Page 5 of Child In Jeopardy
Slater didn’t get the chance to fire any more questions at her because his phone dinged, the sound shooting through theroom. He silently read the text before his gaze slid back to her. She figured those intense blue eyes had unnerved plenty of suspects.
“Austin PD is investigating the suspicious death of a thirty-three year old woman, Melody Waters, aka Stephanie Walsh,” he relayed to her.
So they knew who Stephanie really was. Lana wasn’t sure how they would have come up with that info since Stephanie had insisted on using the alias for all of her medical appointments. It was possible, though, that Stephanie had had her real driver’s license in the overnight bag she’d taken to the hospital.
“There’s no officer named Johnson assigned to the case,” Slater added while he continued to read. “The initial report is that next of kin has been notified.”
So that’s why her mom had called. A rarity for her. Lana took out her phone and showed him the two missed calls from her mother, Pamela. She hadn’t left a voicemail, and Lana hadn’t returned the calls yet since she’d been focused on keeping Cameron safe.
“There’s no mention of you in the report,” he continued, “only that Stephanie had informed the medical staff that she’d arranged for someone to take the baby to his father as per a surrogacy agreement.” He lifted up the contract that had been in the envelope she’d given him. “Did you do this for her?”
“No. Not the other document, either. I didn’t know she had them until she gave them to me at the hospital.” Lana tipped her head to the contract. “That one might have come from an actual surrogate clinic. During that background check I mentioned that I did on Stephanie, I found out she’d visited a surrogacy clinic eight months ago. She would have been pregnant with Cameron by then, but it’s possible she had a prior appointment there that I wasn’t able to find.”
“So Stephanie might have truly been a surrogate?” Slater muttered, glancing at the baby.
Lana had to shrug. “Maybe, but then why would Stephanie tell me you were the one who hired her?”
He didn’t get a chance to speculate about that because her own phone rang, and she saw her mother’s name on the screen. Slater must have seen it, too, because he said, “Are you going to answer it?”
She automatically shook her head. Her default response when it came to her parents, but she knew this had to be about Stephanie, so she stepped aside to take the call. While she did that, Slater stepped away as well, muttering something about updating the sheriff.
“Mother,” Lana answered, trying to keep her voice low so she wouldn’t wake the baby or disturb Slater’s call.
“Your sister is dead,” her mother blurted. “Murdered.” A hoarse sob tore from her throat. “What do you know about it? Why didn’t you stop it?”
Lana wasn’t surprised by her mother’s response. Even though Stephanie was the older sister, their parents had always blamed Lana for Stephanie’s failures. It was yet another reason Lana had cut them from her life. But she wasn’t immune to the accusation.
Why didn’t you stop it?
That was a question Lana figured she’d be asking herself for the rest of her life. Over the years, she had been there for Stephanie countless times, but she hadn’t been there when Stephanie needed her most. And worse, she was a cybersecurity specialist at Sencor, a company that specialized in personal protection. She had bodyguard training. That hadn’t been enough, though, to stop what had happened.
“Do the police know who killed her?” Lana asked.
“No,” her mother snarled. “They’re idiots, all of them. Your dad and I hired a team of private investigators. Not from that place where you work, either. We wanted the best.”
Of course her mother had thrown in that dig, and Lana didn’t even bother trying to convince her that Sencor was one of the highest-rated security companies in the state. Obviously, though, ratings didn’t matter with Stephanie dead.
“The PIs will get to the bottom of it,” her mother insisted, “and you’re going to help them. I know you hid Stephanie from us all this time. There’s no way she could have managed that on her own. I just didn’t know why until the cops said Stephanie had been a surrogate. A surrogate!” her mother spat out as if it were the worst of felonies.
So her parents knew that as well.
“Did this so-called surrogate parent murder her?” her mother pressed.
“I don’t think so,” Lana said, but she had no idea if that was true. Slater hadn’t murdered Stephanie. She was now certain of that. But that didn’t mean her sister hadn’t connected with her killer at the surrogacy clinic.
“You need to come home, Lana,” her mother went on. “You need to help the PIs sort all of this out so we can punish the person who killed Stephanie.”
Lana waited for her mom to mention the baby. But she didn’t. Certainly, if the hospital had learned Stephanie’s true identity, they would have mentioned the baby as well. Maybe, though, the baby didn’t mean anything to her mother, since she was dismissing Cameron as she’d dismissed the surrogacy itself.
“Did you hear me, Lana?” The venom in her mother’s voice went up a notch. “Come home now. Your father is beside himself. So am I. And Marsh, too. He’s ripped to pieces.”
Lana knew that Marsh Bray was the man her parents had chosen for Stephanie to marry. A merger of two rich familieswho cared more about the business and social benefits of the union than they did their kids’ happiness. That said, Marsh had always seemed on board with marrying Stephanie. The same couldn’t be said for Stephanie, though. Lana didn’t think her sister despised Marsh, but she definitely hadn’t been eager to become his wife.
She heard Slater end the call with the sheriff, and since she wanted to know what Slater had told him, Lana quickly made her excuses to her mother. “I’ll call you soon,” she said, and hung up.
“Duncan will be speaking to the lead detective in charge of the investigation of Stephanie’s murder, and he’ll try to obtain footage from the hospital cameras,” Slater said. “He’ll also get us a list of all Austin cops named Johnson. It’s possible, though, if this guy truly did kill Stephanie, then he was wearing a fake uniform.”
Yes, that had already occurred to her, and part of Lana wished she’d confronted the man then and there. But she’d been too broken for that. Too worried about Cameron. Now that she was thinking more clearly, she realized she’d let him get away.