“What’re you guys doing here?” I stood in the doorway blocking their entry. Not very inviting of me, but I was still a little raw from our last run-in.

“There’s been a development.”

That fucking smirk is going to get him killed. “Come in.” I knew he didn’t mean that he’d found my kids because of the look on his face. I moved aside to let the detectives in just as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Good morning Mrs. McClintock, we’re here to see you.” I didn’t like the way he said that as they both came in and headed in her direction. “Hold it. What the fuck is going on? I told you if you had any more questions to call before coming….”

“That’s not how this works sir. Like I said, we have a new development. We received an anonymous tip that we need to follow up on. Mrs. McClintock I’m sorry but you’re going to have to come with us.”

“The fuck are you talking about? She’s not going anywhere.” I placed myself between her and them as she clutched the back of my shirt nervously.

“We just want to question her…”

“You can do that here, now back the fuck off. Zandi go grab my phone. Our lawyer is the third number in contacts.”

I didn’t take my eyes off the two detectives as she left the cover of my back and ran into the kitchen where I’d left my phone earlier.

“What the fuck is this about? What anonymous call?”

“We’re not at liberty to discuss that with you. Our questions are for your wife. There’s no need to make things difficult McClintock.”

“I will never hand her over to you. Not fucking ever. You can question her here or wait for my lawyer to meet you down at the station.”

“Okay everybody calm down.”

Here we go again with this good cop bad cop bullshit. “Tell me what this is about or get the fuck out of my house.” She came back with the phone and passed it to me.

I gave my lawyer a quick rundown and his advice was to stay put until he got here. He had a very good question that I hadn’t thought to ask. “You have a warrant?”

“No, we don’t. Like I said, we just have a few questions.”

“No, what you said was that you wanted to take my wife in for questioning. She has nothing to say to you without our lawyer present.”

“You do realize that this only makes it look like she has something to hide.”

“No, this looks like I don’t trust you and with good reason. The lawyer’s going to be here in ten minutes. You want to do this here or no?”

He tried the same old stare down from a few years ago but it didn’t work any better this time around. “Fine, since you’ve already called the lawyer why don’t we wait for him.”

It was obvious that he wasn’t pleased with this turn of events, but now that the drama was over I was more curious about the call. What kind of call could they have received that sent them to my home ready to take her in?

True to his word Gavin showed up eight minutes later loaded for bear. “Warrant?” He didn’t greet anyone just walked right in with his briefcase in hand and stopped in the middle of the room where the two men were sitting.

“We don’t have one, we just have some questions for the lady…”

“Are you aware of the protocol when dealing with a victim of a crime? Isn’t Mrs. McClintock the victim here?”

“We just had a few questions…”

“As I understand it, you wanted to take her down to the station with you because of an anonymous call.”

“Maybe we were too hasty in our approach.”

“I’ll say. Let’s have it. What’s this tip you received?”

“The caller said that Mrs. McClintock killed and buried her children…” Zandi’s gasp was loud in the deathly silent room and I was halfway out of my seat before Gavin raised a hand to stop me.

“Where’s your proof?”

“I admit it sounds a bit far fetched but we must follow up on every lead.”

“In other words you came here and scared an already terrified woman for absolutely no reason. We’ve been here before gentlemen, let’s not have a repeat of last time. Unless you have solid evidence against my client I suggest we not do this today.”

“Everyone knows anonymous tips aren’t worth shit half the time and the story you told wouldn’t make sense to a rookie on his first walk. So what’s the real story here?”

Anderson squirmed in his seat and it was obvious from the look Borelli threw him that he hadn’t been on board with this.

“We have to follow up on every lead. So far nothing she’s given us has panned out and we need answers. It’s obvious from the medical report that she gave birth sometime after she left. Our only concern is finding those children.”

“And you don’t think she wants that? That they both do? From your actions today I’m more inclined to believe that you’re on some sort of personal witch hunt.”

Now that’s why he’s my lawyer. Not only do we think alike, but there’re some things he can get away with that I can’t. Putting this asshole in his place, I can go only so far. A lawyer, someone who knows the ropes can hang his dumb ass with them.

Anderson once again turned red in the face but didn’t have a ready comeback because it was true. Before I was the one who came under fire because of his suspicions. But there’s no way I will allow her to go through what I had back then.

“Now if you gentlemen are finished I’d like some time alone with my clients.” He pulled one of his fancy embossed cards from his wallet and passed it to Borelli, a very telling slight to Anderson who was the lead on the case.

“Anything else you can contact me directly. As of now my client is off limits. Understood?” Borelli got to his feet with the card in hand while Anderson stayed sitting like he wanted to force the issue.

I needed them to leave so that I could take care of her. Her hand was still shaking in mine and I wasn’t sure if it was fear or anger that was making her vibrate. I’m hoping for the latter.

After they left Gavin approached her with his hand out. “It’s good to have you back home Zandi. How’re you feeling?” His warm smile relaxed her and from the way he spoke to her it was obvious that he had no doubt that she was innocent.

He was the first person who didn’t look at her with suspicion since she came back, including me. “Thanks Gavin, how’re Amy and the kids?” They had a little reunion that seemed to put her even more at ease and by the time he left she was pretty much over her angst.

“I wonder who made that call? It’s probably the person behind all this.

“My thoughts exactly. Come here baby.” She seemed a bit hesitant and I raised my brow at her.

“What is it?” I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her hair.

“Do you believe them?” Her voice was low and filled with worry. I guess I deserved that for the way I first reacted in the hospital.

“Of course not. What kind of question is that? Look at me.” I lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. “I believe in you. Whatever you tell me I believe okay. Don’t ever doubt that again.”

She nodded but her eyes welled up. “Come ‘ere.” I pulled her in and wrapped her up tight. “No one’s going to hurt you again baby. Don’t be afraid of the cops they can’t touch you. They did the same thing to me when you were gone. It’s their job to be suspicious I guess.”

“I’m more worried about the person who made the call. Are they gonna come after me again? And what about our babies? Will they hurt them because I got away? We’ve got to find that cabin.”

“I know, I’ll have the guys come in and we’ll all go together.” Her question made me nervous. It was my first thought as well, the children. I still had no answers for her disappearance, why she was taken.

Had it been for the sole purpose of stealing the children? Or was there something else going on? If it was for the children then I was a little reassured that they wouldn’t be harmed, but I couldn’t be sure of anything.

It was obvious the cops still didn’t believe her and time was running out. I’m not about to wait around for them to come up with something else to corner us with.

From my own personal experience I know their only interest is in closing the case regardless of whether they’ve got the right man or not.

As I stood there holding her, my mind went to the call the cops had received. Since we’d all agreed not to let anyone know that she was back, did this mean that the perpetrator had figured it out somehow?

Did he or she know that she was here and was trying to flush her out? Mom and dad wouldn’t have told anyone and the hospital was under strict orders not to.

I didn’t mention it to her but made up my mind to call mom the first chance I got. Instead I kept her distracted for the rest of the afternoon. And when she started stressing again, I took her to the floor of the nursery and fucked her until her mind was no longer on her worries.

Just as I’d hoped, a nice hard fuck knocked her out and I put her down for a nap. I was about to call mom and dad when there was a knock at the door. I got pissed expecting to see the asshole detectives again, but I almost wished it were them instead of my surprise guest.

“Mindy, what are you doing here?” I barely kept myself from looking back at the stairs to see if her knock had awakened Zandi.

“You didn’t return my calls so I came by to see if you were okay.” I was going to close the door and talk to her outside, but how could I do that without raising suspicion?

She took the decision out of my hand anyway when she walked past me into the house. It was only my own guilt that kept me from halting her and dragging her back outside.

I followed her inside, realizing how wrong it felt having her here. I’d never invited her here before, another red flag that I’d overlooked. Shoving my hands in the pockets of my slacks I met her in the living room where is as far as she’d gone.

“Listen I’m sorry I didn’t return your calls, but I’ve been sick as you know…

“It’s okay, as long as you’re okay.” She looked around the room before taking a seat on the couch. She was making herself comfortable and all I could think about was getting her the hell out of here before my woman woke up.

They’d only met a handful of times in the past and there hadn’t been any negative tension between them. But now that she was here, I realized that there was no good way to tell Zandi that I’d almost married her.