When Kip handed Babette to Kip, she reached back for him. “Ma petite, Uncle Kieran will hold you. I’m stinky.” He held his nose.
She giggled as he jogged upstairs to take a shower.You can swim tonight, he promised himself.
Dressed in his suit, he returned downstairs. Kieran, also in a suit, stood, ready to leave. “Where’s Babette?”
“I put her down. She’s somewhere,” he said.
Kip’s eyes filled with panic. “She’s…” He saw Kieran standing with his hands on his hips.
“I think the hypoxia got to you. She’s asleep in her crib, and the baby monitor is on. Wentworth has someone at the door.”
“I’m sorry,” Kip said.
“You’re a dad. Welcome to the club.”
On the ride to the office, Kip was consumed with worry. “Boss, you saw the book.”
“I did. Unfortunately, the minutes of the meeting did not include anything incriminating. Before your meeting, let’s sit down with Mia and Tobey to formulate an action plan,” Kieran said.
Tobey and Mia both came into his office with large pink boxes. “Congratulations,” Mia said.
Tobey shook his hand. “Congrats.”
“Thank you both. But this isn’t necessary,” Kip said.
“Tobey and I did some homework. Inside each box is a special rag doll for each girl. Here is a bank account for each girl that we started off. Then we collected fifteen thousand dollars, which will go toward a new center Hunt wants for children who suffered trauma. All treatment free of charge.
“Kieran and Ian, along with the executive board, have endowed the center with a five-million-dollar seed. Hunt wants to call it La Maison de la Petite Fille Pour les Amis.” Mia smiled warmly and handed Kip the envelope.
Kip rubbed his chest. “You’re amazing.”
Kieran nodded. “What’s the point of being wealthy if I can’t spend it on good? Now we have to focus on bad.”
“This weekend we found this among the girls’ belongings.” Kip handed Mia Adelaide’s book.
Mia and Tobey read through it. “Shit, well, it gives us a name template.”
“We combined the information we picked up on the multiple practices. With the boots on the ground, we discovered another horrendous pattern. When they were about to pack and run, the heads and a couple of employees from the practice died. Some by accident and some from natural causes. None of which reached a level of suspicion, but some reached a level of curiosity: the deaths made the local paper.” Tobey pushed a spreadsheet in front of Kip.
He ran a finger down the page. “This says twenty-three practices and fifty-eight dead. I’m going to assume these couples are the group funding this fraud and these murders. Assign a permanent tech analyst.” His posture grew rigid, and the muscles in his neck corded.
“I want as much information on each death as possible. Then assign someone to speak with family if the results indicate homicide. I need to know who the murderers are. Anything on the three pulled off my property?” He clenched and released his hands.
“Guns for hire. What did them in: they never worked together before. The concerning thing was all three had a syringe inside a box,” Tobey said.
“Suicide?” Kip raised a brow.
“No. Our lab is trying to break it down. What they do know is, the drug was a synthetic sedative.” Tobey pushed another report to Kip.
“Kidnapping, then?” Kip frowned. “I need to know if sophisticated equipment is necessary to create the sedative. There are a bunch of formulas in the book. Send copies to our lab.”
Mia nodded. “We are paying attention to dark web traffic and searching for where the three were staying.”
When there was nothing else, Kip opened the doors to the morning meeting.
Chapter 42
Kip and Hunt sat together in the chief medical officer’s office. “The women’s center staff mentioned in Adelaide’s notes are all still working for us. And how many aren’t mentioned? What do I do?” Hunt asked.
