Margaret Daley - Texas Baby Pursuit

Rachel quickly pushed to her feet, a few seconds of light-headedness hitting her. She had a mild concussion, nothing like Michelle’s, but she needed to watch for any signs her concussion was worsening. She strolled into the kitchen as Paul was leaving.

Across the room Dallas looked at her, their eyes bound together for a few seconds. He broke visual contact first and sauntered in the direction of the door that led to the porch.

“I found something in the dining room.”

He stopped and peered back at her, one brow raised.

She covered the distance between them and withdrew the small evidence bag from her pocket. “It’s a bracelet with a heart charm that has DN engraved on it. Does this look familiar to you?”

He held it up and examined it closely. “No. I’ve never seen Lenora with it or my mother or even Michelle. She spends a lot of time here.”

“Then this could be what the guy who hit me came back for.”

“Possibly. We need to show it to Lenora and Paul. It could belong to one of their friends I’m not familiar with.”

“I will.”

At the rear exit, Rachel stood in the doorway and slowly swept her gaze around the porch. Three walls were half screened on the top while the bottom was brick. The area had been childproofed and had a baby swing in a corner. When she focused on the coverlet on the wooden floor, her throat tightened at the sight of the blood on it and the cell phone Michelle used to call Dallas.

“I asked Deputy Jones to process for latent prints and search for any evidence but to leave the room as it is. I wanted you to see it when you weren’t concentrating on getting your daughter to the hospital.”

“Thanks. You’re right. I wasn’t paying much attention once I saw Michelle.”

Deputy Jones appeared at the back door and came into the room. “You’re gonna have one nice shiner there, sheriff.”

“That’s because the Peeping Tom clocked me with a one-two punch.” She waved her hand at her jaw then her eye.

“I don’t even have to look in a mirror to remind me that the guy got in two packed punches. Except for taking up the blanket and phone, are you finished in here?”

“Yes, ma’am. The area along the dirt road has been searched, but other than the tire tracks and boot prints, that’s all we found. I had a couple of deputies comb the back and front yards, but they didn’t find anything. Another deputy went to talk to Houston Fowler.”

“Good. Let me know if Fowler has any information that will help this case. I want to show Dallas where I think they got away.” Rachel swung her attention to Dallas, who stared at the blood, his jaws clenched so tightly a muscle twitched. “Do you want to go out back?”

He lifted his head, his eyes full of anger. While he battled for control, he marched to the outside door and left the porch.

“Bag the blanket and phone and take them to headquarters. Did we get good latent prints?” Rachel asked her deputy while watching Dallas scope out the yard.

“Yes. There were tons. I’m in the process of getting fingerprints from family members or friends who’ve been here recently to rule them out.”

“Thanks. We’ll be back.”

Rachel joined Dallas, still seeing a struggle between anger and determination. She again felt a connection with him that surprised her. They were both single parents and had daughters, but the two girls were years apart in age. Where was Michelle’s mother? It wasn’t easy raising a child alone, as Rachel was finding out.

With his hands fisted at his sides, Dallas closed his eyes. He spread his fingers wide and shook them. The tense set of his face relaxed, and when he twisted toward her and looked at her, a calm, professional demeanor fell into place. “I have to work this case. I can’t let my emotions take over.”

“I know. If my daughter were kidnapped, no matter what, I would be out there looking for her.”

“It won’t be easy to remain objective, but with the Lord’s help, I’ll find out who kidnapped Brady.”

“Good. We need all the help we can get.” Rachel began walking across the yard.

“The castings were taken for the tire tracks and boot prints on the other side of the back fence?”

“Yes.”

“Did you notice what kind of shoes the guy who hit you was wearing?”

Rachel stopped and closed her eyes, trying to picture the man running away from her. She remembered watching his hoodie, hoping it would slip from his head. When he turned the corner of the neighbor’s house, had she caught sight of his shoes? “I think he was wearing black hiking boots. One of my deputies made a casting of the prints by the dining room window. I haven’t had a chance yet to compare them.”

Dallas climbed the fence, straddled the top and stretched out his arm to help her. She clasped his palm, his large hand swallowing her smaller one. His warm touch engulfed her in a wave of awareness that startled her. He hoisted her up. Their gazes met and held for a long moment. Finally she looked away, afraid that her cheeks were red.

When they both descended to the ground near the dirt road, she put a few feet between them, not sure what had just happened. She strolled to the boot prints. “The smaller set with the larger one fits the scenario that a man and woman took Brady. Her shoe size is about a six.”

Dallas put his cowboy boot alongside the other set. “And he wears a twelve.”

“Now all we have to do is find a couple who wear a shoe sizes of six and twelve.”

“Just one of many clues I hope we’ll find.” Dallas made his way to the tire imprints. “They drove a small compact car.” He took several steps between the tracks and knelt, using a pencil to move the grass. “This vehicle was leaking oil.” He took out his cell phone and took a picture. “A lot. That might help us. Make sure your deputy got a sample of this oil in case we find a car leaking oil.”

Dusk settled over the landscape as Dallas walked up the road toward the Fowlers’ property, then came back and went in the other direction. When he returned, he said, “They turned around about a hundred yards that way.” He pointed toward the ranch. “Let’s go talk to Lenora and Paul. There isn’t much else we can do here, and I need to return to the hospital and relieve Mom.”

As they headed back to the house, Dallas received a call. He stopped and listened, the lines in his forehead getting deeper the longer the other person talked.

“How many babies were stolen?” Dallas turned his back on Rachel and lowered his voice.

More babies taken? When he ended the conversation, Rachel stiffened, preparing herself for the worst.

THREE

As Dallas neared Lenora’s porch, he clutched his cell phone. “That was the Texas Ranger office in San Antonio on the phone. There’s been a series of baby snatchings north of Dallas.”

“How many have there been?” Rachel asked as she moved into the house.

“Three babies were kidnapped by strangers, but that’s not all. They checked throughout Texas, and one other area has reported the same crime pattern in the past year. There was a cluster of kidnappings in El Paso. I don’t think this is just a couple looking for a baby.”

“Which means we’ll have two more before they move on, if they hold to the pattern.”

He grasped her arm and stopped her before she entered the kitchen. “Sounds like a systematic organization kidnapping babies to sell. They only stay a few weeks in one area, then they move on. I’ll be checking to see if this is happening in other states.”

Rachel frowned. “We have to stop them.”

“I’ve already asked headquarters to expand to the surrounding states. To see if there are cases like this there. In the meantime, I’ll get what information I can about the other abductions. Maybe there’s a pattern forming where others were taken from their homes. If not, we need to establish if there’s one—or if the kidnappings are random with nothing in common between them.”