Hello There, Stranger

Part 26

The woman stared at the sleeping child inside the pretty adorned crib that she selected, her eyes softened, and she was tempted to caress his dark hair, she touched his little hand, and it readily clasped her finger without waking up, the baby stirred, and she immediately tapped his legs gently, humming a lullaby. She smiled while a sense of warmth washed over her.

"You are an adorable little angel" she whispered while she continued to sit there and watched Kayne sleeping soundly.

"Sleep well little one, I'll be here to watch over you" she whispered and bent over and kissed his head.

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Erika was staring at the clear blue sky, feeling the heat of the sun against her skin. She squinted hoping that the physical pain could alleviate what she was feeling inside. How long has it been? She could no longer count; the days and nights didn't matter anymore. Living became a burden for her and there were times when she would think how pleasant it would be if she just stopped breathing all at once. Life became meaningless every single day.

"Kayne..." she whispered, and her tears started to fall again. 

Francis was quick to stop in his tracks when he saw Erika on the patio, his heart was ripped into pieces just seeing her helplessness. There was nothing that he could do for her anymore, no words of encouragement could change the fact that there had been no progress yet in the investigation. Francis has been depleted with hope too, every day that went by was a step pushing them to the edge and what Francis was fearing was that Erika could no longer get out of this depressive state anymore. Francis clenched his jaw tightly while clasping his knuckles, he was mad, mad about the incompetence of the police, mad that even with his money there was nothing he could do to turn the tide around. Mad at himself that he failed to protect his family. He wanted to punish the person who brought them this tragedy.

"Once you reveal yourself, I will kill you myself" Francis whispered, imagining the day that the culprit would be brought to justice. "Someday I will make you pay" he uttered with determination.

Meanwhile, both Edwin and Ben were banging their heads on the wall wanting to jug their brains to look for other angles, they had hit a brick wall with no leads anymore. The primary suspect that they initially brought to the station was Dean Gutierrez, they followed standard procedure in handling in dealing with him trying to have an open mind to avoid any premature judgment however even after hours of excruciating talk and interviews, Dean was officially cleared from any suspicion surrounding the kidnapping, Edwin and Ben witnessed how Dean tried to sweet talk them trying to manipulate the flow of their investigation but when they cornered him, he resort in using his power and money to dodge their claims. It was undeniable that Dean Gutierrez might have been guilty of a lot of things, but the detectives found no connection between him to the scene of the crime even after they pushed him to take the polygraph, he ate it with flying colors.

"I never kidnap any baby! Are you seriously asking me that?!" He shouted and was adamant about his innocence.

Edwin stopped hitting himself and walked to a nearby chair thinking how he wanted to sip a warm coffee at that moment, anything that could help keep his thoughts flowing.

"Do you think we are looking at this case the wrong way?" Edwin uttered out loud.

"I think we are. This is not a typical case of abduction motivated by money. That's our first clue. This could only mean that whoever is behind this has the power and connection to even alter evidence. The Gutierrez clan itself is a powerful family. Could it be possible that this is closer to home than we expected?" Ben shared his thoughts too.

"Why don't we check the family's finances and include the people working with them, especially in the household, and see if we can trace any purchases that may give us something?" Edwin added.