Page 23 of Silent Echo
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
C harlotte spent a sleepless night lying next to her phone, willing it to ring with good news, but it remained silent.
She got dressed and went down to the restaurant for coffee.
She thought she’d lose her mind if she stayed in the hotel room for another minute.
She texted Eli that she was already in a meeting and would call him later that afternoon.
She was in no mood to talk to him and make up more lies about her trip.
Penelope was now going by the name Cathy Miller.
She’d deliberately chosen a very generic name.
The fact that she’d taken on a new identity meant she was well aware of what she was doing.
She wasn’t laboring under the delusion that Sebastion belonged to her.
Instead, she had executed a plan to kidnap and keep him.
Charlotte couldn’t fathom how someone could be so cruel.
To allow her to believe that her son was dead.
If Penelope was that cold and calculating, who knew what she might do to Sebastion if she found out that they were close to finding her.
She drank two cups of coffee, her mind imagining all sorts of scenarios, when finally, her phone rang. She got up to find a spot to talk more privately.
“Did you find her?” Charlotte asked in lieu of a hello.
“Not yet. We tracked her cell phone, which was active until noon yesterday. Nothing since then. I’m assuming she bought a burner.
We found her car in a parking lot by a Walmart.
We’re checking the security cameras in the area to see if someone picked her up or if she called for a car.
I’ve got some agents reviewing the footage now. ”
“So now what? She dumped her phone and her car?”
“I’m going to speak with her sister. The school gave me her information. She was listed as Penelope’s next of kin.”
“I want to go with you.”
“Absolutely not!”
“Hear me out. Penelope already knows we’re on to her, so there’s no risk of my revealing that.
The sister might respond better if I’m there.
Who knows what Penelope has told her. Remember what Rebecca said about the story of Sebastion’s real mom being a drug addict and dangerous?
If she sees for herself that I’m not that, she might tell us the truth. ”
“I don’t know—”
“Honestly, what could it hurt at this point? Are you confident that you’ll be able to convince her that Penelope was lying? I really think I need to be there.”
Charlotte heard Agent Preston sigh. “All right. I’ll swing by and get you. Be there in fifteen.”
Charlotte went to her photo album on her phone and scrolled through, finding as many pictures of her and Sebastion as she could.
She’d show them all to Penelope’s sister as proof that she’d been a good mother to him.
She stopped and ran her finger over a photo of the two of them—Sebastion sitting on her lap.
She missed him so much it hurt. She ached to hold him again, to kiss his cheek, and to inhale the sweetness of his skin.
Her baby. Dare she believe that she might bring him home?