Child of the State (An Elizabeth McClaine Thriller Book 2) by Catherine Lea

Author:Catherine Lea [Lea, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brakelight Press
Published: 2016-01-04T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

DAY TWO: 12:05 PM—ELIZABETH

From the moment Elizabeth had put the phone down, she was in motion. She’d ended the call then immediately dialed Delaney, who answered on the second ring. She’d asked him what, exactly, had transpired during the interview with Nancy Pattrenko. After stalling a moment, obviously preferring not share any more information than he had to, he had informed her that Ms. Pattrenko had been “suspended from duty pending an investigation into her actions.”

Elizabeth asked him if the woman was under arrest, to which he’d said, “Mrs. McClaine, Nancy Pattrenko is an officer of the law, and if there’s any hint of wrongdoing in her actions, believe me, she’ll feel the full force of the law.”

“She took a child. Without permission; without authorization. How can you not see that as ‘wrongdoing’?”

“Ms. Pattrenko has made a formal statement in which she claims that she took the child from a situation where she felt his welfare was compromised and removed him to a place of safety.”

He sounded like a police procedural manual. A typical butt-covering stance the police take when defending their own, Elizabeth thought. But she wasn’t done.

“Okay, so then she drove this ‘compromised’ child out to the middle of a backwater industrial area—why exactly?” Her voice had risen and her heart was racing. She didn’t care. She wanted answers.

“She was being followed, Mrs. McClaine. As you well know—by Stacy May Charms. And at the time, the child’s safety was her primary concern. She acted in his best interests and has been released on her own recognizance.”

“And what about the fact that Nancy Pattrenko is in a live-in relationship with Patricia Tomes, who happens to be a prison guard at the very prison Stacy was incarcerated in? Doesn’t that mean anything?”

The few seconds of silence on the line suggested the news had come as a surprise. If it had, he wasn’t rising to it, because he replied with, “Mrs. McClaine, I’ve questioned Ms. Pattrenko to my full satisfaction, and I’ve taken the appropriate action. Now if you don’t mind, I have a stack of paperwork to complete, and other cases to attend to. Good day.”

And he’d hung up.

Elizabeth slammed her phone down and grabbed her purse and coat, repeating to Penny that Nancy Pattrenko had been “suspended, pending an investigation into her actions.”

Penny’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you serious? She basically abducted a child. Where’s the doubt?”

Elizabeth shrugged into her coat and closed down her computer. “Tell me about it.”

“So where are we going?”

“I’m going to visit Nancy Pattrenko. Get me her address. The police might be happy with her explanation, but I’m not.”

She followed Penny through to her desk, watching as she tapped out a query into the search engine, then said, “Here it is.” And wrote it down.

“Thank you. I don’t know how long I’ll be. If anyone calls, tell them I’ll call them back tomorrow. What are you doing?” she asked as Penny shut down her computer and grabbed her own purse.

“You don’t think I’m

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