fascinated her. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if she came over here, raised a ruckus, turned Sharon Lynn’s life upside down, then allowed herself to be persuaded to disappear from the baby’s life for a hefty settlement.”
“She’d sell the kid?” Harlan Patrick asked, looking as disgusted as Cord felt.
“Like I said, it wouldn’t surprise me if she tried,” Justin replied.
“But that would play right into our hands,” Cord said. “That would prove to the court that she shouldn’t have custody, that she’s nothing more than an opportunist.”
Justin nodded. “I agree, but you’re forgetting one thing. In the meantime, she’ll terrify Sharon Lynn into thinking that she’s going to lose the baby. She’ll be willing to pay her off, just to make sure she goes away.”
“We’ll just have to see that doesn’t happen,” Harlan Patrick said. “Cord, you can get through to Sharon Lynn, can’t you? You can make her see that it’ll be for the best to go through all the legal hoops, right?”
“I can try.” He paused as something Justin had said earlier in the day came back to him. It had been nagging him for hours. “Do you think Sharon Lynn could have difficulty getting permanent custody because she’s single?”
“I don’t really know,” Justin admitted. “I brought it up because it’s a possibility, especially with long lists of couples waiting to adopt.”
“But she’s the one who’s been taking care of the baby all along,” Cord protested. “She’s the one who saved her. If anyone has a right to that child, it’s your cousin.”
“The two of you did that,” Justin stated. “And I agree with you. I’m just telling you that Sharon Lynn got temporary custody because of the circumstances and because Grandpa Harlan interceded on her behalf. When it comes to outright adoption, the rules may not be the same at all.”
“She’ll have Janet on her side,” Harlan Patrick reminded them. “There’s not a better attorney in the state than granddaddy’s wife. And she’ll have the Adams name going for her.”
“She’d better be careful how she uses that,” Justin warned. “It’s a double-edged sword. Yes, the name is highly respected, but the last thing she needs is for people to get the idea that it’s being used to bypass the system. She could wind up caught in some sort of public backlash if the media latches on to the story. I’m just grateful that there’s been nothing at all in the local paper about this from the very beginning.”
“That was probably Grandpa Harlan’s doing,” Harlan Patrick said. “Janet probably put a bug in his ear about the long-range implications of getting the media involved and he probably asked Mort over at the Journal to lay off the story.”
Cord nodded. “I’d wondered why there hadn’t been a mention of it. It’s got all the ingredients of a big story. Abandoned baby rescued from a blizzard, the Adams name, etcetera. It wasn’t like anybody tried to keep it a secret. The local paper had to know every detail.”
“Which proves my point,” Harlan Patrick said. “I detect Grandpa Harlan’s hand in it with Janet nudging him.”
Cord glanced at Justin. “What do we do now?”
“We wait.”
That wasn’t the advice he’d wanted to hear. If there was one thing Cord was downright lousy at doing, it was waiting. Especially when an alternative plan had been nagging him for the past half hour.
He pulled some money from his wallet and tossed the bills on the table. “I’m out of here.”
Two pairs of eyes regarded him suspiciously.
“To go where?” Justin demanded.
“Home, of course,” he replied innocently.
“Whose home?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sakes,” Harlan Patrick muttered. “Stop being a cop, Justin. It’s none of our business whose home he’s going to.”
“It sure as hell is, if it’s Sharon Lynn’s,” Justin retorted, his gaze lethal.
“Settle down,” Cord soothed. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m going to the bunkhouse at White Pines. I’ve got some thinking to do.”
And if he reached the same conclusion overnight that he’d reached just now, he’d have a plan that just might solve all their problems.
Chapter Fourteen
A restless night of tossing and turning and mulling over the idea he’d had while talking to Harlan Patrick and Justin left Cord in desperate need of coffee first thing in the morning. He was about to pour himself a cup, when he looked up and saw Harlan Adams coming through the bunkhouse door. He looked like a man on a mission.
His eyes lit up when he saw the pot in Cord’s hand. “You got