by Rita Herron
Chapter Six
“What do you mean?” Lindsey ushered Andy onto one of the wrought-iron benches and stroked his back to calm him. “Mr. McCord is a friend of mine. He’s going to help me find out the truth about my baby.”
“You miss your little boy, don’t you?” Andy’s expression radiated a childlike innocence.
“Yes.” Knowing Andy sometimes lost his train of thought, she prodded him gently, “But you were going to tell me why you think Dr. Cross is lying?”
Andy nodded. “That night you was here, the doc says there wasn’t a…nother girl, but that’s not t-true. I saw her.”
“You saw someone else in delivery?”
“I took her some ice ch-chips.”
Lindsey’s heart thundered. “What happened to her, Andy? Why doesn’t Dr. Cross want me to know about her?”
A faraway look settled in Andy’s eyes. “She was real sweet, a y-young girl like Goldilocks.”
Gavin gave Lindsey a skeptical look.
“You mean she had blond hair?” Lindsey asked.
Andy nodded again.
“What night was that?” Gavin asked.
Andy’s right eye twitched. “Um, last week sometime. M-maybe Friday.”
Lindsey bit down on her lip, her hopes sinking. “Andy, my baby was born six weeks ago, not last week.”
His hands trembled as he pointed to his face. “I—I don’t remember days. B-but I r-remember faces. She had freckles on her n-nose.”
“Do you know what happened to her baby?” Lindsey asked.
“She was sad, so I gave her some j-juice to cheer her up.” Andy shrugged, his eyes darting around the outside of the building. When he saw one of the nurses appear at the entrance, he seemed to grow more agitated.
“What happened to her baby?”
“I think she g-gave it to someone.” He turnedt eyes to Lindsey. “Y-you didn’t g-give your baby to someone, did you, Ms. Lindsey?”
Lindsey cleared her throat. “No, Andy, I didn’t.”
The nurse waved at Andy and he jumped, shuffling backwards. “I gotta go, I d-don’t wanna get fired.”
Lindsey’s hands felt clammy as she released Andy’s and thanked him. She pivoted toward Gavin as Andy awkwardly limped back up the steps to the clinic. “Do you think Andy meant the girl gave her baby up for adoption?”
“It’s possible,” Gavin said. “But he was confused. He didn’t even know what day he saw this girl. He called her Goldilocks.”
Lindsey leaned against the bench. Was she so desperate she would believe anything she heard? Sometimes Andy saw a story on the news and it became so real to him he transferred it to his own life. The girl could have been any number of pregnant females who’d delivered over the past year.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Gavin said.
They were in the car pulling away when she finally spoke. “What if Andy saw another girl that night? What if that young girl’s baby died, and they’d already promised the child to an adoptive couple so they substituted my baby?”
Gavin’s hands tightened around the steering wheel as he pulled onto the main road. “Your theory’s possible, Linds, but your friend Andy is obviously mentally impaired. Do you think you can believe what he says?”
“Andy gets confused sometimes, and he has a roundabout way of telling things, but he generally says what he means.”
“He could be misinterpreting what he saw.” Gavin scrubbed a hand over his face. “Besides, private adoptions are not illegal. There’s a gray area where cost is involved, but if Cross is smart, which he seems to be, I’m sure his lawyer has expenses accounted for.” He hesitated. “Cross has a good reputation. He’d have to be crazy to kidnap one of his patient’s babies and give it to someone else.”
“Well, what if the other woman’s baby died and she was so distraught she kidnapped mine to replace her own?”
Gavin rolled his shoulders. “That sounds more likely, but if that were the case, don’t you think the doctor would know and want to help you?”
He was right; she couldn’t think of a reason Cross would cover up such a thing. Lindsey sighed, refusing to give in to defeat. “But what about the phone calls? The card and the autopsy report?”
“I’ll send it to Raleigh to have it analyzed. But like Cross pointed out, if he’d switched your baby, there’d be witnesses. Someone would come forward.”
“Andy just did. And the person who sent me the note and called me must have witnessed something.”
“Anonymously. But we don’t know if the note or calls are valid. Besides, Andy simply described a private adoption that could have happened any day, any time. Perhaps the woman handed her baby to a grandparent and he misunderstood the whole situation.”
Tears stung Lindsey’s eyes. Gavin had a solution for everything, only not the answer she wanted to hear. “What about Janet Quinn? Maybe she skipped town because she knows something but she’s afraid to come forward.”
He seemed to stew over the possibility. “Let’s visit the sheriff and see if he can locate Ms. Quinn. When you talk to her, maybe you’ll feel better.”
Maybe she’d accept the loss of her baby and go on—the words hung in the air between them while Gavin maneuvered the curvy road toward the center of town. But Lindsey wasn’t sure she’d ever accept that her baby was gone.
GAVIN FLINCHED as Lindsey shut down in front of his eyes. She wanted to believe the girl had taken her baby so badly she was grasping at straws. He wanted to reassure her, yet he couldn’t give her false hopes. So far, he’d found nothing concrete to substantiate her claims. She’d been medicated during her son’s birth. She could have dreamt the bit about the other patient. He’d wanted to talk to the other nurses and see if they corroborated Cross’s story, but after angering the doctor, he decided it would be better to solicit the sheriff’s help to see if the nurses had been questioned. Besides, according to Lindsey, none of the other staff had been present during her son’s birth.
An Eye For An Eye… the threatening note surfaced from the back of his mind to taunt him. What if…what if someone wanted to get back at him? What better way than to kidnap his own flesh and blood?
But how would anyone know he was the father of Lindsey’s child? Especially someone from Raleigh. She hadn’t told anyone. Unless they’d followed Lindsey to Maple Hollow, which was far-fetched. Although, something Lindsey had said in his office nagged at his memory, but he couldn’t remember the exact wording.
Lindsey pointed to an ancient white, two-story brick building shaded by a live oak. “The sheriff’s office is in that building, below city hall.”
“I suppose they hold court in the library next door?” Gavin commented as he parked in the lot.
The coral sweater Lindsey wore reflected the same russet brown as her frowning eyes. He’d hit a nerve, a very sensitive one. “So Maple Hollow doesn’t have an elaborate law enforcement system. At least they have a sheriff.”
“I thought you said he was one step away from retirement.”
“True.” Lindsey exited the car before he could open her door. “Don’t get me wrong, Gavin, I like Sheriff Forbes. But Maple Hollow’s never had much crime. The safety factor is one of the reasons I moved here. I thought a homey small town would be a good place to raise a child.” She hesitated, grief back in her eyes. “But now something terrible has happened, I don’t think he’s the man for the job, he’s not…”
“He’s not as cynical as I am?” he supplied.
Lindsey shrugged and led the way up the sidewalk. “He’s trusting. You’ve seen people do some pretty awful things. Lamar Forbes is plain naive in comparison.”
“Being isn’t such a bad thing.” Gavin’s gaze caught hers as he opened the heavy door. “Not seeing the bad in people, in everything—must be a blessing.”
She paused and lifted her hand to his face, gently tracing a line on the bruise beneath his eye. Sunlight framed a halo around her golden hair, the fall air mingling with the scent of he
r shampoo. “But we can’t wear blinders, either, can we, Mac?”
He swallowed, barely resisting the urge to take her hand and kiss the palm. “No, we can’t.”
“That’s why I need you to work the case.” Lindsey dropped her hand. “If anyone could believe a bizarre story about a baby switch, you can.”
She might as well have said she needed his help because he was a heartless SOB. “Right.”
Sheriff Lamar Forbes looked less businesslike today, more like a crusty old man with a friendly smile who had one foot resting against a fishing pole and his hand fiddling with a piece of fake fish bait. All his office needed was Aunt Bea to walk in with a picnic basket full of fried chicken and Gavin would be swept back to the sitcom he’d watched as a child. Before he’d grown up and realized problems weren’t solved in the span of thirty minutes. No catching real crooks without a gun. No happy endings.
“What can I do for you today, Ms. Lindsey, Mr. McCord?”
Gavin folded his arms. “I hope you can clear up a few things. Did you learn anything more about the gas leak?”
Forbes sorted through his tackle box. “Didn’t find any prints. Those pliers do make it look suspicious, but they were just plain work tools, could have come from any discount department store. Might have been a bunch of kids playing around.”
Gavin didn’t buy that theory for a second. “What about Cross?”
He jammed a hand on his hip, the slight paunch to his belly straining against his uniform. “Even if someone did cut those wires, it wasn’t Doc Cross. He’s one of the best doctors in these parts. I’ve told Ms. Lindsey that time and time again. Why, he’s birthed more babies than I’ve been alive in years.”
“Have you located Janet Quinn? If Lindsey talked to her, she might feel better.”
Forbes’s bushy eyebrows knitted together. “’Fraid I can’t help you. Jan went on vacation, didn’t tell nobody where she was going.”
“Lindsey thinks her leaving is odd. Have you checked to see if she really did go on vacation?”
“Don’t have no reason to think she didn’t. Woman deserves her privacy.”
“Does she have family around here? Did she ask someone to pick up her mail, watch her house?”
Forbes paused, a plastic fly in his hand. “Nope. Seems like her people come from the other side of the Parkway.”
Gavin was getting nowhere. Could the sheriff be involved? “Would you try a little harder to find her? It would help Lindsey to talk to her.”
Forbes studied them both for a long minute, his expression troubled.
“Please, Sheriff,” Lindsey said softly. “Janet was in the delivery room with me. I need to see her.”
“I’ll ask around,” Forbes finally agreed. “But she won’t say nothing bad about William. She’s worked for the doc for years.”
“What can you tell us about the adoptions handled at the clinic?” Gavin asked.
A moment of surprise flickered on the sheriff’s face, the age lines around his eyes fanning out. “Occasionally Doc helps an unwed mother find a home for her young’un. But everything is on the up and up. I’m sure you have adoptions in the city.”
Gavin nodded. “Who handles the adoptions?”
“Reckon Christopher Little does. He’s the only lawyer living in Maple Hollow.” Forbes lifted his head, his eyes narrowed. “But if you’re hinting that he’s doing illegal adoptions, you’re barking up the wrong tree. And if Ms. Payne wasn’t so distraught over her loss, she’d realize Doc’s been trying to help her, too.”
“I’m not trying to cause trouble,” Lindsey interjected. “But, Sheriff, I really believe my baby is alive.”
Forbes ran a hand through the patch of thick gray hair on his head. “But Ms. Payne, I stood right beside you at the memorial service.”
Lindsey’s face paled, the dark memories sucking the light from her eyes. “Did you find any prints on the card I left or the copy of the autopsy results?”
“No prints,” Forbes said. “The autopsy report is a photocopy but it looks legitimate. Your baby died of a congenital heart defect. Doc said there wasn’t anything he could have done.”
“The blood type on the report didn’t match mine or the father’s, either,” Lindsey said, sounding determined.
Forbes frowned.
“Did Little grow up around here also?” Gavin asked.
“Nope. Believe he came from California. L.A., I think it was. But he’s been practicing here for years. Folks think a lot of him.” He gathered his fishing supplies. “Now I promised my grandson I’d take him out to Turner’s Point. You take care, Ms. Payne. And get some rest.”
They both said goodbye and followed Forbes outside. Crisp fall flowers scented the air. Puffy white clouds floated across a clear blue sky. It was a beautiful autumn day, much like the time of year Gavin had met Lindsey. He opened the car door and studied her as she climbed inside. She remained suspiciously silent while he started the engine.
“Are you all right?” Gavin asked.
“I told you he was bosom buddies with the doctor.”
Gavin found a soft rock station and adjusted the volume to low. “At least he admitted the gas leak looked suspicious, and he agreed to look for Janet Quinn.”
“Right.” Lindsey fastened her seat belt. “I just know Janet’s going to have some answers.”
Gavin cranked the car, hoping she was right. “Let’s have a talk with Christopher Little. Maybe the town lawyer can shed a little light on the situation.”
Gavin’s mind spun to other scenarios. What if someone had kidnapped their child to hurt Lindsey or to get back at him? Perhaps her ex? One of the men he’d arrested? The man whose son had died that awful night when he’d followed him into that alley? He didn’t want to voice the frightening thoughts but they would have to discuss the possibilities.
LINDSEY FELT hope blossom for the first time in weeks. If her baby had lived and been adopted, even if by mistake, hopefully the adoptive parents were taking good care of her son until she found him. And she would find him.
But what if there had been another woman…
“Gavin, the more I think about the other girl at the hospital, that she lost her child and kidnapped mine—the more I’m convinced that’s what happened. Andy said she was upset. Maybe we can find her.”
Gavin tapped the steering wheel in thought. “Maybe, but I don’t know why Cross would cover up a kidnapping. I still want to talk to Little.”
A few minutes later, Christopher Little invited them into his office. Lindsey took a seat on the small loveseat in the corner while Gavin explained the reason for their visit, then began to grill the man. Little clammed up, his slightly pocked face turning bright red with anger.
“I don’t like your insinuations,” Little said when Gavin broached the subject of his fees. “Occasionally I’ve assisted families in adoption proceedings but all financial matters are confidential and legitimate. I’d never consider dealing any other way.”
“Did you arrange for an adoption on the night of August the first or any other time that week?”
Little pulled his glasses from his pocket and examined his calendar. “No.”
“How about the weeks prior to that or directly following?”
“I’m not at liberty to discuss my cases,” Little said curtly. “People have rights that must be protected.”
“What about Ms. Payne’s rights?” Gavin asked. “Were her interests protected the night she gave birth?”
Little thumped a silver pen on the top of his credenza. “I’m sorry for your loss, Ms. Payne, but I don’t see what your problems have to do with me. You planned to keep your child, didn’t you?”
“Yes.” Lindsey’s spine straightened. “But I think someone else gave birth that night. Her baby died and she kidnapped my son to replace her baby. Or maybe someone planned to adopt the other baby and when it died, they took mine.”
Little seemed stunned. “And you think I’m involved in something like that?
Jesus Christ, I could lose my license.” He stood abruptly and waved his hand toward the door, not bothering to let Gavin reply. “Unless you have proof of this ridiculous allegation, I think you’d better leave. I have work to do.”
Lindsey stood, her own temper boiling.
Gavin ushered her out the door before she could say anything else. “Why did you leave?” she hissed when they stood in the dimly lit hall. “Can’t you get him to show you his records or something? What if he’s lying?”
“Making him angrier won’t help,” Gavin said calmly. “Trust me. You don’t want a lawsuit for slander on your hands, Linds. Besides, I’m not sure he’s lying. We’ll just have to dig a little deeper.” He placed his hand at the small of her back and gently pushed her outside. Sunshine warmed her face as they walked to the car, her anger fading as the reality of the day’s events tunneled through her mind, the heavy weight of defeat settling on her shoulders. Basically, she had a theory—but they had no proof.
And they weren’t any closer to finding her son than they had been this morning.
“Be patient, Lindsey. It’s obvious from the gas leak incident that something more is going on here. I’ve only just begun to investigate.”
She searched his face, wondering if he was placating her as the doctor and sheriff had done. But a tenderness softened his dark eyes that suggested he did believe her, that he understood her grief. Because he shared it.
“I want to find the nurse. I have a feeling she disappeared because she knew something. I’ll get a subpoena for the doctor’s records, too. Try to hang in there, okay?”
“Okay.” Gavin’s breath brushed her cheek as he leaned close to her. He had a tough exterior that made him appear fearless. Emotionless. But she knew what it was like for him to lose control, to lose himself inside her. She’d also seen his protective instincts kick in the night her ex had tried to kill her. Gavin had deep emotions, feelings he channeled into work instead of sharing with a woman. He had to be hurting now. He’d just been told he’d had a son and that he was missing. Why did he feel he had to shrink-wrap his feelings as if they weren’t important?