“She said that in all her time working there, Crystal never paid attention to Oliver—she’d look right through him as if he wasn’t there. Completely ignored him. Pam started to get suspicious that something was different about the baby a few days ago, but why would she think twice about some sort of swap?” Toby sniffs. “She thought maybe he was just outgrowing the colic, but when she saw the flyer for the vigil, she knew.”

“So you’re saying Pam had nothing to do with the swap?”

“Not as far as we can tell, no.”

I adjust in my chair. “How is that possible? A nanny would know if they had a different baby.”

“Like I said, she started to suspect something was off, but what was she going to do with that information? She signed that agreement. She wasn’t even allowed to talk to her friends about who she was nannying for,” Toby explains. “We checked her phone records, her texts. Nothing suspicious. Her version is that babies change almost daily. A little far-fetched, if you ask me. But we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

I sigh. “So what now?”

“Crystal just gave her statement,” Jake explains. “She has taken full responsibility for swapping Jackson.”

“What?” My entire body stills. Deep down, I wanted there to be some sort of massive misunderstanding … but I know the world doesn’t work that way. Bad things happen to good people. Good people do bad things. Which one is this? “I thought she was my friend.” The admission is pathetic, but the realization is crushing nonetheless. She never wanted to be my friend—she just wanted my baby. But she doesn’t like babies, I remind myself. Or was that a lie too?

I smear away the unhelpful thoughts as if on a whiteboard. “Is she even a widow?”

“Yes. Her husband died months ago in a car accident.”

“She told me.”

“Did she also tell you about Evelyn?”

I shake my head. “Mistress?”

“Sister.”

“Her sister?”

“No, her husband’s sister. Rose Evelyn Watson. Rose is her legal name. She went by Evelyn.”

The name clicks. “Rose Watson. Oliver’s mother?”

“Yes.”

So Paul’s sister had given birth. Not Crystal. Oliver wasn’t even her baby. “How did Crystal end up with Oliver?”

The chief exhales, remnants of tobacco on his breath. “After Paul died, Evelyn bounced from place to place. She was broke. Worked odd jobs. She gave birth in Chicago, but a month into it, she decided to leave Oliver on Crystal’s doorstep.”

The admission slaps me in the face. “She left Oliver on Crystal’s doorstep?” A sickening sixth sense traverses my skin like a spider.

“Then she disappeared. Literally. Became a ghost. She met some guy, went to Mexico. Died in a boating accident. Drowning.”

I shake my head. “But I don’t understand. Did Crystal try to locate Evelyn?”