Suspicions by Christine Kersey Page A

“I
know you didn't mean it that way. I just can't bear the thought of
Jason doing this. I know he's not responsible. He can't be.”
    “You know, Stacey, the FBI people told me I
probably shouldn't talk to you about this until they know more. But
I don't really have anyone else and I have to talk to
somebody.”
    “What about Mark?”
    Amanda walked over to her dressing table and
stared at the things arranged there. “He just doesn't understand. I
don't know what's wrong with him.”
    As Stacey listened to Amanda's words, she
almost felt like her comments were a confirmation of her own
questions regarding Mark's innocence. The sooner she discovered who
took Kyle, the sooner this nightmare would be over for all of
them.
    She walked over to Amanda and took her by the
hand. “Come on. I’ll fix you something to eat.”
    When they entered the kitchen they found
Agent Morrison still at his post. Someone had apparently brought
him lunch: He was eating a taco and sipping a large cup of soda.
When they came in he took his food into the dining room to finish
it.
    Sitting Amanda down at the table, Stacey
prepared a sandwich for her. Amanda dutifully ate it, then said she
wanted to lie down for a while.
    Stacey followed Amanda as she trudged up the
stairs and into her bedroom, then when Amanda bent over to take off
her socks and shoes Stacey quickly set the keys in the crystal
bowl, careful not to let them clink as they landed on the
bottom.
    After Amanda was firmly tucked in bed Stacey
went back downstairs toward the office for the third time that day.
She glanced at her watch. It was now one o'clock. That meant she
had a little while before Mark got home. She hoped.
    As she entered the office Stacey headed
directly to the file cabinet. Unlocking the drawer, she started her
search again. Pulling out the file marked Credit Cards, she looked
at the latest statement and saw the balance owed was just over
twelve thousand dollars. There were five charges made to a lingerie
store and there were also charges made to several different
restaurants.
    She looked at the bills for the last year and
saw the charges to this particular lingerie store dated back six
months. She also noticed the balance kept getting higher. Six
months ago it was fifteen hundred dollars. The charges for the
intervening months were for plane tickets and hotel rooms in places
such as Hawaii and Cancun.
    Stacey tried to remember if the Stone's had
done much traveling lately and didn't recall any trips Amanda had
taken. However, she did recall Amanda telling her Mark had had to
fly back East to visit his mother because she had been ill.
    Putting the file back in the drawer, she
checked the time and saw it was now one-fifteen. She decided to
give herself another ten minutes before she got out of there. She
didn't know how long Amanda would stay asleep or when Mark would be
back.
    Not finding anything of interest in the rest
of that drawer, she went on to the next one. The file marked Loan
Papers caught her eye and she quickly pulled it out. It was the
loan information for Mark’s SUV. He’d bought it last year. Stacey
did some quick calculations and guessed he still owed about twenty
thousand dollars.
    Then she noticed another envelope in the
file. She opened it and discovered loan papers for a car that had
been purchased only six months earlier. A car she had never seen in
the Stone's driveway. He owed about fifteen thousand dollars on
that one.
    Stacey was noticing a definite pattern. Six
months ago something had changed for Mark and it was rather obvious
another woman was in the picture. But what did this have to do with
Kyle's abduction? She knew she would have to keep looking, maybe
talk to Mark's colleagues.
    Glancing at her watch, she saw it was now
almost one-thirty. She had been in the office for thirty minutes.
Quickly gathering up the paperwork, she put it back the way she had
found it.
    She was about to close the drawer when
another file caught her eye.