Chapter Fifty
Midge’s investigation continues to unfold, as so many do, with placing phone calls, leaving voice messages, and searching the internet for additional information while waiting to hear back.
Where the Stantons are concerned, she’s aware that might not happen, but she left a message anyway.
As Ann mentioned, there are no accessible records about Junia’s adoption, which isn’t necessarily a red flag. Checking into the parents’ backgrounds, she finds basic biographical information.
Brian was born and raised in Elizabethville, majored in business at SUNY Albany, and is a financial planner. Astrid is from Utica and went to college in Ohio and became a nurse. Early in her career, she worked for an infertility center in Albany.
Was it for personal reasons? Was she infertile?
According to their wedding announcement, they were married in 2003 at a church in Phoenicia with pastor Mason Bauer officiating.
Searching for church records from that time, Midge finds an account of a purity ball in 2005.
It’s accompanied by photos of a beaming Bauer and teenage girls in white dresses.
She scans their faces for signs of distress, but most appear serene, and a few are even beaming like brides.
She’s about to click on to the next photo when a face jumps out at her.
Junia Stanton!
No—according to the caption, her name is Hannah Fletcher.
But she bears an uncanny resemblance to Junia.
Midge googles her.
Hannah Fletcher was sixteen at the purity ball.
She appears to have been a wholesome young woman, active in her church and with school extracurriculars, including the National Honor Society.
She began her senior year as student council president in the fall of 2005.
But there’s no mention of her graduating with her high school class the following June.
June 2006 . . .
Which is when Junia Stanton was born.
Was Hannah Fletcher her birth mother?
It takes some digging, but Midge picks up her trail in Ohio.
Ohio, where Astrid Stanton went to college.
Hannah earned her GED and went to Ohio State, graduating in 2010. She now lives in Akron, is married with children, and works as a dental hygienist. Her contact information isn’t hard to find.
Midge places a call to her cell phone.
A pleasant-sounding female voice answers with a cheerful, “Hello?”
“Hannah?”
“Yes?”
“This is Detective Sergeant Imogene Kennedy with the Mulberry Bay Police Department.”
“Mulberry Bay?”
“In New York state. Ulster County.”
Silence on the other end of the line.
“I’m looking into a Mason Bauer who was the pastor of a church you attended.”
Silence.
“I’m wondering if you remember him?”
Her tone is flat. “Sorry, I don’t.”
Midge doesn’t believe her.
“There may be a connection between Bauer and a missing persons case we’re investigating out of Elizabethville. A teenage girl named Junia Stanton?”
Midge hears a gasp, barely audible, but Hannah doesn’t say a word.
“Do you know her, by chance? Or her parents, Astrid and Brian?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Sorry, but I haven’t lived in Ulster County since I was a kid. I left in 2006.”
“Why did you leave?”
“Excuse me?”
Midge repeats the question.
The woman lowers her voice, as if not wanting to be overheard on her end.
“Look, I have no idea why you’re asking me about these people, or even if you’re an actual cop, but this is ancient history, okay?
I’m just living my life. I haven’t done anything wrong.
And if you think I have, then you’ll have to subpoena me. ”
She hangs up.
She didn’t directly answer Midge’s question, but she didn’t need to.
Midge pulls up a photo of Hannah as a teenager, alongside a photo of Junia at the same age. They could be the same person.
And when she adds a headshot of Mason Bauer, there’s a strong resemblance to Junia as well.
Did he get Hannah pregnant? Was she sent away to have her baby? Did the Stantons know about that in advance and arrange to adopt her?
She’s pondering those questions when Nap calls.
“Hey, Midge. Thanks for getting back to me.”
“Allie said you stopped in.”
“Yeah, I was in the neighborhood. I got coffee at Center Street Grind because Linden mentioned they have a good chicory blend.”
“Ah. Is it ‘so underrated’? Or maybe it’s even epic?” she asks, channeling both Linden and Hayley.
He chuckles. “It’s totally overrated, and in my book, only Café Du Monde is epic. Well, that, and your basketball skills.”
“Right. Just call me Caitlin Clark.”
“So, Midge, what I wanted to tell you was that I got the DNA report,” he says, getting back to business. “Want to come over here and take a look?”
The medical examiner’s office is over in Kingston. Only a few miles away, but with traffic, it could take a lot longer than it should. Weighing the wisdom of dropping what she’s working on to make the trip, she asks, “Do you expect it to give us a positive ID?”
“On the Walking Man?”
“I meant on the skeletal remains, but . . . is this about the Walking Man, then?”
“No. It’s for Gordon Klatte, and there’s something pretty . . . unexpected.”
She pushes back her chair and grabs her keys. “I’m on my way.”