Cry No More Read online

  Ellin looked around the office. They were the only people there. “This looks pretty private to me.”

  “It concerns kidnapped babies and falsified birth certificates.”

  Ellin’s face changed, the friendly smile vanishing. She stared at them a second, then sighed and said, “Let’s go into the judge’s office. He won’t be back from lunch for another hour, at least.”

  She led them to a small, crowded office and closed the door behind them. There were only three chairs in there, including the one behind the judge’s desk, so she took it and heaved another sigh. “Now, what’s this you’re asking about falsified birth certificates? I don’t know that it’s possible, with everything computerized now.”

  “When was this office computerized?”

  “I don’t know exactly.”

  “Ten years ago?”

  Ellin surveyed Milla, the look assessing. “No, not that long ago. Five or six years, maybe.”

  Ellin was keeping her composure, trying to find out how much they knew. Milla decided to oblige her. “My son was one of the babies kidnapped.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “It’s taken a long time, but we’ve finally broken the smuggling ring. Let me name some names for you: Arturo Pavón.” She watched closely as she said each name. Ellin showed no sign of recognition. “Susanna Kosper.” Still nothing. “True Gallagher was the boss.” Ah, there was a telltale flicker. “Ellin Daugette.”

  “Damn it!” Ellin slammed her hand down on the desk. “Damn it all! I thought all that was over with. I thought it was over.”

  “You thought you’d gotten away with it.”

  “It’s been a long time, of course I thought that!” She seemed to realize there was no use in prevaricating now. “Are you two cops?”

  “No. I don’t know that any cops are coming. I can’t promise you that they won’t, but I don’t intend to tell them anything about you—in exchange for information.”

  “You’re looking for your baby, aren’t you?”

  “That’s more important to me than anything else.”

  “What makes you think I’d keep incriminating evidence around? Do I look stupid to you?”

  On the contrary, Ellin looked like a cagey woman who knew how to look out for number one. “Yes, I think you’d keep it. It would give you an edge, wouldn’t it? Something to bargain with, whether it’s with someone private like me, or a district attorney, or even True Gallagher. If you ever felt that you couldn’t trust him, you’d need some way of keeping him in line.”

  “You’re right about one thing. I wouldn’t trust Gallagher as far as I could throw him.”

  Milla leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs, pinning Ellin with a cool look. “I really, really hope you have what I need, because otherwise you’re no use to me.”

  “You’re threatening to turn me in.”

  “No, I’m promising it. Just as I promise not to if you help me. Like I said, I don’t know if the cops will come calling or not. The people you dealt with are involved in a series of murders, and they’re going down. The investigation will probably concentrate only on that.” She felt Rip tense beside her, and wanted to pat his arm in comfort. Instead she concentrated on Ellin, pouring all her force of will into her face and voice. “If they hadn’t been the same people running the smuggling ring all those years ago, I wouldn’t have made the connection to you. But I will turn you in, in a heartbeat, if you don’t help me.”

  Ellin said “All right” so easily Milla could scarcely believe what she was hearing. “I believe you. Let me get my list.”

  “You kept a list?” Milla couldn’t believe it.

  “Well, how else would I remember which birth certificates were legitimate and which weren’t? It’s not like I wrote ‘FAKE’ across the bad ones.”

  They went into the outer office, and Ellin sat down at a battered metal desk. “See, I’ve had this job for almost thirty years; it’s not like I had to worry about anyone going through my desk, finding this list, and getting suspicious. It’s just a list of names, doesn’t say anything about them. And if I get killed in a car wreck or drop dead from a heart attack, then I guess I don’t care if anybody finds it, right?”

  “No worries,” Milla said, shaking her head.

  “You got it.” She opened a desk drawer, pulled out a fat file, and placed it in front of her on the desk.

  Milla was astonished. “That many?”

  “Hmm? No, of course not. This is a bunch of other stuff.” She began thumbing through the papers. She reached the end, grunted, and started back at the beginning. “Must have overlooked it.” She didn’t find what she was looking for on the second thumb-through, either. An alarmed expression crossing her face, she went through the file a third time, one sheet of paper at a time. “It isn’t here. Damn it, I know it was here!”

  For some reason, Milla believed her. Ellin’s upset was too genuine. A new worry crept into her mind. “Could someone—like perhaps True—have broken in and taken the list?”

  “He didn’t know it existed. Why would he do something like that? The sheriff’s department is right next door; it isn’t like breaking in would be an easy thing to do. Besides, we’re on camera.” She nodded toward a huge metal shelving unit that was stacked high with huge ledgers.

  Milla looked, but didn’t see any cameras. “Where?”

  “Tiny little bastard; the upper-left-hand corner. See the holes in the braces for moving the shelves around? Third hole down.”

  Ah. Now she saw where the third hole looked as if it had been blocked. “That’s the camera?”

  “Sneaky, isn’t it? See, one of the county commissioners suspected his wife was having an affair with the probate judge before the one we got now, coming down here at night for some private, extracurricular activity. So one weekend he sneaked in a security company and had the offices wired. Caught them, too.”

  “Can we look at the tape? Or is it possible you moved the list?”

  “I never moved the list,” Ellin said flatly. “Ever. And it was here just a month or so ago, I saw it when I was going through the file looking for something else. But all is not lost, as Shakespeare would say. Like I said, do I look stupid? There’s a copy in my safe-deposit box.”

  Milla went weak with relief. Thank God, thank God, she thought fervently. To come this close and hit a wall was more than she thought she could bear.

  “Let’s have a look at that tape, though; I’m curious if someone came snooping around.” Plus Ellin needed to know exactly where she stood, so she could protect herself if maybe True had known about her list after all, and decided he needed some leverage in his present situation. The same thought occurred to Milla. If that was the case, Ellin would do better to come forward immediately and use the list for her own protection, before True could use it.

  She led them down a set of narrow stairs to the dusty, musty basement level. An older Hispanic man sat at a metal desk reading a newspaper. “Ellin,” he said in greeting.

  “Morning, Jesus. We want to take a look at the security tapes.”

  “Sure, no problem. Or is there?”

  “We don’t know. Someone could have been in my office.”

  “Last night?”

  “Have no idea. Could have been any time in the last month or so.”

  “The tape resets and records over itself every seven days. If it was that long ago, you won’t find anything.”

  He fetched the tape from the security system’s recorder, and slapped it into a VCR hooked up to a thirteen-inch television. He punched Play, then Rewind, and they all gathered around to watch everything in reverse. Milla and Rip were the most recent visitors, of course. There had been several more during the morning, plus one fairly busy stretch when there was actually a line three people deep waiting for Ellin’s help.

  Then there was a long stretch, before the office opened, when nothing happened. They watched daylight reverse into night, with only one light left burning in t