Cat's Cradle by Christine Rimmer

Author:Christine Rimmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1995-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

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An hour later, Dillon’s groceries were put away in Cat’s cupboards, the baby was sleeping in a nest of pillows on Cat’s bed and Dillon and Cat were sitting in the living room, sipping cups of percolated coffee and munching on sandwiches to silence their growling stomachs. The power was still out and the phone lines remained dead. Outside, night approached, though the snow was still coming down so thickly that it was difficult to tell the time of day.

Dillon sat on the couch and stared out the front window as if there were actually something to see but their own dim reflections in the glow of the lamps.

“I’ve lived in L.A. too long,” he said quietly. “I’d forgotten how it can get up here. We could be stuck in this house for days if this keeps up.”

Cat swallowed the last bite of her sandwich. “Yes.” The word was curt. They had a much more pressing subject to discuss than how long they might be snowed in. She toed off the moccasins she wore around the house and tucked her legs up beside her in her big easy chair.

Dillon looked at her and sighed. “Okay. Hit me with it.”

She straightened her shoulders. “I will. Where did that baby come from?”

Dillon scrubbed a hand down his face.

Cat grew edgy, waiting for him to answer. She heard herself blurt out, “Is it Natalie Evans’s?”

He gaped at her for a count of three, his expression so comically nonplussed that she almost laughed. But then he was the one laughing—a low, rolling chuckle.

“Why is that so funny?”

“Oh, hell.” The chuckle was winding down.

“Oh, hell, what?”

He took in a breath. “It’s nothing. You’d just have to know Natalie, that’s all. She’s the last person in the world who’d be having a baby—let alone losing one.”

Cat frowned, confused by her own conflicting urges. She wanted to know more about Natalie, though she shouldn’t be wanting any such thing. But she knew that finding out where the baby had come from was what mattered right now.

She stuck to the main point. “Well then. If the baby doesn’t belong to Natalie Evans, then whose is it?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said I haven’t a clue.” He leaned forward, bracing his forearms on his knees. “It was like this. I drove into Reno and went to the supermarket. When I came out, the snow had started. So I headed for the highway, wanting to get back. But then I saw I was low on gas. So I stopped at one of those big, plaza-type gas stations. You know the kind, with a convenience store attached?”

“Yes, I know.”

“While the tank was filling, I went inside to the rest room.”

“What’s this got to do with the baby?”

“Settle down, Cat. I’m getting there. I went inside. I used the toilet. And when I came out, I paid for my gas. Then I left. And that’s all I can figure.”

“Exactly what is it that you figure?”

“That while I was in the john, someone put that baby in the back of my Land Cruiser.

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