Malone nodded. “There’s nothing I can do,” he said. “She’s been dead at least an hour.”
Wiseman sighed. “Any idea what happened?”
“I can’t be sure yet, but it looks like SIDS.”
Wiseman’s eyes closed, and he ran his hand through his hair, brushing it back from his forehead. Damn, he swore to himself. Why does it happen? Why? Then he heard Malone’s voice again.
“Is Steve here?”
“He was calling someone. His mother-in-law, I think. I ordered Valium for Sally.”
“Good. Do you want me to talk to Steve?”
Wiseman, his eyes fixed on Julie Montgomery’s tiny body, didn’t answer for a moment. When he did, his voice was hollow. “I’ll do it,” he said. “I know Steve almost as well as I know Sally.” He paused, then spoke again. “Will you do an autopsy?”
“Of course,” Malone replied, “but I don’t think well find anything. Julie Montgomery was one of the healthiest babies I’ve ever seen. And I saw her two days ago. Nothing wrong. Nothing at all. Shit!”
Malone looked down into the tiny face cradled in his arms. Julie Montgomery, to look at her, seemed to be asleep. Except for the deadly pallor and the coldness of her flesh. No injuries, no signs of sickness.
Only death.
“I’ll take her downstairs,” Malone said. He turned away, and Wiseman watched him until he disappeared around a corner. Only then did he return to the waiting room, where Steve Montgomery was now sitting by his wife, holding her hand. He looked up at the doctor, his eyes questioning. Wiseman shook his head.
“There was nothing that could be done,” he said, touching Steve on the shoulder. “Nothing at all.”
“But what happened?” Steve asked. “She was fine. There wasn’t anything wrong with her. Nothing!”
“We don’t know yet,” Wiseman replied. “Well do an autopsy, but I don’t think we’ll find anything.”
“Not find anything?” Sally asked. The emptiness was gone from her eyes now, but her face was filled with a pain that Wiseman found almost more worrisome than the shock had been. She’ll get over it, he told himself. It’ll be hard, but she’ll get over it.
“Why don’t you two go home?” he suggested. “There’s no reason to stay here. And we’ll talk in the morning. All right?”
Sally got to her feet and leaned against Steve. “What happened?” she asked. “Babies don’t just die, do they?”
Wiseman watched her, trying to judge her condition. Had it been anyone but Sally Montgomery, he would have waited until morning, but he’d known Sally for years, and he knew she was strong. The Valium had calmed her down and would keep her calm.
“Sometimes they do,” he said softly. “It’s called sudden infant death syndrome. That’s what Mark Malone thinks happened to Julie.”
“Oh, God,” Steve Montgomery said. He saw Julie’s face, her dancing eyes and smiling mouth, her tiny hands reaching for him, grasping his finger with all her own, laughing and gurgling.
And then nothing.
Tears began running down his face. He did nothing to wipe them away.
As the spring dawn crept over Eastbury, Steve Montgomery stood up and went to the window. He and Sally were in the living room, where they’d been all the long night, neither of them wanting to go to bed, neither of them willing to face whatever thoughts might come in the darkness. But now the darkness was gone, and Steve wandered around the room, turning off the lamps.
“Don’t,” Sally whispered. “Please don’t.”
Understanding her, Steve turned the lights back on, then went back to sit beside her once more, holding her close against him, neither of them speaking, but drawing strength from each other’s presence. After a while there was a sound from upstairs, and then footsteps coming down the stairs. A moment later Sally’s mother was in the room. She paused, then came to the sofa and drew Sally into her arms.
“My poor baby,” she said softly, her voice soothing. “Oh, my poor baby. What happened? Sally, what happened?”
Her mother’s voice seemed to trigger something in Sally, and her tears, the tears that should have been drained from her hours earlier, began to flow once more. She leaned against her mother, her body heaving with her sobs. Over her daughter’s head, Phyllis Paine’s eyes met her son-in-law’s.
“What happened, Steve?” she asked. “What happened to my granddaughter?”
I have to control myself, Steve thought. For Sally, I have to be strong. I have to tell people what happened, and I have to make arrangements, and I have to take care of my wife and my son. Then another thought