by Justine Davis, Amy J. Fetzer, Katherine Garbera, Meredith Fletcher, Catherine Mann
And then what?
Made this tougher than it was already?
No. It was best to move forward, not look back.
One thing was certain: for her Mike Bridges was still on probation. She wouldn’t be letting down her guard any time soon.
Kayla parked in the admin parking area and headed straight for the files room. Rebecca had insisted that she make herself at home there. She’d also promised to have her secretary continue the search for Betsy Stone. Kayla had contacted every single relative and reference listed in Betsy’s file. No one had heard from her in years. Apparently she didn’t consider family a priority.
Jim was running a formal background search on Betsy, but so far he hadn’t turned up anything Kayla didn’t already know. Thankfully, Kayla could focus solely on this case since the shooting. That was the only good thing to come out of it. Another deputy was taking her regular shifts.
Kayla had mentally tossed around a number of scenarios over the weekend. Her investigation of egg harvesting had revealed two things consistently. Those involved in the process were either desperate to have a child of their own, or were hoping to find the closest thing to a perfect egg donor as possible. The point was to select a donor with preferred human characteristics. Physically and mentally superior.
Rainy had been strong, healthy as the proverbial horse. No defects. She had come from a family with the same traits on both sides, in other words good stock. She possessed the other desired qualities as well. Extremely intelligent with no mental instabilities. All of which came in a beautiful package. From what Kayla had ascertained about Thomas King, the suspected sperm donor, the same could be said for him.
Considering the extreme—and illegal—measures that had been taken to select the perfect specimens, it only made sense that the resulting offspring would be provided with all the best life had to offer in order to follow through with the intended theory.
Kayla entered the main files center at Athena Academy and sat down before the computer screen. The job that lay before her couldn’t be called simple. The number of files she would have to review was daunting. But she knew with complete certainty that the task would be worth the effort.
In the past few months Kayla had focused on searching for any sort of inconsistency in the files. Anything that stood out. But now she had another approach—looking for a student who resembled Rainy.
A child created with Rainy’s fertilized egg might have been sent to the finest schools on the planet. And if that child was a girl, that would no doubt have been Athena Academy. Kayla mentally kicked herself for not thinking of this earlier. Maybe she had. Perhaps she’d been looking for that connection from the beginning without actually spelling it out to herself.
It was a long shot. She couldn’t be sure…it was only speculation. The child, the baby girl Cleo Patra had given birth to, might not be Rainy’s. But Kayla had to try. It was the best idea she had right now.
The whole concept made sense. Those involved would consider the step pure genius. Create the perfect child, then send her to the perfect school—the same one her mother had attended. What better way to gauge results?
To narrow down her search criteria she selected students who would have attended Athena between twelve and eighteen years after Rainy’s eggs were mined. That dropped the number of candidates to a more reasonable level, just under four hundred.
Kayla thought about the information Tory Patton had provided on Thomas King, then limited the criteria further by selecting only those students with either blue eyes, like Rainy’s, or green, like Thomas King’s. Though she knew it was possible for the offspring to have inherited an ancestor’s eye color other than that of a parent, it was the next logical step to her way of thinking.
With the number of names reduced to around one hundred, she then threw in a third eliminating criteria, hair color. Rainy’d had chestnut-colored hair while Thomas King had blond. The list of names thinned to well under one hundred.
It was possible she had already disqualified Rainy’s child with her rudimentary criteria, but it was all she had to work with at the moment.
Since she already suspected that surrogate mothers would have borne Rainy’s babies, the offspring could have been adopted.
For attendance at Athena Academy, thorough background investigations were conducted on all potential students. Adoption information would be listed even if a parent didn’t want it to be.
Unfortunately not a single student under the current criteria base had been listed as adopted. Damn.
Kayla grumbled in frustration. She needed more.
But there was no more, leaving her no alternative except to review each one of those files in-depth.
No problem. Christine’s shooting was certainly related to Rainy’s murder, making both a part of Kayla’s ongoing case. Jazz was with her aunt Mary. Kayla had all day.
Since the files were listed in alphabetical order, that’s how she began. Each file included a picture, which she scanned, looking for a hint of Rainy in every face. She reviewed every single word regarding each student, then verified all pertinent personal data such as address, number of siblings, occupation of parents. Every damned detail. It was the only way.
And even then she might be looking at the wrong candidates.
A needle in a haystack.
But for now, it was the only direction in which she had to go. Anything was better than nothing.
She wouldn’t give up.
O.
O’Shaughnessy, Dawn.
Kayla stared at the image of the young, blond-haired woman with the gold-green eyes.
Her heart thundered, forcing the blood to roar in her ears.
It was incredible. The facial structure…cheekbones, mouth, even the straight slant of her nose was all Rainy.
“Jesus Christ.”
The hair and eyes were exact replicas of Thomas King.
The age was perfect.
Kayla had used Athena resources as well as law enforcement ones to verify her suspicions. The parents listed for Dawn O’Shaughnessy had never existed. The street address was false, the mailing address was a post office box that had changed hands a dozen times in the intervening years. The social security numbers for all three amounted to identity theft of the deceased.
Her hunch—shot in the dark, really—had paid off. Dawn O’Shaughnessy not only had the right looks, her background was as trumped-up as Santa Claus’s, no offense to the upcoming holiday.
Damn, that reminded her, she had a couple of gifts she still had to pick up.
Kayla scrubbed at her forehead.
Last-minute shopping would have to wait. Right now she had to find this Dawn.
DNA testing would easily confirm that she was Rainy’s child. Permission to conduct such testing was another matter altogether. She could only hope the girl would be as determined to learn the truth as Kayla was.
Her next step was to call the Cassandras and pass on the news. Before she reached for the phone she e-mailed Alex a copy of the file. Alex’s FBI contacts could be useful in finding the girl.
As usual, Darcy, Sam, Tory and Josie were unreachable. Kayla left messages for all four. Hearing Alex’s voice went a long way in soothing Kayla’s frazzled nerves.
“It’s her,” she told her Cassandra sister. “I know she’s Rainy’s daughter. Did you look at that picture?”
Dawn O’Shaughnessy had only attended Athena Academy for one year, her junior year. That didn’t really surprise Kayla. To keep the girl at the academy much longer would have been a risk. Selecting that particular year for her attendance had proven well thought out. As a junior Dawn would have had flying lessons as well as numerous other advance survival and self-defense skill courses at her disposal.
She had excelled in all.
“It’s incredible,” Alex said, her voice scarcely more than a whisper. “The resemblance between her and Rainy is remarkable once you get past the golden hair and extraordinary eyes.”
“W
e have to find this girl.”
“I’m working on it already,” Alex assured her. An extended pause set Kayla’s nerves further on edge. “But I feel like I need to be there. For Christine…and for you.”
Kayla closed her eyes and held back the emotions that wanted to overflow. “That would be good. I could use your help.” And your support, she didn’t add.
“I’ve talked to Justin, and he wants me to fly over tomorrow. You know this affects him as well.”
She was right. Justin Cohen’s sister had been one of the surrogates, if their theory proved true. Although according to hospital records, the child she’d carried had died, too. Then again, look how accurate Rainy’s records had been….
Would Dawn have any ideas about her past? Wherever she had gone to college or now worked was a total mystery. At this point it looked as if the girl simply vanished after her one year at the academy.
There was always the chance she could be dead.
Kayla pushed aside that theory. She needed her alive. She wasn’t going to allow herself to believe otherwise.
“Call me when your flight arrives,” Kayla reminded Alex.
As she disconnected the call, she felt stronger already just knowing that Alex was on her way.
They were getting close now.
Kayla could feel it.
She packed up her notes, shut down the system she’d been using. At this point there was no reason to share what she’d discovered with anyone else. Especially since she wasn’t sure who she could trust, and what she had was clearly circumstantial. She hated to think of Rebecca Claussen as anything other than an ally, but she wouldn’t take the risk. Peter Hadden’s tall, handsome image popped into her head. She was actually surprised that she hadn’t heard from him this weekend, after Christine’s shooting. Maybe he was tied up on a big case.
Or maybe he’d decided that working with Kayla wasn’t worth the effort. Then again, after what he’d said to her in his car that night, maybe he was simply too embarrassed by his own admission.
It was dark already when she returned to the parking lot, but her mind wasn’t really fixed on how late it was. She kept playing Peter’s words over and over. He was attracted to her.
She hesitated, her hand on the Jeep’s door. Peter? Since when had she started referring to him as Peter?
Dumb, Kayla, she chastised as she opened the driver’s side door. Really dumb.
She hesitated before climbing into the vehicle. That creepy sensation of being watched engulfed her.
Kayla surveyed the deserted parking area. Had everyone gone home already? Rebecca hadn’t even popped in to say good-night. Was she still inside? But her car wasn’t in the lot.
Kayla sat down behind the wheel of her Jeep and closed the door, instinctively depressing the lock button.
The incidents were growing closer, increasing in frequency. Whoever was tracking her was growing bolder.
Kayla started the engine and shifted into drive. Tail or no tail, she had things to do. Intimidation, if that was the intent, wasn’t going to slow her down. She touched the weapon at her side. Not in this lifetime.
With even more certainty, she had reason to believe Christine’s shooting as well as this persistent shadow were connected to Rainy’s murder. Someone knew Kayla was getting closer to the truth.
How close would she be allowed to get before more aggressive steps were taken to intervene?
Only one way to find out.
Kayla drove straight to Christine’s bungalow. She passed slowly, then abruptly stopped halfway down the street that would lead to Betsy Stone’s home.
She climbed out of the Jeep. Strode straight up to Christine’s home and performed a perimeter check. A guard hadn’t been posted, since it was unlikely further evidence could be gathered from the scene.
Kayla turned all the way around, scanned the moonlit area. Her shadow stayed out of sight, but he was there. She felt his presence.
Kayla walked the distance to Betsy Stone’s place. As with Christine’s, she walked the perimeter, checked the doors and windows. Nothing had been disturbed.
Nurse Stone had not returned to her small, cozy home.
Kayla didn’t have to speculate on that conclusion. Last time she’d stopped by she’d taped the doors, front and back, as well as the windows. If anyone had entered the premises the transparent tape would have been broken or detached. In each instance the tape was exactly as she’d left it.
Wherever the good nurse had disappeared to, she hadn’t returned to her home or the campus as far as anyone knew.
Was she running for her life, or on the run?
Or dead?
Kayla had to find her, if she was still alive. She was the key.
Then and there Kayla made another decision. Whether Betsy Stone showed or not, she intended to get a search warrant on her home first thing tomorrow. If there was any evidence inside those four walls, Kayla wanted it before someone else got hold of it. But she had to get it legally, or anything she found would be inadmissible in court.
The possibility that Christine’s shooter could have already pilfered Stone’s house punched a hole in Kayla’s hope, but she had to be sure. Overlooking any lead or aspect, no matter how remote, was bad police procedure. Kayla prided herself on good cop work, and she wasn’t about to change now.
When she’d looked her fill she drove to Mary’s house. She hated missing dinner with her daughter but it was too late to worry about that now.
She braked to a stop at the curb, her full attention zeroing in on the red SUV parked behind her brother-in-law’s truck.
Until she’d gotten out and walked up to the vehicle so she could make out the license plate she told herself that it couldn’t be. Had to be a coincidence.
But she was wrong.
1PILOT.
Mike.
Fury exploded inside Kayla as she strode up the walk and onto her sister’s porch.
The scene inside the house only fueled her already out-of-control fury and frustration—a volatile mix under any circumstances.
Mike, looking as much at home as any member of the family, sat on the sofa next to Jazz. Mary’s husband occupied his favorite chair. Mary’s two boys were sprawled on the floor, heads cupped in hands, watching television.
“Hey, Kayla.” Her sister greeted her, the door held open wide as if the scenario playing out inside her living room was completely innocent and totally normal. “I was worried.”
The worry in Mary’s eyes was the only thing that kept Kayla from going off then and there. The expression on her face signaled that she wasn’t completely comfortable.
“Sorry, I was on a case.” Her gaze shifted to Mike. “What’s up?”
Mary ushered her into the room and closed the door. “Mike dropped in on us a couple hours ago,” she explained, keeping her tone light and cheery. Too cheery. “He had the day off and thought he’d drive down.”
Mike finally bothered to join the conversation. He stood and walked toward Kayla.
She worked hard at keeping her face free of the anger boiling inside her. “Really?” The tension in the one word was thick enough to cut with a knife. “How nice.”
He flared his hands. “I tried to call you today but never could catch you at home.”
“That’s why I carry a cell phone,” she inserted with an exaggerated smile.
A frown marred his handsome face. “I…ah…” He shook his head. “I don’t have your cell number.”
As much as she wanted to bite off his head and spit down his neck, he was right. Dammit.
“Anyway,” he went on, “I left a couple of messages on your machine en route.”
“You drove all this way not knowing if we’d gone out of town for some reason?” That just didn’t sound like the self-serving guy she’d once known.
He shrugged. “I had to take the chance. Something’s come up at the base and I won’t be able to get away this weekend. I didn’t want to have to wait until after Christmas to g
ive Jazz her present.”
Fury mushroomed inside Kayla all over again. He’d come bearing gifts? Perfect.
“Come look, Mom!” Jazz motioned for her to join her at the dining room table.
Mary looked utterly mortified.
Kayla had a bad feeling.
“Isn’t it cool?”
On Mary’s dining room table Kayla saw her daughter’s gift from her newly interested father.
A state-of-the-art, big-name laptop computer.
Not one of the no-frills models Kayla had purchased. She recognized the compact machine at once. It must have cost at least two grand.
Son of a…
“It’s exactly what I wanted.”
Kayla smiled and made all the expected responses. What else could she do? Her daughter was clearly thrilled. But Kayla felt sick to her stomach. What was she supposed to do with the laptop computer she’d purchased? What in the world would she buy for her daughter now?
There was no way to top Mike’s gift.
Kayla suddenly felt exactly like second best.
She nibbled at the dinner Mary thrust in front of her. Her mouth somehow tossed out the necessary answers whenever someone addressed her. But she didn’t know how she kept it up. Only by the grace of God.
Finally Mike mentioned that he should get on the road. He couldn’t be away from the base as long as he would have liked.
Poor bastard, Kayla thought with absolutely no sympathy.
She stiffened as he kissed his daughter good-night. But it wasn’t really his gesture that got to Kayla—it was the way her daughter responded. She hugged him so tight…as if she wanted to hang on…and on.
Kayla told herself she could be rational about this as she followed Mike outside. But the moment they were alone that possibility evaporated in a blast of red-hot anger that should have melted the soles of her shoes.
“How could you?” she demanded between clenched teeth. He’d upstaged her Christmas. Had outmaneuvered her.
“What’re you talking about?” Mike laid on that innocent look just a little too thick.
