Save Her Child by CJ Lyons (best historical biographies txt) 📗

“I’ll guarantee your safety—as long as you put any weapons on the ground. Besides, you have all these witnesses.”

“Like that’s gonna stop them. Who they gonna blame for this? The stupid white girl?” He shook Macy, hard. Her eyes barely fluttered. “Or the Black man?” Someone in the crowd cheered at that and he glanced past Leah to his audience.

Leah needed to get his attention back on her. But before she could think of what to say next, Macy jerked her head up, her body shuddering. “Darius, I think she’s going to be sick—”

Too late. Macy vomited all over herself and Darius, causing him to fling her away from him. She stumbled against the car, then sagged to the ground. Darius shook his leg, trying to shed some of the noxious liquid. He still held the knife, though, so the police maintained their alert posture. In fact, a second patrol unit had arrived, its red and blue lights bathing the scene from behind Leah.

“Darius,” Leah tried again. “Is she breathing? I think Macy needs help. Would you please put down the knife so I can come over and check her?”

He frowned at his hand as if he’d forgotten the knife. Then he glanced at the crowd, but the newly arrived police officers were shepherding them back inside the mission. Macy’s dramatic projectile vomiting wasn’t exactly the fun they’d signed up to watch.

Leah inched forward, keeping the car between her and Darius. “What did she OD on, Darius? Help me, please. You don’t want her to die, do you?”

“No,” he muttered, and she wasn’t sure if he was answering her question or simply responding to the overall situation. He took a step forward, leaning over, but Harper shouted, “Stop there, Darius! Don’t take another step.”

He jerked back, the knife at his side but still clenched in his fist. Leah tried again to regain the ground she’d lost. “Is she breathing?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think she’s dying.” He raised his gaze to meet Leah’s. “Can you really help her?”

“I can try. But only if you put the knife down. Can you do that for Macy? Can you save her life?”

He squinted at the knife in his hand like he was surprised it was still there. Then he stepped back and with careful, exaggerated movements, he lowered it to the pavement and backed away from it.

Harper and the other officers instantly swarmed him, tackling him to the ground. “Help her!” he cried out, his face pressed against the pavement, eyes pleading with Leah. “Save Macy like you promised!”

Twenty-Six

After Luka did what he could to help with the search for Beth at Good Sam, he returned to his office at the police department, his plans for the day already delayed by several hours. He called Krichek and asked him to bring an update on the search for any footage surrounding Spencer’s office, gathered what information he needed to prep for the interviews of Tassi and Dean Foster scheduled for later in the day, and finished his paperwork left over from the weekend.

Still, he couldn’t stop thinking about Leah’s missing patient. The hospital hadn’t upgraded its security systems in decades, he’d learned to his chagrin when he’d stopped by before leaving Good Sam. The security chief, a retired cop from Pittsburgh named Ramsey, was working to organize the morning’s security footage to make reviewing it as easy as possible. But it would take time before the hospital had the footage ready, and Luka had had other open cases that required his attention.

He glanced at his office clock: 11:48. Surely by now they’d found something.

“Because of patient privacy, there are no cameras inside the Labor and Delivery ward,” Ramsey explained when Luka called to ask for an update. “And going through all the rest—we’ll need to do it manually. Do you have a picture we can work off, yet?”

Thanks to Leah—well, actually Nate, and his curiosity and eagerness to try his portraiture skills—they had a photo from the fair where Beth’s face was somewhat clear, although distant. Luka forwarded the image to Ramsey. “We need this as soon as possible.” They had to consider every scenario. If there was any sign that Beth and her baby had been abducted, then precious time was slipping away.

“I already ran through the camera outside the ward and there’s nothing unusual at all. Definitely no signs of a kidnapping or anything like that. And no single woman carrying a baby, only couples. My next step is to verify their identities with the nurses, but they were all accompanied by staff, so that shouldn’t take long.”

Luka was torn. If Beth left on her own and had no signs of mental impairment that might lead her to harm her baby, then he had no case to pursue. The most he could do was to file a missing persons report with the NCIC database so that any law enforcement officer who happened to come in contact with her would perform a welfare check, ensure that she was safe. As it was, Commander Ahearn would be incensed that Luka had wasted as much time as he had on something that wasn’t even a real crime.

But… Luka trusted Leah’s instincts. If she thought Beth and the baby were in danger, he owed it to her to follow up as best he could. It wouldn’t be the huge manhunt that Leah would have liked—it almost never was, but civilians didn’t understand that adults had every right to walk out of their lives; it wasn’t a crime. And Amber Alerts for children required definitive information: detailed descriptions, makes and models of vehicles used, etc. All Luka had was Beth’s first name and a blurry image. “You’re sure, no signs of coercion?”

“Nope,” Ramsey replied. “Which is why I canceled the code indigo.”

“And there’s no way Beth or the baby could still be on the ward?”

“My men and the nurses searched everywhere.”

Luka glanced at the binders on his bookcase. All open cases, waiting for