The question caught Meredith off guard.
Kagan turned toward Cole. “Is your father the man you wanted to hit with the baseball bat?”
In the glow of the night-light, Cole pushed his glasses onto the bridge of his nose. “I wasn’t going to let him inside so he could hurt my mom again. The snow landed on my glasses. You were blurred. I didn’t think anyone else would be coming.”
“ But you stopped when you realized I was a stranger.”
“ If you’d been him, I’d have used the baseball bat. I swear I’d have used the bat.”
“ I believe you would have.” Kagan put his hand reassuringly on the boy’s thin shoulder.
The baby started crying, rooting its mouth against Meredith’s chest.
“ Please,” Kagan told Meredith, “do something. If the men outside hear him-”
“ How do I know you’re not the one who’s dangerous?” she demanded. Even though her attention was directed toward Kagan, she instinctively rocked the baby. Her raised voice made its tiny hands jerk with agitation.
“ Do I look like I want to hurt you?” Kagan felt blood dripping from his arm onto the brick floor. He needed to take care of it soon before he lost so much blood that his strength was gone. “Do I look like I’m even capable of hurting you?”
“ So much is happening. My husband… ”
“ Won’t hit you again,” Kagan said. “I promise.”
That made an impression. Meredith became very still. Fixing her gaze on him, she no longer averted her face. Even in the dim light, it was obvious that her cheek was more purple, her eye more swollen than when Kagan had first seen her. The split at the side of her lip was larger than it had first appeared. But despite everything, he had a sense that she’d once been an attractive woman.
She’s that thin because she’s nervous, he realized.
“ Won’t hit me again?” Meredith’s voice dropped. “I wish I could believe that.”
“ Hey, it’s Christmas. Wishing will make it come true.”
“ If you do something to Ted, he’ll only take it out on me later.”
“ That’s his name? Ted? Don’t worry. I won’t do anything that would make him want to hurt you.”
“ Then how would you get him to stop?”
“ Hey, don’t you like surprise presents? Help the baby, and I promise Ted won’t hit you again.”
Kagan couldn’t remember anyone staring at him harder.
“ Somehow,” she said, “you make me believe you.”
The baby cried, kicking against Meredith’s arms.
She reached under its blanket. “The diaper’s soaked. But I don’t have anything to… A dish towel,” she realized. She held the baby with one hand and pulled two towels from a drawer. “Let’s see if I remember how to do this.”
She spread one of the towels on a counter and folded the other. Then she set the baby down on the first towel and eased its head onto the makeshift pillow of the second.
As she unzipped the baby’s blue sleeper, Kagan saw that Cole still hadn’t done what he’d asked. Again he urged the boy, “Go into your bedroom. Turn on the television. Go to the window in the living room. See if anybody’s watching the house. If they are, fool them the way I told you.”
“ But what if somebody is watching the house?” Cole wondered. His eyes looked large behind his glasses.
“ They won’t try to get in right away. For one thing, they won’t know for sure that I’m here.”
“ You think somebody’s going to break in?” Cole’s voice wavered.
Movement made Kagan turn toward Meredith. As she pulled the baby from its sleeper, the infant’s legs curled toward its chest, emphasizing its vulnerability. Immediately, it jerked its arms and whimpered.
“ They won’t try to break in unless they hear crying,” Kagan said.
“ I’m doing the best I can,” Meredith snapped. “With only this night-light, it’s hard to see.”
“ No, that’s not what I meant,” he said in a hurry. “Please, I apologize.”
“ What?” Meredith looked at him in surprise.
“ I guess I sounded disapproving. I didn’t intend to. You probably get plenty of disapproval as it is. The baby can’t ask for more than your best.”
She studied him as if seeing him for the first time. Then the baby’s squirming required her attention, and she tugged open the adhesive strips on the diaper.
Cole remained in the kitchen.
I’ve got to engage him, Kagan thought.
He unclipped the tiny microphone hidden under the ski-lift tickets on his parka. He put it deeply in one of his pants pockets, where the scratch of the smothering fabric would prevent it from transmitting voices. Then he removed his transmitter from under his coat and gave it to the boy.
“ What’s this?” Cole asked, curiosity mixing with suspicion.
Kagan took out his earbud, cleaned it on his pants, and handed it to him. “They’re part of a two-way radio setup. That’s the transmitter, and this is the earpiece. The on-off switch is at the top of the transmitter. The volume dial is on one side. The channel dial is on the other. Do you play video games?”
“ Of course.” Cole seemed puzzled by the question, as if he took it for granted that everyone played video games.
“ Then you ought to be good at multitasking. While you watch for movement out the window, I want you to hold the receiver to your ear and listen while you keep changing the frequency on the transmitter. Maybe you’ll find the channel the men outside are using. Maybe we can hear what they’re planning.”
Cole studied the objects in his hands.
“ Make it seem like you’re listening to an iPod,” Kagan told him.
“ Right. An iPod.” The boy examined the equipment and nodded. “I can do that.” He mustered his courage and limped into the living room.
Throughout their conversation, Kagan sensed that Meredith was watching him.
Then the baby squirmed, and she removed the diaper.
“ A boy,” she murmured. “He doesn’t look more than four or five weeks old.”
“ Five weeks. Good guess,” Kagan said. “If he’d waited a little longer, he’d have been a Christmas present.”
Meredith dropped the diaper in a trash can under the sink.
“ I forgot how tiny a baby is. Look. He has a birthmark on his left heel. It sort of reminds me of a rose.”
“ The child of peace.”
“ What?”
Kagan realized he’d said too much. “Isn’t that what babies mean this time of year? Like the Christmas carol says, ‘Peace on Earth, goodwill to men.’ It’s sexist, I suppose, but the sentiment still works.”
Again Meredith studied him. Then she returned her attention to the baby.
“ He isn’t Anglo.”
“ Anglo?” Kagan asked.
“ What the locals call ‘white.’ But he doesn’t look Hispanic or Native American, either. His skin is like cinnamon. He looks-”
“ Middle Eastern.” Kagan stood and wavered. Managing to steady himself, he went to the kitchen sink and peered cautiously past the curtain on the window.
“ I don’t have any safety pins big enough to close this dish towel and make it work as a diaper,” Meredith said.
Wincing, Kagan eased off his parka, freeing himself of the weight of the gun in his right pocket. When Meredith had opened the coat and taken out the baby, she hadn’t pushed the flaps to each side and thus hadn’t felt what was there. He set the parka on the kitchen table, taking care to cushion the impact of the gun against the wood and avoid a sound that might attract questions.
“ Do you have any duct tape?” he asked.
“ Duct tape? Yes, that would work instead of safety pins. But what made you think of that?”
“ Duct tape has all kinds of uses. Where is it?”
“ The bottom drawer, to the left of the sink. We had a leak under the drain.”
Kagan opened the drawer and pulled out the roll of duct tape. He tore off two pieces and pressed them where Meredith held the folded dish towel around the baby’s hips. Then he tore off several more strips-longer ones-and stuck them to the edge of the counter.
“ For now, I won’t need those,” Meredith told him.
“ They’re for something else,” Kagan said.