Chapter Twelve
Ben stood in the cloak of darkness, watching as the chief of police issued an arrest warrant to Mark Hanson.
Keeping a safe distance away, he was close enough to see Hanson’s face illuminated by the light spilling from inside the house.
The man blustered and fought against the officers handcuffing his hands behind his back.
An officer read Hanson his rights, and the man sputtered, insisting there was a mistake.
When he demanded to know their proof, the Chief stepped in front of the man.
He motioned for a couple of officers to move inside as he shared with Hanson the charges against him.
Kidnapping, child endangerment, fraud. What the Chief didn’t say, but what Ben knew, was that Hanson was facing federal charges as well.
FBI agents were on their way to Ivy Springs to question him.
Ben itched to be on the man’s doorstep. He wanted to look Hanson in the face and watch the other man as he realized Ben was the reason his crimes were discovered.
His anger barely in check, Ben stood with his arms crossed over his chest. He was aware of his brothers surrounding him.
They arrived in town just as the LEOs rallied to take Hanson down.
The Chief agreed to let the Legends watch the arrest as long as they didn’t interfere and kept a reasonable distance away.
A hand slapped down on his shoulder. “You okay, man?” Jackson asked.
Ben didn’t answer. The officers came outside with Caleb sandwiched between them. The little boy sobbed, his body shaking all over, and Ben felt his heart break. The boy’s world was falling apart around him, and he was powerless to stop it. Ben knew that feeling all too well.
“Ben.”
“I’m not okay,” he finally answered Jackson. “Someone should have done something before now. How did everyone have missed it? How could no one realize that he wasn’t who he said he was?”
“You did,” Easton said. “You knew something was off with that guy. It’s because you kept hunting for the truth that the little boy is away from that guy.”
“Then why don’t I feel better about it?”
“Because it’s a shit situation. But Hanson’s going down. The cops have what they need to put him away. And we can make sure the kid gets what he needs to deal with it. We don’t have to walk away now that the case is closed,” Luke reminded him.
Hanson started shouting after Caleb, but it wasn’t the loving reassurance of a parent comforting a child.
He yelled for Caleb to keep his mouth shut.
He told the little boy that he’d regret it if he talked to anybody.
The officers hurried Caleb to a squad car and sped away before Hanson caused any more damage with his words.
Ben never took his eyes from the scene until a separate squad car drove away with the Chief and Hanson inside. The rest of the officers stayed at the house, collecting anything that could strengthen the case against Hanson.
“I never expected this,” Ben murmured, knowing his brothers would hear him.
“None of us did,” Jackson returned. “We should go. You’ll have to give a statement to the cops.”
Ben allowed his brothers to pull him along as they headed back to his Tahoe.
He didn’t argue when Easton offered to drive.
He was too distracted to be behind the wheel.
Though he wanted to be alone, or better yet back at Charlotte’s apartment, he was grateful to have his brothers join him in closing the case.
“I can’t believe the DNA test came back so fast,” he said as they headed toward the police station.
“It didn’t,” Luke told him.
Ben shifted in his seat to stare at Luke in the back seat. His eyes adjusted to the limited light, but he barely made out his brother’s form. “What are you talking about?”
“It wasn’t the DNA. You know that DNA tests don’t come back that fast. It was the picture you called me about.”
Jackson snorted. “It was dumb luck.”
Ben looked from one brother to the other. “Okay, I need to hear the whole story.”
“I got to thinking about what you said with Hanson getting the baby from a surrogate or from an affair. So I used facial recognition software to find a familial match to certain facial characteristics in Caleb’s picture. Or I guess I should say Dalton,” Luke explained.
“Dalton Sims,” Ben said quietly, still not believing what they uncovered.
Jackson picked up the story. “His parents live in Randolph, Missouri. His mother was shopping with him and his baby sister. The sister was only a few months old at the time, and Dalton was four. The missing child report said that a strange woman started getting too close to the sister, and their mother was distracted trying to keep the woman away from her baby. Someone, probably Hanson, snatched Dalton while his mother was preoccupied by the woman, who was probably Delia Hanson, or whatever their real names are.”
“Dalton’s mother runs a non-profit foundation providing aid to families of missing children.
They’ve helped to find something like eighty or so missing kids,” Luke said.
“In raising money for the foundation, Ms. Sims shares her story of how Dalton was abducted. His picture is even on the Foundation’s website.
Not only did the software hit on a familial match with Mr. Sims, it matched with Dalton’s pic on the website.
We pieced everything together from there. ”
“So rather than adopting a child, Hanson and his wife stole a toddler? And not the baby?”
Easton joined the conversation. “We think they were trying to take the baby, but Ms. Sims realized what they were doing and kept them from getting too close. We think they took Dalton because they couldn’t get to the baby.”
“We don’t know Hanson’s real identity yet. They’ll run his fingerprints when they book him, and between that and the DNA test Atlas Security is running, we’ll figure out who he is,” Jackson said.
“Caleb’s real — or rather Dalton’s real parents. Have they been notified?” Ben asked.
“Alex offered to break the news. He’s flying the family from Missouri to Ivy Springs in the company jet.
They’ll drive in from the Atlanta airport and probably be here in the morning.
They seem like solid people. Maddy Sims’ work with the foundation is amazing, and David Sims makes a decent living as an insurance agent.
The sister, Amelia, is almost six now,” Jackson told him.
“Wow. She was so young when Dalton was abducted, she probably doesn’t even remember him.” Ben’s head started to ache when he pictured what the coming months held in store for the Sims family.
“Try not to think about what’s coming,” Easton told him. “This family is whole again. That’s a big deal.”
Ben nodded. “Has anyone told our client? If she hadn’t insisted something was wrong, we wouldn’t have discovered the truth.”
“Reagan’s going to call the teacher in the morning and let her know we’ve closed the case. Once you’ve given your statement to the police, you can pack up your shit and head home with us,” Jackson said.
And just like that, Ben’s thoughts returned to Charlotte — to Paige.
Once he realized the young girl named Paige and the woman named Charlotte were the same person, he’d been piecing together similarities between the two.
The same unusual eyes, but with more gray in them now than when they were kids.
The same blond hair that was short and wavy now, versus long and shiny then.
The same smile, though adult Paige had all her teeth while child Paige had one or two missing.
She had denied it, but not before she’d let her guard slip, telling him he was right. Paige was pretending to be someone else, and he wanted to know why.
“I’m going to stay in town a few more days. I have some unfinished business.”
Easton took his eyes off the road long enough to glance at his brother. “Unfinished business? Yeah, right. What’s her name?”
“Charlotte Redding,” Luke supplied. “Or at least that’s the name she’s going by.”
“Her name is Paige.”
Luke leaned forward. “How did you find out her real name? Did she tell you?”
Ben turned his attention to the passing scenery out his window. “She didn’t have to. I know her. Or knew her, a long time ago.”
“If you knew who she was, why did you have me run a background on her?”
“I didn’t find out for sure who she was until tonight. I knew her when we were kids. Before English and you guys came into my life. It’s been over twenty years since we’ve seen each other.”
“Are you serious?” Easton exclaimed. “What are the odds?”
“Evidently better than average,” Ben replied dryly.
“Strange that you’d run into her again when she’s in trouble,” Luke interjected.
“What kind of trouble?” Easton questioned.
Ben frowned. “I don’t know. After she got over the shock that I knew who she really was, she stuck to her story. Told me she wasn’t who I thought she was. She threw me out of her apartment. You guys called about Hanson, and I had to leave.”
“What’s your next move?”
Jackson’s question was one Ben had refused to considered until now. With his case — the very reason he came to Ivy Springs — cracking wide open, he’d had to walk away when every fiber of his body screamed for him to stay, to find out the truth, to reassure her that she was safe with him.
“I don’t know,” Ben finally replied. “I can’t force her to trust me, and if I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t know how I can help.”
Easton scoffed. “Just charm her like you always do when we need people to open up. You never have trouble with that.”
“I don’t want to pretend with her. She’s afraid to trust people, and when she figures out that I haven’t been completely upfront with everybody, she’s going to shut me out even more.”
“So charm someone she knows.” Jackson leaned forward. “Get someone she does trust on your side before you offer her your help. But I have to ask. You sure it’s a good idea to get involved in what she has going on? You may not like what you find out.”
Ben sighed. “I owe her. You guys remember what I was like when I came to live with you. The kids at school, my own family…hell, just about everyone in my life then made me feel worthless. Except for her. Even at six years old, she was fierce. I had never known anyone like her then or since. I really thought I was going to disappear when her family moved from Fire Creek. She was the only person who gave a shit about me. But then I met Gish and you guys. I haven’t thought of her much over the years, but I’ve never forgotten her. ”
“So this is you paying back a favor? Nothing more?”
Ben opened his mouth to respond to Luke, but the words of agreement refused to pass from his throat. His brothers may not understand his connection to a woman who was both a friend and a stranger, but he wouldn’t ignore it.
“Your silence says it all,” Easton drawled. “She’s your Bailee. Am I right?”
None of them had thought Easton would marry and settle down when he enjoyed the attention of various women he met at the bar or as he went about his life.
Same with Jackson and Luke, who never expressed any interest in starting a family of their own.
Their experiences with family weren’t worth repeating, and though they found acceptance in the makeshift family they created, they had no idea what it took to create the fairytale happily ever after with a wife, kids, and the proverbial house with a picket fence.
But Jackson met English’s daughter, who went from not wanting anything to do with her biological father and the boys he chose to raise over her, to marrying one of those boys and building an unorthodox relationship with her father.
Luke met Melody, who was raised in a loving family, but through her job as a paralegal, had seen the worst of what humanity could do.
And Easton met Bailee, a woman who showed him they could truly have it all.
Ben had no idea if Paige was it for him or not, but he refused to believe it was an accident that the grownup version of him met the grownup version of her at this point in their lives.
She needed help. He was qualified to provide it.
And then they would be free to get to know each other as the adults they were now.
They could walk away with a renewal of the friendship they had as children.
Or they could walk away with more. Ben would be lying if he said the thought didn’t appeal to him.
“You need us to stick around too?” Jackson asked before Ben found the words to respond.
“I can’t ask you to do that. Not when I have no clue what’s going on with her and even if she’s going to be open to my help.”
“Sure you can,” Luke drawled. “We’re Legends. It’s what we do.”
Ben felt his grin split his face. “Damn straight. But no, I think I got this. You guys hold the fort down at home, and once we wrap up the mess with Hanson, I can focus on Paige. I’ll find a way to convince her to trust me.”
“Atta boy,” Easton teased as he turned the Tahoe into the parking lot at the police station.
He killed the engine just as daybreak started to peek through the darkness.
“If anybody can get through to her, it’s you.
But if you screw it up, just call me. I may be married with a kid, but women still find me irresistible. Just ask Bailee.”
As if they practiced the maneuver, Jackson, Luke, and Ben threw out their fists connecting with Easton’s back, shoulder, and arm with punches meant to be good-natured while still packing some heat behind them.
“Hey!” Easton rubbed the spot on his upper arm. “Punch me all you want. It won’t change the truth.”
Easton scooted out of the Tahoe before they punched him again.
Ben and his other brothers followed suit.
As they walked as a formidable group into the police station, Ben’s expression turned serious.
Even with all the grief his brothers gave each other, Ben was glad to have them there as he closed the book on this case.