The Rachel Scott Adventures, Volume 1 (11 page)

“W
hat was so important that couldn’t wait?” Rachel wondered aloud.

She was waiting with Drake to see the governor. He’d wanted to see them immediately.

“I don’t know. All his aide would tell me is that something came up and he needed to discuss it with us right away.”

Governor Knowles walked into the room at the same time the doorbell rang.

“Sorry for the wait,” he said as he sat down. “Sarah will be down in a minute. She’s very upset.”

“What happened?” Drake asked.

“I think it’s better that Sarah—” he started to say when a commotion broke out in the foyer. They heard shouting, and Governor Knowles excused himself to see what was going on.

Rachel and Drake exchanged puzzled glances. “This just gets better and better,” Rachel said.

“Calm down, Stephanie,” they heard him say. “Let’s sit down and talk. Nadia, please tell Sarah her sister is here.”

Rachel leaned over toward Drake and whispered, “Sister?”

The governor walked in with his guest. Rachel couldn’t help but let out a small gasp. Looking at the visitor was like seeing an older version of Amber.

The woman had long, messy blonde hair, beautiful blue eyes, and the same full lips as Amber. She was wearing a hot-pink tank top, faded blue jeans, and a pair of worn flip-flops.

Governor Knowles cleared his throat. “Rachel, Drake, I’d like you to meet Stephanie Sloane, Sarah’s twin sister.” He paused for a second. “And Amber’s biological mother.”

“H
ello, Stephanie.” Sarah walked into the room, clearly not excited to see her sister. “I take it you’ve met Rachel and Drake.”

“I was just getting around to that,” Governor Knowles said. “Drake is an agent with the FBI and Rachel is with Florida Omni Search. They’re assisting us with the search for Amber.”

Rachel was at a loss for words.
Stephanie is Amber’s mother? What the hell is going on here?

“Where’s Amber? What happened to her?” Stephanie asked, slurring her words.

“Let’s get something to drink and talk.” Sarah tried to grab Stephanie’s arm.

“No!” Stephanie jerked her arm away and almost fell. The governor grabbed her around the waist to steady her.

“Stephanie, why don’t you go upstairs and freshen up. Then we’ll talk.” Governor Knowles tried to calm her down.

Tears flowed down her cheeks. “You may have stolen Amber from me once, but you won’t do it again. She’s
my
daughter! I want to know what happened to her!” Stephanie turned her gaze to Sarah. “You did this—to keep her away from me.”

“That’s enough, Stephanie. Come on. Let’s go.” Governor Knowles took her firmly by the hand and tried to lead her out of the room.

“I came here to find my daughter.” Stephanie turned her attention to Rachel. “Do you know where she is?” The fight seemed to drain her and she fell limp against the governor.

“Not yet,” Rachel said. “We’re still looking for her and following up on leads.”

“As soon as you get settled, we’ll all sit down and talk. Rachel and Drake can give us an update on the search. Okay?” Governor Knowles said calmly, like he was speaking to a child instead of an adult woman.

“Okay.” Stephanie looked resigned as she walked with the governor out of the room.

“Sorry about that,” Sarah sat down and ran her hands through her hair. “This is what we wanted to see you about. Before it got into the media. You see, we adopted Amber when she was a few months old.”

“The resemblance is uncanny,” Rachel said.

Sarah nodded. “Stephanie and I are fraternal twins. Amber favors her mother more than me.”

“How did you come to raise Amber?” Drake asked.

Sarah sighed. “I guess I should start at the beginning. Even though we’re twins, we couldn’t be more unalike. Stephanie has always been more troubled. In high school, I was the studious one and Stephanie was the rebellious one. While I won academic awards and dancing trophies, Stephanie did drugs and ran away from home several times. She was diagnosed with a learning disability, but instead of getting her the help she needed, my mother babied Stephanie. She made excuses for her, which made the situation worse instead of better.”

“Undiagnosed learning disabilities—or even if they’re diagnosed but left untreated—do tend to disrupt kids’ lives,” Rachel observed.

“I suppose. Dad traveled so much that he left all the decisions about Stephanie up to our mom. Anyway, I went away to college and Stephanie stayed home and bounced from job to job. I met John at school and we got married right after graduation. Then Stephanie got pregnant. She wanted to keep the baby, but she couldn’t support herself, let alone a child. John and I wanted kids and we’d started trying right away. But after my second miscarriage, we had some tests and found out that we’d never have children.”

“I’m sorry,” Rachel said.

Sarah’s voice trembled as she told her story. “That news was hard for me to take. So when we found out that Stephanie was pregnant, we offered to help her. At first, she refused, but after the baby was born, reality hit. Stephanie realized she couldn’t raise a baby and still go out and party every night. Our mom had just passed away with cancer, and Stephanie had nobody else to turn to.”

Rachel could tell this was difficult for her to explain. As the governor’s wife, always in the public eye, Sarah put on a good face. She was a very popular public figure, spending her time doing charity work. Not only was Sarah beautiful and married to a handsome, powerful politician, she was very lovable and the public couldn’t get enough of her. But now, Rachel knew she was seeing a rare side of Sarah Knowles.

“When Amber was three months old, Stephanie took us up on our offer. She had no income, no job, and no real desire to get one. So we took Amber. About three months later, Stephanie disappeared. She was gone for a week. I was worried out my mind. We hired a private investigator who eventually found Stephanie.”

“Where was she?” Rachel asked.

“A seedy motel outside of Panama City Beach with some guy she barely knew. When the PI found her, she was drugged out of her mind.” Sarah grabbed a tissue and dabbed at the corner of her eyes. “We put her in rehab and she agreed to let us adopt Amber. She promised to clean herself up and go to a local community college. We offered to support her if she stayed in school.”

“How did that work out?” Rachel asked.

“I wanted so badly for her to straighten up, but deep down, I knew from past experience she wouldn’t do it. I’d seen our mother bribe Stephanie before, and it never worked. She’d try, and then give up. The drugs had a stranglehold on her. Stephanie lasted at community college about one month. One afternoon she never came home after class, and I knew she was gone. That time she stayed away for over a year. The adoption had already gone through, so we just moved on with our lives.”

“Not many people know about the adoption?” Rachel asked.

“Only family members. The general public doesn’t know that Amber is adopted. We’d appreciate if you kept this private.”

Governor Knowles came back in the room. “Stephanie’s resting upstairs. Apparently, she saw the news about Amber and caught a flight down here. She came straight here from the airport.”

“Does Amber know she’s adopted?” asked Drake.

“No, she doesn’t. Stephanie’s kept her word on that. And we’d like to keep it that way,” Sarah answered.

“We all agreed it was best that Amber didn’t know. She thinks Stephanie is her aunt,” Governor Knowles said. “That’s the reason I asked you to come here. I wanted to tell you about the situation with Stephanie. We tried to call her yesterday before the press conference to let her know about Amber before she heard it on the news. We couldn’t reach her.” He scrubbed his face with his hands. “We don’t want this situation with Stephanie to distract attention from Amber’s disappearance.”

“Yes, of course,” Rachel and Drake both agreed.

“Does Stephanie have any relationship with Amber?” Rachel asked. She was confused about why Stephanie would just show up after not showing any interest in her daughter before.

“Not much. Stephanie doesn’t attend family functions. She didn’t even show up at Amber’s high school graduation a few weeks ago,” Sarah said. “She stays pretty much to herself, and we prefer it that way.”

“I guess that sounds harsh to you,” Governor Knowles added.

“We’re not here to judge you. We appreciate your letting us know,” Rachel said. “Besides, it may be a good thing that Stephanie is here. She could be helpful.”

Governor Knowles and Sarah looked at her like she was crazy. “The only thing Stephanie would do is get in the way,” he commented.

T
he Royal Bahamas Police Force was located near the center of Freeport. The one-level pink stucco building had white columns and was adorned by a red crest that spelled out
Courage, Integrity, and Loyalty
. Drake and Phipps had set up a meeting with Assistant Commissioner Johnson, who was in charge of the Knowles investigation. They met with him in a small, cramped office filled with file boxes and discarded magazines. Johnson was a large man all the way around. He stood at six and a half feet, and weighed well over two hundred and fifty pounds.

“Welcome, Agents Reynolds and Phipps,” Johnson said as he greeted them.

“Thanks for seeing us on short notice,” Drake said as they sat in tiny, worn chairs in front of Johnson’s desk.

“What can I do for you?”

“We have some information that we believe may led us to Amber Knowles.”

“Okay. Let’s hear it.”

“We interviewed a witness that told us SeaScape Enterprises was involved in illegal activities on their private island, Cabana Cay. We’d like to check it out.”

Johnson leaned back in his chair and contemplated what Drake was telling him.

“Who’s this witness, and what type of illegal activity are we talking about?”

“A former employee of SeaScape. He mentioned that he saw a woman who looked like she was in distress. A woman who…” Drake paused, not quite sure how to continue. Phipps and Drake had assured Mike that they wouldn’t compromise the DEA’s investigation and bring up the possibilities of drug smuggling. But they needed the cooperation of the Royal Bahamas Police Force if they were to investigate the island.

“Who resembled Melodie Sayers,” Phipps finished for him. “A former passenger on the
SeaStar
who was believed to have fallen overboard.”

Johnson looked skeptical. “Where did you find this former employee?”

Phipps watched as Drake consulted his notepad, even though he knew it wasn’t needed.

“His name is Matt Danbury,” Drake answered. “Stacy Case, an investigative reporter with the
Miami Sun
, has been working on a series of stories about cruise ship crimes. She came to us with information from a couple of former employees of the
SeaStar
. They claimed to have witnessed a girl on Cabana Cay who may have been held on the island against her wishes. She looked like Melodie Sayers.”

“I see,” Johnson said as he shuffled some papers across his desk. “And you think Amber is being held against her will on the island?”

“Exactly.” Drake looked over at Phipps. “We’d like to go to the island and check things out.”

Johnson seemed to think about it. “Be right back.” He abruptly got up and left the room.

“Wonder what that was about,” Phipps asked as soon as Johnson left.

Drake just shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know.”

Drake took the time to look around the bare-bones office. Besides the beat-up desk, leather chair, and two guest chairs, the decor was nil. File boxes were stacked haphazardly against the walls. There was one picture frame on the desk. Drake leaned over and turned the frame around. Staring back at him was a beautiful woman and little girl beaming at the camera.

“My wife and daughter,” said a voice behind him.

“Oh, sorry. Curiosity always gets the best of me,” Drake said, as he flipped the frame around. “How old is your daughter?”

“She would have been fifteen years old this year.”

Drake was taken aback by his answer.

“My wife and daughter died in an accident a few years ago.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Of course you didn’t.” Johnson waved his hand, brushing away the sympathy. “Thank you. It’s okay.” He settled back in his chair. “Now, about this business of Cabana Cay. I spoke to the lead investigator on the case, and we can arrange to have one of our men go with you to take a look around the island. We’ll set up a time and get back to you later today.”

Phipps looked over at Drake. He looked unhappy, but he didn’t complain. Instead, he slid his business card over to Johnson. “Here’s my number. I look forward to hearing from you.”

They got up and followed Johnson to the front of the building. Officers passed them in the hallway, but the activity seemed almost languid compared to cop shops in the U.S.
It’s the heat
, Drake thought.
Or maybe less crime
.

The assistant commissioner held the door open for them, ushering them out. “I’ll be in touch.”

Drake was silent as he pulled the car out of the parking lot. He reached over and cranked up the AC.

“I wonder what that was all about,” Phipps broke the silence.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it. He should have questioned us more about the disappearance.” Drake jerked his thumb toward the police station.

“I agree,” Phipps nodded.

Drake turned the car toward the hotel. “Let’s hope this is the lead that’ll break the case.”