Chapter 23
23
The feeling of dread that had been building up inside Wendy reached new heights when she got an alert on her phone to say that there’d been a major incident at the hospital, just as they were about to leave for St Piran’s.
‘Someone posing as a midwife has taken a baby from the maternity ward.’ Even as she said the words, Wendy didn’t want to believe they were true. But, for a second time, it was only Gary reaching out to put a steadying arm around her waist that stopped her legs from collapsing under her. ‘Chloe couldn’t have done that, she knows what it’s like to lose a baby. She just wouldn’t.’
‘Trauma can twist things so much. If she’s done it, she won’t be thinking straight. She’ll barely be thinking at all, except about how to get what she wants the most: her baby.’
‘But it’s not her baby.’ Wendy still couldn’t picture the gentle, kind, young woman who she’d come to care for more deeply than she’d ever have believed, doing something like that.
‘In her mind it might be. What she said about empty arms…’ Gary sighed. ‘All she can think about is having them full again; logic won’t come into it in a situation like this and she won’t be thinking about how likely it is that she’ll get caught. The desperation will override all of that.’
‘We’ve got to get there, but they might not let us in, unless we take our passes and say we’re working?’ Wendy looked at Gary, and he nodded. There was a chance they could both be putting their jobs at risk with a lie like that, but she had to get to the hospital as quickly as she could, and keep praying that Chloe would still be there somewhere.
‘I’ll grab my pass.’ Gary released her, and Wendy turned away, almost running to the drawer in the kitchen where she kept her own hospital ID.
‘Oh God, no.’ Her scalp prickled as she flung the drawer open, desperately rummaging in case the pass was somehow hiding in plain sight, despite it being obvious it was gone. ‘Gary, she’s taken my pass!’
‘Bloody hell.’ He skidded to a halt next to Wendy, as another terrible thought occurred to her.
‘When we were in the hospital for her appointment with Miss Cohen, I had to pop to the laundry to speak to Frank about a housekeeping issue and I was too worried about her to leave her on her own. She could easily have got her hands on a uniform, or she’d know where to go to get one, and there’s a chance she might have watched me key in the access code. I never thought?—’
Wendy couldn’t finish the sentence, because there was no excuse for what she’d done, even if Gary seemed to think otherwise. ‘Oh darling, this isn’t your fault.’
‘Try telling that to the woman whose baby she’s taken.’ Wendy put a hand to her mouth, as the nausea threatened to overwhelm her again. She had to do whatever it took to put this right and reunite the baby with its parents, even if it cost her more than just her job.
Danni wasn’t even sure what medication she’d been given, but she didn’t care. She’d been so desperate to get any kind of relief from the terror gripping her body that she’d have agreed to anything. Whatever it was had worked in a way, because she’d stopped crying and she felt completely numb, as if she wasn’t really in her body at all, just watching herself from a distance, somehow unable to connect with all the things she knew she should be feeling. It might not just have been the medication, shock had probably set in too, as her body fought to find its own way to cope with what had happened. If it hadn’t, she didn’t think she could have carried on breathing in and out, because there’d be no point in doing that if her son was really gone.
‘We’ve reviewed the CCTV footage.’ The police officer, whose name Danni couldn’t have recalled if her life depended on it, even though she’d introduced herself less than fifteen minutes after the alarm had first been raised, furrowed her brow. ‘It seems the woman was let into the maternity department by some visitors who’d just been buzzed in. She came up behind them, and she was wearing a nurse’s uniform and pushing a laundry trolley. It looks like she’d got a hospital pass too, so the visitors probably thought nothing of holding the door open for what looked like a member of staff.’
‘I need to see what she looks like.’
‘She did quite a good job of shielding her face from the camera, but my colleagues are already working on enhancing the images so we can circulate them. Do you think there’s a chance you might recognise her?’
‘I don’t know, but I need to see the face of the woman who’s got my son.’ A stab of pain pierced through the numbness, making Danni double over. She needed to know what this woman looked like, and whether there was anything in her appearance that could reassure Danni that she wouldn’t hurt the baby.
‘As soon as we’ve got a clear image, I’ll?—’
‘Boss, there’s been an update.’ Another police officer came into the room. ‘We’ve had a tip-off about who the woman might be.’
‘Who is it?’ Charlie’s question took the words out of Danni’s mouth, and she wanted to reach out for his hand, but she had no idea if he’d push her away. The things she’d said to him were etched on her brain in a way that even the medication hadn’t been able to erase. She’d blamed the only person who could really understand how devastated she was, for something that wasn’t his fault, and she knew he’d never have done the same to her. Nothing could be worse than losing her son, but losing Charlie too…
‘I’m so sorry, we can’t tell you that at this stage.’ The female officer shot her colleague a look that would have frozen water. ‘But I promise I’ll update you as soon as I can.’
‘Just bring him back. Please .’ The numbness seemed to be wearing off by the second, and the all-consuming fear that they’d lost him forever was lodging itself back in her throat, making the task of breathing suddenly feel impossible again.
‘They will. We’re not going to lose him.’ Charlie had reached for her hand, and just the touch of it in hers made her steady her breathing. She trusted him more than anyone she’d ever met, and she desperately wanted him to be right.
‘We’ve got the best team possible working on this, and we won’t rest until we find out where he is.’ The female officer gave a small nod, before hurrying after her colleague.
‘He hasn’t got a name yet, we didn’t even get to keep him for long enough to give him that.’ Danni’s throat ached from screaming and despite the effects of the medication, which were now quickly fading, it hadn’t been able to alleviate the aching emptiness inside her, which she knew could never be filled unless she got her son back. She’d had a terrible sense of dread for so much of her pregnancy, and she’d tried to convince herself it was all tied to her feelings about her mum, and the loss of her dad, but now it all felt like a horrific premonition.
‘Oh darling, don’t say that. We’ll get to name him, and hold him, and love him for the rest of our lives.’ Charlie took hold of her hands. ‘He’s coming back to us, I know it.’
‘Do you really believe that?’ Even in her determination to hang on to his words, Danni couldn’t help searching Charlie’s face, looking for the tiniest hint that he might not mean what he’d just said, but it wasn’t there.
‘I know we will, and the woman who has him…’ Charlie shook his head again. ‘I don’t know, she was gentle, and warm, the way she looked at the baby. I’m sure she wouldn’t do anything to hurt him. I just wish to God I hadn’t trusted her, I should have realised.’
‘How could you have done? I’m so sorry, Charlie, what I said was unforgiveable.’ No medication on earth could have held back the tears that were now streaming down Danni’s face. ‘None of this is your fault, I was just so scared.’
‘I know, me too, but like the police officer said, they’ve got the best team working on this and they’ll find him.’ As Charlie pulled her closer, she saw her phone on the unit by the bed light up, as a call from Esther came in. She was the first person Danni had messaged about the baby’s disappearance, but she hadn’t been able to speak to her. She couldn’t face saying the words out loud. Except now she needed to hear that Esther believed the same as Charlie, that they would get the baby back. Breaking free from Charlie’s embrace, she snatched up the phone.
‘Hello.’
‘Oh, thank God, I’ve been frantic since I got your message.’ Esther was breathless, her words coming out in a rush.
‘I’m sorry, I?—’
‘Don’t be, I can’t even imagine, but I’m calling because we might know who it is. When I messaged the others to let them know what had happened, Gary called me straight back. Chloe has gone missing and she’s stolen Wendy’s hospital pass.’
‘Chloe?’ As Danni repeated the name, she tried to process what it might mean. She knew about Chloe losing her own son, and it suddenly made sense why she’d looked so familiar to Charlie, because he’d met her briefly at Wendy and Gary’s bonfire night party. Although she must have tried to disguise her appearance, because she hadn’t been blonde then.
‘Wendy and Gary are trying everything they can to find her, and they’ve let the police know too. I just wanted to make sure you knew what was happening. They’ll bring him back, Danni, I know they will.’
‘Thank you.’ In the end she hadn’t needed to ask Esther the question, and a sliver of hope pushed out a tiny bit of the fear. It wasn’t just because Esther had said what she’d so desperately needed to hear, it was because the baby was almost certainly with Chloe. Somehow, the fact that it wasn’t a complete stranger made it a little bit easier to believe it would all be okay and hope was the only currency they had right now.