Chapter 23
Chapter 23
“ Y ou eloped? ”
It was the fourth time Ridge said it, but the shock hadn’t begun to wear off. After hauling a nervous-looking Babs into his office and explaining their suspicions over the burner phone, she quickly blurted an explanation. Somehow Ridge would have been less surprised if she had turned out to be the mole.
“You’re telling me you eloped with Darren Eldridge, my brother-in-law, the man who, at my wedding, commented how modern and non-traditional we were because I didn’t wear tails and a top hat? That Darren? He eloped on a whim?”
Beside them, Blue laughed hysterically, as he had been since Babs’s big announcement. Then he sobered and sat up. “Wait a minute. This means everyone in the office got married before Jane and me. She is going to kill me.”
Babs tossed him an annoyed look. “So set a date already.”
“We were waiting until all the babies were born so Bailey and Poppy could be there and, you know, Comic Con is coming up and…” he trailed off and wiped a bead of perspiration from his forehead and shoved Babs hard in the shoulder. “She’s seriously going to kill me. Thanks for ruining my life.”
“It’s not Babs’s fault you’re dragging your feet to the altar, Grandpa,” Ridge said. “Though it is her fault she eloped without telling anyone. ”
Babs put her hands to her head. “I know, I know. It was the night of the shooting. Darren drove me home and we parked and then he sat there, staring into space. I touched his arm and asked if he was okay, and he got out, opened my door, got down on two knees, not just one, and said he adored me and McKenna and life was short and would I marry him. Of course I said yes. I thought we would set a date, plan an event, but he got back in the car and drove to the airport where we flew to Vegas. You know how Darren is when he gets something in his head, there’s really no changing it.”
“The Eldridge curse,” Ridge said, hand pressed over his eyes.
“Maggie and Amelia are going to kill me, aren’t they?” Babs asked. She sounded miserable.
“Are you joking? They’re going to be ecstatic,” Ridge said, dropping his hand. “Their parents, on the other hand.” It was the second time one of their children tied the knot in secret, including Amelia and Ethan who got married in Africa.
Babs blew out a breath, sounding slightly less frantic. “Right, okay, forget it. I’m wearing this now.” She reached in her pocket, pulled out a giant rock, and slid it on her finger.
“Holy cow, what do geologists get paid?” Blue asked, snagging her finger and bringing it closer for inspection.
“He didn’t buy it; he mined it.”
Ridge and Blue blinked at her, uncomprehending. “What?” Ridge said at last.
“He mined it. Dug it out of the earth with his own two hands,” Babs said.
“Like a dwarf in Middle Earth?” Blue asked. Babs slugged him in the shoulder and Ridge snickered.
“I think it’s romantic,” she said, looking slightly diminished so that Ridge and Blue felt immediate guilt.
“So it is. Congratulations. I guess you’re officially my sister-in-law now,” Ridge said. If he sounded anything less than thrilled it was because this news only added one more layer of complication to an already complicated situation. How was he supposed to be objective when half the people who worked for him were related?
“Congratulations, Babulous,” Blue said, hugging her. “You deserve all the happiness in the world, and I’m so glad you found some.”
“Thank you,” Babs said, sparkling joy restored. And then she sat up straighter as a new thought occurred. “Wait a minute, how did you know? Why did you bring me in here?”
Blue looked to Ridge, uncertain if they were still keeping her in the dark. Ridge blew out a breath. “The night of the shooting, the guy knew where everyone would be, down to where they’d be sitting. And before that, Leo thought Esther was being followed.”
“You think there’s a mole,” Babs said.
Ridge nodded.
“What was the burner phone about?” Blue asked. He didn’t sound apologetic. In their line of work, privacy was a myth. The only way to be above suspicion was to be transparent.
“Darren tried to take a selfie of us in front of one of the fountains in Vegas and dropped his phone. He bought a burner until he could get it replaced. I can’t believe you think there’s a mo…” She gripped the edge of Ridge’s desk and sat up straight.
“What is it?” Ridge asked, suddenly alert. Like Blue earlier, he knew Babs well enough by now to know when it was something important.
“I think I might… but no, it’s not…but if…” she sputtered.
“Babs, what?” Ridge said in the Dad tone they all responded to immediately.
“After Maggie figured out Esther was autistic, we started making a concerted effort to be nicer to her, to reach out.”
“Esther’s autistic?” Blue interjected.
“Another time,” Ridge snapped. “But yes, where have you been? Maybe take out the earbuds and interact with actual humans occasionally. Resume.” He flicked his fingers at Babs.
“Anyway, I started talking to her, trying to get her to warm up, feel more comfortable. It was hard with Leo always hovering protectively nearby, ready to snap our hands off if he thinks we’re getting too close and might hurt her. But one day he went out to get their lunch from the car. Esther was in the break room, and we spent some time talking, actually talking. I asked her a lot of questions about herself, where she was from, how she got here, personal things. To my surprise, she answered, seemed glad someone finally asked.”
“Babs, the point,” Ridge said, making a “hurry up” motion with his hand. He was a cut-to-the-chase type person, not one for embellishments, especially when the life of one of his team might be on the line.
Babs started to sniffle. “Yesterday someone asked me about her, asked me what I knew about her, where I thought she went. I didn’t think anything about it because it felt so conversational and because I had no idea you were searching for a mole, but I told what I knew, that Esther was Amish. I said if she and Leo were going to hide, I bet they would go to her Amish family in New York.”
Ridge’s fingers curled into fists. He had the feeling he was going to hate whatever he heard next. “Who asked the question?” he said slowly, deliberately.
“You’re not going to believe it,” Babs said, then took a breath and upended their world.