“No, she won’t, my sweet little girl,” she said to the baby.
Denni’s car disappeared around the concrete wall and she took her opportunity. Clutching the baby tightly against her breast, she slid into the caged elevator and took it to the next level. She breathed a sigh of relief as the doors opened and there was no sign of Denni or anyone else. She hurried to her car and slipped inside, glad now that she’d forgotten to lock the doors. Carefully, she laid her new baby sister in the seat next to her. Oh but, a baby should be restrained in a car seat.
Well, she’d be careful. She’d never been in an accident before, so odds were she wouldn’t be now. She fired up the engine, and, within seconds, drove into the bright day.
Mother would be so proud of her.
“Denni! She’s gone!” Cate’s pink robe hung open over her hospital gown and her bare feet padded against the tile as she raced down the hall when Denni stepped off the elevator.
“Who is? Cate, what’s wrong?”
“My baby. She’s gone. I left her with Shelley and went to take a shower, but when I got back, they were both gone.”
A sense of dread gnawed low in Denni’s stomach and began to rise. “Wait. Maybe the staff took her to weigh her or something. And Shelley went to get a snack out of the machine or—or coffee.”
“No! And don’t you dare defend her this time. My baby is weighed in my room every few hours. She’s never supposed to leave me.”
“All right, honey. Calm down. Have you reported her absence to the nurses?”
“She just did.” A tall, slender African-American nurse slammed down the phone and stood to her full height behind the nurse’s station. “Security has been alerted and the hospital is being locked down as we speak. No one will be allowed in or out.”
Cate’s face twisted and sobs racked her body. “Denni…I think Shelley stole my baby! Do you…think she’s stopped taking her medicine again?”
Denni placed an arm about the distraught young woman’s shoulders and led her back to her room. She tried to wrap her mind around the slightest possibility that Shelley could be guilty of such a thing.
“Cate, we know Shelley.” Denni’s voice sounded flat, but she felt compelled at least to try to defend the girl who had been one of those closest to her. She’d known Shelley since the girl had first entered the foster-care system over ten years ago. “She’s never pretended to want a baby.” Just the opposite, in fact.
“I know, but she just kept babbling on about how pretty the baby is and how much her mother would love to see her. Do you think…maybe she stopped taking her medicine again?”
“Her mother?” Alarm shot through Denni. Panic began to rise. “She takes her medicine every day. I watch her do it after the last time she stopped taking it.”
“Then why else would she do this?”
“I don’t know, Cate, honey. But I’m going to find out. I need to go.”
“What do you mean? You can’t leave me alone.” Cate’s tears started afresh. “Besides, they won’t let you out. Denni, what do you think is going on? I can tell there’s something. You do think Shelley is hallucinating again!”
“Pray, Cate. Just pray.”
Denni grabbed her purse and ran for the door.
At the elevator, she pressed the button. She paced in front of the double doors and stopped, bouncing on her toes. The longer she had to wait for the stupid elevator, the longer a mentally unstable young woman had possession of a defenseless baby. In a normal state, Shelley wouldn’t hurt a fly, but in her present state, if she hadn’t been taking her meds, anything was surely possible. It just depended on what sort of mood her “mother” was in. Shelley had done crazy things, mostly self-destructive, such as jump out of a tree and break her arm, while listening to someone she thought was her mother.
Oh, Father. Protect Cate’s baby.
She pressed the elevator button again and again.
“There’s no sense in pushing buttons.”
Denni glanced around to face the stern African-American nurse. “Power has been cut to the elevators.”
“Fine, I’ll take the stairs.”
She had to stop at the entrance to the stairway and show her ID. Still the tall, twenty-something security guard didn’t want to let her go.
“Nurse,” she called down the hall.
“I told you.”
“Well, tell him that I am a friend of the kidnapped baby’s mother, please.”
The nurse heaved a sigh and nodded. “She couldn’t have done it.”
He shrugged. “They’re not going to let you out of the building anyway. So you’re just wasting your time.”
Denni twisted her lips into a scowl. “Thanks for the tip, Barney Fife.”
Anger shot to his eyes, and Denni hurried through the door before he could stop her on principle.
She encountered the same problem at the ground floor. “Look, I’m not the kidnapper. I’m the baby’s mother’s friend. Call up to the fourth floor and ask for the nurse taking care of the baby’s mother.”
He did so.
“Too bad you guys weren’t so gung ho about doing your job an hour ago!”
Reece heard the call over the radio and knew…
A baby stolen from the hospital. Possible suspect, a teenage girl who fitted Shelley’s description to a T.
He grabbed his cell phone just as it rang. “Denni? I just heard the call come in. It was Shelley?”
“Yes, Reece. Listen. You have to come to the hospital and get me out of here. It’s locked down. They’re not going to let me out. Even the elevators have been disabled. I had to take the stairs down from the fourth floor, and I’m at the emergency entrance. Make sure you have your badge so you can show the security guard.”
“All right. I’m on my way.”
Twenty minutes later, Denni slid into the passenger seat of Reece’s car. “Head toward Fourth and Grand, there’s an old abandoned apartment building there. I think that’s where Shelley took the baby.”
“What for?”
“Shelley’s talking to her mother again.”
“That’s not a good thing?”
“Her mother’s dead. She OD’d on heroine when Shelley was four. Shelley was alone in the house with her mother’s body until she got so desperate to eat that she had to venture out. A neighbor found her digging in a Dumpster and called the police.”
Reece grimaced at the image of the little girl, alone in an apartment with a corpse for a week. His mind swirled with questions as he turned the unmarked car toward Fourth and Grand.
“She seemed to adjust all right until she was around ten. The family she’d been staying with for six years was transferred to Denver and she was sent to another foster home. The loss of her family sent her over the edge.”
“They couldn’t adopt her?”
Denni hesitated. “Let’s just say they chose not to.”
“What do you mean by ‘over the edge’?”
“She started seeing and talking to her mother. One night, she attempted suicide, but her foster parents found her in time. There was an empty pill bottle on the bed next to her, and a suicide note that said her mother had told her to do it. Fortunately, they got her to the hospital in time. She’s been taking medicine for years to suppress psychotic hallucinations. I watch her take them daily, but she must have been just pretending. I don’t know why.
“There’s Shelley’s car. Hurry up and pull over, Reece.”
“Wait for me, Denni.”
But he spoke into an empty seat as Denni sprang from the car and ran toward the entrance of the abandoned building. Muttering an oath, then a quick repentance as he remembered his new faith and his conscience pricked him, he slammed the car into Park and followed.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Denni gathered a slow breath and prayed harder than she’d ever prayed in her life. The now-abandoned building had no outside door, so she went in through the gaping space, trying to remember the layout as it had been wh
en Shelley was little. She’d been the social worker on the scene, new to her job and ready to make a difference in the lives of abused and neglected children. Shelley’s soulful eyes and the signs of more maturity than a little girl should have to possess had drawn Denni from day one. She’d watched over her as much as possible and probably beyond what any other social worker would have done.
Led by memories that spanned fifteen years, Denni headed for the stairs at the end of the hall and ascended toward the apartment where Shelley had spent those few terrifying days and nights alone with her mother’s lifeless body.
Oh, Lord why didn’t I know she was only pretending to take that medicine? Had she been so wrapped up in the need for finances and wanting to build that she’d neglected the needy ones right in front of her eyes? She continued to climb, and her thoughts went to Leigh. Once again, she felt a prick of remorse. How could she have been so consumed by her own needs that she’d lost sight of her real purpose in the first place? What good would she have done if she’d built a dozen houses, but lost the first precious girls God had entrusted to her care?
She heard talking as she approached the second-floor hallway. Did Shelley have an accomplice?
“Mommy, why are you so mad at me? I did as you asked. Why won’t you even look at the baby?”
A silent pause.
“But she’s beautiful too. Much prettier than I ever was. M-maybe you’ll love her better. You could hold her and tell her stories and brush her hair.”
Another pause.
Denni heard boots scrape against the concrete steps. She turned to find Reece scowling at her. She put her finger to her lips. She glanced inside and relief flowed through her that Shelley hadn’t noticed the noise.
They listened to the one-sided conversation. Mewling noises came from the baby.
“Mommy,” Shelley said, her voice trembling. “I—I can’t do that. It would hurt her.”
Denni’s eyes widened as she turned to Reece. He scowled and motioned her to get out of the way. His hand was ready on his gun. Denni grabbed his wrist. “Don’t hurt her,” she whispered.
“I’ll do my best.”
“Of course I love you, Mommy, and I know you love me, but why do you want me to throw the baby away? Can’t I just take her back to Cate?”
Tears pooled in Denni’s eyes at the state the girl was in.
“Shelley,” Reece’s voice was calm. “It’s Detective Corrigan. I’m coming in.”
“N-no. M-mommy says you mustn’t bother me.” Her eyes were wide with fear. Denni stepped into the room after Reece. Shelley’s face contorted in rage. “You have to leave. You can’t take the baby away from our mommy.”
“Shelley, honey. The baby belongs to Cate, remember? She misses her terribly.”
“Liar! Cate doesn’t want her. She’s giving her away. My mommy would never give away her baby.”
“Your mommy is dead, Shelley. Remember?”
Confusion flashed across Shelley’s face. She cocked her head as though listening.
“Why, Denni? Why do you want to take me away from Mommy again?”
The words hit Denni like a blow to the gut. “Shelley,” she breathed. “Honey, I didn’t take you from your mommy. Your mother died from an overdose. Remember? Think. That woman talking to you isn’t your mom. She’s only in your head.”
Shelley, babe in her arms, began to back away toward the glassless window. She glanced out to the street. Her eyes were filled with tears when she looked back at the empty space she’d been talking to. “I don’t want to, Mommy.”
Denni saw what Shelley intended to do. Panic seized her. Oh, God, protect that baby, please.
Throughout the conversation, Reece had slowly inched his way toward Shelley, but he was still too far away to do any good. A muscle twitched in his jaw as he focused on the job ahead.
Denni took a step closer to keep Shelley’s attention diverted. “Shelley, honey. Please don’t hurt the baby.”
“You don’t care! You don’t care!”
“Of course I do. I never want to see a child harmed. If you throw the baby down, she’s going to die. Do you understand that?”
Shelley jerked her head toward the empty space, confusion clouding her eyes.
Reece took the moment to inch closer to the girl. He motioned to Denni to keep talking.
“Your mother was a good woman,” Denni said. “Would she ask you to hurt yourself or the baby? Think, Shelley. That’s not your mother talking to you. She loved you.”
Shelley paused.
“No,” she said to the air. “Y-you’re not my mother.” She paused again. Then looked back at Denni. Her brow furrowed as she seemed to be looking between two women, trying to decide who was lying.
“Mommy? D-don’t leave me again. No, I don’t love her more. I’ll do it. See?”
She rushed toward the window, just as Reece wrapped his arms around her and the baby, pulling her back.
Shelley screamed, kicking at Reece. “Mommy, don’t go! Don’t leave me again! I tried to be a good girl. I tried.” Sobs racked her as she wilted in Reece’s arms.
Denni stepped forward and took the wailing baby. “Shhh, sweetie. It’s okay. We’ll get you back where you belong soon.” She nuzzled the baby until she quieted.
Reece kept his arms around Shelley. The girl didn’t struggle as he led her to his car. Denni could see he didn’t want to handcuff her, but he had no choice. He called the station and let them know the baby had been found and that he needed an ambulance for the kidnapper.
Less than thirty minutes later, Denni placed the baby in Cate’s arms.
One week later
Denni had felt Reece’s tension during their earlier phone conversation. She’d been dreading their expected date this evening, anticipating the it’s-not-you-it’s-me brush-off. Still, she couldn’t stop her heart from racing when his truck pulled into the drive. She opened the door before he made it to the porch. Better just to confront the issue and get it over with.
In the early-summer evening, just a hint of rain plumped the clouds, mingling its fragrance with the roses planted at the bottom of the steps on either side of the walkway.
She stopped short when she saw the bouquet of wildflowers he carried.
“Are those for me?”
A knee-weakening smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “Who else?”
Denni’s neck muscles relaxed, and she stepped aside to allow him into the house. Her pulse quickened as he bent down and pressed a quick kiss to her lips.
“Flowers, Corrigan?” Leigh’s voice acted like a water hose, dousing the moment before the kiss could get any better. “Who are you trying to impress?”
“I thought you had a date with Sean,” Reece said, a scowl marring his handsome features.
“I do. Later.” She flopped down on the sofa and picked up the TV remote.
With a frustrated growl, Reece grabbed Denni’s hand. “Come with me.” He pulled her outside to the front porch and stopped in front of the swing.
Bewildered, Denni sat on the swing and looked up at him expectantly. “What’s wrong with you?”
He gathered a long, slow breath and shoved his hand into his pocket. Denni’s eyes widened and the world took on a new look when he pulled out a black velvet box.
His eyes never faltered from hers, but his expression softened as he dropped down on one knee.
“Reece.”
“I’ve never done this before, Denni. And I’m not a very sensitive guy. You know that. So if I do it all wrong, it’ll serve me right if you say no.”
Denni couldn’t stop her itching fingers from reaching out and lightly touching his face. Emotion flickered in his eyes and he covered her hand with his, bringing it to his lips as he pressed a warm kiss to her palm.
“Will you marry me?”
A wave of joy swept over Denni. She laughed and cupped his face with her hands. “You know I will.” Leaning forward she pressed her lips to his. He gathered her close and deepened
their kiss, sealing their promise of forever.
When he pulled away and slipped the ring on her finger, the clouds released gentle drops.
And as Reece’s mouth took hers in another warm tender kiss, Denni knew she would always love a summer rain.
Epilogue
Shelley Bartlett
C/o Lakewood Mental Facility
Lakewood, Mo.
September 10,
Dearest Shelley,
I was so thrilled to receive your last letter and to hear how well things are going for you. I ache to see you, and I’m waiting with anticipation for your doctor to give the word that it would be in your best interest for me to come visit.
To answer your big question: Of course I forgive you, honey. Don’t you know how much I love you?
You asked me to stop holding back in my letters to spare your feelings, so I’m going to tell you everything from now on. Here’s some good news! Sean and Leigh eloped last night. Or is that bad news? (Laughing here). Not a huge surprise at any rate. They’re crazy together. The odd couple to the extreme. But they love each other, and I guess that’s the important thing. They went to meet Sean’s parents and guess what? The couple adores our Leigh. But then, who wouldn’t?
Fran is still working for the doctor, filing papers and answering phones. She’s loving it, and they seem to like her work. Since she decided Jesus is real after all, her entire attitude has changed—well, she still has a temper, but she works hard to control it and it’s clear that God is softening her. But you won’t believe what she’s decided she wants to do. Instead of medicine, she’s decided to enter the police academy and become a cop. Reece couldn’t be more proud. All the two of them talk about is the law.
Suspicion of Guilt Page 19
