Part 11 (1/2)
He got out and opened the garage door, then drove inside and waited until the door closed solidly behind them before he felt safe.
”Holly?” She hadn't moved. Hadn't said a word since they'd left the hospital. And now she sat staring blindly at the front wall of Sh.e.l.ley's garage as if...”Holly?”
”I knew one of them,” she whispered.
He didn't have to ask who she meant. The monsters.
”I remember thinking, 'My G.o.d, I recognize that voice.”'
Sweet heaven. ”A man's or a woman's voice?” he asked quietly.
She shook her head slowly. ”I just remember feeling disbelief. Like, how can this be? Not this person?” She glanced over at him. ”Someone I know took our baby. Someone I...trusted.”
Like a doctor, he thought.
As he got out of the truck and led Holly into Sh.e.l.ley's house, he realized that this monster she'd recognized might also be someone he he knew. knew.
He got Holly settled in the spare bedroom, then went downstairs to scare up some dinner. He'd just put one of Sh.e.l.ley's ca.s.seroles in the microwave to defrost, when the phone rang. For just a moment, he thought it might be Inez. But Inez couldn't have found him that quickly.
He and Sh.e.l.ley didn't share the same last name. Sh.e.l.ley had been married for a very short time. Her husband had been killed in a motorcycle accident. She'd kept his last name, Baxter.
”h.e.l.lo?”
Silence.
”h.e.l.lo?” He felt the hair rise on the back of his neck. His heart pounded even though he told himself there was nothing to fear about a wrong number. Right.
The person at the other end of the line hung up. He stood holding the phone, trying to rationalize his sudden fear. It could have been anyone. It even could have been a real wrong number. Or a bad connection at the other end. It could have been Sh.e.l.ley calling from Tobago.
He started to put the phone down, but changed his mind. He dialed Chief L. T. Curtis, uncomfortable with the way he and the chief had left it earlier and needing someone sane to talk to. That is, if Curtis was still talking to him.
”What do you know about Evergreen Inst.i.tute?” he asked when Curtis answered, keeping things pretty much as they'd been for years.
If the chief was surprised to hear from him, it didn't show in his voice. ”You finally decided to see a shrink?” the cop asked. ”Probably not such a bad idea.”
The defrost timer went off on the microwave. ”I'm serious,” Slade said as he hit the Reheat b.u.t.ton.
”You're always serious. Do you have any understanding of the word holiday? holiday?” Curtis asked with a sigh.
”Not really,” Slade said, realizing how true that was. ”My client spent some time at Evergreen Inst.i.tute.”
”The case involving the alleged switched babies?”
”Yeah. What do you know about the place?”
”Why don't you ask your client?” the chief said. ”Her late husband started Evergreen Inst.i.tute.”
”Dr. Allan Wellington?” He couldn't have been more surprised. Why hadn't Holly mentioned that to him?
”We're talking about the same place, right? That place that looks like a fortress off the old road to b.u.t.te?” Fenced and gated. Like the condos where Inez lived.
”The place with the stone spires sticking up out of the pines,” Curtis said. ”It was once a high-dollar private residence, built by some out-of-stater with more money than good sense-or taste. Dr. Allan Wellington bought it and started the first infertility clinic of its kind in this part of Montana.”
Dr. Allan Wellington. Everywhere Slade turned, he kept running into the doctor. He didn't believe it was a coincidence. And to make matters worse, Curtis even sounded in awe of the good doctor. Sweet heaven.
”It's not an infertility clinic anymore, right?”
”No, it's a funny farm. More like a mountain resort than Warm Springs though,” Curtis said. Warm Springs was where the state mental hospital was located.
”What about a Dr. Parris? Or a Dr. O'Brien?”
”Why the sudden interest in Evergreen?” the chief asked. ”What does it have to do with your baby-switching case?”
”Maybe nothing,” Slade said truthfully. He didn't want to talk about the case. Not yet. ”Anything new on my mother?”
”No,” Curtis said too quickly.
Not that he thought the chief would tell him until it was official anyway.
He tried to think of something else to say. ”Happy New Year” just didn't quite cut it. ”Well, thanks.” He replaced the receiver, suddenly tired, mentally shot.
He wondered if there was was something new on his mother's case. He knew the chief's threat was a good one and the last thing he wanted to do was lose his P.I. license. He'd have to be very careful when he started looking for his mother's lover again. something new on his mother's case. He knew the chief's threat was a good one and the last thing he wanted to do was lose his P.I. license. He'd have to be very careful when he started looking for his mother's lover again.
But right now all he could think about was Holly and their baby. First thing in the morning they'd drive up to Evergreen and see Dr. Parris. No, first thing, Slade thought, he'd have Holly's pills checked out by a pharmacist to see exactly what they were-and what they were capable of doing to her.
He didn't relish the idea of going to Evergreen to see Dr. Parris. He was scared about what the doctor would tell him about Holly. But what really had him worried was that Parris or O'Brien might try to recommit Holly. And Slade wasn't about to let that happen.
The phone rang, making him jump.
”I had some spare time, so I dug out the blood typing the lab did on Holly Barrows and her baby,” a woman said, keeping her voice down as if she didn't want anyone to hear her. ”I'm not supposed to do this but you seemed so worried....”
It took him a moment to realize it was the hospital admitting nurse he and Holly had met earlier. ”What did you find out?” he asked, his heart in his throat.
”Mother and baby aren't related.”
Slade felt his legs give under him. He sat down heavily at the breakfast bar, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. ”You're sure?”
”Well, it's not as accurate as DNA testing, but hey, it's what they used to use before all these fancy-pants tests. You see, the way it works is this. If the mother has- Look, just trust me. The baby isn't hers. I've got to go. You did not not hear this from me. When you pick up the report tomorrow, act surprised.” hear this from me. When you pick up the report tomorrow, act surprised.”
”One more question. Were there any other births on Halloween?” He could hear her rustling papers. ”That's odd. No other births.”
”Thank you. You didn't happen to call earlier, did you?”
”No,” she said. ”This was the first chance I got.”
He hung up, shaken to the soles of his boots. The stillborn male infant wasn't Holly's. Wasn't theirs. Their baby could be alive! And now, he had enough evidence to get a court order to open the casket if it came to that.
He took a couple more deep breaths, just trying to deal with the fact that the baby buried in the Wellington family plot wasn't his. He felt weak with relief, weak with fear.
Knowing didn't help them find their baby. It just proved Holly had been right.