Sold #3 - A Haunting Hope

Chapter 18

At first no-one understood why it was important that Amy continually dropped off the map and stopped contacting her parents when she got a new boyfriend. Then, the moment Darcy gave her theory, Victoria snapped up a file from the table and began scanning the details. She nodded in agreement that the timeline fit, so Travis, eager to hear more, encouraged Darcy to go on. "Yeah, so?" Travis wondered, not sure why it might have been important that Amy was pregnant, unless Darcy thought it was a good enough motive for her to have been killed. His voice showed no more exasperation or annoyance than Victoria's had, only a deep interest that just proved that they were so desperate to find out what had happened to Amy Stevens and to solve the case that they would take help from wherever they could take it. And it seemed that their bosses girl had a knack for criminal investigation. "She would drop off the planet all the time, just like you said, whenever a new guy came into her life. What makes you think it's relevant? Why would it matter that she was pregnant? Did I miss something?" He asked, sure that after a conversation with her folks, there was no way anyone would disown Amy for getting pregnant no matter who by. She hung out with some shady people, or did when she was still alive, but that didn't tell them much. The father could have been any of her old boyfriends or old Mrs Baldwin himself. Who they were trying to clear.

He crossed over to Victoria's side, taking the file from her hands before she could speak. But she didn't seem to mind, in fact her eyes were smiling and when he glanced back up at the monitor, Darcy's eyes were glued to her 'fiancé' who was returning the favour with a somewhat amused smile. Antony couldn't help but notice that Victoria had one of those herself, not staring at Travis however, but at the boss' future bride.

"Well, Mrs Stevens insists that while Amy was with her boyfriends she would call or write to them, even though she never gave any clues as to where she was or what they were up to. It was just a postcard every now and then or a quick call to say she was alright and she'd see them soon." Darcy explained as Travis began reading the interview transcripts through again, looking for a sign of what she was hinting at, but he couldn't find anything that he hadn't seen there before. And it made him insane. He had known himself when he read it through that there was some important piece of information he wasn't seeing and he didn't like the feeling he got when an amateur could find it when he, a trained lawyer and investigator who had experience with such things, couldn't. "Well, to get to the point, she stopped doing so six months ago. That would be the right timing if she had discovered she was pregnant and thought they wouldn't approve...or even if she had decided to run off with the father." She wondered, curious as to the confused stares focused on her, wondering if she had done something wrong or only told them what they already knew but she was almost thankful when Travis asked why she wanted to know about bones, closing the file again with a deflated sigh that defied the hopeful spark in his eyes. "Because if she was pregnant, and as advanced as I think she was, then you should find foetus bones in amongst her own."

Michael wasn't really surprised by the revelations that came to light after Darcy had stunned them all with her thoughts on Amy Steven's unusual lack of communication with her parents. Needless to say she was right. A quick call to the M.E. proved that when he returned to the body and began sifting through the smaller bones which had crumbled from the body in transit from the crime scene to his lab, he found the remains of a foetus. It seemed the CSI's had simply bagged them and laid them on top of the body before carting it off to the morgue and the M.E. in question hadn't been impressed at all. He had been told that the case was solved by some idiot who thought that the Murdoch Cameron and Amy Stevens cases were interlinked just because the Kiyoshi firm were dealing with both and so he had simply put the remains aside before he had even begun his investigation and didn't see that it was necessary anymore. "So the bones could be from a foetus? Can you explain that to me...in case it's needed in court?" Antony asked, perched on the edge of the desk in his private office while Travis tried to call Amy Stevens parents to see if any hints had been dropped or if they thought it was possible. Antony had rushed off to meet Mr Baldwin at his hotel to ask if he knew anything about a pregnancy and Victoria was busy on the phone to local hospitals and Amy Steven's local GP to see if anything was known about appointments or results to show she was pregnant. The only good thing that came from it was that he was finally alone with Darcy. But he knew that they were in trouble if they found out that Amy Stevens had simply used a home pregnancy kit.