"And ID," Chris said approvingly as he held up the leather sleeve with his shield and ID card for her to see. "You"re smart to ask for ID."
"Okay." The door closed, the chain clicked, and then it opened wide to an overweight young woman with a doughy face and shiny hair down to her waist. The baby"s crying was louder with the door open, and Grace had to stifle the urge to shoot past this young woman and tend to the baby. "Is my sister in trouble? She"s probably the Ms. Green you"re looking for. Jennifer Green."
"And you are?"
"Kylie Swanson, Jennifer"s sister. She"s been staying here for the past few weeks. Just till she finds a place of her own. Is she in trouble?"
Grace dodged the question. "Ms. Swanson, do you mind if we come in?"
Kylie looked behind her, her face crimping. "It"s kind of a mess, but okay. I have to get him or he"ll never stop crying." The young woman turned away from the open door, and the two detectives followed her inside.
Chris shut the door behind them while Grace followed behind Kylie Swanson, who pulled her voluminous green shirt down in the back to cover her black stretch pants. Maternity pants. The weight wasn"t so much overall fat as baby weight, all through the middle.
The baby was sprawled in a ba.s.sinet. Red-faced and shaped like a fireplug. Not so bald as Annabelle Green, this little one had a glaze of corn-silk hair-same shade as Kylie Swanson"s.
"What a cutie." Grace smiled as Kylie cradled him in her arms. "Well, that stopped the crying. You have the magic touch. Do you have a lot of experience with babies?"
The young woman shook her head. "He"s my first. And picking him up doesn"t always settle him down. A lot of times he cries when he needs a diaper change." She patted his bottom. "Uh-oh. Like now." Kylie shifted him in her arms so that she could look into his eyes. "Did you do something again, little man?"
"What"s his name?" Grace asked.
The baby"s name was Conner, and he got a diaper change right then and there as Grace looked on. Yep, that confirmed it. It"s a boy, Mr. Swanson.
"We"re sorry to bother you, Kylie, but as I mentioned, we"re looking for your sister. Do you happen to know where we could find her?"
"She should be at work. She"s got a new job at Sparklet. That"s why she"s staying here." She snapped a pair of red overalls over Conner"s bottom and picked him up. "She"s got a sleeping bag in Conner"s room, but most mornings when I come out here I find her asleep on the couch."
Grace peered into a bedroom with a double bed and moved on, pacing, as if she were taking an afternoon stroll. "Was she out on the couch this morning?"
"No, she was holed up in that sleeping bag."
Chris shot Grace a look, and she nodded. That would be an alibi for Jennifer Green.
"Conner fussed all through the night, so I was out here walking him in front of the TV. Thank G.o.d for the DVR."
"Really. What did you watch?"
Kylie"s eyes flickered to life. "Pretty Little Liars. I love that show."
"Those girls are great, aren"t they?" Grace peered into one of the bedrooms and saw an empty crib, a tangled sleeping bag, and a mound of clothes spilling out of a suitcase on the floor. "It"s nice of you to put up your sister, you having a new baby and all."
"Yeah, it"s not really working for any of us, but she was desperate. Her last job in Philadelphia didn"t work out, and she hasn"t found a place here yet. But she"s been apartment hunting." Kylie pulled a cloth infant carrier over her neck and plunked the baby inside. He wiggled around until his brown eyes peered out at Grace. "Why do you want to talk to Jen again?"
"It"s in regard to her ex-husband, Leo Green. I don"t know if you"ve seen the news today, but his daughter was abducted last night. We"re interviewing everyone the Greens know."
"Really?" Kylie"s arms closed around the baby in the sling. "You mean, like, kidnapped?"
"That"s right. But you say Jennifer was here last night?"
"Well, yeah. But that"s really scary." Kylie rubbed Conner"s head, soothing. "Is there a kidnapper targeting babies?"
"So far it seems to be an isolated case," Chris offered, the low timbre of his voice rea.s.suring.
Kylie held her baby closer. "That"s awful. Leo must be a wreck. But you think Jennifer is involved? I mean, that doesn"t sound like her."
"As I said, we"re checking every possibility." And this one isn"t panning out, Grace thought as she moved toward the door.
"You can talk to Jen at work. She"s in the office till five. But I don"t think she"ll know anything about Leo"s baby." Swaying from one foot to another, Kylie patted her son"s back. "My sister is crazy, but not that crazy. She wants Leo Green-not his baby."
Chapter 27.
As Leo cleaned up downstairs, he imagined himself testifying against Jennifer. It probably wouldn"t come to that-most cases settled out of court-but it felt good to catalog her evil deeds in his mind.
He was wiping the forensic unit"s dust off the kitchen door frame when the house phone rang. Between their two cell phones and the landline, there"d been something ringing or chiming every five minutes. He"d been screening calls, not wanting to talk to reporters, but this time the caller ID said Santos. Grace. He s.n.a.t.c.hed the phone. "Detective Santos, do you have Annie? Is she okay?" He imagined Annabelle in the back of a squad car, fussing in some cop"s arms.
Annabelle . . .
"No, we haven"t found her yet. We just left the condo where Jennifer Green is living, and your baby isn"t there."
Leo paused in the little nook with the rolltop desk, where two corners of paper stuck out. He opened the lid, shoved them back into the mess of insurance invoices, and pushed it closed. "I was sure I heard her there."
"You probably heard a baby-Jennifer"s nephew. Your ex-wife is staying with her sister, Kylie, until she can find her own place here, and it just so happens that the sister gave birth two months ago."
Disappointment buzzed around him, a swarm of determined bees. It had to be Jennifer, who was infamous for the stunts she pulled to get attention.
"I was so sure."
"I know, and it was good thinking on your part, but the baby in the condo is definitely a boy, definitely not your Annabelle. And Jennifer Green has an alibi-her sister will vouch for her."
"d.a.m.n."
Chelsea came halfway down the stairs and poked her head out. "Is it Detective Santos?"
He nodded. "But they didn"t find Annie. Jennifer didn"t take her. The baby I heard belongs to Jen"s sister."
The light drained from Chelsea"s eyes. Leo turned away from her but he could feel her padding down the stairs, lingering, listening to his side of the conversation.
"Just the same," Santos went on, "my partner Chris is going to head over to Sparklet to interview Ms. Green. Never hurts to be thorough."
"But where does that leave us? Who took Annabelle?"
"We"re pursuing other leads, primarily in your neighborhood. Infant abductors usually live in the community where the abduction took place."
Leo raked back his hair. "I read that somewhere." And if that was true, he should be out there looking for his daughter. Something clicked inside him, and a plan began to form. "I"m going to go looking for her. My friends have offered to help."
"Mr. Green . . . Leo, the police have been canva.s.sing your neighborhood all day."
"I know, but there could be something or someone they missed. Someone who wasn"t home. People have offered to help and I"m going to take them up on it instead of just holing up here and doing nothing."
The detective"s sigh came through the line. "All right, Leo. Just promise me you"ll talk to Sgt. Balfour and take his advice. We don"t want any of your volunteers botching evidence or getting harmed in any way."
Leo sucked in a painful breath. "Got it."
"And please, stay away from Ms. Pickler."
"Louise?" Leo looked out the window at the gray cape next door. "What about her? Do you think she"s a danger?"
"Are you talking about Louise Pickler?" Chelsea put the laptop on the coffee table and joined him. "Do they suspect her? I told Grace that she"s always been weird about Annie."
He held up a hand so that he could hear Grace. "Is she a suspect?"
"Pickler lost custody of her children thirty years ago over claims of abuse. But so far we haven"t been able to show enough probable cause to get a judge to sign a search warrant. Let me ask you, have you ever been inside her place?"
"No, never." Leo looked at Chelsea, whose blue eyes flashed, feverish for information. He held the phone aside and shared the information with her. "The cops are trying to get a warrant to search her house."
"The money pit?" Chelsea crossed her arms over her baggy hoodie. "That"s got to be a nightmare inside."
Leo told the detective, "We"ve never been in the house, but I can tell you that the stench that wafts over on hot summer days would turn your stomach." He rubbed his bristly jaw, pausing as another question came to mind. "Do you really think she took Annabelle? I mean, we"ll go crazy thinking that she"s right next door."
"Oh, no, no." Chelsea shook her head as the possibility sank in. "It"s toxic over there."
"Very often infant abductors live in the same community as the child," Grace said.
"I know that."
"You sound pretty well versed in this."
"I"ve been doing some online research."
Chelsea"s cell phone was ringing on the kitchen counter, and Leo was relieved when she stepped away to grab it. "Detective Santos, let me ask you a question." He lowered his voice. "One article I read said that most of the time when an infant is missing, it"s to cover up the fact that the baby was killed by the person taking care of her. That something happened, maybe an accident, maybe not." He realized that he was holding his breath, but he couldn"t take the next step.
"That"s not a question. I"m guessing you want to know if your wife is a suspect."
"She"s a really, really good person inside. It"s just . . . she"s not herself right now."
"I wouldn"t be doing my job if I didn"t consider every possibility. Do I think Chelsea is guilty? No. But I can"t rule out foul play just yet. My sole responsibility is to find your daughter, and I"ll go where the path takes me."
He looked over at his wife, so childlike in her bulky sweatshirt with the hood up. One hand was shoved in her pocket, the other held the phone to her ear as she looked out the front door, waiting for the crowd of reporters to part and reveal their Annabelle.
"Okay. Just find Annie." He had to believe that everything else would fall into place.
He couldn"t look Chelsea in the eye.
When his gaze slid her way, when he caught the tears shining in her eyes or heard her trying to talk through the events of the night to clarify things, there was a tug of pity. Sympathy.
He felt for her, but now that Jennifer had been vindicated, his world had shifted. There were too many unanswered questions between Chelsea and him.
Where did Chelsea leave Annie?
How could she sleep through a home invasion, an intruder whisking their baby away?
The best way to avoid thinking about Chelsea"s role in all this was to put all his energy into the search for Annie. He started making calls. Although Leo wasn"t particularly close with his brother-in-law, Jake took his call right away and agreed to leave work to help with the search. Without losing steam, Leo called his office and rounded up some more hands. The next call to Home Handyman put him through to Chelsea"s former boss, Sasha Barton, who promised to rally the staff as well as her brothers to come to the neighborhood and help search for Annabelle.
Chelsea was on the house phone when he ended his call. He shot a look out the front window for Mike Balfour, the sergeant in charge. It would be good to expand the search, to check and double-check. Some people might respond better to the average Joe than cops knocking on their door.
He waved at Chelsea and pointed toward the front door. "I"m heading outside to start organizing this search."
"Wait." She waved back at him. "He"s here now. Hold on." She held out the house phone to him. "It"s Dr. Chin, the specialist. She wants to talk to you."
Earlier in the day, when Chelsea had called to cancel her appointment, Dr. Chin"s a.s.sistant had promised that the doctor would call back. Chelsea had reacted well when Chin called, writing down some notes and asking questions. Watching her pace, he"d been struck by the normalness of it all.
Now, he primarily listened on the phone as the doctor inquired sympathetically about Annabelle.
"I was so sorry to hear about it. I can"t imagine what you"re going through now. I can"t help you with that, but I can help your wife cope with postpartum depression," the doctor said. "For now, I"m calling a new prescription into your pharmacy. It"s the same medication, Nebula, but we"ll b.u.mp up the dosage. That"s a grandma dose she"s taking. Can you make sure that she gets it as soon as possible?"
"Okay." Leo could pick it up himself or no . . . he didn"t want to leave Chelsea alone. Maybe Emma and Jake would swing by the pharmacy.
"The medication won"t interfere with Chelsea"s breast-feeding," Dr. Chin went on, "but I already spoke to her about cutting down on that and switching over to a bottle. She"s been breast-feeding for more than three months, so the baby has gotten many of the benefits and immunities. Right now, it"s crucial that your wife starts getting a good night"s sleep. We need a healthy mom to keep the baby healthy."
"Right." Leo wished that they"d hooked up with Dr. Chin weeks ago. Just talking to her on the phone made him feel that she had the problem under control. If she"d been treating Chelsea when this happened, maybe it wouldn"t have happened at all.
Maybe Chelsea would have been alert enough to stop the abduction.
Or maybe . . .
No, he didn"t want to go there. He"d already let himself glom on to the horrific thought that had jabbed at his heart when he read the article about infant abductions online, and it felt disloyal, even cruel to think of it.
"Mr. Maynard? Are you still there?" Dr. Chin asked.
He bit back a smile. He didn"t mind being called by Chelsea"s last name. "I"m here."
"I know I"m sending a lot of information your way. I don"t mean to overwhelm you. When things settle down, Chelsea can come into the office for a blood test. We need to check her hormones, thyroid levels, things like that. And we"ll get her into therapy."
Therapy.
Leo swallowed, daunted by the expense of all this. Their savings were probably going to be used up to fix the plumbing in the house, but . . . Chelsea needed help. She"d been suffering for months. They had to do this.
As he hung up, he noticed that Chelsea had hung up, too, though she still stood mesmerized at the doorway. "Maybe you should sit, Chels."
"I"m done with sitting. Done with sitting and waiting and worrying."
"Same." The pain in his gut was unrelenting, but he would take it in stride if it meant getting their baby back.