Mariah Stewart - Cry Mercy

“Then what is, Mal? You needed a great investigator and you got one,” Kevin said. “She solved this case in a matter of weeks and made us all look good.”

“She's a fraud, Kevin. She should have told us the truth; we'd have kept her secret.”

“And how should she have known that? Reading between the lines, who has she been able to trust in her life? Tossed away like trash after she was born, bounced around from foster family to foster family, then bounced out onto the street when she turned eighteen to make her way alone from there?” Trula felt her blood pressure take off but she couldn't help herself. “Does anyone here know what it's really like to have no one in their life they can depend on?”

The room fell silent, and Trula let them sit for a few minutes before turning to Mallory. “I know you had some rough times growing up, but you always knew you had a place to come back to at the end of the day-no one was going to toss you out. This woman didn't even have that small bit of comfort. The one thing she does have is her daughter, and she fought for her the only way she knew how. Just for the record, I'd have done the same thing, and I defy anyone at this table to tell me otherwise.”

“Trula-” Robert said, but she cut him off before he could say what was on his mind.

“Robert, in all the years we've known each other, I've never interfered in your business or in your personal life, but I'm asking you now to think really hard before you let her go.”

“Whether or not you've never interfered is open for debate,” he replied, “but we'll let that go for now. But just so you know, I'm leaning toward keeping her on.”

“Robert, if anyone finds out that she falsified her records, that we hired her even though we knew she was a fraud, we could lose our license and our reputation would most certainly be damaged,” Mallory told him.

“Let's think this through. First, how would anyone find out?” he asked.

Mal rolled her eyes. “Robert, that is the most naïve thing I've ever heard you say. All it takes is for someone to recognize her, and it could happen. Or someone who knew the real Emme Caldwell-”

“Whoa. There are lots of people who have the same name, right?” he said. “And who in California, besides her former police chief, even knows that she's here at the foundation? No one.”

“There is one person who knows,” Mallory told them. “I called the chief earlier in the week, but she was out. I left a message with the desk sergeant that I needed to speak with her about Emme Caldwell. He said he and Emme-I'm sure now he meant the real Emme-had been partners early on. If he was wondering why someone from the Mercy Street Foundation was asking about a dead cop…”

“It probably went right over his head,” Robert tried to assure her.

“I don't know that I'd want to bet on that,” Mallory replied. “Her name is right there on the website.”

Robert excused himself for a moment. “I will be right back. I want you to hold that thought.”

He was back in a minute, his laptop under his arm. He placed it on the table in front of him and opened it to their website. He typed for a moment or two, then smiled broadly.

“There. All fixed.” He turned the laptop around for them to see.

“What's all fixed?” Mallory frowned and craned her neck to look at the screen.

“Here. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, Emme Caldwell is now Elle Caldwell,” he told them.

“You're serious. You think that's all it's going to take if someone comes looking for her?” Mallory was starting to get angry.

“No, but who's going to be coming after her?” Trula asked quietly. “It isn't going to be someone who's checking on her credentials as a former California police officer. The only reason anyone will be coming after her is to get to Chloe.”

Her words hung over the room like a low-lying cloud.

“How would we even know if someone was out there?” Susanna wondered aloud. “I mean, if someone came to Conroy looking for her, how would we know?”

“There might be a way,” Kevin told them. “Let me work on that.”

“So have we decided to give Emme-er, Elle-a pass?” Susanna asked. “Shall we put it to a vote?”

“I say yes,” Trula spoke up immediately.

“I never go against Trula,” Kevin said.

“Me, either.” Robert nodded.

“All right. But if there are repercussions from this…” Mallory looked directly at Robert.

“There won't be. But if there are, we'll find a way to handle them. Suse? What do you think?”

“Emme didn't set out to deceive us because she was trying to get a job she wasn't qualified for,” Susanna said, “or to defraud us in any way. She is what she said she was, right?”

“What, but not who,” Mallory reminded her.

“Still, as Trula said, we have to consider the motive. She was trying to save her child from being kidnapped by a drug lord. Can anyone at this table say they think it would be good for Chloe to be raised by someone like that?”

Her eyes skipped from face to face.

“That's what I thought. So yes, of course, I vote to keep her on.”

“If she stays, there may come a time when we will have to protect her,” Mallory told them quietly.

“If and when that time comes,” Robert told them, “that's exactly what we'll do.”

Hey, sleepyhead, wake up.”

Emme opened her eyes to see Nick leaning over her. He pushed the hair back from her face and kissed her.

“Trula said I could come see if you were awake, but that I couldn't stay up here. I don't know what she thinks we'd be doing with Chloe running around.” He kissed her again. “On the other hand…”

“Nick,” she pushed against him and tried to sit up. “We need to talk.”

“In a minute.”

“Seriously. We have to talk. It's important.”

“Okay.” He eased back and turned on the lamp on the table next to the bed. “Is something wrong?”

She sat and pulled the pillow up behind her back, and then she began. She told him everything.

When she finished, she sat back against the pillow, her face wet with tears, and waited for him to react. When he didn't, she said, “Nick, do you understand what I'm saying? I've been lying to you since the day we met. Aren't you going to say something?”

“Do I call you Emme, or Ann?”

“Nick, please don't make light-”

“I'm not. Does any of this change who you are? Or what you are to me?” He shook his head. “Not a bit.”

“I'm going to lose my job, Nick.” She held his hands. “They're not going to let me stay after this.”

“Are you sure about that?”

She nodded. “Mallory is loaded for bear, and I don't blame her. I made her look like a fool. She was the one who checked my references, she was the one who hired me.”

“She'll get over it.”

Emme looked at him as if he had two heads. “I don't think this is the sort of thing one gets over. This was their first case. I was their first hire. I've made her look incompetent to Robert and everyone else. She has every right to be pissed at me.”

“She didn't seem that pissed when she was in the kitchen awhile ago. She was asking if you were still sleeping.”

“Probably because she's waiting to fire me.”

“I wasn't getting that vibe, Em.” He played with her fingers. “If the worst does happen, you'll find another job.”

“I'm going to have to think things through a little better. I can't keep uprooting Chloe. She deserves better than that.”

“Look, don't make any rash decisions. If you need a place to stay, there's the farm. You're welcome to stay there for as long as you want. And hey, if worse comes to worst, I can always teach you how to replace chrome, or tune up an engine.”