Chapter 44

44

Heather would be the toughest nut to crack. She was probably the most difficult woman on the planet to get to open up, Powell suspected. Well, she was good at cracking tough nuts—she was the baby sister of McKinley Mason Barratt, after all.

Heather and Mac would probably create the stubbornest babies on the planet. If they ever stopped hating each other. Powell kept that thought to herself. She wasn't crazy.

She waved at Keith, told him they were going to take a walk. He stood and started behind them at a respectable distance.

"Why do you even care?" Heather asked abruptly. "Do Zoey and her pals think they are entitled to his money? Money does seem to be what Lukie-poo cares about the most. Definitely not the mental well-being of his little brothers or sisters. At least not the ones who are Colesons."

"No. It's nothing like that, and it's not about the money. They are just…tracking…everything Eastman did. Zo wants to find the missing children. She's pretty certain there are more kids out there. Minors, not just adults."

Heather stopped walking and looked at her. There was real horror in her eyes now. She looked beyond shocked. "There are more children out there? How many? Are they all Denita's? We aren't even entirely certain what Eastman was doing. Or why. Or what all he has actually done. Just what we can read in the damned Garlic . We've been locked out of everything. And, well, not even Hope or Crispin can get in. And those two can get in to everything."

Powell suspected she knew what Heather meant. Madison had told her Hope was a bit too good at hacking into computer systems and dissecting software programs for it to be coincidental.

The best Haldyn had ever seen had been what Hope's supervisor had told her too. And Haldyn had seen a lot—including Brynna Marshall, the best the TSP had ever hired.

"Brynna Marshall, Melody's younger sister, designed protective systems, I think." Powell wasn't going to say more, but what Cara had said… "You should have been given access to everything they know, Heather. You just should have. I don't know why you haven't. But I have spoken with Zoey about it. She is my client. Not her idiot brother."

Heather shrugged, her entire posture shouting defensive . "Hey, we get it. We aren't a part of the ‘in' crowd. We're used to it. Just tell me one thing: Why does Luc hate us all so much? I'm still trying to figure that out. Joy and I weren't even born until that asshole was five or six. And he's old enough to be Cashie and Crispin's father. How can he possibly hate them or Iagan?"

"He doesn't hate you. I think he's afraid of you. And Zo said…" Powell considered for a moment. Zoey hadn't said it in strict confidence. Powell had asked her if she could speak freely with the Colesons too. Zoey had agreed, granting permission. "He believes Bonnie may have known what Eastman was doing."

Heather stopped walking. Let loose a string of curses that had Powell stepping back. And Keith tensing. He'd asked about the gun Heather wore openly on her waist now. She'd told him she was a cop—and went nowhere without it. He'd asked to see her badge. She'd had it. Said she never left home without it, though it wasn't even worth the paper it had been printed on. She pulled in a deep breath. "He's far stupider than the papers make him out to be. Money buy intelligence, then? Luc definitely does not take after his grandfather, that's for sure."

"At times, I wonder about him. But he really does have a good heart. He's just not showing it right now."

"He's stupid. I don't care about his damned heart—he keeps hurting the people I love. Bonnie…never would have had anything to do with Eastman. Hurting people like that. Where did he even get that idea?"

"There was something found that said someone in your family was helping him. And he remembers a woman looking like his mother, calling herself aunt, visiting when he was eight."

"Denita had an identical twin, Powell. Diana supposedly died before Cash was even born."

"What about the woman he thought was helping Eastman?"

"Oh, I don't know…Denita, maybe? What a big surprise. She'd used Bonnie's ID before. Multiple times. Like the day she gave birth to Cashlyn and left her behind forever."

"Cashlyn wasn't born from a surrogate?" Powell knew what Zoey had told her. They were still working out details of each baby born to that woman. But she didn't remember Cashlyn's story.

"Not that we can tell. Unless the surrogate looked enough like Bonnie to steal her ID. Cops had security photos. It was Denita. We're almost certain of it. Eastman signed little Cashie's birth certificate himself, so who knows what happened that night? We certainly never will. My mom and Angela both confirmed it back then with the cops—it was Denita in those photos. Is that why you are really here? To see if Bonnie is guilty of baby trafficking? She is the last Coleson of all of us that would do that. She's…one of the sweetest of us, you know. Kind. Compassionate. She hurts from other's pain. Feels it, more deeply than anyone I have ever seen. If she knew there were other babies out there, it would completely destroy her. How many other babies are out there, then?"

Heather stopped walking. She just looked at Powell for a long moment.

"How many kids? I want your word. No one tells Bonnie about other babies unless I am there. This? This will destroy her. Completely. She already feels incredibly guilty she didn't get Penelope and Zoey too. That they didn't grow up with the rest of us. She'd have fought for them. No matter what. I can promise you that."

Powell unlocked the key box on her new property. She waved Keith in—he usually insisted on entering every building before her.

She and Heather followed him in. "There are barstools in the kitchen where we can sit down. Talk. Figure this out. I don't believe Bonnie was involved either. But something is definitely going on. And it may have started decades ago."

"This is really the last thing I need to hear today," Heather said, pulling out her phone and unlocking the screen. "I need to text home. Have them have Frankie ready. Why do you even care if Mackie-pie is representing Luc-ums anyway?"

Mackie-pie. Luc-ums. Yes, Powell was going to remember those.

"Because it's the right thing to do. Your family should have had that money. I want to know what happened to it. Because something is most definitely wrong."

Heather started to say something.

But it was far too late.