“Yes…” Terry said uncertainly. “But she was on drugs. She said a lot of things. She claimed to be pregnant once when she was fourteen, too. We took her to the doctor and he said her hymen was still intact…”

Juno made a slight harrumph in the back of her throat. That was a topic she didn’t care to get into today. It wouldn’t make a lick of difference to Mrs. Terry Russel, who had already decided that her dead daughter was a lying drug addict.

“She mentioned it to her counselor at the time… Winnie Crouch.” Juno imagined the name traveling across the space between them. She found the spot behind her ear and pressed her cool fingertips to it.

“No, Winnie wasn’t her counselor, I know that name. Winnie was her friend. She said so. Winnie was helping her. She distinctly said that name the second to last time I spoke to her. I said well, who names their kid Winnie anyway, and how equipped is she to help you? And then she laughed at me.”

Juno didn’t just get chills, her body started to tremble. So, Winnie had secured Josalyn’s trust enough for the girl to consider her a friend; so much so that she affirmed it to her mother. Her mouth was so dry she had to pry her tongue from her teeth before she could speak again.

“Did she tell you she was pregnant when she called that time?”

“No. I asked why she was calling us if she had this Winnie to help her. She didn’t like that at all. She said terrible things I won’t repeat and hung up on me. The next time I heard from her she was so high she couldn’t string two words together.”

“Do you remember the year she claimed to be pregnant? Not when she was fourteen, but the second time.”

“I don’t understand why you need to know this.”

Juno was losing her; she’d have to act fast.

“Because I think she really was pregnant.”

Terry Russel was breathing heavily on the other end of the line, probably deciding whether or not Juno was crazy or credible.

“April 2007,” she said finally. “She called asking for money. She was living in Oregon and said she was eight weeks pregnant and wanted to get back to Seattle.”

“And then did you ever hear from her again? Or hear about a baby being born?”

Terry was quiet, and when she spoke again, there was a different tone, one that didn’t sound quite as sure of itself.

“Yes. She called after she supposedly had it. I couldn’t hear a baby in the background, though. So I asked her where the baby was.”

“What did she say?” Juno asked, growing impatient.

“She said that Winnie had stolen him.”

Juno felt herself get hot all over. For a moment her eyes closed and her head lolled back.