Ties That Bind

Chapter 46

HOW COULD SHE NOT HAVE NOTICED BEFORE? The link between the victims had been right in front of her. Of course, she had to remind herself it was just a hunch.

She had to get to Terry's and traffic, as usual, wasn't being cooperative in that respect. It seemed like she got stopped at every light. Part of her was tempted to turn the lights on and plow through the intersections.

Finally reaching his driveway, she pulled in and quickly regretted her timing.

Annabelle stormed out of the front screen door with such force that the door opened almost far enough for the back of it to touch the wall of the house.

Terry hurried behind her. "Anna."

She spun to face him. "I've had enough, Terry. Enough." Annabelle rushed down the stairs. "I'll be at Mom's."

Madison felt out of place.

As Annabelle rushed by she gave a silent look to Madison, communicating the depth of anger raging in her. Madison pulled the car out onto the road so Annabelle could back out.

Madison huffed it up the steps but didn't reach the door in time. It shut in front of her, but she flung it open and followed Terry to the back of the house.

"What are you doing here?" He opened the fridge, took out a beer, snapped the top off, and gulped it back.

Madison stood there watching him. Chalk it up to bad timing. At this point, the tension escalating between them occupied the air.

"I'll come back." She offered it with her words, but she didn't want to. The news, the link between the victims she wanted to share, was too monumental to wait.

The bottle knocked against the counter when he set it down. He opened the fridge and had another by the neck when he asked, "You want one?"

She shook her head.

"Right, you're the little freak who doesn't care for beer." It didn't stop him from nearly draining a second bottle.

He kicked the door to the fridge shut with his foot and headed toward the living room.

She followed him and took a seat on a facing couch. He settled into an armchair, the hand holding the beer resting on the arm.

"So I see your offer to come back wasn't sincere." He lifted the bottle to his lips.

"I need to tell you something."

"Oh God, don't tell me it's about Ethan. Shit, Madison, let it rest."

For Terry to use her full name, and that four-letter word, he was in genuine pain. He was trying to mask it with anger. Maybe she could put her news to the side for a second. "You going to be okay?"

Twenty seconds later, "Yeah." He drained the rest of his beer and set the bottle on the table beside him. "What is it with you women? You think if you pitch a fit things will turn out in your favor. You bat your little eyelashes and feel we should cater to your every whim." His words carried lightheartedness to them but also bitterness.

Madison didn't have an answer for that. "She'll be back."

He shrugged his shoulders, which stripped away his pretense and revealed the intensity of his pain. "We'll see."

The selfish and impatient part of her wanted to proceed with her discovery, but she opted for silence instead.

"Okay, Maddy, let me have it. You're going to anyway."

"I conducted a background check on Evelyn Younge. Turns out she was married before to some guy who would beat her. She ended up pregnant about the same time the marriage ended. Her record shows she gave birth to two sons, thirty-two years ago. The boy's names were Ethan and Evan Frost. She gave the boys her maiden name, disowning them from their biological father. One was given up for adoption. Where that was is locked."

"So you want me to believe Ethan has an identical twin? We have the wrong one." He lifted his bottle but put it down when he realized it was empty.

"What's so hard to believe about that? Maybe this kid found out about his twin, was jealous of his lifestyle?"

"So he framed him for murder?"

"We've come across stranger situations."

"You've got to let this go, Maddy. It doesn't prove anything. So what? Evelyn gives a baby up, we still don't know where, or how it connects to the other victims."

"Here's the thing. Remember Heather's parents said that they found out their daughter gave a baby up for adoption? Her background shows a birth record at the age of seventeen. I did a background on Laura, and she gave birth when she sixteen. Her baby went into the adoption system as well."

"So you think somehow they were all connected?"

"Evan was in the system. Our vics gave up their babies." Madison went to get off the couch. "And I know where. I made a call. The Nguyens did all the searching years ago. Haven of Hope. The same—"

"Letters in the pendant."

"Exactly. We need to confirm that Evelyn's other son and Laura were also connected to this orphanage. I asked the Saunders, but they refused to discuss it. They confirmed her teenage pregnancy but said Laura had come to terms with it, and so had they."

"What do you suggest we do about this?"

Madison could tell he wasn't fully on board with her line of thinking. She shared the discrepancies in the photograph.

"If, and I add if, that is even a remote possibility, it's going to be hard to prove," Terry said.

"What part of this don't you get? Ethan is not Photo Guy."

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