Chapter Five

Joelle slowly got to her feet, her attention fixed on Carmen. She immediately had a bad thought, that this was one of the gunmen using this visit as a ploy to come after Duncan and her again. The concern must have shown on her face, too, because Carmen spoke right up.

"Hamlin didn't set off the metal detector," Carmen pointed out, "but Luca's back, and he frisked him. He was armed with a Glock that he's licensed to carry, but Luca is holding onto that and keeping an eye on him." She shifted her gaze to Duncan. "Do you want to see him, or should Luca interview him?"

"Oh, I want to see him," Duncan assured her. "Take him to interview room one. Joelle and I will be in there in a minute or two."

Carmen nodded, stepped away and then backtracked. "While Luca was frisking him, I ran a quick background on Hamlin. He is a PI from San Antonio but currently living in Austin, and he's twenty-three. That's all I have on him right now, and I'll dig for more, and if anything comes up while you're talking to him, I'll let you know."

"Thanks," Duncan said. "Dig, but finding Molly is the top priority, and I want you to sit on the lab to get the results on the blood that we found at Molly's place. So, don't spend much energy on Hamlin because this visit might turn out to be nothing," he added in a mutter.

Joelle knew Duncan was right about both things. Molly being the priority and this turning out to be nothing. Crackpots surfaced all the time during investigations, and even though there hadn't been that much time between this PI showing up and the attack and Molly's kidnapping, word of it would have already gotten out. Still, Joelle felt herself clinging to the hope that this Allen Hamlin could give Duncan and her some much-needed answers.

"I won't insult you by asking if you're up for doing this interview," Duncan told her once Carmen had left. "But if you want to keep on the searches you're doing, I can handle Hamlin solo."

"I want to hear what he has to say," Joelle was quick to let him know. Oh, yes. That hope was burning bright and hot in her.

Duncan studied her a couple of seconds, not with the heat that was sometimes in his eyes when he looked at her. All right, there was some heat. Always was, but Joelle was certain he was trying to make sure she was holding up okay. She was barely holding on and now battling the dreaded adrenaline crash, but there was no way she would sit this one out.

He finally nodded and tipped his head toward the interview room just down the hall. Judging from the sounds of footsteps and voices, Carmen was already escorting the PI there.

Because Joelle was behind Duncan, she didn't get her first glimpse of Hamlin until they were in the room with him. He looked even younger than twenty-three and was wearing khakis and a white button-down shirt. His short cropped hair was a pale blond. Actually, pale described the rest of him, too, what with his light skin tone and gray eyes. He had a thick envelope tucked under his arm.

"Let me know if you need anything," Carmen muttered to Duncan before she left them.

"Sheriff Holder," the man immediately said, and he extended his hand for Duncan to shake. Duncan did, but before Hamlin had released his grip, he looked at Joelle. "Deputy McCullough. I'm Al Hamlin."

Joelle was a little uneasy that Hamlin could identify them when she was reasonably sure she'd never seen him before. "Have we met?" Joelle came out and asked.

Hamlin shook his head. "I followed news of your father's murder so that's how I knew who you were. Both of you and the other deputies were mentioned in the press a lot."

Father's murder . No way for her not to react to that, but Joelle tried to mask the quick punch of grief. But Hamlin was right about the press. No one in her family or the sheriff's office had escaped the publicity.

"Thanks for seeing me so early," Hamlin said, glancing at both Duncan and Joelle. "You're going to want to hear what I have to say."

Duncan motioned for Hamlin to take a seat, and when he did, Duncan and she sat across from him. "You told my deputy that you had information about two crimes that were committed a few hours ago."

"I do." Hamlin handed Duncan the envelope. "There's a lot of information in there so I'll try to summarize and hit the high points. Five months ago when Sheriff McCullough was murdered, he was investigating a missing pregnant teenager."

"Mandy Vernon," Duncan automatically supplied while he opened the envelope. He took out what appeared to be police reports.

"Yes," Hamlin agreed. "Some thought Mandy had just run away because she wasn't getting along with her folks or her boyfriend, but Sheriff McCullough thought she might have been kidnapped or lured into the hands of someone who wanted her for the baby she was carrying."

Joelle knew that was also true. Her father had been insistent that something bad had happened to Mandy.

"I believe Sheriff McCullough was right," Hamlin went on, and then he stopped and took a long breath as if steeling himself up. "A month ago, my own sister, Isla, went missing. She's seventeen and was seven months pregnant at the time she disappeared. I swear on my life that Isla wouldn't have just left. Like Mandy, I believe someone took her for the baby."

Joelle glanced at the reports again. "Do you have proof?"

"Circumstantial but yes, there's proof," Hamlin insisted. "Over the past year, eight pregnant teenage girls have gone missing in the state, and none has been seen or heard from since." He leaned in, putting his arms on the table, and he looked straight at Joelle. "I believe there's a black market baby ring operating, and that your father found something that could have gotten him killed."

This wasn't a total news flash. Joelle, Duncan and everyone in law enforcement in Saddle Ridge had looked at that connection since it was a case that had occupied a lot of her father's time. But if her dad had actually found anything big related to the investigation, he hadn't put it in his reports. Nor had he mentioned it to anyone. Since three of his kids were cops, Joelle thought he would have told them.

If he'd gotten the chance, that is.

It was possible he'd been murdered before he could reveal something he'd learned.

"Bottom-line this," Duncan said, holding up the one-inch thick stack of papers he'd taken from the envelope. "Is there proof of any kind for who killed Sheriff McCullough? And for the attack on Deputy McCullough and the kidnapping of the dispatcher?"

Joelle expected the PI to hedge and repeat his circumstantial . But he didn't.

"Yes," Hamlin stated, and he gathered his breath again. "Since Isla went missing, I've been digging, and talking to every informant I could. One name kept popping up when people would whisper about a black market baby ring." He paused a heartbeat. "Kate Moreland."

Of all the names Joelle had thought he might say, that wasn't one of them. "Kate?" she questioned.

Hamlin gave a firm nod. "Don't ask me how I got access to her financial records, but something doesn't add up. The woman's bringing in a lot more money than her businesses."

Joelle scowled, and she was certain Duncan was doing the same. "I will ask how you got her financials," Duncan stated, "because if you obtained them illegally, then you don't have proof."

The PI muttered some profanity and shook his head. "The proof is there for someone who can get it through legal channels. I took some shortcuts because I wanted to see if there were any red flags, if this woman could possibly be the person responsible for the disappearance of my sister and other teenage girls. I believe she is," he added with what sounded to be absolute certainty.

"Spell it out for me," Duncan ordered.

Joelle figured Duncan wasn't forgetting about those short cuts that Hamlin had admitted to taking. He'd no doubt get back to those, but if Kate did have some part in Molly's kidnapping, then that was the priority here.

"I have a statement from two women who say that Kate Moreland brokered the sale of their babies," Hamlin went on.

"Their names and details are in here?" Duncan asked, motioning toward the papers again.

"They are." Now Hamlin paused, and some of his enthusiasm waned. "But those incidents happened over ten years ago. There are some more recent," he was quick to add. "However, those women wouldn't go on record."

Playing devil's advocate, Joelle tried to see how this all might have played out. "Isn't it possible that Kate didn't broker the sale of the babies but rather just put the teenagers in contact with prospective adoptive parents?"

Though, so far, Joelle hadn't come across any reference to Kate having done that sort of thing. Still, info like that didn't usually turn up in background checks unless there had been something illegal about it.

"Kate might try to say that," Hamlin answered, "but she'd be lying. The girls said Kate paid them five thousand for the babies."

"Is there any kind of concrete proof of that?" Duncan asked.

"The statements from the girls." Hamlin's voice turned hard, and he huffed. "I figure Kate's been doing this for years, and that she then sells the babies for a whole lot more than five grand." He paused, looked Joelle straight in the eyes. "I also believe when she couldn't find a readily available teenager to give up their kid, then Kate had pregnant adults kidnapped. And I think that's what your father uncovered."

Part of Joelle wanted to latch on to this since it would be a lead not only in Molly's kidnapping but also her father's murder. But as working theories went, it wasn't nearly as strong as Brad's and maybe Shanda's motive. Or what had happened to her father. Because maybe Brad or Shanda had had her dad killed because of the arrest and miscarriage.

Maybe Kate had the same motive as her son.

But then why would the woman have shown up proclaiming Brad was behind the attacks? That didn't make sense, unless...

Joelle's mind followed that through. If Kate was, indeed, guilty of everything that Hamlin was saying, she might want to set up her son to take the blame. But certainly, there'd be someone else, someone not in the woman's gene pool, to try to frame.

"Read the files," Hamlin said after another huff. "You'll see the connections, and you'll see that Kate is guilty."

Duncan made a sound that could have meant anything. He certainly didn't jump on the "Kate did this" bandwagon.

"I'll definitely read through all of this," Duncan assured him, "and I'll want to talk to the two women who gave you their statements about selling their babies to Kate."

Duncan stood, signaling an end to the meeting, and Hamlin clearly didn't approve of what he obviously thought was a brush-off.

"Kate did this," Hamlin snarled. His gaze fired to Joelle. "Arrest her if you want your father's killer behind bars."

"If Kate did it, trust me, she'll be arrested," Joelle confirmed.

That brought on another huff from Hamlin, and he stood and stormed out. They followed him to make sure he did leave the building. After all, everything Hamlin had just told them could have been done to get closer to them, to get them to let down their guard.

Because Hamlin could be one of the gunmen who'd attacked her earlier.

They went into the bullpen, and Hamlin didn't linger. He went straight past Carmen and Luca and out the door.

"Did he actually have proof of anything?" Luca immediately wanted to know.

Duncan lifted the papers. "To be determined. Until we know for sure, though, call the deputy who's guarding Kate Moreland and tell him or her to keep a very close eye on the woman. I doubt Kate's in any shape to leave, but I want to make sure she stays put." His gaze slid to Hamlin who was now on the sidewalk. "And tell the deputy to make sure that guy doesn't get into her room."

Luca glanced at Hamlin, too, and took out his phone to make the call.

Duncan shifted his attention to Carmen. "Get me anything you can find on Hamlin and Kate Moreland. Use the techs to help with that, but I need thorough background checks on both of them."

Carmen nodded and hurried back to her desk.

Joelle looked at the papers. "I can start going through those."

Duncan hesitated, and she knew why. There was probably a lot in there about her father's murder. A lot that would take jabs at some still raw, painful memories.

"It needs to be done," was all Joelle said, and Duncan handed over half the papers to her. He'd almost certainly be poring through the other half.

They went back to the break room but had barely made it inside when Joelle's phone rang. Her heart jolted when she saw Unknown Caller on the screen, and she nearly dropped the papers when she fumbled to answer it.

"Joelle," a woman said.

Molly .

Joelle fumbled the papers again to put the call on speaker. "Molly."

Since her voice had way too much breath and hardly any sound, Joelle repeated the woman's name. Duncan sprang into action, taking out his phone and contacting tech so they could try and trace the call.

"Are you okay?" Joelle asked Molly. "Where are you?"

Molly didn't answer right away, but Joelle could hear someone muttering in the background. Even though she couldn't make out the words, she guessed it was the kidnapper giving Molly instructions about what not to say.

"I'm not hurt," Molly finally answered. "And the baby's moving and kicking so I think she's fine, too."

Joelle had so many things she wanted to ask, but she blurted out the first thing that popped into her head. "There was blood at your house."

"It's not mine," Molly said, but then stopped when there was more muttering in the background.

Duncan's gaze flashed to Joelle, and then he fired off a text. And she knew why. If the blood wasn't Molly's, then it likely belonged to the kidnapper, and they could use it to identify him.

"I'm to tell you that he's releasing me in a couple of hours," Molly went on several moments later. "But you're to send him ten thousand dollars to this account." She read off a series of numbers, and Duncan typed them into the notes on his phone. "You can get the money from my savings. I have an inheritance from my grandmother, and once the money's in the account, he'll call you with the location where he's dropping me off."

Ten thousand. That wasn't a huge ransom so maybe the kidnapper just wanted some cash to get away. Joelle was betting that the account would be offshore and not traceable. But they still had the blood.

"He also said I was to tell you not to look for him," Molly added. "Please don't look for him," she said, her voice breaking into a sob. "I just need this to be over, and it won't be if he gets spooked. I need to come home."

"We'll get you home," Duncan promised, but he was talking to the air because the call had already ended.

Duncan took her phone and immediately tried to call Molly back. There was no answer, and Joelle suspected in a minute or two the burner phone would be disabled.

A flood of emotions slammed through Joelle. The relief, the fear, all mixed together with the adrenaline crash. It was a bad combination because she started to shake. She headed toward the sofa so she could drop down onto it, but Duncan pulled her into his arms.

"We will get her home," he repeated, and he eased her even closer to him. Until they were right against each other.

Joelle knew she should move away. But she couldn't. She needed this. Needed Duncan. Even though there'd be a high price to pay for it. This kind of closeness could lead to dangerous feelings. Ones that would drown her in guilt because Duncan was the ultimate reminder that she hadn't saved her father. That she might have been able to stop him from dying or her mother from vanishing if she hadn't been with Duncan.

"I'm okay," she managed to say.

It wasn't anywhere close to the truth, but when the heat came, swirling in with the other emotions, Joelle forced herself to move. Not far. Just one step back, and she made the mistake of looking up and into Duncan's eyes.

Yes, the heat was there. But there was so much more. He was worried about her. Heck, she was worried about herself, about what the stress of this was doing to their baby. The best way to minimize that worry, though, was to try and forget the heat and focus on getting Molly safely home.

"I can transfer the money into that account," she said. Her voice was still shaky. So was the rest of her, but Duncan must have realized, too, that the work was what they both needed now. "I can get it from my savings so we don't have to go through the bank to get it from Molly's."

"Use the sheriff's office funds and instruct the bank to delay releasing the money," Duncan told her. "The kidnapper will see the funds deposited and maybe go ahead and release Molly. Once we have her, we can try to trace the kidnapper's location when he or she attempts to withdraw or transfer the money."

Like her, he didn't seem hopeful of that happening, but they had to check and double check. Even if Molly was safely returned, a serious crime had been committed. The kidnapper, and anyone who hired him, should pay and pay hard.

Since Joelle had never done a transfer like this, it took her several minutes to work through the process of it. While she did that, Duncan called the tech who'd been trying to trace the call. They were both still busy with their tasks when Carmen appeared in the door. She had her laptop balanced in the crook of her arm and continued to read whatever was on the screen until Joelle and Duncan finished.

"The kidnapper was using another burner," Duncan said. "Couldn't be traced, and like the other, it's already been disconnected." He glanced at Joelle. "Did the transfer go through?"

Joelle nodded, and she looked at Carmen. "The kidnapper called again and had Molly tell us that he wanted ten grand."

"Is Molly okay?" Carmen immediately asked.

"She said she was," Joelle relayed. "I hope that's true."

"So do I," the other deputy muttered, and she turned her attention back to her laptop.

"Please tell me you have something on the blood that was found at Molly's," Duncan said to Carmen.

"No. Luca's calling about that now. But I got a preliminary report on Hamlin. Since his sister went missing, he's focused only on that. No other clients."

Duncan huffed and put his hands on his hips. "It's hard to earn an income when you don't have clients."

"He inherited life insurance money from his parents who died in a car accident three years ago. It was about half a million, so I'm guessing he lives off that and apparently devotes all his time to finding his sister. There's no sign of her, by the way," Carmen added. "But Austin PD believes she ran away with her then boyfriend since he went missing, too."

"Is there anything in that prelim report to indicate that Hamlin could have been behind the kidnapping and attack on Joelle?" Duncan asked.

"No criminal record or anything like that, but I'll keep digging. I should be able to get access to the background that would have been done on him to get his PI license. That would give us a bigger picture of him."

"Do that," Duncan said just as his phone rang.

Joelle immediately got to her feet, and everything inside her went tight again until she remembered the kidnapper would likely be calling her number, not Duncan's.

"It's Dr. Benton," Duncan relayed, answering the call. "I'm putting you on speaker so my deputies can hear. I hope you're about to tell me we have the green light to question Kate."

"Not yet. She's sedated, and I want her to stay that way for at least another hour or two," the doctor explained. "I'm calling because I got back her tox results, and I thought you'd want to know."

"I do," Duncan verified. "She was drugged?"

"There were traces of a prescription sleep aid in her system. Doxepin. Traces," the doctor emphasized. "There certainly wasn't enough of it to cause unconsciousness."

Joelle frowned, and she waited for Duncan to ask the question she knew had to be on his mind. "Do you think she faked her symptoms?"

"Hard to say, but it's possible she had some kind of allergic reaction. I'll be checking for that. When I checked her online medical records, there weren't any allergies listed. Not only that, she's been prescribed this particular sleep aid for years. Still, it's possible the drug in combination with something else caused the disorientation and the unconsciousness. As I mentioned earlier, that something else could have caused the car accident."

Yes, that could explain it. Joelle recalled seeing the cut on the woman's head.

"How serious is that injury to the head?" Duncan wanted to know.

"We ran a CT scan, and there was no obvious signs of brain damage or even a concussion," Dr. Benton was quick to say. "Once the patient is out of sedation for her blood pressure, I'll do some neuropsychological evals since a CT scan doesn't always confirm a concussion. It's possible, too, that the trauma of the car accident is playing into her reactions."

Duncan's expression let Joelle know he was skeptical about that. But why would Kate have pretended to be drugged? The woman had literally staggered onto Molly's property and then collapsed. Why do that?

Unfortunately, Joelle immediately came up with an answer. A bad one. If Hamlin was right about Kate being a criminal, then maybe her behavior was meant to make her look innocent while also pointing the blame at Brad. But Kate could have also done this to get closer to them. So she could try to do to Joelle what was done to Molly. Still, that seemed an extreme ploy especially since the woman hadn't been on their radar before she'd shown up at Joelle's.

"I still want to talk to Kate once she's awake," Duncan stressed. "I'll also want the results of those tests you mentioned."

"Is she a suspect in the attacks?" the doctor asked.

"A person of interest, but some information has come to light that I need to question her about. It could be related to the murder of Sheriff McCullough."

"I see," the doctor muttered after a long pause. "I'll let you know the moment you can talk to her," he assured Duncan.

When the call ended, Duncan stared at his phone for a moment before his gaze shifted to Joelle. "We really need to dig into Kate's background."

She couldn't agree more. "I'll do that and check for any updates from the CSIs, techs and lab." They had a lot of cogs going in this particular investigative wheel, and any one of them could provide them with answers.

Maybe, finally , answers about her father.

Joelle couldn't fully process that. Couldn't deal with the emotions that would bring. She had to rely on the work not only bringing a closure to the case but to help her find the mental healing that had so far eluded her.

Of course, the healing would only be partial. She would still need to know what had happened to her mother.

"I'll get that PI background report on Hamlin," Carmen said, and she headed back toward the bullpen.

Joelle forced her hands to steady on the laptop keyboard while she checked for those updates. There was one which had come a little too late to say that the blood at Molly's hadn't been hers. That comparison had been fairly simple because her DNA was on file. Now that Molly had been ruled out, the sample would have to make its way through the database to see if there was a match.

Since Duncan was already at work on his laptop. Joelle didn't relay the blood news. She just moved on to the next task—finding out if Kate Moreland had something to hide. The basics about the woman meshed with what they had already learned. She owned a lot of businesses she had inherited from her father who'd died a decade earlier.

Joelle continued looking into the woman's personal life. Divorced, ex-husband deceased and only one child. Brad. There were plenty of social media posts about Kate's fundraisers, parties and such, but there were no recent mentions about Brad. Joelle had to go back five months to find them, and she immediately saw a pattern. Before five months ago, Kate had posted many photos of her and her son together. Then, nothing.

Joelle had to wonder about the timing since her father had been murdered five months ago.

From across the room, Duncan's phone rang, immediately getting her attention since it could be news about Molly. "It's Ruston," he said.

She automatically sighed. Her brother was no doubt checking on her again and probably thought she'd try to gloss over how she was doing. Which she would have done. No way did she want her brothers worrying about her any more than they already were.

"Ruston," Duncan greeted, and unlike the other calls he'd been getting, he didn't put this one on speaker.

Joelle couldn't hear what her brother said, but whatever it was had Duncan slowly getting to his feet. "Hell," he spat out.

That caused Joelle to stand as well, and she went to Duncan. "What's wrong? What happened?" And too many worst-case scenarios started flying through her head.

Duncan lifted his finger in a "wait a second" gesture. "You're sure it's her?" Duncan asked Ruston.

The answer he got caused Duncan to curse again, and then he added, "Yeah, call me the moment you know anything." He pressed end call, and he looked at her.

"Is it Molly?" she managed to ask, even though Joelle's throat had seemingly clamped shut.

Duncan shook his head. "It's Shanda Cantrell. She's been murdered."