His teachers indicated Caleb was sociable with the other students at school and even had one or two that could be classified as friends, but he never had much to do with any of them outside of school, which struck Ben as unusual but not alarming.
Ben opened a search browser on his computer and did his own internet search for Mark, Delia, and Caleb Hanson. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, and he was certain there was nothing new to find that Luke hadn’t already dug up. But he looked anyway.
He lost track of how long he spent down the internet rabbit hole, but the time was wasted when it revealed nothing he didn’t already know. He found an old photo of the small family that someone had posted on social media a year before Delia’s suicide. None of the Hansons had social media, so the post hadn’t tagged them or originated from profiles that might reveal new intel. But the use of their names in the post alerted on his internet search.
He stared at the picture for a while. Hanson appeared much younger than he looked now, and Ben was stunned to realize he seemed…happier in the photo. The idea of his grumpy, temperamental co-worker being happy was a hard notion to digest. Hanson had his arm around his wife, a woman of average height with reddish-brown hair and sparkling brown eyes. She had her arms draped over Caleb’s shoulders, holding him close to her. The little boy’s smile seemed genuine, but something about him nagged at Ben.
Since I don’t see any type of resemblance whatsoever, I’m guessing you’re adopted.
Charlotte’s words flitted unbidden through his mind, and Ben sat up straighter. His eyes narrowed as he zoned in on specific details. Hair color, eye color, build, nose shape, eye slant, ear shape, smile, chin, hands…They told him everything and nothing, but it was enough for his theory to take shape.
He lifted his phone, dialed a number, and placed the call on speaker. He scrolled through his case intel while he waited for Luke to answer. When he came across the documentation of Caleb’s birth, he paused, studying this image as intently as he had the family photo.
“Hang on.”
Luke’s gruff voice was almost drowned out by the background noise. Ben distinctly heard conversation and music and realized his brother must be working a shift at the Fire Bar and Grille.
Though their brothers Jackson and Easton ran the bar — Jackson being in charge of the kitchen and Easton being the favorite bartender — Ben and Luke helped out by acting as security on occasion. Most of the time, their presence was enough to keep the peace. Sometimes it took more than that, but because his brothers ran a tight ship, it wasn’t very often they had to forcibly remove someone from the bar.
The background noise suddenly silenced, and Ben suspected his brother stepped into the back office.
“What’s up?” Luke asked a moment later.
“When you were running background on Mark and Delia Hanson, did you see any red flags with their documentation?”
“Why are you asking?”
He wasn’t surprised Luke answered his question with one of his own. His brother was reserved when sharing information until he fully understood a situation.
“The birth certificate and medical records you found look legit, but…”
Ben’s voice trailed off as he wondered if he was grasping at straws in an otherwise deteriorating case.
“You think they’re forged?”
Ben pushed the doubt away. “Yeah, I do. I keep thinking about something someone told me when I showed them a picture of us from your bachelor trip.”
“Someone?”
“Shut up and listen. She said she figured we were adopted because there was no family resemblance with any of us, which makes sense. After all, we’re not blood-related. I found a picture of Hanson with Caleb and his wife. They don’t look like each other either.”
“Really, Ben? You’re basing this on a picture? That’s weak, and you know it.”
Ben threw out a frustrated breath. “Look, there’s no evidence of abuse here, but I’m telling you, something is off about Hanson. So just follow me here. His wife had several miscarriages before Caleb came along. Then there’s no record that they tried for more children. They moved around a lot, especially after the wife committed suicide. Hanson also changed careers from one as an executive to one as a manual laborer. The doctor who signed Caleb’s birth certificate has passed away, so we can’t question him, but according to my internet search, he was named in more than one legal case of malpractice.”
“That’s not unusual with obstetricians.”
“But the cases weren’t settled in court or out of court. They just went away. So what if…I don’t know. What if he had the resources to make them disappear because people were paying him to forge birth certificates to hide illegal adoptions?”
“How does this relate to the case? What are you thinking?”
“What if the reason Caleb doesn’t look like Hanson or his mom is because he looks like someone else? Another biological parent, maybe?”
Luke was silent. Ben set his laptop to the side and rose to pace the space beside the bed as he waited for his brother to arrive at the same conclusion that he did.
“One of them had an affair.”
Ben stopped, a smile splitting his face. “My thought exactly.”
