Page 3 of Child In Jeopardy
Ah, Slater could fill in some of the pieces now. Stephanie and Lana’s parents, Leonard and Pamela Walsh, were old money, with old connections.
And the epitome of rich snobs.
Their estate near Saddle Ridge had been plenty impressive, but he’d heard the one they moved to in San Antonio was even grander. They’d “tolerated” Stephanie dating Slater in high school because his family came from money, too, but he’d known that neither Leonard nor Pamela would have even considered him worthy of anything serious with their daughter.
“If our parents disowned Stephanie, she would have lost her trust fund,” Lana added. “I wrote mine off years ago, but Stephanie doesn’t work, and she would have lost her income while she was pregnant.”
Slater knew what “wrote mine off” meant. Lana had basically thumbed her nose at her snobby parents and had gone into the military. He had to admire her for making her own way, but that didn’t give him answers to his immediate questions.
“So, Stephanie got pregnant, lied to you by saying she was my surrogate and then asked you to hide her away so she didn’t have to face being penniless?” he summarized.
Lana nodded. “She didn’t tell our parents about being pregnant. She insisted she was on the verge of a breakdown and told them she needed some peace and quiet for a while.”
“They bought that?” Slater asked.
“No. I’m sure they didn’t, but by the time Stephanie told them, I’d already set up the secret house for her outside Austin, and she went there within the hour. My parents looked for her. Hard,” she emphasized. “But if they found her, neither Stephanie nor I was aware of it.”
Slater took a moment to process that. It was possible the couple had found their daughter and just monitored her. They could have learned she was pregnant and decided to wait her out. But they probably hadn’t heard about the surrogate part. Because if Leonard and Pamela had thought their daughter was carrying his child, they would have come after him. Not physically, but they would have no doubt tried to make his life a living hell.
“So, who’s his father?” Slater asked, tipping his head to the baby.
“I’m not sure,” Lana admitted. She went back to the window and looked out again. “Stephanie and I had grown apart over the past five years or so, and I don’t know who she was seeing.” She swallowed hard. “When I was setting up the secret house, I ran a background check on her. On my own sister,” she muttered with some self-disgust. “If she was dating someone, she didn’t post anything on social media.”
That wasn’t like Stephanie, who went with TMI when it came to sharing. Well, when it came to sharing details that wouldn’t rile her folks. So that told him that her baby’s father wouldn’t have met with parental approval.
“Two questions,” Slater said. Now that he had the background, he wanted to move this back to the present. “Where is Stephanie, and why do you have her baby?” Afterthat, he’d want to know what she was looking for out the window.
Lana turned and her gaze locked with his. “I have her son because I believe he’s in danger. And Stephanie can’t protect him because she’s dead.” Her voice broke and a single tear slid down her face. “Someone murdered her.”
Chapter Two
Lana had to fight hard to stop herself from breaking down. She couldn’t do that. She had to stay strong. Once she figured out what was going on and the baby was safe, then she could grieve for her sister.
“Murdered?” Slater repeated, automatically taking out his phone. “When and where was Stephanie killed?”
She had to clear the tightness in her throat before she could answer that. “This morning at a hospital in Austin.”
That was apparently enough info for him to fire off a text to someone. No doubt to get details of the investigation. “Before you tell me how the hell Stephanie was murdered in a hospital, explain why you keep looking out the window. Is someone after you?”
“I believe so. And I don’t know why. Or who,” Lana quickly added. “I don’t know a lot of things right now, but I need to fix that. It’s why I came here. I need answers. I have to know if the baby is in danger.”
Slater leveled that intense gaze on her. She’d known him most of her life, but she’d never seen him in cop mode. Before tonight, he’d always been the hot cowboy that her sister had dated in high school. The hot cowboy she’d had a secret crush on. But now, Slater was simply the person she needed to keep her nephew safe.
If he was her nephew, that is.
Lana still didn’t know if this was Stephanie’s biological child or if she had indeed been carrying the baby for someone else.
“Tell me what happened leading up to Stephanie’s death,” Slater said when he finally broke the silence.
The explanation wasn’t going to be easy, and Lana knew each word would give her a slam of memories. A slam of fear, too, and that’s why she took another look out the window. Thankfully, she didn’t see anyone or anything suspicious.
“Like I said, Stephanie was living at the safe house I set up for her, and she was using an alias, Melody Waters,” Lana started. “She called two days ago to tell me she was in labor, so I drove straight to Austin and was with her when she gave birth. Everything went well with the delivery, and I could tell Stephanie loved the baby. Since she was calling him Cameron and didn’t say a word about surrogacy, I figured she’d tell me the truth.”
“You doubted her surrogate story?” he was quick to ask.
“I did, right from the start,” Lana admitted, “and it didn’t help when she refused to tell me who’d hired her to have the baby. She didn’t give me your name until...” She stopped after realizing she needed to back up and tell him something else first. “This morning, Stephanie got a call. I don’t know who it was from, but I could tell it terrified her.”
Lana could still see how the color had drained from her sister’s face. How her hands had trembled. And the fear had burned in her eyes.