by Eve Gaddy
What do you call that shiner he gave you? Maggie wondered. A love tap? That must have hurt like hell. Maggie didn’t hold out much hope that the woman would leave her abusive husband. She’d had too much experience with this sort of thing and she could see the woman wasn’t ready to admit the guy would likely only get worse over time.
“I told you I fell,” Sara insisted. “Jasper didn’t lay a hand on me. I’m sorry for your trouble.”
Maggie sighed, acknowledging defeat. The neighbors had called this one in, reporting a disturbance in the apartment next door. By the time Maggie arrived, the woman’s abusive spouse was long gone. Probably drunk and gone off to get even drunker, Maggie thought, and then he’d come home and whale on the poor woman some more.
“Call us if you need us. And here’s my cell number in case you change your mind about that shelter.” She handed the woman her card.
Sara showed her to the door. “He’s a good man, he really is. He’s upset about losing his job. That’s all.”
Maggie didn’t reply. What could she say that she hadn’t already told the woman during the half hour she’d spent with her? Certain that the beating had been “just this once,” the lady wasn’t listening. Maggie hated domestic-abuse cases. Hated that she couldn’t do more to help the victims. But Sara had refused to admit the truth, and with the abuser not even being present, Maggie’s hands were tied.
Happy Valentine’s Day, she thought grimly, walking to her cruiser in the deepening twilight. An annoying day, topped off by an abused woman who wouldn’t accept her help. She’d been a cop too long to jinx herself by saying the day couldn’t get worse, because in police work, it could and frequently did.
As she neared her cruiser she heard a baby crying. She looked around but didn’t see another soul in the parking lot. The noise sounded as if it was coming from near her patrol car. As she reached it, Maggie stopped short, nearly tripping over the car seat that sat beside the driver’s door.
“Well, what do we have here?” she said as she squatted down to see the baby in the car seat. “What’s wrong, sweetheart? Where’s your mother?”
The infant was a girl, judging from the pink blanket she was wrapped in. She couldn’t be more than two months old, if that. She touched the baby’s cheek. It didn’t feel too cool so maybe she hadn’t been here long. She looked around again but whoever had left the child was either long gone or hiding.
She scanned some bushes a short distance away, but couldn’t see much in the gloom. She started to walk over to look more closely, but the baby was cranked up and crying in earnest now and clearly needed her attention. She squatted down again, spotted a pacifier and put it in the little girl’s mouth. That quieted her, at least for the moment.
There was a note pinned to the blanket. Maggie shined her flashlight on it to read the printed block letters.
Please take care of my baby.
He said he’d kill her if I
keep her. Her name is Grace.
Holy moly. Maggie stared at the baby, who was fretting and looked like she was winding up to cry again. Probably hungry, poor little thing. Then she noticed there were a couple of bottles in the car seat as well as some diapers.
Maggie stood, torn between wanting to check out possible witnesses and the fact that she couldn’t leave the child. She sure as hell didn’t intend to cart the baby with her while she talked to people.
She popped her trunk open and pulled out a pair of thin latex gloves and put them on. Then she took the note off and bagged it, to take it to the police lab. She would probably have the car seat and bottles dusted for fingerprints, and she didn’t want to contaminate the surfaces with her own.
She picked up the car seat and put the baby in the cruiser since it had gotten a little chilly. Then she keyed in the mike and said, “Requesting backup at the Wayside Apartments, two-seventy-five Fifth Street. I have an abandoned infant.”
“What’s that you say?” Allison, the dispatcher, said. “A baby?”
“That’s right. I found her sitting in her car seat right beside my door. I need some help to check out the building for witnesses.” Just then the baby—Grace, the note had said—spit out her pacifier and began to wail. “Send me the backup as quick as you can. I have to go.”
Turning on the interior light, she took the baby out of the car seat and settled her in the crook of her arm. When she gave her the bottle, Grace sucked on it greedily. Maggie wondered if the mother was still hanging around, trying to see what was going to happen. Or had she simply set the carrier down and walked off, trusting the cops would come back to the car before long? Either way, Maggie didn’t like it. Abandonment was a crime, plain and simple.
Grace was a beautiful baby. Fine blond hair, dark blue eyes like all babies had at first, perfect rosebud mouth. She looked well cared for, Maggie admitted. And she was so sweet. But then, all babies were sweet. Her nieces and nephews certainly were.
She stifled a pang, remembering she wouldn’t be seeing either her sister Lorna or her kids—Bobby, Jeannette and baby Summer—as often as she had in the past. Her sister’s husband had recently been transferred and the whole family had moved away. To Florida, of all places. If Maggie saw them at holidays from now on, she’d be lucky.
Now Maggie’s parents were thinking about following them. Her dad was a fisherman but he’d been talking about retiring and doing something else. Maggie couldn’t imagine it, but her mother sounded set on moving.
Maggie loved her mother but sometimes she really resented knowing that her mother didn’t think she’d ever get married and have children of her own. “You’re just not domestic, Maggie.” A refrain she’d heard from her mother and sister for years. Her dad never said it, but then, he didn’t talk a lot anyway.
Although Maggie admitted she wasn’t a regular domestic goddess by any means, she didn’t see why that precluded her having a family of her own. Of course, she had to find a man in order to do that, and that didn’t seem likely anytime soon.
After Grace finished the bottle, Maggie burped her. She thought about putting her back in her seat, but there was still no sign of backup, so she simply held her until Grace fell asleep. “Don’t you worry, honey,” she murmured to the sleeping baby. “Maggie will make sure you’re taken care of while we look for your mama.”
AN HOUR LATER Maggie held a crying baby Grace in one arm, while holding a phone receiver against her ear. “No, we haven’t located the mother,” she told her friend Nina Baker, a social worker at Child Protective Services. “We’ve barely had time to question anyone. There were no witnesses. Or at least, no one who’ll admit to seeing anything.”
“Have you identified the baby yet?”
“No. I’m about to take her footprint and see if we can find a match at any of the area hospitals. But even if we identify the baby that doesn’t mean I can find the mother. I couldn’t get any useable prints from the note or the car seat or the bottles she left.”
“Sounds like it might take a while to find the mother, then.”
“You got that right. This baby needs someplace to stay as soon as possible. She’s exhausted and needs somewhere to sleep besides in her car seat at the police station.”
“I’ll get right on it, Maggie,” Nina said. “I’ll call you back as soon as I’ve located foster care for her.”
“Do you think that will be a problem?”
“Oh, no, I’m sure it won’t be. I’ll call you back as soon as I find a home.”
Thirty minutes later, Nina still hadn’t gotten back to her so Maggie called her. “Nina, what’s going on? This baby needs to get out of here.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m having a little problem finding someone to keep her on such short notice. The foster parents we usually turn to in this situation are ill and I’m having to call all around the area.”
“You haven’t found anyone?”
“Well, not yet,” Nina admitted. “But I’ve contacted another—”
“Look, let me take he
r home with me,” Maggie interrupted. “This is stupid. She needs a bath, she needs some food and she needs to get the hell out of here so she can sleep. I’m telling you, the poor little baby is exhausted.”
“Well…Are you sure? I could take her myself, but—”
“Just let me take care of her, Nina.”
“I suppose that would be all right,” she said, still hesitant. “But aren’t you on duty?”
“I cleared it with the chief to go off shift early. I’ll take her home with me and you can let me know when you’ve found a foster family for her.”
“Thanks, Maggie. You’re a lifesaver.”
“Come on, sweetheart,” she said to the sobbing baby. “You’re going home with Maggie. We’re going to get you all fixed up.”
JUST BEFORE SHE LEFT the station Maggie called Delilah Randolph. Delilah and her husband, Cameron, owned the waterfront restaurant and bar The Scarlet Parrot.
“Delilah, it’s Maggie,” she said when her friend answered. “I need a favor.”
“Sure, Maggie. What is it?”
“I need to borrow some diapers and formula and bottles until I have a chance to buy some. And maybe a playpen or something else for the baby to sleep in.”
“What baby?”
“I found an abandoned baby a few hours ago and CPS couldn’t find anyone to keep her tonight. I’m taking her home with me and thought maybe you could help me out.”
“Someone abandoned their infant? How terrible.”
“It happens,” Maggie said. “Although it’s more often newborns who are abandoned. This little girl is a couple of months old, I think.”
“I’ll bring some things and meet you at your house. I’ve got some clothes, too. A footed sleeper and something for her to wear tomorrow. Any idea what size she is?”
Maggie checked the outfit Grace wore and told Delilah the size.
“Got it. I’ll see what I have and borrow whatever else we need from my sister-in-law.”
“Great—thanks, Delilah. See you in a few.”
An hour later Maggie put a bathed, fed and freshly clothed baby Grace to bed in the borrowed playpen turned crib. Delilah had stayed to help her and was waiting for Maggie in the kitchen.
“I put her on her back,” Maggie said, walking into the room. “That’s what they tell you, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. Until she can turn over she should sleep on her back.”
“Want some hot chocolate?”
“If you’re having some.”
As Maggie took out the mugs and ingredients, Delilah asked, “What’s going to happen to Grace now?”
“She’ll go into foster care until we locate the mother. If we don’t find the mother…” Maggie poured milk and chocolate into the mugs and stirred them. “I suppose she’ll eventually wind up being adopted. Who knows how long that will be, though?” She stuck the mugs in the microwave and turned it on.
“It’s odd, but the baby didn’t look neglected. Or abused. I looked for bruises or other signs when we bathed her. I’d say she’d been well taken care of.”
“That’s what I thought, too. No signs of abuse at all.”
“Why would her mother abandon her? I can’t imagine abandoning Johnny.”
“She left a note saying ‘he’ threatened to kill the baby and asked that she be taken care of. Thought the police should be able to do that, I imagine. That’s why she left her by the patrol car.”
“I’d have left him, then. Not the baby.”
“Not everyone’s as brave as you were, Delilah. Or as smart to get out while you could. But yeah, that’s what I’d have done, too.”
Delilah laughed. “I wasn’t brave, I was scared for my life. That’s why I ran.”
Delilah had fled an abusive marriage. A man who had already murdered his first wife. She was on the run when she’d met Cameron and eventually married him after her husband was killed. By Maggie.
The microwave dinged so she took out the mugs and set one in front of her friend.
“It still bothers you, doesn’t it?” Delilah said. “That you had to shoot him. And that he died.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve made peace with it. He gave me no choice but to shoot him. I just wish there had been another way to settle things, that’s all.”
Delilah reached for her hand and squeezed it. “You saved all of us that day, Maggie. Me, Cam and Gabe. I said it then and I’ll say it now. Thank you.”
“Why are we talking about that?” Maggie said gruffly. “I did my job and there’s no gratitude necessary.” She took a sip of hot chocolate. “Now let me ask you something.”
Delilah sat back, smiling. “Okay. What?”
“Do you think it would be totally crazy if I applied to be Grace’s foster mother?”
CHAPTER THREE
THE NEXT DAY, Nina still hadn’t found foster care for Grace, so Maggie kept her that day and night. It didn’t take long to realize that keeping the little girl had turned her heart to mush.
She’d always loved children. Once, she’d imagined that someday she’d find a man, marry him and have a family with him. But she was thirty-four and beginning to think that scenario was never going to happen. Even so, with one notable exception, she’d never considered single parenthood. Until now.
The crazy idea she’d shared with Delilah had really taken hold in her mind. Delilah hadn’t thought it sounded too wild, and had urged her to go for it if that was really what she wanted. But although Delilah herself had been in the foster care system briefly, she knew no more than Maggie did about becoming a foster parent.
Why shouldn’t she apply to care for Grace? She had a good job and was perfectly capable of caring for a child. She’d have to work something out about her hours and child care while she was at work, but there were working single mothers everywhere. Her idea was only bolstered by the thought of the precious little girl adrift in the system.
Maggie believed there was a very good chance the police would track down the parents, but who knew what would happen once they did? Even if they found Grace’s parents, she could very well still remain in the foster care system, depending on what the judge decided about the charges of abandonment that were sure to be brought against the mother and possibly the father, as well.
She’d talked to the chief and he’d agreed to give Maggie a few days off to take care of the baby until a more permanent solution could be reached. And in the meantime, Maggie was falling hard for baby Grace.
The morning after that, Nina called. “I found a foster home for Grace. When would be a good time for me to come pick her up?”
Never, Maggie thought, looking at the baby in her arms. Grace was smiling and blowing bubbles. “I can keep her longer. It’s not a problem.”
“Oh, that’s sweet of you, Maggie, but I need to get her into a licensed home. Technically, I shouldn’t have let you keep her, but I was in a bind, and besides, I know you.”
“Nina—” She started to say something but decided what she wanted to talk about would be better discussed face-to-face. “Never mind, I’ll see you in a little while.”
“Any news about locating the mother?” Nina asked after she arrived at Maggie’s house.
Maggie sat in her easy chair to feed Grace while she talked to Nina. She refused to think about the fact that it might be the last bottle she gave the baby.
“We know her name. The footprint matched a child born to a Carol Davis, nine and a half weeks ago. Father unknown. She named the baby Grace, which is what the note said. No luck on her last listed place of residence. She was long gone and no one remembered much about her. Or said they didn’t. It was marginal housing, a hole-in-the-wall apartment complex in Corpus Christi in a bad part of town.
“According to the officer who checked all this out, Carol Davis lived there with a man, but no one knew his name or admitted to knowing anything about him. The officer got the impression he might have been a gang-banger and they were afraid to talk.”
“Which would help explain why she abandoned the baby. If she’s involved with a gang member who doesn’t want the child it must have seemed safer to give the baby up.”
“But why didn’t she go through other channels? Legal channels? Why just abandon her? I’m telling you, Nina, the child has been well cared for. I don’t think she was neglected in any way. So why would the woman suddenly be willing to simply walk away from her child, abandoning her in a parking lot, for God’s sake?”
“I don’t know. There can be a number of reasons why she might abandon the child. But until you find her we won’t know. You have no idea where she went after she left the apartment complex?”
Maggie shook her head. “My department is pursuing leads, as is the Corpus Christi police department, but it’s not looking good. The mother seems to have vanished. If she’s living with a banger we may never find her.” She burped Grace and leaned back to hold her in her arms. A rocker, that’s what she needed.
“But she delivered the baby at a hospital. Seems like you could get some information through them.”
“Yes, but we didn’t. Carol Davis came in as an indigent through the E.R. There’s no way she had the money to cover hospital costs, and she sure as heck didn’t have insurance.”
“No, I suppose not. Well, good luck. It sounds like you’ll need it.” Nina glanced at her watch. “I need to be going. I told the Petersons I’d bring the baby over as soon as possible.”
“Yeah, Nina, about that. Could I talk to you a minute?”
“Of course.”
Maggie hesitated, wondering how to broach the subject. “If I were licensed for foster care, is it possible I could take care of Grace?”
Nina stared at her a moment. “You’ve never mentioned wanting to be a foster parent before.”
“It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while now,” Maggie said. Which wasn’t a lie if a couple of days could be considered a while. “Taking care of Grace made me realize I really did want to become licensed.” But she had to admit, she didn’t want to be just anyone’s foster mother, she wanted to be Grace’s foster mother.
