Part 4 (1/2)
”Maria Perez?”
”No, I'm the caretaker,” the woman said.
”The caretaker? Has Ms. Perez left town?”
After a long silence, the woman said, ”I'm sorry, but Maria Perez was killed in a car wreck.”
He sucked in a breath. ”When was that?”
”October. I'm just taking care of the place until the estate is settled.”
”Can you tell me when exactly she was killed? Was it on Halloween?”
”No, the day before. Would you like a member of her family to call you?”
”No, that won't be necessary.” He clicked off the phone and glanced over at Holly, who was waiting expectantly. ”Maria Perez was killed in an automobile accident the day before before Halloween.” Halloween.”
”Then she couldn't have been one of the monsters,” she said.
”No.” But had someone seen to it that Maria Perez wasn't at the birth?
Holly stared out at the pa.s.sing town, visibly shaken by the news. He didn't have the heart to tell her what he feared they'd find at Carolyn Gray's apartment.
Chapter Four.
The West Gate was about as upscale as Dry Creek got. A half-dozen two-story apartment buildings with bay windows and balconies painted the recent color of choice: tan. Slade idly wondered what kind of money nurses made these days as he and Holly found Carolyn Gray's unit, knocked at the door and waited. To neither of their surprises, Carolyn Gray didn't open the door.
”Keep an eye out,” he told Holly as he pulled out his lock-pick kit and went to work on the door. It was a simple lock and Carolyn hadn't set her dead bolt.
”Are you sure about this?” Holly asked with obvious apprehension as he opened the door.
”Carolyn?” he called softly.
No answer.
Holly followed him deeper into the apartment.
He had a bad feeling that Carolyn Gray was probably the only one who'd seen the person who'd brought Holly and the baby to the hospital, especially if most everyone else had been busy that night. If Holly was right about her baby being born alive and then stolen, that person wouldn't want to be identified.
By the time he pushed open the bedroom door, he'd pretty well convinced himself that they'd find Carolyn Gray murdered. Holly's paranoia was definitely catching. And quite possibly with good reason.
Instead of finding a body though, he found the place had been cleaned out. And in a hurry! Empty drawers hung open, abandoned clothes hangers were piled like pick-up-sticks on the closet floor. Carolyn Gray was gone and it didn't look as if she'd be back. But had she left on her own?
After finding nothing of interest in the apartment, they left.
”There's a chance I'm not crazy, isn't there?” Holly said quietly as she climbed back into his pickup.
”Yeah.” A slim chance at this point. But a chance. The same chance that he might now be looking for his own very-alive baby. He didn't want to think what had happened to Carolyn Gray.
”Did you have any tests done while you were pregnant?” he asked, hoping for at least one that might prove the stillborn wasn't hers.
Holly shook her head. ”Maria, my midwife, didn't feel it was necessary.”
”So you didn't know the s.e.x of your baby?”
”No.”
And there were no tests anywhere as proof. How convenient. Other than the blood tests taken at the hospital.
He drove back to Dr. Delaney's office, where they'd left her SUV. ”I want to talk to your sister-in-law,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot next to her car. ”She was there, you said, when you woke up at the hospital. Did you call her? Or did one of the nurses?”
Holly seemed startled by the question. ”I don't know. I never even thought to ask.”
”I'd like to see your sister-in-law alone, if that's all right with you.” He could feel her gaze on him.
”I should tell you that Inez might be difficult.”
”You told her you were hiring me?” he asked, wondering if this Inez person was the one who the Santa bell-ringer had been talking to last night.
She shook her head. ”I just mentioned to her that I didn't believe the stillborn baby was mine, and that I was concerned about the blanks in my memory. I didn't mention hiring you because I didn't even know myself that I was going to until I did.”
”You didn't mention the...monsters?”
She shook her head and looked appalled at the idea. ”Can you imagine what Inez would do?”
He couldn't, but obviously she could and it wasn't good.
”I was thinking about your painting,” he said. ”One of the monsters seemed smaller than the other two. Do you think it's possible it could have been a woman?” He could feel her gaze.
”Yes, that's true, one is smaller.” She sounded surprised that he'd noticed. Or surprised that she hadn't.
”But the painting doesn't prove anything. I mean, how can I be sure it's even a real memory?”
She had a point there. But he found it hard to believe anyone could conjure up something like that.
”You aren't thinking it could be Inez, are you?” she asked suddenly. She seemed to find the idea laughable. ”When you meet her you'll see why that isn't possible. She can barely get around.”
He'd have to take her word for it. Until he met the woman.
”But I do wish now that I'd never said anything to her about any of this.” She let out a sigh and he wondered why she'd confided in him about monster memories-and not her sister-in-law. ”You have to understand,” she said slowly, ”Inez is from an older generation and a very conservative family. My getting pregnant only a month after Allan died was considered a family scandal. Inez doesn't want me making it any worse by pursuing what she sees as lunacy brought on by guilt, grief and postpartum depression.”
A possible explanation, one Slade himself had definitely considered. But so far they had no idea where Holly had given birth. Or if the baby taken to the hospital with her was actually hers. And the only other person who might know anything had left town in a hurry. Or had been taken out of town. It was enough to make him definitely suspicious.
Holly's story was crazy. It was a leap to think that some other woman had given birth that night at about the same time and close by in order to make the baby switch. Quite the coincidence. Or maybe not. Just like the midwife getting killed in an auto accident the day before Holly gave birth.