The Dog Who Ate The Flintlock

by Edward Coburn

  “Not if the Amber alert reaches the airport before I get him on the plane.” Ronald had been watching the local news station on TV and listening to an all-news station on his radio. “Fortunately nothing has been reported yet.” A private jet waited to whisk the nurse on board and the baby to New York.

  “You have all the proper papers with you don’t you?”

  “Of course I do. I’m not an idiot. I don’t wanna be busted with a stolen kid.” He had an authentic-looking birth certificate that specified the baby was his and the other paperwork that generally accompanied a live birth. “And if you don’t like your cut, why don’t you go to New York and take it up with Donati. He’s the one who decided on your cut.”

  Jenny instantly changed her mind at the mention of Donati’s name. “Never mind. Ten thousand seems fair.”

  “I thought you might think that.” He smiled at Jenny’s wisdom. Ronald himself would never even consider disagreeing with Donati. He knew that was a sure-fire way to get dead. “And now, why don’t you get out of here so I can get the baby on that plane. And remember what I said. If you ever tell anyone I was behind this kidnapping, I’ll find you and kill you. There will be no place to hide that I can’t find you.”

  “I won’t tell anyone.” She shivered at his threat. She knew his was no idle threat. She definitely wouldn’t mention it to anyone and not just because of his warning. To tell anyone would be really stupid. She wanted to go back to college, not to prison. She knew that would be her destination if she were ever found out. She hoped the others that Ronald didn’t know about would protect her from prison, but she wasn’t sure she totally trusted them either. But Ronald wasn’t her only worry besides that. She had to be worried about where she might end up after all this was over. She couldn’t even imagine how bad prison would be, but it would no doubt be even worse than living on the streets. Jenny shoved the envelope in her purse and turned to the door. She turned back. “You won’t tell Donati I was unhappy with my share will you?”

  “No. I won’t even see Donati. I won’t be on the plane to New York. Only the baby and the nurse on board the plane will. My home is in LA now. Besides, Donati doesn’t deal with lowly people like me. I’ll give the baby to the nurse on the plane. After that, I will have nothing more to do with him or anyone in the system—especially not Donati.”

  “And you won’t ever mention it to whoever you deal with?”

  “I won’t mention it.” Actually, there was no middleman. His orders still came directly from Donati as they had when he lived in West Virginia so many years ago. But, of course, Jenny didn’t need to know that. And naturally, he wouldn’t mention anything about her complaint because he’d been given thirty thousand for his share and twenty thousand for Jenny although he hired Jenny for only the ten thousand five hundred he’d given her. If Donati ever found out he’d shorted Jenny, he doubted he’d live long enough to regret his deception. But he was sure nobody would ever find out. After all, who would Jenny tell? He was Jenny’s only contact.

  Chapter 18

  Roger trudged zombie-like back and forth next to Tami’s bed with nothing on his mind except his missing son. He had not heard anything since Nurse Harris had ushered him back to Tami’s room and his anger was building again. He felt ready to explode and needed someone upon whom he could vent his rage. He was just about to burst from the room to find that inept nurse when Tami groaned in her sleep distracting him for the moment. Tami was tossing and turning in her sleep. When he and Mary had told her their baby was missing she had screamed at Mary and Roger for what seemed like hours but was only about three minutes. Then she had broken down in tears for several minutes before yelling at both of them again until she grew hoarse. Finally, she began crying again until she cried herself to sleep.

  A noise outside the window of Tami’s room attracted Roger’s attention. As he stared out the window, he saw two police cars and a van drive up with sirens blaring and lights flashing. Two uniformed policemen got out of each squad car, and four Crime Scene Investigation techs piled out of the van. He recognized they were CSI techs because of the jackets they wore with Crime Scene Investigation emblazoned on the back. They walked to the back of the van and took out several boxes that Roger surmised held their equipment which would let them take fingerprints and do whatever other tests CSI techs usually did. The CSI techs followed the uniforms into the hospital. A nondescript car pulled up behind the van, and a man in a suit got out and also hurried into the hospital.

  Dr. Rich was talking to the head of his security force on the phone when the man in the suit Roger saw walked in.

  “I’ll get back to you,” Dr. Rich said as he hung up. “Yes,” he said looking at the detective.

  “I’m Detective James Platt,” he said. “I need you to fill me in on what’s happened and what’s been done about it.”

  “A newborn has been taken from the nursery by someone disguised as a nurse, and I put the hospital on lockdown as soon as I knew. The woman has not been found nor has the baby. I was just on the phone with my head of security.”

  “Do you have a description of the woman?”

  “Only a sketchy one. Perhaps it might be better if you talk to nurse Mary Harris who saw the woman take the baby out of the nursery.”

  “Yes. That’s a good idea. Where might I find this nurse?”

  “Right now I believe she’s working in the nursery. I can take you there.”

  “That would be appreciated,” James said.

  Dr. Rich got up and walked toward the office door. “Follow me, and I’ll take you to the nursery.”

  James followed him out the door. Dr. Rich paused to tell his secretary where he would be. They rode up in the elevator and walked to the nursery where they spotted Mary straightening up one of the empty bassinets. Dr. Rich knocked on the window and signaled her to come out.

  “Nurse Harris, this is Detective Platt. He needs you to run through what happened and tell him what the woman looked like.”

  “Of course, sir.” She turned to James. “Well, I had been to the restroom and ran into this woman, who was dressed as a nurse, as she came out of the nursery carrying the Nelson’s baby. She said she was taking him to his mother’s room. We do that all the time, so I didn’t think anything of it.”

  “Did you recognize this woman?” James pulled out a notebook and a pen.

  Mary shook her head. “I didn’t, but that’s not surprising. Nurses come and go in the hospital all the time.”

  “Go on.”

  “She wore an authentic-looking ID tag which gave her name as June Henderson. I had never seen her before, but as I said, that’s not all that unusual. I didn’t know there was anything wrong until Mr. Nelson came to the nursery looking for his missing baby. I informed him a nurse had taken his baby to his mother’s room. But when we went to his room only the baby’s mother was there. Then I went to Stacy at the nurse’s station to check where the baby might have been taken, and Stacy couldn’t find any tests that had been ordered. Stacy examined the hospital’s personnel list and told me there is no nurse by the name of June Henderson working here. That’s when I knew something had to be wrong and had Stacy call Dr. Rich.”

  “I came up here immediately,” Dr. Rich said.

  “Can you describe the woman who took the baby?” James asked as he took out a pad and pen.

  “As I said, I’ve never seen her before.”

  “Just describe her as well as you can.”

  Mary was thoughtful for a moment. “She had shoulder-length brown hair…blue eyes…hmmm.” She shook her head.

  James wrote down what Mary had said and then waited for a few seconds for her to add more before he asked, “How tall was she?”

  “About five-eight or nine I would guess. She was kind of tall…and slim.”

  “That’s good,” James said. “Anything else you can think of?”

  Mary gazed at the ceiling before focusing back on the detective. “No…I’m sorry I didn’t notice anyth
ing else. She held the baby up covering part of her face as if she was smelling the baby and, honestly, I had other things on my mind.”

  “I understand,” James said as he reached into his shirt pocket and handed each of them a business card. “If either of you thinks of anything else, no matter how trivial you might think it is, please give me a call. One never knows what might break a case wide open.”

  Liam Harwood was staring at the monitor in his basement office. He was reviewing the day’s happenings, searching for anything that might give a clue to the identity of the woman who stole the baby from the nursery when the four CSI techs came into the small room. Liam hated interruptions when he was concentrating. He just had to find something that would lead the cops to the woman who took the baby. That baby had to be found. He didn’t want a stolen baby on his conscious for the rest of his life. It wasn’t his fault, but he couldn’t help but feel responsible. This was his hospital, after all. He sighed heavily but was slightly relieved when he turned his head and noticed the interlopers were cops. “Can I help you?”

  “We certainly hope you can. I’m Peter Francis from the crime lab, and these are my associates, Ginger Lockwood, Tom Wilson, and Dean Braun.” He pointed at each of them in turn, and Liam nodded at them.

  “I’ve just been reviewing the video taken today all over the hospital. It’s digitally stored on the hospital’s server so I can call up the images by time code in the recording and the camera that caught the image. I think I’ve found several things of interest.”

  Peter brightened. He hoped this geek knew what he was doing. Liam certainly represented the type with his long hair, tape-repaired glasses, and pocket protector, not to mention his long, thin nose and receding hairline. “May we see what you’ve found?”

  Liam turned back to the keyboard. “You certainly may. What would you like to see first?”

  “What do you have?”

  “I have found her from the time she walks in from the parking garage to the time she leaves with the baby.”

  “Do you have a shot of her car?” Dean asked hopefully.

  “No,” Liam answered.

  Dean’s face drooped.

  “Wherever she parked, we must have no coverage in that particular spot. I scanned through all the footage from the various cameras we have in the garage, but I couldn’t find her getting out of a car.”

  “She probably scoped out the parking lot and hospital beforehand so she would know where to park unobserved,” Dean said.

  “No doubt,” Peter said. “So why don’t you start with the first image of her you found.”

  “I can do that.” Liam referred to a few notes he’d taken as he reviewed the video before Peter and his associates came into the room. He punched a few keys, and an image came up on the monitor in front of him. A few more keys and the image also appeared on the large monitor on the wall behind his work station.

  “This is the first image I found. As you can see, she wore a big floppy hat and a long blonde wig, and she carried a cloth bag. Either the hat or the wig was always covering her face as she walked through the hospital. That fact makes Dean’s…” Liam pointed at Dean who nodded, “observation more likely.”

  “Why did you say the blonde hair was a wig?” Tom asked.

  “Because later on, she ditches the blonde wig in favor of a brown-haired wig that falls to her shoulders. Of course, either hair-do may be her own, but that much hair would be hard to hide under a wig,” Liam turned to Ginger, “Wouldn’t it?”

  Ginger nodded. “And you’re sure that’s her?”

  “Yes. I found her going into a linen closet and out again wearing a nurse’s gown with a June Henderson ID tag pinned to her gown. I heard that the nurse who took the baby was named June Henderson. Besides, I tracked her to the nursery where she picks up a baby and then leaves the nursery with that baby.”

  “And there couldn’t have been somebody else in the closet when she went in?” Ginger asked.

  “No. I thought of that. I checked the video for anyone going into the closet before she did and no one did. I saw a nurse going in earlier, but she came back out almost immediately with an armload of towels.”

  “Can you show us the video from the time she goes into the closet to when she takes the baby?” Peter asked.

  “Sure,” Liam said. “But first I think you should note that she’s wearing a beige blouse and white shorts.” He waited a few seconds while everyone stared at the image.

  “Okay, I think you can move on,” Peter said.

  Liam consulted his notes again. He pressed a few keys, and the cameras followed Jenny until she was opening the door of the linen closet. Then he stopped the video, and a still image of Jenny in her floppy hat appeared on Liam’s monitor as well as the large wall monitor.

  “Notice she’s opening the door with a handkerchief so no prints,” Tom said.

  Peter leaned closer to the monitor. “What’s that on the back of her leg?” he asked. “Is that a tattoo?”

  “I think it is,” Ginger said leaning closer to the monitor as well.

  “Let’s see,” Liam said as he zoomed in on the image, so it showed just Jenny’s leg. “Look at that. It is a tattoo. It’s a rose. Nice catch.” He appraised Peter with admiration. “I didn’t notice it when I scanned through this before.”

  Just then the door to Liam’s inner sanctum opened, and a nurse stuck her head in. “Oh, I’m sorry Liam. I didn’t know you were busy.”

  “No problem, Kate. The cops and I are just reviewing the video for today. We’re trying to ascertain who stole the Nelson’s baby. Do you need something?”

  “No. I just popped in to see if you wanted to go to lunch.”

  Liam glanced at the time displayed on the computer. “Gosh, I didn’t know it was getting so late.” He turned to Peter. “Should we break for lunch?”

  “No. We need to keep going. When it comes to a kidnapping every minute is precious.”

  “I understand,” Liam said. He turned to Kate. “How about I call you after we get done here.”

  “That’ll work. Again, sorry I bothered you, gentlemen.”

  “No worry,” Peter said. “But we do need to get what we can from the video recorded today.”

  “I understand. I’ll see you later Liam.” Kate quietly closed the door.

  Chapter 19

  Peter looked back at the picture on the monitors. “Can you print this image out for us?”

  “Sure can.” Liam printed the picture, retrieved it from the printer, and handed it to Peter.

  “Thanks.” Peter focused on the picture. “This should help us ID her. Now let’s follow her when she comes out of the linen closet.”

  “Okay,” Liam said as he put the video in motion again and Jenny went into the linen closet. He jumped a few frames forward and paused it again. “Here she is coming out of the closet. Notice how she holds the clipboard in front of her face.”

  “Again, hiding her face from the camera,” Tom said.

  “Agreed,” Peter said. “Can you print that for us as well?”

  “Sure.” Liam printed that image and handed it to Peter.

  “And she’s got on a different wig. Brown, shoulder-length as Liam said,” Ginger put in.

  “Yes,” Liam said. “And she ditched the hat and bag. Any possibility of getting prints off the wig, hat, or cloth bag?”

  “We’ll try, but contrary to what you see on TV or in the movies, it’s next to impossible to get prints off straw or cloth,” Peter said.

  “That’s too bad,” Liam said. “I’ll zoom in on the ID. Notice that her ID says June Henderson.”

  “That’s what you said the nurse, or woman, who took the baby was called. Isn’t it?” Ginger asked.

  “More than that,” Liam said, “I found her coming out of the nursery, and it was the same person. She still didn’t show her face, but I zoomed in on her ID, and it was the same.”

  “Can you show us where she goes coming out of the closet?” Peter as
ked.

  “Sure. But she only goes to the elevator and up to the nursery floor.”

  “That’s okay. Let us see it anyway.”

  “Okay, here goes.” Liam put the video in motion, and he followed Jenny using the various cameras until she got to the elevator where he froze the image again. As she walked down the hallway, Jenny was careful to keep her face hidden. “She’s using the handkerchief again when she pushes the button for the elevator.”

  “She really paid attention to what she was doing,” Tom said.

  “She didn’t want to make our job too easy,” Dean put in.

  “Please continue,” Peter said.

  Liam ran the video until the elevator door closed on Jenny, and then he shifted the image to see her exiting the elevator with the clipboard still guarding her face. “Now she goes directly to the nursery window where she waits until the nurse inside, Mary Harris, comes out.” He zoomed the image until Jenny’s right leg showed the rose tattoo again. “As you can see, it is the woman we saw go into the linen closet.”

  “It must be,” Peter agreed looking at the picture Liam had printed earlier. “That’s the same tattoo.”

  “Okay,” Liam said. “She goes into the nursery when Mary comes out.” He continued the video and Mary came out of the nursery door. A few seconds later Jenny used her ID to enter the nursery. “Now she looks at the charts at the end of the bassinets until she finds the baby she’s looking for and then picks up that baby.” Liam froze the image when Jenny leaned over to pick up the baby from the bassinet and then moved the image to the chart at the end and zoomed in. “As you can see, she’s taking the Nelson baby.” Liam turned to Peter. “Do you think she was looking for that particular baby?”

  “Could be, but it’s more likely she was looking for a type.”

  “What do you mean?” Liam asked.

  “When a baby is kidnapped in a stolen car or if one is kidnapped in a park, it’s generally a crime of opportunity—unless that baby is taken by one of the parents—which is often the case. But when a baby is taken from a hospital, the person is generally looking for a particular type of baby—a black girl or boy baby, or a white baby of a particular sex. The person is generally looking for a baby of a particular ethnic background and maybe even a particular eye color although eye color frequently changes as the baby gets older along with the color of the baby’s hair.”