Secret Alibi

by Lori L. Harris

  “Had they talked to Whittemore or Dawson?”

  “Whittemore only. And not because they considered him a suspect. They went to him early on, trying to determine if she had been a patient.”

  “And what did he tell them?”

  “That she wasn’t.”

  Jack rubbed his hand over his face as if that might clear his head. “So we have one dead and another possibly missing or possibly dead?”

  “Did you report Amanda missing?” Alec asked.

  “Report what? That she called and suggested we stop by to talk? And when we got there, she wasn’t home?” Jack’s frustration was obvious. “I reported it, but we both know that nothing will happen. Maybe after Andy runs the swabs. If they come back as human and the ABO typing matches Amanda’s, maybe they’ll take it seriously.”

  “But for now, as far as they’re concerned, she’s not even missing,” Alec added.

  Jack nodded. “You got it.”

  Alec seemed to mull over some aspect of what he’d just been told. “So you believe Amanda was in the office when Lexie arrived that night? And that when Amanda’s baby was stillborn, he made the switch? Ostensibly, because he had a buyer lined up for Amanda’s baby and didn’t want to disappoint his client?”

  “There’s not much evidence yet to back up the theory.” Jack glanced toward Lexie. “But it gives a possible motive for Dan Dawson’s murder and suggests a reason why Fleming Whittemore declined to help Lexie. It also gives a possible explanation why the text messages Lexie received that night appeared to have come from her ex-husband. Whittemore would have known which buttons he needed to push to get Lexie over there.”

  Alec balled up the wrapper from his sandwich. “So where do you want to go from here?”

  “While we wait for Andy to get back to us? We look for Amanda and go after Whittemore, preferably without letting him know what we’re doing. The last thing we want is for Whittemore to disappear. If he does, we lose our best hope for finding not only Amanda, but Lexie’s daughter, too.”

  “It might not be a bad idea to establish that the child Lexie believed to be hers was actually Amanda’s.”

  “Unfortunately, we have no way of doing that,” Jack said. “The body was cremated, and the ashes scattered.”

  Alec’s mouth tightened. “Well, that’s going to make it difficult to do anything until we’ve located the other baby. Which means we’re going to need to be very careful. If Whittemore believes we’re getting close, he’ll destroy any records associated with the babies. He may already have done so.” His expression turned even grimmer. “To be blunt, I think we have to consider the possibility that Whittemore may already have killed Amanda to keep her quiet. Just in case she’s still alive, it wouldn’t hurt to consider where he might take her.”

  “The place out in the Ocala National Forest,” Jack suggested.

  Lexie felt a slight chill climb through her. Once any man lured a woman out to someplace as remote as Whittemore’s retreat, she would be at his mercy.

  JACK AND ALEC MADE a quick stop at Alec’s house, just long enough to drop Lexie off. She wasn’t happy about being dumped, but there was no way Jack intended to take her with them out to Whittemore’s place. Not when he didn’t know what they’d find.

  They’d already determined that Whittemore was staying at the house in town, and they’d left the private investigator watching to make sure the doctor didn’t decide to go for a midnight drive.

  Jack glanced over at his brother. “I want to thank you for all the help,” he said.

  Alec nodded but didn’t show any other signs that he’d heard him. They were already on the gravel and dirt roads leading out to Whittemore’s place, and it had been more than ten minutes since they’d passed a car.

  After several more minutes of silence, Jack turned to his brother. “Talk.”

  “Katie told me about last Friday night.”

  Jack tensed at those few words. He’d known going by Alec’s that night was a mistake. That if Alec found out about it, he’d think the worst. That Jack was making a play for his eight-months-pregnant wife.

  But he wanted things out in the open for once between him and Alec. “Katie was upset. Lonely. She asked me to come have dinner with her.” He looked over at his brother. “It wasn’t the first time she’s asked, and I was out of excuses. I suppose I could have told her the truth, that the reason I wasn’t willing to come over was because if you showed up, you’d think the worst. Not just of me, but of her, too.”

  Alec’s expression went from troubled to grim. “I know I deserve that. I want to apologize for my behavior the night I came home and saw you and Jill on that couch. It just hit me wrong. Not so much that you were sitting there with her, but that it had been months since Jill and I had sat together.”

  “She believed all you really needed was your work.”

  “She was wrong.”

  “You should be more truthful with yourself,” Jack said quietly. “Back then, there was nothing but the job. You lived, breathed and ate it.”

  “And you didn’t?”

  Jack chose not to respond. It took two to get a really good pissing contest going, and he wasn’t really in the mood for one, was thinking about what they would find when they reached their destination.

  Alec reached for the radio, flicked it on, but immediately turned it back off. “You’re right. I was a lousy husband. Jill deserved better. I don’t plan to let that happen again.” He looked at Jack. “About last Friday. I want to thank you for being there for Katie when I couldn’t be. It meant a lot to her, and it means a lot to me, too. She means a lot to me.”

  His expression grim, Alec stared at the road. “All those times that I knocked on doors and gave the kind of news that no husband or father should ever have to receive, I told myself that I understood their pain. But when I look at Katie sometimes and think about what I would do if anything happened to her or to the baby, I realize what a condescending prick I was back then.”

  Jack was stunned by Alec’s words and by the emotion he heard in his brother’s voice. He had never expected him to be so candid about his feelings. Alec had always been so calm and analytical. Except with Katie, Jack admitted. There was no question in his mind that his sister-in-law loved his brother.

  “You won’t lose her,” Jack said quietly. “Not because you won’t screw up, but because she loves you every bit as much as you love her.”

  They were silent after that. Jack realized that he envied Alec his wife, his child, the life he’d created. He found himself thinking about Lexie and his baby.

  Alec pulled into what appeared to be a small turnoff partway up the drive. “How do you want to do this?”

  “If she’s there at all, she’ll be on the lower level.”

  Jack was the first to get out. As he moved forward, he checked his weapon, made sure the two additional magazines were within easy reach in case he needed them.

  They followed the drive the rest of the way to the house. Once there, they walked around the house once, ending up in front of the entryway to the lower level.

  Jack ran his flashlight over the door. “Looks as if someone tried to break in recently. It doesn’t look as if they were successful, though.”

  “Let’s hope we are,” Alec said.

  Jack passed Alec a pair of vinyl gloves and the flashlight, before pulling out his tools.

  It took him nearly ten minutes, partly because the locks were some of the best on the market, and partly because he was out of practice.

  When both dead bolts were opened, he put away his tools and pulled out his weapon again. Alec handed him one of the flashlights. When Alec started to go through the door first, Jack stopped him. “Why don’t I go in first? You’ve got a baby on the way.”

  Alec moved forward. “So do you, brother.”

  They went in like two seasoned law enforcement officers entering a building where they were uncertain what they would be facing. Alec taking the lead, sweeping ahead, but
Jack only a short distance behind, protecting his brother’s back.

  Once inside, both men scanned their flashlights over the furniture. The sofa and two chairs were arranged in front of a large cabinet that held a television and DVD player and stereo equipment. On either side of the entertainment center there were doors. Off to the right was a small kitchen with your basic Formica table.

  “Looks like a small apartment,” Jack said.

  “Without windows?”

  Jack moved past Alec and opened the first of the closed doors. “Bedroom.” He stepped inside. “Doesn’t appear to be in use. There’s an attached bath.”

  By the time he emerged, Alec was already at the second door. “We’ve got another dead bolt.” Alec allowed his flashlight to travel over the room again. “Why a dead bolt?”

  “To keep nosy guests out?” Jack passed his flashlight to his brother. “We’re going to feel damn stupid if it’s a wine cellar or a woodworking shop.”

  “I’m not particularly feeling that way at the moment. How about you?”

  “Unfortunately, no.” At least this lock wasn’t quite as burglarproof as the last two. As soon as it clicked open, Jack nodded for Alec to take cover against the wall on the other side of the entrance. His shoulders pressed to the wall, Jack pushed the door inward.

  He looked over at his brother. “My turn to go first.”

  LEXIE PACED around Alec and Katie Blade’s living room with its tall ceilings and deep moldings. The pine floor was polished to a satiny finish. Several thick, burgundy rugs, around which sofas, chairs and love seats had been arranged, anchored the space. In one corner a large Frasier fir was covered in small lights.

  And in the fire grate, the last embers sizzled and hissed toward extinction.

  Though large, the house felt cozy. It was the kind of home that welcomed. That said family. And having seen Alec and Katie together, Lexie knew why. She’d thought Alec to be rigid, intense, and perhaps he was with other people, but Katie only had to walk into the room for his whole face to change.

  Lexie glanced at the painting over the fireplace. Two boys sitting on their surfboards, waiting for a wave. She leaned in to read the title: A Long Boarder’s Right of Passage. Though she liked the painting, it didn’t seem to match the room. The scale seemed off for the space above the mantel.

  Katie, who had excused herself moments earlier, walked back in. “I gave that to Alec shortly after we met. He said it reminded him of the times he and Jack went surfing as boys.” She sat on the sofa. “I had originally done it for my sister, so it has meaning for me, too.”

  Even at nearly nine months pregnant, Katie Blade was one of those women who radiated energy and kindness.

  “I’m sure everything is fine,” she said.

  Lexie was growing more frustrated by the moment. More desperate. She shouldn’t just be sitting here. Her daughter was out there somewhere. She should be doing something.

  She walked to the French doors and looked out. “I think I’ve always known Lindy was alive.” She turned and looked at Katie. “Do you think that’s possible?”

  “Yes.”

  She gazed outside again. “I’ve been having these nightmares for months where she’s crying, but I can’t reach her. It was never the same nightmare. There were always subtle differences. Sometimes she’d be crying hard. Other times she wouldn’t be. And once, she was even cooing softly.” Lexie smiled sadly. “I even went to a psychologist. He said I had them because I blamed myself for what had happened. I think I was having them because, deep down inside, I knew she was out there somewhere.”

  Katie approached her, stood beside her, both women now staring out into the night. “I lost my twin sister in a car accident when I was seventeen. Even now, I sometimes feel her with me.” She looked at Lexie. “I believe that there is a strong connection between mother and child.” She rested her hand on her rounded abdomen. “Everyone else meets the baby on the day its born, but the relationship between mom and baby begins long before that.”

  “I’m pregnant,” Lexie said. She realized it was the first time she’d volunteered those words, and that, instead of the mixture of elation and panic she’d felt in the past, this time there was only joy.

  “Jack’s a good man,” Katie said quietly, and then turned away.

  Lexie nodded. He was a good man. And she was in love with him. But she knew it wasn’t enough.

  WITH HIS FIRST STEP into the room, Jack cursed.

  When they’d made the trip out to Whittemore’s place tonight, he’d hoped to find Amanda unharmed and maybe even to find some records of Whittemore’s baby-selling. And if they were really lucky, something that would tie him to Dan Dawson’s murder.

  Jack certainly hadn’t expected what he was now looking at.

  Sitting in the center of the room was an exam table, the stainless steel stirrups extended. Just to the right of it was a rolling cart, the top of which held an array of instruments still sealed in their sterilization bags.

  He heard Alec step into the room behind him, but didn’t turn to look at his brother.

  “He kept them here,” Jack said. “In the apartment until it was time, and then brought them in here.” He flicked the only light switch he saw, the one on the fixture over the exam table. A daylight glare beamed down onto the surface, almost as if it were stage lighting. “Can you imagine being a young woman, pregnant and unmarried, and uncertain what to do? And then this doctor approaches you. He tells you that he’ll give you a place to stay, he’ll take care of you, he’ll deliver your baby. All you have to do is agree to give your baby up for adoption.”

  Jack slowly walked around the room. Greed. That’s what this room was about. “Maybe he doesn’t even tell you about the adoption at first. Maybe he tells you that, if you want to keep the baby, you can. Maybe the story is never the same. Maybe it’s whatever he thinks you need to hear. Whatever it takes to get you to say yes. And once he has you…”

  Jack ran his gloved hand over the edge of a stirrup. There was a length of nylon strapping attached. As if occasionally he resorted to restraining them. “Can you imagine the first time the girl sees this room? She’s alone. Maybe she’s beginning to worry that after he gets the baby, he plans to kill her. Her terror is complete then. She’s not sure if she’s facing the delivery of her child or death.

  “And afterward, to keep her from talking, he tells her that she could go to jail if anyone finds out.”

  “Or that her baby was stillborn,” Alec added, an edge of anger in his quiet tone.

  Jack opened a cabinet against one wall. It contained paper products and other medical supplies: disposable gowns, paper booties, sutures and a box of drug samples. He picked one up. “He’s got Talzepam samples,” Jack said.

  Alec, who had been investigating the other side of the room, swung to face his brother. “And I bet we’ll find Lexie’s prints on some of them. But he wouldn’t have given that prior to a delivery.”

  “What about after? To knock her out? He’d have to transport the baby, collect his money. Or perhaps he even uses it to kill some of them.”

  Alec motioned toward the ceiling.

  Jack wasn’t prepared for the blood splatter. Someone had done a mediocre job of scrubbing it off, but to a poor young girl who climbed up on the table and spread her legs, it must have looked like a chamber of horrors.

  But if Amanda’s baby was born out here, there was no way Whittemore could have made the switch. Either Amanda delivered at the office in town, or she was mistaken about the babies having been swapped. If that turned out to be the case, Jack knew it would destroy Lexie.

  “We need to do a quick check of this room. If there are any records on this level, they’ll be here.”

  While he went through the remaining cabinets, Alec searched the rest of the lower level.

  “Anything?” Jack asked.

  “No. You?”

  “No records,” Jack said, pulling his cell phone from his pocket. Opening it up, he took
half a dozen shots of the room, including the Talzepam samples.

  They left everything as they found it, but if Whittemore was observant, he would recognize the tool marks left behind on the locks. There was no telling what his response might be if he realized someone had gained access.

  Jack and Alec were nearly back to Deep Water when Jack received the call from the private investigator. “Whittemore just left his house.”

  “Where’s he going?”

  “He stopped at the service station and filled two five-gallon cans, and now it looks as if he’s heading out toward the forest.”

  “Stay with him, but whatever you do, don’t let him see you.”

  Disconnecting from the P.I., Jack looked at his brother. “He just purchased two cans of gas.”

  “There was a generator in a room off the kitchen,” Alec said. “Fuel might be for that.”

  “Or getting rid of the evidence,” Jack said as he punched in a new phone number.

  Frank Shepherd answered on the fifth ring. It sounded as if he’d been asleep. “You’re damn lucky I picked up. Do you have any idea what time it is?”

  “Yeah. Time to possibly save a life,” Jack said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Earlier today, I stopped by and filed a missing person report on an Amanda Wilkes. I’m sure nothing has been done.”

  “I don’t know anything about it.”

  “Amanda Wilkes left a message on Lexie’s voice mail suggesting that Lexie’s baby may not be dead. That Whittemore made a switch that night.”

  “What in the hell are you saying?”

  “That Fleming Whittemore appears to be into black-market adoptions. And may be responsible for the death of the young woman whose body those hikers found six weeks ago.”

  “You have any proof?”

  “There’s plenty of it out at his place in the Ocala National Forest. He’s got an apartment where he keeps them locked up and a fully equipped delivery room. Trick is coming up with probable cause for a search warrant. Find the girl alive, and you’ll have it. But you better hurry because he’s on his way out there with a couple of full gas cans.”