Safeguarding the Surrogate Read online

  Cybil finished bagging the letter, and she stepped into the living room with it to label the bag and start the record of the chain of custody. By labeling it and then logging it into the database, that would assure the courts and the legal system that the evidence had been handled properly.

  “I just got a report back on Eldon Stroud,” Barrett went on. “He’s got a record. He threatened some of the staff at the hospital where his daughter died and then tried to assault one of the doctors.”

  Daniel thought about that for a moment. Such behavior could be an “excuse” for someone experiencing grief. “I’m surprised he didn’t go after someone at the fertility clinic. I mean, other than sending a threatening letter.”

  “Oh, he did. Eldon threatened the former clinic director, Dr. Millie Hilburn. She retired about eight months ago, but she reported the threat to SAPD. The gist is that Eldon said he believed she should be punished for luring young women into surrogacy.”

  Punished could equal murder, and Daniel saw Kara shudder. He was right there with her. “Please tell me that SAPD has offered Dr. Hilburn protection?”

  “They have, and she’s taking it. She said she believes she saw Eldon following her a couple of times. SAPD hauled him in for questioning, but he insisted he had a right to watch the doctor. That’s when she filed a restraining order. That’s not his first one. The doctor he assaulted filed one, too.”

  “Has he served any time in jail?” Daniel asked.

  “Two months, that’s all, but he’s on probation. That’s why he doesn’t have a choice about coming in for an interview.”

  Good. Maybe Barrett could use the man’s parole to get some answers. Even if Eldon wasn’t the person committing the murders, he might know something.

  “I’ll do a video feed of the interviews to your laptop,” Barrett added a moment later. “Text me any questions you want me to ask them.”

  Daniel assured him that he would, and he ended the call just as Cybil was heading upstairs. She had the evidence bag that she would give to Leo, and then Leo could finally get back to work. Daniel would do the same. He obviously had some calls, and decisions, to make. First, though, he needed to start with Kara while they had a moment alone.

  “I’m sorry you’re caught up in this,” he said, placing his hand on her arm.

  He would have said more, but she stopped him by shaking her head. “No, you’re not going to apologize to me. I wanted to be a surrogate. I wanted to carry a child for Maryanne and you.”

  “But remember, this situation might be because of me,” Daniel pointed out. “Because of Rizzo.”

  “Even if it is, you’re not apologizing because someone has gone off half-cocked and might want you dead.” She touched his hand that was still on her arm. “We’ll work together and stop this person. We’ll get justice for all the women he’s killed.”

  She sounded resolved enough, but Daniel suspected she didn’t want him to see just how shaken up she truly was.

  The sound of the hurried footsteps on the stairs had both Kara and him whirling in that direction. It was Leo, and he wasn’t carrying the bagged envelope but rather his gun.

  “Sadie’s all right,” Leo immediately said as he raced down the stairs. “She’s in the bathtub, and Noreen, Ellen and Cybil are all with her.”

  His brother’s reassurance didn’t help. Daniel’s heart went into a gallop. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

  Leo ran past him, heading to take up position by the window. “Someone just spotted a gunman on the roof of the diner across the street.”

  Chapter Nine

  Kara had been on an emotional roller coaster since learning the latest details about the missing and dead surrogates. But this was a threat that cut to the bone.

  Because Sadie could be hurt.

  Kara wanted to run upstairs to her, but Daniel motioned for her to get down on the floor. She did, but Daniel and Leo didn’t. They each went to a window, and with their guns drawn and ready, they peered outside. She braced herself for the sounds of shots. For an attack. And she prayed that Leo or Daniel could take the guy out before he did any harm.

  “Who reported the gunman?” Daniel asked.

  “Gayla Howard,” Leo answered from the other side of the room.

  Kara knew her. She was a nurse who worked at the small hospital just up the street. She also lived in an apartment over the hardware store so it was possible Gayla had seen the man from there, and she’d called Leo because they were friends. Thank God she’d spotted him before shots had been fired. Main Street wasn’t exactly a bustling place, but at this time of the day, there’d be people going to and from work and the shops.

  “Gayla’s safe?” Daniel pressed.

  “Yeah,” Leo answered. “I told her to stay put, and then I called Barrett. He’s on the way to the back of the diner now. Jake’s with him.”

  Jake Mendoza was the nighttime deputy, but obviously he’d stayed around after his shift. No doubt because Barrett had been busy with the murder investigation, and Leo and Daniel had been tied up keeping Sadie and Kara safe.

  “Do you see the man?” Kara asked them.

  “No,” Leo and Daniel answered in unison, but the moment they spoke, the sound of Daniel’s phone ringing shot through the room. Because every nerve in her body was on edge, Kara felt the surge of adrenaline and better positioned herself in case she needed to help protect Sadie.

  “It’s Barrett,” Daniel said after giving her a glance. No doubt to make sure she was okay. She wasn’t. But she didn’t want him focused on her right now.

  “The guy with the gun’s gone,” Barrett said the moment Daniel had him on speaker. “No sign of him.”

  “You’re sure he was actually there?” Daniel pressed. He no doubt believed Gayla, but the nurse had to be on edge, too. Heck, everyone in town probably was. It was easy to blow things out of proportion and see threats that weren’t there.

  At least that’s what Kara hoped had happened.

  “Three people spotted a man wearing a dark hat and sunglasses on the roof,” Barrett verified, dashing Kara’s hopes. “Two of them saw the guy climbing down a rope ladder, but no one saw what direction he went. I’m putting out an alert for everyone to stay inside while Jake and I look for him.”

  “I’ll help,” Leo volunteered. “Cybil’s upstairs with Sadie. Daniel’s downstairs with Kara.”

  “Good,” Barrett said. “Go out the back of the inn in case this guy still has the place in his sights. I’ve called in the reserve deputies, and there’s a Texas Ranger on the way.”

  Kara was sure Barrett and his brothers would welcome the help, but those interviews with Eldon and Rizzo were important, too. Because maybe one of them had hired this gunman.

  Or maybe one was the gunman.

  That seemed a huge risk for Rizzo to take since everyone in town knew him, but with the hat and sunglasses, he perhaps thought it was a chance worth taking. Especially if he’d managed to get off a shot that would have taken out Daniel or her. Of course, the hardest way to hit at Daniel and her would be to go after Sadie.

  “I’ll reset the security after you leave,” Daniel said, following Leo into the back. “Stay down,” he told Kara. “I won’t be long.”

  She lifted her head to make eye contact with Daniel before he hurried after his brother. He’d been right about not being long. It took him less than a minute. But that was plenty of time for her worries to skyrocket about Sadie and him.

  “What are we going to do about Sadie?” she asked when Daniel ran back through to get to the front window.

  This time he didn’t look at her, and even in profile she could see that this was tearing him to pieces. His jaw was set. His body tight and braced for a fight. He was going to have to make some hard decisions to keep Sadie safe. So would she. Except it wouldn’t be hard at all to put Sadie first.

 
“I could be bait,” Kara insisted. “I could try to draw out the killer.”

  “That didn’t go so well last time you tried it,” he reminded her in a snap.

  “No, but it’s obvious the killer’s getting more...daring,” she said because she couldn’t think of another word that didn’t involve profanity. “He might not be able to resist coming after me if I make it easy for him.”

  “No,” Barrett said before she even finished. “I’m not going to let you get close enough to this snake for him to try to finish you off.”

  “Then what?” She didn’t want to die, but she also didn’t want anyone hurt if she could do something to stop it. “I can do this. I can shoot and I know self-defense—”

  “No,” he repeated, and this time there was eye contact. Daniel shot her a glare for a split second before he turned back to the window. “But we are going to make some changes.”

  Before he could say what those changes would be, his phone rang. “It’s Dispatch,” he relayed to her, and she watched as he listened to whatever the person on the other end of the line was telling him. “Eldon Stroud wants to talk to me?” Daniel asked after a couple of seconds. “Put his call through.”

  Kara shook her head, not understanding why Eldon had phoned Daniel when it was Barrett who’d called him in for an interview. Daniel was clearly puzzled, too, but he took the call on speaker.

  “Deputy Daniel Logan,” he said when Dispatch switched over the call.

  “You already know who I am,” Eldon said. Considering his police record and the tone of his threats, Kara had expected the man to shout or spew some venom. But his voice was soft and maybe a little hoarse, the way someone might sound if they’d been sick.

  “I do. Why are you calling?”

  “I’m here in Mercy Ridge, and I thought you’d have things to say to me. When I found out you wouldn’t be in the interview, I decided to get in touch.”

  “You’re here in Mercy Ridge?” Daniel repeated. He checked the time, and Kara knew why. The man wasn’t due in to interview until the afternoon, which was still several hours away. “By any chance, were you on the roof of the diner a few minutes ago?”

  “No,” Eldon answered without pausing or snarling at the question. “But I heard somebody was up there. I’m at the gas station now, and there’s talk about it. We’re all supposed to stay inside. Was the guy on the roof gunning for you?” he added after a short pause.

  “You tell me. What do you know about that?”

  “Nothing. I know what you think of me.” Eldon’s voice was still as calm as a lake. “I’ve been arrested, and I’ve spent some time in jail. I lost my daughter, and I’ve had some trouble dealing with that.”

  Now there was emotion. Eldon’s voice cracked on the word daughter and the grief practically poured through. Kara understood that kind of grief. So did Daniel. They’d both lost Maryanne. But sometimes grief could make you do things you wouldn’t normally do.

  “I’ll do the interview with your brother,” Eldon went on. “From everything I’m hearing about him, he’s a good man. Is he planning to arrest me for these murders y’all are investigating?”

  Kara saw the quick debate on Daniel’s face before he countered Eldon’s question with one of his own. “What have you heard about the murders?” That was as cop-like as it could get.

  “I’ve been reading about them in the newspapers. The girls were surrogates just like my daughter, and I have to wonder if they were messed over like my girl was.”

  “Messed over?” Daniel repeated. “How?”

  “She was talked into doing that by a so-called friend,” he answered without hesitation. “She carried another woman’s baby for money, and the people at that clinic talked her into doing it.”

  Despite his personal grudge against surrogacy and the clinic, Eldon still never raised his voice. But the emotion was coming off him in thick waves.

  “You blame the clinic for your daughter’s death,” Daniel said, and this time it wasn’t a question.

  “Yes.” Eldon said that as gospel. “If she hadn’t been talked into carrying a child, then she wouldn’t have gotten the blood clot. She’d still be alive.” Now, he paused. “Her mother died years ago. My daughter was all I had.”

  “I’m sorry,” Daniel said. No cop voice that time. There was plenty of sympathy in his tone.

  “I heard you lost your wife, too,” Eldon went on after he muttered a thank-you. “It twists you up. It breaks you.”

  “It can. But I have a daughter, and I want to keep her safe. Do you know who’s trying to hurt her?”

  “Somebody wants to hurt her?” Eldon blurted out.

  “It looks that way. If the man on the roof of the diner had fired shots at us, he could have hit my little girl.”

  Eldon stayed quiet for several long moments. “The little girl you had with a surrogate. Your wife’s sister, Kara Holland.” And just like that, his tone changed. His voice was still low, but it was now laced with a fire and brimstone kind of judgment.

  “My wife and I wanted a child, and her sister carried it for us,” Daniel calmly pointed out. “Now, I have a child I love.”

  “You have her because of surrogacy.” Again, that seemed to be some kind of judgment. “But the child shouldn’t have to suffer because of the decisions the parents made.”

  Daniel waited, no doubt hoping Eldon would add more to that. When the man didn’t, Daniel prompted him with a very direct question, “Do you know who’s trying to hurt Kara, my daughter and me?”

  “No,” Eldon answered, and Kara so wished she was face-to-face with him so she could perhaps tell if he was lying. Or better yet, she wished Daniel could see him. He’d be a better judge if Eldon knew more than he was saying.

  A muscle flickered in Daniel’s already tight jaw. “How long have you been at the gas station?” he demanded.

  Eldon made an audible sigh. “You’re wanting to know if I have an alibi for the time that man was on the roof. Well, I don’t. By the time I got to the gas station, the place was already buzzing of talk about it.”

  “And where were you this morning?” Daniel pressed, clearly checking to see if Eldon had an alibi for the time the dead woman had been left on the road.

  “On the way here. No one I know saw me, and there’s no one who’ll vouch for what I’m saying. That’s a problem for both of us. I can’t prove my innocence, and you can’t gather enough evidence to charge me with a crime.”

  “Not yet.” That was clearly a warning, and Kara hoped it would shake Eldon enough that the man would spill something important during his interview with Barrett.

  “I didn’t make the bed you’re lying in right now, Deputy Logan. You did. Sometimes, people have to deal with the consequences of their actions.”

  That sent a chill through her because it sounded very much like a threat.

  “If you murdered those surrogates and came after Kara and me, then you’ll have to deal with the consequences of your actions, too,” Daniel warned him right back. “Not just prison time but a needle in the arm because you’ll get the death penalty. Do you think that’s the way to honor your daughter’s memory?”

  Kara held her breath, waiting to see if any of that had gotten through to Eldon, but she couldn’t tell because he ended the call. While it was still fresh in her mind, she went back through the conversation, trying to pick out any details that would give away his guilt. Or his innocence. Nothing. She had no idea if Eldon was the killer who’d made Daniel and her his next target.

  Before Daniel could even put his phone away, it rang again, and for a moment she thought it was Eldon calling them back. But it was Barrett’s voice she heard when Daniel answered the call on speaker.

  “There’s no sign of the gunman,” Barrett immediately said. “Every business owner on Main Street has checked in with Dispatch, and no one has seen him.”


  What Kara felt went well beyond disappointment. This sickened her and made her terrified for Daniel and Sadie.

  “Jake’s just searched the grounds around the inn,” Barrett went on, “and it’s clear. I suspect the guy left the area as soon as he came down off the roof of the diner.”

  Daniel made a sound of agreement, and she could see his shoulders drop. Again, not just disappointment but a weariness that the danger was far from being over.

  “I’ll keep Sadie upstairs a while longer,” Daniel said. “By the way, Eldon just called me. He claims he’s not behind the murders.”

  “Guilty men usually say that,” Barrett grumbled with all the cynicism of a veteran cop.

  “Yeah. He might have thought he was clearing his name by calling me, but I just moved him to the top of my suspect list. I’m thinking he called to taunt me because he missed out on firing shots into the inn.”

  “Where is he?” Barrett immediately asked.

  “The gas station. Maybe you can get someone up there to see if he has a weapon in his vehicle. Maybe a dark cap and sunglasses, too, that match the description of what the gunman was wearing.”

  “I will. I’ll get right back to you on that,” Barrett assured him.

  After another of those heavy sighs, Daniel moved away from the window and came back into the foyer with her. “Don’t get your hopes up,” he said. “If Eldon had those things, he probably ditched them before he ever went in the gas station. He’d know that he would be a suspect just by being in the area.”

  Kara had already thought of that, but until she heard Daniel say it aloud, she hadn’t realized that she had indeed been hanging on to a glimmer of hope. It felt like another blow to have that taken away.

  She tried not to show the disappointment and the barrage of other feelings that were coursing through her. It wouldn’t help anyone if she didn’t stay strong, but she knew she wasn’t fooling Daniel. He was well aware of what she was going through, and that was probably why he pulled her into his arms.