Sheri WhiteFeather - Protecting Their Baby

“About what?”

“About who’s threatening me? Do you think I should have some sort of feeling about who it could be?”

No way was he going to blame her. “I think you’re sweet and trusting. But from now on, you need to be more aware of your surroundings.”

“And suspect everyone, the way you do?”

“It’s my job to be suspicious.”

“Maybe my mommy instincts will kick in, and I’ll be able to help you figure out who the bad guy is.”

He hoped that her mommy instincts boosted the case. He contemplated touching her stomach, but he feared his hand would tremble. He wasn’t ready to meet his kid.

Struggling to regain his composure, he grabbed his cappuccino, taking refuge in the creamy brew.

“Have your friends picked a name?” she asked.

“What?” Her question confused him.

“The couple whose baby is due this month. Have they chosen a name for their daughter?”

“I have no idea.”

“You never asked them?”

“No.”

“I guess it’s too soon for us to discuss names.”

For their kid? Way too soon, he thought.

“It helps for me to talk about the baby.” Lisa cradled the tummy he’d been afraid to touch. “To think about all the good stuff still to come.”

As opposed to the bad stuff that was happening now? “That’s understandable.”

“I wonder if I’ll get cravings.”

“Cravings?” he parroted.

“For specific foods.”

“Like the pickles-and-ice-cream thing?” That much he knew. That much he’d heard of.

“Yes, but I don’t think that’s a common craving.”

“Then why did it catch on?”

She made a perplexed face, but she was an expressive girl. He figured it was the dance and theater major in her.

“I don’t know why it caught on,” she said. “Maybe I’ll research it online.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Anything to keep her mind off the danger she was in, he thought, to give her a short reprieve.

And create an illusion of normalcy.

While Lisa napped, Rex worked. He brought his laptop into the living room and ran more background checks. Unfortunately, he came up with nothing. Or at least nothing criminal. Who knew what kind of evil lurked in people’s minds?

When Lisa got up, she headed to the bathroom, but she didn’t have another bout of sickness. He wasn’t deliberately listening for sounds of retching, but he was trying to keep an eye on her.

She came into the living room, and he noticed that her dress was wrinkled. She must have slept in it, making her look soft and rumbled.

“I’m going to fix a snack,” she said. “Do you want one?”

“No, thanks.” Breakfast hadn’t been that long ago.

Soon Lisa returned with a peanut butter sandwich and a tall, frosty glass of milk. He was glad to see that she was getting her calcium. He wondered if she was going to breast-feed, then cursed himself for thinking about it, especially since it made him feel kind of sexual.

Since when did nursing mothers turn him on?

She sat beside him and munched. “How’s it going?”

Terrible, he thought. It was all he could do not to look at her breasts. “I did a Google search and discovered that your first boyfriend has a MySpace profile. Mostly it’s family stuff. Pictures of his wife and kids. They live in Cincinnati. But that came up in the background check, too.”

“Really? I didn’t know that he’d moved. I guess that rules him out as a suspect. Ohio isn’t exactly around the corner.” She took another bite of her sandwich. “What did you find out about Kirk?”

Her second boyfriend, he thought. The one she’d lived with. “I didn’t come across anything of interest, other than his financial blog.” On the day the doll had been stabbed, Kirk rambled about mutual funds. “His blog gets a lot of traffic.”

“He works in the banking industry. But you probably already know that by now.”

“Yes, I do.” He spent quite a bit of time analyzing Kirk.

“He helped me get the loan on this house.”

“Before or after you split up?”

“After.”

Rex decided that Kirk required further investigation. You never knew about an old lover, especially when that lover remained active in their ex’s life.

“I think I’ll go play on the ’Net, too,” she said. “Not that you’ve been playing,” she quickly corrected. “But you know what I mean.”

Yes, he did. He poked at her ribs. It was as close to her stomach as he’d gotten. “You’re going to look up pickles and ice cream?”

She laughed. “And check my e-mails.”

“Have fun.”

“Loads.” She took the half-eaten snack with her.

Less than five minutes later, she screeched, “Rexxx!”

He jumped up and ran into her room. She sat in front of her desktop, as pale as a ghost.

His heart hit his chest. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

“I got a creepy e-mail.”

He leaned over her shoulder. “What does it say?”

“It’s a picture of Alice from Alice in Wonderland.”

Had he heard her correctly? “Alice?”

“She’s swimming in her own tears. See?” She pointed to the image on the screen, a depiction that looked as if it had come from the original storybook. “I was scared of Alice when I was little. She helped me when I got lost, but I didn’t trust her.”

Rex was baffled. Lisa was talking in riddles, in things that weren’t real. “Is that a dream you used to have?”

“No. It happened. I got lost at Disneyland.”

Okay, now it was beginning to make sense. Alice was an employee at the Magic Kingdom, walking around in a costume. “Did you get separated from your parents?”

“Yes. I was five years old, and we were in Fantasyland. I was with my mom, waiting in line to order food, and my dad went to find us a table. It was the Fourth of July weekend, so it was packed.”

Rex waited for Lisa to continue. He could see the memories in her eyes. But a little girl wouldn’t forget the day she’d gotten lost.

“After we got our food, I ran ahead to find Dad. Mom called out to me, but I didn’t listen. Then suddenly, I was alone, trapped in scores of people. I was going in the wrong direction and I couldn’t find my parents. I just wandered around, crying to myself.”

“Is that when Alice found you?”

“No. Maggie and Tim found me. They were strangers at the time. But they became friends with my family after that. They approached Alice, told her that I was lost and asked her what they should do.”

“Were you crying when you were with Maggie and Tim?”

“I was crying the entire time. I wasn’t supposed to talk to strangers, so I was leery of them. But they turned out to be really nice.”

How nice? Rex wondered, his suspicious mind kicking in. “Why were you afraid of Alice?”

“I thought I would fall down the rabbit hole if I got too close to her. But she contacted security and I was taken to the Lost Children Center. Tim and Maggie followed us there. They wanted to be sure that I was reunited with my parents.”

“Is your family still friends with Maggie and Tim?”

She nodded, then frowned at him. “You’re not planning on putting them on the list, are you?”

“They’re fair game, Lisa.”

“They’re not even in town. They went on a camping trip. My mom is collecting their mail and watering their plants.”

“That could be a phony alibi.”

“They’ve been gone for over a week and won’t be coming back until sometime next month.”

“They’re still going on the list.” For now, everyone was. He took a closer look at the e-mail. It had been sent from Snow White. Another Disney reference?

“You’re not scared of Snow White, too, are you?”