Chapter Sixty-Two
Midge reclaims her belongings—weapon, radio, phone—at the security checkpoint and powers her phone back on as she heads for the exit. Beyond the glass doors, she can see that the sunny day has given way to dreary rain that matches her mood.
She imagines Mary Beth in her orange jumpsuit and handcuffs, being led back to her cell, resigned to facing charges for crimes she didn’t commit.
Caroline’s daughter . . . a murderer?
It doesn’t make sense, but as Nap says, science doesn’t lie.
So.
Caroline’s daughter . . . a murderer.
The motive tracks. If Mary Beth believed Gordy was responsible for getting Caroline pregnant and destroying her life, her daughter must have believed the same.
If she knew the truth, she’d have gone after Mason Bauer.
But why would she go after Sarah Greene?
Occam’s razor, Midge. The simplest explanation is the best.
The problem: There is no simple explanation.
Phone in hand, she hurries through the rain to her car. It isn’t far, but she’s drenched in the process.
She takes off her cap and turns the air on full blast with the vents aimed directly at her, hoping to dry off while she checks messages and emails.
There are no new leads on Sarah Greene.
The Stantons haven’t gotten back to her yet. She didn’t expect them to.
There’s a text from Nap. Hope you’re hanging in there.
She responds by putting a thumbs-up on it. He’s sweet, but he can’t possibly understand what all of this means.
Talia and Kelly will, but she isn’t about to barge into their beach day with a bombshell.
Switching to her iPad, about to look into the Golden Bridge Maternity Home, she sees that Kelly has forwarded another report from Toby with an attachment labeled Bauer Family.
Now there’s a loaded caption, Midge thinks as she downloads the attachment.
She opens the document and starts reading.
Mason Bauer’s elderly mother lives in a nursing home in his small hometown outside Montgomery. His wife is in El Paso. His adult children are scattered from Texas to Alabama, all married with large families.
She flicks through the photos, scanning their smiling faces, looking for—and finding—a resemblance to Junia Stanton in several of them.
Junia disappeared while trying to trace her birth family.
Sienna Harmon disappeared and turned up dead.
Sarah Greene is missing.
Caroline’s daughter killed a man.
Four young women whose lives intersect on one point:
Mason Bauer.
Scrolling on through his family photos, Midge stops short.
What the . . . ?
She leans in and touches the iPad screen to enlarge the photo captioned Mason Bauer Junior.
He’s the same man she met yesterday at Congregational.