"There"s a child in there!" he shouted, waving his arms over his head to get the policemen"s attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he recognized Ben"s car pulling up in the distance. Reinforcements.
Warily the policemen lowered their weapons, but left them unholstered.
Unable to wait a single second longer, ignoring the guns, Veronica ducked around Chad to reach the Mercedes rear door. She yanked it open just as Anne was emerging from the driver"s seat, sobbing, her hands shaking as she raised them in the air.
"Mommy, where have you been?" Casey exclaimed, his voice echoing with curiosity and pleasure as he wrapped his arms tightly around her. "I"ve missed you.""
She tried very hard not to cry as she held him close. She was failing miserably.
"And I"ve missed you." Pressing the boy to her heart, she rose to her feet again, thinking she was never going to let him out of her arms again.
Tears blinding her, she looked for Chad.
"Mommy, you"re squashing me," Casey protested.
"Sorry,"" she murmured, kissing the top of his head.
Anne stood blocking the driver"s side, her arms over her head. "Please, please, don"t shoot. My son"s in the car. Don"t shoot," she begged.
Gabriel Saldana moved ahead of the other policemen, taking charge. "Ben filled me in," he informed Chad, recognizing him from Ben"s description. Taking cuffs out, he gently but firmly turned Anne around and took hold of her wrist. "Anne Sullivan, you"re under arrest for the kidnapping of Casey Reinholt. You have the right to remain silent..."
He never got a chance to put on the second handcuff. Anne gave a little moan and fainted.
Managing to catch her before she hit the ground, Gabriel shook his head. "First time I"ve had a suspect faint on me."
Andy wriggled out of the car, running to Anne, fear and confusion on his small face. "Mommy, Mommy, get up!" He began to tug on her shoulder "Please get up."
Still holding Casey, Veronica shifted him so that he rested on her hip.
Supporting him with one hand, she extended the other to Andy, smiling encouragingly at the boy. "You"re going to come home with me for a while, Andy."
Overhearing, Chad looked at her. He would have thought she"d want to distance herself from anything that had to do with the kidnapping and Anne. She was an endless source of amazement to him.
"Is the game over, Mommy?" Casey wanted to know.
She pressed another kiss to his hair, her heart quickening when she thought of how close she"d come to losing him. "Yes, baby, the game"s over."
"Mom, don"t call me baby," he said in what he thought was a whisper. He jerked his head toward his friend, who was now clutching Veronica"s free hand. "Andy"ll hear you."
"Sorry, I forgot." A quirky smile played along her lips. He was still her normal little boy. She was one of the lucky ones.
She turned to look at Chad, tears welling up in her eyes for the second time in as many minutes. There were absolutely no words she could say to thank him, to thank any of them, for what they had done.
For a second Chad let himself go and put his arm around her shoulders. "You"re crying again."
She sniffed, a smile breaking through even though tears were sliding down her cheeks. ""Good tears."
"Oh." As if he understood the difference.
Digging into his pocket, Chad fished out a handkerchief that was badly wrinkled, but clean. He offered it to her, then realized she didn"t have a hand available.
Chad started to say something to Andy, then thought better of it. Instead, he wiped away the tears himself. Something nameless, but no less unsettling for its anonymity, stirred within him as she looked up at him. Clearing his throat, he pocketed the handkerchief and walked toward the lead squad car.
Just now coming to, Anne had been placed in the squad car"s back seat, her hands cuffed behind her. Hurrying by Chad, Gabriel rounded the hood, then stopped for a second to look at the Mercedes. He gave a low whistle of appreciation. He looked at Chad.
"That baby"s no more than six weeks old by my estimation. What"s a woman with that kind of money doing kidnapping her best friend"s kid?"
"That"s what I"d like to find out. Mind if I tag along to the station?" Chad took out his wallet, showing Gabriel his identification by way of supporting his request. "Got a few people on the LAPD who will vouch for me." Ben finally managed to reach them. The crowd around them had gathered quickly and was six deep in places. "Including Ben," Chad added, nodding at the man.
"Good enough for me," Gabriel told him, getting into the squad car. "Just as long as you don"t get in the way."
"Thanks." Chad glanced in Veronica"s direction. She was unfinished business.
"I"ll follow in my car," he said, stepping back. He turned toward Veronica.
"Is Anne all right?" she asked, nodding at the unconscious woman in the back seat.
"She just fainted. I think everything finally sank in." He motioned for Ben to come forward. "Ben"ll take you and the boys home in his car. I"ll be by as soon as I learn anything," he promised.
"All right." About to leave with Ben, she stopped to kiss Chad, catching him completely by surprise. Her eyes held his for a moment. "Thank you."
A warm spot opened up in his chest. He ignored it, or tried to, and dismissed her words with a shrug. "Just doing my job."
He stood a moment longer, watching her walk off with the children. Trying to get his bearings. They kept eluding him.
He"d come to the realization that Veronica was full of surprises. So when she turned up half an hour later in the hallway of the Bedford police station, outside one of the rooms reserved for interrogation, Chad wasn"t entirely caught off guard.
Still, there were other places he had expected to see her first.
"What are you doing here?" He looked directly behind her, expecting to see a small entourage. "Where are the boys?"
"I left Casey and Andy with Angela. She was overjoyed to see Casey. Andy"s a little shaken up, but Casey seems fine." She smiled. Casey was more than fine. He was his old self, playful and incredibly thoughtful for a boy his age. "He"s trying to distract Andy with the latest video game."
He"d thought that perhaps she"d come here with some earth-shattering revelation that Casey had confided to her on the way home. Since the boy obviously hadn"t, it brought Chad back to his original question.
"You could have told me all that when I came over." He looked into her eyes.
"What are you doing here?"
She"d persuaded the sergeant at the front desk to bring her back here after explaining who she was. Chad was going to need more of an explanation than that.
Veronica looked at the closed door directly behind him and wondered if that was where they were holding Anne.
"I want to know why." She looked at Chad meaningfully. "And I think that Anne is going to need someone in her corner."
"In her corner?" He stared at her. The woman shook up everything he thought he knew about the human race. He knew the full story behind the kidnapping now. Once she had come to, Anne had been more than willing to give the police a full confession, waiving her right to a lawyer. To the charitable mind, there were explanations and extenuating circ.u.mstances for what she had done, but none that Veronica was familiar with yet. Which made her reason for being here so hard to understand. "How can you be in her corner? The woman kidnapped your son and put you through h.e.l.l."
"I know." None of this made any sense to her, but she knew, at the bottom of her heart, what she was feeling. Despite everything, she felt compa.s.sion. "But something had to have gone horribly wrong for Anne. She wouldn"t have done this terrible thing unless something forced her to do it. I need to understand what that was."
And with understanding came forgiveness. He knew that was what she was thinking.
He was beginning to know her far better than he thought was safe.
"What are you-a saint?" The question had come out sarcastically, but he didn"t attempt to temper it. She needed to be shaken up a little so that she could see the world for what it was. People fell into bad situations all the time, had their backs against the wall with nowhere to turn, but they didn"t resort to kidnapping.
She sighed, not wanting to argue with him. He was the one who"d saved her son.