Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Christmas Stranger - Part Two

His boss was irate that she’d been gone a few months and Lance still hadn’t delivered the package to his doorstep. In Lance’s defence, she certainly hadn’t made the task an easy one, changing her name and appearance as she had. Linda James, wife of Jonathon James II, mother of Jonathon James III, from Vancouver, British Columbia was pretty good at hiding her true identity.
It had taken the better part of two months before she’d made the mistake that put him on the trail of ‘Meredith Halfpenny, divorced, childless woman from London, England’.  By purchasing the car she now drove with her husband’s credit card, Linda had left a paper trail that led Lance straight to Calgary, Alberta only to find that within days of buying the car she’d moved on.
Ethel Hathaway, widowed mother from Washington, DC, would’ve retained her anonymity had he not had every electronic path covered. One use of the boy’s health card was the blip on his radar screen he needed. This time he’d make absolutely certain that would be the blip that would cost Linda her freedom.
Lance had his qualms about what had caused the wife of a very wealthy man to go to such lengths to hide, taking their infant son - the only heir to the James’ family fortune - with her. Though he had to remind himself he was getting paid to find and return her – willingly or unwillingly, harmed or unharmed - not figure out why she ran from his boss in the first place.
            The only tell that young Jonathon was still with her was the car seat anchored in the old car she drove but he’d yet to see the boy. Lance hoped to spy him when he followed her home, for he knew he’d be putting his life on the line to return with the wife and not the son.

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