Tim reached in and pulled out a handful and quickly looked through them. “That’s what it looks like so far! This is amazing! We could learn so much!”
Anna nodded slowly. It was great, but it didn’t help find her parents. Tim stopped looking through the pages and noticed that she wasn’t as excited as he was about their discovery and immediately felt horrible. “I’m sorry, Anna. This isn’t important now. We’ll look through these later, once your parents are safe.”
Anna looked up from the spot she was staring at and before she could respond to what time said, something caught her eye. “What is that? Is that a paper clip?” she asked, pointing to the center of the pile Tim hadn’t yet looked at.
Tim separated the pages and saw that it was, in fact, a paper clip. It was another letter from Eimaj but attached to it was an envelope and another piece of paper that was clearly different. It looked like a piece of paper torn out of a notebook. He pulled the paper clip off as he quickly read the letter. The envelope fluttered to the tabletop. He stood up quickly with the pages still clutched in his hand. Not wanting to get ahead of himself, he quickly flipped to the torn notebook page. As he read what was written on the page, he knew they had found what they were looking for. When he reached the bottom, he paused. The letter was signed by “A.J. King”. His confidence waned and his shoulders slumped. “I thought this was it. But it’s not signed by Aaron. It some guy named A.J. I guess the A could stand for Aaron, but his last name is King, not Cooper like Adam’s,” Tim said, thinking out loud, “I’m going to go put those boxes in the car now. We can look at them at home with everyone’s help.”
As he stood up, he tossed the papers on the table, but before he could move away, Anna was clenching his arm. Tim looked down at her in surprise. Eyes wide, she looked at him and whispered, “A.J. King?”
Before he could answer she tore her hand away and snatched the envelope on the table. She stared at it closely, then dropped it, muttering to herself. “I saw it there, but it made no sense, but now it does, but how?”
She looked at Tim, who was watching her in concern. “You don’t get it,” she said picking up the envelope and the letter. “A.J. King and the return address! Come on, we need to go.”
Anna raced back to the car, barely giving him time to close and lock the storage unit. She had run to the driver’s seat and already had the car on and in drive. He slipped into the passenger seat, and she thrust the envelope at him. He looked at it and saw the return address was only a few blocks from their house. He still didn’t understand why Anna was freaking out. As she drove and the houses flew past it finally hit him. “Oh my Gosh!”
Anna glanced at him then back to the road. “It took you long enough. I can’t believe it. It can’t be true, but it’s too much of a coincidence! We have to check!”
Suddenly, she slammed on the brakes and threw the car into park. They were barely parked next to the curb, but she was out of the car and running to the front door. Tim swore and ran after her. “Anna, wait! We need a plan!”
It was too late. Anna was at the front door and banging on it, crazed. “My parents could be in this house. I need to know!”
No one answered the door. She started looking around, trying to find a hidden key. “Anna, dear, is that you?”
Anna spun around and Tim froze. Anna finally spotted who had spoken. “Oh! Mrs. O’Shea, I didn’t see you sitting over there.”
Mrs. O’Shea smiled from her porch next door. “I thought it was you, dear, but my eyes aren’t what they used to be! I don’t think anyone is home though, dear,” she said pointing towards the house behind them, “Actually, I haven’t seen anyone since the day before yesterday.”
Anna and Tim glance at each other. Thursday had been the last day she’d seen her parents. They’d left for the storage unit to look for the laptop. She wondered when they had been taken. Had it been before they left to find Goldie? Had she still been in the house? Could she have saved them? Lost in her thoughts, Anna was surprised when Tim opened the door to the car. He had apparently led her away from the house. She twisted to go back. “Tim, we need to wait here for him. He has to come back at some point! My parents could be in there right now!”
Tim shook his head. “No. We need to go fill everyone in on what we now know. Call him. If he
answers don’t let him know you suspect him. If you invite him over and he comes, we’ll have the advantage.”
“But we still won’t know where my parents are.”
“We’ll find them, Anna. Don’t worry.”
CHAPTER FIFTY
“I can’t believe it!” Adam exclaimed, “Right in front of me, all this time.”
Adam paced back and forth through the sitting room. “We’re all shocked, son,” Grandpa Cire said, trying to calm him down.
“No one else is related to him! How could I have not known?”
Myra even tried to help. “You’re too young to have a child that old, sweetheart. Since you and Aaron are twins it makes sense you wouldn’t think of it. You had no way of knowing!”
Anna had finally had enough. “It doesn’t matter! I didn’t know. It never even crossed my mind! It’s not something you could randomly guess or figure out! Lamenting over how we were all blind does not help the fact that his phone’s been disconnected. I have no way
