by M. S. Parker
Clay drained his coffee and waved the waitress over for another, not speaking again until she walked away. “I’m going to need a little more than that if I’m making that sort of inquiry. The name of the main agent who fucked up, that wasn’t too hard to get. I can make a call and get the information you want, but if I’m going to poke around that case, I need to know what’s on the line.”
Fair enough.
“A little over eight years ago, Helen disappeared for a couple weeks. She was pregnant when she left but wasn’t when she came back. She claimed she’d been visiting friends when she’d gone into labor and delivered a stillborn. She had a death certificate, but said she’d had the baby cremated and scattered the ashes.”
“You don’t think she was pregnant?” He shook his head and changed his stance. “No, you don’t think the baby was stillborn. Right?”
I nodded. “I think she left before she was due and stayed away until she had the baby, which I think she then sold.”
A sick look settled on Clay’s face, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I had at first.
“I don’t think she sold the baby to anyone who’d have hurt it,” I explained further. “I think she was too greedy for that. I’m willing to bet that a desperate couple who wants to adopt but can’t for some reason or another would pay more than a trafficker.”
“That makes sense,” he agreed, “but why do you need to know who else had been in contact with her?”
“Harry never reported that she’d gone missing for a couple weeks. He told me it was because he was worried he’d get in trouble for lax monitoring. Then when she took off a second time to go after Jenna, he finally said something. It doesn’t make any sense. Why would he be willing to risk this baby’s life when he’s the one who worked so hard to keep her from hurting the others she gave birth to while in WITSEC?”
“You think he’s protecting someone,” Clay said. “Another agent.”
“Exactly. I think it wasn’t Harry’s fault that Helen left that first time, but he took the blame for someone else.” I popped the last bite of my garlic knot into my mouth.
Clay studied me for a moment before speaking again. “You don’t think it was an accident, do you?”
“I don’t,” I admitted. “I think that Helen had help leaving. I think she had help finding a couple, getting a fake death certificate for herself, maybe even a fake birth certificate and adoption papers for the parents.”
“Shit, Rona, you’re just asking for trouble.” Clay leaned back in his chair. “You’re going to accuse the US Marshals of aiding a known criminal in illegal activities while in witness protection?”
When he said it like that, it sounded a lot worse than how I’d been thinking it. “It’s not my job to police the Marshals,” I said. “I was hired to find people, and that’s all I intend to do. If someone really is guilty, I’ll hope they confess, but I’m not trying to build a case or anything here.”
He rubbed his chin, a gesture I’d come to recognize as one of his tells. He didn’t like what I was doing, and he certainly didn’t like that I’d come to him about it.
“Is there any way you can narrow it down to a smaller timeframe?” he asked finally. “I think making it too broad is going to raise red flags, and I can’t have it looking like the FBI is interfering in Marshal business.”
“Try nine and ten years ago,” I said. “And thank you, Clay.”
He sighed and pushed back from the table. “I did some profiling for the Marshals a couple years ago, helped them with a pretty tough case. I can call in a favor or two. Give me twenty minutes, and I’ll know if it’s feasible.”
I thanked him again and ordered a piece of warm apple pie and ice cream to have while I waited. I barely had time to finish it before he was back, his coat dusted with snow and his cheeks red. He shivered as he sat down and called over the waitress. She refilled his coffee, then took his dessert order. After she left, he took a long drink, then turned his attention to me.
“Nine years ago, Harry Franklin was partnered with a twenty-five-year-old newbie named Salome Balk. She wasn’t just any new Marshal though. Balk was the daughter of Franklin’s former mentor and partner who’d been killed in the line of duty ten years before that.”
Shit. He had been covering for someone. I hadn’t realized how little I’d believed my own hunch until I registered surprise that I’d been right.
“It gets better,” Clay continued. “Part of what Salome was supposed to do was handle things if Harry was away or sick. He’d officially put in for vacation time for two weeks around when Helen disappeared, and he didn’t show back up on the clock until his vacation was over, but the guy I just talked to said that Harry had been seen in Cheyenne halfway through the week even though he’d told everyone he was taking his wife to Niagara Falls.”
“He came back because Salome lost Helen.”
“That’s what I think,” Clay said. “The final nail in the coffin is what happened to Salome when Helen came back. Without any sort of explanation or warning, she quit her job and went back to school to be a nurse. She said she’d realized that healing people was her calling, not being a Marshal, but I think she couldn’t handle the guilt of betraying Harry and of being responsible for the loss of Helen’s baby.”
“I can work with guilt.” I said it mostly to myself, but it was loud enough that Clay heard.
“Are you sure you want to do that?”
“If we’re right about what happened, that means Salome aided a criminal in the black-market sale of a baby, then let her mentor hide what she’d done. She might have even helped Helen the second time Helen took off. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for her.”
I sounded harsh even to my own ears, but I meant it. I wasn’t here on a mission to get Salome in trouble. That wasn’t my business. My business was finding out what happened to that baby.
“I got her contact information,” he said. He pulled out a piece of paper and jotted something down. “My guy said that he heard she moved to South Carolina a couple years ago to work as a rep for some big pharmaceutical company, but her cell number should be the same.”
I took the paper and stuck it in my purse. “Thank you. I really appreciate your help.”
“I’ll always be here to help you,” he said. He leaned forward, his expression earnest. “And I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you before. I should have listened to Jalen and Jenna instead of thinking I had to find you on my own.”
I held up a hand. “I don’t want to talk about that. I appreciate everything you did for me, but I want to focus on my case.”
He watched me for a moment, then nodded. “All right. I’ll drop it for now, but I don’t want what happened–”
“Please, Clay. I really don’t want to do this now.” I rubbed my forehead. “In fact, I need to go. I want to call Salome from my office.”
I kept making excuses as I waved the waitress over. Clay tried to interrupt, but I talked over him. Things had been okay when I’d kept it to business, but I wasn’t ready for anything personal. Not yet.
I was halfway home before my mind stopped racing back to Clay and the discussion that I knew was in our future. Finally, I was able to solidify my schedule for the rest of the day. I’d be back in Fort Collins before dinner, plenty of time to make my call before Jalen stopped by.
I’d been so caught up with finding a possible baby that I’d almost forgotten about the other baby. Jalen told me yesterday that he and Elise were going to the OB/GYN for their first ultrasound and the non-invasive paternity test he’d finally managed to convince her to take. With the holidays, the results would take a little longer to come in, but hopefully, by the first of the year, Jalen would know if the baby was really his or not.
I was in the middle of planning what I’d do for dinner when my phone rang.
“Hi.”
“Hey, where are you?” Jalen’s voice was tense.
“I’m on the way back from Denver. I needed Clay to get me some information for Jenn
a’s case. Is everything okay?”
“Not really,” he said with a sigh. “But I can wait until you get back. I don’t want to distract you.”
“I’m fine,” I said. “The roads are clear, and the traffic’s not bad. It’s actually a pretty nice day for a drive.”
The fact that he didn’t argue with me told me just how serious it was. “Elise canceled the appointment.”
I bit back the smart remark I wanted to make, telling him that I wasn’t surprised that Elise had managed to avoid the paternity test. I even had my doubts about the pregnancy itself. I didn’t say any of that though.
“What happened?”
“Apparently, she had the chance for a shoot, and since she wants to keep working as long as possible, she felt like she needed to take the job.” I heard the frustration in Jalen’s voice. “We had to reschedule for after New Year’s.”
Of course they did.
But I wasn’t going to say anything. It wasn’t my place. I would support Jalen’s choices, but I wasn’t going to add in my two cents. Not unless he asked. I’d listen and be there for him. No matter what.
The woman on the other end of the video call had dark, wavy hair, baby blue eyes, and a sweet face. Cute, but not overly memorable. She also had one of those faces that showed every emotion, and right now, she was nervous.
“I don’t understand why a private investigator would want to talk to me. I work at a pharmaceutical company that donates money and resources to third world countries and low-income neighborhoods. They’re good people.”
“I’m sure they are,” I said, “but I’m not calling about your current job. I’m calling about a job you had almost ten years ago. With the US Marshals.”
The color drained from her face as I watched. “The Marshals?”
“Yes, Ms. Balk.” I kept my voice even, devoid of judgment. No matter what I found out, I couldn’t judge her, not if I wanted her to talk. “Specifically, I’m looking at the time you spent with Harry Franklin in Cheyenne, Wyoming.”
Her eyes darted away from the screen, and she fidgeted, twisting her fingers together. “Um, I don’t really know why you’d need to talk to me about any of that. I wasn’t with the Marshals for long. A couple years and then I left.”
“Why did you leave?”
“It wasn’t for me,” she answered quickly. Too quickly. “That’s all. I thought it’d be a good fit because of my dad. He worked for the service for decades. Gave his life to it, and I thought becoming a Marshal would honor that memory, but I wasn’t really much good at it.”
She was rambling, but I let her go. Sometimes when people were talking out of nerves, they said things they wouldn’t normally say.
“I’m not really a people person,” she continued. “They act like they like me, but then they do things…” Her cheeks flushed.
Shit.
A suspicion formed, and my gut said to follow it. “Ms. Balk, did you become…involved with someone you were assigned to?”
“No. No. Of course not. I never…” Her voice kept rising until it was shrill. “I wouldn’t…”
“Ms. Balk, I was hired by one of the daughters of Marcy Wakefield, also known as Helen Kingston, to find Kingston’s other children.”
“I can’t help with that,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t know anything about that.”
“I think you do.” I kept my voice even. “I think Wakefield manipulated you, either by pretending to be your friend or something more. I think she fed you a story when she got pregnant eight and a half years ago, some story that made you help her.”
I could see it on her face, the embarrassment and humiliation. I might have gotten some of the details wrong, but I was on the right track. Salome Balk was my missing piece, and she’d get me the lead I needed to find another one of Jenna’s siblings. I couldn’t do anything about Serge and the others right now, but I could do this.
Eighteen
As soon as I got off the phone with Salome, I called Jenna. After everything she’d done for me, I wanted to tell her that I had a good lead on finding another of her siblings. I made a few moments of small talk before jumping into the real reason I’d called.
“It turns out that Helen figured since she couldn’t seduce Harry Franklin into doing what she wanted, she’d try seducing the young woman who was Franklin’s junior partner. She told Salome that someone in the Marshal service had forced himself on her and that was how she’d gotten pregnant. There was this whole sob story that Helen made up, and it was enough to convince Salome to help Helen ‘save her baby.’”
I relayed the rest of our conversation, explaining how Salome had arranged for Helen to meet with a gay couple who had been excluded from adopting due to some issues in their past. She’d taken care of all the paperwork and had made sure Helen returned to Cheyenne. Once Helen had gotten back, Salome found out that she’d accepted money from the couple, but Salome hadn’t been able to report it without revealing what she’d done. Franklin, however, had been suspicious.
“Fortunately for us, Salome remembered a lot of details about the couple, and it shouldn’t take me long to find them. I might even have them for you tomorrow.”
When I finally stopped talking, there was a long silence, and then Jenna said, “That’s…a lot.”
“I just thought you’d want to know that I should have another name for you soon.”
“It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow,” Jenna said. “Wait until after Christmas to do anything else. Enjoy your holiday.”
“I’m not really doing much of anything,” I said.
“Yes, you are.”
She sounded so sure of herself that it caught me off guard.
“Besides, you can’t go around calling people on Christmas asking them if they illegally adopted a baby eight years ago.”
“Well, when you say it like that,” I said with a laugh. “You’re right. I hadn’t thought about it.”
“Now that you know you can’t work, you’re free to do what you want for Christmas.” Jenna paused, and then added, “And one of those options is for you and Jalen to come to Christmas Eve at our house. Rylan and I are having family over, and we’d love for you to join us.”
“I can’t intrude,” I protested.
“You’re not. You and Jalen are coming to our Christmas Eve party at six o’clock. We’re going to have food and games, and unless you can tell me that you and Jalen are doing something else, you have no excuses.”
She was right. About me at least. I hadn’t talked to Jalen about what he was doing over Christmas. I couldn’t even lie and say that I’d forgotten. I’d been too scared that he’d tell me that spending Christmas together would be moving too fast.
“Bring some wine. Jalen has a good selection.”
And I apparently had another call to make.
Nineteen
I’d never gone to a Christmas party before. Anton had been invited to parties when I lived with him, but he’d always made a point of staying with me, trying to give me as normal a holiday as possible. After he was gone, I hadn’t really felt like celebrating much.
I grimaced at myself in the mirror and tugged on my dress as if it needed help to lay correctly. I’d bought this dress on clearance a couple months ago and then forgot about it since it was clearly a winter dress. A deep, rich blue, it made my eyes stand out, and the material clung to my body. The neckline was high enough that my scar didn’t show, but the plunging back and the high slit revealed plenty of skin. I hoped Jalen would like it as much as I did.
The knock on the door made me turn away from the mirror, and I took a deep breath. We’d said I love you but, somehow, this felt a little more serious. Like we were making a public declaration, showing up at a family thing together. Like we were saying we were family.
I pushed the thought away as I opened the door…and promptly lost the ability to think.
Damn.
His slacks were a deep charcoal gray and perfectly fitted to his long legs and nar
row waist. The shirt was a cranberry red, just tight enough to show off his broad shoulders and muscles.
“Wow.” Jalen broke the silence first. “You look…wow. I mean, you always look good, but that dress is amazing.”
I blushed and ran my hands over my hips. “Thank you. You look great too.”
“Shall we?”
He helped me into my coat and then held out his arm. I took it, and we made our way down the outside steps. We didn’t talk much on the drive, but it was a comfortable silence, filled with soft Christmas carols and the low purr of the engine. Tension I hadn’t even realized I was holding bled away with each mile so that by the time we reached the house, I was ready.
The Archers had decorated their house and property with strands of white and blue lights, lining their driveway to provide a clear path all the way up. When we were welcomed inside, the explosion of color made me smile. Red and green and gold were everywhere. Ribbons and tinsel and bows. Where the things outside had been clearly laid out, everything in here looked haphazard. Some of them were crooked, and the spacing was uneven. Through the living room archway, I could see the tree shining with bulbs and lights and tinsel, ornaments put on at random.
It was wonderful.
Even if I hadn’t figured out the reason for the difference, one look at the beaming little girl standing next to the tree would’ve told me. Diana was dressed in a red velvet dress with white lace, the sort of thing that I would’ve hated when I was her age, but it was clear she loved it.
Jeremiah didn’t look quite as thrilled in his dress pants and shirt, but he had that half-embarrassed expression on his face that boys his age had when they were enjoying themselves but didn’t want to admit it. He lingered near Zeke, hero worship shining in his eyes, and he gave us polite smiles when we greeted him, a far cry from the sullen boy I first met.
“Thanks for coming,” Jenna said as she came forward to take our coats. She handed them off to Jeremiah and then took the wine Jalen offered. “Make yourselves at home.”
