High Stakes Gamble

Chapter Thirty-Three

Faces gaunt from overwork, no sleep, and bad food, Ham and Cory were waiting for Kai and Aurora near where the evidence boards sat mostly empty. They’d taken down the earlier paperwork from the Chang-Lee brothers’ case. Now only Lily’s picture sat stark, utterly alone, a sad reminder that she was still missing.

Aurora rushed toward the two men, trying to read their expressions. Being that both were long-time cops trained to hide their feelings, it wasn’t easy. Except that she’d honed her instincts with these two over the past years. Instantly, she picked up on their fear. She had no doubt, the news would be bad.

“Calm down, Rory.” Cory’s hands reached for hers. “It could be worse. Let Ham explain before you go off the deep end.”

Kai moved closer to her and just his presence alone made her nerves ease up. “What have you got?” She squeezed Cory’s hands, let them go and braced herself.

Ham stepped forward with a picture in his hands and reached to pin it to the board. “Meet Jane Lelonde who we believe could be Lily’s kidnapper.”

Aurora recognized her instantly. Having a good memory for faces, she placed this red-haired woman as Lily’s babysitter at the doctor’s office the day Mary Fulton’s baby had been kidnapped. Searching the eyes once again, she instantly knew this was also the same woman who had taken Lily from her arms the last time she’d seen her.

“She’s the one dressed like a nurse. This is the bitch who stole Lily!”

Kai put a hand on her back, his way to calm the spasms attacking her nerves. She appreciated the gesture. Taking a deep breath, she asked the most pertinent question. “What’s the story?”

Ham answered. “She’s thirty-five, a nurse who went into labor and lost her own baby girl the same night of the Fulton kidnapping.”

Interrupted by an incoming message, Ham took out his cell and answered the call. Silence filled the room where hearts pounded with fear. “Send him to Detective Morelli’s office.”

While he spoke, Ham’s considerate wave had everyone relaxing and breathing normal again. “Mister Lelonde has arrived and will be here shortly. He filed a missing person’s report 24 hours after his wife took off and has pestered the desk to follow up on it ever since.”

Aurora’s stomach churned with desperation. She’d give every penny she had for a lead to the woman’s hiding place.

Ham continued. “Covering every avenue, I took your suggestion seriously Aurora and requested all files of females who’d flown the coop since the day of Lily’s disappearance. Her folder was one of the ones that came to my desk. Right away, I picked up that the last known place she’d listed on her calendar was a doctor’s appointment. Turned out to be at the same address as Aurora’s clinic. Then I read the rest of her particulars and it all fell into place.”

Aurora could have kissed Ham’s concerned Irish mug, she was that happy to get a break. Speaking directly from the heart, she said. “You’re a crafty Irishman O’Hampton and I’ll love you forever.”

His expression underwent a changeover from prideful to ridden with anxiety. “Thing is my friend, the colleen is… ahhh mite unstable.”

Aurora hated to hear his accent thicken. With Ham, it wasn’t a good sign.

Cory simultaneously reassured and warned, “It’s not as bad as it might seem—”

Voice hard, Kai broke his silence to interrupt. “How unstable?”

“The doctor calls it postpartum depression. Losing a child she’d been trying to conceive for many years most likely sparked the breakdown. Chances are when she saw Aurora with Lily something snapped.”