FOR THE CHILDREN Read online

  "I'm not doing it for you, Mr. Kane. Don't kid yourself. If I didn't think that it might help Maggie and Casey, I wouldn't be here and neither would they."

  There was that faint smile again, only this time it was bitter and self-mocking. "You don't know how relieved I am to hear you say that, Ms. Markham." Before she could ask him what that was supposed to mean, he swung the car sharply to the right and said, "Here we are."

  The building was one of several in a small, nondescript office park. Both the buildings and the cars parked in front of them were bland and undistinguished. It wasn't at all the kind of place she imagined the FBI having an office.

  "You look surprised," he said, pulling into a parking space.

  "It's not what I expected," she admitted.

  This time there was genuine amusement in his eyes. "You thought maybe there would be a big sign saying Criminals Beware, or men with guns hanging out in the parking lot?"

  Blushing, she got out of the car and opened the rear door, helping Maggie and Casey unbuckle their seat belts. "I'm not sure what I expected, but it wasn't a building that shared offices with Echo Toy Imports and Mountain Adventures, Inc."

  "We try to blend in."

  Holding Maggie and Casey by the hands, she followed Damien into the building. When they got into the elevator, Casey asked, "Why are we here, Aunt Abby?"

  Abby glanced over at Damien, who gave her a quick nod. Squatting down, she drew the two girls in front of her and gave them both a hug.

  "We're going to talk to a nice woman who wants to ask you some questions. Okay?"

  "What kind of questions, Aunt Abby? Does she want to know about my doll?" Casey clutched her tattered doll closer and watched her aunt.

  Swallowing around the lump in her throat, Abby nodded. "I'm sure she'll ask about Toby. And Jackie, too," she said to Maggie. "But there will be other things she might want to know."

  "Like what?" Maggie asked.

  Abby swallowed again. "She might ask some questions about your mommy's work."

  Both twins stared at her for a moment. They clutched their dolls more tightly as fear flashed over their faces.

  Oh, God, she thought with despair. Damien was right. They did see something. Giving them another hug, she slowly stood up.

  Damien was watching all of them with somber eyes. She was sure he hadn't missed the look in the girls' eyes when she'd mentioned Janna's work.

  The elevator door opened with a whoosh and a quiet ping, and they stepped out into a corridor that was a duplicate of every office building in the world. They followed Damien down the hall to a door with small lettering on the door that said Federal Bureau of Investigation.

  When they stepped into the office, a pleasant woman at a desk looked up. Seeing Damien, she frowned. "There's a problem, Mr. Kane," she began, but before she could continue, a man stepped out of an inner office.

  "Mary couldn't get here." He didn't even bother with a greeting, but Damien didn't seem to expect one. "We've got a hostage situation on the Strip and we had to send her there. Johnson is the only other psychologist we could find on such short notice."

  Abby could see Damien's lips tighten, but after a moment he nodded shortly and turned to her. "You heard what he said. Johnson's not the man I would have picked, but now that we're here and you already told the girls what to expect, I think we better go ahead. If we wait until Mary's free, your nieces might get more anxious."

  Abby looked down at the two worried faces standing close to her and wondered what to do. Damien was probably right, she thought reluctantly. If they left now and came back later, Maggie and Casey would have too much time to think about what was going to happen. And too much time to worry about it.

  "All right. If you think they'll be okay with this Johnson."

  "I'll make sure they are." He disappeared into a room, and Abby sat down in a chair and pulled the girls onto her lap. After a few minutes he and another man emerged from the office.

  "Jim Johnson, Ms. Markham." A burly older man held out his hand, and Abby shook it briefly. "Kane has briefed me about the situation with the kids, and I'll be careful." In a softer voice he continued. "I won't treat them like little criminals, believe me."

  He bent over Maggie and Casey. "You must be the little ladies with the interesting story to tell me. Why don't you come with me and we'll talk?" His voice was loud and a little too hearty.

  The girls looked at Abby, and she nodded her head. Sliding off her lap, they followed Jim Johnson toward the office. Abby began to follow them, but Damien stopped her.

  "Give them a minute to settle in with Johnson. He'll try to get them to relax and get comfortable with him. Once he's done that, you can go on m. If you're there from the beginning, they may not feel comfortable with him."

  She narrowed her eyes. "You told me I could stay with them the whole time."

  "You can, Ms. Markham. Just give Jim a chance to establish a relationship with them."

  Listening to the psychologist's voice booming through the closed door, she opened her mouth to tell Damien they didn't need a relationship with Jim Johnson to tell him what they knew. But before she could speak, she heard sobs coming from behind the closed office door.

  "Aunt Abby! Aunt Abby! I want Aunt Abby!"

  * * *

  Chapter 3

  «^»

  Abby vaulted from her chair and leaped at the closed office door, wrenching it open. Maggie and Casey sat huddled in two enormous chairs, cowering away from the man who stood over them. When they turned and saw her standing in the room, their lips trembled and tears rolled down their cheeks.

  Jim Johnson glanced over at her with a puzzled expression, running his hand through his hair. "I don't know what's wrong, Ms. Markham. They just started crying."

  "You frightened them," she said coldly.

  "I didn't do a thing," he protested. "I barely even said two words to them."

  Abby shouldered him aside and scooped up Maggie and Casey. Hugging her nieces close, she turned to face the psychologist. "Wouldn't you be frightened if someone four times bigger than you stood over you, speaking so loudly it hurt your ears?" she asked fiercely.

  Johnson began to answer, then closed his mouth and sighed. "Sorry I frightened them," he said wearily. "Let's try again, shall we?"

  "What do you think, girls?" Abby asked as her nieces' arms tightened around her neck. "Do you want to talk to Mr. Johnson if I stay in here with you?"

  Both girls whispered, "No," burying their faces in her neck. Abby turned back to the psychologist

  "I think we've had enough for today, Mr. Johnson. Sorry it didn't work out."

  As she turned to leave the room, Damien said from the doorway, "Just a minute, Ms. Markham."

  She stopped and waited, shifting her grip on Maggie and Casey so she held them more securely. "Yes?"

  He watched her for a moment, no expression in his eyes. Then he said, "Will you wait a few minutes for me? I want to talk to Johnson."

  "Considering that we came in your car, I don't have much choice, do I?" Without waiting for an answer, she brushed past him and made her way to a couch in the other room.

  The door closed behind her with a soft click, and she could hear the murmur of voices in the room behind them. As the voices rose, Maggie tightened her grip on Abby's neck and Abby could feel her shivering.

  "Nobody's going to hurt you, honey," she whispered. "Mr. Johnson was a little loud, but that's just the way he talks." Abby wondered uneasily what experience had led to the twins' fear of the loud Johnson.

  As if she could read her aunt's mind, Casey explained, "The man at Mommy's work yells like that sometimes. Me and Maggie don't like yelling."

  Abby turned to look at her and saw the fear trembling in her eyes. "Did someone at your mommy's work yell at you?" she asked softly, trying to hide the fear building inside her.

  Slowly Casey shook her head. "We heard him yelling, though."

  "He wasn't trying to frighten you," Abby told her gentl
y. "He didn't know you could hear him." She wondered if the man who was yelling had anything to do with the murder.

  Hooking one arm around each of their shoulders, Abby gathered Casey and Maggie closer. She smoothed out their dolls' dresses and forced a smile onto her face. "Tell me about the game you were playing with Toby and Jackie in the car."

  After a moment both girls began talking at once. Abby leaned back on the couch and allowed herself to relax as she listened to them chatter about their dolls.

  * * *

  "They know something, Kane. I'm sure of it." Damien looked at the psychologist. "I'd already figured that out. Tell me something I don't know, Johnson, like what the hell you did to staff them screaming like that."

  "I didn't do a thing! I simply told them my name, and said we were going to have a nice talk. That's when they started bawling."

  "Real smooth, Johnson," Damien said, his voice filled with disgust. "Don't you realize that those two kids are the only possible witnesses we have to Stefanetto's murder? Couldn't you have been a little more subtle?"

  "How was I supposed to know they'd start bawling at the drop of a hat? For that matter, why couldn't you get their aunt out of here? If she hadn't come bursting into the room, they would have settled down and answered my questions."

  "I had a hard enough time convincing her to let you question them at all," he answered coldly. "If I had suggested that we leave, she would have hit the ceiling."

  Johnson shrugged. "So we'll try again. But maybe we should wait until Mary Williams gets back. She's a lot better with kids than me."

  Damien shook his head, trying to control the anger uncurling inside him. He couldn't afford to let any emotions loose. "Abby Markham's not going to let us anywhere near those kids. Not now."

  The other man shrugged again. "So you question them. You're not going to let them out of your sight until you get some answers. I know that much about you, Kane." He waited for Damien to answer, but when he just stared at him the psychologist continued, "Hell, they'll trust you after a while. Find out what they know."

  "I'm not a shrink, Johnson."

  "You don't have to be a shrink. You just have to talk to them. You should know how to do that. After all, you had a kid…"

  He let his voice trail away as Damien fixed him with a lethally cold stare. Johnson had the grace to redden as he turned away.

  "Dammit, Kane, I'm sorry. I didn't think."

  "That seems to be a habit with you today," Damien replied, no expression in his voice. He clamped his jaws together and tried to ignore the pain twisting his heart.

  "I'm sorry," the other man said again, quietly. "I know I shouldn't have brought that up. But you don't have a choice. If you want answers and the kids won't talk to me or Mary, you've got to get the information yourself."

  Tension swirled in the room. "Those kids aren't going to talk to me. They don't trust me," Damien finally said. And if he had any choice, they never would. He couldn't bear to get close enough to them for that.

  "Make them trust you." Johnson's voice was flat. "If you want to solve this case, you damn well better make all three of them trust you. Hell, their aunt looked at us just now like we were a couple of serial killers. If you want answers, you're going to have to change that."

  "I don't care what Abby Markham thinks of me as long as she lets me talk to her nieces," Damien said in a hard voice, trying unsuccessfully to block her picture from his mind. But the image of her holding the two girls and facing him down was uncomfortably vivid. He had no doubts she would do whatever she thought necessary to protect the twins.

  "If she doesn't trust you, she's not going to let you near those kids," Johnson warned.

  "She's a rational woman," he answered coldly. "She'll understand that they'll be safer if they've told what they know."

  "Where are you going to go?" Johnson asked.

  "You know they'll be safer if no one knows that," Damien answered.

  When he finally spoke, Johnson's voice was filled with resignation. "I hope you know what you're doing, Kane. You have Mary Williams's home phone number in case you need it?"

  Kane nodded and turned to the door. "I'll check in when I can."

  "You do that," Johnson answered.

  When he walked into the reception area, he saw Abby sitting on a couch with the two girls in her lap. All three of them were playing with the rag dolls the girls had brought with them. At the sound of the door opening, Abby looked up. When she saw him, something shifted in her eyes. The softness disappeared, replaced by a wary caution.

  "Are you ready to go?" he asked.

  She nodded and turned to the girls. "Maggie, Casey, it's time to go home."

  The two children immediately slid off her lap and stood next to her, clutching her hands. Shepherding them out the door in front of her, she didn't let go of them until they'd gotten to the car and the twins were safely buckled into the back seat.

  As the car pulled out into traffic, Damien said softly, "I apologize for what happened back there."

  She didn't say anything for a long time. Finally she answered, "It wasn't your fault. I never should have agreed to bring them here."

  Slanting her a look, he said, "You're wrong. It was the right thing to do. We just ended up with the wrong person."

  She turned away and stared out the window. "I'm not sure the other psychologist would have made any difference. Didn't you see how scared the girls were when I told them we were going to talk about their mother's work? I think we should just forget about it."

  "That's exactly why we shouldn't. If they're scared, there must be a reason. Don't you want to find out what it is?"

  "Yes, I do," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "But not if it's going to make it worse for them."

  "It won't, Abby." Somehow her name just slipped out. He wasn't sure what upset him more, the fact that he'd called her by her first name or the fact that he liked doing so.

  "You can't know that."

  "The things we try to bury are the ones that come back to haunt us." He took his eyes off the road to glance over at her. "We talked about this earlier. Your nieces won't be safe until they've told us what they know and we've caught the person responsible for the murder."

  "They were upset and scared today," she said stubbornly. "It would only be worse if I took them back to that office."

  "All right," he said, his gut churning. "They can talk tome." Even though he kept his eyes on the road, he could feel her steady gaze on him. "We're leaving Las Vegas. I'll call you if they say anything to me."

  "You're not going anywhere without me."

  "What is that supposed to mean?"

  He spared her a sharp look. "You have two choices here, Abby. You and the girls can go to a safe house, where you'll be guarded around the clock, or you can put yourself in my hands." Anger speared through him as he thought about the last person he'd left at a safe house. "Personally I don't recommend the safe house. It didn't save Joey Stefanetto."

  "Are you saying we don't have a choice?" Abby shifted in her seat and glanced back at the girls, then looked down at her hands.

  The tension in the front seat cranked up another notch, and for a moment Damien felt a flash of guilt for upsetting her. Then he forced himself to ignore Abby Markham and remember what was at stake. For all of them.

  "You're involved in this case whether you want to be or not," he said, trying to make his voice even. "And so are your nieces. You can make it easy, or you can make it hard. But whichever you choose, I'm going to be with you."

  The silence in the front seat of the car stretched taut, vibrating in the still air. Then Abby said in a low voice, "You don't leave me much choice, do you?"

  "I'm only trying to protect your nieces."

  "You're trying to solve your case," she retorted. "At least be honest about that."

  The faint flutter of shame in his chest startled him. It had been a long time since he'd felt ashamed of anything he did. And there was no reason for it
now, he told himself harshly. He did want to protect the two little girls.

  But only so you can solve this case, a quiet little voice reminded him. He didn't want to be around Abby Markham's nieces, he didn't want to talk to them, he didn't want to look at them. He wanted this case over so he wouldn't have to think about them ever again.

  "The two things go hand in hand," he said finally. "If I solve this case, they won't need to be protected."

  She shifted in her seat to face him, but he didn't look at her. He didn't want to see the scorn he knew would be in her eyes. "How long are you going to be with us?"

  "As long as it takes. I need to know what the girls saw, and if they can tell me who murdered Joey, I need to arrest that person. Then they'll be safe."

  "Until they can tell you what they know, you're going to be a part of our lives."

  "That's right."

  She was silent for a long time. Then she said abruptly, "If you scare Maggie or Casey, or step out of line in any way, you're gone. Do you understand that?"

  "Believe me, the last thing I want to do is scare either of your nieces. And I don't want to interfere in your lives. I'll be as unobtrusive as possible." His hands tightened on the steering wheel as he thought about living in the same house as Abby Markham and the two little girls. It would be a daily hell, torture of the cruelest kind. If only she knew how much he didn't want to be there.

  Turning onto her street in the quiet subdivision, he pulled into her driveway and stopped the car. "Go ahead and pack," he said quietly. "I'm going to look around one more time."

  Abby made no move to get out of the car. "Where are we going? Or is it a secret from me, too?"

  He felt a faint heat in his cheeks. "We're going up to Utah. I know some people in the small town of Cameron. Two of my friends have a cabin in the mountains, on their mach. It's isolated and well hidden. And I know I can trust Devlin McAllister and his sister, Shea, not to say anything to anyone."

  As Abby stared at him, he saw the fear and uncertainty in her eyes. He was asking her to leave her home and go to an unknown destination with a total stranger. "It'll be all right, Abby," he said, his voice softer. "No one knows about my connection with Cameron. And Devlin is the sheriff. We'll be as safe there as we would be anywhere."