Jonathan looked down between his feet and stared at a spot on the floor. It was going to take an act of his will to leave it in their hands, he thought. He didn’t know if he could do that.
Looking back up, he said, “There’s one other thing I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Yeah? What?”
“Last night, Sadie, my foster daughter, went to a party on the beach. Mostly teenagers, but alcohol was served. I thought there was a statute against that. I thought we weren’t allowed to have parties on the beach after dark. And I want to know why no one was arrested for serving alcohol to a minor. Jim Henry told me last night that he’d been over there, but nothing was done.”
Joe looked as if he had more important things to talk about. “Jonathan, I don’t know anything about them serving alcohol to minors. We do have statutes, but they’re not real enforceable.”
“Why not?” Jonathan demanded. “All you have to do is have an officer patrol the beach. It’s not that hard.”
“It’s harder when people have parties in their condos, and they spill out onto the beach. There’s not a lot we can do about that. And I don’t know, Jim might not have realized there was alcohol there.”
“He told me there was. Why didn’t he break up the party, slap them with fines, take them to jail?”
“Look, I’m sorry your foster daughter got involved in that, but don’t dump it on us. We have a lot going on. The last thing I needed last night was a jail full of drunken teenagers and a lot of screaming parents.”
Jonathan felt his ears growing hot. He stiffened and looked across the desk. “So you’re telling me that you let it go because you don’t want the hassle?”
“Hey, I didn’t ask to be in charge, Jonathan. I didn’t set policy. Alone, I can barely handle the murder investigation and Cade’s disappearance, but you want me hovering over the night shift to make sure they crack down on every kid with a beer?”
“So who could change policy and see that you enforce the laws? The mayor?”
Joe moaned. “You know we don’t have a mayor.”
“No, but we’re voting in June. Would you listen to him?”
“I’d have to,” he said. “He’d be my boss.”
“I thought so.” Jonathan got to his feet. “Well, we’ll just have to see what we can do about that.”
When Jonathan got back in his car, he sat behind the wheel, tapping his hand angrily as he looked across the street to the beach where Sadie had gotten drunk last night. Maybe he really should run for mayor. Maybe then he could make sure that the laws already on the books were enforced. If he was mayor, maybe he could make them clean up the beaches so that they were a safer place for families.
As he pulled out of the parking lot and back on to Ocean Boulevard, he began to feel a growing sense of purpose. Had God called him to run for mayor? Was it something he was supposed to do?
He wouldn’t tell Morgan until he’d made up his mind for sure. There was still time to talk God out of it.
CHAPTER 38
Morgan woke from her nap midafternoon but still felt weary and unrested. She made herself get up, determined to get back to the hospital to check on Karen and the baby.
She went downstairs and found Sadie sitting outside on the back lawn, watching Caleb climbing on his plastic jungle gym.
Sadie looked a little more like herself now. The hangover must have worn off, and there was a little more color to her face. Morgan pushed through the back screen door.
“Sadie, thanks for watching Caleb while I slept. It was a long night.”
She smiled up at her but still had trouble meeting her eyes. “I didn’t watch him the whole time,” she said. “He slept most of the time.”
“Good. Then you got some rest too?”
“Yeah, I did.”
Morgan went to Caleb and picked him up, deposited him on his little slide, and watched him go down. Caleb hit the dirt, then got on his knees, and crawled through the little tunnel. They could hear him laughing inside.
“I’m going back to the hospital,” Morgan said. “I want to check on Karen and see how the baby’s doing.”
Sadie looked up at her. “Can I go with you, Morgan?”
Morgan was glad she wanted to. “Sure. I’ll get Jonathan to keep Caleb.”
Sadie got up, and her trademark smile cut across her face. “I love tiny little babies.”
“Me too,” Morgan said. “You really should see him. He’s so sweet. Curly black hair and this full-of-himself voice. It felt so good to hold him. I wish I’d gotten Caleb when he was newborn.”
Sadie’s smile faded, and she gazed toward her brother. “Boy, I do too.”
“I can’t wait to bring them home. A newborn in the house.”
“Do you think she’ll let me hold him today?” Sadie asked.
“I’m sure she will.”
CHAPTER 39
Karen couldn’t have been happier. There had never been a time in her life when she’d felt such intense love for another human being. She had already managed to nurse without a hitch, and Emory lay cradled in her arms now, sleeping contentedly. His hair was still curly, hours after his birth, and his skin was the most beautiful shade of ebony she had ever seen. Softly, she kissed his plump little cheek.
When a knock sounded on her door, she looked up, hoping to see Morgan. But it was only a nurse. “Hello, Mrs. Miller?”
Keeping her voice low, Karen said, “Yes?”
The woman came farther into the room. “I’m afraid I need to take the baby for a few minutes. The pediatrician is on the floor, and he likes for the babies to be in the nursery so he can examine them.”
She didn’t want to let him go. “Can’t he come in here?”
“No, I’m sorry. But don’t worry. I’ll bring him right back in just a few minutes.”
Sighing, she kissed him again, then handed him to the nurse. The woman’s long brown hair almost swept into his face. Karen thought of telling her to tie it back, that it might carry germs.
“Say bye-bye to Mommy,” the woman said, then grinned back at Karen. “Get some rest.”
Karen nodded and watched them leave. Laying her head back on her pillow, she checked her watch, and hoped that the doctor wouldn’t take long.
But a half hour passed, and the nurse didn’t come back. Finally, she pressed the buzzer.
“Yes?” a nurse called from the station.
“I was wondering if the doctor was finished with the babies yet. I expected to have mine brought back by now.”
There was a long pause. “Isn’t your baby in your room with you?”
Karen’s chest tightened. “No. A nurse came and took him.
She never brought him back!”
She waited for a reply, but none came. Frustrated, she pressed the button again.
Her door flung open and two nurses came in. The alarm on their faces was unmistakable. “Miss Miller, are you sure a nurse took your baby?”
“Positive. She said the doctor was on the floor. . . .”
“Miss Miller, the doctor hasn’t been here this morning. None of our nurses told you that.”
She stared at them for a moment. “What are you saying? She came right in here and took my baby—”
One of the nurses dashed out of the room. “I’ll call the police!”
“The police?” Suddenly it was all clear to Karen. Her baby had been kidnapped, just like those other babies she’d heard about on the news. “No. She was a nurse. She had on a nurse’s uniform!”
“Miss Miller, your baby isn’t in the nursery. Please—describe the woman to me.”
A sense of horror settled over Karen.
Her baby was gone.
CHAPTER 40
There was a commotion in the hall when Morgan and Sadie reached Karen’s floor. Several police officers stood among a cluster of nurses, as if taking statements.
“What’s going on?” Sadie whispered.
Morgan shook her head. “Maybe Karen will know.
”
She got to Karen’s door and heard wailing from the other side. Without knocking, she pushed the door open.
Karen was on her bare feet, still in her hospital gown, and two men stood with her. It was clear that she had been weeping. She turned as Morgan came in. “Oh, Morgan, thank God you’re here!”
Morgan crossed the room and embraced the woman.
“Karen, what is it?”
“My baby! She took my baby.”
“Who did?”
“Some woman who looked like a nurse, only no one here knows her! I waited and waited for her to bring him back, and when I asked about it, nobody knew who she was. She had a thirty-minute head start out of the building. They have video of her just walking out with my baby!”
Morgan felt the blood draining from her face. She looked at the two men.
“I’m Detective Hull, Savannah Police Department,” one of them said. “This is Officer Coleman.”
Morgan introduced herself. “You don’t think it’s that kidnapper, do you? The one who’s taken all those other babies?”
“It looks like it.”
“They have to find him!” Karen wailed. “Please, you need to go look for them. She’s probably still in her car. Do one of those Amber Alert things, so people will know.”
Detective Hull looked as if he was one step ahead of her. “Ma’am, we’re putting out an alert as we speak, and we have roadblocks being set up. They’re going to be looking for a white woman in green scrubs with long brown hair.”
“She was small,” Karen said, “not as tall as me, and that long brown hair. If they set up roadblocks they’ll see my baby, won’t they? How many day-old babies are there out there?” She swung around to Morgan. “He’s just a few hours old, Morgan. What if he’s not all right?”
Morgan looked back at Sadie. She stood back at the door, listening in horror. Her face was white.
Morgan knew she was remembering her own baby brother, in the grips of evil.
The memory of five other kidnapped babies reeled through Morgan’s mind. One in Hilton Head, others in Pensacola and Mobile, the most recent from St. Joseph’s here in Savannah.
“We’ve also called in the FBI,” Hull said. “Since the babies have been taken from three different states, they’re taking over the case.”
“Have they found any of them?” Karen demanded. “Even one?”
“Not yet, ma’am. All of the babies are still missing. But this might just be the case that helps us find the rest of them.”
CHAPTER 41
Jonathan came as soon as he’d heard about the baby’s kidnapping. When the FBI had finished “sweeping” the hospital and questioning Karen, Jonathan realized there was nothing more he could do. Dismally, he left Morgan with Karen and drove Sadie home.
Sadie was quiet as he drove, her silence broken only by sniffs.
First Cade and now Karen’s baby. And all that following the murder of his in-laws just a few months ago. It was as if the world tipped off its axis. . . .
Sadie got a tissue out of the box sitting on the seat and blew her nose. “Jonathan, I’m so sorry I gave you guys more to worry about last night. It all seems so stupid with so many desperate things going on.”
“It’s okay, Sadie. We’ll get over it, as long as it doesn’t happen again.”
She wiped her face. “That poor little baby. It’s just like when Jack had Caleb.”
“Maybe not.” It was starting to rain, and rivulets of water streamed down his windshield. He turned his wipers on. “I was just trying to think why a person would kidnap a little baby like that. Maybe it wasn’t a violent thing, like when an older child gets kidnapped. Maybe it’s somebody who’s just desperate to have a child of their own. . . .”
Sadie looked at him hopefully. “Somebody like you and Morgan?”
He frowned. Did everyone realize how much he and Morgan wanted a baby? He hadn’t told more than a couple of people. “Maybe someone like us, only more desperate.”
“That makes me feel a little better,” Sadie whispered.
He glanced at her. “Why?”
“Because maybe it’s somebody nice. Not somebody like Jack. Maybe it’s somebody who loves babies, who’ll take care of him. Maybe they won’t hurt him, and he’ll be found in one piece.”
He drove in silence for a while, making her hope into a quiet prayer.
Sadie hadn’t been home more than an hour when the phone rang. She answered it quickly, hoping it was news about the baby. “Hanover House.”
“Sadie? Good. It’s you. I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”
She recognized Trevor’s voice and looked around to see if she would be heard. No one was in the kitchen, and Jonathan sat out on the sunporch with Caleb. She pulled the phone cord into the office.
“Trevor?”
“I was going to hang up if anyone else answered.”
She drew in a deep breath. “You shouldn’t have called. I shouldn’t even be talking to you.”
“Well, I was worried about you. I just heard about that baby being kidnapped. The news said that the mother lived at Hanover House.”
“Yeah. It’s Karen, the new tenant.”
“I figured you were all freaked out and everything. I wanted to call and see if you were okay.”
She raked her hair back from her face and tried to force away those warm fuzzy feelings he always invoked. “I’m fine. But I can’t talk. I have to go.”
“No, don’t do that,” he said. “Come on, Sadie. We had something good going between us.”
She swallowed and checked the kitchen again. “Look, Trevor, I got caught when I got home last night. I was drunk. I lied to them and deceived them, and then I got drunk. That’s not the kind of person I want to be.”
“I can understand that.”
She thought of the way he’d groped her out on the beach, Crystal’s predictions coming true. “I’m so embarrassed by everything that happened—”
“What happened?” he asked. “Nothing happened.”
“Something happened, all right. I wasn’t so drunk that I don’t remember that. Crystal Lewis said you were only with me for one thing. And you pretty much proved her point.”
“What did I do?”
“What did you do?” she repeated. She looked out and saw Jonathan pushing through the screen door with Caleb on his hip, walking out into the yard. “Let’s just say you got a little too aggressive.”
“Oh, that,” he said, and she heard a chuckle in his voice. “Sadie, I was drunk too. I won’t judge you for what you did drunk, if you won’t judge me.”
That stopped her. She leaned back against the wall, wondering if she was, indeed, being judgmental. She hated that and didn’t want to be accused of it.
It was true. He had been drunk. And didn’t everyone act out of character when they’d been drinking?
“Look,” he said, “if it means that much to you, I’ll promise to be nothing but a perfect gentleman from now on. And no more alcohol when I’m with you.”
She wanted to believe him, but Morgan’s and Jonathan’s voices kept playing through her mind. “Why do you even want to go out with me when you could have any girl in the school you want? It doesn’t even make sense.”
She could hear in his voice that that pleased him. “It’s you I want, Sadie. Are you so down on yourself that you can’t believe someone would want you?”
“I’m just not your usual type.”
He laughed. “That’s a good thing. I’m raising my standards, okay? You’re the smartest and the best looking and the most interesting.”
Those didn’t sound like Crystal Lewis’s reasons. Maybe he was being straight with her.
“Come on,” he said. “Go out with me again. I promise not to take you to any wild parties. I promise. I just want to spend time with you. And you know you need to talk, after all this with the baby.”
Confusion settled into her heart. She had promised Jonathan and Morgan that she wouldn’t
drink again, and she intended to keep that promise. But what would it hurt just to spend a little more time with him?
“I don’t want to let Morgan and Jonathan down again. They’ve made it clear that they don’t want me with you.”
“So it won’t be a date. You’ll just go for a walk along the beach and run into me. We’ll get a Coke somewhere. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. I want to hear about the kidnapping. We’ll just talk.”
Sadie looked out the door and saw that Jonathan was still in the yard. “I don’t know, Trevor. I’m just not sure it’s worth all the trouble I could get into.”
“Sadie, you’re going to have to decide if I’m worth it.”
That was just it, she thought. She hadn’t decided that.
“When you do, I’ll be waiting. Just call me, and I’ll meet you anywhere you say.”
She listened to him hang up and kept holding the phone to her ear as the dial tone clicked on.
As she hung up, she made her decision. She wasn’t going to let Morgan and Jonathan down again, whether Trevor was worth it or not.
CHAPTER 42
The tenants of Hanover House waited in the living room as Morgan brought Karen home the next day. Silence hung over the room, much like the silence after the days of Thelma and Wayne’s murder.
Karen hadn’t wanted to leave the hospital. She had fought to stay until her baby was found, as if part of her believed that Emory lay hidden somewhere within that building and would forever be out of her grasp if she left that place.
Several FBI agents had turned their parlor into a communications center, in case the kidnappers made contact. They sat in there now, talking silently as they prepared for any call that might come.
Sadie had made tea and pulled Karen into the kitchen. Gus, Felicia, and Mrs. Hern followed her in, all of them looking as if they wanted to help but didn’t know how. Sadie poured her a cup, then hugged the forlorn mother. “Karen, I’m so sorry. I know what it’s like to worry about a little baby being in trouble. It’s an awful feeling.”
Karen nodded silently and wiped her red eyes. “I just don’t understand why anybody would want my baby. Why my baby? Why not somebody else’s? There were so many of them there. Why did they choose my room to come into?”