“Your house is gorgeous,” I said after the perky brunette invited me in.
“Thanks. Matt and I took our time and made sure the home we built would be exactly what we wanted and needed for our growing family.” She motioned with her hand. “Please, do come in, and we’ll have a chat.”
After she showed me to the sunroom and offered me a seat, she asked if I wanted iced tea. When I declined, she asked what sort of information I was looking for. I share the story of my client and her unconventional birth, and then I explained how my client suspected the bracelet would help her find her biological mother and her desire to do so.
“Well, I can start off by letting you know that I didn’t have a child out of wedlock, nor did I abandon a child in a church, so you can cross my name off the list.” She paused to really look over the remaining names. “Caroline Grant was a summer resident back in the nineties. Her family owned a vacation house in the area, and Caroline and her mother and brothers would come for a couple months every summer. I won’t say we were super close, but we did have interests in common. We both liked to run, and we both liked to read. We also both volunteered for several different events. The carnival and movie night and a few others.”
It sounded as if Carolyn checked quite a few boxes if she was involved in both the Bay to Boardwalk Run and Brewster’s Books Reading Challenge, and she volunteered for the movie and even the carnival. “So Carolyn would come for a couple months and then go home?” I asked.
“Yes. Carolyn’s family lived in Seattle.”
“Do you remember seeing Carolyn during the summer of nineteen ninety-six?”
“Sure. Caroline was going to be a senior the following year, and so was I. We were both excited about what the future might bring and sad to see our high school years coming to an end.”
“Did you see her in the summer of nineteen ninety-seven?”
She slowly shook her head. “No. I don’t think she came to Gooseberry Bay that year. I seem to remember something about a graduation trip with some friends.”
“And after that?”
“I do remember running into her a few times during the next years. Carolyn never came back for the whole summer like she had when she was a kid, but her parents still owned the vacation house, so she came for long weekends every now and then.” She paused and then continued. “I think the family sold the house after their youngest son graduated a few years later.”
The baby was abandoned in a church just north of Seattle. It was beginning to look as if Carolyn might be the woman we were looking for. Brandy had no idea how to get ahold of her at this point, and she had no idea if she’d married and changed her last name. Brandy suggested I speak to a woman named Valerie Craig, who still lived in the area. According to Brandy, Valerie had been closer to Carolyn than she’d been during their teen years and thus was more apt to have kept in touch with her after she graduated from high school. Brandy didn’t have contact information for Valerie but suggested that I look her up through the high school alumni association. Apparently, Valerie was active in high school sports as a booster. I thought of Silvia, who worked at the high school and decided to start with her. If she knew how to get ahold of Valerie, that seemed to be the easiest way to go about contacting the woman.
As it turned out, Silvia did have a phone number for Valerie, so I called and asked Valerie if we could chat. She worked at the local sewing and quilting store. She informed me that she’d be there until three, and if I wanted to speak to her, I could show up there at any point until she was off for the day.
“Yes, I knew Caroline fairly well back in the nineties,” Valerie confirmed after I’d filled her in on the reason for my questions. “You indicated that Brandy already explained that she was a summer-only resident. Her family lived in Seattle but owned a home in the area. Caroline’s mother and brothers came to Gooseberry Bay every summer from about the time school let out until a couple weeks before they went back for the fall semester. During the months they were here in town, Caroline and I hung out almost every day.”
“Brandy mentioned that Caroline ran in the same run she had and managed to meet the top goal presented by Brewster’s Books for the reading challenge.”
“That’s right. Caroline was really into running and reading. And she was fast. I think she actually won the Bay to Boardwalk Run for her age group that last year she was here before graduation.”
“Wow. That’s wonderful. There were a lot of entrants.”
“It used to be a really popular event. Folks came from all over the state.”
“Brandy mentioned that Caroline also enjoyed volunteering for local events such as the movie night and the carnival.”
“We both did. If I’m perfectly honest, I wasn’t really into running or reading, but I did like to help out, so Caroline and I pitched in where we could. Of course, that final summer, Caroline met Justin, and the time the two of
