Page 18 of The Sheriff's Baby

Joelle’s mind followed that through. If Kate was, indeed, guilty of everything that Hamlin was saying, she might want to set up her son to take the blame. But certainly, there’d be someone else, someone not in the woman’s gene pool, to try to frame.

“Read the files,” Hamlin said after another huff. “You’ll see the connections, and you’ll see that Kate is guilty.”

Duncan made a sound that could have meant anything. He certainly didn’t jump on the “Kate did this” bandwagon.

“I’ll definitely read through all of this,” Duncan assured him, “and I’ll want to talk to the two women who gave you their statements about selling their babies to Kate.”

Duncan stood, signaling an end to the meeting, and Hamlin clearly didn’t approve of what he obviously thought was a brush-off.

“Kate did this,” Hamlin snarled. His gaze fired to Joelle. “Arrest her if you want your father’s killer behind bars.”

“If Kate did it, trust me, she’ll be arrested,” Joelle confirmed.

That brought on another huff from Hamlin, and he stood and stormed out. They followed him to make sure he did leave the building. After all, everything Hamlin had just told them could have been done to get closer to them, to get them to let down their guard.

Because Hamlin could be one of the gunmen who’d attacked her earlier.

They went into the bullpen, and Hamlin didn’t linger. He went straight past Carmen and Luca and out the door.

“Did he actually have proof of anything?” Luca immediately wanted to know.

Duncan lifted the papers. “To be determined. Until we know for sure, though, call the deputy who’s guarding Kate Moreland and tell him or her to keep a very close eye on the woman. I doubt Kate’s in any shape to leave, but I want to make sure she stays put.” His gaze slid to Hamlin who was now on the sidewalk. “And tell the deputy to make sure that guy doesn’t get into her room.”

Luca glanced at Hamlin, too, and took out his phone to make the call.

Duncan shifted his attention to Carmen. “Get me anything you can find on Hamlin and Kate Moreland. Use the techs to help with that, but I need thorough background checks on both of them.”

Carmen nodded and hurried back to her desk.

Joelle looked at the papers. “I can start going through those.”

Duncan hesitated, and she knew why. There was probably a lot in there about her father’s murder. A lot that would take jabs at some still raw, painful memories.

“It needs to be done,” was all Joelle said, and Duncan handed over half the papers to her. He’d almost certainly be poring through the other half.

They went back to the break room but had barely made it inside when Joelle’s phone rang. Her heart jolted when she sawUnknown Calleron the screen, and she nearly dropped the papers when she fumbled to answer it.

“Joelle,” a woman said.

Molly.

Joelle fumbled the papers again to put the call on speaker. “Molly.”

Since her voice had way too much breath and hardly any sound, Joelle repeated the woman’s name. Duncan sprang into action, taking out his phone and contacting tech so they could try and trace the call.

“Are you okay?” Joelle asked Molly. “Where are you?”

Molly didn’t answer right away, but Joelle could hear someone muttering in the background. Even though she couldn’t make out the words, she guessed it was the kidnapper giving Molly instructions about what not to say.

“I’m not hurt,” Molly finally answered. “And the baby’s moving and kicking so I think she’s fine, too.”

Joelle had so many things she wanted to ask, but she blurted out the first thing that popped into her head. “There was blood at your house.”

“It’s not mine,” Molly said, but then stopped when there was more muttering in the background.

Duncan’s gaze flashed to Joelle, and then he fired off a text. And she knew why. If the blood wasn’t Molly’s, then it likely belonged to the kidnapper, and they could use it to identify him.

“I’m to tell you that he’s releasing me in a couple of hours,” Molly went on several moments later. “But you’re to send him ten thousand dollars to this account.” She read off a series of numbers, and Duncan typed them into the notes on his phone. “You can get the money from my savings. I have an inheritance from my grandmother, and once the money’s in the account, he’ll call you with the location where he’s dropping me off.”

---