The Baby's Guardian (12 page)

“Make time…
sir.
” But Newell didn’t say the title
with much respect. “This is my career, and it’s the most important thing in the world to me. I don’t know what you think I did, but I’m innocent. I’m a good cop.”

“Then the evidence will prove that.” Shaw didn’t give the officer a chance to say anything else because he hit the end call button.

The dispatch door flew open. Shaw turned, though he still stayed protectively in front of her. It was Lieutenant Rico who came walking toward them.

“We got him, Captain,” Rico announced, looking straight at Shaw. “He’s injured, but he’s talking. And he wants to talk to you.”

Shaw didn’t ask the identity of the wounded gunman. He had one goal—to get to the man while he was still alive so he could get some answers.

But he didn’t want to do that unless Sabrina was safe.

“Stay with Lieutenant Rico,” Shaw told her, knowing he’d get an argument, but he stopped it before it could start with a quick kiss.

Yes, it was a cheap shot, and Sabrina deserved better, but he didn’t want to risk her going outside again until he was positive the area was safe. Right now, he wasn’t positive of that at all.

Shaw peeled off the grip Sabrina had on his arm and hurried to the dispatch door. “I won’t be long,” he told her, but he wasn’t sure that was true. He wanted to get as much from the shooter as he could and that might take a while.

He ran across the motor pool parking lot and out the side entrance where a uniformed officer was standing guard. There were lots of officers, just as Shaw expected, but the bulk of them were near the back of the building where he’d spotted the gunman. The guy
had likely tried to escape using that route, and he’d been shot when he wouldn’t surrender.

The sun was up now and already bearing down on him so he worked up a sweat by the time he made it to the crowd of officers. He pushed his way through, wondering just who he’d see lying on the ground.

Gavin, maybe. It could even be Wilson Rouse or someone he’d hired. It was possible Shaw might not recognize the assailant at all.

But he did.

The man was Danny Monroe.

Shaw cursed. He should have held the SOB even if it meant bending the law.

“Captain Tolbert,” Danny said, his voice weak. It seemed he was trying to smirk. The front of his shirt was covered with blood, and even though Shaw could hear the ambulance sirens, the man didn’t look as if he would last long.

“You wanted to talk to me,” Shaw said, once he got his jaw unclenched. He wanted to finish Danny off for endangering Sabrina and the baby. The SOB didn’t deserve to take even one more breath, but Shaw knew each breath could give them answers.

“Take notes,” Shaw told one of the uniforms who immediately took out a notepad. One of the others took out a mini tape recorder and moved closer. Good. Shaw wanted every word of this taken down so it could be scrutinized.

“It wasn’t personal,” Danny said, looking right at Shaw. “This was cleanup for my brother. His debts got passed on to me, and I needed to pay them off or die.”

“It felt personal,” Shaw let him know.

“I figured it did. That’s why I have to set things straight with you. I want you to go after who put this plan together. Go after the person who hired Burney, because if Burney hadn’t needed the money so bad, he wouldn’t have done this.”

“Who hired him? I’ll be glad to go after him.” And Shaw didn’t intend to show any mercy. Not to Danny, nor this idiot who’d put this plan together.

Danny shook his head and dragged his tongue over his bottom lip. “I don’t know who’s responsible. Burney just said we had to get in the hospital lab and get some DNA samples and destroy a file. It was supposed to be easy, but people kept getting in the way.”

“What people?” Shaw demanded.

“We thought that woman, Bailey Hodges, had seen us trying to get in the lab the day before we took the hostages. She saw Burney trying to break the new lock, or at least we thought she had. So, we found out who she was. That’s why Burney went after her. Burney had been warned not to leave any witnesses who could identify us.”

Bailey.
Sabrina had said the gunmen were calling out the woman’s name. Now, he knew why. The gunmen wanted her dead. It was a good thing they hadn’t found her.

Behind them, the ambulance screeched to a stop, and the medics rushed out with a gurney. Shaw knew he didn’t have much time.

“Why were you and Burney supposed to get the DNA samples?” Shaw asked.

“I don’t know. That’s the truth. But the bastard who
hired Burney will know. That’s why you have to find him. You have to make him pay for killing us.”

That didn’t tug at any of Shaw’s heartstrings. “Did you ever speak with the man or woman who hired you?”

“Just today for the first time. Burney handled all the other calls. The other details. I was told what to do. I had to pretend to be a nurse, Michael Frost, so I could call the women we needed to get to the hospital that day.”

Well, that was another piece of the puzzle that had been solved.

“Whoever the boss is,” Danny continued, “he was putting a lot of pressure on Burney. Burney owed money, you see, lots of it, and the loan shark was coming after him. That’s why we got desperate and took the hostages so we could get everyone to back off and we could get into the lab. We did what we were supposed to do. We destroyed the DNA file…and took your woman.”

Everything inside Shaw went still. A temporary reaction, no doubt, because he felt a strong storm brewing.

The medics moved between Shaw and Danny and began to get him ready to be transferred to the gurney.

“Whose idea was that, to take my
woman?
” Shaw demanded.

Danny shook his head again and drew in a ragged breath. “I don’t know. Maybe Burney’s. Maybe not. Burney thought if anything went wrong, then you’d make the cops back off if we had her.”

Hell, he might have done just that. He wouldn’t have been able to sacrifice Sabrina and his baby. Not even for this investigation.

But that didn’t mean the boss of this operation had been the one who ordered Sabrina to be taken.

“Were you trying to kidnap her again today?” Shaw asked as the medics hoisted Danny onto the gurney.

“I got a call from the boss, from the SOB I want you to find. He asked if I had a gun, and I told him I did. I keep a hunting rifle in the trunk of my car. So, he told me to get to the nearest rooftop and fire a lot of shots. Not fatal ones. The boss wants you both alive. This was just meant to scare you, to show you what could really happen if you don’t cooperate. He was going to make that clear, he said, after you were good and scared.”

So, there could still be more contact and more threats from the so-called boss. And that meant Shaw wasn’t getting in the ambulance to ride with Danny to the hospital. He didn’t dare leave Sabrina alone.

Shaw looked around at the group of officers and spotted Sergeant Harris McCoy, the hostage negotiator he’d worked with when Sabrina and the others had been taken.

“Go to the hospital with him,” Shaw ordered. “Get as much from him as you can. And make sure he’s got a guard on him around the clock.”

Not that Danny was likely to attempt an escape in his condition, but it was possible his boss would try to eliminate him before he could say too much.

“Yes, sir.” Sergeant McCoy moved to the head of the gurney and started toward the ambulance.

Shaw waited until the ambulance drove away before he walked back to headquarters. It was a short distance but a long walk, and he knew what he had to tell Sabrina wouldn’t do much to put her at ease. The danger was
still there, and as long as it was, she had to remain in his protective custody. That was the official label for it anyway, but he didn’t intend to let her out of his sight again.

Sabrina was waiting for him in the hall just on the other side of the dispatch door. Rico was there next to her, and he had his phone pressed to his ear. No doubt getting an update as to what had just happened.

“Lieutenant Rico said the shooter was Danny Monroe,” Sabrina said, her voice shaking.

“He was. But he said he was just a hired gun and he couldn’t or wouldn’t finger his boss.”

What little color she had drained from her face. “So, his boss could send someone else?”

“In theory. But that person won’t be any more successful than Danny and his brother were.” Shaw slipped his arm around her and looked at Rico. “I’m taking her away from this. Sergeant Harris is in the ambulance with Danny. When he finishes the interrogation, I want to know what the man said.”

“Will do,” Lieutenant Rico assured him. He moved closer to Shaw and lowered his voice. “You wanted the false info leaked that we’d found a pacifier from the missing baby and that we’d been able to extract DNA. I took care of that right after we talked. That would have been about two hours or more before the shooting started.”

Two or more hours
before.
Maybe that hadn’t been enough time for Danny’s boss to have gotten the word and order the shooting. Unless the leak had been fast, like from someone in the department. Then, it was pos
sible Newell could have called Danny and told him to fire those shots.

“Someone was supposed to be tailing Danny,” Shaw remembered.

Rico nodded. “From what I can tell, Danny practically ran out of the building after he finished talking with you. By the time the dispatcher got someone assigned, Danny was already gone. The officer was on his way to Danny’s place to look for him when the shots stared.”

Again, Shaw hoped Danny hadn’t been able to make a fast getaway because a cop had any part in this.

“I’ll call you with an update as soon as I have one,” Lieutenant Rico said, and he walked away.

Shaw stood there a moment, volleying glances between Sabrina’s troubled eyes and the dispatch door. The last time he’d taken her out that particular route, Danny had fired shots at them. Danny had been adamant that he wasn’t trying to kill them, which might be true, but any of those bullets could have ricocheted and hit Sabrina.

“Are we going back to the flop room?” she asked.

Despite the small size, it had its advantages. It was close and safe. Well, except for the fact that Newell might be behind this. He thought of the key to the apartment that O’Malley had offered him. Going there would get Sabrina away from Newell, maybe, but too much could happen between headquarters and the Riverwalk.

Shaw nodded. “Yeah. The flop room again. I’ll arrange some food to be delivered since you didn’t eat much of your breakfast earlier.”

“And you should arrange for some medical attention. You have two new cuts on your face.”

He swiped at them to see if they were still bleeding. They were. But since he wasn’t gushing blood, he wasn’t about to waste time seeing a medic.

They were only a few steps from the flop room when Shaw saw two people that he really didn’t want to see right now. Gavin Cunningham and Wilson Rouse. They were scowling at each other and were being escorted by not one but two uniformed officers.

“They demanded to see you, sir,” one of the officers said. “They got here a few minutes before the shooting started, and I had them wait in your office.”

“Not a good idea,” the other officer added. “They nearly got in a fight.”

He was a popular man this morning. First, Danny. Now these two.

“You’re bleeding,” Gavin observed.

“Yeah, so I’ve been told. I was on my way to clean up, but I’m guessing you two think this is a good time to air some more dirty laundry.”

“You bet it’s a good time. Tolbert, what you’re doing is harassment,” Rouse challenged. Unlike Gavin, he didn’t even seem to notice Shaw’s cut face. “A court order for my DNA? I’m fighting it. It’ll be a cold day in you-know-where before I voluntarily give you my DNA. Now, I hear rumors that you think I hired the clowns who took the maternity hostages.”

“He did hire them,” Gavin insisted.

Sabrina glanced at both men. “Did you two show up here together?” And there was a lot of impatience in her voice. She was probably as fed up with these two as he was. Especially since one of them might have hired Danny to fire those shots.

“No,” Rouse and Gavin said in unison.

It was Gavin who continued. “I called him, to tell him I was coming here before I went in to work. I wanted to demand that you arrest him, to get him off the streets, and he decided to come, too.”

“So I could stop him from pursuing that
demand,
” Rouse snarled. With his eyes narrowed, he looked at Shaw. “You have nothing to connect me to this.”

Shaw didn’t want to do this now, but since he had the opportunity, he decided to run with it. “Nothing except phone conversations with the dead gunmen who did take the hostages.”

Gavin made a sound of triumph. Rouse, however, just looked puzzled.

“The dead man’s name is Burney Monroe,” Shaw supplied.

“Him.” Rouse scowled. “Yes, he called a couple of times. And get this, he called to ask me for a loan, because he said he worked at one of my restaurants when he was a teenager and had now fallen on hard times. He said I owed him some back pay. I had my people check, and he never worked for me. I told him that, too, when he called me back.”

Shaw glanced at Sabrina to see if she was buying any of this. She looked as skeptical as Shaw felt. And she looked as tired. It might be early morning, but it had already been a long day.

“He’s lying,” Gavin insisted, hitching his thumb in Rouse’s direction. “Run his DNA, compare it to mine, and you’ll see that he’s my biological father. And he wanted to cover that up.”

“Gavin has a point,” Sabrina mumbled, directing her
comment to Rouse. “If you quit fighting the court order for the DNA test, then this will all be cleared up. The test will prove you aren’t Gavin’s biological father…”

She stopped, and like Shaw she was studying Rouse’s reaction.

“Unless you are his father,” Sabrina finished.

“I’m not.” Rouse’s mouth twisted, relaxed and then twisted again. “But what the hell if I was? All that would prove is that thirty years ago, I was a stupid, weak man. That’s all. It doesn’t mean I committed a crime, and it doesn’t mean I deserve to have my family’s name dragged through the mud like this.”

Gavin, Shaw and Sabrina all stared at Rouse.

“You’re Gavin’s father,” Shaw concluded. This conversation had just taken a very interesting turn.

“That’s what I’ve been saying all along,” Gavin interjected. He didn’t make that sound of triumph again, but it was in his eyes.

However, there was no triumph for Rouse. It seemed as if the fight had been taken right out of him. “I won’t comply with that court order,” he mumbled. He then turned and made his way past the uniforms and down the hall.

“You aren’t going to arrest him?” Gavin asked. But his voice was practically a whisper. Maybe he’d just realized that having a biological father wasn’t the same as having a dad.