Eyes of the Innocent

by Christopher Wright

Chapter 27

  Matt woke first, and decided to let Zoé sleep on. He went downstairs attracted by the smell of food. Valdieri had a private kitchen with a breakfast bar. He'd not met the other residents yet, apart from Vicky. Lauren said it wasn't a problem, as he and Zoé needed some privacy.

  Lauren and Valdieri were sitting at the bar with an open Bible between them. They looked up and smiled.

  At that moment Zoé appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, still in her pajamas. She looked distraught. "Why are you down here, Matt? I have been having a dream most terrible. I was in the clinic with baby Jack. Dr. Marks was trying to pull him away from me, and I tried to hold him tightly." She stopped and shook her head. "It was terrible." She pronounced the word as French. "There were two nurses with Dr. Marks and they were holding scalpels and waving them in my face."

  Matt moved to put his arm around her shoulders and give her a cuddle. "It was a dream, that's all. You were dreaming you were back at the clinic of the Little Sisters in France."

  "No, no, Matt. I was definitely at the clinic here in New York. The physician was shouting that he was going to cut Jack up into little pieces and feed them to the other patients. It has made me feel sick. I tried to hold on to Jack, but I knew that any moment I would let go. And then I woke up and you were not in the room. What do you think it means?"

  "Some dreams can be very bad," Valdieri said quietly. "We must be careful not to let them upset us during the day. It's rare for a dream to have any meaning, although I believe God sometimes speaks to us through dreams. But surely not that one. A dream like that is understandable, considering all the stress the two of you have been through. In your dream you were mixing up your visit to the clinic on the first day, the loss of Jack in Central Park the next morning, and your ordeal at the Clinic of the Little Sisters in Tourvillon. Don't try and read anything into it or you'll only upset yourself more."

  Matt kept his arm around Zoé. "We're both getting terrible thoughts," he told her. "All we can do is trust the police, and try to do a bit of investigating on our own. Not that we've done much good so far."

  "It is the clinic," Zoé said, her voice unsteady. "I have understood the reason for the dream. They want Jack so they can harvest his organs."

  Matt continued with the hug. "How could they do that?" It was best to listen sympathetically. "We'd be there and would stop them."

  Zoé shook her head and broke away from Matt. "We are not there now. But maybe Jack is."

  "Zoé, why on earth do you think Jack is there?"

  "My dream tells me it is the clinic that has taken him. They studied his DNA and his blood group when we first got here. They may have very rich clients waiting for a donor who is a match. Of course they could not take his organs while we were there with him. Why do you think the doctor recommended we took little Jack away for the night? They had to kidnap him when he was away from the clinic."

  Matt felt a shiver on his back and on his arms. It sounded crazy, but it could be true.

  "Lauren knows..." Valdieri said suddenly.

  Zoé spun round to look at him. "Lauren knows about this?"

  "Not Lauren, but Lauren knows a senior nurse at the clinic. Esme Butland."

  Lauren looked surprised. "I can't believe Esme's involved in anything terrible like that."

  "Lauren," Valdieri said, "you could ask Esme if she's heard whispers of something suspicious happening. Now listen, Zoé, I don't believe for one moment that your dream has any meaning, but let's put your mind at rest by making a phone call. There's coffee here if you'd like it. Or juice."

  Lauren said of course she'd phone Esme. Matt found it hard to tell if Lauren was genuinely concerned, or if she felt it was yet another time-wasting idea of Zoé's, like Washington and the Children of Celestial Light.

  Lauren nodded, pulled her cell phone from her purse and flicked through the list of contacts. "Matt and Zoé, I want you both to stay here with me," she said, as she keyed in the number. It was answered almost immediately.

  "Can I speak to Esme Butland? ... Thank you." Lauren turned to them both. "They're putting me straight through."

  Matt noticed that Zoé welcomed his arm around her now. It was unlikely, but this could be grim news.

  "It's me, Lauren. Has a very small baby being admitted in the last couple of days? ... Yes, I know about Jack Rider. Any other babies?... Yes. ... I see. ... Yes. ... Okay, phone me. I'm here for the morning. ... Thanks."

  Matt found himself holding his breath. Whatever Esme Butland was saying, she was taking a long time.

  Lauren finished the call and shook her head. "Esme's checking. There are only four room reserved for small babies. You'll be relieved to know that one of them is still reserved for Jack."

  "And the other three?" Matt asked.

  "Almost certainly empty at present, but she's checking. It may take a few minutes, so why don't you guys have something to eat. Keep your strength up for the day."

  Matt didn't feel like eating the cooked breakfast of bacon and some sort of sausage, although the fried eggs looked good. He settled for some sort of lumpy, over-sweetened breakfast cereal called granola.

  He was only on his third spoonful when Lauren's phone rang.

  Lauren took it from her purse and answered it. "Yes, I'm listening. ... When was this? ... On life support? ... How do you mean, definitely not likely to live?" Lauren looked shaken as she listened to a long conversation. At last she spoke. "Esme, this is highly confidential and I don't want you to breathe a word of it. I have Jack Rider's parents here with me. Is there any way they could have a look at the baby? I don't want to discuss it on the phone, but this is absolutely urgent. ... Right, just as soon as we can get a cab."

  Matt found himself taking deep breaths, noticing that Zoé was doing the same. "What did she say?" he asked, afraid of the answer.

  "Esme says we need to get to the clinic as soon as possible. A single mother was admitted with her baby shortly after Jack was kidnapped, but no one's supposed to know apart from a small team. She's asked some discreet questions and has heard from one of the assistant nurses that a sixteen-year-old girl is there with a baby boy who only has two or three hours left to live. Absolutely nothing can be done to save him. The girl's parents wanted nothing to do with their daughter when they knew the baby was dying. Said it was her own fault for getting pregnant. So her friend had a word with the clinic and asked about organ donation. Esme says there's no money changing hands with the single mom, but she agreed immediately, and bravely said she'd like other families to be able to save their children with some of her baby's organs."

  Zoé threw herself on to the couch. "It is Jack. There is no teenage mother. Money, it is changing the hands somewhere, I am sure it is. They are going to kill Jack for money. What can we do?"

  Lauren and Matt helped Zoé to her feet. "I'm certain we'll find that the mother and baby are nothing to do with your little boy. Just to set your minds at rest, we're going straight there in a cab. Esme is going to get us access to the baby's room. The mom is there all the time, and the whole thing is hush-hush, as both the girl and the clinic are insisting on confidentiality. She doesn't want the other families to know where the organs have come from. It sounds as though they'll be switching the life-support off within the next two hours. Esme says the baby's mom is resigned to it."

  Zoé recovered quickly and was already running to the outside door. "Come on, Matt, be quick. Our baby only has two hours left to live."

  Twenty minutes later, as they climbed from the cab outside the clinic, Matt found memories flooding back of arriving here with Jack, full of hope. Esme Butland, in green and white nurse's uniform, was waiting for them in the reception area. She didn't look at all happy as she pulled them to one side where they could speak without being overheard. "Not good news I'm afraid."

  "Jack is already dead?" Zoé gasped.

  Esme Butland shook her head. "I don't think it is your baby, but I do know the baby I told you about is still alive. The prob
lem is there's no way I can get you access to the room."

  "Sounds suspicious," Matt said. "Is there a photograph of the baby in the clinic records we could look at? Lauren says you're a senior nurse here."

  Again Esme shook her head. "Access to those records is way beyond my authority because the whole matter is being treated with the greatest secrecy. The baby is on the third floor. That's not a floor where I'm on duty, and I would be reprimanded immediately if anyone saw me showing visitors around there." Then, "Third floor, room thirty-two," she added thoughtfully, nodding to Matt. "It may sound sexist, but if a visitor decided to wander around there on their own, a woman would draw less attention."

  Matt felt a jolt of adrenaline. Esme Butland must know he was a PI, and surely this was a hint. Permission even. Zoé seemed to be reading his mind. She caught hold of his hand and gave it three quick squeezes. He could only hope it was one for each floor.

  Esme said, "We'll go to the reception desk and I can book you in, and we can have a drink in the coffee area. Zoé, you can stay here if you like. But don't go up the stairs which are just around the corner to the left." She looked thoughtful again. "Visitors from England think the third floor is three floors up. Here in America what you call the ground floor is the first floor. So the third floor with room thirty-two is only two floors up."

  Lauren seemed unaware of the subterfuge, which Matt thought was a shame because he and Zoé could do with one of her quick prayers right now. Hopefully Zoé had taken in the reason for the complicated explanation of floor numbers.

  At the desk, the smart female receptionist in a white blouse and black tailored jacket pointed to the visitors' book. "Are your visitors staying, Esme?" she asked. She stood up and looked left and right. "I thought there were four of you."

  Esme smiled confidently. "She'll be with us in a minute. I think she's just gone to get some fresh air. Do you need to book us in? We're only having coffee and then my friends are leaving."

  Matt felt Esme would be good working for Ken Habgood, but she was unlikely to want to receive a tenth of the salary she'd be getting here. Yes, the receptionist said, they still needed to be booked in.

  He tried not to look around too anxiously as Esme led the way to the open corner in the reception area where there were low tables with chairs. A coffee percolator on a cabinet made bubbling noises. Matt poured a cup for the three of them, but he didn't feel like coffee. He just wished he could be upstairs with Zoé instead of sitting down with these two women.

  Five minutes passed, then ten. Any moment Matt expected to see a police car draw up outside and Zoé being bundled into it by the clinic security. Where on earth was she?

  "Is Zoé all right?" Lauren asked suddenly, making Matt jump and almost spill his coffee.

  Was Lauren really that naïve? Or was she sharing his concerns about what might be happening on the third floor? Lauren's question was answered at that moment as Zoé made her way across the reception area.

  The receptionist stood up. "Where have you been, madam?" she called. "You need to be booked in."

  "We are going now," Zoé said dismissively.

  Matt was unable to read Zoé's face. She looked upset, but not angry. He and Lauren booked out, and with Esme they made their way onto the street through the main entrance, and stopped.

  "Well?" Matt asked.

  Zoé shook her head. "It was difficult. I had to wait at the top of the stairs until I could not hear anyone walking around. Room thirty-two is opposite the top of the stairs. The room it was not locked, and I slipped inside and closed the door. The poor baby has tubes and a ventilator. The mother looks like a child, and she is just sitting there sobbing with no one to comfort her.

  "So it's not Jack?" Matt said, probably unnecessarily.

  "No, Matt, it is not Jack. I was afraid to stay too long in case I got caught, but I spoke to the mother of the tiny baby. He is suffering from a terminal heart defect. The situation is too bad to even consider a heart transplant, and since he has been here his condition has deteriorated quickly. There is no way he could stay alive for even five minutes without the ventilator. The girl says she wants to pray with someone before they switch off her baby's life-support. Me, I did not feel I could do it. Not yet. Lauren, do you think they would let you in if you explained the situation?"

  Esme turned to Lauren. "If you're willing, I think I can get you in, under the circumstances. Steve's name will help. But we won't mention that Zoé has already been in the room."

  "You two go on back without me," Lauren said. "That poor girl sounds in great need. I'm going to stay with her for as long as she wants. Tell Steve I may not be back until tomorrow morning."