The main living room doors have been shut to conceal Constantine's men except for Patrick.
Jack and I along with Patrick wait in the reception room for the detective constable to arrive. Patrick situates Jack and I on the couch across him.
"Ms. Stillman, Mr. Bartlett let me take the lead with the Detective Constable, I'll make sure to keep him on track to get answers for you as fast as possible. Just follow my lead and look to me for confirmation to answer his questions. We'll answer his questions once he gives us the information you want."
"Thats a good idea, Patrick."
It dawns on me that we'll need to introduce Patrick and at this moment in time it fails me to come up with anything with all my focus and attention on what news the constable will bring.
How do you want me to introduce you?"
"Your private investigator Ma'am will suffice and if he has more questions about me I'll answer them."
Jack notices me graze my thumb back and forth; with the hand that's laying on my leg. It's a small little thing that I do when I'm nervous. Jack has picked up on in the years we've together. He doesn't say anything but he does gently take my free hand and clasps it within his to try and soothe me as much as himself because his just a nervous as I am with his hand twiddling his belt buckle.
The door bell rings and both Jack and I squeeze each others hand in solidarity. Craig ushers both Constable Parker along with I presume is the Detective Constable I spoke to on the phone earlier before. Craig makes his way out after asking if anyone would like any refreshments.
Jack and I both get up to greet the constables anxious for news of our children.
"I'm Lisa Stillman and this my husband Jack Bartlett"
We shake both their hands we as Detective Constable Keller introduces himself to us.
"I'd like you both to meet Patrick Phillips my private investigator."
Both constables are caught unawares at my introduction of Patrick.
"Ms. Stillman this is highly irregular. I assumed it would just be you since you are the party in question."
Before I can get any sort of response out Jack abruptly disabuses Keller of that notion.
"Well, you assumed wrong then Constable Keller. There nothing irregular as you put it with wanting her husband or Partick here to get the answers we need. Lisa didn't do anything wrong all we want to know is where are our three sons."
"How do you know they're all boys?"
"Constable Keller we know a great deal already we've sent both 's and Ms. Stillman's saliva samples and blood samples for DNA testing for a match to the boys."
"We're getting way ahead of ourselves here."
"No we're not those boys have an uncanny resemblance to both Lisa and me."
"How did you get pictures of them?"
"That's irrelevant at the moment, Constable Keller. Right now Ms. Stillman and Mr. Bartlett want to know where the boys are currently."
"I can't give that information out at present, I'm here to question Ms. Stillman on the event's of 11 October 2012."
Both Jack and I hold each others hand steadfastly trying to hold back and not give Constable Keller a piece of our mind.
"Constable's Keller and Parker a word please."
Patrick leads them to the second larger reception room of the house where he has a very frank conversation with both of them.
"I swear to God Lise, if he doesn't tell us where the boys are I'm going to loose my mind and probably do something real stupid."
I take both of Jack's hands in mine needing to talk him of the ledge.
"I know how you feel but the last thing we want is to antagonise Constable Keller and not get any information about the boys from him. Please promise me you'll let Patrick deal with him, he'll help us get the answers we want Jack. He works for Constantine he knows how to get things done we just need to trust him."
Jack embraces me and holds me trying to regain a modicum of calmness that neither of us feel at this moment in time.
"Constable's look at them."
Both Parker and Keller see two people consoling each other and can feel their desperation for answers.
"Right now they're in utter shock and all they can think about is the very real possibility that they can be united with their children."
"Mr. Phillips."
"It's Patrick, Detective Constable Keller. I know you're about to say I have no authority here to ask for any cooperation from you. But to be frank you'll get no answers from Ms. Stillman until their questions are answered. They've brought me in to expedite the situation."
Keller's phone rings and his stepped aside to take it. Watching his body language, I have a sneaking suspicion it's his bosses boss on the phone giving Keller an order to cooperate in any way he can.
"Well Patrick it looks like Ms. Stillman has friends in high places because I just got a direct order from the Chief to be as transparent as possible with Ms. Stillman and you. I've never in my twenty years of service gotten a call from the Chief."
I shrug my shoulders making sure Keller is aware that his nose knocked out of joint is something I can't do anything about.
"To be fair if we had the resources Ms. Stillman has I'm sure we'd put it to good use when warranted. With that said let me get you up to speed with what we know and then we can proceed if that's fine by you."
"Keller, Mr. Phillips it seems I'm not needed at this moment in time, I'll be back at the office if you need me Keller."
With that Constable Parker departs while I begin to fill in Keller on what we know. I can see his had swim with the amount of information we've acquired.
"How in God's name have you gotten all this in less then seven hours Patrick."
"It was sent over by the CBI when requested."
"Ms. Stillman must know some incredibly powerful people for you to get sent CBI's files of an open case especially one such as sensitive as this."
I don't respond to Keller but he observes me before remarking, "You look and sound like a former cop Patrick."
"I worked for Scotland Yard before moving into the private sector."
His eyebrows arching almost into his hair line at that revelation. He lets out a low whistle.
" and are probably about to crash through the doors. Why don't we try and give them the answers they deserve Keller?"
Keller and I have come to an understanding and he seems more receptive about cooperating and assisting us to find out what we need to know.
Thank God, Patrick and Keller are back. Parker is not here and to be honest I don't care I just want answers. For the last twenty minutes, Lisa has been holding me back from bursting through that door and demanding to know where our boys are.
"Ms. Stillman, Mr. Bartlett I will try my very best to give you any information I have."
"Where are the boys now?"
"They are currently in Ontario at the Milestone Foster Home in Toronto."
Lisa and I astounded at this news.
"You told Lisa that the babies were stolen from her. Stolen babies end up adopted but you're telling me the boys are in a foster care home."
"Ma'am, Sir from what I know the boys were adopted at birth but at six years four months old they were placed in foster care after all three ran away and were not reported missing by any of their parents."
Lisa has a death grip on my knee now at this latest revelation and vocalisers what I'm thinking before I can.
"Why weren't they reported missing?"
"Ms. Stillman, Mr. Bartlett let me start at the beginning. From documents I've obtained Zachery the oldest was adopted by the Mitchell and Chloe Saunders from Ottawa, Ontario. The next was Lincoln who as adopted by Bennet and Vivienne Dubois from Toronto, Ontario. The youngest Grayson was adopted by Antoine and Elodie Leclerc from Saguenay, Quebec.
"What are they doing in a foster home, if they were adopted?"
"From my investigation all the adoptive parents were all told they couldn't have children but this appears to be a ruse to get these couples desperate for a baby; to adopt an infant with a lot of money involved. The couples involved did not want to know where the babies came from although I'm sure they suspected it wasn't legal but not to what degree. Once the adoption was complete the couples generally got pregnant within a year. To make a long story short the adopted kids obviously became second priority to 90% of these adoptive parents and those kids felt it in their upbringing. Zachary, Lincoln and Grayson were six years old when they went with their hometown hockey league to the Ottawa junior nation wide championships held every year. Mid January 2019 is when they met at the tournament and noticed their resemblance and realised they were siblings when they found out that their birthdates were the same day, 11 October 2012. It was the day they hatched a plan and started to look for anything that could help them find their biological parents. They went back to their respective homes but kept in touch and after two months Lincoln found documents in his adoptive parents safe with the biological mothers name on one of the documents. Mellisa Stilmann was the name he found but nothing else, not where she was from or any other information to go on. At the end of March 2019 all three boys ran away from home at met in Montreal. With the little money they had they spent the few days at the Canadian Cup for the Boy's Youth teams and slept at the stadium until they were found and taken to the police station eight days later."
"Did you say eight days….. Eight day they were alone." I'm shocked and angry that they were alone with nobody noticing.
Both Lisa and I take deep breaths to try and remain even-tempered.
"The boys wouldn't give their last names but would if they tried to find their biological mother who's name they gave Obviously the name alone wasn't enough to go on. Eventually the boys told us their surnames but they were not reunited with their adoptive parents as they's still after three months did not file a missing persons report. As a result custody was revoked from all the adoptive parents and the boys were put into foster care where they have been adopted out sometimes together but mostly solitary foster placements were found. As of now they are in Milestone Foster Home in Toronto."
My body rigid with the pain I feel in my heart at what my boys have been through. I can see Lisa hiding her emotion behind a blank mask with those husky blues vacant.
Before either of us can ask anything Patrick wastes no time forging ahead.
"How did you place Ms. Stillman's involvement Keller."
"We didn't the boys saw on tv when her horse won the Kentucky Derby in May. Since then our teams have been able to piece more information together as the investigation moved to the western Canada where we've uncovered all the nodes of this massive kidnapping ring."
Lisa as sickly sweet as could voiced what I'm curious about as well.
"If you've know since May about me why didn't you get in touch sooner."
Detective Constable Keller doesn't give an answer but Patrick does.
"He was investigating you and now he wants to ask you questions Ms. Stillman. I suspects he wants to ask Mr. Bartlett questions as well."
Lisa is as impatient as I am, I can see the restlessness in the way she carries herself.
"Well let's get this over with Constable Keller so we can move forward."
Please drop a review with your thoughts any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you for reading.