Cut and Run(64)

“Were any of these women pregnant?”

Franklin flipped through several pages. “Not that any of their families were aware of.”

“And they were all last seen in East Austin, correct?”

Franklin grabbed a handful of red pushpins and pressed each into the last known locations of all the missing girls.

Faith studied the pins tightly clustered in the area where she’d just been. “They’re all within walking distance of Second Chances.”

“I know the owner of Second Chances. He’s kind of a bright spot in the community. Whenever the cops collect for kids in need, he always steps up. He’s well liked,” Detective Franklin offered.

“How long has Garnet had his bar?”

“I’ve been on the job fifteen years, so at least that long. Since I’ve known him, he’s never had any problems with the law.”

That made sense. Any arrest records would draw attention to him. “So how does a former enlisted army soldier come up with the cash to open a bar?” Faith asked.

“Good question.”

“Maybe he sold two babies,” she said, more to herself.

“Two?”

“Twin girls. If my theory pans out, Josie gave birth to twin girls before she died. The Rangers found the body of Jack Crow on Sunday, and Hayden believes Crow knew about the ranch and the twin girls.” Jack Crow didn’t appear to have the kind of money a black market baby would cost, but he’d ended up with Macy. What had Crow done all those years ago, and how had he gotten custody of Macy?

“Funny you should mention stolen babies. Hayden called and asked me to identify any pregnant missing girls. I found four. They don’t look like these women, but they were in Austin and pregnant when they disappeared.”

“They were never found?”

“Not a trace of them or their children.”

Right now they had lots of pieces and few connections. “Who represented Olivia and Kathy in court?”

Franklin scanned the files. As she moved through the pages in each folder, mild curiosity hardened into suspicion. “Slater and McIntyre represented them all.”



Paige’s belly was contracting. Not hard and not often, but the pains had started to tighten and release, warning her the time for the baby was coming soon.

She rose up off her cot and walked around the small room toward the door. The cuff on her ankle stopped her from reaching the handle. Its metal rubbed her flesh raw. Blood oozed onto the floor when she stood.

He’d been saying from the beginning that he was doing all this for her own good. He said he was saving her immortal soul by forcing her to bring this baby into the world. She never once believed him. He didn’t care about her soul, or even his. It was always about the money.

In a perverse way, she missed her initial holding area. At least there she’d had the magazines she’d found in the vent shaft on one of those early nights when she’d searched every corner for some kind of way to escape.

The notes had started with Josie, who of all of them had written the most. Olivia and Kathy wrote far less. But Josie had used up every available bit of space. And when she’d filled the first magazine, she’d used another until her notes abruptly stopped. Paige had read the notes so much she had memorized them.

Things I hate. Broccoli. English class. Parachute pants. Perms. My foster family. This room.

Paige glanced toward the door, listened to make very sure he wasn’t close, and then pulled the torn magazine page from her bra. She stared at her words, which echoed the thoughts of the other girls, who’d understood the horror of being locked up, the isolation, and the fear of delivering a baby alone.

She didn’t have her pen, but she glanced around the room until she saw a heating grate. She folded the paper and pushed it through the vent until it disappeared behind the grate. Then she flipped over a small wooden table. With her fingernail she started to dig her initials into the cheap wood because she needed to believe that someday, somehow, someone would realize she’d been here. The world was not going to eat her alive.



When he saw Faith leave Second Chances, he knew it was time to deal with Garnet, who was certain to panic after seeing a Macy clone staring him right in the face. He’d hoped to locate the evidence Garnet was holding over his client before he killed him, but it looked like it would be wiser not to delay. And who knew—maybe Garnet would be easier to persuade than Crow.





CHAPTER TWENTY

Thursday, June 28, 5:00 a.m.

Dawn was approaching when Hayden and Brogan made it back to Austin. They parked down the street from a closed Second Chances.

Climbing out of the SUV, Hayden glanced around the quiet street that looked dingy as dawn broke.

Two days’ stubble darkened Brogan’s chin, and the fatigue in his eyes surely mirrored his partner’s. Murder investigations typically ran nonstop for at least the first forty-eight to seventy-two hours. Mix in the cold cases of three dead women and a missing teen, and they were now looking at a much more arduous investigation.

Brogan straightened his tie. “Do you think Jack Crow killed that girl all those years ago?”

“I’d like to believe not, but there’s no telling. I do think it was that ranch that was weighing on him when he called me.”

“But someone beat you to him.”