by Terri Reid
“Real winner for a mom,” Bradley muttered as he reviewed the list. And when he got to final entry he swore softly. Another dead parent and the child remanded to the custody of the state.
Bradley flipped the file across his desk and stood up, ran his hand through his hair as he exhaled sharply and walked over to the door of his office. “Dorothy,” he said, as he approached his assistant’s desk. “I need to speak with the CEO of the hospital.” He nodded slowly as he thought about it. “Yeah, I need to speak with him right away.”
She picked up the phone and held it in her hand for a moment. “Do you want me to set up something in his office at the hospital or do you want me to send a couple of uniforms to pick him up?” she asked with a slight smile.
Bradley smiled back. “Offer him the choice,” he said with a shrug. “And let him know I’m on my way there.”
“Yes, sir,” Dorothy said.
“Thank you,” he said, turning to walk down the hall.
“Oh, and boss,” Dorothy called, her ear to the phone.
He turned back, expectantly.
“I love it when you kick butt and take names,” she replied.
He smiled and nodded. “Sometimes that’s what you’ve got to do.”
Hurrying down the stairs, he pulled his phone from his pocket and punched in Mary’s number.
“Hi handsome.” Her answer immediately put a smile on his face.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he replied. “I’m taking a field trip.”
“Really? How exciting for you,” she replied. “And where are you going?”
“I decided to meet with the CEO of the hospital,” he said. “I want to find out what he knows.”
“Great idea,” Mary replied. “Follow the money.”
“Yeah. Exactly,” he replied. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m good,” she replied. “I’ve got an appointment with Linda at the Courthouse in about fifteen minutes, I want to see if she has any records that will shed more light on this.”
“Well, bundle up,” he said. “It’s cold and windy out here.”
“I will,” she said. “Hey, Ma’s at the hospital, visiting Stanley and Rosie. So, if you get done giving him the third degree and still have some time, you should go up and say hi.”
“If they don’t kick me out of the hospital,” he said.
“They can’t kick you out of the hospital,” she said. “We have a birthing class on Friday night and you have to go with me.”
Bradley clicked open the lock of his cruiser and climbed in. “Or, we could do something else,” he said. “Like…I don’t know…anything.”
“Bradley, it will be fun,” she said.
He put the key into the ignition and turned his car on, switching his phone to the cruiser’s Bluetooth speaker. “I don’t think it will be fun,” he replied, putting the car in reverse and pulling out his parking spot. “I don’t think it will even remotely resemble fun.”
“That’s because you don’t know what fun really is,” Mary teased.
Bradley put the car in forward and pulled into the street. “Hmmm, let me see,” he continued. “Sitting in a class, watching movies of women giving birth in full color, that just doesn’t sound like fun to me.”
“Bradley,” Mary said, letting her dramatic sigh travel through the phone line.
“But for you,” he said. “I would do anything. Even go to a birthing class.”
“Thank you,” she replied. “We can go out for ice cream afterwards.”
“Can we drive to the park and neck?” he asked.
“It’ll be dark,” she said. “We might get arrested.”
“I think I can take care of that,” he assured her. “Hey, I’m at the hospital. I love you.”
“I love you too,” she replied. “Have fun.”
“Oh, yeah, I will,” he assured her. “Be safe.”
Chapter Thirty-three
Bradley was right, Mary thought as she walked from her office to the County Courthouse. It was really cold and windy outside. She hurried down the street, pulled open the door to the building and slipped inside. The security guard smiled at her. “Pretty cold out there,” he said.
She nodded. “Yeah, very cold,” she agreed.
She put her purse on the counter and walked through the metal detector. The guard glanced through her purse and then handed it to her.
“So, you still pregnant?” he teased, laughing at his own joke.
Mary smiled weakly. “Yes. Yes, I am,” she replied. “I’m not due until the end of the month.”
“Are you kidding me?” he exclaimed. “You’re as big as a house.”
Mary paused and stared at him. Really? Did he think she needed to hear that?
“Okay, well, I’ll see you later,” she finally said and turned without giving him a chance to respond.
“As big as a house,” she muttered as she walked down the hallway to Linda’s office. “You still pregnant?”
“Mary, you’re talking to yourself,” Linda said, coming up alongside her.
Mary smiled at her friend, the newly appointed county administrator. “How’s the new job?” she asked.
“Great. Busy. Crazy,” Linda replied. “But I really love it.”
She led Mary into her office and offered her a chair. “So,” Linda asked as she sat down, “what can I do for you?”
“I’ve got a client, actually several clients, who were in an isolation ward at Freeport Hospital,” she explained. “It was in the mid-nineties, and I think they might have been given some experimental drugs for AIDS.”
“Are they thinking about taking legal action against the hospital?” she asked.
Mary shook her head. “No, Linda, they all died,” she said.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Linda replied. “Would there have been any kind of consent forms filled out?”
Mary shook her head. “They were all under the age of eight,” she said.
“Under the age of eight?” Linda exclaimed. “And you think they were given experimental drug treatments?”
“That’s what it looks like,” Mary said. “There were thirteen patients, and once they had all passed away, they closed the study or whatever it was they were doing.”
“Did the parents or guardians give consent?” Linda asked.
“Bradley’s still looking into that,” she said. “But so far, most of the children were wards of the State.”
Linda stood up. “Come on, Mary,” she said. “Let’s take a walk. There are some files I’d like to look through.”
Mary nodded. “I was really hoping you’d say that.”
They left Linda’s office and walked down the hall to the staircase, taking it down to the basement of the building. At the end of the hall was a large vault door that stood slightly ajar. “We converted most of the old records to an electronic format,” Linda explained. “But some of the files from the nineties didn’t get converted, so I thought we could check here first.”
They slipped into the large, metal-lined room. Aisles of shelves ran from the back of the room to the front and stood about four feet apart. On the shelves were white cardboard boxes with fitted lids. On the outside of the boxes was a description of the files they held and the date they were stored in the vault.
“Okay, we should look for DCFS files from the nineties,” Linda said. “And I think they might be back here in this aisle.”
They walked down the aisle that towered above them. Mary looked up at the top shelves about twelve feet up. “Let’s hope the files aren’t all the way up there,” Mary said.
Linda looked up. “Yeah, I agree,” she said. “Because there’s no way you’re going to be climbing a ladder in your condition, which means I would have to do it.”
Mary laughed. “Well, I’m suddenly feeling a lot less worried about files in those high shelves,” she said. “But, don’t worry, I’ll be down here on the floor cheering you on.”
“Thanks,” Linda replied. “Thanks a lot.”
She stopped in front of a section nearest to the back wall. “This should be where they are,” Linda said.
“Unless someone moved them to the top shelf,” Mary suggested.
“Funny,” Linda replied as she squatted down in front of the lowest shelf. “Let’s see.” She looked at the dates in front of her. “This one is from August of 1997. What do you think?”
“Actually, that sounds like a good date,” Mary replied. “I remember that one of the journal entries was from that date.”
Linda pulled the box from the shelf and lifted the top. “Do you have any names?” she asked.
“Well, one of the children is Jack Dunne,” Mary said. “He was six when he died.”
Linda flipped slowly through the files, and finally she shook her head. “No. No Jack Dunne in here,” she said. “Any other names?”
“Anna Nevin,” Mary volunteered. “She was eight when she died. She’s the oldest in the group.”
Linda went through each file in the box and shook her head again. “Sorry, none of the files have either of those names,” she said. “Although…”
“Although what?” Mary asked.
Linda pulled out a thick file. “Although this one is odd,” she said. “It doesn’t have a name associated with it. All it says is Baker’s Dozen.”
“That’s them,” Mary exclaimed. “There were thirteen of them, and they were referred to as a baker’s dozen.”
Linda put the top back on the box and pushed it back onto the shelf. Then she handed Mary the file. “Just remember,” she said. “You didn’t get that from me.”
Mary smiled. “Do I even know you?” she asked.
Linda laughed and nodded. “Exactly.”
Chapter Thirty-four
“Knock, knock,” Margaret called from the outside of Stanley’s room. “It’s Margaret O’Reilly.”
“Come in,” Rosie called. “We’re all decent.”
“Speak fer yourself,” Stanley said.
Margaret chuckled as she stood behind the curtain that was drawn across the doorway. “Well, I don’t know if I should come in or leave,” Margaret said.
Stanley laughed. “Take a chance,” he called. “Come on in.”
She walked around the curtain. “Okay, I’m taking a chance.”
Rosie rushed to greet Margaret with a hug. “It’s so good to see you again,” Rosie said. “How are you enjoying your visit?”
“Well, there’s never a dull moment in that household,” Margaret said.
“That’s fer sure,” Stanley agreed. “I’m hoping that Mary listened to my advice and didn’t try nothing funny with that little girl ghost down on the third floor. She’s got enough to worry about with the baby and all.”
Margaret followed Rosie over to Stanley’s bedside, and they both sat down. “Well, as a matter of fact,” Margaret said, “there are actually thirteen ghost children on the third floor. And, not only did Mary get involved, but so did Clarissa and Maggie.”
“Thirteen children?” Rosie exclaimed. “How could there be thirteen ghost children in the hospital?”
“I’m guessing they died,” Stanley grumbled. “That’s how most ghosts are made.”
Rosie turned to Stanley, her lips tight. “Stanley, you know exactly what I meant,” she scolded lightly. “Why are there so many ghosts down there?”
“Well, I’m not saying I know anything about those kids,” Stanley replied. “But I can tell you there’s quite a few stories about ghosts in this here hospital.”
“Really?” Margaret asked.
Stanley nodded. “From what these nurses tell me, there are ghosts on every floor,” he said, lowering his voice slightly. “They’ve even seen some near this very room.”
Rosie shivered and looked around. “Do you think there are ghosts in here, with us, now?” she asked.
“Could be,” Stanley said, holding back a smile. “You just never know when a ghost will appear out of nowhere.”
Rosie wrapped her arms around herself. “Now, you’re just trying to scare me,” she said.
Stanley chuckled. “And I’m doing a purty good job of it, if I do say so myself.”
Margaret shook her head. “Now that’s just mean, Stanley,” she said with a good-natured smile. “Stop scaring Rosie, or she might just leave you to entertain yourself.”
Rosie smiled at Margaret and then turned to Stanley. “She’s absolutely right,” she said pointedly. “I have a lot to do at home to get things organized for when you’re released from the hospital.”
“Where is home?” Margaret asked. “I thought your house caught fire.”
“Stanley’s house caught fire,” Rosie said. “We’d been renting my house to a young family, but luckily, our tenants had moved a month before Christmas and we hadn’t rented it again.”
“Well that was fortunate,” Margaret said.
“Yes, it really was,” Rosie agreed. “And the damage to Stanley’s house was mostly in the living room, so I was able to salvage things that didn’t smell like smoke.”
“So, when are you getting released?” Margaret asked Stanley.
“Not soon enough,” Stanley grumbled. “But they’re talking about a week or so more. Seems like my burns are healing up pretty well.”
“Well then, you should be out of the hospital before Mary goes in,” Margaret replied with a smile.
Stanley’s face softened. “Sure seems like that baby’s taken forever to get here.”
“If it feels that way to us,” Rosie added, “just think about how Mary’s been feeling.”
“I’m sure she is more than ready to have her baby,” Margaret said. “More than ready!”
Chapter Thirty-five
“I am so not ready to have this baby,” Mary told Mike as they sat together in her office. “I have so much to do still.”
“The other things will get done,” he said. “Mikey and your well-being need to be your first priority.”
She studied him for a moment. He hadn’t really made eye contact during the last five minutes he’d been in her office. “What are you not telling me?” she asked.
“Mary, if I’m not telling you something,” he said, “it’s because I’m not supposed to be telling you something.”
She shook her head. “Nope, I’m not going to take that for an answer,” she said. “I don’t want to know when Mikey’s going to be born. I get that’s need-to-know information, but there’s something else going on. What is it?”
He floated away from her and slowly floated around her office. “When does the lease expire for this office, Mary?” he asked.
Shaking her head, Mary stared at him. “Okay, that was a random question,” she said. “But, to answer your question, it ends February 1st. Why?”
He turned and met her eyes. “I would suggest that you not renew your lease.”
“Not renew…” she stopped and stared at him. Thoughts and ideas, fears mostly, rushed through her mind.
“Am I going to die?” she stammered.
“No!” he replied with a frustrated sigh. “No. Of course not. No.”
“Well, thank goodness,” she replied, exhaling loudly. “Okay, you are really freaking me out, and I don’t need to be freaked out right now. Can’t you just tell me what’s going on?”
Mike looked around slowly and then quickly floated back to her desk. “I can tell you a few things to ease your mind,” he said. “First, you need to remember to have faith. Even when things look like you can’t handle it, or life is totally messed up, you need to have faith.”
“Can I just say, that did not ease my mind,” Mary replied.
He smiled. “God loves you, Mary,” he said softly. “Remember that. He loves you.”
She nodded. “I can remember that,” she said.
“Not just remember,” Mike said emphatically. “Believe it. Believe that He loves you.”
“Okay,” she said hesitantly. “I believe it. What else?”
He paused, and Ma
ry could tell he was thinking about how to say something.
“Just say it,” Mary prompted. “You don’t need to pull any punches with me.”
He smiled at her. “That’s true,” he replied. “If anyone can handle anything, it’s you.”
“What do I have to handle?” she asked, concerned.
He grinned. “You are so suspicious,” he teased.
“Mike, what do I need to handle?” she demanded.
“Change,” he said. “You’re going to need to handle change.”
She continued to meet his eyes. “Okay,” she replied. “I’m going to have a baby. That’s a huge change for me and, really, for our whole family. But I think I’m ready for it. Well, as ready as I’m going to be.”
“I thought you just said that you weren’t ready to have this baby,” Mike reminded her.
“I meant that in a ‘I have so much to do before the baby is born’ kind of way,” she amended. “Not, I’m not ready — ready.”
His grin spread wider. “Oh, well, that makes total sense,” he said.
“I’m ready,” she said. “But I know having a baby will change my life.”
He nodded, and the smile left his face. “Yes, it will,” he said meaningfully.
“See, it’s comments like that that give me heartburn,” she said.
He chuckled softly and leaned forward to press a chaste kiss on her forehead. “God isn’t the only one who loves you, Mary,” he said, and then he disappeared.
“That’s not fair,” she yelled into the empty room. “That’s not fair at all.”
Chapter Thirty-six
Bradley walked through the hospital lobby with a purposeful stride. He meant business, and he wanted to be sure that anyone reporting to the CEO could see that. He walked past the emergency room seating, down the hall past the lab section, and towards the administrative offices.
“Hey, Chief!”
Bradley stopped and turned to see the maintenance man he’d stopped yesterday for a key jogging to catch him.
“Hi,” Bradley said, maintaining his serious attitude. “What’s up?”
