Chapter 6 - THE HOUSE WITH NO BABY PHOTOS
They relocated Ashley and Emily to a secure county facility under federal supervision.
Ashley’s reunion with her father destroyed the last easy version of the story.
When Andrew entered the room, Ashley jumped from the bed and ran despite the IV line taped to her arm.
“Daddy!”
Andrew caught her.
She hit his chest with both fists.
“You said thirty minutes!”
“I know.”
“You lied!”
“I know.”
She cried into his shirt.
Andrew held her until she stopped fighting.
Then Emily entered.
Ashley stared.
For a long time neither girl moved.
Finally Ashley whispered,
“You’re real.”
Emily nodded.
“So are you.”
The adults turned away while the twins hugged.
Natalie did not.
She watched Andrew.
His relief was real.
So was his fear.
That evening, federal agents took over the Hawthorne investigation.
The county sheriff tried to keep Natalie outside the task force.
Marcus refused.
“You want the officer named in planted evidence removed from the investigation?” he asked. “That’s exactly why she stays.”
By midnight, investigators discovered something disturbing in Andrew’s home.
There were photographs of Ashley everywhere.
First birthday.
Christmas.
Kindergarten.
Soccer.
Missing entirely were baby photographs from the first eight months of her life.
Natalie confronted Andrew.
“What happened during those months?”
His face changed.
“Ashley was sick.”
“With what?”
“They never gave me a clear diagnosis.”
“She spent eight months in and out of hospitals?”
“Yes.”
“Which hospitals?”
He hesitated.
“Hawthorne-affiliated clinics.”
Natalie stared.
Andrew understood.
“You think they did something to Ashley.”
“I think there’s a reason her records say Infant B.”
Andrew sat slowly.
Rebecca’s personal notes, which Andrew had kept in a locked toolbox, referred repeatedly to “A” and “B.”
But not always consistently.
Sometimes “A sleeps well.”
Sometimes “B has fever.”
Sometimes “A has the birthmark.”
Ashley had a birthmark behind her right ear.
Emily did not.
In Rebecca’s notes, the birthmark belonged to Infant A.
Yet Ashley’s bracelet identified her as Infant B.
“What if the bracelets were switched?” Marcus asked.
Andrew shook his head.
“That doesn’t matter. They’re twins.”
“It matters if one of the girls isn’t your daughter.”
Andrew stared at him.
No one spoke.
Helen requested access to the records recovered from Room 212 at Camp Hawthorne.
Most files were old.
Many damaged.
One binder contained handwritten code numbers.
P-214.
B-214.
R-214.
Three children tied to the Parker file.
Not two.
Natalie felt the room narrow.
“Rebecca had triplets?”
Helen shook her head.
“No.”
“Then what’s the third code?”
“I don’t know.”
The binder listed dates.
Ashley’s birthday.
Three separate transfers within forty-eight hours.
A female infant transferred to neonatal observation.
A female infant transferred to private recovery.
A third infant labeled only:
REPLACEMENT PENDING.
Andrew read the words.
“What the hell does that mean?”
No one answered.
Later that night, Natalie went back through photographs of the Parker house.
Something bothered her.
The living-room family portrait.
Andrew.
Rebecca.
Ashley at age three.
Behind them, on the mantel, a smaller framed picture was visible.
Natalie zoomed in.
Rebecca was holding a baby.
Not Ashley.
The infant had a dark mark near the left eyebrow.
Neither Ashley nor Emily had one.
Natalie called Andrew.
“Who is the baby in the picture on your mantel?”
Silence.
“What picture?”
She sent it.
Twenty seconds passed.
Then Andrew whispered,
“I’ve never seen that photograph before.”
Natalie looked at the timestamp.
The crime-scene image had been taken after Ashley was removed from the house.
May you like
Someone had entered the Parker home during the emergency response.
And left a photograph behind.
