Page 97 of Facing the Enemy

“I don’t read any discomfort.” Risa tilted her head. “Maybe she wanted a few hours away from the center.”

“Let’s find out. Are you okay with me leading out?” I said.

Risa, who appeared more rested than the previous night, gestured to the door. “Fine with me.”

Inside the interview room, I introduced myself and Risa, although I’d met Myra the day Jack and I first interviewed Anna Wright. Risa hadn’t met Myra due to her church’s volunteer work taking place on the weekends.

“Is this about the FBI’s investigation of the Phan sisters’ deaths?” Myra clasped her hands on the table.

“Yes,” I said, and we went through the preliminaries. “How well did you know Hai?”

“Not well. She was trying to learn English, but the task seemed sohard. I felt sorry for her, and she had a difficult pregnancy. Sick nearly every day and almost lost her baby. But she helped around the home and always had a sunny disposition.” Myra swiped at a tear. “She lived at the maternity home for nearly four months. I’m surprised since family is important to Vietnamese culture. According to her sister, Suzi, the baby’s father abused her. Hai needed a safe place.”

“Do you know in what way? Physically or mentally?”

“Suzi said he wanted her to abort, and she refused. He beat her. My guess is he wanted Hai but not the responsibility of a child.”

“But she returned to the same environment.”

“I asked Suzi about that, and she said family and friends had told the baby’s father to leave her alone.” Myra paused. “The question in my mind has to do with why he was in the kitchen with the sisters when they were killed.”

“I thought he worked there.”

Myra shook her head. “According to Suzi, he’d been fired for stealing.”

“Any theories?” I said.

“No, sir. I hesitate repeating what Suzi told me when it may or may not be true.”

So far, I believed Myra had given an accurate statement. I framed the questions she might not want to answer. “Ms. Wright shared with us that someone approached Hai about selling her baby, and she refused.”

“Anna shared the same with me after Suzi confided in her. According to Anna, via Suzi, so I can’t verify this, the baby’s father wanted her to follow through.”

“Do you have any idea why he was in the restaurant’s kitchen when the sisters were killed?”

“None other than now that someone had taken the baby, he wanted her back.”

“It’s odd he’d be there when the sisters were killed. Unless he arranged it, and the killers didn’t trust him.”

Myra glanced away, then back to him. “Anna and I have cried a lot of tears for our birth mothers, but with those two sweet ladies, we are grieving for their senseless deaths.”

“Have you heard of other situations in which a birth mother was offered money for her baby?”

Myra closed her eyes, then opened them, not dramatically, but more of her facing reality. “Unfortunately, yes. A young woman lives at Healing and Hope because she has nowhere to go and no money. We offer classes and present them with skills and job opportunities, but the responsibility of not only taking care of themselves but also a baby is often overwhelming.”

“How many of these cases have you seen?”

Myra swallowed hard. “Too many. Anna and I do our best to shut down those situations, but unfortunately the choice of giving up a baby to a licensed adoption agency or giving up a baby for a price is tempting.”

“How do those seeking to victimize the woman learn about your birth mothers?” I had my own conclusions and data, yet I wanted to hear hers.

“I’d say predominantly the waiting rooms of medical clinics. The predators form a relationship with the birth mothers to gain their trust. We use just one clinic, but other patients and doctor’s offices are housed there too. That is how a doctor worked a few years ago until he was arrested and sent to prison.”

“It seems like someone could access your intake records and select the resident who appeared most vulnerable.”

Myra startled. “Are you accusing me? Or one of the other employees or volunteers?”

“No, ma’am. I’m simply stating a fact.”