Lullabies and Lies - By Mallory Kane Page 0,62

and determined chin stopped him. She’d been trying to protect her baby in the only way she knew how.

He sat down and pulled up his e-mail program. “I’ll send the photo to a friend of mine, a forensic photo-analyst in D.C. Maybe he can tell us something about the woman. I’ll ask him to look up the 1998 case, too, and compare them.” It only took a few seconds to attach and send the photo. He stood.

“I’ll call him on the way. We need to get going. Captain Sparks has obtained authorization for you to visit Bess Raymond in the hospital, and I need to go to the police station. They found several cigarette butts in a wooded area near her house. They think someone was watching, possibly even while the police were there.”

“Do you know who?”

He shook his head and put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m going to leave you at the hospital. I’ll be gone a few hours. We may go out to the crime scene. Bess has a police officer guarding her. As soon as she can talk, the officer will notify a detective to take her statement. You’ll be able to see her then. Don’t leave the hospital for any reason. If you stay put, you’ll be perfectly safe.”

132 hours missing

SUNNY PACED the short length of the intensive care waiting room. There were several other people in the room. They all had worry etched on their faces. All but the toddler who sported his mother’s red hair. He sat on her lap, gaily bouncing up and down. Sunny couldn’t help but smile at his innocent happiness. She’d already formed images of Emily as a toddler, already signed her up for a day care center, already started looking at the pretty ruffled dresses in the department stores.

Her empty heart’s hollow beating echoed through her.

The toddler’s mother met Sunny’s gaze. She acknowledged her smile with a sad little smile of her own. The crumpled tissue she clutched and her red-rimmed eyes told Sunny that, so far, whoever she was there to see was not doing well.

An older woman was sitting with a couple who had probably brought her to the hospital this morning, because they all appeared freshly showered and their clothes were fresh and unwrinkled, unlike their faces.

She looked at the clock that hung over the door. She’d been waiting for almost two hours. The brief, coveted ten o’clock visiting time had come and gone, and no one had called her. The grizzled volunteer sitting at the information desk had given her a message when she arrived. Bess Raymond had regained consciousness and was being taken off the ventilator.

Sunny stopped in front of the desk.

“Can you check with the nurses’ station again? If she’s awake, I don’t understand what the delay is.”

The man stopped checking the list of names before him and looked up. The shapeless blue jacket that identified hospital volunteers contrasted sharply with his weathered skin. “They’d have called me.”

“Are you sure? Maybe they got busy and forgot.”

“The nurses know you’re here. You should have a cup of coffee and sit down. Things go slow sometimes. I’ll let you know.” His kind expression softened his words.

Sunny tried to smile at him. “Thank you.” She didn’t want any coffee. She wanted to talk to Bess. Bess knew where Emily was.

She sat down in one of the chairs and tried to watch the TV that was set to a local morning show, but all she could see before her eyes was Bess lying so still in the ambulance, with blood staining her clothes, and the concerned faces of the emergency medical team.

She didn’t remember much after that. She’d succumbed to the sedative and slept the rest of the way to the emergency room.

A second volunteer stepped into the room. Everyone stopped talking and turned toward her. Did she have a message for someone?

The woman stood for a few seconds, her hands in the big patch pockets of her blue jacket, then leaned over and said something to the man at the desk, who nodded in Sunny’s direction.

Sunny’s heart leaped as the woman started toward her. The murmur of conversation rose again as the others realized she wasn’t looking for them.

Sunny stood.

“Are you Ms. Loveless?”

“Yes.” Sunny’s pulse raced. “Am I going to get to see Bess now?”

The woman nodded. “That would be Bess Raymond, right? She’s been moved to a private room. I’ll show you the way.”

“Really? Already?” Sunny was surprised. “She must be doing very well.”