Cooper had forgotten about that. “So, they knew Brice and Naomi were well-off and had connections to the East Ranch.”
“No way the adoption agency would’ve pulled a fast one on them.”
Cooper shrugged. “Though, who better to give such a child to than a couple like them?”
Jace sighed loudly. “I know why Marlee does this job, but damn. I don’t know how she handles it.”
Cooper did. She put up walls. Not because she was afraid of people, but because she had suffered a tragedy the likes of which few understood. Her way of dealing with things was to find the missing children.
“I know that look,” Jace said. “You’ve got an idea.”
A slow smile pulled at Cooper’s lips. “I do.”
“You sure? You don’t think Marlee might get upset?”
“If her end goal is to reunite the stolen kids with their families, I don’t think she’ll mind.”
Jace thought about that a moment. “Maybe so. You want to bring Danny and Ryan in on this?”
“Danny’s wedding to Skylar is approaching. I don’t want to add anything to his plate. We’ll keep Ryan in the loop, but let’s do this just between us.”
“Then you need to catch up on some news.”
Cooper’s brows snapped together. “What are you talking about?”
“Yesterday morning, your mom and I were talking about the last woman who was killed and her baby stolen.”
Cooper couldn’t believe he’d forgotten that. “That was where? Houston?”
“Dallas.”
He cleared his throat. “Look in the drawer to your left. There’s a map of Texas.”
While Jace got that, Cooper found a blue marker. They spread out the map on the table as they both looked at it.
“Yep. That’s Texas,” Jace stated. “She’s awfully big.”
Cooper rolled his eyes. “You said I needed to catch up on the news, so catch me up. Let’s mark where these murders and kidnappings have taken place.”
“Ah. To see if they have a favorite place.”
“Yep.”
Cooper leaned over the table and marked Dallas as Jace read the news brief from the day before. Over the next hour, they had more than a dozen spots marked at Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston, with some sprinkled between all the cities going back over a decade.
There had to be a relationship between them, but Cooper couldn’t see it. He straightened to stretch his back, then froze as he caught the pattern.
“What are you doing? I’ve got another one,” Jace said.
Cooper pointed to Clearview, which was situated nearly right in the middle of all the cities.
“That can’t be right,” Jace said.
Cooper tossed down the marker. “This is going to take a lot more digging than we realized.”
“And the cases keep going further and further back. Coop, what the hell have we stumbled onto?”
“I don’t know, but I think we’re about to find out.”
Chapter 10
Caffeine was her addiction. It wasn’t a healthy one, but Marlee knew there were worse ones. In the early morning hours, she pulled her baseball cap low over her face and walked into the donut shop. She got a croissant with ham, egg, and cheese and a large coffee. Her penchant for sweets was satisfied when the owner dropped two donut holes into the bag. That saved Marlee from not only giving in to the need for a full-sized donut, but also the calories that went along with it.
She smiled in gratitude when he handed her the coffee. She used to take it with lots of cream and sugar, but too many stakeouts had driven her to learn to like it black. Her eyes closed as she let the hot, caffeinated liquid slide down her throat. It would take more than one sip to get her moving, but the first taste was like manna from the gods.
By the time she was on her third sip, her order was ready. Marlee paid and hurried back out through the cold to jump into her car. She longed for the temperate climate of California. The cold was really affecting her here. But that wasn’t all that had put her off-kilter in a way she hadn’t been since her sister’s death.
Marlee started the car and let the heat begin to fill the vehicle before she reached inside the bag for her food. Her fingers brushed the glazed donut hole first. She usually waited to eat them last, but this morning, she needed the sugar along with the caffeine.
As she munched on it and unwrapped her croissant sandwich, a truck pulled up next to her. She ignored it. In a town full of nothing but SUVs and large work trucks, she had gotten used to being dwarfed in her tiny rental. The smell of the delicious breakfast sandwich made her stomach rumble in anticipation. She had stumbled upon the little donut shop on the outskirts of town early on, simply because she needed coffee. But it quickly became a favorite.
She happily ate her breakfast and drank her coffee while listening to the radio. Her love of eighties music was often joked about, but she didn’t care. Hair bands and power ballads were her things. She ignored passersby and focused on her meal. Marlee didn’t allow herself to think about the case, the Harpers, and especially not Cooper. These few minutes in the mornings were all hers to clear her mind and mentally get herself where she needed to be.
When she happened to look out her windshield, her gaze locked with forest green eyes. Cooper stood before her car with his cowboy hat on, and his hands tucked into the pockets of his coat. He nodded. For a heartbeat, Marlee wasn’t sure what to do, so she lifted her hand in a little wave. To her shock, Cooper walked to the passenger side of her car.
Marlee unlocked it and watched as he folded his large frame into the rental. His knees hit the dashboard until he slid the seat back as far as it could go. She finished chewing, her gaze on him as he stared forward. She wasn’t sure if he would berate her, threaten her, or what. And for some reason, she had allowed him inside the car to do whatever he wanted.
“I heard you went to see Naomi and Brice last night,” Cooper said, still not looking in her direction.
Marlee lifted the coffee cup to her lips and took a drink before saying, “I did.”
“Do you really think Nate is the stolen infant you’re looking for?”
“If I didn’t believe there was a chance, I wouldn’t be here,” she told him.
He blew out a breath and dropped his chin to his chest. “Fair enough.”
“I was wrong to approach you last night. It’s not something I usually do, but I want to get this case solved.”
His gaze lifted to the windshield. “I can understand that. I just wish you would’ve told me.”
“I did that once. It was my second case. I thought I’d get somewhere faster if I just told those I was investigating what I was about. The moment I did, they vanished with the child. I never found them again.”
Cooper closed his eyes for a moment. “I’m talking to you like you know me, but you don’t. Not really. You couldn’t possibly know how I’d react if you came to me with the truth.”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I might do background checks and surveil everyone for a time to get the gist of someone’s character, but I can’t really know them.”
“How do you do it?” he asked, his head swinging to her.