[Harlequin] - Dee Holmes - Dillon's Reckoning (txt), Ksiazki, txt
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dillon's reckoningbyDee HolmesChapter 1Judd Dillon had no trouble spotting Adrienne Trudell, despite the chaoticnoise and scrambling hospital staff. Knowing she would be here should haveprepared him, but he braced himself, anyway. He didn't want to even considerthe thought of working with her.Seeing her every day.Concentrating on managing his unwanted and unwelcome feelings.And the worst of it all: remembering too vividly how he'd used her.Dammit, he thought, he hadn't even gotten close enough to speak to her andalready his gut was twisting. What he needed were those steely nerves andthe cool distance he'd perfected over the past few years.Judd stepped around a deserted cart of lunch trays. He made his way down thewide corridor of the maternity floor to where Adrienne was talking softly toa sobbing young woman who looked barely out of her teens.The sound of tears interspersed with wailing grew louder as he got closer.Adrienne turoed and saw him, her eyes catching his for a fleeting secondbefore she resumed patting and reassuring the weeping woman. She urged theyounger woman back into her room and then walked toward him.Despite his preference not to, he noted her curly auburo hair, and the mistyblue eyes that made him think that innocence had a color all its own. Hetook in the flush of her cheqks, and the fitted navy suit that defined herslenderness without looking provocative.In fact, had he not known her credentials, he would have immediatelyconcluded that she was too young and inexperienced for the job she held. ""Ms. Trudell," Judd said in a low voice, trying to ignore the lilacfreshness of her scent filtering through the antiseptic hospital odor."Detective Dillon: 'The automatic formality should have pleaseql him. On one level it did, buthe was still too conscious of the effort it cost to deny and ignore thebitter eqges of his past with her. This, in turo, made him aware of just howcareful he had to be around Adrienne Trudell. Dealing with suppressedtension was always a dangerous proposition.Judd nodded toward the room where the woman had gone. " " I presume she'sthe mother: ' " " Yes. Tanya Whitewell. "He knew the first investigating officers had already been there and would befiling preliminary reports. Right now,Judd also knew, questions were being asked in other parts of the hospital, atthe admittance and visitor's desk, as well as outside, with outer security.Although the sight of a woman leaving a hospital with a baby wasn't unusual,babies often did cause many a fond second look. With anysomeone might have notioed a significant detail.From what Judd had learoed so far, the extent of the description was that the"snatcher" in question had been a woman.Closer questioning of the mother was why he was here. " " Where's thefather? " he asked abruptly. ' " Not here yet. He's a carpenter and isworking on a project in Massachusetts. He's been notified to come to thehospital immediately. " ' Judd nodded and made a mental note to make surethe father was questioned. " Have you learoed anything from ; Mrs.Whitewell? ""Only that she has no idea who the woman was or why she would take her baby.""I have a better question," he said with sharp irntation."How in hell did the woman get close enough to the baby to take him in thefirst place?"She caught her breath and Judd immediaqly realized how fierce and angry hesounded."That wasn't directed at you per5onally," he said gruffly, i wondering why hefelt any need to apologize for being out ; raged at what had happened. i"I'm as angry as you are.""You'rejust better at keeping it in check." i She stared at him. "Should Itake that as a comp1iment or your recognition of a flaw?"He gave her a measuring look, wondering if her question was some kind ofattempt to make him more p11able about working with her. Deciding againstit, he looked away from her. His cynicism was in top form, he decided grimly.Deciding to take a different tack, he said,"LeYs just call it an observation.Maybe I've been at this job too long, butI'm short on patienq and sympathy for carelessness and stupidity by peoplewho should know better. " ; " "You mean the hospital: '"" For starters. ""They've already started internal inquiries. As you can see by just lookingat the nurses and the other staff, everyone is very upset."Judd pulled a notebook from his pocket along with a pen and reminded himselfthat he wasn't a judge, but a cop assigned to get the facts and find theinfant who'd been kidnapped from the hospital. Maybe it was the feeling ofsheer helplessness of the situation or the deeper fear of failure that wasriding him. He didn't know what it was but he had to work quickly.Statistically, the longer the infant was missing the less likely thepossibility of a favorable outcome.To Adrienne he said, "Give me the name of the person who's coordinating theinternal inquiries: ' " "Ralph Fairfax, the hospital administrator. Hisoffice is in the annex."Judd jotted down a few notes and then said, "So fill me in on the mother.""From what Tanya told me, she'd just finished feeding her son. By the way,his name is Caleb. The suspect came into her room saying she'd come to getthe infant and rq turn him to the nursery.""So the baby wasn't staying in the room with Mn. Whitewell?" Judd tightenedhis fingers on the pen, recalling when his wife had given birth to their son.Diana had wanted the baby with her. Diana and Travis. . God, it had beenthree years since he'd allowed himself to think of them this way. Threehellish years since they'd been killed by that drunk driver. He'd gotten onwith the business of living, but his personal life, by his own choice, was abarren stretch of emptiness."No, Tanya had a difficult delivery and her doctor felt she needed the rest,so the baby stayed in the nursery."Dillon's Reckoning IlJudd nodded, busily taking notes and refusing any more self-indulgent foraysinto the past.Adrienne continued, "Tanya said the woman made some comments about how muchshe loved babies, and when she took Caleb, she looked at him so adoringly andwas so nice ; that Tanya wanted to cry." , "A nice woman?" Judd rolled hiseyes. "One who just happened to steal a kid from a hospital?" ' "The factshe stole Caleb doesn't mean she's devoid of feelings," Adrienne said."You're defending her?"" " Of course not, but I don't think this woman, whoever she is, is a totalmonster, either. In fact, her positive reaction to the baby may be a plus.Just because yocc have no heart, Detective Dillon, is no reason to assumethat every emotion shown by a criminal is just part of some con job. ""Yeah, well, given that we have a missing infant, I'd say ' my instincts aredead-on. As far as a con job goes, to take ; an infant from a large hospitalwithout arousing any suspii cion requires a hell of a lot of deoeit-includingthose cuddly smiles the suspect tossed around: Placing the notebook ', andpen back into his pocket, he'd already started to move around her and towardTanya Whitewell's room, when she i touched his arm.He glanced down at her fingers. Her nails were polished , a pale pink and ina clear flash he recalled the way she'd tunneled them through his hair,lightly scraped them along his belly, down to his-oh, hell, he thought inself-disgust. ' The vivid images spiraled through his conscienoe with maxiimum damage before he forced the memory away. " " Please be gentle withTanya," Adrienne said softly, and for a few seconds he could swear that thosesame words had , been uttered in an entirely different context. " "Yocc 'llbe gentle with me, Judd, I know you will. "Judd took a deep breath. Her trust, her faith in him, the giving ofherself-he'd had them all and had hurled them back at her. He'd made itclear with his predawn departure from her apartment a year ago that he wantednothing to do with Adrienne or any of her feelings. It had been too late forhim then. He'd given himself wholly and totally to Diana and when he'd losther and their son, he'd lost himself, as well.Damn the memories. Damn them "Judd? Did you hear what I said?"Judd could have sworn that her nails had penetrated through his jacket andhis shirt. "I heard you. I.ook, I've been a cop for more years than I wantto th'q about. Dealing gently with distraught victims isn't exactly a newconoept But I have to get some answen and that means questions.""I understand that, but she's so young and so confused" Then after a pause,she asked, "Would you object if I stayed while you tallc to her?"He peered at her, a little surprised she would ask permission She worked atthe Seapoint polioe headquarters in a new department that dealt ezclusivelywith children's issues The mayor had okayed the innovative idea siqc monthsago at the request of Child-Aid, a publicly funded program that specializedin missing children and that often worked closely with the police. Moving abranch into the polioe station had ssved taqpayers money and providedin-house timeliness in dealing with the growing number of missing children'scases.Judd Iqew Adrienne had worlaed in various capacities for Child-Aid sincegraduating from college. She preferred to do the legwork of dealing diatlywith the pqq and children rather than the office paperwork. When Judd hadlearned that she'd turned down the job as director, and along with that, asignificant pay raise, he'd been astonished That decision of hers highlightedone of his major problems with Adrienne-she deserved a lot more than she evertook and for reasons that he himself didn't understand , this infuriat...
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