Wickedly Dangerous (Baba Yaga, #1)(105)
“You’ll grow,” she said. “Now how about you help me get all these other kids back to their parents?”
*
IT WASN’T QUITE that simple, naturally. Once they’d walked back to the road, Liam had to figure out the logistics of three adults and five children. The Riders would stick to their bikes, of course, but the children couldn’t ride with them. In the end, Penelope took Petey in his car seat, as well as the older girl. Baba drove Maya’s car—since she obviously wouldn’t be needing it again—along with the newly renamed Babs and the little boy. Mary Elizabeth was proudly awarded the shotgun seat in the cruiser.
Before they set off, Baba stuck her head in the cruiser’s window and suggested to Liam that he use the radio to call Nina, and ask her to have all the children’s parents assemble at the sheriff’s department.
“Are you sure?” Liam asked her. “Don’t you remember the zoo that we walked into the last time?”
The wicked grin put in another appearance, making his pulse quicken as it always did. “I do,” she said. “And I’m thinking we might as well have as big an audience as possible for your triumphant return. We wouldn’t want anyone important to miss it now, would we?”
*
THEY DROVE SLOWLY down the back roads, in deference to the kids who didn’t have car seats, and to give Baba’s predicted welcoming committee plenty of time to arrive. Sure enough, when their bizarre convoy of three motorcycles, two cars, and a sheriff’s cruiser pulled up to the front of the building, the parking lot was full. Stepping inside the entrance, Liam felt the noise and commotion hit him like a tidal wave, threatening to knock him over with its hectic force. But he strode in with his head held high, waving casually at Nina sitting in her dispatcher’s booth.
“McClellan!” Clive Matthews rushed to cut him off before he could get any further into the room, where clots of anxious parents milled around restlessly. “You have a lot of nerve calling all these people in here. You have no authority! In case you’ve forgotten, you’ve been suspended!” His pigeon chest thrust out indignantly as he squawked at Liam.
Oh, this is going to feel wonderful. Liam and Baba stepped apart, revealing the children who’d marched in behind them, hidden by the bulk of the Riders, Penelope, and Fake Melissa, who faded back to stand against a bile-green wall.
“I thought it would be best to get these kids back to their parents as soon as possible,” Liam said calmly.
Matthews’s jaw dropped, and for what might have been the first time in his life, the board president was actually speechless. The room erupted in pandemonium, with parents racing forward to embrace their lost angels, deputies and board members beaming and clapping each other and Liam on the back with hearty abandon. In the background, Liam could hear Nina on the radio, broadcasting the news of the children’s return to anyone with a police scanner.
Eventually, things returned to something vaguely resembling order, and everyone clambered for an explanation of how Liam had rescued the children. He’d been thinking about this in the car on the drive there, and remembered one of the theories they’d tossed around before discovering that Maya was behind the entire thing.
“It turns out Peter Callahan was collecting the children to sell to a group of foreign pedophiles; powerful men in the Middle East who would pay him huge amounts of money and make useful connections for his drilling business,” Liam said with a straight face. “Thankfully, he hadn’t completed the deals yet, so the children were still waiting to be shipped out. It looks like his assistant Maya was helping him the entire time; it may even have been her idea, since it turns out that her entire life’s history was a lie.”
Hell—it was pretty farfetched, and he knew it. But compared to the truth, it was downright believable. Besides, there was no way for anyone to prove it wasn’t true.
Clive Matthews’s chins quivered indignantly. “How dare you accuse Mr. Callahan of involvement in this atrocity? He’s been a fine upstanding member of our community, and he has worked hard to bring new jobs and prosperity into this area.” He looked around, as if expecting Peter to appear over his shoulder in his usual spot, but the businessman was conspicuously missing.
“Actually, he is a greedy bastard and a child stealer,” a new voice said clearly, ringing out over the hum and buzz of the crowded room. Penelope Callahan stepped forward, her hands resting protectively on Petey’s small shoulders. The purpling bruise on her cheekbone made a livid contrast to her otherwise neat appearance.
“When he knew his plans had been discovered,” she told her avid listeners, “he took our own son to sell too. And when I tried to stop him, he beat me up.” She pointed at the undeniable evidence. “The man is a criminal, and I want him arrested for assault, if nothing else.”
Liam held his breath, waiting to hear someone say that Callahan was in the hospital, accusing his wife of running him down with the family car, but apparently, he hadn’t been seriously hurt. Too bad.
“Oh, ah, oh dear,” Matthews stuttered. Molly walked up and handed Penelope some paperwork to fill out, and turned to the board president, saying artlessly, “I assume this means you’ll be reinstating Sheriff McClellan immediately, and giving him some kind of award, right? He’s the town hero now.”
Liam thought Matthews was going to choke on his own tongue, but the man managed to nod, his complexion an alarming ripe-tomato red, and say, “Yes, yes of course.” Then Matthews pulled himself together and added, “That is, if the matter of the very serious charges against him are cleared up. There’s still that, you know.”