Delores Fossen - Secret Delivery

“So, who do you think it was in the alley?” she demanded.

A hallucination caused by the fever and the drugs already in her system. Except Jack had seen that car with the mud-smeared plates. Still, a strange car didn’t mean this Ted had tried to grab her.

“If Ted had come to apprehend you, why would he have run?” Jack asked. “He had a court order to keep you confined. The law was on his side, not yours.”

Another punch of frustration rushed through her eyes. “Maybe that court order isn’t worth the paper it’s being faxed on.”

“Maybe. That’s one of the things I might be able to determine when I see the document.”

And when he questioned Ted and Margaret. Whenever that would be. The woman hadn’t exactly volunteered to come to Willow Ridge, which meant Jack would have to make a trip to the Sauder Mental Health Facility about an hour’s drive away. Margaret hadn’t been chatty about the exact location, claiming that the place was private to prevent the media from finding it and the occasional famous patients who entered the facility for drug rehab.

Margaret’s explanation had made him even more uneasy. But he couldn’t go until he had things stabilized with Alana. Fortunately, he’d already gotten Ted and Margaret’s photos from the online database of drivers’ licenses, and he’d run computer checks. Neither had criminal records, but Jack had asked his deputy to do a little digging to see if anything flagged.

“When the fax arrives,” Alana continued, “I want you to read that court order word for word. I’ll do the same. But first, I’ll have to battle my brother.” She lifted her head from the pillow again, and this time she pushed his hand away when he tried to stop her. “I need some clothes. I don’t want Sean to see me like this. I’m sure I look frail and weak. It’ll only give him more ammunition to try to have me recommitted.”

Jack couldn’t argue with that, but Alana wasn’t ready to be up and moving around. Still, he didn’t stop her. “I can’t guarantee the doctor will let you leave the hospital, but I’ll see what I can do about getting you something else to wear.”

She’d gathered up the blanket to drape around her. Her gaze met his. “Thank you.”

He didn’t want her thanks. He didn’t want empathy. He didn’t want to feel that she was getting railroaded.

But he did.

Damn it. He did.

Jack stepped outside the room, and welcomed the moment he had to himself. He didn’t usually have trouble being objective, especially since Alana was officially part of an investigation now. But she was also a huge threat to his happiness. That was coloring his objectivity.

When he spotted Sara Murphy, a nurse and a woman he’d known his entire life, he walked up the hall to her. “Could you possibly scrounge up some street clothes for the patient?” Jack hitched his thumb toward Alana’s door.

Sara nodded and shifted a pink wad of sugaryscented gum in her mouth so she could answer him. “Sure will.” She volleyed her doe-brown eyes between Jack and the door. “I heard what’s going on, and I’m sorry. She’s here to try to take little Joey, isn’t she?”

Jack settled for saying, “It’s complicated.”

“Not so complicated. You love that boy. Everybody around here knows that.” Sara patted his arm. “Have you learned anything more about the night she wandered out of the hospital?”

“No.”

Sara glanced around as if to make sure no one was listening, and stepped closer. “Look, I’m on your side. I don’t want that woman back here. But you know I’ve had my worries about her from the start.”

Yeah. He did. He’d interviewed Sara several times. “You don’t think Alana left the hospital voluntarily that night eight months ago.”

“And I still don’t. I saw her an hour before she disappeared, and she was fit as a fiddle. She talked about Joey, about their future together. She was talking about taking Mommy and Me classes, for heaven’s sake.” Sara shook her head. “And then bam! an hour later, she walks out into the freezing night without giving a second thought to leaving her baby behind.”

Since it’d been a while since those interviews, Jack asked the obvious. “You’re sure you didn’t see anyone go into Alana’s room that night?”

She flexed her eyebrows. “Just Doc Bartolo.”

There it was again. That same punch of doubt that had come eight months ago. Dr. Bartolo had been the last credible person to see Alana. She’d been fine, he insisted. Since the doctor had never given Jack a reason to distrust him, he’d believed him.

Except there was a niggling doubt in the back of his mind. Jack had discovered that looking at Joey had dimmed those doubts.

“You did the right thing, taking that baby the way you did,” Sara insisted.

Did I? Jack asked himself.

Thankfully, he didn’t pose that question to Sara. He spotted Deputy Reyes Medina making his way down the hall toward him. At six-three and well over two hundred pounds, Reyes was impossible to miss. He had the face and the coloring of his Comanche ancestors, but his expression was all cop. He walked, looked and talked as if he were ready to kick someone’s butt into the next county.

It took Jack a moment to realize Reyes wasn’t alone. He saw something behind the deputy, and after Reyes moved a little to the side, Jack got another surprise he didn’t want.

His aunt Tessie was there, and she was holding Joey.

Jack groaned some ripe profanity. This was not the place he wanted his son.

“I’ll get those clothes for Ms. Davis,” Sara mumbled, excusing herself.

Jack heard her, but he didn’t respond, instead making a beeline for his aunt.

“Is it true?” Tessie asked. She’d obviously dressed in a hurry. No makeup, not that she wore much anyway. Her salt-white hair was in disarray, and her Coke-bottle-green eyes were wide with concern. “Is that woman really here in the hospital?”

Jack caught her arm to stop her from moving any closer to Alana’s room. “She’s here. I was going to tell you, but I haven’t had a chance.”

Unlike Reyes and Tessie, Joey wasn’t showing much concern. He grinned from ear to ear and reached for Jack. Jack pulled his son into his arms and gave himself a moment to be a father. He could have sworn his blood pressure dropped to normal. The knot in his stomach eased up. And for a few precious seconds, all was right with the world.

“I told Tessie she shouldn’t be here,” Reyes grumbled.

Tessie started her defense before Reyes finished the last word of his sentence. “I wanted to see her. I want to make her understand that she can’t come back after all these months and take Joey.”

“It’s not a good time to do that,” Jack countered. He couldn’t tell Tessie that Alana would try to take Joey. Jack didn’t even want to say the words aloud.

There was a sound behind him, and judging from Tessie’s and Reyes’s reactions, Jack knew what it was. He quickly handed Joey to Tessie. “Take him home please.”

She nodded but kept her attention fastened to the other end of the hall. One glance over his shoulder confirmed that Alana was there, standing in the doorway of her room. She had the blanket draped around her like a robe and was looking at Joey. She started toward him.

“The virus,” Jack reminded her. “You’ll make him sick.”

Alana froze. Thank God. If it hadn’t been for her illness, Alana would have tried to wrench Joey from Tessie’s arms. Joey would have been confused. Frightened. And the contact would no doubt have given Alana even more determination to take the child she’d given birth to.

Tessie turned and hurried back toward the exit. Jack went to Alana, to make sure she stayed put. When he reached her, he saw her tears, even though she was doing her level best to blink them away.