“The extra one is.” He put his arm around her and rubbed her back. “How are you feeling?”
“Well, it doesn’t feel great, but that’s kind of how this goes.”
“I love you so much.” He kissed the top of her head. “You’re doing amazing.”
“Remember to tell the doctor I have no problem with drugs, okay?”
“Anything that’s even borderline legal as long as it doesn’t hurt the baby, right?”
“Exactly.”
Megan watched them slowly move toward the house and the bevy of teenagers waiting on the front porch. She turned to Nico. “I think there’s something here. Alice Kraft. Angela Calvo. Could Kraft have changed her last name? Maybe she’s a cousin or something?”
“Look up their mother.”
“She’s a congresswoman,” Megan said. “Right.” She searched for Anamarie Calvo online and found a detail on Wikipedia. “It says she has three children here. Two daughters and a son.” She looked up at Nico. “The daughters are Angela and Alicia.”
“Alicia?” Nico cocked his head. “Alice?”
“The woman we nearly put in jail and the woman who’s dating my ex-husband are sisters?” Megan asked. “That cannot be a coincidence.”
“If it is…” Nico shook his head. “No. Life is weird, but it’s not that weird. Call Detective Bisset, and let’s get these two to the hospital.”
Chapter 25
Drew Bisset sat across from Nico, Megan, and Katherine in the waiting room of the hospital, which was buzzing with dozens of Dusis from all over the Central Coast.
“Your instincts were right on,” Drew said. “Alicia Calvo changed her name legally to Alice Kraft when she entered her first graduate program. No one questioned it because the assumption was she didn’t want people to think she was trading on her family name while she was trying to distinguish herself in academia.”
“That’s very understandable,” Katherine said. “I know of a similar instance with one of my undergraduate students. Her father is a very prominent actor with an unusual name.”
“Who?” Megan asked.
Katherine frowned. “I can’t tell you; that’s why she changed her name.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense.” Megan looked back at Drew. “I imagine this further reinforces your theory that Angela Calvo is out to get us.”
“You ruined her sister’s career and tried to put her in jail,” Drew said. “I have a feeling she took it personally.”
“What have you been able to find out?”
“I haven’t been able to get a court order for her phone records yet, but I’ve been asking around. She lives alone. Her neighbors can’t really say what her movements are, so none of them can confirm that she was home the night of the theft, but none of them could remember if she’d gone out either.”
“It was weeks ago,” Nico said. “We’ll probably never get those vines back.”
Drew raised a finger. “On that, I wouldn’t be too sure. I called around and found the number of one of the groundskeepers at the Dolphin Cove Resort. One of our sergeants has a sister who works in management. According to this groundskeeper, they were using the greenhouse on the property to grow all the seasonal bedding plants for the place up until a few weeks ago.”
Nico sat up straight. “A few weeks ago?”
“The groundskeeper couldn’t say for sure what day the manager came in and said they’d be ordering from an outside buyer for bedding plants, just that he and the other gardener had to turn in their keys because they were going to renovate the building or something.”
Nico’s face was nearly glowing. “She has my vines. They might still be alive.”
Drew shrugged. “I’m crossing my fingers, man. I’d love to barge in and look for you, but I have a feeling I’ll need a warrant for that, and I don’t know if a judge will grant one with the evidence we have.”
“Could someone at the resort maybe… help you along with that?” Megan asked.
“I doubt it. Calvo might not have a warm-and-fuzzy reputation among the growers around here, but they freaking love her at the resort. They thought they were going to get shut down, and she came in with a mountain of money and started upgrading everything. Kept all the staff on. Even gave them so-called ‘loyalty bonuses.’ She’s got a lot of fans over there.”
“Shit.” Megan slumped in her seat. “So what’s our next step?”
Drew said, “I’ve got a visit to your ex on the schedule. I’m going to press him on the truck theft. See if he might have been the driver that night or if he can give Miss Calvo an alibi of some kind. I’m avoiding her for right now. I already know she doesn’t like me; it might be good to make her wonder what I’m up to.”
“I have an idea about the vines.” Nico looked at Megan. “I’d say it’s a combination of Southern charm and brute force.”
Megan smiled. “Luckily, I am a professional at both those tactics. Give me details.”
Katherine blinked and sat up straight with the most brilliant smile on her face. “It’s going to be soon. It’s a girl.”
Toni was exhausted when Megan and Katherine finally got a turn to see her the next morning. They’d all seen the baby for a few minutes the night before, when Henry had carried Alida Rose Durant out to the waiting room to make her grand entrance. She’d been born just before midnight with a head of thick black curls and a voice worthy of the Dusi family name. She’d shown up for a few minutes only to settle back in with Mom and Dad, who were both pretty exhausted, according to Henry, but very happy.
“Alida is Henry’s grandmother’s name,” Toni said. “Rose for my mom.”
“It’s a gorgeous name.” Katherine seemed to have a permanent smile attached to her face. “Everything went well with the delivery?”
“Oh yeah, they said all this really motivational stuff like ‘you’re doing great’ and ‘it’s like you were born to push’ and I puked on two of them, which made me even better at pushing if you ask me.” Toni rolled her eyes. “Once. Once is good. Once is enough. I can already tell she’ll be a handful.”
Alida was swaddled in pastel hospital blankets, but her dark hair was covered with a small cap in bright orange with a tiny Dusi Brothers Auto Shop patch on it.
“Please, she’s an angel.” Megan held the little girl against her chest, Alida’s already fat cheek pressed against her skin. “There’s nothing like that feeling. I miss my babies.”
“I miss sleep.” Toni looked it. Her face was pale and her eyes were drooping. “She won’t sleep any longer than a couple of hours.”
“That’s pretty normal,” Megan said. “Just give it a few days and she’ll probably stretch that out to three or four.”
“I’m trying to nurse, but we’ll see how it goes. She’s a little bitty thing.” Toni shook her head. “I don’t know how she was taking up so much space in there.”