by Jericho

Chapter 7

Sinclair Beach House

Amanda rolled over and reached for Cameron. When her hand grasped nothing but air, she was instantly awake. She quickly turned on the lamp by the bed. Where his head should have been on his pillow was a single ivory rose with pale pink tips and a folded note with her name written in his bold handwriting. She quickly opened the note and frowned.

Amanda,

I'll be back soon. Gary and I have to check out a lead.

Don't worry. I love you.

Cameron

"'Don't worry,' he says. Now why would waking up in the middle of the night to the absence of my husband and finding a note that says, 'don't worry,' make me worry?" she said sarcastically to the empty room.

********************************

Cameron and Gary hid in the shadows of the building. Even though their presence was cloaked by darkness, they were both dressed in black. Not a word or a sound came from the two of them as they edged along the side of the building. Cameron served as lookout as Gary worked on the lock. A slight nod from Gary indicated his success. Gary entered the building first. Cameron looked around outside then followed silently. Once inside, Cameron took the lead. He knew the layout of the building and knew where all the security cameras were. He was pleased to find George Weston's office unlocked. Cameron turned on the light which illuminated the windowless office.

"What are we looking for, Cam?"

Cameron nodded to the door to the side of the desk. He walked to the door and was not surprised to find it locked. He knelt and worked at the lock for a moment and smiled when he heard it click. Cameron opened the door, and they both went inside the small room. It was lined with filing cabinets. It wasn't the filing cabinets that interested him, though. It was the walk-in safe at the back of the room that had his full attention.

"Can you break it?" Gary asked, skeptical about his brother's abilities.

Cameron did not look at him but leaned against the door. He studied the combination lock for a moment.

"I guess we'll see if the FBI knows how to break into safes."

Cameron pulled a stethoscope out of the back pocket of his jeans. Gary raised his eyebrows and shook his head.

"Do you always have one of those on you?"

"Shut up."

Cameron pressed the stethoscope against the safe and listened carefully as he turned the dial of the lock. He did not realize that he had been holding his breath until he pulled the handle and it opened.

"What do we have here?" Gary said as they walked into the safe. There was one whole wall of filing cabinets.

"You take the one on the right and I'll take this one."

Gary pulled the drawer out and opened one of the files.

"Well, little brother, it looks like we've found what we've been looking for."

"Let's get to it then."

Each of them had a small camera. They picked files out of each drawer. They took photographs of the contents hoping there was one clue that would lead them to the people selling babies.

"Cameron, there are hundreds of these things. This isn't a new operation."

"That's pretty much what we figured, isn't it? Come on. Let's finish up. I want to get this film over to Cory so that it will get developed in the morning. . . . .and get back before Amanda wakes up."

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Cameron quietly closed the door to the bedroom. Fortunately for him, it was still dark outside. He turned around and was blinded as all the lights in the bedroom were turned on. He blinked trying to adjust his eyes to the brightness. He put his hand up to shield his eyes from the light.

Amanda stood by the door to the bathroom. She watched Cameron trying to adjust to her silent attack. With folded arms, she walked toward him. She stopped a short distance from him and waited.

Cameron was a little intimidated by the angry woman who greeted him when his eyes finally adjusted to the light. He bit his bottom lip to keep from smiling. What a picture she made! Her hair was tousled, but the rest of her was as beautiful as ever. Her deep purple silk gown shimmered in the lights. He walked slowly toward her removing his shirt without unbuttoning it. He unfastened his belt and was about to unbutton his pants when she reached out and touched his chest.

"Don't," Amanda told him, stilling his movements.

Cameron reached out to encircle her waist but she remained in place.

"No."

"Amanda?"

Amanda turned and walked to the opposite side of the bed. Cameron looked at her in confusion.

"Where have you been?"

"Didn't you get my note?"

"It didn't tell me a thing."

Cameron walked toward her. Amanda had no place to retreat. He stopped in front of her and pulled her close. He kissed her neck as she leaned away from him as far as possible, but still it was not far enough.

"Why the big deal?" Cameron asked with irritation. "It's not the first time that I've had to do some investigating in the middle of the night."

Amanda sat on the bed. Cameron sat beside her.

"It's not a big deal. You've always told me when you were going to do something like that, and you've never, ever left me alone in the middle of the night since we moved here."

Cameron knew everything she said was true. He sat silently as he thought about what he would say. Nothing seemed appropriate and he would not lie to her.

"Okay, you caught me."

"Caught you?"

"Gary and I have been looking into this baby selling ring."

"Why?"

"Because I'm ready for you to begin pursuing a story that is a little less dangerous."

Amanda laughed, "So you thought you'd just take care of it all."

"Maybe. I don't like these people. They have things to hide and that makes them dangerous."

"Are you going to tell me what you've been doing or not?"

"For the last two days I have checked out Weston's office while Gary has done some leg work and computer work. Tonight Gary and I took a field trip."

"A field trip? What did you do?"

Cameron smiled, "We. . uh. . .decided that we wanted to visit with Mr. Weston only Mr. Weston wasn't there."

"Uh huh?"

"We found a nice walk-in safe with lots of files on adoptions. Gary and I helped ourselves to some visual aids."

"You took some of his files?" she asked incredulously.

"Not really. But we took lots and lots of pictures."

Amanda smiled, "And who have you been charming at the Cory photo lab to develop these rolls of film?"

"Now, why would you assume that I would take this stuff to Cory?" he inquired with one raised eyebrow.

"Because you don't trust many people, and if you're going to entrust this valuable information with anyone, it will be someone you can have some hold over."

"You make me sound almost sinister."

"Hmmmm. . .you are a bad boy," she said seductively.

Cameron kissed her, "What do you say that we get a few hours of sleep before you drag me over to the office?"

"What I have in mind for the next few hours does involve this bed, but it has nothing to do with sleeping."

Cory Enterprises

Cameron yawned as Amanda dragged him down the hall to the Cory photo lab. It was almost noon, but he could use a few more hours of sleep. Since Amanda had been fully rested, she had little sympathy for his need for sleep.

Amanda pushed open the door of the lab. Cameron followed behind her.

"Hello," Amanda called, looking for someone, anyone.

A tiny woman appeared from another room. She smiled when she saw Amanda and Cameron.

"Hello, Amanda. Cameron."

Amanda looked at Cameron. She knew she was not imagining things when she saw the woman's smile widen when she said Cameron's name. Cameron stepped around Amanda and held out his hands to the woman and took her small hands in his own.

"Good morning, Desi. You're looking lovely as usual."

Amanda's eyes widened as she watched the woman blush. Desiree Morgan had been with Cory since Amanda was a baby. She had seen the woman smile on few occasions and any expression of emotions had been a few "tut-tut's". Amanda narrowed her eyes at Cameron. Would he never cease to amaze her?

"Oh, Cameron, you do go on. I've worked all morning, but I've gotten all of the film developed. Come on over here."

Amanda coughed causing Cameron to look at her for a moment. He simply smiled when he saw the look on her face and followed Desiree to her desk. Desiree handed him five large manila envelopes. Cameron set the envelopes on the edge of her desk and hugged her.

"Thank you, Desi. You are the best. Now remember that we want to keep all of this quiet."

Desi nodded.

"Of course, Cameron. Mr. Cory always trusted me with sensitive information," she sniffed.

Amanda rolled her eyes. Cameron picked up the envelopes and headed for the door. Amanda followed. She was not quite sure what they were doing.

"Is there a conference room where we can look through all of this stuff?"

Amanda found an empty conference room. Cameron dumped the envelopes on the table.

"Gary's on his way here. I want him to help look through these things."

Both of them took envelopes and sat at the table to begin looking through the contents. Gary arrived a short time later and began on an envelope.

Amanda's eyes were about to cross. "How did you take so many photographs?"

"We were in a hurry but we took as many as we could."

"They certainly kept detailed records," Gary said as he continued to look through the photographs. "They've got the names of the adoptive parents and the amount that they paid."

"And those amounts seem to vary a lot," Amanda added.

"But they all have one thing in common. They are very large amounts. This is a multi-million dollar operation. So far I've seen things dating as far back as 1967. And these adoptive parents live all over the world," Gary told them.

"Do you have a magnifying glass?" Cameron asked.

"What have you found?" Gary asked and moved to sit beside Cameron.

"There seems to be some sort of stamp at the bottom of each of the pages. I just want to get a better look at the thing."

Amanda left the room and came back with a magnifying glass. Gary and Amanda leaned over Cameron's shoulder as he placed the glass over the stamp.

"What is that?" Gary asked.

"It looks like some sort of crest," Amanda pointed out.

"It's a bird clutching a heart in its claws," Cameron said as he continued to look at the enlarged crest.

"It's not just any kind of bird, though," Gary said.

"It's a vulture," Amanda gasped.

Chapter 8

"Amanda, have you ever seen this crest before?" Cameron asked, hoping that she had.

CONTINUE