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For her Wednesday court appearance, Liz wore a black skirt with a long-sleeved maroon shirt, a black and maroon vest, and black pumps with two-inch heels. She usually wore pants and jackets for work, with comfortable shoes. It wasn't often that she had to chase a suspect but, not being Angie Dickinson or Tamar Weaver, she found that running in heels and a skirt always advantaged the suspect. So for court appearances, Liz took advantage of the opportunity to wear skirts and heels.
As expected, she was tied up in court all day, mostly sitting and waiting to testify. Then she had to wait in case she was called back to the stand. Both lawyers wrapped up their summations by four and the jury was sent to deliberate. Liz did not hang around any longer. She went back to the station and checked her messages before leaving. She stopped at the gym to get in her requisite twice a week workout with the weights and machines. She much preferred running, but knew the strength training was an important part of staying fit and keeping her bones strong.
Steve had to stay late to oversee an event at the fairgrounds, so she was asleep when he came home. She roused enough to kiss him and snuggle into his arms before drifting off to sleep again. Liz was at work by eight Thursday morning, energized by her run. After the briefing, she sat at her desk returning calls and catching up. She decided she would bypass calling ahead with Sarah Perkins. According to the information Alice had given her, the woman was 80 years old. Liz guessed that she would not be working at 10 a.m. Just before leaving for Sarah’s house, she was told that the jury on the burglary case had returned a guilty verdict.
Sarah Perkins lived in an apartment in a senior complex. The apartments were all one bedroom, one bathroom, but they were large and spacious, with lots of storage space. There were wide sidewalks looping around lush lawns, a clubhouse for meetings, parties, and potlucks, and a swimming pool. Liz found visitor parking near Sarah’s apartment and walked to her door. Several potted plants sat on the small porch, as well as wind chimes. Liz knocked on the door and a tall woman with silver hair and green eyes opened it. She seemed vaguely familiar and Liz wondered if she had met her before, in some other setting.
“Yes, can I help you,” the woman asked.
“Yes,” Liz said showing her badge. “I’m Detective Liz Roberts with the Fresno Police Department. I’m looking for Sarah Perkins... is that you?”
“Why, yes. I’m Sarah Perkins.” She smiled and her green eyes danced with amusement. “I hope I’m not in trouble.”
“No, ma’am, you're not in trouble,” Liz said, smiling back at her. “I would just like to ask you a few questions. May I come in?”
“Of course! Please.” Sarah stood back for Liz to enter. “Won’t you have a seat? Can I get you some coffee or water or anything?”
“No, thank you,” Liz said as she sat down. The apartment was uncluttered and furnished simply.
“Now, what is this about,” Sarah asked, sitting on the beige colored sofa.
“In the course of an investigation, Dr. Ellen Goodman’s name came up. I’m just trying to talk to people who know her.”
“Dr. Ellen?! Of course I know her! She is one of the most wonderful people in the world. What kind of investigation is it and why did Dr. Ellen’s name come up?”
“A possible black-market baby-selling ring.”
Sarah’s eyes widened. “Oh that’s just silly! Dr. Ellen would never be involved with something like that!”
“Mrs. Perkins, may I ask what your relationship to Dr. Goodman is?”
Sarah laughed good-naturedly. “Relationship? We aren’t related, honey. Dr. Ellen was my doctor a long time ago.”
“How long ago was she your doctor?”
“It was 1946.”
Liz looked at her in surprise and asked, “Did you have a baby in 1946?”
“Yes, I did. My first one... I have two more. But that first one... well, I was very young and I couldn’t even tell my folks I was pregnant. Dr. Ellen took care of me.”
“How did she do that ma’am?”
“Well, she helped me put my baby up for adoption. She’s done it for lots of girls.”
“Was this through an adoption agency?”
“No. I didn’t want anyone to know I was pregnant. I kept it a secret from everyone. Dr. Ellen tried to get me to tell my parents; she even offered to talk to them for me. But I was only 15 and I was so scared. I made her promise not to tell anyone.”
“And you were able to keep it a secret?”
“Sure... I was always a big girl anyway. I just wore real loose clothing.”
“So, did the adoption go through a lawyer?”
“Oh yes,” Sarah told her. “I never met him, but Dr. Ellen showed me all the paperwork and had me sign it.”
“Did you see your baby after you gave birth?”
“Just for a few minutes. I had her at the office... Doc Ramsey’s office. Dr. Ellen let me hold her for a few minutes and then she got her all cleaned up. She wrapped her up in a pink blanket and took her out. When she came back, she had an envelope with $500 that she said was for me.”
“And that was all that was in the envelope?”
“All?” Sarah laughed. “Lord, that was a fortune back then. She said the lawyer told her it was from the adoptive parents, to help me go to school or something. And that’s what I did. I hid that money and I didn’t spend a dime until I finished high school. Then I used the money to go to secretarial school. That’s how I met my husband. His daddy owned Perkins Hardware and he needed a secretary and bookkeeper. He hired me right out of school. And, well, eventually Lester and I fell in love and got married. We had two children... but I never forgot my first baby. I always wondered where she was and how she was doing.”
“Did you ever try to find her?”
“Oh no... Dr. Ellen said she was fine. After she turned 18, Dr. Ellen told me she didn’t want to know who I was. So I just let her be.”
“Dr. Goodman talked to her?”
“Yes. See... two weeks after the baby was born, I got really sad and wanted her back so badly. I went to see Dr. Ellen and told her I would give the money back, but I wanted my baby. She talked to me for a long time and said that what I was feeling was normal. She said she understood exactly how I felt, but that my baby was in a good home and the people who adopted her could give her things I could never give her.”
“And you gave up?”
“Yes, I knew she was right. But on the baby’s first birthday, I went to see Dr. Ellen again. I wrote a letter to the baby and I asked Dr. Ellen to give it to the parents. After that I went to see her every year and took another letter. Well, until the girl turned 18. That’s when she could have asked to see me, if she wanted to. But Dr. Ellen said she didn’t want to see me and she didn’t want me to write her any more letters. It about broke my heart, but I did what she asked. I still went to see Dr. Ellen every year, though. She was always so sweet and would sit and talk with me a spell. I lost track of her after she retired, though.”
“And you are sure that Dr. Goodman didn’t keep some of the money in the envelope for herself,” Liz asked.
“Oh yes. That’s just how she is. She never wanted money for herself. She only got paid for her services. She took care of her girls and even provided apartments while they were pregnant. She loved those girls and did everything she could to put their babies with good families.”
Liz rubbed her forehead and sighed before asking, “Mrs. Perkins... what was the date that you gave birth?”
“January 27, 1946.”
“You gave birth in the doctor’s office? Was there a nurse there to help?”
“No, just Dr. Ellen and me.”
“Did you use another name when you went to Dr. Goodman?”
Sarah frowned. “Another name? No, of course not. I used my real name... my maiden name, that is. Sarah Odem.”
“Were you the only woman in labor at that same time?”
“Well, yes... like I said, it was just Dr. Ellen and me. Why are you asking?”
Liz flipped her notebook to the notes she had taken from her interview with Linda Graly. Surely it could not be this easy. She found Linda’s birth date... January 27, 1946.
“Mrs. Perkins,” she said carefully. “There is a possibility that I know where your daughter is, and that she wants to meet you.”
Sarah looked at her uncomprehendingly and then her face just crumbled. Crying, she covered it with her hands and rocked back and forth.
“Oh... after all these years,” she sobbed. “I just can’t believe it!” She looked up at Liz. “Who is she? Where is she?”
“I am going to give her your name and phone number. I’ll let her tell you the story. But she was born on that same date, delivered by Dr. Goodman in Dr. Ramsey’s office.”
“Then it has to be her!” Sarah laughed and clapped her hands. “Is it possible? Am I really going to meet my daughter after all these years?”
“I’m sure she will be in contact with you soon. But... she will probably want to have a DNA test done, just to make sure.”
“But why? She has to be the baby I gave birth to. There weren’t any others there that day.”
“Because, Mrs. Perkins, the birth certificate that Dr. Goodman filled out does not have your name on it.”
“I don’t understand... don’t they give them a new birth certificate when they are adopted?”
“Yes,” Liz told her. “But that didn’t happen in this case. Dr. Goodman put the adoptive parents’ names on the birth certificate. It'll take a DNA test to prove conclusively that she is your daughter.”
“Why would Dr. Ellen do that?”
“That,” said Liz, “is what I am going to ask the good doctor myself.”
After assuring Sarah that she would be hearing from her daughter soon, Liz left and drove straight to Flor Rosada Retirement Center. She did not bother to stop at the front desk, but quickly made her way to Room 324.
Ellen was sitting in her wheelchair, a table in front of her with a tray of food that she was picking at. Smiling, she looked up when she saw Liz.
“Detective Roberts! How nice to see you again. How is your little investigation going?”
“Sarah Odem,” Liz said.
Ellen’s face lit up and she clapped her hands with delight.
“Bravo, Detective! I must admit I didn’t think you would find her so quickly. Very nice work. How is Sarah, anyway? Still married to that hardware fellow?”
Liz’s mouth dropped and her eyes widened in surprise. She had expected more denials and was not sure what to make of this reaction.
“So... you admit that Sarah Odem is the birth mother of Linda Thomas? That you falsified her birth certificate?”
“Well,” Ellen said, spearing a cooked carrot and popping it in her mouth. “It wouldn’t do any good to deny it, would it? All they have to do is get a DNA test and voila! Linda has a brand new mommy.”
“What's going on here,” Liz asked angrily. “Are you admitting that you sold Sarah Odem’s baby to Eugene and Lucille Thomas?”
“Sold?” Ellen shook her head and chuckled. “That’s such a crass word.”
“Really? Did they pay you for that baby, and for that false document?”
“I facilitated a private adoption and bypassed the expensive rigmarole.”
“And how much did they pay you for this service?”
“Oh, I don’t think it’s ethical to reveal the token of appreciation that the happy parents gave me.”
“Ethical?” Liz sputtered. “Are you freaking kidding me? You sit here and admit that you sold a baby to the highest bidder and then spout ethics?”
“Now, it seems to me that everyone benefited from this arrangement. Little Sarah Odem got herself in trouble and I helped her out of it. She certainly couldn’t have raised a baby. She was terrified of anyone even finding out, especially her parents. So I arranged for her baby to go to a good home, and I helped her keep her pregnancy a secret. When it was all over, she got a nice chunk of change that allowed her to get out of that squalor she grew up in. Did she tell you about her secretarial training and her job and her husband? Sarah Odem has had a very nice life.” Liz was speechless as Ellen went on. “And that baby... Linda... she went to a very nice, very loving, and very financially secure family. She has had a very nice life, too, don’t you think? Lucille and Eugene could not have children of their own and couldn’t adopt because of his health problems. So they got the baby they had always wanted.”
“And what about Linda growing up with a lie? She had a right to know she was adopted.”
“That was up to her parents to decide what to tell her, not me.”
“It was illegal!”
“So now what, Detective? Are you going to arrest me, take me to jail? Do you suppose the DA is going to charge a dying 97 year old woman with a 65 year old crime?”
“He will if I have anything to say about it,” Liz snapped. “Was Linda the only one, Doctor? Were there other couples who gave you ‘tokens of appreciation’ for ‘bypassing that legal rigmarole’?”
“But of course there were!”
Liz stared at her. “How many?”
“Oh, I would say 10 or 12... ”
“Ten or 12 other babies that you sold?”
“Ten or 12 per year, dear.”
“Per year?”
“I had a very busy practice, you know. Girls came to me from all the towns and counties around here.”
“How many years?”
“Well, 1946 was the first one. The last one that I placed was in 1971. That’s when I decided it was just getting to be too much hassle.”
Liz covered her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.
“You’re telling me that there were 10 or 12 babies for...25 years?”
“Give or take a set of twins here and there.”
Liz sank into one of the chairs and looked at the doctor, who was smiling at her benevolently.
“You put the ‘adoptive’ parents’ names on all those birth certificates?”
“Oh yes, of course.”
“And are there any records of who the birth parents were for all those babies?”
“Oh, Detective,” Ellen crowed. “That would make things much too easy, wouldn’t it? Now, look how quickly you found Sarah. I’m sure it won’t take you any time at all to locate 300 more.”