Secure Location - By Beverly Long Page 0,65
he said. “Don’t move.”
She did as he instructed. And she took deep breaths, trying to quiet her racing heart. Be smart. Be smarter than he is.
“Everybody loves Meg,” he said, in a singsong voice. “Even my own Nana. She tried to warn you. Said I was wrong to hate so much.” He gave her a big smile. “A couple days ago I gave her a taste of what would happen if she didn’t keep her mouth shut. Made sure she told the doctor she fell down the steps. Old ladies and broken hips don’t do so well together.”
She remembered Grandma Percy. She’d been the only Percy to offer any comfort to Meg. Had seemed to understand that Meg was as devastated as a person could be and still be standing. She’d been kind. And she’d doted on T.J.
Tried to warn you. It had to have been her that had come to Meg’s office. And he’d hurt her.
She wanted to strike out, to punch him as hard as she could, but she thought of her baby and kept her arms hanging loosely at her sides.
* * *
DETECTIVE MYERS BROUGHT a whole team to search the hotel. It paid off because they found Charlotte tied up, with duct tape across her mouth, in the fourth-floor janitor closet.
They peeled off the tape and she started spewing.
“He made me write the note. Said that he would kill me if I didn’t. Said he would kill my mother, too.”
“Who?” Cruz demanded.
“That crazy guy who used to work in security. He looked different but I recognized him. Blakely. Troy Blakely. Is Meg okay?”
Cruz couldn’t answer.
“We don’t know,” Detective Myers said.
“I’m sorry. He told me what I had to write on the note and then watched me as I slid it under the door. Then we went out the side door and came up here. He opened the door, told me to come inside and tied me up. I tried screaming and that’s when he put the duct tape over my mouth.”
Myers looked at Cruz. “We’ll find him.”
“You better find her fast,” Charlotte said, looking at Slater. “She’s pregnant.”
Cruz felt like he’d taken a punch in the stomach. He balled up his fist and turned toward Slater.
Slater held up his hand. “We never had that kind of relationship. Look, Meg doesn’t love me. She made that perfectly clear just last night. We’re not together. We’ve never been together and we never will be. She’s still in love with you.”
Cruz’s legs felt weak. He grabbed hold of a shelf to steady himself. Slater might be a jerk but he had always cared for Meg. He wouldn’t lie about something like this. And while his brain was processing that, it was also snapping with the realization that he and Meg had had exactly that kind of relationship. About a month ago. Holy hell.
Charlotte’s eyes filled with tears. She reached out for Slater’s hand. “I thought it was your baby. I hated her for that.” She turned to look at Cruz. “But I never would have hurt her.”
Cruz waved away the explanation. “How do you know she’s pregnant?”
The woman’s fair face turned pink. “I took my mother to the doctor and when we were leaving, I saw Meg leaving her doctor’s office. Early this morning, I saw a prescription for prenatal vitamins on her desk.”
I have something I need to tell you. It’s not an emergency.
Like hell it wasn’t. “Let’s go,” he said, looking at Myers. Meg was pregnant with his child and they were both in danger.
“Where?” Myers asked.
“I have his grandmother’s address, here in San Antonio. I’m hoping she can tell us something.”
They took Myers’s car and used both the lights and siren to speed around traffic. The house was a small ranch on a well-maintained street. There was no garage and no car in the narrow driveway.
Cruz ran up the sidewalk and knocked sharply on the front door. He waited twenty seconds and knocked again. Louder.
Myers stepped off the front porch and started looking in windows. The horizontal blinds were down but they were tilted enough to make the interior visible.
“Anything?” Cruz asked, knocking a third time.
“Nope. No lights on inside. Can’t see a whole lot but the place looks empty.”
Just then the front door of a neighboring house opened. A woman, probably in her late sixties, stepped onto the porch. “Can I help you?” she asked.
Myers stepped forward and flashed his badge. “We’re looking for Mrs. Percy.”
The woman shook her head sadly. “You’ll have to go