Love at First Sight - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,64

over.”

“Then who does that leave?” Jack asked.

“Vandermullen,” Baxter said without hesitation.

Suddenly he was no longer trying to protect the good doctor. “With your testimony, Vandermullen will be picked up,” Jack assured him. Just not for Liz Jones’s murder. Not without proof. Nor would Baxter go to prison for Liz’s murder without proof.

And Baxter knew it. Karen was the only one who could put Baxter at the hotel that night with Liz. That might be enough for a jury to convict him. But without Karen—

“There is one other person—” Baxter hesitated, his face contorted in pain. “My sister, Annette.” He sounded close to tears. “That’s why I got the map to your lodge, Jack. I’m afraid she might have killed Liz. That she might harm Karen.”

Jack stared at him. Would Baxter stoop so low as to finger his own sister for murder just to save himself?

“She was at the hotel that night,” he said, looking upset about what he was saying. “I saw her. She was very distraught. I tried to talk to her—”

Jack recalled that Karen said she saw a friend of her mother’s at the hotel that night—just down the hallway from Liz’s room. Could it have been Annette Westbrook? His blood ran cold. What if he was wrong? What if Baxter wasn’t the killer? “Could she have found out that Liz was looking for Danielle?” he asked.

“Maybe.”

Jack told himself that Baxter was just trying to shift the blame. To confuse him. To make him second-guess himself. But he couldn’t shake the thought that the killer might still be loose. Still out there.

Baxter looked up, almost in surprise, at the sound of a siren.

“You’re under arrest,” Jack said as he opened the front door to let the police officers in.

“Please read him his rights,” Jack said to one of the officers.

Detective Captain Brad Baxter sat quietly. Jack waited until the officers had cuffed and loaded Baxter into the back of a patrol car.

Then certain that at least he wouldn’t have to worry about Baxter, Jack climbed in his Jeep, anxious to get back to the lodge and Karen. But he had one stop he had to make first. Because his gut instinct told him he had to be sure he’d just had the right man arrested.

THIS EARLY in the afternoon on a nice spring day, Dr. Carl Vandermullen wasn’t in his office, just as Jack had guessed. But he was at the golf course. Jack found him in the clubhouse, drinking bourbon on the rocks.

“You son of a—” Jack jerked Vandermullen to his feet by his polo shirt. The other two golfers at the table with the doctor started to get to their feet and come to Vandermullen’s defense. “Don’t even think about it,” Jack snarled.

“It’s a personal matter,” Dr. Vandermullen said quietly as he motioned for his golfing buddies to leave them alone. He freed himself from Jack’s hold. He was stronger than Jack thought he’d be. “Perhaps we could discuss this in one of the private dining rooms?”

Jack followed him into a quaint little room that looked out on the course and a stand of aspens. Along with a half dozen tables and twice that many chairs, it was furnished with a sitting area, complete with love seats and a bar.

“Care for a drink?” Vandermullen asked as if this were a social call.

Jack knew he had to keep his cool. The last thing he wanted to do was get arrested. He had to get back to the lodge and Karen. But he had to judge for himself if what Baxter had told him was the truth.

“I’ll pass on the drink,” he said between gritted teeth. “You lied about the baby.”

Vandermullen poured himself a bourbon and sloshed it around, the ice clinking softly on the glass. “I had to.”

“The same way you had to lie about drugging her, stealing her baby, selling it and pretending it had died?” Jack asked angrily.

Vandermullen stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Brad Baxter told me everything. How you drugged Liz, sold him the baby and then lied about it being born with the umbilical cord around its neck.”

The doctor shook his head. Either he was a great actor or—

“Liz was the one who wanted to give up the baby. Not me. I wanted a child. I knew I couldn’t have any of my own.” He nodded at Jack’s surprise. “I’m sterile.”

Jack frowned. “Then you knew Liz was carrying another man’s baby?”

“Johnny K’s.”

This wasn’t going anything like Jack had thought. “What about