Jace moved to the large section of the wall that looked like one of the boards that authorities put together on crime shows, showing how everyone was connected, the timeline of events, and any missing parts. “This is a lot of information.”
“More than you know. I couldn’t put it all up there because there simply isn’t room. I did the major dates of things, like when my client’s wife was murdered, and her son cut from her and—”
“I’ve got a question,” Cooper interrupted her. “What made you believe that the child you were searching for was the one Brice and Naomi adopted.”
Marlee turned and grabbed a stack of papers from the bed. “Precisely twelve hours after the baby was kidnapped, three calls went out from the adoption agency. One was for a little girl, two were for boys. The first call went to a couple in Fort Worth. They had suffered several miscarriages and tried IVF multiple times before turning to adoption. They wanted a child and didn’t care what race or sex it was. The baby boy they were called about was of Asian descent, which didn’t match the child I was looking for. So, my attention turned to the only other call that night.”
“The one to Brice and Naomi,” Jace said.
Marlee nodded. “Exactly.”
“What is so important about that time? Why not the earlier calls? Or the next day?” Cooper asked.
Marlee flattened her lips as her expression fell. “Just like people want to adopt puppies and kittens instead of older dogs and cats, the same goes for children. Newborns are highly sought after. Those of us in this line of work have learned that twelve hours is the sweet spot. Could it be earlier or later? Yes, of course. But the timing of those calls caught my attention. I also believe they placed several calls at once to throw off anyone who might be investigating them.”
“What if they didn’t make a call at all?” Jace asked.
Marlee’s face went blank, her lips parting as if she hadn’t thought of that.
Cooper nodded. “If two of the three calls were for newborn males, and we know that neither of them was the right infant, then…”
“Then I messed up,” Marlee said. She sank heavily onto the bed. “I must have missed something.”
Cooper put a hand on her shoulder and rubbed it. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. It happens.”
“No, it shouldn’t,” she told him. Her anger wasn’t at him but directed at herself. “I know better. I’ve done this for too damn long to make such a stupid mistake.”
“Unless it wasn’t a mistake,” Jace replied. He looked from Marlee to Cooper. “What if those calls were done intentionally, just as you said? What if they wanted you to come here and look into Naomi and Brice?”
Cooper frowned as he tried to see where Jace was going. “I get the calls, but why would they care about Naomi and Brice? Why them?”
“Why, exactly?” Jace said. “Remember the map? Remember what was situated nearly in the middle of everything?”
“Holy shit,” Cooper murmured.
Marlee frowned. “What are you two talking about?”
Cooper looked at her. “Earlier, when I told you that Jace and I looked at a map of Texas and began marking where the babies had been kidnapped and the women killed, there was a central location—us. Right here in this town.”
For several moments, Marlee didn’t speak, she just blinked as she stared at Cooper. “The timing of those calls was on purpose. I know that in my bones. And the more I hear you and Jace speak, the more I think that someone sent me here, knowing the newborn I was looking for wasn’t the one your friends adopted. They could be throwing me off the trail, but they could’ve done that with another couple. No, I was sent here on purpose. And if that’s the case, then there’s something here I need to find.”
“Like those doing the kidnapping and selling the babies,” Cooper replied. “It makes sense. Nothing has happened here, but there have been attacks all around us.”
Jace leaned back against a wall and crossed his arms over his chest. “There’s only one thing to do in times like these. We go hunting.”
Chapter 25
The longer Stella sat in her office and thought of all the things that had gone wrong for her over the last decade, she couldn’t deny that the main cause was Marlee Frampton. The fact that she had known the Framptons shouldn’t make a difference. But it did.
She’d never intended for Macey to be harmed. Chuck had been told to stay away from the Frampton twins, but he hadn’t been the one to kill Macey and take the baby. That had been another employee, Martin—an ex-military friend of Chuck’s—that she had hired that very day. He was supposed to sit back and watch how things were done before he got his assignment. He’d been driving around to gather information on pregnant women and saw Macey walking. He’d taken the opportunity that presented itself and grabbed her.
Stella leaned back in her office chair and looked at the ceiling. In all her years, she’d had very few that she had called friends. Her relationship to the Framptons had been by accident, really. She’d rented the house next to theirs when she first got back on her feet. None of her business had been conducted there, so no one knew anything. She left for work every day, just like everyone else. Except the Framptons wouldn’t leave her alone. Diane spoke to her first. The matriarch of the family had been kind, bringing over fresh-cut flowers. Macey and Marlee had been young children at the time.
Stella kept her distance from the family, but every time Diane saw her, she’d wave. And Stella would wave back. After a year of that, they began chatting a little. Small talk, really. But it was something Stella hadn’t had since Jenny died. She enjoyed seeing the family and how kind they were to her.
She stayed in that house for another five years before she moved to another state. By that time, Diane had her number and called her regularly to make sure she was all right. Despite knowing how dangerous it was, how it increased the possibility of being found out, Stella not only took Diane’s calls, she also made her own.
Another five years passed before Stella returned to California and the small town of Shell Ridge. She told herself it was ripe with pickings to keep her ever-growing business running, but that was only part of it. She wanted to be near Diane again. As soon as Stella moved back, she and Diane met for lunch and made it a weekly occurrence.
Diane—and the entire family, really—became a friend again.
So, when Macey was murdered, and her baby was stolen, Stella hadn’t known what to do. She had briefly considered ordering Chuck to return the newborn to the family. Yet, she didn’t. Martin’s skill and speed had been incredible. He had taken Macey during the day, and no one had seen him. Chuck rarely worked during the day, and while she hated that Macey had been killed, she was running a business.
Stella forced herself to pay her respects to the family as they grieved. Diane didn’t seem to even be aware that she stopped by on several occasions. Her visits tapered off until she finally stopped going altogether. She no longer lived beside them, so no one knew where she was at any given time. After about six months, she moved away again, but not before giving Diane a call. Just as Stella expected, Diane hadn’t been around to answer the phone. Stella left a message and told Diane to call her whenever she could.