Chapter Fourteen
Reese knew Brantley was getting antsy.Hedidn’t like to sit still when they were in the middle of a case.Unfortunately, at this point in the investigation, they were pretty much starting over at square one each day.Until they had a strong line to pull on, they were sifting through the fibers one at a time, building something from nothing.
At least that was how it felt.
Which sucked.
However, the information he was searching for could quite possibly help explain a whole lot of things.If it was what Reese thought it was.
Reaching for his phone, he pulled up the contacts, found Holly’s number, and dialed.
“Hey.How’s Dallas?”she greeted, sounding far happier than he expected anyone to be on a Sunday morning when they had to work.
“Peachy,” he said absently.“Sorry.No time for chit chat.I need you to do somethin’ for me.”
“Sure.What’s up?”
“In your notes on Martin Calloway, you’ve referenced a sealed adoption.I need you to reach out to JJ and see if she can get the information for me.”
“Your faith in me is humbling, Reese.”
Frowning, he looked up, stared out into the bright morning sun as Brantley drove down the highway.“I’m sorry.I just figured you hit a wall since you left it like that.”
He could hear the smile in her voice.“When have you known me to hit a wall?”
“Umm…”
“It was rhetorical.I did actually hit a wall, but I went down another path, not wanting to bother JJ or Luca yet.I wanted to give it the ol’ college try before I threw in the towel.”
“And...?”
“And I came across a dark web forum that—”
“Hold that thought,” he interrupted.“Let me put you on speaker.”He tapped the button to shift the call to speaker.“Okay, Holly.Go ahead.”
“Hey, boss,” she greeted Brantley.“Anyway.I came across a dark web forum.It’s packed full of people lookin’ to find the identity of their birth parents.Some lookin’ for the child they gave up.For a price—sometimes hefty—someone’ll do the work for you.”
“Why would someone do that?Why not just have the record unsealed?”Reese inquired.“Or isn’t there some form you fill out that notifies the other party that you’re lookin’?”
“Maybe you go here when you don’t want to tip off the parent or the kid?I don’t know.Whatever the reason, I was able to chat up a couple of people, and they pointed me in the right direction.From what I can tell, Martin Calloway had a child with a prostitute named Shawna, no last name.She gave birth to a girl on April 6, 1995, in Kent, Louisiana.According to notes from a social worker … I managed to sweet-talk my way into gettin’ those … neither Martin nor Shawna wanted the baby.She was given up for adoption and placed with her new parents when she was three days old.”
“Do you have the parents’ names?”Brantley asked.
“I do.”
Reese ground his molars together, hoping against hope that she did not say—
“Fred and Tracey Aronda.”
Brantley’s gaze snapped over so fast, Reese was sure the guy was dizzy.
“Did she say what I think she just said?”
Reese nodded.
“I take it those names mean somethin’ to you?”Holly asked.
“Fred and Tracey Aronda are Juliet Prince’s parents.”
