Every House Has a Secret - 22

 

"Here's what I found out," Brady told Rand Monday evening after they had finished supper. He'd refused to say anything until then, "Because first we need downtime that has nothing to do with the house or Hodges."

 

Brady sat at the desk, booting up his laptop, then went online to print out a file in his email that he'd sent himself from work. Handing it to Rand, he said, "As we know, Hodges and his first wife, Emila, had two sons. The elder son, Dennis Junior, has two daughters. The younger, George, has two sons, Colin and Frank. They'd be thirty-four and thirty-three respectively."

 

Rand lifted an eyebrow. "That puts them in the age range the realtor said the Thatchers were.

 

"Definitely. Hodges sons by his second marriage to Irene are indeed Alan and Steven Thatcher. They'd be, well are, forty-one and forty-two. Unless they look very young for their ages, they can't be the men who owned the house and abandoned it in twenty-twelve for whatever reason."

 

"Well, at the time the realtor probably met them, if it was them, to put the house on the market, they would have been six years younger."

 

"True. And Colin and Frank would have been twenty-eight and twenty-nine. That is closer in age to what the realtor thought the two men calling themselves Thatcher were."

 

"So you're figuring it was Hodges's grandsons, posing as the Thatchers, who gained access to the house, rather than the Thatchers themselves?"

 

"It does make sense. We have to talk to the real Thatchers, though, to make certain."

 

"Do you have a clue where to find them?" Rand asked.

 

"No, but I will. Give me a few minutes."

 

Brady began running a search for both Alan and Steven Thatcher by their birth dates, using both that last name and Hodges. He found their birth certificates, which listed their parents as Irene Long Hodges and Dennis Winthrop Hodges. Digging deeper, he located copies of adoption papers for them, naming Patrick Thatcher as the adopter. That happened the same year Hodges second wife had remarried.

 

With that information, Brady was able to find where the two men were now.

 

"Alan Thatcher is living in New York City, working for a financial firm. Married. One daughter, one son."

 

Rand chuckled. "It sounds like the Hodges family, from Dennis on down, have a thing for two kids and no more. Well, four for him I guess. Two with each wife."

 

"Not quite true. Steven Thatcher is unmarried and living in Toronto, Canada."