You were adopted?" asked Maggie.
"Yes, my parents didn't think they could have children, so they adopted me, then they had David and Matthew."
"What do you know about your birth mother?" asked Officer Brighton.
"She was 15 years old when she got pregnant and 16 years old when I was born. She came from a very wealthy family who did not want the stain of an unwed mother in their family, so they sent her away during her pregnancy. It was a closed adoption but when I turned 18 years old, I got a letter from the agency saying she wanted to meet me if I was open to it. At the time, I was busy with getting ready to go to college and I didn't follow up with meeting her."
"Do you know the name of the agency? Perhaps we can find out who she is and either rule her in or out." Added Brighton.
"Let me look at my laptop. I have a file on there with all my personal information." Andy replied as he excused himself from the living room to get his laptop from the bedroom he was staying in.
After starting up his laptop and searching for the correct file, Andy found the one he was looking for. He shared the name of the agency that handled his adoption, and Brighton left the table to make another round of phone calls. At one point, he returned and put Andy on the phone to verify his personal information for the administrator on the line so she would release the details of his birth certificate. Forty-five minutes later, Brighton had an email with all the information they needed regarding Andy's birth mother.
Her name was Madeline Monahan, and she was currently living in the area, in one of the more affluent neighborhoods of the city. She didn't seem to have a job, but with her family's money, she never really would need to work. Madeline had a degree in strategic communications and marketing. She was single, with no children.
Maggie went online to see what was available in the public sphere, on information about Madeline. Amelia sat next to her on the sofa to help with the search. The two women found a lot of gossip articles about who she was currently dating, whose heart she had broken, and how much money she had spent on her latest shopping trip to New York. There wasn't a lot of substance available about her online, but Maggie kept surfing the web for information.
As she looked at various articles, one popped out at her. Apparently, one of Madeline's previous lovers had broken her heart and then suffered a strange set of house fires. They weren't big enough to burn down the house or do major damage, but enough to scare everyone in the house. There were seven or eight different little fires spread out around the first floor of the house, just big enough to set off smoke detectors and cause some damage.
Maggie showed this article to Brighton. Coincidences were not something they could afford to ignore at this stage of the investigation.
Brighton requested the files on the fire and called the officers in charge of the investigation. He wanted to know what they thought about the fire and who might have set it, as the article didn't give any of that information. Within a few minutes, he had the file and was waiting for a call from the investigating officers.
The file shows a similar pattern to that found in the fires at Maggie's condo. The tests weren't back yet, but Brighton was willing to bet that the accelerant would be the same too. Was this a solid lead or was someone setting Madeline up to take the fall for their crimes wondered Brighton. He wouldn't know until he had the chance to talk with the other police officers.
When Brighton's phone finally rang, everyone was on pins and needles with anticipation. He put Officer Straton on speaker phone so they could all hear what he had to say about the investigation.
"Straton, thanks for calling me back. I have a fire that seems like one you had a few years ago and I wanted to get your take on your fire. The one at the Everly place. Did you have any leads on who might have done it?" Asked Brighton.
"Ah, yeah, I remember that case. We had a lead, some rich woman, but we were called off of it. I think her father contacted the mayor or police chief, and they pulled us off the case. We had fingerprints and a witness, but we couldn't use them because the brass was afraid of her father."
"What was her name?" asked Brighton.
"Madeline Monahan. We had her dead to rights but couldn't do a damn thing about it." Said Straton.
"Oh, my god!" said Andy as he quickly got up from his seat and began pacing again.
"Thanks for the information, Straton." Replied Brighton as he hung up the phone. "My next step is to interview Madeline Monahan. I'm going to reach out to her this evening and bring her in as soon as possible."
"You can't just get her?" asked Maggie.
"With someone as high profile as she is, we have to approach it a little more delicately. We don't want to run into the same roadblocks that Straton ran into with her father last time." Explained Brighton.
Everyone agreed that there was a need to handle things gingerly if they wanted to avoid being blocked by Andy's birth grandfather and the power of his money even if they wanted her to be arrested right away. Following procedure would be for the best in this case. People like her father would always use their money and power to get their way, regardless of the law.
Maggie joined Andy in pacing around the living room and kitchen areas. She felt a migraine starting just above her right eye because of the stress of the fire and having to wait to see what would happen with the interview with Madeline. Could they be at the end of this nightmare, or were they still facing more chaos? She walked back to her bedroom to take some medication to stop the migraine in its tracks and then returned to the living room.
While she was gone to her room, Brighton had left to get started on bringing in Madeline for questioning. He hoped he could talk with her first thing in the morning. Perhaps the draw of the child she gave up for adoption would bring her in without too much push back from her father.
Maggie went to the refrigerator and grabbed a diet Dr. Pepper and then went to the living room and sat on the sofa. She reached down and gave Ripley some scratches behind her ears as she sipped her soda and tried to relax.
Amelia was sitting on the other end of the sofa and was on the phone with her husband. During the conversation, she was trying not to over share what was going on at the Safehouse, or where it was located. She was happy to hear his voice after everything that had happened since he had gone on his business trip.
Back at the police station, Brighton called Madeline Monahan. Once he got her on the phone, he explained he was working on a case that involved the son she had given up for adoption and that he needed her help. She was more than happy to be of help. She even offered to come down to the station right away. Brighton considered the offer but decided to wait until the morning to meet. This would give him more time to prepare for the meeting. He wanted to be on top of his game when he met with her so he could be in control during the entire conversation. There was no way he wanted to let her wiggle out of anything.
When he got off the phone with her, he called Maggie to let the group know he would meet with Madeline at 9:00 am the next day at the station. He would update them after the meeting with what he learned during the meeting.
Maggie shared the news with Andy and Amelia. Everyone seemed a bit relieved, knowing she would be with Brighton in the morning. Because of that knowledge, the evening went by with a sense of calm. They all seemed to carry a feeling that it would all be over shortly after 9:00 am the next morning.
Somewhere deep inside, Maggie had a nagging feeling that it wouldn't be that simple. She couldn't put her finger on what was bothering her, but it was there in the pit of her stomach like a little rock, just rolling around, a hint of worry.
Maggie went to bed early that night as her migraine never fully went away, and that little knot of worry was in her stomach. She curled up in bed with her book and tried to relax. After reading a few chapters, her eyes became heavy, and she turned out the light on her side of the room and drifted off to sleep.
When Amelia came to bed, Maggie stirred a little but didn't wake. The two women slept soundly throughout the night and woke in time for the changing of the guard of the police officers that were on duty at the house with them.
The first thing Maggie did was ask one of the new officers to take the dogs out for their morning potty break in the backyard, then she started the first pot of coffee for the rest of the household. Once she started the coffee, she grabbed a soda from the fridge and began fixing her breakfast. Her head was still hurting from the migraine that had started the evening before, but it wasn't bad enough to keep her in bed. She might need to take more medication soon to keep it from flaring up and overwhelming her. Maggie hoped that some caffeine and food would help tone it down.
With her breakfast of apples, some toast, scrambled eggs, and sausages in tow, Maggie sat down at the table to eat. There was a newspaper on the table, so she read the headlines to see what was going on in the world.
It felt like they had been staying at the Safehouse for days upon days and not the day and a half it had really been. The world kept turning without them. Maggie wasn't sure whether that was good or insulting. She chuckled to herself as she continued to read the paper while she ate.
Andy joined the morning mayhem with bleary eyes and messy hair. He immediately fed both dogs and asked if anyone had let them out to go potty. After learning they had indeed been out, he poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down. He took the section of the newspaper that Maggie offered and looked it over. He liked to read the business and technology section first, then the front page.
By 8:00 a.m., everyone had finished breakfast, and the kitchen was clean. They had an hour to wait until Brighton's meeting would start, and who knew how long it would take for him to get a confession out of Madeline, if ever?
Maggie didn't like the idea of not getting a confession out of Madeline. She wanted her behind bars for all the pain and suffering she had caused over the last few days. The kidnappings, the attempt on her life, and the fire in her home! These were all things Madeline needed to pay for!