Marlee shrugged. “At this point, I’ll consider anything. I’m ruling nothing out. Including the authorities working with each other to keep things quiet or working with the criminals.”
“I agree, it’s a possibility,” Cooper said.
Jace shrugged. “And these photos?”
“That’s everyone that I’ve found who is connected to the adoption agency in some form or fashion,” she explained.
Cooper let his gaze move slowly over the various pictures. Below each one was a name and their role with the company. “I suppose you already looked into these people?”
“Yes. It’s ongoing, however.”
He nodded slowly. “Anything useful with any of them?”
“A couple.” Marlee walked to the wall and pointed to a middle-aged woman and a younger woman. “These two.”
Jace eyed both of them. “What about them?”
“On two separate occasions when pregnant women were killed and their babies stolen, both of these women were out of the office.”
Cooper thought about that for a moment. “Separately? Or together?”
“Together,” Marlee said. “I could’ve overlooked one incident as someone calling in. But twice?” she asked, her brows raised.
Jace snorted. “That would make me do a double take, as well. How far away were the pregnant women killed?”
Marlee walked to the bed and sat as she pulled open a notebook. It took her a few minutes of flipping through the pages before she said, “One was eighty miles away, another was nearly two hundred miles away.”
“Easy driving distance,” Jace said as he looked at Cooper.
Cooper blew out a breath. “That it is. Have you found other timetables with them or other employees at this agency?”
“I’ve been looking, but I’ve not found anything yet,” Marlee replied. “I had to focus on where I thought I could gain the most intel.”
Cooper rubbed his hand over his chin. “Understandable. Let’s come back to this because I’ve got a feeling there’s something there.”
“I do, as well. I’ve just not been able to devote the time and resources to it as I’d like.” Marlee turned to another wall. “This is, well … all of you. Whenever I’m looking into a family, I expand out as far as I can with friends and family. Most times, there isn’t anything there. But there have been occasions where something connects, and it gives me what I need.”
Jace shrugged and shot her a grin. “I’d do the same in your shoes. But I’m curious what you found on everyone. There has to be some secret Cooper has that I don’t know about. I mean, I have known him since we were five, so I’m pretty sure I know everything. Still, any chance I can see the file?” he joked.
“Not happening,” Marlee said with a laugh.
Cooper shook his head while grinning at his best friend. “I tried to keep a secret from you once. You remember how that turned out?”
Jace busted out laughing to the point where he bent over, his eyes squeezed shut.
Cooper turned his attention to Marlee. “From the moment Jace and I met, we just clicked. We were inseparable, really. Thankfully, our parents let us hang out all the time. We shared everything. People began thinking we were brothers, not friends. Because we were always together.”
“We shared everything except girls, of course,” Jace said, his smile wide.
Cooper rolled his eyes. “When we got older and started taking an interest in girls, I was able to talk to them, but not Jace. He’d get all tongue-tied and spew nonsense.”
“It was horrible,” Jace said, pulling a face. “It was like I was speaking in tongues. The words were in my head, but I couldn’t get them out of my mouth. And the girls would laugh, which made it worse.”
Marlee looked between them, her interest evident.
Cooper drew in a deep breath and released it. “Then, one day, Jace saw Katrina Thompson and fell head over heels. She was the new girl in school, and very pretty. Katrina and I had English together, and she sat right beside me. We flirted, and I asked for her phone number. When I met up with Jace for lunch to tell him, he started talking first. He went on and on about how he’d finally found a girl he knew he could talk to.”
Marlee’s eyes widened. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes,” Jace said with a grin. “And do you know what Cooper did? Instead of telling me he already had her number, he told me to go talk to her.”
“Awww,” Marlee said as she looked at him. “That was sweet.”
Cooper shrugged. “I wanted to help my best friend.”
Marlee frowned as she cut her eyes to Jace. “That’s the story? That’s all? What’s so funny about that?”
“Well,” Jace said, drawing out the word.
Cooper pointed a finger at him. “My story. I get to tell it.”
Jace held up his hands, conceding as Marlee laughed.
“As I was saying,” Cooper said, smiling at Jace, “you see, I thought I was doing a good deed. For the first time, I didn’t tell him about a girl I liked. I had no idea that it would backfire on me so spectacularly.”
“What? What happened?” Marlee pressed when he didn’t immediately continue.
Cooper chuckled. “Jace, feeling confident as hell, went right up to Katrina the next day. He talked to her with words, even some complete sentences.”
“I practiced those lines all night,” Jace said, nodding. “I was smooth, articulate, and wooed her like she’d never been wooed before.”
Cooper could barely hold in his laughter. “All the other girls around Katrina stopped and took notice of Jace. A few of them even had drool running down their mouths.”
Marlee playfully hit him. “They did not.”
“Oh, they did,” Jace stated emphatically.
Cooper shrugged. “Every female there—including any teacher that was nearby—became instantly smitten with Jace. Every female, that is, except Katrina.”
“Here I am, pouring my heart out to this girl,” Jace said, smiling, “and all the while, she’s looking at me as if I’ve grown horns. When I finished and proceeded to tell her how much I was in love with her, she thanked me politely and walked straight to Cooper.”
Cooper threw up his hands. “I had no idea she’d do that.”
“The one time you kept a secret, and it changed my life for the better.” Jace shook his head as he looked at Cooper. “From that day on, I never had a problem talking to women.”
Cooper snorted. “From that day on, women were all over you. You’ve never lacked for female companionship.”
“Nope. I sure haven’t,” Jace replied with a half-grin.
Marlee laughed. “You two are something else, that’s for sure.”
The story had alleviated some of the heaviness of their situation, at least for a moment. But it was time to get back to work. Cooper faced the last wall. “What is all of this?”
“Pictures of people I have yet to identify or even know if they’re connected to the adoption agency, the authorities, or the murderers and kidnappers,” Marlee told them. “I keep them there in case I see them in another picture to connect them somehow.”