“Sure you are. You’re a cop.” Carl gave her another gentle nudge. “What does that cop’s gut tell you?”
“That Norah Cabot likes Maddy more than she expected to, but she doesn’t feel like Maddy’s mother. She probably never will.” Kristen toed the dirt in front of the stone bench. “Some things you can never change, even if you want to.”
Carl was silent for a long moment. When he next spoke, it was in a low, serious tone. “I think you should go to Darden to see your mother.”
“YOU WANTED TO TALK TO ME?” Norah settled into one of the armchairs in her room at the Sycamore Inn. Challenge burned in her green eyes as she waved at the seat across from her. “So talk.”
Sam ignored the invitation to sit. “Your fiance is in a tough Senate primary battle with Halston Stevens. I know Stevens well enough to know he and his handlers will be looking for any dirt they can find on Stilson.”
“Graham is a puritan. There’s nothing to find.”
“What about his fiancee, the woman who abandoned her three-month-old child to pursue her career?”
Norah’s eyes flickered at his hard words, but she shrugged. “It’s not like I dropped her in a Dumpster somewhere.”
This time, he was the one who flinched. “God, Norah.”
“You think I came here to meet Maddy so that when someone asked, I could say, ‘Oh, I was just down in Alabama last week, visiting my adorable little girl. See-this is her latest photo. Doesn’t she look just like me?’” Norah leaned forward. “Does it really matter why I came? Does it change anything?”
“Did you engineer this excuse? Did you hire someone to threaten my daughter?”
“Our daughter.”
“
Norah’s eyes grew shiny, and her lower lip trembled, catching him off guard. “God, Sam, I know I was a terrible wife and even more useless as a mother, but if you think I could do such a thing-” She stopped short, licking her lips. “I suppose you think that a woman who could turn her back on her child would be capable of anything.”
“I just want to understand why you’re here.”
“Because I was curious, all right?” She looked down at her hands. “When the police called, and then you left a message right behind them, I realized my daughter could have died the other night, and I’d have to live with the fact that I’d never really known her. You know, a three-month-old didn’t even seem like a real person, but a four- year-old-I just-I didn’t want to have regrets.”
Sam stared at her, not sure whether or not he could believe her. There had been a time when he’d thought he knew her better than anyone else in the world.
Clearly, he’d been fooling himself. He was beginning to think he’d never really understood her at all.
“I didn’t do this, Sam. I swear that to you.” Norah leaned toward him, placing her hand on his arm. Her fingers were cool and light. “But I’ve been thinking about it, and I may have an idea who did.”
KRISTEN LOOKED UP AT Carl Madison, horrified. Had he really said she should go see her mother? “No, Carl.”
“You’ve never faced her. Not in all these years.” Though his expression was gentle, his gray eyes were hard, like pieces of flint. “I think it’s time.”
“I don’t owe her anything.”
“You owe it to yourself.”
She shook her head, rising to her feet. “We’re not going to talk about this, Carl. If that’s why you came here-”
“I came here to see about you. Period.” Carl rose and stood in front of her, reaching out one hand to tip her chin up, making her look at him. “I’m on your side, kitten. Always.”
“I don’t want to go see her.”
“Okay.” He let his hand drop to her shoulder and gave her a soft squeeze. “Let me take you to Brightwood for lunch.”
She managed a real smile. “Helen would kill me if I let you step into that diner. Think of your cholesterol, man.”
“She has you trained, I see.” Carl slipped his arm around her shoulder and walked with her to where she’d parked her Impala. He opened the car door for her, lingering as she slipped behind the wheel. His expression grew serious. “Kristen, if you want out of this Maddy Cooper assignment, I’ll arrange it. I shouldn’t have pushed you into it.”
She shook her head. “You were right, Carl. I need to do this. I think I can get a lot accomplished from the inside.”
“Good for you.” He gave her shoulder another squeeze, then stepped back, closing the door. He gave a wave as she put the Impala in gear and backed out of the parking space.
Reaching the highway, she headed south toward the office, remembering Sam’s promise to bring Norah to the station so she could question her alone. But before she was a mile down the road, her cell phone vibrated against her side. She checked the phone and found Sam Cooper’s phone number displayed.
She flipped the phone open. “Tandy.”
“Kristen, it’s Sam Cooper. I’m at the Sycamore Inn in town with Norah. How soon can you get here?” The tension in his voice made her stomach hurt.
“I’m about five minutes away. What’s up?”
“I was just talking to Norah about some of my old cases and I think we may have something.”
He was talking to Norah about old cases? Had he forgotten she was still a suspect? Tamping down her annoyance, she asked, “What kind of something?”
“A damned good motive for someone to use Maddy to hurt me,” Sam answered.
“HIS NAME IS ENRIQUE CALDERON,” Sam told Kristen the minute she entered Norah’s room, eager to get her input. “His son, Carlos, was here on a student visa six years ago when he raped and murdered a fellow student at Georgetown University. Two weeks ago, while serving twenty to life in a Maryland state prison, he was murdered by another inmate.”
He told her about the case, how he’d prosecuted Carlos Calderon despite his father’s multiple attempts to buy off judges and intimidate witnesses.
She listened carefully, her expression darkening. “And since you put Carlos in jail in the first place, you think Calderon wants revenge?”
“Absolutely.”
Kristen glanced at Norah. “Were you around at the time of the trial?”
Norah nodded. “I heard about Carlos Calderon’s death soon after it happened, but since Sam was down here by then, I thought he might not have heard about it.”
“How lucky for him that you had,” Kristen murmured. Sam didn’t miss the skepticism in her voice.
Neither did Norah. “What are you suggesting?”
“It’s a place to look that we didn’t have before,” Sam said firmly, drawing Kristen’s attention back to him.
“You said Enrique Calderon lives in Sanselmo,” Kristen pointed out, shooting another glance at Norah. “That’s quite a long reach.”
“He’s a man with a very long reach,” Sam countered. “Calderon is one of the most powerful criminals in a country with its share of powerful criminals. He’s behind much of the corruption that kept Sanselmo poor and dangerous for decades. He’s probably funding half the terror attacks El Cambio and other rebel groups are carrying out in Sanselmo right now.”
Kristen’s brow furrowed. “And he’s taking time out of trying to destabilize a whole country to kidnap Maddy?”
“Do you have a better theory?” Norah asked coolly.
“Maddy said the assailant was Caucasian,” Kristen added.
“Maddy wouldn’t know the difference between white and Hispanic,” Sam said.
Kristen looked a little annoyed, but she gave a brief nod. “Okay. I’ll look into his current whereabouts.”
“We’ve already got feelers out,” Sam said. “Norah has friends in the State Department.”
Kristen looked up at him. “We’ll go through our own channels,” she insisted. If she was bluffing, it didn’t show.
