JACK AND TAYLOR GOT TO ASTORIA AT ELEVEN AND PARKED around the corner from the church. Scotty had told his boss that he had an urgent family matter to attend to and asked him to assign a different agent to the lab raid. When Scotty arrived at 11:30, dressed in regular clothes, he knocked on the car window. They had debated whether or not to have him wear vestments but decided it would be unlikely that a priest would wear his vestments for a clandestine meeting.
Jack rolled down the window.
“Everyone’s ready?” Scotty asked.
“Yes.”
Taylor leaned over and handed him the box containing the coins. “Be careful, Scotty. Anything could happen.”
He gave her a strange look. “What do you mean?”
“My mother told me there could be some supernatural effects with the coins. And even just holding the suitcase with the icons, I felt something. Just be prepared and pay attention to where he puts them—all of them. We don’t want them disappearing again.”
“Okay. I’ll text when I’m ready for you.” Scotty walked toward the church.
Jack and Taylor sat in dead silence, barely breathing. After the door closed behind Scotty, Jack turned to Taylor and took her hand and squeezed it.
His text tone sounded and he pulled out his phone. A message from Jeremy asked how it was going. He typed a quick reply then saw he had a voice mail from yesterday, and he hit play.
Mr. Logan, this is Sister Francis. I remembered the name of the company that made those medallions. Calhoun and Sons. I don’t know if they’re still in business, but I thought that might help. “That’s something,” he said softly.
Taylor questioned, “What’s something?”
“That was the nun who worked at the orphanage years ago. She remembered Jonas and his wife adopting a four-year-old boy who had been left with a religious medal.”
Taylor’s face had gone white. “Jack. Was it a St. Nicholas medal?”
Taken aback, he nodded. “Yeah, how did you know?”
“Because Malcolm had one! Do you think he was the child?”
“I don’t know. Possibly.”
She was quiet again. “If it was him, there could be family in Maryland. Evan could have cousins, aunts, uncles.”
Jack put a hand up. “We’ll look into it after we get through all this, but Taylor, we need to be very careful. If it was Malcolm, and that’s a big if, we have no idea what his family is like.”
“Don’t you think Evan has a right to know that side of his family?”
Jack blew out a breath. “What if they don’t want to know him?” His voice was kind. “Let’s not forget that Malcolm’s mother gave him up. They might not be too thrilled to have old wounds opened. And even if that’s not the case, you don’t owe them anything. They made their choice a long time ago.”
“I know. It’s probably not even him. But if he does have family, I owe it to Evan to find them. Think of Jeremy and me.”
“Okay. Let’s agree to back burner this for now. We’ve got enough going on.”
She nodded. “Agreed.”
Jack was troubled, though. Yes, Jeremy had turned out to be a blessing, but he wasn’t so sure that would turn out to be the case if they did find Malcolm’s family. What if they were opening a Pandora’s box?