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

to Craven Peak, so she parked in the gravel lot in front of the ancient log cabin and called Luka. “Did Reverend Harper know where Beth and her baby are?”

“He’s not talking. I’m going to send Harper in, hoping an appeal from his daughter might get him to open up.”

“Everything’s changed. The baby’s sick—I got a call from the hospital. He has an infection in his blood; he needs antibiotics and to be back in the hospital.”

“What kind of infection?”

“Group B strep. It can cause sepsis, meningitis. If it isn’t treated, he could die.”

He made a noise over the phone that was part frustration and part sympathy.

“Does this give you enough to go public? To call in the state police to help?”

“Yes. I’ll start a PSA, get the networks involved, Beth’s picture will be everywhere. Given how much time has elapsed, the staties will probably take over and go wider to New York, New Jersey, Maryland.”

The amount of ground they had to cover to find one woman and baby was overwhelming. “They could be anywhere by now,” Leah said. “What can I do to help? I’m actually at Craven Peak. Beth might have stayed in one of their cabins—it’s the only one within walking distance of the fairgrounds, so I reserved it tonight myself. I thought there might be a slim chance she left something behind, even though it’s probably been cleaned since yesterday.”

She heard the sound of his keyboard clicking in the background—coordinating a public search over several states was a huge endeavor. “Call me if you find anything,” he said in an absent tone.

“Luka—” Her fear colored her voice.

“We’ll find them. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”

He hung up. Leah stared at the darkened phone for long enough that the screen saver came on. A photo of Ian and Emily, laughing and playing. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes in a silent prayer. They had to find Beth and the baby.

Before it was too late.

Thirty-Five

Now that she knew Darius had an alibi for Lily’s murder, Harper relaxed her questioning, taking a more conversational approach. For a kid who liked to present himself as a hardened street thug—even to the point of threatening Macy with a knife—he was pretty naive. With a few gentle nudges, including a soda and a candy bar, he opened up and told her everything she needed to know. Well, almost everything.

No matter what she tried, he refused to acknowledge that he’d ever heard of Lily before that night and insisted that Macy couldn’t have had anything to do with Lily or even met her Saturday night since she’d been busy getting the money to bail him out after his arrest.

“My girl loves me, would do anything for me, and that’s all I’ve got to say.” He backed up his statement by leaning back, crossing his arms over his chest, and speaking one word, the magic word that ended any chance she had of getting more from him. “Lawyer.”

Harper glared at Darius, then pushed her chair back, retrieved Lily’s photo, and stalked out of the room. Only to find Luka waiting for her, leaning heavily on his crutches, his posture one of disappointment.

A flush heated her cheeks as she realized that he’d been watching her interview on the video monitor. “I still think he knows something about Lily,” she insisted.

“Forget about Darius,” he said, giving her a look reminding her who was boss and who was the rookie detective. “He’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Come with me.”

Lily wasn’t going anywhere either, she thought in resignation as she followed him to the conference room that the VCU used for meetings. Krichek and Ray were there already, laptops open, a map of Craven County spread out across the table between them.

“Leah Wright called,” Luka told them.

“Is Macy okay?” Harper asked.

“Fine. They’re keeping her overnight. But that’s not why she called.” He paused, waiting until each of them made eye contact. “It’s the missing baby. His blood work came back showing a potentially life-threatening strep infection. If we don’t find him soon, he could die.”

“Damn,” Ray cursed. He had two kids at home, Harper knew.

“Before, the most we could do was be on the lookout, since Beth hasn’t committed a crime and left of her own volition,” Luka said. “But now everything has changed. We have a critical missing person, so all hands on deck. Finding that baby takes priority over everything.”

“What’s our next step?” Krichek asked.

“I’ve got a call out to the staties and they’re taking point, widening the search to a tri-state area. Ahearn is making a public appeal, but without a vehicle or even Beth’s full name to go on, it’s going to be difficult to find her.” Then Luka turned to Harper. “Which leaves us with really only one viable avenue to pursue.”

She tensed. Why was he staring at her like that?

“When I reviewed the security footage from Good Sam,” Luka continued, “there was one man who could have helped Beth and her baby leave without anyone seeing her.”

“Who?” she asked. Now both Ray and Krichek were staring at her as well; obviously they knew the answer.

“Your father.”

“The Reverend?” Shock rattled through her, had her grasping her hands together below the table even as she fought to keep her face devoid of expression. “You think he helped Beth?”

“Take a look for yourself.” He cued up video on the big screen. There was no audio, but there was a clear progression of events: Beth leaving alone, dressed like a hospital worker; the Reverend carrying a diaper bag out of the Labor and Delivery ward; the Reverend then Beth both leaving via the same exit; and finally, the Reverend driving away.

Harper sighed. “You want me to talk to my father?”

“I already spoke with him. At his church. He wasn’t exactly forthcoming.”

“I’m not surprised.” It was so like the Reverend—he always had all the answers, never hesitated once he knew what needed to be done. If Beth came to him