Child In Jeopardy (Saddle Ridge Justice #4)

Chapter One

Deputy Slater McCullough saw the baby the moment he opened his front door. Still, he blinked a couple of times to make sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him. They weren’t. He was looking down at a tiny newborn wrapped in a white blanket that was nestled into an infant car seat on the welcome mat of his porch.

Once he shook off the shock, Slater’s head whipped up, his gaze firing around the darkness. He spotted a flare of red taillights just as a vehicle sped out of sight on his driveway that led to the road.

What the hell was going on?

Moments earlier, someone had knocked at his door, and since his house wasn’t exactly on the beaten path, he’d figured it was someone in his family who’d dropped by. He hadn’t taken long to get from his bedroom to the door, but obviously during that short span of time someone had left the baby and driven off.

Since Slater had put on his holster on the way to the door, he slipped his hand over the butt of his service weapon and continued to glance around, looking for any signs of danger while he also checked the baby. Sleeping. And thank God, he or she didn’t appear to be harmed. There wasn’t a mark or a bruise on that tiny face.

He didn’t have to give a lot of thought as to why someone would have left the child here. He was a cop, after all. A deputy in the Saddle Ridge Sheriff’s Office. Abandoned babies were rare in the small ranching town, but it did occasionally happen, and the baby could have been brought here by someone desperate enough to leave the infant on a cop’s doorstep.

Even though it was mid-October and the sun had already set, it wasn’t cold. Another thing he could be thankful for. Still, he didn’t want the baby out in the night air, so he hoisted up the carrier, brought it inside and set it on his coffee table while he took out his phone. He called Sheriff Duncan Holder, who was not only his boss but also his brother-in-law, and even though Slater knew Duncan was off shift, he answered right away.

“A problem?” Duncan immediately asked.

The question was edged with concern, probably because Slater never called just to chat. Duncan and Slater’s sister, Joelle, and their infant daughter lived only a mile away, and if there was a family matter to discuss, Slater paid them a visit.

“Someone left a baby on my doorstep,” Slater said. “I didn’t see who. The person sped off before I could catch any details about the make of the vehicle or the license plate.”

Duncan was silent for a couple of moments and then muttered some profanity. “Is the baby all right?”

“Fine as far as I can tell.” But Slater did more than just a visual check of the infant’s face. Sandwiching the phone between his ear and shoulder, he eased back the blanket and saw the blue pj’s with little birds and clouds. He lifted the top that was no wider than his hand and saw what he’d already suspected.

“It’s a newborn,” Slater relayed. “The umbilical cord is still attached, and it doesn’t appear to be a home job for clamping off the cord.” Which meant the baby had likely been born in a hospital, or at least with someone with medical knowledge attending the birth.

Slater heard Duncan relay the info to Joelle, and since she was also a deputy, she would no doubt start the search for missing infants along with having the night deputies combing the area for the vehicle. The CSIs would have to be called in as well to examine the baby’s clothes and the carrier. And finally, Child Protective Services would have to be alerted. Thankfully, they had a foster home nearby that took in infants.

While Duncan finished giving the info to Joelle, Slater did a check of the baby’s lower body. Still no signs of any kind of injury except for a bruise on the heel of the baby’s right foot. Since all three of his siblings had babies, he recalled that was the location where blood was drawn for tests. So, more proof that this newborn had been born in a hospital.

“The baby’s a boy,” Slater added to Duncan, doing a quick check in the diaper. They’d need that gender info to compare to any missing babies, but the diaper also told Slater something else. It was dry, and since the baby didn’t appear to be dehydrated, it meant he’d recently been changed.

Slater was about to relay the heel bruise and the dry diaper to Duncan when he heard a sound that stopped him cold. Something or someone had stepped onto his porch. Only then did he remember that he hadn’t locked the door.

He hadn’t heard the sound of a car engine nor seen any headlights through the windows, but he doubted it was a coincidence that he’d get a visitor minutes after someone had left the baby. It was possible this was the child’s parent who’d already had second thoughts about what’d happened and had parked at the end of the driveway and come back for the baby.

“I might have a visitor,” Slater whispered to Duncan. “I’ll call you back.”

Slater ended the call so he could put his phone away and free up his hands. It definitely wasn’t something he wanted to happen, but it was possible this might turn into some kind of altercation. Because even if this was a remorseful parent, there was no way Slater could just hand over the child, not until he was certain the little boy would be safe.

Keeping an eye on the doorknob to see if it moved, Slater eased himself in front of the baby and waited. He didn’t have to wait long.

The door opened a fraction. “Slater?” the woman asked.

She’d used his first name, not Deputy McCullough, but Slater didn’t recognize the voice.

“It’s me, Lana Walsh,” she added.

Slater frowned and his shoulders snapped back. No way had he expected Lana to show up.

Or to have abandoned a baby on his porch.

For one thing, he hadn’t seen Lana in nearly a year. Eleven months and twelve days to be exact. He knew the specific date because Lana had come to his dad’s funeral. A hellish day that even now spurred the equally hellish memories of finding his father murdered.

Yeah, that wasn’t going away anytime soon.

There’d been dozens of people at the funeral, but Slater had spent a good half hour talking to the sisters even though they weren’t what he would call close. They once had been, though. He’d dated Lana’s sister, Stephanie, when they’d been in high school, but when their parents had moved them to San Antonio, he and Stephanie had only kept in touch with the occasional text and lunch. His contact with Lana had been less frequent than that because she’d gone into the military, but he was pretty sure she was out now and was working in personal security.

“Come in,” Slater muttered.

Lana stepped inside, and she spared him a glance before her attention slashed to the baby. The breath she released seemed to be one of relief, but there was no relief on her face. She locked the door behind her and went to the window as if keeping watch.

She hadn’t changed much in the past eleven months and looked more like Stephanie’s twin than a younger sibling. Also, while Stephanie went for glamour, Lana clearly didn’t. Her dark brown hair was short and with a choppy cut. No makeup. She wasn’t wearing an actual uniform, but her outfit had a military vibe to it with her dark jeans, black T-shirt and boots. It didn’t seem to Slater that she’d recently had a baby. That sort of thing, though, could be hard to tell.

“Start talking,” Slater insisted.

She nodded, then swallowed hard. “Is the baby yours?” Lana asked.

This night had already had some huge surprises, but that question was another one. “No.” But he did do a quick mental calculation to see if that was possible.

His last relationship had lasted for over a year and had ended six months ago when the woman had taken a new job in Dallas. It’d been an amicable breakup, so Slater was still in touch with her, and if she’d been pregnant, she would have told him.

“No,” he repeated with much more conviction. “Is he yours?”

Lana took another of those deep breaths. “No. Stephanie gave birth to him.”

Slater automatically glanced back to see if he recognized any of Stephanie’s or Lana’s features. The baby had dark brown hair, but other than that, there wasn’t a resemblance that stood out.

“Stephanie said she was your surrogate,” Lana explained. “That she was carrying the baby for you. Did she?”

Well, hell. That was another surprise. And an out-and-out lie on Stephanie’s part. Slater wanted kids someday, but he doubted he’d ever go the surrogate route.

“No,” he said for the third time just as his phone rang.

The sound echoed through the room, causing the baby to stir and then whimper. Lana hurried to him, automatically rocking the carrier and murmured soothing sounds, something he’d seen his siblings do to quiet their babies. Still, Slater kept his gaze on Lana and the newborn while he looked at the phone screen.

“Duncan,” he muttered.

“Don’t tell anyone I’m here,” Lana insisted.

Slater felt his frown deepen. “Duncan is the sheriff,” he spelled out.

She nodded. “Please don’t tell him or anyone else I’m here,” Lana repeated. “Please.”

Even though he didn’t have nearly all the answers he wanted and didn’t know why Lana had made such a request, Slater decided to take the call. “I’m chatting with my visitor now,” Slater immediately relayed to the sheriff.

“Do you need backup?” Duncan asked.

“No.” And he tried to figure out the best way to deal with this.

Stephanie had lied about being his surrogate. He’d need to know why. But if Stephanie had carried through with that lie for whatever reason, she might have also had Lana bring the baby to him. Of course, that prompted even more questions.

“Hold off on sending anyone out to my place for now,” Slater settled for saying. He didn’t want to have this talk with Lana while CPS or backup deputies were trying to arrest her or take the baby. “I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”

Slater hoped Lana heard the “few minutes” part because that was all the time he was giving her before he let Duncan know that she was his visitor.

“You’re really not the baby’s father?” she asked, and he could tell she was hoping the answer was yes.

“I’m not,” Slater verified. “Now, why did your sister lie, and why do you have her baby?”

Lana pressed her lips together for a moment, but Slater still heard the sob that was threatening to tear from her throat. Tears shimmered in her eyes, but she blinked them back. After several long moments, she opened her mouth, then closed it as if rethinking what she’d been about to say.

“Seven months ago, Stephanie came to me and told me she was pregnant and that she was carrying the baby for you,” she finally muttered. Lana made a visible attempt to steel herself up. “I’d just gotten out of the air force and had started working for a security company, and Stephanie wanted me to help her set up a fake identity and a secret place where she could stay while she was pregnant. A sort of safe house.”

“A safe house?” he questioned. “Why? Was she in danger?”

Again, she took her time answering. “Our parents would have disowned her if they’d found out she was pregnant. At the time, they were pushing for her to marry someone within their social circle.”

Ah, Slater could fill in some of the pieces now. Stephanie and Lana’s parents, Leonard and Pamela Walsh, were old money, with old connections.

And the epitome of rich snobs.

Their estate near Saddle Ridge had been plenty impressive, but he’d heard the one they moved to in San Antonio was even grander. They’d “tolerated” Stephanie dating Slater in high school because his family came from money, too, but he’d known that neither Leonard nor Pamela would have even considered him worthy of anything serious with their daughter.

“If our parents disowned Stephanie, she would have lost her trust fund,” Lana added. “I wrote mine off years ago, but Stephanie doesn’t work, and she would have lost her income while she was pregnant.”

Slater knew what “wrote mine off” meant. Lana had basically thumbed her nose at her snobby parents and had gone into the military. He had to admire her for making her own way, but that didn’t give him answers to his immediate questions.

“So, Stephanie got pregnant, lied to you by saying she was my surrogate and then asked you to hide her away so she didn’t have to face being penniless?” he summarized.

Lana nodded. “She didn’t tell our parents about being pregnant. She insisted she was on the verge of a breakdown and told them she needed some peace and quiet for a while.”

“They bought that?” Slater asked.

“No. I’m sure they didn’t, but by the time Stephanie told them, I’d already set up the secret house for her outside Austin, and she went there within the hour. My parents looked for her. Hard,” she emphasized. “But if they found her, neither Stephanie nor I was aware of it.”

Slater took a moment to process that. It was possible the couple had found their daughter and just monitored her. They could have learned she was pregnant and decided to wait her out. But they probably hadn’t heard about the surrogate part. Because if Leonard and Pamela had thought their daughter was carrying his child, they would have come after him. Not physically, but they would have no doubt tried to make his life a living hell.

“So, who’s his father?” Slater asked, tipping his head to the baby.

“I’m not sure,” Lana admitted. She went back to the window and looked out again. “Stephanie and I had grown apart over the past five years or so, and I don’t know who she was seeing.” She swallowed hard. “When I was setting up the secret house, I ran a background check on her. On my own sister,” she muttered with some self-disgust. “If she was dating someone, she didn’t post anything on social media.”

That wasn’t like Stephanie, who went with TMI when it came to sharing. Well, when it came to sharing details that wouldn’t rile her folks. So that told him that her baby’s father wouldn’t have met with parental approval.

“Two questions,” Slater said. Now that he had the background, he wanted to move this back to the present. “Where is Stephanie, and why do you have her baby?” After that, he’d want to know what she was looking for out the window.

Lana turned and her gaze locked with his. “I have her son because I believe he’s in danger. And Stephanie can’t protect him because she’s dead.” Her voice broke and a single tear slid down her face. “Someone murdered her.”