Jade's Redemption
He's an overworked police chief, and she's a disgraced cop. Can he rescue her from her own depths of hell without losing his heart to her in the process?
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Someone is kidnapping newborn infants and selling them to the highest bidder. Police Chief Patrick Carter has his hands full investigating the case. To complicate matters, he's short on staff.
Jade Harlowe has secrets, ones that she vowed no one would ever know. She used to be a police officer, but when a tragedy occurred—one that everyone held her responsible for—she resigned and moved to another state to start over, accepting a job as a dispatcher for the police, fire, and ambulance departments. When Patrick discovers Jade's past police experience he offers her a job on the force. He needs help working the kidnapping cases, and Jade previously solved a similar case, so she could be a valuable asset. But will they be able to fight the attraction that's sizzling between them? Something that could be very distracting if they can't control it. The clock is ticking. They have to find those babies and prevent more from being taken. But a very nosy news reporter may compromise everything if she digs deep enough to uncover Jade's past. Neither Patrick nor Jade thought they had room for each other in their lives, but working so closely together makes it impossible to deny the chemistry. Can Patrick break through the wall Jade has built up around her, or will her past finally catch up with her and she loses everything once again? Content Warning: contains sexual content |
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Chapter 1
“Police. What’s the address of the emergency?” Jade Harlowe looked at the clock as she answered the nine-one-one call. It was seven in the morning.
“Help! My baby, my baby is gone,” a woman screamed hysterically into the phone. “God, please help me, my baby is gone.”
Jade’s heart raced as she typed Missing Baby! into the computer-aided dispatch system and alerted Autumn Baxter, the other dispatcher on duty, and Police Chief Carter.
Autumn brought the same screen up in front of her to monitor the conversation and update the officers sent to the scene as needed.
“Give me your address,” Jade said in a low, firm voice. She focused on remaining calm and professional. Calls involving children were especially difficult for her.
“I can’t think straight. Help me!”
“Ma’am, I need you to be calm so we can help you. Tell me the address where you are.”
“Twenty-five West Maple Street. Hurry!”
Jade typed the address into the CAD system, and a map popped up on the second of the dual computer screens showing where the address was in Livingston, New Mexico.
Autumn sent four cars to the scene.
“Is it a house or an apartment?” Jade asked.
“House, it’s a house. Someone’s stolen my baby!”
“How old is your baby?”
“Three days.”
“What’s the baby’s name?”
“Andrew, his name’s Andrew, and he’s gone. Someone’s stolen my baby!” The woman sobbed.
“Listen to me. What is your name?”
“Jasmine.”
“Jasmine, I’m getting help to you as fast as I can. Now I need more information to pass to the officers. Okay, Jasmine?” Jade continued to keep her voice low and firm, a technique she learned to helped callers calm down and listen.
“Yes, yes, oh God, hurry!”
“We’re hurrying,” Jade assured her. “Are you alone?”
“My husband’s here. He’s searching the yard, looking for our baby.” The woman’s sobs grew louder.
“Jasmine, stay with me and focus so we can help you. When did you last see the baby?”
“Um, last night, after we put him to bed.”
“What time?”
“I gave him a bottle at eight and put him to bed. Oh my God. Who would take my baby?”
Jade sat straighter. A newborn baby didn’t sleep eleven hours without a feeding. She had a bad feeling about this. “Was anyone in the house with you?”
“My husband, Rick.”
“Is it possible that relatives took the baby?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
“Good, you’re doing good, Jasmine. You’ll hear sirens soon, but I want you to stay on the phone with me.”
“I’ll go open the door.”
“That’s a good idea,” Jade said. “Have you see anything or anyone suspicious around your house?”
“No. But my husband said it looked as if someone broke in through the baby’s room. The screen was cut.”
“That’s good to know. You’re doing good, Jasmine.” Jade typed into the CAD, alerting the officers the husband was outside the house searching. “Is there a dog in the house or in the yard?”
“No.”
“Are there any weapons in the house?” Jade asked.
“No. We don’t own any weapons.”
“What’s Andrew’s race?”
“He’s white.”
“Weight and height?”
“Eight pounds and seven ounces, and twenty-two inches.”
Jade typed rapidly into the computer. “Hair and eye color?”
“Dark blond hair and blue eyes.”
“What is his complexion?”
“Why are you asking me all these questions? We need to search for my baby.” Jasmine’s tone sounded impatient.
“We will,” Jade assured her. “I’m preparing for an Amber Alert, should the officers request one.”
“Oh. He’s fair-skinned,” Jasmine answered, her voice quivering.
“What did he have on when you last saw him?”
“A green full-body pajamas.”
“Do you have any photos of the baby?”
“Yes, the hospital picture, and we’ve taken pictures with our iPhones to show relatives and friends.”
“Good. Have those pictures handy when the police arrive.” Jade’s fingers clacked on the keyboard.
“Okay.”
“Are there other people there who may have seen what happened?”
“No, only Rick and me.”
“How about your neighbors?”
“I haven’t talked to any of them.”
“Jasmine, what’s your last name?”
“Nichols. The police are here.”
“I will hang up now so you can talk to them. Try to stay calm and help them so they get as much information as possible.”
“Yes, I will. Thank you.” Jasmine disconnected the call.
Jade leaned back in her seat and took a deep breath. Who would take a baby away from her mother? Did someone actually take the baby, or was it more sinister than that? Did the parents do something to the baby and were reporting him missing to avoid suspicion?
Autumn interrupted her thoughts. “A missing baby, huh?”
“Yeah. I can’t imagine what it feels like to wake up in the morning and find your baby gone.” An escaping long strand of hair spilled over her forehead, and she pulled it back behind her ear.
“Our beloved police chief took off with Detective Clyde Davis. He sure is a hands-on kind of guy, isn’t he?”
“Yeah,” Jade agreed.
Chief Patrick Carter was eye candy, pure solid muscle, single, and young for a police chief. But he took his work quite seriously. She’d love to wake up to that hunk of a man next to her. Each time she was near him, her heart did flip-flops. She often fantasized about him, but she did her best to keep their interactions to a minimum. It didn’t stop her from dreaming about him though. She’d always been attracted to men in uniform. This man invaded her thoughts more and more each passing day.
“Are you busy this weekend?” Autumn asked.
Jade stood, stretched her legs and arched her back to relieve the cramped muscles and ache and pains. “Going to Oklahoma City on Saturday. I got things to do.”
“What have you got to do?” Autumn asked.
“Personal family business.”
“Is it an all-day thing?”
Jade ambled over to the only window in the communication call room and stared at the cars and people hurrying to and from the building. “It’s an eight-hour drive, and I’m going to put flowers on my parents’ grave and visit a few people. So, yeah, I’ll be gone all day.”
“If you get back early, call me. Bryan is working this weekend.”
“That’s a bummer.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Jade looked forward to two days off. She’d worked twelve days straight and picked up some nice overtime. She was fortunate to have a job that, for the most part, she liked, but she was tired.
* * * *
Patrick arrived with Clyde at the scene. The two officers who first responded motioned Patrick to the roped-off areas.
Patrick looked at the dilapidated, dirty house. Why wasn’t this house condemned? Located in the poorest section of town, the neighborhood was rough. Break-ins and robberies were a daily event. How could anyone live there? Siding boards were missing. The driveway had cracks throughout the pavement with weeds growing in them. The roof of the house looked like it had sprung a few leaks.
Patrick paused to survey the street and noticed it was empty. He asked the officer, “Do you think the parents really don’t know where the baby is?”
“They say they don’t, and they seem pretty upset. They called relatives, and no one they contacted had any information.”
“Why don’t you and Ramsey check with the neighbors. See if anyone heard or saw anything suspicious.”
“Will do.”
Patrick and his detective entered the home and strode to the corner where the young mother and father stood. The mother quietly sobbed. Patrick surveyed the area. The house looked as shabby on the inside as the outside. An ancient chair and couch sat in the living room, with an old television and one lamp. He saw holes in the wall, and the plaster had come off. A baby’s bouncing chair and rattles on the floor. Old appliances and a rickety dining room table and chairs in the kitchen.
“Hello, I’m Patrick Carter, Chief of Police, and this is Detective Clyde Davis.” Patrick shook hands with the young man who stood before him.
“I’m Rick Nichols, and this is my wife, Jasmine.”
“Let’s sit at the kitchen table and you can tell me what happened,” Patrick suggested calmly.
Rick nodded and led his wife into the kitchen. Patrick and Clyde followed.
After they were all seated, Patrick said, “Tell me the last time you saw your baby and what you were doing.”
Jasmine spoke first. “I finished nursing him and put him to bed about eight o’clock last night. He was sound asleep.”
“Did you get up during the night to check on him, or change his diaper?”
“No. I went to sleep after I got him settled, and I slept like a log. The first two nights, he was up a lot. But he seemed to settle in last night, and as far as I know, he didn’t wake up during the night.”
Newborns didn’t normally sleep all night, did they? “What about you?” Patrick fixed his gaze on Rick.
“I went to bed shortly after Jasmine did. It was so hot. We had this noisy fan on. That may be why we heard nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, whoever broke into the bedroom window, we wouldn’t hear them because we had the fan on.”
“When did you wake up and what did you do?” Clyde asked Jasmine.
“It was six forty-five. I realized I hadn’t heard the baby at any time during the night, and I jumped out of bed and ran into his bedroom. He wasn’t in his crib. I woke Rick up and asked him where Andy was. He got up and we searched the house. Rick got dressed to go outside. He came back to the baby’s room. That’s when he told me the screen was cut.”
“She called nine-one-one,” Rick added.
Patrick studied the couple again. If they were involved in the baby’s disappearance, what would they gain from it? “Have you checked with all your relatives?”
“Most everyone, we checked with our closest relatives while your officers walked around the house.”
“We need the names of every relative and friend, phone numbers and addresses. We’ll investigate everyone and everything.”
Jasmine stood and went to the counter. She pulled a drawer open, grabbed a pen and paper, and wrote down the information.
“What’s the baby’s name, and do you have a photo of him?” Clyde asked.
“Yes, in the living room. I’ll get them.” Rick went to get the folder and returned to the kitchen. “His name is Andrew. We call him Andy. Here are the photos.”
Patrick flipped through the pictures.
“We’ll need to keep one of these for a while,” Clyde said. “We’ll be issuing an Amber Alert, and we also need to search the house and property, but before we do that, please sign the Consent To Search form.” He filled in the form attached to the clipboard. He handed it to the couple, and they signed it.
“We’re going to look in the baby’s room,” Patrick said.
Patrick and Clyde stood and put on latex gloves, then headed to the baby’s room. They scanned the room before they entered. Patrick noticed the baby’s crib had a sheet on it and a pillow, no blanket. He looked at the changing table and then opened the dresser drawers and looked inside them. Nothing appeared out of place.
“I’ll call CSI to lift fingerprints and other evidence,” Patrick said.
“Yeah. Also we need to ask the parents if any baby clothes were taken,” Clyde said.
“The baby’s mother can search through the clothes after CSI gets done.”
Patrick tugged his iPhone from his back pocket and called the station.
“Jade, this is Chief Carter. Start the Amber Alert and do a background check on Jasmine and Rick Nichols.”
“Will do,” Jade replied.
Next, Patrick called CSI and requested a team to come out and process the scene. After disconnecting the call, Patrick went to the window where Clyde stood.
Clyde lifted the curtain. “The window was pried opened and the screen was cut. There’s tape on the window and fresh footprints on the ground outside.” He glanced at the carpet. “You’d think we would see dirt on the bedroom floor if the baby was taken through the window. I have a hard time believing the baby wouldn’t cry and wake up the parents.”
Patrick surveyed the area under the window. “We’ll have CSI make a plaster mold of the footprints. Do newborns sleep all night?”
Clyde looked under the baby’s crib. “Normally newborns don’t sleep the whole night. So it happened late last night or very early this morning.”
They moved slowly through the other rooms, looking for evidence of anything out of place or knocked over. Not seeing anything, they returned to the kitchen. The couple still wore their nightclothes. Jasmine shook uncontrollably. Patrick noticed that Rick had a nervous tic in his legs, and he ran his hand through his hair. Although shaken, nothing about them stood out to Patrick indicating they were in any way responsible for the missing baby.
“CSI will be here to gather evidence in a half hour. I have a few more questions to ask, if you don’t mind,” Patrick said, and the couple nodded. “Do you have any problems with relatives or friends, neighbors, acquaintances? Any person who might be angry at you, or who you are angry at?”
Jasmine and Rick glanced at each other, then back at Patrick. “No. Not that we know of,” Rick said.
“Are you sure?”
Jasmine nodded. The conversation paused for a few minutes as she broke down and sobbed. Her husband reached out to console her. “I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her tears. “I just want my son back.”
Officers David Womack and Randy Ramsey entered the house and walked into the kitchen. “The neighbors say they didn’t see or hear anything last night or this morning,” Officer Womack reported.
Patrick opened the kitchen door and turned the knob, looking for any signs of forced entry. “Were the doors locked?” he asked the couple.
“Yes, we keep the doors locked at all times. This isn’t a safe neighborhood,” Rick answered.
Tape on the window, cut screen and footprints, no entry through the doors. It was a planned kidnapping.
“After CSI completes their job, we need to do two things. First, I want you to check to see if any of the baby’s stuff is missing. Secondly, I want the two of you to come down to the station for fingerprints and to take a lie detector test. This is standard procedure and will help us to eliminate you as suspects.”
Jasmine looked nervously at Rick, then nodded.
Patrick strode to the kitchen window and saw several trees in the back yard. He motioned for the officers to follow him into the living room.
“Walk the parameter of the back yard. Look for a grave or disturbed soil,” Patrick said quietly.
Clyde, along with Officers Womack and Ramsey, went outside and walked to the end of the lot.
“It’s not money they were after—these people have none,” Patrick mumbled to himself.
He looked outside the front door. People had arrived and were talking among themselves and with the officers who had cordoned off the area.
He went back to the kitchen. “I want to stress the importance of notifying our department should you get any calls asking for a ransom. If they call, they will tell you not to go to the police, but you need to let us know immediately. We can deal with these things discreetly. You must not discuss this situation with anyone. We don’t want any information leaked to the press that the kidnapper could use. Do you understand?”
“Even to our family?” Jasmine asked.
“Yes, even to your family. Just tell them the baby is missing, and we’re doing the best we can to find him. If they press you for more information, direct them to Detective Davis or me.”
Jasmine and Rick nodded but said nothing more.
The state’s CSI unit pulled in front of the house. Five CSI technicians donned their white investigative clothing. The leader of the group, Ed Hanson, approached. Patrick met him on the front porch.
“Hello, Patrick. What do we have today?”
“Hey, Ed. We got a missing newborn.” He went on to explain what happened and what they had so far.
“Any ransom demands?”
“Not yet.” His hunch said there wouldn’t be. “Here’s the signed Consent to Search form.”
“Okay. Ready everyone?” Ed asked the team.
They nodded and went to work to gather evidence.
Patrick led the parents outside by the police car so CSI could process the scene. When CSI finished, Patrick led Jasmine and Rick to the baby’s nursery to see if anything was missing or out of place.
After looking through everything in the nursery, Jasmine turned and shook her head at Patrick, then wailed, “My baby only had on a pair of pajamas and a blanket.”
Her husband guided her out of the room.
Patrick grimaced. Who the hell would take a newborn baby?
“Police. What’s the address of the emergency?” Jade Harlowe looked at the clock as she answered the nine-one-one call. It was seven in the morning.
“Help! My baby, my baby is gone,” a woman screamed hysterically into the phone. “God, please help me, my baby is gone.”
Jade’s heart raced as she typed Missing Baby! into the computer-aided dispatch system and alerted Autumn Baxter, the other dispatcher on duty, and Police Chief Carter.
Autumn brought the same screen up in front of her to monitor the conversation and update the officers sent to the scene as needed.
“Give me your address,” Jade said in a low, firm voice. She focused on remaining calm and professional. Calls involving children were especially difficult for her.
“I can’t think straight. Help me!”
“Ma’am, I need you to be calm so we can help you. Tell me the address where you are.”
“Twenty-five West Maple Street. Hurry!”
Jade typed the address into the CAD system, and a map popped up on the second of the dual computer screens showing where the address was in Livingston, New Mexico.
Autumn sent four cars to the scene.
“Is it a house or an apartment?” Jade asked.
“House, it’s a house. Someone’s stolen my baby!”
“How old is your baby?”
“Three days.”
“What’s the baby’s name?”
“Andrew, his name’s Andrew, and he’s gone. Someone’s stolen my baby!” The woman sobbed.
“Listen to me. What is your name?”
“Jasmine.”
“Jasmine, I’m getting help to you as fast as I can. Now I need more information to pass to the officers. Okay, Jasmine?” Jade continued to keep her voice low and firm, a technique she learned to helped callers calm down and listen.
“Yes, yes, oh God, hurry!”
“We’re hurrying,” Jade assured her. “Are you alone?”
“My husband’s here. He’s searching the yard, looking for our baby.” The woman’s sobs grew louder.
“Jasmine, stay with me and focus so we can help you. When did you last see the baby?”
“Um, last night, after we put him to bed.”
“What time?”
“I gave him a bottle at eight and put him to bed. Oh my God. Who would take my baby?”
Jade sat straighter. A newborn baby didn’t sleep eleven hours without a feeding. She had a bad feeling about this. “Was anyone in the house with you?”
“My husband, Rick.”
“Is it possible that relatives took the baby?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
“Good, you’re doing good, Jasmine. You’ll hear sirens soon, but I want you to stay on the phone with me.”
“I’ll go open the door.”
“That’s a good idea,” Jade said. “Have you see anything or anyone suspicious around your house?”
“No. But my husband said it looked as if someone broke in through the baby’s room. The screen was cut.”
“That’s good to know. You’re doing good, Jasmine.” Jade typed into the CAD, alerting the officers the husband was outside the house searching. “Is there a dog in the house or in the yard?”
“No.”
“Are there any weapons in the house?” Jade asked.
“No. We don’t own any weapons.”
“What’s Andrew’s race?”
“He’s white.”
“Weight and height?”
“Eight pounds and seven ounces, and twenty-two inches.”
Jade typed rapidly into the computer. “Hair and eye color?”
“Dark blond hair and blue eyes.”
“What is his complexion?”
“Why are you asking me all these questions? We need to search for my baby.” Jasmine’s tone sounded impatient.
“We will,” Jade assured her. “I’m preparing for an Amber Alert, should the officers request one.”
“Oh. He’s fair-skinned,” Jasmine answered, her voice quivering.
“What did he have on when you last saw him?”
“A green full-body pajamas.”
“Do you have any photos of the baby?”
“Yes, the hospital picture, and we’ve taken pictures with our iPhones to show relatives and friends.”
“Good. Have those pictures handy when the police arrive.” Jade’s fingers clacked on the keyboard.
“Okay.”
“Are there other people there who may have seen what happened?”
“No, only Rick and me.”
“How about your neighbors?”
“I haven’t talked to any of them.”
“Jasmine, what’s your last name?”
“Nichols. The police are here.”
“I will hang up now so you can talk to them. Try to stay calm and help them so they get as much information as possible.”
“Yes, I will. Thank you.” Jasmine disconnected the call.
Jade leaned back in her seat and took a deep breath. Who would take a baby away from her mother? Did someone actually take the baby, or was it more sinister than that? Did the parents do something to the baby and were reporting him missing to avoid suspicion?
Autumn interrupted her thoughts. “A missing baby, huh?”
“Yeah. I can’t imagine what it feels like to wake up in the morning and find your baby gone.” An escaping long strand of hair spilled over her forehead, and she pulled it back behind her ear.
“Our beloved police chief took off with Detective Clyde Davis. He sure is a hands-on kind of guy, isn’t he?”
“Yeah,” Jade agreed.
Chief Patrick Carter was eye candy, pure solid muscle, single, and young for a police chief. But he took his work quite seriously. She’d love to wake up to that hunk of a man next to her. Each time she was near him, her heart did flip-flops. She often fantasized about him, but she did her best to keep their interactions to a minimum. It didn’t stop her from dreaming about him though. She’d always been attracted to men in uniform. This man invaded her thoughts more and more each passing day.
“Are you busy this weekend?” Autumn asked.
Jade stood, stretched her legs and arched her back to relieve the cramped muscles and ache and pains. “Going to Oklahoma City on Saturday. I got things to do.”
“What have you got to do?” Autumn asked.
“Personal family business.”
“Is it an all-day thing?”
Jade ambled over to the only window in the communication call room and stared at the cars and people hurrying to and from the building. “It’s an eight-hour drive, and I’m going to put flowers on my parents’ grave and visit a few people. So, yeah, I’ll be gone all day.”
“If you get back early, call me. Bryan is working this weekend.”
“That’s a bummer.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Jade looked forward to two days off. She’d worked twelve days straight and picked up some nice overtime. She was fortunate to have a job that, for the most part, she liked, but she was tired.
* * * *
Patrick arrived with Clyde at the scene. The two officers who first responded motioned Patrick to the roped-off areas.
Patrick looked at the dilapidated, dirty house. Why wasn’t this house condemned? Located in the poorest section of town, the neighborhood was rough. Break-ins and robberies were a daily event. How could anyone live there? Siding boards were missing. The driveway had cracks throughout the pavement with weeds growing in them. The roof of the house looked like it had sprung a few leaks.
Patrick paused to survey the street and noticed it was empty. He asked the officer, “Do you think the parents really don’t know where the baby is?”
“They say they don’t, and they seem pretty upset. They called relatives, and no one they contacted had any information.”
“Why don’t you and Ramsey check with the neighbors. See if anyone heard or saw anything suspicious.”
“Will do.”
Patrick and his detective entered the home and strode to the corner where the young mother and father stood. The mother quietly sobbed. Patrick surveyed the area. The house looked as shabby on the inside as the outside. An ancient chair and couch sat in the living room, with an old television and one lamp. He saw holes in the wall, and the plaster had come off. A baby’s bouncing chair and rattles on the floor. Old appliances and a rickety dining room table and chairs in the kitchen.
“Hello, I’m Patrick Carter, Chief of Police, and this is Detective Clyde Davis.” Patrick shook hands with the young man who stood before him.
“I’m Rick Nichols, and this is my wife, Jasmine.”
“Let’s sit at the kitchen table and you can tell me what happened,” Patrick suggested calmly.
Rick nodded and led his wife into the kitchen. Patrick and Clyde followed.
After they were all seated, Patrick said, “Tell me the last time you saw your baby and what you were doing.”
Jasmine spoke first. “I finished nursing him and put him to bed about eight o’clock last night. He was sound asleep.”
“Did you get up during the night to check on him, or change his diaper?”
“No. I went to sleep after I got him settled, and I slept like a log. The first two nights, he was up a lot. But he seemed to settle in last night, and as far as I know, he didn’t wake up during the night.”
Newborns didn’t normally sleep all night, did they? “What about you?” Patrick fixed his gaze on Rick.
“I went to bed shortly after Jasmine did. It was so hot. We had this noisy fan on. That may be why we heard nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, whoever broke into the bedroom window, we wouldn’t hear them because we had the fan on.”
“When did you wake up and what did you do?” Clyde asked Jasmine.
“It was six forty-five. I realized I hadn’t heard the baby at any time during the night, and I jumped out of bed and ran into his bedroom. He wasn’t in his crib. I woke Rick up and asked him where Andy was. He got up and we searched the house. Rick got dressed to go outside. He came back to the baby’s room. That’s when he told me the screen was cut.”
“She called nine-one-one,” Rick added.
Patrick studied the couple again. If they were involved in the baby’s disappearance, what would they gain from it? “Have you checked with all your relatives?”
“Most everyone, we checked with our closest relatives while your officers walked around the house.”
“We need the names of every relative and friend, phone numbers and addresses. We’ll investigate everyone and everything.”
Jasmine stood and went to the counter. She pulled a drawer open, grabbed a pen and paper, and wrote down the information.
“What’s the baby’s name, and do you have a photo of him?” Clyde asked.
“Yes, in the living room. I’ll get them.” Rick went to get the folder and returned to the kitchen. “His name is Andrew. We call him Andy. Here are the photos.”
Patrick flipped through the pictures.
“We’ll need to keep one of these for a while,” Clyde said. “We’ll be issuing an Amber Alert, and we also need to search the house and property, but before we do that, please sign the Consent To Search form.” He filled in the form attached to the clipboard. He handed it to the couple, and they signed it.
“We’re going to look in the baby’s room,” Patrick said.
Patrick and Clyde stood and put on latex gloves, then headed to the baby’s room. They scanned the room before they entered. Patrick noticed the baby’s crib had a sheet on it and a pillow, no blanket. He looked at the changing table and then opened the dresser drawers and looked inside them. Nothing appeared out of place.
“I’ll call CSI to lift fingerprints and other evidence,” Patrick said.
“Yeah. Also we need to ask the parents if any baby clothes were taken,” Clyde said.
“The baby’s mother can search through the clothes after CSI gets done.”
Patrick tugged his iPhone from his back pocket and called the station.
“Jade, this is Chief Carter. Start the Amber Alert and do a background check on Jasmine and Rick Nichols.”
“Will do,” Jade replied.
Next, Patrick called CSI and requested a team to come out and process the scene. After disconnecting the call, Patrick went to the window where Clyde stood.
Clyde lifted the curtain. “The window was pried opened and the screen was cut. There’s tape on the window and fresh footprints on the ground outside.” He glanced at the carpet. “You’d think we would see dirt on the bedroom floor if the baby was taken through the window. I have a hard time believing the baby wouldn’t cry and wake up the parents.”
Patrick surveyed the area under the window. “We’ll have CSI make a plaster mold of the footprints. Do newborns sleep all night?”
Clyde looked under the baby’s crib. “Normally newborns don’t sleep the whole night. So it happened late last night or very early this morning.”
They moved slowly through the other rooms, looking for evidence of anything out of place or knocked over. Not seeing anything, they returned to the kitchen. The couple still wore their nightclothes. Jasmine shook uncontrollably. Patrick noticed that Rick had a nervous tic in his legs, and he ran his hand through his hair. Although shaken, nothing about them stood out to Patrick indicating they were in any way responsible for the missing baby.
“CSI will be here to gather evidence in a half hour. I have a few more questions to ask, if you don’t mind,” Patrick said, and the couple nodded. “Do you have any problems with relatives or friends, neighbors, acquaintances? Any person who might be angry at you, or who you are angry at?”
Jasmine and Rick glanced at each other, then back at Patrick. “No. Not that we know of,” Rick said.
“Are you sure?”
Jasmine nodded. The conversation paused for a few minutes as she broke down and sobbed. Her husband reached out to console her. “I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her tears. “I just want my son back.”
Officers David Womack and Randy Ramsey entered the house and walked into the kitchen. “The neighbors say they didn’t see or hear anything last night or this morning,” Officer Womack reported.
Patrick opened the kitchen door and turned the knob, looking for any signs of forced entry. “Were the doors locked?” he asked the couple.
“Yes, we keep the doors locked at all times. This isn’t a safe neighborhood,” Rick answered.
Tape on the window, cut screen and footprints, no entry through the doors. It was a planned kidnapping.
“After CSI completes their job, we need to do two things. First, I want you to check to see if any of the baby’s stuff is missing. Secondly, I want the two of you to come down to the station for fingerprints and to take a lie detector test. This is standard procedure and will help us to eliminate you as suspects.”
Jasmine looked nervously at Rick, then nodded.
Patrick strode to the kitchen window and saw several trees in the back yard. He motioned for the officers to follow him into the living room.
“Walk the parameter of the back yard. Look for a grave or disturbed soil,” Patrick said quietly.
Clyde, along with Officers Womack and Ramsey, went outside and walked to the end of the lot.
“It’s not money they were after—these people have none,” Patrick mumbled to himself.
He looked outside the front door. People had arrived and were talking among themselves and with the officers who had cordoned off the area.
He went back to the kitchen. “I want to stress the importance of notifying our department should you get any calls asking for a ransom. If they call, they will tell you not to go to the police, but you need to let us know immediately. We can deal with these things discreetly. You must not discuss this situation with anyone. We don’t want any information leaked to the press that the kidnapper could use. Do you understand?”
“Even to our family?” Jasmine asked.
“Yes, even to your family. Just tell them the baby is missing, and we’re doing the best we can to find him. If they press you for more information, direct them to Detective Davis or me.”
Jasmine and Rick nodded but said nothing more.
The state’s CSI unit pulled in front of the house. Five CSI technicians donned their white investigative clothing. The leader of the group, Ed Hanson, approached. Patrick met him on the front porch.
“Hello, Patrick. What do we have today?”
“Hey, Ed. We got a missing newborn.” He went on to explain what happened and what they had so far.
“Any ransom demands?”
“Not yet.” His hunch said there wouldn’t be. “Here’s the signed Consent to Search form.”
“Okay. Ready everyone?” Ed asked the team.
They nodded and went to work to gather evidence.
Patrick led the parents outside by the police car so CSI could process the scene. When CSI finished, Patrick led Jasmine and Rick to the baby’s nursery to see if anything was missing or out of place.
After looking through everything in the nursery, Jasmine turned and shook her head at Patrick, then wailed, “My baby only had on a pair of pajamas and a blanket.”
Her husband guided her out of the room.
Patrick grimaced. Who the hell would take a newborn baby?
