Harm's Reach

37

Ren slapped the desk. ‘You are shitting me. What the fuck? How does that work? How could he just let me take a swab like that?’

‘Mix-up at the fertility clinic?’ said Janine. ‘Maybe this will be news to him too.’

‘In that case we may just have found our motive...’ said Ren. ‘The baby was the target.’

‘If the Princes found out that the lab had screwed up and the baby was not Robert’s, they could have wanted to end the pregnancy.’

‘They could have told Laura Flynn about the mistake, they could have asked her to have a termination...’ said Ren. ‘Maybe that was why she was researching on the neighbor’s computer.’

‘And she could have run away if that’s not what she wanted,’ said Janine.

‘There’s another possibility here,’ said Ren. ‘What if there was a fertility problem with Robert Prince, but he didn’t want to admit that to his wife? He pays off the lab, they take care of the rest.’

‘Hmm,’ said Janine. ‘What if he wanted to leave his wife? If there’s no pre-nup, the baby would be the only thing tying them together...’

‘If he really is a staunch Catholic, he won’t believe in divorce, so it’s very likely he didn’t have a pre-nup,’ said Ren. ‘Wow, if you really wanted to excel at gold-digging, make sure your target is anti-divorce.’

‘He could have met someone new,’ said Janine.

‘If it’s a straightforward case of the lab screwing up,’ said Ren, ‘could Laura Flynn have found out in some way without the Princes knowing?’

‘Maybe,’ said Janine. ‘Could that happen?’

‘What if the lab realized their mistake and approached Laura to cover it up, tried to pay her off, instead of having to face Robert Prince? Maybe she didn’t agree. Maybe they were never going to tell anyone. Maybe someone was hired to drive her off the road, make it look like an accident. It didn’t work, so they were forced to do something else.’

‘If Laura Flynn had died in an accident, or even if she had survived, but lost the baby,’ said Janine, ‘the lab’s mistake would never have come to light — it would have been unlikely that any testing would have been done on the fetus.’

‘The fertility industry is big business,’ said Ren. ‘The clinic that did this would have had a lot to lose by this going public. Can you imagine? If they can’t get it right for a high-profile couple like the Princes, how is a regular couple — who’ve used all their life savings or remortgaged their home — going to stand a chance?’

‘What if Robert Prince was told, then he told Laura, but she wanted to keep the baby?’ She paused. ‘Then what about the internet search into abortion clinics? Unless that was him... but I’m not really feeling that.’

‘How will we work this?’ said Janine.

‘I’m going to arm myself with some religious research and give that lying man a call,’ said Ren.

‘Speaking of religion... I have an interesting one for you. You know I watched those Jesse Coombes videos. Remember the comment about the flames underneath one of them? Her username was worriedmom354.’

‘I love the insight the numerics brings,’ said Ren. ‘We know that there is a minimum 354 worried moms out there. Who knows how many more? “We are now boarding Worried Moms 294 through 327”... Yes, though, sorry... what about her?’

‘I did a couple more searches and she’s shown up on other sites,’ said Janine. ‘And commented on the Coombes again too; none of them favorable. She’s from Texas. She seems to know them personally. There’s nothing specific enough that will get our bosses to put us on a flight there, but I’ve emailed you her details — maybe you can get someone from the Dallas field office to go talk to her. Her name is Terry Ragland, she’s a nurse, doesn’t seem too crazy, but definitely has an issue with the Coombes. Her posts about them specifically start about two years ago. Her most recent one was last week. The stand-out phrase for me was “deviant firestarting sociopath”.’

Ren got off the phone and looked up the Dallas field office. She got an email address for one of the Assistant Special Agents in Charge and forwarded Terry Ragland’s postings and contact details.

Ren spent the next half hour researching the Catholic Church’s teachings on surrogacy, before she called Robert Prince.

Holy shit do I have some shocks for you, Robert Prince.

He picked up immediately. ‘Agent Bryce,’ he said.

‘Hello, Mr Prince, I would like to set up a meeting.’

‘I’m flying into Denver in the morning,’ said Robert. ‘We can meet then. But I don’t want anyone else present. I presume this is about the results of the paternity test...’