Hayes looked down at his hands. “We don’t know. Starr swore he didn’t know the whereabouts of any of the infants, including Eleanor’s first.”
“How did the women become pregnant?” Troy glared.
“They gave them fertility drugs, and then they’d knock them out. They’d insert a sample inside them and wait. It’s a warped surrogacy program. Rich mom and dad. Mom doesn’t want to carry or can’t conceive. Dad sends in a sample. And if it’s the other way around, one of the Divine End submits a sample.” Hayes squirmed in his chair.
“And if they didn’t conceive?” Kyle asked.
“They’d try again,” Hayes said.
“Hayes, stop jerking us around. What happens? Hayes, last chance.” Wes reached across the table and grabbed his collar, choking him. No one at the table moved.
He sputtered when Wes let go. “They’d sell them. It was all about financial gain to provide their chapters training and a plan once they had the sarin.”
“The sarin? They don’t know where it is?” Zach grumbled.
“Not sure.” Hayes shrugged.
“What the helldoyou know?” Mike roared, making the agent jump in his seat.
“Why did Starr do it? Money? Zealot? Drugs? Sex?” Kyle attempted to bring the temperature of the discussion down.
“I don’t know. I’m guessing sex. Maybe he slept with Belinda. He knew if she told Eleanor, she’d report it. And money. Triplets are costly and time-consuming. His wife couldn’t go back to work.”
“We have to assume Ellie is still in danger. We have two people on her door, but whoever is coming for her is likely to be coming from within.” Wes thought about the map in the dirt he discovered in the first cabin.
“TJ, Ken, run every person on site again. Compare dates of birth with known people affiliated with the Divine End. Witsec does not change dates of birth,” Mike said.
“Galloway, your turn to talk. What’s the deal with Forsyth, Nash and Murrow?” Wes’s eyes narrowed.
“Forsyth was the FBI agent who sent Ellie back to get evidence. After breaking the case, he moved up quickly in the Bureau. Eleanor and Belinda were an afterthought to most. Forsyth carried the guilt. Forsyth, Murrow and Nash all served in the Army together. When leads went cold on the kidnapping of Theresa Murrow, Forsyth looked the other way as Murrow and Nash pushed Eleanor. Murrow wanted his daughter back, and Nash wanted the sarin.
“When I saw how they were treating her…I reached out to Ian. Forsyth was demoted, and Nash and Murrow are on suspension.
“After Mr. Chase took Eleanor into custody, he stayed behind. He asked me to dig into the real investigation. It didn’t take long to expose the sham. Neither Eleanor nor Starr ever filed a complaint after Eleanor’s initial phone call when she woke up in the hospital after the kidnapping. No one looked. New agents are spearheading the investigation, but, thanks to Murrow and Nash, most of the evidence is tainted. None of the FBI agents were involved with Starr. Murrow’s two thousand a month is going to a private investigator searching for his T—” Galloway coughed, “—Resa”
“Shit. She’s been right under our nose. Resa Knolls. Theresa Murrow. Do we have photos?” Kyle asked.
“Resa Knolls—Stockholm Syndrome, knowing participant, or forced captive?” Wes wondered.
“She’s had opportunity to leave,” Ken added. “She and her kids were the only ones there the day after the explosion when we went back to talk to them.”
“How many kids?” Galloway asked.
“Two, why?” Ken asked.
Galloway opened his large file case and sifted through. “Theresa Murrow’s medical and dental records. We got them in case we found a body.” His finger ran down each page. “Here it is. Theresa Murrow had a hysterectomy as a result of HPV infection. She couldn’t have kids.” He placed a picture of Theresa on the table.
TJ and Ken looked at each other. “Her hair is dyed, but that’s Resa Knolls,” Ken said.
“Can you describe the kids?” Bruce asked.
“I think I got a picture of them. I shot pictures of the house while Ken asked questions. Incidentally, I caught the kids in one of them,” TJ said, scrolling through his phone. “Here.” He handed the phone to Bruce.
“You tell me—male child, approximately three, blond curls, hazel eyes. Girl, she’s tiny with blonde curls.” Bruce passed TJ’s phone around.
“They’re Ellie’s,” Wes choked out the words. “The girl, if she was a preemie…”
“They are someone’s other than Resa’s,” Troy directed the conversation. He held on to what they could prove.
