Page 60 of Protecting Silver
“Say, back when I was taken, Merrick had a side job of working for an illegal adoption agency. What if he had someone go to people’s homes and pose as a babysitter, I don’t know, maybe even go to a park and scope out the kids there. People will people watch all the time. What if someone did that with me, and took me, gave me to Merrick, and if the adoption fell through, put me in the system for foster care? Who’s really going to do a background check on a four-year-old? Then he panicked when the Fosters wanted to legally adopt me, and they requested my original birth certificate with the raised seal. Both Carole and Max Foster told me they only had a photocopy of my birth certificate, but the minute they requested the original one, I disappeared.”
“Shit,” both Silver and Tex said. Again, it was several minutes of silence as everyone tried to think of a way to take Merriweather down without letting him know they were on to him.
“I have a suggestion,” Silver said. She reached out and took Patch’s hand in his, and turned fully to the phone. “First, Tex is it? I’m Silver Roundtree, you did a background check on my ex, Freedman. Several weeks ago, he was caught right here in Elk Junction trying to come after me again. We met two FBI agents from Chicago who were there to take him down. Well, they were there to interview me, but Eddie happened to be there posing as an FBI agent. They arrived when I called him a liar. When Eddie tried to attack me, with several guns aimed at him, I might add, Douglas punched him in the face and took him out.”
“Glad to hear they got their man, but what does this have to do with Atwal’s case?”
“The two agents from Chicago took Douglas’s picture, because they swore he was a twin to their boss. What if the two of us go to Chicago, hook up with those agents again, and get in to see his boss. He could be an FBI agent, and could pose as Douglas. I don’t know, maybe take a female agent with him, and pose as a couple wanting to adopt.”
“I see, I don’t know if it would be entrapment, but that would be something to talk to the agents about. They’d know more about it than I would, but I like that idea. Atwal, when was the last time Merrick saw you?”
“I was ten when the foster family I was living with was transferred with their jobs.”
“From where to where?”
“Colorado to Montana. Come to think of it, Merrick couldn’t sign the papers fast enough for me to leave the state in their care.”
“Speculating here, but what if someone was looking into him, or you for that matter, and he panicked? Saw your guardians’ transfer as a godsend to get you away from him, and any shit that might blow back on him, if they realized you weren’t who you were.”
“Sounds about right, yeah, I like what Silver said, about contacting the FBI in Chicago. But I can’t go for a few days yet. I want and need to read the reports you send in, and I’ll have to clear some time off with the hospital.”
“Let me know if you need anything. I’ve sent everything, and you’re looking at ninety- two pages.”
Patch and Silver looked at each other with raised brows, and she jumped to her feet and ran to get her laptop. She fired it up, then set it in front of Patch, so he could access his e-mail. Because Silver’s printer worked from anywhere in her apartment, Patch sent the report to the printer in the other room.
“I’ll sign off now, if you need anything else, let me know.”
“Wait,” Patch called out as he opened another e-mail. “What the hell?”
“What?” Silver and Tex echoed their question.
“I just opened an e-mail from that family tree website. Months ago, I requested the kit to have my DNA run to see if I had any family members out there.”
“Good call, did you hear back from them?”
“I did, but it’s confusing as hell.”
“What does it say?” Again, both Silver and Tex echoed their question.
“Dear Mr. Atwal, we’d like to inform you that we received your DNA sample and have run it as per our policy. However, when we entered your information in the computer the following message appeared.”Patch paused to frown then leaned in closer.
“Okay, here’s the message,‘As we just stated, when we entered your DNA results the following message appeared. We thought it was imperative that we contact you ASAP with this message. We have never encountered anything like this before. The message states that anyone running DNA for this individual needs to call this number.’Then, it gives a number.” Patch frowned as Silver looked over his shoulder and wrote it down.
“Holy shit, can you give it to me? I can run a check on it.”
Patch read it off, and they waited as Tex did his thing. “Huh,” Tex sounded as confused as Patch felt.
“What?” Silver demanded.
“The number came back as to being owned by a John Decker. Wait...” They heard several keys being struck then a laugh. “Decker is a retired FBI agent out of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Worked on the job for thirty-three years before he retired almost a few years ago?”
“Random thought here,” Silver said and bounced in her seat. She looked at Patch with her eyes shining. “Can you tell if this Decker person worked in any other office except the Cheyenne one?” They heard the pounding on the keyboard through the phone and Patch’s eyes widened when he caught on to where Silver was going with her train of thought. He jumped to his feet, ran down the hall to the bedroom, grabbed his wallet off the dresser, and ran back to the kitchen. While he’d been gone, Silver had refilled both their coffee cups. Patch opened his wallet and dug through it until he found what he was looking for. He handed the card to Silver and before he took it, he flipped it over.
“Holy shit,” Silver said.
“What?” Tex asked, then said, “Decker never worked anyplace except for the Cheyenne office. He was promoted several times, but never worked anywhere else.”
“Okay,” Silver said as she took the card Patch had held out. “Can you run another name for us?”
