Читать книгу Somebody's Baby - Amanda Stevens - Страница 7

Six months later

“Sergeant Farrell, please.” Nina fastened her long hair into a ponytail as she waited on hold. She knew from experience it could take several minutes for Boyd Farrell to answer his phone, so she used the time to scan the web page she’d designed for a local bookstore.

Nina loved her job. Designing web pages for small businesses who wanted to join the information superhighway was uniquely exciting. But working at home also had its drawbacks. Always somewhat of a loner, Nina would sometimes go for days without seeing another soul, and she knew that wasn’t particularly healthy. Perhaps that was why she’d been so susceptible to Karen Smith’s overtures of friendship. Perhaps that’s why she hadn’t recognized the woman’s deception.

“Sergeant Farrell,” a masculine voice said in her ear.

“It’s Nina.”

She could imagine him running a hand through his thinning, light brown hair, perhaps staring at the framed picture of his wife and daughter on his desk while he figured out a tactful way to get rid of her.

“How are you, Nina?”

“Hanging in there.” She forced an optimism into her tone. “What’s the latest?”

She heard him sigh and tried to steel herself against the inevitable disappointment. “There’s nothing new on the case. You know I would have called you if there were.”

Of course she knew that, but she still couldn’t help hoping. Every time she called him, she couldn’t help hoping.

“No leads on Karen Smith?”

Another pause. The questions were always the same. So were the answers. “Afraid not.”

“She couldn’t have just vanished from the face of the earth,” Nina insisted. “She’s out there somewhere with my baby.”

“We don’t know for sure who took your baby. We have to keep an open mind, Nina. Dustin’s kidnapping could have been random. Any one of the infants in that nursery could have been taken during the fire.”

“But they weren’t,” she countered. “Only Dustin. If he wasn’t singled out, why was my ID bracelet missing? Was that just some strange coincidence?”

“I don’t know,” Farrell admitted.

She pressed her point. “You know as well as I do the evidence points to Karen Smith—the way she met me in the park that day, how she kept coming back until we became friends and she found out everything about me. If she didn’t take Dustin, why did she just disappear like that? Why haven’t you been able to find a Karen Smith who fits her description?”

They’d covered this ground so many times, but to Farrell’s credit, he always responded with patience. “Like I’ve told you before, it’s possible the woman was a professional. She could have scoped you out ahead of time, found out you were alone and pregnant and decided you’d be an easy target. At this point, we just don’t know. But, Nina, if a professional did take your baby—”

“I know.” She closed her eyes, not wanting to think about the possibilities, even after all this time. If Karen Smith had taken Dustin, it probably wasn’t to keep him, but to broker him—to sell him to someone desperate for a baby. Even if they found Karen, there were no guarantees she would lead them to Dustin.

“What about the fire?” Nina finally asked. “Any leads there?”

“The arson investigators haven’t closed the case, but there’s still nothing conclusive.”

“You and I both know she set the fire. She was there that night, pretending to be my sister.”

“Unfortunately we don’t have any corroborating evidence on that, either,” Farrell reminded her. “The nurse you spoke with that night thinks she may have been mistaken about the person claiming to be your sister. And no one else remembers seeing a dark-haired woman hanging around Labor and Delivery.”

“But she was there,” Nina said bitterly. “She burned an entire hospital to the ground so that she could take my son and disappear with him. Why haven’t you been able to find her? Why haven’t you done something, anything to put that woman behind bars and bring my son back to me?”

Six months of grief and frustration trembled in Nina’s voice, and it was all she could do to suppress her emotions. But breaking down wouldn’t help find Dustin. She had to remain calm, in control. She had to keep Sergeant Farrell on her side.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “That wasn’t fair.”

“I’ve been wondering when it would happen. Your restraint has been nothing short of remarkable.” Something crept into his voice that Nina couldn’t quite define. “Believe me, I’m doing everything I can to find Dustin.”

She wanted to be encouraged by his words, but six months was a long time. An eternity. Even a mother’s hope couldn’t stay alive forever. She fought back the sting of tears. “I know you are. Please, Sergeant. Just don’t give up.”

“I won’t,” he promised. “And you hang in there. I’ll talk to you next week, okay?”

Nina took a deep breath, mustering her fragile resolve. “Okay.”

As always, when she severed the call, it seemed as if she’d cut away a piece of her heart. No news, no witnesses, no leads of any kind. After all this time, the trail had grown so cold, she knew it would take a miracle to find her baby.

And as Nina knew from experience, miracles were very hard to come by.