Dark Guardian (Black Hoods MC #3) - Avelyn Paige Page 0,8
you. How can I help you?”
“We just received a call on the anonymous tip line regarding two children at the Lake Travis School District.”
Looking for a pad of paper and a pen, I jot down the details as she rattles them off.
“Caller said two kids, a boy and a girl, were enrolled at Lake Travis Secondary School on the first day without any paperwork to prove guardianship. No birth certificates, transcripts from their old school, or shot records.”
“Odd,” I comment.
“The caller stated they got a bad feeling from the man with them and noted he was a bit old to have kids of that age.” Being a later in life parent isn’t as uncommon as it used to be, but it’s interesting that the caller mentioned it.
Something in this caller’s description sets off a wave of uneasiness inside of me. Who is he? And why doesn’t he have the paperwork to prove these kids are under his care?
I write this on the notepad and underline it.
“Did the caller provide their names? Address? Descriptions?”
“Kevin and Natalie Tucker. They were registered as siblings.”
“Did the caller mention anything else?”
“That was the gist of it. They didn’t stay on long enough for the call center to ask anything else.”
“Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Lisa. I appreciate it.”
She hangs up, and I fire off an email to my supervisor to alert him to the call.
Flipping open my computer, I search for the school contact information. Speaking to these kids as soon as possible is essential, but according to the school website, the central office won’t be open for a few more hours. Until then, I have to bide my time, looking through our old records for a possible connection just to be sure.
Switching to our internal database, I type in their names, and with a stroke of the enter key, two case numbers with those names associated pop up.
I start with the oldest record. Clicking on the date, it pulls up a case file with two images across the top. The boy has dark hair and dark eyes, and the nearly identical little girl with blue eyes is clutching a teddy bear to her chest. My heart sinks the longer I take in the images on the screen. What had happened to them to make their faces so full of fear and sadness?
Could these be the same kids? Without seeing them in person, I have no way to be sure. I send the images to my printer to add to my file.
Anger stirs inside me when I scroll further down into the history of the case. Their mother was arrested for prostitution, and they placed the kids into foster care. Custody was returned to the mother a year later.
The last file is almost identical. Mother loses custody after a second arrest for prostitution, forcing the kids back into foster care a second time. However, they were separated after the foster family requested an alternative home when the kids had attempted to run away together. The little girl’s foster family went so far as to file a petition for adoption, but the judge denied it. The boy was another story. He bounced around to several other foster homes until their mother was granted her rights back a second time, after eighteen months.
Why would the courts side with this woman and not with so many others who had worked to clean up their life? Why did she deserve her kids more than someone who had gotten their life back on track? The logical answer would be that she didn’t, but the decision was clear in black and white on the screen in front of me. The courts said she did. If these kids are the same as my new case, I can only imagine what level of hell they’ve been through over the years.
Trying to put that notion out of my mind and focus on the kids, I work a few more hours until Eric walks into my office and settles into one of the chairs across from my desk. “Good morning, Grace.”
“Eric,” I return.
“Got your email. What have you found so far?” I turn my computer screen to show him the two case files I had found in the system. Reading them, he shakes his head. “I remember this case. One of your predecessors, I believe. The mother was a real piece of work. The whole office was shocked when they gave her her rights back. Happens far too often in cases like