Monday, July 14th

Eleven, twelve, thirteen. A lucky number? Sofia wasn't sure. Fact was, it hurt a little bit. But it was a sign of her twins were alive and active; exactly what she wanted most. If that meant a little bit of pain for her, she was happy with this.

"Are you taking the day off?" Sara sat next to her wife, dressed in a bathrobe, her wet hair secured under a towel.

"No, I get up in a second, only counted the kicks of our football twins. Or soccer? Whatever kind of sports they'll pick, it will be with kicking."

"You three are fine?"

"Yes. Thirteen kicks this morning, I feel like a football. They are worse than Susan."

"They're two."

"By the way they kick I'd guess they're boys. Then again, our daughter was a great kicker too, must be my womb. Maybe it looks like a football field to them. A soda stand, a corner, where you get popcorn, fries, hot dogs."

"We get a new picture soon. And an answer if we want."

"Do you want an answer?"

"I think I do."

"Then we should get it."

"Do you want the answer too?"

"Yes, we enter the critical phase of shopping. Blue or pink? All blue? All pink? Ten more weeks."

"Seriously? You want this blue and pink shit?"

"No."

"Mama!"

Both looked up. Susan came into the room, running to her mothers and climbed onto their bed, into their arms.

"Good morning, Sweetheart, how did you sleep?" Sara kissed her daughter.

"Good."

"That's good. We need to get you ready for your grandmother, she will pick you up soon."

"Mama sleep?"

"No, your mama will get up too. The babies in her belly make her tired. Come on, we prepare breakfast for us. Give your mommy a kiss."

Susan kissed Sofia.

"Thanks my lovely daughter. I see you soon. Don't forget to kiss your other mother too."

Susan kissed Sara and snuggled into her arms.

"Not more than ten minutes or you will be late or have to hurry a lot." Sara kissed her wife. "We make you some eggs and bacon. Topped with tomatoes and peppers."

"Chocolate?"

"In your lunchbox. Together with fruits and vegetables."

"Meat?"

"A steak sandwich."

"That's real love."

"Make sure you're on time. Come on Honey-Pie." Sara picked Susan up and left the bedroom.

"You know you're not fully dressed, don't you?"

"I do, we'll have breakfast up here."

"Mama hun."

"You're hungry? Let's find something to eat for you. How about eggs? Blueberries?"

"Yeah."

To Sara's relief her daughter liked all kinds of berries as much as sweets. When she put a plate with various berries in front of her daughter, she ate it with gusto.

"Here you go, start with some cherries." Sara put the cherries without stones in front of Susan, who started eating right away. Always hungry, like her other mother.

"Ta."

"You're welcome. Now let's get started on the breakfast of your mom." Sara stroke softly over the head of her daughter. Her new life, getting up early, taking care of her daughter, looking after her wife and going to work. Happy and awake at five in the morning. In a few weeks they'd be six and…a lot of more work. Susan took a lot of time to look after in the morning, with twins around, they could probably forget their sleep. And why was she happy about this?

Sofia had been on time because she consumed half of her breakfast in the car, driving to the lab. Her desk required some of her attention so she was glad, her boss wasn't around to give her a new assignment. A few quiet days were more than good, especially with a whole week off coming up next week. A week up at Lake Tahoe. With her wife, daughter, son, his best friend and her best friend with his family.

"Are you going to steal my chocolate when I leave it here?" Juana sat down opposite of Sofia, a bag of chocolate bars in her hands.

"Can't promise."

"Great. I'm going to put them into a safe place."

"Your locker? I need less than ten seconds to bust the lock."

"I keep it close to me."

"Not too close otherwise it will melt - unfortunately not in my mouth."

"My last bag melted in your mouth."

"I'm pregnant, I'm three people, so I need a lot of chocolate."

"Are you also doing three times the amount of paper work?"

"No, my babies are too young to work, it would be illegal, you should know this."

"While chocolate isn't bad for your babies?"

"No, it's fruits. Or calcium." Sofia held out her hand. "Please? Pretty please?"

"Sofia, Juana, I've got a case for you." William came into the room.

"Sorry Blondie, no time for chocolate." Juana took the folder and put the bag of chocolate in her backpack.

"No, you really have no time. A four days old boy was abducted, an hour ago, hurry."

"Shit." Sofia got up. So much for her quiet day. An abducted baby needed their attention ASAP. Every minute was important. It made the chocolate vanish from her mind.

It took them less than a fifteen minutes drive and they were at a nice Mediterranean house in Hollywood with a small but very well looked after garden. Here were Mister and Mrs. Lester, the parents of Adam Lester, the four days old boy, who was missing, waiting for them. The parents of an abducted child.

"Good you're here." Kyle greeted them.

"What happened?"

"Mrs. Lester left baby Adam alone in the garden when she went inside to get herself a coffee. The garden is surrounded by a fence, there're two ways inside here: the house and the gate at the garage. According to the witnesses, it was locked, when we arrived, it was open. I think somebody busted it."

"The same somebody, who took the baby. You know what this reminds me of?"

"I do, but this seems to be different."

"Why?"

"We have a ransom note." He handed Sofia a white sheet in a evidence bag.

"One hundred thousand dollar by tomorrow or you will never see your boy again." Sofia read. This wasn't like the cases they had over two years ago, when babies were abducted and nobody left a ransom note or any other clues behind. This seemed to be about money.

"Are they rich?"

"They're doing okay."

"Can they afford one hundred thousand dollar?"

"Mister Lester said, they will get the money, a mortgage on the house, empty the accounts. I tried to tell him, it's not a good idea to pay, that he should let us worry about it, but he didn't want to listen. He wants to pay so they get their son back."

"I can understand him. If anybody had Susan, I'd do anything to get her back."

"Luckily your mother is with your daughter and nobody will get their hands on baby Sue as long as the Captain is around …or if somebody tries, she'll kill this person slowly and very painful."

"I won't work the case against her, on the contrary I'd let all the evidence vanish."

"Hey Sofia, look at this." Juana called from the gate.

"On my way." The blonde walked over. "What have you got?"

"Scratches around the lock, fresh ones. It's how they came in. Or he. She. Shall I start on the inside of the garden or the outside?"

"Start on the outside. Kyle, can you canvass the area, we need traffic camera videos, private videos, anything that tells us, who helped themselves into the garden. They took the boy, they had to vanish with him fast, they had a car. Parked close by."

"I'm on it."

"Okay. I'm going to talk to the parents, I want to know how long she was in the house, where he was."

"I've got their statements."

"Let's see if they give me the same." It wouldn't be the first time that parents staged an abduction because they harmed their child. Sofia had cases like this before, even when the baby kidnapper were in Los Angeles over two years ago, a father tried to make them all believe, his daughter was kidnapped while he killed her. Because she cried and demanded love. When it came to sick actions, people knew no limits.

"Mrs. Lester, I need to ask you a few questions." Mrs. Lester was around the same height like Sofia, in her mid-twenties and also blonde. Dyed. Sofia could see the dark roots, which reminds her, she had to dye her hair before they took off for their vacation.

"I talked to the police already. Why don't you look for my son?"

"My colleague is doing exactly this while we're speaking. Did somebody break into your garden the last days? Did anything go missing?"

"No, why?"

"There were signs that somebody picked your lock."

"Is that how they got into the garden?"

"We believe so, but to be sure, we need some answers. Tell me about what you did before you walked into the house. Where was Adam?"

"In his buggy. I thought it's good for him to be outside. We spent three days in hospital, he never got fresh air there. The garden was supposed to be the perfect place for him."

"Where was the buggy?"

"Under the tree."

Sofia looked at the orange tree. It was on the direct way to the gate, all the kidnapper had to do was sneak in, grab the boy and leave. Ten yards one way, done in half a minute. The gate and fence were high enough to shield him from views, there was no window on the side of the house, he could have been inside the garden already, waited for Mrs. Lester to go inside.

Sofia looked around. The bushes weren't very high but thick leaves provided a good place to hide. So did the hedge, that divided the meadow from the flower bed. Or the other corner of the house. They had to check the whole garden.

"Where were you? When you were outside."

"I sat on the sun lounger in the sun, tried to get my complexion back."

Yes, no view to the gate, around the corner of the house. And not the best place to overview the rest of the garden. But why should she have picked a place like that? She felt safe. Now she would never again feel safe in her own garden.

"Did you check on your son before you went inside?"

"No, he…he was asleep, I didn't hear anything so I assumed he was fine. I should have never left him outside alone. It's all my fault."

"You couldn't know somebody was around."

"You are pregnant."

"Yes." It was more than obvious, not a question. Sofia couldn't hide her belly, even when she wanted.

"Do you have more children?"

"A sixteen year old son and a daughter, sixteen months."

"Do you leave her alone? In the garden?"

"We left her alone in the garden for a moment when she was a baby and slept, yes. And we still do it. Your own garden is supposed to be safe."

"You are lucky nothing happened."

"I know." They had the dogs around, nobody could walk into the garden and take Susan away without them noticing. Plus there was no gate to the garden, the only way inside was through the house. Or over the fence and it was three yards high. And again, there were the dogs.

"How long have you been inside?"

"Two minutes? I put the kettle on, made the coffee and went back outside."

Sofia saw the coffee mug, it lay in the grass, next to the empty buggy. Dropped in shock. "Where was your husband?"

"Upstairs in his office. He works from home, only drives once a week into the office Downtown."

"Did he hear you scream?"

"No, his office is to the other side of the house, the windows are closed because he has the air-condition running. I ran upstairs, hoping he took Adam out of the buggy and I didn't notice it."

"I'd like to see his office."

"Why?"

"I assume whoever took your son knew you were at home, he might also know your house. I'd like to know what he knows." And check the alibi of your husband, make sure he really couldn't hear or see something. But these words she better kept for herself.

"You think the kidnapper has been inside our house before? That we know him?"

"It's possible. Could you please show me the house?"

"Of course."

Sofia followed the woman into the house. Facing the garden was the kitchen and the living room, both having windows into the garden, not to the gate. A guest toilette next to the staircase. Upstairs were two bedrooms, a bathroom and the little office. The office window gave Sofia a view on the neighbor house, not the street, unless she stepped close to it. From the desk was no way to see, if there was a car or a person passing by. The house was built too close to the street.

"This is Adam's room." Mrs. Lester opened the door to the boy's room. A bright room, cartoon wallpaper, colorful carpet, a bed in the middle, stuffed animals everywhere. A photo frame on the wall, a photo of Mister and Mrs. Lester when she was pregnant, one when they were in hospital and one, that had to be taken today or yesterday. Them at home, in the garden.

"This photo looks recent."

"We took it yesterday when we came home. My husband has a photo printer in the office. We want Adam to have photos of important moments of his life. His first day at home."

The same Sara and Sofia did with Susan. Who was with Sofia's mother. Safe. At least the blonde hoped so. It was hart not to excuse herself, call her mother and check on her daughter.

"Did you have strangers over? Anybody rang your doorbell yesterday? Today?"

"No. Why?"

"Whoever took your son knew you were at home, means, this person has some knowledge of your family. Who knew you are back from hospital?"

"Everybody."

"Who is everybody? Your family?"

"Family, friends, my work colleagues. I posted it on Facebook, together with the photo."

"How many friends do you have on Facebook?"

"Five hundred or so."

Sofia stopped herself from shaking her head. How could a person have five hundred friends? Real friends. Know five hundred people. "Can only your friends see your photos?"

"I don't know. I have to check." Mrs. Lester pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and opened her Facebook profile. She showed Sofia the photo. The blonde wasn't a genius when it came to the social network pages, but she knew what a private and a public setting was. Mrs. Lester's setting was public, the whole world knew she was back home with her baby boy. The whole world knew her garden. She had made it very easy for the kidnapper.