Page 14 of Claimed by Him

Eight

I neededto talk to Clay about where things between us stood, but it slipped to the back of my mind the next day as I took a trip to the Department of Child and Family Services. As a PI, I didn’t have access to the sorts of warrants that I needed to get official information, but being a PI also meant that I didn’t need to worry about making things follow the chain of evidence or be available for trial or anything like that. I needed leads, ideas, guidance. A paper trail would be nice, but it wasn’t necessary.

Jenna nodded when I explained all of that to her, though I was sure she already knew it. She’d dealt enough with the legal system to understand the difference between what was true and what was legally usable.

“Did you do some breaking and entering?” She was smiling like it was all some joke, but I could see the flutter of anxiety in her eyes.

She was masking, and we both knew it, but I wasn’t going to call her on it. I did my fair share of deflection and hiding, and knowing what little I did about her past, I didn’t blame her a bit.

“I did not,” I said with a smile. “But I did bring expensive coffee and donuts, which made a few people quite chatty. I can be charming when I want to be.”

“I’m sure you can.” She didn’t look like she believed it for a moment. “Did it work, the donuts and coffee?”

“It did.” I lifted a shoulder. “To some extent anyway.”

“To some extent?”

I opened my notebook so I didn’t get anything wrong and began with what I’d learned today.

“The woman known as Marcy Wakefield was what one caseworker called a ‘frequent flyer.’ Apparently, she liked telling people how she ‘helped’ couples who couldn’t have kids, but any time they tried to get information from her about where those couples were, she blew them off.”

“She told them she helped–” Jenna shut her mouth, pressing her lips together in a flat line. She gestured for me to go on.

“Are you sure you want to hear this?” I asked.

She nodded, her expression tight.

I continued, “Because they couldn’t ever find anything under Marcy Wakefield, some of them thought she was lying to get attention, but a few others thought that she’d had kids under a different name. With this identity, she voluntarily gave up three children. One girl and twin boys. No one remembered exact ages, but their best guess was that the boys should be around ten or so. They don’t have any record of a stillborn, but that wouldn’t be something they’d keep track of anyway.”

“Why was she allowed to keep having kids?” Jenna shoved back from the table. As she paced, she kept talking, but I got the impression that she wasn’t actually talking to me, but to herself. “I get the point of her body, her choice, but where’s the line? When does it become about the kids’ lives?” She looked at me, her pale eyes glittering with angry tears. “She had so many kids before she had me. It was all about protecting her rights, but what about mine? Who was looking out for me?”

I wasn’t much of a hugger, and offering comfort wasn’t one of my strengths, but I’d known enough injustice in my life to understand at least a fraction of what she was feeling right now. I stood and went over to her. I didn’t feel comfortable hugging her – and I got the impression that she wouldn’t have accepted a hug anyway – but I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. The fact that she let me hold it told me that she’d needed it more than she wanted to admit.

She closed her eyes and inhaled slowly, held it, then let out the air just as slowly. I waited in silence as she did it a half-dozen times and then opened her eyes.

“Sorry about that,” she said, releasing my hand. “I thought I’d prepared myself for all the shit this was going to stir up, but I’d only been focusing on my anger at her. I didn’t consider how angry I’d be at the system for letting it happen.”

I knew some people might’ve argued that the system hadn’t let it happen since it had intervened after obtaining the needed evidence, but I got what she meant. There was no such thing as a perfect justice system, and sometimes, it failed epically. Protecting the rights of individuals was important, but in this case, protecting one woman’s rights had given her a victim to abuse for thirteen years.

“We don’t have to keep going,” I said. “I can do some more work and pick up from here the next time. Give you a chance to prepare.”

She shook her head. “No, I want to know everything you have. I won’t say I’m okay, but I can handle it.”

“All right.”

We went back to our seats, and I found my place in my notes again.

“Theresa, the social worker who gave me the most information, hadn’t actually worked on either of the cases. Her mentor, however, had dealt with the first case, so when the twins came in, the mentor had handled that case too, then debriefed with Theresa.”

I’d actually been surprised at how willing to share Theresa had been, but I’d gotten the impression that more than a decade of dealing with some truly awful people had left her cynical and jaded. I knew not everyone who had Child Services involved in their lives was a criminal or abuser, but I was sure the negatives far outweighed the positives in this particular job.

“Obviously, she couldn’t give me names, but she did say that the girl had been born when your moth…” I mentally cursed myself. “When Marcy / Helen… shit, how do people with multiple aliases deal with different names all the time?”

“Go ahead and call her Helen,” Jenna said. “Or Marcy. It doesn’t matter which name you use.”

I nodded, understanding what Jenna wasn’t saying. The name didn’t matter, but she didn’t want me referring to Helen as her mother. Not right now anyway. I couldn’t blame her for that. I knew what it was like to not want to claim blood relations.

“Helen was pregnant when she was arrested in Florida. Part of her witness protection deal was that she would sign the baby over to the state to be adopted. The Marshal service told her that it would be easier for her to settle into her new life that way, but that if no one adopted the baby in a year, they could talk about returning the child to her. Only a few days after she was born, the couple who’d taken her as a foster child applied to adopt her.”

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