By the time Georgia was home, she was famished. She took out the leftover pizza from the weekend—she’d frozen it—and reheated it. She wolfed down four slices. Mushy but edible. She was washing dishes when she recalled Pam Huddleston, Ellie Foreman’s lawyer, mentioning how integral lawyers were to the adoption process and how it was all perfectly legal. It reminded Georgia she hadn’t checked out the couple from Glencoe yet.
She pulled out her tablet, plugged it into the charger, then dug out the couple’s house number on Greenwood and went to her desktop. She went online to the Assessor’s Office, then the Cook County Treasurer’s website.
John and Monica Purcell had bought their house thirty-two years ago. Which meant they—or at least the husband wasn’t a young man. She Googled their names, not expecting to find anything. But she did. She clicked on a URL that took her to, of all things, the website of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Highland Park. Another click took her to the church newsletter, where she read the following:
Church members John and Monica Purcell are looking for a kidney transplant for John, who is suffering from polycystic kidney disease. Unfortunately his advanced age makes him an undesirable transplant candidate. John is currently on dialysis, but the family asks anyone with information that might facilitate a transplant to contact them through St. Peter’s church office.
Confusion swam through her. What couple thinks about adopting when one of the parties is ill? Georgia looked up polycystic kidney disease. PKD was a genetic disorder in which people, usually in their thirties or forties, developed fluid-filled cysts that could grow to the point where the kidneys failed. While some cases could be treated with diet and medication, in others, dialysis or a kidney transplant was necessary. Fifty percent of people with PKD progressed to kidney failure, also called end-stage renal disease. Which could lead to death. Purcell’s senior citizen status didn’t help his chances for a transplant.
She closed the website and stood. Chad Coe had visited a couple who were looking for an organ transplant, not a baby. He’d stayed for more than an hour. Afterward he’d gone to the nail salon. Chad Coe owned a warehouse where pregnant girls were staying. What was the link between the two? Suddenly Georgia felt queasy.