The Puppy Project, page 10
part #9 of Tess and Tilly Cozy Mystery Series
“So, are you going to continue to look for Gretchen and Heidi?” I asked Tony as we drove toward a restaurant for lunch.
“I’m not sure. On the one hand, now that I know the emails are not from your dad, I’m hesitant to do anything that might put these women in danger. On the other hand, I really would like to get the rest of the story.”
“Maybe we can figure out a way to contact my dad,” I suggested. “If we could talk to him, really talk to him, we might be able to warn him that someone is looking for these women.”
Tony turned on his turn signal to enter the parking lot of the diner we’d decided on. “I guess that is the safest bet at this point. When we get home tomorrow, we can talk to Mike about this. Maybe we can all work together to come up with a plan that will keep everyone off Henderson’s radar.”
“If you stop communicating with the individual you’ve been emailing, he’s going to know that we know he isn’t Dad. Doing that might not be the best idea. Maybe we can string him along with misleading information that will allow him to believe you’re still looking for these women and will pass along whatever you find even if you have no intention of doing that.”
Tony pulled into a parking spot. “I guess that might be a good idea. The email will have to provide some information, but not enough that he can check it out and realize the information is false. We’ll need to carefully consider what to tell him.”
“Let’s eat and then head back to the lodge. We can have a strategy session where we won’t be overheard. I’ll call Mike and fill him in.”
“Should we try to find out what happened to Linnea’s baby?” I asked. “It might be difficult to track her down at this point, but we do have a few data points to start our search.”
Tony licked his lips. “I’m not sure. I guess I am interested in the fate of the child, but if someone is watching, I don’t want to lead him or her to the child, who, at this point, would be a woman if she’s alive.”
“Perhaps if we’re careful, we can reassure Linnea that her daughter survived and grew up to live a happy and meaningful life.” At least I hoped that was the case. The reality was that I really had no idea what we’d find.
“Let’s head in and grab a bite. I’ll bring my laptop, and we can see if we can find the clinic.”
After a lot of searching, Tony was able to find a small rural clinic that had operated in the seventies and eighties but had been closed in nineteen ninety-two after the doctor who ran the clinic, Emily White, passed away. Tony was able to confirm that Emily had been the only doctor in the area, and found mention of a young nurse named Isabella.
“It appears Isabella was in her early twenties when she went to work for the clinic in the mid-nineteen seventies. I guess she’d be in her late sixties at this point, but she might remember your father and the pregnant woman he left with them. It’s a long shot, but maybe she’s still living in the area. I guess we can take a drive up to the small farming community where the clinic once stood and ask around a bit.”
“How far is it?” I asked.
“Not far. Maybe fifteen or twenty miles.”
“Okay,” I decided. “Let’s finish eating and check it out.”
The area where the clinic had been located was rural, consisting mainly of farmland. It took a bit of finagling, but eventually, Tony was able to figure out exactly where the clinic had once been located. As it turned out, the building that had once been the clinic was now a bar. We decided to go in and ask whoever was inside if they knew Isabella or where we might find her.
“Yeah, I know Isabella,” the woman behind the bar answered Tony’s query. “She’s no longer practicing medicine, however, if that’s what you’re after.”
“So Isabella continued to work as a nurse even after Doctor Emily passed?” I asked.
“No. Isabella went back to school and got her medical degree. She served the folks in this community until a few years ago when she began having back problems and decided it was time to hang up her white coat.”
“We’d actually just like to speak to her,” Tony said. “Do you have an address or phone number where we could reach her?”
“I don’t find I’m inclined to give that out, but if you give me a minute, I’ll call her myself. Why did you say you wanted to speak to her?”
“Emily delivered a baby back in nineteen seventy-eight as a favor to my father,” I said. “We’re hoping Isabella remembers something about that.”
She nodded. “There’s a bench out front. It’s a nice day, so maybe you can wait there while I make my call.”
Tony and I agreed and headed outside. The bar was set off the highway and surrounded by a dirt lot. Not exactly a scenic setting, but I supposed we weren’t here for the scenery. It was early for a bar crowd, so the dirt lot was empty except for a red Honda that I assumed belonged to the bartender, and the car Tony had rented for our use while we were in the area.
After five minutes or so, the woman we’d spoken to came out onto the small patio where we were waiting. “Isabelle is willing to speak to you. She prefers to come here to chat with you rather than having you go to her. She should be here within fifteen minutes.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Tony and I chatted about everything and nothing while we waited. When a small blue car pulled into the lot, we assumed it was Isabelle. After we introduced ourselves, Tony quickly filled her in on our mission, sticking only to the points that were absolutely necessary to share.
“The woman who gave up the baby has hired us to find her,” Tony stretched the truth. Okay, he lied. “We hoped you might be able to tell us who handled the adoption.”
“I don’t remember a woman coming in to deliver a child, but Emily may not have called me in. I can’t say for certain who would have handled the adoption, but I would suspect that it was someone from the church who came to fetch the baby.”
“The church?” I asked.
She nodded. “Sister Margaret had a soft spot for children in need. She ran a home on land that was donated to the church. The children she took in were eventually adopted into permanent families, but Sister Margaret was the one to save the little ones during their time of greatest need.”
“Is Sister Margaret still in the area?” I asked.
She nodded. “You can find her at the Lambs of God Children’s Home. I’ll give you the address.”
The children’s home was located southeast of our current location, so we thanked Isabelle and headed in that direction. When we arrived at the home, we asked to speak to Sister Margaret. Based on her outer appearance, I guessed she was well into her seventies or early eighties. Tony explained what we were after.
“I remember the baby you speak of,” Sister Margaret said. “Tiny little thing. It was a shame to take her from her mama, but the man who set up the adoption explained that getting the baby away from the mother was important in order to guarantee her safety. I had my doubts about the whole thing, but I wanted to do what was best for the child, so I made the arrangements as he asked.”
“Do you know who adopted the child?” I said.
She nodded. “A nice young couple who was oh so happy to have her.”
“I don’t suppose you’ve kept track of the baby?” I asked.
“No. The couple was from Wyoming. They left once the baby was delivered to them. I never saw them again.”
“Do you remember their names?” I asked.
“Templeton. Joshua and Reba Templeton. They lived on a ranch near Casper.”
We thanked Sister Margaret and then headed back toward the lodge. After we arrived, we settled into our room to discuss our options. Every fiber of my being wanted to track down the couple who’d adopted Linnea’s baby to get the rest of the story, but Tony was right in the fact that the last thing we wanted to do was to put these women or their babies in danger.
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to look up Joshua and Reba Templeton and see if they still live in the area,” Tony said. “Sister Margaret said they lived on a ranch near Casper. More often than not, ranches stay in families, so it’s likely they’re still in the area.”
“Do you think anyone has a trace on your computer?” I asked.
“I doubt it, but if we want to be safe, we’ll simply buy a new phone and use it to do the search.”
As it turned out, Joshua and Reba still lived in Wyoming. They’d adopted three children between nineteen seventy-two and nineteen seventy-eight, including Cheyenne Templeton in nineteen seventy-eight. I wasn’t sure what we should do with that information now that we had it, but Tony suggested we sit on it for now, and I agreed. It seemed the first thing we needed to do was to figure out who had sent that first email to Tony.
“I suppose trying to get a message to Dad isn’t a horrible idea,” I said after I’d had a chance to think about it a bit. “Although every time we try to do that, we end up putting him and us in danger. Maybe you should just email the person who contacted you and let them know you tried, but can’t find any of the women on his list.”
“If we do that, he’ll just find another way to track them down. If we really want to protect them, then we need to figure out who is behind the emails so they can be dealt with. We assume it’s Henderson or someone who works for Henderson, but we don’t actually know that.”
I supposed Tony had a point. If someone was looking for these women, we really couldn’t just walk away until we made sure they were safe.
“Okay, so how do we let Dad know what’s going on without risking a tip-off to the people who are watching him?” I asked.
Tony frowned. “I’m not sure. It seems like your dad is watching us, and Betty told us that he’s watching her, so he may already know what’s going on. Maybe we just need to provide a safe platform for him to contact us.”
“Okay, so how do we do that?”
“Your dad seems to only use an email address once before abandoning it, so trying to reach him using past correspondence won’t work, but maybe if we simply put out feelers for him, he’ll contact us.”
“I thought you said looking for him would put him in danger.”
“It will, but I don’t have a better idea. I’ll be careful to mask the source of the email, and I’ll be careful about content as well. We need to put a message out there that will let him know we need to speak to him without actually saying that. Something he will understand, but no one else will.”
“I don’t know,” I frowned. “An email of any sort seems risky. Maybe we should think about this a bit before we do anything.”
“Agreed.”
Tony and I bounced a few ideas around for a while, but in the end, we decided to call Mike and set up a time to get together the following day. We’d be home by early afternoon, so we arranged for Mike and Bree to come over for an early dinner tomorrow, at which time we would work together to come up with a plan.
“I made a dinner reservation for eight o’clock,” Tony said after I’d spoken to Mike. “They have indoor and outdoor seating. There are heaters on the patio if you think you want to try the outdoor option, although the interior of the place is very nice as well.”
“I think eating outdoors sounds lovely, and with the heaters, the temperature should be fine, but I do think I’ll wear the slacks and sweater I brought.”
“The patio overlooks the lake, which should make for a wonderful place to watch the sunset. In the meantime, how about a walk?”
“A walk sounds wonderful. I could use some fresh air, and I have to admit that the stress of this whole thing with my dad is making me antsy. Part of me wishes we could just go back to a time before we found that first photo that caused us to look for Dad in the first place. Life was simpler back then. But another part of me wants answers. Actually, a part of me needs answers. I just hope I can get those answers without any more deaths.”
Chapter 13
Sunday, May 17
I couldn’t help but smile when we were greeted with another beautiful spring day. Tony and I were supposed to be at the airport at eleven, but it was early, so we decided to have a quick breakfast on the go and fit in a hike. Logan was a beautiful town, surrounded by beautiful landscapes, so our options were numerous, but in the end, we decided to take a stroll along the Tony Grove Nature Trail, an easy stroll featuring a lake and gorgeous wildflowers.
I had to admit that in spite of the beauty surrounding us, I was having a hard time relaxing. The situation with the women my dad rescued was weighing heavy on my mind. The last thing I wanted to do was to put anyone in danger, assuming, of course, that they weren’t already in danger, which given the situation, wasn’t a certainty.
“What time are Mike and Bree coming over?” Tony asked.
“Four. I figured we’d have an early dinner out on the deck and then talk about how we should proceed. As I suspected he would be, Mike is even more concerned about the emails now that Betty has told us they are unlikely to be from my father.” I paused to smell a beautiful pink flower. “Do you think everything Betty told us was the truth?”
“I don’t see what she’d have to gain by lying.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right. I’m just suspicious of everyone. I really feel like it’s impossible to trust anyone when no one seems to be who they appear to be. It was only a few months ago that I honestly believed that my father might have killed the detective Star hired to find her birth parents. Of course, since that point, he’s saved your life, so I guess I trust him now.”
Tony glanced at his watch. “As beautiful as this is, I guess we should head back. I’d hate to be late for our flight.” He took my hand in his and began to walk. “I do understand what you’re saying. Things are confusing and complicated, and it is hard to know who to trust and who to avoid. At this point, I suggest we just continue doing what we’ve been doing, moving slowly one step at a time to ensure the anonymity that seems to be key in this case.”
During the flight home, I tried to nap but ended up going over everything in my mind again and again. I’m not sure why I’d suspected that my dad hadn’t died after being told that he’d perished in a fiery inferno. I supposed the fact that there hadn’t been a body to recover might have accounted for part of my disbelief. Then there was the fact that my thirteen-year-old mind was simply unable to process the death of a man who was gone from my life more often than he was home yet still seemed to pop in whenever we needed him the most. This investigation had shown me that there were so many things about both my parents I would never have suspected. There was the fact that my mother had a secret lover before meeting my dad and that he physically resembled the man my mom would eventually marry. Then there was the fact that my father didn’t seem to exist before meeting my mother. I had some of my answers now, but the more I learned, the more certain I was that what had been discovered was only the tip of the iceberg.
“We’re approaching the airport, so you should buckle up,” Tony said, interrupting my daydream.
I smiled at him and snapped on my seatbelt. “Do we have everything we need to make dinner, or should we stop by the market on the way out to the lake?”
“I could use some fresh greens, and I think we’re low on the IPA Mike prefers. I don’t have any meat defrosted, so we should pick something up. Maybe some tri-tip.”
“Sounds good. Let’s see if the store has corn on the cob. We can grill a few ears to have with the meat and salad. And maybe a fresh fruit cobbler for dessert.”
Tony chucked. “You must be hungry.”
“Starving. Our breakfast was small, and we didn’t have lunch.”
The dogs and cats were crazy happy to see us, so once we thanked Shaggy and Shanti for pet sitting and sent them on their way, I took the dogs out for a quick walk around the lake while Tony made the cobbler and diced the veggies for the salad. I had to admit I kind of loved the fact that my man liked to cook. I’d never been much of a cook and mostly subsisted on frozen dinner’s pre-Tony, but now that we were living together, I had wonderful home-cooked meals to look forward to on a regular basis. Of course, once I changed jobs and didn’t spend five days a week walking up and down Main while delivering the mail, I was going to have to watch my calories, or I was going to end up twice my normal size before the year was out.
After the dogs and I returned from what turned out to be a muddy excursion, I gave them food and water and then headed upstairs to shower and change while Tony put the finishing touches on our meal. By the time I made it back downstairs, Mike and Bree had arrived. Tony had the meat on the grill, and both he and Mike were sipping on a beer. Bree chose bottled water. She looked pale, and I wondered if her stomach was still feeling rumbly.
“Tony’s been telling me about your trip to Logan,” Mike said. “It’s amazing that he was able to track this woman down, but concerning as well. I figure if he could find her, then someone else with the skillset Tony has will be able to as well.”
“I agree with Mike,” Tony said. “Linnea really wasn’t all that hard to find. She wasn’t easy to find, but anyone with really good facial recognition software, who was motivated to track her down, would most likely come up with the same photos I did.”
“So, what do we do now?” I asked as I opened a beer and poured it into a glass. “We warned Linnea that someone was looking for her, but I wonder if we should do more. I’m not sure what more would look like, but I’ll feel awful if someone finds her, especially if they manage to piggyback on Tony’s investigation to do so.”
“Tony and I have been discussing a way to get a message to Dad without making it obvious to anyone who might be watching that the message is for him. I had the idea to put an ad in the paper.” Mike suggested.
“An ad in the paper?” I asked. “What are you going to say? Grant Thomas, call home.”
