The Truth About Comfort Cove

Tried to picture witnesses and suspects and…

“Ramsey?” Her voice wavered.

“Yeah, Luce, I’m right here.”

“Emma Sanderson. She’s my sister, Ramsey. She’s my big

sister.” She was looking at him, but couldn’t really see him through the big pools of tears in her eyes. She couldn’t see him in her mind’s eye, either. “It wasn’t Allie who was calling to me all these years. It was Emma!”

R amsey got a call from Bill Mendholson shortly after he and Lucy arrived at the seashore. They were sitting in a roadside park just outside of Comfort Cove. During the tourist season, the park, with its cliffside location, was a popular lookout point. Today, in spite of the glorious ocean sunset, they ha

d the place to themselves.

“It’s Bill, I have to take this,” he told Lucy, who hadn’t said ten words since they’d left Rose Sanderson’s home. She’d cried a little. Softly. But otherwise she’d sat quietly beside him. He was about ready to call Dr. Zimmerman.

“Miller.” He picked up the call, getting out of the car so that he could speak openly without risking upsetting Lucy.

When he heard the passenger door open, he knew that he’d sold her short. She came up beside him as Bill said, “We got a hit on Colton. He’s in Aurora. Just paid for gas with his debit card.”

Ramsey quickly told his mentor about the UC interviews. He told him to get uniforms out to watch Brown and Professor Beck. And to cover the Buckley place. “He knows we’re on to him.”

“We’ve got someone in Boston, meeting Whittier’s plane. It was delayed.”

Ramsey would have liked to have been there for that one. But the end result could have gotten the case thrown out of court. He wouldn’t have made a good arrest.

“Put someone on Cal Whittier, too,” Ramsey said. “I’m fairly certain he’s innocent, but he’s also loyal to his father. He’s staying at the Coastside.”

“We sent someone over while Lucy…I’m sorry, Claire… was still unconscious.”

“Her name’s Lucy,” Ramsey said, taking his cue from Dr. Zimmerman.

When he hung up from the other detective, Ramsey could not avoid the look in Lucy’s eye. She wanted to know everything.

And so he told her.

Her face went blank. She was looking at him, but not seeing him. Ramsey’s stomach started to burn.

“You said Jack’s girlfriend at UC was Haley Sanders.”

“That’s right.” And then he knew, too.

“Sandy Hayes. My…not mother. Haley Sanders. Sandy Hayes. He couldn’t have her. He couldn’t name her. But he couldn’t desert her, either. Haley Sanders is Sandy Hayes. He transposed her names—and came up with a variation of Sanderson. Even then, his guilt was coming through. Haley Sanders. Sandy Hayes.”

“Jack Colton’s weakness.”

“Why didn’t we get it sooner?”

“Because we were too close to the case.”

“My mom…Sandy…she got me from Jack. All this time… she knew I was stolen, that another woman was grieving for me just as she grieved for Allie. I should have gotten that before now, huh?”

She stumbled and he held her up, bringing her body up against his. “Or…” he said, leading her back to the car. “It’s as we thought and he found out about Gladys Buckley, sold you to her, who gave you to Sandy.” He didn’t know what to do except bring her focus to the case. “You said that Gladys was rocked by the story of your mother’s rape. The loss of her daughter. And that your mother later contacted her. Maybe she didn’t contact her looking for Allie, but was in contact with her to get you. Maybe when Frank called with a toddler, instead of a baby, she thought of Sandy and made a quick pass-off.”

“So my mom…Sandy…doesn’t know that I was abducted?”

This wasn’t just theory. Wasn’t just a case. “I don’t know, Luce.”

But he was going to find out.