt he’d had brought to him from his locker. They weren’t exactly his normal work clothes, but they’d have to do for now. He didn’t have time to drop by his house and pick up his usual dark pants and dress shirt.

Shaw quickly brushed his teeth and used his hand to comb his hair. He opened the door, ready to tiptoe back into the room, but Sabrina was there, standing right in front of him, dressed in the paper-thin gown that’d been among the loaner clothes. Her dress was tucked beneath her arm.

“Anything new on Newell?” Sabrina immediately asked.

Shaw shook his head. “Lieutenant O’Malley said he would call as soon as he got to the bottom of this.”

She grumbled something under her breath and pushed her hair away from her face. “I fell asleep,” she said as if that were the last thing she wanted to do. “Did you?”

“I napped on and off throughout the night.” But it felt as if he hadn’t slept for days.

She lightly touched her fingers to the bruise above his eye. The injury he’d gotten when Burney Monroe bashed him in the head with his gun. “It’s turning purple.” The corner of her mouth lifted. “The color goes well with your eyes.”

He wanted to smile, wanted to share this softer
moment with her, but he glanced down at the bruises on her wrist. Burney Monroe was responsible for those, too.

Sabrina must have noticed where he had his attention because she shifted the dress, hiding her hands beneath it. “I’m fine,” she assured him. “Well, other than having to use the bathroom.”

“Oh.” He stepped out of the way, but not before brushing against her. As usual, his body started to beg for something it wasn’t going to get.

Not now, anyway.

It wasn’t a matter of
if
sex with Sabrina would happen, it was now a matter of
when.
It was amazing how much forty-eight hours could change things.

While Sabrina was in the bathroom, Shaw decided to go ahead and call O’Malley. Yes, the lieutenant might be at a crucial point in his interview with Newell, but Shaw didn’t want to wait any longer.

“I was about to call you,” O’Malley said the moment he answered Shaw’s call. “I just finished up with Newell and need to head home for a while so I can take a nap, wash up and change my clothes. Nadine Duggan’s memorial service is today. But I can talk while I’m walking to my car.”

Nadine. Shaw mentally groaned. He would have liked to go to the service, to pay his respects and give Bo some support, but it was too risky to take Sabrina out like that.

“Where’s Newell right now?” Shaw wanted to know.

“He’s on his way to the memorial service, too. Or at least that’s where he said he was going. I couldn’t hold
him, Shaw. He said the money came from online poker winnings. Of course, the poker site is offshore and not exactly eager to cooperate with the police in San Antonio. Still, Newell was able to go to the Web site where he won the money.”

“But he couldn’t prove the money was a poker payout?”

“Not exactly. He showed me a screen name, and that person had indeed won a large sum of money, but I can’t be sure Newell and the winner are one and the same. But I haven’t given up yet. I’m still working with the poker site to release the financials. In the meantime, I have a uniformed officer tailing Newell.”

Good. The uniform would remind Newell that he was under investigation, and the cop could report back any suspicious activity. But that didn’t make Shaw feel any better about Sabrina.

“I need a safe place for Sabrina to stay for a while,” Shaw explained. “And after what happened in the hotel, I’d rather not use anything put in place by Special Investigations. Newell probably has a lot of buddies in the department who might not understand he could be a dangerous man.”

“I have an idea. A good friend owns an apartment on the Riverwalk, and he’s out of town. I’ve been keeping an eye on the place for him, but it’s yours if you want to use it.”

“Thanks. I’ll take you up on that.” It would get Sabrina out of headquarters so that she wouldn’t run into Newell. It would also free up the flop room. Shaw had dozens of officers pulling double shifts, and he didn’t
want to tie up the room any longer, especially when there was a safer alternative.

“The address is six-eight-eight Commerce, apartment four-C. I’ll put the key in an envelope and leave it with the motor pool dispatcher. You can get it on your way out. Good luck, Captain. Call me if you need me.”

Shaw jotted down the address and checked his watch. It was barely 5:00 a.m. and still dark outside. Probably a good time to move Sabrina to the apartment. Shaw was about to tell her that when she stepped from the bathroom, but she spoke before he could say anything.

“You have to feel this.” She had a big grin on her face when she walked to him, and she took his hand and plopped it on her belly. She no longer wore the gown. She had on the blue dress she’d worn the day before.

He immediately felt the kicks. Unlike the last time, however, these were nonstop.

“The baby’s boxing this morning,” she joked.

Shaw leaned down so he could press his ear to those thumps. He couldn’t hear them, but he could still feel them. “I think she needs some breakfast.”

“She can hear you, you know. So, if there’s anything you want to say to her…”

Shaw looked up at her, and his eyebrow slid up. “She can hear me?”

“It’s true. I read nursery rhymes to her.”

Shaw got a clear image of Sabrina doing just that. While she was wearing that flimsy gown that showed off her breasts. But then, he thought of another image. His baby had heard those gunmen. The shots. All the violence.

And that riled him to the core.

No baby, especially his baby, should have that kind of start in life.

“Hang in there,” he whispered against Sabrina’s belly. “Daddy’s not going to let anything bad happen to you, sweetheart. Promise.”

He looked up at Sabrina again, but her smile had faded. Her eyes were shiny as if she were about to cry. “Do you think she’s really a she? Or is it a boy?”

He thought about the offer the doctor had made to tell them the baby’s sex. “Honestly, it doesn’t matter.” And it didn’t. “The baby’s gender has never been part of this dream family I have in my head. I’d be happy with either. I just want him or her to be healthy.”

Her eyes watered even more, and Shaw decided to put a stop to that.

“You need to get your things together,” he instructed. “We’re moving to a safer place this morning.”

She nodded, blinked hard and turned to start collecting her toiletries. Shaw was about to help her, but his cell buzzed. It wasn’t O’Malley but another of his lieutenants, Joe Rico. Yet someone else Shaw trusted.

“Captain Tolbert, one of my men just brought in Danny Monroe. I thought you’d like to know.”

“Danny Monroe,” Shaw mumbled. The brother of the man who’d tried to kill him and kidnap Sabrina. Oh, yeah, Shaw wanted to know about this. “Where is he?”

“I had him taken to the interview room just up the hall from you. I also have a preliminary report on him that my lead investigator just handed me. I thought you’d like to see it. I also thought you’d want to be the one to question him.”

“You bet I do.” But he glanced at Sabrina. He didn’t want to leave her alone in the flop room, so she’d have to come with him. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

“They found Danny Monroe?” Sabrina asked the moment he hung up.

“They did, and I’m about to question him. Are you up to being in the same room with him?”

“Absolutely.”

She seemed certain enough, but Shaw wasn’t so sure. He didn’t want to create more stress for her, so he’d keep the interview short and let Lieutenant Rico dig into the details.

If there were any details to dig into, that is.

He waited for Sabrina to slip on her sandals, and they walked up the hall. Not far. Just a few steps, and he saw Lieutenant Rico waiting outside the interview door. The lieutenant handed Shaw the preliminary report he’d mentioned.

“There’s nothing in the report we can use to hold him,” Rico explained. “But he doesn’t have a solid alibi for the hostage incident. He claims he was at his apartment, sick with the flu.”

Shaw glanced through the report. First the biographical details and then the criminal record. Danny had one, all right. Breaking and entering when he was a juvenile. As an adult, there was a drug charge, but he’d pled down and was on parole for two years. There were others, including an assault in a bar fight and resisting arrest.

But the common denominator in all the incidents was that Danny had been with his older brother, Burney.

“Thanks,” Shaw told the lieutenant. He left Rico outside and led Sabrina into the room.

Shaw noticed the resemblance right away. Danny was a younger version of the dead man Shaw had seen lying on the floor of the hotel room.

“You’re the cop who killed Burney?” Danny immediately accused.

Danny had been sitting behind the metal desk but jumped to his feet. He was visibly upset, with the veins bulging in his neck, and Shaw whispered for Sabrina to stay near the door. He wanted to get her out of the room fast if there was any sign of trouble.

“No. Another police officer shot your brother while he was committing a felony. He tried to kill me, and he tried to kidnap Ms. Carr.” Shaw tipped his head to Sabrina.

“So says you.”

“So says me and Ms. Carr and the other officer who witnessed it. Burney broke down the door to a hotel room and fired a shot at me.” And those were all the details Shaw intended to give him. “Now, where were you yesterday morning and the afternoon before?”

“I already told that other cop—I was home sick in bed.” He coughed as if to prove his point.

Shaw wasn’t ready to buy the cough or the story. “I don’t suppose you have anyone who can verify that?”

“Just Burney. He called me on my cell night before last, right about the time you cops say he was holding all those women hostages.”

“Good. Then we can use phone records to verify that.” He cracked open the door and asked Lieutenant Rico to run the phone records immediately.

Danny only shrugged. “I could be mistaken. Maybe it wasn’t night before last when he called. Maybe it was
some other time. Maybe he didn’t call me on my cell after all. Like I said, I was sick and in bed. I could have dreamed it.”

“Don’t worry. Lieutenant Rico will get it straight. He’ll learn when your brother called and where he was when any calls were made.” Shaw made sure it sounded like a threat, because it was.

Danny opened his mouth. Closed it. Then, opened it again. “Look, I don’t want you trying to pin anything on me. I already have to deal with my brother’s death, and I don’t need you guys breathing down my neck.”

“If you’re innocent, you have nothing to worry about.” Shaw sat down across from him. “Talk to me about your brother. Why would Burney want to take those women hostage?”

“Who said he did?” Danny fired back.

“For argument’s sake, let’s say he did. Why would he have done that?”

Danny shrugged again and began to fidget with a hangnail on his right thumb. “I don’t know. All I know is I had nothing to do with any of this.”

Shaw pushed harder. “Then guess why Burney would have gotten involved in a hostage situation.”

The fidgeting continued. “It might have had something to do with an old friend who called him last week out of the blue.”

Now this sounded promising. “This old friend got a name?”

Danny swallowed hard. “Gavin Cunningham.”

Sabrina made a soft gasp. Shaw did some mental cursing. He didn’t like that Gavin’s name kept coming up in this investigation.

“Keep talking,” Shaw ordered.

“Gavin wanted Burney to help him prove the identity of his birth father. Gavin was all worked up about it, said it was really important.”

“Did he say why?”

The fidgeting moved from his thumb to his jaw. Danny scrubbed his hand over his day-old stubble. “He didn’t say, but Burney thought it might have something to do with money. I mean, it’s usually about money, isn’t it?”

Not always.

And especially not in this case.

Did Gavin and Burney conspire to tamper with the DNA so it wouldn’t prove that the missing child was Gavin’s and therefore connect him to the murder of the baby’s mother?

Or was there something else going on here?

“I didn’t have anything to do with those hostages or with what happened yesterday when you say Burney tried to kill you,” Danny insisted. He looked Shaw straight in the eye. “And I think it’s time for me to call a lawyer. I know my rights, and that means this chat session is over. If you want to hold me here, you have to arrest me.”

Shaw considered it, especially since Danny would perhaps call Gavin. After all Gavin was an attorney, and he wouldn’t mind seeing how the men interacted. Still, he didn’t have enough to hold Danny.