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“I just want Tyler,” she half sobbed. Tears poured down her cheeks. “They said he wasn’t injured in the fall, but maybe the pediatrician has found something wrong after all.”
His lips brushed her moist cheek. “I’ll be right back, my love.”
After he left the room, she breathed more easily. If he touched her again or used more any more endearments, she would ask the nurse to tell him to stay away.
Hurt because she’d winced when he’d kissed her, Cal wheeled out of the cubicle and made a beeline for Dr. Farr who was filling out a chart. At his approach, the doctor looked up.
“How is your wife? Did she recognize you?”
“Not yet.” He expelled the breath he’d been holding. “But she referred to the baby as Tyler, which is a step in the right direction.” Cal then proceeded to explain the significance of the name.
The other man gave him an encouraging smile. “No doubt about it. Her memory is returning. I’m sure Dr. Harkness will agree. Too bad something has held him up. I’ll make another inquiry and send him to you as soon as he comes into emergency.”
“I would appreciate that. However, there’s another problem. Diana’s worried about the baby and wants to see him to make sure he’s all right. After what I’ve told you about her last miscarriage, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“I understand where you’re coming from, Mr. Rawlins. You don’t want her to get unduly attached to a baby that isn’t hers. On the other hand, I’d like to decrease any anxiety she’s feeling right now. If seeing the baby will bring her momentary comfort, that might be the best medicine to hasten the initial healing process.”
In his heart of hearts Cal knew that for the time being, the baby was the only thing that would console his wife. The fact that she didn’t need or want him, her own husband, cut deeper than a knife. But he realized he had to put her desires ahead of his own.
“How old is the infant?”
“I estimate three, maybe four days.”
So young!
A shudder passed through Cal’s body. His wife would find a virtual newborn irresistible.
Diana, darling—Where did the baby come from? What were you doing with it? Lord, what a nightmare.
“Could you ask someone to bring the baby down to her?”
“It could be under the lights for a while. But I’ll find out what I can and keep you posted. In the meantime, go back to your wife and see if your conversation jars her memory a little more.”
He nodded. But first he needed to get hold of Roman.
Someone’s baby was missing.
If Diana couldn’t shed any light on the situation within the next little while, this could become a police matter. Roman would know exactly how to handle it and be discreet at the same time.
Cal didn’t think for a minute that his wife had gone off the deep end, and had stolen the baby. But whatever the explanation, when she regained her full memory she would be loathe to give it up.
This accident had happened too soon after her last miscarriage. More than ever he felt it vital to go ahead and start adoption proceedings.
Needing privacy, he found the empty examination room and called his friend on his cellular phone.
“Roman, here.”
“Roman? It’s Cal.”
“Hey! I’m glad you called. I was just telling Brittany the four of us need to get together this weekend. By the way, where’s the best assistant I’ve ever had? She told me she was going to come in early to catch up on some paperwork.”
“That’s what I’m calling about. Lord, Roman. I’m at Bonneville Regional. Diana’s in the emergency room with a head injury.”
“What?”
Cal’s eyes closed tightly. He was too broken up to talk.
“Say no more. I’ll be right there.”
“Thanks,”’ Cal said in a hoarse whisper, and put the phone back in his pocket. Right now he needed his buddy to help make sense of this nightmare. “Thank God for Roman,” he murmured, hurrying to Diana’s cubicle.
By this time another doctor was examining her, asking her questions. Cal figured it was Dr. Harkness. With eye signals the neurosurgeon indicated he wanted to be alone with his patient and would talk to Cal later.
He fought the desire to inform the doctor that he was Diana’s husband, that he wanted to be involved. However Dr. Harkness had left him with no choice but to return to the reception area.
Since the examination might take some time, Cal decided to go outside and wait for Roman. He needed to fill his lungs with fresh air that wasn’t tainted by the smell of antiseptic. On the way out, he asked someone to show him where his wife had fallen.
One of the ambulance attendants accompanied him to the spot, but any sign of an accident had been cleaned up.
“Did anyone see her fall?”
“Not that I know of, sir. We went out when an ambulance drove in and noticed her sitting on the path. Her pupils were dilated. She couldn’t tell us any information, so we brought her inside.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Without wasting another second he strode swiftly toward her parked car. She’d left the doors unlocked, something she normally never did for safety reasons. It meant she was in such a hurry to get inside the emergency room, she didn’t bother.
Suddenly his eye caught sight of a rectangular carton in the back seat. It was the kind of box that held produce meant for a grocery store. With a jerk, he opened the back door and reached for the box. The empty carton had been lined with a thin, wrinkled cotton blanket.
Dear Lord. Had she found the baby in this box?
“Cal?” a familiar male voice called out.
Cal whirled around to see Roman standing there. He must have flown from his office to make it here this fast.
“What’s going on?”
After emitting a tortured sigh, Cal told his friend everything he knew. “The hell of it is, she didn’t recognize me, Roman.”
He felt a clap on his shoulder. “When I was on the police force, I investigated a lot of accidents and saw plenty of cases like this. Her amnesia is temporary.”
Cal shivered again. “You can’t imagine what it’s like to kiss your wife, look into her eyes, only to see fear and repulsion there.”
“No, I can’t. But she only fell a couple of hours ago. Give it time for her mind and body to absorb the shock. It won’t be long before she’s back to normal. Meanwhile, let’s see if there’s anything else in the car that will give us a clue as to what happened.”
Roman’s was the voice of sanity. Together they searched the immaculate interior, but found nothing else.
“Have you looked in her purse or her clothes?”
“No,” Cal answered in a hoarse voice. “Her reaction to me left me too shaken up to think, period.”
“I hear you. Let’s go inside the hospital and see if we can find anything else that will shed some light.”
Cal nodded before the two of them went back to the emergency room. Dr. Harkness met them at the desk.
After exchanging the amenities he said, “I concur with the attending physician’s diagnosis. She’s suffering the kind of amnesia brought on by head trauma.
“There’s been no loss of knowledge of the things around her. For example, she knows she’s in a hospital, she can tell time, add numbers, all of those details. But for now she has blocked out past events. In time, she’ll recover her memory.”
“How soon, Doctor?”
“No one has the answer to that question. You just have to be patient. My advice is to feed her information on a need-to-know basis only. Her mind is refusing to let her remember, possibly because she doesn’t want to remember.” One blond brow lifted. “Has something happened recently that has been very painful for her?”
Cal started to nod. “She’s had three miscarriages in a row. The most recent one dealt us both a severe blow. Since then, Diana has been obsessed by the idea that she might not be able to conceive again, let alone have a child. She’s wanted a baby ever since we were married.”
“That could explain the reason why it might take longer for her to get her memory back, Mr. Rawlins. Dr. Farr tells me the baby she was holding isn’t yours, that you have no idea whose it is.”
“None at all. Roman, here, is the head of the Lufka detective agency. He’s going to start an investigation to find out whose baby it is, and why Diana happened to have the baby with her.”
The doctor’s expression sobered. “That’s good. But as you’ve realized by now, she believes the baby is hers.”
“Yes. That’s what’s got me worried."
“I confess I don’t like it, either. Dr. Farr told me you would rather she didn’t see the baby again. I tend to agree with you, yet I also feel that the other doctor has a point. The baby would be good for her right now to comfort her in her fear. She’s very frightened that she can’t remember anything about her life with you. She’s clinging to that child because she needs something to love that is familiar to her.”
“What should I do?”
“For the time being, the baby has jaundice and can’t be moved from the lights until the pediatrician gives the go ahead. I’ve told your wife about his condition. She seems to have accepted the fact that she’ll have to wait until he’s improved before she’s allowed to see him.
“Thankfully the baby’s condition, which is not life threatening now that he’s being given the proper care, has bought us some time. We can hope that as you stay with your wife, keep her company and anticipate her needs, she’ll start to remember things on her own. The memory usually comes back in bits and pieces with little effort.”
“Except that she’s repulsed by my presence,” Cal ground out.
“She told me she’s afraid of you. That’s why I didn’t invite you to stay for the examination. It’s a natural reaction. She has to go on blind faith that you are her husband, that you two love each other and have been happily married. To her, you’re a complete stranger.
“I’m going to have her admitted overnight for observation. In the morning, if all her vital signs are stable, and another X ray doesn’t show any problems, I’ll let you take her home.
“For the time being, my advice for what it’s worth is to treat her like a sister rather than a wife. Slowly but surely allow friends and relatives to come around, but warn them not to upset her or act startled by her loss of memory. Always be supportive, friendly, tender, kind. Don’t overreact when she retreats. She’s only protecting herself. Don’t make physical advances.”
Cal shook his head. “I already did when I kissed her and she didn’t kiss me back.” The pain of her rejection had gone soul deep.
“A perfectly natural gesture on your part, but it explains her anxiety. Until her memory returns, she has to regain her trust of you. I’m afraid the burden is on your shoulders, Mr. Rawlins. However I want to assure you that I believe her condition is temporary. In time you’ll have her back as good as new.”
He turned to Roman. “We’ve had to report Baby Doe to the police, but perhaps your investigation will produce swifter results. Let us know, will you?”
“Of course. I’m hoping to have answers within a few hours.”
“Good. Then I’ll talk to both of you later. The hospital will keep me notified if there are changes in your wife’s condition. If you have any concerns at all, feel free to ask someone at the desk to phone me.”
“Thank you, Dr. Harkness.”
He smiled. “She’s a lovely woman. I can understand your fear. This is the time when the wedding vows start to take on a whole new meaning.”
Cal pondered the doctor’s words. He knew the other man was trying to commiserate, but could anyone understand a situation like this unless they had experienced it for themselves?
“You all right, Cal?”
The concern in Roman’s voice jerked him back to the present.
“No, but I’m going to have to be, aren’t I?”
The rhetorical question required no response. Roman shifted his weight. “After listening to Dr. Harkness, I think it would be better if I don’t see Diana until tomorrow or even the next day. One person at a time. It makes sense to me.
“What I want you to do is ask an attendant to bring her belongings out here. Tell them to make up any excuse they want so they won’t alarm her unduly. I might find a clue. It’s the first place I need to start. Then I’m going back to the office. Maybe she left some kind of clue there which I didn’t see at the time.
“We know she was on her way to work this morning and made no mention of tending anyone’s baby. So it’s my guess the baby was either placed in her car or—”
“Or placed on the doorstep at work!” Cal blurted. “If it had been on our doorstep or in our car when she left the garage, she would have run in the house to tell me.”
“Unless it was still kind of dark and she didn’t notice it on the back seat until she got to work.”
“That’s a possibility, except that she almost always locks the car doors. Someone would have had to force entry to even get in the garage.”
“Whatever, following this to its logical conclusion, if the baby looked yellow to her, she might have been so concerned, she didn’t think to call anyone. Instead she felt it was an emergency and immediately drove to the hospital figuring an ambulance couldn’t get there any faster. Obviously in her haste, she slipped and fell.”
“That’s it, Roman! That has to be the explanation.”
“As soon as you can, get me her things, and I mean everything, we should have answers before long.”
“I owe you for this, Roman.”
“Then we’re more than even. I can’t count the times you’ve come to my rescue, especially when I was working on Brittany’s case. You and Diana helped me keep my sanity before I made her my wife. Now it’s my turn to help you. I’ve never made it any secret that I love Diana. So do the other PI’s. She’s the best thing that ever happened to the agency. When the guys hear what happened, it’s going to come as a horrible shock, particularly to Brittany and Annabelle.”
“I know. Those three have grown as close as sistets.”
“I’ll inform everybody. You go back to Diana and let us handle the investigation.”
Cal put a hand on Roman’s shoulder. “Wait here just a minute. I’ll get someone to bring out her things.” He found an attendant nearby and told her what they needed from Diana’s cubicle.
“No problem. The doctor has just given orders to take her up to a private room on the fourth floor, 418 North. I’ll just tell her we’re going to load her stuff on a cart first.”
“Perfect.”
In short order the attendant came back with a large sack provided by the hospital containing Diana’s personal effects. Cal handed it over to Roman. “I hope you find something. For Diana’s own good, the sooner the mystery about the baby is cleared up, the better.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll be fast and thorough. I’m going out to her car for the box and blanket. One of the guys will be by later to drive the car back to your house. In the meantime, as soon as I discover anything, I’ll phone you on your cellular.”
Cal nodded. He couldn’t ask for more than that. Right now as he stared at Roman’s departing back, he realized his friend’s level-headed thinking was the only thing keeping him from going right over the edge.
