Birthright

Douglas. No. My poor baby,” she murmured, and his throat clogged. “My sweet little boy. I let you down in so many ways.”
    “No, Mom.”
    “I did. I know I did. I couldn’t seem to help it. But for you to think that. Oh, baby.” She eased back to kiss his cheeks, then cover them with her hands. “Not for a minute. Not ever. I promise you, not once—even at the worst—did I blame you. You were just a little boy.”
    She pressed her lips to his brow. “My little boy. I love you, Doug, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, every day. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you. I shut you out. I shut your father out. Everyone. Then when I tried to open up again, it was too late.”
    “It’s not too late. Sit down, Mom. Sit down.” He held her hands as she lowered into the chair beside him. “I’m going to marry Lana Campbell.”
    “You . . .Oh my God.” Her fingers squeezed his, and more tears spilled over as she began to laugh. “Oh my God! Married. You’re getting married. What are we drinking coffee for? I have champagne.”
    “Later. Later when we’re all together.”
    “I’m so happy for you. But your grandfather, he’s going to flip. Completely flip. Oh, I can’t wait to tell Jay. I can’t wait to tell everyone. We’ll have a party. We’ll—”
    “Slow down. We’ll get to that. I love her, Mom. I fell in love with her, and everything inside me changed.”
    “That’s just the way it’s supposed to be. God, I need a tissue.” She got up, pulled three out of the box on the counter. “I like her very much. I always did. And her little boy—” She broke off. “Oh my, I’m a grandmother.”
    “How do you feel about that?”
    “Give me a minute.” She pressed a hand to her stomach, breathed deep. “I feel good about it,” she realized. “Yes, I feel just fine about that.”
    “I’m crazy about him. I need you to sit down again, Mom. There are some other things I need to tell you. About Jessica.”
    “Callie.” Suzanne came back to the table and sat. “We should call her Callie.”

Twenty-nine
    W here would she go?” Callie paced Jake’s office, pausing every few steps to study the time line. “No point in going back to Charlotte when her mother’s in custody. Her father’s dead. But would she risk trying to get out of the country, head down to the Caymans?”
    “There might be money there,” Lana offered. “Money comes in handy when you’re on the run.”
    “We’ve established Carlyle was ill, largely incapacitated,” Callie went on. “If they were still marketing babies, it’s unlikely he played a central role. He was old, sick, out of the country. He was dying. If they weren’t still in the business, why go to such lengths to stop me from tracking him down? From finding out? If and when I found him, if and when I gathered enough information to interest the authorities, he’d be gone. Or close to it.”
    “Logically, his connections feared exposure.” Jake continued scribbling on a pad. “Loss of reputation, possible prosecution and imprisonment. Or the business was still operating, which again leads to fear of exposure, prosecution and imprisonment, with the added incentive of loss of income.”
    “I don’t know how you can talk about it like a business.” Doug jammed his hands in his pockets. “Loss of damn income.”
    “You have to think as they do,” Callie replied. “See as they do. It’s how you understand their . . .” She gestured at Jake. “Culture, the societal structure of their community.”
    “Your own community may still be compromised.” Lana motioned toward the door that connected to the living area. “She didn’t do this by herself.”
    “It’s not one of them.” Jake pushed through papers he’d spread over his work area, checked data, went back to his pad. “She slipped in because she had a useful skill as well as forged credentials. Not that hard to pass the ID—it only required a decent hand with a computer to generate a connection to the university. A dig like this draws students, draws grads and itinerant diggers. But she had a specific skill.”
    “Photography,” Callie confirmed. “She’s a damn good photographer.”
    “Maybe she makes her living that way.” Doug lifted his shoulders. “Her legitimate living.”
    “She didn’t know that much about digging, but she learned fast. She worked hard,” Callie added. “Bob and Sonya were here before any of this started. They’re clear. Frannie and Chuck