Meghan’s gaze landed on the door to the stairwell. Christina and accomplices had come through it on their way to escaping.
Hoping against hope to find her sweet relative, Meghan yanked open the stairwell door and stepped inside. She peered over the railing, but saw no sign of the toddler on the descending or the ascending staircase.
Nearly overwhelmed with disappointment and anguish, she went back to the first-floor landing. Her heart leaped into her throat as Ryan escorted Christina into the building with her hands cuffed behind her back.
Ryan’s gaze, full of hope, met Meghan’s. Tears burned the backs of her eyes as she gave a negative shake of her head. His expression darkened, his jaw firming.
Meghan stepped in front of Christina, blocking the path. “Where is she? What have you done with her?”
“You,” Christina ground out. “You’ve ruined everything.”
“Please, Christina,” Meghan pleaded as Ryan handed Christina over to another NYPD officer’s custody. “Please, tell me where she is.”
“Excuse us, ma’am,” the officers said.
Ryan gently applied pressure at her elbow. She received the message loud and clear. The officers needed her to move out of the way so they could escort their suspect from the premises. She turned on him. “You can’t let her leave until she tells us where Georgina is.”
“We can talk to her at the police station,” he said. His tortured expression mirrored what she felt inside.
Reluctantly she stepped aside. A leaden weight bowed her shoulders as Christina was escorted out of the building.
“What happened to the men?” she asked.
Ryan ran a hand through his hair, his fingers leaving grooves in the thick, dark strands. “They escaped. An NYPD officer gave chase, but…”
“Do you know who they were? What were they doing here? Did they say anything to help us find Georgina?” Hysteria simmered blow the surface, making her voice shake. She wanted to find Georgina so badly she felt physically ill.
“No,” he replied and walked toward Officer Cribs’s cruiser.
She raised her stinging gaze to the sky. The situation kept getting worse. How much more could little Georgina take? How much more could she take?
Four days ago it had all seemed so simple. Find Georgina, get her to safety and sue for custody. Simple. Only, life was never simple. Nor easy.
She’d learned that lesson long ago. But God never promised it would be easy or simple, only that He would be there for her to cling to.
And cling she would because that was all she had to see her through this nightmare.
There were times when Ryan completely understood the vigilante mind-set. This was one of those times. He’d never entertained thoughts of harming a suspect in custody before, and he hated feeling the burning need to shake Christina Hennessy’s tongue loose now.
The woman refused to talk after her outburst when she’d seen Meghan. A smart move on her part. Aggravating for Ryan.
Standing against the back wall of the NYPD interrogation room, he pinned Christina Hennessy with his most intimidating glare. Gone was any semblance of the icy social-climbing wife of a prominent lawyer. Christina’s blond hair was matted with sweat and dirt, her clothes filthy from running through the back alley. Her right shoe missing, lost somewhere during the chase.
Captain Gregson, a behemoth of a man with thinning hair and a steely gaze, sat across from Christina at the metal table in the interrogation room of the 13th Precinct.
The bad lighting made the woman’s complexion pasty with a yellow tint.
Ryan glanced at the two-way-mirror wall to his right. Meghan sat behind it watching, hoping Christina would confess to murder and reveal Georgina’s location. It gave Ryan a measure of comfort knowing that Meghan would be praying as she surely was. Her faith was strong. Hopefully, strong enough for them all.
Because the rage burning inside Ryan wasn’t very Christian-like.
Ryan had cornered Christina against a chain-link fence while her partner in crime had scaled the barrier. Ryan had been tempted to rough her up a little. Anything to find out the location of the missing child.
And the fact that she was at a known forger’s hidey-hole only added strength to his suspicions that Christina was guilty. Of exactly which crimes, he had yet to determine.
The dead man in the apartment was a notorious forger. Christina wouldn’t say who killed the man. The other two unidentified suspects were in the wind.
Ryan eyed the cup of water Christina primly drank from, unwittingly leaving behind her DNA. At least by the end of the day they’d have the evidence needed to run against the unidentified DNA found on the rock that had killed Olivia. Ryan had little doubt the two DNA samples would match, confirming Christina’s involvement.
But that wasn’t what had his gut twisted in knots.
Georgina was still missing. He prayed the child was alive.
Ryan couldn’t take Gregson’s tactic of waiting Christina out any longer. He removed the photo of Georgina he’d been carrying in his shirt pocket and laid it on the table in front of Christina.
“Do you love her?” he asked quietly.
Christina’s gaze dropped to the picture. Georgina’s face beamed at the camera. Her bright blue eyes danced with merriment. Her chubby little cheeks puffed up in a wide grin. The child looked happy, healthy. Well cared for. Loved.
The stony expression Christina had maintained since the moment he’d apprehended her shifted, softened. But she remained stubbornly mute.
“Do you love her?” Ryan pressed, hoping to reach the woman’s maternal side, the side that had wanted a child desperately enough that she’d adopted one. Or bought one. No matter what it took, Ryan would dig into the adoption and uncover the truth after he rescued Georgina. “She loves you.”
Christina winced, giving Ryan hope that he was getting through.
A sharp rap on the interrogation room door made Ryan’s stomach clench with frustration at the interruption. He was so close to getting what he and Meghan needed.
Gregson slid from the chair and opened the door. He stepped out into the hall.
Ryan took the vacated seat and pushed the image of Georgina closer to Christina. “You went to a lot of trouble to bring this little girl into your home, into your life,” he said quietly. “You’re her mommy. You’ve taken very good care of your daughter. She needs you now more than ever. She’s scared and alone, needing her mommy.”
Her eyes welled and a single tear fell and landed on the table with a splat.
Glad to see some emotion in the woman besides anger, he pressed, “Tell me where she is so we can help her.”
NINE
The door to the interrogation room burst open and a man in a tailored suit marched in with Gregson following close behind.
“I’m Mrs. Hennessy’s attorney, William Sharp. You have no right to question my client without my presence,” Sharp said as he came around the table to stand beside Christina.
Ryan whipped his gaze to Gregson.
Gregson shrugged. “He’s her lawyer.”
Ryan’s fingers curled into fists. Just how had the lawyer known to show up? Christina hadn’t asked for him. He turned back to Christina. The tears had dried.
“I’ll tell you what you want to know if you let me go,” she said, her voice hollow.
“Christina, don’t say a word,” Sharp commanded. “I’d like a moment alone with my client.”
