Chapter Six #2
Jolene, start digging into Mellie Freemont. Last known address, work history, friends, family. Anything that can give us a lead. She’s missing, and we need to find her.
The message sent with a soft chime, but the tension in the room stayed thick until Remi broke it. “Who else could be behind this?” she asked.
Christina sighed and closed the file. “The only strong candidates I’ve got left are Eloise Davenport, Dr. Curt Langley, and Mellie.”
“And who’s your top of those three?” Brody demanded.
The woman certainly didn’t give a quick answer this time.
She clamped her teeth over her lip for a moment.
“Eloise. She’s got every reason to want Tarrant dead—but good luck getting in touch with her,” she tacked on.
“Eloise has gone full-blown hermit. Won’t answer her phone or her door.
She only takes calls from people already in her Contacts. ”
Remi straightened. “I should be in her Contacts. I spoke to her when I was digging into Tarrant’s case.”
Christina shook her head. “Doesn’t matter.
She changes her number every month, sometimes more.
And her security? Might as well be Fort Knox.
Cameras, gates, private guards, you name it.
She’s terrified Tarrant will come after her, convinced he’ll try to kill her for speaking out against him in the death of her son.
Eloise had publicly pushed for the manslaughter charge against Tarrant to be changed to murder. ”
Remi frowned, her mind racing. Eloise’s feelings weren’t unwarranted. Tarrant had a history of violence. But if Eloise was this locked down, it made it even harder to know what she was capable of from the shadows.
“I have Eloise’s current number,” Christina said, her tone casual now, as if she wasn’t offering them a potential lead on the biggest nightmare of Brody’s life. “I’ll call her.”
Brody gave a tight nod, and Remi’s stomach knotted as Christina hit the button and switched to Speaker. The phone rang twice before it picked up, the line crackling faintly.
Before Brody or Remi could say a word, a woman’s voice burst through, tight and brittle with fear.
“Christina, I’m glad you called. Someone left a message with my assistant,” Eloise blurted out, no greeting, no hesitation.
Her voice dropped to a frantic whisper, like she thought someone was listening.
“It said, ‘Sheriff Brody Walker and Remi are hunting for Tarrant. When they find him, they’ll exchange him for the sheriff’s missing son.
Give them all the help you can, and we’ll both get what we want—Tarrant’s head on a silver platter. ’”
Remi exchanged a quick glance with Brody. It was identical to the text Christina had shown them. Remi’s mind raced, piecing it together. If Eloise was behind this, she could have had that message sent to herself to throw them off her scent.
“I got the same message, Eloise,” Christina informed her. “Sheriff Walker and Remi are here with me now. You’re on Speaker.”
There was a pause on the line. Not static, not hesitation from a bad connection, just silence, like Eloise was holding her breath on the other end.
Remi glanced at Brody, the tension tightening in her chest. She expected Eloise’s next words to be frantic questions about Tarrant, about whether they were any closer to finding him. But instead—
“I’m so sorry about your son. Have you gotten any news about where he is or if he’s all right?” Eloise asked softly, her voice stripped of the sharp edges it had carried a moment ago.
Brody’s jaw clenched, caught off guard. Remi felt it, too, that jolt of surprise. She’d braced herself for obsession, for fury over Tarrant still being free. But this? Compassion?
Remi’s mind spun, trying to make sense of it. Maybe it was genuine. Eloise had lost her son, so she knew that kind of grief, the ache of an empty space where someone should be. She could empathize with what Brody was going through.
But Remi had seen enough people lie with total conviction to know that empathy could be faked.
Brody swallowed hard, his voice rough when he finally answered. “I have twin sons. One of them is safe. The other’s still missing.”
Another pause.
Remi felt like the room was shrinking, the weight of the moment pressing in. She didn’t know what was worse, thinking Eloise was genuinely terrified or thinking she was a master manipulator playing them both.
“Two of them,” Eloise murmured. “How can I help?”
“We need to find the baby,” Brody said. “That’s priority one, but we might have to find Tarrant to get to him.”
Remi heard the woman sigh. “I don’t know where he is. If I did, he wouldn’t be breathing. I swear that on my son’s grave.” Another pause. “But I have files and such, like Christina. You can come to my house and get them.”
Brody groaned, and Remi knew why. More files meant more time poring through them, and there might be nothing in them that would help them find Tarrant. What they needed was a fresh lead.
“Yes, I’d like those files,” Brody said. “We’ll come straight over and get them. But we need more. Who could be helping Tarrant? Because he likely didn’t put all of this together himself.”
“Agreed,” Eloise said, and Christina echoed the same. “Which means you’ll have to talk to Dr. Langley.”
The silence on the line stretched just long enough to feel heavy before Eloise spoke again, her voice tighter now, like she was wrestling with more than fear.
“But whatever Langley says to you, don’t believe it,” Eloise warned them. “The man is a liar, I’m sure of it.”
“Do you have any proof that he’s helping or has helped Tarrant?” Brody pressed.
“None,” she admitted. Eloise muttered something Remi didn’t catch. “I’ve had him under surveillance for months. Thought he’d lead me to Tarrant eventually. But he hasn’t. He’s working late at his clinic right now if you want to catch him,” Eloise added. “You’ll stop there before you come see me.”
Brody didn’t hesitate. “We will.”
Eloise didn’t say goodbye. The line went dead, leaving an awkward silence in the room. Christina rolled her eyes, sliding her phone back into her pocket with an exaggerated sigh.
“She’s never been big on saying hello or goodbye,” Christina muttered, shaking her head. “Honestly, I think she’s having some kind of meltdown. In addition to all the added security, she’s been taking self-defense classes and firearms training. It’s as if she’s preparing for a war.”
Remi didn’t respond right away. Maybe Eloise was dealing with a possible meltdown after losing her son and living in fear of Tarrant. But something about the way Christina said it felt…defensive. As if she’d wanted them to think the worst about Eloise.
Brody’s voice cut through her thoughts. “We’re heading to the clinic,” he said to Christina. “But before we go, do you know if there was anyone at the fertility clinic who could’ve helped steal my wife’s embryos?”
Christina’s expression didn’t flicker, but there was a slight pause. Just long enough for Remi to catch it.
“I’ve thoroughly researched the fertility clinic staff,” she said, her voice smooth but with maybe something simmering underneath.
“But there’s no proof pointing to who might have helped with the embryo theft.
” She stopped, her gaze flicking between Brody and Remi, then added, “Which points back to Langley. He could have done it all himself. He had access, authority, and no one to answer to.”
Without waiting for a response, Christina moved to a sleek cabinet and pulled out another thick file, heavier than the last. She handed it to Brody.
“You can keep this,” she offered. “I’ll print another copy for myself if I need it. It contains names, PI reports on all the staff and even some of the clients who used the clinic around the time Grace’s embryo was stolen. I even had checks done on the visitors.”
Brody flipped the file open, scanning the first few pages. His posture was rigid, his jaw clenched, but he didn’t say a word.
“There’s a report on your mother in there,” Christina said, as if it were an insignificant afterthought.
Brody’s head snapped up, his eyes narrowing. “What?”
Christina’s expression didn’t change, as if she’d expected the reaction. “You didn’t know your mother went to the clinic two years ago?”
His knuckles whitened around the edge of the file. “No,” he said flatly. He looked at Remi, silently questioning if she knew.
Remi couldn’t shake her head fast enough. “I had no idea. Why would Sandra have gone there?”
A muscle flickered in Brody’s jaw. “I don’t know, but I’m about to find out.”