The Detective's Dilemma

“Well, I’m glad you did,” Janelle was saying. “I was feeling a little lonely, actually.”

Megan and Janelle were settling onto the comfy couch in the small living area when Beth wandered into the room. She couldn’t say why she disliked Janelle. Oh, she’d tried to like her, for Megan’s sake if nothing else, but something about Janelle rubbed Beth the wrong way. The small house felt overheated after the coolness of the clear February night, and Beth pushed her waist-length orange jacket off her shoulders, draping it over the chair that stood to the side of the small entry.

“When you’re lonely you can always visit your son,” she said, to see Janelle’s reaction. “You knew Chase would be at the house with me today. I expected to see you there.”

Janelle seemed shocked, but then she blinked her big eyes until they teared. “I know. It’s just that it’s so hard to see him when I know I can’t take him home with me.”

“Seems to me you could fix that easily enough,” Beth pointed out.

“For your information, I’ve sent for the necessary paperwork,” Janelle informed her coldly. She was all warmth and smiles when she turned to Megan, though. “That’s what Child Welfare wants, isn’t it? A birth certificate?”

“I think that would work nicely,” Megan said. “I’ll speak to them to be sure.”

Knowing that her mother relished having the baby in the house, Beth refrained from pointing out that the DNA testing would be quicker, and Megan deftly changed the subject.

“I stopped by earlier to check on you, but you were out.”

Janelle waved a hand. “Oh, that. Connor took me to lunch, then I had some shopping to do. I brought so few things with me, you know.”

“I knew it was something like that,” Megan said. “Did you have a good day, get everything you need?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Forgive me for interrupting,” Beth said unrepentantly, “but where exactly did you have to send for that birth certificate?”

“What looked like panic flickered across Janelle’s face, but then she smiled, one hand fluffing her hair nonchalantly. “Why do you ask?”

“Just wondering.”

“New Mexico,” Janelle said.

“New Mexico!” Megan exclaimed.

“I wound up in Taos after Connor and I parted,” Janelle explained haltingly, “just wandering around, looking for someplace to settle.”

Megan made some reply, but Beth wasn’t listening, her attention claimed by a noise from the back of the house. She could have sworn that someone was moving around in the bedroom.

“Is someone else here?” she asked sharply, barely aware that she had interrupted Janelle’s complaints.

“What?” Janelle asked loudly. Megan lifted a slightly censorial eyebrow at Beth, and she immediately apologized.

“Sorry. I thought I heard something.”

“You don’t think we have a prowler, do you?” Janelle said loudly, a hand pressed to her chest.

It was all Beth could do not to roll her eyes. What she thought was that Connor was hiding in the bedroom, and she couldn’t imagine why he would feel the need. “No, of course not,” she said.

Janelle heaved a dramatic sigh. “Oh, thank goodness. It’s so quiet here at the back of the property.”

“We’re very safe,” Megan assured her. “The whole compound is walled, and we have an excellent security system. I hired the guards and had everything tested and upgraded after we brought Chase home and the press interest mushroomed.”

“How good you are,” Janelle said, almost purring. “I sensed that about you, you know, before I brought my little babe here.”

She made it sound as if she’d left the baby in Megan’s arms instead of dumping him on the clinic doorstep, Beth thought irritably. She couldn’t help wondering why her mother was buying this act so completely, and she disliked watching Janelle’s patently false gushing.

“Do you mind if I get a drink of water?” she muttered, already moving into the foyer.

“Of course not. You just help yourself,” Janelle answered with exaggerated politeness.

Beth strode through the foyer and the dining nook, with its ice cream parlor table and matching pair of blue-striped chairs, past the short counter and into the kitchen with its bright white cabinets and cobalt blue countertops. She opened a cabinet door and took down a drinking glass, then filled it with water from the tap. Leaning a hip against the counter, she sipped the cool, sweet water and tried to figure out why Janelle irritated her so much.

Something occurred to her, and she drained the last of the water in one long gulp, then placed the empty glass in the sink. She strolled back the way she’d come and was about to step into the foyer when the sound of her mother’s voice reached her, and she automatically paused. Only belatedly did she realize why. Secrets. The tone of her mother’s voice was the one she used when discussing secrets. What secrets could her mother have to discuss with Janelle, of all people?

“No doubts,” her mother was saying. “But no one else understands about Connor. How could they?”

What was this about Connor? She cocked her head, ready to catch every word, then it occurred to her that she was eavesdropping. Purposefully, she moved into the room. “I was just thinking,” she said to Janelle, “I’m sure Child Welfare would send for the birth certificate for you. They could probably get it electronically.”

Janelle stared at her with her mouth open. Megan immediately seized on the notion. “You know, that’s right.”

“Uh, yes,” Janelle said, blinking rapidly. “Yes. Except, um, I—I’m not sure the birth has been recorded yet.” She flapped a hand ineffectually. “I didn’t have the baby in Taos, actually. It’s so expensive there.” She glanced uncertainly at Megan. “I moved to a little town north of there. I—I only saw the doctor a few times, and I never did understand anything he said, his accent was so thick.”

“Was he Mexican, then?” Megan asked.

“I think so.”

“Of course. Well, New Mexico isn’t the end of the world,” Megan said soothingly. “The papers will come, and until they do, Chase will just have to stay where he is.”

“But you can always visit,” Beth pointed out, “as often as you want.” Which so far hadn’t been very often, she mused.

Janelle fluttered her eyelashes and smiled gratefully. “You’re all just wonderful,” she sighed, and Beth wanted to strangle her. She almost laughed, considering that’s what the police thought she’d done to Brianne Dumont. But Brianne had never engendered any dislike in her, not the way Janelle did, and even Janelle was as safe with her as Chase in his crib. Now, if she could just convince Ty Redstone and Paul Jester of that…

JANELLE CLOSED THE DOOR behind her unwanted visitors and folded her arms, fuming. That damned Beth. She could handle Megan. The woman was so besotted with her grandson and so anxious to believe that Petey was her long-lost son Connor that she’d do almost anything Janelle wanted. But Beth was a problem—and another problem was not what they needed just now, not after who she’d seen at the Austin Eats Diner that day. All that crap about New Mexico and sending off for the birth papers ought to buy her some time—time to come up with something else. First things first, though.

“You can’t keep ignoring the kid,” her dolt of a husband pointed out, appearing in the doorway of the bedroom.

“I know that, you idiot! But that’s not our biggest problem at the moment.”

She began to pace. Damn, she’d thought for sure that she’d killed that bitch Lacy the day she’d dumped the kid. If the diner hadn’t been so crowded at lunchtime and she hadn’t been wearing sunglasses and a scarf, her face might have triggered Lacy’s memory. With the amnesia gone, Lacy would remember that she was Chase’s mother, not to mention the small fact that Janelle had tried to kill her with a blow on the head.

“What did you say they were calling her?”

“Who?”

Rage surged through her. The man looked like a movie star, but he was as dumb as a stump. If not for her, he’d still be working a two-bit construction job in Las Vegas, but what a damned nuisance he’d become! Was it too much to ask that he have enough intelligence to follow a conversation? She picked up a brass bookend and hurled it at him.

“Lacy Clark, you overgrown booby! Who else?”

He dodged the bookend and waited to see if she’d pitch the other even as he muttered, “Oh, her.”