A Home for Hannah (14 page)

The nurse’s aid was setting a tray on the bedside table. She glanced at Ada. “What does
redd-up
mean?”

“To get ready or cleaned up,” Ada said with a smile. She made shooing motions to Miriam. “Go get something to eat and find out how soon I can leave.”

Miriam left the room and headed toward the elevators. As she passed the small waiting room beside them, she glanced in and saw Nick sprawled on one of the chairs. He was wearing the same clothes he’d had on yesterday. His cheeks bore a shadow of stubble, and his hair was sticking up on his head. She smiled as comfortable warmth filled her heart. She wanted to comb his hair and find out exactly how rough his cheeks would feel beneath her fingers.

He opened one eye. “What are you smiling at?”

“You look like I feel.”

“How’s that?” He sat up with a grimace.

“Like you’ve been pulled through a cornfield backward.”

“That about sums it up. The social worker in charge of Hannah’s case wants to meet with you later.”

“I imagine I’ll be here. She’s welcome to stop in.”

“She also said to go ahead and apply for a home study here. It’s possible—now, I said possible, so don’t hold your breath. It’s possible that you could foster Hannah once you get the go-ahead from the state.”

“Oh, Nick, really?” Miriam’s heart surged with renewed hope. There was a chance Hannah could come back to her.

“Really, but try not to get your hopes up too much. It all still depends on finding her family. How’s your mother?”

“Bossy.”

“That’s good to hear. How are you?”

“I’m tired and I’m hungry.”

He rose to his feet. “The hungry part I can fix. Would you care to join me for breakfast?”

She did want to join him. He understood how much his news meant to her. “If you’ll let me buy.”

“Sorry, no can do. I invite, I pay.”

“That is very old-fashioned of you.”

“Yes or no? Breakfast with an old-fashioned man or go hungry?”

“I’m not likely to go hungry. I’m sure the cafeteria serves a great breakfast.”

He glanced at his watch. “Not for another hour and ten minutes. However, there is a vending machine behind you.”

She glanced over her shoulder and wrinkled her nose. “No, a candy bar or pretzels will not do it for me.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I know a place where you can get great scrambled eggs and bacon.”

“All right, you win. Since I’m without a car, are you driving or are we walking?”

“I’ll drive.”

Miriam walked beside him as they left the hospital and climbed into his vehicle. Five minutes later, he pulled up in front of a duplex. He said, “It’s not much to look at from the outside, but I promise you the food is good.”

“It looks like an apartment.” She frowned at the building.

“Actually, it is my apartment. But there are farm-fresh eggs in the fridge along with a new slab of bacon. I have bagels, English muffins or Texas Toast, and gourmet coffee just waiting to be brewed.”

“Okay, you won me over at gourmet coffee. Lead on, let’s see if you are all talk or if you can cook.”

His eyebrows shot up and he slapped a hand to his chest. “I wasn’t planning to cook. I thought you would.”

“Are you serious?”

“Ha! Gotcha. Of course I can cook.” He grinned as he unlocked the door and pushed it open.

Miriam stepped inside what was clearly a bachelor pad. An oversize TV took up most of the wall along one side of the living room. It was flanked by bookshelves filled with an assortment of movies and novels. Opposite the TV was a well-worn brown leather sofa and a low coffee table. Beyond the living room was a small dining room with a glass-top table and two café-style chairs.

Nick gestured to the table. “Have a seat, or you can freshen up if you want. The bathroom is down that hall, first door on the left.”

Miriam decided she needed to freshen up more than she needed coffee. It wasn’t as good as a shower, but she was able to wash off and run a comb through her hair. Nick’s bathroom, like the rest of the house, was spotless. Was he that good a housekeeper, or did he have someone come in?

By the time she returned to the dining room, the smell of frying bacon filled the air. Her stomach rumbled, and she pressed her hand to her midsection to quiet it.

“It smells good,” she said, feeling odd to be in his home. It was nothing like she had imagined. She wasn’t sure what she thought it would be like, but not once had she pictured Nick cracking eggs in a bowl.

“How do you like your eggs?” he asked without looking up.

“Over hard, break the yolks. It’s the only way my mother ever fixes them.”

He chuckled. “I do remember that, now. I asked her for a sunny-side up egg the first morning I came to stay with you. She looked at me like I had asked for rat poison.”

“I remember. We call them dippy-eggs.”

She remembered a lot about that summer, and there were things she needed to Nick to understand, but not now. For a little while, she wanted to enjoy his company and pretend her secret didn’t exist.

Smiling too brightly, she asked, “Where is the coffee you promised me?”

He pointed over his shoulder with the spatula. “On the counter behind me.”

She entered the small kitchen and brushed past him. “And the cups?”

“If you can’t find a cup in a kitchen this size, you’re not much of a detective.”

“Ha! Ha! You’ve been wanting to say that for days, haven’t you?”

She could feel his shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter behind her.
“Ja, Fräulein.”

“Your Amish accent is terrible.” She got a cup and elbowed him in the ribs in the process.

He ignored her puny attempt to rile him. “You’ve managed to get rid of yours. Most of it, anyway.”

“It took some work.”

“Diction classes?”

“Yes. I didn’t want to sound like a hick from the sticks when I applied for jobs. I encourage all the kids who stay with me to take the classes.”

She filled a cup and returned to the table. She knew her cheeks were flushed. Would he think it was caused by the hot coffee, or did he realize it was because of his proximity? When they had been close years ago she had fantasized about what it would be like to be married to him, to wake up with him, to have breakfast, just the two of them, in his
Englisch
house. Her girlhood daydreams didn’t do justice to the reality of sharing a meal with him. How could she know that the intimate setting of his kitchen would be every bit as alluring as dinner in a fine restaurant? She took a quick sip of her coffee and scalded her tongue.

“Is that how you think of the Amish? Hicks from the sticks?” He brought a plate of crispy bacon to the table and set it in front of her.

She blew on her cup. “It’s not my opinion that counts. I know Amish kids are naive, unused to worldly things and curious, but they aren’t stupid. They simply can’t make informed decisions because they lack knowledge, not intelligence. People have learned to take advantage of that. By sounding less Amish, they have a better chance at fair treatment.”

He returned to the table with his plate and her eggs on his spatula. He slid them on to her plate and sat down. He bowed his head and silently prayed. Miriam waited until he was finished to ask for the salt. Smiling, he pushed it toward her.

It was a simple meal, but it had an intimate feel to it. It was a feeling she wanted to cultivate and enjoy more often. The thought had barely crossed her mind when his phone rang.

He looked at the number and shook his head. “I knew it.”

“Work?” she asked. Was this cozy interlude destined to end early?

“It’s my deputy. He’s investigating our suicide attempt. I have to take this.” He rose from the table and walked into the other room.

* * *

“This had better be important, Rob,” Nick growled into the phone. His morning had been going so well.

“Hi, boss. The crime scene people are wrapping up.”

“You called to tell me that?” Nick frowned. Rob Craiger was one of his most experienced deputies. He normally let his written reports do the talking.

“No, I just finished interviewing the woman who lives in the trailer next door. She didn’t get home from work until thirty minutes ago.”

“Did she give us anything useful?”

“She didn’t have anything good to say about the boyfriend, but here is the odd thing. She swears that she heard a baby crying over here two weeks ago on Thursday. She remembers the night because someone stole a laundry basket off her back porch and a quilt off her clothesline that same night. There’s no sign of a baby inside the Smith’s trailer. No diapers, no baby bottles, no crib.”

All the pieces came together with a snap in Nick’s mind. Mary’s baby hadn’t died. She’d left it in a buggy two blocks away at the Shop and Save Grocery Mart.

He asked, “Was the quilt blue patchwork and the laundry basket wooden with green trim?”

He could hear Rob thumbing through the pages of his notebook until he found the one he wanted. He said in surprise. “Yeah. How did you know that?”

“Never mind. Come back to the station. I’ll be over at the courthouse as soon as it opens.”

“Why?”

“To get a court order for DNA testing. I think I know where the baby is.”

Nick looked over his shoulder at Miriam buttering a piece of toast. There was no way he wanted to tell her that Hannah was once again out of her reach. Still, if things were to go as he hoped, she had to see how difficult his job could be.

When he walked back to the table, she looked up and her smile faded. “Nick, what’s the matter?”

“We think we’ve found Hannah’s parents.”

“Oh.” Her shoulders slumped.

“Her mother is the girl who tried to commit suicide and the man we think is the father is in jail for writing hot checks.”

“Will Hannah be returned to someone like that?”

“They aren’t the best parents, but I’ve seen the courts give children back to worse.”

“What do we do?”

“Wait until we have DNA evidence to prove who they are. If the mother is up to a visit, I’d like to try and interview her again. She wouldn’t talk to me last time. You’ve had a lot of experience with girls this age. Would you like to give it a try?”

“Sure. Have you got time to finish your breakfast? Your eggs are getting cold.”

He sat down but had taken only two bites before Miriam’s cell phone began ringing. She flipped it open but didn’t immediately answer.

“Who is it?” he asked.

She looked at him with a new fear in her eyes. “It’s the Hope Springs medical clinic.”

Chapter Thirteen

M
iriam answered the phone. Dr. White’s craggy voice boomed in her ear. “I won’t keep you in suspense. Hannah’s tests have come back negative.”

“Negative?” Miriam could barely breathe the word as relief flooded her.

“All negative. She shows no signs of maple syrup urine disease. It was a simple lab error. It seems her report was mixed up with another baby with the same last name.”

Miriam turned to Nick. “Hannah is fine. Her tests came back okay. She isn’t sick.”

Nick closed his eyes. “Thank you, God.”

Miriam smiled through tears of joy. “You have no idea how much we needed some good news this morning, Dr. White. Thank you.”

“My pleasure.” He hung up before she could tell him that Hannah was no longer in her care.

Knowing that social services would take care of those details, Miriam put her cell phone back in her purse. “If you’re finished, we should get back to the hospital. Let me wash these dishes and we can go.”

“What are the odds that I’ll get a second date if I make you wash dishes?”

“Slim, since I wouldn’t call this a first date,” she teased.

Some of the tension returned to his shoulders. “What would you call it?”

“I’d call it an interrupted meal.”

He shrugged. “That is the lot of a county sheriff. I’ve had more interrupted meals than I can count.”

“What you need to do is learn how to take your food with you.” She took two pieces of bacon and rolled them in a piece of bread.

She handed the concoction to Nick, took his keys from where he’d set them on the counter and headed for the door. “I’ll drive while you finish eating.”

“Yes, boss.” He gave her a quick salute.

Once he was in the truck, he ate and lapsed into silence. She glanced at him several times on the way to the hospital, but he simply stared out the window. He was deeply concerned by the thought of Hannah having such troubled parents.

She said, “Thanks for breakfast.”

“Egg peppered with good and bad news. It could have been better.”

“I’m a big girl, Nick. I understand that sometimes the job has to come first. It’s the same in my profession.”

He smiled a real smile. “I appreciate that. Let’s check on how your mother is doing.”

When they got back to her mother’s room, they found her mother’s doctor making his rounds. Miriam was glad she hadn’t missed him. At least one good thing had come out of her rapid exit from Nick’s place.

The doctor spent a few minutes going over Ada’s
X-rays and lab reports. Although he was generally pleased with her progress, he felt it was necessary to keep her a few more days. Ada disagreed, but he had an ally in Miriam.

She was concerned about her mother’s poor blood pressure control. She didn’t want her mother going home only to have to turn around and come back again. Or worse.

When the doctor left the room, Ada said, “I don’t know why you had to agree with him. This is costing too much money.”

Miriam knew her mother’s church would help cover the costs of her medical care. “Don’t worry about that. Concentrate on getting better.”

“I’m better enough,” Ada grumped, but she couldn’t hold back a yawn.

Nick pushed the bed control to lower it. “A little nap will do wonders for you. Miriam and I have some errands to run, but we’ll be back soon.”

Once the bed was down, Ada pulled the covers up to her chin. “Seeing Hannah would do wonders for me.”

Miriam tucked the covers around her mother’s shoulders. “I know. It would do wonders for us, too.”

Ada said, “I miss her. I pray the Lord finds a loving home for her.”

“So do I,” Miriam replied with a deep ache in her heart as she met Nick’s gaze. She didn’t know how she would bear it if it turned out otherwise.

* * *

Nick had no trouble getting the court order he needed. Since both Hannah and Mary Smith already had blood in the hospital laboratory, the process of obtaining a DNA match was simplified to some degree, but it would still take at least forty-eight hours before he would know if they were mother and child.

Kevin Dunbar refused to allow a DNA swab, claiming he wasn’t the father and he didn’t want to be forced to pay child support for a kid who wasn’t his. By noon, he made bail. As he jogged down the steps on his way out of the building, Nick stood with Miriam at the door to his offices. “I doubt he will stay in town long enough to visit Mary. He has the look of a man who is going to skip out on his bail.”

“How can you tell?”

Nick gave her a wry grin. “I’ve seen enough small-time crooks to know how they behave.”

He needed to concentrate on this case, but all he could think about was how natural it had seemed to fix breakfast for Miriam and how good it had been to see her smiling at him from across his table.

He wanted to see her again. Not just at his table, but in every aspect of his life. He’d fallen head over heels in love with her and he still had no idea how she felt about him.

“Excuse me, Sheriff.”

Nick looked over his shoulder to see his secretary standing in the doorway. “Do you need something?”

“Just to deliver this file from Child Protective Services.”

“Thanks. I’ll take it.” He held out his hand.

She left the file with him. He walked into his office with Miriam and closed his door. He sat in his chair and stared at the folder in his hand.

“You’re going to have to call Ms. Benson and tell her what you suspect,” Miriam reminded him gently.

He smiled at her. Perhaps she would be able to get through to Mary Smith and get the young woman to open up about what had happened to her baby and why she’d tried to kill herself.

“If Hannah isn’t Mary’s child, then I have another missing infant somewhere in Sugarcreek.”

The thought made his blood run cold. After nearly two weeks, he wouldn’t be looking for a live child.

If Mary would just admit she’d left the baby in the Beachy’s buggy it would save him a lot of time and effort. He picked up the phone to call her doctor. He needed to know when he could interview the girl again.

When he had her psychiatrist on the line, he asked, “Has Mary Smith started talking to anyone?”

“No. I have her on a strong antidepressant medication, but it takes a while for it to build up in the body. It may be several days before we see improvement. All she has done is to ask for pain meds. Other than that, she hasn’t said anything.”

“I have some information you may find useful. We have a baby that was found abandoned around the same time that Kevin Dunbar says Mary’s baby was stillborn. A neighbor reports hearing a baby crying at the Smith address a few hours before the abandoned infant was found. It’s possible Mary got rid of her baby by placing it in an Amish buggy at a nearby parking lot.”

“I see. That is disturbing news. This may be a case of postpartum psychosis rather than depression. Mary may not even realize what happened to her child. Thank you for the information.”

“I’d like to question her again and mention what I just told you. I’d like to see what kind of response I get.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea at this point, Sheriff. I have to be careful. She is very fragile. I don’t want her to regress into a more serious state of mind.”

“This is a police investigation into a missing child, Doctor. I hope you understand the seriousness of it.”

“I do, but I have to keep the best interest of my clients in mind when making these kind of decisions. Until I think she is strong enough, I won’t allow you to question her.”

“I can get a court order to interview her.”

“Fine. When you have one in hand, I’ll comply with it. Until then, good day, Sheriff.”

The line went dead in Nick’s hand. He hung up in frustration.

“Well?” Miriam asked.

“He says I can’t see her.”

“Can you get a court order to do so?”

“I doubt it. I don’t believe any of the local judges would go against the recommendation of a patient’s doctor.”

“So what now?”

“We’re back to waiting.” It was something he didn’t do well.

* * *

Miriam convinced Nick to run her home so that she could collect a few of her mother’s things and get her own car. She knew he was frustrated and impatient with waiting.

Bella was delighted to see them and practically knocked her down with affection. There was still food in Bella’s dish and water in her bowl, so Miriam knew the dog hadn’t suffered anything but loneliness while they’d been gone. Nick took care of the outside chores while Miriam took a shower and changed into fresh clothes.

When she came downstairs, she found Nick staring into Hannah’s empty cradle. There was so much sadness in his eyes that she went into his arms without thinking. She whispered, “I miss her, too.”

He sniffed and wiped at his eyes. “I should put this back in the attic.”

“Not yet. Leave it down here a little longer.”

“All right. What’s next?”

“I’m not sure how long mother will be in the hospital. I want to let Bishop Zook know so that he can arrange for people to come and take care of the animals.”

“I could take Bella back to my place,” he offered.

“That would be great.”

Bella jumped into Nick’s backseat, happy to be going for a ride. Miriam waved goodbye as Nick headed back to work. The moment he was out of sight she began to miss him. When had he become the person she depended on? Perhaps he had always been that person, she just couldn’t see it until now. Within a few minutes she was pulling into the Zook farm.

The bishop was working on his corn planter, hammering a bent blade back into shape. He looked up, wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his sleeve and came to speak to her.

“Good day, Miriam Kauffman, what brings you here on this fine afternoon?”

“I came to let you know that my mother is in the hospital in Millersburg. She had another heart attack.”

“We shall pray for her recovery and ask for God’s mercy.”

“Thank you, Bishop Zook.”

“Do not be concerned about the farm,” the bishop added. “It will be taken care of until you and your mother return.”

Miriam smiled with gratitude. An Amish person never had to worry about what would happen if they were unable to continue their farm work or provide for their family. The entire community would pitch in at a moment’s notice to see that everything was taken care of.

No one went hungry. No one was left alone. The Amish took care of each other. When her mother came home, there would be fresh chopped firewood, kindling in the stove and a table full of things to eat.

As she headed back toward the hospital, Miriam couldn’t help thinking about Nick. Before their relationship went any further, she needed to tell him about the day Mark died. There might not be a relationship after her confession.

Nick had shouldered the blame alone for years when she could have eased his guilt by admitting her part. Would he forgive her when he learned the part she had played? She prayed that he would. She no longer blamed him for the accident that took her brother’s life. Nick needed to hear her say that. She needed to tell him.

Back at the hospital, Miriam found her mother was once again having chest pain with a spike in her blood pressure. This time it was so high that Miriam feared she would have a stroke. When the staff was finally able to bring it under control, Miriam took a seat near the window.

“Miriam?” Her mother raised a hand as if seeking her.

“I’m here.” Miriam moved her chair to the bedside and took her mother’s hand between her own.

“We should go visit your brother.”

Gently, Miriam said, “Mark is gone. We can’t visit him.”

“I meant visit his grave. I want to plant new flowers there. You can do that for me, can’t you?” Ada drifted back to sleep saving Miriam from having to answer. She hadn’t been back to Mark’s grave since his funeral.

Ada slept through most of the day. Miriam catnapped in the chair, watched some senseless afternoon talk show on TV and waited for Nick to call. When he finally did, she couldn’t stop the happy leap of her heart. “Hi, there. I was beginning to think you didn’t want to talk to me.”

“I’m sorry. I’ve been busy. Hopefully, things will be wrapped up soon and I can get back to the hospital. Maybe we could try for dinner together?”

“I’d like that,” she answered, amazed at just how much she wanted to spend time alone with him.

“How’s your mother?”

“She had a bad spell right after I got back. She was talking about going to see Mark’s grave. It has me worried.”

“She’s always been such a strong woman. I’m sure she’ll be fine.” His assurance rang hollow. He was worried, too.

“How’s Bella?”

“She’s hiding out under my desk after stealing my secretary’s lunch.”

“My poor baby. This has been rough on her.”