Chapter 41
Tucker
Nurse Kenisha alerted the hospital security about Ava. Everyone started looking for her. All exits were watched.
But at this point, I’d been sitting on Ava’s bed for over an hour, holding baby Tad, absolutely terrified. Too much time was passing. I didn’t think she was hiding in a mop closet. She left. I knew it.
Nurse Kenisha was pissed as hell. Nurse Jennifer was supposed to stay with Ava in recovery, but she’d gotten paged to another room.
Kenisha was supposed to be off shift, but she refused to leave, going through the hospital herself.
Only a few people knew what Ava looked like. Even fewer knew about her condition.
Gram rubbed my back. “We’ll find her, Tucker. We always do.”
“We lost her for half a year in 2018.”
She sighed. “I know.”
Tad woke with a startled cry. I moved him to my shoulder, but he didn’t like that position. His face turned beet red.
“Let me take him,” Gram said. “You page the nurse for some formula.”
I pushed the red button on the bed. We were allowed to stay in the room until Tad was discharged, which would be tomorrow if Ava didn’t return. I couldn’t possibly leave. Ava had a hospital wristband. She might come back here.
I pressed the heel of my hand to my eye. No, she specifically warned herself about police and hospitals, literally on page two of her book. We did that to prevent another situation like in 2019 when a police report showed her last known location as her mother’s house.
The notebook would have no addresses or phone numbers. We took them out. And she wouldn’t remember having a baby, anyway. There was no reason for her to come back. Whatever made her run, made her search the room and erase her name, might scare her even after reading the notebook.
It felt hopeless.
Gram had the touch because Tad got quiet in her arms. “Let’s go over it again. What is in the bag?”
“Extra clothes. Some treats we planned to sneak in—a drink, chocolate. Some ibuprofen. Toiletries.”
“Does the notebook talk about her father?”
“Yes, she’ll know they found each other.”
“Can she go to him?”
“Not with the information in it. There are no addresses.”
As if Marcus could sense we were talking about him, he buzzed my phone. He had to be nearly here. The last time he checked in, I told him Tad had arrived, and Ava was in surgery. Things happened so fast after that, and I hadn’t thought to update him.
He was going to be so upset. My stomach clenched as I unlocked my phone.
Marcus: How is Ava?
Gram glanced at the screen. “What are you going to tell him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Just give it to him straight. It’s not the first time you’ve had to find her together.”
She was right.
Me: Ava is missing.
I could practically feel Marcus hitting the brakes. I wondered if he would pull over to text or just call.
But he must have been at a stoplight because he texted again.
Marcus: How long ago?
Me: About an hour now. I was in the nursery with Tad.
Marcus: What set her off?
Me: She woke up alone. Took the bag and notebook.
Marcus: Can she make it home with that?
Me: No. We removed all addresses from it.
Marcus: I’m in the city. Be there in half an hour.
I dropped the phone onto the bed.
“Anything else in the bag?” Gram asked.
“I think she put her keys in it. I’m pretty sure.”
“Could she find her way home with them?”
“No. But there’s a keychain for Big Harry’s Diner. It has an address.”
Gram stood up, patting the baby’s back. “Call over there. Now. She might have made her way to the restaurant.”
I couldn’t see how. The restaurant was a good ten miles from the hospital. And Ava just had a baby. She had to be in pain walking. She wouldn’t have any money for a bus or her phone to call a ride.
But Gram was still right. I should give Harry the heads-up. He was one of the few people Ava trusted no matter how she came out of a reset.
“Where else could she possibly go?” Gram asked.
“We have to assume she’ll find addresses on her own.
She might find a police officer or one might find her.
They could look her up by her name. She probably found the name and birth date tattoo when she got dressed.
The system will have records from when she ran away from her mother, plus the restraining order. ”
Gram was thinking straighter than I was.
“Her name and birthdate were on the hospital wristband, too. If the police pick her up, they might know about the shelter and her mother’s house.”
Gram paced with Tad. “Call that lady at the shelter who remembers Ava.”
“Sheila.”
“Yes. Sheila. Do they have a book?”
“Yes, but it’s old.”
“What’s in it?”
“Maya’s duplex. Big Harry’s. Her old apartment. Maybe your house.”
“Will Sheila call you if she shows up there?”
“Maybe. But only if it’s actually Sheila she finds. Otherwise, no, if she shows up with the police, they won’t tell anyone she’s there. That’s why it’s a shelter.”
Gram stared out the window, shifting from side to side, holding Tad tightly to her chest. “Should someone be driving around here?”
Nurse Kenisha walked in right as Gram asked the question. “I’ll do that. The police aren’t terribly helpful since she’s an adult. They practically need a court order stating she didn’t abandon her motherly duties.”
“How about hospital security?” I asked.
“They’re walking the perimeter. There’s not a soul on shift who doesn’t know about Ava.”
“Thank you,” Gram said. “And thank you for driving.”
Kenisha tugged on her lanyard. “I feel responsible. She shouldn’t have been left alone.”
She got that right.
“Who else can drive around the neighborhood?” Gram asked.
“I can call Bill. He’ll do it,” I said.
“Before I start driving, what do you need for this little guy?” Kenisha asked.
“We already paged our regular nurse,” I said. “I guess start him on formula since Ava’s gone.”
“I’ll get her in here.” Kenisha headed for the door. “My number is on the board. Let me know if Ava turns up.”
I sat on the sofa by the window to alert Big Harry, Maya, and Sheila and to ask Bill to help. “Do you think the police could find her current address?” I asked Gram.
“Maybe. Let Isadora know.”
I texted as fast as I could. A new nurse arrived. This one was young and friendly, all blonde ponytail and happy smile. “What does that baby boy need?” She clearly didn’t know anything yet.
When everyone was texted, I stared out the window. It would be dark soon. There was a mile of parking lots, a big busy street, and then a residential area beyond the commercial blocks. Ava could be anywhere.
It didn’t matter that the police weren’t helping yet. Ava was wily and would be warned about them from the notebook. We’d been through this before. The only way they would be involved is if she collapsed somewhere and someone called them on her behalf.
God. Had that happened? Maybe we should call the other hospitals.
So much to do. So much.
Tad had quieted again. Gram had moved to the rocking chair in the corner, the baby in her arms.
He needed his mother.
We all did.