There was no sign of Isabelle inside or outside the house. Not even fading car lights Brian could follow.
He felt like he was losing his mind. He stood in place, his hands on his head as his eyes searched the night. How could his world have changed so much in less than three months?
Here he was, running around like a madman because someone had made off with his daughter—a child he didn’t even know about until days after her birth.
Before Isabelle, he’d thought he needed some sort of balance to being a workaholic, but this wasn’t exactly it—he’d been off-balance since the baby entered his life. And yet, he still felt as if he’d plugged the gaps somehow—between Isabelle and Karen, he felt he had everything he needed.
Why hadn’t he told Karen that earlier? And why did he think he needed to go ahead and upset the balance the three of them had found together?
He ran his fingers through his hair, trying not to panic too much and keep his head on straight enough to take intelligent actions. He went back inside for his phone, once again noting how unchanged the interior was. How did the kidnapper get in? No broken windows, no damaged door…
He grabbed his cell from the nightstand and called his buddy Sam. It took several rings before he picked up.
“I’m sorry, man—I know it’s late, but I need some advice. My daughter’s missing…”
He poured out to Sam what had happened, what he suspected, and listened carefully to his friend’s response. He felt slightly reassured by Sam’s reply and set about gathering the information he’d requested.
He ran into Karen as he left the bedroom. She was on her phone, describing the past few minutes to the person on the other end. He assumed it was 911 based on her demeanor—she seemed frustrated and kept repeating herself; there was a formality to it. She looked at him with sorrowful eyes while his brain asked, What’s next?
He’d told Sam what car his daughter might be in—the color, make, and model of Deidre’s car—but he didn’t have the car license number and felt stupid for not writing it down somewhere.
He did have a copy of Deidre’s driver’s license, however—he’d had the sense to at least do that before leaving her alone in his home with his baby for the first time. He’d even sent a copy to Sam earlier, joking that if anything ever went wrong, she was likely behind it.
Brian felt dumber by the second. It was clear that in his gut, he’d known he was making a mistake when he decided to give Deidre a chance, but he’d let his head convince him he was doing the right thing.
At least Sam could easily find Deidre’s car license and registration from the information he had. He’d also advised Brian not to go to the address listed, assuring him he would send someone over on his behalf.
Brian was supposed to stay put and avoid complicating things further while trusting law enforcement and other government agencies would help him get his child back.
How was he supposed to sit still and wait for things to happen? What was he supposed to do while his cop friend and 911 got on it?
The kidnapper could get quite far—maybe even ditch the original car, which he hadn’t even seen. What if they decided to hurt his baby? What if Isabelle was found, but in a ditch somewhere…
Brian shook his head again, eventually registering a warm hand over his. He opened his eyes to see Karen staring at him. “This is all my fault,” he began.
“Stop it. You did what you had to do—don’t beat yourself up over it. No one would fault you!”
“How stupid was I to trust that woman? The signs of crazy were there. God, I hope she doesn’t hurt her...”
“She won’t.”
“And how do you know? You suspect as well as I do that she’d do it just to hurt me. And you.”
Karen said nothing for a moment. Then she asked, “How do we check the footage? It’s twenty-four-hour surveillance, right?”
He grabbed her face and planted a kiss on her forehead for smacking some sense back into him.
No, it wasn’t twenty-four-surveillance—on weekdays, he had it automatically kick in at the beginning of Deidre’s shift and ended it once she was gone. Since he left home at around seven a.m. every day, the timer kicked in then and ended at six p.m.—the latest he arrived home.
But because the previous day was a Saturday and Deidre’s visit time was expected to be erratic over the weekend, he’d manually turned it on when she arrived. As a result of the craziness of the day, he’d forgotten to turn it off, so in a way, Karen was right—his cameras were all recording, even now.
He decided to leave them on while he prepared to review a specific time block, remembering Karen’s arrival around eleven p.m. He calculated the length of their ensuing interaction—verbal and otherwise—and came to the conclusion that what he needed to see happened between one a.m. and three forty-five a.m.
He was able to fast-forward through three twenty-five a.m. when he noticed it—a feminine figure in black came in through the front door and confidently made her way to the baby’s room, leaving just one minute later with his daughter in her arms—a small lump covered in a blanket.
He let out an anguished groan. There it was—his suspicion was confirmed. Somehow, Deidre had managed to copy a key or pick the lock, then waltzed right in and took his baby away. Right now, the two of them could be anywhere, and there wasn’t a whole lot he could do about it but wait.
Karen shook his shoulder, and he turned to her. “It’s definitely her,” he said, mentally preparing to send the footage to Sam.
“Long shot,” Karen said, “but call her?” She was holding out his phone to him.
He took it, knowing exactly what to expect. Still, he dialed Deidre’s number and listened to it ring and ring and ring.
KAREN
Karen was glad she and Brian had each other—they had a way of working in tandem that kept both of them sane.
While Brian was trying Deidre’s number, she called her sister.
“What … the fuck?” Tamara eventually answered.
“I wouldn’t do this unless it’s an emergency—you know that. Isabelle is missing!”
In the silence that followed, Karen wondered if her sister had fallen back to sleep. “Tamara?”
“I heard you—I just don’t understand what you want from me.”
“Well, I figured you might be able to help one way or another—either jog my memory somehow or call up some connection you have to help us find her. Just let me bounce a few things off you—Brian’s sort of in and out of reason, and I’m not much better. We both could be missing something staring us in the face so I need some outside input; we’re too close to this. Okay, I called 911, Brian called up some cop friend of his. We have the mother on video carrying out the kidnapping—although her identity isn’t necessarily clear in the footage, but we both know it’s her. Let’s see...we have her DNA, full name, address...”
“I’m so sorry, Karen—none of the info means anything to me. And it sounds like you did everything you’re supposed to do. Wait a minute…”
Karen’s hope surged.
“Nope,” Tamara said after a few moments. “Thought for a second the mom might’ve played some lunatic trick and repeated previous actions for kicks, but the kid’s not on my doorstep.”
Karen’s frustration almost made her lash out at her sister, but she held her tongue; Tamara’s brain clearly hadn’t fully awakened. And who was she to judge? She’d made some foolish initial steps herself.
Besides, it hadn’t been a terrible idea; Deidre wasn’t exactly the picture of sanity. She could’ve easily just wanted to scare them for a moment. Unfortunately, it appeared she wanted to do a whole lot more than deliver a vengeful temporary scare.
“Hey, you want to come over?” Tamara asked.
“I can’t leave Brian.”
“I understand. Okay, I’ll come over there—maybe I’ll spot something.”
Relief ran through Karen.
Though Tamara was unlikely to spot something they’d missed—the two of them having gone through various areas several times—she was grateful for the moral support.
When Brian’s phone rang, they all froze. Brian looked at Karen, then down at the screen, then back at her. Karen glanced at the screen and saw that it said ‘Sam’ right before Brian hit ‘answer.’ Sam had a loud voice—who needed the speaker setting when talking to him?
“We got her,” Sam said triumphantly.
It took a second, but Brian said, “You what?”
“Once we put out that APB, she was spotted about thirty-five miles north.”
“What the hell? Was she driving to Canada?”
“Beats me, but she’s in our custody and your baby is A-OK. She’s on her way to a hospital to get checked up just in case, but you’re free to go see her.”
Sam gave him the name of the hospital, and Brian stared at Karen, his face slackened in shock. Then he let out a gigantic breath. “You ready for a drive?” he said, his face slowly lighting up.
“Guess I’ll find my way out,” Tamara said, surprising Karen. She had forgotten her sister was there for a moment.
She hugged Tamara, thanking her again for coming over, and they all left the house together—Tamara heading back to her large, empty house, and Karen and Brian heading toward his SUV.
“Oops—car seat,” Karen said lightly, turning around to grab it from inside.
Karen ended up driving. They were both rather frazzled, but she felt she was pulled together more, and Brian seemed quite happy to let her take the wheel.
It wasn’t long now—they were just ten minutes from seeing Isabelle again, according to the navigation.
“Every time I let a woman sleep over, I get robbed in some way,” Brian said absently. Then he turned fully to her. “I have a solution: move in with me. That way, you’re not some overnight guest. That’ll break the curse.”
Karen chuckled. “It does sound like an easy solution, doesn’t it? Except I just got this sweet apartment, and I actually like having my own shit. I don’t want to be left holding the bag again, so I’m not moving in with any guy until they make an honest woman of me.”
Oops—she hadn’t meant to ask him to make a decision like that. But he would recognize she was just being humorous, wouldn’t he?
“Deal,” he said with a wicked grin.
Karen’s heart leaped to her throat.
Brian identified himself as the father of the baby and Karen as family, and the two of them rushed in once approved.
The reunion was joyous and full of relief and the release of some guilt, interrupted after a minute or so by the ringing of Karen’s phone. Karen plucked it out and saw her sister’s name. “Crap—totally forgot to update her. Give me a sec.”
She moved over to a corner and quietly brought her sister up to speed.
“So glad to hear it,” Tamara replied. “And now, the next part—putting that crazy bitch away for a long time. Clearly, we need to let our powers combine, and between the three of us, we have a lot to work with. Brian’s got footage and cop friends, and I have a few connections who might be able to dig up some stuff. We get her jailed on a few charges, and we make sure she gets no bail. The woman’s dangerous and a criminal; she needs to face the consequences, and we’ll do everything we can to make sure she does. And girl, I know some pretty good lawyers.”
“Well, look at you—powerful aunty,” Karen said with a grin.
“Who?” Tamara replied gruffly.
Karen laughed. “You haven’t even met her yet, and you’re pulling out all the stops to help.”
“Yeah, because she means the world to you—don’t get confused. But I guess I might as well meet the rugrat at the center of all this drama when you guys get back. Anyway, I’ll get my peeps to start sniffing around in the morning.”
“See you soon. I love you, sis.”
“Love you too.”
“You’re staying with me, right?” Brian asked once she returned to him, his gray eyes intently on her as he rocked the baby a bit.
“What do you mean?”
“Overnight, tomorrow, forever...” He took a short breath, closing his eyes briefly. “I know this isn’t exactly the most romantic time, but will you marry me? I want you to stay with us; I can’t imagine my life without you.”
Karen just stared at him for a few moments.
“You’re right—I should wait till tomorrow and do this properly…”
“Are you kidding me? What part of our lives together so far has been traditional? Of course, I’ll marry you.”
Brian broke into a wide, joyous grin and they managed an awkward three-way hug.
“I’m still not moving in until you actually put a ring on it though,” she said as she pulled away.
Brian threw back his head and laughed. And for whatever reason, Isabelle started giggling right along with him, turning Karen’s heart to mush.