Page 11 of Forged in Steele

“The woman and a man are the only people who leave the birthing center for the hour before the PINK Alert was issued,” Teagan said. “The man wasn’t carrying a baby but had a backpack. I don’t think he could comfortably put a living baby in the pack and the baby not cry.”

Living.There was that word again. The father might’ve killed the baby and discarded her body. Bristol could have the evidence of such a heinous crime on her back.

“The man is likely the father.” She looked at Franz. “This is his backpack. I checked inside for the baby. Nothing and no sign of blood. But I didn’t have gloves so couldn’t dig deeper.”

Franz fisted his hands. “Shouldn’t have looked in it at all.”

“You would’ve done the same thing in case the pack held the baby.”

“I’m on duty and you aren’t.” He gave a huff of air and took the backpack. “I’ll have another deputy bag this and secure it in his vehicle.”

He went to the door and handed the pack to the deputy standing outside, giving strict instructions on how to handle it.

Bristol grabbed Teagan’s arm, the soft silk jacket crinkling under her hand, and dragged her aside. “Any word on Aaron King?”

Teagan stepped closer. “No, and he’s not answering his phone. Uncle Hugh is going out to his house to look for him.”

“I’ve held off telling anyone else until we know more. It’ll look bad for Steele Guardians.”

“I can’t imagine anything could look worse for us.” As the CEO of the company, Teagan had a vested interest in keeping this quiet too.

“But do I think he’s part of the kidnapping?” Bristol asked. “And I need to tell them?”

“There’s no evidence of Aaron going missing on video.” Teagan curled her hands into fists. “We could wait until we hear back from the search party before reporting it.”

“Anything you two want to share with us?” Franz asked as he double-timed it back to the monitors.

“No.” Bristol purposefully didn’t look at Jared because he knew her well enough to know when she was withholding information.

It’s not pertinent yet,she told herself as she strode back to the monitors, but she didn’t believe her own words and couldn’t keep this under wraps. “Our guard who was on duty at the birthing center door when the baby was taken is missing.”

Jared spun to stare at her. “What do you mean missing?”

“He’s not at the door and not reachable by phone,” she stated plainly. “We have someone out looking for him.”

“You think he’s helping this woman?” Jared asked. “Or she hurt him?”

“He’s a good and long-term guard with us,” Zeke said between clenched teeth. “If he’s missing, something’s happened to him.”

Jared rubbed a hand over his jaw. “When did you last hear from him?”

“I check in with the guards via radio at the start of every shift. He was at his station when I radioed him at eight.”

“Does he appear on video?” Jared asked.

Zeke shook his head. “The camera by the birthing suite has a narrower focus so it catches a close-up view of the people arriving. We don’t see him on the other video either.”

“So you have no proof other than him responding to your radio call,” Jared said. “Was it a conversation or just an affirmative answer?”

“Affirmative.”

“So someone could’ve impersonated him,” Jared said.

“I suppose so, but…” Zeke’s shoulders slumped.

“Or maybe he was there, and this woman paid him to look the other way and then he took off,” Jared said. “In that case, he would want to avoid the cameras.”

“He’s not the type to take a bribe,” Zeke said, not sounding as convinced now. “But then my days as a cop say anyone’s susceptible to a bribe if the price is right.”

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