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I pulled up outside of her house. It was dark inside and out, not a single light on. No car in the driveway either, but it could be in the garage. No sign of a police presence. I hopped from my car and went straight for the front door. I tried knocking, but it was quiet inside. There was a window on the side of the house and I walked over to it to see if I could make out anything inside. It was pitch black, but as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could see some sort of mess in the living room, as if someone had thrown a bunch of shit around. Books were all over the floor instead of in the bookcase, papers littered the coffee table and floor. It looked like someone had been looking for something.
I walked around the house to the back and found a window that was left partially open. Looking inside, it was a bedroom and I could see most of the house I couldn’t see before from that angle. Still no movement.
Clothes were all over the bed, thrown around like the books and papers in the other room. To me, it looked like someone had quickly packed up and left. My heart raced as I thought about the reasons for that.
With the help of a pocketknife, I managed to rip out the screen and push the window the rest of the way open. Thankfully it was large enough for me to fit through. Climbing inside the bedroom, I worried that if there were someone in the house they would hear me, but to my relief no one came running into the room.
The place was clearly empty.
I glanced in the closet as I walked past, noticing it had been cleared out. Another suitcase sat nearby. After checking it out, I noticed the zipper was broken, which was probably why it had been left behind. More reason to believe she fled. But where would she go? Bella was right, she could quickly form a new identity and literally be anywhere. I needed some sort of a clue, anything.
I made my way into the living room and glanced around. I dug through the papers, which consisted of birth certificates, social security cards, and passports with various names on all of them. None of it was helpful to me in that moment though.
I walked into another room and found a little office. An older model computer sat on a desk against the wall. When I moved the mouse, the screen lit up; it appeared to have only been asleep and not fully shut down.
Sitting down at the desk, I got to work. I checked her history, thinking any pro would clear that out, but Mary Stone was no pro—I found that the last site visited was for Southwest Airlines. When I clicked on the link, it logged me in automatically.
She had bought only one ticket, which surprised me, to Los Angeles. The flight was scheduled to depart in two and a half hours, out of St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
I was up from the chair and out the door as fast as possible.
I had to get to Lambert before she boarded that plane.
29
Bella
“We’re all done here, miss,” one of the officers said to me. “Everyone can leave and go home, but please be prepared for more questioning, and don’t leave the state.”
“Wait!” I grabbed her arm before she could leave. “What did you find out? Do you know where my babies are?”
“We don’t—”
“Have you talked to my mom, like I asked you to?”
The woman, Officer Michaelson according to her nametag, pursed her lips and looked uncomfortable.
“Please, tell me something, these are my children.”
“Your mother isn’t a suspect at this time. That’s all I can tell you, I’m sorry.”
“Why isn’t she a suspect? Did you even talk to her?” I wasn’t going to let go of the officer’s arm before she answered me.
“She is not considered a suspect, as we believe this was a job clearly done by professionals.”
“My mom is a professional. She kidnapped me when I was very little.”
The woman pulled her arm free from me with an exasperated sigh. “I promise you that we are doing everything in our power to find your daughters.”
“Everything? Really? Besides talking to a woman who is a known kidnapper who threatened to steal a baby only twenty-four hours before my babies went missing?” Tears welled up in my eyes; tears of anger, of frustration, of not being taken seriously.
“Again, I am very sorry, but we’re doing everything we can.”
She turned on her heels to leave, and if it wasn’t for Ava who took my arm and forced me to stay put, I might have followed the officer out, demanding answers that I knew she wouldn’t give me.
I let out a scream of frustration, and then I remembered Gabe was still out there looking for my mother. We were free to go now, I could help. I reached for my phone and dialed his number.
He answered. “Sorry, I’m driving, you’re on speakerphone.”
