Broken Hearts - Love & Sacrifice #0

Part 2

Good thing I closed two files because I have a feeling I'm about to open a new one.

Hoping to catch him at the police station, Claire called Detective Drew Dalton on his private line. The phone rang once then an audible click resonated in her handset.

"Detective Dalton, speaking."

"Good morning, Drew. It's Claire." An enduring friendship had developed between them after he provided her protection in her first case with the agency. At the time, he had been a constable and she had been terrified to enter the home of a suspected child abuser. "Am I catching you at a bad time?"

"The day you catch me at a good time, Claire, I'll be in a canoe fishing with my girls." Diligent and dedicated, Drew had climbed the ladder faster than any detective before him without losing his wife and daughters to his work. "What's up?"

She recounted the details of her conversation without naming her source. "So, off the record, do you have any members of Aaron Clark's family on your radar?"

"Let me run the name and address in the database. Can I get back to you?" Only once had Drew failed to call her back the same day, but then he had reached out to her the following morning after he dealt with the aftermath of the murders of six gang members.

"Yes and thank you. I appreciate your help."

While she waited to hear from him, she called the school Aaron attended last spring. The secretary confirmed the four-year-old boy was pulled out of the preschool program by his mother Martha Clark after he broke his leg. The request was made by phone, not in person. No father was listed on his school record and his address matched the one Teresa provided. As Claire noted all the details in a new file, her phone rang.

"Claire Huxley, speaking."

"Claire, it's Drew." With his deep cavernous voice, it was hard to mistake him for anyone else. "You won't like what I found."

To be proven right didn't make her feel good. "I'm listening." And taking notes.

"We visited that address twice in the last six months. First on a drug raid, then on a family disturbance complaint. The drug raid yielded limited results. Two adults were in the house at the time. A man and a woman. We suspected Kevin Roswell of trafficking, but with the minute quantity we discovered, we could only bust him for possession. His wife Martha Clark Roswell was high, but no charges were laid against her." Though Drew hadn't mentioned Aaron yet, his emphasis on Martha's name confirmed a connection with the boy. "I can't tell you if she sported signs of abuse when the raid took place, but when we visited the house a few months later, she was red, blue, and purple. A concerned neighbor had reported the assault, but Martha refused to lay any accusations. That night, the concerned neighbor's house burned to the ground. No one on the street knew, heard, or saw anything."

Retaliation for speaking up. Intimidation was a tactic that Claire had encountered too often. "Fear would explain why the mother next door pretended not to know any Aaron."

"Quite possible." A smidgen of frustration pierced through his voice. "Martha wasn't on our radar until the drug raid. She married Roswell last fall after her first husband, George Clark, died in a work-related accident. I found records indicating Martha gave birth to a son, Aaron Clark, four year ago, but none of the officers who entered the family house on these occasions reported the presence of a child."

Today's November 9th. The raid dated back six months, which coincided with the time Aaron was pulled out of preschool. "Back in May, Aaron lived in that house, but there are no records at Children's Services that he was ever removed."

"Are you asking me to provide you with an escort so you can check on the boy's welfare?" The detective read her mind. "I have two officers at the station right now who'd love an excuse to enter that house."

"Can they meet me there at 11:00 a.m., or do they need more time?" She would wait at the corner of the street and only approach the house once the officers arrived.

"Hold on." Drew barked some orders without muting his phone. From the sound of it, Officers Muller and Chen had been drafted to accompany her. "They're leaving now. Be careful, Claire."

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