Chapter Fifty
Adam
“Is there anything on the cameras?” Brian demanded as he drove toward Lainey’s apartment while I pulled up the footage of her camera feed.
“The front shows Kristy getting there around four fifteen, and then before that—”
“She got there at four fifteen?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because she didn’t call me until after six.”
“Okay. Well, I’m sure there’s a reason for that. At three fifty-two, there’s a two-minute blip where the feed goes completely white. Fifteen minutes before that, Paulina leaves and locks the door. And before that…” I scrolled through the footage until I reached the lunch rush. “Nothing unusual.”
I switched to the back stairs. “The same white blip thing happens on the back camera at four after four. That one’s longer though, like three minutes.”
“That’s gotta be when she was taken. I know that fucker Earl has something to do with this. There’s no way Bess did all that on her own.”
“I agree. And Bess is still in jail?”
“I double-checked on my way to get you.”
“Still nothing from the crime lab?”
“No. But I think this may escalate the priority.”
“What about Justin? Has anyone talked to him?”
Brian didn’t disguise his grin when he looked over at me.
“I’d say Dr. Weaver is pretty low on our suspect list.”
“We still need to cover our bases,” I grumbled.
The back camera alerted for movement, and I quickly called up the feed.
“Speak of the devil.”
Justin was walking up the back steps, dressed in black dress pants, a blue button-down shirt that was open at the throat, and shiny black shoes.
And he was carrying a bouquet of flowers.
He brushed the hair over his ears and cupped his hand in front of his mouth, like he was checking his breath, before he let out a deep breath, then knocked on her door.
“Turn the speaker on,” Brian said.
I couldn’t see Kristy’s face, but I heard her voice when she answered the door.
It was obvious by the shakiness of her tone, that she was distraught. He must have asked if Lainey was there before I turned the speaker on because she responded.
“No! She’s missing!”
Justin said the same thing Alan did.
“What do you mean, ‘missing’?”
“She wasn’t downstairs when I arrived, but I didn’t think anything of it.
I thought maybe Conor was being fussy, or he’d had a diaper emergency, so I got to work.
When she didn’t come down after an hour, I thought maybe she fell asleep, and I knew she had her date with you, so I thought I’d let her rest. At a little after six, I decided I should wake her up so she could get ready, so I went upstairs.
The apartment was unlocked, which was a red flag, but I thought maybe she had her hands full when she came inside and forgot to lock it.
But then I heard Conor crying—almost inconsolably, and I panicked and thought maybe she’d fallen or something. But she was nowhere to be found.”
“Oh my god! Have you called—”
She must have stepped aside and let him inside because he disappeared from the feed, his voice faded, followed by the sound of the door closing.
Brian said, “Well, that explains why she didn’t call right away,” as he pulled up to the front of the bakery.
The place was deserted.
Nothing seemed out of place as we inspected the front door, then Brian pulled keys from his pocket and unlocked the front locks.
“You have keys to the bakery?”
“Yeah. Don’t you?”
“I do. But I was staying here.”
“She wanted me to have a set in case she got locked out, and she couldn’t get a hold of Kristy. Then when I installed the deadbolts, I kept a set of those, too.”
“I guess it’s a good thing, since mine are on my key ring in the Bronco that Alan is driving, hopefully to my place.”
We did a sweep of the bakery and kitchen. Nothing looked out of place, so we headed upstairs to the apartment.
Even before Kristy opened the door, I could hear Conor crying.
Half the woman’s ponytail had fallen out, and she was obviously frazzled as she bounced him in her arms with tears in her eyes. I noticed a full bottle on the counter in the kitchen.
“He won’t eat, and no matter what I do, he won’t stop crying,” she lamented. “He’d finally cried himself to sleep, but just woke up crying again.”
I reached for him, then snagged the bottle off the counter and walked into the living room where Justin was still seated on the couch.
I slowly sat down in the chair, softly talking to Conor as I did.
“Hey, little man. I’ll bet you’re so hungry.” I presented the bottle to his lips, and encouraged, “Come on, sweet boy. Take your bottle.”
He smacked his lips and soon latched onto the nipple and started sucking. Little grunts escaped him, like he couldn’t drink fast enough.
“Slow down, buddy. You don’t want to get a tummy ache.”
Kristy stood at the other end of the room, staring at me with her mouth hanging open.
“How the hell did you do that?” She gestured to Lainey’s date. “He and I both tried. I thought for sure he’d be able to get him to eat, since he’s a doctor. No such luck.”
Justin chuckled. “In my defense, I mostly deal with emergencies. Pediatrics isn’t my specialty.” He watched the baby suckling his bottle in my arms. “You’ve obviously got the magic touch.”
Kristy sounded in awe. “Lainey said you are the baby whisperer. She wasn’t lying.”
“We’ve had a few bonding moments recently. I’m sure he’s missing Lainey, and I’m familiar.”
“Whatever it is, you are now in charge of the baby.”
Brian was quick to veto that shit.
“No, he needs to help me.”
“How about I finish feeding him while you get Kristy and Justin’s statements, then we get ahold of the O’Briens and see if they can take him?”
Kristy reiterated what she’d told Justin when we watched on camera, then Brian asked a few more questions.
“Do you know if she took anything with her? Are her keys here? What about her phone or her purse?”
“Her purse was open on the kitchen table when I walked in, like maybe she’d been going through it. Her keys are in the bowl by the door. I haven’t seen her phone.”
“Was the bakery door unlocked when you got here?”
“Yeah, it was. Which I thought was weird, but not alarmingly so. I mean, it’s Haven Springs. My parents have never locked their doors. I don’t even think they know where their keys are. Her apartment door from the bakery was unlocked, too.”
“What about the one leading to the exterior stairs?”
Her eyes got big. “I think that was unlocked, too!” She looked over at Justin. “Do you remember hearing me unlock the door?”
“Not specifically, no.”
Justin’s version was pretty much identical to what we witnessed.
“You guys can go. We’ll take it from here.”