I Will Find You(84)

“It will look suspicious,” Hayden said. “Rachel asks me for the amusement-park photos, and I suddenly end up out of the country?”

“Pixie, I have to tell you something…”

He’d sounded like such a little boy that night, but that’s what men always sounded like when they were in trouble and needed to be saved. So she saved him. She saved her family. She saved them all. Again.

And had she saved Theo?

It didn’t matter. She would keep this secret. Again.

She had also created a fresh secret, one about the boy, one that no one, not even Hayden, knew.

That didn’t matter now. None of it did. Once again, Gertrude Payne was left to save the family. And so, no matter the cost to others, she would.

*



Max and Sarah were entering St. Barnabas Medical Center to question Cheryl Burroughs when Max’s phone buzzed. He saw the incoming call was from Lauren.

“Give me a second,” he said to Sarah.

He moved away from her so she couldn’t hear. Sarah still eyed him. He put the phone to his ear and said, “What’s up?”

“I got the paternity result,” Lauren said.

She gave it to him. Then she said, “Do you want to tell me what the hell is going on?”

“Maybe nothing. Give me an hour.”

He hung up the phone and came back to Sarah.

“Who was that?” she asked.

“Uh, my new guy.”

“Again? He’s kind of needy.”

“Sarah—”

“Did you two meet at summer camp? Does he live in Canada?”

“Huh?”

“Who called, Max?”

“You’ll see in a minute.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Where’s Burroughs’s ex-wife?”

“She’s in her office.”

“Let’s go.”

“Her new husband is here too,” Sarah said. “Ronald Dreason.”

Max thought about that. “Should we divide and conquer?”

“No, Max. I think we should stay together on this. I have him cooling off in another room.”

He didn’t protest. They moved down the corridor and into Cheryl Burroughs’s office. Cheryl Burroughs greeted them professionally, as if they were there as patients. She sat behind her desk. They sat in the two chairs in front of it. The office was sparse. Max looked for the diplomas on the wall and saw none.

Sarah let Max take the lead. Max dove straight in.

“What did your ex-husband say to you?”

“Nothing.”

Like with Hilde Winslow. Max shifted in the chair. “He came here to see you, no?”

“I don’t know why he came here,” she said.

“You didn’t talk?”

“He ran out before he could say much.”

Sarah and Max exchanged a look. Sarah sighed and took that one. “We have the security footage, Dr. Burroughs.”

“It’s Dreason now,” she said.

Sarah was in a mood. “Yeah, whatever. Your ex-husband, the escaped convict who murdered your son, was in this very office for eight minutes before your husband entered. Are you telling us he didn’t say anything in all that time?”

Cheryl took her time. She turned toward the office window and now Max could see the red in her eyes. She’d been crying, no question about it. “I’m not compelled to speak to you, am I?”

Sarah looked at Max. Max looked at Sarah.

“Why wouldn’t you want to speak with us?” Sarah asked.

“I have patients. I would like you to leave.”

Max figured that it was time to drop the bomb.

“Your ex-husband,” he said. “He’s not Matthew’s father, is he?”

Both women stared at him stunned.

“What are you talking about?” Cheryl asked.

Sarah’s face was asking the same question.

Cheryl said, “Of course David is Matthew’s father.”

“Are you sure?”

“What are you getting at, Agent Bernstein?”

Sarah was looking at him as though to say, I’d like to hear the answer too.

“When Matthew was murdered,” Max continued, “you already knew your current husband, Ronald Dreason. Isn’t that correct?”

“We were colleagues.”

“You weren’t sleeping together?”

Cheryl didn’t rise to the bait. In an even tone she said, “We were not.”

“You’re sure?”

“Very,” Cheryl said. “What are you getting at, Special Agent? Get to it, please.”

“I visited the district attorney’s office who handled your son’s murder case. They still have Matthew’s DNA on file.”

Something in Cheryl’s face was changing. He could see it.

“Your ex-husband’s DNA is on file too. All convicted inmates have to submit a sample. So I had them do a paternity test.”

Cheryl Dreason started to shake her head no.

“According to the test, David Burroughs, the man convicted of murdering Matthew Burroughs, is not the father of the boy found in the crib.”

Sarah’s eyes widened in surprise. “Max?”