Page 15 of Protecting the Newborn

“Thank you, but I have some formula and diapers in my bag and there’s more in the SUV.” Well, unless that stash had been damaged in the gunfire. Even if it had, though, there was enough in the go bag to last for at least a couple of days.

Enough cash, too, along with a fake ID, a gun and a change of clothes for Gracelyn as well.

“Good,” Joelle muttered. “But if you think of anything else, just let me know. Do you want to take her to the guest room now?”

Guest room.Not plural. And it made Gracelyn wonder if Ruston and she would be sharing it. Part of her hoped they would be. It wouldn’t be especially comfortable to be in such close quarters with a man who’d once been her lover.

A onetime lover, anyway.

No, not very comfortable, but the discomfort would turn to something much worse—fear—if there wasn’t enough protection for Abigail.

“I’ll go ahead and take Gracelyn and the baby upstairs,” Ruston offered. “Once they’re settled, I’ll help in any way I can with the investigation.”

“I’ll help, too,” Gracelyn said. “I can get Abigail in the playpen and then make phone calls or anything else you need. I don’t want her out of my sight, but I need to do something to help. And please don’t say I should get some rest. That’s not happening tonight, not after what we’ve been through.”

No one disputed that. In fact, there were sounds of agreement all the way around, and one of those sounds was from Ruston as he led her up the stairs. The guest room was large and just off the right of the landing, and even though the playpen was indeed there, the lights were off. Gracelyn kept them that way. No reason to alert anyone outside that someone was in the room.

“I need to make a call,” Ruston said, stepping to the side of the room while she put Abigail in the playpen. “I have to talk to a cop friend.”

That gave her a shot of instant alarm, and it must have shown on her face.

“A cop I can trust,” he added, already taking out his phone and pressing a contact number. “Noah Ryland.”

She immediately relaxed. She’d worked with Detective Noah Ryland at SAPD and believed he was trustworthy. Since Noah was assigned to Homicide, Gracelyn figured that was why Ruston had chosen to call him.

“Noah,” Ruston greeted once the detective answered. “I need two favors, and both are huge. I want you to secure any and all files from Marty Bennett’s residence and office. He was murdered earlier tonight, and I don’t want anything to go missing before it’s had a chance to be examined.”

She couldn’t hear Noah’s response to that, but after a few moments, Ruston added, “Yeah, Marty was connected to my current undercover.” Another pause. “You heard right. Someone tried to kill me and also planted my badge at the scene of Marty’s murder.”

More silence, and since she couldn’t even hear any immediate murmurings from the other end of the line, she figured Noah was sorting through that info.

“Good,” Ruston said after Noah finally spoke. “The second favor involves Gracelyn Wallace...Yes, the former cop...No, she didn’t have a part in Marty’s murder either,” Ruston explained when Noah must have asked about it. “She has a solid alibi. In fact, she was with me at the time of the murder.”

He paused when Noah commented on that. “Yes, with me. And that leads me to my next favor. I want to try to stop anyone from going after her again, and I need answers. Gracelyn had contact with a computer hacker named Simon Milbrath and a retired cop, Archie Ingram. It’s possible one of them leaked information to Marty or someone who ended up killing Marty. So, I’d like to know if there are any known connections between Marty and them. It’s possible there’ll be something at Marty’s residence to verify those connections if they exist.”

Again, she heard Noah murmur something that had Ruston’s tight jaw relaxing a bit.

“I owe you,” Ruston told the detective. He thanked him, ended the call and turned to her as he put his phone away. “Noah will secure Marty’s things...if they haven’t already been compromised, that is.”

The odds were they probably had been, but maybe the killer had gotten sloppy. If the crime had been premeditated, though, she doubted it. Still, sometimes killers made mistakes.

“Along with looking for any connections between Marty and the hacker and retired cop, Noah’s also going to get the surveillance from any security cameras outside my apartment,” Ruston explained. “He won’t have to do it under the table, so to speak, since he’s gotten approval from his lieutenant for me to view the footage in case I see something on it that’ll help with the investigation.”

“Good.” She was glad the lieutenant hadn’t tried to stonewall this. Technically, Homicide could have kept this close to the vest, but that wouldn’t have benefited anyone.

Ruston scrubbed his hand over his face. “Maybe the surveillance footage hasn’t been tampered with.”

Again, that was a strong possibility, but unlike removing documents from Marty’s home, or planting incriminating ones, it’d be trickier to alter or erase footage from traffic and security cameras.

A cop could do it, of course.

“If I caused all of this to happen, I’m sorry,” Ruston muttered.

Even though she had no idea who was responsible, Gracelyn didn’t intend to let Ruston fall on his sword for this. “You asked Noah to look at Simon Milbrath and Archie Ingram, and that means you think the leak of my location could have come from one of them. And it could have,” she emphasized.

He made a sound of agreement, but the guilt stayed in his eyes. Ruston didn’t get a chance, though, to continue voicing that guilt, because his phone rang.

“Slater,” he relayed to her and immediately answered it.

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