Baby Love (Baby #2)(34)

"What about a cell phone Daniel? Doesn't she even have a cell phone?"

"She used those track phones, the disposable ones that you can change the number every time you buy a new one. She did use mine for awhile but she racked my f*cking bill up so high I put a stop to that."

"Who was she calling?"

"I don't know. A bunch of calls to Mississippi from what I remember. She claimed it was a business partner. Then some calls from Virginia. Those were incoming - f*cking collect calls from a goddamn prison! Here I was working night shift at the factory and she had my phone. She was accepting those f*cking calls. Probably having some hot and heavy phone sex with a f*cking inmate. She is a freak, a f*cking freak that's all I can say."

Just then there was someone pounding on the back door of Daniel's house.

"Christ! What now?" he snapped.

He left the kitchen to go and answer the door. I glanced around the kitchen and peered into the living room to see if anything was recognizable that my mother had been here recently. I saw nothing.

Suddenly I heard a commotion coming from the back door. The voice was unmistakable.

"I believe you have something of mine Mr. Henderson?"

"Who the hell are you?"

"Trey Sinclair and I believe you have my wife inside."



CHAPTER 12



Trey was livid but managed to contain his anger until we were safely out of Daniel's hovel. I saw Tristan standing outside of what I presumed was Trey's rental car. Trey opened the passenger side of my rental car and told me to get in. I watched in the side mirror as Trey went over and spoke to Tristan briefly, then returned to my car getting in on the driver's side.

"Give me the keys," he ordered none too politely.

I handed the keys to him trying to make eye contact but having no luck.

As we headed down the rural road towards Indianapolis, I finally found the nerve to speak.

"Trey I know you are angry with me for coming up here but I did manage to find some potentially useful information. I know for sure now that my mom - Maggie has Preston."

"Tylar," he spoke softly but his voice was like steel, "Do you remember the promises that we made to each other on our wedding day?"

"Of course I do Trey - but if you'll---"

"I promised that I would protect you and keep you safe," he interrupted. "You promised you would be with me during times of joy and times of sorrow. This is a time of sorrow for both of us. Until we find our baby and she is safely back home with us, I don't want you out of my sight."

I looked over at Trey; I saw a tear roll down his cheek and then another. I reached my hand up to his cheek capturing it with my thumb. I couldn't take it if he fell apart on me right now. I had not allowed myself to cry for my baby. The thought that this would have anything other than a positive outcome was simply unfathomable to me.

"Trey," I whispered hoarsely, "Please don't think that I would ever do anything to make you feel like this. I just wanted to help. I wanted to get the ball rolling and not wade through all of the bureaucratic red tape to get started in this search for Preston. I didn't want to waste precious time while the authorities tried to figure out whether we were the perps in all of this."

"I know baby, that sickened me as well but as an officer of the court I know that they are just doing their job no matter how cruel it seems to us. When Gina told me where you went late last night I was scared Tylar."

"Why didn't you call my cell?"

"I tried. Your cell is shut off."

I rifled through my purse until I located my Blackberry. The battery had died.

"I'm sorry Trey - it was nothing that I was trying to keep from you. I told Gina to let you know when you came by today. Obviously, you found out sooner."

"Why would you put yourself in that kind of danger? You know damn well that your mother had plotted to kill you at one point for Chrissake? So you don't care what that does to me?"

"Trey I said that I was sorry and I am but I don't regret going because I found out some valuable information."

I filled Trey in on the main points of my conversation with Daniel; my mother was really my aunt; my birth mother was her twin sister and died before I was a year old; the car Maggie took was Daniel's white Ford Explorer for which he had provided the license and VIN numbers; she had received collect calls from a prison in Virginia; she had made multiple calls to Mississippi; there was a good chance she had hoarded the money she got from my trust and was potentially using it now to stay beneath the radar; and her maiden name was possibly 'Renaud.'

"Did you say 'Renaud'?"

I finally had Trey's attention.

"Yes, why? It's not a common name have you heard it before?"

"Yes. That's the last name of the agent for TJ Properties, the L.L.C. in Mississippi that held the deed to your house in Radcliff until you turned twenty-one, remember?"

"Yes, but I thought you said you didn't have any luck in finding out the identity of the Trustor when you went to Jackson last year."

"I didn't think that I had. All I had was the post office box number of the L.L.C., the phone number listed on the UCC filing was no longer a working number. I literally hung out at the post office for damn near a full day until someone came to collect the mail from it. It was a man named 'Renaud.' I think his first name was Matthew. I explained I represented you in a matter involving your trust. It was then that he informed me that the property in Radcliff was to be deeded to you upon your twenty-first birthday. He didn't offer much more information, nor was he required to do so. As I explained before, L.L.C's are not required to disclose."