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But she wasn’t pregnant.
She slept with six different guys over the next month, all who looked enough like Cal that he would believe the baby was his, and still, she couldn’t get pregnant.
Marcy looked down at her hands and saw that her fists were clenched so tightly that her fingernails had left deep impressions in her palms. She shook them out, ignoring the momentary pain.
She had been resolved to forget Cal. He didn’t deserve herorher child.
And then she found out that he had a baby with another woman.
He hadherbaby—the babyshewas supposed to carry.
It took her nearly two years to get into the San Juan Islands Sheriff’s Department. She had to wait for an opening, and because it was a small department, they didn’t have a lot of openings. But she got on the waiting list andfinallythere was an opening for her. She made sure she was exactly what they wanted. She got advanced certifications that would be beneficial in the island community. She hated using the female card, but she did, subtly. San Juan County only had three female deputies. She was qualified, she was a woman, she got the job.
Marcy walked around the cabin. Framed on shelves were pictures of Jamie as a kid, and of Hazel as a baby. One was of Cal, Jamie, and Hazel. Marcy narrowed her eyes and grabbed it. She almost smashed it on the table, but at the last minute she realized that when Hazel woke up, she might cut herself.
She threw the picture in the trash.
Marcy would give Cal one chance to come to his senses. If he didn’t, she’d kill him.
After dealing with Jamie, she had considered just leaving. She knew winning Cal over was a long shot. But didn’t she need to give the father of her child a chance? One chance to realizetheywere a family?
She looked in her purse, pulled out two Canadian passports. One for her, under the name Anne Elizabeth Porter, and one for Hazel, Elizabeth Hazel Porter. They were perfect and wouldn’t garner any scrutiny when crossing the border. She’d picked Edmonton because it was far enough away that it wouldn’t be the first place anyone would look. The city was large, over a million people, but there were plenty of smaller suburbs and rural areas. They would live out of town but be able to go into town for supplies. She knew how to blend in, and she’d saved enough money that she wouldn’t have to worry about anything for at least a year.
She glanced at her watch. Cal should be here by now. If he’d talked to anyone, she would kill him as soon as he walked in, then disappear. She turned up the police dispatch radio from her patrol car. She’d dismantled the GPS, but she needed the radio. All standard calls. No hint that Cal had called the police or that they were setting up an action on the west side of the island.
She checked on Hazel; she stirred but didn’t wake up.
Ten minutes.
Ten minutes and if Cal wasn’t here, she and Hazel were leaving.
34
As soon as Kara called Matt, he immediately came over to Cal McKinnon’s house with the rest of the team. Time was not on their side, and Cal was in full panic mode. Fortunately, Matt was at his best when he was under pressure, and he listened to Kara’s plan while they stood in Cal’s small living room.
Cal paced. He was supposed to be at the Finches’ cabin by five with a packed suitcase for Hazel, or Jamie would be killed. So Marcy had said. It was quarter to five now.
Kara had been keeping an eye on him as she and Matt worked through her plan, making quick adjustments to the strategy. “Cal, I will not let them die.”
She glanced at Matt. He hadn’t liked her plan, but he agreed: it was the only way they had a chance against a fellow cop.
“We’re too late! She saidfive o’clock. We can’t get to Jared’s house in fifteen minutes! We have to go, you have to let me go—what if she kills them? What if—”
“They’re not dead because she’d have no leverage. And I told you: you’re not going. I am.”
She turned to the rest of the team. Ryder had downloaded detailed and up-to-date maps of the area. They’d already agreed that Cal couldn’t go in—the chances that Marcy would kill him were high. Not to mention that Cal was emotionally involved and there were two other hostages, one of them a young child.
Kara knew there was only one possible way to get everyone out of this alive.
“You know I’m right, Catherine,” she said, addressing her comments to the team member who’d had it out for her from the beginning, and the only one who hadn’t verbally agreed to the plan she and Matt came up with. “I know Marcy better than any of you. I’ve talked to other people who knew her well. She will listen to me.”
Catherine didn’t say anything.
“She started to dress like me. She admires me, looks up to me, wants to emulate me. I can talk to her. You back me up.” She pointed to two spaces on Ryder’s map. “Two in the back, two in the front. I will find out where Hazel and Jamie are, and you get them while I talk her down. Once they are safe, we take Marcy into custody. If it’s not possible to get them, I’m wearing a wire: you’ll know. Matt, you can adjust the plan once we have information, but without me being inside, we have no intel and are flying blind.”
“I can’t let you go in there alone,” Matt said. “I wouldn’t let any team member risk themselves like that. I like your plan, but we go together.”
“And that will set her off. It’s my choice,” Kara said. “It’s why I’m a cop.”
