Caribbean Rescue (Coastal Fury Book 16), Matt Lincoln [best book recommendations .txt] 📗

brought it down to show my parents, my mom freaked out. Like, completely lost it.”

“Is that right?” Olivia muttered. That was certainly noteworthy.

“Yeah,” Christina continued. “My dad ended up calming her down, and then he told me never to ask about it or bring it up again, and he took the box of stuff. I figured I must have had a brother or sister who died or something. I never brought it up again, like my dad said, but like, maybe he was actually just missing this whole time?”

It was a pretty far-fetched theory, but it made about as much sense as anything else had so far.

“How long ago was this?” Olivia asked.

“Well, I think I was about fifteen,” Christina replied. “So about four or five years ago?”

Olivia’s heart rate began to climb at that. It definitely matched the child’s estimated age. Maybe Christina was wrong about the exact circumstances of what had happened, but it definitely seemed like they were onto something.

“Ms. Newark,” Olivia replied, “could you please give me your mother’s contact information?”

“Yeah, yeah, for sure,” Christina replied.

Olivia could hear her fumbling around on the other end of the line for a moment before she rattled off her mother’s name, number, and address.

“Thank you, Christina,” Olivia told her once she finished taking all the information down. “You’ve been a huge help. Please don’t hesitate to call if you have any other comments or concerns.”

After passing her contact information along to Christina, she ended the call and wasted no time in calling one of her contacts back at the department, Xavier. Agent Xavier Mills was a brilliant information tech who Olivia often turned to when she needed information fast.

“Hello?” he answered immediately. “How’s my favorite crime-fighter?”

“Hey, I need you to do a background search on someone,” Olivia replied.

“Ooh, you’re in a hurry, huh?” he asked, his tone instantly several degrees more serious. “Alright, I got you. What do you need?”

“Her name is Barbara Newark,” Olivia explained before giving him her address. “She might have given birth and/or given a child up for adoption around five years ago.”

“Oof, that’s kind of a tall order.” Xavier hummed. “You know that stuff is super confidential. It might take me a minute.”

“Okay,” Olivia sighed with disappointment. “Just let me know whenever you get something.”

“Will do,” Xavier replied. “I’ll call you back as soon as I find anything. You better spend that time thinking of how you’re going to repay me for doing you such a huge favor.”

“Really?” Olivia whined. “I thought we were friends.”

“We are,” Xavier replied simply. “But I don’t barter in friendship. Cover the first round next time we go drinking, and I’ll call it good.”

“Ugh, you’re so stingy,” Olivia grumbled, though she was smiling as she spoke. “Fine, first round’s on me.”

“Excellent,” Xavier replied. Olivia could tell that he was grinning just from the sound of his voice. “Catch you later.”

“Bye,” Olivia answered just before he ended the call.

Olivia set her phone down while she thought about what to do next. She was sorely tempted to call the woman herself right now, but she knew that would be foolhardy. Until she had more solid information to work with, it would be better if she just waited.

She was about to get up and see if this station had any vending machines anywhere when her phone suddenly went off.

“I thought you said it would take a minute,” she scoffed as she answered Xavier’s call.

“Don’t get too excited now,” Xavier responded. “I don’t really have good news for you.”

“What do you mean?” Olivia asked warily.

“Well, I found her,” Xavier replied. “She’s pretty active in her kid’s PTA chapter, and she volunteers at their town’s church, so she’s all over social media. I didn’t find anything about a kid, though.”

“Nothing?” Olivia asked disbelievingly.

“Zilch,” Xavier replied. “Didn’t have to try to crack any adoption records open because there are no adoption records to crack. No hospital stays, no mention of a pregnancy or baby anywhere that I can see.”

“How is that possible?” Olivia grumbled. Everything had seemed to match up, so what were they missing?

“I dunno,” Xavier shrugged. “Lady seems like your average small-town soccer mom, to be honest. Was that all you needed?”

“For now, yeah,” Olivia replied, unable to keep the frustration out of her voice. “Thanks, Xavier.”

“Anytime,” he replied before ending the call.

As soon as he did, Olivia dialed the woman’s number into her phone. She guessed there was no other option now.

“Hello?” a cheerful-sounding woman answered right away. “Is this Anne? I know Tammy said she was going to give you my number. I’m afraid the lemon squares aren’t quite ready yet.”

“Mrs. Newark, my name is Olivia Hastings,” Olivia cut her off smoothly. “I’m a federal agent with the Special Victims Unit of the FBI’s Miami division.”

“Oh!” the woman yelped, surprise evident in her voice. “What’s going on? Is Christina okay? Has something happened?”

“She’s fine,” Olivia answered quickly. “I’m calling because we think you might have information about a missing child we currently have in our custody.”

For a moment, the call went silent, and Olivia actually thought that the woman might have hung up on her.

“What did you say?” she mumbled after a few long moments of tense quiet, all the earlier cheerfulness gone.

“I actually spoke with your daughter Christina earlier,” Olivia explained. “She submitted an ancestry kit a few months ago. When we cross-referenced the DNA of the child in our custody, it came up as a match for hers.” Better to keep it vague and let her do the talking, as opposed to outright asking if she knew who the child was.

Barbara Newark made a sound that was halfway between a gasp and a sob.

“Are you serious?” she croaked. “Did you really find my baby?”

It felt as though every nerve in Olivia’s body was set on fire as she heard that. It seemed like they had been on the right track after all.

“We might have,” Olivia answered. “He’s here in Miami right now. Could I--”

“He?” Barbara cut her off with