The Blanket Is Blue: A Story of Black Market Adoption

By Doris Lafrenz

John and Stella joyfully welcome the birth of twins, Baby Boy Smith and Baby Girl Smith. Then the unthinkable happens, Baby Girl Smith is taken and John and Stella are left to grieve for the child that is lost to them. In but an instant, John and Stella are thrust into the deception and heartbreak that is black market adoption.
Emmett Winslow purchases a baby girl for his self-indulgent wife and Jennifer Smith becomes Elizabeth Winslow. Mr. Smith meets Mr. Winslow through their respective business dealings and the two families form a friendship, but no one is prepared for the devastating consequences the truth brings when it is revealed.

The truth of her identity alters everything Elizabeth has thought of as her past. Hurt and confused she runs from the truth searching for an identity that will be hers alone. One day Elizabeth finds love and that love leads her to a place of hope and forgiveness where she can reclaim her past and face her future.
This fast-paced paranormal thriller will have you sitting on the edge of your seat as the darkness of Deception and the light of Hope battle for the souls of two fathers and for the daughter they love more than their own lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Sep 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781452519449

Doris Lafrenz

A transplant from Northwest Iowa to Southern California, Doris decided to follow her love of reading, transformed it into writing and published her first novel in 2008. Since publishing her first novel, Doris has published four more novels, three of which have earned five stars on Amazon Books.com. In a recent interview Doris stated, “It is my desire that as you, the reader, closes the last chapter on one of my novels, it will be with a contented sigh. It is my sincere hope that you will feel the time you spent reading my novel was time well spent.

Book preview

The Blanket is

Blue

A STORY OF BLACK MARKET ADOPTION

One child, two families and the terrible

consequences when the truth is revealed…

Doris Lafrenz

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Copyright © 2009, 2014 Doris Lafrenz.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4525-1943-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-1944-9 (e)

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental

Balboa Press rev. date: 09/02/2014

Contents

Chapter 1   The Nurse

Chapter 2   The Thrillseakers

Chapter 3   The parents

Chapter 4   The snatch

Chapter 5   A child lost

Chapter 6   The search

Chapter 7   Revenge

Chapter 8   Jennifer becomes Elizabeth

Chapter 9   David

Chapter 10 All my children

Chapter 11 Moms and Dads and kids

Chapter 12 It’s my birthday!

Chapter 13 Loss and guilt

Chapter 14 Regrets and starting over

Chapter 15 California bound

Chapter 16 Los Angeles

Chapter 17 Elizabeth meets Stella

Chapter 18 My little Princess

Chapter 19 The Light of Hope

Chapter 20 God is love?

Chapter 21 Elizabeth’s prom

Chapter 22 David’s prom

Chapter 23 Well look who’s here!

Chapter 24 Thinking of Elizabeth

Chapter 25 Retreat!

Chapter 26 Thoughts of David

Chapter 27 That’s my birthday too!

Chapter 28 I would know her if I saw her

Chapter 29 Summer plans

Chapter 30 Change of plans

Chapter 31 Going home

Chapter 32 Settling in

Chapter 33 Always searching

Chapter 34 The little girl in the blue blanket

Chapter 35 The phone call

Chapter 36 Surgery

Chapter 37 Why?

Chapter 38 The optimism of the young

Chapter 39 Home and David

Chapter 40 Elizabeth’s perfect world

Chapter 41 Let’s get married!

Chapter 42 The office where my mom works.

Chapter 43 The stage is set

Chapter 44 Broken cup, broken dreams

Chapter 45 Pizza and Jesus

Chapter 46 Saying goodbye

Chapter 47 The client

Chapter 48 Confusion

Chapter 49 The Wedding

Chapter 50 A kidney for Devin

Chapter 51 n Idyllic time

Chapter 52 Elizabeth is your daughter

Chapter 53 It’s all about DNA

Chapter 54 Who’s my father?

Chapter 55 Leaving it all behind

Chapter 56 Elizabeth is gone

Chapter 57 Jennifer

Chapter 58 A whole new me

Chapter 59 A new life

Chapter 60 n uneasy alliance

Chapter 61 Anger, pain and prayer

Chapter 62 Crossing paths

Chapter 63 Starting over

Chapter 64 Setting things right

Chapter 65 Time waits for no one

Chapter 66 Discovery

Chapter 67 What do you want from me?

Chapter 68 David and Meredith

Chapter 69 Joseph and Elizabeth

Chapter 70 It’s me, Elizabeth

Chapter 71 The bust!

Acknowledgements

I want to say a special thank you to my friends Gary and Sharon Holmes who helped walk me through the section of this book on open heart surgery. I want to thank Rev. Jerry Kuhns, a chaplain to the Ontario, California police department and my friend, who helped me with a theological question. Jerry, you took my muddled dilemma and made it so easy for me to understand. Gary and Sharon, Jerry and Colleen, I am blessed by your friendship.

This book is dedicated to Jessica. Her song is not finished. She continues to bless all those who know her.

Prologue

Blonde Hair and blue eyes

Robyn, this is not a puppy you’re talking about. You’re talking about a child, a baby!

I want a baby, Emmett. Robyn Winslow said hurling the words at him late one night in a drunken stupor. You’re always working. I never see you! I get lonely.

If you’re lonely Robyn, find a hobby.

Robyn stamped her foot. I don’t want a hobby, Emmett! I want a baby!

She stretched out her arm to show him the magazine picture she was holding in her hand. All my friends have babies and I want one too.

Is that what this is all about? You want a baby so you can show her off to those shallow Country Club women you hang around with? That’s it, isn’t it Robyn? You want a baby so you can be a mother just like your friends.

See this ad? Just look at it, Emmett, She shook the magazine pages in his face.

Robyn, you’re drunk! You’re always drunk. How can you take care of a baby when you can’t even take care of yourself?

I am not always drunk and if I had a baby, I would not drink at all. I need a baby, Emmett! Robyn threw the magazine on the floor at his feet. I want one! She turned her back to him and Emmett watched her stagger up the stairs. The sound of the bedroom door slamming shut reverberated through the house.

Emmett was tired. He was weary of the fights; of coming home every night to a wife who locked him out of her bedroom while she drank herself to sleep.

Maybe being responsible for a child is just what Robyn needs. Maybe if she had a child she would stop drinking. He leaned down and picked up the magazine Robyn had tossed so carelessly at his feet. He studied the advertisement.

The next day he called the phone number listed in the ad.

Two days later Emmett and Robyn sat across in the Dallas law office of George Marshall, the adoption attorney featured in the magazine ad.

We want a newborn, Robyn Winslow said to the attorney, a baby girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Can you help us?

Indeed I can, Mr. Marshall said. Many unwed mothers come to me for help in placing their infants when they cannot provide for the child. I went into adoption law to help these girls find suitable homes for their babies.

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The Voice cried out from the dark chasm, COME! Deception rose from his place grateful to have been chosen for such an important mission.

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What’s your fee? Emmett asked Mr. Marshall.

Robyn rolled her eyes and looked at Emmett. Must you always reduce everything to dollars and cents?

How much? Emmett pressed the lawyer for an answer.

George Marshall shifted in his chair. He was uncomfortable with the obvious acrimony between the husband and wife seated in front of him. He sensed trouble ahead, but he was not about to let this couple get away. I intend to close this deal.

As I told you on the phone, my retainer is twenty-five thousand up front, with another twenty-five thousand when I deliver the child to you, and I take only cash.

Emmett Winslow was a business man. He recognized a less than legitimate business deal when he saw one, but he pushed that thought from his mind. The birth mothers do relinquish their infants voluntarily, don’t they? And we will receive all the necessary adoption papers along with a certificate of health from the child’s pediatrician, is that right?

That is correct; I deal only with birth mothers who voluntarily relinquish their infants, Marshall lied. I’m sure I can find the ideal infant for you. He smiled broadly at Robyn. I will find the infant you want. I guarantee it.

Emmett Winslow was a skeptical man by nature and he was particularly skeptical about George Marshall but he hesitated for only a brief moment. If this is what it took to satisfy Robyn and to have peace in his home then he would do it. He opened his briefcase, pulled out an envelope and handed it across the desk to Marshall. When can we expect delivery?

Goodness, Emmett, this is a baby, not a piece of machinery for your factory! Robyn shifted in her chair and smiled apologetically to the lawyer.

Emmett did not respond to his wife’s taunt. Mr. Marshall dropped the envelope inside his desk drawer. He would count it later. He did not want to appear too eager in front of his clients. Appearance was everything in this business.

Emmett said again, when will the child be delivered to us?

I will start working on this right away, Mr. Winslow. Your request for a blonde, blue-eyed infant girl may take a little more time than usual, but you should have your infant in a few weeks. Marshall leaned forward on his elbows, looked into Robyn’s face and smiled another one of his award winning smiles, I will call you the minute that I have the baby that is just right for you. Don’t worry. I’ll be in touch soon. " Their business concluded, Marshall shook hands with the couple and ushered them out of his office.

George Marshall’s Dallas office was located in a downtown office building. He furnished the office plush, conservative and comfortable. He hired a receptionist, a forty’s something motherly type, to run his front office. All these trappings lent an air of legitimacy and permanence to the practice.

In reality, Mr. Marshall kept offices of this same type in six major cities, New York, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Dallas and Los Angeles. Each office suite had the same plush furnishings. The receptionist in each office was responsible for answering the phones, mailing out brochures to prospective clients, and receiving the forged adoption documents by mail.

In fact, George Marshall was not even a lawyer. He was a law school dropout. After completing his first year of law school, he decided he didn’t need a law degree to practice the kind of law that best suited him, and people would pay huge amounts of cash for his services.

The law degrees displayed in his office were in reality nothing more than well-forged documents. To counteract any doubt his receptionists might have as to the legitimacy of their employment, Marshall paid them a generous salary bolstered by generous bonuses. He had very little employee turnover.

Marshall ran ads in various magazines displaying happy babies and happy couples, actors all, hired by an ad agency. Smiling couples and smiling babies who were now a happy family because of Mr. Marshall’s dedication to helping those in need of the adoption services he could provide.

Most of his clients required a newborn and if an infant was not available from one of the girls waiting to deliver in one of his boarding houses, a hospital was the next best option. Hospital maternity floors made an easy target to secure an infant for his wealthy but demanding clients; especially with more and more hospitals following the current trend and allowing mothers to keep their babies with them in their hospital room. Moms have to sleep sometime leaving the child vulnerable to being taken by those who made their living facilitating illegal adoptions and who were not timid about taking chances.

Stealing babies for illegal adoption was a profitable but risky business and Marshall had devised a network of trustworthy operatives. He surrounded himself with business associates who, for a price, knew how to keep their mouths shut and could be trusted to follow orders.

He currently had only two girls in one of his boarding houses waiting to deliver, and it was unlikely that either of their infants would possess blonde hair and blue eyes. He retrieved a book from his desk drawer.

He would use his Los Angeles office for this snatch, he decided. Los Angeles was home to St. Timothy Hospital, a progressive hospital and one of the first hospitals in the country to allow newborns to board with their mothers in the same room.

Marshall tried not to use the same hospital twice to meet his client demands and he never used a hospital in the same city where the client lived. How horrible it would be if some unforeseen social event brought the kidnapped child, the adoptive parents and the birth mother into contact with each other. That would never do.

An unfortunate circumstance such as that might lead to him and the discovery of his whole operation. He might end up in prison, and he could not go to prison. If he were behind bars, who would do the important work he was doing? Who better than he could provide such a valuable service to those couples who eagerly await a child and who had the means to pay for just the right one?

Who indeed?

He picked up the phone and made a call to a private investigator who worked for him as one of his operatives. Get on a plane to Los Angeles and St Timothy hospital. Find a maternity nurse, who will work with us, he told the investigator.

He turned his attention back to the book that lay open on his desk. Now, let’s see who else is in Los Angeles that I can use?

It was February, 1981.

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The Monster looked on, a contorted smile on his face. He looked toward the Voice. Hearing nothing more, the Monster settled down wrapping his long tentacles around himself. He purred with the contentment of a cat lapping up a saucer of milk. He closed his eyes. Darkness closed around him like a thick black curtain.

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Deception is a monster that may sleep for a time, but inevitably the monster will one day awake, and once awakened, will become as an army of hungry swarming locust devouring everything and everyone in its destructive path.

Chapter 1

The Nurse

Charles Babcock did his homework. He had spent two days investigating and choosing which maternity nurse he would approach, the nurse he thought would be the most likely to help him. Now he sat in his car in the shadows of St. Timothy Hospital, waiting for her to finish her shift. He was getting restless. He shifted his leg to relieve a cramp.

Then he saw her. He watched as she came out of the hospital and walked to her car. He stayed a car length behind her as she drove down the street and turned into the parking lot of a tavern located two blocks from the hospital. He followed her in. If she sat alone, he would approach her.

She chose a seat at the bar. He sat down beside her and ordered coffee. She glanced over at him. Hi, he greeted her. Charles was strikingly handsome with dark wide set eyes and dark thick hair. His skin was swarthy giving him the old-fashioned look of a rogue pirate in a romance novel. He flashed his famous boyish grin at the nurse.

The bartender set the cup of coffee in front of him.

I have a meeting later and I can’t risk having liquor on my breath, he said trying to open a conversation with her. My boss said he would fire me if I showed up for another meeting smelling like a brewery. He blew on his coffee to cool it and took a sip. I need this job. I can’t afford to lose it.

Margo looked at him blankly and then turned her head away. This is not going to be easy. He opened his mouth to say more to her but before he could speak, she turned her head his way again and said, Tell me about it. I can’t afford to lose mine either.

What do you do? Charles asked.

I’m a nurse at St. Timothy. What do you do?

I’m a computer software salesman, he lied. Do you like nursing?

It’s alright, Margo said. I work on the maternity floor. That is the best floor in the hospital to work on, certainly better than the pediatric floor. I hated my job when I had to work with all those sick kids. All they did was whine. Every day, eight hours a day listening to those brats whine. I hated it, Margo said again.

Margo drained her glass. One more for the lady, Charles signaled the bartender. Say, why don’t we move to one of the tables? He suggested.

Margo nodded, picked up her drink and followed Charles to a table.

The evening wore on while Charles kept Margo supplied with drinks and conversation. By the end of the evening, Margo was far too drunk to drive herself home. Charles gallantly offered to drive her home in her car and Margo handed him the keys.

Charles drove the six short blocks to a small house located on a tree-lined street. He walked Margo up to her door, handed her the keys and said good night. As he walked the short distance back to the tavern parking lot to retrieve his own car, he whistled a jaunty tune. Things are definitely looking up!

The next evening Charles was already in the tavern and seated at a table when Margo walked in. She saw him and approached him to apologize. I don’t usually get that drunk, she told him.

Don’t apologize, he said hoping to make her feel comfortable enough to sit down with him, it happens to the best of us. Hey, are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?

Margo sat down and they ordered their meals. By the time she finished her meal and before Margo had consumed too many drinks, Charles explained the real reason he was in town.

He leaned forward and lowered his voice, I have a confession to make, he said. I am not really a computer software salesman. I work for an attorney who specializes in private adoptions and I need your help.

You need my help?

That’s right. This attorney will pay good money for the right infant and since you work on the maternity floor at St Timothy, I thought you might be willing to help me.

Help you how?

Well, like I said, he will pay you a lot of money for just the right child.

What does that mean? Margo was uncomfortable. She looked down at her hands and then back at Charles. Does that mean you want me to take a baby from the hospital? To take the infant from his mother and give him to you so somebody else can adopt him?

That’s right. Charles saw shock on Margo’s face. He would up the payment for her services by a thousand dollars, he decided. Margo made a move toward her purse. Charles placed his hand lightly on her forearm to stop her from leaving. If you agree to do this for me, I will pay you three thousand dollars.

I’m not sure I can do that. Margo pulled the purse onto her lap. She sat poised on her chair, her purse held primly in front of her, as if she might flee at any moment. She was silent for several minutes before she spoke again. Exactly what would I have to do?

The attorney I work for has clients that desire a newborn baby girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Do you know of such a newborn in the hospital?

There is one infant, she told him. The mother insists on keeping her baby in the room with her. The mother has blonde hair and blue eyes. The baby doesn’t show much hair yet but she will probably have blonde hair too. She has blue eyes.

She sounds perfect, just what the lawyer is looking for.

Margo moved her hand off her purse and placed it on the table. I don’t know…

As part of his preliminary investigation of Margo, Charles had entered her house through a back window she left open one morning after she left for work. He found not only evidence that she was a heavy drinker; he also found evidence of drug use. She would need money to satisfy her habit. He counted on her addiction and her greed to overcome any hesitation she might have about helping him. He decided to make her an offer she could not refuse.

I will pay you five thousand dollars to do this for me. What do you say?

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The Voice cried out, COME! Eager for release, Greed rose from his place and joined himself to Deception. The Monster grew.

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Charles was right in his assessment of Margo’s drug use. She needed the pills she took to function every day. She needed pills to get her up in the morning; she needed pills to fall asleep at night and five thousand dollars would buy a lot of pills. I’ll do it.

Charles spent the rest of the evening with Margo explaining the workings of the plan to her. The plan is simple, he told her. Here’s what I want you to do…

Margo agreed to the plan and tried not to think of the consequences of her crime.

Chapter 2

The Thrillseakers

Taking what didn’t belong to her gave Jenna a thrill, a high of sorts, a high that no drug she had ever tried could give her. She could have what other people had; she just didn’t have to pay for it. She stole for the first time when she was fifteen. She had spent the afternoon wandering through a shopping mall when she saw a pretty silk scarf lying unattended on the counter. It was the most beautiful scarf she had ever seen. She wanted it. She reached out and took it.

It wasn’t her fault, she decided. The sales woman left the pretty silk scarf on the counter when she turned away to assist another customer, leaving the scarf right there in the open for anyone who walked by. That was just asking for trouble and the sales woman should have known better.

Jenna had waited for a few tantalizing minutes to see if the sales woman would turn back around, and when she didn’t, Jenna stuffed the pretty scarf into her jacket pocket and walked out of the store. She half expected a hand to come down on her shoulder and drag her back in, but when no one pursued her, she kept on walking. From that day forward Jenna looked for every opportunity to steal what she wanted and she discovered that she was very good at taking what did not belong to her.

Jenna quit high school in her senior year and left her middle class neighborhood and her middle class family in her middle class town. She longed for excitement. She wanted more than a life in this dull town, she told her friends and she would find it.

Unfortunately, Jenna had neither the education nor the drive to secure anything other than low level paying jobs. She found such a job in an aircraft assembly plant in Southern California. Day after day she was caught in the humdrum existence of the never ending cycle of punching the time clock in the morning and punching the time clock out at night.

Then she met Darrell Harwood.

Darrell was not the sort of man one would take home to meet mother, but Jenna was immediately drawn to him. He was tall and lean and Jenna thought he looked just like Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind. Darrell’s work station was located across from Jenna’s. He looked in her direction and Jenna looked back.

Jenna and Darrell soon became a couple. Jenna finally had someone who was willing to show her the love and attention she craved. And Darrell did lavish love on her. He brought her small gifts to please her and on her birthday, he sent her a dozen red roses. Darrell was her knight in shining armor.

Jenna and Darrell rented a small house together. They spent all their free time together. They had no other friends. They didn’t need anyone else, Darrell told her. Darrell never went anywhere without her so Jenna was surprised when one night after receiving a phone call; Darrell told her that he had to go out. Jenna was curious about where he was going, but he didn’t tell her and she didn’t ask.

A few days later and after another late night phone call, Darrell sat Jenna down on the sofa. He wanted to talk to her he said, But you must never tell anyone what I am telling you. Jenna nodded her agreement.

Darrel continued, I work a sideline business. I work for a lawyer and sometimes this lawyer gives me a job to do for him. That was him on the phone. I told him about you. He said he could use your help in the business too. He wants to see us tomorrow night at his office. Are you interested? We can make a lot of money working for this guy, Jenna. Will you come with me?

Of course, I will come with you. What do we have to do?

Mr. Marshall will explain all of that to us tomorrow night.

The next day after their shift was over, Darrell and Jenna drove to Mr. Marshall’s Los Angeles office. Mr. Marshall greeted them at the door and ushered them into his office. There was another woman already sitting there.

No introductions were made.

I am an adoption attorney, Mr. Marshall explained to Jenna. "I help couples who cannot have their own baby and who do not want to wait for the lengthy adoption process through the more conventional adoption agencies. I arrange for such couples to adopt a baby from some poor unfortunate girl, alone in the world and unable to keep her baby.

But, my client list is growing larger by the day and unfortunately there are not enough girls willing to relinquish their babies to meet my client demand. To meet those demands I sometimes need to devise more creative measures to secure the desired infant.

Jenna got it. He was asking them to steal a baby. Can I do it? Jenna sat thinking as Mr. Marshall talked on and on about how he served the greater good of society by finding just the right infant for his clients, wealthy people who could give an infant a financially secure home. Of course I can steal a baby. I can steal anything I put my mind to.

And, Mr. Marshall said, You will be well compensated for your work.

After the meeting was over Jenna and Darrell drove through the darkened streets. Have you done this sort of thing before? Jenna asked Darrell.

A couple of times, Darrell said.

How did you meet Mr. Marshall?

A buddy of mine introduced me to Marshall a year ago. We worked for him on a couple of snatches. My friend quit after that, but I told Marshall I’m up for another job so he called me for this one. What do you think? Will you do this with me?

Sure I will. What do we do now?

We wait for Marshall’s phone call.

The call came a few days later. After he hung up the phone, Darrell turned to Jenna, we are going to make a lot of money on this job, Jenna. How ‘bout after this snatch we take a weekend and go to Vegas. Do you want to get married?

Darrell’s words rang in Jenna’s head. Get married! Darrell had asked her to marry him. Darrell was her Prince Charming, and to be married to him was the culmination of all of her childhood fantasies coming true. She would marry him and she would do whatever she had to do to please him.

Yes, Darrell, I will marry you, and I will help you on this job. Now, what do I have to do?

Darrell gave Jenna a big hug and a long deep kiss before continuing. I knew you would help me, Jenna. The baby is at St. Timothy Hospital. You carry a satchel into the hospital and walk up the stairwell to the third floor landing and wait for a nurse to bring you the baby. Put the baby in the satchel and walk down the stairs and out of the hospital. Drive with the baby over to that strip mall on Fourth Street. You remember the one, right?

Jenna nodded.

Okay, drive to the mall. I will be waiting for you there and I will take the baby. Do you understand?

When do we do this?

Tomorrow night.

When do we get paid?

The money will be sent to us by courier. We get five thousand for doing this, Jenna. Five thousand! We can get married and we can even take a honeymoon!

Jenna was caught up in his enthusiasm. Where should we go?

Anywhere you want to, Jenna, we’ll go anywhere you want to.

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The Monster named Greed grew another tentacle, this one longer and heavier than the rest.

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Chapter 3

The parents

John Smith and