O’Keefe’s cousin Aggie was saying from the other end of the wireless connection. “And when I say ‘closed,’ I mean shut tight, locked and embedded with an indecipherable code. That was the way the mother wanted it and Dave and I agreed. Gabe was ours. Alone. We didn’t want his biological mother coming back into our lives, making demands or causing trouble or wanting him back.” “Do you know if he was trying to find his birth parents? Had he checked any of the Web sites, attempted to contact them?” “What? Gabe? No! None of my kids are interested in contacting their biological parents. I mean, I suppose they might change their minds, but not now. And Gabe, he never even mentioned the adoption even though he knew about it, of course. We’ve told the kids the truth from the beginning ... Why?” Sitting on the foot of the bed in his motel room, O’Keefe hated that he had to break the news to Aggie, especially when it wasn’t yet confirmed. Then again, they were running out of time and he had to use every avenue possible when trying to locate the kid.
