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“The next day,” Carolyn said. “By then the power was back on and things seemed to be closer to normal. I got to spend most of the day with her. That’s when I first noticed that birthmark on her leg. That means the switch had already taken place, doesn’t it?”
It did. Harley knew exactly which birthmark she was referring to, although he wouldn’t say as much to her parents. It was crescent shaped and high on Jade’s upper thigh. He’d kissed it a dozen times in his youth. “It sounds like it.”
Carolyn started crying in earnest and Arthur comforted her. The conversation continued on for another half hour or so, but Harley had already gotten what he needed. The switch had happened early, during the storm itself. That at least narrowed the window in terms of hospital staff and visitors with access to the babies.
Harley knew he should be focused on the parents as they continued, but he had a hard time not watching Jade’s expression as they spoke about that day. About the birth of the child that wasn’t her. Speaking about the arrival of the baby they adored, but didn’t come home with. It was hard for her to hear, he could tell. It was hard for them, too, but it was her pained face that drew his gaze.
He hated seeing her like this. Harley was no knight in shining armor come to save Jade; he knew that much. But perhaps he could set this situation to rights for her. He’d done his research on
her since their interview and had found himself at a loss as he stared at his computer screen. She had been sold false goods with Lance and now she was paying for it. Finding out her ex was serving time was surprising to Harley, so he knew it had to have blindsided Jade. She’d put all her faith in him, and Lance had destroyed their future together.
Harley supposed that another man in his shoes might think it was her karmic retribution for spurning him all those years ago. But he had loved Jade too much to ever wish ill on her back then. He’d just wanted her to be happy. And now, he wanted to help. Not by sweeping her off her feet, as much as the idea of carrying her off to bed appealed to him.
No, all he could do was find the truth for Jade and hope that she could be happy at last, knowing where she really belonged.
* * *
Jade walked Harley to his car when the interview was over. It was dark now, with the winter evenings still coming early. She was looking forward to spring, with warmer temperatures and maybe the chance to work in the garden. To get to that, though, she first had to make it through this investigation with Harley.
“I hope my parents were helpful,” she said, as they reached his car.
“They were. As helpful as they could be considering they weren’t involved. If nothing else, I was able to narrow the timeline down. You were switched almost immediately after you were born. Probably during the worst of the storm, when everything was at its most frantic. It was a crime of opportunity, in my opinion.”
“A crime? As in someone actually did it on purpose?” Jade had lain in bed for several nights wondering how any of this could’ve happened, but she’d rarely considered it might be deliberate. “I could see if it was a mistake in the chaos, but you really think someone did it on purpose?”
“I do.” Harley crossed his muscled forearms over his chest and leaned back against his shiny sports car. It was so sleek and low to the ground she wondered how he even got in and out of the thing.
“To what end? What did it get them? I can’t see how anyone would benefit from it.”
“That I don’t know yet. I’ll find out one way or another. But in my gut, I know it was done intentionally. They may not have known in advance which babies and when, but they saw their chance during the storm and took it.”
They. He kept saying that with an intense expression on his face that both frightened and thrilled her. Who was he talking about? Jade had a hard time imagining what kind of person would do something like that. Then again, people were surprising her a lot lately. That reminded her... She reached into her pocket and pulled out a note she’d received the day before.
“Harley, before you go, I want you to take a look at this. It came in the mail yesterday. I thought it might factor into your investigation.”
Harley took the letter from her and unfolded it carefully. His gaze went over the text again and again, with his expression darkening more each time. His jaw was clenched tight in anger when he finally looked up at her.
“Why didn’t you mention this sooner?”
Jade stiffened as his wave of rage was aimed in her direction. She wasn’t expecting that. Was he really upset with her? She took a step back on reflex. “I wanted you to speak with my parents first. They don’t know about the letter and I don’t want them to know.”
Her parents were dealing with enough right now without knowing that Jade had received a threatening letter from some anonymous whack job. And to be honest, she wasn’t too concerned. She’d just appeared on television. Any weirdo sitting at home watching the news could’ve written her that letter.
“Do you have any idea who would’ve sent this to you?”
Jade shook her head. The handwritten text was fairly straightforward—let it go or else. That could be from anyone. “I thought maybe someone from the hospital wanted me to back off. They were basically shamed into cooperating when I went public with my story. I’m sure there’s someone there who wishes I would just go away. Or someone that saw me on TV. I wasn’t taking it too seriously.”
Harley narrowed his gaze at her. “You need to take it seriously, Jade. If nothing else, because whoever sent this knows your home address. That’s a problem. Are you listed in the phone book or online?”
Jade’s spine straightened at that thought. She’d been so preoccupied with other things that she hadn’t thought about that aspect of it. A chill ran through her and she snuggled farther into her favorite sweater. She wished she’d brought a coat out here with her, but she hadn’t anticipated a long conversation. “No. It’s a rental so you’d think there wouldn’t be anything associating my name with the house, but I suppose you can find anything on the internet for a price.”
That made the corners of Harley’s full mouth turn down into a frown. It made her want to reach out and rub her thumb across his bottom lip the way she had before. The dark, angry storm in his eyes, however, kept her arms firmly crossed over her chest where they belonged.
“Do you have the envelope it came in?” he asked.
She nodded and pulled it out of her pocket. “Here. What are you going to do with it?”
Harley reached into the breast pocket of his coat and pulled out a plastic specimen bag. He put both the letter and the envelope inside and sealed it up. “I’m going to send it to my lab along with the DNA swabs I took of you and your parents. I’ll see if they can pull some prints or DNA off of it. I might need to get prints from you later so we can exclude yours.”
