“We don’t know yet,” Livvy admitted. “That’s why we need all the info you can give us.”
Sunny gave a resigned sigh and used the back of her hand to swipe away the tears. “Zadie had been contacting former surrogates and their families, asking them about any irregularities at New Hope.”
That got Livvy’s attention, and Ethan and she exchanged a glance. “Irregularities?” Livvy questioned.
“Rumors that Chloe and Franklin would purposely cause certain procedures to fail so the clients would have to pay for repeats. Or end up paying for the most expensive gestational-surrogacy service,” Sunny said, her voice a tangle of fear, nerves and grief. “Zadie said she had talked to a couple of women who believe that’s what happened to them.”
“Do you have these women’s names?” Ethan quickly asked.
She shook her head, then shrugged. “I’m not even sure it was true. I’ve never seen any proof of it anyway.”
Livvy thought about that for a moment. “Then, what happened to make Zadie believe such things were going on?”
“Because she said one of the women had called New Hope to complain about repeated procedures, and Zadie has passedalong the complaint to Chloe. But when Zadie looked, the woman’s entire file was missing.”
So, maybe that was Chloe covering her tracks. Or Franklin.
“Did Chloe or Franklin kill my sister?” Sunny came out and asked.
Again, Livvy went with the honest answer. “We don’t know. Obviously Anthony is a person of interest, too.”
Sunny made a soft sound of agreement. She was pressing her hand to the side of her head now and was clearly in pain. “If any of them killed Zadie, I want them punished. I want you to throw them in jail and never let them out.”
“We want the same thing,” Ethan assured, and he took out a card from his wallet. “My number is on there. Please call me if you think of anything. And don’t speak to Chloe, Franklin or Anthony.”
Panic shot through her eyes. “They could get in here—”
“No,” Ethan interrupted. “You have a deputy guarding your door, and all visitors will have to be cleared through the sheriff. Once you’re released, Deputy Walsh and I will be taking over your protective custody.”
That eased some of the panic, and Livvy could see the exhaustion moving in to take its place. “Call us if you need anything,” Livvy told her.
Ethan and she said their goodbyes, and they headed out. Not far. Just into the hall so that Livvy could text Grace about what Sunny had said. It was hearsay, so it likely couldn’t be used to get that search warrant of New Hope’s records, but there was a higher priority now to speak to any former clients. Especially since uncovering thoseirregularitiescould be the reason Zadie was dead and Sunny was in danger.
It didn’t take long, less than a minute, for Grace to respond:Once I have the list of names of clients, I’ll start interviewing them. Fornow, you two go home and stay there until you hear from me. I’ll let you know if I need you.
“Home,” Ethan repeated under his breath, and Livvy heard the same concerns in his voice that she had in her head.
Still, that didn’t stop them from moving toward the exit. They made their way through the hospital and out to the cruiser. Both of them looked around, checking to see if the dead thug’s boss or a partner was anywhere around, but Livvy didn’t spot anything suspicious.
“We can work on the client list, too,” Ethan said. “We can look for mentions on social media and such.”
Livvy welcomed the task. Not only did it get her mind off sharing a house with Ethan, but it could also help uncover what the heck was going on.
She drove down Main Street and took the familiar turn toward Ethan’s. Like most of the deputies in Renegade Canyon, he didn’t live in town but rather on a small ranch several miles away. In Ethan’s case, he’d bought the place about a decade earlier, shortly before Isabel and he had married. So, it’d been their home. A place they’d lived when they had intended on starting and raising a family.
Obviously, that hadn’t happened.
And it brought her to something that had been niggling away at her.
Livvy hated that this was going to scratch away at old wounds for Ethan, but she didn’t think it was something they could just ignore.
“If Isabel went to New Hope, there should be a medical record,” she said after taking a deep breath. “As Isabel’s next of kin, you could maybe get access to the file. And no, it might not have any indications of one of those irregularities, but I think it’s still worth looking into.”
And she was babbling. That might have continued, too, if Ethan hadn’t stopped it.
“It’s a good angle,” he muttered, though it was obvious he was still dreading it. “I have no idea if she even had procedures there. Or if she was put on any meds.” He paused, swallowed hard. “By then, Isabel and I weren’t really talking about what she was doing.”
Yes, Livvy had gotten the gist of that five months ago on the anniversary of Isabel’s death. Ethan had been drowning in grief and had admitted that the infertility had put a huge strain on their marriage.
