“I THINK KIDNAP is a strong word.”
JB reached into his coat. I jumped past Hannah and grabbed his wrist. “Don’t.”
“Easy, big fella,” JB said. “I’m just going for some court papers. You’re a little paranoid, aren’t you?” His breath smelled of spicy pork rinds and Dr. Pepper. You could take the deputy out of the ghetto, but you couldn’t take the ghetto out of the deputy.
“Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean someone’s not following me. You two are staking out my house. You accuse me of accessory after the fact, aiding and abetting a kidnapper. How do you expect me to react?”
Hannah put her hand on mine and gave me the eyes again, full power this time. “Why don’t we all just dial this down a little, huh? I don’t want it to go down this way. I really don’t. Why don’t we go inside and discuss this in a civilized manner?”
My mind, all on its own, skipped back to that night in her apartment when Ned caught them naked. I’d stood right behind him. That image of her nudity, the smooth freckled skin, the curves and her wonderful breasts, made me flush with embarrassment. What the hell was this woman doing with the likes of JB? Ned was ten times the man JB ever thought of being.
I let go and stepped back. “We’ll talk right here. What can I do for you tonight, Hannah?”
Tears welled in her eyes. “I just want my baby back. You can understand that, can’t you, Bruno? You have a little girl.” She took a step toward me and raised her hand to place it on my chest. I took another step back, took her warm hand and let it drop.
“I … I don’t have your baby. You know me. I would never …” The lie clogged in my throat and wouldn’t come out. I turned to look back at the front door that stood ajar and the darkness that filled in the crack. Dad had always taught me to tell the truth, and now he stood there listening to the conversation. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t lie to Hannah. Not blatantly. “I haven’t committed any crime. You’ll have to talk to Ned about Beth. That’s all I’m going to say.” I held up my hand to end any further conversation and headed for the front door.
JB said, “Bruno, have Ned and Beth been staying here?”
Part of the crime of kidnapping, the aiding and abetting part, I had to have knowledge to fulfill the elements, to make me culpable. They’d just informed me Ned had taken the child, and now if I answered in the negative, they had me for the accessory charge. I stopped and turned back around. “If the child belongs to both you and Ned, then it’s not kidnapping. It could only be a violation of a court order, if you have one. You’re trying to bluff me with that kidnapping bullshit, and I don’t like being taken for a fool.”
Hannah took a step toward me. I raised the flat of my hand. She stopped.
“Bruno,” she said. “What if I told you Beth was JB’s child?”
“Ah, damnit, Hannah, don’t play mind games with me. I know better.”
She kept looking at me and stuck her hand out toward JB. JB pulled the papers from his inside jacket pocket and placed them in her outstretched hand. She handed them toward me.
I didn’t take them.
She said, “We had blood tests done. This is a judge’s court order declaring Beth as JB’s child until there can be a hearing on the matter. That makes it kidnap.”
“Does Ned know about this … these papers, I mean?”
I caught it in her eyes as she quickly tried to decide whether or not to submit the lie in her attempt to get Beth back. “Aaah, no. We haven’t been able to find him to have him served.”
She’d chosen to tell the truth.
Ned had been hiding out at my house to avoid the service on the court order. I hadn’t seen or talked to him in years, and that made our house the perfect place to lie low.
I smiled. “Then, when and if I see Ned, I’ll tell him. That’s the best I can do for you tonight, Hannah. Now excuse me. I’m tired, and I only have three hours to sleep before I have to be back out on a surveillance.”
“Just let us look in your house,” Hannah said. “That’s not asking a lot, is it?”
“Yes, it is. It’s saying you don’t take me at my word. It’s also a violation of my right to privacy, and I won’t subject Olivia to this kind of disturbance on a lark.”
She said, “We can call the police—they’ll let us look.”
“Not without a warrant they won’t. Will they, JB?”
She looked to JB. He shook his head, agreeing with me.
“Now, please, get off my property. I have to get some rest.” I turned and walked away.
Hannah said, “You don’t want to get in the middle of this, Bruno. It’ll go down bad for you.”
“Ned’s my best friend. You seem to have forgotten that part. And don’t you ever threaten me again. Good night.”
I stepped up on the stoop, turned my back to the door, and watched JB and Hannah retreat to their seventy-thousand-dollar car. Hannah had thrown Ned over for money. That had to be it. I hated JB for causing all this upheaval. Then my emotions immediately shifted to Ned; he’d put me in this crack and told me nothing about it. I wanted to sock him in the mouth and would without hesitation the next time I saw him.
Behind me, I sensed the door open a little more. Dad said, “You did the right thing, Son.”
“What are you talking about?” I still had not turned around to face him. Hannah and JB started up; the headlights came on.
Dad said to my back, “They came to the door and asked for Beth.”
“What’d you tell them?”
“I told them that Beth wasn’t here.”
The BMW moved off down the street.
“Is Beth still here?”
Dad said, “Well, hell yes, she is.”
I spun around, found the door open with Dad standing there, his jaw clamped tight, his eyes fierce. He’d never, ever told anyone anything other than the truth. I mean never. My world shifted under my feet. My dad had told a bald-faced lie. Not only that but he could now face criminal prosecution for that lie.