Assumed Identity

chapter Eleven



“You think her story’s legit?” Detective Fensom asked.

“It’ll be the biggest break we’ve had on our investigation yet if we can prove it’s true.” Spencer Montgomery never took his eyes off the glass. “Even if she IDs him, her testimony will never stand up in court.”

“But we’d have DNA. With DNA and a reliable witness who can describe the attacks, we could put that bastard away.”

Jake scrubbed his hand over his face and jaw and paced a circle around KCPD’s Fourth Precinct observation room. The sun was setting outside. The rain still drummed on the rooftop. There were at least a dozen detectives and uniformed officers on the other side of that door in the building’s third-floor bullpen.

And there was a man somewhere out there in the city who’d managed to track him to that church this afternoon.

No one had been able to track him for two years.

He’d spotted that retro-cool trilby hat, like that morning at the newsstand. Sitting in a car on the street in front of the church. With all the fancy trappings of that overblown soiree, he could bet that the driver with the black hat masking his face wasn’t a guest. He could bet he wasn’t on Jake’s trail because he wanted a friendly family reunion, either. Who was that guy? DEA agent? Gun for hire? Someone with a personal grudge he couldn’t remember?

After securing Robin and Emma in the car, he’d gone back to see what the guy’s interest was in Jake’s business. But the car was gone. Trilby guy was nowhere to be seen. And Robin had needed him.

Saving that woman was getting to be a regular habit.

But it was a job he needed to hand off to someone else.

His location in Kansas City had been compromised. If he wanted to stay alive, he needed to get out of this police station and get as far away from the responsibilities and unexpected notoriety of protecting a stubborn woman and her innocent child as he could get.

But he couldn’t leave. Especially after hearing Tania Houseman’s tragic story. His conscience wouldn’t let him.

His heart wouldn’t, either.

Jake felt trapped, caged like some sort of wild animal. He stood behind the mirrored window with Detectives Montgomery and Fensom and watched as Robin sat at the interview table in the adjoining room, trying to coax anything that made sense out of Tania Houseman.

Judgment day could come, and Jake knew he wouldn’t leave Robin alone with the crazy woman who’d been identified as Emma’s birth mother. If that whacko had gotten through the SUV’s windows to Robin and Emma, Jake might be pacing a hospital corridor or even the morgue right now.

Whacko. Like he had room to talk. He took a deep breath and stopped at the window to watch Robin work some of that patient, stubborn magic that was changing him on the disturbed young woman who’d been calling, mailing and following Robin for weeks now, apparently. It was all part of Tania Houseman’s obsession with the baby she’d given up for adoption.

A doctor from the Oak View Sanitarium sat in the room with her patient, after giving her whatever meds were necessary to calm her down. But it was Robin who’d finally gotten the woman talking after she’d either freaked out or shut down when the task force detectives had tried to interview her.

“When you’re a mother, even when it’s hard...you still have to be a mother.” Robin had left Emma with Officer Wheeler in one of the nearby conference rooms. But she hadn’t shied away from sitting down with the woman who’d butchered Emma’s clothes and threatened to kidnap her. She sat at the table opposite the dazed young woman who scratched at the scars on her wrists. “I think you did a very brave thing by going through with the pregnancy after you’d been raped. You gave your daughter life, and I, for one, will always be grateful to you for that.”

“I thought I could love her. I do love her.” Tania lowered her gaze to the table. “I miss her.”

“I know. I miss her terribly when I’m separated from her, too.” Robin rubbed her hands up and down her arms, as if the temperature in the next room was dropping. She glanced back at the mirrored window and Jake moved toward her. Maybe she didn’t need him right now. Maybe she was looking to the detectives for a bit of guidance on how to elicit the information they were hoping Tania could give. She turned back to the young woman across the table. “Tania, do you know who Emma’s, I mean Hailey’s, father is? Do you know who raped you?”

The younger woman, dressed in orange jail scrubs, nodded. “I never saw his face that night. But he gave me a red rose.”

* * *

ROBIN PAUSED IN the doorway of the interview room as Dr. Freitag and a female police officer escorted Tania down the hallway to the restroom. She rubbed the weary tension in her neck and wondered if Emma was still asleep. She wished she was sleeping, too. Preferably with Jake’s arms around her like they’d been last night so she could feel that sense of security his strength and warmth gave her. How did detectives like Spencer Montgomery and Nick Fensom do this kind of grueling, heart-wrenching work?

“Where’s my sister?” Like everyone else on the floor, Robin turned at the man charging across the room from the sergeant’s check-in desk. “Tania? Where are they taking her?”

Robin stepped forward to stop him and urge him to lower his voice. “To the restroom, Mr. Houseman. She’ll be back.”

The banking executive wore a suit and tie similar to the outfit he’d worn that day outside the Shamrock Bar when he’d warned her about a “life-or-death” problem. He was still preaching the same doom and gloom when he turned on Robin. “My sister is a sick woman. Whatever she’s done, she isn’t responsible.”

Robin braced her hands at her hips. “Are you the responsible one in the family, then?”

“I tried to warn you. My sister is unstable. Who knows what she’ll say or do?”

“She says she was assaulted by the Rose Red Rapist—that my daughter is the child of that rape.”

That bold statement seemed to take him aback as much as seeing Spencer Montgomery, Nick Fensom and Jake step out of the adjoining room to form a semicircle around him. “This isn’t about her vandalizing your car? Or sending those messages?”

“Or locking me in the refrigerator at my shop.” Tania Houseman’s misguided transgressions seemed minor, in retrospect, compared to what big brother had done. “She said you advised her not to report that she’d been raped.”

Bill Houseman’s hands went to the knot of his tie, needlessly straightening it. “I didn’t find out about it until after the child was born.”

“She’s tried to kill herself at least once, judging by the scars on her wrists. She needs to talk to someone about it.”

As the circle of armed men closed in around him, Bill Houseman grew more agitated. “I did what I thought was right. At first I thought she was less than thrilled about having a baby because she had just launched her art career with her first big show.” He raked his fingers through his perfectly styled hair and left a rumpled mess in their wake. “About halfway through the pregnancy, she changed. She became sullen, depressed. She stopped painting. That’s when I sent her to the Oak View Sanitarium. She had the baby and came home and was happy for a month or so. Then she woke up one morning and slit her wrists.” He turned to share his explanation with Jake and the detectives. But he wasn’t finding much sympathy there, either. “That’s when she told me about the rape. I had her sign away her rights and put Hailey up for adoption. I wanted to get any symbol of that monster out of Tania’s life.”

Jake stepped forward to defend Emma before Robin could. “There’s no monster in that little girl. She’s a beautiful, perfect baby.”

“I thought maybe getting that baby back would bring Tania back to me. It’s not easy to watch the talented little sister you grew up with waste away into an empty-eyed shell of herself.”

“That’s why you attacked me?” Robin asked. “Was Tania trying to kidnap my daughter while you dragged me into that alley?”

“No. That was all on me. I thought I’d knocked you out, and I was going to take the baby then. But you wouldn’t stay down.”

Spencer Montgomery had an idea on that. “So you tried to make it look like a rape so that we’d look for a different type of suspect. Not someone trying to kidnap a child.”

“I just wanted my sister to be happy again.”

“Billy?” Tania, barely vocal, shuffled a little faster down the hall as she went to greet her brother.

Bill Houseman wound his arms around her slender shoulders and pressed a kiss to the crown of her hair. “Hey, kiddo. How are you holding up?”

“Better. The police department has a victim specialist I can talk to.” She glanced back at the woman behind her. “And Dr. Freitag says the hospital has a trauma-recovery program I can go to. Is that all right?”

“Whatever you need.” Billy gave his sister another kiss and then handed her back to the doctor. “Take good care of her.”

Dr. Freitag put a supportive arm around her patient to lead her down the hallway. But the fragile young woman who’d endured far more than she should stopped and turned to her brother. “It’s better for Hailey—” she flashed an apology to Robin “—for Emma, I mean—to be with Ms. Carter. She loves her, too.”

Billy nodded and winked at his sister. Once Tania and the doctor had left the floor, Houseman turned to Detective Montgomery, who must have been exuding enough authority that he assumed, correctly, that Montgomery was the man in charge. “Are you pressing charges against my sister?”

“That’s up to Ms. Carter.”

Robin shook her head. “Your motives might be in the right place, Mr. Houseman. Your methods, however, are unforgivable.”

Bill Houseman nodded. “You can’t prove I’ve done anything. We’re just having a friendly conversation here. You never Mirandized me.”

Jake moved to stand beside Emma and draped an arm around her shoulders. “Ask him if he still has a bruise under his collar from where I put a choke hold on him that night. From what I hear, it leaves a mark.”

Nick Fensom looked like he was ready to rip open Bill’s collar on the spot. “Well, Mr. Houseman?”

Houseman was fiddling with his tie again. “I think I’d like to talk to my attorney now.”

* * *

JAKE WAITED FOR Nick Fensom to escort Bill Houseman to lockup before he went down to the conference room where Robin had given Emma a bottle and was changing her. The hour was late, he was bone tired and he needed a shave. But when he looked into the room and saw how Robin’s face lit up as she played a tickle game with her daughter, and heard how Emma’s laughter filled the room, he smiled.

The moment didn’t last, though. Spencer Montgomery walked up beside him. He pulled back the front of his suit coat and stuck his hands into his pockets. But Jake didn’t believe there was anything casual about the detective’s thoughts and actions.

“We need to verify Ms. Houseman’s statement,” he started, without any preamble, “but the MO she described of her assault matches what other victims have said about the Rose Red Rapist, including some details we’ve never released to the public.” Montgomery watched the mother and daughter show for a few seconds before adding, “If our unsub finds out that baby is his—that we now have his DNA—”

“Then he’ll go after Emma.” Jake glanced over at the detective. “Let’s try to keep that particular story out of the newspapers, okay?”

“Agreed. Ms. Carter has already agreed to let our lab take blood samples from her daughter. Do you think she’s figured out what kind of danger they’ll be in?”

“The woman is too smart not to.”

Jake had been thinking a lot about Robin and Emma’s chances for a happily ever after if he saved his own hide and left K.C. He’d also been thinking about his own chance at happiness if he left the Carter girls behind and someone even more violent than a disturbed young woman and her misguided brother hurt them.

Talk about a guilty conscience.

“Are you staying on as bodyguard?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Jake vowed.

Montgomery nodded. “Agent Nash stopped by my office this afternoon. I sent him to the Journal to talk to Gabe Knight about those articles he wrote on you. He’s going to call me later tonight. Are you still unavailable?”

Jake was wondering if his instinct to trust Spencer Montgomery was a smart one, or just wishful thinking. “Did this Agent Nash say anything about me?”

“He showed me a picture of you—when you were younger and prettier.” Good one. Jake almost laughed. “He said he’s your handler.”

“Handler?” Jake looked the detective straight in the eye. Nash hadn’t come with a wanted poster?

“He said you were one of the best undercover operatives he’s ever worked with. Apparently, you’ve been listed as MIA for a couple of years now. What happened? Did you go AWOL on a mission?”

He was one of the good guys? That DEA badge in his pocket was his? Then who did he kill? And why was the guy in the trilby hat following him? It was a lot of information to process. And he had no way of knowing how much or little of that information was true until he talked to Nash or the mystery guy in the hat.

“It’s a long story.” Reenergized by the need to verify some answers and possibly get a breakthrough to his missing past, Jake nodded to the detective and headed into the conference room to gather the Carter girls and their things.

“I drink coffee and bourbon,” Montgomery called after him. “Stick around town at least until my task force catches its man, and I’ll buy you a drink and listen to that story.”

A few minutes later, Jake was in the Fourth Precinct parking garage, keeping watch while Robin buckled in the car seat. Her movements weren’t as efficient as usual and that worried Jake. “Tired?” he asked.

At first Robin shook her head. “Yes, but...”

But that wasn’t what was bugging her.

“What is it?”

“Look at how that assault affected Tania Houseman, and the terrible things her brother did because of it.” She pulled a blanket up over Emma and tucked it beneath her chin. Her hand lingered at Emma’s round cheek. “If he is her father, if Emma is the product of a brutal rape—will she ever have to find out?”

Jake wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, pressing a kiss to her temple. He reached inside the SUV and lay his hand over Robin’s to cup Emma’s cheek. “A person can handle anything if she has love and support in her life.” A hell of a lot better than by isolating oneself from the world, he was learning.

“She’s got you to protect her, right?” Robin nestled her head beneath Jake’s chin and an unexpected warmth filled his chest.

Was this thing real between them? Or was a real relationship, a real family, ever in the cards for a man like him?

“No, honey. She’s got you. She can’t have a stronger, stauncher ally than her mother.”

* * *

JAKE KNEW SOMETHING was wrong as soon as he turned onto the long gravel driveway. Even with the moonless sky and drizzle of rain misting the air, there should be some light beyond the SUV’s high beam headlamps to guide their path. But there was no yard lamp, no security lights, no night-light burning through the kitchen window.

“Power’s out.”

Robin roused herself from where she’d been dozing against the headrest and sat up straight. “I didn’t think the storm was that bad. What time is it?”

“After midnight.”

She pushed the tumbled waves off her face and scanned the countryside with him. “I can’t even see the barn, much less the trees behind it.”

“Or what’s over the next hill on either side of the road.”

He checked the rearview mirror when she looked in the backseat to ensure that Emma was still sleeping. “I’ve got flashlights in the kitchen and bedroom, and camping lanterns in the basement.”

Jake nodded, wishing he could believe that a lightning strike had taken out a local transformer. But he’d been in survival mode for too long to not be suspicious. “I’ve got a flashlight in my go-bag, too.” Instead of pulling around to the garage behind the house, Jake stopped at the sidewalk leading up to the front door. “Let’s get the kid out and put to bed first, and then I’ll go downstairs to double-check that we haven’t thrown a breaker.”

Leaving the headlights on to light their path, they unloaded Emma in record time and dashed up to the porch before they got too wet. Jake peered into the darkness for any signs of movement while Emma pulled out her keys to unlock the door.

“Jake?” He turned around to see the front door floating open. Robin’s key was still in her hand. “I never forget to lock it.”

“Stay behind me.” Something was definitely wrong. And it wasn’t any power outage.

He pulled his Beretta from its ankle holster and nudged the door open. He sniffed the air and picked up a faint scent that was neither perfume nor baby powder. No, this one was more tobacco and man sweat.

Maybe she smelled it, too. “I’ve had a break-in?” she whispered.

“Looks like it.” With one hand clutching the back of his shirt and the other holding Emma’s carrier between them, Robin followed Jake through the living room into the kitchen. There were no other signs of broken windows or forced locks. Her CD stereo system was still on its shelf; a small television sat on the kitchen counter. “It’s not a robbery.”

“Then what? Someone getting out of the rain?” They paused for her to get a flashlight and hand it to Jake. Crossing the gun and flashlight at his wrists, Jake led a quick search through the rest of the main floor, ending up in the family room, where the quilt from this morning still lay in a clump at one end of the sofa. “I thought these threats against Emma and me were done.”

“They are. The Housemans aren’t going to bother you anymore.” His stomach fisted in his gut. “This is about me. I’m sorry, honey. I think my nightmare followed me here.”

She moved up beside him. “How do you know?”

“That.” He pointed the beam of the flashlight at the square coffee table and heard her gasp.

Jake’s fake passports and IDs were spread neatly across the top of the coffee table. In the middle of them all, the intruder had carved a symbol into the dark wood and jammed the knife he’d most likely used into the middle of it.

Robin’s fingers pinched into his forearm. “What does that mean?”

Jake didn’t know, but he had a feeling the capital G with all the extra curlicues wasn’t anything good. “Give me the kid.” He hoisted the carrier in one hand and nodded to the front door. “Let’s get out of here.”

The red targeting laser dotted Robin’s chest and he had no time to do more than to shove her out of the way before the front window shattered and a white-hot poker ripped through his left shoulder.

“Jake!”

The impact of the bullet knocked him back across the table. “Get down!”

A trio of shots peppered the brick fireplace, spraying chips of shrapnel across the room. He heard the reports a split second later and tried to gauge the distance of the shooter, but three more shots zinged over his head before he could crawl back to the sofa to kill the flashlight and pull Robin and Emma down to the floor beneath him.

“You’re bleeding.”

They were all going to be bleeding soon if he couldn’t get a bead on this guy and take him out. “It went through. That’s better than having the bullet inside.”

He felt Robin’s cool hand at the scar on his temple an instant before he felt the pain webbing through his shoulder. “Ow!”

“Sorry. No, I’m not. Not really.” She’d dumped Emma’s bag and was pressing a diaper against the wound to stanch the bleeding. Oh, yeah, this one was smart. But tending to the injured wasn’t going to keep them alive over these next few minutes. He checked the magazine in his gun and the one in his pocket. Thirty shots. The shooter had already fired off at least half that number.

Right now their best move was the phone, not more guns. He dug Robin’s cell out of the mess on the floor and thrust it into her hands. The diaper fell and warm blood trickled down his arm again. “Call Montgomery for backup.”

Six more shots. He palmed the top of Robin’s head and pulled her into his chest to shield her as chunks of wood and plaster rained down on them.

Jake’s go-bag was missing. That meant whoever was out there was armed to the teeth. And judging by the message on the coffee table, he knew how to use any weapon Jake could.

“Can you take a picture with that phone?”

“Yes?”

“Send a picture of that carving to Montgomery. Tell him to show it to Agent Nash to see if it means anything to him.”

Robin nodded and raised the phone to capture the image. Jake pushed up from his position to fire three random shots to give her some cover. “Got it.”

“Texts only. I don’t want any phone ringing to give our position away.”

“Who’s Agent Nash?” Robin huddled back against his chest and sent the text. “What’s going on? Who are those people?”

“It’s just one guy. Somebody like me.”

“Who is Agent Nash?”

“Robin, you know all that talking you like me to do?” The laser-targeting light swung away and Jake saw their chance to move to a more secure location. He pushed the carrier into Robin’s hands and pulled her to her feet, urging her to keep low as they ran toward the back door. “It’s going to have to wait until later.”

A flash-bang grenade lit up the room they’d just vacated. Someday, he’d think about how angry it made him to think the place where he’d first made love to Robin was now burning. But right now, Jake could only think about getting them all to safety. “He can’t find us in the house. Let’s move.”

A second flash-bang hit the kitchen and startled Emma into a screeching panic. Jake opened the back door and pulled Robin along the side of the house behind him. “If we can get to the barn, you and Emma can hide out inside the wall of hay bales. That should give you a little more protection.”

“You’re coming with us.” Robin accidentally tugged on his wounded arm and Jake cursed.

“I’ll get you to the barn.”

Their attacker had found Jake’s semi-auto and was cutting a line of bullet holes through the front room now. With every new loud sound, Emma cried out. “Can you keep her quiet? Hiding won’t do us any good if her crying gives us away.”

Robin pulled Emma from her carrier to hug her right up against her chest. “Shh, sweetie. Mommy needs you to quiet down.”

A knot of dread formed in Jake’s stomach as nightmare and reality blended together. Darkness. Burning. Explosions. Somebody wanted him dead.

“Jake?” Robin’s touch startled him and he looked over the jut of his shoulder at her. “Stay with me. Don’t go to that place. Here.”

She placed Emma into the crook of his good arm.

“Feel the rain? It’s cool.” Another burst of gunfire made him jump. “Listen to Emma. See?” The infant’s shrieks had quieted to a few intermittent sobs. Robin stroked her hand across his brow and quieted the nightmare. “Are you with me?”

Squeezing the haunting images from his mind, he looked down into her sweet, gray-blue eyes and nodded. “Honey, I’m supposed to save you.”

A flash-bang detonated in the bedroom behind them and all three of them jumped. “I think you’ll still get your chance.”

He hugged Emma as close to his chest as he dared. “Stay low to the ground. And run.”

Once he had Robin and Emma secured behind triple hay bale stacks in the barn, Jake pulled out his half-spent Beretta. “You know how to use a gun?”

“No.”

He placed the gun into Robin’s hands and gave the quickest lesson of his life. “Safety’s off. Squeeze the trigger—don’t jerk it. And don’t shoot me.”

She grabbed hold of him, curling her fingertips into his chest. “Where are you going? Backup’s coming, isn’t it?”

“Maybe not soon enough. If this guy’s like me, only one of us is getting out of here alive.” Her skin paled and Jake leaned in and kissed her. This is who he was, who she needed him to be. “I intend it to be me.”

“I love you,” she whispered as he pulled away.

Jake nodded and kissed her again.

The lights of the approaching sirens finally diverted their attacker’s attention away from the house. With the rain muffling his footsteps, Jake snuck up on the man’s flank. The light wasn’t good, but it didn’t have to be at this distance.

Jake pulled his knife and flipped it in his hand. And when the perp in the trilby hat finally realized he wasn’t alone, he swung around with the semi-automatic. But Jake was quicker.

Twenty seconds later he was standing over a dead man with a knife stuck in his heart. Robin and Emma were finally, truly safe.

He kicked the stupid hat aside and looked back toward the barn. “I love you, too.”