Baby Be Mine by Diane Fanning Page B

whom he knew had frequent brushes with the law? Whatever popped into Kevin’s head, he was baffled by the intrusion into his home.
    As Strong entered the house, he saw Lisa with a newborn baby in her arms. Next to her, he saw the blue glow of a television set. A notice of the Amber Alert for Bobbie Jo’s baby scrolled across the bottom of the screen.
    Strong asked, “Is that your new baby?”
    â€œYes,” she said. “You want to see it?” Lisa stretched out her arms and handed the baby to Strong. On Lisa’s empty hands, a series of small, fresh cuts marked many of her fingers.
    When questioned, Kevin related the call from Lisa in Topeka the afternoon before and his drive to pick up her and the baby and bring them both home.
    Lisa explained her shopping trip to Topeka that was interrupted when her water broke. She told the officers about the delivery of her baby the day before at the Birth & Women’s Center.
    While the couple talked to Strong and FBI Special Agent Michael Miller, other members of law enforcement checked out their stories. They learned that no babies were born at the birthing center on December 16.
    Since the authorities had all the necessary warrants in hand Strong was able to turn and walk out of the house—with thebaby girl still resting in his arms. He activated his cell phone and called Espey. “I have the baby in my hands.”
    Tears welled in Espey’s eyes. As he shared the news with the personnel in the building, the tears flowed—tears of joy for the baby, tears of bitterness for Bobbie Jo. Espey brushed his away and headed out to address the media. Before Espey said a word to the press gathered in Maryville, officers posted outside of the Montgomery home saw media representatives driving past the farmhouse.
    Strong stepped off the porch and handed the baby to an agent from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. The investigator got into his car and rushed the infant to Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center in Topeka for evaluation and DNA testing. Strong returned inside to continue the questioning of the couple in earnest.
    Lisa sat with a placid expression plastered across her face as Strong advised her of her constitutional rights. Then he confronted her with the information they learned about the lack of births at the center the day before.
    At first, Lisa maintained her original story and Kevin insisted that it all was a big mistake. Why are they hassling us? he wondered. What right do they have to take my baby? His heart raced as he worried that his life was tipping over and he would never be able to set it upright again.
    Under the persistence of the questioning, Lisa gave up. Her face sagged, her shoulders slumped. She confessed to strangling Bobbie Jo and removing the fetus with a paring knife she found in Bobbie Jo’s kitchen. She admitted that “Abigail” was the Stinnetts’ baby—not hers—not Kevin’s.
    Only one person in the room was surprised—Kevin Montgomery. He felt like he was caught at a carnival on a manic Tilt-A-Whirl. He wanted off this nausea-inducing ride. He wanted to forget the tale his wife just told. It sickened him and confused him. It could not be true. He could not have married, lived with, slept with and trusted his own children to a woman who was capable of committing a crime this awful. This was not the Lisa he married. Not the woman hepromised to love, honor and cherish. This was not his life. This was not his world.
    Most people who knew Lisa found Kevin’s ignorance understandable. They also believed Lisa when she insisted that Kevin knew nothing. A clueless Kevin was a credible image. Lisa had been lying to people—and convincing them of the truth of her falsehoods—all of her life.

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    L isa Marie Hedberg was born in Washington State on February 27, 1968. Her mother, Judy—born and raised in Kansas with six siblings—moved to the Northwest with her new husband