Page 75 of Good and Gone

"I'm thinking about it."

"I'm going to go wash the kids down with the hose. You need anything?"

"Don't think so."

I watch as he crosses the yard, and then I waddle into the office. There's a new email in my inbox I’ve been dying to get to. My heart races the way it always has whenever I know I'm breaking the rules. It's from Rose. After reading it and opening the drawer, I pulled out the file on Misty Williams. I scan the information Rose has provided. I don't know if it will lead me to a match. I don’t know if I'll ever track down the children or all the women, the ones that are still alive. Sometimes I tell myself they're like me, in WITSEC, though I know this is wishful thinking, that it probably isn’t true. Despite everything, I know how lucky I am to get a fresh start, even if it doesn’t always feel that way.

I reread the last few emails Rose has sent and then put everything away and return to the kitchen, my mind working out what I’ve just read. Rose is still looking for JD. One day she hates him, the next she believes they could work things out. She thinks he skipped town, and I let her. It’s better if she believes. I get more information that way. She thinks we’re in this together. I let her think that, too.

I ask her about the other doctor in Kenneth’s practice, but if she knows anything, she won’t say. Maybe I’ll never find out whether Kenneth was involved. I only know that after I confronted him, he ended up dead, which tells me that someone he worked with or knew likelywasinvolved. And that person is still out there. I sent Rose the website again yesterday. I told her to ask around. She responded with a list of possible sightings of JD. She wrote that she thinks he had plastic surgery and moved to Brazil. Sometimes she suggests he’s in the witness protection program and he can’t contact her. I don’t tell her that’s a fallacy of WITSEC. I can’t, and besides, it’s better if she believes.

Maybe this is driving us both mad. Or maybe Rose is just another dead end. Maybe I'll never find the men responsible for what happened to me, the ones who are still alive. Maybe I'll never solve the case or put the operation to bed. Lord knows the FBI hasn't. I only know I have to try.

Barry Coburn called the other day. He’s retiring next month, but he confirmed my suspicions, telling me he has a strong lead that suggests Kenneth Bock’s partner was selling infants to patients in his infertility practice. He believes Kenneth knew about it. He believes they weren’t acting alone. He just has to prove it. Meanwhile, he thinks WITSEC was, and is still, a smart plan.

That’s why I asked Rose to ask around, to see where it might lead. It’s silly, but there’s a part of me that thinks if I bring these people down, life can go back to the way it was. I’ll be able to see my parents again. My children can know their grandparents. Tyler won’t have to miss Eddie and lie to me about it. But that’s not to say things are all bad here. They aren’t. We’re all finding our way, and we have each other. It could have turned out very differently.

"Working on a new recipe?" Tyler asks, coming through the door, slinging wet paint brushes around the kitchen.

"Sure am," I say, which is not a lie.

I’m working on several, but only one thing is sure, and that’s that I’m going to need to make more room in this kitchen. He seems to read my mind and moves out of the way. "I'll go wash up upstairs."

“Hurry,” I tell him. “Dinner's almost ready.”

I have just enough time to set the table before the kids come running through the door. They sit at the bar and tell me about their day. Lily is going on and on about the garden and something or other about her class pet. She reminds me that next week it’s her turn to bring it home. Lily is thriving at her new school, and the nightmares are few and far between. Mason is prattling on about his soccer team. He rattles off stats and tells me how it’s better than his old one and don’t I agree? Amid all of it, Tyler comes down showered and freshly shaven.

"You look happy," he says.

"I am happy." I smile.

“Good,” he says, leaning down to kiss my stomach. “I'm happy, too.”

It’s about that time we hear the car door shut. I glance out the window to see a male figure standing in the driveway with his back to the house. He’s looking toward the garage. “Expecting anyone?” I say to Tyler.

He shakes his head.

“Me either,” I tell him, but he’s already grabbing the shotgun. I order the kids up to their rooms as we’ve rehearsed. “Remember the emergency ladder,” I say to Mason. “It’s under Lily’s bed.”

Tyler is already out on the porch by the time I turn around. Through the open window, I hear him making pleasantries with the guy, though I’m not sure why. We’ve already discussed this. You shoot first, ask questions later. I realize there’s something familiar about the man.

Then I realize what it is. I grab the pistol from the knife drawer and walk out onto the porch. “Robert?”

His eyes light up like a Christmas tree. Tyler looks over his shoulder at me. “I thought you were in the shop,” he says. “Dr. Moore came to have a word with us about Kenneth. I was just about to show him out there.”

“Please,” he says, glancing at the shotgun in Tyler’s hand. “Call me Bobby.”

“Sorry,” Tyler tells him, nodding toward the gun. “We’re not too keen on soliciting out here.”

He half smiles. “I’d imagine not.”

My heart races. All I can think about is the kids and what this means. “This could have been a phone call,” I say.

“Yeah—”

Tyler raises the gun and takes aim.

“I don’t want any trouble,” the man says.

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